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[0:00] Now would you turn with me this evening to the Gospel according to Matthew, chapter 5. Gospel according to Matthew, chapter 5, Matthew, read at verse 17, verses 17 to 20.

[0:30] Matthew 5 and verse 17, Jesus says, And as we continue a study in the Sermon on the Mount, in Matthew's Gospel, I'm sure that we're beginning to see that this is one of the best sermons which was ever preached.

[1:39] Or maybe I shouldn't say that it was one of the best sermons, but it was the best sermon ever preached. Because it was a sermon proclaimed by the Prince of Preachers, the Lord Jesus Christ.

[1:52] And as we've said before, the theme of this best sermon which has ever been preached is the challenging theme, Christ-Centered Living for Christ-Centered Lives.

[2:05] But as we saw last week when we were looking at this sermon, we saw the unique ability Jesus had when preaching. Because we noted the approach that Jesus took as a communicator of the truth.

[2:20] Where Jesus used repetition as he opened the sermon in order to make an emphasis. By repeatedly using the word blessed as he does in the Beatitudes.

[2:34] Where he says, Blessed are they which mourn. Blessed are they which hunger and thirst after righteousness. And so on. And we've noted over recent weeks that Jesus' use of repetition was in order to emphasise to those who were part of the Kingdom of Heaven by faith and repentance.

[2:56] That they are to possess these characteristics of these marks of Christian character and conduct. And then having delivered these marks of Christian character and conduct in the Beatitudes.

[3:10] We saw that Jesus proceeded to capture our attention and captivate our imagination by employing two important and relevant illustrations.

[3:22] The illustrations of salt and light. And as we've discovered both of these illustrations of salt and light, they are pretty much emphasising the same point.

[3:34] That those who are citizens of the Kingdom of Heaven are to live distinct and different lives from those who are in the world. But now this evening we move into this section in Verses 17 to 18.

[3:51] And we can see that it's a section which helps the Sermon on the Mount flow from one point into another. Because in a sense this section is looking in two different directions.

[4:06] Where on the one hand it's looking back to what has just been said by Jesus. And on the other hand it's looking forward and preparing us for what Jesus is about to say.

[4:18] And what Jesus wants to highlight to us in this section is the relationship which he has with the Old Testament. Because there's one thing that Jesus doesn't want us to think.

[4:31] Because he doesn't want us to think that he has come to get rid of the Old Testament. And he doesn't want us to think that he has come to supersede and to replace the Old Testament.

[4:44] But Jesus simply says, I have come to fulfil the Old Testament. And what Jesus wants us to understand is that although he has told us that those who enter into the Kingdom of Heaven, they do so by faith and repentance.

[5:02] And that there are marks of Christian character and conduct to be present in our lives. And we are to live as salt and light. Jesus is saying that that doesn't mean that what God said in the past is now irrelevant.

[5:18] And of no bearing to those who are now part of the Kingdom of Heaven. Jesus is saying, in fact, the opposite. Because he says that the Old Testament is as relevant today as it was then.

[5:33] And by saying that Jesus is preparing us for what he is going to teach in all the following sections. When he addresses the subjects of anger, lust, divorce, oaths, retaliation, as well as many other topics.

[5:51] And so this section which we're looking at this evening, it's important because it helps us with the flow of the sermon. It helps with the flow as Jesus moves from one section of teaching into another.

[6:06] But what I would like us to notice is that Jesus teaches us the relevance of the Old Testament and its relationship to us. And he does so by using the same method that he did when he was teaching us how to be the light of the world.

[6:24] Because you remember last week that Jesus used the pattern of teaching in his sermon, the pattern of state, illustrate, apply.

[6:35] Where there is a statement, then the illustration, the illustration which illustrates the statement. And then Jesus makes it relevant through his application.

[6:47] And so Jesus used the pattern of state, illustrate, apply. State, illustrate, apply. And again this evening, we see that Jesus follows that same pattern of teaching.

[7:01] Where we see the statement in verse 17. Jesus says, Do not think that I have come to abolish the law or the prophets. I have not come to abolish them, but to fulfil them.

[7:13] Then the illustration in verse 18. For truly I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not an iota, not a doubt will pass from the law, until all is accomplished.

[7:24] Then the application. Jesus says, Therefore, whoever relaxes one of the least of these commandments and teaches others to do the same will be called least in the kingdom of heaven.

[7:35] 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 Pharisees, that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.

[7:51] So state, illustrate, apply. State, illustrate, apply. So we'll look firstly this evening at Jesus' statement.

[8:01] His statement. He says in verse 17, Do not think that I have come to abolish the law or the prophets. I have not come to abolish them, but to fulfil them.

[8:14] And what we see in this statement from Jesus is that he opens this section by emphasising and stressing the real reason as to why he came into the world.

[8:25] He tells us all about his mission. And the reason as to why he became man. Because Jesus says, Do not think.

[8:36] Do not think. And then he says the same sentence twice in order to emphasise what he didn't do. Because he says, I didn't come to destroy the law or the prophets.

[8:49] I didn't come to destroy, but to fulfil. And Jesus states to us twice that his purpose and his mission coming into the world as the only begotten Son of God was never with the intention of destroying the law and the prophets.

[9:10] There are times in the Bible that we are told that Jesus did come to destroy things. We're told that Jesus would destroy the temple and rebuild it in three days.

[9:21] We're told that Jesus did come to destroy the works of the devil. And we're told that Jesus did come to destroy the power of death. But here Jesus wants to make clear to us that he did not come to destroy the law and the prophets.

[9:40] And when Jesus uses the word destroy or abolish, he's drawing attention to the fact that his purpose when he came into the world was not to invalidate or supersede the law and the prophets.

[9:54] He's saying that he didn't come to replace the Old Testament. Not only because the law and the prophets had been present among the Jews for centuries, but also because it was the law and the prophets was something that God himself had initiated.

[10:11] It was God who had given to his people the law and the prophets. And Jesus is explicitly stating that it was never his intention to get rid of them.

[10:23] And so in this statement, Jesus is calling us to think about how he relates to the law and the prophets. And of course, when Jesus refers to the law and the prophets, he's referring to the whole of the Old Testament.

[10:41] Where the law refers to what is often being termed as the Pentateuch, which is the name which is given to the first five books of the Old Testament. Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy.

[10:55] And the Jews, they often called the law, these first five books of the canon, they called the law, the law of Moses, because Moses was their author. But Jesus makes clear that the arrival, his arrival in the kingdom of heaven was not to destroy.

[11:12] It was not to destroy not only the law, but also the prophets. And so when Jesus refers to the prophets, he's incorporating the rest of the Old Testament, everything after Deuteronomy.

[11:26] And the reference to the prophets, it included what we often call, first of all, the former prophets, which are the books, Joshua, Judges, Kings, and Samuel.

[11:38] And as you know, the former prophets, having probably read them, they give this detailed account of the people of Israel right up until the exile. But then there are the latter prophets, which include many of the prophets such as Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and so on.

[11:57] And the latter prophets, they are the prophets who proclaimed the message of the law. Because any message which the Lord had to give to his people through his prophets, it was often prefixed with the phrase, thus saith the Lord.

[12:16] And so the latter prophets like Isaiah and Jeremiah, it's interesting that they were not only foretellers, in the sense that they made predictions about the future and the arrival of the Messiah.

[12:28] They were not only foretellers who foretold what would happen. But as prophets, they were also foretellers. They were foretellers.

[12:39] They were foretellers because they proclaimed the message of the Lord. They proclaimed what the Lord had to say to his people. And the message which the Lord often had to say to his people was the message of judgment and restoration.

[12:55] Whereas we see in the history of Israel, they were to be judged by God through the exile in Babylon. But there was always this promise of restoration, coming back to Jerusalem, back to the promised land.

[13:11] And so when Jesus says, when he says the law and the prophets, he's referring to the whole of the Old Testament. And by asserting that his mission is not to abolish the law and the prophets, Jesus is stating that the message of the Old Testament is unchangeable.

[13:30] What Jesus is saying is that the law of God is fixed and the message of the prophets is to remain the same. And because the Old Testament is unchangeable and the law of God cannot be broken, for the law cannot demand one thing today and then demand another thing tomorrow.

[13:52] And the same is true with the prophets. He's saying that God cannot proclaim one message and then start proclaiming a different message. And so what we must understand from this statement of Jesus is that he's asserting that the message of God is not changing with the arrival of the kingdom of heaven.

[14:12] It's being fulfilled. It's being fulfilled. And the reason Jesus says all this is important because Jesus doesn't say this and make this statement for no particular reason.

[14:29] Rather, Jesus makes this statement because the scribes and the Pharisees who were well acquainted with the Old Testament, they had lost sight of what was really important.

[14:41] They had lost sight of what they were meant to be focusing their attention on, which was the arrival of the Messiah. But instead, the scribes and the Pharisees had spent a lot of their time immersed in examining and scrutinizing the law and the prophets.

[15:00] Which in one sense, this is a bad thing because it's good to examine the scriptures. But the scribes and the Pharisees, they examined the law and the prophets with such minute thoroughness that they took up all their time talking about various commandments and the ways in which they should try to keep them.

[15:20] And what many of the scribes and the Pharisees discovered was that there were 613 commandments given in the law of Moses. 613.

[15:32] And as you can well imagine, the result of focusing upon so many laws had caused the scribes and the Pharisees to become legalistic in their outlook.

[15:42] but their desire and their focus upon keeping the law made the Jews lose sight of the weightier matters which were the weightier matters of the kingdom of heaven.

[15:57] And throughout the gospels we see Jesus confronted this mindset, the mindset of legalism. But from the viewpoint of a Jew, and this is what is interesting, from the viewpoint of a Jew, it was easy to see why they would think that Jesus wasn't taking the law as seriously as them.

[16:20] Because as we know, Jesus taught that salvation was all of grace. And that we cannot inherit salvation by good works or by keeping the law. And so the scribes and the Pharisees would have been asking and confronting Jesus when he preached that salvation was by grace alone.

[16:38] They would have challenged Jesus by asking and saying, so do we just continue in sin that grace may abound? But of course Jesus was saying, God forbid, no, no, no.

[16:51] That's not what I'm saying. That's not what the kingdom of heaven is all about. And this is why Jesus categorically states here at the opening of verse 17, do not think.

[17:06] Do not think that I have come to destroy and get rid of the law and the prophets. Do not think that I have come to say that the message of God is now null and void.

[17:18] No, I have come in order to fulfil it. And when Jesus says I have come to fulfil, he's saying that he has come to give the true meaning of the Old Testament.

[17:31] He's saying that my mission, the reason I have been sent into the world is to fulfil all the laws of God perfectly. I have come to fulfil all the promises and all that was foretold and all that was forthtold by the prophets.

[17:47] I have come and the kingdom of heaven has now arrived in order to complete the work which has begun through the law and the prophets. I have not come to destroy the law and the prophets, but I've come to fulfil them.

[18:04] And ultimately the fulfilment as we know which Jesus is alluding to is always pointing and going towards the finished work at Calvin.

[18:17] So that's the statement which Jesus makes in his sermon. State, illustrate, apply. But secondly we see the illustration.

[18:30] The illustration. He says for truly I say to you until heaven and earth pass away not an iota not a dot will pass from the law until all is accomplished.

[18:45] Jesus introduces his illustration with the authoritative phrase truly or verily or assuredly for I assuredly say to you.

[19:02] And with these words we know instantly that what Jesus is about to say is very very important. But what we must notice is that this authoritative phrase at the beginning of verse 18 I say to you it not only claims supreme authority over and above every other claim of authority but it also claims reliability and that what Jesus is saying is true.

[19:31] And this phrase I say to you is a phrase which is going to be repeated from now on time and time again throughout the rest of this chapter. Because as Jesus continues in his sermon he goes on to explain how he is going to fulfil the law and how we are going to fulfil the law.

[19:53] Because as Jesus moves from this explanation of the law he draws attention to his relationship to the law. And he does so by repeatedly using these contesting statements.

[20:09] Because he uses the phrase you have heard that it was said and then Jesus will say thou shalt not murder thou shalt not commit a dothery thou shalt not bear false witness.

[20:20] You have heard that it was said and then Jesus would say but I say to you but I say to you and then Jesus would go on to give his explanation of what it is to fulfil the law.

[20:35] And so this phrase I say to you it's a phrase of authority and it's a phrase of reliability but in this section about the law Jesus presents this authoritative and reliable illustration because he says until heaven and earth pass away not one jot or one dot will by no means pass from the law until all is fulfilled.

[21:07] What I want you to notice first of all is that in the previous verse Jesus highlighted that the law and the prophets would not be destroyed. That's what he said in verse 17.

[21:20] But in this verse you'll notice that Jesus only refers to the law. He doesn't mention the prophets. And so we have to conclude that that was the intention of Jesus simply because that's what the scribes and the Pharisees were doing.

[21:35] They were putting this emphasis upon the law by stressing its importance and Jesus is saying yes the law is important and it's not going to change one bit.

[21:48] It's not going to change. And so the point which Jesus wants to drive home to us is that the law of God is here to stay. And the message of God in the Old Testament is not to be done away with.

[22:04] In fact says Jesus the law of God is so binding and so unchangeable that it's going to stand until the end of time. And not until the whole of creation itself.

[22:16] Not until heaven and earth pass away. will this law change one single bit. It has stood the test of time until now and I'm telling you with the arrival of the kingdom of heaven it will continue to stand until the end of time.

[22:37] And what Jesus is saying to us is that the word of God is more permanent and more fixed and more established than creation itself. and it's so permanent that not even one jot nor one tittle will pass from this law until all is fulfilled.

[23:03] And when Jesus says this he's when he says the jot and the tittle he's referring to two of the smallest letters in the Hebrew alphabet.

[23:14] And I suppose the best way to understand what Jesus is saying is to in a sense enter the classroom and begin a Hebrew lesson.

[23:26] Because the jot, and it is a jot, it's not the iota because an iota is a Greek letter. But here Jesus is referring to a Hebrew letter, the Hebrew alphabet.

[23:40] And so what we need to see in our Hebrew lesson is that the jot is the tenth letter in the Hebrew alphabet. And it's the smallest letter in the Hebrew alphabet.

[23:55] And if you are using the authorised version or if you have one at home, if you look up what we were singing in Psalm 119 and at verse 73, you'll notice that the title of that section is in fact the tenth letter of the Hebrew alphabet, which is called Yod.

[24:16] But it's written, you'll notice that it's written as J-O-D, which is why it's written here as a jot. And as you can see, or as you will see, the letter Yod is a tiny little jot.

[24:32] And it's so small that you probably miss it if it wasn't pointed out too. But then Jesus mentions that there is the tittle or the dot. And the tittle is even smaller than the jot because it's just this little tiny dot.

[24:49] And what's interesting about this is that the Hebrew alphabet, it's made up of 23 consonants, 23 consonants and 5 vowels. And the jot is the smallest consonant in the Hebrew alphabet.

[25:04] and the tittle is the smallest vowel in the Hebrew alphabet. And if you've ever looked at a Hebrew Bible, and we may have the opportunity to do so next Wednesday as the Society of the Distribution of the Hebrew Scriptures are visiting us next week.

[25:24] But if you've ever seen a Hebrew Bible, the tittle is the smallest vowel in the Hebrew alphabet and it's the smallest marking where the consonants are what is written on the line.

[25:36] Those are the big letters that you see. But the vowels are those little markings, those little dots, which are written below all the consonants. And this little tittle is the smallest marking because all it is is a tiny dot below the letter.

[25:55] And it's a small dot called Ahirek, which represents the vowel I. And so what we can see from our Hebrew lesson in the classroom is that Jesus is making the point that even though we would hardly notice, we would hardly notice that these letters were missing.

[26:16] We would hardly miss the jot or the tittle because they're so small and so, in a sense, so insignificant. But Jesus is aware that a scribe would certainly notice if a jot or a tittle was missing from the law.

[26:31] And if we were to be missing this would infuriate the scribe and annoy the Pharisee. But Jesus is affirming that what he has to say as the king of the kingdom of heaven is so reliable and so authoritative and so permanent that it must be put on the same path as the Old Testament.

[26:54] They must be on the same level. In other words, what Jesus has to say is not only to be understood as permanent and valid, but Jesus is asserting that he is not going to get rid of the Old Testament.

[27:10] Rather, by his illustration, he's affirming the permanent validity of Scripture. He is affirming the permanent validity of Scripture.

[27:24] Nothing is going to change. change. And when we think about it, is that what the Apostle Paul was reminding young Timothy when Timothy was starting out in his ministry?

[27:39] Where Paul was saying to Timothy that he was to remember and to continue in the things which he had learned. And even what he had been taught at a young age from his mother Eunice and his grandmother Lois.

[27:53] And what Paul was saying to young Timothy when he was coming up against all the Greek philosophers who claimed that the Word of God is now irrelevant and outdated and outmoded because to the Greek philosopher they would say we have our minds, we have our intellect, we have reason now we don't read the Bible.

[28:15] And these statements, they haven't changed in 2,000 years and they still seem to be the same. But it was Paul who said, remember, said to Timothy, remember that that Word of God is still the same.

[28:30] And that it doesn't change no matter what anyone else says about it. With the changing fashions of the age, it doesn't change, it remains the same. And it's then that Paul went on to say, in fact, all scripture is given by inspiration of God.

[28:47] And it is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, that the man of God may be perfect, throughly furnished unto all good works.

[29:02] And this teaching on the unchangeable nature of scripture, it's not only relevant in Jesus' day and in Paul's day, but it's relevant in our day, and maybe even more so.

[29:18] people. Because there are many churches and many Christians today who place a huge emphasis upon the New Testament, to the detriment of the Old Testament.

[29:30] In fact, there are some who go as far as to say the exact opposite of what Jesus is saying. They say that the Old Testament has now been abolished, where they emphasize that the law of God is no longer relevant because it only belongs to the people of Israel.

[29:50] And they say that we are now New Testament Christians, and we are to adhere to what Jesus said, and not to what the God of the Old Testament said.

[30:01] And when I was in college, I even heard the argument that we don't need to keep the Sabbath anymore, simply because Jesus never told us to do so.

[30:12] He doesn't mention the Sabbath and the Sermon on the Mount. He mentions laws like adultery and murder and lying, but he ignores the Sabbath. Therefore, the Sabbath law must be irrelevant.

[30:26] And that's why many Christians don't adhere to the Sabbath, where they go shopping and have all the recreational activities on the Lord's Day and treat the Sabbath like any other day, with the exception of maybe coming to church in the morning.

[30:40] But the reality is that they have no interest in the Sabbath because they think that Jesus got rid of it. But the fact is that Jesus is saying the opposite, because he's affirming that he didn't get rid of anything.

[30:56] He didn't get rid of anything. Instead, he's asserting that the law is still relevant and it's still as binding today as it ever was. And you know, this thought of the irrelevance of certain parts of Scripture, it begins small, but it slowly grows into bigger issues.

[31:22] To the point that people have a problem deciding which bits they want to adhere to and which bits they want to leave out. When they begin to pick and to choose, and say that certain things that Jesus said were only relevant to his day.

[31:40] And the same is said of Paul's letters where some people claim that there are things that were only relevant to the situation of that particular church, such as Corinth and the big issue of the head covering.

[31:53] And you know, sometimes I worry that when we read the Bible, we are picking and choosing what we want to believe in or not. And what we want to adhere to or not.

[32:06] And what we want to follow or not. And in some sense we are the ones who are standing over the Bible, instead of those who should be sitting under it.

[32:18] And we are the ones who are becoming the lawmakers instead of sitting under the one who has written all the law. And the result is that we are creating in our own minds and in our own intellect a pick and mix Christianity.

[32:36] That's what it is becoming, a pick and mix Christianity where we can pick and choose what we want and what we don't want. And this is so prevalent in our churches today, where not only the world, but Christians are doing what is right in their own eyes.

[32:56] But Jesus is simply saying to us, if nothing has changed, and if I have not changed one jot or tittle from the word of God, how can we alter it?

[33:11] In fact, Jesus is saying, who are we to alter it? Because what Jesus is telling us and affirming to us with the arrival of the kingdom of heaven is that the Old Testament and the New Testament, they're part of the one covenant of grace, but under two dispensations, with one being the law, the other being the gospel.

[33:36] But both the New Testament and the Old Testament, they are united because they herald and proclaim to us the riches of God's grace in Jesus Christ.

[33:48] And as the old saying goes, the new is in the old concealed, but the old is in the new revealed. State, illustrate, apply.

[34:01] We've considered the statement, the illustration, but lastly we can look at the application. Because Jesus has taught us and he's filled us with information, but now as with every sermon, once the information comes, there must be application.

[34:19] So Jesus gives us the application. He says, therefore, whoever relaxes one of the least of these commandments and teaches others to do the same will be called least in the kingdom of heaven.

[34:31] 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 Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.

[34:45] Jesus begins the application of his exposition by stating that the application is general. It's not specifically aimed at the scribes and the Pharisees, although they are intended.

[35:00] But the audience to whom the application is directed is to whosoever. It's for any, any Jews that are present listening to what Jesus said, and it's for us who are listening to the voice of Jesus in the 21st century.

[35:16] The application is general because it's for everyone and anyone. And Jesus makes the application with regard to the law. He makes it general because the application of the law is general.

[35:30] And what Jesus wants us to understand is what he has highlighted already. That the law isn't just binding on the Old Testament Israel, but it's binding upon all people everywhere in every generation.

[35:45] application. But Jesus, you'll notice, narrows the responsibility of the application towards those who are citizens of the kingdom of heaven. Because he says, therefore, whoever relaxes one of the least of these commandments and teaches others to do the same will be called least in the kingdom of heaven.

[36:04] But whoever does them and teaches them will be called great in the kingdom of heaven. So the application is directed towards those who are part of the kingdom of heaven.

[36:18] And the application which Jesus makes is about breaking or keeping the commandments. Because the word breaks it or relaxes, it's the same root meaning as the word in verse 17, to abolish or to destroy.

[36:35] And so Jesus is teaching us that we are not to destroy what he has affirmed as permanent and valid. we are not to destroy it.

[36:45] And in other words, the commandments, they still stand. And for Jesus, the commandments are not only the commandments in the Old Testament, but they're also the commandments which he is now going to highlight in the following verses as those who are part of the kingdom of heaven.

[37:04] But in this teaching of Jesus, he presents to us what you could call I suppose, the calling of obedience. because on the one side of this coin, we are confronted with the warning that those who are in the kingdom of heaven who have a wrong attitude towards God's commandments, they will be given a lowly position.

[37:27] But on the other side of this coin, Jesus says that the person who obeys the commandments and teaches others to do so, and encourages others to do so, will be called great in the kingdom of heaven.

[37:41] They will be given a position of honour. And the application is that both types of Christians are in the kingdom of heaven.

[37:54] But one is committed and the other is not. Both are in the kingdom, but one is committed and the other is not. And as we've said before, that's the theme of the sermon on the mind.

[38:08] because it's calling us to be more dedicated and more diligent and more committed and more faithful in our service and witness to the Lord. We are being taught as citizens of the kingdom of heaven to live Christ-centred lives.

[38:28] And so Jesus concludes this section in verse 20 with the final affirmation that acting like a scribe or a Pharisee with the desire to attain the righteousness of God is the wrong way.

[38:43] It's the wrong way. It's not the way of the kingdom of heaven. And Jesus confirms this statement once again with the authoritative phrase, I say to you.

[38:56] And what Jesus is saying to us is that our righteousness must exceed the righteousness of the scribes and the Pharisees. Because the standard of being a citizen in the kingdom of heaven, the standard which God has set, is the standard of perfect righteousness.

[39:18] And inevitably this leaves us with a question. How can our righteousness possibly exceed that of the scribes and the Pharisees?

[39:29] We are dedicated. How can they attain perfect righteousness? And the simple answer which we need to be reminded of often is that the righteousness which the scribes and the Pharisees sought, it was legal correctness by adhering to the minute details of the law of God.

[39:53] But all Jesus looks for is our love. All Jesus looks for is our love. It's not what Jesus said.

[40:05] If you love me, you will keep my commandments. If you love me, you will keep my commandments. And as citizens of the kingdom of heaven that's what's required.

[40:20] Because what is required is love for Jesus. Love for Christ. Love for the one who is Jehovah said Canu, the Lord our righteousness.

[40:31] What is required is love for Jesus who has perfectly fulfilled all the types and shadows of the Old Testament. What is required of us is love for Jesus for being the perfect Lamb of God to take away the sin of the world.

[40:47] What is required of us is love for Jesus for becoming sin for us so that we might be made the righteousness of God in him. What is required is love for Jesus because he was obedient to the law to the point of death.

[41:04] That's what Paul tells us obedient unto death even the death of the cross. And so in this sermon of Jesus we've been reminded tonight that Christ-centered living for Christ-centered lives is not just based upon our adherence to the law and how we live as Christians but the core of it and the root of it is our love for Jesus.

[41:35] Because the word has remained the same. The commandments have remained the same. And Jesus has certainly remained the same. He's the same we are told yesterday, today and forever.

[41:49] And so the message of Jesus' sermon tonight with the pattern state, illustrate, apply. The message of Jesus' sermon is simply, if you love me, keep my commandments.

[42:05] If you love me, keep my commandments. May the Lord bless these things to you. Let us pray. O Lord our God, we confess how much we do not keep thy commandments.

[42:21] Let us help us, Lord, to confess for the psalmist that I love the Lord because my voice and prayers she did hear. And while I live, we'll call on him who bowed to me his ear.

[42:34] We marvel, Lord, that we are loved by thee. But help us, Lord, to love thee in return. Help us, Lord, to continue to walk in thy love and to walk in thy statues.

[42:47] Help us, Lord, we plead. Lord, to be students of thy word and to be taught and to have a teachable spirit. We realize that we are so stubborn, that our heart is so deceitful.

[43:00] But help us, Lord, to be submissive to thy truth, to thy cause, to thy way and to thy will and to thy word. That thou, Lord, would teach us that our prayer might be like the psalmist who said, teach me thy way and in thy truth, O Lord, then walk will I.

[43:19] Unite my heart, that I thy name may fear continually. Bless us all, we plead, and do us good for Jesus' sake. Amen. Psalm 19, a Scottish slaughter, page 223.

[43:54] Psalm 19, page 223, singing from verse 7 down to the verse 10. God's law is perfect and converts the soul and sin that lies.

[44:04] God's testimony is most sure and makes us simple wise. The statutes of the Lord are right, and do rejoice the heart. The Lord's command is pure and death, light to the eyes and part.

[44:17] We shall sing from verse 7 to 10, Psalm 19, God's law is perfect and converts the soul and sin that lies. God's praise. Amen. Amen.

[45:25] Amen. Amen.

[46:25]  Amen.