The Law and Its Application

Thank you, if you will, to join me in imagining a scene thousands of years ago, when the children of Israel were finally entering the Promised Land. Now, this time of year, we tend to think about the time when they first left Egypt, but I want to focus a generation later. They've been wandering in the wilderness, but now Joshua has assumed leadership of the nation, from his longtime mentor, Moses. And he looks on as the process of crossing the River Jordan began. Priests, bearing the Ark of Covenant on their shoulders, stepped forward first and waded into the riverbank. Remember, the river was flooded above its banks that year, or that time of year. But suddenly, as they waded in, the water stopped flowing at their feet and began piling up instead. Now, the water downstream flowed all the way away, so that soon they were standing in a dry riverbed, right in the middle of it. As hundreds and thousands of people began an orderly crossing, 12 large, burly men began fulfilling a pre-assigned task. One man from each tribe looked around in the now dry riverbed, and each of them picked out the largest rock he could carry, which I'm guessing they were pretty strong and fit. It must have been pretty good sized rock for each of them. And they gathered where the priests were standing and made a huge heap, right there. Of course, after the children of Israel crossed, the priests would be the last, but before they did, those same large men each grabbed another stone, once again as large as they could carry, and on the far side, they made another large heap. Now, both of those heaps were to serve as a memorial, two memorials to the great miracle God worked that day. They stood there silently, but they were intended to provoke questions. People would see them and say, what's up with these big piles of rocks? And those who knew would say, well, Israel crossed the Jordan River here through a great miracle. God stopped the waters. That would let people know the power of God, and they would respect him and worship him. And I've read that account a number of times, and sometimes I stop and I wonder, how long did those stone memorials remain there? Those piles of rock. Is it possible that they're still there? Perhaps. I mean, big piles of rock don't get moved every day. Well, human beings like to erect memorials and monuments. As I mentioned, Washington, D.C., and the center mall is filled with or surrounded by monuments. Of course, the Washington Monument is right there in the middle. Then there's a Lincoln Memorial down at the end of the mall, in Jefferson, and we're constantly building new ones to the veterans of various wars and important people. That sounds familiar. We build these monuments out of stone because stone endures through the ages when human beings don't. Unfortunately, our memories don't endure, either. That's why we create memorials and then we write on them to remind people of things. Now, one of the most familiar types we're used to is if you go to a cemetery. The graves have markers on them. Stone, usually granite. And words are engraved there to let people know things.

One of my favorite monuments I saw in London, and I'm sure it's still there. As a student of military history, this stood out to me. There's a bronze statue of a man. At least, it's bronze colored. It might be made of stone. The man is someone most of us would recognize. Younger people might not. But there are not a lot of words there. It just has a plaque and it says, Remember Winston Churchill. And, of course, it's a statue of Winston Churchill standing there looking like Winston Churchill. Which I laugh because Connor spent half of his life, I thought, looking a lot like Winston Churchill. Especially when he lost his hair. You know, he had male pattern baldness for several months. But it's right there enduring and it says, Remember him. Now, there are a lot of stone memorials and monuments. The ones that are one of the most famous, it consisted of two stones, was the tablets on which were engraved the Ten Commandments. Two tables of stone. We don't know exactly how big they were. They were small enough that one man could carry both of them. But you imagine Moses carrying them these big stone tables. That the Ten Commandments were engraved on them. And they were meant to endure to be a lasting marker. Matter of fact, it was so important that they be around that when the first ones were broken, God had Moses make two more tables of stone so he could write on them again. Now, we've lost the actual original stone tablets. We don't know where they are if they still exist. You know, along with the gold-colored, gold-covered arc that they were stored in.

But there are reproductions of what we think they look like adorning public buildings all across the nation. Many courthouses have an image of what we think those two tablets might look like.

Which, interestingly, displeases a lot of people. As you know, there are groups that oppose any religious symbolism being associated with government buildings.

What's interesting is there are a lot of people who call themselves Christian who might, in some ways, agree with the same sentiment. We don't want these images of the Ten Commandments around. Their reasoning is different. They're not opposed to the mixture of church and state. It's just that they believe very strongly that Jesus Christ came and did away with that law. Of course, the teaching is the God of the Old Testament was harsh and mean and focused on law. Jesus Christ came and focused on mercy and love and got rid of that harsh law. Let's look at some scriptures to see why they think that. If you'll turn to Galatians 3 to begin. Galatians 3 and verse 13.

Here Paul writes, Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law, having become a curse for us, for it's written, cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree. So it sounds like the law is this curse, and Christ has freed us from it. Let's look a couple of verses earlier. We'll see why they might believe that. In verse 11, but that no one is justified by the law on the side of God is evident, for the just shall live by faith. Likewise, many calling themselves Christians will point to a scripture in 2 Corinthians chapter 3. And we'll begin in verse 6.

Here Paul writes, breaking into a thought, speaking of God, it said, who made us sufficient as ministers of the new covenant, not of the letter, speaking of the old law, but of the Spirit, for the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life. But if the ministry, or like the old test, the old King James version says, ministration, which was short for administration, the administration of death, written and engraved on stones, if that was glorious so that the children of Israel could not look steadily at the face of Moses, because of the glory of his countenance, which glory was passing away, how will the ministry of the Spirit not be more glorious? So, talking about how this law that was written and engraved on stones, eh, it was glorious for back then, but how much more glorious this new ministry or administration? Let's turn to Romans chapter 8 while we're up here. And, by the way, I'm still working on, still on my introduction here, so I don't want you to think that it's 1995 again and I'm changing doctrine, but we do admit these scriptures are here and we want to understand them. Romans 8 and verse 3. Romans 8 and verse 3 says, for what the law could not do and that it was weak through the flesh, God did by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh on account of sin, and he condemned sin in the flesh. So, it looks like there was a problem with this law. You know, God condemned it. It was that old law written on stones. So, was that old law, the Ten Commandments, abolished? Does grace, through Christ's sacrifice, eliminate the need to obey? Now, this is important, especially as we come to the Passover and we're thinking about repentance, having our sins forgiven, we need to know what is it we're repenting of. Well, while we're in Romans, let's read something else. Romans chapter 7 and verse 12.

Lest we think the Apostle Paul just hated the idea of law and rules, here he wrote, the law is holy, the commandment is holy, and just and good.

Contrary to what some Bible scholars say, the Apostle Paul was not hostile to God's law. He wrote a lot of very nice positive things about the law, saying that it's holy, just, and good is pretty good. We need to understand that where you see the term law, law is a fairly generic term. We're familiar with it. A law is something that says you have to do this or you can't do that. But there can be more than one system of law. Consider this. Thou shalt have no other gods before me is a law. But what is also a law is green means go and red means stop. They are both laws, at least where I drive, but they're not exactly the same types of laws. There's differences. Ancient Israel became subject to different types of laws, too, and there's more than one type described in the Old Testament. So I want to go into that today and make sure we understand what we mean when we talk about the law. Now, we know the Ten Commandments. They were spoken by God and then written by Him on these two tables of stone.

But now we just read there in 2 Corinthians chapter 3 of an administration of death that was written and engraved on stones, and it sounded very negative. The Ten Commandments was written on stone. Is that what Paul meant there in 2 Corinthians 3 and verse 7? That administration of death that was no good, we had to get rid of it? Well, let's look at some interesting instructions that were given by God to Moses and then passed on to the children of Israel in Deuteronomy chapter 27. Deuteronomy 27, and we'll begin at the beginning of the chapter in verse 1.

Let's see what law it is it was written on stone or stones.

Deuteronomy 27. Now Moses with the elders of Israel commanded the people, saying, Keep all the commandments which I command you today, and it shall be on the day when you cross over the Jordan to the land which the Lord your God is giving you. We just talked about that at the beginning of the sermon. You shall set up for yourself large stones and whitewash them with lime. You shall write on them all the words of this law when you have crossed over, that you may enter the land which the Lord your God is giving you, a land flowing with milk and honey, just as the Lord God of your fathers promised you. So it shall be when you cross when you crossed over the Jordan, that on Mount Ebal you shall set up these stones which I command you today, and you'll whitewash them with lime. Therefore you shall build an altar, or in there you shall build an altar to the eternal your God, an altar of stones, and you shall not use an iron tool on them. These were to be whole stones, not carved, not cut. And you shall and you shall offer peace offerings and eat there and rejoice before the Lord your God, and you shall write very plainly on the stones all the words of this law.

Now, interesting. Is this talking about the tablets of the Ten Commandments?

No, I don't think so. Those are two tablets. They were already carved by God, later the replacements by Moses, and God wrote on them themselves. So we have the Ten Commandments, the stone tablets being, I believe, a memorial or a monument of that law. Now we have a different set of stones made into an altar, so two different memorials, both with writing on them, but could it be that they were two different sets of laws? I tend to think so.

Let's consider when God brought Israel out, He entered a covenant with them. Now a covenant is what? It's an agreement, a mutual agreement that both parties enter into. The other, if you want to have a strict definition, you could also say the terms of that agreement written down also can be called the covenant. If we go back to Exodus, we'll talk about, see that covenant. Exodus chapter 19.

Exodus 19, we'll begin in verse 5. And this is after God had brought Israel out of Egypt by a strong hand, raining plagues down on them, and of course crushing the Egyptian army in the Red Sea. And He brought them all the way to the base of Mount Sinai. And God here, speaking to Moses as a mediator to send them back to tell Israel this, says, Now therefore, if you will indeed obey my voice and keep my covenant, then, say, if then, then you'll be to me a special treasure, yeah, a special treasure to me above all people, for all the earth is mine, and you shall be a kingdom of priests, a holy nation. These are the words which you shall speak to the children of Israel. So Moses came and he called for the elders of the people, and he laid before them all the words which the Lord commanded, and all the people... Now, here is God proposing the agreement. God says, here's what I'm proposing. You want to do this. Then the word comes back. All the people answered together and said, all that the eternal is spoken, we will do. So Moses brought back the words of the people back to the eternal. So the people accepted God's term, and they would enter into a covenant. Now, we know if we go forward in Exodus 20, I'm not going to read all the 10 commandments, but God came down on the Mount and thundered. He spoke them, and people heard with his own voice. What I want to do is, if you will, we're going to come back to Exodus, so you might want to keep a finger or a marker there, but let's go to the book of Deuteronomy chapter 5.

Deuteronomy chapter 5 is the other place that lists the 10 commandments and describes God, describes God speaking them. Again, I'm still not going to read through that, because most of us are familiar. Some of you have them memorized. I've got the short version memorized, the long one, not so much. But let's look at verse 22. At the end of God speaking these 10 commandments, Deuteronomy 5.22, it says, these words the eternal spoke to all your assembly in the mountain from the midst of the fire, the cloud and the thick darkness, with a loud voice, and he added no more. God spoke these things, added no more to them, and he wrote them on two tablets of stone and gave them to me. It's important to remember God wrote them on the tablets of stone. So this indicates to us... Oh, and let's look at verse 9 before I make that point.

Deuteronomy... Oh, chapter 9 in verse 9. I'm sorry. Deuteronomy 9 in verse 9.

Because we were talking about this covenant that the children of Israel and God entered into, here Moses tells them, When I went up into the mountain to receive the tablets of stone, the tablets of the covenant which the eternal made with you, then I stayed on the mountain for 40 days and 40 nights. So the tables of stone are called the tables of the covenant. So the terms of the covenant, God said, You obey me. And He gave them the Ten Commandments, and it says, He spoke no more. They were a complete unit. God didn't need an eleventh commandment.

But if we go back to Exodus, and if you do... if you want to turn back there, if you go to verses 20... back to Exodus chapter 24, God did start giving other laws. And there's a whole lot of things we've got. You know, Exodus is the second book of the Bible, and then you go through Leviticus and Numbers and Deuteronomy. There seem to be a lot of rules and regulations. So where's Mr. Dunkel getting up here saying that the Ten Commandments are a complete unit? There's nothing more. Well, there's something more, but what is it? Let's look at Exodus 24, and we'll read, starting in verse 3.

So Moses came and told the people all the words of the Eternal, and all the judgments, and all the people answered with one voice and said, all the words which the Eternal has said will do. And Moses wrote all the words of the Eternal, and he rose early in the morning and built an altar at the foot of the mountain. Now, this is interesting, because we've read more than one place that God wrote the Ten Commandments on the tablets of stone, and he added no more. But here Moses wrote all these words. Obviously, this is something different than the Ten Commandments. And if we look down to verse 7, it says, he took the book of the covenant and read in the hearing of the people, and they said all that the Lord has said we will do. Now, this is a separate incident. They'd already agreed to do what God commanded, and then God spoke the Ten Commandments, wrote them on tables of stone. But now we see God spoke something else. Moses wrote it down on a book, or actually, it would have been a scroll, and they used the term book. And the people said we'll do that.

So there was a covenant agreed to. And Moses, yeah, sprinkled the people. He made a sacrifice. In verse 8, he says, he took the blood and sprinkled it on the people. He said, this is the blood of the covenant which the Eternal has made with you according to all these words. And I've commented on that before. It might not have been very pleasant to be those people at that time, but it was a ritual acceptance of this covenant. So what was written in this book?

Well, if we go back a couple of pages, Exodus 21, as I said, God spoke the Ten Commandments, and we saw in Deuteronomy, he added no more, but then he started speaking again when Moses went up to meet with him. Matter of fact, I'm not reading the account here, but I found it one of the more amusing sex stories in the Bible, because people of Israel so much wanted to know God, and then God came and spoke to them, and they saw this power, and the mountain was thundering and shaking, and there's another place where it says Moses himself was quaking and shaking, and Moses wasn't supposed to be afraid of this thing. So what they did is afterwards, the people came to Moses and said, no, no, don't let God talk to us anymore. You go talk to God, and you can come back and tell us what he said. So Moses did. He goes up to the mountain, and here in Exodus 21, he says, now, these are the judgments which you shall set before them. And he goes on and lists several new rules and regulations, laws, and many of them included the death penalty. Let's go to verse 23. Now, I'm breaking into a thought it's talking about if someone harms a pregnant woman, and it says, if any harm follows, you shall give life for life. And then a famous section of scripture, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot, burn for burn, wound for wound, stripe for stripe, then eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth. This is talking about the punishment. Remember when we read in Romans where it talked about the administration of death. This is the administration of death. God's telling these people somebody does something that causes death, then he's going to have the death penalty. What I'm getting down to is these chapters here, 21, 22, verse 23, are what I like to call a civil law. These are regulations for how to run a government. Because Israel was now becoming a nation. They'd been living in Egypt and they were a subject people. Now they're forming a separate nation of their own and God would be their king. For many years they would have judges who were administrators, but God was king. Later on when the people wanted a human king, he would let them have Saul and then David in his dynasty. But the point is they began being a government. And a government, a kingdom, has to have laws.

Now you could say that the Ten Commandments were, and they still are, about how to live. The Ten Commandments are timeless. They are how to live, how to honor God and worship Him, how we should love each other and treat each other. But God's covenant with Israel also included civil law, how to run this government. It's interesting that if we look through all those laws, you might notice, and it's not my main point, but all those laws require physical obedience.

Physical obedience. And they promise physical rewards. Matter of fact, you can see a good list of the rewards that are possible if you read in Leviticus 26 or Deuteronomy 28. We call those the blessings and cursings chapter. If you obey Me, you'll have all these wonderful things. You'll have bountiful harvest. The rain will come at the right time. Your cattle will not throw their young and things like that. And obviously, I didn't memorize them all. If you disobey Me, you'll suffer bad things. But there's no promise of eternal life. No promise of eternal life back then. Also, no requirement to keep what we now call the spirit of the law. There's a rule against murder, but no law against hating your brother in your heart. Jesus Christ would come and add that later for those who could understand because they would have God's Holy Spirit available. So, coming back to what I was saying, these are physical laws for a physical nation. This is how to run things.

Now, I want to add one more point, though. I said, Israel became a nation. They were also something else, though. Israel was also a church, using it in modern terms.

You know, we're familiar with the idea of separation of church and state. We're here as a church, and we don't want the government of Sciota County to come in here and tell us how we have to worship and how we can't worship. We've got separation of church and state, or I could say, the state of Ohio or the federal law. Now, did God give a separate set of rules or laws for how to worship Him, how to conduct religious ceremonies?

Well, I think He did. Now, you could make the case that the Ten Commandments would have sufficed for that, and perhaps they would have, but there would be more. Now, interestingly, I want to go to the New Testament first to make a case for that. Let's go back to Galatians chapter 3. Galatians 3 and verse 19.

Here Paul, he's arguing against some people saying that men had become circumcised and physically become Jewish to join the church, and he's arguing against that in Galatians. But he makes a point. He says, what purpose then does the law serve? It was added because of transgressions till the seed should come to whom the promise was made. And it was appointed through the hands of a mediator. Okay, the law was added because of transgressions. Well, there's a dichotomy there. Now, here's where in the morning I cited Romans 6.23, which is important. Romans 6.23 says the wages of sin is death, but I believe it's 1 John 3.4 is what I wanted to cite, where it says sin, and the New King James says sin is lawlessness. This is one of those memory scriptures. Sin is the transgression of the law. Okay, sin is the transgression of the law. And he says because of transgression, law was added. Do you see a disconnect there? How can you have transgression if sin is transgression of the law? How can... So, in other words, you broke the law so we had to add law. Well, it can't be the same law then. You couldn't break a law if it wasn't in existence yet. So, this is indicating more than one law, or more than one set of laws. Let's go to Romans chapter 5. We'll see that same dichotomy, or same apparent contradiction come up. Romans 5 beginning in verse 13.

Here Paul is looking back, and he... That's one of the reasons I wanted to come to Paul's writing in the New Testament, to look back from a broad perspective at this giving of law and why certain laws were given at certain times. Now, here beginning in verse 13, he says, for until the law, sin was in the world. Now, when he says until the law, he means the giving of the law, typically when God spoke to Israel. But he says before that, sin was in the world. So, before God spoke on Mount Sinai, there was sin. Well, wait a minute. Sin is transgression of the law, isn't it? That's the same same contradiction we were just looking at. He says, but sin is not imputed when there is no law. You can't break the law if there is no law. But he's saying before the law, sin was in the world. So, that means before the giving of the law, there was some law. I'm plotting through this slowly, but I want to make sure we're clear on this. Now, in verse 14, nevertheless, because he said, where sin is not imputed where there is no law, and that's where I wanted to quote Romans 6.23, the wages of sin is death. So, you die because you sin. If there's no sin, you don't have to die. And that was the case with Adam and Eve. When they were first created, if they'd have never sinned, they could have taken of the tree of life and continued. Now, I think God knew that probably wasn't going to happen. He had a plan for it. Now, in verse 14, nevertheless, death reigned from Adam until Moses. That time when many people today who cite those scriptures that I read in my introduction would say, well, there's no law because it hadn't been given yet, but people are dying. And people die because they sin, and sin is a transgression of the law. Okay, there must have been some law. And he makes the point that they sinned not according to the likeness of the transgression of Adam. Now, why does Paul bother to mention that? Well, Adam did break a direct command of God. God said, don't eat of that tree. And Adam and Eve both ate of the tree, and he said, if you eat of that tree, you're going to die. They ate of it. Now, they didn't drop dead immediately, as we know it. It just meant they were on the way to death. They wouldn't live forever. But Paul makes the point that everybody after that, until Moses didn't commit that sin, they didn't even have the option. They weren't in the Garden of Eden. But they must have committed some kind of sin because they died. But how could they have committed sin if there was no law? Well, the answer is that there must have been some law. Let's go to Galatians again. Galatians 3 and verse 23.

I'm partly making the case that it could seem confusing, and we've got to untangle it. It's partly confusing because the word law is used, and it can be used for more than one set of commands.

And it's important for us to think of this now because we're coming up on Passover when we review and review our commitment to Christ and remember that He was sacrificed so that our sins could be forgiven, which sins were the breaking of the law. If there was no law, we don't have to repent. But of course we do. Let's look at Galatians 3 verse 23. Before faith came, we were kept under guard by the law, kept for the faith which would afterward be revealed. Therefore, the law was our tutor. The law was a tutor to do what? To bring us to Christ, that we might be justified by faith. But after faith has come, we're no longer under the tutor. Once you have that faith, and we could say, God's Spirit, you don't have to be under the tutor, which is a certain law. For you're all sons of God through faith in Jesus Christ. So what we have here is that there was some law in effect before Moses' time, because otherwise people wouldn't have been dying since death is the wages of sin, which is the breaking of the law. But also, some law was added because of transgressions. And I would make the case that that's the law that was meant to be a tutor.

Now let's go back to Jeremiah to start to make it a little more clear. Jeremiah chapter 7.

I should have warned you to crack your knuckles and get ready to look at a lot of scriptures today. Jeremiah 7 will begin in verse 22. But here, instead of quoting Paul or Moses, we'll look to what God Himself says. And He's going to describe that moment. Remember, I described how God entered a covenant with ancient Israel. He said, here I'm making a proposition. And Israel accepted. Here God says, I did not speak to your fathers or command them in the day that I brought them out of the land of Egypt concerning burnt offerings or sacrifices. He didn't. But this is what I commanded them, saying, Obey my voice and I'll be your God, and you shall be my people, and walk in all the ways that I've commanded you, that it may be well with them. And that's exactly what we read. God made this proposal. If you obey my voice and walk in my ways, you'll be my special people. But it says in verse 24, Yet they did not obey or incline their ears, but follow the counsels and dictates of their evil hearts. But if we look back at verse 22, when God made this proposition, He says, I didn't talk to them about burnt offerings or sacrifices. And He didn't. We spoke from the Ten Commandments, no mention of any sacrifice. When He gave that civil law to Moses that I talked about, still no mention of sacrifice. What happened was the covenant was ratified, and then Moses spent time with God getting instructions on how to build a tabernacle. Remember, He spent 40 days and 40 nights up there. And while He was gone, the people got restless.

And they went to Aaron and said, hey, what happened to this Moses guy? We don't know where he went. We've got to have something to worship. And Aaron made a big mistake then. He said, well, give me your golden earrings. I still wonder if he was trying to do a delaying tactic. I'm not sure, but because the way he describes it later, he just tossed him in the fire and out came this golden calf, which sounds a little fishy, but who knows? If Satan was involved, it could be, you know, perhaps Aaron's trying to stall him, melts down the gold, and suddenly, hey, it looks like a calf. And Aaron said, well, there's a miracle. Here's your God. And everybody starts worshiping it. I'm speculating a little bit there, but I guess I hate to be too hard on Aaron. At any rate, the people disobeyed God. Now, what law did they break? Well, they broke the law that thou shalt have no other gods before me. He just told them you shall have no graven images. And so, after Moses came back and ground up the calf and made him eat it, you know, he sprinkled it on the water where they drank, then God starts giving them another set of laws, a set of sacrifices, a set of laws that could work as a tutor. These are a sacrificial offering system that was added because of transgression. They'd broken the law that was already there, so God added a law. That's what it said in Galatians 3, 19. It was added because of transgression. Not all of the law, but a new set of religious law.

As I said, Israel was a church and a state.

So, I feel like I've been running around the May Pole, so to speak, with scriptures and all that.

If you're thoroughly confused, it's much better on paper. But what I see here are three distinct sets of laws described here in the first five books of the Bible. First, the Ten Commandments, which is a unit unto itself. And it's really based on the idea of love. Love God and love your neighbor. And we'll talk about that a bit more later on. And then there was also the civil law. How to civilly administer a government. Here's how you do things. And then the third set of laws was a sacrificial law. God says, okay, since you can't obey me, here's how you worship me. It's going to take blood because blood is the price for sin. Now, what I found is interesting is, I had finished this... Actually, I was working on a sermon a week or two ago, and sometimes I spread out working on them. And I've been reading several books that someone had given me on the Passover and how the Jews keep Passover and Messianic Jews. And I just finished reading a really scholarly, very dry book about Exodus. And it's one of those biblical scholars who they call biblical critics. He's taking apart every single word. And this guy is relatively religious because he claims to believe that there actually was a Moses, which he says a lot of these scholars, they read, there's no such thing as a Moses. That's ridiculous. And if the children of Israel ever were in Egypt, you know, they were just a band of tribes. Anyways, what I was saying is, so this is one of those dry, look at each word. And when he comes near the end of his book, I was surprised to read, he says, if you analyze the Exodus, you come up with three sets of laws. I said, hey, that's just what I wrote in my sermon. And he described them, that the Ten Commandments, and then the Civil Law, and then this Religious Law. So I figure, maybe I'm not sure if it's a good thing that I agree with this, you know, non-believing scholar, or if it's a bad thing, but it's certainly there in the book. Understanding all this, though, we probably shouldn't be surprised that some people have read the epistles of Paul and gotten confused, right? They've read those scriptures in Galatians, saying the law was a tutor, and we're not under a tutor anymore, and the law, you know, can't do what the Spirit can do. So we don't want to be confused, though. We want to have life. We want to be in God's kingdom. So what do we do? What law do we obey if we want to have life?

Well, fortunately, I'm not the first person to ever ask that question. Somebody came and asked it to Jesus himself, so let's look at his answer in Matthew chapter 19. Matthew 19, and we'll begin in verse 16. It's a pretty well-known section of scripture. Now, Jesus, of course, at a number of times had encounters with the Pharisees and lawyers, and they were always trying to trap him. And here, we're not sure... I get the feeling this question was sincere. A young man came up to him and he said, good teacher, what good thing shall I do that I may have eternal life? The same question we're asking, what do I have to do to have eternal life? And he corrected him on one thing. He said, why do you call me good? No one is good, but one. That's God. Jesus is saying, I'm not in the Spirit now. He was good compared to us. But he says, and we could say aside from that, but if you want to enter life, keep the commandments. Okay, this is not saying the commandments are done away, but knowing what we know now, we might have the same question as this young man. He says, which ones? There's all these, you know, these different sets of laws. Which ones do I obey? And Jesus Christ answered. Then he said, well, you shall not commit murder. You shall not commit adultery. You shall not steal. You shall not bear false witness. All those should sound familiar. Those are some of the Ten Commandments. And then a summary says, or honor your father and mother. And he says, you shall love your neighbor as yourself. And the young man asked him, he said, well, these things I've been doing since my youth. What do I lack? And Jesus Christ continued on and told him to get rid of all your possessions and come and follow me. But this is interesting. Jesus listed those five. And why did he? Why those five? And add, you shall love your neighbors yourself. Now, I'm not going to be able to give you a direct answer. I've got some speculation. But we can note he did not list any of the civil law. Nothing that Moses wrote down that makes up Exodus 21 through 24. And no sacrificial law. You know, when the young man said, what do I do to have eternal life? He didn't say, well, you got to slay a bull of one year without blemish and sprinkle the blood. He didn't do that. Let's look ahead in Matthew 22. Verse 30. We'll begin in verse 36.

We want to see something else because we're still wondering about these different sets of laws and what do we have to do. Oh, no wonder. I was looking for it and it wasn't there. It's on the other page. Here, a lawyer comes up to him. Once again, Christ is confronting various people with questions. And he says, teacher, which is the great commandment of the law? Okay, we got all these different commandments, perhaps different sets of laws. What's the greatest one? What comes on top? And Jesus said, you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and all your mind. This is the first and the greatest commandment. The second is like it. You shall love your neighbor as yourself. And he helps us to understand where these things fit together. He says, on these two commandments, hang all the law and the prophets. So these are the bases for the other law. All the rest of God's teaching comes down, in essence, to love. Love God with everything you've got. Love your neighbor as yourself. It's easy, in many ways, to equate those to the Ten Commandments, because we've seen, and I think Mr. Call mentioned that earlier in his sermon, at the first four, talk about how to love God. You know, they say, this is what you do if you love God. You don't have any other gods. You don't make some image of him to fall down in worship, because you realize God doesn't look like that. And you don't take his name in vain. You honor this holy time that he set aside. Now, love your neighbor as yourself. How do you do that? Well, first of all, you don't kill him, and you don't commit adultery, and you don't steal, and you don't lie. That sums up, and of course, those are the commandments Jesus mentioned. Interesting, and I still ponder about the Tenth Commandment, because we say the first four about how to love God, and then the next six, how to love man. They're off balance, but then you think about, the last one is, thou shalt not covet. I think, well, how much does it hurt my neighbor if I covet? It doesn't bother him so much, but it sure does a lot of damage to me. It pollutes my mind. Coveting is one of the most self-destructive things you can do. So, in a sense, since we belong to God, if we let ourselves covet, we're dishonoring God. Now, this is my own take on that. This isn't any new doctrine, but as I said, it in some ways brings back some balance. In any event, you don't covet, whether it's how to honor God, or how to not hurt your neighbor, or not hurt yourself. And Jesus' day, looking back to his answer to that young man where he says, which commands do I obey? And I'm just speculating here, but Jesus, in his day, the Pharisees were sticklers for those first four commandments. And they were very strict about the Sabbath, and we discussed that in the Bible study last week. You know, you can't even wear your shoes with nails because they're too much burden to bear, and you can't carry your clothes out of a burning house. And they had all these rules, but they were strict about, you know, not having any graven images, or taking God's name in vain. So maybe they were living up to that, not in the Spirit, but at least they were there. But I have a feeling, and it seems that they were missing the mark when it came to loving their neighbor. I think the Pharisees, you know, and they're teaching the people really was why to miss on how to love their neighbor. So perhaps, and I'm always saying perhaps, that's why Jesus mentioned those. Because anybody would wonder, of course, they're keeping the Sabbath, and they're having only one God, and not taking his name in vain. But Jesus was emphasizing, okay, you've also got to love your neighbor as yourself.

Well, maybe. In any event, that could give us something to go by. If we want life, if we want to turn a wife, we should obey the command to love our neighbor as ourself. Let's also consider, let's go to Hebrews chapter 10. Hebrews 10, and we'll begin in verse 1. This is bringing back to saying, well, which laws do we obey? We know, I think we can make a good case for all the Ten Commandments, but what about the others? Well, let's focus on how we should look at the sacrificial law, perhaps. Hebrews 10 and verse 1. For the law, now this doesn't specify which law, but it says, the law having a shadow of good things to come, and not the very image of the things, can never with these same sacrifices, which they offer continually year by year, make those who approach perfect. So he's talking about sacrifices here. For then they would not have, wouldn't they not have ceased to be offered? For the worshippers once purified would have had no more consciousness of sins. But those sacrifices, in those sacrifices, there is a reminder of sins every year. In other words, you sin, you have to sacrifice again, and you sin, you keep on sacrificing. So it is not possible that the blood of bulls and goats could take away sins. So this is talking about the sacrificial law. I don't think the Ten Commandments. Let's continue in verse 5. Therefore, when he came into the world, he said, sacrifice and offering, you didn't desire. This is talking to God. You didn't really want sacrifice and offerings. It says, but a body you've prepared for me, and burn offerings and sacrifices, you had no pleasure. It makes sense when God, we read in Jeremiah 7, where he said, when I brought them out, I didn't talk about burn offerings and sacrifices. I said, I want you to obey me. Matter of fact, I think I might be about to quote that here. He says, Behold, I have come in the volume of the book that was written of me to do your will, O God, to do your will. And here, now is where he's going to quote. He's previously saying, sacrifice and offering, burn offerings and offerings for sin, you didn't desire. You didn't have pleasure in them. That's what God said in Jeremiah 7. Then he said, Behold, I have come to do your will, O God. He takes away the first that he may establish the second. Okay, take away the sacrifice and offering, because that's not what God wanted. He wanted people to obey him. And when Jesus Christ came and fulfilled the ultimate sacrifice, paying for sins, being able to abolish sinfulness, and making God's Spirit available, that's when it became possible to fulfill what God really wanted, which is obedience to him, and even obedience from the heart. Let's look down in verse 14. It says, For by one offering he perfected forever those who are being sanctified, by that one offering of Jesus Christ, of the Messiah. That makes it possible for us to participate in the new covenant. Verse 15. But the Holy Spirit also witnesses to us, for after he said before, This is the covenant that I will make with them after those days, says the Eternal. I'll put my laws into their hearts, and in their minds I will write them.

So what law is going to be written in our hearts? We could say, certainly, there's no indication that law is being done away altogether. If any law is done away, it's that sacrifice, the burnt offerings and sacrifice that God said, I didn't want that, I wanted obedience. As I said, the Holy Spirit makes obedience possible, obedience to whatever law is written in our hearts. Some law will be written in our hearts, or we could say, for us who are baptized and becoming like God now, working to develop character, he's in the process of writing that law. But we know that while we're in the flesh, it's a continuing process. It'd be nice if we were done like that and we never sinned again, but we all know better.

Now, if we say which law, we could say at least the 10 commandments that Jesus supported. Let's go back to Hebrews chapter 8 to support that. Hebrews 8, beginning in verse 6.

But now he has obtained a more excellent ministry, and as much as he has also mediated of a better covenant. We've talked about that first covenant, which wasn't so bad, but there was a problem. Meteor of a better covenant. But for that first covenant, if... Sorry, starting in verse 7 again. If that first covenant had been faultless, no place would have been sought for a second. So there was a problem. And in verse 8 we see what it was. But finding fault with them. Now, the them is not the terms of the covenant. The terms of the covenant were okay. It's the people that didn't obey. Remember, Moses went up on the mountain and they started worshiping a golden calf. So God had to add something to be a tutor to them. But finding fault with them, he says, Yeah, they didn't continue in it very long. First chance they got, they started breaking the law. And verse 10, So when God led Israel out of Egypt, he made a covenant and he gave them the Ten Commandments and a civil law. Sacrificial law was added later. There's a good indication that's not going to be written in our hearts. That was temporary. That was the tutor meant to lead us to understand Jesus Christ in his way. So the law written in our hearts should be the same that God gave to Israel. We can make a good case that that includes the Ten Commandments.

Now, hopefully you're all with me on that. It's a long drawn out. And I'll admit, actually, it wasn't until after services this morning somebody pointed out, they said, you know, your sermon was pretty much the exact same thing that's in that really thick book we've got on the the covenants. I said, oh yeah, you're right. I didn't even open that one while I was preparing it, but my sermon's shorter than that booklet, by the way. So... But what about all that other stuff that's in Exodus, Leviticus, and Deuteronomy? How much of that do we have to obey? Do we have to obey any of it? Let's go back to Exodus chapter 21 and consider that, because I think it's a legitimate question and it comes up at times. People say, well, what do we have to do? The Ten Commandments I've got no problem with, but some of these other laws, were they done away? Were they part of that Tudor? Were they, you know, the thing that God says, I didn't have any delight in them? You know, I really wanted obedience. For instance, let's read Exodus 21 verses 1 and 2. I'll let you catch up with me. Now these are the judgments which you shall set before them. If you buy a Hebrew servant, he shall serve six years, and in the seventh he'll go out free and pay nothing.

Okay, should I tell you you have to obey that? Now where can I go buy a Hebrew slave? You know, I'm going to keep him for six years. Now, in matter of fact, I didn't look here. In the sermonette this morning, Mr. Bumgardner made reference to the Jubilee year, which we come across in Leviticus, which is a wonderful system. Every fiftieth year, all the captives go free, and everybody's land reverts back to the family it originally belonged to. Can we keep the Jubilee year now? Can I go find what land ancestrally belonged to the dunkel clan and say, it's mine, it's the Jubilee year? You know, we're starting to see some problems. Matter of fact, if you look across the page here in chapter, in verse 23, we read this earlier, or we'll start in verse 24, an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot. Is this law being written into our hearts? There are some potential troubles here. And what I'm making the case, there are several laws here that are not for us as individuals. They're for a nation. That's why I describe them as a civil law. And we have to control the government to be able to enact them. Some of the laws are basically if-then punishments, but they're all about the punishment. If you do this, this is what comes up. Matter of fact, let's go to Exodus 22 in verse 9. I found this interesting. For any kind of trespass, whether it concerns an ox, a donkey, a sheep, or clothing, or for any kind of loss thing which another claims to be his, the cause of both parties shall come before the judges, and whomever the judges condemn shall pay double to his neighbor. So if you have a disagreement, someone accuses you of theft, or you're accusing someone, can we go into the court and say, okay, judge, I want you to apply this law because I'm a Christian. You know, he'll laugh at you. You know, he's going to uphold the municipal law, or the county, or state, or federal law that applies. We don't have control of the government because as Christians we make up the Church of God. We're a church, not a state. Israel was a church and a state. We're not a state here on this earth. We can go to Philippians 3 in verse 20. I was just going to refer to this, but after I misquoted a scripture this morning, I'm a little wary. So let's, I want to make sure, Philippians 3 in verse 20, you know, our citizenship is in heaven. That's where our kingdom is. That's where these laws could potentially be enforced. Remember, when Jesus was on trial and he stood before Pilate, and Pilate asked him, are you a king then? And Jesus said, and I'm quoting from John 8 verse 36, said, My kingdom is not of this world. If my kingdom were of this world, my servants would fight, but my kingdom's not from here. We're his servants. We're not called to fight here on this age, because our state is not from here. Rather, we're ambassadors for that kingdom. That's 2 Corinthians 5 verse 20. And I'm not going to turn there, but I'm hoping I looked that one up when I made my notes. And I say, you misquote once and you get a little nervous. But we're ambassadors. We're loyal to a kingdom, the kingdom of God that's in heaven. Now, we do obey the laws that are here. If we turn to Romans chapter 13, that's not very far from here. Romans 13, let's read the first few verses here.

Romans 13 verse 1 says, Let every soul be subject to the governing authorities. That means wherever you live, the governing authorities. For there's no authority except from God. God allows those to be in place, and the authorities that exist are appointed by God. Therefore, whoever resists the authority resists the ordinance of God, and those who resist will bring judgment on themselves. Rulers are not a terror to good works, but to evil. Do you want to be unafraid of the authority? Do what's good, and you'll have praise for the same. And that includes, even if we go to verse 7, render to all their due. Taxes to whom taxes are due, custom to whom customs, fear to whom fear, honor to whom honor. Even when the taxes are higher than they ought to be, we still pay them. Because we're, well, you could say we're practicing dual citizenship. Our citizenship is in heaven, but we obey the laws that are here and now. The laws that are applied to this kingdom, or this government. We can't necessarily obey all the laws that were given to a civil state in ancient Israel. Now, let's consider, though, before I just dismiss this entirely, I don't want to give you the wrong idea. Are there some of the civil laws that God gave to Israel that we can and should obey? I believe so. Let's go back to Exodus. This should be about the last time we've got to run back and forth. Exodus 23.

Exodus 23 and verse 1. Here's an important one. We don't have to be in control of the government to obey this. It says, you shall not circulate a false report. Do not put your hand with the wicked to be an unrighteous witness. Now, that's an elaboration of the ninth command, thou shall not bear false witness. We can't obey that, and to be good Christians, we should, even though it's not part of the ten commandments. But, as I said, it's an elaboration of one of the ten. Let's drop down to verse 4. If you meet your enemy's ox or his donkey going astray, you shall surely bring it back to him. Now, let's send it to your enemy, somebody you don't like. And I don't know how many times you see a donkey going astray these days. That's not so common, but what if it's their dog got loose? He said, man, I hate that dog. I hope he gets hit by a car. No, he says, you don't, you go get him and you bring him back to his neighbor. That's the right thing to do. And we don't have the excuse to say, well, we're a church, not a state. I don't have to do that. I think you know better. You know that's what we should do. Or in the next verse, if you see the donkey of one who hates you lying under his burden and you would refrain from helping it, you shall surely help him with it. Now, it's easy to say, well, if I see a donkey down, what if somebody you really don't like is by the side of the road with a flat tire and they don't have their jack? You know, the right thing to do would be to pull over and let him use yours. Now, I'm not saying that's easy, but I'm saying we don't have an out just because we can say, oh, that's not in the Ten Commandments. Now, there's some of the civil law that, as I said, it's given for a government. You know, the instructions for a judge of who pays double, things like that. But something like this we can obey, so I believe we should. In 23, let's go to verse 10.

Six years you shall sow your land and gather in the produce, but the seventh year you shall let it rest and lie fallow, that the poor of your people may eat, and what they leave the beast of the field may eat. This is what we call the land Sabbath. Plant your land six years, the seventh, let it lie fallow. You don't have to have control of the government to do this. Last summer, actually, Sue and I, we planted a garden for six years.

Last year was our land Sabbath. And I've talked to people. I was amazed at what came up on its own. Tomato plants, a hill of potatoes. I missed one the year before. I meant to get them all. And all this stuff grew, and we just let it go. The rabbits had a feast because I didn't have the wire around to keep them out of the lettuce.

But that's something we should do, and God blesses us for it. We've done scientific studies to show the land is more fertile if you let it have a land Sabbath, and it's better for people. What about verse 14? Three times you shall keep a feast to me in the year. Not to me. This is God speaking. You shall keep the feast of unleavened bread. Eat unleavened bread seven days as I've commanded you.

That's coming up pretty soon. And I'll mention this is listed in the civil law, but it had already been given when God first gave instructions for the Passover before they even left Egypt. So there are some things that he might repeat in the civil law, but they're timeless, and that includes the Holy Days. The Holy Days are always there. And of course, verse 16, also, the feast of the harvest of the firstfruits. Pentecost will be coming up, what, exactly 50 days after Passover. I don't have to know the date on the calendar. Although I believe it's what, the last Sunday in May.

I was looking at the calendar yesterday working on that. And of course, the feasted ingathering at the end of the year. We could call these elaborations of the fourth command to keep the Sabbath holy. So what I'm getting at, there may occasionally be a law in the Old Testament where you look at it and you say, huh, how do I apply this?

Do I obey it or not? Or if so, how? Sometimes that comes up. But if we're honest with ourselves, it's not that often. Most of the time you can read it and say, okay, I'm pretty sure when it says, slay a bull and sprinkle the blood, okay, I don't have to do that. I know Christ's sacrifice takes that place. That was a symbol. A lot of the other things when you read it, you know if you can do it or not, and if you should or not, especially if God's Spirit is working with you.

So if we just keep in mind, we're a church, we're not a civil government, but we are ambassadors of God's kingdom, and we want to be proper representatives obeying that law. So I hope this helps us reconcile any seeming contradiction in the New Testament about the law. There's a lot of it out there, and a lot of churches think, no law, we can do anything we want.

But we know it says the law is holy. It's just and good. That's the spiritual law that God is writing on Christian's hearts. Now there was a law that was a shadow of things to come, that was a tutor until the fulfillment by Jesus Christ. That represented a set of sacrifices and ritual cleanseings, and they were symbols of the perfect sacrifice of the Messiah. And we were going to symbolize that not by slaying a lamb, but by the new emblems which Christ gave us.

We'll be doing that in a few weeks. Some of those old practices are obsolete, but the same Spirit is what the same Spirit is what writes the law of God in our minds. God's Spirit writes them in our minds. That's what the law of God is. That law can be summarized fairly easy. We know what it means. Love God with all your heart. Love your neighbor as yourself. If we do those, all the rest falls into place.