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00:00:01 [Applause] [Music] today's scripture reading is taken from matthew chapter 5 verses 17 through 20. do not think that i have come to abolish the law or the prophets i have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them for truly i tell you until heaven and earth disappear not the smallest letter not the least stroke of a pen will by any means disappear from the law until everything is accomplished therefore anyone who sets aside one of the least of these commands and teaches others accordingly will be
00:00:53 called least in the kingdom of heaven but whoever practices and teaches these commands will be called great in the kingdom of heaven for i tell you that unless your righteousness surpasses that of the pharisees and the teachers of the law you will certainly not enter the kingdom of heaven this is the word of god good morning fbc second service good to see everybody here small service so i'm gonna call out the people i can see in the screen i think all the way from shanghai is that marcus can you raise your hand yes
00:01:37 he's scratching his ear good good all right then there's uh lydia i haven't seen her for a long time hi are you lydia where's your husband your lona ah no okay good good to see you ah that uh peter davidson don't wave your hands you're driving okay so so many people that oh good to see all of you there's filong laughing there and then well that's matthias hi how are you wave your hands good to see everybody amy good to see you right so glad to have everybody here with us at our worship uh meeting today so we're gonna go into
00:02:19 god's word we're gonna look into jesus and the law so before we start let's have a word of prayer father lord we just thank you for your word we thank you for your law through the old testament and coming to you that it transforms our life we pray that you grant us your holy spirit to illuminate the scriptures today that we will understand what is the connection between jesus and all his commandments and the old testament laws we ask for jesus sake amen okay right so get on your seat belts let's look upon this
00:02:53 this is kind of a difficult topic one of the most difficult passages in the whole of the sermon amount so you've got to listen a little bit closely i probably preach a little bit slower this time so that we can actually gain some understanding all right so why is jesus and the law are important because of the background when jesus preaches the servant about he doesn't do it in isolation all right he does it with an audience and an audience has a background and the background is the pharisees and the law they were the
00:03:25 leading religious authorities at the time whatever the pharisees said did and practiced was the standard set for the entire nation and when jesus came he started to have running battles with the pharisees if you look at the first few chapters of a market of mark he already had trouble for example when they lowered the man who was a paralytic down from roof he actually healed it but in healing he said your sins are forgiven and immediately he had a big that's a no-no for the pharisees only god can forgive
00:03:58 and then he started eating with tax collectors and that's a no-no because they were unclear how could you be a holy person how could you be god's son if you were eating with tax collectors pharisees never did that how come these disciples were not fasting where everybody else according to the lord were fasting how come when they went they were plucking corn on the sabbath day of all days you can't do any work and jesus disciples were backing the trend they were disobeying the law what about jesus himself healing a man
00:04:29 with a withered hand on a sabbath day so that seems to be a confrontation what about all those laws or washing your hands about food what you could eat or what you couldn't eat and you know what jesus said which is shocking in mark 9 7 19 he says since it enters not his heart but his stomach and then his expelled machine pupu out thus he declared all foods clean with one stroke of the pam jesus uttered all the ceremonial laws regarding clean food and unclean food were all clean now this put him in
00:05:04 direct confrontation with the pharisees so it seems as if we've got a transition mosaic law versus jesus who is correct now today we see the same running battles with us especially if you're if you belong to the seven day adventists who basically there are two camps one is the hard right camp where they believe you have to obey the the food laws otherwise you won't get saved another camp that actually believes that we should actually eat clean foods or kosher foods because they're healthy for us in fact they
00:05:38 based it on a study done in 1953 by david mark he actually looked at all the animal foods which god had forbidden as food as dietary laws and compared them with other foods and found out that all the ones that were unclean actually were toxic all right that was finally in 1953 so still in the church today we we ding dong between two camps one's a legalistic camp so it says we actually have to obey the mosaic law including the food laws and the other ones were anti-law and they're basically schools of hyper
00:06:10 grace where the preachers never preach against sin and there's no cultural stand against for righteousness they have you only preach positive motivational messages and the believers don't need to repent when and when they knowingly sin and and this has resulted in some high profile preachers falling from grace with immorality etc let's let's look at the passages it's about four verses and uh and and not not a lot but these passages this passage is difficult so let's uh go through it slowly do not think that i've come to abolish
00:06:40 the law or the prophets i have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them for truly i say to you until heaven and earth pass away not an iota nor a dot will pass from the law until it's all accomplished therefore whoever relaxes one of the least of these commandments and teaches others to do the same will be called the least in the kingdom of heaven but whoever does them and teaches them will be called great in the kingdom of heaven for i tell you unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and
00:07:05 pharisees you will never enter the kingdom of heaven so jesus and the law that basically three points from these four verses firstly jesus fulfills the mosaic law he doesn't destroy he doesn't overturn it but he fulfills it number two jesus commands supersede the law and number three jesus is the only person who produces god's righteousness now jesus fulfills the mosaic law jesus said do not think i've come to abolish the law or the prophets i have not come to abolish it but to fulfill them and he said to add
00:07:43 he said for truly i say to you until heaven and earth pass away not an iota nor dot will pass from the law until it is all accomplished so therefore is jesus now supporting the law he doesn't come to abolish the law he says until heaven and earth pass away not one yacht which is basically the hebrew alphabet yod not one of these little dots will pass away okay so this it's not there so therefore does that mean we have to say goodbye to charity pork because basically it is unclean say goodbye to our curry crabs
00:08:19 say goodbye to our wool blend suits because in the old testament you couldn't have two kinds of fabrics blended together does that mean that however how come jesus on the other hand contradicted the old testament by saying he declared all foods clean what is he saying well look here do not think i've come to abolish the law i have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them what does fulfill mean for phil jesus did not say i did not come to abolish that but to keep them fulfilled that that means keep
00:08:51 fulfilled does not mean show the law in his true intensity so therefore the first mistake we would have made is to say he comes just to keep the law he doesn't it's something more than that you see when we talk about the law we're kind of thinking about the laws of malaysia federal constitution you've got a law it's legislation legislation very easy you got the legislation you put you don't put your mask on it's ten thousand dollar fine straightforward you you just pay the fine right but if you
00:09:21 look at the law which is referring to it's a torah which is basically genesis exodus leviticus numbers and deuteronomy and this law is not only legislative it's also covenantal and prophetic purposes three purposes there if you look the law the law first the secondly is the entailment of the old testament covenant old covenant exodus 19 you yourself have seen what i did to the egyptians to save the egyptians how i bore you on eagle's wings and brought you to myself now therefore if you indeed obey my
00:09:58 voice and keep my covenant so therefore how do you love god how do you keep his covenant by obeying god's law so the law has a covenantal purpose in the new testament the same thing hebrews 8 10 for this is the covenant it's a promise god make a deal with his people with the house of israel for after those days declares the lord i will put my law the difference in the new testament is that i'll put the law in their hearts and minds and write them on the heart and again the purpose is that so i will
00:10:27 be their god they shall be my people this is the covenantal formula i will be their god and they the only way they they can be my people is to follow this law which therefore they write god rights into the hearts and minds now the law also not only has a covenantal function legislative function also has a prophetic function matthew 11 13 for all the prophets and the law prophesied until john which means law actually has prophetic function as well it prophesied up to uh john's time and what is prophecy so
00:11:01 when jesus said i come to fulfill which means fulfilled means to be that to which the other party pointed which was the law points to something that's got to be ultimately fulfilled let me give you an example of legislation that actually has a prophetic function this day is exodus will take passover shall be a day for you in a memorial day when you will keep it as a feast to the lord throughout your generations as a statute forever you shall keep it as a feast seven days you shall eat unleavened
00:11:33 bread so here is back in history where god saves the people of israel from slavery in egypt and he too can memorialize that time he actually establishes the passover the passover meal you shall offer the passover sacrifice to the lord your god from the flock of the herd and to remember those days the first born of everybody in egypt would have been slaughtered on one night except the israelites who actually slaughtered the passover lamb and took that blood and put it on the door and when the angel death came by it
00:12:09 passed over and so the people the first born of israel were all saved but the first born of egypt all died so that is a sacrifice of the lamb so that's the passover legislation and why do this celebrate the passover well all the days of your life you that you may remember the day when you came out of the land of egypt so the legislation of the passover was so that the people of israel could remember salvation a day when the blood of the lamb actually that god actually passed over and actually saved them from egypt's
00:12:43 oppression of slavery now come to the new testament the fulfillment of prophecy 1 corinthians chapter 5 for christ our passover lamb has been sacrificed so therefore celebrate the festival not with all leaven but the leaven of malice and evil but with the uneven bread of sincerity and truth so therefore the fulfillment of the passover passover celebrated year after year after year for hundreds of years and all that is actually pointing to one day the ultimate passover which is christ the passover lamb
00:13:15 colossians puts it very clearly therefore let no one pass judgment on you in questions of food and drink or with regard to a festival or new moon or a sabbath they are a shadow of the things to come but the substance belongs to christ what is paul saying paul is saying that the old testament covenant old testament law the legislation is actually like a shadow imagine when you were young you were afraid why why are children afraid of shadows you thought you could whenever there's a shadow means there must be a monster
00:13:47 beside it there is a reality to that particular shadow so therefore the old testament is a shadow but it points to a reality in the new testament which is the new covenant that's the better for use for the old testament news that the old testament law is a shadow it points so therefore when you look at the old testament you celebrate the passover but the passover is a foretaste or shadow of something bigger that's going to come and that something bigger is the lord's supper where not just in the old testament testament when
00:14:17 you've got the lamb dying for the people of israel for the first born but you have the lamb of god dying for the whole people of the world who would accept him as lord and savior so therefore the old testament covenant looks at the passover celebrates salvation from egypt and it points to one day when we've got salvation for all of mankind from their sin so therefore we look at the old testament you go all the festivals passover unleavened bread first fruits booths day of atonement trumpets pentecost did you know
00:14:51 that all these legislations regarding the need to celebrate these festivals have a purpose if you celebrate the passover you celebrate the fact that you actually kill the passover lamb the blood allows the age of death to to pass over the the first born so therefore they are saved the same way the lamb of god comes it is his blood that causes the angel of death to pass over so therefore we are safe from our sins festival unleavened bread when they left egypt they had no time to put the yeast into
00:15:23 bread so therefore they left with unleavened bread and so when they celebrate the fast the feast of the unleavened bread unleft leaven which is yeast represents sin and when you actually take yeast and mix it in bread you cannot celebrate anymore it tells you that leaven is sin so therefore sin is so ingrained in our lives that we cannot escape from it until you've got unleavened bread unleavened bread has no sin it's like bread without any yeast and one day when you celebrate unleavened bread festival you're actually pointing
00:15:55 a day that one day you're gonna have someone come in with unleavened bread so when jesus stands up in john chapter six i am the bread of life he's saying that he's the unleavened bread the only one who is god knows sin when they celebrate the festival of first fruits first says celebrate the the festive first fruits happens three days later on and the exact time where jesus christ was resurrected the three days will pass over and so therefore when you celebrated the festival first fruits they would bring
00:16:24 all the first fruits of the harvest which would be a sign of the bigger harvest that is to come so when we celebrate the festival first fruits we're actually pointing to the bigger harvest so when jesus rose on the third day of passover he is the first fruit because he rose from dead we too in the bigger harvest will rise later on what about the festival of the boots when they were in the desert of sinai everybody had to be in a tent and god journeyed with his people in a tabernacle and that pointed to the future one day
00:16:58 when his son will tabernacle and come and dwell with us emmanuel you see every single one of the old testament festivals points to a reality that would be fulfilled when jesus christ comes and paul writes very clearly the problem with the jews is they miss all the signs i bear with them witness that they have a zeal for god they're all very they love god they're all excited about god but not according to knowledge sincere but sincerely wrong for being ignorant of the righteousness of god seeking to establish their own they did
00:17:33 not submit to god's righteousness they were ignorant what does it mean well it means if you were a jew you would be celebrating all of this and if you celebrated all this wow you were righteous you were spot on and you would win salvation they forgot that all this was not to establish your old righteousness all this was to point to a savior that would come one day do you know what is the purpose of law well tim one uh paul writes to timothy and establishes the purpose of the law we know the law is good if one uses it
00:18:10 lawfully understanding is the law is not laid down for the just but for the lawless disobedient the ungodly and the sinners the law isn't for the righteous the law is actually for the sinners if you were to go to any establishment today you've got thermometers why would you have to bump it the thermometers were not made for normal people thermometers are made for what people will fever if you're going to feel you can't enter right you go off and you're made to stand outside the law tells you you got a fever right it
00:18:47 doesn't tell you you're good right so therefore i better witness they have a zeal for god but not according to knowledge for being ignorant of the righteous of god and seeking to establish their own they did not submit to god's righteousness for reason remember verse four christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes christ is the end doesn't mean that christ ends the law christ if you look at the greek word end is telos which is the goal the goal of the law is to point to the fact that god
00:19:19 son will be able to fill all aspects of the law so when you look at the old testament law all the festivals all the laws all the ceremonies clean foods unclean foods they're all pointing like a shadow to the ultimate person who will come and show you the path to god's righteousness the law is like riding a bicycle you've got training wheels isn't it they they set you on the right direction you won't fall off and and one day when the training wheels fall off you can actually swerve and ride the tour de
00:19:51 france and you can actually win but can you do this with the trading wheel still on if you have those training wheels still on you will never win the tour de france all right so it has its place but at some stage it will be obsolete and hebrews 8 13 says in speaking of the new covenant all right he makes the first one obsolete what is becoming obsolete and growing old is ready to vanish away doesn't mean the mosaic law is wrong and to be got rid of but is this superseded it's obsolete the meaning of fulfill when jesus
00:20:24 fulfilled the law means jesus the conditions of all the law is met by jesus christ the purpose is not abolish but it's obsolete but the purpose is still valid let's look at some of the law so therefore because jesus comes in and only in him there is all righteousness there is no more food laws all right what about some of the laws in the leviticus for example you shall not strip your vineyards bare neither shall you gather the fallen grapes from your vineyard you shall leave them for the poor and for the sojourner i am
00:20:57 the lord your god so loving your neighbor means not cleaning up the entire vineyard but actually leaving some for the poor the social responsibility leviticus 19 13 you shall not oppress your neighbor or rob him and the wages of a hired worker shall not remain with you all night until the morning which means loving your maever means giving the foreign bangladeshi worker the pay on time doesn't that apply even today loving your neighbor means you do not do any injustice in god you shall not be partial to the poor
00:21:28 to defer to the great but in righteousness shall you judge your neighbor so the intent of the law continues uh what about old people okay leviticus 19 love the old testament old testament treats old people really well you shall stand up before the grey head and honor the face of an old man and you shall fear your god i am the lord new testament repeats this do not rebuke an older man encourage him as you would a father all right so jesus fulfills the law and jesus commands supersede the law therefore whoever relaxes one of the
00:22:03 least of these commandments and teaches others to do the same will be called the least in the kingdom of god but whoever does them and teaches them will be called the great called great in the kingdom of god so what is this referring to the whoever relaxes one of the least of these commandments is referring to mosaic law or is it referring to jesus commandments i believe is referring to jesus commandment because in the context of the ceremony he's already talked to you about the beatitudes blessed are those who are poor in spirit
00:22:31 blessed are those who mourn blessedness of weak blessedness who are hunger and thirst for righteousness and then it's not a watered down version it says whoever relaxes you're not even it's a higher standard as it were then he says if you look at the rest of the sermon amount you've heard it said it was you heard that it was said and he's referring to what the pharisees says to those of old you shall not murder whoever murders shall be liable to judgment but i say to you that everyone is angry his brother will
00:22:58 also be liable to judgment making murder at the same plate level playing field as the equivalent to uh getting angry with someone all right uh next one you've heard that it was said you shall not commit adultery but i say to you that everyone who looks at a woman with lustful intent has already committed adultery with her in his heart so therefore adultery physical adultery and lust is now put on the same plane you've heard it was said whoever divorces his wife let him let him give her a certificate of
00:23:27 divorce but i say to you so here you actually have a pattern the pharisees take on the law on the mosaic laws you've heard that it was said of all well doesn't mean men doesn't mean it is real or false whatever you heard it for before was the pharisees taken the law and then jesus says but i say to you he's actually contradicting some of what they are saying right look at the great commission at the end of matthew he tells them to go and take the gospel to the entire world just 20 teaching them
00:23:59 teaching them the mosaic law no teaching them to observe all that i have commanded you who said behold i'm with you to the end of the nation the great commission is not teaching the mosaic law the great commission is observing all that jesus commands so jesus command supersedes the law look at the structure of these two passages in matthew 18 5 18 and matthew 24. say so truly i say to you see that until heaven and earth pass away not an iota nor a dot will pass to the lord until it's all accomplished
00:24:34 so the heaven and earth will not pass away until all the law is accomplished right matthew 24 truly i say to you this generation will not pass away until all these things take place heaven and earth same words heaven and earth will pass away but my words will not pass away the law is now replaced by my words jesus commands supersede the law and so therefore however we interact with people look at paul paul gives you an example paul says although i'm free from all i have made myself a servant to all that i may win more of them to
00:25:13 the jews i became a jew as a jew in order to win jews to those who are under the law i became as one under the law though not being myself under the law but that i might win those under law very confusing don't under lawyer let us read a little bit more to those outside the law i became one outside the law not being outside the law of god but under the law of christ until i might win those outside the law it's a little bit confusing i must admit so let's look a little bit closely here what he's saying is that
00:25:40 he is absolutely free however way he wants to behave he can eat bakutei he can eat crabs he can eat kosher food or non-kosher food whatever he wants but when he's actually with jews who live under the law he will live as if he's under law with the jews he won't eat pork he won't eat crabs there's no bakuti for him but when he's with gentiles he will take his bhakte he will take his crabs he will whatever he lives outside the law why is he able to do that why is he able to change isn't he being a hypocrite
00:26:19 well the basis of his flexibility is the understanding of the relationship of a christian to the law to those under the law with the jews i became like the one under the law although his qualification though not being myself another christian is not under the old testament law that i might the purpose why he does that that i might win those under the law to christ now to those outside the law which is gentiles i became as one outside the law but not outside the law of god but under the law of christ
00:26:50 so he doesn't follow the mosaic law when he's actually with gentiles or chinese or indians but he's under the law of christ what is the law of christ the law of christ in generation chapter 6 verse 2 is bearing one another's burdens which is love and so fulfill the law the law of christ is the law of love loving god and loving each other let me give a practical example here's a picture of one of our christian politicians hannah yo when she goes to the mosque the picture captured her on the mask and you know what she's
00:27:20 wearing she's wearing a shawl as if she's on sarah law right under sharia law but she can wear the the as if she's under sharia law but she's not under sharia law when she's with the birthday demonstrators they are not under sharia law she takes off her scarf because she's not under sharia law he's under the law of christ because she loves muslims and non-muslims alike she can wear the shawl or she cannot wear the shawl because she obeys the law of christ you're completely free food offered to idols this is what paul
00:27:59 says all things are lawful you can do whatever you want whether it's offered to idols and not offer the idols but not all things are helpful all things are lawful but all things build up let no one seek his own good but the good of his day but the principle of the law of christ is that whatever you do whether you eat or drink do not stumble another person so you've got old testament law and new testament old testament in terms of tithing will a man rob god yet you're robbing me for you say have we
00:28:27 robbed you in your tithes and contributions your curse will occur for you are robbing me the whole nation of you here's a this condemnation the nation israel who stopped tithing to god in a new testament that's not there anymore you don't read of a tithe in the new testament in the new testament everyone must give as he has decided in his heart not reluctantly under compulsion for god loves a cheerful giver this supersedes this so christ has given us freedom one man esteems one day as better than another another esteems all days
00:29:03 alike each one should be fully convinced in his own mind the one who observed today observes it with honor for the lord what to eat it's in honor of the lord since he gives thanks to lord one who abstains abstains in the honor lord and gives thanks to god so what he's saying i was i was ease dropping in one of the discussion groups of the first service and someone was saying you know i can celebrate the sabbath day on any day another person said no no no no i must celebrate on sunday another person says oh you
00:29:32 celebrate on on friday because you live in johor you're like you know it's wrong no christ has given us the freedom all right so whatever day you celebrate it really doesn't matter anymore whoever eats whoever celebrates it does it in honor of god now does that apply to things uh you know is it your opinion that determines whether adultery is right adultery or law is wrong can you say it's an area of freedom no in certain areas there's no area of freedom there's a continuation of law as prescription in certain areas
00:30:04 for example romans owe no one anything except to love each other for the one who loves has fulfilled the law and the application is for the commandments you shall not commit adultery you shall not murder you should not kill you shall not cover any other any other commandments are summed up in this words you shall love your neighbors yourself the love does no wrong to neighbor therefore love is the fulfilling of the law so therefore there are some parts of the law that continue as prescriptive murder adultery etc which
00:30:32 is the same thing with homosexuality a lot of people argue if we are in a loving committed relationship after all the law of christ will love each other right why can't we man and man together woman and woman together why can't we do that well if you look at the old testament certain things are prescriptive old testament says you shall not lie with the male as for the female woman it is an abomination the word is to ibar which is really bad sin in one question chapter 6 it says all do you not know that the
00:31:01 unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of god don't be deceived neither the sexually immorally or the men who practice homosexual sexuality not the mens who are homosexuality orientated it's the one to practice it so this is a sin both in old testament and in you it continues all right so jesus law jesus law of love supersedes mosaic law number three the final point jesus only jesus can produce god's righteousness so i tell you unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and pharisees
00:31:38 you will never enter the kingdom of god this is a very very tall order because if you look at the scribes and pharisees they were the elite religious pinnacle of legal and religious society nobody is as holy nobody is as committed nobody is as educated as they are and jesus is saying if you want to end the kingdom of god you got to be even better than them and that's a really tall order until you realize what these scribes and pharisees were doing the first thing they're doing they were keeping the law as an end in
00:32:11 itself remember the the parable of the young man who was a rich young ruler he came to jesus and he told jesus what about all the commandments and he said to jesus all these i have kept he could actually say all the ten commandments all i have kept all of this what do i still lack and jesus said to him if you would be perfect go and sell what you possess give it to the poor and you would have treasure in heaven and come and follow me you see what this young man was doing is taking the law as a checklist
00:32:40 done this done that done that though therefore god owes me salvation he forgot that the law is actually the entailment of the condition of a covenant the covenant the law tells you how to love god how can he just keep the law as an end to itself just to get to heaven but he actually doesn't love jesus or want to be his people come and follow me he wouldn't follow jesus what about keeping the law just a letter of the law well what about jesus who healed the man with the withered hand on the sabbath day no less and he got a
00:33:12 huge trouble all the pharisees were upset they're supposed to not work on the sabbath and jesus actually healed this man and jesus said to them which one of you has a sheep he gave an example if it falls in a pit on the sabbath will you not take hold of it lift it out how much more value is a man than a sheep so it is lawful to do good on the sabbath day so he's saying you know if your sheep fell into the hole the toilet bowl whatever you lift him up wouldn't you lift him up because after all you'll die right
00:33:38 you're doing good if you can save a ship why can't you save a man and so therefore that actually showed the kind of hypocrisy where they kept the spirit the letter of the law just to be correct but the spirit of the law they actually broke it's like it's like driving you know you have a there's a minimum minimum speed limit 40 kilometers per hour great you drive 40 kilometers an hour but it's raining cats and dogs you still drive 40 40 miles per hour you actually get get killed all right it's not just the
00:34:11 letter of law it's also the spirit of law let me give you an example of a californian church during this pandemic california mega church soos la county to hold indoor services they had to have indoor services totally packed they didn't want to obey the law of social distancing and limited he committed the truth that christ is the head of the church and we will not yield to government's infringement upon the biblical command to worship and gather together so they said we must obey god and worship god
00:34:46 together on a sunday doesn't matter whether people catch covet doesn't matter whether they socially distance or they die now that's not the purpose of the sabbath the sabbath is made for man not man for the sabbath the last way which they actually distorted laws put ring fencing around the law if you broke the fence means you broke the law it doesn't mean that you break the law by breaking the fence which is the reality but this is what they did and you look at publication last year in israel of the rabbis they got together
00:35:15 and they actually said all right with the issue the halachic order which means when you go to the hospital when you go to the hall you go to church if you get your temperature measured by electronic monitor you are doing so what can you do so the way around is get the gentile to take your temperature which is ridiculous you could not sit on a toilet and read hebrew newspaper that would be breaking the law but you could read english newspaper you could not kill lice in your head you've got a few thousand lies
00:35:50 if you kill them you'll be causing you'll be actually working now if you had to plug in your air conditioning you couldn't use your hands you have to use your mouth to grab it with your mouth and push it in right and then use your head and bang it into the socket this is ring fencing the law the jews cannot donate organs to a gentile if you need to give a kidney you can't do that but you can receive it wow isn't that a double standard so churches some churches have legalism where hard legalism is where you've got
00:36:27 righteousness by works that means you actually produce good works in order to be safe a soft legalism is that you're actually saved by grace but you remain safe by doing good works which is a form of legalism and what jesus did was he said true righteousness and he applied it to murder well it's wrong to murder but it's also wrong to be condemning and and being angry with your brother it's wrong to be adulterous but having lust is also adultery so therefore he expanded to cover not only the letter the law but
00:37:01 also the spirit of the law but even paul was not righteous enough he was a hebrew hebrews in philippians chapter 3 after the law of pharisee can't get better than that as to zeal a persecuted law of the church as to righteousness under the law blameless so he thought but when he met christ but whether i gained i had i counted this loss for the sake of christ when he looked at christ's righteousness he looked at himself and he knew that his righteousness under the law was totally false and inadequate and that was not enough
00:37:35 and so therefore but now the righteousness of god has been manifested romans apart from the law although the law and the prophets bear witness to it it points us towards this the righteousness of god is through faith in jesus christ for all who believe because only jesus christ can fulfill all the righteousness of god romans 7 9 7-6 but now we are released from the law we're set free we don't have to obey in order to be saved we have died to that which held us captive jesus had died to it and we're united with him in
00:38:10 death so now we serve god in a new way inspired led by the holy spirit he moves in our hearts not in the old way of the written code that's exactly what paul says so rc's role actually summarizes very well the essence of christian theology is grace which means we don't deserve it christ came and died for us while we were yet sinners and how do we react and the essence of christian ethics which how we live is we live by gratitude martin luther summarizes it very well he says the relationship with the law changes
00:38:44 when you become a christian the role the law is not as a ladder for you to climb up and claim the righteousness that is yours that you could claim before god no you can't do that the role of the law is to be like a compass to guide you to become the person you were meant to be guide you how to love god so the lord tells you how to love god it is not the criteria in which you enter heaven you know but by struggle isn't it martin luther describes the struggle in his own heart because we all want to follow the law
00:39:15 for our own performance he says oh law he personifies love how you climb into the kingdom of my conscience and reign and condemn me and drive me to desperation you've overstepped your bounds you're a guide to the conscience but the gospel and jesus is my righteousness and everlasting life not you so there's a struggle with the law in our conscience and jesus and the point is if the conscience if our conscience is a place where our self-regard is held our self-identity our own self of right and wrong our own self of value
00:39:50 is there you could either fill that with law our performance how well we have done if that's the case if you done your quiet time for that day or you helped the old woman cross the road and you obeyed the law you felt very good that day because you were righteous before god but if you didn't therefore you wouldn't even be confident that you'll be saved that's when the law climbs into your conscience all your conscience can be filled with jesus and when you understand when god looks at you it's his performance what he did and how
00:40:22 jesus looks at us how god accepts us that is our confidence and so therefore we struggle we often forget that the law keeps climbing into the throne of our conscience and we fight that all the time and so therefore he he goes into in chapter six examples of piety he talks about well the sermon later on about giving when you give you don't let the left hand know what the right hand is giving why because you don't really want the reward that comes from the applause and approval of mankind when you pray you go in the room on your
00:40:58 own and pray in secret when you're fasting you don't come out with unshaven and bad breath and long hair because you've suffered to show people how pious you are because if you do that what's happening is that human performance of the law requires human approval the closer you are to the law the higher your status is and some of us are addicted like drugs to human approval that's when the law is occupying our conscience we always have to live in gratitude when god looks at us and we look ourselves we are
00:41:30 perfect because of what christ has done and the law is basically a guide to how we actually reciprocate god's love and grace let me end with a challenge the first chapter of matthew story of a man and a woman joseph being just a man unwilling to put her to shame mary resolve to divorce her quietly the word justice the caius righteous see joseph in the first chapter of matthew is described as having god's righteousness why that's the law and then there is love he loved mary so much that although by
00:42:14 law his resolved to divorce her because you can't be pregnant one plus one is two right you can't be pregnant and still be a virgin right in his mind but he didn't know but he loved her so much that she he was unwilling to publicly display this and cast her as a harlot this is the application of love and the law he was a righteous man that's how the law should operate within our midst the law is so beautiful to david that he says more to be desired are they than gold even much fine gold it's it's so
00:42:51 valuable sweeter also that honey and the drippings of honeycomb moreover by them is your servant warned in keeping them there's great reward you know what the reward is the law is a picture of who god is how god is righteous how god is loving how god is integrity and the more we meditate on god's law the shadow which is the old testament and then the new testament more fuller explanation of god and then it actually propels us towards the ultimate image that we need to conform to the ultimate image is the image of jesus
00:43:27 christ one corinthians chapter 13 12. whatever the law is what for now what we see in the mirror dimly but then face to face now i know in part then i shall know him fully even as i've been fully known so brother sisters we struggle with the lord thou we struggle even in our faith now jesus christ because the things that we cannot see we see dimly but let's look forward to the day where the lord where the lord points us towards the day where we shall see jesus christ face to face we're going to end this service this
00:44:09 sermon now and the challenge to to invite you to come to pray some of us at home may be struggling with guilt whether where the law climbs in our conscience says look you're guilty you are so horrible you're committing the same scene over and over again why would god ever let you in heaven now you're struggling with that that means the law has climbed to your conscience and the grace of christ isn't there and you don't think that when god looks at you he sees jesus and i think we need to walk with each
00:44:41 other and if you really uh if you want help please come and and type pray on the chat and so we actually counselors to basically minister to you when you do this and now in our old days when we had a physical service we used to call people to come forward they come forward to pray and a lot of people didn't want to do that because being baptised they're shy so they don't want to come forward but in the zoom when you go in the room you're going to room by yourself with only one council nobody sees you so
00:45:08 please you need to be ministered when you're struggling with your conscience if you can't see the grace of god in your life type the word pray and we'll be there praying for you for others qr code to respond to this particular sermon if you decided that look you can't have your own righteousness no matter how hard you try you will never be perfect the only person and give you this righteousness is jesus christ if you decide to do that scan on this qr code to respond or if you want but you haven't decided
00:45:41 to join jesus to find and accept jesus the lord and savior yet but you would like to know more no no no pressure attend alpha please click on this qr code or you'd like to join the fellowship of a live group click on this qr code or you have any prayer requests we would be very happy to entertain this let's end with a song that talks about the one day where we shall face him face to face
