The Old Covenant and the New Covenant

Do we know which laws of God from the Old Testament are still applicable today that apply to us? If you were asked that question, how would you go about answering it? Well, there are many different ways you could approach this topic. I'm going to approach it from a certain perspective today, and actually we could give several different sermons on this. One of the ways is to look at the subject of the New Covenant, the New Covenant versus the Old Covenant. Jeremiah chapter 31 and Hebrews 8 compare the two Covenants to one another and show the strengths and some of the weaknesses. Common to both are the fundamental foundation of the law, the Ten Commandments. The Ten Commandments are found in both. God gave statues and judgments to Israel as part of its civil code or national laws that they were to observe. Many of those are no longer binding on us today, but there are principles that we should learn contained in all of them, and that you and I can benefit from. Now, there are other scriptures that show that some of the statutes and judgments that were a part of the civil administration, the civil code that God gave to Israel, are universal in nature. By universal, I mean don't just apply to the nation of Israel, but apply across all times. Let's notice Genesis 26 as a jumping-off point. Genesis 26 and verse 5. When it says, Abraham wasn't a Moses yet, wasn't an old covenant yet, hadn't come to Sinai. It says, Abraham obeyed my voice, kept my charge, my commandments, my statutes, and my laws.

So you'll find that there were statutes, laws, commandments. Charges have to do with giving personal commands or charges to him, and he kept them. Jesus Christ, back in Matthew chapter 5, verses 17 and 18, said, don't think that I've come to do away with the law. I didn't come to annul it, do away with it. I came to fulfill it.

So there are several ways that we can look at this, and we're going to sort of interweave a number of these together. One is to look at the old covenant and the new covenant.

Another is to look at the obligations that God has placed upon Christians, as well as the New Testament. What does the New Testament tell us to do? What does it say to keep? What does it say to observe? Personal instructions that God gives to us. Then we have the example of Jesus Christ. Since he never sinned, obviously we can follow his example. He's the same yesterday, today, and forever the Bible clearly brings out. Then we can look at the history of the New Testament church. Go through the book of Acts, go through the book of Revelation, go through the epistles of Paul, and you can begin to trace the history of the church, some of the problems and all of the various congregations. What does the history of the church tell us? Actually, the history of the church, when you begin to study it, you'll find that the early New Testament church kept the Sabbath, kept the Holy Days, kept the food laws, obeyed God, kept the Ten Commandments, and a number of the statues that we find in the Old Testament.

Another thing that we will find is the approach to law in the New Testament. There is a certain approach taken to the law. Now, it's interesting that God teaches us as Christians to keep the law. Now, how do I know that? Well, let's go back to the book of Romans. I mean, there are so many scriptures that we could stop this sermon and go in a different direction and just cover dozens of scriptures that show that we should keep the law. But in Romans 7, and we'll begin here in verse 12, Romans 7, 12, it says, Therefore the law is holy, and the commandment is holy, and just and good.

In verse 14, we know that the law is spiritual. The problem is we're carnal. That's where the rub comes in. And then in verse 16, we know that the law is good. So it's good, it's holy, it's just, spiritual. There's nothing wrong with God's law.

So we believe that the Bible teaches, and I think we can demonstrate it from a multitude of scriptures in the New Testament that the law ought to be kept. But at the same time, we do not believe by keeping it that we earn salvation. Now, this is where the problem comes in, because Christians, so-called Christians today, think that those two statements are contradictory. They think that any keeping of the law means that you are a legalist. Now, by legalists, they mean that you're trying to earn your salvation.

And yet, we believe that we should be law-abiding, but that does not earn salvation. Salvation is a free gift that God gives to us. By grace, through faith, are you saved. Another way of looking at it is, compare the laws of God to the rules of a household. God's laws are simply rules for how the household should be conducted. Now, what do I mean by a household? God, dad, mom. You have children. What are the rules for the children?

Can they just do anything they want to do? Well, of course not. So, you lay down rules. You tell them who they can play with. You tell them when they can go out, when they can come in. You tell them if they can watch TV or not. You tell them what they can eat. I mean, you are laying down the rules for the household. Now, a healthy family have parents who lay down reasonable laws, set boundaries for their children.

They love their children. Their children grew up being law abiding. A dysfunctional family would perhaps illustrate legalism. Parents are harsh on their children demanding. Children have to earn the favor of the parents. They don't know if they are loved by the parents or not. It's all based on whether they obey or not. When you look at a household, obviously, a household has to have certain laws, rules, and regulations.

What about a society? Any society that has citizens, if those citizens disobey the laws, what are they called? They are called criminals. You break the law. You commit a crime. You murder somebody. You rape somebody. You steal. You're a burglar or whatever it might be. You are guilty of a crime. So how strange is it that many who teach the Bible think there's something wrong with keeping the law of God when they very strongly believe that in society, law should be kept?

I mean, they wouldn't want somebody murdering them, raping them, killing them, stealing from them. No, they want in society laws to be kept. But it's just strange when it comes to keeping God's law that they don't want to do that. Now, I give all of that as a background, because all of those... I mean, we could develop a sermon going off in each one of those directions. And what I'm going to do today is sort of throw a lot of that together in the sermon and hopefully not confuse you too much as we progress through it.

Let's go back to the book of Hebrews. If you really want to know what the Bible says about what you should keep, not keep, it would be good to just sit down and read Hebrews 8, 9, and 10. But let's begin in Hebrews 9, verse 9. Hebrews 9, verse 9.

In this chapter, the writer of Hebrews had been talking about the tabernacle or temple and the sacrifices that were offered, the job of the priesthood. And then in verse 9, he says this, it was symbolic for the present time in which both gifts and sacrifices, so offerings and sacrifices, are offered which cannot make him who performs service perfect in regard to the conscience.

So by offering up all those animal sacrifices, the sin sacrifices, the trespass offering, the peace offering, the burnt offering, you know, the peace offering, the meal offering, all of those are five major offerings. You couldn't be forgiven, become perfect that way. And they were only concerned with foods and drinks and various washings and fleshly ordinances imposed on them for how long? Until the time of Reformation. So the temple worship, tabernacle worship, Levitical priesthood, sacrifices, washing, ceremonies, all of those things were only imposed for a limited amount of time until there was going to be a Reformation, a reforming of the worship. Now, when did that take place? You might want to hold your place in Hebrews, because we'll be back. But John 4, 20, Book of John, chapter 4, verse 20.

Jesus Christ Himself answers this question.

You remember He had been talking to the Samaritan woman in verse 19. She said, well, look, I perceive you're a prophet. Our fathers worshiped on this mountain, and you Jews say that Jerusalem is a place where one ought to worship.

Jesus said to her, woman, believe me, the hours coming in which you will neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem worship the Father. Now, you see, Israel's worship was totally centered in Jerusalem at the temple. But it says the time will come when that will not be true.

You worship what you do not know. We know what we worship, for salvation is of the Jews. But the hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in Spirit and in truth. See, in the Old Testament, they did not have the Spirit of God. So therefore, they could not worship the God in Spirit. They did it through physical, symbolic rituals. But the time was coming when we would worship God in Spirit and truth. Now, John 17, 17 says, thy word is truth, according to the instructions and the word of God. For the Father is seeking such to worship Him. God is Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship Him in Spirit and in truth. So the time, he said, was coming when they would no longer be worshiping God from Jerusalem. That you would not have to go to Jerusalem to worship Him. But wherever you were, you could worship Him. Now, with that in mind, let's fall back to the book of Hebrews again. Chapter 8, beginning in verse 6. Hebrews chapter 8 and verse 6.

Now, the first thing I mentioned to you was the cabinets and the comparison of the cabinets.

Well, let's notice what was wrong with the Old Covenant. There was a fault. It was deficient. It was lacking. Verse 6, now, he has obtained a more excellent ministry in as much as he is also mediator of a better covenant. Now, why is it a better covenant? Well, which was established on better promises? That's why it had better promises. For if that first covenant had been faultless, then no place would have been sought for the second. So if it was perfect, we wouldn't be having a quote-unquote new covenant. Now, what was the fault with the Old Covenant?

Because finding fault with them. The fault was with the people, not with God, not with God's law, not with God's way, not with His revelation. The fault was with the people. Why? They did not have the inclination to obey. They did not have the nature to obey. They didn't have the heart to obey. And so therefore, they did not obey. So finding fault with them, he said, Behold, the days are coming, says the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel, with the house of Judah, not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the days when I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt, because they did not continue in my covenant. See, that was their problem. They would not continue. They continued to do what? Deviate. Go astray. Follow the customs of the nations around them.

For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the Lord. I will put my laws in their mind, write them on their hearts, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. And none of them shall teach his neighbor, and none of his brothers, saying, Know the Lord, for all shall know me from the least of them to the greatest of them.

So what you find is that the new covenant has better promises. What are some of the better promises of the new covenant? Well, I certainly don't have an exhaustive list here, but just some of the more obvious ones. There is the promise of the Holy Spirit. Ancient Israel did not have that promise. There's also the help that the Holy Spirit imparts to us, because it imparts the mind of God, the nature of God, the fruits of God's Spirit. It imparts spiritual gifts, any number of things. God's law is written in our hearts and our mind, not on tables of stone. There's nothing wrong with having a table of stone or a plaque hanging up in your house, but what you find now it's written in your heart. It becomes a part of you. We also have the promise of eternal life under the new covenant. There was not that promise in the Old Testament. You can search high and low, and you don't find where God says, okay, I'll give you eternal life. Now, some of the prophets, some of the kings, like David, yes, responded. They would also, or we would also have direct access to God. We could directly go to the Father. In the Old Testament, they couldn't do that. If you wanted to approach God, how would you do it? You'd bring an offering up or sacrifice, give it to the priests. They'd kill it. They'd go into the inner, the tabernacle grounds. They would burn it or whatever they would do with it on the altar, the burnt offering altar. It was the priest who could go into the Holy Place, the first room in the temple. It was only the high priest once a year on the Day of Atonement who could go into the Holy of Holies. Only the high priest had access to the Holy of Holies. Today, when you get down on your knees and pray, every one of us can go directly to the Father and to the throne of mercy and know that we are being heard by God. So we have direct access to God.

So what we find then is that the worship in ancient Israel was centered around the tabernacle or the temple. The temple worship in ancient Israel anticipated Christ's sacrifice.

Look forward to Christ's sacrifice by the rituals and ceremonies that they performed. Hebrews 9 brings this out beginning in verse 1. We read, Then indeed even the first covenant had ordinances or divine services and the earthly sanctuary. And behind the second veil, verse 2 says, For a tabernacle was prepared, the first part, in which was a lampstand, the table of showbread, which is called the sanctuary. And behind the second veil, the part of the tabernacle, which is called the holiest of all, which had the golden censer, the Ark of the Covenant, overlaid on all sides with gold, in which were the golden pot that had the manna, Aaron's rod, the budded, and the tables of the covenant. And above it were the caribbean of glory, overshadowing the mercy seat. Now, when these things had been thus prepared, the priest always went into the first part of the tabernacle, performing the service. The first part of the tabernacle is the type of the church. And the fact that you and I today spiritually are able to come into the tabernacle, so to speak. But into the second part, the high priest went alone once a year, not without blood, which he offered for himself, for the people's sins committed in ignorance. The Holy Spirit indicating this, that the way into the holiest of all was not yet made manifest while the first tabernacle was still standing.

You remember when Jesus Christ died and cried out that the Bible says the veil of the temple was rent in two, symbolically symbolizing Christ's body being rent and making it possible for us now to have direct access to the Father through our prayers. And so you'll find the same was true here.

Tabernacle was built, and later on the temple was built, to offer up sacrifices. Those rituals symbolize for the people living at that time that a permanent lasting solution to humanity's spiritual problems, spiritual inadequacies, was needed. The rituals did not answer it. They were only symbolic of what was to come. The sacrifices and rituals given to Israel did not provide the solution. It didn't give them the solution to forgiveness of sin. It only pointed to it. Now, the reason these gifts and sacrifices being offered did not, let's say, offer the solution is found in verse 9, where again we read it was symbolic. See, all these things were symbolic. They were symbols for the present time. See, the time that they were being offered up in both gifts and sacrifices are offered which cannot make Him who performed the service perfect in regard to the conscience. See, it didn't make the person perfect. It did not do away with the guilt of the conscience of sin. It did not deal with the sin problem in the way that we know that our sins are to be forgiven. There is only one way that your sins and my sins are forgiven, and that is through the sacrifice of Jesus Christ.

Christ shed His blood, was sacrificed, and as a result, our sins can be forgiven. All of those sacrifices pointed to what Christ was going to do. Now, in chapter 10, verse 1, chapter 10, verse 1 of the book of Hebrews, we find very clearly mentioned here the purpose of this temporary law, for the law having a shadow of good things to come. Now, a shadow is not the exact thing, is it? It's a shadow of good things to come. It foreshadows something. You can have a tall tree out here cast a shadow. You can not hear what tree looks like because you look at the shadow, but it's foreshadowing something. And as it says, and not the very image of the thing, bullocks, sheep, goats, turtle-dubs, pigeons, none of those were the exact image of Jesus Christ, but they were types of Christ. Notice, can never with those same sacrifices which they offered continually year after year make those who approached perfect. So, it didn't make us perfect, didn't make the Israelites perfect, for then would they have ceased to be offered.

For the worshipper, once purified, would have had no more consciousness of sins.

But in those sacrifices, there is what? The fact that those sacrifices were offered daily, weekly, you know, over and over and over again, there is a reminder of sins every year. They were reminded, one, that they were sinners. They were reminded that they did sin, and they were reminded that they needed someone to forgive those sins. For it is not possible that the blood of bulls and goats should take away sins.

I've heard people say, well, in the Old Testament, they had their sins forgiven by the sacrifices, in the New Testament, our sins are forgiven by Christ's sacrifice. That's a bunch of baloney. Didn't happen that way. It's not possible that the blood of bulls and goats should take away sins. Christ's sacrifice, Christ died for every human being. All the Israelites who lived during the period of time that there was a tabernacle and temple, those who predated that time, those who lived before the flood, those who will live into the future. His one sacrifice was for that. Now, notice in verse 11, every priest stands ministering daily and offering repeatedly the same sacrifice, which can never take away sins. It can never do that. But this man, after he had offered one sacrifice for sins forever, sat down on the right hand of God, the same time waiting till these enemies are made his footstool. And then you'll find in verse 16 again, this is a covenant I'll make with him. After those days, I'll put my laws in their hearts, their minds, I'll write them. And he adds in their sins and their lawless deeds, I will remember no more. Verse 19, therefore, brethren, having boldness to enter the holiest, so how can we come into the holy of holies, the holiest? By the blood of Jesus.

By a new and living way, which he consecrated for us through the veil, that is, his flesh.

So that veil was his flesh was a type of that. And then it goes on showing in verse 22, let us draw near with a true heart and full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience, and our bodies washed with pure water. See, the priests would have to wash, put on their ceremonial clothes in order to offer up sacrifices. Well, the blood being sprinkled, being shed, is the type of Christ's sacrifice. He shed his blood so that our sins could be forgiven. The washings had to do with being purified, were purified through baptism, and also the Word of God purifies us, cleanses our minds.

So the temporary aspects of the Sinai covenant were applicable only until everything that was symbolized was fulfilled through Christ. The temple-based system of worship under the old covenant came to an end in 70 AD with the destruction of Jerusalem, the total destruction of the temple, and the scattering of the priesthood.

So what you find with that, the priest could only function at the temple or a tabernacle. There is none, so they do not function anymore. That type, that physical ritualistic, symbolic worship ended. It's over. So we know that that's no longer binding upon us. The temple, the rituals, the Levites, the sacrifices are not binding in their physical application today. Now, there are spiritual applications. Are we supposed to offer up spiritual sacrifices? The answer is yes. Our prayers, our tithes and offerings, our service to one another. Again, we don't have the time here, but I could show you where all of those are listed as spiritual sacrifices. So, you know, we do that. We are referred to as a spiritual priesthood today.

And there are, you know, instead of us going to a temple, we are the temple of God, and the Spirit of God dwells in us. See, the problem with ancient Israel, the same problem that modern Israel has, and all nations have, and that is they had a heart problem.

Now, there are several of us sitting here in the audience who've had heart problems, and you know what that means. Well, they had a heart problem in the sense that their spiritual heart was wrong. In chapter 29 in the book of Deuteronomy, in verse 4, chapter 29 in verse 4, we find here the Lord has not given you a heart to perceive, and eyes to see, and ears to hear to this very day. So, they didn't have a right heart.

Deuteronomy 5.29 also describes their heart. In Deuteronomy 5.29, God clearly says, Oh, that they had such a heart in them that they would fear me, and always keep all my commandments, that it might be well with them and their children forever. As we read back in Hebrews 8, 8 through 10, what God is in the process of doing with all of us here is giving us a new heart, a clean heart, a pure heart. He's writing his laws into our heart.

So, we have to realize that covenant rituals are not the same thing as covenant commitments and obligations. The rituals that were performed under the old covenant serve primarily as symbolic reminders. As an example, the sacrifices, reminder of the need for a Savior. But the heart and core of the covenant, of any covenant or agreement, is what the two parties agreed to. And God made a commitment to his people. If they obeyed, they'd be blessed. If they disobeyed, they'd be cursed.

He promised to bless them, be with them, protect them, fight for them, any number of things, if they would only obey. But what you find is they didn't. Now, the Sinai covenant was temporary, and God intended it to be temporary. The content of this covenant became, in effect, Israel's national constitution. We have the Constitution of the United States, and supposedly we make laws based on that. Now, today, many of the judges are not using the Constitution, but what they think is right and wrong, coming up with their own ideas. What we have to realize is that ancient Israel was a nation of the world. I say a nation of the world. Just like Germany is today, Italy, France, Britain, the Philippines, any nation you want to name, any nation has to have laws to govern it as a nation. Now, God was in charge, but they had to have a civil administration and a judicial system. So, they had a civil administration and judicial system. And that civil administration and judicial system we don't apply today. Why? Because we're not under the judicial system of ancient Israel, are we? Israel was taken into captivity. House of Judah was taken into captivity. House of Judah came back out of captivity. House of Judah went back into captivity to the Romans. They were scattered all over the place. There is not a nation on the earth today that you can look at and say, here's a nation that God is their ruler and God has given them all of his laws to govern them. If there were, they would truly be blessed and would set an example. God was not dealing with all of the other nations at that time, but he was dealing with Israel. If he had been dealing with all the nations, they would have had the same laws, rules, and regulations that God gave to Israel. Israel had a righteous law. They didn't have a righteous heart. That was their problem. The books containing his instructions to them became the Israel Supreme religion and legal code. It contained not only guidelines, but laws and procedures by which the citizens were to be judged. If you committed adultery in the Old Testament, what was the punishment prescribed? Death. If you raped somebody, what was the punishment? Death. If you stole, what was the punishment? Well, you had to make restitution sometimes three or four times what it was. In other words, you were held accountable for what you did. What if you were guilty of manslaughter? Accidentally killing someone. Well, there was the nearest of kin who was called the slayer. And if he could get to you, he could kill you. But if you ran to a city of refuge within the country, brought your case to the judges. And the judge, see the slayer would say, well, you did it deliberately, but you go to the judges and you say, look, this was an accident. I didn't mean to. I was cutting this tree down. The head flew off of my axe. It accidentally hit him. And I didn't intend to. They would judge, make a judgment, and say, okay, this was an accident. So you'd be guilty of manslaughter. And in manslaughter, there is culpability, though, because there is some type of carelessness generally in those cases. So if manslaughter were true, you had to stay in the city of refuge, I think, to the high priestide. And if you got out, you could be killed. But they didn't lock them up in prison like we find people today, rats in prison. Now, you could stay in the city. You could earn a living. You could provide for your family. But you just didn't go outside of the confines of that particular city. So what I'm saying is that there were civil administration. There were judicial laws that were enacted. And there were rituals and ceremonies, yes.

They symbolized the kind of relationship that God wanted to have with His people.

As an example, I could just cite one example. When God had Moses build the tabernacle, why did He have him build it? He said, so that I might have a place to dwell among them. God wanted to dwell among His people. Be close to them. Have a relationship with them. If they had a question, they could come to the tabernacle, and they could ask Him, and He would answer them. Now, today, God dwells in us so that He might have a relationship with us. So the same principle still applies. One was a type of what God was going to do with the spiritual temple later on when He would dwell through His Spirit within His Church. Now, in Leviticus 26.46, you find this. God generally summarized His laws under three broad categories in the Old Testament. They're mentioned here in verse 46. These are the statutes, the judgments, and the laws which the Lord made between Himself and the children of Israel on Mount Sinai by the hand of Moses. So we have laws, statutes, and judgments. These terms describe distinctions in the way God's instructions are viewed, rather than their validity or importance. All of them represent His will in dealing with Israel. Now, let me show you what all three of them mean. The Hebrew word for law is Torah. When used with the definite article, such as the law, it refers either to law in general or to some specific aspect of the law. It often referred to the entire body of law that God gave to Israel. Later on, it implied teachings. It implied all of the teaching that God gave to them. In its broadest applications, there are places where the word Torah refers to all of the instructions contained in the Old Testament. The law refers to that. Statues refer to specific types of laws. A statue is an authoritative enactment, decree, or ordinance. Biblical statues set appointed times, such as sacred festivals, to find important customs, even establish the manner or procedures by which certain vital matters are to be handled. They reflect God's thinking and reflect His priority and give divine guidance in righteous behavior.

Do we not have statues on the books here in the state of Tennessee and in this country?

There are certain statues, such as, you can only go so fast on a highway, or what you should do when you come to a stop sign, or what happens if you're arrested for drunk driving. There are different laws and statues, and then there are judgments. There may be judgments prescribed if you get arrested for drunk driving, you lose your license for one year. If it's the second time, you lose it for two years. Third time, ten years, or you may go to jail. So, there are judgments handed down. There are statues that those judgments are based upon. Judgments mean the same thing in almost any culture. They're decisions handed down by judges to explain, broaden or narrow, the application of existing laws. Remember, there was a case when the land was being divided among the children of Israel, and one man didn't have any sons, only had daughters, and he thought it was unfair that his daughters, you know, that he could not pass on to his daughters, the land, and Moses went, inquired of God, and God says, that's right, they should be passed on down through the daughters in this case, and there was a judgment rendered on the land being passed on. Those are judgments based upon the law. So, what you find, taken together, God's law, statutes, and judgments lay the foundation for a righteous society, and the administration procedures needed to govern it. They're broad enough to apply to almost any new situations and contained principles that apply to everyone. Now, again, remember Genesis 26.5, just as a reminder, that Abraham kept God's laws, his commandments, his statutes, his charges. There were certain key elements in the Sinai covenant. Remember, it had civil administration and judicial administration. It dealt with penalties for criminal acts, how judges should decide criminal cases, safeguards against poverty, conduct of the priesthood, design and the physical trappings of the tabernacles, ceremonial cleanliness, animal control, instructions on morality, tithing, sacred festivals, agricultural health principles. Many other aspects of life were outlined. It was created for a people whose hearts were spiritually hardened, who did not have the right heart, whose minds did not perceive what God wanted them to do. So, in many cases, guess what? Just like you with your children. Sometimes, with especially smaller children, you say, do this. Why? Because I said so. That's why. And so, they do it. Well, sometimes, God gave laws and they didn't always know why. He would explain it, but they didn't see why. And it was because it's for your good. That's why. And maybe they wouldn't see it. But it was for their good. Primary distinction between the Old and the New Covenant, the Old Covenant, the law was written on stones, and the New Covenant, it's written on our hearts.

The Sinai Covenant only offered temporary blessings. People were not offered eternal life or salvation. The blessings related to this life, in other words, if they kept the laws, they did what God said. They'd be blessed now. They would have children. Their cattle would prosper. They'd have good crops. They'd be protected from their enemies. It would rain into season. All of these blessings, Leviticus 26, Deuteronomy 28, that we're familiar with, Israel, the reason why God gave them certain regulations, is because Israel was to be a holy people to God. Too often, when we think about Israel, we don't stop and think about the fact that God wanted them to be a holy people. They were not to conduct themselves like the nations around them. Every abomination that the mind, the man could dream up and think and imagine was committed by the nations. Sexually, religiously, everything you can think of. God said, look, you're not to be like the other nations. You're to set the right example. In Deuteronomy 7, verse 6, it says, where you are a holy people to the Lord your God. The Lord your God has chosen you to be a people for himself, a special treasure above all the peoples on the face of the earth. They were to keep his laws, and they were to set the example before all the other nations. But what did they do? Instead of keeping his laws, they followed the customs of the nations. And finally, we're driven into captivity. In 1 Peter chapter 1, 15 through 16, I'll just refer to that. 1 Peter 1, 15 through 16, you find that God says that we are to be a holy people. You and I today are not to live by the customs, traditions of this world, but we are to live by the righteous standards that God gives to us. To be holy means to be separated, set apart. God separated Israel from all of the other nations, and they became his nation, living by his righteous law. God has separated us from this world, and he has given us his Spirit, and we are supposed to be setting a right example. We're holy because God dwells in us. There's something holy in us. It's called the Holy Spirit, and because we have a holy or a righteous standard to live by. Now, I've got a section here that I think I'm going to have to just skip over because we really don't have the time. Well, some of the questions that come up are things like, what about the Jubilee year? Should we keep the Jubilee year? It's impossible for us to keep the Jubilee year today because in ancient Israel, God gave the land to the people. They owned it. Didn't have to pay taxes on it. Didn't have to pay a land payment. Today, state and national statues govern the rights of property ownership and loans. And so, if you buy a piece of property, guess what? You've got to pay for it. If you're a farmer and you've got 200 acres out here, you may have 50,000 payment a year on that property where you're going to get that money. And you have to pay taxes on it. So, you find the principle, though, of honesty, generosity, forgiveness, all of those principles are to be applied. Same thing with the land Sabbath.

God gave the land Sabbath so that every seventh year the land would lie idle, the land would rest, so that it would not be depleted with overuse. Today, again, people have to make land payments. They have to pay taxes. So, we have always encouraged our farmers and those who own land to rotate it. To let every seventh year that some part of their land should be lying idle, so that the land is not worn out and depleted. You'll find there's a lot mentioned in the Old Testament about wearing mixed fabrics, things of that nature. In fact, there's a whole list of things that should not be mixed. And basically, mixed fabrics like cotton and wool are there, so that, number one, there's not an inferior quality product produced, but secondarily, it prevents loss from unequal shrinkage. Cotton will shrink a little more than wool would, and you begin to have it pulling away from one another, and it's just not good. The broader principle of the several statutes for many mixing in various ways is that God wanted His people to pursue purity and quality. And God certainly wants us to do the same thing today, and especially in our lives. What about in the Old Testament, where it talks about not disfiguring the body, shaving the heads or the beards, cutting on the body, or tattoos? Well, most of that you find had to do with customs that had to do with worship of pagan gods, and also with cutting and doing a number of these things for the dead. The pagans would, sort of one commentary, said that they would actually take their hair and make it like a globe. They would take their beards and they would shape it like a globe. And so God says, don't cut your beards, don't cut your hair, and you go on and read the whole section, and it's talking about for the dead.

Now, there are some Orthodox Jews who believe, well, you should never cut your beards. So, you know, they've got these long beards, they've got these hair you're growing down the side of their head, and they think, well, they should never cut there, but it's talking about the customs that people had concerning the dead. Tattooing was done as a mark of allegiance to a deity, showing that the wearer's willingness to allow the deity to take them over and possess them. And that was a custom back at that time. So there are all kinds of ritual, I'd say, statues that God gave to Israel, because He did not want them to do what? To be like the nations around them. He wanted them to be holy, maintain a righteous way of life.

And God wants us to do the same today, and that's what His laws give us.

You find the intent of the law is still there. Now, what do I mean by that? Well, look at a number of the laws that were practiced in the Old Testament. Circumcision. We do not circumcise babies for ritual purposes or religious purposes. Physical purpose, yes, not religious. But all of us today are circumcised in our hearts. So it's a spiritual. They had a temple, a tabernacle in the Old Testament. We today, the church, are the temple. God's glory dwelt in the temple. The Holy Spirit dwells. In us today. They had animals and physical sacrifices pointed to Jesus Christ and His sacrifice. You and I today are to offer up spiritual sacrifices. They had a high priest who was of the priesthood, the sons of Aaron. Today, Jesus Christ is our high priest. We can approach the throne of mercy through Christ. He made it possible for us to come and worship God today. Today, we are washed through baptism. We are washed through the Word of God. It cleanses us from our sins. And the Word of God cleans us up. We worship God through His Spirit. And as 2 Corinthians 3, 6 says, that you and I are to keep the Spirit of the law. The Spirit of the law is the intent of the law. The Bible says, if a man is not to commit adultery, but it also says, if you look on a woman to lust after her, you've committed adultery. It says, you're not to murder, but it also says, if you hate your brother, you're guilty of murder. So there's the spiritual intent of God's law. Not only just the letter of how to keep it in the letter, but how to keep it in the mind, in the heart, in the outlook. And so you'll find that many of these principles are to be observed. Now, if God's...let's say, if God decided that He was going to come down and set up His government over all the nations of the earth, guess what? And they're not converted. God would take the same basic principles He gave to Israel and establish them so that the nations would have a righteous standard and a holy way to go. Now, see, there's one difference today than what God did with ancient Israel. The church today is scattered. We're not one nation, are we? Anciently, God worked through the nation of Israel, the descendants of Abraham.

We're not one nation like ancient Israel, yet we are, spiritually speaking, the seed of Abraham, Galatians 3, 29. We are His seed through Christ. Therefore, we are the Israel of God today, spiritual Israel, as the book of Galatians describes it. Now, we, as Romans 13 tells us, Romans 13, we are to be subject to the governing authorities wherever we live.

Today, instead of just one nation that God's ruling through, guess what? We have Christians in Germany, Christians in Italy, Christians in France, Christians in Africa, Christians in South America, even a few here in America, in Canada, and so we're scattered. So, what if you're living in Russia and you're a Christian? You have to submit to the government in Russia, and to their statutes and judgments, and how they administer things. On a civil level, judicial level, on a religious level, whose law do you keep? You have to obey God. And what is the one criteria that the Bible tells us where we don't have to obey the laws of the land?

Well, if they tell you to disobey God, Acts 5.29, we must obey God rather than man. If, you know, some law says that you've got to work on the Sabbath, you say, no, I don't work on the Sabbath. That's my day of rest. If they're trying to force you to disobey God, you obey God first. See, the religious principles, spiritual principles, supersede the physical. But if there is no contradiction between the two, then you have to submit to the laws of the national government you live under. So, that brings us down to finally we come to the Millennium. In the Millennium, God's going to establish the new covenant with Israel, Judah, and all nations. God will pour out His Spirit. And guess what? Isaiah chapter 2 says that all nations will come up to Jerusalem to worship the King, and He will rebuke among strong nations. And so you'll find that He will have the authority to bring nations under the jurisdiction and compliance with God's government at that time. Revelation 5.10 says that you and I are to be kings and priests. We're in training right now. Daniel 7.14 says eventually all nations will come under God's government. All nations will obey. And verses 18.27 shows that the kingdom will be given to the saints of the Most High, and we will rule forever and ever. So God is going to take the government out in the hands of man, going to give it to the saints, the resurrected saints, and we're going to rule all nations. Now what if people don't want to obey God? There will be penalties. Zechariah 14.17 shows that there will be penalties. If Egypt doesn't come up to keep the Feast of Tabernacles, there's no rain. And so they will be penalized. God will not eventually allow any rebel, any criminal, anyone who does not agree with His law, His way of life in the kingdom. Revelation 22.14 will end on this scripture. Revelation 22.14.

We find this. Blessed are those who do His commandments, that they may have the right to the tree of life and may enter through the gates into the city. But outside, meaning excluded, are dogs, sorcerers, sexually immoral murderers, idolaters, whoever loves and practices a lie.

What is that? Well, that's breaking God's commandments. So you'll find the family of God, which has had God's law implanted in their minds, written in their hearts, in their minds, in our attitude, in our approach, in our character, will go on living forever, always submissive to the Father, always submissive to Jesus Christ, always under those that God places over us in authority, like David and the apostles. And we will live by the law of God and the principles of that law, a law of love and outgoing concern for others, for all eternity. And anyone who refuses to submit to God's way of life will simply not be there. So, brethren, I know that I've hit this very quickly. We've covered a lot of ground. We could have given four or five sermons dealing with this coming at it from different perspectives, but hopefully you understand a little more clearly what laws should be observed and what should not from the Old Testament.