Luke 16:16-17

This morning, I invite you to turn with me once again to the Gospel of Luke. Luke chapter 16. We want to look at verses 16 and 17 this morning. A very short section of scripture, but a useful section for us to consider. Luke chapter 16, verses 16 and 17. In the Law and the Prophets, one till, John. Since that time, the kingdom of God is preached, and every man presseth into it, and it is easier for heaven and earth to pass than one tittle of the law to fail. God blessed to us is sacred and holy word this morning. Many years ago, there was a yacht that landed one evening at the wharf of Ivan Ness, Scotland. Two young men disembarked and decided to set out on a walking tour. Well, they got lost. Late that night they knocked at the door of a farmer’s cottage, and though they pleaded with him, and certainly both were hungry and tired, and cold, the farmer kept his door shut and wouldn’t let him in. They walked another mile, mile and a half to another farmer’s house and knocked on the door there. And though it was past midnight, the farmer took them in. To his surprise, he found that one of the young men was the prince, who later became George the Fifth, a beloved king of England. what must have been the shame and humiliation of the first farmer when he found out whom he had rejected and turned away? Jesus Christ, the Messiah, was Israel’s king, who had come to set up the kingdom of God. The Old Testament repeatedly were told of the coming of the Messiah. and the kingdom of heaven. It was certainly a prominent theme. However, when Jesus Christ came unto his own, the Bible says they received him not. There was a rejection of Christ as the Messiah. For the most part, few out of the nation embraced him as the Messiah and entered into his kingdom. Our text emphasizes the necessity of preaching and then pressing into the kingdom of Christ. In Christ’s defense of the law is still a relevant thing in the kingdom of God. And so we’ll be looking at that this morning. Let me begin by saying, this. You have a responsibility to press into the kingdom. Interesting phrase ology here in verse 16. When he says the law and the prophets were until John, since that time the kingdom of God is preached and every man presseth into it. Now John the Baptist preached the kingdom of God. It introduced what we might call the New Testament era. The law and the prophets are here placed for the whole Testament that was talked about the coming as a Messiah. The Old Testament scripture was the sole guide of religion until John the Baptist. And we had new revelation. given at that time. He introduced this New Testament error as the forerunner of Christ the Messiah. He was announcing the Messiah’s come. And his message was, repent ye, for the kingdom of heaven is in hand. Now the kingdom or of God or the kingdom of heaven refers to the time. of the Messiah’s arrival in the beginning of what we call the last days. The days of the Messiah are the last days. Jesus Christ and his apostles proclaim more fully the kingdom of God and clearly unfolded it even further as we go through the New Testament. The last verses of the Old Testament, Malachiah 4, verse 4, 4, 3, 3. 6 describes the coming of John the Baptist in the likeness of Elijah and the need to obey God’s law. Remember Christ was addressing the Pharisees in particular in this section of Scripture, who professed to have a very high regard for the law of God. They ought to have been prepared by the content of the law to receive Christ as well as his forerner. But of course, they did not. Now, if you would, turn with me to Deuteronomy. This is what the law says, and they should have been prepared for the coming of the Messiah. Deuteronomy 18 verses 15 to 19, Deuteronomy 18, beginning with verse 15. The Lord thy God will raise up unto thee a prophet from the midst of thee of thee of thy brethren, like unto me, unto him you shall hearken. According to all that thou desirest of the Lord thy God in horrib in the day of the assembly saying, let me not hear again the voice of the Lord my God, neither let me see this great fire anymore that I die not. And the Lord said unto me, they have well spoken, that which they have spoken. I will raise them up a prophet from among their brethren, like unto thee, and will put my words in his mouth, and he shall speak unto them all that I command him. And it shall come to pass that whosoever will not hearken unto my words, which he shall speak in my name, I will require it of him. So here was the promise of sending the Messiah and how that they would be provided for through this Messiah who would come and speak the words of the Savior, or of God, I should say. And so the promise is that he would be like unto Moses. Moses was the mediator of the old covenant. Christ, of course, is the mediator in the new covenant. And so there’s this likeness about them. So John, the Bible. Baptist preaches the kingdom of God, he introduces the gospel heir. And that meant, of course, the presence of the Messiah. Now the necessity of pressing into the kingdom is what is emphasized in verse 16. Since the time of John’s preaching, an excitement about the coming of the Messiah swept through the nation. Every man here does not refer to everyone, but rather to every kind or every sort of man is what is being referred to. Now regardless of where you stand in society, there is a need for you to press into the kingdom of God. We read in Matthew 11, 12, from the days of John the Baptist until now, the kingdom of Him heaven suffereth violence, and the violence, take it by force. It was not your mere interest in the kingdom of God that’s important. But how motivated you were to enter into the kingdom. You know, pressing into the kingdom implies some kind of opposition, some type of hindrance. Some type of hindrance. to you entering in. It’s standing in your way. Here’s what the scripture says in Matthew 2313. Woe unto you scribes and Pharisees hypocrites. For you shut up the kingdom of heaven against men. For ye neither go in yourselves, neither suffer ye them that are entering to go in. You hindered people from going into the kingdom of God. Or as we read in Luke 1152, wo unto you lawyers, for you have taken away the key of knowledge. He entered not into yourselves, and them that were entering in, he hindered. So here is the religious leadership of the Jews, hindering people from entering into the kingdom of the Messiah. So pressing here implies men eagerly pressing through a crowd, let’s say, in all opposition and difficulties, to get into a place into which they are very desirous to enter. You just can’t walk in. It’s going to be a fight to get in there. This speaks of the determination, the courage, the struggle of a person pressing into the John Bunyan, as he often captures in his book Pilgrim’s Progress, he captures these kind of things in his book, and it’s helpful to think about them. When Mr. Christian was at the interpreter’s house, he saw an unusual sight. At the door of a palace, he saw a great company of men. They were desirous to go into the palace, but they didn’t dare, because there sat a man at the little distance away from the door at table-side with a book and his inkhorn before him, and he was ready to take down the names of anybody that would move in, would go into the palace, the desired to go in. But he also saw in the doorway, stood many men in armor to keep a person from entering into the palace, resolved to hurt and harm anyone who would attempt to get to the door of the palace. And while most turned back because of the opposition they faced, a man of very stout countenance, came up to the man with the book and the ink well, or the inkworm, and this man of stout countenance said, set down my name, sir. Then he drew a sword, put on a helmet, and he rushed toward the door, fighting the armed men that were there, trying to prevent him from entering. They fiercely attacked the man, but he felt a cutting and hacking his way through them, and pressed for it until we could enter the palace door, at which point there was a pleasant voice heard from within, Come in, come in, come in. Eternal glory, thou shalt win. We must through much tribulation, enter into the kingdom of God, the Bible says. And so this is how it is how it is, when one wants to enter into the kingdom. And so when he got there, they clothed him with a beautiful garment, and Bunyan here portrays the idea pressing into the kingdom and what that meant. So we see here the necessity of pressing into the kingdom of God. This has nothing of due, of course, with meriting eternal life. One does not merit. eternal life. But it speaks of your eagerness to obtain eternal life. The mere, the more earnest, I should say, you become in pursuit of salvation from Jesus Christ, the less likely you’re going to depend upon yourself for salvation. You must be willing to depend upon yourself for salvation. opposition and persecution by the world to obtain salvation. Let salvation be the object of your most anxious desire. And do not rest until you are assured that you have obtained it. It implies your diligence, your earnestness in your endeavor to seek the Lord. You will deeply meditate upon and search the scriptures to find out what must I do to be saved. And you must earnestly pray to be granted grace by the Lord Jesus Christ, knowing that hellfire awaits those who do not enter the kingdom. If you trifle away all your precious time on this earth, and do not diligently seek to enter into the kingdom, but press into it, and of course you will perish. So whatever your hand finds to do, do with all your might is what the scripture says. The responsibility to press into the kingdom as we see. Secondly, you might must defend the dignity of the law even with the coming of the kingdom of God. And that brings us to verse 17. 16 and verse 17 says this. And it is easier for heaven and earth to pass than one tittle of the law to fail. Now one of the things we should pick up as we look at this is the eternalness of God’s law. Verily, he says, which emphasizes the absolute truthfulness of what Jesus says. This is something of note. It’s easier for heaven and earth to pass, and they’re talking here about the foundations of the earth and the pillars of heaven being firmly established. So it would be much easier for them to pass away than for the Word of God. to fail. Now by God’s decree, heaven and earth are permanently fixed in place. And they will remain in place until Christ returns. Then they will be purged and changed into the new heavens and the new earth. In the meantime, they will last generation, after generation and they won’t pass away. Then for one tittle of the law to fail, here the moral law is confirmed as being permanent like the heavens and the earth. The heaven and the earth do not pass away until the last day. And only then by the hand of Christ. The moral law is yes. eternal. We’re saying here that it’s unchangeable from generation to generation, including the New Testament error and the coming of Christ’s kingdom. Isn’t that what he’s connecting together here? Now a tittle is a very slight mark. I don’t know if your Bible has this, but in Psalm 119. Some of them have a little titill and then they’ll tell you in that section of the Psalm, it’s part of the section of the song and they’ll show you the little tittle there. There’s a little mark. It was used for it in the Hebrew I think for vow points. And what he’s saying here is that not the slightest, not even a little vow point, part of God’s moral law will be altered or fail to come to pass or be upheld. Fail means to fall to the ground. This expression was used to recall of Samuel when he was growing up under Eli the high priest. We read that the Lord did not let any of his words fall to the ground in 1 Samuel 319. everything came to pass that God gave him as a prophecy. So the eterneness of God’s law, we see Christ’s defense of the law against man-made mandates. The honor of God’s law was diligently defended doing Christ’s earthly ministry. He faithfully explained the actual meaning of the divine. commandments. That’s important for us to understand. If you look at the sermon in the mouth, you’ll see how the Lord clarified the commandments which were being undermined by the scribes and the Pharisees. He said this repeatedly. You have heard it said. And what he means by that, this is what is being taught by your your religious leaders. You’ve heard it say. But I say unto you, this is what the law actually teaches. And so he was giving the true meaning of the law against all the superficial interpretation of the scribes and the Pharisees. For example, thou shalt not kill in Matthew 5, 21, and 22. Thou shalt not commit adultery, Matthew 5, 27, and 28. thou shalt love thy neighbor, Matthew 541 to 44. That’s the law that he’s talking about. Often Christ opposed all man-made additions to the law because they had been devised by the scribes and the Pharisees. Consider the case of the Fourth Commandment regarding the Sabbath Day. You remember the Jews opposed being healed on the Sabbath Day. Oh, come some other day. That’s a work to be healed on the Sabbath day. And don’t satisfy your hunger by plucking any grain to eat. Why, that’s like harvesting. What Jesus showed it was lawful. To do good on the Sabbath by healing the sick, as we saw in Luke 14, 1 to 6. And to even snatch something to eat when you’re hungry. Luke 6, verse is 1 to 5. So against man-made mandates, Christ opposed these things. He was also against lowering the law’s standard. Men constantly attempt to weaken the law’s intention. There’s several examples that we find from the sermon on the mouth. The Lord gives a prime example of this in verse 8. of our texts on the subject of marriage and divorce that he mentions. And we’ll be looking at that in the near future, so I’m not going to spend any time on it. Lord willing, next week we’ll look at that verse. But you can see that these are all important things, and the people were undermining the law. Christ highly respected the law. He always magnified the law. law and made it honorable, even its ceremonial part, because the ceremonies were illustrative of the gospel and would be fulfilled to the letter. For example, the need of a mediator, the substitutionary sacrifice, the need for purity, to be holy as God is holy, for God’s forgiveness of sin. God’s regulated worship. All those things that we see in the law are still viable. Now, the moral law has a revelation of God’s mind, is perpetually binding on man in all ages. So Christ’s defense of the law. Now, you must defend the law also. say this we have to defend against those who would set it aside today professed believers are ignorant of the law’s teaching because they are not taught from the scriptures about it the Christian today is not obligated we’re told to keep the law that’s it’s often said. And therefore, they don’t have any understanding of the laws they should have. They don’t understand the justification, while by faith alone, the believers should also be guided by the moral law in his life. The law is holy, just, and good. Romans 7.12. Look with me at 1. Timothy, if you would. chapter 1 verses 5 to 8th first Timothy 1 5 to 8 now the end of the commandment is charity out of a pure heart There’s a summary of it and of a good conscience and a faith unfaimed from which some have swerved and have turned aside on the vain jangling Desiring to be teaches the law understanding neither what they say or whereof they are affirmed. But we know that the law is good if a man use it lawfully. And so we have the law. We have to use it lawfully, use it in its right context. The law is not put aside by the gospel. That’s what we want to emphasize. But all the commandments of the moral law are binding on the Christian today. Do we then make void the law? through faith, God forbid, Paul says. Yea, we establish the law. Romans 331. Bearing false witness is wrong. Look at Ephesians 4 in verse 25. Thou shalt not steal is wrong. Ephesians 4, verse 27. Honor your father and mother, Ephesians 6, verses 1 and 2. And there are numerous that are mentioned in Romans 3rd. mostly the second table of the law is mentioned and it’s summarized by well love your neighbor as yourself and that would fulfill all those obligations. Idols. 1 John 521 little children keep yourself some idols, it says and of course the Sabbath and we saw that in Luke 6th Revelation 1.10 we see John the Baptist or John the Apostle on the Lord’s Day, receiving a vision in Chapter 1. This shows us that these commandments are applied to the New Testament Christian, and therefore we need to obey them. In witnessing, it is often necessary to use the law to show people what sin is. what is sin? It’s transgression of the law. And so therefore, one of the ways in which we would reach out to others is to tell them what sin is. They have to know that. And then they need to know what the remedy is, which is, of course, in the gospel and it’s Jesus Christ. As Paul says in Romans 7-7, I had not known sin, but by the law. And so it’s necessary to have the use of the law. So against those who would set the law side, and we have a lot of people today that will tell you, oh, I don’t have anything to do with law. We don’t have to worry about the law. The law is not a way to salvation. The law is a guide for those who are sick on how to behave, how to act. Secondly, against those who would base salvation on obedience to the law, we have to oppose that. The Jews of Christ’s Day thought that they could earn heaven by being justified by keeping the law. So setting aside the righteousness of God, they sought to establish their own righteousness, as Romans 10 tells us. Today, men, believe the requirements of the law are lowered, lowered by the gospel, we’re told. And so the law’s demands can be met by your imperfect obedience. The spiritual reality of the law is not even considered. When I talk about the spirituality of the law, I’m saying that the law has an underlining principle that affects your thought, your inner life, and so forth. It’s not just the outward act that can violate the law of God. Lusting after a woman in your heart is adulter, as we hear in the Sermon on the Mount. Unjustified anger against a person is murder, according to the Sermon on the Mount. Justification before God is by faith, alone, in Christ alone, and therefore holy of grace, without the works of the law. We know that. I do not frustrate the grace of God, for if righteousness come by the law, then Christusiness is dead in vain. If you can earn your own righteousness, if you could earn your way to heaven, then you don’t need Christus. You could do it yourself. but the point is it’s vain for you to think that one. It’s impossible for you to earn your way to heaven. Well, the dignity of the law is to be maintained in every age, even during the kingdom of God, even during the Messiah’s kingdom. And you should defend the law as the New Testament belief. one, defend it against those who say we don’t need the law. We’re not obligated to obey it. We have to deal with that on one end. And on the other end, we have to deal with those who would say, oh, I can be saved by the law. We have to show that that is impossible. But as a Christian, we can obey what is pleasing before God, which is laid out for us in the law. and so this is what Christ says about his kingdom. I hope it is beneficial to you and I this morning. Let’s close with a word of prayer. Father, we do give you thanks, for you have been good to us. You have provided for our needs. We thank you for this word this morning, that we may be encouraged as we look at your law, not as in a legal manner as if we could obey it fully, but we come realizing this is a revelation of your will and what would be pleasing in your sight and that we would walk according to it, trusting in Christ for our salvation alone, but seeing, Father, this would be a way that we should walk and honor you in this life. Bless us all, Father, and encourage us in the Lord Jesus Christ, our Savior. In whose name we pray this morning. Amen. Let’s stand for the benediction. Now the Lord of Peace Himself give you peace, always by all means, the Lord be with you all. Amen.