Matthew 5:17-20

Chapter 17

Fulfilling the Law The Minuteness of the Law Learn By Doing a Grand Opportunity

Prayer

Almighty God, surely thou dost put us into the fire to take out of us all that is bad, and to make us as good as thou art, according to our degree. Thou dost not delight to see our life in pain, thou hast no pleasure in death, and the darkness thou dost abhor. All thy purpose concerning us is love, therefore dost thou try us by many ways, that we may be brought into thy purity and love, and show forth thine infinite holiness. Thou dost smite the pride of our eyes and rob our right hand of its riches, and cause our right foot to tremble and to fall, that thou mayest do some good to our soul, awakening the attention of our love, and charming the trust of our heart that it may give itself wholly to thee and live in none beside. Give us this view of thy way amongst us, and then our fears shall no longer distress us, but upon our smitten life there shall shine a great light as of the very hope of heaven. Whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth. No chastening for the present seemeth to be joyous, but rather grievous; nevertheless afterwards it worketh the peaceable fruits of righteousness to them that are exercised thereby. We have not yet resisted unto blood, striving against sin, and our strength has not been utterly crushed in the great warfare. Behold, thou hast purposes of mercy towards us in all these struggles, fears, contests, and subtle temptations. Thou art training us, by a wondrous education, to be like thyself in all pureness and grace. Thou hast chastened us sore, but thou hast not left us utterly in the hands of the tormentor. We are cast down but not destroyed, we are persecuted but not forsaken; thou dost save us with an infinite salvation, and no man can pluck us out of our Father's hand. Undertake for us in all our way, set before us to eat and to drink what thou wilt, grant unto us rest or unrest, send upon us the great storm or the benediction of light; only in the end make us true and good, fit for thy society, and qualified for thy service.

We have to bless thee in long, sweet hymns for thy loving kindness and thy tender mercy: having begun to sing thy praise, our hearts would sing themselves away in grateful song, for thy mercies are without number and thy loving kindness cannot be measured. Through the dark gate of our fear thou sendest angels of light and deliverance; through our sickness thou dost bring healing of the soul; when we are far away in the wilderness where is no sanctuary, thou dost gather us into a house not made with hands, and thou givest unto us songs amongst the rocks.

We put ourselves into thine hands for the few days we have to live how few! Our days are as a post, speeding on its urgent way; our life is like a weaver's shuttle, flying to and fro, too quickly for the eye to follow it; we are consumed before the moth, and we are digging our own grave every day. Do thou undertake for us in all things, granting us sanctification of every trouble, deliverance out of every perplexity, and where we expect to die may we by thy grace begin to sing.

Work within us all the miracles of thy grace, Thou Holy One. We have read of thy curing of those that were diseased and raising up of those that were dead, and our poor ignorance has been startled into impious wondering as we have beheld the marvels of thy power. Help us now to realise in our own hearts the infinitely grander miracles of thy grace. Wash us with blood, cleanse us by the wondrous sacrifice of thy Son oar one and only Saviour, recover our hearts of their leprosy, and touch our blind eyes that we may see with the vision of the soul. Recover us from all alienation, from all bitter hostility, from all insubordination of heart; bring us one and all, with unanimous and joyous consent, to sit at thy feet, and to know no will but thine.

Pity our littleness, and let our infirmities become sacred unto thee as opportunities for the exercise of thy gracious power. Thou knowest what anger there is yet in our hearts, what pride, what ambition, what self-sufficiency, and what cunning secret trust there is; that after all the key of the kingdom may fall into our hands and be used according to our desire. Lord, cleanse our hearts of these evil spirits, and leave none of them behind, but reign thyself in the chambers thou hast purified.

We think of all for whom wo ought to pray, for the sick, for the sons and daughters of pain, long, wearying, intolerable pain God pity them, and speak some gospel too sacred and tender for our rough lips. Be thine own minister, Holy Ghost, and speak to the hearts of all who suffer. We think of the poor and the perplexed, the friendless, the wandering, the homeless; we think of the stranger within our gates who is here to join our song and come to join our supplications for all the mercies of heaven upon this wondrous life. The Lord's gospel be multiplied unto them all, and the Lord's grace be upon every heart lifted up in true and simple desire for better life.

Regard the land in which we live, give wisdom unto our counsellors and direction to those who lead our affairs. With the plentiful spirit of thy grace do thou bless and enrich our Sovereign the Queen, continue long her reign, and as her days are many may her blessings be even more. The Lord cause prosperity to return to our trade and commerce, and establish confidence in all our honourable relations with the various empires and nationalities of the earth. The Lord give unto us as individuals, as families, congregations, churches, and a nation what we most need from heaven; bind us one and all with new oaths of loyalty to love and serve the Cross when we are tempted to put baser devices on our banner may we hear the voice of the tempter, and know it to be the voice of the devil. Amen.

Matthew 5:17-20 .

17. Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfil.

18. For verily I say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled.

19. Whosoever therefore shall break one of these least commandments, and shall teach men so, he shall be called the least in the kingdom of heaven: but whosoever shall do and teach them, the same shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven.

20. For I say unto you, That except your righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the Scribes and Pharisees, ye shall in no case enter into the kingdom of heaven.

"Think not." There is a possibility of having false notions about Christ. Closely observe that the subject may be right, and that our idea concerning it may be wrong. It is not enough to be attached to a good cause, we must worthily represent that cause to those who are looking on or listening. You say, for example, that you believe in Christ, but in having said so you have given me no clear notion of what you really do believe. I must ask you some questions, such as Who was Christ? What do you believe about him? and why do you believe? The name is excellent, but what is your precise idea about the meaning and influence of that name? So, at the very opening of his ministry, Jesus Christ had to recognise the possibility of mistaken notions concerning himself. We are not at liberty to say that if a thing be true it will so shine upon the mind as to commend its truth to us and to bear down all prejudice and all misconception. Even Jesus Christ himself was not understood by his contemporaries, his disciples, or the friends of his own house. First of all, therefore, he has to do a negative work, he has to call man to the right mental mood and attitude, he has to awaken that latest, and fastest of all sleepers Attention. He will not be rushed upon, he will not be seized by the extemporaneous genius of mankind, he will not be treated as a feather that any fingers can catch in the wind. There must be thought, consideration right thought, close consideration; for only as the result of patient and devout reflection, inspired and directed by the Holy Ghost, do we come to have clear, complete, right conceptions of Jesus Christ.

"Think not." That was a legal phrase, it was used by the lawyers and by the interpreters of the law. Literally it means "Do not get into the habit of thinking," or, "Do not become accustomed to think that I am come to destroy the law or the prophets." He was warning his disciples, and through them all Christian ages, against a mental habit. What is there so difficult to eradicate as unintelligent prejudice? You think, and think, and think, until, by the very processes of your own mind, you come to the conclusion that what you have thought must be true. Christ warns us against intellectual prejudices; mental habits that start from a wrong base, live and grow up into formidable proportions and strength. Christian attention should always be young, Christian attention should always be impressible, Christian attention should stand a long way from old and hoary prejudice; Christian attention should always be ready to take on the phase of the moment, and to hear the note of the passing tune.

"Think not that I am come to destroy." Gentle one, thou didst not come to destroy, thy name is Saviour. And yet he did come to destroy. "For this purpose was I manifested, that I might destroy" there he takes up the word, takes it up as thunder might take it "the works of the devil." But no work of God would he destroy; the Son of Man is come to seek and to save that which was lost. The Son of Man is not come to destroy men's lives but to save them. Think not that I am come to destroy the law that is, to make a dead letter of it, to treat it as a mistake, to say "Now we will utterly ignore all the ancient law and take a new point of departure, and begin again upon a new foundation." I am not come to destroy but to fulfil. What does that mean? To fulfil that is what the noonday does to the dawn. The dawn is cold, gray, struggling, the noon is the culmination of its purpose and interest. The noon is not something different from the dawn, the noon is the dawn completed. When the first gray light fell upon the dewy hills, it said, "I mean to be noon, noon is in me, and I will climb the zenith and stand right above the world and flood it with infinite splendour and beauty." The summer fulfils the spring; there is no schism amongst the seasons: the spring comes and does its little elementary and initial work, plants its little crocusses and does all it can for the outside world, does it quietly, sweetly, fragrantly, with wondrous grace and love, then the summer comes and does in infinite grandeur what the spring could only begin. It fulfils the spring.

Manhood fulfils childhood. You say the child is father of the man. I need no better illustration. The law prefigured and anticipated the gospel; statutes, precepts, and commandments began that marvellous process which culminates in principle, grace, truth, inspiration, the divinely recreated and ruled intuitions, which sees a root by the penetration of vision which the literal schoolmaster could never give.

You are merchantmen and traders tell me how is a promissory note fulfilled. Show it to me: I will fulfil it thus: I tear it into little pieces and throw it into the dust. Have I fulfilled the note? You instantly tell me that I have not fulfilled, I have destroyed. Then show me another and I will fulfil it thus: By thrusting it into the very midst of the fire and letting it go up in flame. Have I fulfilled it? You tell me instantly that I have done in this case as in the former; I have not fulfilled, I have destroyed. Then pass the promissory note at the date of its maturity into the hands of the man who signed it, and he pays you the money pound by pound to the last demand, and, having got the money into your hand, what has been done with the promissory note? It has been destroyed by fulfilment, and that is the only destruction possible to any law that is right.

The law was our schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ. I prefer another way of stating that. The modern Greek would not understand that expression if he read it in the original tongue. "What is the meaning of that expression?" I have myself said to a modern Greek; and he said, "You have not caught the idea at all in your English." "Then what is the idea?" "Why," said he, "it is this, Not the law was our schoolmaster, but the law was our nurse, or guardian, or care-taker, to bring us to our schoolmaster, Christ." We know what that means by daily illustration in our own English life. You send your little child in the care of some one to school. The maid takes the little creature and says, "Come, and I will take you to school," and away they go together to the place of instruction. Now, the law was our care-taker, our companion, to take us to our schoolmaster, Christ; Christ keeps a school, Christ calls those who go to his school his disciples, his scholars; Christ says," Learn of me." Christ is the teacher of the world. The law took us hand in hand to Christ. The law is one there is no change in the divine education of the world. We are not to suppose that Christ was an afterthought in the divine mind, or that his coming marked a sudden departure from sacred precedents. All that went before him pointed to him. Every man said, "Not I, but there cometh one after me."

The Bible from the very beginning says, "I am going to be a gospel." If the spire of your church is rightly built it will say to the artistic observer on its very first course of stones, "I am going to be a pinnacle." There will be a set in the very first line of stones which the artistic eye can see, which, being interpreted, is Pinnacle, sharp, finger-like, pointing to the sky. It does not begin to be a spire a long way up, but from the very first, if it has been conceived by a true architect; it begins to be a spire when its very first stone is laid in the depth of the earth. So with this Bible-building. I did not know what it was going to be, but I saw that it was going to be something other than it was in itself just at the particular moment of my observation. Now that I go back upon it with more learning and with a keener power of observation, I see that from the very first verse this Book meant to be a benediction, to have set upon its uppermost points these words, "The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all." So the law is not broken into unrelated parts, it is from the beginning meant to be a complete and final cosmos.

What wonder then, if Jesus Christ should continue to say, "Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled." In the seventeenth verse you have the word "fulfil," in the eighteenth verse you have the word "fulfilled," and yet they are not the same word as they were originally written. In the eighteenth verse the word fulfilled means accomplished, a purpose turned into a reality, a seed fully grown into a great tree, to which nothing could be added in proportion or in beauty.

"One jot or one tittle." Why, then, is there nothing superfluous in the law? There is nothing insignificant in all the works of God. Pluck me a grass-blade, and let me see what I can do with it. How many veins has it which could be done without? How much blood circulates through all this veinous system? How much less might have done? Can you mend it? Can you sharpen its point? Can you accelerate its circulation? Can you pluck out of it one tiny fibre that the little thing could have done without? Take care how you touch it, for it is God's handiwork.

"One jot." One yod , a little thing that is not a letter in itself, so much as the adjunct or the helper of some other letter a yot , a silent thing. The name of the wife of Abraham was turned from Sarai to Sarah, and it was the yod that did it: it was that little, silent, insignificant adjunct that turned her into Princess. God is careful of His yod , or yot , or jot , He does not dot his i for nothing, nor cross his t merely for decoration: there is blood in the act. Take care; touch not the Lord's anointed, and do His prophets no harm. The destruction of the law by literalists and meddlers, by mere outside observers and worshippers, such as the Scribes and Pharisees, begins by interfering with the jot and tittle. Who would take a large sharp knife and begin all at once in shocking and impious vulgarity to scratch out the whole law? And yet many a man who would shrink from that coarse blasphemy begins with finer insruments to interfere with the vod , the dot, the tittle. He says, "Nobody will miss that." We do things little by little, insidiously, that we never could do by thunder-like assaults.

All character seems to go down by interfering with the yod , the dot, the jot, the tittle, the iota, the subscript, the accent, the breathing-point. Who jumps right off the temple top into pits of darkness at one grand leap? A man begins by giving up the morning service, by going to church occasionally, by dropping little customs, as he calls them, and comparatively insignificant habits. What is he doing? He has begun a work, the end of which is destruction, ruin, death. It is to me no wonder, therefore, that Jesus Christ should depose and degrade into an inferior position whosoever shall break one of these least commandments and shall teach men so. Observe how these words go, in what perfect and suggestive rhythm they fall upon the ear break and teach. And in the second member of the sentence observe how the same rhythm is preserved do and teach. Work begins in the individual relation to the law; when I have broken a commandment I long to get companionship, to bring others into the same condemnation: having broken it, to justify the breach, to show that it was better broken than not, and on the ruins of my own character set up as the seducer of other men.

Then do and teach. Who can teach if he does not first do? If he be a mere hireling the whole words would have been committed to memory and would trip off his reluctant lips without music or force. My teacher must at least try to do what he says. If he fail I will not despise him, if his efforts be sincere. I know that human infirmity will mar men, and diabolic temptation will do its utmost to despoil and pervert the purpose of his heart, but his will shall count as his deed.

Many of us are so anxious to enter into the metaphysics of Christian doctrine that we refrain from doing the little that we understand. Let me speak for a moment to this little child. Little child, lying in your cot, you must walk as soon as you have learned to do so. You will learn to do so by lying just where you are, and by looking at the ceiling of your nursery twelve hours every day. You must think about walking, analyse it, ask what locomotion really means, and where the word came from, get clear definitions, and don't you stir from your feathery cot till you have had a complete analysis of the whole method of locomotion. Hear me? Yes.

What would you think of me as a teacher of walking? I say rather, "Little dear, I am going to lift you out of this, and you are going to walk from this chair to that, eighteen inches apart, and I am going to stretch my arms almost around you all the time, till you get over the ground. Now go." The eighteen inches have been passed, and I feel as if a crisis in that child's existence had also passed. But it is the right way; there is no other way.

Wouldst thou be a sober man, set the glass down there, and turn your back upon it and go in the other direction. Who was it some shrewd old teacher, certainly who said to a man who, intending a certain branch* of learning, said that he was going to seek out a private tutor, that he might learn this branch of which he was ignorant, whereupon the old man said: "Engage a tutor? Tut, tut, take a pupil." Do you thus learn. What was the name of that great Cambridge professor of geology? was it Sedgwick? He came to put in a claim for the chair at Cambridge, and those who were in authority said, "Do you understand geology?" "No," said he, "I do not; but I understand enough to enable me to keep ahead of the young men who come here to learn it, and I will engage to always keep ahead of them." He was appointed, and how he did keep ahead of them history will never fail to tell. If you want to understand a subject, deliver a lecture upon it. The people will never know. They will applaud you and pass a vote of thanks, and all the time you will be saying, "Oh, if they only knew how little I know about this, they would never have had me here, and certainly they would not have proposed this vote of thanks." If you want to oppose the Government of the country, whatever that Government may be, write a five-hundred page essay upon the whole scheme of English Government. Do it with a bold hand, and you will be surprised when you come out of the process how much you have really taught yourself.

Well, what is true with modifications on all those lines of analogy, is pre-eminently, and may I not say infinitely, true of this kingdom of heaven. We learn by doing, we become preachers by being practisers, they that do the will shall know the doctrine. The Lord reveals himself to his industrious servants." It is when we are persevering on the right road, scrubbing and drudging at oftentimes unwelcome duties, that God's angel stands up before us and flings upon our faith a sudden and gracious light. Blessed is that servant who is faithful, he shall have cities in heaven to rule.

Jesus then came to fulfil the law. There was a moral law, the meaning of which was obedience. He became obedient, even unto the death of the cross: he had no will but God's "Not my will but thine be done." There was the fulfilment of the moral law. There was a sacrificial law, the slaying of animals and outpouring of blood and offering of gifts. This man was both the Priest and the Victim. He built the altar and slew himself upon it with priestly hands. Thus he fulfilled the sacrificial law. There was a national law, a theocracy, a gathering together of the people, a federating of tribes and sections, a grand nationalistic idea. How did he fulfil that? By founding his Church. Upon this rock I build my Church. Empires mean, when rightly translated, Churches; Politics is a word which means, held up to its highest point, Morality; Nationality, too often debased into a geographical term, causing many distractions and controversial definitions, really means, when fructified, the Church, the Redeemed Church, the Theocracy, the God-Government. The kingdoms of this world become the kingdoms of our God and of his Christ. Then cometh the end, when he shall have delivered up the kingdom to God and his Father, having fulfilled the law as a tree fulfils the acorn, and God shall be all in all.

We are in the line of this education, we are helping on this glorious ministry. Would God I could arouse every sleeper and inflame with Heaven's fire every reluctant heart to take this upward progress. Teach no other notion of advancement, move with Moses, the minstrels, the prophets, the Christ be in that succession, and if thou hast not ten cities to rule, thou shalt have five, or one, or some share in the final and everlasting dominion.

Behold, I set before you the door, wide open, of a grand opportunity. Seize it, and be thankful and glad with the joy of rapture.