Jesus is the Key - Matthew 5:17-20

Well, good morning guys, My name is Mike.

If, if we've not met yet, please find me after the service and,

and come and meet me. I'd like, I'd like to get to

know you and, and just welcome you to, to our family here.

It really is a wonderful thing as we've been going through.

This this sermon series through. The book of Matthew, especially

recently in in Matthew 5 and what's called the Sermon on the

Mount, we've seen Jesus layout some some beautiful facts.

He's he's preached some great news, some real hopeful truths

about God's blessings for his follower when they conduct

themselves in a God honoring way.

And, and these have been great to learn about.

We, we've seen blessings for those who mourn, blessings for

the pure and heart, blessings for the meek.

And these are comforting things for us to hear because we

probably all look to ourselves and make assumptions that Jesus

is talking about us because we occasionally demonstrate these

characteristics. But then the sermon changes a

little bit. Jesus starts to address some

things that the Pharisees and even his followers

misunderstood. And so this, this passage today

sets up the next 6 clarifying points from Jesus that we're

going to cover over the, the coming weeks.

And and so in our, in our very first, in fact, let me just read

our, let me read our passage here.

And and then I'll. I'll continue on.

I'm stuck. Are you able to move?

Me along. That's not the right one.

OK, well, we'll get to it. Let me, let me read our passage.

Matthew 517 through 20. It says, do you not think that

I've come to abolish the law or the prophets?

I've not come to abolish them, but to fulfill them.

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. Therefore, whoever relaxes one

of the least of these commandments that teaches others

to do the same will be called 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 Pharisees, you

will never enter the Kingdom of heaven.

So in our in our very first sentence in our passage today,

Jesus says do not think that I've come to abolish the law

right. That's the language that we that

we see here. But, but really, what we, we can

read that that's similar to the way that he speaks in the next

several passages that we're going to study over over the

next couple of weeks, where he doesn't contradict or correct

the Old Testament, but rather he has clarity by explaining

himself. So in our Sunday school class

today, we were, we, we learned about some things like

figurative language and, and, and, and Hebrew poetry and, and

non literal pictures in the passage.

And that's not what we have here, but it does remind us of

different methods that scripture utilizes for our understanding.

And, and often in ministry, Jesus spoke in parables and, and

sometimes he answered questions with questions and he had

redirection of, of thought. And these these parables, these

rhetorical questions and, and these redirections exist to give

us an opportunity to gain context or perspective on what

might otherwise be a difficult concept for us.

An example of that I don't have a, a slide for this, but in Luke

Luke 18:18

18, verse 18, it says and a a ruler asked him, good teacher,

what must I do to inherit eternal life?

And Jesus said to him, why do you call me good?

No one is good except God alone. So in that passage, Jesus

doesn't answer the direct and and really.

Critical question, right, that's.

A question we would. All as as believers, we would

all love it. If somebody came up to us and

was so bold and said, OK, tell me, what do I need to do to get

to heaven? We would want them to tee it up

that way and, and, and and be able to give them a direct

answer. But Jesus doesn't do that.

He in in that passage, he adds perspective for us by going more

in depth about his character. And so this is something that

that Jesus is often in in in Scripture.

And I heard a teacher yesterday describe this this phenomenon as

both astounding and frustrating. And I think that that's fair if

you'll bear with me for a second.

But but you know, as a child, I I'm quite certain that I often

got frustrated as my parents tried to teach me things.

But in my in my immaturity and my ignorance, I was just

frustrated. But my frustration, though, was

based on my own lack of understanding, not because they

were teaching something unclearly.

So Jesus does this to get us to wrestle.

If some of these teachings. And if you think back to to

Genesis and and the story of Jacob wrestling with God,

there's something that's connected there about our own

wrestling with God over these truths that are difficult for us

to grasp. I don't know why that keeps

cutting out like that, but just bear with us.

I apologize for it. But but anyway, that's that the

reason why that's great that we get to to wrestle with that is

because the the fact is that we we lack the key to understanding

some of these passages. Now, if you guys can remember

some of the older folks in the crowd, if you can remember way

back when cereal boxes came with like a toy or or something

inside. And one of the the popular ones

was a was this sort of a puzzle that had a a whole bunch of red

and blue squiggly lines all over it.

And and you might have been. Able, and when you looked at

this, you might. Have been able to tell that

there was some kind of an image there but it was it was very

difficult to to understand what the image was until you use the

secret glasses with red lenses and and when you looked at the

puzzle the blue line suddenly jumped out clearly displaying a

picture or a message and I think that's a fairway of looking at

this passage today Jesus is the key component here the important

lens that we need to look through to understand what is

otherwise complicated to decipher and so.

Our main idea here today is Jesus clears up some significant

misunderstandings, the purpose of the Messiah, the purpose of

the law, and God's heart towards sin.

Understanding Jesus is the key to connecting the Old Testament.

And the New Testament, I heard somebody say that, that when

you, when you look at your Bible and like we are in, in Matthew

here, and you have the Old Testament to the left and you

have the, the New Testament to the right.

And the, the Gospels, the story of Jesus are right here in the

middle. They, they serve as the, the

hinge point that helps us to see that those, the Old Testament in

the New Testament are not at odds with each other, but that

they are perfectly symbiotic. And so today for my, for my

first point, I want to look at the misunderstanding of the

purpose of the Messiah. So in verse 17 and 18 it it says

I'm sorry. Guys, that's in the that's in

the wrong. There we go.

It says, Don't misunderstand why I've come.

I did not come to abolish the law of Moses or the writings of

the prophets. No, I came to accomplish their

purpose. I tell you the truth, until

heaven and earth disappear, not even the smallest detail of

God's law will disappear until its.

Purpose is achieved now. That's the, the NLT version of

our, of our passage here today. And, and I think it kind of

helps us to understand this. So, so throughout Jesus

ministry, he's repeatedly confronted by the Pharisees and

the, and the scribes about him misunderstanding and misapplying

scripture. Right.

That was what they thought was that Jesus was misunderstanding

and misapplying scripture. They had the nerve to tell the

Son of God that He didn't know as much as they knew.

About the book that. He wrote.

And because they misunderstood Jesus, they also had significant

misconceptions and delusions about their own goodness.

See, when it comes to the Old Testament, many Pharisees

studied Scripture like crazy. But since they didn't know

Jesus, since they didn't understand the heart of God,

they, they didn't truly understand what they were

reading. So we should expect that their

application would be messed up as well.

And the same goes for us. So we've, we've, we've all

probably seen things in the, in the Old Testament that are hard

to understand. In Exodus 21, it says that if

you have an ox and your ox gores somebody to death and this ox

has a history of boring, some of boring people, then you can be

put to death. And now that might not connect

because very few of us in the room probably own oxen.

But if imagine if it was like with a with a dog, if you have

a, a dog that had a history of biting people, it seems a a bit

hard to justify my death when it was my dumb dog biting people,

right? But so it's kind of hard for us

to understand. In Deuteronomy 21, it says that

if you have a rebellious son that won't obey, it says to drag

him out to the city elder so they can stone him to death.

Well, maybe they'll seem kind of far fetched.

So, so we don't think that you know that that's much of an

issue. But but what about premarital

sex? Deuteronomy 22 says the woman

who has premarital sex should be stoned to death.

Chapter 19 says that lying is punishable by death according to

the the God that we were just singing praises to.

Now often we can be afraid to preach these ideas.

We can we can be afraid to defend them publicly or even

admit that we agree with them. Maybe we don't agree with them

because we misunderstand the Messiah ourselves.

Now, Warren. Weirsby, who was a A.

Pastor and a theologian, you know, he, he's, he's passed now,

but back up, you know, 100 years ago he used an acorn analogy in

reference to verse 17 that I think is, is.

Pretty good. It says if I have an acorn I can

destroy it. One of two ways I can put.

It on a. Rock and smash it with a hammer,

or I can plant it in the ground and let it fulfill itself.

By becoming an oak tree and he he goes on and explains his

analogy by claiming in either case, the acorn comes to an end.

However, the distinction between the two methods is critical.

In the case of the Mosaic legal obligations, Jesus did not bring

a metaphorical hammer to end them through opposition and

destruction. Instead, he came to cultivate

the law and profits into what they were always intended to

become. See, many people believed that

the Messiah would bring about another dispensation, A

dispensation meaning a transfer from one law or rule to another.

They believed that he would remove and abolish the law and

prophets. Now that phrase the law and

prophets it, it refers to the Torah, which is the first five

books of the Bible and then the the rest of the prophetic books

of the of the Old Testament. This is one of the ways that one

of the creative ways in that we see Scripture referred to in

scripture. So he's referencing the entire

body of God's word available to the the Jews of the time.

And Jesus is saying the Old Testament isn't going anywhere.

It's it's still completely relevant.

Now the law would continue to hold its proper place as the

revelation of God's holy standard until heaven and earth

passed away. You know, the, the, the law is

authoritative and in effect forever.

They they continue to exist fully as a testimony of the

example and teaching of God until all is accomplished.

Now I'd go so far as to say that Jesus will one day accomplish

all that he's told us he that he would do death, resurrection and

2nd coming right. But but even then, the law won't

be abolished because Jesus is eternal and Jesus is the

fulfillment of the law. Let me jump to Hebrews chapter.

1. Somehow we've got last week's

slides in here. Let me jump to Hebrews chapter 1

Hebrews 1 · chapter mention

verses one through 3. It says long ago that many times

and in many ways God spoke to our fathers by the prophets, but

in these last days He has spoken to us by His Son, whom He

appointed the heir of, of all things, through whom He also

created the world. He is the radiance of the glory

of God and the exact imprint of His nature, and He upholds the

universe by the word of His power.

There we go. It's up there now.

So as I mentioned a bit ago, the law held its proper place as the

revelation of God's holy standard.

And how far people were from achieving that standard.

And the Old Testament points directly at Jesus, not just

through specific prophecy and and not just the sacrificial

system that we see throughout, but because it's describing the

character of God. Now in Genesis 15 verse 6, it

Genesis 15:6

says that Abraham believed God and it was counted as

righteousness. But Abraham didn't know Jesus

right? He didn't get to sit under Jesus

ministry or witness the events surrounding the crucifixion, but

he believed in the Messiah that the law was pointing to.

So now when we see Jesus, we see that he is the precise nature of

God personified and the flawless embodiment of of God's Word.

Jesus met that standard. He was the oak tree that the

acorn contained inside it. He he perfectly exemplified what

the law intended and not. Just to the level of.

Of saying that you know Jesus lived a really good life.

No, that that doesn't cut it. Jesus never sinned.

He never took anything that wasn't his.

He never dishonoured his his parents.

He never looked at a woman with lost he he never disobeyed God

in in the slicest He lived to do the will of the Father who sent

him. Now that impossible to follow

law that we read about and and dismiss much of often times in

our humanity. That unfair and and unattainable

standard that God set for us was followed and obeyed perfectly in

his Son. But the people failed to

recognize Jesus as the Messiah that the law was talking about,

despite the many prophecies and and that identified him and

despite his miracles and his teaching.

Isaiah Isaiah 35 five says then the eyes of the blind shall be

open, and the ears of the deaf unstopped.

The, the people never in a million years thought that they

were the blind ones or that they were the deaf ones.

Even if they had recognized him as Messiah, they understood what

the Messiah was all about. The, the, the Jews at the time,

the Jews sort of perpetually looked at themselves as victims.

They knew that God favored them as his chosen people and that

they, they also knew that they'd be persecuted.

And so they, they pretty much just dwelt in that victimhood.

They often pointed out the sinfulness of their oppressors

and they they totally recognize their need for a Savior from

persecution, but they failed to pay attention to their own

historic and individual sinfulness, and therefore they

ignored their their own need for a Savior from sin.

They didn't recognize the absolute perfection with which

Jesus lived his life and why that was key to understanding

their own situation. With God.

Jesus lived a life sinless and in perfect obedience to God's

law, but he continues in perfect obedience to God's law still.

And so he still serves as an example to follow today.

And that's our our second point here is the misunderstanding of

the purpose of the law. Verse 18, We already read this,

but I'm going to read it again. It 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. 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,

but whoever does them and teaches them will be.

Called great in the Kingdom of Heaven.

So often we might think that the law given to Moses was a a brand

new creation of of God's the day that he wrote it on tablets.

But the the the law was in place when Adam lived as well.

Romans 514 says, yet death reigned from Adam to Moses even

over those whose sinning was not like the transgression of Adam,

who was a type of the one who was to come.

So we can understand that that murder was a sin even before

Cain killed Abel. It existed even if they they

they hadn't heard about murder as a as a as a sin, as a crime.

Adam had the choice in his state of sinlessness to choose not to

sin, not to dishonor God. But He did choose sin, and that

sin was passed to each and every one of us in our bloodstream.

We. Are sinners at at at birth and

therefore already guilty So God's law existed before he even

delivered it to Moses Now in our in our human way of thinking, we

might say that that's unfair, right?

How can we know what we're not supposed to do if we've never

been told what the, the law is? But you know, in our, in our

legal system, in our court system, you know, here in our

country, there's a, there's a principle called ignorant

ignorantia juris non excuse act. And that means that ignorance of

the law is not an excuse for violating it.

No justice system allows ignorance of the law to, to, to

prevent justice from from happening.

And yet God did give the law to Moses.

He gave it to Israel and he gave it to us to understand his

heart. He made a covenant with Israel

called the the Mosaic covenant. And it was in in a nutshell, it

was if Israel is obedient, then God will bless them, but if they

disobey, then God will punish them.

And and so what's happening here in our in our verse here is that

Jesus is pointing out that the Pharisees tendency is to be very

legalistic about lighter commandments.

But with the weightier ones, they don't even abide by them

themselves. They have like a sliding scale

of obedience. Here it is in Matthew 23.

Verse 23 He says, What do you scribes and Pharisees,

hypocrites for you tithe mint and dill and cumin, and have

neglected the weightier matters of the law, justice and mercy

and faithfulness. These you ought to have done

without neglecting. The others see the the Pharisees

would be very legalistic and and demanding as they come to, you

know, to talk to you as they'd talk to the crowds and stuff.

They'd be very legalistic and demanding about about tithing

things like the produce in your in your garden.

But then they would just kind of skip over demonstrating mercy to

people or, or or showing their own faithfulness.

And what's worse is that they were demonstrating and teaching

the the habit to those people who look to them for a better

understanding of God's ways. After all, these are the

religious teachers and Jesus is commanding he, he's demanding A

commitment from them and, and from us to obey both the lighter

and the heavier commandments. And and he condemns those who

confuse the two, those who think that there are laws to follow

and and some that are too. Hard or.

Too messy to follow. So what about us here today?

I just mentioned some of these Old Testament laws that are

difficult to to deal with, right?

Some of the ones maybe we're like, I don't really want to

talk about that with with people.

But how do you really think that Jesus would respond to your sin?

A better, better. Yeah.

How would he respond to your defense of your sin?

The way that we, we kind of make room for it, right?

The way we, we put a little asterisk next to it and, and we

say, well, this, this sin, I, I can explain.

You see in our culture, it's, it's viewed differently.

These Pharisees when, when looking back at Scripture, they

should have recognized how strict the law was about what

was considered sin and, and about what dishonored God and

how absolute that standard was. And they should have applied the

yardstick to themselves, but they didn't.

But with Jesus, they argued that he was disobeying God's law and

that he was was just sort of stomping all over it.

And we already talked about how they believe the Messiah was

going to set up a new government, but they didn't even

believe that Jesus was the Messiah.

They, they simply thought that he was some some sort of

uneducated nobody. That's, that's disrupting their,

their power position by screwing up the teaching of the law.

But Jesus says that's not the case.

Back in verse 18. It said until heaven and earth

pass away, not an iota, not a dot will pass from the law until

all is accomplished. Now we can understand that

heaven and and the new earth are eternal and will never pass

away, but it continues, not an iota, not a dot will pass from

the law until all is accomplished.

So, So what does that mean? Like is, is that suggesting that

God will at at some point accomplish everything that he's

intended and then we'll do nothing more forever?

I don't. I don't think we could infer

that from from that passage right in Romans 10.

Verse 4 it says for Christ is the.

End of the law for. Righteousness to everyone who

believes. But when you?

When you. Look at this passage in the

Greek that word end. There is the word telos, which

means a culmination or a goal, right?

It's the law, then will not pass away until it culminates in its

in its goal, and in. Galatians 3 verse 24 it says so

Galatians 3:24

then the law was our guardian until Christ came in order that

we might be. Justified by faith.

Now the role of a of a guardian the way it was talking about

there in in that passage, it refers to like a a hired servant

that was responsible for a child until maturity was reached.

They'd been listening to Jesus instead of arguing with him.

If they would have. Understood him.

They'd have understood that that God was more interested in the

condition of our hearts than He was in the letter of law.

They should have seen Jesus for who he was, but they didn't.

When God showed up in their midst and and even lived and

walked among them to demonstrate the standard, they should have

seen him for who he was, but they didn't.

But let's look briefly at the passage elsewhere in Scripture

where Peter does see him in Matthew. 16 verses 15 through

Matthew 16:15–18

18. This is Jesus talking.

With with Peter, he says he said to them.

But who do you say? That I am Simon.

Peter replied, You are the Christ, the Son of the living

God. And Jesus answered him, Blessed

are you Simon Barjona, for flesh and blood has not revealed this

to you, but my Father, who is in heaven.

And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my

church and the gates of hell. Shall not prevail against it.

Peter is is proclaiming that Jesus is the Messiah that the

whole Old Testament was talking about and and pointed to and and

and that is the truth that the church is built on.

That is the key. To our.

Understanding as the church the law was always pointing to and

it was always pointing at perfect Jesus.

So think about how how much we can accomplish as the church

when we understand that Isaiah. 5511 says So shall my word be.

It goes out from my mouth. It shall not return to me empty,

but it shall accomplish that which I purpose and shall

succeed in the thing. For which I sent it.

The world has a sin problem. Many people have a basic

understanding of the concept of sin, but if they try to look at,

at, at descriptions and definitions of sin and sinful

behavior in the Bible, and they try to make sense of it through

the lens of the culture that they live in.

The one that's that's continuously telling them that

they can define their own truth or that right and wrong are, are

subjective and, and, and based on their own feelings and

experiences, then they can never understand how dangerous sin is

to them. They can never understand that

they need a savior because they don't see anything that they

need to be saved from. A common belief amongst

unbelievers is that people are generally good.

I I think you can you, you've probably seen this often where

people do random interviews and maybe sometimes it's somebody

doing like Christian apologetics and he comes up and interviews

somebody on the street and he asks them, do you think people

are good? And often we hear that, yeah, I

think these people are basically good.

They they believe that the the average person left up to their

own desires would be generous and and that they would be kind

and that they would be selfless and that they would go out of

the way being loving to other people.

But they're dead wrong. What they see when they look at

God's law is a jumbled mass of of red and blue lines that

doesn't compute with with their understanding of the world

because they are missing the key part of the equation that Jesus

demands perfection and will pour out his wrath on anything else.

And that takes us to our final point here today, which is God's

heart towards sin. This this.

Verse 20 here says. I don't know why those are mixed

up guys. I'm sorry about that.

Verse 20 says, for I tell you, unless your righteousness

exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter

the Kingdom of heaven. Now hang on a SEC, because just

in that last little bit, you know, I thought we were we were

doing something really good, right?

When we recognize that Jesus is the Messiah, right?

We just read that. That's what he said that he

built his church on. But now we're saying that we

have to live better than the Pharisees.

That's a guys. This is a big statement here

because this sermon that we're studying, it's, it's being given

to the Jews that, that gathered around there to, to listen to

Jesus. And, and these religious leaders

and, and scribes, these guys would always be close by.

They'd be, they'd be close by because they wanted to watch,

they wanted to report on and criticize the things that Jesus

was saying. And so Jesus, he's telling the

Jewish audience that that they have to outperform and live

better than the Pharisees that are considered the holiest, most

righteous men in their culture. And he's saying this right after

saying that, that, that they, they can't relax on any of these

laws, right? And so if and now if, if they

don't outperform the Pharisees in living a perfect life, then

they will never enter the Kingdom of heaven.

Not only does the Old Testament tell us that we were born with a

sin nature that demands our death, but then we learned that

the law given to us to obey so that we can receive God's

blessing is so strict that not even the Pharisees can follow

it. And yet somehow we're supposed

to be more perfect than them. It seems like a no win

situation, and in a manner speaking, it is.

The God's law was always letting us know that our brokering

relationship with Him has less left us helpless and completely

hopeless. So then why would our good God

give us a story that makes our helplessness and our

hopelessness so apparent? Because He's a much better

author than any of us, That's why.

He has a much better ending to the story than we could have

come up with. Compellingtruth.org.

Had had this that I thought was great.

It said the law was always meant to reveal our sin and our need

for the Lord. He gave the Israelites a

specific glimpse into who God is and how He wanted them to live.

It was always pointing to Jesus. God already told them what the

end of the story was going to be, but the Pharisees missed it

in Jeremiah. 31 verses 31 through 34 says, Behold, the

Jeremiah 31:31–34

days are coming, declares the Lord, when I will make a new

covenant with the House of Israel and the House of Judah.

Not like the covenant that I made with our with their fathers

on the day when I took them by the hand to bring them out of

the land of Egypt. My covenant that they broke,

though I was their husband, declares the Lord.

For this is the covenant that I will make with the House of

Israel after those days, declares the Lord.

I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their

hearts, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people.

And no longer shall each one teach his neighbor, and each his

brother, saying, Know the Lord, for they shall all know me from

the least of them to the greatest, declares the Lord.

For I will forgive their iniquity, and I will.

Remember their sin no more. Now I don't want to, I don't

want to make your head spin, but when God gave this prophecy to

Jeremiah to write down this, this new covenant already

existed And, and the old covenant, the Mosaic covenant

was, was already fulfilled because Jesus is eternal.

And this plan of redemption has always been in place.

It might not have happened linearly in in time, the way

that we understand it, but this was God's plan from the

beginning. This, this was already in place.

So while some of the laws that we might, you know, that that

that we see here might seem inconsequential or or maybe even

silly to us. The fact is, guys.

I broke every. Single one of them, and Jesus

fulfilled every single one of them.

Jesus wasn't Plan B. He wasn't replacing or fixing

something broken. It was always perfect.

God commanded us to obey and He knew that we wouldn't, but He

loved us so much that He made a way for us to be redeemed.

We have to understand His wrath is righteous right?

We sinned against God Almighty and and we deserve death.

Not only is His wrath righteous, but His justice is perfect and

His nature demands it. So He paid it.

Now he didn't nullify it. The payment must be made.

Imagine if you were to talk to your bank.

If if some rich donor came up and, and, and set up automatic

payments to go from their bank account to to your account to

pay your mortgage, the the, the payment still has to be made

every month, right? The obligation has not been

nullified. It's just simply been fulfilled.

So if you remember the Old Testament sacrifice of, of

livestock for sin, that law is no longer over us, but that

obligation still has to be for our sins.

Someone has to pay for your sin with death.

God is so obviously good that disobedience to Him demands

death. Romans 623 says for the wages of

sin is. Death, but the free gift.

Of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus.

This can't be stated often enough.

The gift of God is eternal life in Jesus.

So as we close here today, often times I I.

Don't know if you guys. Yeah, you can see that often

times I, I think that, you know, people approach God's Word as

though it's designed for for someone else, right, The person

down the. The row from you or the?

Person 2 rows in the back or you know, or or whatever it is.

We think it's designed for someone else.

That is is, that is just for the the heathen who's continuously

screwing up his life every day. But I like this.

Quote from from Paul Washer. He says so many people think

that the gospel is for lost people.

The gospel is for lost people, but it's even more for converted

people. The more you and I understand

about what truly happened on that cross, the more you and I

will be driven to serve Christ, not out of legalism, not out of

some fear or dread, but simply out of joyful appreciation.

Look. What he did for me, guys, it

should have been us. Up there on that cross.

Jesus did that as a gift for us despite all that we've we've

seen when we when we look through the lens of Jesus life

of the, of of his perfect life of the, of the standard that

that he set and how much we fall short of meeting that standard.

All the way back in Genesis 2 and in the in the Garden of

Eden, God made the future clear to Adam.

Life is the reward for obedience, and death is the

punishment for. Disobedience in Ephesians 1,

seven through 10. It says in Him we have

redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our

trespasses according to the riches of His grace which He

lavished upon us in all wisdom and insight, making known to us

the mystery of His will, according to His purpose which

He set out, which He set forth in Christ as a plan for the

fullness of time to unite all things in Him, things in heaven.

And things on earth all right before this passage, it says

that God predestined us for adoption.

He knew that we were going to fail and he chose to offer us

redemption anyway. Our our redemption is available

by God's grace, but only through faith.

You can't work for it only because of the goodness of of

God when we believe that that. Jesus lived perfectly.

And they and that he he died voluntarily and he was

resurrected unilaterally defeating death finally that we

can experience his gift. That's what I hope for each of

us here today that that we would view the law through the lens of

of Jesus perfection and through his obedience to God the Father

and that we would recognize the depravity of our souls and how

desperate we are for a savior. Guys, I.

Hope that today. Is is the day that you let go of

any false. Hope in your in yourself.

And you cling desperately to Jesus, but you know, if you, if

you struggle with understanding God's word and its influence in

your life, how it's how it's supposed to affect you because

maybe some of these things, maybe this is the first time

that you're hearing. And it could be hard for us to

to understand what is this supposed to mean 2000 years

later in my life in in the situations that that I exist in.

Remember Jesus is the key. Understanding Jesus heart is the

key to to, to to. To know his heart is the way

that we can better understand his plan for for each of us.

And so if you have questions for about that, come and talk to us

afterwards. But let's give this up to to

Jesus in in prayer, Lord God. It's the contrast between your

goodness, Lord, and and our sinfulness can't be overstated

when we look at, at, at your law that you gave to the to the

Israelites all those, all those many years ago and, and the

desire to be legalistic and, and hardcore in, in following pieces

and, and parts of it. Lord, because we thought that

doing some good things was going to help us out.

We thought that that keeping the the parts of the law that were

easy or that that served us was somehow going to impress you,

Lord. But when we understand your

heart, when we understand how how much you hate sin and how

it's, it's completely at odds with who you are in your

character, Lord. It's only then that we can

understand how bad our sin is, even even what we would

sometimes in our, in our humanity call little white lies

or, or the, the, the lighter of the sins, or we understand that

all of that sin that we've done separates us from you.

And that's a good thing, Lord, your justice is good.

And so when we consider that and we understand that because of

that sin, we're separated from you for, for all time, there is

nothing that we can do. And still in that, in your

goodness, Lord, you came with a plan for redemption that you've

planned since eternity passed. Lord, there's just no way we can

put in words how how awesome that is.

How amazing. That is.

And even though it's, it's beyond our our ability to

comprehend, Lord, the choices are is whether we accept it or

whether we reject it. So if if there are people in the

room here today, Lord, they have not placed their full faith in

you or they they still hold on to the idea that they can do

something to impress you or just shred our hearts and help us to

understand that there is nothing good that we can do.

And that it help us to understand and and cling so

desperately to you as the one and only opportunity that we

have to find your grace to, to find redemption.

And then, Lord, as we make that decision, if we grab a hold to

you or we want you to pull us close to you, we want to know

more about you. We want to know more about your

heart. Because the more we know about

your heart, the the more that Your word comes alive to us and

is effective in our lives and it's influential to other

people. So Lord, as we walk away from

here today, help us to really understand that contrast so that

we can be reminded. It should have been us on the

cross, but it wasn't. It was you.

Help us to put our full faith in You for the forgiveness of our

sins. Lord, for your glory in Jesus

name, Amen.