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Hey, I'm Matt Brownell.

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And I'm Van Owens.

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And I'm Tim Adams.

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Welcome to Climbing the Mountain, where we dive into the scriptures and discuss themes,

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connections, and real life application.

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We're kicking off a series here where we're going to examine the Sermon on the Mount and

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discuss implications for this teaching for Christians today.

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We're continuing to discuss what it means to fulfill the law, what Jesus says he has

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come to do in the Sermon on the Mount.

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Last time we pondered the mysteries of the universe, space and time, and how there is

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something grand and culminating in Jesus' new covenant that he ushered in by his blood.

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As Paul writes in Galatians 4 verse 4, in the fullness of time, God sent forth his Son,

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born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem those under the law, that we might receive

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adoption to sonship.

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We discussed how Jesus' work is the culmination, in part, of what came before, is the greater

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revelation, so to speak.

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We also discussed how tricky this concept of law is in the New Testament, that it can

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refer to just the first five books of the Bible, the whole Hebrew Bible, or something

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else, a term sometimes referred to as works of the law or legalism, which stands in contrast

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to relationship.

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Paul writes in Romans how we are no longer under the law in the sense that it is a performative

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job description to earn God's favor.

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That's not how relationship with God works.

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I want to pick up again with a description from the Old Testament, something beautiful

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from Mount Sinai as we continue to draw parallels between the first covenant and the new way

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Jesus reveals.

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Let me turn to Exodus 34, because this is after the first tablets were made and Moses

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comes down and sees the golden calf and is like, ah, man, crack.

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Let's start this over again.

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That didn't last long.

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This is a beautiful description.

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It says, Lord, says to Moses, cut for yourself two tablets of stone like the first.

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I'll write on the tablets the words that were on the first tablets, which he broke.

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Be ready by the morning and come up the mountain to Mount Sinai and present yourself there

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to me on the top of the mountain.

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No one shall come up with you and let no one be seen throughout all the mountain.

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Let no flocks or herds graze opposite the mountain.

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So Moses cut two tablets of stone like the first and he rose early in the morning and

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went up to Mount Sinai as the Lord had commanded him and took into his hand two tablets of

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stone.

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Now this part, the Lord descended in the cloud and stood with him there and proclaimed the

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name of the Lord.

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The Lord passed before him and proclaimed the Lord, the Lord, a God merciful and gracious,

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slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness, keeping steadfast love

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for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, but who will by no means clear the

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guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children and the children's children

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to the third and fourth generation.

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Moses quickly bowed his head toward the earth and worshiped and he asks that, if I've found

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favor in your sight, O Lord, please let the Lord go in the midst of us for it is a stiff

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neck people and pardon our iniquity and our sin and take us for your inheritance.

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And I think that's just stuck with me for a while now because I've been thinking about

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these two images.

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We have Jesus going up the Mount and teaching about the kingdom and we have this, you know,

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the Israelites, they would have been about three months since the Exodus, right?

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And they go to Mount Sinai and they get the tablets and then they blow it royally and

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then here we get this, you get a second chance right away.

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But Moses later, when they fail again, they're like, you know, it was in, I think this whole

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thing, this whole journey from Egypt to Mount Sinai was to prove to Israel that, you know,

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after they'd been, you know, in slavery and making a hard labor, like, no, no, you can

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trust me.

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I saved you.

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I miraculously saved you.

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Look at all these amazing terrors that happened on Egypt and look at the Red Sea parting and

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you go through and then your enemies are destroyed because of it.

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And then you're brought to Mount Sinai and they still had trouble believing him.

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But I think, and eventually they failed to enter the Promised Land.

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But Moses reminds the next generation before they're going in there and Deuteronomy 1,

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you know, you have a chance now, you should have believed in the God of the Exodus, but

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it didn't produce faith.

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And I think that there's something here in all of this where we're entering into a covenantal

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relationship and it's built on trust in that king to protect you.

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And I think that the key there is faith is built through relationship.

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You know, I keep what keeps coming back to me is the passage that you read right at the

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beginning, Matt, where Paul uses the phrase under the law, that the law is on you and

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pressing on you.

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I looked at a scripture today and if you guys don't mind, I'm going to read it.

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This is sort of at the other end of the of that whole process.

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So the people blew it, they continue to blow it all the way through the book of Exodus,

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so much so that that whole generation has to perish before God will allow the people

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to enter into the Promised Land.

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And Deuteronomy is Moses telling that second generation, giving them the law again.

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And Deuteronomy and Deuteronomy chapter 30, I love this passage because to me, this is

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this is God telling them, you need to obey the law, but he tells them why they need to

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obey the law.

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Deuteronomy chapter 30 and verse 11, Moses is telling the people speaking on behalf of

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God, he says, now what I am commanding you today is not too difficult for you.

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You don't usually think of law as not too difficult.

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You think it's really difficult and that's why we failed.

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But he says it's not too difficult for you or beyond your reach.

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Verse 14, it says, no, the word is very near you.

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The word is very near you.

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It is in your mouth and in your heart.

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So you may obey it.

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There's a lot of emphasis on it being something that you speak, something that you do, something

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that you perform, but primarily something that's in your heart.

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See I said before you today, verse 15, for I command you today to love the Lord your

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God and to walk in obedience with him.

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And the emphasis on relationship, loving the Lord your God and obeying, loving him, your

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obedience is based on your love for him and to keep his commands, decrees and laws.

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Then you will live long, then you will live and increase and the Lord your God will bless

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you in the land you are entering to possess.

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And then this is among my, I always say my favorite passage.

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This is one of my many favorite passages.

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Verse 19, this day I call the heavens and the earth as witnesses against you and I have

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set before you life and death, blessings and curses.

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Now choose life so that you and your children may live long and that you may love the Lord

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your God, listen to his voice and hold fast to him.

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I love that passage because he's saying, love the Lord your God primarily.

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Now this is him exhorting them to live according to the law, but it's always pronounced in

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this passage.

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It's always love the Lord your God and obey him, not just obey.

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And so I think that one of the things that Jesus is saying is that when Paul says you're

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no longer under the law, I think of law like the constitution.

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There are laws that we have in the city of Boston, in the state, in our country.

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And you know, and I obey those laws.

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One of those laws is that I shouldn't steal.

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And so I don't steal because of the consequences.

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But if that's all that I have is just worry about the consequences, then there will be

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loopholes.

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I can look for loopholes.

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I can look for waste.

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I can cheat on my taxes, which is the same thing as stealing.

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But I can convince myself, oh no, this is a loophole because I'm being under the law,

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because it's not based on a relationship.

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It's just based on being under that law.

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But if we look at Deuteronomy, and Deuteronomy is Old Testament, that's law.

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That's one of the books of the Torah.

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And it's over and over again emphasized here in Deuteronomy.

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Love the Lord your God.

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Walk with him.

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His word is near you.

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It's in your heart, not just in your mind, not just in your mouth.

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It's in your heart.

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Sounds a lot like what Jesus was getting at.

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Exactly.

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In the Sermon on the Mount, getting down to the heart.

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That there is more in common with the Old Testament covenant and the New Testament covenant

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than people might think at first glance.

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And that both have similar foundations because we have the same God.

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And both have to do with things of the heart, where Paul had written, you are no longer

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under the law or works of the law, you might think.

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You're not burdened by, I've got a job description that is impossible that I will never be able

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to do.

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But that it's more about trusting in God and somehow that starts to work in our hearts

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so that we, I'm going to kind of get ahead of myself a little bit here, but we start

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to fulfill the law.

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I think that's part of it.

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So I think I just want to start again with Matthew 5.17.

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Do not think that I have come to abolish the law or the prophets.

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I've not come to abolish them, but to fulfill them.

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For truly I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not an iota, not a dot will pass

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from the law until all is accomplished.

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And you know, other translations say not a jot or a tittle.

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Usually he's saying the smallest letter or even a stroke, like how we distinguish between

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an O and a Q in English will pass from the law.

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This thing isn't going anywhere unless everything is destroyed, heaven and earth.

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This thing is staying.

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So if it's that important, I think we really need to understand what Jesus means by fulfilling

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the law and prophets, by accomplishing all that is in the law.

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And we talked a little bit about that, but now I want us to think about scriptures that

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come to mind that have to do with fulfilling the law.

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What do the New Testament writers talk about when they talk about fulfilling the law?

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How can we shed light on this?

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I'll just say right now, kind of quickly, that when Jesus dies on the cross, he says

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it's finished.

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And he could be referring to a lot of different things, but I think he is referring to the

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crux of what he came on earth to do.

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And at the beginning of his ministry in Matthew 5, he's saying, I've come to fulfill the law.

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So I think there's something really important happening on the cross that is a part of this

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fulfillment.

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Yeah, I think of John chapter one where it says verse 16 out of his fullness, we have

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all received grace in place of grace already given for the law was given through Moses,

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grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.

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And that the law and grace and truth aren't put there as sort of opposites.

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They're put there as, to me, that's a progression.

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The law came through Moses.

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The law is foundational.

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And I think part of what Jesus was saying in Matthew 5 is that, unless heaven and earth

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are destroyed, not the least of the law is going to disappear.

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And that is because the law is foundational for all of it, that if I wanted to, if I wanted

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to destroy a house, if I destroy the foundation of a house, I'm sorry to have all these house

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analogies, but I just bought a house.

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And one of the things that we were looking at when we first were shopping, we like old

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houses.

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And we found that there were some old houses in Connecticut and we contemplated moving

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to Connecticut, but there was a problem with all these houses that were built by this same

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builder there.

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The foundations were poor and the houses were beautiful.

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They were beautiful and they were cheap.

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And we thought this is the place to go.

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And our realtor said, no, the foundations on many of these houses are completely compromised

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and the houses, they look beautiful, but they're actually already falling apart.

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You just can't tell now.

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And the law is that foundation.

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And I think what Jesus is saying is that the way that he fulfills that, he's built upon

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that foundation.

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And what he says there on the cross to him is that my building is now finished.

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And so he's not going to build on it anymore.

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And the law cannot disappear because if the law disappears, then the house doesn't stand.

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I was just looking at Luke 24 where Jesus has resurrected and he's coming back and he's

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trying to explain to the disciples what just happened.

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Why didn I have to die?

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Why did I resurrect?

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And he's saying, well, everything must be fulfilled that is written about me in the law of the

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Moses, the prophets and the Psalms.

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And yeah, I think what you're saying, Van, that Jesus came to build something, right?

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And he came to in Luke 16 and says, the law and the prophets were proclaimed until John,

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but since then, the kingdom of heaven is being preached.

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I think he came to build the kingdom of heaven and advance the kingdom of heaven and the

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that all started with what came before with the law of Moses, the prophets and the Psalms

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with everything else.

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That was the foundation that Jesus was building upon.

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And then he sets that new foundation of being a Christ follower, being a part of this kingdom

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of heaven.

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There's a new paradigm, there's a new way of doing things, but it's anchored in those

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promises that were over and over and over repeated in the Old Testament.

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I think that's really important too.

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That the promises, I think the promises are what, I want to come back to that because

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I think the promises are key to enabling us to do what the law wants us to do because

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it goes back to that trusting the one who has made the promise.

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And it's that faith that gets us to, that energizes into love.

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And I think for me, the key passage for fulfilling the law is Romans 13:8-10
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It says, Oh, no one anything except to love each other for the one who loves another has

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fulfilled the law for the commandments.

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You shall not commit adultery.

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You shall not murder.

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You shall not steal.

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You shall not covet.

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And any other commandment are summed up in this word.

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You shall love your neighbor as yourself.

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Love does no wrong to a neighbor.

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Therefore, love is the fulfilling of the law.

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And Jesus says pretty much the same thing in Matthew in the Sermon on the Mount.

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He says in verse chapter 7:12, so whatever you wish that others would do to you, do also

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to them for this is the law and profits, the golden rule.

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Is it that simple guys?

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Is that, is love?

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Is that what it is?

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I mean, that's what, that's what the scriptures saying here.

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And I think what we need to be careful about is that we're letting Jesus or letting God

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define what love is.

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Exactly.

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That's a great thing.

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Exactly.

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That is a really good point.

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It is simple, but it is also hard.

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Love is hard.

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But the actual, that's why when you ask, when you sit back and you try to define love, I'm

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not talking about defining it scripturally, but a child asks you what love is.

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You say, go, go have your, it's bedtime.

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I'll tell you tomorrow because it's hard to say.

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It's a, it's a simple concept.

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And this is what I love about the scriptures.

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A passage like that you just read, Matt, is so simple, so straightforward that you have

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to ask yourself, is that it?

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Is that all there is?

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Oh, that sounds easy.

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Wait a minute.

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What do you mean by love?

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What do you mean by love?

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What do you mean by love?

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And you're right, Tim.

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You can't define it if you define it any other way, except by what Jesus says it is.

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But more importantly, what he demonstrates it is, then you're going to, you're going

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to go off.

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You're on the wrong plan.

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You're building on a bad foundation.

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I'm going to, I'm just going to highlight one thing you said and kind of not contradict

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it, but maybe I don't fully agree.

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Go for it.

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With it's when you're thinking about what Jesus said versus what he did, you, you said

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what he said, and he said more importantly what he did.

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And if you mean everything is, it's more important what you do for compared to what you say.

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I'm like toy with you because obviously like talk is cheap, but what I do think is pretty

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endemic for American Christianity is just relying on what Jesus did, but paying very

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little attention to what he said.

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And that I think is very dangerous because Jesus does not, it doesn't seem to me that

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Jesus or the apostles separate Jesus' teachings from his saving work on the cross that way.

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So yeah, I just, I just think that like that's why we're talking about the Sermon on the Mount.

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Right.

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And in this room, like totally guess that, but it's really important to like just explicitly

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say, we're talking about the Sermon on the Mount because we are deeply trying to understand

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what is Jesus' teaching for how we are to be and be in our very core, right?

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At our very heart.

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And we want him to redefine to us what it means to live life, to live the good life,

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whatever you want to call it, to be those redeeming agents in the world that are bringing,

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making the world new again.

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Right.

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Yes.

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And I agree with you.

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I think you're right.

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And I agree that is a really important distinction to make because we do, we do end up, we get

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in the old mindset of what would Jesus do without really knowing what he said.

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Yeah.

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I think that is really important too.

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And it reminds, so I've just thinking of first John, you know, and because the world

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will tell you all kinds of things about what love is that it's, and it's often me centric,

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right?

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It's all about me.

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Whatever makes me feel good is what love must be.

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And when, wait a minute, maybe that's not what love means to God, you know, and in 1

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John 4, it says, oh, where was it?

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Okay.

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I had it.

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Okay.

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Blah.

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Verse seven, beloved, let us love one another for love is from God.

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It's not in the world to begin with.

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So love is from God and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God.

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Someone who does not love does not know God because God is love.

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And he goes on to talk about the sacrifice that Jesus said.

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And, and be, but before that, he says anyone who's not walking in his footsteps doesn't

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really know him, you know, that's, you can't really know love unless you're imitating Jesus.

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Yeah.

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And I, so I guess putting some of these pieces together, Jesus is saying, I've come not to

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abolish the law, but to fulfill it.

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And we're seeing that Jesus fulfilled the law through his life.

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And that Paul teaches that the way we can fulfill the law is through love, right?

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Which is really how a big part of how Jesus fulfilled it.

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But that we also need to let Jesus define for us what love is.

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And bringing that together in the sermon on the Mount, we have all these teachings where

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Jesus says, this is what you heard in the law.

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What I say, and he gives some other command and he's, he's not abolishing any of those

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things.

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He's taking it to, he's, I think he's fulfilling them.

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He's do, he's, he's presenting the, the culmination of it, but he does those, he says things that

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I think our culture can think of as unloving in that they might cause even myself, right?

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If you think of like love for self, like I could cause me harm, right?

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So ironically, like right around the passage where it's time I'm loving your enemies, right?

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Right before then he's talking about not resisting an evil person.

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Yeah.

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And if someone slaps you on the right cheek, turn him the other also if someone sues you

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and takes your tunic, sues you for your tunic, let him have your cloak as well, right?

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Just take that like being willing to be wronged financially, like the ways in which you could

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very easily say, oh, that's so unloving to like your family or to the people that rely

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on you.

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Like that is a hard teaching.

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And it's one, I think, I know we're going to be wrestling with each of those things

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in turn, but this is like Jesus is fulfilling the law and showing us what love is in the

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sermon and it's, it's, we have to, we have to contend with the fact that our definition

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of love is different.

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And that is as good a place to stop for now in fulfilling the law we're called to love.

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And isn't the love that the world teaches us though, we're called to imitate how Jesus

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loved.

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We're called to listen and obey him as he teaches the heart of the law.

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There is so much more to discuss.

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So please join us again next time as we wrap up fulfilling the law.