The New Covenant and the Law of Moses

Marriage is a natural union, but above that it is a divine institution ordained by God. Why marriage? Why? Is it just for two people to be happy and content? Is it just to fulfill some short-term desires? Or is this something else? You and I know that marriage is a commitment to each other till death do its part. It is a contract, it's a contract, for example, in legalistic terms, of mutual outgoing concern, and therefore is much more than just any short-term rewards and blessings, because it involves a commitment, involves sacrifice. In fact, it is a long-term faithfulness relationship of mutual trust, governed, of course, by one of the Ten Commandments, the Seventh, about adultery, which basically is a commandment that says, don't break trust. Think about it. Stick to your commitment. That's really what it is. But the reason of the marriage is to teach us about true Godly love.

And so the marriage ceremony in the Church, which does start with the statement that I read a little early on, it says, it is not just a natural union, but a divine institution, or designed by God. The marriage statement in the Church, then it adds, and it says, men and women were created with the marvelous potential of eternal life in the family of God. The marvelous potential of eternal life in the family of God. And as a loving Father, God gave us the institution of marriage and the blessing of a family, of a family that we might learn to love one another as He loves us. That is part of the marriage ceremony wording in the Church of God. And so when we get married, we make a commitment to each other in marriage for a greater purpose beyond just being together. It's not just a question of just, well, we'll just hang together. It's a covenant. It's a contract based on trust and outgoing love of one for another so that we learn to love others as God loves us. And so it's not just a law, but it is a lot more than that. It's not just a partnership contract, like you say, oh well, two partners in business get into a contract. No, it's a divine institution, a covenant for a greater blessing, that of a family.

Likewise, in principle, God gives us laws. Yes, He gives us laws for our good and happiness. Yes, God says, I wish that you obey His commandments, that you live well. Yes, He gives us laws for our goodness and happiness. But in addition to laws, He makes with us a new covenant. Why? Why a covenant? Aren't the laws sufficient?

You see, the laws, if we obey them, make us happy for our good. Is that sufficient? Why the covenant? Why a relationship contract?

And the reason is just like the contract in a marriage, which is a covenant, a divine institution, is to bless us even further than the law can bless us.

He commits Himself through a covenant to bless us with eternal life and a family relationship in His family, which obeying the law just would not do that.

And there are many other blessings to be part of His kingdom, to be part of the family of God. Many other eternal blessings that you and I do not even begin to comprehend.

Because there's so many blessings God's got waiting for us in His eternal kingdom that our physical minds just cannot comprehend. It's like I usually just say, like a box of chocolates. You don't know what's inside. There's so much more out there that we don't know. But the Lord does not give us those extra blessings, but He wants to give us. Why? Because He loves us. And therefore He's given us the marriage covenant to be, in a sense, an analogy of the bigger covenants that He has with us, specifically the new covenant.

So God's covenants, they build up to the new covenant to teach us a lesson. And what they do is they commit God to an eternal family relationship with us in mutual trust and love.

In other words, they commit God. God says, I'm making a vow, a promise with you, that I'm going to bless you and I'm going to make you one of my sons and daughters.

Regrettably, you and I will put another one. The whole, in other words, the whole of mankind, we've dropped the ball. We have dropped the ball. We have failed terribly. And we've messed it up. You look into scriptures like in Jeremiah 3, where it says, you know, I've married you, but you acted like a hollit.

In other words, you do not stick to your commitment, to your covenant commitment. And then it says, therefore, I've given you a divorce. But I always, when I say, only please repent, and then I will make you my son. Only please repent. Take an oath. Read Jeremiah chapter 3. And it says, only repent. And then in Jeremiah 4, it says, Circumcise the heart. It was God wants you to change. Why? Because He wants to bless us. He wants us to be His children. He wants us to call Him our dad, to really be His children. And so today, brethren, I want to help you a little bit more to understand the big picture relationship between the new covenant and the law of Moses. You see, there are various laws that we read in the Old Testament.

Allow me to group them basically into three categories. One, they're spiritual laws. They basically show us the mind of God. They show us how God thinks. They basically show us His love. They're spiritual laws, which, if we break, they are sent.

So that's, let's call it the first group of laws, spiritual laws, which obviously are the Ten Commandments, but there are others related with it that relate to being holy, being separate, being sanctified, which is like clean and clean foods. Be holy, they give us a spiritual lesson of being different, being separate, being unique, being special. Then there's the second group of laws, which I'll just call them ceremonial or ritual laws. Now, those laws you can say some are sacrifices, that point to Jesus Christ's sacrifice, and not only Jesus Christ's sacrifice, but our need to offer spiritual sacrifices. Others of these ceremonial ritual laws are reminders for us to keep God's laws.

In other words, they don't only point to Jesus Christ's sacrifice, but they point to the Holy Spirit, which is what is the true reminder of us to keep God's laws in our hearts and in our minds, because it's the Holy Spirit that writes them in our hearts and our minds. So there were some physical things they did to help them remember God's laws, but as today we have God's Holy Spirit that helps us to remember God's laws, because they're written in our minds and hearts. And so these ceremonial ritual laws were nothing more than allegories. In other words, pictures, analogies of spiritual principles that are applicable to us in the New Testament.

So they were not the real thing. They were just shadows of the real thing, because the real thing is Jesus Christ's sacrifice. The real thing is our sacrifices we need to do for each other. The real thing is that we need to remember God's laws and not having things reminding us of God's laws. In other words, we need to have God's Holy Spirit in us. So those were just allegories. These type of ceremonial ritual laws are normally referred to as the law of Moses. Paul groups these ceremonial ritual laws as saying they were added because of transgressions. You can read that in Galatians 3.19, which we'll go to a little later. So summarizing what I've said so far is that there are various types of laws in Old Testament, and I said allow me to group them into three categories. One is the spiritual laws, which is the mind of Christ, the mind of God, breaking them in cursive. The second are the ceremonial ritual laws, which are allegories or shadows of the reality, of the spiritual reality. But I said there is a third or so category, and the third category is basically national and civil laws. You see, because Israel in Old Testament was a nation, and they had to have laws of the country, of the nation. Like we have laws in the States, or whatever country people are in Brazil, you got laws of the country. So they had national or civil laws. Those were also what is called the law of Moses, but they were national and civil laws. They were relating to governing a nation, and therefore they had the judicial system, they had judgments, and they had punishments, like the laws of the country have. If you do such as such, you get a fine, or you get a fine, or you go to jail, or whatever it is they had, different punishments. They were national and civil laws. And so there are these three basic types of laws in Old Testament. The spiritual laws, the ceremonial or ritual laws that pointed to Christ or to God's only Spirit, and then they were international and civil laws. There's basically three groups. Now, the New Testament does not give us, does not give us, a full systematic dissection. In other words, it does not dissect law by law of Moses and say what exactly they are. It does not. And so what are we going to do? Is we're going to have with God's Spirit, understand with God's Spirit how to handle it correctly. So even though the ceremonial stroke ritual laws are temporary, they do give us spiritual guidelines for our thinking and our looking life and our relationship with God and man. And so let me restate what my purpose is today, is to understand the big picture relationship between the New Covenant and the law of Moses. So that you and I may clearly be able to understand the allegories between the ceremonial ritual laws and thereby discern the applicable spiritual principles of these ceremonial, temporary rituals. Laws. Or putting it in other words, put it in other words, which laws are applicable today.

So what does God want mankind to do? What does he want between you and I? Now, what is the ultimate goal for us? Turn with me to 2 Corinthians 6. 2 Corinthians 6.

We're going to start reading verse 16 through 19. 2 Corinthians 6 verse 16 through 19. 2 Corinthians 6. 16 through 19. And what agreement as the temple of God with idols? For you, us, you and I, are the temple of the living God. So we're looking at something spiritually, not just a physical temple, because it was also an allegory of what we ought to be. As God says, I'll dwell in them and walk among them. I'll be their God and they shall be my people. Therefore, come out from among them and be separate. In other words, be holy, says the Eternal. Be holy, be separate. Do not touch what is unclean and I'll receive you. And in verse 18, I will be a father to you and you shall be my sons and daughters, says the Lord Almighty. You see, God's goal for us, the final goal for us, is to have a relationship with us. A family relationship, to be in His family. That's the goal. A father-son relationship with us, based on love, based on mutual trust and respect. And why? To bless us even further. And so, to achieve that, He gives us the covenants. A covenant is a legally bound contract with mutual terms and conditions. And more than that, the new covenant is a divinely bound contract or covenant by the death of a covenant maker.

So it's not just a contract, but there is a covenant maker that has to die in God's divine covenants.

You see, it's a contract that is made through the death of a covenant maker. And that contract, therefore, is only bound once that covenant maker dies, because the covenant maker is the signing of the contract, the death of the covenant maker. And this is what we read in Hebrews chapter 9. Now, translators don't fully understand this, but let's read it very clearly. Hebrews chapter 9 verse 15 through 17. Hebrews chapter 9 verse 15 through 17.

And for this reason, He, Christ, is the mediator of the new covenant by means of death. You know, it was He's the covenant maker that had to die for that covenant to come into existence by means of death. For the redemption of the transgressions under the first covenant. Yes, there were sins under the first covenant, and there were transgressions. And so required the death of Christ, that those who are called may receive the promise of eternal inheritance.

For, verse 16, where there is a covenant, not a testament, where there is a covenant, there must also of necessity be the death of the covenant maker. For, a covenant is in force after the covenant maker, after men are dead, after the covenant maker is dead, since it has no power at all while the covenant maker lives. See, there is a covenant maker, which is Christ, and He's sacrifice of dying for us. It's not a will of a testament like the translators thought there is man. If you look at that word in Hebrew, it's actually a word that means a covenant maker. So it's a lot more than that. And so, a covenant is a divine contract made by the death. Even all the covenants that was done, there was an animal sacrifice done, and then the covenant was made because of the death of that sacrifice that bound the covenant. In a sense, it's like today, instead of that, we sign a contract. The contract is not valid until it's signed legally. That divine legal signature was the death of some being. And then, those contracts also had signs. Remind us. That reminded you of that contract. So for us to understand this a little bit better, we're going to look very briefly at five covenant relationships from the Bible, from the Bible, which build up this promise of the ultimate goal, which is the family of God.

They are the Adam covenant, Noah's covenant, Abraham's covenant, Moses' covenant, and Christ's covenant. Moses' covenant is called the old covenant, and Christ's covenant is obviously called the new covenant. And in these covenants, you will see that all spiritual laws remain constant. They haven't changed. God's spiritual law of the way he thinks of the way of love is never changed throughout these covenants. So the first covenant is Adam's covenant, and let's read that in Genesis chapter 2. In Genesis chapter 2 verse 15. Genesis chapter 2 verse 15.

It says, Then the Lord God took man and put him in the garden of Eden, and tend to tend and keep it. And the Lord commanded the man, saying, Of every tree of the garden you may freely eat, but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat. For in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die. So yeah, it's an agreement. Here's this, a contract, a covenant, and basically symbolized by two trees. There was a sign of two trees, and one of them had the access to eternal life, the tree of life.

And during that period, there was a perfect relationship between man and God. They talked freely, just like a father-son relationship, where there's no problem. Where the two can communicate and share and have a perfect, harmonious relationship of mutual trust. You read that in verse 19, through onwards, through verse 25, you can see that they were talking, and they went out, and they said, I'll make a companion for you, and Adam named the animals. There was no division of friction between the two. It shows that there's a relationship of God's likeness. There's a perfect condition, which man had free access to the tree of life, which he couldn't use that access, but he had the free access to the tree of life, and which is the ultimate restoration when you read in Revelation 22, right at the end. When everything gets restored, man will then have free access again to the tree of life. You can read that in Revelation 22. But then, there was this obedience.

There was this obedience, and the man and the woman, the sabbath, the man and the woman, the sabbath, and that breaking trust came to occur, where the man and woman was hiding from God. There was not that, well, yes, God, come and talk to you. Suddenly, there was that breaking trust. And then we read in Genesis chapter 3 verse 15. Genesis chapter 3 verse 15 says, I'll put enmity between you and a woman, and between your seed and her seed. In other words, you put enmity between mankind, and in this case was Satan, and the church, and then your seed, which was Satan's mankind going off to Satan's way, and the seed, which is Jesus Christ, her seed, the woman's seed, which is the church. And it says, I'll bruise your head, which is Satan, which gets bruised, and as we know, symbol of the day of atonement, and you shall bruise his hill, which is the church. Satan will cause some damages to the church temporarily, but it's not to the head. Satan will be bruised on the head as it is. So there's a very prophetic statement here of the Messiah's death, the need of a sacrifice. And then we can see in verse 16 and 17, a multiplication of sorrow and the ground being cursed with reduced fertility in the ground. But you can see that God's spiritual law was still in place. You read in Genesis 2 that it was a Sabbath. You read in Genesis 4, where you read about Abel and Cain, and there was a murder.

And it says you should have not murdered. So there was a breaking of the law. You read in Genesis chapter 7, when you get to the time of Noah, they knew what was clean and unclean animals. Those spiritual laws were in place, because otherwise, how would he know that clean animals would have seven pairs going into the ark, and unclean animals only one pair? So those laws were in place. And we also know that sacrifices were already being done because of sin, because of disobedience. The disobedience of Adam and Eve. And so we read in Genesis chapter 4, verse 3 to 5, where there is, you read there in verse 3 of chapter, in the process of time, it came to pass that Cain brought an offering, and Abel also brought an offering. So there were sacrifices being done. Probably a hint of a very specific offering, which could well be the possum, a hint. And that's why the sacrifice that was given was not acceptable. So there were offerings there, which were being offered individually. But the possum was offered individually, not in the temple. It was an individual offering done for the possum, although mankind afterwards changed it. But God's intent was the possum was to be done individually in the house. So sacrifices did exist. So that's about that Adam's covenant, symbolized by a sign of that covenant, which was the tree of life. And then let's move on to Genesis chapter 8, and we've got Noah's covenant. Sometimes referred to as the eternal covenant in Genesis chapter 8.

And after that, we can see there was a sacrifice. You read in Genesis 8, verse 20, verse 20 and 21. Genesis 8, verse 20 and 21. It says, And Noah built an altar to the Lord, and took of every clean animal, and of every clean bird, and offered burnt offerings on the altar. They knew what was clean animals. Long before Moses, long before Moses. And the Lord smelled a soothing aroma. And the Lord said in his heart, I'll never again curse the ground for man's sake, although the imagination of man's art is evil from his youth, nor will I again destroy every living thing as I have done.

So yeah, we have a situation that it says, I'll never again do it as I have done. It was, I'll never destroy the earth with a worldwide flood. As he's done, that's how he did it, a worldwide flood. And then he gave a sign, which you and I know is a rainbow. And that sign still exists. It's an eternal covenant.

And look at in Genesis chapter 9, just look at a few verses in Genesis chapter 9.

For instance, verse 4. But, you shall not eat flesh with its life. That is its blood. So it starts bringing in certain other additional instructions. And then it says, and then it brings in capital punishment or the death penalty. Look at verse 5. At the end of verse 5, from the hand of every man's brother will I require the life of man. So it brings in the death penalty. Becomes authorized by God. Says, whoever sheds a man's blood by a man's blood shall he be shed. For in the image of God, he made man. Look at it a little bit further in verse 11. Thus I establish my covenant with you. Never again shall all flesh be cut off by the waters of the flood. Never again will be a world wide flood to wipe off mankind.

And verse 12, it says, and this is the sign of the covenant that I made between you and me and of every living creature that is with you for the perpetual generations. I set my rainbow in the cloud and it shall be for a sign of the covenant between me and you. It's not saying that rainbows did not exist before, but it says that from that day the rainbow represented that covenant. Look at verse 15. And I'll remember my covenant which is between me and you and every living creature of all earth. And look at verse 16. The rainbow shall be in the cloud and I'll look on it to remember the everlasting covenant. To remember the everlasting covenant. So it is an everlasting covenant and the rainbow, whenever it happens, it reminds that commitment that God made because he wants to have a commitment between man and him in the family. But he's only building up this relationship as we go along. Through these covenants. And so we get to the third covenant that I want to highlight today, which is Abraham's covenant, which was extended by Isaac and Jacob. And it had some physical and spiritual blessings. We can see that at the time of that covenant, which starts in Genesis 12, basically first through a promise to Abraham. And say in chapter 12, verse 1-3, it says, Leave your country and I'll make a great nation. I'll bless you in verse 2. And in verse 3, I'll bless those who bless you and I'll curse him who curses you. And in you, all the families of the earth shall be blessed. So there is already there a hint of a spiritual blessings. So he starts to bring the hint of a family and of spiritual blessings through the family.

Look at verse 8 of Genesis 12. And it says, And he moved from there to the mountain east of Bethel, and he peaches stand with Bethel on the west and I on the east. And there he built an altar to the Lord and called the name of the Lord. He built an altar. In other words, he made an offering. I mean, why would you have an altar? You made an offer. He was an offering. There was a covenant maker that had to die. So he made that covenant there. And the laws were existent. We can see the laws, there were offerings. In chapter 14 verse 20, talks about tithes. There were laws of tithing. Long before the law of Moses, long before Moses, there was tithing. Look in chapter 15 verse 6.

It says, And he believed in the Lord, and it accounted to him for righteousness. So belief was counted as righteousness, which is brought in in the New Testament again. So Yah is a very important principle. Look at verse 18, the first part of verse 18. It says, On the same day the Lord made a covenant with Abraham. So there was a covenant made with Abraham. And look at chapter 17, verse 7 through 10. And it says, chapter 17, And I will establish my covenant in me and you and your descendants, after you, in their generations, for an everlasting covenant to be the God to you and your descendants after you. And I'll give to you and your descendants after you the land in which you are a stranger, all the land of Canaan, as an everlasting possession, I'll be the God.

Continuing verse 9, And God said to Abraham, As for you, you shall keep my covenant, you and your descendants, after you throughout my day generations. Verse is my covenant, which you shall keep, which in me and you. And really it brings it in to that family, to descendants. And then in verse 11 it says, And Yah is assigned to circumcision. So the covenant had assigned circumcision to that family. So the members of that family from day onwards would be circumcised, or at least should have been. We know that they didn't always fulfill it correctly. And that was a token of their covenant responsibility as Abraham's descent.

And if you look in Genesis 26, Genesis 26 verse 5, Genesis 26 verse 5, it says, And because Abraham obeyed my voice and kept my charge, my commandments, and my statutes, and my laws. You see, there were various principles that were existed. It kept God's law. We know there was laws about not having idolatry or false gods. You can read that in Genesis 35, where Jacob tells his family to put away gods, those false gods, in Genesis 35, 1 and 2. You read the sin of Joseph's brothers, as the envy against Joseph. So envy was the sin. You read that in Genesis 37 verse 11. You read in Genesis 39 about the sin of adultery, Joseph in Egypt, in Genesis 39, 7 through 9. You read about stealing. In Genesis 44 verse 4, the silver cap in Benjamin's sack. And that was wrong. So you can see that God's laws really existed. And so we can see that the spiritual law is a constant. It's still sin today. The Ten Commandments, things like keep cleaning and clean foods, and tithing. And those laws were there long before the old covenant of Moses. I've given you a handout. You should have a tear. If it's not on your chair or table, there's one maybe next to you that you can help yourself to. But I gave you a little handout. And basically in this handout, it shows these five cabinets that I'm referring to today, from Adam to Noah to Abraham to Moses and to Christ. And we see that the spiritual law of God is a constant throughout. You can also see some of the signs, like the rainbow sign, which came in through Noah's covenant. We can see sacrifices which were done individually, initially, at the time of Adam, Noah, and Abraham. We can see that Abraham's covenant, circumcision, was brought in. And so we can see that until they're at Abraham's covenant. What I'm going to do now is I'm going to move on to Moses' covenant, which is the one highlighted here in a red color. In Moses' covenant, which is what is called an old covenant, or the one that was made in Sinai, with the physical nation of Israel. Now the covenant to Abraham was, in a sense, reiterated and made bigger, because it was not just made to Abraham, but now was to the whole nation. And we can see a few things there. For instance, look at Exodus chapter 19. Exodus chapter 19 verse 5. Exodus chapter 19 verse 5.

Now therefore, if ye will indeed obey my voice and keep my covenant, then you shall be a special treasure to me. So it's now bringing in the whole nation, being a special people to God and keeping the covenant. And then you will have, in chapter 20, Exodus 20, you have the Ten Commandments.

And you know that the Ten Commandments were given to the nation directly by God. He spoke to the people directly. We're not given through a mediator. But the other laws that came afterwards were given through a mediator. Let's say it was Moses. He was a mediator. But God did not speak to them directly. But the Ten Commandments were given directly by God. They were unmediated. And then from chapter 21 of Exodus 21 through 23. 21 through 23. And Exodus 21 through 23. That's basically the covenant, the book of the covenant, that initial book of the covenant.

And you can see that, look at chapter 24 verse 8, and says, then Moses took the blood. You see, or in verse 7, he said, they took the book of the covenant and read it in the hearing of the people. And they said all that the Lord has said we will do. Because Moses was a mediator. He brought them the book of the covenant.

And there was the blood. So there was a covenant maker that had to be killed. And he says, this is the blood of the covenant. The covenant maker required blood because it's a divine covenant which had to be killed. And he says, this is the covenant. It's the blood of the covenant in verse 8, chapter 24, which the Lord has made with you according to all these words. So that is kind of the end of that covenant. Which then, over time, was renewed and other items were added to it.

And we can see that. And you can look for instance in Exodus 34. In Exodus 34. In Exodus 34, you can see that Moses makes new tablets and the covenant is renewed. You can see from verse 10 onwards how a mega-cummon, so it gets renewed, it gets done and gained. And so you can see that. And then in the book of Leviticus, that is repeated again. And that covenant had also a sign, which was circumcision. But now it was not to that family, it was the whole nation, to Israel, as an identifying of a sign that they had that covenant with God. But also, there was a tabernacle made, which later became a temple, and they had offerings.

And when you read, for instance, in Leviticus, there are basically five types of offerings. There was a burnt offering, a grain offering, a peace offering, a sin offering, and a trespass offering. But interesting, for instance, some of the offerings pointed to Christ. Some of the offerings were things that people had to do.

For instance, look at the peace offering. There's laws regarding the peace offering. And I want to add this little bit, because of the sermonette, to tie it into the sermonette. Look at the peace offering in Leviticus chapter 7. Leviticus chapter 7. Because we really had a very good sermonette about thanksgiving and the importance of thanksgiving. But I want you to look at what it says about the peace offering.

In Leviticus chapter 7, verse 12, or I'll start about verse 11. For this is the law of the sacrifice of peace offering, which he shall offer to the Lord. Verse 12, if, so there are two ifs about the peace offering. One is in verse 12, if, and the other one is in verse 16, if. So there are two conditions of the peace offering. The first one, if, verse 12, if he offers the peace offering for a thanksgiving.

So the peace offering was a thanksgiving offering. Then he shall offer with the sacrifice of thanksgiving, and leavened cakes mixed with oil, and leavened wafers anointed with oil, or cakes of blended flour mixed with oil, besides the cakes as this offering, he shall offer leavened bread with the sacrifice of thanksgiving. Do you know it's the only offering that God allows to be offered with leavened bread. Well, obviously there's the wave sheaf offering as well, which is leavened bread, which is done during Pentecost, the two loaves of bread.

But of these offerings, we find, yeah, it's the only one that allows leavened bread, because it's for us, people of sin, giving an offering of thanksgiving.

And look at verse 15, and the flesh of the sacrifice of his peace offering, for thanksgiving shall be eaten the same day it is offered. In other words, when you want to give thanks, don't delay your thanks. Do it straight away. Don't leave it until tomorrow.

He shall not leave any of it until the morning. You see, there's a spiritual intent, and meaning, and principle in these offerings. The other condition of verse 16 was regarding a vow, a promise. You make a promise, then there's an offering that if you want to make a promise to God. So there is this peace offering. I wanted to highlight that. But the point about these sacrifices, which were made through the Levitical priesthood, at the temple, or at the tabernacle before the temple existed, they pointed either to Jesus Christ's sacrifice and or our need to offer offerings, which basically represents sacrifices. We have to offer sacrifices, but not physical sacrifices. You can read in Romans, we have to offer a living sacrifice, which is well pleasing to God. Thanksgiving is a sacrifice. So these are allegories of spiritual things we need to do. And because the Levitical priesthood does not exist, you cannot do nothing. Those sacrifices because they have to be done through the Levitical priesthood. And there's no tabernacle, there's no table. So that teaches a lesson that we have to do offerings, but we cannot do it that physical way.

We do it spiritually.

And Paul refers to these offerings, as I mentioned, that they were added because of transgressions, because of sins. Galatians 3, 19. So they pointed to Jesus Christ's sacrifice, or they reminded us to keep God's laws, because this repetition of doing that reminded us to keep God's laws, and what reminds us to keep God's laws today. God's Holy Spirit.

Because God's Holy Spirit is written in our minds and in our hearts. And then in addition to that, there were other laws besides the sacrificial laws. There were other laws, which let's just call it authoritative commands or imperatives, which I'll just divide them again, subdivide them into two types. Some were statutes, their ordinances like slavery ordinances, like animal control laws, like marriage instructions of the Old Testament to keep the family of that family group and those family lines. There were very specific things that you and I cannot understand today, but they were specific to have that family line to continue. Duties of the surviving brother, which is related to that. There were certain laws related to incest. There were laws regarding eating of blood, or rather not eating blood and not eating fat. There were laws about the treating of how to treat mediums and dealing with those that deal with spirits and and the laws of quarantine. And there were many other laws of that kind. Basically, statutes and ordinances. And in addition to that, as I mentioned before, there were those that related to the nation, which are civil, civil laws, national laws, with punishments. And they were designed to work with a nation which was carnal and did not have God's aliy's Spirit. They were carnal! And because they were carnal, they required very specific treatments to actually sink in. And then, regrettably, the Jews themselves added other laws, which Jesus Christ criticized. They created other laws, which were not given by God, which are a number of Jews and Donts. And Christ criticized. You remember, he says, well, you do these things in Corbin and whatever it is. And those are never, they are, those are traditions of men. And so have I, like those who are into these different areas, including the ones that were added by man, which is there, which Jesus Christ criticized.

So now we get to the last of these five that I want to refer to today, which is Christ's covenant, which is the new covenant. And we go into Matthew chapter 5 verse 19, 17 through 19. If you turn with me, please, Matthew chapter 5 verse 17 through 19. He says, Do not think that I come to destroy the law or the prophets. Christ did not come to destroy the law or the prophets. I do not come to destroy but to fall. It was, He came to fall it to the top, to fall it to the top. Why? Because the physical things were only an allegory or a shadow of the reality, which is even more important. So He came to fall up the law to its full spiritual intent, besides the physical things, which are only temporary. And it says it's not only the law, but the prophets as well. And last week I went through how He filled up the prophecies by explaining some of the prophecies, understanding them, and giving a deeper understanding to a lot of the prophets. So, what do we have today? We have situations where sacrifices existed. They existed under the Old Covenant. We know that only the sons of Aaron of the tribe of Levi could do some of those sacrifices. Not every person could do the sacrifices. They had to be the priests of Aaron's line. You can read that in Exodus 29 verse 9. Only the sons of Aaron could bring those sacrifices. But what do we have in the New Testament? Turn with me to Hebrews chapter 7. Hebrews chapter 7.

Verse 11 through 12. Hebrews chapter 7, verse 11 through 12. Hebrews chapter 7, verse 11 through 12. Therefore, if perfection were through the Levitical priesthood, for underneath the people received the law. In other words, you had to do and keep those ceremonial, ritual sacrifices through the Levitical priesthood. If that was perfect, if that was full to the top, what further need was there of another priest that would arise according to the order of Melchizedek, which we know is Christ, and not according to the order of Aaron, not Aaron's children. So why would they need another priest? You see, verse 12. For the priesthood being changed of necessity, there is also a change of the law. You see, the law was related to those physical sacrifices. Now those physical sacrifices have spiritual intent and meanings which are spiritual. So we go through the book of Hebrews, and the book of Hebrews shows how great Jesus Christ was. It shows to each one of the angels that they say this. You know, Paul, through the book of Hebrews, is showing how great Jesus is, and shows this change of administration, administrative change in the new covenant. And it shows that those temporary laws, which were reminders of sin, they were replaced by Jesus Christ's sacrifice. Those sacrifices were replaced by Jesus Christ's sacrifice. And so those were types or topology or examples that pointed to Christ, and obviously to the Holy Spirit, to remind us to keep the law. Therefore, because today there is no functional, analytical priesthood, there is no functional, analytical priesthood. It teaches us a lesson that we now offer sacrifices spiritually. And that fulfills, as Christ said in Matthew 5, the allegory of the sacrifices. Look at Hebrews chapter 9 verse 9. Hebrews chapter 9 verse 9. It says, and it was symbolic for the present time, in which both gifts and sacrifices are offered which cannot make him or perform the sacrifice perfect in regard to conscience. Those sacrifices were allegories, were symbolic, were temporary, because they could not make people perfect inside the eye. They were just physical. The important is what's inside the eye. Verse 10, concerning only with foods and drinks and various washings and fleshly ordinances imposed until the time of reformation, which is Christ's sacrifice that reformed those. But you can see in verse 11, but Christ came as a high priest and therefore brings us with a great and more perfect tabernacle not made with hands that is not of the creation. Verse 12, not of the blood of goats and cows, but of his own blood he entered the most holy place, which is God's real throne, not a permanent, not a temporary physical throne on the Holy of Holies, but he entered the most holy place in heaven once for all, having of tiny, eternal redemption. For if the blood of bulls and goats and the ashes of a hifer sprinkling the unclean sanctifies for the purifying of the flesh, how much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without spot, cleanse your conscience from dead works to serve the living God? You see, so Christ filled the law with a spiritual meaning of a real sacrifice, which is what we have. The blood of Christ replaces those old sacrifices.

And so now our sacrifices are in Romans chapter 12. Romans chapter 12 verse 1. I beseech you therefore, brethren, Romans 12 verse 1, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies as living sacrifices. We still have to offer sacrifices, but it's ourselves.

Like Christ offered himself, we have to offer a sacrifice of ourselves, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service. And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. So the changes of our mind, it's a sacrifice, physically speaking, and we've got to understand, and we've got to change, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God, which is our living sacrifice, which is much greater. So God's Holy Spirit reminds us to keep the law not written on stones or walls or tassels, but the law is now written in our hearts and minds. And so the circumcision is now the heart, not a physical reminder of the law, but the law is now written in our hearts and minds. Look at Romans chapter 2 verse 29. Romans chapter 2 verse 29.

But he is a Jew, is one inwardly, and circumcision is that of the heart, in the Spirit, not in the letter, whose praise is not from man, but from God. So God's Holy Spirit now in us reminds us to keep the law. It's not because I put on the door of my house to take months, which I happen to have, but it's not because I have to, but it's I want to keep God's laws. I don't need those reminders, and I should not need those reminders. If I take God's laws because I have reminders, then there is a problem. I should keep the laws because I want to, because God's Holy Spirit writes them in my mind and in my heart. And so with all of you, we all should want to obey God because it's written in us. And therefore, we're talking about conversion. We're really talking about conversion. We're talking about baptism in Jesus Christ's name. We're talking about receiving God's Holy Spirit through the laying on of hands. We're talking about becoming like Jesus Christ.

Becoming like Christ, Christ living in us through the Holy Spirit.

And so what do we have? As we get now into the New Testament, do we have a detailed systematic breakdown in the New Testament? Dissecting the law of Moses and telling us what and what not to do? No!

Because even though ceremonial and ritual laws are temporary, they give us vital guidelines that we, through the use of God's Holy Spirit, we need to start thinking and meditating how we need to change our way of living, our outlooking life, and our relationships with people to become more like God. And that is the whole fulfillment of the law. And so indeed, when we look at the New Covenant, which is this lock, yah, and blue, sacrifices, yes, but they're spiritual. Not physical. God's law remains constant. Spiritual law. Circumcision is now one of the heart. And of those imperatives, of those imperatives, some of them are applicable spiritually in principle, because they have some spiritual principles. For instance, what about slavery? What about slavery? The principles of taking care of your employees are applicable. What about animal control laws?

The teachers about safety.

Dealing with animals and human beings. And it is about safety, about laws of driving cars and machinery and things like that. They are limited application, but they have spiritual intents.

For instance, there are certain laws that have become laws of the land. For instance, laws of incest. They become laws of the land. Not applied by the church, but the laws of the land. But they are applicable in spirit to us as Christians. For these laws of how to deal with the poor, and being partial to the poor versus partial to the one that are rich. They are spiritual laws.

It deals with us with our spiritual way of behaving. Laws of eating food that is blood or fat. They are applicable for our good. Principles of quarantine. They are applicable. In fact, some of them are carried by the nation. And then, obviously, there are civil laws. For instance, in the Old Testament, they had laws dealing with kidnapping and striking somebody else. What do we have now? In the Old Testament, they had judicial hearings, which were done by the priests and the judges. Today, you've got civil laws. You've got courts. You've got fines. You've got jail sentences. In some states, maybe even capital punishment. But there are no legal penalties imposed by the church. The church has no civil jurisdiction on people. We can't say in the church, well, if you don't do this, I'll impose this fine on you. You can't. We can't. Does it mean that certain things are still sin? Of course it means. But the church has no authority to impose the right thing. It's not just any penalty. The most we can say is, well, you can't attend church.

If you have that sort of behavior.

Other examples like that is perjury. In the Old Testament, they had laws, and the judges had two witnesses, and if one is lying, they had different punishments for that. We can't implement that in the church. It's still certain lying. It's still certain. But the courts handled that. The customs handled that. So which laws are applicable today? Well, God's spiritual law is constant and remains. God's law is not done away. His spiritual law remains. The second group of laws that I refer to is the sacrifices and ceremonial laws, which were for the Levites to implement and perform. Which were added because of sin. They pointed to Christ, or they pointed to God's Holy Spirit. But the point is, obeying those ceremonial laws don't make us just. It's Christ's sacrifice that justifies us. We have a new high priest that intercedes for us, and we have a new and living way, as we read in Hebrews 10. The Church of God is now imbued with God's Holy Spirit, which is the mind of God to help us overcome. And therefore now, it's a matter of the heart, a matter of conversion, a matter of the motive, in many of those ceremonial ritual laws. The Old Covenant had no promise of the Holy Spirit. But now we have the promise of the Holy Spirit, a far greater blessing than just pure physical life. We have the promise of eternal life. In the Old Covenant, it was the ministry of death. So even if they obey the laws, at the end of it, they'll still die. Now we have a ministry of the Spirit, which can give us life, eternal life. And so the spiritual laws remain. They don't change. These Moses laws, they have, as we said, they were implemented by the Levites. But they pointed to spiritual principles. Some of those spiritual principles are still applicable. And the laws which relate to the country, or to the nation, they are now handled by the nations, not by us, not by the Church. Because we're not a nation.

So we need to look at all the laws to see the spiritual intent behind them. Because they are lessons that we get from those laws. We need to look at the spiritual principle that we can derive from that. Because in the end, God gave us the Allah's laws to the people, too, because we wanted the people to love one another. Love your neighbor. And so as Christians, we are to live by every word of God, because the laws of God express the mind of God. But understand that some of the laws of Moses, which were implemented by priests and Levites, they point to spiritual principles and intents of the heart. And Christ now wants us to look at the heart and how to apply them in our daily lives. So, brethren, I hope that it becomes a lot clearer from a big picture that a covenant is a lot more than just the law. A covenant that God has given to us, He wants to give it to us, because He wants to bless us with a family relationship of mutual trust and love to one another.