What is the Basis of God's Law?

But to call it out, people of God, it's good for us to know what it is God expects of us. What does He want us to do? So I thought it's worthwhile to address the question starting off with the basic question of what is the law? And it's funny, I put in my notes, as soon as I wrote those words when I was working on a rough draft, I said, Frank, you better—I walked over and pulled down my Merriam-Webster's dictionary and took a look at what the law was.

One thing I learned that I had no idea of before is that our English word comes from Scandinavia, which has nothing to do with anything, but I thought that was interesting. And it has a lot of definitions, even though it only has three letters. Now if we're talking theology, which I'll work my way back to, a lot of times when we say the law, it's referencing the first five books of the Bible that we believe were written by Moses, sometimes called the Pentateuch, which means the Five, or the Torah, which means law.

But the dictionary had a number of other definitions. One is that it could refer to something that happens in nature or in mathematics that's consistent and invariable. We call these laws of physics, laws of math or laws of logic.

But that's not what we usually think of when we say law. The primary dictionary definition said a binding custom or practice of a community, or a rule of conduct prescribed or formally recognized as binding or enforced by a controlling authority. Using it that way, the law could refer to an individual stipulation, such as, thou shalt not go over 70 miles an hour on the interstate, which apparently that's not a stipulation that's heavily followed in Kentucky, or many other states.

It could also refer to a collection of rules, which we call a body of law. When I say just the law, I could be talking about a number of things. Either you have to say specifically what you mean, or the context can let you know. Speaking of context, it's here on the Sabbath, I'm giving a sermon.

So you might guess I'm talking about God's law, the laws about our way of life that God gives. Not English common law, not the United States statutory code. It's worth considering some of the things the Bible says about the law. Some of the scriptures Mr. Howe mentioned, one of the things that stood out is, if you read through the Psalms, you quickly learn that King David had a love of the law.

He said a lot of things about it, he loved it, so I'm not going to turn to many. I like Psalm 19.7, and that's one I'll refer to. He said, the law of the Lord is perfect, converting the soul. That's something powerful to say about God's law, it's perfect, and it changes you.

Psalm 119, verse 142, and I'm just pulling a phrase out, he said, speaking to God, your law is truth. God's law is truth. That might trigger something in your mind. Is there something somewhere else in scripture that it says is truth? And the something else I'm thinking of is John 1717, where Jesus Christ was praying to the Father, and he said, sanctify them by thy word, by thy truth, thy word is truth. And I don't know why I'm speaking King James English, I guess. With my students, I refer to what I call grandma scriptures.

When I was about 10 years old and started coming to church, my grandmother, who was the first member in our family in the church, started drilling my sister and I with certain scriptures, and that's one of them. Some of the scriptures I remember from them, they're permanently in Old King James for me. Solomon wrote in Proverbs 6.23, the commandment is a lamp, and the law is a light. I'm citing that rather than Psalm 119, because I can't quote that one without breaking into song. The law is light. That's a good compliment for another memory scripture.

So I'm going to turn to some of these in a little bit. Isaiah 8, verse 20 gives us a standard for whether or not to accept someone's preaching, where it says, the law and the testimony. They speak not according to this word. It's because there's no light in them. The law is the light. You speak a contrary to it. You don't have that light. The Apostle Paul wrote a lot about the law.

As Mr. Howe was explaining, a lot of what he said has been misinterpreted by a large number of people. But it's worth noting some of the things he did write. First Timothy 1, verse 8. I didn't realize this is a service where you get a lot of scriptures read at you. There he said that the law is good, if a man uses it lawfully. Verse 19 says the law is spiritual. As a matter of fact, we did turn to that one, did we not? Which is why I'm not going to turn there now.

Where I would like to turn to is in the book of Isaiah chapter 51, if you would join me there. Because I want to turn from things the Bible says about the law to considering the basis of the law. What does it come from? What is it founded on? And we'll look at some scriptures to explain that. Isaiah 51 and verse 4, we see God speaking in first person. And there he says, Listen to me, my people, give ear to me, O my nation, for a law will proceed from me, and I will make my justice rest, as a light to the peoples.

Once again, law and justice is equated with light. But God says that the law proceeds from him. What does it mean to say that the law proceeds from God? Well, one way of looking at it is that, well, he made it up. He spoke the words of the law, which he certainly did at Mount Sinai. Then he called Moses up to the mountain, and he wrote the Ten Commandments in stone with his own finger. So it came from him in that way. But I think it's important to think of another way that the law comes from God.

I think we could say that the law is an expression of who and what God is. That's really the essence. He didn't just sit down and say, hmm, let's make up some rules. Let's see, I'll tell them they can't do that, and they can't do this. Rather, what he did is he just made an expression of his own personality. And that can be summed up in one word, another Grandma scripture. It's 1 John 4 and verse 8, where it says, God is love.

That's very important.

And I'm going to put that with some other scriptures. I'm not going to turn there because those three words, you can check, they are in that scripture. I also want to turn to Romans 13 and verse 10.

To see some things about God being love and how that relates to his law.

Romans 13 verse 10 says, Love does no harm to a neighbor. Therefore, love is the fulfillment of the law.

Now, Pauline theology tries to say, well, all you have to do is love, and then you don't have to bother with the law. But I think a correct understanding of what Paul is saying is, the law is an expression of love, and it tells you how to love. They're not opposites, they're one and the same.

I'll also read Galatians 5 and verse 14.

Galatians 5 and 14 says, For all the law is fulfilled in one word, even this, you shall love your neighbor as yourself. That term, love your neighbor as yourself, comes up a number of times. In my margin, it's even noted. That's Leviticus 19 verse 18. Old Testament theology says to love your neighbor as yourself.

And Paul is saying, that's fulfilling the law in one word, and then he spas several words. But the one word that he's talking about, I believe, is love. God is love, fulfilling the law is love. As Mr. Hallis made the point, and will continue in his next message, that's far from saying the law was done away or nailed to the cross. Let's keep these things in mind as we turn to Matthew chapter 22.

I'm going to turn here, even though we read it a little bit earlier, because I think it's an extremely important thing to consider. Matthew 22, and we'll begin in verse 36.

Matthew 22, 36 says, a young lawyer, that's in verse 35, came and asked him, Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the law? Jesus said, without hesitating, you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. He was quoting from Deuteronomy chapter 6 and verse 5, a portion of the Old Testament law called the Shema by the Jews. He says, this is the first and the great commandment. And then he answered something the fellow didn't ask, and the second is like it. You shall love your neighbor as yourself. As we said, quoting from Leviticus chapter 19 verse 18. And he proceeded and said, on these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets. On those two things hang all the law and the prophets. That means, you could say it's a summarization. There's a similar statement earlier in Matthew 7 verse 12. I'm not going to turn there. But in that place he said the law and the prophets could be summed up by the statement of, do unto others as you would have them do to you, what we call the golden rule. But this passage is a bit more complete. And there's two big principles we could derive from it. The first one is what I've been saying. God is an... or the law is an expression of what God is, and that's love. So God is love. The law is an expression of God's love. That's how the first and the second... or when Christ said the second is like to the first, it's because they're both based on love. How to love God, how to love your neighbor as yourself. That's the first point that I wanted to make out of that scripture, that love is an expression of God's law, or the law is an expression of God's love. The second thing we can derive from this is that this can be thus broken down. The principle of love can be broken down into sub-points to help us to know how to act, what to think, what to do. There's two great principles here. Love the Lord your God with everything you've got. The second one, love your neighbor as yourself. But that can be broken down a bit further. How do you love God with all you've got, as we heard in the sermonette? Those first four of the Ten Commandments are a great expression of that. They tell us how. I think I can make the case there are some other things in the Old Testament given in the law that further show how to love God, but God didn't rank them among the Ten. And I'll discuss that a little bit later. But the second one, the last six of the Ten Commandments, give further breakdown on how to love your neighbor as yourself. Don't kill him. Don't steal from him. Don't commit adultery with his or her spouse, and so on.

Now, if we did stop there, we wouldn't have that much disagreement within among ourselves, or even with other churches that call themselves Christian. Even despite how preachers will come up and say the law has done away, they still mostly say, oh, Ten Commandments is good. We love the Ten Commandments. And as long as we can say, well, the fourth was switched to a different day, and you only got to keep a half hour or so of that holy, and then you can go watch football the rest.

Because you could say, well, come on. Nobody thinks that that stuff listed after Exodus 20 is stuff you have to live by, right? The Paulician theology tells us this. Galatians 3 and verse 24 says it was just a schoolmaster.

I'm not turning there because... Actually, this is good. I'll leave it to Mr. Howell to explain why that's wrong.

Galatians 3.19, or were you already doing that?

The law was only added because of transgressions. I do want to come back there and read that a little bit later.

Now, we see a disagreement starts coming up. As soon as we go past a fairly superficial acknowledgement that we like the Ten Commandments, that we can all agree we should love God and love our fellow man.

I don't so much mind disagreeing with all the other churches that worship on Sunday and believe we're going to heaven and hell, because we can disprove that relatively easily. Mr. Howell did it pretty effectively in a few minutes. Sorry, I don't mean to keep referring to you, I put you on the spot. A good summary is the one that's in Matthew 5 verses 17 and 18.

And we read that earlier. That's worth turning again. My Bible is already open to Matthew. Matthew 5 verses 17 and 18.

Besides the fact that fulfill doesn't mean finish, it means fill up, magnify, expand. Even if it meant just finish, we couldn't consider that as being something to consider until the earth is melted with fervent heat and we have a new heavens and a new earth. So we've got plenty of that to go ahead of. But we still have some questions, some challenges. Because that line of reasoning, we say, okay, everything in the Old Testament is still in effect. That might lead us to think, well, every so often I've got to go out and burn a red heifer to ashes so I can mix it with certain water. And I've got to wear tassels on my clothing. If Connor gets too out of line, I've got to stone him to death. Hmm. All those things don't sound like what we think of as Christian very much. Why don't we do those things and some of the other things that are described in the law? Well, the answer is, I think, found by a little bit more complex examination of the law. We can quickly discern that there are some various sets of law in the Old Testament, and they're not all exactly the same. And this is where the story that I began with comes into play. When we consider man-made laws and regulations, it's easy to think of jurisdictions. Each political body has the authority to make certain laws. Every nation has their laws, states, cities, counties, sometimes townships. And what might be legal in one time and place, such as a 19-year-old ordering a beer when they're in Canada, might not be legal in another place, such as here in Kentucky for the same 19-year-old. Would God Himself ever make different laws for different occasions? I'll say that the short answer is yes, but I wouldn't want you to just take my word for it. But we can see in Scripture that even though there might be different laws in certain jurisdictions, that underlying basis never has changed and never will. That's why I wanted to start off saying the principle of the law is love. God is love. The law is an expression of that love. So if God gives a particular regulation, let's say that, for a time and place, it's guided by love. If it's slightly different at another time and place, the love underlying it never changes. We can say that of the Ten Commandments. I think also we don't see those changing. As I said, God spoke them Himself directly to the people of Israel. That's described in Exodus chapter 20. Exodus 32 verses 15 and 16 is where it says specifically that He also wrote those Ten Commandments in stone with His finger. That's a trick I'd like to learn for if I forget a pen.

But then, after Exodus 20, there are three chapters that are called judgments. There are still laws. These and several other laws that we see throughout the Pentateuch could be described as a civil law for the nation of Israel. Remember, Israel was two things combined, whereas we here today are one thing. We're a church, and we're so used to the United States having that principle of separation of church and state. Israel had no separation of church and state. It was a nation and a religion both together. But the nation of Israel, as a political body, as a social group, had a set of laws that God gave them. They applied to citizens of that nation and to others. I'll note in Exodus 12. I'll turn here to make sure I don't misquote it. There were laws that applied to the people when they were there in Israel to Israel citizens as well as others who might visit there. Exodus 12, verse 49 says, One of the reasons I wanted to look at that is that law was for the Israelites and for strangers who dwelt there, not necessarily for strangers who dwelt in other nations. For the Assyrians, not in Israel, this law didn't apply. Now, what I mean is that the civic law that God would give Israel, not the spiritual, eternal law. And that's where I want to make a distinction. But the idea that, okay, when you come into our area, our laws apply as what we do. That applies here. That's why 19-year-old Canadians don't get to order beer in restaurants. Well, they might try, but our 19-year-old Americans, when they go to Canada, those laws apply. God's laws specifically for the nation of Israel were given to them as part of an agreement that God made with the people. An agreement that we refer to as a covenant. The Bible portrays sealing that covenant as a type of marriage. God proposed to the nation of Israel, and they agreed. He didn't get down on one knee and pull out a diamond ring, but he brought them out and he spoke to them. Matter of fact, we're here in Exodus. I'm going to turn to chapter 24.

As God had actually made it, we could say before he spoke, the Ten Commandments a preliminary proposal. Look, I brought you out of Egypt. I want you to be my people, and I'll be your God if you obey me. Yeah, that's great. Okay, now you've agreed to that. Wait till I tell you what I'm going to ask you to do. And he came down and spoke the Ten Commandments. And they went to Moses. They were freaking out. Don't let God talk to us anymore. We're going to die. Moses, you go talk to him and come back and tell us what he said. Moses went and God gave him all these judgments. We see him come back now, and Moses tells them in verse 3, Moses came and told the people all the words of the Lord and all the judgments. And the people answered with one voice and said, All the words which the Lord has said we will do. So, they're agreeing. God makes a proposal. This is like contract law. There's an offer. There's an agreement and terms of it. It's been a long time since I studied contract law. In verse 4 it says, Moses wrote all the words of the Lord, and he rose early in the morning, built an altar, and it goes on to describe him making sacrifice as part of the ceremony that they're going to have to seal this covenant. If we look at verse 7, he took the book of the covenant, read it in the hearing of all the people. This is like standing at the altar in a marriage, and the minister says, Do you promise in covenant with God to do this? And one says, Yes, I do. The other says, Yes, I do. So the people said, All that the Lord has said we will do and be obedient. And Moses took the blood and sprinkled it on the people. I'm glad we don't do it that way now. Sprinkled it on the people and said, This is the blood of the covenant, which the Lord has made with you according to these words. So he sprinkled some on the people, he sprinkled some on the book, which was actually a scroll, not a book like we have. But it's interesting.

It's worth mentioning that what you would read, if you go back, you read Exodus 20, then 21, 22, 23, you don't see mention of how to do sacrifice. There's a brief mention, but all that, the ceremony that goes with the tabernacle and later the temple is not there. And that matches very well with what God would say in Jeremiah. I'm going to turn to Jeremiah chapter 7. We'll read in verse 22.

What I'm saying is, not that sacrifices didn't exist, but the sacrificial law specific to Israel wasn't codified at this point. As it says in Jeremiah 7, verse 22.

This is God speaking in first person. It says, This is what I commanded them, saying, This is summarizing what we were just reading about.

Most immediately, they did that very soon afterwards. After they had that sacrifice, had blood sprinkled on them, agreed to the covenant, Moses went up to the mountain to talk to God, and what did the people of Israel do? After a short time, they told Aaron, we don't know what happened to Moses, better make us a God. And they started worshipping an idol, a golden calf. We know, of course, Moses came down at God's direction and destroyed that idol, and they started over.

And one of the things they started with immediately was building a tabernacle, consecrating a priesthood and starting a sacrificial system. I don't think that didn't catch God by surprise. He knew there would be sin. He had in mind all along to do that. But it's interesting that we could say he gave them a separate set of laws, a body of law for sacrifice and ritual.

I believe that's a good conduct for understanding what it says in Galatians 3 and verse 19. Galatians 3, 19 and Jeremiah 7, 22 are ones that are good to chain reference.

Galatians 3, 19 says, What purpose does the law serve? It was added because of transgressions, till the seeds should come.

And that's referring to Jesus Christ, to whom the promise was made and it was appointed through angels by the hand of a mediator.

Now, we could spend a lot of time discussing the book of Galatians and all the points Paul makes, but that's for another time. I'm not going to today. But our purpose, my purpose now is to show that there was a full set of ritual sacrificial laws given by God to the nation of Israel that had a limited jurisdiction. It was a law for the Levitical priesthood in the nation of Israel.

Later, the book of Hebrews is largely devoted to explaining that the Levitical priesthood and the rituals it practiced, you know, was limited and had been superseded by the priesthood of Jesus Christ. I'm not going to go through all the book of Hebrews because that's also a fascinating study worthy of ours. But if we read just Hebrews 7 and verse 12, we get a very good summary statement.

Hebrews 7 and verse 12 says, For the priesthood being changed, of necessity there is also a change of the law. And that word change could also have been translated transfer.

So the underlying principle hasn't changed, but in some cases the expression of how it's fulfilled has been transferred.

The way that we apply the underlying basis, which is love.

Just think of this. Violating the law invokes the death penalty. We know Romans 6.23, the wages of sin is death.

In ancient Israel, the recognition of that, that the wages of sin is death, was expressed through various sacrifices, drawing blood with the death of those animals.

In the church, not in ancient Israel, recognition that the wages of sin is death is expressed through repentance and acceptance of the sacrifice of Jesus Christ.

Underlying principle has not changed, but how it's applied has.

Think, in ancient Israel, something that's addressed in the book of Hebrews, in ancient Israel, a tithe of a person's income, or increase, was allocated to support the work of God, which was done by Levites at the temple.

In the church of God today, a tenth of a person's income is allocated to support the work of God, but that's now done through a church, and it's expressed in preaching the gospel rather than maintaining a building with its rituals.

That part is an understanding that doesn't cause us a lot of difficulty. I don't know of any groups that call themselves Christians that say, we need to get back to animal sacrifice, and burning incense and such.

It's also pretty easy to understand that a number of aspects of Israel's civic law were specific to that social political body.

We could even call it a criminal law. God gave them a criminal law with descriptions of punishments for violating certain laws.

A lot of times those laws are expressed as an if-then statement. I think, doesn't computer programming use that too, but I don't do computer programming. Let me give you an example. In Exodus 20 in verse 15, it simply says, thou shalt not steal.

That's an eternal spiritual law. Don't steal.

But Exodus 22 in verse 1, within the judgments that I'll call the civic law, it says, if a man steals an ox or a sheep and slaughters or sells it, he shall restore five oxen for an ox and four sheep for a sheep.

The civic law had specific punishments.

One more example. In Exodus 20 in verse 12, among the Ten Commandments, it says, honor your father and your mother.

Later in Deuteronomy 21, verses 18-21. I'm going to summarize because there are several scriptures. Basically, Deuteronomy 21, verses 18-21 says, the punishment for a rebellious, drunken son was for the parents to bring him to the judges and stone him to death.

So that's an application of honor your father and your mother.

As I said, because ancient Israel was both church and state, things are different for us.

We're a church, not a civic government. So that makes applying an understanding and application of the law of God gave Moses more of a challenge in some cases.

I expect that most people readily agree that God is calling people into a church today. Not a nation or a civic body. But it's worth noticing, my Bible is still open to the book of Hebrews. If you'll turn to chapter 12, we'll see that God did specific... Well, God through, we believe Paul made that point. Hebrews 12, verses 18-19.

Hebrews 12, beginning in verse 18.

You, you Christians, you called out to the body of Christ, have not come to the mountain that may be touched, that burned with fire, with blackness, darkness, and tempest, to the sound of a trumpet and the voice of words, so that those who heard it begged that the word should not be spoken to them anymore. And this is referring to God speaking the Ten Commandments to the nation of Israel.

And it's saying, you weren't called to that, but in verse 22 it says, But you have come to Mount Zion, a symbol of God's church, to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, to an innumerable company of angels, to the general assembly and the church of the firstborn, who are registered in heaven, to God the judge of all, to the spirits of just men, made perfect.

The church has a different covenant than ancient Israel, because ancient Israel broke that covenant, and God gave them a certificate of divorce, as it says. And Jesus Christ, one member of that covenant, died.

We're under a new covenant, and of course that new covenant is not made between God and a political nation, it's made between God and a group of called-out individuals.

Although, it's worth noting, Romans chapter 9 goes, Paul went out of his way to make the point that all physical Israelites have a calling, or will have, into that church.

And that's how God will fulfill the promise that's made in Jeremiah 31. Jeremiah 31, 33 is a memory scripture for many, but I'll turn there.

Jeremiah 31, verse 33 says, This is the covenant that I'll make with the house of Israel. This is in the future when Israel becomes part of the church of God. After those days, says the eternal, I will put my law in their minds and write it on their hearts, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people.

So the new covenant is not devoid of law. It has God's law written on our hearts and minds.

But I would submit that the law that God is writing on our hearts by His Spirit doesn't specify to pay back four sheep, if you steal a sheep, and five oxen if an oxen, but it does specify don't steal.

I think that spiritual law being written in our hearts includes honoring our mother and our father, but not necessarily specifying stoning for those who don't. I think a general guideline might be that laws that specify punishment, or laws that apply to animal sacrifice, are things that we're safe to consider weren't the eternal spiritual law, but expressions of the underlying principle. That underlying principle being, God is love. Love God with all you've got. Love your neighbor as yourself.

But it's worth saying that the spiritual law isn't easier. You could say it's harder, it's fuller. Matthew 5 in the Sermon on the Mount is where Christ made that clear when He came to expand to magnify the law. I'll summarize here, but in Matthew 5 verses 27 through 28, we should understand the spiritual law not only prohibits adultery, it goes further and prohibits the lust that leads to it.

In Matthew 5 verses 21 and 22, that shows that the spiritual law written on our hearts forbids hatred, as well as the murder that hatred can lead to.

I think I'm getting out of practice talking.

I think it's interesting, in the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus didn't go through all of the Old Testament and explain what the spirit of the law is for all those, and the way He tended to do for parts of the Ten Commandments. There are other principles that we need to think of.

And the fact that Christ didn't go through all of the Pentateuch and say, okay, you need to do this, you need to switch this, that's what's led to some problems in the Church of God. We have questions, sometimes persistent disagreements, differing answers to the question, should I do, and you can fill in the blank, or is it wrong for me to, and you know, there are questions like that.

And we could probably come up with a long list of those if we wanted to. I wanted to focus on two specific ones, because I've had to deal with them quite a bit lately, in my position at ABC. But I want to lead up to them first. So I've got a couple I want to address. But first, I want to consider a good general statement for guiding us. Of course, the Ten Commandments are the rock-solid basis. If you want to know what's the trunk of the tree, it's there. But if we turn to Micah 6, we see another very good expression. Micah 6 and verse 8.

Because again, we're focusing on, okay, there's questions about, do I have to do this? Do I have to not do that? We have this question, Micah 6 and verse 8. Some of an answer. He's showing you, O man, what is good. What does the Lord require of you? But to do justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God. And that's what God requires. Now, I'm taking this out of a longer statement, which is intended to show that God never wanted animal sacrifice as much as he wanted obedience. And backing up to verse 6 of, What shall I come before the Lord your God, and bow myself to him with burnt offerings, calves of a year old, thousands of rivers, even my firstborn?

And God's saying, No! I want obedience. I want you to do justly, love mercy, walk humbly with your God. I'll throw it in here because I have it in my notes, but I won't turn to 1 Samuel 15 verse 22. But in 1 Samuel 15, 22 is where Samuel told King Saul to obey is better than sacrifice. That's what God wants. And this Micah 6, 8 corresponds very well with Matthew 23 verse 23, where Christ calls justice, mercy, and faith the weightier matters of the law.

And some people say, Wait, I see justice would do justly, love mercy with mercy. What about faith? Well, faith is walking with God. One of the definitions of faith, aside from Hebrews 11, 1, is to believe God enough to do what he says. Live his way of life. That's the ultimate act of faith. And it's worth noting that Hebrew word for judgment that's related so closely to justice is mishpat. And there are various variations. But mishpat carries the meaning of making a decision, or even rendering a verdict, based on the law. So it can be a verdict of guilty or innocence, but it could be a verdict of do this or don't do that.

And Jesus said one of the most important matters of the law for Christians involves making those judgments. It's a way to your matter. We have to make decisions on how to apply God's law to our lives. And in many cases, it's very easy. Taking something that's not mine is stealing. Shouldn't do that. That one's pretty easy. Sometimes it's harder. I know I'm supposed to keep the Sabbath day holy, but to do that, I have to make, perhaps, dozens of decisions.

Should I do this? Should I not do that? Is this okay? How is this? And God gives us some guidance. Isaiah 58 is a good one for that, but He doesn't give us a long list. And there are some directives in the book of Leviticus that give us pause. We know that we don't currently need Levitical priests to sacrifice animals and sprinkle blood, but the book of Leviticus also has rules for the general population.

Leviticus is thought of primarily a book for the priests and how to operate the temple, how to do sacrifice. But it also has some rules for how the people were to be special and holy. I want to turn to Leviticus 19. We'll start with verse 2. I've seen some scholars refer to this as a holiness code. Leviticus 19.2 says, This was directed to ancient Israel.

God wanted them to be different. And by the way, the basis of the Hebrew word for holy also means different or separate. I want you to be different from other people, and I'm going to tell you how to do it. But we can see very quickly from some New Testament scriptures that God wants those of us in His church to be holy. As a matter of fact, Ephesians 1 verse 14... No, it's Ephesians 1 verse 4. Sorry, I had to put my glasses on.

It says, He chose us that we should be holy. I'm going to cite a couple, but I'd like to turn to 1 Peter chapter 1. In that prayer, remember I cited earlier John 17, 17. Jesus Christ said, sanctify them by your word. Your word is truth. That word sanctify means to make holy. So remember, the word is truth. The law is truth. We're made holy by the law. These all fit together. And in 1 Peter chapter 1 verse 15, we see Peter quoting what I just read in Leviticus, which is a good indication that it applies to us in the church now, if I can find it. 1 Peter 1 verse 15.

Oh, I'm looking in the wrong chapter. There we go. But as He who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct. Because it is written in the book of Leviticus, be holy for I am holy. Okay, that's an underlying principle for several do's and don'ts that were in the book of Leviticus.

And that's where I mentioned the underlying principle of all the law is love. The Ten Commandments provides underlying principles. But for those that God calls out, an underlying principle is, I want you to be holy. I want you to be separate and different from other people that I haven't called yet. And He gives a number of ways to do that. And some of the ways cause us questions. I'm going back to Leviticus 19.

Actually, if I pick up right after verse 2, there's a couple of things that He tells us to do that are also commanded in the Ten Commandments. For instance, in verse 3, every one of you will revere his mother and his father and keep my Sabbath. I am the Lord your God. Okay? Be different from other people by treating your parents with proper respect. Keep my Sabbath. Don't turn to idols or make for yourselves molded gods.

I'm the Lord your God. Okay, so these are these ways to do it. Verse 13 says, You shall not cheat your neighbor, nor rob the wages of him who is hired, nor rob him, and the wages of him who is hired shall not remain with you all night till morning.

So be honest. Don't cheat people. Good way to be holy. If you look at verse 19, this is one that sometimes caused us pause. You shall keep my statutes. You shall not let your livestock breed with another kind. You shall not sow your field with mixed seed, nor shall a garment of mixed linen and wool come upon you. Interestingly, built into this verse is the idea that these were statutes, part of the civil law that applied to the nation of Israel, and not necessarily to the other nations.

But the underlying principle of being holy still applies. Being holy is something that God wants us to always do. That's why we don't dismiss all of these guidelines, it's just thrown away or it's nailed to the cross. We don't just say, oh, it's just symbolic. But knowing that they were statutes for the jurisdiction of Israel makes us say, maybe I should search for the underlying reasons of why I shouldn't mix linen and wool in my clothing.

And I don't want to discuss it too much further. Sorry, I'm getting tangled up my words. I've read a lot of reasons for why people think that was given. And I would say, wherever we see reasons like that applying to us, it's worth following them. See it as a direction of God for us in our lives.

I want to turn to verse 28 of this chapter. This one has come up a lot lately. This is one of the two issues I wanted to address. Leviticus 19 verse 28 says, You shall not make any cuttings in your flesh for the dead, nor tattoo marks on you. I am the eternal. Throughout this chapter, the phrase, I am the eternal, recurs, I think, going back to the start.

It's a shorthand way of saying, I be holy for I am holy. That's the reason for these directives. And we could interpret these as just purely arbitrary regulations as part of Israel's civil and ritual law. But I think it's worth considering the underlying principle. The underlying principle of God's law that caused him to tell the Israelites this. And to me, that is kind of obvious. God wants His chosen people to be different. He wants them to be holy. And so He directs them, maintain your bodies the way I made them.

Don't mutilate them. Don't go marking them up. That's... you might want to keep a finger here in Leviticus, although I want to look to 1 Corinthians chapter 6. 1 Corinthians 6 and verse 19. When God says, hey, I want you to take care of your bodies in a certain way so that you'll maintain holiness. 1 Corinthians 6 verse 19. Paul says, Do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit which is in you, which you have from God, and you are not your own? For you are bought with a price.

Therefore, for that reason, glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God's. Now, it's worth noting I'm not going to go back and read it, but this passage comes at the end of a condemnation of sexual immorality. Not discussing all the things in Leviticus 19. But that gives us some of the underlying reason that God forbids us to participate in fornication or adultery, any sex outside of marriage. But that underlying principle, it's based on the principle that God owns us. He bought and paid for us.

He wants us to take care of our bodies in a certain way that He defines. And if we just take that as the starting point. God wants me to be holy, wants to maintain my body with purity.

Well, how do I do that? Well, there are certain statements here, such as Paul, when he condemns sexual immorality. But I could think, well, God's tastes don't change much over the years. God says, I don't change. So I could look to the Old Testament to a civil ritual law and say, hey, there's some good guidelines. He didn't like people mutilating their bodies and shaving designs in their hair and printing marks on them then. I don't think He wants us to do that now. No? You could say He doesn't want us to punch holes in, cut up, or print marks on our bodies.

Because they belong to Him. He's just letting us use them for a while. I could go on with several other points, but I want to go to that other... well, actually, I want to go to Deuteronomy.

Deuteronomy 14, even what God tells us to eat and not eat, we could say it's good for our health, but that's not the reason He said that He gave the dietary laws.

Deuteronomy 14, verse 2, You are a holy people to the Lord your God, and the Lord has chosen you to be a people for Himself. That applied to ancient Israel, but it applies to everybody in this room. You're a chosen people. God has called you to be a special people. Above all the people on the face of the earth, you shall not eat any detestable thing. And He goes on to restate what we usually read in Leviticus 11, all the dietary laws. He doesn't say it's to make you healthy, even though it will help your health. He says to do it because you're holy and belong to Him.

Let's consider one other question that keeps coming up.

Should God's people wear tassels on our clothes to remind us of God's law?

The church has been dealing with that question for years, and our answer has always been, no, we don't need to do that. But there are a number of people who say, the answer should be yes.

I think if we use the same principles we've been looking at, and the questions about Leviticus 19, that'll give us a good answer.

Although we can't go to Leviticus to find it, tassels aren't mentioned there. God didn't give them to them then, but He did here in Deuteronomy. It's mentioned in Deuteronomy 22 and verse 12, right after He mentions the familiar prescriptions about not mixing linen and wool.

Deuteronomy 22 verse 12, "...you shall make tassels on the four corners of the clothing which you cover yourself." It doesn't say much more there. As I said just before that, you see, don't plow with an ox and a donkey together. Don't wear a garment of different sorts mixed together.

That's the part that makes it easy to say, well, that's part of the ritual law. We don't need it anymore.

Okay. But I've looked and said, is there an underlying principle that we should consider that maybe would lead us to do it? And a lot of people have done that.

We might consider where that comes from. And I would say that the narrative story in the Bible shows us what the underlying principle is beyond dispute.

And exactly why God told the ancient Israelites to put these tassels. It's in Numbers chapter 15.

I am getting near the end. I know I'm a little long, but it's funny, I found when I visit congregations with the ABC choir, not always sure if they have 90-minute services or 2 hours.

So I end up doing a lot of an hour 45-minute services. So I hope that's okay.

Numbers 15 and verse 32.

Actually, I'm just going to restate. Verses 32-36 tell the story of a man who was found deliberately breaking the Sabbath.

He was out gathering firewood and he didn't care. And basically God said, what do we do?

And you question that because the Bible says, okay, those who do that would bring death.

Maybe they wondered, really? Are you sure? God had them stone the man to death.

And then in verse 37, he immediately follows with this command.

The Lord spoke to Moses saying, speak to the children of Israel.

Tell them to make tassels on the corners of their garments throughout their generations.

Put a blue thread in the tassels in the corners. And you'll have the tassel.

That when you look on it and remember all the commandments of which the Lord your God...

Sorry, let me state that again.

Remember all the commandments of the Lord your God and do them, that you may not follow the harlotry which your own heart and your own eyes are inclined.

And that you may remember and do all my commandments and be holy for the Lord your God.

Here's a reminder of a spiritual principle of the law. God wants us to be holy.

What does he say to do and hear in order to be holy? Remember the commandments.

It's not the tassels that are a connection to holiness. It's the remembering that they were a memory device to do.

To be holy, remember God's law.

I almost see this as an exasperated God, the way a parent might talk to a six-year-old.

Since you're having so much trouble remembering a simple thing like, don't work on the Sabbath, I'm going to make you wear these ridiculous things on your clothes to help you remember.

I think it might be a good illustration of what we read in Galatians 3.19.

Paul said the law, the ritual law, was added because of transgression.

This command to put tassels on the clothes was added because of a specific transgression.

So are Christians today required to wear them?

I would say only if that's the best you can do to remember God's law.

Jesus Christ said there was a better way. He said it in John 14.

I'm going to turn to John 14 in verse 26.

This is the last night that Christ spent with his disciples before his crucifixion, and he was telling them about the Holy Spirit, which he called the Helper, the paraclete in the Greek.

When the Helper, the Holy Spirit, which the Father will send in my name, but, he said, it will teach you all things.

I'm using the generic, the neuter pronoun because Greek doesn't have that, but we do in English.

It will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all things that I said to you.

The Holy Spirit brings to remembrance.

This relates to Jeremiah 31, 33, where God said he would write the law in our minds and in our hearts.

He doesn't crack open our chest like with a bypass surgery and get out of Sharpie and write it. He uses his Holy Spirit.

I was talking to Aaron Dean about this earlier, and he said it's like God is giving us spiritual tassels inside where it matters, not on our clothes.

And that's what fits the underlying basis of the law, the love for God and the love for mankind.

I've traveled a long way from discerning that a group of my 19 and 20 year old students were okay to order a beer when they were in Canada, even though they couldn't do it while they were in Cincinnati.

But, as I said, I've tried to use some similar methods to think about jurisdiction, types of laws, and where they apply.

What's the underlying principle or basis for a law?

The thing about restricting alcohol is to avoid drunkenness, because misuse of alcohol or any other substance is an abuse of our bodies.

Our bodies belong to God. He wants us to be wholly indifferent. We've just been exploring that principle.

So that's part of how we love God with all our heart and all our mind and all our strength.

So I could use that spiritual principle to say, well, it doesn't matter whether Canada or the United States tells me when I'm allowed to drink, the spiritual principle says, exercise moderation.

And that's the principle that we apply to other substances, whether they are legal or illegal.

Well, if they're illegal, we apply the fact that God says, obey the laws of the land. So I don't want to be accused of bringing a new doctrine.

But it comes down to the fact that God is love.

Every law, command, statute, or judgment He gives us is an expression of His love.

And the way we exercise judgment, mercy, and faith is also an expression of God's love.

There might be complexities at times. We might have to exercise judgment maybe thousands of times a day.

But the basic question still can come back to what we read in Micah 6 and verse 8.

He's shown you, He's shown every one of us, what the Lord requires of us.

Do justly. Love mercy and walk humbly with God.