SPEAKER_02: Well, uh first of all, I want to thank you for the opportunity uh to be here to minister the word of God uh to you this morning.
SPEAKER_02: I've had the opportunity to get to know a number of your uh uh pastors and elders and uh some of the men who serve here, and it's a tremendous blessing to have the godly and uh have godly and faithful servants uh right here at this church.
SPEAKER_02: Um Pastor Jesse and uh Pastor Jordan have uh both been particular uh gifts to me, and I'm grateful for the opportunity to be here.
SPEAKER_02: And I think you'll find it an encouragement uh to know that uh this church is part of our regular uh prayer rotation on Sunday mornings.
SPEAKER_02: We uh make it a habit to pray for area churches, and uh, this is uh one of the churches that we pray for uh regularly uh that's on our list.
SPEAKER_02: And um also want to bring you greetings from Baltimore Bible Church.
SPEAKER_02: All the news out of Baltimore isn't bad.
SPEAKER_02: Uh there's uh good news in Baltimore, and the good news is that the gospel is being preached there, like uh Jordan already uh mentioned.
SPEAKER_02: Uh, you know, we do preach out preach out on the streets and in neighborhoods, and uh I'm just very thankful for uh the opportunity uh to do that.
SPEAKER_02: And uh we celebrate uh six years of God's faithfulness uh this uh July uh to our church, and um just very exciting things that are happening there that I'm uh just just so uh thrilled about.
SPEAKER_02: And uh finally I'd like to bring you greetings from my wife Jennifer.
SPEAKER_02: Uh we celebrate 21 years of uh of marriage this year.
SPEAKER_02: Um my son uh uh is uh 18 years old, graduating from college, my daughter's uh 20, uh still in college, and my my youngest daughter, Car, is uh 16 and an artist.
SPEAKER_02: Uh she's at uh Carver Center for Technology and Arts, and uh I'd appreciate your prayers for uh for all of them.
SPEAKER_02: So uh this morning I have the uh assignment of delivering a message about the law, and I only have about 40 minutes to do that, but that's okay because uh I'm from upstate New York and I talk fast.
SPEAKER_02: Uh some people try to figure out where my accent is from.
SPEAKER_02: I grew up in upstate uh New York, Albany, New York, uh lived in Maryland, California, Arkansas, so don't try to figure out where where the accent comes from, but the speed never left.
SPEAKER_02: So uh uh I I do talk fast, but if you listen a little bit faster, you should be able to catch up.
SPEAKER_02: So uh this morning I have the assignment of preaching about the law.
SPEAKER_02: And uh when you heard that there was going to be an entire conference on the law, maybe you had the same response that I did.
SPEAKER_02: Like, why, right?
SPEAKER_02: Like, why have an entire conference on the law of God?
SPEAKER_02: Doesn't the Bible say that we're no longer under the law, but under what?
SPEAKER_02: Under grace, right?
SPEAKER_02: Romans 6, 14.
SPEAKER_02: And and haven't we died to the law?
SPEAKER_02: According to Romans chapter 7, Romans chapter 7, verse 6, but now we have been released from the law, having died to that by which we were bound.
SPEAKER_02: And hasn't the law itself been made obsolete according to the book of Hebrews, Hebrews chapter 8, verse 13?
SPEAKER_02: Uh when he said a new covenant, he has made the first obsolete.
SPEAKER_02: And while Christians would all acknowledge that we have some kind of relationship to the Old Testament, many of us might prefer to have a distant relationship to the Old Testament.
SPEAKER_02: Some of us treat the Old Testament like the crazy cousin or uncle that we hope doesn't show up at the party.
SPEAKER_02: Anyone have a cousin or an uncle like that?
SPEAKER_02: Uh I know I had one growing up.
SPEAKER_02: I had this uh this cousin who used to dress in the most bizarre and eccentric clothing he could find, you know, different colored scarves, hats, jackets, these pointed boots, and nothing seemed to match with anything else that he wore.
SPEAKER_02: And uh the kinds of things that he would say would make absolutely no sense.
SPEAKER_02: You know, he's just so unpredictable.
SPEAKER_02: Uh he was still my cousin, I still loved him, but there were some places I just hoped he wouldn't show up, right?
SPEAKER_02: You know, like at a graduation or at a wedding.
SPEAKER_02: You know, just, you know, please, just, you know, I hope you stay home.
SPEAKER_02: I'll give you the invitation, but don't come, right?
SPEAKER_02: And that's how some people treat the Old Testament.
SPEAKER_02: It's it's there's certain sections of the Old Testament that everybody loves, like Psalm 23.
SPEAKER_02: You know, I don't know anybody who's ashamed of Psalm 23.
SPEAKER_02: You know, the Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want.
SPEAKER_02: You know, and and and we just universally extol the majestic beauty and the poetic genius and the vivid imagery that's contained in Psalm 23.
SPEAKER_02: But then there's those other psalms that we hope don't show up at the party, like like those imprecatory psalms, you know, like who invited those psalms here?
SPEAKER_02: You know, please don't show up.
SPEAKER_02: Who invited them?
SPEAKER_02: You know, maybe for you it's the the six-day creation account and a talking snake.
SPEAKER_02: Like, like, who invited that to the party?
SPEAKER_02: You know, a talking snake, I've got to defend that.
SPEAKER_02: Do we really have to go there?
SPEAKER_02: Is there like some other option, you know, some other way that we can explain what's going on in the Old Testament?
SPEAKER_02: Or maybe for you it's the instances where God commanded destruction on the enemies of God, you know, in Deuteronomy chapter 20, but surely, Deuteronomy chapter 20, verse 17, but surely you shall utterly destroy them.
SPEAKER_02: The Hittite, the Amorite, the Canaanite, the Perizzite, the Hivite, the Jebusite, the Dynamite, the Oticite, you know, that's all the ites, you know, kill all the ice.
SPEAKER_02: How in the world are we supposed to reconcile that with the gracious and merciful God of the New Testament scriptures?
SPEAKER_02: Or maybe for you it's some of the positions God took, like on things like sexual immorality.
SPEAKER_02: You know, do I really have to accept that God rained down fire and brimstone on the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah in part because of their practice of homosexuality?
SPEAKER_02: Is this the version of God that I need to embrace?
SPEAKER_02: Isn't there a kinder and gentler alternative?
SPEAKER_02: I mean, why wouldn't we get rid of these and hitch these from the New Testament?
SPEAKER_02: Wouldn't Christianity be better off if we didn't have to defend texts like these?
SPEAKER_02: And that seems to be the approach that a number of current authors have taken.
SPEAKER_02: For example, Rob Bell in his book, What is the Bible?
SPEAKER_02: He says this don't drag God into it.
SPEAKER_02: The Bible is a library of books reflecting how human beings have understood the divine.
SPEAKER_02: So what you're reading is someone else's perspective that reflects the time and place they lived in.
SPEAKER_02: It's not God's perspective, it's theirs.
SPEAKER_02: Don't confuse the two.
SPEAKER_02: In another chapter, he says, the problem with the word inerrant when it comes to the Bible is that it's the wrong category.
SPEAKER_02: To argue for inerrancy is arguing for a different kind of library of books that we don't have.
SPEAKER_02: To fully appreciate the Bible, you have to let it be what it is: a fascinating, messy, unpredictable, sometimes breathtakingly beautiful, other times viscerally repulsive collection of stories and poems and letters and accounts and gospels.
SPEAKER_02: Gregory Boyd, who is a well-known theologian and author, writes this about the inspiration of the Old Testament scriptures.
SPEAKER_02: He says, We believe that we must read the scripture with the understanding that some of what we find may reflect God humbly bearing the sin of the people he breathes his written revelation through, thereby taking on an appearance that mirrors their sin.
SPEAKER_02: We thus ought not to be surprised when we find certain Old Testament authors depicting God with a character that falls short of the loving, self-sacrificial character revealed on the cross.
SPEAKER_02: These sub-Christ-like portraits bear witness not to the manner in which God acted toward humanity on the cross, but to the manner in which God humbly allowed humanity to act toward him as he bore their sin and thus took on an appearance that mirrored the ugliness of their sin.
SPEAKER_02: And then Andy Stanley, in his book Irresistible, he says the Old Testament is one of the primary stumbling blocks for the non- and post-Christians.
SPEAKER_02: The Old Testament is used far more than the New Testament to create doubt in the minds of the undergrad and graduate students.
SPEAKER_02: The church has communicated for centuries that our faith rises and falls on the defensibility of a collection of documents that include the Hebrew scriptures.
SPEAKER_02: For the record, it doesn't.
SPEAKER_02: Once you accept the Old Testament for what it is, you'll feel less pressure to tidy it up, sand off the rough edges, or just ignore certain portions altogether.
SPEAKER_02: Listen to what he says.
SPEAKER_02: All the gods of the ancient world were human rights violators.
SPEAKER_02: That's just the way the world was.
SPEAKER_02: If the God of the Jews was going to establish a nation for himself, he would have to wade into the fray and play by the rules of his day, which is exactly what he did.
SPEAKER_02: Which is the same kind of critique of the scriptures that a well-known liberal scholar by the name of Harry Emerson Fostic had concerning the scriptures.
SPEAKER_02: Dr.
SPEAKER_02: Moller writes about Fostic, and he says this, that to the young preachers of his day, Fostic argued the Old Testament exhibits many attitudes indulged in by men and ascribed to God, which represent early stages in a great development, and it is alike intellectually ruinous and morally debilitating to endeavor to harmonize these early ideals with the revelations of the great prophets and the gospels.
SPEAKER_02: And the common opinion of each of these authors is that the Old Testament is gritty, it's dirty, it falls short of the loving self-sacrificial character revealed on the cross.
SPEAKER_02: It's messy, it's repulsive, it's even barbaric.
SPEAKER_02: And the idea that you walk away with is that there's no need to try to sanitize it.
SPEAKER_02: Because it's just too messy.
SPEAKER_02: Don't bother trying to defend it, because it's indefensible by today's standards.
SPEAKER_02: It's hopelessly tainted by the culture of its time, the thinking of its day, and the best solution is just to unhitch it from the teaching of the New Testament and the gospel message.
SPEAKER_02: We may not be ashamed of the gospel, but it definitely seems like some are ashamed of the law, and we're desperately hoping that the law doesn't show up at the party because we have no idea what it might be dressed like and what it might say.
SPEAKER_02: But that's a far cry from what David said about the words of the law, isn't it?
SPEAKER_02: Psalm 12, verse 6, the words of the Lord are pure words, as silver tried in a furnace on the earth refined seven times.
SPEAKER_02: Psalm 19, 7, the law of the Lord is perfect, restoring the soul.
SPEAKER_02: Psalm 119, verse 97, Oh, how I love your law, it is my meditation all the day.
SPEAKER_02: Or Paul in Romans chapter 7, verse 12, who said, So then the law is holy, and the commandment is holy, and righteous, and good, and even spiritual, he says in verse 14.
SPEAKER_02: Or Peter, who said in 1 Peter chapter 1, verse 25, but the word of the Lord endures forever, and this is the word which was preached to you.
SPEAKER_02: Or even Jesus, who quotes Deuteronomy and said in Matthew chapter 4 and verse 4, it is written, Man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God.
SPEAKER_02: Jesus held to a high view of every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God.
SPEAKER_02: And if it's our goal as believers to be Christ-like, we can't have a weak and deficient view of the scriptures, a low view of the scriptures.
SPEAKER_02: And even though this is a crippled gate conference, we're not to live as crippled Christians.
SPEAKER_02: We're not to live as Christian amputees who've cut themselves off from the law of God.
SPEAKER_02: And to help us with that, why don't you turn to Matthew chapter 5, the Sermon on the Mount, and we'll see what Jesus had to say about the law of God.
SPEAKER_02: Matthew chapter 5, and I'll start at verse 17.
SPEAKER_02: Why don't you follow with me as I read?
SPEAKER_02: Jesus says, Do not think that I came to abolish the law or the prophets.
SPEAKER_02: I did not come to abolish, but to fulfill.
SPEAKER_02: For truly I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not the smallest letter or stroke shall pass from the law until all is accomplished.
SPEAKER_02: Whoever then annuls one of the least of these commandments and teaches others to do the same shall be called least in the kingdom of heaven.
SPEAKER_02: But whoever keeps and teaches them, he shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven.
SPEAKER_02: For I say to you that unless your righteousness surpasses that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will not enter the kingdom of heaven.
SPEAKER_02: Why don't you bow your heads with me for a word of prayer?
SPEAKER_02: Heavenly Father, as we come before you this morning once again, our Father, we pray that you would open up to us wonderful things in your word.
SPEAKER_02: And I pray that you would allow this sufficient and authoritative word to speak to us, to pierce our hearts, and that you would use me as a weak instrument to be a blessing to your people.
SPEAKER_02: In Jesus' name I praise you and give you thanks.
SPEAKER_02: Amen.
SPEAKER_02: One commentator observed that no sermon ever preached has been more significant to the Christian church than the Sermon on the Mount.
SPEAKER_02: Christian writings from the close of the New Testament up until the fourth century quote Matthew 5 more frequently and more extensively than any single chapter of the Bible.
SPEAKER_02: And Matthew 5 through 7 more frequently and extensively than any other three chapters of the Bible.
SPEAKER_02: Which means that when people are thinking about the words of Christ, they're most likely thinking about the words of the Sermon on the Mount.
SPEAKER_02: And I would think we could all agree that you can't get more Christian than the Sermon on the Mount.
SPEAKER_02: John Stott says it's the nearest thing to a manifesto that Jesus ever uttered, for it is his own description of what he wanted his followers to be and to do.
SPEAKER_02: Another commentator remarks that even philosophers and activists from many non-Christian perspectives who have refused to worship Jesus nevertheless have admired the ethic of the Sermon on the Mount.
SPEAKER_02: So we're in one of those passages.
SPEAKER_02: This is one of those passages that everybody likes to bring to the party.
SPEAKER_02: Everybody likes to bring the Sermon on the Mount to the party.
SPEAKER_02: You know, praying for those who persecute you, doing good to those who despise you, turning the other cheek, doing to others what you would have them to do unto you.
SPEAKER_02: I mean, all that's found right here in the Sermon on the Mount.
SPEAKER_02: And all of the same virtues that people typically point out as being radically different from the Old Testament.
SPEAKER_02: But right here, near the beginning of the sermon, Jesus says in verse 17, Do not think that I came to abolish the law or the prophets.
SPEAKER_02: I did not come to abolish, but to what?
SPEAKER_02: To fulfill.
SPEAKER_02: So if you read the Sermon on the Mount as some radical departure from the Old Testament law, Jesus would say, Don't think that.
SPEAKER_02: And he uses some of the strongest language to make his point.
SPEAKER_02: The phrase, do not think, is in the subjunctive mood in the Greek, which is the mood of possibility.
SPEAKER_02: And what Jesus says here when he states it in the negative is that it shouldn't even be possible for you to think that I've departed from the law and the prophets.
SPEAKER_02: You can't even begin to think that.
SPEAKER_02: And then later Jesus uses a double negative, which is one of the strongest forms of negation in the Greek language, to say that the law will by no means, no, no, it will not pass away until all is accomplished in verse 18.
SPEAKER_02: So this is not a radical departure from the law of God.
SPEAKER_02: It is a radical commitment to the law of God.
SPEAKER_02: And Jesus did not come to abolish the law or the prophets.
SPEAKER_02: That word abolish is the Greek word katoluo.
SPEAKER_02: It's the same word that Jesus uses over in Matthew 24 and verse 2 when he says about the Jewish temple in Matthew chapter 24, verse 2, he said, Do you not see all these things?
SPEAKER_02: Truly I say to you, not one stone here will be left upon another, which will not be torn down.
SPEAKER_02: That word torn down is the Greek word kataluo.
SPEAKER_02: It's a word that means to be utterly destroyed, picked apart piece by piece.
SPEAKER_02: And Jesus says when it comes to the Old Testament law and the prophets, I have not come to pick them apart piece by piece.
SPEAKER_02: It's not this mangled mess that's so hopelessly contaminated, the Old Testament, so hopelessly contaminated, so sub-Christian, that I just have to scrap it all together, start over.
SPEAKER_02: He says, don't even begin to think that that's what I'm doing.
SPEAKER_02: Jesus says, what I'm teaching, how I'm living, is in complete fulfillment of the law.
SPEAKER_02: And just think about that for a moment.
SPEAKER_02: If if Christ lived in complete fulfillment of the law, how could the law be sub-Christian?
SPEAKER_02: How could the law be sub-Christ-like?
SPEAKER_02: If Christ lived in complete fulfillment of it and were to be like Christ, how could Christ be sub-Christ?
SPEAKER_02: If he's living in fulfillment of the law.
SPEAKER_02: So far from being a mirror of human sin, the law was a reflection of divine holiness.
SPEAKER_02: And that applies to all of it.
SPEAKER_02: When Jesus speaks about the law of the prophets, he speaks about the law of the prophets, it's in a way where he talks about the Old Testament in its entirety.
SPEAKER_02: He's speaking about the entire Old Testament scriptures, not just a part of it, all of it.
SPEAKER_02: Over in Matthew chapter 22, Jesus said in uh in verse 37, You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind.
SPEAKER_02: This is the great and foremost commandment.
SPEAKER_02: The second is like it you shall love your neighbor as yourself.
SPEAKER_02: On these two commandments, depend the whole law and prophets.
SPEAKER_02: That was a way to speak about the entire Old Testament.
SPEAKER_02: Another example is over in Luke chapter 24, where he's on the road to Emmaus and catches up with these two disciples, and beginning with Moses, who wrote the law and the prophets, he explained to them the things concerning himself.
SPEAKER_02: Listen to this, in all the scriptures, Moses and the prophets was a synonym for all of the scriptures.
SPEAKER_02: Again, the law and the prophets are a way to refer to all the scriptures, not just the Mosaic covenant, to all of it.
SPEAKER_02: And Jesus is clearly saying that I have come to fulfill the Old Testament scriptures, which is the first point.
SPEAKER_02: Christ's purpose is affirmed by the scriptures.
SPEAKER_02: So what do we mean when we say that Jesus Christ fulfilled the Old Testament scriptures?
SPEAKER_02: Do not think that I came to abolish, but to fulfill.
SPEAKER_02: What do we mean by that?
SPEAKER_02: First of all, it would have to mean that Jesus at least understood what the Old Testament law and the prophets meant.
SPEAKER_02: If he's come to fulfill, if he says I'm the fulfillment of it, he at least has to know what it means.
SPEAKER_02: So what we understand from this is that Jesus himself is the perfect interpreter of the law of God.
SPEAKER_02: And as a teacher, Jesus was absolutely astonishing.
SPEAKER_02: Matthew chapter 7, verse 28.
SPEAKER_02: When Jesus had finished these words, the crowds were amazed at his teaching.
SPEAKER_02: Literally, literally struck out of themselves.
SPEAKER_02: But Jesus says in the beginning of the sermon, what you're about to hear is completely consistent with Old Testament revelation.
SPEAKER_02: It's nothing that you haven't been instructed about in the law and the prophets.
SPEAKER_02: Six times in chapter 5 alone, Jesus says, You've heard it said, but I say to you, you know, he talks about turning the other cheek, loving your enemies, obeying God from the heart.
SPEAKER_02: But he says, absolutely none of those things are radical departures from the Old Testament.
SPEAKER_02: That would be the wrong way to read the Sermon on the Mount.
SPEAKER_02: He's not saying, you know, the Old Testament law says this, but let me tear that stone down and put a better one in its place.
SPEAKER_02: I say to you this.
SPEAKER_02: That's not what he's saying.
SPEAKER_02: Jesus is not contradicting the scriptures, he is contradicting the incorrect interpretation of the scriptures.
SPEAKER_02: It was the scribes and Pharisees who were tearing down the scriptures with their traditions, which is what Jesus pointed out in Matthew chapter 15.
SPEAKER_02: The disciples were accused of breaking the traditions of the elders.
SPEAKER_02: And Jesus turned to the elders and said in Matthew 15 and verse 6, you invalidated the word of God for the sake of your traditions.
SPEAKER_02: We're not breaking the word of God.
SPEAKER_02: You're the ones who are breaking the word of God for the sake of your traditions.
SPEAKER_02: And what Jesus opposed was their misinterpretation of the law.
SPEAKER_02: And what Jesus is doing in the Sermon on the Mount is he's taking that law which has been torn down and he's putting it back up into the place where it belonged in the first place.
SPEAKER_02: So he's the perfect interpreter of the law.
SPEAKER_02: But in addition to that, he's also the not only the perfect interpreter, but he's also the perfect keeper of the law, perfect keeper of the law.
SPEAKER_02: The religious leaders desperately wanted to find something that they could charge Jesus with.
SPEAKER_02: They constantly came up empty every time they tried.
SPEAKER_02: Matthew 26, chief priests and the whole council kept trying to obtain false testimony against Christ because they couldn't find anything.
SPEAKER_02: Nothing stuck.
SPEAKER_02: They couldn't find a charge against Jesus.
SPEAKER_02: On one occasion, Jesus said in John 8, uh, 46, Who convicts you?
SPEAKER_02: Which one of you convicts me of sin?
SPEAKER_02: Which is an incredible statement to make in the face of your enemies.
SPEAKER_02: Like which one of you, I'm just totally open.
SPEAKER_02: Which one of you says, I've done anything that's wrong?
SPEAKER_02: They couldn't come up with anything because Jesus was absolutely perfect.
SPEAKER_02: Any violation of the law of God would have been grounds for rejecting Jesus as the Messiah.
SPEAKER_02: According to James chapter 2, verse 10, if Jesus broke any part of the law, he would have been guilty of what?
SPEAKER_02: All of the law?
SPEAKER_02: But in him there was no sin.
SPEAKER_02: That's why Christ alone can be your substitute.
SPEAKER_02: 1 John chapter 3, verse 5.
SPEAKER_02: You know that he appeared in order to take away sins, and in him there is no sin.
SPEAKER_02: Hebrews chapter 4, verse 15, we do not have a high priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who has been tempted in all points as we are, yet without sin.
SPEAKER_02: Which leads us to the fullest meaning of that word fulfillment.
SPEAKER_02: The Greek word fulfill is the word plurato, which means to make fold, to make complete, to fill up, to fill out.
SPEAKER_02: And when we talk about Jesus being the fulfillment of the scriptures, we mean that Jesus is the perfect completion of the law, the perfect completion of the law.
SPEAKER_02: And this is really just such a rich concept.
SPEAKER_02: It could have been made a series in itself.
SPEAKER_02: It's a concept that's brought up a number of times in the book of Matthew.
SPEAKER_02: Matthew's really a book about fulfillment all throughout the gospel of Matthew.
SPEAKER_02: He's arguing that the specific events and details of Jesus' life were predicted by Old Testament prophecy.
SPEAKER_02: Jesus brought predictions to pass, like being born of a virgin, being born in Bethlehem, having a ministry in Galilee, miracles of healing, speaking in parables, riding to Jerusalem on a donkey, rejected by the religious leaders, abandoned by the disciples, his crucifixion, his resurrection, all fulfillments, all bringing scripture to pass.
SPEAKER_02: But not only did Jesus bring scripture to pass, he also brought the scripture to their completion.
SPEAKER_02: Jesus doesn't just make scripture come to pass, he also brings the God-ordained offices and symbols and types and pictures to their final resting place.
SPEAKER_02: He's the embodiment of the entire revelation of God.
SPEAKER_02: So for example, in Hebrews 1, uh, so for instance, we wouldn't call a prophet a prediction.
SPEAKER_02: You know, a prophet makes a prediction.
SPEAKER_02: We don't wouldn't call the prophet himself a prediction.
SPEAKER_02: But Jesus is the fullest expression of a prophet.
SPEAKER_02: Hebrews chapter 1, God after he spoke long ago to the fathers and the prophets in many portions in many ways, in these last days has spoken to us in his son.
SPEAKER_02: He is the perfect fulfillment of the prophet.
SPEAKER_02: We wouldn't call a high priest a prediction, but Jesus is the fullest expression of the high priest.
SPEAKER_02: Therefore, Hebrews 4.14, since we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus, the Son of God, we wouldn't call a sacrificial lamb a prediction, but Jesus is the fullest completion, the fullest expression of the sacrificial system.
SPEAKER_02: John chapter 1, verse 29, behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.
SPEAKER_02: Which helps us understand passages like Hosea 11:1 when Hosea says it about Israel, out of Egypt I've called my son.
SPEAKER_02: And then Matthew picks it up in Matthew 2 15 and says that Christ is the fulfillment of that.
SPEAKER_02: What does he mean by that?
SPEAKER_02: He means that Christ is the fullest expression, the most complete picture of a son of God.
SPEAKER_02: And throughout the book of Hebrews, the author continues to point out that Jesus Christ is the greater prophet, the greater Moses, the greater Joshua, the greater high priest, the greater sacrifice.
SPEAKER_02: I don't have enough.
SPEAKER_02: Fingers to keep pointing them out.
SPEAKER_02: He offers a better hope, a better covenant, a better promise, better blood, better possession, a better country, better resurrection.
SPEAKER_02: So why would we return to the shadows when we have the substance in Christ?
SPEAKER_02: He's the completion, the fulfillment.
SPEAKER_02: All the Old Testament offices, symbols, and types find their fulfillment in Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_02: My daughter's an art student.
SPEAKER_02: I mentioned that before at a Carver uh Center in uh in Towson.
SPEAKER_02: And uh sometimes I'll watch her, you know, sketch a picture out, and you know, she'll draw like an oval and some sticks coming out the side, and it's like you're looking at it, it's like, what is that?
SPEAKER_02: But then she'll fill it in, fill in the complete picture, and it's like a perfect image of whatever she's she's drawing.
SPEAKER_02: It's it's amazing uh to see how she's been gifted in that way.
SPEAKER_02: But what we have in Christ is like he fills in what's been sketched out in the Old Testament.
SPEAKER_02: He's the master artist that fills in the picture of what we see in the Old Testament.
SPEAKER_02: So Old Testament had a king, but we have the king who is Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_02: Old Testament had prophets, we have a prophet who is Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_02: Old Testament had the priest, but we have a high priest who is Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_02: He completely fills out the picture of all these Old Testament images.
SPEAKER_02: So that's why Jesus can say in John 5.39, you search the scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life.
SPEAKER_02: It is these that testify about me.
SPEAKER_02: John 24, verse 27, he explained to them the things concerning himself in all the scriptures.
SPEAKER_02: So we're not ashamed of the law because Jesus is the greatest expression of the law.
SPEAKER_02: He's the completion of the law, of the Old Testament scriptures.
SPEAKER_02: But not only is Jesus the one that fulfills Scripture, God's plan will also be accomplished by the Scripture in verse 18.
SPEAKER_02: If you look at that again, verse 18, for truly I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not the smallest stroke, smallest letter or stroke shall pass from the law until all is accomplished.
SPEAKER_02: Not the smallest letter or stroke shall pass from the law until all is accomplished.
SPEAKER_02: We're not ashamed of the law because God's plan will be accomplished in the scriptures.
SPEAKER_02: And there's there's a number of ways that Jesus makes his point.
SPEAKER_02: First of all, he begins by this statement, Amen, amen.
SPEAKER_02: Truly, truly.
SPEAKER_02: No other ancient scribe or prophet would ever begin with that kind of formula.
SPEAKER_02: If anything, they'd wait until after they finished what they had to say and wait for the affirmation.
SPEAKER_02: You know, do you believe that's true?
SPEAKER_02: You know, truly, truly, like this is what I said.
SPEAKER_02: Or, you know, like you don't start a prayer by saying, hey guys, let's pray.
SPEAKER_02: Amen.
SPEAKER_02: You know, you don't start a prayer with the end.
SPEAKER_02: Like this is what Jesus did.
SPEAKER_02: He started at the end.
SPEAKER_02: I don't have to wait for an affirmation.
SPEAKER_02: Everything that I'm saying is absolute truth.
SPEAKER_02: Second, he also illustrates his point by these two humanly unchangeable features of creation.
SPEAKER_02: He talks about the heavens and the earth.
SPEAKER_02: And I won't get into your views on global warming and what mankind is capable of doing to the heavens and the earth, but I will let you know that the scriptures describe the heavens and the earth as being something that we can't change.
SPEAKER_02: There are pictures of permanence in the scripture.
SPEAKER_02: Psalm 93, verse 1 says, indeed the world is firmly established, it will not be moved.
SPEAKER_02: Psalm 104, verse 5 says, He established the earth upon its foundation so that it will not tithe forever and ever.
SPEAKER_02: And Ecclesiastes 1, verse 4 says, A generation goes and a generation comes, but the earth remains forever.
SPEAKER_02: You know, the earth remains what my microphone wants to move from me.
SPEAKER_02: But the idea here is that the earth, heaven and the earth remain unaffected by the passing generations.
SPEAKER_02: And just in case you're concerned about, you know, isn't there a time in the scripture where it says that the heavens will melt and the earth or whatever?
SPEAKER_02: Jesus says in Matthew 24, 35, heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away.
SPEAKER_02: His words are even more permanent than the heavens and the earth.
SPEAKER_02: And then thirdly, Jesus illustrates his point with the most minute details of Scripture that won't pass away.
SPEAKER_02: He talks about these uh smallest strokes of smallest letters or smallest strokes of the pen.
SPEAKER_02: Shall not pass from the law.
SPEAKER_02: King James says jots and tittles, you know, bits and pieces.
SPEAKER_02: In the Greek, those uh those words are yoda and kariah.
SPEAKER_02: Uh the word yoda was the Greek equivalent of the Hebrew letter yod.
SPEAKER_02: Uh it was uh a small letter that looked like an apostrophe.
SPEAKER_02: In many cases, you don't even need the yod to figure out what the word is, but he says, not even the smallest, smallest letter is going to be removed.
SPEAKER_02: And then he uses this word uh kariah, which was a small stroke of a pen that would distinguish one letter from another.
SPEAKER_02: So it's kind of like when you think about the uppercase uh uh O and the uppercase Q, you know, what's the difference between an O and a Q?
SPEAKER_02: It's just that little stroke, right?
SPEAKER_02: The little stroke.
SPEAKER_02: And he says, not even a little stroke is going to pass.
SPEAKER_02: I remember uh uh back in in middle school, you know, sometimes we'd have these true and false quizzes.
SPEAKER_02: And uh sometimes when I wasn't really sure about an answer, I'd I'd I'd write a T, a lowercase T, but then I'd just like draw a little like kind of hook at the top, hoping that my teacher would like, like, oh, I don't know if that's an F or a T, and just give me the benefit of the doubt and give it to me.
SPEAKER_02: And uh eventually my teacher caught on and she told me I had to make all of my letters uppercase just so there was a distinction between the two.
SPEAKER_02: But there's not going to be even the little stroke, it's not going to be missed.
SPEAKER_02: Every little stroke is going to be accomplished.
SPEAKER_02: So let me ask you a question.
SPEAKER_02: What kind of confidence do you have in this book?
SPEAKER_02: Is it just a library of books reflecting man's perspective?
SPEAKER_02: Does it just reflect the perspective of the time and place that the authors lived in?
SPEAKER_02: Should we not try to drag God into it because it's not God's perspective, it's just theirs?
SPEAKER_02: Is it too much to call every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God inerrant?
SPEAKER_02: Listen, you don't have to be ashamed of this book because every word is true.
SPEAKER_02: Every prophecy will come to pass.
SPEAKER_02: There is not one letter, there is not one stroke of a pen that will pass until all is accomplished.
SPEAKER_02: We can have confidence in the word of God.
SPEAKER_02: So tell that to your undergraduate student.
SPEAKER_02: Tell that to your graduate student.
SPEAKER_02: Let them chew on that one for a while.
SPEAKER_02: And we we might say, but you know, isn't that kind of view of inerrancy like scoffed at?
SPEAKER_02: You know, the Old Testament is one of those primary stumbling blocks.
SPEAKER_02: I mean, I read that in a book somewhere.
SPEAKER_02: That the Old Testament is a stumbling block.
SPEAKER_02: Why try to defend the Old Testament?
SPEAKER_02: Won't it be mocked?
SPEAKER_02: 2 Peter chapter 3, verse 3 says, know this first of all, that in the last days mockers will come with their mocking, following after their own lusts, and saying, Where is the promise of his coming?
SPEAKER_02: People are going to mock the scriptures.
SPEAKER_02: People mocked, probably mocked Noah, but then the flood came, didn't it?
SPEAKER_02: I mean, we don't have to be ashamed of the words of God.
SPEAKER_02: We expect unbelievers to mock it.
SPEAKER_02: We expect unbelievers to scoff, but that has nothing about the truthfulness of what we find on these pages.
SPEAKER_02: Do we tell people, you know, pay no attention to that, to that book behind the curtain?
SPEAKER_02: You know, you remember uh Wizard of Oz?
SPEAKER_02: You know, Dorothy finally figures out that the the Wizard of Oz is no grand wizard.
SPEAKER_02: He's like this man behind the curtain with the controls, and it's like, pay no attention to the man behind the curtain, pay no attention, I'm the great eyes.
SPEAKER_02: And that's how people treat the Old Testament.
SPEAKER_02: It's like, pay no attention to that Old Testament.
SPEAKER_02: You know, you might find something in there that like there's somebody working the controls, and something might not be true, and it'll all come crumbling down.
SPEAKER_02: I have utter confidence in the Old Testament.
SPEAKER_02: A hundred percent confidence because it is the word of God.
SPEAKER_02: I don't have to be ashamed of it.
SPEAKER_02: There's never gonna come a time when I'm like, oh, don't look behind that curtain.
SPEAKER_02: Something might pop out that's that's that's that's embarrassing for us.
SPEAKER_02: We don't need to have that kind of fear.
SPEAKER_02: Is that how you treat the Bible?
SPEAKER_02: Because you're afraid that somebody might find something somewhere, sometime that's gonna be proven to be untrue.
SPEAKER_02: Every letter and every stroke of God's pen is going to be accomplished.
SPEAKER_02: We don't have to be ashamed of it.
SPEAKER_02: Christ's purpose will be fulfilled through the scriptures, God's plan will be accomplished by the scriptures, and then finally God's priorities are announced in the scriptures.
SPEAKER_02: Look at verses 19 and 20.
SPEAKER_02: Whoever then annuls one of the least of these commands, commandments, and teaches others to do the same shall be called least in the kingdom of heaven.
SPEAKER_02: But whoever keeps and teaches them, he shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven.
SPEAKER_02: For I say to you that unless your righteousness surpasses that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will not enter the kingdom of heaven.
SPEAKER_02: And that's that's a challenging text, but with everything that we've learned this weekend about the law, all of the pieces just should fall beautifully into place.
SPEAKER_02: So think about the context of the Sermon on the Mount with me for a moment.
SPEAKER_02: At this time, Jesus is speaking to a Jewish audience still under the law.
SPEAKER_02: They've largely been instructed by a group of scribes and Pharisees who've attempted to pick apart the commands of God.
SPEAKER_02: So when the law says thou shalt not murder, they said, Hey, you know, as long as you haven't stabbed anybody, like, you're good on that one.
SPEAKER_02: The law says you shouldn't commit adultery.
SPEAKER_02: Hey, but as long as you're not sleeping with your neighbor's wife, I mean, you might have to get rid of your wife unlawfully first to get your neighbor's wife, but like whatever you have to do, but as long as you're not sleeping with your neighbor's wife, like everything's okay.
SPEAKER_02: You're good on that one.
SPEAKER_02: As long as uh, you know, the law says you shall not make false vows.
SPEAKER_02: Hey, you know, I know that the law says don't make false vows, but as long as you don't use the name of God when you make a false vow, then you're okay on that one.
SPEAKER_02: So what the scribes and the Pharisees doing, they were annulling the commands of God.
SPEAKER_02: They're trying to tear it apart.
SPEAKER_02: And basically what they found is they're looking for is some kind of relief, some kind of relief from the from the weight of Scripture, the weight of God's commands.
SPEAKER_02: But, you know, hey, the the law is kind of too strict, it's too demanding, it's too restrictive.
SPEAKER_02: But you know, if we loosen it up a little bit, if we kind of change some things, then we can, you know, we've got some more breathing room.
SPEAKER_02: Like we're okay under here.
SPEAKER_02: Like the law does not slay us.
SPEAKER_02: We're not slain by the law anymore because we've we've kind of like, you know, widen it out a little bit.
SPEAKER_02: Like I can I can handle it.
SPEAKER_02: The same is true for the Gentiles who have the law of God in their conscience according to Romans chapter uh uh two.
SPEAKER_02: Uh Gentiles who do not have the law show the work of the law written in their hearts.
SPEAKER_02: They seek a refuge from the law as well.
SPEAKER_02: And you'll hear things like this when you talk to people, you know, hey, as long as I'm not hurting anybody, you know, I'm okay.
SPEAKER_02: You know, I haven't hurt anybody.
SPEAKER_02: You know, I'm just as good as everybody else.
SPEAKER_02: You know, we just need to live and let live.
SPEAKER_02: You know, what's what's wrong with that?
SPEAKER_02: You know, if I if I stand before God, I'll be able to give them some kind of an answer for that.
SPEAKER_02: It's their desperate attempt not to be crushed by the law.
SPEAKER_02: And what about you as a new covenant believer?
SPEAKER_02: Are you secretly seeking to be free from all restraint?
SPEAKER_02: You know, there's that old saying, uh, free from the law, O blessed condition, I can sin all I want and still have remission.
SPEAKER_02: Is that what you look forward to?
SPEAKER_02: No, I just want to be free.
SPEAKER_02: I just want to be free.
SPEAKER_02: To be free to sin, to be free to serve myself, to be free to gratify my sinful desires.
SPEAKER_02: May it never be, right?
SPEAKER_02: And this is where the third use of the law is so important to understand.
SPEAKER_02: As we've understood through this conference, uh the law of God reveals God's character, it convicts man of sin and it motivates believers to obedience.
SPEAKER_02: So when we say that we're not under the law but under grace, it doesn't mean that we're lawless.
SPEAKER_02: It means that we're under the yoke of Christ.
SPEAKER_02: And what does the yoke of Christ look like?
SPEAKER_02: What does obedience and service to Christ look like?
SPEAKER_02: It looks a lot like the way Jesus interpreted the law and the prophets.
SPEAKER_02: So, so so you should not commit murder, but you shouldn't even be angry with your brother without a cause.
SPEAKER_02: You shouldn't commit adultery, but not only that, you shouldn't even look at a woman with lust in your heart.
SPEAKER_02: You shouldn't make false vows, and you know what?
SPEAKER_02: You shouldn't you should just let your statement be yes, yes, and no, no.
SPEAKER_02: Sounds like a lot like the law and the prophets, right?
SPEAKER_02: So it's true that we're free from the law, but freedom from the law should not be used as an opportunity to gratify our flesh, but rather to serve Christ and to love others.
SPEAKER_02: Galatians 5, 13, you were called to freedom, brethren.
SPEAKER_02: Only do not turn your freedom into an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another.
SPEAKER_02: For the whole law is fulfilled in one word, in the statement, you shall love your neighbor as yourself.
SPEAKER_02: And the moral requirements contained in the law are fulfilled in us as we walk in the spirit.
SPEAKER_02: Romans chapter 8, verse 4 says, So that the requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit.
SPEAKER_02: So God's priorities were announced in the Old Testament law.
SPEAKER_02: So even though it's not binding on the believer, it still motivates us, it still guides us to righteousness.
SPEAKER_02: And then we have this final statement by Christ in verse 20.
SPEAKER_02: For I say to you that unless your righteousness surpasses that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will not enter the kingdom of heaven.
SPEAKER_02: The scribes were the professional interpreters of the law of God.
SPEAKER_02: They were highly trained experts.
SPEAKER_02: They normally began their training as children and continued until they were around the age of 40 when they were formally ordained.
SPEAKER_02: So nobody knew the law better than these uh these scribes.
SPEAKER_02: The professional keepers of the law were the Pharisees.
SPEAKER_02: They were known as the separated ones.
SPEAKER_02: Pharisees were part of a religious movement, meticulously observant of the law, ritual purity, Sabbath observing, tithing.
SPEAKER_02: Scribes and Pharisees would have been considered the best of the best, humanly speaking.
SPEAKER_02: There was a Jewish saying that said, if only two people get to heaven, one will be a scribe and the other one will be a Pharisee.
SPEAKER_02: So can you imagine the shock waves that would have gone through this crowd when Jesus says, I'm telling you that your righteousness has to be better than the scribe and the Pharisee.
SPEAKER_02: I mean, that's the best of the best in their minds.
SPEAKER_02: These are the best people we have.
SPEAKER_02: The standard for heaven is greater than what any of them could achieve, humanly speaking.
SPEAKER_02: And not only is the standard for entrance into heaven better than the best of the best, later on in Matthew chapter 5, verse 48, he says, Therefore you are to be what?
SPEAKER_02: Perfect, as your heavenly father is perfect.
SPEAKER_02: And those words should have slain the crowd.
SPEAKER_02: Like, there's no way.
SPEAKER_02: It should have driven them to despair in their own human ability.
SPEAKER_02: I mean, who can be better than the best?
SPEAKER_02: Who can be as perfect as the Father?
SPEAKER_02: Lord, is there another way?
SPEAKER_02: That's what should have been their response.
SPEAKER_02: If you remember over in Luke chapter 10, Jesus was approached by one of the scribes, a lawyer who put him to the test, saying, Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?
SPEAKER_02: And he said to him, What is written in the law?
SPEAKER_02: How does it read to you?
SPEAKER_02: And he answered, You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength, with all your mind, your neighbor as yourself.
SPEAKER_02: And he said to him, Jesus said to him, You've answered correctly, do this and live.
SPEAKER_02: Do this and you will live.
SPEAKER_02: And right there, the scribe should have been slain by the law, just despairing of his human ability and crying out, Lord, is there another way?
SPEAKER_02: Is there another way?
SPEAKER_02: But the text goes on to say that wishing to justify himself, he said to Jesus, and who is my neighbor?
SPEAKER_02: Who is my neighbor?
SPEAKER_02: And then Jesus goes on to share the story of the Good Samaritan.
SPEAKER_02: And many people look at that story of the Good Samaritan as like, you know, hey, this is just a great example of who we're to be, what we're to do.
SPEAKER_02: And yes, that's all true, but that wasn't the point.
SPEAKER_02: The point of the Good Samaritan is that none of us are a good Samaritan.
SPEAKER_02: None of us treat our neighbors the way that we would like to be treated ourselves.
SPEAKER_02: Nobody does that perfectly.
SPEAKER_02: That's the point of the story of the Good Samaritan.
SPEAKER_02: We can't get to heaven based on obedience to the law.
SPEAKER_02: Romans 3, verse 20 says, by the works of the flesh, uh, the works of the law, no flesh will be justified.
SPEAKER_02: Galatians chapter 2, verse 16 says the same thing.
SPEAKER_02: By the works of the law, no flesh will be justified.
SPEAKER_02: And when Jesus told this lawyer that, you know, do this and you'll live, what he's holding up for him is an impossible standard to reach.
SPEAKER_02: It's like if somebody said, uh, you know, I want to visit the west coast of Africa.
SPEAKER_02: You know, I'd like to visit Liberia someday.
SPEAKER_02: You know, I'd like to get to Liberia.
SPEAKER_02: And I say to him, No, how strong of a swimmer are you?
SPEAKER_02: Because uh, you know, if you jump into the Atlantic, it's only 4,700 miles, you know, to get to Liberia from from here.
SPEAKER_02: The wrong question to that to that response, the wrong answer to that question would be uh would be, and and where is the Atlantic again?
SPEAKER_02: That would be the wrong response, right?
SPEAKER_02: If I'm telling them it's 4,700 miles if he can swim, like, and where is the Atlantic?
SPEAKER_02: That's the wrong question.
SPEAKER_02: Like the whole point is that you can't make it by swimming.
SPEAKER_02: The whole point of Jesus speaking to this lawyer is that you can't make it by your obedience.
SPEAKER_02: But instead of acknowledging that he couldn't make it, he's like, and which one is my neighbor again?
SPEAKER_02: Like, I'm gonna try to fulfill this.
SPEAKER_02: The lawyer's question shouldn't have been, who is my neighbor?
SPEAKER_02: But is there another way?
SPEAKER_02: We're not better than the best, we're not as perfect as the Heavenly Father is perfect, which is why we needed somebody who was.
SPEAKER_02: We needed somebody who could fulfill the law.
SPEAKER_02: Galatians 2.16, nevertheless, knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law, but through faith in Christ Jesus, even we have believed in Christ Jesus, so that we may be justified by faith in Christ and not by the works of the law.
SPEAKER_02: Since by the works of the law no flesh will be justified.
SPEAKER_02: It was Jesus who fulfilled all righteousness.
SPEAKER_02: And it was Jesus who took upon himself the curse of the law for us.
SPEAKER_02: Galatians chapter 3, verse 13, Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law, having become a curse for us, for it is written, Cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree.
SPEAKER_02: Jesus Christ fulfilled even the curses of the law in our place.
SPEAKER_02: Which is, by the way, something else that Rob Bell denies when he views the scripture as a human book.
SPEAKER_02: He says this, he says, uh offering sacrifices, this is what he writes in his book about the Bible, offering sacrifices came out of a deep human need to do something about guilt and shame, and the haunting sense that you haven't done enough to keep the gods on your side.
SPEAKER_02: God didn't need to kill somebody to be happy with humanity.
SPEAKER_02: What kind of God would that be?
SPEAKER_02: Awful, horrific.
SPEAKER_02: What Christians did was interpret Jesus' death through the lens of their sacrificial system.
SPEAKER_02: Basically saying that God doesn't really need the sacrifice.
SPEAKER_02: That's just how Christians interpreted the death of Christ.
SPEAKER_02: But that's not really what God needed.
SPEAKER_02: But what we understand by scripture is that if the curse did not fall on Christ, then it's going to fall on us.
SPEAKER_02: And if Christ did not fulfill righteousness in our place, then we have to fulfill righteousness ourselves.
SPEAKER_02: It's not a message that we have to be ashamed about.
SPEAKER_02: Because the law leads us to the message of the gospel.
SPEAKER_02: 2 Corinthians 5 21, he made him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf so that we might become the righteousness of God in him.
SPEAKER_02: And having been regenerated, we've been set free to serve Christ in a way that the scribes and the Pharisees never could, and never did.
SPEAKER_02: Actually, in Matthew chapter 7, it says that all their good works was were iniquity.
SPEAKER_02: You know, depart from me, workers of iniquity.
SPEAKER_02: Everything that they did was iniquity.
SPEAKER_02: But we live in a way that's that the scribes and the Pharisees never could, because having been freed, having been regenerated, now we can obey God from the heart.
SPEAKER_02: There's a difference now.
SPEAKER_02: And we don't sin because we're not under law, but under grace.
SPEAKER_02: We we desire to serve Christ from the heart.
SPEAKER_02: We joyfully concur with the law of God in the inner man is what Paul says.
SPEAKER_02: And it's James chapter 2, verse 12 says, So speak and so act as those who are to be judged by the law of liberty.
SPEAKER_02: And we obey out of service to the Lord and love for others.
SPEAKER_02: So we're not ashamed of the gospel, and we're not ashamed of the law.
SPEAKER_02: It's okay if Christ invites the law to the party because Jesus picks up the tab and pays for it.
SPEAKER_02: That's what Jesus does.
SPEAKER_02: My sin, O the bliss of this glorious thought, my sin not in part but the whole, is nailed to the cross and I bear it no more.
SPEAKER_02: Praise the Lord, praise the Lord, O my soul.
SPEAKER_02: Jesus Christ fulfills the law for those who would turn from their sins and trust in Jesus Christ for salvation.
SPEAKER_02: Amen.
SPEAKER_02: Let's pray.
SPEAKER_02: Heavenly Father, we thank you, God, so much for uh this opportunity that we've had to look at your word.
SPEAKER_02: Father, I pray that you would uh allow your word just to richly dwell within us.
SPEAKER_02: Uh Father, that we would uh use these truths, Lord, to be an encouragement to our own souls, and also to uh speak the words of life to uh to those that uh turn from you, and those who are rebels against you, those who are under your condemnation, even those who may not understand that.
SPEAKER_02: Father, I pray that uh we would speak the words of life, that there is a savior, there is one who has fulfilled the law in our place so that we can be set free.
SPEAKER_02: In Jesus' name we praise you and give you thanks.
SPEAKER_02: Amen.
SPEAKER_01: You have been listening to Emmanuel with Pastor Jesse Johnson.
SPEAKER_01: You can find more resources like this at IBCBA.com.
SPEAKER_01: Here is a parting word from Pastor Jesse.
SPEAKER_00: If you have any questions about what you heard today, or if you want to learn more about what it means to follow Christ, please visit our church website, iBCBA.com.
SPEAKER_00: If you're not a member of a local church and you live in the Washington, D.C.
SPEAKER_00: area, we'd love to have you worship with us, Kurt Emmanuel.
SPEAKER_00: We're located in Northern Virginia.
SPEAKER_00: And for more information about when and where we worship, check out our church website.
SPEAKER_00: I hope to personally meet you this Sunday after our service.
SPEAKER_00: But no matter where you live, it's our hope that everyone who uses this resource is involved in their own local church.
SPEAKER_00: Now may God bless you.
SPEAKER_00: Serve the Lord faithfully and share the gospel forward.