turn your bulletin to Matthew 5:17 to2 this is the uh scripture teaching for tonight scripture passage on which the teaching is based Matthew 5:1 17-20 this fits in awfully well actually with an ordination Service uh because we ordain people to uh Minister the word and uh that fits in perfectly well with iron's ordination uh but it's also part of our series of hard sayings of Jesus Matthew 5:17 to20 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 I tell you
the truth until Heaven and Earth disappear not the smallest letter not the least stroke of a pen will by any means disappear from the law until everything is accomplished anyone who breaks 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 practices and teaches these commands will be called great in the Kingdom of Heaven for I tell you that unless your righteousness surpasses that of the Pharisees and the teachers of the law you will certainly not enter the Kingdom of Heaven
this is God's word now we're looking at hard sayings of Jesus whenever I'm here in the summer I just chose a series of them and when I'm here uh between uh times away I'm preaching on passages that Jesus Jus things that Jesus says that are difficult to understand or accept or both and this is one you know especially right here Verse 18 I tell you the truth not the smallest letter nor the least stroke of a pen will be by any means disappear from the law until everything is accomplished now you know a lot first
of all a lot of people say I thought God was a god of Grace I thought God was a god of love uh Christians say I thought we were saved by grace what in the world is Jesus Christ doing saying not a stroke of the law not a stroke of the law can be disregarded it must be fulfilled in fact if you don't do a better job of fulfilling the law than the scribes and the Pharisees you're not even going to go to heaven does that fit in with everything else you've been hearing how does
that fit in with the rest of the Bible it's a hard saying um but actually what one of the things that amazes me about this passage and years ago I heard one of my old uh Seminary professors expound this passage years and years ago and it helped me as I uh consulted that looking at this this is a really fascinating passage it tells us a great deal about the Bible the Bible itself and uh it's going to tell us three things it's going to tell us that the Bible is true but it's all about Jesus
not about us and if you learn to read it that way it changes your life it changes everything that's the three points the whole Bible is absolutely true but it's about Jesus not about us and if you learned to understand it that way changes your life Verse 18 is the Bible's true verse 17 is how to read it uh as about Jesus and verse 19 and 20 is the life that results let's look first of all Verse 18 in verse 18 Jesus is telling us something about the Bible he says I tell you the truth
until Heaven and Earth disappear not the smallest letter not the least struck of a pen will by any means disappear from the law until everything is accomplished now what's weird about this is well pardon me it's really weird but before I tell you what's weird the most interesting thing about this uh is this word law the reason a lot of people get get off the rails here is we immediately think of the what Ten Commandments laws of Moses but if you read more carefully you'll see that the word law in verse 18 is a synonym
for Law and prophets in verse 17 and all the commentators know what Jesus is talking about is not the formal technical law but the scriptures themselves the whole scriptures you see uh Psalm 82 in John 10 Jesus quotes Psalm 82 which is a Psalm it's a hymn it's a poem but Jesus calls it your law he says does it not read in your law and he quotes Psalm 82 and what that means is it's typical to use the word law for the whole of scripture so Jesus is not talking about the Ten Commandments per se
he's talking about the whole of the scriptures he's talking about history and the prophets and the Psalms and the Proverbs and the law per se he's talking about all of it and when you realize that suddenly you realize that verse 18 is giving us a Theology of scripture it's giving us a view of the Divinity and authority of the scripture that is as high as it can possibly be it can't be any higher it's astonishing look at Jesus view of the scripture I can break this verse 3 18 into three pieces and he tells us
three things about the Bible first of all he teaches us about the inspiration of the Bible by inspiration I mean this he says Heaven and Earth until Heaven and Earth disappear not the smallest letter not the least stroke of a pen will disappear now this word disappear happens twice it's the word pass away and he says Heaven and Earth may pass away but the law the scriptures will not there's another version of this statement in Luke 16:17 and he puts it this way when Jesus says in another spot he says it is easier for heaven
and earth to pass away then the least stroke of the law to pass away now now what's this mean if nature can pass away and the scripture not if the scripture is more enduring than nature then it's not a natural book that means to say it's not a product of nature it's a product of supern nature It's Supernatural it's not a product it's not a human product see people tend to always say well the Bible is a great book maybe they'll say it's the greatest book but it's just a human book not according to this
Jesus says this is got a life that is above it's it transcends the life of Heaven and Earth nature might burn up in the law still be there that the scripture still be there so the first thing he's teaching us is that the scripture is Supernatural it's divine it's from God it's written by human beings but it's from God that's not all though secondly he doesn't just teach us about the inspiration but in a very famous place here he teaches us of the plenary inspiration what that's what the theologians call the plenary inspiration and plenary
means the whole and he's so vivid he says it's not the smallest letter not the least stroke of a pen now the words this is if you remember the old King James it says not a jot or a tit and what the English is trying to get at is the fact that Jesus actually says not the smallest letter and not the smallest part of a letter can be disregarded or will pass away or will go uh un will go broken um a letter the smallest letter by the way was the the yo the yo was
the smallest Greek pardon me the smallest Hebrew letter about the size of a comma but when he says this the second word he uses is a kareah which means a serap now you know what that is it's a it's just a little stroke of a pen that's on the letter so for example it's a it's like the little hook at the end of the letter that makes it a g if it goes this way makes it a q if it goes this way actually that's for me for you it's I can't but so what Jesus
what Jesus is saying here is the law the the scriptures are not just divinely inspired but every letter is divinely inspired and every part of a letter is divinely inspired now what you hear all the time constantly and I know there's people in this room who feel this way is that they people say I believe the Bible and I believe the basic concepts of the Bible but we can't believe every part of it I mean there's some parts that we just can't hold to we've we've outgrown them they're obsolete you know we've made progress there's
some parts that have to be disregarded there's some parts that just just can't be followed they're primitive they're they're out of date and Jesus says oh yeah where he doesn't just say the concepts are okay and a couple concepts are not he says every he doesn't even say that there there's some sentences that aren't okay or even some words he says there's not even a letter there's not even a part of a letter that's not part of the divine inspiration of the scripture but then lastly he's talking about the authority he's not only teaching us
inspiration and plenty inspiration but lastly he teaches Authority because he says he says every part of the scripture will be not just true but accomplished Heaven and Earth won't pass away till it's all accomplished see the scripture is to be done not just believed not just ascended to not just applauded not just appreciated done it has to be done it will be done Deuteronomy 29: 20 9 says that the secret things belong to God but everything that he has revealed he's revealed so that you might do it there's not a thing in the Bible that
isn't there that doesn't have authority there's a place in uh Psalm 82 uh pardon me I already mentioned this so I'll say it again Jesus quotes Psalm 82 which is a poem it's not even written by David it's written by Asaf we don't even know who he is it's a Psalm it's not part of the law and yet he quotes it and he bases his identity on it in John 10 and he calls it your law why would he call it the law what Jesus is saying is every part of it the Poetry the the
history the narratives every part of it we are under we must bring our feeling our thinking our doing our very selves how we are who we are has to be brought under the authority of the Bible and so what he's saying here this is in a most astoundingly high view of the Bible he is saying I believe in the Divine super natural authority of every single bit of it and you know somebody there's a couple of objections you could make one say people say well this he's only talking about the Old Testament isn't he isn't
he only talking about the Hebrew scriptures what what we sometimes call the Old Testament today the older Testament isn't that all he's talking about and the answer is yeah but that doesn't weaken the claim of scriptural Authority that just strengthens it because listen when you talk to people today and they say well there's parts of the Bible that are pretty hard to to to to uh accept usually they mean what what part of the Bible is the hardest part what's what part of the Bible has things in it that people say I'm most untenable and
most disgusting and most difficult most weird and most outlandish and most primitive it's it's that's part it's the older part with all these fantastic things yet Jesus says every jot every tit every letter every part of a letter you must accept as Divine author with having Divine Authority somebody says well you know but isn't it true though that even though God wrote the Bible human beings put it together H have you heard the Canon I don't mean the big Canon like bang bang it um the Canon is uh the Canon is the books of the
Bible that are in the Bible uh and that were included in the Bible and it's true of course that both the Old Testament and the New Testament at a certain point the believing Community came together and decided which of the Bible the of these books were divinely inspired and which ones weren't which ones are in the Bible which ones are not and a lot of people over the years have said to me well yeah maybe God wrote the Bible but human beings put it together and what if they made a mistake now see we're not
doing a Q&A in the summertime we don't do question answer so I know I'd get that question tonight so I'm going to anticipate it okay that way you all get in on this Q&A and here's what the answer is what's intriguing what's fascinating about this verse is yes of course Jesus is only talking about the Hebrew scriptures but the Hebrew scriptures had already been through a canonical process the believing Community had gotten together and decided these these books are inspired by God and these Go books are not and what does that mean here's what it
means Jesus does not just simply believe that God could give us perfect authoritative truth through the process of human authorship see these things were written by human beings but God so controlled the process of human authorship that every jot every tit is divinely inspired but it shows what is he looking at he's looking at the Old Testament which has already been through e canonical proc which means Jesus Christ also believes that God can bring us absolute truth through through the process of divine of human recognition of the of the scriptures the the process of putting
the scriptures together and the process of writing them was so controlled by God According To Jesus that what you have every jot every tit every letter every part of the letter you can know is God's word you just can't say well yeah God wrote it but human beings put it together no no no human beings wrote it and human beings put it together all under God and Jesus right here shows us that he has no problem with that and what does that bring us to conclusion Jesus believed in the strongest terms in the Supernatural Divine
authority of every single piece of the Bible which means Jesus believed that when God writes his pen never slips and his ink never Fades see God's pen is indelible and he didn't just believe this he lived it he didn't just believe this as an intellectual construct he absolutely based his life on this look through the gospels and you'll see it when Jesus is assaulted by Satan what does he do he says it is written every time every time Satan comes at him Bible when the Pharisees or the scribes or human beings attack him what does
he do over and over again it is written when Peter is about to take out his sword in the Garden of Gethsemane what does what does Jesus say I don't think that'd be a good idea he says no Peter don't do this because then the scriptures won't be fulfilled he based his entire life on the scripture and not only that it's like his mind and his heart were so completely saturated with scripture it was almost like it was a filled cup and it was just always slogging out every every place he went because he was
always on his mind always on his hearts always on his lips or uh not only that on the way to jerus Pardon Me on the way to Calvary he's quoting Hosea 108 to the women who are Weeping and on the cross on the cross on the cross I am sorry to use this illustration it's kind of vivid but I've used it to ice today so I'll do it again imagine yourself in a terrible car wreck and you wake up you're still in the car and you look around and all of your family is dead what
do you do I'll tell you this whatever you do you don't don't say what should I say how should I act what should I cry out oh no at a moment of like that the moment of extremity there's nothing left but the unvarnished instinctive you just you who you are in yourself who you are instinctively that's all you are and that's what scream you scream now Jesus Christ when he was on the cross as scary and weird and horrible as to say as this is how R is the fact is Jesus Jus on the cross
was in a worse situation than waking up in a car wreck seeing all your family was dead Jesus Christ was going down into hell literally and on the cross he screamed but what did he scream he screamed the Bible he screamed scripture that's who he was he screamed Psalm 22 my God my God what hast Thou forsaken me he screamed you know Psalm heide Psalm 31:5 father into thy hands I commend my spirit Jesus Christ didn't just believe in the authority of the Bible he lived it it was the very basis of his life it
was the mainspring of his life so that you can almost say that if you cut Jesus Christ almost literally he bled scripture because at the moment of extremity that was who he actually was everything was done through the the grid of the scripture everything was done through the power of the scripture everything was looked at that's how high Jesus view the Bible was unbel believable now before we move on to the second Point very important Jesus doesn't just tell us what the Bible is but how to interpret it but let's wait is that your view
of the Bible do you have the same view of the Bible that he does see for example there's no way to follow Jesus Christ unless you accept his view of the Bible now wait I'm not saying you can't be a saved Christian if you don't believe in the Divine Authority and plenary inspiration of the scripture the what makes you a Christian is faith in Christ period but having said that could it possibly be consistent to follow Jesus say I'm following Jesus but there's parts of the Bible I don't accept now I want you to know
that the average person I talk to the average person I talk to today says oh I I follow Christ I follow Jesus I really believe in him and there are certain parts of the Bible we can't accept anymore you know there dated is it possible to say that and be consistent of course not don't kid yourself you know if you say well I've had people say well of course Jesus Christ believed in the complete authority of every single thing in the Bible every jot until he was a first century Jew he was a man of
his time you know he was a man of his time so there was a certain limit there I follow Christ but I just don't have that same view of the Bible but it's not if you say I follow Christ but I don't believe what he said about the Bible you're not just rejecting one of of his one of his beliefs I mean as it is that's kind of inconsistent and and strange what you're doing is you are rejecting the very basis of his life if you say there's parts of the Bible we can't accept anymore
you were denying the very Dynamic of Jesus life so don't kid yourself that you're following him in fact in fact think about this what if you say well there's some parts of the Bible I just can't accept why well you you know I mean you say well I I just don't believe in a God who would do that and what you mean is there's some place where the Bible contradicts some deep conviction of yours right I want to ask you a question how will Jesus ever talk to you about that conviction how will Jesus ever
be able to talk back to you about that how will Jesus ever be able to get at it how can you be sure you even have the real Jesus Christ if you've created a Jesus Christ who can't talk back to you at certain places when you say I don't believe that what you're really saying is there's some things in my life there some beliefs and some convictions that I will not let Jesus add cuz how can Jesus get to you except through the Bible see in other words it's really really quite impossible to say I
follow Christ but I don't accept his view of the Bible which is a way to say I don't accept his whole view of his whole way of living but on the other hand let me suggest this if you want to face anything anything at all the scripture have the scripture in your heart the way Jesus did Jesus didn't just face death face suffering face face uh hell face Satan he didn't just face them he faced them down how well take a look at the cross you know when Captain Ahab was going down for the last
time you know still sort of stabbing at Moby Dick you know he said from hell's heart I stab at thee well that was a metaphor a vivid metaphor for but he wasn't really going to hell he was down he was going to die but he wasn't going to hell but there was a person who once was in Hell's heart Jesus Christ on the cross and what did he say he said my God my God why my God that's the language of Covenant that's the language of trust that's a lang he was still calling it's a
language of intimacy he was still calling God my God how in the world did he was he still able to trust at a moment like that still able to love God at A Moment Like That still able to obey at a moment like that it it was Psalm 22 it was the scripture you can face anything if you have this view of the Bible and if you use the Bible the way Jesus did do you have that view are you picking and choosing you know are you sifting through it deciding what you like and what
you don't like or are you letting it sift through you deciding what it doesn't like and it it does like which is it it's one or the other it's 100% either it's in authority over you or you're in authority over it if there's anything you dislike about it it means that youve you put your yourself in a position to judge any verse so Verse 18 is telling us it's all true every bit of it's true but that's not all he tells us about the Bible in fact if you stop with Verse 18 and say that's
what I believe I believe the Bible's totally authoritative in every bit and we have to obey it and we have to come under its Authority that just makes you a Pharisee because the Pharisees believe that Pharisees had the very same view as Jesus on that the Pharisees had the same view of the nature of scripture which is what you have in verse 18 but they did not have the same view of how you interpreted the scripture which is what you have in verse 17 because Jesus doesn't only say I want you to know that the
Bible is absolutely and wholly true he also wants you to know that it's all about him not about you because verse 17 he says do not think I have come to abolish the law or the prophets I have come not to abolish them but to fulfill verse 17 is telling us something new and this is something that the Pharisees did not agree with and that is what Jesus is saying is every single thing in the Old Testament now he's talking about the Old Testament obviously old Bible but even the Old Testament everything in the Old
Testament is actually about me and you're not going to understand it unless you unless you read it Christ centrically unless you learn to see that everything in the Old Testament is pointing to me he says if you you don't understand that if you believe in the absolute Authority and inspiration and plary inspiration of the scripture and you don't understand how to read it it'll just make you a Pharisee you know what's amazing to me is there's a lot of people in the church who read it exactly the way Jesus said the Pharisees read it and
as a result they are kind of in that direction well look this word fulfilled you know what this word fulfilled means it means literally filled Jesus is not saying I have come to abolish I did not come to abolish the law but I've come to confirm it no he didn't just say he came to confirm it he came to fulfill it to fill it full which means to change it it means on the one it's a very very very interesting point what it really means on the one hand is when Christians come to the Old
Testament we know that go Jesus has fulfilled it so much that some of it no longer actually hits Us in the same way we don't observe the clean laws because Jesus is our cleanliness because the clean laws are all about him we don't do animal sacrifices anymore why because Jesus was the sacrifice to which they all pointed and because of his sacrifice we don't do that anymore so on when he says I've come to fulfill the Old Testament he means on the one hand because I've come you can't read the Old Testament the way you
used to but on the other hand it also means the Old Testament and the Bible can never be just abrogated you just can't lay it aside you can't say well it's doesn't count anymore I don't have to listen to it to think it's obsolete or to read it exactly the same way as before Jesus came is wrong there's an amazing balance here and what he's actually saying is I have filled it and he's using the illustration almost like a cup being filled or a hole being filled now think about a cup being filled and think
about Jesus in the Old Testament Jesus is the liquid and the old testament's the cup think about a cup and the liquid for a minute on the one hand you the cup is of no purpose unless it's bringing you the liquid right who needs a cup if you if it if it can hold water right Cup's no good but on the other hand the liquid can't be really grasped and drink unless you have the cup it you can't grasp it it's formless right and here what Jesus is saying he says on the one hand you
are not going to actually be able to understand me unless you know the Old Testament you're not going to be able to grasp me unless you know something about priests and kings and Prophets and and temples and Tabernacles and sacrifices you're not going to have a good grasp on me unless you understand the Old Testament but on the other hand you will never understand the Old Testament unless you see that absolutely everything is about me not about you the point of every story the point of every regulation the point of absolutely everything the point of
the ceremonies the point of the bread the point of the of the of the sacrifices the point of the priests the point of all of that was to show us Jesus the point of every Prophet was to show us the ultimate Prophet who brings us the ultimate truth which is the gospel the point of the priest was to point us to the ultimate priest who brings us all the way into God the point of every King was to show us the ultimate King who heals us completely Jesus Christ says and he says this to his
disciples when he sees them after the resurrection especially in Luke 24 he says you have to understand that every part of it everything in the Bible is not about you it's about me everything now let's get practical quick you'll say what do you mean well if you read the story of Moses there is Moses working for the liberation of the oppressed Leading the People through the Red Sea or the story of David there's David not afraid living by faith standing before the Giant now you can read that as if it's all about you you can
say point one look what they did point two I must do that too point three and then God will reward me and that's how you read it and frankly that's how most people read it like a Pharisee most people read the Bible they believe 18 verse 18 but they don't understand verse 17 and they read the Bible like that they say see how David lives see how Moses lived I'm going to live like that and then God will bless me right and you'll get out in life and you'll be crushed because you'll be you if
you actually do sometimes live like that you'll feel Superior to other people and if you don't live like that which you generally won't you'll be crushed and and despondent but Jesus says you don't understand Moses unless you see Moses is pointing to a greater Moses than Moses and David is pointing to a greater David than David look Moses worked for the liberation of the oppressed why don't you and I huh why are we so cowardly why are we so selfish why are we so cut it why well we need to try hard to be like
Moses no first you have to see that Moses is pointing to a greater Moses you know in Luke Chapter n on the Mount of transfiguration no translation can do this right because they don't know how to do it in Luke chapter 9 Mount of transfiguration some of you remember Moses appears and Jesus starts talking to Moses and the Greek text says now in English it'll say they were discussing jesus' departure from Jerusalem but that's what the Greek text actually says in the Greek it says they were discussing Jesus Exodus from Jerusalem now you can't put
that down and because it would make no sense but what is is very simple Moses and Jesus were agreeing on the fact that Moses Exodus was just a picture of the greater Exodus Jesus was the true Moses who leads us out of the ultimate bondage of sin and death and how not by walking through a sea but by going under a sea and being destroyed by the sea of justice and wrath so that we can walk through unscathed and until I begin to see the greater Moses than Moses that Moses points to until I realize
what he's done for me until I am amazed by it until I rejoice in it I will be in bondage to my own fears so I won't be able to be like Moses until I see the greater Moses than Moses that Moses points to I'll never be able to live like Moses or David I can say well I'm going to be really courageous like David but you'll get out there and you'll be afraid of failure you'll be afraid of loss you'll be afraid of disapproval and you'll say why can't I do it it's simple because
David is pointing to a greater David who went up before the real giant the giant of sin and death and he didn't go just at the risk of his life but at the cost of his life and at the loss of his life but he went as our representative just like the historic David so that his victory URS to us and only one I see that the greater David than David has slain the real giants only when I see that he's slain the only disease that can really get me the only debt that can really
get me only when I see that he's done that will I get over my fear of loss and my fear of disapproval only when I see the greater David to which David points will I ever even begin to live like David in other words when you read the Bible as if it's all about you there's always three points to your sermon this is what they did this is what you should do and then God will bless you but when you read it it's all about him you always have four points to your sermon it goes
like this this is what they did but you'll never do it but there was one who did who did it perfectly and the reason you can't live like David or Moses or Samson or Abraham or fill in the blank is because you haven't really based your life on what he did because at this moment you're not either rejoicing in it or you're just not acting as if it's there they did it you can't do it but there's one who did and to the degree you understand and grasp that you'll be able to start doing it
yourself is the Bible all about you or is it all about him which is it just for gender balance here let me give you Esther but it's very very important how do you read the Bible see if you read Esther for the moral of the story if you read Esther in a phical way if you read Esther Verse 18 only not verse 17 not seeing it's pointing to Jesus how do you read Esther well this is how I learned it in Sunday school Esther was a powerful Queen she had the palace she was in the
palace she had money and power ah but she risked her money in her power and used it to serve God and to serve her people and to work for justice and therefore we if you have money if you have power you should be generous with your money you should be not afraid to risk the loss of your power and your status by standing up for Christ in your office or whatever your situation is you too like Esther should be willing to risk losing the Palaces so that you can be like Esther but why don't we
we don't do that we're not doing that you know why because we're not going to remedy that by just trying hard to be like Esther we've got to see the one to whom Esther points there was somebody who who was in the real power Palace heaven and what did he do he didn't just risk the loss of it he lost it why so that you could be accepted into it and I'll tell you the reason why I have a lot of trouble sometimes risking the status or power I've got by doing risky things is because
I'm forgetting I'm forgetting the palace that I've got guaranteed for me because he lost it don't you see I'm not going to be able to live like Esther until I see the Esther to whom Esther points and until you begin here's what Jesus is saying he says number one everything in the Bible is true Verse 18 but number two it's all about me not about you and when you learn to read it Christos centrically number three and here's we here's where we have to finish verse 20 if you start to live like that if you
start to read the Bible like that it will push you into a righteousness and a godliness beyond that of the scribes and the Pharisees now what does he mean by Beyond he's see verse 20 is an introduction to the rest of the of the of the sermon the what comes after The Sermon on the Mount and let me show you what I mean let me show you what he means when he says he he says I tell you unless your righteousness surpasses that of the Pharisees and the teachers of the law you won't enter the
Kingdom of Heaven what he means is if you have the kingdom in you if you are in the Kingdom if you uh if you have my life in you if you if the gospel is come into your life it will take you into Realm Way Beyond just religiosity Way Beyond their righteousness why well look chapter six this is comes right afterwards chapter 6 12 it says the Pharisees give the poor they give to the poor so that men will be honored that so that they will be honored by Men chapter 6: 7 it says the
Pharisees pray why they think they'll be heard for their many words you see what's going on religious people and Christians people who read the Bible as if it's about them and people who read the Bible if it's about Jesus they both pray they both give to the poor they both seek to obey the Ten Commandments but in an utterly different way the Pharisees are outside in they're doing these things on the outside because they're insecure on the inside they need approval they don't know that God loves them they don't know that God will bless them
they're doing everything they can on the outside hoping to fill up the emptiness on the inside but Christianity is inside out chapter six where Paul said where Jesus says he says don't worry don't worry about anything why because your father your father feeds the birds of the air and surely you know you're of more value valuable to him than they are how do you know you're see Jesus says remember he's your father remember his value your value to him through the cross what Jesus is saying is don't try harder he doesn't say if you really
want to grow and become more and more Godly and righteous don't try harder remember okay remember understand what God's done for you understand who you are and it flows out it's inside out it's not outside in and that's the reason why there is a kind of religiosity that is superficial only it's grumpy it's judgmental it's a response to emptiness and then there's a kind of Joy driven okay there's a Beyond Joy driven righteousness and godliness far beyond anything the religiosity can can give you so the whole Bible true right number two but it's all about
Jesus not about you and number three if you learn to read it that way it'll change your life it'll throw you way past just religiosity a vision and a quality of godliness and righteousness and goodness utterly different now as I conclude somebody might say how do I do that how do I learn to read everything in the Bible as if it's a about him not about me so that I get this same Beyond Joy driven righteousness how does that happen it's the same way you get the Carnegie Hall no no no no no no I
don't mean you go down Lexington and turn right on 57th stre how do you get the Carnegie Hall right practice practice practice and if you want to know if you want to know how to read the Bible in a gospel centered way so it makes you like Esther like David like Abraham what you have to do is practice practice practice you know who else is doing it let me just tell you who's doing it in 1 Peter 1: 10 Peter says the spirit of Christ in the prophets spoke of the grace that was to come
to you they predicted the sufferings of Christ and the glories that would follow see that's Peter saying the same thing Jesus is saying all the prophets everything in the Old Testament was about the sufferings and Glory of Jesus and then he says these things have now been told to you by those who preach the gospel to you into which even angels long to look into which even angels long to look now angels are very smart people very very smart um how you know what that's saying it says the gospel Angels never get tired of looking
into the gospel they never get tired of looking into it it there's endless wonders they're always seeing new things it's bottomless it's not just some information you memorize and that's it and if angels are never getting tired of looking into the gospel what that that tell you here's what it tells you the gospel has whatever you need you may probably just haven't seen it yet you say well I know the gospel oh yeah you can't know the gospel I'm struggling with with uh anger someone says well I know what the gospel is you need to
look in fact it actually when it says the Angels long to look I can't believe it it's the word word epithumia which is the word that means overd desire Obsession super desire it says the angels are obsessed with the gospel they're always looking at it they can't get enough of it if you are bitter look into the gospel till it humbles you enough so that your anger goes away if you are depressed you look into the gospel until you're affirmed enough until your depression goes away okay I'm not by the way I'm not saying anger
depression other things sometimes you just need to get some sleep I'm not being simplistic what I am trying to say is long to look at Jesus in The Gospel and whether you're tempted whereever whether you're bored wherever you're depressed what you're angry whatever ails you whatever ails you learn to practice looking into what Jesus Christ did for you in the gospel okay until you're changed as George Herbert says the gospel makes your it'll make your Joys to weep and your griefs to sing the gospel will give you everything that you need it's all about him
not about you and that changes everything let's pray our father would you give us h a final help with your spirit to understand this hard saying it's hard many of us don't want the authority of the Bible in our lives and it's hard because it's this is Jesus is giving us here an entirely new way of reading it and using it in our lives and therefore we need need your spirit's help help us through the ministry of the word here let us as teachers know how to help people read the Bible this way help us
uh overcome our our unhappiness with the authority of the Bible help us to overcome bad habits we've learned from other places help us to look into your word along with the angels in such a way that we're healed and we become like your son in whose name we pray amen
