Which Laws of the Old Testament Are Applicable Today?

Christ, when he was tempted by Satan in Matthew 4, he mentions at one instance that he says, you are to live by every word that proceeds out of the Father, out of God. Every command that God gives, we are to take instruction and to learn. And then, also in 2 Timothy, Paul said the following, and we're going to turn there with me, please, 2 Timothy 3, verse 14-16. And it says, But you must continue in the things which you have learned, and been assured of, knowing from whom you have learned them, and that from childhood you have known the Holy Scriptures. So Paul is telling Timothy that Timothy is to continue in the things that he learned from childhood, that is, basically, the Holy Scriptures that he learned from childhood is to continue in them. Now, what do we do with the Holy Scriptures that Timothy knew? Because at that time, the New Testament had not been written. And so the Holy Scriptures is clearly the Old Testament. And then he continues and says, So the Scriptures are there to make us wise, to salvation. And then he continues, verse 16, We are to be thoroughly equipped for every good work. And so, the sum of the matter, if I'm going to give a conclusion of this Bible study today, the sum of the matter is that every word of God, every word of God, Old Testament and New Testament, every word of God expresses the mind of God. Every word expresses the mind of God, and therefore teaches us a principle. There are some principles in every teaching of the Bible, and that includes even the so-called law of Moses. There are teachings that are meaningful to us, principles that are meaningful to us. So I've entitled my Bible study today, Which Laws Are Applicable? Which Laws of the Old Testament Are Applicable? Because people get confused with that issue, and we need to understand clearly.

Or put it another way, how are we to apply them? To put it in a very simple way, you could group God's laws into three major groups. One is the spiritual laws, which basically explain the mind of God, and which basically tells us what is and what is not sin. And they are spiritual laws, they are eternal. Then there is a second group of laws, which are basically Levitical priestly type laws, ceremonial laws, which really were related to sacrifices. They were added because of sin. And then thirdly, there are another group of laws, which are more related to the nation, to the Israelite nation. There were civil laws, national laws, related to things like judgments, related to the judicial system, and related punishments that went with it. They were, in a sense, civil laws, national laws, like laws of the country, laws of the nation, which was a physical nation, Israel. So, having grouped the laws into those three major, let's call it, groups, let's now briefly ask one question. And think about it, and answer it to yourself, what do you think is it? What is it that God wants with you?

What is it that God wants with mankind? What is it that God wants with me, with you, with all of us? It's a relationship, a healthy, godly relationship, a father-son relationship, based on genuine, godly love, outgoing love, based on mutual trust, and based in respect. That's what God is looking for, a relationship, a father-son relationship, based on love, trust, and respect.

Well, let's look at how that is defined even in Scriptures. In 2 Corinthians 6, and we're going to look at verses 16-18. 2 Corinthians 6, verses 16-18. What agreement as the temple of God with idols, for you are the temple of the living God. We are the temple of the living God. God wants to have a relationship with us and wants to live in us. As God has said, I will dwell in them and walk among them.

I will be their God, and they shall be my people. Come out from among them and be separate, says the Lord. In other words, be different. Don't be like the world. Be different. I want to have a one-on-one relationship with you. Do not touch what is unclean, and I will receive you.

I will be a father to you, and you shall be my sons and daughters. You will be my sons and daughters, says the Lord Almighty. That's what God is looking for. A relationship that He can be a dad to us, and that we can be sons and daughters, in which there is a good, healthy relationship. There is no friction. There is no friction. You know relationships are very difficult, in a sense.

When a relationship is good, there is no friction, everything is well, we can talk freely. When a relationship is not so good, there is a little friction. There is a little, like a separation wall, there is a little holding back. And it's not what God wants. So, how do we define relationships? How do you define a relationship?

Say, for instance, you want to have a relationship with a car dealer, because you want to buy the car from them. It's a business relationship. And so, what do you do? You enter this business relationship, which is basically a contract. You give me the car, and I'll give you money over a certain time period. And maybe you have three parties in that relationship. The bank will act as intermediator, paying the dealer, and then you enter into a different type of relationship between you and the bank.

And how do you define this? How do you define this relationship with a contract? You define the relationship with a contract. You have a contract to buy a house, and that gives you the terms and conditions of a contract. You have a contract with your bank or with your credit card company about the credit card. God's contracts are also His way of defining the relationship between Him and us. His contracts are called in a viable as covenants. That's what it is. It's a contract. It's an agreement. God does certain parts of the contract, and you do certain parts of the contract. That's what it is.

And to define that relationship. What is the final intent of these relationships, these contracts? The final goal and intent is to have a healthy father-son relationship. That's what it is. Let's look today at some of these contracts that God has drawn with people. That's the reason of this handout that I've given you, in which I like five contracts. There have been many contracts that God has done with people, with mankind.

I just want to go through these five, spend a little bit more time at the beginning, and then show you how that helps us to understand how the laws apply. So the first contract was with Adam. Then was with Noah. Then was with Abraham. And with Moses, which is the so-called Old Covenant. That's the Old Covenant, not the others. The one of Moses was the Old Covenant. And the one, which Christ is the main prophet there, or leader, or the contract is that he... It's his blood that signed that contract.

That is the New Covenant. So let's look at these contracts briefly by starting to look at Adam's covenant. Now, understand the thing about a contract. And while you look at Adam's covenant, you're going to turn to Genesis 2, so you can start looking at it. But understand about a contract. When you enter in a relationship with somebody, and there is a real trusting relationship. Say there's a real trust. You trust somebody. Do you enter into a whole lot of legalese, and powers of attorney, and different signatures?

Or you just say, you shake your hand, and your word is as good as it can be. When the relationship is good, that's what it is. It's just a handshake, and that's it. Now, when the relationship is not good, then you've got to have all legalese, small print, all these little things, and little things there, and wordings, etc. to actually shake it very clearly. Adam's covenant was in a sense like a handshake. A lot of people read through it, they don't even see it as a covenant. Because it's just, in a sense, a gentleman's agreement, as we call it.

And in Genesis 2, verses 15-17, it says, Then the Lord took the man, and put him in a garden, and took him to tend and kept it. So he had a responsibility. There it is. You've got a job. You look after this garden, you've got a ten, and keep it. That's your part of the relationship. That's your role and responsibilities. And the Lord God commanded a man saying, of every tree of the garden you may eat. And as a benefit, I'm giving you all this good food, and good trees, good fruit, and vegetables, and things that you can eat, and abundance, and a good land, and everything is just...

So there's a contract. You look after it, and I'll make sure that it will give you enough food, and you'll be happy. And that's the contract. However, if you break the contract, it says, it's this tree that you mustn't eat that symbolizes the breaking of the contract. It says, 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. In other words, if you break the contract, if you then don't trust me, and if you don't believe in what I say, because you've got to decide for yourself what is right and wrong.

You see, the tree of knowledge of good and evil, you make your own decision what is right and wrong, because you're treating me like a child, I am a big one, I know what's right and wrong, I'll make my own decisions, blah, blah, blah. That's the real story. If you follow that way, that's the way of death. That's the tree of death. And the other side of giving you another tree is the tree of life, which means you trust me. You trust me implicitly. And I'm doing everything out for your good, and I'm telling you what's good for you and what's bad for you.

So believe what I'm telling you, what's right and wrong, and that's the tree of life. That's the way of life. Just like later on, he said to the Israelites, and the prophets said, I give you life and death. Choose life. It's the same thing. Give you two trees, choose life. There's no difference, because God wants to have a healthy relationship with you and I. So that is the beginning. And so we see when that relationship was good, when that relationship was good, in the rest of the verses, until the end of this chapter of Genesis 2, you see the relationship was good, and there was no friction between God and Adam.

God went and talked to Adam and said, well, look at the animals and yeah, and I'm going to give you a wife. And the relationship was good. There was no problems. The communication channel was working properly. There was no, no assholes there.

Now a problem came up, a problem of the problem that broke the trust, broke the trust, because God trusted them, says, don't do that, but I trust you. And you broke the trust. Like we heard on the sermon, all these things are very tied in like a lie, the father of lies went there and lied. And so you broke the trust. So what happened? There was punishment. Punishment is, they would be death. They all died. As we read elsewhere in Hebrews 9.27, you can make a note, Hebrews 9.27, for you to study that later.

It's appointed, all men to die once. And then you read the fruits of this disobedience, of this breaking the contract, of breaking the trust. And what happened? And you can see the first one is in verse 15. It says, I'll put enmity between you and a woman and between your seed and her seed. And he, that's Jesus Christ, shall bruise your head. In other words, he'll destroy Satan. But you, Satan, will bruise Jesus Christ's heel. That is the church. And so, and in the end, it was the physical death of Christ. So that was a messianic prophecy right there at the Garden of Eden, a messianic prophecy that now Christ would have to die to bring a remediation to this contract that was broken.

And that was the first curse, in a sense, the first which was between the woman, which represents the church, and Christ is the head of the church, and Satan. But then there was also one to the physical woman to live. And that's in verse 16. It says, to the woman, he said, I'll greatly multiply your sorrow and your conception. In pine you shall bring forth children.

And so there is today, woman to greater or lesser degree, they suffer through childbirth and through the periods of what they're expecting, and some more than others. Then to the man, he says, and to the man in verse 17, he says, cursed is the ground for your sake. In toil shall eat of it all the days of your life. So the ground became less fertile. And until in the world tomorrow, when the ground will be more fertile, because humanity then starts obeying God, likewise it appears, because as you remember on the sermon last week, I went through and I showed how the families will be bigger and they'll have more children and be more fertile.

It's possible that also the pain of the woman will be released in all tomorrow to a degree or another so that they will be more fruitful as well. But you can see there was a covenant, which is Adam's covenant. And in Adam's covenant there were certain things man had to do and man did not do. Now there were a few things that were in place at the time of Adam. Now in this graph I've given you, there is a bar, a yellow bar, right across. Now this bar represents the spiritual law of God, which has been in place all along and has never changed.

And I'm going to show you a number of examples of how the law of God has been in place even at the time of Adam. The first one is the Sabbath. Before this, at the beginning of Genesis 2, talks about the Sabbath. How God rested on the Sabbath and how man had to keep the Sabbath.

Man had to rest as well. So right there, Adam knew about the Sabbath. Then in chapter 4, which is after the section of the sin of Adam, we've got the story of Cain and Abel. And you know what happened in the story of Cain and Abel in Genesis chapter 4. At that time, they were told to give an offering, and then the attitude of Cain was not that good, but a little bit upset. And what happened? Cain killed Abel. And so there was a murder. There was sin. Look at it in verse 7.

In verse 7 it says, Sin. What defines sin? Was God being unfair, saying the sin, and He didn't tell them what sin was? Of course not. Sin lies at the door. And its desire is for you, but you must rule over it. You must rule the desire of sin.

You must overcome sin. All along, right at the beginning, you must overcome sin. So we can see that then He murdered His brother. So we see that the law of keeping the Sabbath was in place right at the time of Adam. Sin was existed at the time of Adam, and it was defined. Murder was wrong right there. And then a little later, still during that period of Adam well before Moses.

Because remember, Moses, which is the Old Covenant, starts in the book of Exodus. So all this other description here is in the book of Genesis. So we're going to read from the book of Genesis a few examples of the Ten Commandments being kept well before the law of Moses. For instance, before Noah, before the flood, what happened? The clean animals went into the ark. Seven pairs of clean animals went into the ark.

And unclean animals went into the ark. So he has a trick question. How many giraffes went into the ark?

Fourteenth, because giraffe is clean.

Okay, that's a trick question. Come from South Africa, so I know giraffe is clean. You probably wouldn't know. It's a very nice meat and it's clean. So it's interesting. So the point is, that was long before the law of Moses.

Now, you are saying, okay, this is a very interesting Bible study. How can you take it further? Well, I want to make a note that I've taken a lot of the material for this Bible study from a document in the website of the church called the Caverns of God, dated August 2002. And it's got 53 pages. And if you go to the members website and their resources and the white papers, you'll find a document and you can download it and study it at a young time. So I'm giving you an overview to help you to actually study it if you so wish to do so, to study it in more detail. And why is this important? It's important because the time is going to come that you're going to have to defend your faith. People are going to ask you questions. And if you don't know how to defend it, you're going to struggle. The point is, we all have to learn to defend our faith. So we all have to do some of the study. So when people start asking us questions, we can stand up and be able to defend the faith.

Let me give you some more examples of laws that were valid before Moses, before the Old Covenant. For instance, in Genesis 12, verse 8, you'll see about Abraham calling God in Bethel, calling the name of God in Bethel. And so, he was very careful about not using God's name in vain. And he called God's name in Bethel. So he had a special way of doing it, and he did it in a respectful way. You look also at a time of Abraham going to and speaking to Melchizedek. And then at that time, that's Genesis 14, verse 20, it shows that he tithed to Melchizedek. So there is another spiritual law of tithing. There is an important spiritual principle, and that was in effect long before Moses tithing. Then in Genesis 35, Jacob tells his family to put away false gods. There is another law of the Ten Commandments saying that you shall not have false gods, because there is an example of Jacob long before Moses, long before the laws of Moses, telling people not to have false gods. Can you remember the story about Joseph and his brothers with the cult of Menacalas, and how he became the favorite in the family, and how his brothers had envy towards him, and they were feelings of envy and cavity and things like that. You can see some of those laws. The Ten Commandments are being broken right there. Then think about Joseph when he went to Egypt, and then he had to stand up against Potiphar's wife and not commit adultery. And he said, how I'm not going to commit that sin against God. And therefore, adultery, one of the Ten Commandments, was already in place long before Exodus 20, long before Moses. Look at the example. When Joseph again was in Egypt, and there was a drought, the beginning of those seven years of drought, and then his brothers came to him and asked for food, and he said, well, I recognize where you are, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. You've got to bring your younger son, I mean, your younger brother next time. No, we can't. So he says, you don't come unless you bring the younger brother.

Then the drought continued, and then they came with Benjamin. And then the story goes, it was found when they were leaving, in Benjamin's sack, there was Pharaoh's silver cup. And remember that story? And to the Egyptians, that was the sin, it was stealing, and that was even Gentiles.

So there's the Ten Commandments long in vogue, long before Moses. You see, the spiritual law is a constant. It has remained all along. It has not changed. It's remained all along, and it still remains, and it will never change, because it's God's law of love. Love towards God, and love towards man. That's what it is. It shows the mind of God, that key principle of having a healthy relationship. Then, still talking about this time of Adam, what happened after Cain killed, or just at that period when Cain killed Abel? Do you remember what they did? They did sacrifices, right? Sacrifices. They were sacrificing. Look with me in Genesis 4, verse 3-5. Genesis 4, verse 3-5. It says, Yeah, apples. I don't know what fruit, but let's say it was apple, maybe it was lettuce, maybe it was things like that.

Number one, there were sacrifices right there at the time of Adam and Eve. And that's what I have here, this little S individually, that sacrifices were done individually at that time. Sacrifices were done individually. They didn't do it in the temple. Well, the temple only came at the time of Solomon, right? The temple only came at the time of Solomon. They didn't do it in the tabernacle because the tabernacle was what Moses told them through the Levites to build the tabernacle, and they carried that tabernacle wherever they went. And they made the sacrifices around the tabernacle. It wasn't each of us, it was wherever the tabernacle was. So sacrifices were offered, but it went individually. Now, there's one interesting thing here. Why did God not respect Abel and his offerings? Because when you read about offerings, they have different offerings. They have peace offerings, which are represented with food and things like that. And they had offerings which were presented with meat. So why wasn't God pleased with a... beg your pardon, with Cain's offering? He was pleased with Abel's, but not with Cain's. Why? Because Abel was an offering of the flock. It represented killing an animal. It represented killing an animal. Why was that so important? Because that offerings pointed to Christ.

Now, they had just sinned. And obviously they knew. God had explained to them the different offerings and what they had to do. It's possible, because Yah in verse 3 says, in the process of time, it's possible that the process of time means that when you select an animal for an offering, and then you wait a few days before you offer it. And when is that done? When is that process of time between you selecting an animal and offering it? On a possal. What if this was the possal? We don't know. But Abel will tell us it's a second resurrection. But it's increasing, may it be.

The point was an animal which represented and pointed to Christ. And if it was a possal or even more, God being deeply hurt that he was disdaining Christ's sacrifice and offering him just some apples and apples. And he was very upset. So, you see, God has principles and everything in the Bible is for us to teach us some lessons and some principles. Basically, what happened is man's relationship really turned sour. Man's relationship with God really turned bad. To the point that you read in Genesis 6, verse 5. Genesis 6, verse 5. Then the Lord saw that the wickedness of man was greater in the earth and that every intent of the thought of his heart was only evil continually. It's a man of the heart. And the heart was such that it was just no relationship between any human being and God. They all had gone astray. All. All. Bar 1. Noah. And so, God then called Noah to build an ark and then after he built an ark, the animals went in there, and then he made an offering. He made an offering. And that offering was pleasing to God. According to his law, he made that offering and was pleasing to God. Again, we can see the time of Noah sacrifices, but at the individual level. And he made that sacrifice, that offering, and was pleasing to God. Because remember, it pointed to Christ and it pointed a respect to the Messiah, to the sacrifice of Christ, to honor Christ.

And so, he made a covenant. He made a covenant. And if you read in Genesis 9, we'll start reading first in verse 16. Genesis 9 verse 16, it says, The rainbow shall be in the cloud, and I'll look on it to remember the everlasting covenant. This was the everlasting covenant between God and every living creature of all flesh that is on earth. And that's the rainbow. And so that's why in this little picture, I drew a little rainbow there, just to kind of show you that's the covenant there. You still have the rainbow today. And what does it remind us? It's a sign that God says, I will never destroy mankind. The whole earth with a flood, which is a universal flood. That's a promise God made. That's a promise God made. But at that time, it did bring certain things in the relationship. For instance, an example here is in Genesis chapter 9, verse 6. It says, Whoever sheds man's blood by man, his blood shall be shed.

Capital punishment was now authorized by God.

Capital punishment was now authorized by God.

So they are various examples. And then it says in verse, look at it, continue their reading in verse 11 through 13. In other words, it's the signature. Never again there shall be a flood to destroy the earth. And God said, This is the sign of the covenant which I make between me and you and every living creature that is with you for perpetual generations. I'll set my rainbow in the cloud, and it shall be for a sign of the covenant between me and you. In other words, it's the signature. You know, when it's the signature there, that's the signature. So every time you see the rainbow, think about that signature of God. That's what he's telling us. And he said, You'll never break his word.

Then time moves on, and then we have Abraham. Amanda was faithful, and God said, Leave your family. And then he made a covenant with him. What was the sign of the covenant with Abraham?

It was not a rainbow. The sign of the covenant with Abraham. In other words, the token of the covenant responsibility that God made with Abraham was circumcision.

It was a token of that responsibility that covenant got extended to Isaac and Jacob and to his descendants. And basically, they found that to that group of descendants, that's a relationship they have.

And you can see in Genesis chapter 26, if you just turn forward to Genesis 26 verse 5. And he says, Because Abraham obeyed my voice and kept my charge, my commandments, my statutes, and my laws. And that again is before Moses. God's laws are eternal. They've been in place. They're there. They've been there all along. And circumcision, as I have marked the symbolic of circumcision, was introduced as a token of the covenant. So let's move now forwards. Let's move forwards to the time of Moses. So what happens? These are lights of Egypt, and then they go to Mount Sinai. You can read that in Exodus 19. Exodus 19. These are lights go to Mount Sinai. And in 19 verse 5 says, Now therefore, if you will indeed obey my voice and keep my covenant, then you shall be a special treasure to me above all people, for all the earth is mine. And you shall be to me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation. Now it's a covenant not with an individual. It's a covenant with a whole nation. And then in Exodus 20, God gives the Ten Commandments. The Ten Commandments were unmediated. In other words, there was no person in the middle giving the commandments to the people. God gave them directly, spoke directly to the people. There was no mediator, no body in the middle. Just shall see the importance thereof. And then, chapter 21, 22, and 23 of Exodus, chapters 21, 22, and 23 are the book of the covenant. And then you can see chapter 24, verse 7. You can see in verse 4, Then Moses wrote all the words of the Lord, and he rose early in the morning, and built an altar, and da-da-da-da. So he wrote all this. And then verse 7, then he took the book of the covenant and read it. That's those three chapters, 21, 22, and 23.

That is renewed later on when Moses, just before he died, as they were leaving the wilderness, going into the Promised Land in Exodus 34. And a lot more detail is then described how to do things with the Levites and offerings and all the processes and procedures related in the book of Leviticus. And so we have here, to put it in a summary, so when you do your own study, so you don't get confused, what we have here is the law of God is constant. It goes right through. It's never changed. The basic law of God, tithing, the Ten Commandments, clean and clean meats, being enforced all the way along. Now, there's the Levites being appointed. The Levites, and particularly the sons of Aaron. The sons of Aaron, not every Levite, the sons of Aaron. They've been appointed to do the sacrifices. So no more the sacrifices now to be individual. They are only to be made in this nation by the sons of Aaron.

Where? At the Tabernacle, initially. Later on, it was at the Temple. That's why I wrote the Temple, because initially it was at Tabernacle and became the Temple. The Temple was the town of Solomon. The circumcision now became, let's say, a symbol that you were an Israelite for the nation. So if other nations, and you know, you can read other people that were amongst them, they wanted to come into Israel, they wanted to become part of Israel. They wanted to become Israelites. They had to be circumcised. To be part of Israel. To be part of that nation. That's a national thing. It's a nation. National thing. Part of that nation.

And then there were other laws. As I have, Mark Yars called it, I'm calling them, imperatives. It just means other laws. That means there may be ordinances, maybe there were judgments. It's written under different laws, and I'll go through some of them to show you. But some remain, and some don't. And I'll go into that a little later.

So that's basically what happened. And then, man added additional laws, which are marked with this little red block at the bottom. Man added other laws. Like, for instance, the Corbin law. You can take notes in Mark 7, 11. Christ criticized them about, you know, they put in this Corbin, and therefore you're not respecting your parents because of this law that you made yourself. And there are many dos and don'ts that they added around the law, like the Talmud and others, with various little dos and don'ts. Which Christ criticized them, they were not part of it. They were pouring whites on the law, which were not there and intended by God. So I think that conceptually gives the overall principles of these agreements, these terms of relationship, to define a relationship that God is a father and we are children. But to the Israelites, it put a very legalistic contract. Remember I mentioned, when your relationship is good, you can do a handshake and there's a contract. But when a relationship is not that good, you need more than just a handshake. And you put a lot of things around it because it was a carnal, stuff-necked people, disobedient. And therefore, it gave them some very strict things defining exactly what they had to do in these imperatives you are and in some of the sacrifices and things like that. But the basic constant of spiritual law remains all along and has never changed. Now we get to the time of Christ, the New Covenant. So that's the Old Covenant and that's the New Covenant. We get to the time of Christ, the New Covenant. And we read in Matthew. Matthew 5 says that not a law or a jot, a little dot on an eye or a tickle or anything will disappear. Everything will be fulfilled. And if anyone says that any of these are done away, they're going to be the least in the kingdom. In other words, they won't even be in the kingdom. They'll be the least. So Christ did not do away with any law. Then we look at sacrifices. Where do we receive the sacrifices?

The sacrifices look with me in Hebrews 7, Hebrews 7, verse 11 and 12. Therefore, if perfection went through the logistical priesthood, those are the Levites, the priests, the sons of Aaron. For under it the people received the law. Yes, the law of Moses, all those traditional instructions they will receive to them. What further need was there if that was perfect, that another priest should rise according to the Lord of Melchizedek, which is Christ. And not be called according to the order of Aaron. You see, you could not be a priest unless you were the son of Aaron. So you see, there was the tribe of Levites, and of the tribe of Levites there was Aaron. And you had to be a son of Aaron to serve as a priest. Now, Jesus Christ was not a Levite. He was a Jew. So he could not serve. So that's why it's not the order of the Levites. Jesus Christ is the high priestess of the order of Melchizedek, an eternal priest. So the other priesthood was not perfect. You see, the other was temporary. You see, for the priesthood being changed, the priesthood being changed, of necessity there is also a change of the law. What law? Is it the Ten Commandments? Of course not. It's the law of the priests. The priesthood, you are attached to the Levites, and then the Levites have to tithe to Aaron. Now, the priest is Jesus Christ. It's God's ministers. It's the Church of God. So there's a change of the law. There's a change of priests. There's a change of the law. The law related to the priesthood, the demonstration of the priesthood, not the Ten Commandments.

You see, basically, the Levites did the offerings. They did the sacrifices. What did the sacrifices point to? Christ's sacrifice. Christ had not sacrificed, so He had already died. You don't need to sacrifice again. Now there's a different priesthood. You don't have to offer sacrifices anymore. Let's go on to Hebrews 9, verse 9 and 10. It was symbolic for the present time. Look, all these laws have symbols, have meaning, have things for us to learn from them. But they were symbolic for the present time in which both gifts and sacrifices are offered, which cannot make Him or perform. They cannot make Him or perform the service perfect in regard to conscience. Those sacrifices could not make people perfect. Could not make people perfect.

Concerned only with foods and drinks and various offerings, and fleshly ordinances imposed until the time of Reformation. When was the time of Reformation? When Christ came and He died, He reformed, He changed the sacrificial from the old sacrifice to the new sacrifice, which is Christ. And then continue in verse 13, because it says, not of the bloods of goats, etc., it is unblothed. Verse 13, For if the blood of bulls and goats and ashes of Aiphir, 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 to God, cleanse your conscience from their works to serve the living God?

And for this reason, Christ is the mediator of the New Covenant. He brings us the New Covenant, because He's the New Covenant, and His blood is what justifies us.

We don't have to offer those sacrifices anymore. But the principles are there.

So, do we have to give sacrifices today?

Romans 12, verse 1. I beseech you therefore brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies as living sacrifice. Do we have to give sacrifices? Yes. Is it of a bull? No. It's our bodies as a living sacrifice. Holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service. Do not be conformed to the sword, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is good and acceptable and perfect will of God. That's the sacrifice we have to do to change your mind, our carnal minds, to God's mind, because it is a mind. It's a whole new heart and a new mind as we have God's Holy Spirit, that we do things differently. And therefore, our Rochia is circumcision now. It's the circumcision of the heart, and the sacrifices are now spiritual. How's the circumcision of the heart? It's because it is conversion. Conversion. Repent and be converted as circumcision of the heart.

And therefore, the sign, the token of our responsibility, of our commitment now, is baptism. Baptism is the sign that we have been, quote-unquote, circumcised in the heart. Or at least, we should be. Sometimes there are people that have been baptized, and they're not really repented. But that's between God and them. It's not for me to judge. God knows the hearts.

And so, we can see that there were changes because of Christ. The sacrifices are now more in the temple, but it's our living sacrifices we saw in Romans 12. The circumcision is now circumcision of the heart that it's symbolized by repentance and receiving after that of the Holy Spirit. And the Holy Spirit now writes the law of God in our minds and in our hearts.

Not on tables of stone. Not on things that we do or don't do or things that we put around us or signs on the wall or things like that. It's in our minds or hearts. That's what it's going to change. Not on physical things.

And that's the change. That's why I have some of these things have changed because, yes, the principles still apply.

But we don't do it the same way. The principle circumcision still applies. But circumcision is not required for salvation. Circumcision for the Israelites, that's a different story. They still under that. To be an Israelite, you're circumcised. You'll still be in the world tomorrow. But for Gentiles, it's not required. Salvation's been opened to the Gentiles. They don't have to be circumcised. But the circumcision is the circumcision of the heart, which is through conversion. It's the change of the heart, not a physical. And therefore, this is an important thing where people get stuck in understanding this difference. The point is God's law continues and never changed. God's Ten Commandments and spiritual principles have never changed. And you and I are justified by Christ's blood. And so what about the other imperatives? These are the sections that I have at the bottom here. Well, let me go through some of them and show you very simply and very briefly and quickly what they are. For instance, in Exodus 21, remember I told you, Exodus 21 to Exodus 23 is the book of the covenant. In Exodus 21, it gives you different things. For instance, it says, if you curse your father or your mother, you are to be killed. Okay, so what they did? They stunned and killed people. How are we going to apply that in God's Church? Imagine now, if we went out and start stoning people. I think we would have a little challenge, wouldn't we, in this society? Now, obviously, what do we have is those laws were laws given to a nation with civil laws. Who carries the civil laws today in our nations? The national governments have the responsibility, the God given the responsibility, as the governments of that nation, to carry the civil laws of the nation.

So, if you kill or you kidnap, the law of the nation brings you certain punishments. In Israel, it was a nation and a God had God stipulating what were those punishments. Today, the nations are different. God holds those nations accountable to implement laws for the good of society. However, cursing your father and your mother is still the sin.

The principle has not changed. Can you see what I mean? The principle has not changed. It's still the sin. And if it's unrepented of, you'll suffer the second death. But it's not the responsibility of the church to implement it today. Can you see the difference? Let me give you another example. In Deuteronomy 19, it talks about false witnesses. You can make a note, verse 15-21, when you do your own Bible study around Deuteronomy 19, 15-21. And they were false witnesses. Now, who determined that? They were judges. You see, like, if you curse somebody else, who determined that? They were all judges. You'll have to bring before a judicial system. A system that in Israel was, they were judges, and the priests were also part of the judge. They had to bring before the judge and before the priests. So if people gave false witness, they were lying. As we heard in the sermon, what did they do? Well, they had to determine if it was a true or false testimony. How did they determine? Because they had a judicial system. And then, one of the things that determined is, it said, in front of two or three witnesses. And then they had certain punishments. Some of them even the death penalty in some cases.

Do we do those physical punishments? No. Did I? No. In the church? No. But in the church, is lying still the sin? Of course it is, because we are doing the sermon, and it still is. The ninth commandment is applicable. But there is another principle in there. Between two and you need a testimony of two or three witnesses, there is a principle that we can draw knowledge or value from and apply it in the New Testament. And that's exactly what Paul did in 1 Timothy chapter 5. Let's look at that. 1 Timothy chapter 5. Verse 19. It says, Do not receive an accusation against an elder except from two or three witnesses. Where did they get that two or three witnesses from? You see, it took the principle from the spiritual intent. What is the spiritual intent? That we analyze the truth and brought that spiritual intent to its application in the church today.

There are other examples of these ordinances that are related to a different society and different culture. For instance, it still remains this 21, right after giving the ten commandments. It talks about how to handle your slave. It will book the covenant how to handle a slave. Wow! Does that apply to their society? No. But the principle applies. Because the principle there was you've got to treat those people that, quote-unquote, are your employees in a right way, in a fair way. And so principles of fair and right employment are still applicable. And then also in Exodus 21 were certain animal control laws, which in this society they really don't apply. But they were animal control laws. But you know, the principles are valid today. That's what I mean. Some of these imperatives continue today, but in the principle, in the spiritual intent of it. For instance, the animal control laws told them to have things related to safety. So how can we apply that? Look at the spiritual intent, and how do you apply that in today's society? Well, you have machines, maybe in a factory. Make sure there's safety laws with the machines. You have vehicles, you have a car. How do you apply those laws of safety with your car? Well, there are certain laws about to drive properly, in a safe way, have seat belts, and different things. The principles still apply today. Still in Exodus 21, there were laws about marriage related to slavery. And saying that you take your daughter and you sell it as a slave, those were laws related to a culture, to a society. There were laws in Deuteronomy 25 also related to marriage, that were related to the surviving brother. Remember that if a woman was married to this, and then the brother died, and then she would marry the next brother and the next brother, and always love and romance in that. You see, society was different. But there are principles there that we extract for today. So that's the point. You've got to look at it and say, how can we apply? What is the intent of the heart? What is the mind of God in this? Based on love, where is the love there that God was trying to bring to this society, which was very carnal in our society today, which is still carnal but different. How do we apply that? There were laws that remained. For instance, there were laws of incest that remained. You have not to marry your sister. Those laws remained. There were laws of partiality towards the poor. Those remained. Or honored the mighty. Dealing with mediums and familiar spirits. There were laws there that we have to take into consideration not to do that. There were laws about eating blood and the fat of animals. Those are still valid for us today. You see, so you've got to use God's Spirit to look at some of these little details that were given to a carnal society in a different society and see how they apply today. But the point is, the spiritual law of God is unaltered.

There were principles about cross-contamination of crops. There were principles about modesty. They were to put certain things on their clothes so that other people would not look up their legs. You know, and that's a modesty. That's modesty today. That's how we apply that. Various laws like that. They pointed basically either to Christ or they pointed to things like they had to put things to remind them of the law of God. Physical things to remind them of the law of God. Today, we have God's Holy Spirit. God's Holy Spirit should remind us of the law of God, and the law of God should be in our hearts and our minds. So, I have an handout that if we could just pass it out, which is basically two or three pages from this document, this document, the covenant of God. But it gives you a little bit more detailed explanation about these principles and imperatives, so you can use that as a guideline in your study. So, if you don't download the document, if you just want to concentrate on a few things, you can use that as a basis for your more in-depth Bible study. In summary, which laws are applicable today? If we look at God's laws, spiritual laws, they're all applicable today. There's no change. Then, if you look at sacrifices and ceremonial laws, which were added because of sin, as you see in Galatians 3, 16-19, those were laws that were added because of sin. So, there had to be a law that defines sin. Those laws, they don't justify it. We have the sacrifice of Christ to justify it.

And the Church of God today is imbued with the power of God's Holy Spirit, that is, the mind of God, the very mind of Christ, to help us overcome. And so, with the power of God, we are to write God's laws in our hearts and in our minds. The basic laws that never change. The principles that show the terms of that relationship of love, of trust, of respect. So, because God wants a relationship between a father and a son and a daughter, a good, healthy relationship. In the end, it's a matter of the heart. It's a matter of conversion. Not a matter of physical little do's and don'ts. If the heart's not right, sin will act like it. You're going to do the wrong things. If the heart is right, you don't need something on the wall to tell you. Because the heart is right. And so, the other important thing is about the Old Covenant, as the Old Covenant had no promise of the Holy Spirit. Turn with me to 2 Corinthians 3, verses 7-9. But if the ministry of death written and grieved on stones was glorious, so that the children of Israel could not look steadily at the face of Moses because of the glory of his countenance which glory was passing away. How will the ministry of the Spirit not be more glorious? That ministry was a ministry of things written on stones, of things written on walls or whatever, things that you did. And that ministry was one of death because God's Holy Spirit was never offered. And so, if that person was obedient or not, they still would die at the end of their physical life.

There was no promise of eternal life. We have the blood of Jesus Christ to cover our sins and to go on to eternal life in God's kingdom through the power of God's Holy Spirit.

So, how do we look at God's laws? We look at God's laws which are a source of a Godly relationship. We've got a very good booklet, the Ten Commandments booklet, that goes into each one of those laws and it shows them clearly they are to have a healthy relationship with God. Use this booklet to study the Bible as well and then to prove that things are indeed so as the Bereans did. Brethren, Christ in Matthew 4 said we are to live by every word of God. Every word of God, even some of those physical laws, bring us some valid spiritual lessons that we can learn from. They bring us lessons. All of them are based, in the end, on love, love towards God and love towards man. As Christians, we are to live by every word of God which expresses the mind of God, even the laws that God gave to ancient Israel through Moses. They point to spiritual principles and intents of the heart which you and I are to take into consideration in our daily lives.