"NOT.. . TO MAKE VOID, BUT TO FULFIL"
S.McCallum
I want to refer to this passage because of its importance in relation to our part and place in the testimony as taking our example, our pattern, from Christ. It is very easy to make things void; the Jews, the Pharisees and the Sadducees were very good at making things void, especially the words of Jesus. But the Lord says that He came not to make the law or the prophets void; and when He says 'the law' He is not referring exactly to the ten commandments (it may of course in a wider sense include them). He had not come to make the law or the prophets void; He says "I am not come to make void, but to fulfil". The Lord came to give the fulness of things. One of the finest notes that we have by Mr Darby in the New Testament is in relation to this, as it says: 'Give the fulness of. It is not to fulfil a command in the way of obedience, nor to complete another thing by adding to it; but to fill up some system sketched out, or that which is expressed in the thing fulfilled, as a whole. Thus the doctrine of the Church completed the word of God, made full what was expressed by it’.
Reference was made this morning to the expression 'fulness of Christianity'. It is a great matter that the ministry we are having should help us, each one of us as exercised, to follow the example of Christ in giving the fulness of Christianity, in giving the fulness of the Church, because we are in a day when there has been the tearing down of things and the making void of things; but it is important that every one of us should be concerned not to make void what is of God and has come from God, whether the law or the prophets. It is important in every locality that we represent that we should be set to give the fulness of Christianity, to be the expression of it.
Anyone who has read Luke's gospel may have noticed how much he uses the word 'fulfil'. Quite a number of times in the opening of his gospel he uses the word 'fulfil' or 'fulfilling'. Luke's ministry is to support the local assembly; the great burden and bearing of his ministry is how the local assembly is to be sustained and preserved. Therefore so much is made of priesthood in Luke's gospel. The first man of whom the word 'fulfilling' is used is Zacharias, and it says of him that he was fulfilling "the order of his course" (chap 1: 8) in priestly service. That is a wonderful thing as we apply it to ourselves, that every one of us should be fulfilling our service in a priestly way in the order of our course. We have what we call 'the morning meeting', we have the reading that follows, we have the preaching of the gospel, we have the prayer meeting on Monday night, we have a reading during the week, we have the ministry meeting and we have the care meeting. It is very important that we should correspond with the Lord in fulfilling what it is our part and lot to do in the way of our responsibilities in Christianity. It is a great thing to know that the fulness of Christianity should be set out, that we should make nothing void. You would not like to make void the prayer meeting; you would not like to make void the reading meeting, the meeting for ministry or the care meeting. The Lord came to give the fulness of things, and this is a great matter in a day of brokenness such as we are in, that we are not here to make things void. He gives us an example for youth, when He was twelve years old. His mother and His father - Joseph as supposed - spoke to Him about neglecting them, doing what He was doing in the temple, but He said "did ye not know that I ought to be occupied in my Father's business?" (chap 2: 49), or, as the note reads, 'to be in the things of my Father'. Think of that! twelve years old, and the Lord was giving the fulness of what He had come to do in that relation. Even when He was younger, the time of circumcision was being fulfilled, and the time of purification was being fulfilled. All these things are referred to in Luke's gospel as to the Lord's part and place in the testimony.
And Luke, too, treats of the personnel of the assembly - as we would apply it typically - men, women and young people. In the latter half of chapter 8 he shows how the Lord met the moral issues besetting each of these classes, and that is how the assembly is formed in localities. Therefore in all our localities, small as they may be, we need every one; we need the young, we need the old, we need the middle-aged. Thank God I can say about my own locality that we have 100 per cent attendance. You may say, Well, of course, you are only seven. It does not matter, seven is seven. There may be a night when the burden of homework has to be attended to - I am not referring to that - but it is a great thing that we should give the fulness of things in regard to our part and place in the assembly. This note of Mr Darby's refers to the doctrine of the Church and the completing of the word of God, making full what was expressed by it. We all want to be on this line. You sisters may think it is the brothers that take part, that it is not your responsibility, but sisters have a tremendous place in giving the fulness of things in the testimony in our localities. The brothers too, what a place they have in giving the fulness of things!
Well, dear brethren, let us be encouraged by this word in the assembly gospel; it is not in Mark, it is not in Luke, it is in the assembly gospel, where the Lord is with the testimony "until the completion of the age" (chap 28: 20), and He says he came not to make void the law. Oh, it is so easy to make things void; it is easy to reduce the effectiveness of things by what we do and what we say. In this section of the beatitudes, where the Lord goes over on the mount of legislation all that is proper, we might say, to Christianity, He draws attention to the difference between "Ye have heard that it has been said to the ancients" and "But I say unto you"; and in what the Lord says to us He is giving effect to the fulness of Christianity in the way we act towards God, in the way we act towards one another, and the way we fulfil our responsibility in what belongs to us in the testimony. As He says: "Think not that I am come to make void the law or the prophets; I am not come to make void, but to fulfil", or as it means, ‘to give the fulness of’.
Well, it is a wonderful thing, as we have had in these meetings, that we should get the fulness of things. The Lord has that in mind, and as we follow His example, that we may be affected by it, that we are not detracting from things, we are not negating things. The Lord did not come to negate the law or to negate the prophets; He knew the value of the revealed mind of God in whatever epoch it was, and He came to give the fulness of things. How much more when we come to the Acts, as we see the twelve, and Paul, how they gave the fulness of things, the fulness of Christianity in the opening out of the truth and of the practical care that there was for one another. Let us be encouraged by this word that the Lord uses in Matthew, in an area where He is giving out what is proper to principles according to God, what is proper to Christianity as we might say, and as we carry it through, let us not be on the line of making void things but giving the fulness of things, the fulness of our relations with one another, the fulness of what the ministry means, the fulness of the practice that is suited to the ministry, as becomes Christianity, for His Name’s sake.
TORONTO
12 October 1974