John Lloyd - The Sermon On The Mount - God's Law

Seeking God First:  A Study on the Sermon of the Mount

God’s Law and My Heart Matthew 5:17-20

June 17, 2018

Pastor John Lloyd

In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus expresses His desire for us to live for Him in an upside down world.  This greatest sermon ever given, is uplifting, yet challenges us to live a life with Jesus that is far better than any other! It is our prayer that you will be encouraged and challenged by studying and applying this great sermon to your life. Small groups are also available throughout the week to further discuss and put into practice the lessons taught from the Sermon on the Mount.

Matthew 5:17 “Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them. 18 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. 19 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. 20 For I tell you, unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.

Matthew 22:37 And he said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. 38 This is the great and first commandment. 39 And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. 40 On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets.”

Big Idea: God’s law shows me my need for transformation.  Transformed hearts (inward) live transformed lives(outward.)

I.              God’s law is so important that Jesus had to fulfill all of it.

Matthew 5:17 “Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them. 18 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.

John10:35

Abolish-to annul or destroy

Fulfill-suggest an image of a vessel which is filled to the top.  The mission of Jesus is to fulfill the Law and Prophets not partially but in total. Every blessing of the Beatitudes flows from Christ and from what he did for us by His fulfillment. Lenski

Two Propositions of this passage:  Jesus teaching is in total harmony with the Old Testament.  Jesus teaching is in disharmony with the scribes and Pharisees.  D. Martyn Lloyd Jones

2 Corinthians 5:21 For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

Romans 3:20

What was happening upon the cross was that our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, the Son of God, was enduring in His own holy body the penalty prescribed by the holy law of God for the sin of man.  The law condemns sin, and the condemnation that it pronounces is death. Lloyd Jones

Galatians 3:13 Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us—for it is written, “Cursed is everyone who is hanged on a tree”— 

Galatians 3:24

I love the Christ of “I came not to destroy,” but I love more the Christ of “But I say unto you.” The first Christ saves truths, the second Christ saves me. E. Stanley Jones

Father’s Day affirmation:  God move me from an external only obedience to a completely surrendered heart to Jesus.

II.            Jesus desires to fulfill God’s law in our surrendered lives.

Matthew 5:19 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. 20 For I tell you, unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.

The law and all the prophets point to him and will be fulfilled in Him down to the smallest detail.  Everything that is in the law and the prophets culminates in Christ, and He is the fulfilment of them.  It is the most stupendous claim that He ever made.  Lloyd Jones

Romans 3:31 Do we then overthrow the law by this faith? By no means! On the contrary, we uphold the law. 

Titus 2:12

Romans 8:3 For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do. By sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh, 4 in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit. 

Hebrews 8:10

Matthew 23:3 so do and observe whatever they tell you, but not the works they do. For they preach, but do not practice.

Romans 6:17 But thanks be to God, that you who were once slaves of sin have become obedient from the heart to the standard of teaching to which you were committed, 

I Peter 4:2 so as to live for the rest of the time in the flesh no longer for human passions but for the will of God.

Matthew 28:18 And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. 19 Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. 

Matthew 22:37-39

Prayer for wisdom for fathers and mentors:  Help me to not only deal with externals in my life but to keep my heart in check with God.  Show me how to love my loved ones with my whole heart!  Show me how to disciple those God has placed under my influence. 

2 Corinthians 5:17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation.  The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.

When Jesus transforms my internal heart, I want my outward life to be salt and light for God’s glory.