Trinity Baptist Church

 

Matthew 5:17-20 is our text for tonight. We are looking at this great, first sermon that the Lord gives us in the chronology of the New Testament. It is magnificent, wondrous, all that any sermon could ever be. In fact, I don't know how it would be possible to have stood on that hillside, listening to what He said, and to have taken it in at one sitting.

 

I sometimes feel guilty about my sermons. I very seldom get to cover everything I wanted to cover, and I need to apologize to you for leaving some stuff out. I have to remind myself that I’ve had several hours to digest and read and study, and you have only a short time. And I want so badly for you to know these things and see all the magnificence of it, and sometime I come with too much material. 

 

And yet, I think about Jesus, who must have stood there and given the whole Sermon on the Mount in one straight shot. It's enough to boggle the mind; it takes me one whole hour to get through one verse of this three-chapter sermon. These incredible statements by our Lord need so much background and filling in. Words cannot express how dynamic and far-reaching this particular text is, Matthew 5:17-20.

 

We discovered last week that Jesus is speaking of the sole authority for faith and practice. He is elevating the Scripture. It is sad that we are living in a day when that has become a laughable idea in some circles. 

 

 

To say that you believe in the inerrant Word of God, it becomes something that people chuckle about because it's rather antiquated and out-of-date. 

 

But this Scripture here tells us the number one reason why I think we should believe the Bible is true. It is the number one reason why we believe it is the rock bed foundation of truth and why we can trust it absolutely, and it is simply because Jesus said that it is absolute truth. Jesus said that it didn't lie, and that not one jot or tittle would ever pass from it until all was fulfilled, and frankly, folks, the word of Christ about the Bible is good enough for me. I don't know of any higher authority than that.

 

So here, at the very outset of Jesus' ministry, early in His Sermon on the Mount, He gives His view of the Old Testament, the law of God, the Scripture. By inference, incidentally, it even carries on to His view of the New Testament. It is a powerful statement. 

 

Now I told you last week there are four things in these four verses that Jesus mentions: 

 

He sees the preeminence of the law, the permanence of the law, the pertinence of the law, and the purpose of the law. 

 

Last time, we looked at the preeminence of God's law. The word 'preeminence' means 'uniqueness,' it is the fact that it is the highest, noblest, best. It is preeminent. In verse 17, as we saw last time, Jesus gives three reasons why it is preeminent. 

 

 

 

Reason number one, it is authored by God. "Think not that I have come to destroy the law." He doesn't even need to designate any more than a definite article, He just says, "The law," because the law, everyone knew, was God's law. 

 

 When God writes something, it is preeminent. When He says something, it is preeminent. That is the testimony of the Lord Jesus Christ, implied by what He said. He really has in mind the law and the prophets, the whole Old Testament, with its moral, judicial, and ceremonial elements. So He says it is preeminent because it is authored by God. 

 

Secondly, it is preeminent because it is affirmed by the prophets. "Think not that I have come to destroy the law or the prophets." 

 

You'll remember how the prophets took the original law of God and repeated it and placed it upon the people as binding and indicted the people when they disobeyed it. They applied it to their lives, reinforced it, reiterated it, preached it. So it is preeminent because God chose His prophets, who were nothing but His mouth in the world, to continue to reiterate and preach and reinforce and apply His law. 

 

Finally, and most marvelous of all, the law of God is preeminent not only because it was authored by God and affirmed by the prophets, but most of all, because it was accomplished in Jesus Christ. 

 

At the end of verse 17, Jesus says, "I came not to destroy but to fulfill," and we went into the incredible reality of what that statement means last week. 

 

Christ said, "I didn't come to nullify the law, or abrogate the law, or lower the standard, or drop the standard, or set aside God's law. I came to fulfill God's law." We saw last time that that meant every single element of God's law. 

 

You'll remember that in John 5:39, the Lord said, "Search the Scriptures, for in them you think you have eternal life. They are they which testify of Me." In other words, He says, "I am the fulfillment of the whole Old Testament." He was the fulfillment of all of it, in one way or another.

 

The whole Old Testament pointed to Christ; He was the moral fulfillment in that He alone kept totally the law of God. He was the judicial fulfillment in that He became the judge of a rejecting Israel. He was the ceremonial fulfillment in that every type, analogy, symbol and picture found its ultimate fulfillment in Him. 

 

He fulfilled the law morally, ceremonially, and judicially. He was also the fulfillment of all the prophets; the prophets spoke of Him, as Peter said, "They spoke of Christ, who was to come." He is the fulfillment of all of it, and that's why it is preeminent.

 

That brings us to the second point, which is

 

2. The Permanence Of The Law. 

 

The Jews were looking for a more lax system. They couldn't keep up with the scribes and Pharisees so they were hoping someone would come and drop the standards a little bit so they could make it. 

Jesus lifts the standard even higher, then He just wipes out the Pharisees and scribes for their hypocritical approach to God's law. 

 

What they were doing was substituting human tradition for the law of God, so Jesus came in and wiped the human tradition away, just cleaned it out. The judicial law was fulfilled for the most part, as was the ceremonial law. Even some of the moral law, like the Sabbath, was fulfilled. But God's righteous standards never changed, so He says, just so they don't ever forget it, "Nothing is going to pass until it's all fulfilled."

 

As I look at verse 18, it seems to me that it almost bursts its seams. I don't even know where to begin, it's just so rich. I tried 100 different ways to come up with an outline, but finally threw them all in the wastebasket and said, "I'll just say what's in my heart." So if you can't tell where I'm going, hang in there. Let's look at the verse.

 

First, for verily, or truly. . .

 

It means a solemn, sober, authoritative kind of introduction. It generally refers to the idea of something true, something faithful, so it is frequently translated 'verily,' which means 'truly, absolutely.' I like to use the word 'absolutely' because I like the word absolutes in a day of relatives. 

 

So we could say, "For absolutely I say unto you." This is a strong assertion, a very tough-minded statement, an unmitigating claim, a serious claim on the part of Christ, a solemn truth. 

 

 

He says this, "Till heaven and earth pass." That's another absolute. It's like saying, "I cross my heart and hope to die, stick a needle in my eye," or whatever we say to make something absolute. "Till heaven and earth pass," that is a strong introductory phrase. 

 

He is saying, "The word of God will be here until the universe passes out of its present existence." Someday it will, frankly; someday the universe will pass out of its present existence, the Bible is clear about that. At that time, we'll enter the new Heaven and new Earth, and won't need a Bible anymore, because we'll be living righteousness in the presence of the Living Word of GOd, won't we? We won't need the guidebook anymore, because we'll be like Jesus Christ. But until that time, nothing changes.

 

In Matthew 24:35, the same message is given. "Heaven and earth will pass away, but My words will by no means pass away." 

 

In II Peter 3:7, it says, "But the heavens and the earth which are now preserved by the same word, are reserved for fire until the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men. But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night, in which the heavens will pass away with a great noise, and the elements will melt with fervent heat; both the earth and the works that are in it will be burned up. All these things will be dissolved." 

 

In other words, there is coming an end to the universe, but until the universe ends and we enter an eternal state, this Word shall abide. What a great statements! 

 

It's a permanent Book. People have the stupid audacity to say, "What does a 2,000-year-old book have to say today?" Everything! It's authored by the eternal, living God. It is His eternal, living Word. These words are alive and powerful, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to divide soul and spirit, joints and marrow. They discern the thoughts and intents of the heart. So until Heaven and Earth pass, this Word will abide; every type will be fulfilled, every prophecy will be realized, every law will be verified. 

 

Jesus can't get more specific than He does in the next statement. "One jot or one tittle shall in no way pass from the law." What in the world are those?" 

 

'Jot' is really a representation of a Hebrew letter. In Hebrew, there is a letter called 'yodh' and it is similar to an apostrophe. That's all, an apostrophe, but it's a letter that is pronounced as a 'y.' A yodh is the smallest letter. In the Greek, it is called the iota. 

 

Greek students call it an iota subscript, where you take an 'i' out of a word and for certain reasons, in the Greek language, they drop it under another letter, so it appears as a little, tiny apostrophe. So what He's saying is, "Not the tiniest Hebrew letter or Greek letter will pass from this law until it is all fulfilled." 

 

People say, "Well, we don't have to believe in an inerrant, infallible Bible, that every word is inspired by God, do we?" Yes. In fact, every yodh and every iota. When God gave His Word in the original manuscripts, every jot was inspired by Him. 

 

Then He talks about a 'tittle.' This is interesting. I don't know how to tell you what it is other than saying it's a very small item that would be illustrated in our language by between an 'E' and an 'F.' An 'F' has two lines running perpendicular to each other, and an 'E' has three. That last, little, tiny line makes the difference between an 'E' and an 'F,' and that's what Jesus is saying.

 

 That little tiny mark that is on the tag-end of a letter that separates it from another letter. 

 

Illustrate it with the difference in a bet and a kaf. A kaf looks like a 'C,' and a bet looks the same way, only it has a tiny line on the edge of it. 

 

He's saying, "Not one, little, tiny serif that distinguishes a bet from a kaf will be removed from my law until the whole thing is fulfilled. I didn't come to set it aside; not on your life." 

 

Is this still God's authoritative Word, His holy Word for us? You'd better believe it. Jesus is saying Heaven and Earth won't pass away until every single element in this Book is fulfilled.

 

It's exciting to know the history of the world, isn't it? To know where it's going and how it's going to end up. Jesus takes His position on the side of verbal, inerrant inspiration, and I don't know how anyone who is a Bible-believing Christian and understands the authority of Jesus Christ could take any other position. 

 

 

 

As He was speaking then, some parts of the Old Testament had already been fulfilled, like His incarnation and birth. Other parts were being fulfilled, such as His prophetic ministry. Some parts were yet to be fulfilled, such as His death, resurrection, and final return in glory. But nothing was going to change from this book and its binding character on the heart of man until every single jot and tittle was fulfilled. 

 

By the way, 'fulfilled' here is a different word than in verse 17. Here it means 'come to pass.' It's all going to come to pass. 

 

As you study the Bible, you see how Jesus believed in the Scripture. Sixty-four times, He referred to the Old Testament and its authority. He said, "Scripture cannot be broken." The Scripture cannot be broken. Let me show you how much of a commitment He had to Scripture.

 

 

Look at Matthew 22:23. The Sadducees came to Him with a question. They didn't believe in the resurrection, so they didn't believe in future life. They said, "Teacher, Moses said that if a man dies, having no children, his brother shall marry his wife and raise up offspring for his brother." In other words, if you make a commitment to a woman and you die, who will take care of the woman? The brother moves in and takes over. 

 

"Now there were with us seven brothers. The first died after he had married, and having no offspring, left his wife to his brother." So there was no son to care for her, so the brother cared for her. The second brother married her, didn't have any children, and he died. 

So this happens until the seventh brother marries her, and by that time, I'd say, "Let me out of this deal; there is something wrong here if seven men in a row have died!" 

 

But anyway, last of all the woman died, which was peace for everyone, I suppose. 

 

Verse 28 says, "Therefore, in the resurrection, whose wife of the seven will she be?" They thought they really had him, and were thinking, "Let's see how He gets out of this one!"

 

Jesus answered and said to them, "You err, not knowing the Scriptures nor the power of God. For in the resurrection they neither marry nor are given in marriage, but are like angels of God in heaven." Angels don't marry, and there is no marriage after death. "But concerning the resurrection of the dead, have you not read what was spoken to you by God, saying, 'I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob'? God is not the God of the dead, but of the living." 

 

He quotes to them from the Old Testament; His whole argument is based upon one tense: I am. 

 

What He is saying is, "You must believe in resurrection because God said I AM the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob long after Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob were dead." He was still their God; it was an 'I am' relationship, not an 'I was.' Jesus bases His entire argument on just that one tense to show that they're still alive. "I am their God and they're still alive!" That's reason enough to believe in resurrection. 

 

You know, He was divine, He was God. 

 

2. He placed His words and the Old Testament as equals. 

 

In our text, He said, "Heaven and Earth will pass away before God's law passes away." 

 

In Matthew 24, He said, "Heaven and Earth will pass away, but My words will not pass away." 

 

In other words, He equated His words with the Word of God as being absolutely authoritative and divine. 

 

As you study the New Testament, you find that Jesus

 

Scholars say the Old Testament is full of myths; I remember reading a book about Jonah, and the author said he wasn't swallowed by a fish. He said there was a dinghy tied to the boat and the name of the dinghy was 'The Great Fish' and all the writer is trying to say is that they put Jonah in the dinghy. Of course, who ever heard of a dinghy that vomited? I don't know how he gets out of that, but that was his story.

 

As you read the New Testament, you find that Jesus confirms the Old Testament. The Old Testament isn't a myth. 

 

 

People say Adam and Eve was a myth, it's just a symbolic story they teach in seminary, yet Jesus confirmed the Old Testament events. He confirmed the identities of Adam and Eve. Jesus confirmed the Creation account and the standard of marriage as God designed it in the Garden in Matthew 19. He confirmed the murder of Abel in Luke 11. He confirmed Noah and the Flood in Matthew 24. He confirmed Abraham and his faith in John 8. He confirmed Sodom and Lot in Luke 17. He confirmed the call and the law of Moses in Mark 12. 

He confirmed the manna from Heaven in John 6. He confirmed the brazen serpent in John 3, etcetera. 

 

So we believe in the Old Testament because, in His very words, Jesus depended on it. From one whole statement in answer to the Sadducees, He depended on a tense in the Hebrew verb. He placed His own words as divine words, an equivalent of Scripture, thereby guaranteeing their divinity as well. He confirmed the events of the Old Testament.

 

I'll add another thing;

 

 

In fact, you'll remember when He was talking about Lazarus and the rich man. When the rich man asks for someone to be sent back to tell his brothers (Luke 16), God says that if they didn't believe Moses and the prophets, they won't believe someone risen from the dead. In other words, the Old Testament is sufficient to save someone from entering that place of torment. He believed in the sufficiency of the Old Testament. 

 

He also believed that

 

I read it earlier, He said, "You err, not knowing the Scriptures." In Mark 12:24, the same story is recorded. He said, "Do you not err because you don't know the Scriptures?" In other words, our Lord depended on a tense in the Hebrew language for an interpretation. Jesus said that everything that He saw in the Old Testament was true as it was recorded. He established the sufficiency of Scripture to save, and that it would free men from error. So He established His view of Scripture.

 

By the way, in Matthew 4, He even used Scripture

 

6. in His own defense. 

 

When Satan came to him three times and tempted Him in three areas, each time, Jesus answered by saying, "It is written." He quoted Deuteronomy 8:3, 6:16, and 6:3. He didn't have to quote the Bible, He could have made up new verses. What was He doing? He was letting us in on a pattern of how to deal with temptation: by Scripture. It is the authoritative, powerful word of God. 

 

I recently heard a preacher say, "One thing I've learned is that when you get in the pulpit, you have to communicate without using the Bible because it turns people off. So I've spent a long time developing the ability to communicate to people without using the Bible. I started out in my ministry saying, 'This verse says this, and this verse says this,' but I realized it wouldn't get me anywhere. Now I say it in my own way, and people accept it." You know, his words are impotent, but God's Word is powerful. He's missed it. When Jesus dealt with Satan, He didn't do it with His own words, which would have been divine. He quoted Scripture.

 

After His temptation, our Lord went to Nazareth. When He got there and began His formal ministry, He went to the synagogue. The first thing He did when He got there was to open a Bible, an Old Testament text, and this is what He read: "The Spirit of the LORD is upon Me, because He has anointed Me to preach the gospel to the poor; He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed; to proclaim the acceptable year of the LORD." Then He closed the Book, gave it to the minister, and sat down. 

 

You know what He did the first time He ever gave a sermon in His own town? He didn't do anything but read Isaiah 61:1-2 and sat down, and they were dumbfounded, smitten. The Word of God was powerful. Some time later in His ministry, John the Baptist's disciples came to Him and asked Him, "Are You the Coming One, or do we look for another?" So He quoted Isaiah all over again to them. He depended on the Scriptures. When He went in to cleanse the temple in Mark 11, He did it in the authority of the Old Testament Scripture. When He went to die on the cross, He did it because the Old Testament Scripture said He had to die. 

 

The point is this: if you're going to accept Jesus Christ and believe that He's God, you'd better listen to what He says about the Bible. What He says about it is that it's binding on you and you'd better live according to its principles. 

If you want to be a Kingdom citizen and have Kingdom character and give a Kingdom testimony, you'll have to obey the manifesto of the King. God hasn't set aside His standards. Our dear Lord is the theme of all the Scripture. His authority is absolute. 

 

One day, the disciples were there with Him and the crowd had left. He asked them if they, too, would go away (John 6). Peter said to Him, "To whom shall we go? Only You have the words of eternal life." Do you believe that? I believe that everything Jesus said is authoritative, and if He said this Scripture is binding and true, that's enough for me. He is the absolute authority.

 

People say, "There are errors in the Bible, though." That presents a three-fold possibility. If there are errors in the Old Testament or in the Scripture, then number one, there were errors, but didn't know it. That means He's ignorant, and if He is ignorant, He's not God, right? Or secondly, there are errors and He did know it. What does that mean? He's dishonest. The third possibility is that there are no errors. If He knew it and hid it, He was a hypocrite. If He didn't know it, He wasn't God. 

 

What did it mean to that audience that day on the hillside in Galilee that Jesus confirmed the permanence of the Old Testament? 

 

It meant there was a King there, and a Kingdom, and those in that Kingdom had a certain kind of character. They were unique in the world, not like the dark, decadent society around them, and they would be characterized by a genuine, internal righteousness. 

That righteousness would be based on an inviolable, unchanging law of God called the holy Scripture, not the phony righteousness of Pharisaic externalism based on the traditions of men. That's essentially what He was saying. 

 

What does it means to us? It means what Isaiah 1:20 says, "The mouth of the Lord has spoken it." If the mouth of the Lord has spoken it, it's good enough for me. So what do we do about it?

 

Five things. 

 

Number one, if not one jot or tittle is passing, then you should receive it as the Word of God. James 1:21 says, "Receive the ingrafted word." If it is the Word of God, you'd better receive it because of the infinite majesty of the author, because of Christ's authoritative statements about it, because of the price God paid to get it to you, because it's the only standard of truth, joy, salvation, and blessing, because it's the only necessary, essential voice to listen to, and you'd better receive it because not to receive it will bring judgment.

 

 

 

Secondly, honor it. God says, "I have exalted My Word above My Name." Psalm 119:103 says, "How sweet are Thy words." Do you have an attitude of love and honor toward this Book, or do you always chafe under it? Is it always threatening you, or do you lovingly submit to the sweetness of its words? 

 

 

 

Thirdly, study it. II Timothy 2:15 says, "Be diligent to show yourselves approved unto God, a workman that needs not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the Word of Truth." Study the Word. Jeremiah says, "Thy words were found, and I did eat them." Take it in and make it your own, allowing, as Colossians 3:16 says, "The word of Christ to dwell in you richly." 

 

Fourthly, defend it. Jude 3 says, "Earnestly contend for the faith, once for all delivered to the saints." Fight for the integrity of the Word of God and its purity and authority against the onslaughts of those who would undermine it. 

 

Lastly, proclaim it. Preach it. II Timothy 4:2 says, "Preach the Word." 

 

If it’s worth believing, it’s worth sharing. Amen?

 

Beloved, aren't you glad we have a permanent word from God? Let's pray.