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Now let’s look at the account of Stephen, and we will see here is a perfect example of loving your enemy and praying for those that despitefully use you and persecute you, and in this case, kill you. Now let’s come to Acts 7. After he finished telling them the history, beginning back with Abraham, all the way down through Moses and the children of Israel, and Solomon, and so forth, verse 51, he says to the Sanhedrin - now notice, this is the official Jewish governing body - the ultimate. This is like going before the combination of Congress and the Supreme Court, and with the President sitting in the audience.

“Ye stiffnecked and uncircumcised in heart and ears, ye do always resist the Holy [Spirit] Ghost: as your fathers did, so do ye. Which of the prophets have not your fathers persecuted? and they have slain them which shewed before of the coming of the Just One; of Whom ye have been now the betrayers and murderers: who have received the law by the disposition of angels, and have not kept it” (Acts 7:51-53). Now when you tell Jews they haven’t kept the law, I mean, they come unglued.

Verse 54, “When they heard these things, they were cut to the heart, and they gnashed on him with their teeth. But he, being full the Holy [Spirit] Ghost, looked up steadfastly into heaven, and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing on the right hand of God,” Now He’s not - He wasn’t sitting at this time. He was standing, watching. Because this was a final warning to the Jews in Judea at that time, that unless they repented, everything was going. The city would be gone, their religion would be gone, their priesthood would be gone, everything would be destroyed. So this was quite a thing. So He was standing.

Now, question: how far away is the throne of God? If heaven is opened and he saw it, and Jesus standing on the right hand of God, it must be a whole lot closer than a lot of us have thought, right? Just because we can’t see it doesn’t mean it’s way, way out there... [Pause] Yeah. The question was, was this just a vision, or was this something that he actually saw happen? I’m sure he saw it happen, but I’m sure no one else saw it happen. But it’s just like when the young man - when Elisha told the young man, he said, “Those who are fighting for us are more than the enemy.” And he said, “Well, there’s me and there’s you, and who else?” And he said, “Lord, open his eyes that he may see.” And what did he see? He saw all the angelic host. So I’m sure that he saw it. Yes.

Verse 56, “And said, Behold, I see the heavens opened, and the Son of man standing on the right hand of God.” Now, you go back, and if you’re a Jew in opposition to him, you think of Daniel 7, where you see One like the Son of man coming to the Ancient of days, you see. And so all you can do is just what they did. “Then they cried out with a loud voice, and stopped their ears, and ran upon him with one accord.” So he caused a riot. “And cast him out of the city, and stoned him: and the witnesses laid down their clothes at a young man’s feet, whose name was Saul. And they stoned Stephen, calling upon God…” or that is, who calling upon God, “…and saying, Lord Jesus receive my spirit. And he kneeled down, and cried with a loud voice, Lord, lay not this sin to their charge.” Now if that's not praying for your enemies and those that hate you, persecute you, and despitefully use you, I don’t know what is. A perfect example of that. “…And when he had said this, he fell asleep” (vs. 56-60).

Now then, someone must have been praying for Saul. Because - in the next chapter, what happens? Well, galloping down the road to Damascus, and all this sudden, bingo - he’s kicked off his donkey. And he is blinded. And converted. And God had great purpose for it. Saul, who became Paul.

Now let’s come back to Matthew 5, and let’s see what is the purpose of bringing the law to a higher spiritual standard. Now here’s the reason why God says to do so. Now you can just put in your notes or your margin, John 3:16. The reason that we are is because we are to become like the Father. That’s why. “Because God so loved the world that He…” what? “…gave His only begotten Son that…” what? “…that whosoever believes on Him should not perish but have everlasting life” (John 3:16, paraphrased). And because God has not called the enemy does not mean that we should not pray for them.

Because, “That ye may be the children of your Father which is in heaven.” That is the reason. “…For He maketh His sun to rise on the evil and on the good…” The sun is going rise in the morning on everybody who's evil and everybody is good. “…And sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust. For if ye love them which love you, what reward have ye? do not even the publicans [tax collectors – that’s who publicans are] the same? And if ye salute your brethren only, what do ye more than others? do not even the publicans so?” (vs. 45-47).

Now notice verse 48. Here is the goal of it, of filling the law to the full, that you “Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect.” Now is that a high standard or not? Yes, it is. A very high standard. So that’s what it means to fill the law full.

Now let’s come back here to Matthew 5 again, and let’s come to verse 19. “Whosoever therefore shall break one of these least commandments, and shall teach men so, he shall be called the least in the kingdom of heaven: but whosoever shall do and teach them, the same shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven. For I say unto you, That except your righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, ye shall in no case enter into the kingdom of heaven.” Why? Because you are not keeping the law to its fullest spiritual standard.

Now if you try to do all of these things motivated just from a carnal physical point of view, as I wrote in the letter, which you will see which is called “Command and Control,” we are to have love and obedience. We are to love God and keep His commandments. That’s different than command and control. And you can read the letter and find out why.

Now let’s look at another aspect of fulfilling which is different than to “fill the law to the full” in certain ways. In one aspect it is filling the law to the full. In another aspect is completing a certain section of the law. Now then, let’s look at the thing concerning circumcision. Since we’ve gone through “The Circumcision Wars” here, let’s come to Romans 2. Since you’ve been studying Romans, you’ve just gone through some of this.

Romans 2:25, “For circumcision verily profiteth, if thou keep the law: but if thou be a breaker of the law, thy circumcision is made uncircumcision. Therefore if the uncircumcision keep the righteousness of the law [which is to be fulfilled in us, Romans 8:4], shall not his uncircumcision be counted for circumcision? And shall not uncircumcision which is by nature, if it fulfill the law, judge thee, who by the letter and circumcision dost transgress the law? For he is not a Jew, which is one and outwardly; neither is that circumcision, which is outward in the flesh: but he is a Jew, which is one inwardly; and circumcision is that of the heart, in the spirit, and not in the letter; whose praise is not of men, but of God” (Rom. 2:25-29).

Which is harder? To have circumcision of the flesh, or circumcision of the mind? The mind. So He completed - and let’s come back here to Deuteronomy 10, which is a prophecy of circumcision of the heart. When you read these verses you will understand that these are, these have New Testament requirements. Deuteronomy 10:12, “And now, Israel [you can just put your name there], what doth the LORD thy God require of thee, but to fear the LORD thy God, to walk in all His ways, and to love Him, and to serve the LORD thy God with all thy heart and with all thy soul,” You see, this is really New Testament requirement here.

“To keep the commandments of the LORD, and His statutes, which I command thee this day for thy good? Behold, the heaven and the heaven of heavens is the LORD’S thy God, the earth also, with all that therein is. Only the LORD had a delight in thy fathers to love them, and He chose their seed after them, even you above all people, as it is this day” (vs. 13-15). Now let’s think of that in relationship to the church, and let’s think of that in relationship to your calling. Because God the Father Himself is the one who has called you. I mean, think of that. God the Father has reached down in your life to call you. That’s why you’re here. That’s why God has His people. So that’s a profound thing to understand, that God would do that. And in the light of that, then, you see, God has a great and marvelous purpose for all of us as revealed in His Holy Days and so forth.

But notice, verse 16. Here is the requirement for us. “Circumcise therefore the foreskin of your heart, and be no more stiff necked.” So this is a call for conversion. So this is really a prophecy of the circumcision of the heart. God could command them to do it and there would be certain people who would become tender hearted enough, like Josiah, that could do it. But they only did it with the assistance of God. Now verse 17, “For the LORD thy God is God of gods, and Lord of lords, a great God, a mighty, and a terrible, which regardeth not persons, nor taketh a reward:” So is that something?

“He doth execute the judgment of the fatherless and widow, and loveth the stranger, in giving him food and raiment. Love ye therefore the stranger: for ye were strangers in the land of Egypt. Thou shalt fear the LORD thy God; and shalt thou serve, and to Him shalt thou cleave, and swear by His name. He is thy praise, and He is thy God, that hath done for thee these great and terrible things, which thine eyes have seen” (vs. 18-21). And God has done great an awesome things in calling us.

Now you see, this is the way that you’re able to really come to an attitude of humility in knowing that God the Father Himself has personally called you. This is not to exult us in a carnal way so that we think, “Oh how great I am! God the Father had to call me.” See, no - it’s the other way around. How great and marvelous that God is, that He would reach down into each of our individual lives and call us. Therefore this is to help us love God even more, and to bring us to a proper attitude of mind of humility, you see. Because it says the one who exalts himself shall be abased, but he that humbles himself shall be exalted, you see. And the way you humble yourself is how? By seeing the greatness of God. By seeing His love, His grace, His mercy, you see. And that humbles you. And that’s what so fantastic about it, and that is the true whole operation, or the effect, rather, of the circumcision of the heart.

So circumcision has been fulfilled in the letter of the law. Now let’s look at the spiritual circumcision - Colossians 2. Spiritual circumcision is a higher standard because it means that you are going to have your mind converted. Let’s see how this is done. Let’s begin here in verse 6. Now if you haven’t gone through the series on Colossians, by all means write for it, and that will help you understand it. And just realize this: ninety-nine times out of a hundred when Protestants explain something to do away with the laws of God, no one understand that it's the exact opposite of what they say. Now if you just realize that, you’ll be able to understand the word of God even more.

Colossians 2:6, “As ye have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk ye in him: Rooted and built up in Him…” Now notice - it’s not rooted up and built up in the church, it’s not rooted up and built up in the ministry, you see. It is rooted and built up in Him.

Hold your place here and come to Ephesians 3, just a couple pages over. And what does it mean to be rooted and built up in Him? Ephesians 3:17, “That Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith; that ye, being rooted and grounded and love…” So if you’re rooted and grounded in love, and you’re rooted and built up in Him - now to be “built up” means to be edified. And that’s where teaching comes in.

That’s why what we do and what I do is different than preaching. It doesn’t mean that I cannot have emotion or passion about it, because I do. It doesn’t mean that I cannot have conviction and power in what I’m preaching, because I do. But it means that the brethren are to be built up. In other words, everything that we do is to teach you to be built up and be built closer to Christ. That’s what God wants. He doesn’t want numbers. Look what happened when David said, “Well, you know, I'm going to number Israel.” Joab said, “Look, you don't need to do that. God will fight your battles.” “No, go number them.” When we start looking and counting on numbers, then we will find ourselves under the same penalty that David did.

But if each individual is taught that you have a direct relationship between you and God, and there’s no man between you, and each individual is taught how to have that relationship with God, then it’s going to be, what you say in modern terminology, internalized. Meaning, it becomes a part of you. See, you don’t keep the commandments because they are here written in a book. You keep the commandments because they are here written in your mind and in your heart. That’s the whole purpose of it, you see. Built up. It’s for the edification of the Church.

Colossians 2:7, “…And stablished in the faith, as ye have been taught, abounding therein with thanksgiving.” Now, Worldwide did not heed verse 8. “Beware lest a certain man named Stavrinides spoil you through philosophy.” [Laughs] I added the names in there because it says, “Don’t let anyone deceive you.” Verse 8, “…Spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ” (vs. 7-8). You see, what we’re learning what to do here is how to overcome by the power of Christ and His word, rather than make yourself a better person by the rudiments of the world.

“For in Him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily. And ye are complete in Him, which is the head of all principality and power: in Whom also ye are circumcised…” Now here we come to circumcision, you see. Now notice all things that he is saying leading up to this, because all of these things are the result of the circumcision of the heart. “In whom also ye are circumcised with the circumcision made without hands, in putting off the body of the sins of the flesh by the circumcision of Christ” (vs. 9-11).

Now here is how the circumcision of Christ takes place. “Buried with Him in baptism…” And you can just put in your margin Romans 6, because it talks all about if you are buried into Christ you are buried into His death. “…Wherein also ye are risen with Him through the faith of the operation of God [that is, to walk in newness of life], who hath raised Him from the dead” (vs.12). So that is the circumcision of the heart. When you are baptized you bury your sins, you are co-joined into the death of Jesus Christ, you are raised out of that watery grave to walk in newness of life, you have now made a covenant unto God to walk in His ways, to love Him and serve Him. And He will convert your heart and mind, which then, begins with the laying on of hands after baptism to receive the Holy Spirit.

Now, is circumcision of the heart a greater thing than of the flesh? We already said yes. Now it’s the same way as we’ve seen with the keeping of the commandments. Now let’s see what else He has done. Let’s come to the book of Hebrews. Now we find that the priesthood has been changed. So He brought the operation and the works of the priesthood with all of their rituals and all of their sacrifices to completion. By instead of having the priesthood of Aaron - let’s come here to chapter 5. Instead of having a priesthood of men, He now is the High Priest of everyone. He is Melchizedek. So we have a greater priesthood, don’t we? The ministry is not a priesthood. The ministry is to serve the brethren to perfect them.

So it talks about every high priest, verse 1, “…taken from among men is ordained for men in things pertaining to God, that he may offer both gifts and sacrifices for sins: who can have compassion on the ignorant, and on them that are out of the way; for that he himself also is compassed with infirmity [or that is, weaknesses]. And by reason hereof he ought, as for the people, so also for himself, to offer for sins. And no man taketh this honor unto himself, but he that is called of God, as was Aaron” (Heb. 5:1-4).

Now then, the priesthood was changed in two ways: when Christ became our High Priest. Let’s come to chapter 7:20. “And inasmuch as not without an oath He was made priest: (For those priests were made without an oath…)…” Now you see, Christ was made a priest forever after the order of Melchizedek by an oath from God, whereas Aaron was just selected. There was no oath. “…But this [that is, Melchizedek] with an oath by Him that said unto Him, the LORD swear and will not repent, Thou art a priest for ever after the order of Melchizedek)” (Heb. 7:20-21). That’s a higher priesthood. That is a spiritual priesthood. The other one was a physical priesthood for physical offerings of animals and meal offerings and drink offerings and all of that. That has been brought to a completion. Ended. So when it says that when Christ said He came to fulfill law, some of them He brought to completion. And they are no longer required, but when He brought - note this carefully - when He brought the physical to completion. He replaced it with a higher spiritual standard, just like He did the commandments and laws of God, He gave them a higher spiritual standard.

Now we have a priesthood after the order of Melchizedek. Now let’s come to chapter 8:1, “Now of the things which we have spoken this is the sum: We have such an high priest, Who is set on the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in the heavens…” Now that’s a far higher place, isn’t it, than having a priest go into the Holy of Holies once a year with the blood of animals, right? Yes. “A minister of the sanctuary, and of the true tabernacle, which the Lord pitched, and not man” (Heb. 8:1-2). And then he talks about what men have to do.

Let’s come to chapter 9:11, “But Christ being come an high priest of good things to come, by a greater and more perfect tabernacle, not made with hands, that is to say, not of this building; neither by the blood of goats and calves, but by His own blood He entered in once into the holy place, having obtained eternal redemption for us” (Heb. 9:11-12). Is not the blood of Christ greater than the blood of bulls and goats and animals and heifers? Yes it is. Because it redeems us from all sin.

“For if the blood of bulls and of goats, and the ashes of an heifer sprinkling the unclean, sanctifieth to the purifying of the flesh…” (vs. 13). Now let’s understand the difference between being sanctified at the temple by the things of animal sacrifices and the ashes of heifer. They were never justified to God the Father in heaven above. They were only justified to the temple. That was it. They were accepted as forgiven in the flesh at the temple, and they could have confidence that God forgave their sins through that operation of the Old Covenant under the terms of the Old Covenant, but the forgiveness of those sins was not the same as it is for us today who have forgiveness through the blood of Christ, which is an eternal forgiveness. This was to the purifying of the flesh.

Now verse 14 makes it clear. “How much more shall the blood of Christ [compared to the blood of goats and calves], Who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without spot to God, purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?” So if you’re just purified in the flesh outwardly, it hasn’t changed your mind. But if you are purified by the blood of Jesus Christ and receive the Spirit of God, then it purges your conscience, which is what you need. Not only does God forgive your sins and doesn’t remember them any longer, you also need to ask God to purge them out of your mind and not relive them again and go around with a guilty conscience. A lot of people give their own personal carnal sacrifice of a guilty conscience because somehow they feel that if they have a guilty conscience that God will forgive them more. Nonsense. When you repent of it, you repent of it. You learn the lesson from it and go forward. If you continue to have a guilty conscience over it, then ask God to help you learn the lesson and purge it out of your mind and out of your conscience. Catholicism, Judaism, Protestantism - in some cases, not all - want you to have a guilty conscience to control you by fear. God does not want that. He wants your conscience to be purged.

So therefore, He is the… let’s come over here to verse 22. “And almost all things are by the law purged with blood; and without shedding of blood is no remission. It was therefore necessary that the patterns of things in the heavens should be purified with these…” which is the blood of Christ. No - the pattern of things in heaven, that’s the Tabernacle on the earth, should be purified with these, which is the animal sacrifices. Excuse me. “…But the heavenly things themselves with better sacrifices than these. For Christ is not entered into the holy places made with hands, which are the figures of the true; but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us…” (vs. 22-24).

Now that is a higher priesthood, isn't it? Yes it is. So when He brought to completion the priesthood and the animal sacrifices, He put in place His own sacrifice, which is higher and greater; and He becomes the High Priest, which is higher and greater; and we pray to God the Father in heaven above, right into the Holy of Holies, which is higher and greater than going to the Wailing Wall and rocking back and forth like an idiot and stuffing little pieces of paper in between the stones. That’s how far their prayers go. Into a crack and a rock.

Now then, when that happens, here is the result of that, verse 16 of chapter 10. “This is the covenant that I will make with them after those days, saith the Lord, I will put My laws into their hearts, and in their minds I will write them;”

Now then, everything is done by faith, because you believe God; by grace, because you’ve been put under that umbrella of grace, that God loves you, has called you, is with you, has given His Spirit, forgives your sins, constantly forgives your sins as you come to Him and repent. And that’s continuous by the operation of grace. Now we believe the Bible where it says that we are justified by the blood of Christ. Nothing else can do it because we’re dealing with a higher standard.

So when Christ said, “I came not to destroy the law but to fulfill,” He fulfilled it in two ways: to bring it to a higher standard with the full spiritual intent and meaning, and to bring the physical priesthood, and the physical rituals, and the physical circumcision to an end, and replace that with a higher standard. So that’s how He fulfilled the law.

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