Let's begin with prayer. Our Father, gladly we come before you in the name of Jesus Christ, your Son, the Messiah, our Savior. Lord, we are glad for the opportunity, for the privilege to be able to study the Bible and to read his words. But Father, I would ask this morning as we read his words, as we study the things he said, give us insight through your spirit, Lord, to understand what he said, to understand what he means, to understand how important these things he told us are. Father, He is our King, He is our Lord, and we desire to think like He wants us to think, to learn the things He needs us to learn, that we can serve Him better, we can serve each other, we can be useful to you in this wicked, fallen, dark world. So Lord, teach us this morning the words of our Lord, and remind us again what a privilege it is to have the Scriptures, to have the Word of God open before us, actually be able to read the words our Savior said. Thank you for preserving it, thank you for bringing it down to us. And again, we thank you for all of this in the name of him who is the word, our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, in whose name we pray, amen. Matthew chapter five. You recall, we're studying what the Apostle Paul called the law of Christ. And the verse I want to quote probably every week, Matthew 11, 28 to 30. By the time we're done this, you better have this memorized. Matthew 11, 28 to 30, come to me, all who are weary and heavy laden. and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. My yoke is ease, my burden is light. We as Christians have the privilege, the obligation, the duty to learn what Jesus said and do it. He gave lots of instructions, lots of commands, lots of teachings, and it's our reason for being saved. is to follow him, to serve him, to be like him. And he says there, take my yoke upon you. In other words, learn from me. Let me run your life. Let me be the one that steers your life. And you know, probably without thinking, that if you have Jesus, Jesus' word running your life, you have a good life. That's the best life you're ever going to know on this earth, is to follow Jesus, to obey Jesus, not to follow Satan, not to follow the world, not to follow your wicked foolish heart. But if you can truly say, I'm following Jesus, you're set free. You've got a blessed life more than anyone else on earth is going to have. Now, just quickly by review, the structure of this sermon, remember Jesus starts out with these eight Beatitudes. We spent weeks going through those. And these Beatitudes are basically explaining, here's what a Christian is like. He's broken over his sin. He mourns over the fact that he's sinned against God. He's hungering and thirsting for righteousness because he knows he doesn't have it. Because of that, he's gentle. He's merciful. He's a peacemaker. He's committed to Jesus Christ. Because of all these things, he's actually willing to suffer for Christ because he knows Jesus Christ is the only hope he has. Jesus Christ is the only joy he has. That's the true nature of a disciple. Then he follows that as we're seeing now with these, what they call similitude. Jesus says, because of all these things you are, because you're so different from the world, you're broken in spirit, you're humble. you're grateful for salvation, you love Jesus Christ, you're a peacemaker, you're merciful, you will shine out as a light in this dark world. You'll be like salt holding back the rot, the horrible decay, and you will be as light, especially in context, if you're willing to suffer for Christ, if you're willing to so speak up for Jesus and stand for Jesus that the world turns on you, that's a powerful testimony. That becomes like a, a searchlight into the world, that something marvelous has happened in your life. God has used the suffering of the martyrs for the centuries in powerful ways. These are all powerful things. But then, after saying all that, Jesus then comes to this section we're gonna read here in a second. Jesus is discussing his relationship to God's word. Then he follows that the whole rest of this sermon, the rest of chapter five, all of chapter six, and most of chapter seven, are basically commands. Do this. Don't do that. Say this. Don't talk like this. Think this way. Don't think that way. And he's doing so in contrast to the Pharisees. He'll say six times here, you've heard that it was said, the Pharisees told you this, but I'm telling you. And he'll give us all these commands. Here's how you live. Here's how you. You treat your brothers. Here's how you treat your enemies. Here's how you cleanse your mind. Here's how you speak. Here's how you think. Here's how you judge others. Here's how you forgive. All these things. These are all duties of Christians. And they're wonderful things. These things are beautiful. Here's how you understand money. Here's how you look at the world. All that stuff. Then he ends his sermon, of course, with a great application. If you hear my words and do them, You are blessed. Your life is going to succeed. But if you hear these words of mine and don't do them, you're going to fall under judgment. But before we get to all of that, we have this little section. It's almost like an aside, though it really isn't. Look at verse 17 again. After giving the Beatitudes, after talking about what we truly are like, we're salt, we're light, he says this, verse 17. Do not think that I came to abolish the law or the prophets. I did not come to abolish, but to fulfill. For truly I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, the smallest letter or stroke, not the smallest letter or stroke shall pass for the law until all is accomplished. 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. But whoever keeps and teaches them, he shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven. For I say to you that unless your righteousness surpasses that of the scribes and the Pharisees, you will not enter the kingdom of heaven. These are powerful words. Now what he's saying here, Jesus makes three statements concerning the law. You know, today there's many views on the scriptures. Many views. Many liberal views. A lot of your liberal churches will tell you the Bible is not the inspired word of God. There's many, many, many views. But the question we need to ask is, what was Jesus' view? What did he say the scriptures are? What was his attitude towards the scriptures? And here we have it. This is important stuff, and we need to mold our view on his view. He makes three basic statements. We covered the first one last week, number one, verse 17. He says, I haven't come to destroy the law. I'm here to fulfill it. And we covered that a lot. We'll get to that in a minute. Secondly, we're going to cover it today. He said not the smallest part of the law will pass away until its entire purpose is, this word is accomplished or fulfilled. And thirdly, he says in his kingdom, those who understand the true nature of the law and teach it will be great. Unlike the Pharisees who distort and misunderstand. The Pharisees had it all wrong. We'll get to that again down the road. He follows this with six examples of Pharisee distortions. But notice first, just for a minute, turn to the very last two words of chapter seven, last two verses. He ends his whole sermon. You can read this whole sermon in about 20 minutes. It's not a long, I'm sure it was probably more fleshed out than this. But when it's over, Matthew adds this comment, verse 28. When Jesus had finished these words, the crowds were amazed at his teaching, for he was teaching them as one having authority and not as their scribe. They never heard anyone teach like this. The Pharisees, the scribes, the Sadducees never taught like this. He's unique. We'll get to more of that as well. We saw last week, having said this, that I've not come to destroy the law, but to fulfill it. He gives us this disclaimer. That's what this is, verse 17. It's like an aside. They're probably all wondering, Jesus was accused, as we saw, of denying the law, of being against Moses. They accused him of breaking the law over and over and over. They accused him of denying Moses. He said, that's not true. It's like a disclaimer. Don't think I've come here to set the law aside, to abolish the law. I've come to fulfill it. And last week we covered six ways he does it, just very quickly by review. Six ways that Jesus fulfills the law. That word fulfill means to bring to completion. Number one, these aren't any particular order. Jesus is the fulfillment of all that the law pictured. Remember the law, all the Old Testament is a picture. We saw that. We're going through Genesis. There's many, many pictures and types of Passover, the the priesthood, the temple, all that stuff, all those sacrifices, all of that are pictures of the coming of the Messiah. Jesus fulfills all of that. Plus the prophets all spoke about the coming of the Messiah. He fulfills what we saw last week, how many, many times this was to fulfill what the prophet Isaiah said, what the prophet Jeremiah said. Jesus is the fulfillment of all those Old Testament pictures and prophecies. Secondly, Jesus fulfilled the law by teaching its true meaning. We covered this. Mark 12, remember Jesus said to the Pharisee, Jesus said to them, is this not the reason you're mistaken that you do not understand the scriptures? The Pharisees were the teachers of the law. In fact, remember Nicodemus, he said, you're the teacher and you don't know what it means to be born again. The Pharisees had it all wrong. If you understand the law correctly, you will be poor in spirit. You will mourn over your sin. You will hunger and thirst for righteousness. The Pharisees didn't get that. They were proud of themselves. They were self-righteous. They said, we're sons of Abraham. We don't need baptism. We don't need forgiveness. They misunderstood the whole law. If you understand the law, you're not going to be proud. You're not going to be arrogant. You're going to be a peacemaker. You're going to be kind. You're going to be gentle. Pharisees were the opposite. They ran roughshod over their people. They were the unkind shepherds. But if you truly understood what the Old Testament said, you would forgive your brother, you would treat your family right, you would keep your mind pure, you would, all those things. If you understood the law, that's what he's teaching. Jesus is bringing the truth back to the law. The Pharisee, Spurgeon had a quote, I read it last week, that Jesus released the law from the cage that the Pharisees put it in. We'll see more of that down the road. Jesus taught the true meaning of the law, because they had it all wrong. Thirdly, this is a big one. Jesus fulfilled the righteous requirement of the law. The law demands you be perfect, because God is perfect. Notice it. Look at the last verse of chapter 5. Chapter 5, verse 48. Jesus makes this amazing statement. Therefore, you are to be perfect. as your Heavenly Father is perfect. If that verse doesn't scare you, you're not alive. And that word perfect means perfect. Some say that word perfect means mature. Well, how is God mature? It's nonsense. Mature means a process. It's not perfection. The only thing God can ever accept in his presence is sinless perfection. And unless your sins are covered and gone, you will never stand before God. We're perfect in Jesus. In Jesus. He is our righteousness. He is our perfection. But Jesus will tell them here, unless your righteousness is greater than the Pharisees, because the Pharisees were hypocrites. They were outwardly religious, but inwardly they're all full of corruption and pride and wickedness. Jesus said, Jesus fulfilled the right. Jesus did everything perfect. He lived perfectly before God's law in my place. So if he's my substitute, then I have kept the law in him. When I stand before God, if I'm in Christ, his righteousness is counted as my righteousness. And as Jude, the last two verses of Jude say, you'll be able to stand before his holiness, blameless. That's an amazing thought, that God, with all his all-seeing, holy, eternal eye, can look at you and see Christ. And therefore, he sees nothing to condemn you for. That's one of the most blessed truths a man could ever know, is that truth right there. Fourthly, Jesus fulfilled the law's requirement for substitutional sacrifice. Right back in the Garden of Eden, as soon as man sinned and tried to cover his sin by making fig leaves, God said, that's not adequate. And remember, God slaughtered an animal and covered them with its skin. And from that point on, the whole Bible teaches that the only way you can approach God, because your sins require death, your sin requires that you be punished under God's wrath. But God has allowed a substitute to stand in for you. Now all through the Old Testament, of course, that was the animal sacrifices. Animals can never be a full substitute, but God allowed that until Christ. But the only way any one of us is ever going to be right before God is someone's got to pay for my sins. Either I'm going to pay for my sins in hell. or someone's going to pay for my sins on the cross. Substitutional sacrifice. Jesus fulfilled all that Old Testament sacrifice. He is the Passover. He is the temple. He is the priesthood. He is all those sacrifices. He's all of that. That was requirement of the law. Fifthly, we covered all this last week. Jesus fully paid the sin debt. When you break God's law, you become guilty, you owe him. Just like today, you not murdered someone, you now owe the society you murdered in a debt that you can't pay. Every sin, every lie, every lust, every uncontrolled anger, all of the, we don't love God enough, we don't love our neighbor enough, all of that, your sin debt piles up and piles up and piles up. The law condemns you. The law, the holy law looks at me and says, Rick, you are cursed, you are condemned. But Jesus paid that debt. Of course, the verse we love there is from Galatians 3. Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law, having become a curse for us. He was cursed. The righteous holy son of God was cursed. I should have been cursed. God cursed him in my place. Therefore, I go free. He took the curse of the law. And lastly, we saw last week, number six, the law promises a new covenant. What are the three parts of the New Covenant? Anybody know? There's three basic parts. Can you give me one of them? The days are coming, says the Lord, and I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel. What is it? Can you give me one? I'll write my law on your heart. No longer will the law be on stone tablets that you have to read. I'll write it right on your heart. That's one. What's another one? I'll remember your sins no more. You'll be totally forgiven. And the third one is, they will all know me. In other words, in Israel, only a few people in Israel actually knew the Lord. But the days are coming, the Lord says, when all of those who are mine will know me. I'll remember their sins no more. Jesus, the night he was betrayed at that, what we call communion, this is the blood of the new covenant. He enacted that new covenant because of what he did on the cross. If you're in Christ, your sins are forgiven. You've been born again. That means his law is written on your heart. You now, from the inside out, desire to serve Christ. And you know him in a way no one else does. A Christian knows God in a way the lost person can never know. We all know him. Now that's review. Look at verse 17 again. Note the connection here. And always read your Bibles carefully. Jesus says, do not think that I came to abolish the law or the prophets. I did not come to abolish, but to fulfill, note the next word, for. Now get the connection. I've come to fulfill the law for, or I've come to fulfill the law because, or for this reason, I've come to fulfill the law because as long as heaven, earth, and door, not one part of the law is ever going to be lost. In other words, because of what the law is, I had to come fulfill it. That's what he's saying here. It's a connection here. He's telling you one of the reasons why he came. Because of what the law is, I had to come. I'm here because of the nature of the law. And that's a very pregnant statement. Number five there in your sheet. Get this title. God's word is more permanent than the universe. Let me say it again. God's word is more permanent than the universe. Now how do I know that? Because Jesus said so. Notice what he says again here. I've not come to abolish the law of our sanity, but to fulfill it because or 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. Have you thought about this lately? I've had to because I'm teaching it. This is amazing stuff. Think what he's saying here. First of all, he says, for truly, or amen, I say to you, whenever Jesus says that, not everything he says is true, but whenever he says truly, truly, or amen, he says, you better listen up. I'm about to tell you something that's very important. Truly, I tell you, he says, the reason I've come is because the law, as long as heaven and earth endure, not the smallest piece of the law is ever going to pass away. He mentions here the passing away of the heavens and the earth. Now again, Unlike godless, ignorant, modern science, the universe is not eternal. It never was. It never will be. They tell you that. Well, it's been around forever. It'll probably be around forever. It'll cycle through forever. Not according to what God's word says. The universe had a beginning, and it will have an end. I got a bunch of verses there for you, and you know this. This is your mind. Hebrews 1 says this, verse 10 through 12. You, Lord, laid the foundation of the earth in the beginning. The earth had a beginning. And the heavens are the work of your hands. They will perish, but you remain. They will all wear out like a garment. Like a robe, you will roll them up. Like a garment, they will be changed. But you are the same. In your years of knowing God, you created the earth and the heavens. And one day, they're gonna end. You never will, oh Lord, but they will. 2 Peter speaks of this, 2 Peter 3, verse 10. But the day of the Lord will come like a thief, and then the heavens will pass away with a roar, and the heavenly bodies, that's the sun, the moon, the stars, will be burned up and dissolved, and the earth and the works that are done in it will be exposed. Peter says all of this. The earth itself, the universe itself is gonna pass away with a fiery, amazing roar. Revelation 2011, when Jesus, who is the judge, according to John 5, when Jesus sits on that great white throne, you read this. Then I saw a great white throne and him who was seated on it. From his presence, earth and sky fled away and no place was found. The day is coming when this planet ends, when this universe ends. And Jesus here says, as long as heaven and earth endure, however long that's gonna be, not one small speck of the law is going to be left unfulfilled. Now think about what he just said there. That's an amazing statement. However powerful and majestic and enduring the universe is, and it is, there's something even more so, Jesus says. You're holding it in your hands, God's word. God made the universe Very stable. The earth has been stable now for thousands and thousands and thousands of years, supporting life. The universe does what it does. But even that's going to have an end. There's something even more permanent, more stable than the universe. That's God's word. Jesus said, Matthew 24, 35, heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away. A million years after this universe is gone, we're still going to be talking about the things Jesus said. they're still gonna have relevance. Luke 16, verse 17, Jesus said, it is easier for heaven and earth to pass away than for one dot of the law to become void. Jesus's view of the scriptures is they are far more permanent, far more majestic than even the heavens and the earth. Is that your view of the scriptures? That's powerful. Let's think about this. This brings up this whole idea of God's protection and preservation of his word. Notice what he says there. Jesus says something they would know. It was a phrase that was used by the rabbis. Verse 18. Truly I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, my version says, not the smallest letter or stroke shall pass from the law. King James says, not one jot or one tittle, which is actually fairly accurate. In the Greek, it's literally not one iota or mark. Now, in Hebrew, which Jesus, for speaking Aramaic, he probably would have said not one yod or serif. Now, we'll get to that in a second. I don't want to bore you with language. What he's referring to there is the smallest part. For example, think of the letter O in English. If you just put that little hook on, it becomes a Q. Changes everything, doesn't it? Think of the letter T. Take away that cross beam, what is it now? It's an L or an I. Well, Hebrew was the same way, so was Greek. It had these little marks in it. And Jesus is saying, not the smallest mark of God's word is ever gonna be lost or fall away. I gave you a handout. Again, Paul knows Hebrew, I don't. Books I read do. That's what a jot and a tittle look like. Now, a yod is the smallest Hebrew letter. It's a tiny, it looks like an apostrophe. It's a tiny thing. A tittle, this thing here, see, it's a letter Beth. See, it has that little protrusion on the end there, that circle? Take that tiny protrusion off, it changes the whole letter. That little tiny point there, take that away, it changes the whole letter. You've heard it said, if you picture the phrase, let's eat, comma, grandma. Take away the comma. Let's eat, grandma. Changes everything. Jesus is saying, not the smallest part of the law is ever going to pass away. Don't take that literally back there, Don, and tell the kids that was a joke. Anyway, Jesus is saying, not the smallest little punctuation mark of the law. is ever gonna be lost. Now think about this. Some stats, you know I love stats. The Hebrew Old Testament, Jesus is referring to the Old Testament. They didn't have the New Testament yet, though he did say, my words will never pass away, just like the Old Testament. The Hebrew Old Testament contains 1,202,972 letters. I don't know who gets paid to do this, but someone has time on their hands. There are 66,420 yods. Who counts this? I'm sure computers do this stuff. And the serifs are uncountable. I couldn't find a number for that. Can you fathom the immensity of what Jesus is saying? Now, by the time Jesus spoke this, around AD 30, already the writings of Moses were probably about 1,500 years old. The most recent prophets, Malachi, Zechariah, Zephaniah, they would have written 450 years before this. Can you fathom what he's saying? How is this possible? Here we are, 2025, with this book in front of us, and we're telling you that it's been preserved. This is God's, even this was written thousands of years ago. This is what God said. But how is that possible? That's a powerful truth. That's only possible if God makes it so. What I'm saying is, this book you're holding in your hands is a miracle. Now it's just a book, you don't worship books. But what this book contains is a miracle. We'll talk more about this. As you know, and think about it, what, Barry mentioned this already, what would we do if you didn't have a Bible? How would you know anything about God? Even if God had spoken to Moses, but it was lost to antiquity thousands and thousands of years ago, how would you know? How would you know who God is? How would you ever know what he's like? How would you know what you are? How would you know what salvation is? Even if Jesus came, which he did, and the apostles wrote, if all that was lost, how would you know anything? But if you didn't have this Bible, you'd have to trust the wisdom of men and philosophy, and you'd have to follow your heart, which would lead you straight to hell. You wouldn't know anything. If you're a Christian, everything about your life is based on this book. If we didn't have this word, you wouldn't know any of this. You would have no way of knowing God or how to be right with God. You would never know what a sinner you are. You would never know how the earth got here or where it's gone. You wouldn't know any of this. We are so privileged. compared to the world, as Barry just said, we know. But if God hadn't preserved this, where would you be? We'd be nowhere. As you know, ancient writing was written on very perishable stuff. Back when Moses wrote, and whoever wrote the book of Job, Job was actually older than Moses. Job was written, at least Job took place back around the time of Abraham. But that stuff was all written down on animal skins, later on parchment, where they would take reeds and save them down and make a kind of paper out of it. It was carved into wood. It was put on clay tablets. It was very perishable. And what happens is, every generation or so, you had to recopy that because it would wear out and go bad. Over century after century after century, it had to be copied and copied and copied and copied. Again, by the time Jesus is talking here, The words of Moses were 1,500 years old. Today, they're 3,500 years old to us. The words of Jesus to us today are 2,000 years ago. You realize what had to happen? We're going to think about this. Yet he's promising here. He's making a statement that not the smallest letter or stroke of the law will ever perish as long as heaven and earth endure. That's an amazing statement. Even his own words, he says, heaven and earth are passed away, but my words will never pass away. Imagine if I said that. Imagine if I said, you know what? The things I'm telling you here in church, they're going to be talking about a thousand years from now. You think, who do you think you are? You would think I'm out of my mind and I would be. Yet Jesus says, God's word will endure as long as heaven and earth. And my words, Jesus said, will never pass away. There would never come a time when my words will be lost. That's an amazing statement, which tells you God had to do something amazing to make this happen. And he did. He really did. Let's look next at the confidence. a supreme confidence in God's word, so did all the gospel writers and the prophets of old. In the gospels, 24 times Jesus says, it is written. Literally what he's saying is, it stands written. He would base pretty much everything he said, everything he did on God's word, he'd say, it is written. It is written. God's word says. Therefore, that settles it. God's word says. Jesus had tremendous confidence that God's word was accurate. It was preserved. It was true. And yet he quoted it all the time. And he appealed to it all the time. And then later in the New Testament from Acts on, 30 times, the New Testament authors, it is written. It is written. It is written. They appealed to the scriptures over and over and over again as proof of what they're saying and teaching. They had full confidence, again, inspired by the Holy Spirit, that you could quote the Bibles they had and know that they were accurate. and they were true. Even after all those centuries, they were accurate and true. Jesus had full confidence in the scriptures and he quoted them all the time. They were authoritative and they were unchangeable. So when he says here, until heaven and earth pass away, not one jot or one tittle is going to fall to the ground, he's saying what he believes. God has preserved his word and Jesus could quote Moses. He could quote David, which he did knowing full well, even though that was written, David was written a thousand years before Christ. Jesus often quoted the Psalms, but Jesus said it was written. Have you never heard what David said? He had full confidence that what was written was accurate and preserved. That's a powerful point when you think about it. He appealed to scriptures all the time. In Matthew 12, verse three, just two examples of probably dozens. He said to them, have you not read what David did? He quotes from the book of Kings. In verse five, have you not read in the law? Haven't you read this, guys? He would say this all the time to the Pharisees and the scribes. Haven't you read? And Jesus is telling them the Bible's accurate. If you knew your Bibles better, you wouldn't be so wrong about everything. That's what he's telling them. Jesus believed the scriptures. He appealed to them all the time. Did you realize, remember when, in Matthew 22, 32, that the Sadducees come to him and they're trying to trap him about, the Sadducees did not believe in life after death. Pastor Fred, which is why they're sad, you see. You always have to say that. They didn't believe in angels or heaven and hell. Remember what Jesus said to them? He refutes them by quoting a verse in the tense of a verb. It's on your sheet there. Jesus based the reality of life after death on the tense of a single verb. Matthew 22, 32, he says, God says, I am the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. He's not the God of the dead, but the living. Jesus is saying, God didn't say I was the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. God says, I am, and Jesus says, because of the tense of that one verb is proof that Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob are still alive in God's presence. Jesus could go back thousands of years. One word, Jesus says, proves this, which means Jesus believed that these words were accurate. They were preserved. Another example, the apostle Paul. It's on your sheet there. Paul based the prophecy of the coming of Christ He proved it by a single letter. Remember, by the time Paul wrote the book of Galatians, Moses wrote 1,500 years before this, which means for 1,500 years, the scriptures had to be copied and recopied and recopied and recopied over and over and over and over again until the scriptures the apostle Paul read were 1,500 years past that. Yet Paul could say this, Galatians 3.16, Now the promises were made to Abraham and to his seed. It does not say, and to seeds, plural, referring to many, referring to one, and to your seed, who is Christ. Paul says that promise God made to Abraham, God used a singular word, seed, not seeds, plural. In other words, Paul is saying, God was saying to Abraham, one of your sons. will be the blessing of the whore. It's the same promise made back in Daniel 3.15. But what Paul is saying is, even the very letters, the S on the end of a word, is inspired. And Paul could faithfully quote a 1,500-year-old prophecy and say, just that letter S proves that Jesus is the Messiah. What I'm telling you is they had full confidence that God's word not only was accurate, but it has been preserved and it was authoritative. The authority of the New Testament was sound, safety preserved. And they would say this, they said so much, and you know these verses, 2 Timothy 3.16. Paul says, all scripture, all of it, even the boring, annoying genealogies, all scripture is breathed out by God and is profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness that man may be complete, equipped for every good work. Paul says, if you read the scriptures, if you believe and live by the scriptures, they are accurate, they are useful, they are true. And if you build your life in God's word, it'll bless you. All you need is God's word. Paul's telling you, God has preserved his word. We have it accurately. 2 Peter 1, Peter says it. 2 Peter 1, 20 and 21. Knowing this first of all, that no prophecy of scripture comes from someone's own interpretation. In other words, men didn't make this up. For no prophecy was ever produced by the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit. The scripture itself is divinely inspired. God, the Holy Spirit, worked through these prophets, through the men who wrote the scriptures. Do you really think God's gonna allow their words then to be lost in antiquity? No, they've been kept. and which confirms what the Old Testament says. Again, I could give you many verses, and you know these. Psalm 19, seven through nine. The law of the Lord is perfect, reviving the soul. The testimony of the Lord is sure, making wise the simple. The precepts of the Lord are right, rejoicing the heart. The commandment of the Lord is pure, enlightening the eyes. The fear of the Lord is clean, enduring forever. The rules of the Lord are true. David wrote this, he's referring to the law. At the time David wrote, the law was written about 500 or 600 years before this. Yet David could say in his day, the law is sure, it is right, it is pure, it is clean, it endures forever, and it's true, because God has preserved the writings. Psalm 119, 128. I esteem right all your precepts concerning everything. Your word is very pure, verse 140 says, therefore your servant loves it, verse 160. The sum of your word is truth and every one of your righteous ordinances is everlasting. You've kept your word, you've preserved your word. Everything you say is true, it is right, it is useful, and it's everlasting. And the verse that Dean quoted earlier, he's always getting ahead of me, Isaiah 40, verse eight, the grass withers, the flower fades, but the word of our God will stand forever. How is that possible unless God himself superintended that book so that we still have it? So let's come back now to what I said earlier. Do you realize what you're holding in your hands here? You have a copy of the word of God. Now again, this is just a book. You don't kiss and pray to books. But what this book contains are the very words that God not only said, caused to be written down through the Holy Spirit, but God himself caused throughout the annals of history, thousands of years to make sure this word made into your hands. Do you realize that? That's a miracle. Now, of course, today, people deny this and fight about this and argue over this. But Jesus said, until the heaven and earth pass away, not the smallest part of God's law is going to pass away unfulfilled, which means it's going to be preserved. Jesus fully expected that his words and the things he did would be preserved and published for future generations. Now imagine if I said that. Everything I do right now, they're going to be talking about 1,000 years from now. Rick, get over yourself. But Jesus said that. In fact, notice, again, those verses we quoted, Mark 13, 31. Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away. And you're living proof of that. You're still holding his words in your hand. 2,000 years after he said them, God made sure not only were his words recorded, written down, they're passed along, they survived all these many centuries, we still have them. Jesus was well aware, God sent him here with a message. And in John 17, he says, I've given them the word you gave me to give them. I came down here and told them, and now we have those words in front of us. You know how precious that is? John 12, 48, Jesus said, He who rejects me and does not receive my sayings has one who judges him. The word that I spoke is what will judge him in the last day. Jesus is saying at that great final judgment, my words will be what you're judged by. That's what he's saying there. My words will be preserved so much so that everyone will stand before me and be judged by my words. They're permanent, they're important, they're eternal. Remember Matthew 26, remember that when the woman, we don't know who she was, she breaks a bottle of perfume over Jesus' feet. Remember that? And Jesus says this, Matthew 26, 12 to 13. I guess this was Mary. When she poured this perfume on my body, she did to prepare my burial. Notice this statement. Truly I say to you, wherever this gospel is preached in the whole world, what this woman has done will also be spoken of in memory of her. Jesus actually had, The confidence to say, what this woman just did for me, they'll be talking about thousands of years from now. Yeah, I know that's true. We just did it. Jesus said, what this woman has done in breaking this perfume on my feet and loving me and kissing my feet and preparing me for my burial. People are gonna talk about this, Jesus says, for thousands of years. And here we are, it came true. In other words, Jesus fully expected that what he said and did would not only be recorded, but published and preserved for many, many, many, many years afterwards. Or as he says, heaven and earth will pass away, my words won't. It's come true. It's happened. We're doing it right now. Again, as you know, although the scriptures were originally written on very perishable materials, it has been meticulously copied. That's a story all in itself, how the scribes, in fact, the Jews invented a whole new industry of copying scripture. They were very good at this. copied and transmitted through the centuries over and over again. Sometimes we should spend some more time. We could spend weeks on this. I don't want to do that. I want to stick more to the text. But the scribes had a science to this. They would have the scripture. They would have every letter on every page counted. They would know the middle letter, the 20th letter, the 40th letter. And they would meticulously copy it. If the pen would break, they'd tear it up the page. And when they were done, they would count the letters forwards and backwards to make sure every letter was right. If they missed one word, If they missed one letter, they would tear it up and do it again. And for centuries, they did this because they knew this was God's word. And the Jews were experts at this for thousands and thousands of years. And what happened is, for example, I know, Dave, you have studied Shakespeare. I remember we had to do it in high school. I found it annoying when we studied Shakespeare. There are only a handful of manuscripts from the 1600s when Shakespeare wrote. 1600s? And most of those are written many years after Shakespeare's death. Yet no one today questions what Shakespeare said. Not really. There's a book called The Odyssey, The Iliad by Homer. We studied that in high school too. I found that annoying. Greek mythology. Now that was all about the Hercules and all these Greek gods. There are probably two or three hundred copies of that. But the oldest one they have was written about 800 years after Homer wrote that. Yet no one today really questions what Homer said. Do you realize how many manuscript copies there are of the Bible? Tens of thousands. tens of thousands. In fact, some of them are written, for example, there's fragments and copies of Mark written in the first century. When they found the Dead Sea Scrolls, they found copies of the Old Testament that were written very close. In other words, they're very, very old. And there's a science to this. Today, with modern computers, the more copies you have, The more you can use computers and science to get right to the exact which copies, because in these copies there's errors. There's manuscript copies, there's pieces missing, there's words missing. You can put it all together so that today, and I can back this up if you want to know more about this, there is no teaching in the Bible that's in question. Not a single one. There's nothing in your Bible where they say, well, we don't really know what he said because of the manuscript. The manuscripts are so much evidence. Now, there are a few places where we're not sure about the spelling of a guy's name, or an age, or a town's name, that kind of thing. But as far as teaching, there's nothing in the scriptures that is not fully attested through manuscript. And if you would take, as I have on your sheet there, the 10 ancient documents that there's manuscripts for and put them in a pile, The scripture would tower above them as far as thousands and thousands and thousands of manuscripts. God has preserved his word. There's no doubt today to those who are honest studiers of what God actually said. It's been preserved. We have it. There are some debates sometime on how was the name spelled or what was the place name or what was the age of a king? There are some debates on things like that. Again, that's not that much. As far as the teaching of the scriptures, nothing has been lost. Let's go through this. God has preserved his word. What a miracle this is. Think about this. Back in the book of second Kings for about two or three generations under the reign of wicked King, King Manassi and his son, Aman, the scriptures were lost. They didn't have the scriptures. And they were putting idols in the temple of God. They were worshiping Baal and Ashtoreth. They were doing horrible, wicked, despicable things all throughout Judah and Israel, all throughout, because the law was gone. There was no Bible. Manasseh dies. His son, Ammon, dies. Along comes their young son named Josiah. He's just a kid, becomes king. But God is working in Josiah's heart. Josiah turns to the Lord and says, let's rebuild it. Let's fix the temple. Let's take all those horrible idols out of there. Let's rebuild the temple. As they're rebuilding the temple, what do you think they find? They find a copy of God's word, hidden, buried under rocks, probably behind the altar somewhere. Look, what is this? They hadn't seen this in generations. They go running to the king with it. What do you think happens? Revival breaks out. God's word. What a coincidence that was. No coincidence at all. That's how God preserves his word. There's many, many examples throughout history of this. I just got a few of them there in your sheet. Around 170 BC, when the Greek empire ruled the world, Antiochus Epiphanes, who was the abomination of desolation mentioned by Daniel in the Old Testament, He rose up and decided, I'm going to destroy Judaism. He hated the Jews. I'm going to wipe out Judaism. He killed Jews. He slaughtered pigs in the temple. He turned the temple into a brothel. And he ordered that every copy of the scriptures was to be burned. Anyone who has a copy of the scriptures be burned with it. That didn't go too far. God raised up the Maccabees and stopped that. And the scriptures were saved. In AD 303. Emperor Caesar Diocletian. He ordered a stop to all Christianity. He wanted to wipe out Christianity and he ordered that all scriptures be destroyed and anyone who has a copy of the scriptures to be killed. Well, he dies and 25 years later, Constantine reverses this. It has Bibles printed at Bard's expense. You could repeat stories like this over and over and over. In what they call the Middle Ages, the Dark Ages, the Catholic Church worked very hard to exterminate the scriptures. They made it illegal to own a copy of the scriptures, to read the scriptures, to have them in your own language. Many men and women died trying to smuggle scriptures, trying to print scriptures, and yet they couldn't stop it. Along comes 1500, the printing press, Martin Luther, the Reformation. Changes everything. As you know, communism under Chairman Mao, and Stalin, and Lenin, and in places like Vietnam, and Laos, and Cambodia, tried to wipe out Christianity. And in so doing, they tried to destroy the scripture. They tried to destroy Bibles. And they, all throughout communism, yet they're still around. In 1778, the notice French, the French atheist Voltaire, he was a famous historian, he was an atheist. In 1778, he said that within 100 years, Christianity would no longer exist. Because of the Enlightenment, we know so much better now. We're smarter than that now. Christianity is going to die out. Yet after he died, 50 years after he died, the Geneva Bible Society was using his house to print Bibles. God has a sense of humor. And you can repeat stories like this over and over and over again, how they've often tried to destroy God's word, to make it illegal, and it hasn't happened. It can't happen, because Jesus said, my word will never pass away. Jesus said, until heaven and earth pass away, not one jot or one tittle, we still have the bow. Even when Antichrist rises, I'm sure one of his main goals is gonna be to stomp out the scriptures, but he won't be able to do it. He'll drive it underground. Right now, there's many nations like Pakistan, North Korea, where if you're a Christian, you're hiding underground, but they have the scriptures. In North Korea, they have the scriptures. All over the world, they have the scriptures. So again, some more stats to throw at you. After all of that, here we are, 2025. We are 3,500 years after Moses wrote. We are 2,000 years after Jesus and the apostles. Yeah, consider some of this. I can back all these up with figures if you want them. The Bible is still the all-time world record bestseller. No other book even comes close. There have been more Bibles printed than any other book in history. Nothing even comes close. In fact, I have some figures there. They say between six and eight billion Bibles have been printed since the invention of the printing press. There's only eight billion people on Earth. The second most printed book is Chairman Mao's Little Red Book. And the only reason that's second is because everybody in China by law has to have a copy of it. And there's almost 2 billion people in China. The Bible is the all-time world record most printed book in the history of the world. And nothing's ever going to surpass that. Nothing. The first book ever printed was the Bible. Do you realize that? In fact, the reason they invented the printing press was to print Bibles. The Bible is the most stolen book in the world. I don't know how they know that. Makes sense. There are several Bibles on the moon. Do you know that? John 3.16 is written in the dust of the moon. Did you know that? 94% of the world's population have some portion of the Bible in their own language. They're getting close. You wonder if the apostles could have dreamed of this. Now they knew this. They knew God's word was going to be preserved. But by today, 94% of the planet has some portion of God's word translated in their language. The Bible is the most quoted book in history. The Bible is the most sung. There are more songs based on scriptural truth than any other subject in history. More books have been written about the Bible. By that I mean commentaries, dictionaries, Bible studies. Just go to any Christian bookstore and see what's going on. There are more books written about the Bible than any other book in human history. That's not an exaggeration. I can give you figures for that if you want them. There has been more artwork, more biblically themed artwork than any other subject in history. Statues, paintings, all that stuff. 99% of planet Earth right now, 99% has access to a broadcast of either TV, radio, or internet of the Bible. There's a few places in Antarctica where you can't get radio signals. 99% of planet Earth, if you have internet, or a television, or a radio, you can pick up a gospel signal. You realize that? Who would have thought that back in the days of Moses? Today. All around the world, you can hear Moses, you can hear Christ, you can hear the apostles. And of course, most of the oldest and most profound universe, isn't this something? Harvard, Princeton, Yale, Dartmouth, they were all started to teach pastors how to preach the Bible. Think of that. Now today, they're all liberal bastards, they hate the Bible. But they were all started by Christians for Christians to train pastors. Can you imagine that? People don't talk about this much today. Jesus' promise has come true, hasn't it? What he says here happened. It was happening in his day, it's still happening. God has made sure that the law, God's word is preserved. Mike? That's the other book. Not only the written word, the creation itself is preaching. There's two volumes of God's word, creation and the written word. So let's get to the point here Jesus is making. Don't miss the point here. Jesus says, I have not come to destroy the law. I'm here to fulfill it, and he uses that word because. He says, because the word will never pass away, I've come to fulfill it. It's always gonna be binding. It's always gonna be true. In fact, this word, Jesus says, will be what the judgment's all about. Therefore, Jesus had to come, because notice what he says there again in verse 18. 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 or fulfilled. And we covered that. Jesus totally fulfilled the law, every piece of it, every bit of it. Something you and I were bound to do, but cannot. And he says, this law will never pass away. Jesus' view of the law was very high, of God's word was very high. He loved it, he studied it. When you read Proverbs, I keep trying to remind you, in Proverbs, you read all those verses about how I love your law and your law brings light and wisdom is something precious like gold and silver and knowledge and discretion, all those things. Seek it like silver, seek it like gold, love it, cherish it, fight for it. There's a verse in chapter four, verse nine. And all that you get, get wisdom and everything you acquire, get understanding. Jesus loved the law of God. And here he says that one of the reasons for that is because it's eternal, it's God's word. It will never perish. So the point he's making here in all of this, because of the very nature of God's word, because it's steadfast, immovable, it will stand even longer than the heavens and the earth. Therefore it's beyond alteration, you can't change it. Remember Jesus said the law cannot be broken. You can't change this. It'll never be canceled. Do not think I've come to abide, I've not come here to cancel the law. It will be preserved, it has been already, and it will be published until the end of time. Jesus said that. And it will be the basis for God's righteous final judgment. Therefore, Jesus said, I've come to fulfill it. You read in Revelation 20 when the lost stand before the righteous white throne, says the books are opened. Now, I'm sure those books are all the things, everything they've ever done or said. But one book is also as open as God's word. You'll be judged by God's word. It'll still be there. It'll still be relevant. And of course, you know all of that. Then Jesus said, because of what the law is, I've had to come to fulfill it. to clarify it, to teach it, and he'll also say here in the very next verse, therefore, everyone in my kingdom who understands the law and teaches it will be a great. But anyone who distorts the law or denies the law will be nothing in my kingdom. God's word is everything in Christ's kingdom. But as you know, when you talk about the word of God, being preserved, the Word of God is eternal, the Word of God is kept, the Word of God, David says, is pure and right and everything, and it's like honey to the honeycomb. Remember, the Word of God itself is a picture of the Son of God, who is the Word of God. It's no accident Jesus himself is called the Word, the Logos. He is God's Word. Everything wonderful about God's Word, Jesus is. Think of how much you depend upon the scriptures. Think of how much we mentioned earlier. Think if you didn't have the scriptures, how would you know anything about God? How would you know anything about anything? And that's actually just a picture of Jesus. Again, some verses, and you know these well, I just, I hope you do. John 1.1, in the beginning was the word. Jesus is called the Word of God. And the Word was with God, and the Word was God, and we're told there in verse 14, and the Word became flesh and dwelt among us. What does it mean Jesus is the Word of God? He is what God has to say. Whatever you want to hear from God, and what he says, listen to my son. Jesus is what God has to say to the world. If you want to know who God is, what God is like, what God wants, what God hates, what God loves, learn about Jesus. Dean? He's the spokesman and he is the word. He is. He's everything God has to say. Everything. Remember in Matthew 17, God said this three times in the scripture, but when they go up on the Mount Transfiguration and there's Moses and Elijah and Peter's all excited because Moses and Elijah are here, let's sit down, let's build some tents, let's hang out with Moses and Elijah, remember what God says? John 17, five, this is my beloved son with whom I'm well pleased, listen to him. Moses, it would be great to sit down with Moses, wouldn't it? Wouldn't you love to have an afternoon hanging out with Elijah? But God says, here's my son, you listen to him. He's the one you need to hear from. He's the one who is the word. He is the one, he is what God has to say. And of course, Hebrews one, verse one and two. says God, after he spoke long ago to the fathers and the prophets in many portions and in many ways, you know that's the Old Testament, that's the whole Bible. God spoke through visions and dreams, God spoke right to these men, God appeared before them, God sent his angel to speak to them, God did all these things, many, many ways God spoke to the prophets and the writers of the scriptures. But now something even better has happened, it says here, but in these last days, he has spoken to us in his son. In the Greek, that's literally, in his last days, he's spoken in son. He no longer needs to talk through prophets. because now he's spoken to us in his son. When his son came, that was the capstone, the final message you need to hear is Jesus Christ. He is everything you need to know about God, about heaven, about hell, about salvation, about death, all of it is in his son. He is the word of God. And so when Jesus here says that word will never pass away, it's because it's linked to him, because that's what he is. And I would just remind you again, I know you know this. I don't mean to be childish. You realize what this is? What a privilege it is to have in book form the actual preserved word of God that I can open this book and actually read the mind of God. I can actually read the words of Jesus Christ, the son of God. Shame on us if we're not reading this book. Shame on us if we're not taking every advantage of coming to church, of using the internet, any way we can to get this word into our hearts. Nothing you own is more precious than this. Isn't it? And this, not this book, but these words will be here long after the heavens and the earth are gone. Do you realize that? Do you realize for the rest of eternity we're still going to be talking about the things Jesus said and did? They'll be preserved forever. That'll be the news of heaven. There'll be Bible studies in heaven of some kind. I hope so too. So again, Lord, forgive us for not, I know we love our Bibles. Well, we should. Oh, how we should love his word. Let's close in prayer. Our Father in heaven, how grateful we are to you that you not only spoke, you not only inspired men to write, Oh Lord, you made sure it got preserved and protected because we know full well Satan would have loved to have stomped out your word long ago. We know he's tried many, many times. He's still trying. But father, because your word is the word of Christ, because your word is the word of truth, because it's your word, you supernaturally and powerfully superintended over it that we can sit here today, thousands of years later and still read the words of our precious savior, knowing that they're true. that they're accurate, that we can base our life on these truths. And Lord, we know if the world endures another 10,000 years, you will keep your promise. That's because you said you would. Jesus, our Lord, told us this word will not pass away as long as heaven and earth endure. He's told us his own words will last forever. So, oh, Father, thank you for that. But Lord, remind us again. Lord, rebuke us for our, Our lack of reading this word, Lord, we do read it, but oh, Lord, we need more, we need more. Make us hungry, Lord, make us appreciative. Lord, this world has nothing to tell us. This world has nothing to offer, but your word is a light to our path, a lamp to our feet. Lord, your word is honey and gold and silver and treasure. So Holy Spirit, please move in our hearts to love your word, to treasure it, to know it, to remember it, to spread it abroad. We thank you for our brother Tom Caster and his wife and the work they're doing in spreading your word abroad and translating it all around the world. We thank you for the missionaries and all the translation work they do. All the Bible translators and all the Bible printers, Lord, may they be blessed. May your word go out. May your word continue to always be the number one bestseller. May your word go in even to the darkest places on earth. Lord, may those who broadcast your word over internet, television, and radio, Lord, may they be blessed. May they prosper. May many tune in to hear the gospel. Lord, you said that this gospel shall be preached to all the nations, and then comes the end. We pray that would soon happen. We thank you, Lord, for this. Thank you for this time. We thank you for a church we can come to where your word is believed and taught and cherished. We thank you for the message we're about to hear from our pastor. Lord, may it truly bless us from your word. We thank you for all of this. In the precious name of him who is the very word of God, Jesus Christ, the son of God, in whose name we pray, amen.