A Bible-Believing Church

Matthew 5:17-18

Outline

Introduction

I. Jesus Fulfills the Old Testament in Its Predictions

II. Jesus Fulfills the Old Testament in Its Perfection

III. Jesus Fulfills the Old Testament in Its Purpose

Text verse 17 tells us: "Think not that I am come to destroy the law or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfill. For verily I say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law till all be fulfilled." Now, these are the words of Jesus concerning the Bible. Jesus said, "Verily, I say unto you..." Now, when Jesus prefaces something with the word verily, that means pert up your ears.

Listen. This is not incidental; this is fundamental. Don't pass over this. "Verily, I say unto you, Till heaven and earth shall pass not a jot nor a tittle shall fail from the law or the prophets till the law be fulfilled. I didn't come to destroy the law and the prophets: I came to fulfill." Now, when Jesus said, "the law and the prophets," He was talking about the Old Testament. That was the Bible of the Lord Jesus. The New Testament had not yet been written. So Jesus here is talking about what we would call today the Old Testament, beginning in Genesis and ending in Malachi. And the term that the Jews use for that was the law and the prophets.

Now, listen. Jesus came to fulfill all of that. O, how I pray God that you will understand this truth, that the key to the Bible is the Lord Jesus Christ. The Bible has one hero, His name is Jesus; one villain, he is Satan; one purpose, salvation; one end, to the glory of God. And you'll never be victorious as a Christian until you have a steadfast, rock-ribbed assurance about the Word of God.

Now, if you call yourself a follower of Jesus Christ, then His view of the Bible must be yours. What right do you have to call yourself a follower of Jesus if His view of the Bible is not yours? Now, when Jesus looked at the Bible, He said, "I came to fulfill it." You see, the key to understanding the Bible, I say it again, is, Jesus Christ. After His resurrection, Jesus was walking on the road to Emmaus with two forlorn disciples. They were perplexed and bewildered. They didn't know what was happening. But Jesus had already risen from the dead.

It was after His crucifixion and resurrection. And Jesus, in a form that they did not recognize, began to walk with them. And, He began to open the Bible to them. I would love to have been a part of that Bible conference. I would love to have had a tape recording or a transcription of that Bible conference. But listen to what it says here in Luke 24:27: "And beginning at Moses and all the prophets, he expounded unto them in all the Scriptures the things concerning himself."

Now, He started with Moses. What He means by Moses is the five books of Moses, Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy. He started there and He went all the way through to Malachi. And He said, "Now, look, here's the Messiah.

Here's the Messiah here. Here's the Messiah." It doesn't say He showed them all the things concerning Himself in the Scriptures. It says He showed them in all the Scriptures the things concerning himself. That means somewhere hiding in the shadows, or somewhere in plain type and illustration, you're going to find the Lord Jesus. You read the Bible and don't find Jesus, re-read it. You missed it! People say, "Have you read the four gospels?" I've read all 66 of them. It's all about the Lord Jesus.

How do I know it's all about Him? Because He said so! Acts 10:43 here's what the prophet said. "To him"—that is, to Jesus"—give all the prophets witness, that through his name whosoever believeth in him shall receive remission of sin." All of the prophets, you name them. Isaiah, Jeremiah, Daniel, Hosea, Ezekiel—all of them are saying, "Look to Jesus and receive remission of sins."

Jesus said in John 5:39: "Search the scriptures; for in them you think that you have eternal life..." There were some people who thought just a knowledge of the Scripture would give them eternal life. Jesus said, "Oh, no!" You can go to hell with a Bible under your arm. Search the Scriptures. See what it means. Don't think that Bible study is going to bring you eternal life. "Search the scriptures; these are they which testify of me." Now, if you read the Bible and you don't see Jesus, you missed it. "Search the Scriptures; in these you think you have eternal life, but listen. They're the ones, the things, the truths that testify of me."

Now, with that in your mind, I want to tell you three things about Jesus and His Bible. And, again, I want to tell you that the views of Jesus concerning the Bible must be your views and, by God's grace, shall be the views of our church.

I. Jesus Fulfills the Old Testament in Its Predictions

Number one: Jesus fulfills the Old Testament in its predictions—in its predictions. Now, the Old Testament is a book of prophecy and it predicts the coming of a Messiah, and Jesus is the fulfillment of all of those predictions. Prophecy upon prophecy upon prophecy says that a Messiah is coming.

Now, scholars tell us that there are at least 333 exact, precise prophecies in the Old Testament that were fulfilled by the Lord Jesus in what we call New Testament times. Centuries before Jesus Christ was here in the flesh, the Bible spoke of Him. How would you like to, paint a picture of someone you'd never seen and, paint it in the greatest of detail? And, not only would the picture be painted by one person, but the picture would be painted, the portrait, by over 20 people, and none of them had seen what the other one had painted.

Let me tell you that's what the prophets did as they gave us in the Old Testament a prophetic portrait of the Lord Jesus Christ. Precious church, Jesus is the only person born into this world whose ancestry, whose birth time, whose forerunner, whose birthplace, whose birth manner, whose infancy, whose manhood, whose teaching, whose character, whose preaching, whose reception, whose rejection, whose death, burial, and resurrection and ascension were all prophesied in a marvelous way before He was born.

Now, when you see how Jesus fulfilled the Scriptures, you have to say the Scriptures are the Word of God. When you see the Scriptures being fulfilled in Jesus, you have to say Jesus is the Son of God. You see, there is no way, congregation, there's no way, none, not a little bit that these things could happen apart from divine inspiration. Three hundred and thirty-three direct prophecies.

A man named Peter Stoner, who's a mathematician and statistician, began to study this, and he worked out the laws of mathematical probability, which is a true science. Now, he didn't take 333 prophecies; he took eight—eight of them, and he said, "What is the mathematical probability that these eight prophecies could be fulfilled by chance?" He said, "It is one in 10 raised to the 17th power." Start putting the zeros there. Ha, ha, how many is that? I don't know. I don't think there's a name for it. A gazillion, I guess. One in whatever that number is. So since we can't understand it, Peter Stoner gave us an illustration.

He said, "Suppose you take the State of Texas and cover it with silver dollars." Now, the Texans would like that. "Cove it with silver dollars two feet high from border to border." Do you know how big Texas is? Friend, I drove across Texas and it took me 100 years just to get across Texas. Now, just think of Texas, that big state, covered in silver dollars two feet high. One of those silver dollars has a marking on it. Then you take a man and blindfold him and take him by helicopter and drop him down into Texas somewhere—in Dallas, El Paso, it doesn't matter, Laredo, wherever.

That's a city in Texas, Laredo, Texas? Yeah, all right. Drop him down and say, "Now, you find that silver dollar." Now, remember, there are billions of them and they cover the state two feet deep, and he comes up with the one silver dollar blindfolded. He reaches in and finds it. Peter Stoner said that's the chance that eight of these, Scriptures could be fulfilled. Not eight that we're thinking about now, but 333. It is astronomically impossible that these prophecies concerning the Lord Jesus Christ could be fulfilled apart from divine inspiration. And it is also impossible that no, that anyone should willingly, intelligently deny the deity of Jesus Christ when we see these prophecies fulfilled in the Lord Jesus Christ.

Now, you see, look. One prophecy—you might understand it; two—you say possible; three—it's getting harder; four—it's getting more difficult. But after a while it gets impossible.

Joyce and I have a son who lives in Spain. He's a missionary. He and our daughter-in-law and grandsons live there. We like to call David. Now, suppose I want to call David long distance. I want you to see how the law of probability begins to work. When I pick up a telephone, immediately I dismiss the billions—and I said billions—who don't have a telephone. They can't answer it because they don't have a telephone. So immediately some are excluded. And then I dial the overseas number. Well, immediately that excludes everybody in North America. And then I dial an area code and immediately that excludes everybody else that's not in that, when I dial the number of that nation and then the area code. And so we're tightening the focus more and more. And then I begin to dial one number, his personal number. Everybody else whose number doesn't begin with that number, that is in that area code, that is in that nation. They are excluded. Then I dial the next number, and everybody that doesn't have two numbers exactly like that is excluded. And then another, and another, and another. And, finally, I get to that last digit and I dial that, and a voice that I love to hear picks up the phone and says, "Diga," which means speak. It's our son David. Now, do you think that anybody wanting to find David could pick up a telephone at random and just start dialing numbers? Of course not! You see, the more complicated it gets, the higher the probability that this could not be fulfilled just by chance.

Would you like to dial up Jesus? All right, let's see how we'll dial up Jesus. First of all, we have to dial and say this has to be a person of the human race, for Genesis 3:15 says that it is the seed of the woman that will be the Messiah that will bruise the serpent's head. And so we have to start with a race. No angel can do it. No other creature can do it. The Messiah has to be a son of man.

But then we tighten the focus a little bit more and we say not only must this person be of that particular race, but He has to come from a division of that race. You see, all humankind was divided in, by the flood into three streams—Ham, Shem, and Japheth. Well, the Bible says that Japheth, excuse me, that Shem is the one who is blessed. It is through Shem that the Messiah will come. And you can find that if you wish in, Genesis 9:26. So we have a race. Then we narrow the focus, a section of that race.

And then we narrow the focus a little bit more, a nation out of that section, out of that race. He's got to come from the Hebrew nation. The Bible tells us in Genesis chapter 12 that God has chosen a man named Abraham, who is going to be the Father of the Hebrew nation, and out of him is going to come a Messiah. And so we have a nation, out of that section, out that race.

But we're not finished yet. There has to be a tribe out of that nation, out of that section, out of that race. So our Lord is coming from the tribe of Judah, Genesis 49:10.

But we're not finished yet. Not only must there by a tribe out of that, nation, out of that section, out of that race, but there must be a family out of that tribe, out of that nation, out of that section, out of that race. It's the family of Jesse. And God, appointed Samuel to go to Jesse's house and appoint a king over Israel, who would be, according to the flesh, the progenitor of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ in 1 Samuel 16. So there's a family.

But we tighten the focus more. There is a woman that comes out of that family, that comes out of that tribe, that comes out of that, nation, that comes out of that section, that comes out of that race, and she's to be a virgin, Isaiah 7:14. And she is to give birth to a son.

And then there is a Son who is to be born of that woman, of that family, of that tribe, of that nation, of that section, of that race. One person whose birthplace and birth time and miraculous birth is prophesied. "Hello, Jesus?" There He is! There He is! Are you telling me, are you telling me that happens by chance? Jesus said, "I fulfill the law and the prophets..." He does! He fulfills it. He fulfills the predictions of the Old Testament.

II. Jesus Fulfills the Old Testament in Its Perfection

Secondly, Jesus fulfills the perfection of the Old Testament. The Old Testament is a perfect book. Jesus said, "Not a jot or a tittle shall fail from the law..." Now, the linguists call this in our day a yod and an iota. These are the smallest markings. Iota, a very small letter; a yod, a little inflection, a little marking, a little pinpoint that looks almost like a fly scratch. What Jesus is talking about is the Bible in its minutia, and He says, "None of that's going to fail."

Now, we have people today who tell us that the Bible is inspired in spots, and they think they're inspired to spot the spots. No. Remember what I said? Jesus showed them in all the scriptures of things concerning Himself. Put it down big, put it down plain, put it down straight—every word is from God. Now, I'm not talking about somebody's mistranslation. I'm talking about the word that God gave, the word that proceeds out of the mouth of God. Jesus said in Matthew 4:4 that, "... Man shall not live by bread alone, but [now, listen to this] by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God." When the Bible speaks, God speaks, and God is not wrong in a jot or a tittle, an iota or yod. Everything comes from God.

Now, I want to give you a word I want you to learn, and the word is verbal. And, of course, you obviously know what verbal means, but I want you to learn what it means in theology. It comes from the Latin verba, if you took Latin as I did and forgot, but it means word. So the words of the Scripture are inspired, not just the thoughts, because you see you can't have thoughts without words anymore than you could have mathematics without numbers. So Jesus said, not Adrian, but Jesus, "... Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God." We call that verbal inspiration. Say verbal. Say, "Pastor, I'll never forget it." Nod your head. Means I just, I'm not going to forget it. The Bible is verbally inspired—every word, every jot, every tittle.

Ha, but not only is it verbally inspired; it is plenarily inspired. Now, I know that every day you use the word plenary. But the word plenary means full. It is fully inspired.

1 Samuel is no more inspired than the 17th chapter of John, and the 17th chapter of John is no more inspired than 1 Samuel or anything else. All of it is inspired—every word comes from the mouth of God. That means there is a full inspiration. That's the reason I told you Jesus said, He showed them in all the scriptures, not some of them, but in all the scriptures the things concerning himself. Now, forever, as a believer, you say, "I believe in the verbal, plenary inspiration of the Word of God." Say amen. Verbal, plenary inspiration of the Word of God. That makes the Bible the infallible, inerrant Word of God. Well, you say, "Pastor, that's no, your opinion." No, you're missing it! That's Jesus' word, not my opinion. It's His word. Jesus said it. If you're a follower of Jesus, His opinion of the Bible has to be your opinion of the Bible. And if you are a lover of the Bible, what the Bible says about Jesus you're going to have to believe. The Bible rises and Jesus and the Bible rise or fall together. And so I want you to understand that Jesus, fulfills the Old Testament in its perfection.

Now, if Jesus believed the Bible to be perfect and it's really not, you have only one of two conclusions. Either Jesus was ignorant if He believed it and it was not, or if He knew it was not and He taught that it was, then He was dishonest. I don't know about your Savior, but my Savior is not ignorant or dishonest. He believes the Word of God. It is impossible to accept Christ's authority without accepting the Scripture's authority and vice versa.

III. Jesus Fulfills the Old Testament in Its Purpose

Now, we've talked about Jesus fulfilling the predictions of the Old Testament. We've talked about Jesus fulfilling the perfections of the Old Testament. Now, finally, we're going to think about Jesus fulfilling the purpose of the Old Testament. What is the purpose of the law and the prophets? The Bible says that the Old Testament is a schoolmaster to bring us to Christ. There used to be in Bible times a person who walked children to school. That's what the Old Testament does. It takes us by the hand and brings us to Christ. It presents the Lord Jesus Christ. That is the purpose. And so Romans 10:4 says, "For Christ is the end of the law"—talking now about the Old Testament—"for righteousness to everyone that believes." If you never get passed the Old Testament to Jesus, you don't get the purpose of it.

Now, what did Jesus do? He fulfilled the law. Jesus kept every commandment.

Jesus lived up to every standard. Jesus did whatever the law commanded. The law was the law of God. The law is not evil; it's good, but none of us can keep it. None ever has except the Lord Jesus Christ. And Jesus could look people straight in the eye and say, "Which of you can convict me of sin?" Ha, ha. I wouldn't say that to my friends, much less to my enemies. "Which of you can convict me of sin?" Jesus Christ fulfilled the law in its purpose so He could bring us to Christ. The law is a schoolmaster to bring us to the Lord Jesus Christ. The law is here to tell us that we cannot do it by ourselves. The law is here to convict us. Is there anybody here who would have the audacity, the unmitigated gall to say, "I've always kept the Ten Commandments?" Of course not! Well, you say, "Pastor, I've kept a lot of them." Ha, ha. Well, God doesn't grade on a curve. Do you know what the Bible says? "If anyone will keep the whole law and yet offend in one point, he is guilty of all." Well, that wipes us all out. Friend, you see, the law is a unit.

Ha, if a policeman stops you for running a red light, it does you no good to tell him about all the times you did stop, or the time you had your blinker on when you turned right. No.

Suppose you are hanging over an inferno, a roaring fire that wants to consume you, and you are suspended by a chain of forged steel; that is, nine links are forged steel and one is crepe paper. How safe are you? You see, if you keep the whole law, and yet offend in one point, you're guilty of all. If you're trying to go to heaven by keeping the commandments, you're not going to make it. You're going to go to hell. The law is there to tell us that we need a Savior. But what kind of a Savior do we need? A righteous, perfect, sinless Savior who kept all the law so He could be the sacrifice for sin. Had Jesus failed in fulfilling the law, He could not have been our Savior. Jesus fulfilled the law for us and by grace He fulfills it in us.

The law says, "Do and you will live." The gospel says, "Live and you will do." The law says, "Pay what you owe." Grace and the gospel says, "I forgive you all." The law says, "Love God with all of your being." The gospel says, "Herein is love; not that we love God, that He, but that He loved us and sent His Son." The law says, "Cursed is everyone that continueth not in all things that are written in the book of the law to do them." If you think that you're going to be saved by being a good boy or girl, and you break one of the smallest laws, there's a curse upon you. But the Bible says, and thank God for this, "Blessed is he whose iniquities are forgiven and whose sins are covered." The law says, "The wages of sin is death," but the gospel says, "The gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord." The law says, "Do." The gospel says, "Done." The law says, "Run," but it gives us no legs. The gospel says, "Fly," and it gives us wings. You see, I'm not saying that the Ten Commandments are not important. I try to live by the Ten Commandments. But I know if I'm depending upon my living by the Ten Commandments to get me to heaven, I will never, no never, no never make it. But I thank God for a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who fulfilled the predictions of the Old Testament, who in His life showed us the perfections of the Old Testament, and who offers to us the provision of the Old Testament, which is the New Testament, the Son of God.

Do you want to be saved? Stop trying and start trusting. Salvation is the gift of God. And Jesus fulfilled the law and paid it all, that He might die upon the cross, bow His head, and say, "It's done. It's finished. I fulfilled the law." And so, the law is a schoolmaster to bring you to Christ.