The Complete Law of God

Well, believe it or not, it might be hard to believe with the snow coming down, but we are soon approaching the Passover and the days of unleavened bread. And they are getting closer and closer every week. To prepare for the Spring Holy Days this year, I would like to talk about the law of God. Many people talk about God's law as if they know what they're talking about. I often read things that people write in which they talk about the law of God, or God's law, and I am stunned by the fact that they are clueless about what the law of God is. I often see people write about how important the law of God is, and then in the very next breath or the next sentence, they literally break up by something that they say. So, what is the law of God? Is all the law of God equal? Is it all of the same importance, or are there parts of it that are more important than other parts? What do you think of? What's the first thing that comes into your mind, into your head, when you think of the law of God? Well, let's first define what God's law is. I'm going to give you a definition from the Holman's Bible Dictionary, because I think it's a particularly good one. And here it is. Quote, law is one of the primary concepts of the Bible. The specific translation of the term law is varied. It may be used for a commandment, a word, a creed, a judgment, a custom, or a prohibition. The first five books of the Bible, then the two, are known as books of the law because they are based on the commandments which God revealed to Moses. So, stop right there. Obviously, the first five books of the Bible are what many of us term as the law. Let's continue the next paragraph. Quote, the Hebrew term most frequently translated law in the Old Testament is Torah. It is used more than 200 times. The central idea of the Torah is that of instruction received from a superior authority in how to live. Torah in the Old Testament came to mean the way of life for faithful Israelites. The Torah is more than just laws. Let me read that again. The Torah is more than just laws. It includes the story of God's dealing with humankind and with Israel. Now, the final paragraph. Quote, the concept of Torah is closely linked to that of the Old Covenant in the Old Testament. The covenant agreement between God and his people at Mount Sinai provided the foundation for all of Israel's laws. God, the deliverer of the Israelites from Egypt, set forth his instructions to his people. They were to obey God's laws because of what he had done for them and for saving them from Egypt. The laws found in Exodus, Deuteronomy numbers, and Leviticus cover all areas of community life.

The Torah is a gift of God to his people. Obeying the Torah would result in his blessing. Exodus 19, following the law would provide for the health and wholeness of the covenant community. The Ten Commandments were a summary of the law. Exodus chapter 20 and Deuteronomy 5. End of quote. So we see here that the law was more than just thou shalt not or do this or don't do that.

The law was instruction. It was teaching on how to live. The purpose of the Torah or the law was to teach everyone how to live, how to have productive lives, how to have happy and fulfilled lives. And since the Ten Commandments are the summary of the law, I believe we should take a little bit of time as we think about the Holy Days. The Holy Days focus on sin and our lives. I think it would only be right and good that we look at the Ten Commandments. So turn with me if you would there Exodus chapter 19. Exodus chapter 19 beginning of verse 3. I think we should look at these from the perspective of the New Covenant Christians. So when I give to the Commandments, I'm just not going to read the Commandments because that's only the physical application. I'm going to also mention the spiritual application that Jesus taught about each one of those commandments. Because they go much deeper than just the physical statement that Israel was required to live by. So let's introduce it. Exodus chapter 19 verse 3. It says, Now, you and I are spiritual Israelites. It doesn't matter what our skin color is. It doesn't matter what our ethnicity is. It doesn't matter what our language is. When you receive God's Spirit, you become his child. You become a spiritual Israelite. And I would like to focus on these verses. Again, a New Covenant analogy to what happened here with ancient Israel.

Verse 4. You have seen what I did to the Egyptians and how I bore you in eagle's wings and brought you to myself. From our perspective, God took us out of spiritual sin. That was our Egypt. The world, the culture that we live in is spiritual Egypt. And God took us out of spiritual Egypt. And just like ancient Israel came out of sin, it was a miracle. He says, on eagle's wings, with the strength and speed of an eagle, ancient Israel was able to overcome the greatest nation on earth. Who would have thought that a group of scruffy rabble known as the Israelites could challenge and gain their freedom from the greatest military nation on earth at that time? Who would have ever thought that you could challenge and overcome the pull of Satan the Devil and could respond to a calling and become part of the family of God? That, too, is a miracle, my brethren. It's more of a miracle than ancient Israel coming out of the physical land of Egypt. And he says, and brought you to Myself. Jesus said that no man can come unless the Father calls him. God called us to Himself in a similar way that ancient Israel was brought out of Egypt to God. Now therefore, if you will obey My voice and keep My covenant, then you shall be a special treasure to Me above all people for all the earth is Mine, and you shall be a kingdom of priests and a holy nation. And that's what God has called us to be, His servant and His family forever. Of course, the covenant that we accept and are part of is the new covenant of the old covenant. And that new covenant says that we will live for eternity and serve along with Jesus Christ in His kingdom as priests. And we will be part of the spiritual holy nation that God establishes on this earth. These are the words which you shall speak to the children of Israel. So Moses came and called for the elders of the people and laid before them all these words which the Lord commanded him. Then all the people answered together, all that the Lord has spoken. Isn't that what we did in baptism? We pretended of our sins. We said, okay, I agree to become a disciple of Jesus Christ. I agree that I have to turn my life around and I have to be obedient to God. I need to respond to my calling. So whatever God says, if I find it in this book, and whatever God tells me to do, I'm going to do it. Because that is the commitment that I'm making to my baptismal covenant. All that the Lord has spoken we will do. So Moses brought back the words to the people. I'd like to read something here again from the Holman's Bible dictionary from their article, The Law. And it's written about the Ten Commandments. And I use Holman's Bible dictionary a lot in Bible studies. And I quote from them a lot in sermons. But out of all that I use them for, I think this is the most powerful, valid, and insightful comments I have ever read about the Ten Commandments. Here's what they say, quote, The Ten Commandments were not given only for the Hebrew people, but are abiding laws for all people. That's powerful. You know, a lot of people just won't accept that. They don't want to believe that. They want to think the commandments were done away. The commandments were only for Jews.

Continuing, quote, some of the laws of the Bible seem to apply only to specific kinds of places and persons, but the Ten Commandments have an abiding quality about them. Continuing, quote, they convey duties for everyone and reveal to us the basic morality required by God.

While the Ten Commandments have universal validity, they are truly significant only when persons are committed to the God behind them. You see, if you're not committed to the God behind them, then they are only rules.

The purpose of the law is to direct you to God, to direct you to have a relationship with God.

Continuing, quote, what makes the Ten Commandments unique is the character of the God who gave them. Without God, the commandments lose their distinctiveness. And, quote, I think that's very well said. A few verses later, that we just read here in Exodus, God gave His Ten Commandments to Israel. And we know, of course, that Jesus Christ came to magnify the law and to have a spiritual application of the law, which is far more demanding than the physical aspects of the Ten Commandments.

It requires a right heart and a right attitude. And except for the Ten Commandments originally given, most of the other commandments are very physical. You shall not steal. Well, it just means, he basically said, you shall not go and literally take something from someone. But the spiritual intent of that law is far more demanding, far more difficult for us to change our lives and conform to. Because we want to follow the example of Jesus Christ. And that requires a right heart and a right attitude along with physical obedience. For this reason, again, we'll take a look here at the commandments. But I want to provide the spiritual intent of that. So, picking it up in chapter 20, verse 1.

And God spoke all these words, saying, I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. So, God says, all right, here's where we start. I called you from the land of sin. I called you from a culture and a lifestyle in which you were embedded. You were controlled by sin. Now, you've come out of it. I purchased you with the blood of my son Jesus Christ. You were my servant. So, I'm God.

You are the servant. You were my son. Verse 3. You shall have no other gods before me. Now, in ancient Israel, it just meant that you also could not create a god of wood or a god out of stone. And say, yeah, you know what? I still worship Yahweh. I still worship Jehovah. And he might even be the supreme god, but I also worship this god over here. That was the physical application of the law. But the spiritual perspective, rather, for us, is that you shall not put your family, or your job, or your wealth, or your material possessions, or your status in place of God.

You see, he has to be the most important thing in our lives. God has to be the foundation of our lives. So that is the spiritual application of the first commandment. Verse 4. You shall not make for yourself a carved image, any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth.

You shall not bow down to them nor serve them, for I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God. God says, I want you to worship me alone. I will not be shared with anything else for you to idolize. I am a jealous God visiting the inequity of the fathers on the children of the third and fourth generation of those who hate me, but show you mercy for thousands of those who love me and keep my commandments.

The spiritual perspective, application of this commandment, is that God wants a personal one-on-one relationship with you. The true God is not represented by a picture. The true God is not represented in a statue. It's not represented through a religious leader. That is idolatry. God is not to be worshiped or prayed to by the use of statues, or pictures, or human desires, or through other people. We cannot remake God into our own image. We cannot say, well, I'll just tweet what God says so that I can worship Him in the way that I like, or the way that I want to.

It's a blasphemous insult to Almighty God portraying Him in such a lowly and inaccurate way. The next commandment, verse 7, You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain, for the Lord will not hold Him guiltless, who takes His name in vain.

And many people think, well, you shouldn't curse someone and use God as part of a curse work. That is how, that is traditionally, you shouldn't just scribblelessly use the name of God. Well, rather, in the spiritual perspective, it's that the name of God is to be revered because it's holy. It is a sin to use the name of God to curse His creation, and that includes another human being. We don't have that right of prerogative. If God wants to curse somebody, let God curse them, but we shouldn't use the name of God, associate God with a curse for another human being.

But it's also a sin to misrepresent God. It's a sin to say, God says, and God doesn't say that. You see, that's also using God's name in vain. It's a sin to say, well, God commands, and God doesn't command that. That's also using the name of God in vain. It's a sin to claim to speak as God's authority or God's representative when God doesn't know you.

That is also using God's name in vain. In all of these ways, one can take the name of God in vain. That is the spiritual perspective of that commandment. The next commandment is the fourth. Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy. Six days you shall labor and do all your work.

But the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord your God. In it you shall not work. You know your son, know your daughter, know your male servant, know your female servant, know your cattle, know your stranger who is within your gates.

For in six days the Lord made to heavens and earth and the sea, and all that is in them and rested on the seventh day. Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and hallowed it. So God made the Sabbath day holy. And we may think of the physical applications. I shouldn't go to work. I shouldn't do my labor on the Sabbath day. And certainly that is true. But the spiritual perspective is that God gives us the gift of the Sabbath to worship Him in His creation.

It is a sin to avoid or ignore worship of God in this day. And you know there are valid reasons, kind of whether we have today, health issues. There are valid reasons not to go and worship God with your brothers and sisters in Christ. But there are also a lot of invalid reasons. And people convince themselves that they're observing the Sabbath when and really what they're doing is they're taking a vacation day. Well, you can do that any day. You can sit home and rest all day Sunday.

So I guess, does that make that the Sabbath day? What makes the Sabbath day unique is it's a gift of God, a gift given for us to worship Him. It's all about God.

It's not about ourselves. It is a sin to violate the Sabbath. And it's a sin to allow the Sabbath to degenerate into a Saturday coffee club. Because this is a worship service. We come here, first and foremost, to worship God. And we do a good job of that. And we also enjoy fellowship. But it's very easy, if we're not careful, to allow the Sabbath to degenerate and not keep it as God would want us to. The next commandment, honor your father and mother that your many days may be long upon the land which the Lord your God is giving you.

There's a spiritual perspective to this. God says, I created a very special relationship called the parent-child relationship. That relationship is spiritual. It comes from God. Now, it is love. He also duplicated that in human beings. But the whole concept of parent-child relationship is a spiritual one. And it comes from God. It was designed by God. Obedience to parents is a reflection of our obedience to God. The fundamentals of obedience that we learn as a child, if we accept them, makes it far easier to be obedient to God later on in life when God calls us.

Discipline by the hand of a parent is part of childhood. Virtually all of us received some form of discipline when we were growing up. If it wasn't spanking, it might have been time out. It might have been corrective comments by our parents. But we all received discipline in one way or another by the hands of our parents. Discipline by the hand of God is very much a part of the Christian experience.

And it is required for spiritual growth. Just like as growing up, our parents had the same things or do things in order for us to get it. They realized that we were being selfish, that we were being demanding, or we were not acting appropriately. In the same way, God occasionally has to give us a spanking. God occasionally also has to give us some discipline so that we can understand that He's trying to tell us something.

That's all part of honoring our spiritual father. Verse 13, you shall not murder. To the ancient Israelite, this was very obvious, that you shouldn't go up to an innocent person outside of war and just kill them. That was considered murder. The spiritual perspective of this is that you shall not despise someone in your heart whom your father created. You see, that's what Jesus taught hate.

When you despise another human being, you have murdered them in the eyes of God because Jesus taught a much harder requirement. He says you shall not curse them, Jesus said you shall not hate them or wish ill will upon them, even if they deserve it.

Instead, you should pray for the repentance and pray that they could come to a point of asking forgiveness for whom and what they are. But you shouldn't curse them or despise them or hate them in your heart. So you see again, the spiritual perspective is much deeper, much harder than the original commandment given to Israel. Verse 14, you shall not commit adultery. The spiritual perspective of this goes far beyond that. The spiritual perspective is you shall not look on another person with a desire to commit a sexual act upon them. The reason is that it's a spiritual violation of their dignity. You are pulling down their worth in your mind. You are looking at them as an object instead of a human being with a heart and feelings and a mind just literally as an object of violation. So again, the spiritual perspective that Jesus taught is much harder than the physical. Verse 15, you shall not steal. Again, in ancient Israel, this was easy. You just should literally go and take something that doesn't belong to you from someone else. But the spiritual perspective is you should knowingly take advantage of, exploit, or con another person just to get something out of them.

So again, you see that abusing someone, conning them, manipulating them in order to get their possession is a spiritual violation of the Ten Commandments. Verse 16. This is an important one because I know the entire church organizations that have been founded by violating the spiritual intent of this commandment. You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor. Now in ancient Israel, in true context, it is as if you were questioned by the elders or one of the rabbis that you had to be truthful, that you couldn't bear a lie against your neighbor to get them in trouble. But the spiritual perspective is taught by the example in the teachings of Jesus Christ is you shall not lie or exaggerate or distort or withhold facts with an intent to deceive someone.

You see, that is a violation of God's law. That is breaking one of the commandments of God.

Verse 17. This is an interesting commandment because it's not only the last, but it's the only one of the ten that really deals with the heart and the attitude.

The others were quite physical. This one deals with heart, mind, intention, attitude, and usually it's this one that's first broken that leads a person to commit adultery or to lie or to steal or to break the other commandments.

Verse 17. You shall not covet your neighbor's house. You shall not covet your neighbor's wife, nor his male servant, nor his female servant, nor his ox, nor his donkey, nor anything that is your neighbor's.

And the spiritual perspective of this is that you shouldn't jealously desire to acquire another person's spouse, their reputation, their status, their home, their immaterial possessions.

God says, if you desire these kinds of things, you too can earn them. You can do it the old-fashioned way. You can earn it.

And again, this is the only one of the original commandments that deals with the intent of the heart and attitude. And that's exactly what coveting is.

And it all begins with, I feel deprived. You have something I want. I feel that I'm entitled or I feel that I've been abused. And you have something I want, whether it's your wife or your home or whatever.

And I'm going to lie, steal, do whatever it takes so that I have what you have. That's where it all begins. And unfortunately, we have entire politicians now in our American society who want to divide Americans with class warfare. They want to take part of America and make them covet those who are wealthy and well-off. So they're using a violation of one of the Ten Commandments to create an us versus them attitude of Americans pitted against one another. And that is not healthy. And that is a violation, certainly, of God's law.

As we can see, the law of God is powerful. It's profound. The spiritual applications here are far more demanding than what was originally said. They're far more difficult to achieve. It takes God's Holy Spirit and usually a lifetime of personal growth and development and correction from God to develop the right attitudes, the right intentions to obey the spiritual intent of the law. Very demanding. Something for us to think about as we prepare for the spring homely day. How are we doing regarding the spiritual application of the law? Yes. The law is so holy that there is another aspect of the law that we must obey that is often overlooked by many of the artists and Irishmen on the internet. People that have logs, write over letters, write and say all of these things. Let's find out what this is in Deuteronomy chapter 4 beginning in verse 9. Deuteronomy chapter 4 will actually begin in verse 1. Moses was inspired to write, Now Israel listened to the statutes and the judgments which I teach you to observe, that you may live and go in and possess the land which the Lord God of your fathers is giving you. You shall not add to the word which I command you. Oh, we're all familiar with not taking away from the law, right? We're all familiar with the fact that if you don't do something you should do, that that's wrong. Or if you commit a sin, that's wrong. But oftentimes it's overlooked that the command is, you shall not add to the word. In other words, you shall not take your goofy, man-made, ridiculous ideas and concepts and say that God says, God commands and use that as some way to beat people over the head because they are not acting like you want them to act. You shall not add to the word which I command you, nor take from it, that you may keep the commandments of the Lord which I command you. To keep the commandments of the Lord, you have to not only not take from it, you must not add to it. So what does that Scripture say? Verse 3, Your eyes have seen what the Lord did at Baal-Pior. What the Lord your God has destroyed from among you all the men who followed Baal of Pior. But you who held fast to the Lord your God are alive to date every one of you surely. I have taught you statutes and judgments just as the Lord my God commanded me that you should act according to them in the land which you go to possess. Therefore, be careful to observe them. For this is your wisdom and your understanding in the sight of the people who will hear all these statutes and say, Surely this great nation is a wise and understanding people. For what great nation is there that has God so near to it as the Lord our God is to us? For whatever reason we may call upon Him. And what great nation is there that has such statutes and righteous judgments as are in the law which I set before you this day?

Only take heed to yourself and diligently keep yourself lest you forget the things your eyes have seen unless they depart from your heart all the days of your life and teach them to your children and grandchildren.

So the law of God, the commandment of God has two parts. First of all, we certainly should not take from it. We should do something, we should do it. When God says, Don't do something, we should not do that. But the second part of it is also the fact that we have no right to add to the law of God. And we'll see how easy that is to do and how so easy it is to rationalize that in our hearts and in our minds. There's a tendency for some believers in every generation, since this time, every generation, to add laws to their dogma and then to begin judging others for not observing them. In the day of Christ, the Pharisees were legendary for doing this. Jesus had two phrases for those kinds of laws. He called them either the doctrines of men, in contrast to the doctrines of God, and he also called them the traditions of the elders. Notice not the law of God, just the traditions of a bunch of old men, a bunch of old phonies. So those were the two phrases that Jesus has for these laws that people create and add on top of the commandments of God. What he meant by these phrases were that some zealous people were idolizing man-made rules. It actually began putting the rules before God because, frankly, people who do that don't have a relationship with God. They're too busy judging other people to have a relationship with God. They're condemning other people for not keeping these so-called doctrines and laws. And Jesus, partially, in no uncertain terms, condemned this kind of attitude, this kind of mindset. Let's not go to Deuteronomy chapter 12, verse 28. Deuteronomy chapter 12, verse 28. Again, Moses is writing, the words of God obey, observe and obey all these words which I command you, that it may go well with you and your children after you forever. When you do what is good and right in the sight of the Lord your God, when the Lord your God cuts off from before you the nations which you go in to dispossess, and you displace them and dwell in their land, take heed to yourself that you are not ensnared to follow them. After they are destroyed from before you, in this you do not inquire after their God, saying, how did these nations serve their gods? I will do likewise. This is the Scripture we often read about Christmas celebrations, a reaster or other borrowing of pagan religious customs, trying to appropriate those into the worship of God.

Verse 31, you shall not worship the Lord your God in that way. For every abomination of the Lord which he hates they have done to their gods, for they burn even their sons and daughters in the fire to their gods. And here's verse 32 that I wanted to zero in on. Whatever I command you, be careful to observe it. You shall not add to it. You shall not take away from it. It is just as much of a violation of God's commandments to add to a commandment and then tell everyone else that they are inferior or wrong as it is to break one of his commandments. Again, there is a warning not to add to God's commandments, man-made teachings, and then expect other people to conform to them or face criticism because they're not doing what you think they should do. God's commands this for good reason. It happens then in ancient Israel. It happened during Jesus's lifetime. And guess what? In the greater Church of God movement, it is alive and well in our generation as well. People who do this think that God's law is an end in itself. They add to, they expand, they work the commandments of God, thinking that by doing these things that they please God. And nothing, again, could be further from the truth. You know, I am a gardener, and I know that if I have a plant, if I want to have a healthy plant that's green and lush and it's going to bloom on time, you can't get a little fertilizer. But you know what? If I give it too much fertilizer, I kill it. I poison that plant. It dies.

Some people have the mentality, well, law helps you to be healthy and right. Well, if we just give it a lot of law, they'll really be righteous. No, you destroy it spiritually. You take the spirit out of a human being. When you take goofy, man-made, doctrines, prophecies, concepts, and you demand that other people do this because you do it.

Matthew, chapter 22, verse 35. Matthew, chapter 22, verse 35. This is then one of them, a lawyer, and of course, this was actually a scribe, someone whose job the scribes were mostly associated with the Pharisees, and the role of the scribe was usually a disciple of one of the Pharisees, and they were meticulous in keeping the laws. Not only the original law, but the oral law, the tradition of the elders. They were very meticulous about those things. And it says in one of them, the lawyer, scribe, asked him a question, testing it, and saying, teacher, what is the great commandment in the law?

Okay, big law, big book, right? Exodus, the law of the prophets, the Old Testament, the book is not there. He says, what is the great commandment in the law? And Jesus said to him, you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like, you shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments, hang all the law and the prophets.

So notice what the scribe asked. He says, what is the great commandment? Does Jesus reply, don't eat pork!

Keep the Sabbath! Ty! He could have said all of those things. It was part of the law. But he doesn't. He doesn't say any of those things.

He says, it's the love of the Lord your God, with all your heart, mind, and soul. You see, all of the laws and commandments and rules and statutes and regulations that one can find in scriptures, leave. They exist for one essential thing. Change your values and your conduct and be conformed to God's values and His conduct. Because this builds a relationship with God. The law is to help you to build a relationship with God. The goal is not the law. The goal is the relationship that the law helps you develop by obedience and by faith.

The do's and don'ts of the law of God lead us to a rich and a meaningful and a loving relationship with God. And the same is true of our neighbor. When we conform more to God's laws and change our values and our conduct to be like God's, it helps us to love our neighbors more. Verse 40 I'm going to read from the new century version. Quote, all the law and the writings of the prophets depend on these two commands. So if you take all the law and all the prophets, and you condense it into the Cliff Notes version, which is what I used to read in high school because I was too lazy for reading the book. So we get the Cliff Notes. Alright, the Cliff Notes version of all the law and all the prophets is what Jesus said right here. Love the Lord your God with your heart, your soul, and your mind, and love your neighbor as much as you love yourself. The modern Pharisees, brethren, they don't like to talk about the great commandment of the law because it goes against their agenda. It goes against their mindset. They just want to beat everyone over their head with their self-righteous proclamations about how everyone who isn't like them is somehow inferior or bad or evil. Don't buy it. Don't fall for it.

Through their sermons, their blogs, their open letters, they proclaim how superior they are because they know or observe something that you don't. And it's just doctrines of men. It's silly traditions that have absolutely no meaning to God whatsoever.

And again, it's really simple to take the totality of what they say and just put it on a balance. Galatians 5. And you'll easily, trust me, easily determine the spirit that's behind them. Look at the totality of what they say. Is it the fruits of the spirit or the works of the flesh? Look at the attitude, the intent. Remember, I spent a lot of time talking about the spiritual perspective of the law. You can easily sense behind the writing attitude, intent, spirit, and where it's coming from.

Let's go to Matthew chapter 25 and verse 15. Matthew chapter 25 and verse 15.

Christ makes a powerful statement here one of the most condemning that he makes towards the scribes and Pharisees. Matthew chapter 23 verse 15. Woe you scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites. For you travel land and see you win one, hostile like you. Go everywhere. You work diligently to convert someone to believe just like you do. To make them a clone just like you are, Jesus says to the Pharisees.

And when he is one, you make him twice as much a son of hell as yourselves. You make him his sickening, self-righteous, and self-absorbed, critically condemning of others as you are, Jesus said.

You're hypocrites. That's pretty powerful language.

Verse 16. Woe to you blind guys who say, whoever swears by the temple, it is nothing but whoever swears by the gold of the temple, he is obliged to perform it.

Jesus says again, fools and blind, for which is greater? The gift or the altar that sanctifies the gift? Therefore, the gift is not the gift of the temple.

And whoever swears by the altar, it is nothing but whoever swears by the gift on it, he is obliged to perform it. Jesus says again, fools and blind, for which is greater? The gift or the altar that sanctifies the gift? Therefore, he who swears by the altar swears by it and all things on it, he who swears by the temple swears by it and by him who dwells in it, and he who swears by heaven swears by the throne of God and by him who sits on it. Verse 23, Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, for you pay tithe of mint and anise and comen, and have neglected the wavier matters of the law, justice and mercy and faith. So Jesus says there are more important, there are wavier matters of the law, and they are justice and mercy and faith. These you ought to have done without leaving the other undone. I want to give you an example of Jesus correcting the Pharisees of his day and how reasoning goes awry. The tithing of grain and fruit and wine and oil was required of ancient Israel. We know that from Numbers 18 to Deuteronomy 14. That's part of the law of God. So what did the Pharisees do? Well, let's see. Let's see. Grain grows from the ground, and wine comes from grapes, and grapes grow from the ground, and oil comes from olive oil trees. That comes from the ground. We should be tightening off of herbs! We should, when we cut a little handful of herbs, we should be dividing one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, five, one, two, three. And that makes sense to them. Doesn't an herb grow from the ground? Isn't that logical? It was to them. It wasn't logical to Jesus Christ. You see, that's an example of where you take the law of God and you add onto it and make it a burden. And some people, it just seems so logical to go from here to there with a new law, a new twist, a new commandment, a new perspective, and then expect everyone else to conform to it or to bed. And Jesus condemns them because they were so obsessed with silly herbs that they weren't focusing on relationships, which is what the law points us to. Unlike the word 3 verse 23 from the New Century Version. How terrible for you! Teachers of the law and Pharisees, you are hypocrites. You give to God one tenth of everything you earn, even your mint dill and cumin, but you don't obey the really important teachings of the law of justice, mercy, and being loyal. These are things you should do as well as those other things. Now, the word justice that Jesus says here, one of the way to your matters of the law, that's a Greek word which means divine law. So Jesus is dividing the law of God from the man-made laws that the Pharisees have added on, and other people since then have added on to God's law. He says the way to your matter of the law is what God says, not what men create, not the artificial rules and regulations and doctrines that men add on to God's law.

Another thing he says here is justice. Again, that is divine law. Mercy is the second word he has here. That's a Greek word which translated means compassion. It's very simple compassion for all human beings. And the third word he uses here is faith, which is translated from the Greek meaning moral conviction, being loyal to God and what God says in contrast to just pleasing men. Verse 24, blind guides who strain out the gnat and swallow a camel woe to you scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, for you cleanse the outside of the cup and dish, but inside they are full of extortion and self-indulgence. Jesus is saying, you know, as far as the physical commands of the Ten Commandments, you guys got it licked? On the outside, you really look good. Well, you don't literally steal from people. You don't literally commit adultery. You don't literally worship other gods.

He says, but you know what? On the inside is a stinking tomb of filth, of vile filth, because your hearts and your attitudes are corrupt. The outside might look good, but the inside is putrefying and it's dead. That's what Jesus is saying to them. Verse 27, woe to you scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, for you are like whitewashed tombs, which indeed appear beautiful, outwardly, but inside are full of dead man's bones and all uncleanness. Even so, you also outwardly appear righteous to men, but inside you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness, because they hadn't a clue about the spiritual perspective or intent of God's law.

So, what does Christ say to the Pharisees, who, frankly, were meticulous about keeping the original Ten Commandments? They were very meticulous about them. So, what does he say to them? Why does he call what they do lawlessness? It's because their smug and arrogant condemnation of others was a violation of the great commandment and the weightier matters of the law. Their attitudes and mindsets was as unclean as eating an entire camel.

He says, here you are. Oh, wow! Look at that! Ooh! This might be a little nap in my water, and naps are unclean. He says, when you're all worried about that, he says, but your stinking hearts and attitudes are so vile, you're worried about that little nap, but you're consuming an unclean camel, bite by bite, bit by bit. He says, that's the big sin, not the little nap floating in the glass of water. So, as you can see here, Jesus is very strong in condemning the attitudes that they had.

Their attitudes, their mindset, which was critical, judgmental, artificially trying to force and impose people to do what they did. That actually was a violation of God's law because it was added onto the law of God was an evil thing.

Jesus said, love God with all your heart and your neighbor as yourself. And that includes compassion and living with a living faith. Turn with me if you would to Mark chapter 7 and verse 5. The ancient Pharisees, like the modern ones, are obsessed with commandments and doctrines because it's a lot easier to judge others and feel superior than it is to build healthy relationships with people and with God. Building and nurturing relationships with another human being, that's hard. That requires effort. That requires work.

Judging everyone is easy. But there comes time when it's time to do the hard stuff. When it's time to get to work. Mark chapter 7 and verse 5. Then the Pharisees and scribes asked him, Why do your disciples not walk according to the tradition of the elders, but eat bread with unwashed hands by a molecule of dirt? They actually go inside their bodies. Dirt is in clean. He answered and said to them, Well, did Isaiah prophesy you hypocrites, for it is written, This people honors me with their lips, but their hearts is far from me. In vain they worship me.

Oh, yeah, they go through the motions. They kept the Sabbath and Holy Days meticulously. Jesus says, didn't do them any good. In vain did they worship me, teaching as doctrines, as part of God's law, as something that everybody else should be doing, the commandments of men. For laying aside the commandment of God, you hold the traditions of men, the washing of pitchers and cups, and many other such things you do.

So Jesus says, this is just an example of a lot of the things that you do, and that you expect and judge other people. I'm not doing it. He said to them, All too well you reject the commandment of God, that you may keep your tradition. So the commandment of God they rejected was having compassion and having loving concern for others. But they were too busy judging other people to show genuine love for them. Notice the example that he brings out in the next verse.

First hand, for Moses said, Honor your father and your mother, and he who cursed his father and mother, let him be put to death, but I, but you say, if a man says to his father and mother, whatever prophet you might have received from me, this corban, that is a gift to God, then you no longer let him do anything for his father or his mother, making the word of God no effect to your tradition, which you have handed down, and many such things you do.

Now, the way this works is, after one tithed, if you had elderly parents who obviously needed financial help, they all knew the commandments that honor your mother and your father. So, they were to take some of their livelihood and take care of the physical needs of their mother and father. But they had created a law, no, it is for the work.

Then you don't have to take care of it. You don't need to give that money to your mother. After all, providing for God, it sounds logical. Providing for God in the work is far more important than taking care of your physical parents. Sounds logical? Kind of makes sense, God. More important than parents. But it violates God's law. It's just a runaround to violate the law of God.

So, instead of helping their mothers and fathers like they should have been, they were giving this money to the temple. Giving this money to the church, so to speak, rather than helping their physical parents. Verse 14, when he called all the multitude to himself, he said to them, hear me, everyone, and understand. Jesus says, get this! There is nothing that enters a man from outside which can defile him. A little piece of dirt doesn't defile you.

If you go to Denny's and have a grand slam breakfast, and the cook had pork chops on the grill five minutes before your beef patty, and some of the juices of that pork chop get mixed into that beef patty. Jesus is saying, it doesn't matter. Anything you eat goes through the system God gave you, and it comes pumped out of the other end, and you know what that is. He says, but the things that come out of him, the things that come from the inside out, attitudes, intentions, condemnation, self-righteous judgment of others who aren't just like you, the things that which come out of him, these are the things that defile a man.

So, brethren, physical things that inadvertently enter our body don't defile us spiritually. They just do not define us. It's the critical, condemning, lying words that come out of our hearts that defile us. One final scripture, if you'll turn with me to Romans chapter 13 and verse 8. Romans chapter 13 and verse 8. Paul writes here, in Romans chapter 13 and verse 8, Oh, no one, anything except to love one another. For he who loves another has fulfilled the law.

Remember, I said earlier that all the law is about is a lead, is a guide to teach us to change and conform our lives to be like God. It's all about building a relationship with our Father and with our brothers and sisters and Christ with our neighbors. Oh, no one, anything except to love one another. For he who loves another has fulfilled the law. For the commandments, and here are some of the parts of the original Ten Commandments, you shall not commit adultery, you shall not murder, you shall not steal, you shall not bear false witness, you shall not covet.

So, just in case anybody wants to know what law he meant, he outlines this law. And if there is any other commandment, are all summed up in this saying, namely, You shall love your neighbor as yourself. Love does no harm to a neighbor. Therefore, love is the fulfillment of the law.

And do this, knowing the time that is now, it is high time to awake out of our sleep. For now our salvation is nearer when we first believed. The night is far spent, the day is at hand. Therefore, let us cast off the works of darkness and put on the armor of light.

Where the armor of light that Paul talks about here is fulfilling the law. Not by finger pointing at other people, not by expecting other people to conform to fairy tales and delusional theories that men come up with, that they call biblical doctrines. Fulfilling the law is living by God's commandments in the way that we relate to God and in the way that we treat other human beings. And that is called love. So, as we prepare for the spring holy days this year, I encourage you to think about the things that we have discussed today. The law is far more than a group of rules, thou shalt not do this and don't do that. They're important, and we certainly, as I've emphasized a number of times in this sermon, need to grow and change and conform to God's values and God's standards. But never in the sight of why those laws exist. They exist to lead us to relationship because it's all about relationships. So I encourage you to examine yourself, not your spouse, not your children, not your neighbor, not your brother and sister in Christ. But as we think about the spring holy days, to examine ourselves. Compare where you are right now in your life with the spiritual perspective of the law that we talked about earlier. And again, to make the necessary changes to eliminate sin from your life because that's what the days of Unleavened Bread are about. It's about our strength through God's Spirit to remove sin from our lives and to allow the righteousness of Jesus Christ to live in us and through us by the power of that Spirit. Together as God's people, we can make this the most spiritual, the most productive, the most fulfilling spring holy day season we've had yet. We really can. But each of us has to do our part. So please don't forget the great commandment in the law. Please don't forget what the weightier matters of the law is and apply God's law to your life to get to a whole new level. Have a wonderful Saturday.