Application of Old Testament Law in New Testament Age

I want to continue with a topic that I began. Actually, it was as a result of a number of questions came in in Gavsden at one of the Bible studies we did as a part of the weekly Sabbath. There were a number of questions that came regarding Old Testament laws and how they apply today. Then, in the local Bible studies here at Madison and then down in Gavsden, we addressed the topic of showing that the Ten Commandments were in force prior to the events of Sinai. Again, there are statements made where it's obvious that it is an area that is misunderstood. And it does seem that the topic is something that keeps coming back, and I thought I would continue with that today and actually after the feast come back for another look at a part of this vast topic. When we begin talking about the law, we remember that the Apostle John is the one who wrote, God is love. Love is the word that defines who and what God is, how He acts, how He, well, the two members have interfaced with each other for eternity, and it defines how God wants us to act toward God but also toward fellow man. So, if we start with that statement, and also as far as the law, the Apostle Paul said the law is just and holy and good, or I have those not in the right order, holy and just and good is the way it says. But let's go to Romans chapter 13.

Romans 13, and this focuses on law and love and what is stated here.

Romans 13, and let's just notice verse 10. Verse 10, love does no harm to a neighbor. And that is quite a mouthful right there. Quite a statement about love, that in our wake we don't leave people hurting and abused. It does no harm to a neighbor. Therefore, love is the fulfillment of the law.

So, if we start with the word love, which is the fulfillment of the law, then we want to break it down a little more, and let's go to Matthew 22.

And this is the story where Jesus was asked, what is the great commandment? And we see that in His answer, He actually said there are two.

So here, the word love is broken down into two aspects, two overall principles.

Matthew 22, verse 36. Teacher, which is the great commandment in the law?

Jesus said to him, You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the first and great commandment. So, in verse 37, He is actually quoting from back in Deuteronomy. It appears more than once, but Deuteronomy 6, verse 5, as an example. Verse 39, and the second is like it, You shall love your neighbor as yourself. Which actually is a quotation from Leviticus 19, verse 18. On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets. The law and the prophets was a phrase that generally referred to the entire Old Testament scriptures.

So, He breaks it down into two aspects, two principles. There is love to God, and there is love to fellow man, love to neighbor. Now, as we look a little further, we find that it is further defined by ten separate commandments that we will get to in just a little bit. I want to focus on, for a little while, the fact that it seems that in the time of the first century, and it's true to this day, there generally are two camps of people with respect to how they view the law of God. Back in the first century, you had those who were moving through the church trying to sweep away the law. We have that today. A term that, if you look in commentaries very much, a term that is used is antinomians. You have your basic Greek word in the New Testament that's translated as law, is nomos. So, the antinomians are those who are against the law. So, that's one camp, or should we say, one extreme ditch. And we have that to this day, don't we? I mean, the bulk of the Christian world around us takes the approach that the law was swept away, or that it was nailed to the cross, and all that we have is what was reiterated, repeated in the New Testament. And that's, in a nutshell, the basic approach that so many take. Now, we have the other opposite camp.

If you read commentaries about the first century, you had certain ones moving through the church. And a classic example of that would be in Acts 15. You could just make a note of Acts 15, verse 1, because that's what led to the Jerusalem Conference. In some of the Jewish, excuse me, the Gentile churches, you had some of the Jewish Christians coming through, and the statement was made that, except you are circumcised after the manner of Moses, you cannot be saved. And so, that led to the whole discussion, and where it came out, and the answer was that, no, circumcision, physical circumcision, is not necessary. So, you can say there was a change, an alteration of that law. There is spiritual circumcision that we probably won't focus on today, but the first time that I'm back here with you after the feast, we'll look a bit more at that. So, the term used for this group is the Judaizers. They wanted to bring people back under some areas of the law that were clearly figurative, or that pointed toward the sacrifice of Christ, and with Christ's sacrifice, those symbolic aspects of the law were superseded, rendered null and void. And we have that to this day. Just like they had Judaizers then, we have movements within the Church of God. We have Messianic Judaism. We have some who are into the Hebrew roots movements, and different teachings are that we need to go back and wear fringes and learn Hebrew and some of those things. So, we do have those two extremes, and we want to find a balance.

It is a Jewish tradition, and you can look it up online, that it was concluded that there are 613 laws that were given in the Old Testament. You may have heard that term before, but 613 laws. And you can go online and find lists of those. And again, there are those who say we need to go back and live under every one of those. We need to wear fringes, and we need to go back to all kinds of laws. But we're called to the New Covenant Church. And in this day and age, the law is being written on our hearts, and it's being placed in our minds. The reality is, many laws in the Old Testament were figurative. They were symbolic. Many were intended to be temporary and ended with the death of Christ. Many were temporary and ended with the destruction of the Holy Place. And some are spoken of in the New Testament, as we'll see a little later today, simply. They were changed. Laws of tithing were changed. I didn't say done away with. Laws about the priesthood were changed. We went back to the previous eternal priesthood of Melchizedek.

Let's go to Leviticus 26. Leviticus 26.

And here we are. We are well into the Pentateuch, or the Torah, the five books of Moses.

And we had a story that began with Israel being led to Sinai. They arrived.

They entered a covenant with God, the Sinai Covenant, the Old Covenant. It's referred to by different names. The National Covenant with Israel. But they entered that covenant. And, of course, Israel said, all the Lord has spoken, we will do. And it was a marriage-type covenant. There was a proposal. There was an acceptance. They entered a covenant, and God gave them the Ten Commandments. God gave them judgments. Exodus 21, verse 1. Now these are the judgments. From time to time, He gave statutes. And these are all categories of law. And, of course, we have events that take place where Israel broke the agreement. The problem was not in the law. God has never given a bad law. Every law that is in the Bible, even if it was only figurative, is still there for our benefit in learning. There's so much, so many details, say, in the law that had to do with burnt offerings, or the grain offerings. So many details that are instructive to us, but they simply don't apply in the way they did during the Sinai Covenant.

We find that laws were added. You could make a note of Jeremiah 7, verses 22 and 23. I'm not going to go there at this time. We'll probably focus on it more after the feast. Jeremiah 7, verses 22 and 23 were... Jeremiah was inspired to write that God did not speak to them regarding offerings and sacrifices in the day that He brought them out of Egypt. Those came along later.

Now, Leviticus 26, let's just read verse 46. Kind of a summary statement in the second to the last chapter of Leviticus. Leviticus is where all of the laws that pertain to the Levitical service were given. Verse 46, these are the statutes and judgments and laws which the Lord made between Himself and the children of Israel on Mount Sinai by the hand of Moses. So, statutes, judgments, laws. Let's begin with laws. Certainly, the Ten Commandments would fall in this category. And let me pause to make an advertisement for a booklet. You know, they do that on the world tomorrow. Some of those names just don't go away, do they? Beyond Today. Yes, Beyond Today. But, 100 and whatever it is, 59 pages in this booklet, The New Covenant, does it abolish God's law? And I've recently just poured over it again and again and marked it up and underlined. And most of our questions are answered in this booklet. They wade through areas of Hebrews. They wade through areas of Romans. They wade through areas of Galatians. Those are three of the big areas where, you know, as Peter said, Paul writes some things that are hard to understand. There is so much here if we will just go to it. Now, on pages 20 and 21 in this booklet, there is a box on the bottom half that focuses on God's law, statutes, and judgments. And I'm not going to try to read it from that font. I have it in a larger font in my notes. And there are, there's a little bit written on these three categories that, I'm probably not the only one that needs larger font, though. There are these categories, and let's see what is written here. We begin with commandments.

And again, this is from this booklet, the box at the bottom of pages 20 and 21. The Hebrew word translated law is Torah. When used with the definite article, in other words, when we say the law or the law, it refers either to law in general or to some specific aspect of law. It often refers to the entire body of law that God gave to the people of Israel.

Torah carries the broader meaning of teachings, especially when used without the definite article. Sometimes, when used so broadly, the word even appears to imply the entire body of revealed instruction contained in the Old Testament Scriptures. So, we're going to start with, as we did earlier, the word love. It's broken down by two great commandments. That is further broken down by ten commandments, the first four. Focus our minds on how God wants us to show love to Him. The fifth commandment is actually kind of a hinge commandment because we are to honor our Heavenly Father, but we are also to honor our physical parents as well.

And then, the latter commandments very clearly define how to love fellow man. If you love a person, you won't steal. You won't covet what they have. You won't desire their spouse. So, it breaks down love toward human beings. Now, the ten commandments, and I am assuming today we don't need to turn back there and enumerate them again, but the ten commandments, as given at Sinai, gave the letter of the law. And the letter of the law is great, but it's only a beginning of what is included in that law. But at the time they were given, God said, you shall not murder.

Now, if you just strictly take the letter, it doesn't say you can't beat the stuffing out of him.

But Jesus made it abundantly clear in the Sermon on the Mount. But I say unto you, it's the whole attitude you have toward someone else.

Another law is, you shall not commit adultery. And yet, if you just take the letter of what those words say, it leaves a lot of open field out there. But Jesus made it abundantly clear. You don't look at someone else's spouse with desire. The Proverbs made it clear. Solomon did learn a few things by the mistakes he made, and he's the one that wrote, Be ravished in love all your life with your own wife. So, the letter, there's more to them. But for ancient Israel, a carnally-minded people, a stiff-necked, hard-headed people, without the Spirit of God, that was where God started. And Isaiah prophesied Messiah would come, and He would magnify the law. He would put a lot more into the law, because when He came, and the Sermon on the Mount, He took one commandment after another, and He expanded it, and put so much more in. Now, with the commandments, we do find them in existence the Garden of Eden. They were already around. They are spiritual. They are eternal.

A little bit down the line, God, your Cain and Abel came and gave offerings, and one was accepted, and one was not, and God went to Cain, and He said, If you do not do well, sin lies at the door. That's a long time before the events of Sinai. Sin was around. Now, in the book of Romans, some of these things we touched on in the local Bible study, but in the book of Romans, it makes it clear that sin is the wages of sin is death. And in chapter 4, Paul said, death reigned from Adam to Moses. There are plenty of dots that can be connected to show that the law was in force. The commandments were there from the beginning. You can find practically every one of them in the chapters of Genesis up until they got to Sinai. The Sabbath in Genesis 2, the Sabbath in Exodus 16 when God gave the manna. And it turned out to be 40 years of this weekly cycle of six days pick up manna, don't get any the seventh day, the sixth day, get twice as much, and it'll keep over.

Now, commandments, laws. We find them with Old Testament Israel. We find them throughout the age of Israel, the days of the Sinai covenant. We find them continuing with the New Testament Church of God, what is called the Israel of God. And we have prophecies such as, you may hear at the feast, the prophecy that speaks of the law shall go forth from Zion.

Well, statutes. Let's focus on that word a little bit. There are laws, commandments, there are statutes. Now, again, from the booklet, pages 2021, it says the word statutes refers to a specific type of laws. As the English translation of the Hebrew words chok or chokah, the word statute refers to an authoritative enactment, decree, or ordinance. It says, biblical statutes may set appointed times. Now, let's pause from reading right there. If you go to Leviticus 23, where it is listing the Holy Days one after another, generally toward the end of the instruction given, it will say, this is a statute forever, throughout your generations. Holy days, or these set appointed times, are statutes. Then, continuing from the booklet, such as sacred festivals, define important customs, and even establish the manner or procedure by which certain vital matters are to be handled. They reveal God's thinking and reflect His priorities. They are crucially instructive as divine principles for righteous behavior. I believe it would be accurate to say that statutes can be viewed as laws that further break down and define commandments. They place them in more understandable terms.

Tithing is a statute. Now, the second great command was to love your neighbor as yourself. Tithing, as a statute, can further break that down because it provides a system whereby the materials of the truth of God can be given out far and wide to people. That's really the ultimate showing of love, is to give them some of the keys where they might find, if God's calling them, the Pearl of Great Price. Tithing is a statute. Healing is called a statute. Holy Days are statutes. I've heard it said, and I believe there's a lot to it, that Holy Days further break down the overall Sabbath commandment. Break it down into smaller pieces. Something to think about and ponder there. The Levitical priesthood under Aaron was established as a statute, but that is one that we will find was rendered null and void.

God, as a lawgiver, can give laws. He can then change or nullify or alter the application of His own laws that He gives. Then we read the word judgments. From, again, the box there on pages 2021 in the booklet, judgments are decisions handed down by judges to explain, broaden, or narrow the application of existing law. To ensure that human judges would have meaningful guidelines and precedents to follow in exercising their judicial responsibilities, God provides examples of how He judges in the Scriptures. God's judgments illustrate how righteous decisions should be made according to the principles revealed in His laws and statutes. He instructs all judges who are responsible for making judgments, not covered specifically in the Torah.

In controversy, they shall stand as judgment, judges, and judge it according to my judgments. They shall keep my laws and my statutes. That's from Ezekiel 44 verse 24. He also tells them, you shall do no injustice in judgment. You shall not be partial to the poor, nor honor the person of the mighty. In righteousness, you shall judge your neighbor. So, judgments are legal precedents. If you, in fact, let's go back to, I referred to Exodus 21. Let's just go there. This is the chapter immediately following where the Ten Commandments were given. Exodus 21 verse 1. Now these are the judgments. Marge will note the ordinances. Sometimes you will find that word used as the translation from Hebrew into English. The judgments which you shall set before them. And then, if you would scan through this chapter in the next, it discusses a variety of topics, such as slavery and not beating a servant. It will discuss violence. It didn't say to a carnal, people don't fight. It just gave guidance that, you know, fight fairly. So, judgments are legal precedents. And we have that in our system today, in our American judicial system. At least in theory, we are a country based on the rule of law. And I think, once upon a time, we largely were. We are becoming less and less so. But there still are laws. And oftentimes, when a case would come before a judge or a group of judges, they might take previous legal precedents to quote as they rendered their decision on a given case. So, view judgments as being these legal precedents for how to apply it in average, everyday life. It breaks down commandments even more. For instance, one of the Ten Commandments said, you cannot commit adultery. And then in the statute, you find statements about some of the most disgusting things like intimacy with animals. So, it further broke down what the commandment had stated. Let's go to Matthew chapter 5.

And again, we remember that the Ten Commandments were given according to the letter of the law. Israel couldn't understand anything more than that. The New Testament often magnifies that same law to include the broader spiritual intent behind every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.

In Matthew 5 verse 17, this is about as close as we get to a doctrinal statement by Jesus on the topic of law, and it's pretty plain. Think not, and yet this is exactly what the majority around us do tend to think. Do not think that I came to destroy the law or the prophets. I did not come to destroy but to fulfill. And that word, fulfill, if you look it up, carries a meaning of to fill to the very brim, to put more into it, to fill to the full. He came to take law and put more into it, as Isaiah had prophesied that he would magnify the law.

Now, let's talk here about not one jot or tittle passing away until all is fulfilled. He talks about verse 19, whoever breaks one of these commandments and teaches men so shall be called least in the kingdom. Let's skip on down. Verse 20, he says that your righteousness has to exceed the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, because there were a lot of times when he came into confrontation with the scribes and Pharisees where they obviously didn't see the spirit. They couldn't see the spiritual intent because all they looked at was the letter of the law. They couldn't understand the intention behind the words. Verse 21 is an example of how it is magnified. You have heard that it was said to those of old, you shall not murder, and whoever murders shall be in danger of the judgment. But I say to you, so often he draws that contrast. It has been written, and I'm now saying, whoever is angry with his brother without a cause shall be in danger of the judgment. So he includes uncontrolled anger as breaking the spiritual intention of the law against murder. He is emphasizing that we are now coming under the spirit of the law, which is far more inclusive. Verse 27, you have heard that it was said to those of old, you shall not commit adultery, but I say to you that whoever looks at a woman to lust for her has already committed adultery with her in his heart. And that pretty much covers the industry called pornography out there today. Because, as we realize, men, more so, are interested visually, and for a man to see, then the mind generally takes it and runs. And it, somewhere very quickly, breaks the commandment of not committing adultery, and of being faithful to one's own spouse.

Well, there are many other examples that we could go to. I would like to go with you to Hebrews chapter 7. Let's spend a bit of time here, because more than once it makes a statement, this brings about a change in the law. Now, the book of Hebrews, we don't know who the author is. It is not signed. However, the old King James says that Paul the Apostle is the author. I tend to, that's kind of my personal conclusion. There's a lot of evidence. It's the way it's written. The arguments, the way the material is handled, it speaks of Paul.

Paul's name would have been a turnoff to any Jewish Christian at that time, or Jews in general. But it was written in the early 60s, dated to around 6062 AD, maybe a little later. But it was before the Jewish revolt. A little later in the 60s, you get from the mid 60s, the Jews revolted against Rome.

And that led to the Romans sending the armies under Vespasian and beginning to encircle the city. And then, well, different story, but an emperor died and a couple others in quick secession were emperors, and they called Vespasian to come back to become the emperor. So they pulled back to Alexandria, Egypt, and then later under Vespasian's son Titus, the Roman legions came again. And so, as you get to 68, 69, 70, that's where the chokehold is being placed around Jerusalem and around that remnant of Judah who were there.

And in 70 AD, the temple was destroyed. And a lot of the reason for writing the book of Hebrews is to explain there are some changes coming about. There are some changes that have already been made. We actually had a transition age from 31 AD when Christ died until 70 AD when you had the city and the temple destroyed. You had no holy place, and there has been no holy place since that time. Many years ago in a refresher program at Pasadena, I remember Dr. Hay commenting on that transition period how at that time, a Jewish Christian could have given tithes to the local Levite, or they could have tithed to the local minister of the church of God because you still had a functioning Levitical priesthood.

And then, of course, it became a moot point after the destruction of that temple. I'm going to shift to the old King James now for a bit. So it may read, come out a little differently, but let's start in Revelation 7. Hebrews 7, verse 1. For this Melchizedek, he had just referred to him in the previous verse, end of chapter 6. For this Melchizedek, king of Salem, priest of the Most High God, who met Abraham, returning from the slaughter of the kings and blessed him. Now, we remember the story from back in Genesis 14.

The five kings from up in Mesopotamia, Catilah, Elmer, and various ones came down, and they actually took a lot of plunder, but they took lot, and Abraham got his servants together and went back and freed them. When he returned with all the plunder, he went and paid tithes. And that's long before the Sinai covenant. Tithing predates the Sinai covenant. Tithing continues, therefore, after the Sinai covenant. Tithing is spoken of in this chapter, that as the priest says the Levites had a commandment to take tithes, that law is still there.

We just have a different priesthood. And so, it's interesting here that Melchizedek blessed Abraham, to whom Abraham gave a tenth part of all, first being by interpretation king of righteousness, the meaning of the name, Melchizedek, and after that also king of Salem, which is king of peace.

Now, notice the wording in verse 3, and we begin to realize where the author is going, and this is not just some human priest way back when in the 1800s BC, without father, without mother, without descent. So, we've ruled out any human being already, having neither beginning of days nor end of life, but made like unto the Son of God, abides a priest continually. Now, any Levitical priest would have had a genealogy to be able to prove that he was of the Aaronic line within the tribe of Levi.

All priests were Levites, but not all Levites were priests. Now, consider how great this man was. Melchizedek, unto whom even the patriarch Abraham gave the tenth of the spoils, and verily they that are of the sons of Levi, who receive the office of the priesthood. So, again, you have Levi, but only those who were of the lineage of Aaron were of the priests, have a commandment to take tithes of the people according to the law, that is, of their brethren, though they come out of the loins of Abraham.

The tribe of Levi was given no physical land inheritance. They were to serve there at the tabernacle tenth, later the temple, and the rest of the tribes of Israel would tithe to provide for the service of the tabernacle, but also provide for the tribe of Levi.

But he, Melchizedek, whose descent is not counted from them, the Levites, received tithes of Abraham and blessed him that had the promises.

And without all contradiction, the less is blessed of the better. Melchizedek the greater blessed the lesser Abraham. And here men that die receive tithes. Though here on the earth, from that time when those laws were given in Numbers 18, all the way across the ages, continuing into this transition period, men that die received tithes, but there he received them of whom it is witness that he lives. There's no record of the death of Melchizedek. It's just in passing. He's referred to, back in Genesis, and then he's referred to in the Psalm.

Messiah was told, You're a high priest after the order of Melchizedek forever.

And as I may so say, Levi also, who received tithes, paid tithes in Abraham. All right, a little confusing there, but Levi was a great-grandson of Abraham. So in that sense, when Abraham paid tithes to Melchizedek, he paid tithes for all of his posterity who would follow. So in that sense, Levi paid tithes to Melchizedek. So it's showing the Levitical priesthood was far inferior to and was subordinate to the priesthood of Melchizedek, for he was yet in the loins of his father when Melchizedek met him, if therefore perfection were by the Levitical priesthood.

Now ponder that. There was no perfection made available through the Levitical priesthood.

For under it the people received the law. What need was there that another priest should rise after the order of Melchizedek and not be called after the order of Aaron?

For the priesthood being changed, there is made of necessity a change also of the law.

The Levitical priesthood was for the Sinai covenant, which ended. And that's where he comes to that conclusion at the end of chapter 8. It's rendered null and void. It is superseded by, and it goes back to, the original priesthood of Melchizedek that was an eternal priesthood.

For he, Melchizedek, of whom these things are spoken, pertains to another tribe of which no man gave attendance at the altar. Only the tribe of Levi was to serve at the altar. Nothing was ever said that someone from the tribe of Judah could go there.

For it is evident that our Lord sprang out of Judah, of which tribe Moses spoke nothing concerning priesthood. And it is yet far more evident for that, after the similitude of Melchizedek, there arises another priest, who is made not after the law of carnal physical commandment, not a legal pedigree through a certain family line, but after the power of an endless life. He is eternal. For he testifies, and now he quotes from back in Psalm 110 verse 4, you are a priest forever after the order of Melchizedek.

For there is verily a disannulling, the word means a setting aside of the commandment, the laws that established the litical priesthood, the statute that did that, going before for the weakness and unprofitiveness thereof.

Now, the weakness was in the people. God never gave a law that was not right and good, holy and just and good. For the law made nothing perfect. And many of you will remember back in the old days, some of the booklets that Herbert Armstrong would write, and there were places like, what do you mean, salvation? You remember how he'd use the all capital letters? All the law keeping in the world will not save anyone? Law keeping doesn't save.

The sacrifice of Christ, repentance, faith, baptism, laying on hands, a life of obedience, that's the path that goes to eternity. The law made nothing perfect, but the bringing in of a better hope did by the which we draw near unto God. And in as much as not without an oath, he was made a priest. For those priests were made without an oath. You know, it was by birth, it was lineage. But this with an oath by him that said unto him, the Lord swore and will not repent, you are a priest forever after the order of Melchizedek. All right, we're as far as we're going to go in chapter 7, but we should go to chapter 8.

Chapter 8 is where the author brings the audience to the unmistakable conclusion that the Levitical system is just about to be rendered completely null and void. And in the earlier verses, he speaks of the true tabernacle.

Well, verse 1, now of the things which we have spoken, this is the sum. We have such a high priest who is set on the right hand of the throne of the majesty and the heavens. Again, that rules out any human being. We're talking about Christ here. A minister of the sanctuary and of the true tabernacle, which the Lord pitched and not man. You see, the blueprint that God gave to Moses was based upon the reality of what was in heaven. It was a pattern. It was a copy of what was in heaven. There is a true tabernacle that God built. For every high priest is ordained to offer gifts and sacrifices, wherefore it is of necessity that this man have somewhat to offer. Now, in chapter 9, and on into chapter 10, he's going to point out that Jesus entered the holiest of all, once for all, with his own blood. For if he were on earth, he should not be a priest, seeing that there are priests that offer gifts according to the law. All right, let's skip on down verse 6. Right in the middle, he is the mediator of a better covenant, which was established upon better promises.

For if that first covenant had been faultless, then should no place have been sought for the second, for finding fault with them. And there's the problem. That's why God in Deuteronomy 5 verse 29 said, oh, that there were such a heart in them that they could keep my laws. The problem was with a carnally minded people, who without the Holy Spirit could not keep the law. And neither could we, had we been there at that time.

Finding fault with them, he said, Behold, the days come, says the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah.

Not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day, then when I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt, because they continued not in my covenant. And I regarded them not, said the Lord, This is the covenant. And then he quotes from Jeremiah 31.

I will put my laws into their mind, I will write them in their hearts. I will be to them a God, they shall be to me a people. And they shall not teach every man his neighbor, and every man his brother, saying, Know the Lord, for all shall know me from the least to the greatest.

Verse 12, For I will be merciful to their unrighteousness, and their sins and their iniquities. Will I remember no more? And that hearkens back to Psalm 103, where a similar comment is made. God would remove them as far as the east is from the west. Verse 13, in that he said a new covenant, He has made the first old. Now that which decays and waxes old is ready to vanish away. And when the city and the temple and the holy place were destroyed, that was the last step. There has been no holy place since that time. He brought a far better covenant.

A little bit in chapter 9, because he goes on and he speaks of that earlier tabernacle. Verse 2, There was a candlestick and a table and a showbread.

In verse 3, there was a second veil. Behind that is the holiest of all. Verse 4, There was a golden censer in the ark of the covenant. Inside was this or there with it was this golden pot with manna, the errands rod that budded, the tablets of the covenant. Over it, carobene of glory. Remember how God described that to Moses as far as this mercy seat, this lid. Make the images of these two carobene of gold, with their wings spreading out over the mercy seat, which symbolized where God would be seated.

And let's go to verse 7. But into the second went the high priest alone once every year. Now, what day was that?

Day of atonement. Only once a year, only the high priest went behind that second veil.

And it says, not without blood. Yeah, I was reading this week. It was interesting that somewhere along the course of the time, as you got later in the days of ancient Israel, they had more than one occasion when a high priest went back there and he died.

And so their practice was to tie a rope around one of his legs in case you needed to pull what was left back out and pass the garments to the next man in line, who probably would make certain that he did it correctly.

Not without blood, which he offered for himself, there was a bullet that Leviticus 16 speaks of. He offered for himself. And for the errors of the people. Remember the two goats, and the one was for the sins of Israel. The Holy Spirit this signifying that the way into the holiest of all was not yet made manifest while the first tabernacle was yet standing, which was a figure. It was a type, a parable, a forerunner. For the time then present in which were offered both gifts and sacrifices that could not make him that did the service perfect as pertaining to the conscience.

The Levitical system could not deal with the presence of sin. It could not bring about forgiveness of sin. It could not remove the guilt of sin, which stood only in meats and drinks, or here meat and drink offerings that were a part of the system. And diverse washings and carnal ordinances imposed on them until the time of Reformation.

Speaking of the time when Christ would come and bring a better covenant made on better promises. But Christ being come a 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, not of the material elements of this earth. And two possibilities there in this more perfect tabernacle is church, which is spiritually the Israel of God. The people in whom God dwells via the essence of His Spirit. And the true tabernacle, the perfect tabernacle being the one that is in heaven, that was the pattern for the ones that were made on the earth. Neither by the blood of goats and calves, but by His own blood He entered once into the holy place, having obtained eternal redemption for us. For if the blood of goats and of the ashes of a heifer sprinkling the unclean sanctified to the purifying of the flesh, how much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without spot to God, purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God? And for this cause He is the mediator of the New Testament.

Well, I think that's as far as we'll go right there.

Chapter 10 goes on and it emphasizes the animal sacrificial system was insufficient. Forgiveness requires the body, the blood of the Lamb of God being applied into an individual's life.

Let's go to Galatians 3. Just notice a little bit here, and I want to read. Then a little bit more from the booklet, kind of a summary at one point, and we'll wrap it up for our discussion today and continue after the feast with some of the other areas. Galatians 3. Again, difficult area to understand, often misunderstood. But let's just notice a little bit here. Galatians 3 verse 19. Wherefore then serves the law.

Now, it's quite a subject here to get into, but at any rate, we're just breaking into it. It was added. And again, remember, I gave you that Scripture earlier, Jeremiah 7 verses 22 and 23. There was a law added after the old covenant, after the Sinai covenant had been broken by the people. It was added because of transgressions, till the seed should come to whom the promise was made, and it was ordained by angels in the hand of a mediator.

Let's go down to verse 24. He uses the analogy here of a schoolmaster, the way it reads in the old King James. Wherefore the law was our schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ that we might be justified by faith. But after that faith has come, we are no longer under a schoolmaster. Now, he's not talking about the eternal spiritual laws of God that define for God's people anywhere at any time how we are to live in accordance with love. He's talking about things that temporarily and figuratively pointed them to Christ. For you are all the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus.

As many of you as have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, neither bond nor free, neither male nor female. For you are all one in Christ Jesus. If you be Christ's, then you are Abraham's seed and heirs according to the promise. You don't need to be physically circumcised like you had to be in the day of Abraham. If you are of his progeny, you have a different type. And then in chapter 4, it goes on talking about an heir. And you have this servant who is the Lord of all. He's the tutor, the governor. Verse 2, the latter part, until the time appointed of the Father. Even so we, when we were children, were in bondage under the elements of the world. But when the fullness of the time was come, God sent forth His Son made of a woman made under the law to redeem them that were under the law that we might receive the adoption of sons. And because your son's got us sent forth the Spirit of His Son into your hearts, crying, Abba, Father. The booklet on the New Covenant on pages 37 and 38 makes them, I think, very succinct but clear summary statements. It says that the temporary aspects of the Sinai covenant were applicable only until everything they symbolized was fulfilled by and or through Jesus Christ. A little later it says the author of Hebrews does not say that the laws of God defining righteousness were changed or abolished by the New Covenant or that they were temporary. He does explain that the Sinai covenant's symbolic features summarize this food and drink and various ceremonial washings are no longer necessary under the New Covenant. The fact that these examples are restricted to physical items, all having only symbolic significance is crucially important. The laws of God, the defined sin, are not included among those items explicitly identified as terminated with the destruction of the temple. The focus in Hebrews is entirely on things associated with the symbolic worship system of the physical tabernacle and the later temple complex and the temporary Levitical priesthood.

The tabernacle slash temple ministry or service of the Sinai covenant was only symbolic and temporary.

In contrast, the spiritual ministry of Jesus Christ focuses on an eternal inheritance because it offers eternal redemption to those whose hearts are transformed by God's Spirit. However, God's laws defining righteousness are not symbolic or temporary. The Psalms depict them as wonderful and perfect, destined to last forever.

So, as we get back from the feast, we'll go a bit further. But in the meantime, I'd say if you're looking at an Old Testament law and considering how does this apply in the New Testament age, just ask yourself certain questions. Number one, did Christ alter it in the New Testament?

Perhaps we could add, did He expand it in the New Testament like He did with so many of the commandments? Secondly, was it figurative or symbolic?

Sacrifices, Leviticus 1, 2, 3, 4, you know, the burnt grain, sin, trespass, peace, offerings were figurative. They pointed to the Lamb of God who would come.

And then thirdly, if in doubt, look to the Church of God for application.

The Church has an awfully good track record. We get some things wrong.

And we paint ourselves in corners once in a while, but don't we all? But as far as, if you'll pour over this booklet, as far as wading through some of those areas of Romans, Galatians, and Hebrews, it makes it abundantly clear.

Well, with the topic of this magnitude, we just have to draw a line.

And so we'll draw a line. But let us remember God's law is holy and right and good, and just and good. But another time, we'll look at areas like circumcision. And we'll look at some of the laws of uncleanness, and fringes on garments, and sacrifices, and polygamy, and laws of revenge.

I know we're not going to cover all this in one sermon, are we?

And new moons. I mean, some people want to get enamored with new moon. I guess there was a black moon last night, which means second new moon within a given month, at least here in North and South America. Other parts of the world will have two new moons in October. Not yet new moons. We'll look at laws of quarantine, slavery, violence, land Sabbath. We'll see how far we get. Have a wonderful Sabbath, everyone! And see you in the afternoon on the Feast of Trumpets.