Did Jesus Come To Correct Moses & The Old Testament?

Moore's Corner Church

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Thank you for listening to this message from the ministry of Morse Corner Church in Leverett, Massachusetts.

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Morse Corner is a non -denominational church that is committed to the preaching and teaching of the gospel of Jesus Christ.

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Our church was founded in 1896 by two students of the famous evangelist

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D .L. Moody. We seek to encourage and edify the body of Christ through the proclamation of God's word through the ministries of the local church.

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If you'd like more information, visit our website morsecornerchurch .com. We hope you enjoy the message.

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The New Testament scriptures would be more relevant to New Testament Christians. I get all of that, but here's the thing, the

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Old Testament is still really, really, really important. Remember, it's just as much the word of God as the

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New Testament is. There's not different levels of the word of God that this is, this is more the word of God than this.

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Well, it's either the word of God or it's not. So, here's the thing we need to realize, everything that Jesus did and said, everything was perfectly in line with what

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Moses said in the scriptures. So, Jesus and Moses are not opposites.

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Jesus fulfilled what Moses wrote about. They were on the same page, you could say.

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So, Jesus was the one of whom Moses and the prophets spoke. So, that's why the idea that Christianity is something totally different or detached is so bizarre.

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Years ago, we had a person come and that wanted support from this church and he came and he was telling me about how he viewed

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Christianity as completely different. Like the old covenant was, this is a new religion.

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Christianity was completely separate from the commandments. So, his attitude was the

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Ten Commandments, it's like, don't even worry about that. Christianity and the teachings of Jesus is completely, radically new.

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And within a year, it came out that he was violating the

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Ten Commandments and multiple commandments, so where he was really disqualified from ministry. I think that's part of why people want to do away with it.

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They don't like the commandments because they're breaking the commandments. So, this strange interpretation is, there's an ulterior motive,

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I think, for many people. Now, obviously, the Old Testament, not everything applies to us.

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It's for us, but it doesn't apply to us, not everything. The Apostle Paul says what was written in the

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Old Testament is for our edification. It's written as an example, but not everything applies.

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So, just a basic example, the Passover lamb, right? The Jews were commanded to sacrifice the lamb on the

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Passover. Do we do that? No, we don't have to offer those sacrifices. Why? Because Christ fulfilled that.

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So, yeah, there are some things, some commandments in the Old Testament that are not applicable. That's true, but everything in the

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Old Testament is still true. It was just about understanding it correctly.

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So, Jesus, did he come to destroy the law? No, he came to fulfill it.

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What does the word fulfill mean? I looked it up. Fulfill means to bring to completion or to carry out or to satisfy requirements and obligations.

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And that's what Jesus did. So, over the years, I've realized there are many Christians, some of them,

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I would say, I don't think this is a stretch, there are some professing Christians who don't like the Old Testament.

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Have you encountered this? I bet you have. Not only are there some who don't think it's as important, which

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I could see to a certain degree, but there are some who just don't like it.

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As a matter of fact, you start reading some of these stories in the Old Testament and they get upset. Or maybe you've heard that, well, you know, the

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God of the Old Testament was really mean, and the God of the New Testament, he's just so much more loving.

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Have you heard that? What are you talking about? It's the same God. Or they'll recognize, yeah, it's the same

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God, but God in the Old Testament was more angry and now he's kind of lightened up a little bit.

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See, these are people, they're not reading the Bible. Anyone who says that has never really read or studied the scripture.

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That is not true. So, Jesus is on the same page as Moses. In fact,

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Jesus is on every page of the Old Testament scriptures. All of it points to him.

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Jesus said in John 5, 39, about the Old Testament scriptures, these are they which testify of me.

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What Moses wrote is all about Jesus. What the prophets wrote is all about Jesus. So, what's the application for you?

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The two -thirds of the Bible that some of you have been ignoring, that's the word of God that you need to start paying attention to.

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It's not irrelevant, so don't ever think that. So, let me encourage you. Let me challenge some of you.

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Start reading the Old Testament. If you've been ignoring it, start reading it. I realize it's a challenge, but once you do, hey, there's some great stories.

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Is there some great stories in the Old Testament? Amen. And then, once you realize that it's all pointing to Christ, it can open up your understanding.

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You know, Noah's Ark. You realize the Ark represents Christ. We already talked about the

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Passover lamb, Jesus is. Remember, the lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world? The Jewish day of atonement,

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Jesus made atonement on the cross. It was all about him. So, Jesus definitely did not come to do away with a book that was all about himself.

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So, where do people get this idea? Let's look at the text. Where do people get this idea that Jesus came to correct or destroy the law?

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Well, it really comes from a misinterpretation of some of these verses. Look at verses 43 and 44.

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So, we're in Matthew chapter 5. And you know, I understand why reading for the first time someone might conclude this.

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So, I get it. But it's really a misinterpretation. I'll show you why. Verse 43,

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Matthew 5, 43. Jesus says, You have heard that it was said, You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.

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But I say to you, love your enemies, bless those who curse you, and do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who spitefully use you and persecute you.

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Okay, notice what Jesus says. You have heard that it was said. Because what people have in their mind is, okay, the

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Old Testament said this, Jesus is correcting the scriptures. That's what a lot of people think.

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Notice what Jesus said. Did he say it is written? No, he said,

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You have heard that it was said. So, what does that mean? Well, there's people saying this. There's a lot of people saying a lot of things.

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It doesn't make it correct. If Jesus said it is written, that would be a reference to the scriptures, right?

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Like Jesus said back in chapter 4, How it is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.

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That was a quotation of scripture. But Jesus is not quoting scripture here. What's he quoting?

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Yeah, he's quoting what people are saying about the scripture. That's what he is correcting.

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But people will read this, that you have heard that it was said, You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.

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And again, in their mind, Jesus is correcting Moses. But Moses didn't write that. Moses wrote half of it.

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You shall love your neighbor. He did write that in the book of Leviticus. But did Moses then say, And you shall hate your enemy.

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Did Moses say that? He did not say that. Who is saying that? The rabbis were saying that.

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You know, you can go to Morse Corner Church and hopefully, you know, we strive to teach what the

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Bible says and teach it in context. You can go to another church and who knows what they're teaching.

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You know, a lot of pastors and it's sort of a temptation for anyone to sort of just share their opinion.

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Here's my opinion as though it's authoritative. So, Jesus is correcting the rabbis.

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He's not correcting Moses. Do you see that? Okay. Here's another example.

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It's not quite as obvious. Look at verses 27 and 28. So, just as in churches today, there's a lot of pastors saying the wrong thing.

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A lot of the rabbis were teaching the Word of God out of context. Okay. Verses 27 and 28.

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Jesus says, You have heard that it was said to those of old, You shall not commit adultery.

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But I say to you that whoever looks at a woman to lust for her has already committed adultery with her in his heart.

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Now, here's the thing. This is in Scripture. Thou shalt not commit adultery.

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This is the seventh commandment of the law. Which Jesus upholds.

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He's not undoing it. He's upholding it. So, Jesus upheld all of the commandments.

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Even the Sabbath. Jesus kept the Sabbath day. There's some people who think Jesus and his disciples were breaking the

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Sabbath. Wrong. Jesus kept the Sabbath. But what Jesus is doing here, this statement about adultery, he's going down to the root cause of adultery.

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Adultery doesn't just happen. Like, whoops, you know, just a mistake. It just kind of happened.

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People might say that, but that's not the way it works. It starts where? In the heart.

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It starts maybe in the eyes. With the eyes, someone will lust after someone else that they're not married to in their heart.

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So, Jesus is addressing the root cause. That before a person actually commits adultery, they first lust after that person in their heart.

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So, where does sin begin? It begins in the heart. That's what Jesus is addressing.

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So, people often think that Jesus doesn't really care about behavior and, you know, all

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Jesus cared, not what you're doing, not behavior, all Jesus really cares about is the heart.

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Have you heard that? Jesus isn't worried about this. He's not worried about that. Jesus, he only cares about the heart.

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Well, that's a ridiculous statement since the heart is the problem. The heart is the problem.

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And if people are doing things they shouldn't be doing, it's because of the heart, right?

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Now, how to fix that, this is all law. The sermon on that is all law.

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The gospel is something else. But what does Jesus do with the gospel?

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He gives us a, if the problem's in the heart, what does Jesus do with the gospel? He gives us a new heart.

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God puts those desires in us that we no longer want to do those things.

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We no longer want to live the way we once did. Now, the sinful flesh still wants to do all that stuff.

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So that's why we need to walk in the spirit and mortify the flesh and deny the flesh, but put on the new man.

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So through prayer, once a person is born again, through prayer, worship, iron, sharpening iron, having

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Christian fellowship, holding each other accountable, being part of a local church, partaking in the ordinances, all of that helps us to get victory.

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But Jesus is talking about the issue of the heart. So Jesus, you see, again, he's not correcting

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Moses. He's just getting down to the root issue, right? You all see that? So Jesus, again, he's not coming up with some new religion.

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He's not coming up with a new system of ethics. Rather, Jesus is correctly applying what

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Moses said. Now, the problem was the rabbis and many of the

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Jews because they were taught by the rabbis, they had all these wrong ideas. And this is still true within churches today.

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There's a lot of Christians that they don't know better because they were never taught. So there's all sorts of false ideas out there.

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One of the problems back then during the days of Christ was something we call legalism.

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Legalism is the teaching that you are saved by keeping rules. You're saved by keeping the law.

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So as long as you don't do this and you don't do that and you don't do that, then you're going to heaven. Is that true?

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Well, that's what a lot of the rabbis, the scribes and Pharisees were teaching. And their obedience maybe had other motives.

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But what should our obedience be? It should be from what? From the heart.

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People sometimes try to change from the outside in rather from changing from the inside out.

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We need Christ in our heart. That way we change from in here and then eventually it comes out here.

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But if you try just to change from the outside in, you're not addressing the root issue.

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So all of this, this is what Jesus is getting at. But again, there are people who still have the idea that the

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Ten Commandments, the law of God, the Old Testament, all that, that's out the window. We talked about this a couple months ago.

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You know, legalism was the problem back then. Right now, legalism is not the problem. Right now, the problem is the opposite.

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What is it called? Legalism and license. I mentioned a few months ago the story about the

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Christian contemporary singer Amy Grant. So if you like Amy Grant, listen, I'm not against you if you like her music.

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This is just the perfect illustration. So you'll have to excuse me, but she talked about how she justified hosting a gay wedding at her home because she essentially said, this is the point of the message really, she said that God no longer is worried about the

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Ten Commandments. He only reduced it to one commandment and that commandment is what? You know this by now.

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Love. Right. And then people redefine love. Talked about this a lot.

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They redefine love. They detach it from the context which is the law.

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And there you go. People now have a license to kind of do whatever they wish. Thanks for listening.

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I'm Pastor Michael Grant from Morris Coronet Church. If you'd like to listen to the complete message or if you'd like more information about the ministry, visit our website morriscoronetchurch .com

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and we'd love to have you join us some Sunday morning here in Leverett. Until next time, may the grace of God be with you.