Is the Law of God Out of Date?

You know, as Christians who keep the Sabbath and the Holy Days, we're often criticized as lawkeepers or legalists who deny the grace of God. That's what it said about you and me, because we're actually meeting here today on God's Sabbath, because we keep the Holy Days and we don't eat pork. So we seem like we're confused Christians.

Well, are we Jewish or are we Christian? Which is it? Why do we see value in the Scriptures that people oftentimes call the Old Testament? Today, I'm going to rename that. San Antonio and Austin has already heard me suggest that we rename that and do not call the Scriptures old, but the Scriptures that are called the Old Testament.

That's actually a prejudice or a bias against the Word of God. So why do we see value in the Scriptures that others call the Old Testament? Well, most of Christianity say that they have been fulfilled and therefore are no longer relevant to our lives. Is the law of God old? Well, yes, it's old. It's very old. But is it out of date, is the question. Is the law of God out of date? Is it gone and done away? The reason we're having this theme is that all across the country, possibly across the world, we're now being hit on both sides of this issue.

Well, you shouldn't have to keep the law. On one side, we've been buffeted for years, decades on that side. The law is done away. It's fulfilled. You don't have to keep it anymore. And that's one of the criticisms we get.

And now on the other side, we don't keep it enough. You don't keep all of the rituals. You pick and choose which ones you keep, which is actually partly valid, although that's actually not an accurate description of what we believe. It's not accurate at all. So we do want to go through that. Why do we think the law is still relevant today? And yet there are some things we just don't do anymore.

What is up with all of that? What's the purpose in reading and studying and even applying the law that many call the Old Testament? I want to read from the covenant booklet that we have. Quote, The Sinai Covenant was a total package of law. The entire five books written by Moses was designed to cover in principle every major aspect of national life for ancient Israel. It dealt with penalties for criminal acts, how judges should decide criminal cases, safeguards against poverty, the conduct of the priesthood, the design of physical trappings for the tabernacle, ceremonial cleanness, animal control, instructions on morality, tithing, sacred festivals, agriculture, health principles, and many other aspects of life.

End quote. Many Christians in the world today would say that the Old Testament law was mailed to the cross. And yet we know that Jesus said in the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew chapter 5 and verse 17.

Let's pull that up. Matthew chapter 5 starting in verse 17. For the sake of those who are pulling the scriptures up, if I don't say the version, it will be New King James by default, but they know me. They already knew that. Matthew chapter 5 and verse 17. Do not think I came to destroy the law and the prophets. I did not come to destroy, but fulfill.

For assuredly I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, one jot or one tittle will by no means pass from the law until it is fulfilled. You probably are familiar with the definition of that word fulfilled. If you've been in the church for any amount of time, you know that it means to fill up.

If I have a glass that's half empty and I take some water and I pour it into that glass, I have fulfilled that glass. That's what that Greek word means. But what you may not know is that that Greek word was applied in a very specific way. The word was meant one thing, but used another way.

According to Thayer's Greek definition, it means to fill to the top or to cause to abound or to see through to the end. But what you may not know is by usage, the apostles and Jesus here used it to mean fully preach. The word in Greek for fulfill means to fully preach. That's how they used it. And you can see an example of that. It's actually translated that way in Romans chapter 15 and verse 19. The word pliru, I guess it is in the Greek, which is the word fulfilled. The translators have translated it in Romans 15-19 to mean to fully preach something.

So if we go back to Matthew chapter 5 and read it the way they use the word, it gives a completely different spin on what we've normally read when we get attacked with the Scripture. Because people will say, well, yeah, you know, Jesus didn't do away with the law, but he fulfilled it. Therefore, we don't have to do it anymore because it all fills up. And now we don't have to do it.

And that's not what the word meant. That's not how they used the word back in the day, so to speak. So reading it again with the definition of fully preached, listen to it and listen to what Jesus is actually saying about what the Christianity calls Old Testament. He says, do not think that I came to destroy the law and the prophets. That's what Jesus and the apostles called what we call the Old Testament.

There's nothing old to them about it. It was the law and the prophets. And I suggest that is what we should call it. That's what we should be saying when we refer to the Scriptures that we call the Old Testament. We should actually call it the law and the prophets. Do not think I came to destroy the law and the prophets. I did not come to destroy, but to fully preach.

Now, that makes a lot more sense, doesn't it? Jesus Christ came to fully preach the law of God. Why should we bother reading Leviticus and all of those laws about cattle and sheep and goats and rabbits and camels? Why bother when we have the sacrifice of Jesus Christ? Jesus Christ said He was going to teach the Old Testament, what we call the Old Testament. He was going to fill it out, explain it in greater detail, give it more meaning, and give us better understanding.

That's what He came to do. By implication, His intentions are that Christians are to know what everybody calls the Old Testament Scriptures. You know what, brethren? So the purpose this morning? We need to know them better than we do. We have gotten away from that, and we are not familiar enough with the teachings, the explanations of God. What are His opinions on matters?

Do you know how I am certain we've gotten away from it? Because I'm on Facebook. And I see the post that we as a group make. I see us calling evil good. Well, it's maybe okay for them. I don't do it, but I think everybody should make their own decision. And I think to myself, have you read the Bible? Apparently not lately. And we need to get back to it. We need to get back to reading the Bible. Jesus and the apostles expect all Christians, Gentile or Jew, to know the law.

Turn with me, if you will, to Romans 7, verse 1. And this is the premise of the sermon. Romans 7, verse 1. I made this point back in October in San Antonio and Austin. But since it's been several months, I'm sure it's new to you. So, let's go through it again. Romans 7, verse 1. Or do you not know, brethren? So, this isn't a scolding. He uses the word brethren, so he's appealing to us in a friendly tone. And he says, in parentheses, and notice the parentheses up there, For I speak for those who know the law.

Now, a parenthetical statement is usually just a side point. It's usually not the main point that somebody's making, which is also the case here. But in this particular situation, Paul's little parenthetical statement has huge implications. What Paul is saying here, or do you not know, brethren? For I speak to those who know the law.

Is that if you do not know the law of God, in other words, if you do not know Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Deuteronomy, all the way to Malachi, if you don't know that, don't bother reading the rest of what Paul's about to say. Because you're only going to understand what he's about to say if you know the law. For I speak to those who know the law, that the law has dominion over a man as long as he lives. Paul is addressing his teachings to people that know the law. Notice that this is the Romans that he's writing to. This is a Gentile church, and Paul writes a letter to a Gentile church expecting, assuming that they already know the law, which means we ought to also.

His information is intended for people who are familiar with the law of God.

If we don't know, if you and I don't know what's in the pages of what we call the Old Testament, Paul's words would be lost to you. In fact, much of the New Testament would be lost to you. If you don't understand the basics of the Old Testament, so to speak, you'll likely misunderstand the message of the New. The New Testament writers cite the Old Testament in their letters more than 700 times. I forget what the percentage is of Old Testament quotes that make up the body of what we call the New Testament text, but it's a very large percentage of the New Testament is actually quotes of the law and the prophets. It's a very large percentage. They quote 700 times more than in the New Testament, and that implies that you and I need to be very familiar with what was said.

How many of you know what the message of Habakkuk is? What about Zephaniah? If I said Zephaniah, could you just go, oh, that's about and fill in the blank? How familiar are you with the Book of Isaiah?

You know, we hear Isaiah read at the Feast of Tabernacles every year, but how long has it been since you have read the Book of Isaiah? How long has it been since you've read the prophecies in Daniel or read Proverbs and Psalms? Proverbs, the beginning of your walk with God, Psalms, where a mature Christian ought to be. How many of us are familiar with those again?

It's probably been a while. The Old Testament is broken down, or what we call the Old Testament, the law and the prophets, is broken down into three parts. There's the law, the first five books of the Bible. Then there are the writings, books like Joshua, Judges, Ruth, etc. And then there are the prophets. The prophets are broken down into major and minor, and we're not going to get into that for purposes of this sermon today because we just want to get familiar with the law of God once again. Prophets are like Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Habakkuk, and so forth.

Most of the time, the New Testament writers lump the law and the writings together, so when they refer to the Scriptures we call the Old Testament, they don't say the law, the writings, and the prophets. They just call it the law and the prophets. Just like when you say, we need to know our ABCs. You don't say, we need to know our ABCD, E-S-G-H.

We don't go through all the way to Z, do we? And neither did they.

So, they just refer to the entire body of Scripture as the law and the prophets. I suggest we do that.

Not when we're talking to other people. They will have no idea what we're talking about.

But amongst ourselves, we should refer to the Scriptures, the living Word of God, as the law and the prophets. That's what Jesus Christ referred to them as. That's what the apostles referred to them as. Editors later called all of those Scriptures the Old Testament, which actually just refers to the Sinai Covenant, which is found in the book of Exodus.

That's actually the Old Testament. The rest of it is the law and the prophets. And that's what I suggest we call it. Why? So that we will value those words more and not lose what we've gained from a previous generation, the generation that went before us, that had to fight their way out of the confusion that Christianity has fallen into, that says that the law is no longer relevant because Jesus fulfilled it. And they battled their way out of that. And I encourage us that we hold firm and never, ever walk back into that confusion.

Paul's explanation of the law at his trial. Let's notice this at the end of Paul's ministry. Notice what Paul said when he was about to be executed. Acts 24, verse 14. The apostle Paul is the one who is accused most of the time of writing letters that do away with Christians needing to understand, be familiar with, and follow God's opinion that's written in his word. It's the apostle Paul that's quoted most often. And yet, at the end of his ministry, after he wrote all of those things that most people quote, listen to what Paul himself said about the law of God.

Acts 24, verse 14. But I confess to you that according to the way in which they call a sect, this new Christian sect that Paul was being accused of, so I worship the God of my fathers.

Notice this next phrase. Believing all things which are written in the law and the prophets.

Paul did not, even at the end of his ministry, think the law was irrelevant.

He spoke to people as if they knew the law. Clearly, he believed and taught people to understand what we today call the Old Testament. That's not legalism, and we will address legalism today. But knowing God's opinion and following it isn't legalism, it's wisdom. That's what it is.

Take the creator of the universe that's all-knowing, all-powerful, get his opinion, and follow it. That's not legalism, that's just good sense. That's smart. That's the way to live your life. It helps us understand the New Testament as well. Without the Old Testament, I suggest we cannot correctly interpret what the New Testament writers were writing, because they wrote from the point of view of knowing the law and the prophets. So when we read the New Testament scriptures, we actually can't understand them unless we've read Genesis and Exodus and Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy. We'll have no idea what reference point. It's like coming into a movie three-quarters of the way done, and try to figure out who did it.

You won't figure out who did it because you don't even know what was done.

And that's what most of Christians do today. They come into the movie three-quarters of the way done, and they have no context for what they're studying. I'll just give you one example, for time's sake.

Who or what is the Holy Spirit? We get a lot of criticism on this one because we don't believe in a Trinity. We don't believe the Holy Spirit is a person. There's actually two different Trinity doctrines. There's an original Trinity doctrine, and there's the one in the western half of the world. That's the modern Trinity doctrine that we think of today. There's an older version of it that's still alive and well on the eastern part of the world. I haven't actually discussed that one. That's a time for another topic. But we actually get hit on the fact that we don't believe the Holy Spirit's a person. The original Trinity doctrine didn't actually have the Holy Spirit as a person. A separate entity from God, yes, but not a separate person. So they shored that up to make it easier to explain. And now in the modern Trinity doctrine, the Holy Spirit is actually an individual person. Why don't we believe that? Well, the Old Testament! That's where we get the authority to say, no, that's not what the apostles taught. Let's take a quick look, just a brief look, at what the apostles believed, what scriptures they were using in quoting when they were talking about God's spirit. We'll start in Genesis chapter 1, where the Holy Spirit is first mentioned. Genesis chapter 1, verses 1 and 2, in the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. The earth was without form and void, and darkness was over the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters, the Spirit of God, not God Himself.

As though God could be sitting on His throne and be on the earth at the same time. And how can He do that? By extending His Spirit there. That's the original introduction of God's Spirit, the Holy Spirit. Genesis chapter 1 and verse 2. God explains, He examines the earth with His Spirit as if He was there, even though He wasn't there. With it, God can be anywhere and everywhere at the same time. Now, in order to go into the next couple of scriptures, I have to explain Hebrew grammar. Just one little grammar tool. Please don't check out, because every time I hear the word grammar, I start nodding off and salivate. So, stay with me. In order to understand Hebrew scriptures, you have to understand the fact that Hebrew, a lot of times, was written in the form of poetry. It's not just technical writing. It's actually a poem when you read it. And parallelism in Hebrew is a critical thing to understand. In parallelism, and we notice this most in the Proverbs, you will have one statement that rhymes in meaning with another statement. You see, in Hebrew poetry, they don't rhyme in words. Hickory, dickory, duck. They don't do that. The mouse ran up the clock. Right? We rhyme in word. In Hebrew, they rhyme in meaning. If the meaning of two phrases rhyme, then those two phrases go together with an equal sign in between. So, you see that a lot in Proverbs. It's either equals or it's opposite. Like, the fool does this, but the wise does this. That's a parallelism. All right? Let's notice two very important parallelisms about the Holy Spirit. These are things that the apostles used as their authority to describe God's Spirit to us. We'll find them in the book of Psalms. First of all, Psalms, chapter 51.

You remember when David sinned against God with Bathsheba? Had Uriah the Hittite killed, and he had committed adultery, and then he repented. That psalm of repentance is Psalm 51.

And David is pleading with God, and in verse 11, Psalm chapter 51 and verse 11, he gives a Hebrew parallelism where two sentences mean the same thing. And if you don't understand parallelism, you can't get the Hebrew Scriptures. Notice this one. Do not cast me away from your presence.

Stop. David did not want God to leave him. He wanted God's presence, his very presence, to be there. What did David equate with God's own presence? The next statement. And do not take your Holy Spirit from me. David equates the presence of God himself with God's Holy Spirit.

So to David, it wasn't a second individual. David didn't ask God to send his buddy, the Holy Spirit, to comfort him. Did he? Send the other with you. Send your buddy, the Holy Spirit. No, he said, you don't leave me. Don't take your presence away from me, your Holy Spirit. And he equated the Holy Spirit with God's presence. Well, he does it again in Psalm 139. Psalm 139 and verse 7. Notice the parallelism again. Only this time it's flipped. Psalm 139 and verse 7. Where can I go from your spirit? And here's the parallel sentence. Or where can I flee from your presence? Again, that Hebrew poetry, that rhyme of meaning, the two sentences that go together. God's spirit was simply God's presence. That's what the apostles believed and taught, because those were the scriptures that they learned from. There's never any mention of God's spirit as a person in the law and the prophets. And that's what the apostles relied on from their authority. So, if you read the New Testament scriptures and you didn't have that understanding that I just gave you, you could believe quite a few things about the Spirit of God, because it can be confusing. Sometimes they call it the Holy Spirit. In the New Testament, sometimes they call it God's spirit. Sometimes they call it the Spirit of Christ. And it's easy to see how people would get confused. What's the anchor? What holds it all together so that we can have an accurate doctrine? The law and the prophets.

The same thing that the apostles used, we should be using. The law and the prophets are the basics of Christianity. They're the starting point. They're not the finish line by any stretch of the imagination, which we're going to go through in just a minute, which was Paul's whole entire point for talking about the law in Romans chapter 7. It's kind of like saying that you can understand Shakespeare without knowing the English alphabet. Now, you can't understand Shakespeare if you can't read Shakespeare. You can't read Shakespeare unless you first learn the alphabet. Can you?

Doesn't make sense. You have to start with the basics, and that's what the law of God is.

Take algebra. Complex mathematical calculations. Can you do algebra if you don't know how to add and subtract? Is it a legitimate argument to say you no longer need to add and subtract because now you know algebra? Well, that's ridiculous. That's absolutely ridiculous.

I can do calculus. I don't need to add and subtract anymore. You have to add and subtract to do calculus. You have to do more. Oh, that's for sure. But you still need to know the basics, and that's what the law and the prophets are, which we will read in just a minute.

They're not the standard. They're not the goal. They're not the finish line. They're the starting point. But you can't throw away the starting point and have context for anything where you're going.

You won't know where to go unless you knew where you came from.

You have to know the law and the prophets. Who can build a house with all the nice ornaments, the carpet, the plumbing, the electrical, the insulation, the windows, everything that goes into a house? Air conditioning. And you don't know the first thing about a hammer or a screwdriver.

Guess what you're not going to live in? A house! You need the basics to know the more complex things, and that's where the law of God fits. Let's go back to Romans 7, which was our premise.

The Apostle Paul makes a parenthetical statement where he says, "'For I speak to those who know the law.'" You have to have context before you can understand what Paul's about to say. You have to know the law of God. It still holds great value to our lives.

Romans 7, verse 1, "'Or do you not know, brethren, for I speak to those who know the law, that the law has dominion over a man as long as he lives. For a woman who has a husband is bound by the law to her husband as long as he lives, but if the husband dies, she is released from the law of her husband.'" A lot of Christians go, yes, we're released from the law! And that's not what Paul is saying. He gets to his point in verse 7. Don't stop here. You won't get it. Remember, he speaks to those who know the law. Keep reading. So then, if while her husband lives, she is married to another man, she will be called an adulteress. But if her husband dies, then she is free from the law. Ah, free from the law! Keep reading.

"'So that she is no adulteress, though she were married to another man. Therefore, my brethren, you also have become dead to the law, through the body of Christ, that you may be married to another, to him who raised from the dead, that we should bear fruit from God.'" There! We're dead to the law. We don't have to keep it anymore. Mic drop. I'm off the stage. No! That's not his point. We have to keep reading. I'll read from an article, again, from the covenant booklet that we published, the United Church of God Covenant's booklet.

Quote, Notice that Paul does not say the law is dead.

We become dead to the law on repentance. That is, the law is claimed on our life as the penalty for breaking. It is considered met through Christ's sacrificial death in our place.

We become dead. The law is not dead.

Paul's point is that, like a woman released from a specific law binding her to her former husband, we, through Jesus' death, may be released from the law's specific requirement of debt, which is why Paul says we become dead to the law. The death penalty was paid. Oh, that makes so much more sense. Reading on. As a response, we should bear fruit to God, in contrast to bearing fruit to death.

Let's read verse 5 now. We're still in Romans 7 and verse 5. For when we were in the flesh, the sinful passion was aroused by the law. Oh, that is a very sad translation. We, the that simple passions were aroused by the law.

Which were working our members to bear fruit to death.

The word aroused by in the New King James is not correct.

It simply means to be made known by the law.

Our sinful nature is made known. How is it made known? God's law.

How would you know it's wrong to commit adultery unless God says, don't commit adultery.

Now, you know, it's wrong to commit adultery. Why? God said so in his law.

The law defines sin. It defines the minimum standard of acceptable behavior.

It's not the goal. It's just the minimum standard.

Like when you start in kindergarten in first grade and you learn how to read.

When you're in first grade, you don't read Shakespeare.

You don't read Hamlet. You don't read Romeo and Juliet. What do you read?

See Spot. See Spot sit.

Okay, that's the same with the law. Verse six.

But now we have been delivered from the law. In other words, from the death penalty.

Having died to what we were held by so that we should serve what? In newness of spirit and not in the oldness of the letter.

Paul isn't saying not to keep the law, but rather start keeping it from the heart.

Start keeping it as a hard-hearted, sinful people that have to be told, if you do this, you've got to kill a dove.

Because they were sinful by nature. And Paul is saying you and I are supposed to become something completely different. To go way beyond the law. You can't go beyond the law if you do away with the law. We're to go beyond the law and obey it from the heart, the spirit of the law, not just a letter.

In verse 7, what shall we say then? Is the law sin? In other words, is there a problem with the law and the prophets? Is that Paul's point? Is that the conclusion we can draw? What shall we say then? Is the law sin? Certainly not. That is certainly not what Paul is getting at. So what is he getting at? Verse 7 is a crucial verse to explain the last six verses we just read.

For I would not have known covetousness unless the law said, you shall not covet. Oh, I skipped a part.

Let's start at the beginning. For shall we say then, is the law sin? Certainly not. On the contrary, I would not have known sin except through the law. For I would not have known covetousness unless the law said, you shall not covet. Do you see what Paul is saying? He's saying we're supposed to go beyond the law that was written in the first five books of the Bible. We're to go beyond it.

And you can't go beyond it if you don't even know it. You can't reach the goal unless you start.

Where do you start? At the starting point. The law of God is not our goal. The law of God is just the minimum standard of acceptable behavior. If all you do is keep the law, there is no salvation there. We actually do not preach salvation by works. That's actually a false accusation, a false claim. We do believe in the grace of God. We do believe there is only one way to be saved.

But we see great value in the law of God, just like we see great value in the ABCs, or great value in simple arithmetic, because you can't go to the advanced unless you know the basic. We interpret the Old Testament from a New Testament point of view. That's true.

We interpret the Old Testament, the Scriptures, the law and the prophets, from a New Testament point of view. We do not interpret the New Testament from a law and prophets point of view. We take the words of Jesus Christ, who came to fully preach the law, and we interpret the Old Testament Scriptures from His point of view, because He fully explained it.

A lot of people will come and attack us from the other side now and say, you're not interpreting the Old Testament properly because you don't do this, this, and that. And we'll answer that in a future presentation today. So it's true. We do interpret the Old Testament from a New Testament point of view, but you can't even understand the New Testament. You have no context unless you first understand the Old, the law and the prophets. Christians claim to understand the New Testament, even though they have very limited knowledge of the law.

You know, some Christians don't even know for sure whether or not they believe the flood happened, whether Noah actually got onto an ark and saved mankind or God saved mankind in a boat.

They don't even know whether or not they believe the story that leads up to Jesus Christ.

How can you claim to follow Jesus Christ?

You can't have partial knowledge. We understand that we are supposed to keep the law, but the value of the Old Testament goes so far beyond that. When you read the Bible, brethren, make sure you read the entire Bible. Don't just read the last act of the play.

Don't just read the New Testament and think you really understand anything.

Include the law and the prophets in your daily study.

Teach God's values, his standards, his opinions to your children.

And let us be a people that Paul refers to in Romans 7 and verse 1, for he speaks to those of us who know the law.