Is God's Law For Today?

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Hey everybody, I'm Pastor Jeff Durbin with Apologia Church. I want to thank you all so much for watching the content right here on Apologia Studios channel.

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What you're about to watch is a sermon, a message from Apologia Church's worship service. And again, I want to thank you all so much for watching, for liking, for commenting, for sharing the sermon itself.

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Word of God. So we thank you so much for partnering with us to send this out across the world. I just wanted to say something before you actually watch this, and that is that I'm not your pastor.

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So thank you again so much for watching these and sharing them. God bless you. All right, if you would open your

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Bibles to the gospel according to Matthew chapter 22, gospel according to Matthew chapter 22.

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As you guys get there, you know that I have been so excited for so long talking about this particular place in this study.

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Not this little section today, but this whole big section 21, 22, 23, and 24.

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Matthew is, of course, giving us inspired revelation from God.

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It's what's theanoustos, breathe out revelation from God. But Matthew is really an amazing storyteller.

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He's bringing the story to its climax. But this doesn't exist as a novelty, something just dropped down, wasn't anticipated or expected.

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And Matthew is demonstrating that from verse 1 of chapter 1, that this is

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God's story now continuing. God's disclosure and history of himself, his plans, his promise of redemption.

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It's now continuing. It's picked up again. We've had this moment of silence. That's the white page between your

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Old Testament and New Testament. It's a quick move for us, but it was a long time of silence for the people of God.

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And Matthew now is picking up that story. Chapter 1, verse 1. Here's that story, continued.

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The Old Testament is essentially that, to be continued. Wait for the Messiah. God's coming to rescue his people.

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The kingdom of God is coming into the world. Salvation, redemption, justice in the world is coming.

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And Matthew picks up on that theme right away. And Matthew's bringing us to the climax of the story. And I cannot wait to get through this with you guys, because it is truly thrilling to be a follower of Jesus Christ and to see

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God's faithfulness to his promises. To see all of that story tied together.

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A story that was spanning hundreds and hundreds of years. And all these different authors, they could not have possibly worked together to bring together this amazing, complex, beautiful, divine story.

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And it's right in front of us. It's in your hands right now. It's a tremendous gift. So Matthew chapter 22.

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We are in 2234. Jesus is in conflict with leadership in Jerusalem.

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Matthew 22, 34. Hear now the words of the living and the true

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God. But when the Pharisees heard that he had silenced the Sadducees, they gathered together and one of them, a lawyer, asked him a question to test him.

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Teacher, which is the great commandment in the law? And he said to him, you should love the

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Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul, with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment.

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And the second is like it, you shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments depend all the law and the prophets.

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As far as the reading of God's holy and inspired word, let's pray together as his people. Father, we come before you humbly before your word.

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And we want to first acknowledge this tremendous gift that we do not deserve to be holding in our hands and ourselves.

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And that's the gift of your word. Lord, we thank you for the salvation that we have in Jesus as a gift by your grace through faith in him.

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We thank you that you've loved us and that you've condescended and entered into history and spoken. We thank you that we hold your holy words.

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We all want to confess together as a body that we need you to teach us by your spirit today.

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We ask God together as your people that you would get the pastor out of the way. You would work through my fallible nature.

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That you would teach your people, that you'd guard me from error, my mind, my heart, my lips from error. That you would instruct us, that you would teach by your spirit, that you would,

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Lord, open your word to us and challenge us, teach us, encourage us, and send us out into the world with this message of your truth.

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We pray that you would make much of Jesus, cause me to decrease, Christ to increase. In Jesus name.

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Amen. So this is part two, right? Part two of this particular subject. And in part two,

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I want to just do a quick overview and review of a little bit of what we did last week so we can get ourselves oriented and ready to take all of this in and just do some more explanation.

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We've done messages before on the Lord Jesus and the law of God from Matthew chapter 5. So we're not going to unpack

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Matthew 5, 17 through 19 all over again. We might refer to it a bit here today. But we've been here for now a couple of weeks.

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And what do we see? We see now this is starting to pick up now. Jesus has warned his followers that he is going into Jerusalem in chapter 20, verse 17.

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He takes the disciples aside and he tells them they're going up to Jerusalem. The Son of Man will be delivered over the chief priests and the scribes and they will condemn him to death and deliver him over to the

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Gentiles to be mocked and flogged and crucified and he'll be raised in the third day.

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So Jesus now is coming into Jerusalem. He's coming into Jerusalem. He tells his followers here's what's going to take place and as Jesus comes in, we know the story.

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We've been there. Jesus comes in. It's the famous scene of Hosanna! It's this big moment now where Jesus comes in, fulfillment of prophecy, right?

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Comes in on the donkey. You see that whole scene play out. Everyone's now putting down these leaves before the

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Lord Jesus crying out, Hosanna! It's a big moment. The famous scene where Jesus says, well, you know, if they shut up these stones are gonna cry out to me.

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This is who I am. This moment is anticipated and Jesus now, of course, comes in to the temple and we have that famous scene of the cleansing of the temple.

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The meek and mild Jesus, right? Surfer Jesus, right? Who would never cause problems. He's now coming in to cleanse the temple, turning things over.

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It's a big deal. And we talked about, of course, and this is an important element, the law of God in Leviticus actually gives instruction, gives a foreshadow of the

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Lord Jesus in terms of the cleansing of a diseased house. If you know the law of God, you know that the priest had to come two times.

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The first time and then the second time. You see in the synoptic gospels, you see the synoptic gospels actually show a cleansing of the temple near the end of Jesus' ministry.

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But in an interesting way, the gospel of John doesn't have it there. It has it at the beginning of the ministry.

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People have said before, aha! There's the contradiction, see? When did it happen?

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The beginning of the ministry or the end of the ministry? When did this cleansing of the temple take place? Well, if you know the law of God, you know the priest had to do, how many?

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Two cleansings. First, come check it out. Second time, come back, still see the disease. Now you take the house apart, stone off of stone.

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So Jesus comes in, leaves are presented. Hosanna! He comes in now as the perfect priest.

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The priest we were expecting. He is the Messiah. He is our priest. He is our redemption. He is our king.

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He is what everything was pointing to in a shadow. He's the substance. He's the reality.

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And here it is now in actual motion. All those beautiful things in the Old Testament of Passover and the lamb, no spot, no blemish, don't break its bones.

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They don't know why. Put the blood over the doorposts and then the judgment of God passes over and you're freed from your slavery and bondage to Egypt to enter into the promised land of relationship with God.

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They're just doing. God says do and then they do. It's all shadows.

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It's all prefiguring what Jesus is ultimately going to do. He's our Passover.

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His bones weren't broken. His blood covers us. God's judgment passes over us. We're freed from our bondage to sin and to enter into that relationship with God.

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It's a beautiful picture. But of course you also have those other notes, those other moments where we have the priest on Yom Kippur, actually the day of atonement, where he would rise and he'd offer a sacrifice for himself first because he's not actually a perfect priest.

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He's a sinner too. Offers a sacrifice for himself and then another sacrifice for the people of God and then a scapegoat where he confesses the sins of the people onto the goat.

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And then that goat is taken out away from the people as far as the east is from the west so their sins are departed from them.

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Jewish tradition says, well, what happened to that goat? Because if it came running back two days later, everyone's running away, right?

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So what do you do? So Jewish tradition says they would actually take that goat and throw it off of a cliff so that no possibility would ever come back.

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But here's the point. All of this stuff laid down in the Old Testament. Beautiful stories and pictures of Jesus.

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All the kings, all the priests, all the sacrifice, the temple, all of that stuff was a prefiguring or foreshadowing of Jesus.

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And now it's right in front of us. It's in the dirt. You're breathing it in. You're there. You're on the scene.

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It's taking place. What everything was actually pointing to is right here in substance and Jesus comes in for that second cleansing of the temple.

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Now we have him coming in, finding the disease. Present, still there. He now comes in for that second cleansing.

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And then Jesus, of course, is hungry. And what does he do? He looks for fruit and he comes to the fig tree, symbol of Israel.

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He finds leaves, but know what? Fruit curses the fig tree. And then, of course, the imprecatory part of that is talking about that mountain being cast into the sea, that very often abused picture we see today in word of faith movements.

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But then, of course, Jesus is challenged in his authority because they see what he's doing. He's coming into Jerusalem with authority, knocking things over in the temple.

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Everyone's praising him. He's cursing fig trees. He's calling on his followers to give imprecatory prayers that this mountain would be cast into the sea.

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And then they say, by what authority are you doing this? Who gave you permission to do this? And Jesus, God in the flesh, wisdom embodied, cuts to the core of their foundation and gives them a question that would have exposed them either direction.

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And then, of course, we have the parables and then the questions. That's where we're at. We have parables directed towards them and they know he's talking about them.

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And then we have the questions where you even have this really, really disgraceful behavior. I talked about the fact that in 2215, the pharisees went and plotted how to entangle him in his words.

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And the Herodians saying, and what do they do? Teacher, we know that you are true and teach the way of God truthfully and you do not care about anyone's opinion for you are not swayed by appearances.

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Two groups of people, pharisees and Herodians, not bedfellows. That's like the Republicans and Democrats getting together to pray.

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Right? It doesn't work out very, very much. That's like Donald Trump and Hillary hanging out, like trying to work together for something.

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Not, you know, not typical, not normal. But you know, hey, something is up if that's going on.

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And Matthew knows that. These people knew that. Pharisees and Herodians coming together to talk to Jesus and saying, oh teacher, you're, you don't show personal favoritism.

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Like, you know, we know who you are. What's that called? Flattery. And what is that? Sin. It's sin to flatter.

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Speak the truth. Right? Don't be mean, but speak the truth. Don't flatter with an ulterior motive.

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And so we see this moment where we have Jesus condemning, they're coming in to challenge Jesus, and now they see that he actually answered, well, that's where we're at.

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And so again, the Pharisees heard, verse 34, that he had silenced the Sadducees. They gathered together and one of them, a lawyer, asked him a question to test him, to test him.

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Teacher, which is the great commandment in the law? And he said to them, you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul, with all your mind.

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This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it, you shall love your neighbor as yourself.

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On these two commandments depend all, all the law and the prophets.

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Here is the Lord Jesus, the Messiah, answering a very important question.

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We talked last week about how important this question is, right? When we go out and do evangelism in the world and we come across all these different cults, we said this last week, the test in scripture is, for the people of God, Deuteronomy 13, one of those tests was, even if they have signs and wonders, but they lead you after a different God.

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They contradict God's previous revelation. That's how you know they're not from God. God doesn't speak out of both sides of his mouth.

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And so the test of a prophet or whether or not someone's from God is not, what do you see?

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Is it appealing? Is it attractive? Are there lights and smells? And does it feel good?

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Does it make my heart feel good? Is it, is there, are there miracles?

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Wow, this guy just extended this guy's foot. His foot was off balance and he made his leg longer. All those parlor tricks, right?

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Signs and wonders. And God says, even if there are signs and wonders, but they lead you after other gods, that's how you know they're a false prophet.

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And then Deuteronomy 18, 20 through 22, the other part, there's a test for the people of God, was

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God is sovereign and God says this, when the prophet speaks in the name of the Lord and the thing follows not nor comes to pass, that is the word which the

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Lord hath not spoken. The prophet has spoken it presumptuously. You shall not be afraid of him.

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So what does God say? He says this, if somebody comes and predicts the future and it does not come to pass, that's how you know that person's not from God, because God is sovereign.

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He declares the end from the beginning. So you fail one time.

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One time. Speaking in the name of the Lord, predicting the future, you are a false prophet.

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These were tests of a prophet. Now here, as you come to this test, text, it's actually a good question.

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Because here's the thing, if Jesus claims to be the Messiah, but he contradicts the previous revelation of God, God has spoken and laid down his revelation in word.

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If Jesus was to contradict that revelation, what is he? He's a false prophet.

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He cannot be the Messiah if he puts himself in opposition to God's word.

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Let me say that again. Jesus Christ cannot be the Messiah if he puts himself in opposition to God's word.

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Now, in terms of our own theology of Christians, we need to consider that, well, if we have a theology that puts us in opposition with God's revelation, it's a problem for us as well.

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But especially here, as we look at the ministry of the Lord Jesus, this was a good question.

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What's the greatest commandment of law and what does Jesus quote from? He quotes from the Shema, Deuteronomy chapter 6 verse 4.

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Let's do it together so we know it. Shema. Oh, you sound so sad. You guys all right?

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It's not that late yet. I'm not done preaching. So we still have time. Shema, Yisrael, Yahweh, Eloheinu, Yahweh, Ehud.

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There you go. So that's the Shema, the morning and evening prayer of faithful Jews. And Jesus now directs them to the first and greatest commandment is, don't steal.

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No. No. What's the greatest commandment of law? Let me think here.

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What would probably be best? Don't kill somebody. Like, how does, how does someone else answer that?

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Like, what's the supreme value? Like, what is the most important thing? I'd say, no, don't murder somebody.

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That'd be like probably the worst aspect. No, Jesus says, here's the greatest commandment in the law of God.

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Hear O Yisrael, the Lord our God, the Lord is one. And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and soul and mind.

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That's the first and the greatest commandment. Now, he then quotes from Leviticus and he quotes from a passage where we're commanded to love our neighbor as ourselves.

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But I wanted to do this today. I've given you now that quick overview. Go quickly to Deuteronomy chapter 6,

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Old Testament. It's in the first five books. Deuteronomy, it's two words put together.

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It's Deutero, Deuteronomos, and it's the second giving of the law.

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Deuteronomy chapter 6. You see verse 4,

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Deuteronomy chapter 6, verse 4. Hear O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one. You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your might.

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And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children.

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You shall talk of them when you sit in your house and when you walk by the way and when you lie down and when you rise.

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You shall bind them as a sign on your hand and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes.

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You shall write them on the doorpost of your house and of your gates, on your gates.

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So here the Lord tells his people about the love for him and he tells them about the statutes and commandments that they were to teach diligently to their children.

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Talk about them when you sit in your house, when you walk by the way, when you lie down, when you rise. Now watch this.

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This is, by the way, I'm jumping ahead here for a possible study in Revelation. I just want to point you to this real fast.

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How did the Jews feel about this text? Well, they prayed it every morning.

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So you think they're familiar with it? Probably. Now watch this. The Jews pray this prayer every morning and God tells them, you bind this on your head and on your hand.

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Head and on your hand. Yes. So just remember that.

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It'll come up later, the Jews saying head and hand. That's going to come up later when we talk about the mark of the beast, which is not microchips.

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So just to get there real fast, Jesus points to two great commandments and he says, well, this is the first one, love

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God. Second one is love your neighbor. Now we talk again about Jesus' epistemology.

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What is the, what is epistemology? The study of knowledge, theory of knowledge.

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And what I said was this last week, so important. Please come with me on this, so important. You hear a word like that in church and some of you guys are like,

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Pastor Jeff, I'm just trying to raise, uh, this fireball. And I don't know if epistem, what's it, is important to me, right?

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Oh, yes it is. Because when you're trying to raise that fireball and you start telling that fireball what the absolutes in the world are, you're doing epistemology.

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Like when your child is ignoring you, running away from you or, um, whatever else that they're doing, throwing a tantrum or fit or whatever the case may be, and you go in there to preach the gospel to them and to give them

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God's word, what are you saying to your child? Honor your father and your mother.

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Obey your parents in the Lord. When you give your child that, guess what you're engaging in? Epistemology.

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You're saying this is certain. This is true knowledge. You are to obey your parents and that is an absolute.

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Epistemology is the theory of knowledge. How do you know something to be true, right? What if your child says this to you in terms of going to epistemology?

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What was Jesus' epistemology? What did he stand on as absolute? What if your child says to you when you say honor your father and your mother, obey your parents in the

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Lord, this is the first commandment with a what? A promise. See, parents know that one well.

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You're like, I got that one memorized. I got it memorized, Pastor Jeff. I know the word of God. I memorized it, right?

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Like that was my first life verse as a parent right now. What if your child says to you when you give them that passage and they say this to you, they say, well, how do you know?

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Now after the spanking, when they say, how do you know?

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And they start saying, well, how do you know that? Like is it because you reasoned your way to that, mom?

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Dad? Like that's your logical conclusion, obey your parents in the Lord? Or mom, did you experience that as a child in your home?

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And so you're basing that knowledge of that law on your own personal experience, right? Does it just feel good to you to obey your parents in the

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Lord? Like on what basis, imagine the five -year -old, on what basis, mom, are we saying this obey your parents in the

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Lord thing? Now for the Lord Jesus, his foundation was God's word.

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Because God says. That's the ultimate starting point. Now everyone has one.

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For the rationalists in epistemology, their ultimate starting point is their reason, laws of logic.

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And of course, it's hard to get from people who are African apes, whose ancestors were fish, who are in a purposeless, unguided universe.

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What is a law of logic? Where can I find one, smell one, taste one, weigh one? Right? So even that falls apart as an ultimate standard.

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All you have is chemical processes happening in your brain. Or if somebody says, well, no, I believe it's true because it feels good to me in my experience.

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It works for me. Okay, so pragmatism, it works for you. Well, that's not a basis for absolute knowledge.

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It's because it works for you. Mormonism works for Mormons. They've got a burning in their bosom about it.

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Are they right? How about Islam? Muslims say that Islam works for them.

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Is it true because it works for them? Or how about the person who's living a transgendered lifestyle?

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They say it works for them. Is it true because it works for them? You see how these epistemologies fall apart?

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Everyone has an ultimate starting point. And for Jesus, his ultimate starting point is the word of God.

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And he's asked the question, what's the greatest commandment in the law of God? Hear, O Israel, the

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Lord our God, the Lord is one. Love God and love, what? Neighbor.

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Jesus goes back to the law of the Lord. The word of God is the absolute. Now watch this.

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This is really cool, actually. And by the way, it's why they were so ticked at Jesus.

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Not only is he calling himself ego eimi, I am. Before Abraham was ego eimi,

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I am. And they pick up stones to kill him. They knew what he was saying. He says, unless you believe that I am ego eimi, you'll die in your sins.

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He's calling himself God explicitly, and they knew it. I and the Father are one,

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John chapter 10. They pick up stones to kill him. He says, many good works have I shown you. He says, which of these stone works have you stoned me?

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Or do you stone me? They said that for thy good works we stone thee not, but for blasphemy and that you being a man make yourself

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God. And the amazing thing is, is in Jesus' ministry, have you seen all those moments where he actually makes authoritative, absolute claims on people from his own word, and says that that's the ultimate, it's the standard?

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Prophets would say, thus saith the Lord. Jesus says, but I say to you.

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So if he wasn't basing it off of God's previous revelation, because God says, he would base it off of his own revelation.

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You've heard it said, but I say to you. You've heard it said, here's what the rabbis are teaching you, what they say, but I say to you.

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His word was authoritative. Jesus had a revelational epistemology. God speaks, and that's how

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I know. In Matthew chapter 19, Jesus is asked a question about the controversy in his day about divorce.

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How about the any cause divorce? Jesus, where you at on that? Right, we got Rabbi Shammai over here, the conservative school that says, only for biblical reasons, and we've got this school over here that says, any cause?

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Which one are you? Hillelite or Shammait? Which one are you, Jesus? Any cause?

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Can we do it for any cause? And then Jesus does what? He goes back to the law of God. And what's he do?

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A man shall leave his father and what? Mother. Cling to his wife and become what?

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One flesh. If there's one text, by the way, p .s for our context, if there's one text alone in terms of what's the standard for God, for God, in terms of gender and relationships and marriage,

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Matthew chapter 19, the Lord Jesus in the new covenant says, you leave your father and mother, not father and father and mother, father, father, or mother and mother.

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You leave your what? Father and your mother, and you cling to your wife, and you become one flesh.

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That's an authoritative claim. And for Jesus, it was that. It was the word of the living

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God. Now, quickly, Jesus, this isn't the first time he's talked about the law of God in the gospel according to Matthew.

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So let's just do this quickly. It's just a quick review, and we're going to pick up Matthew chapter 5, very important text.

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Again, we've done this already. We spent actually a couple of weeks, I think, on Matthew chapter 5, 17 through 19.

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I'm just going to point you to it. Matthew chapter 5, 17 through 19. Important section.

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Jesus has just told his people that they are the salt of the earth. They are the light in the world.

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Salt stops things from spoil and decay. Doesn't just make it taste better. Right?

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Jesus isn't telling Christians, just bring some zest to life, y 'all. Like make it, make it great.

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Now, Jesus is saying salt preserves things from spoil and decay. So you're the salt of the world, and you're also the light.

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You dispel darkness. The church is that. And then he says in verse 17, Do not think that I've come to abolish the law of the prophets.

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I've not come to abolish them, but to fulfill them. For truly I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not a yoda, not a dot, will pass from the law until all is accomplished.

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Therefore, whoever relaxes one of the least of these commandments and teaches others to do the same will be called least in the kingdom of heaven.

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But whoever does them and teaches them will be called great in the kingdom of heaven. For I tell you, unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.

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Even their standards weren't righteous enough. You need a righteousness that is more.

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But my important point here in terms of what Jesus says, do not think me namasete in the Greek. Do not even begin to think.

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Don't let it enter your mind. Jesus doesn't say here, stop thinking. Stop thinking guys.

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He says don't even start. Don't even let it come as a seed into your mind that I've come to abolish the law or the prophets.

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I have not come to abolish them, but to fulfill them. Quick thing on just some commentary from Charles Spurgeon.

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Charles Spurgeon speaking in his Gospel of the Kingdom commentary, speaking on Matthew 5, 17 through 20, says he,

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Jesus, took care to revise and reform the laws of men. But the law of God he established and confirmed on page 52.

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He established and confirmed. He continues on, he establishes it in its deepest sense, all that is written in holy scripture, and puts a new fullness into it.

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Not a syllable is to become obsolete. Even to the smallest letters, the dot of every

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I and the crossing of every T, the law will outlast the creation.

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So it's important to note here in terms of historic theology, there are disagreements on this passage.

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You should know that. And of course we can hash those out. But in terms of what we see the

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Lord Jesus saying about the law of God, he is not dismissive of the law of God. He does not diss the law of God.

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He actually teaches his people that if you do what? If you teach others to relax one of the least of these commandments, if you relax them or teach others to do so, you'll be called least in the kingdom of heaven.

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But if you are one who does them and teaches them, you'll be called great in the kingdom of heaven. So question, are you least or are you great?

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Where are you in relation to the law of God? Do you sound like the Lord Jesus when you speak about the law of God?

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Because we live, of course, in a time where oftentimes the picture is given this way. Tell me if you've heard this perspective or something kind of like it.

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People play with this. The God of the Old Testament is a mean wrathful God. He's the mean

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God, the God of law. But now we have Jesus. So now we have grace. Finally, grace.

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God in the Old Testament wasn't very gracious. He was all about law. He was all about justice.

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He was all about wrath and punishment. But now we have Jesus. I had that exact conversation with a woman outside of the abortion mill in Tempe.

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She came up. She was a professing Christian. She was challenging us and angry, so angry with us that we would call out to women and plead with them not to murder their child.

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We'd call out to women with the standard of God's law. You should not murder. Don't kill your child, ma 'am.

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We're here to help you. Jesus is God in the flesh. He lived righteously, died for sinners, and rose again from the dead.

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Come to him for life, for the free gift of eternal life. Turn from your sin and trust in Jesus. Be reconciled to God.

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We'll help you. We'll give you anything you need. What do you need from us? Diapers? Do you need a place to live?

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Do you need food? We'll adopt your baby. We're out there pleading for the lives of these child - elite children.

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And this woman comes and she says what you're doing is wrong. You're preaching a message of law, not of grace.

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We have Jesus now. The Old Testament is over. It's over. It's void now because we have

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Jesus, that old mean God of the Old Testament. It's done.

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It's got a new story now. We've got Jesus. God isn't concerned with his law and obedience now because we have

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Jesus. We have now, finally, grace. That's the perspective we often hear today about the law of God.

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The law of God is only bad. It's only a curse. We need to talk a bit about that.

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And by doing that, just point you to three passages. I'm not going to go over them today in detail, but three passages.

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Isaiah 2, Jeremiah 31, and Ezekiel 36. A reminder to go to those passages, put them into your heart, brothers and sisters.

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Here's some promises about the kingdom of God. Listen, you want to know the story of Jesus is all about? You need to know these promises.

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It didn't exist in a vacuum. The story of Jesus didn't drop from the sky in the first century and they were like, what's this?

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We didn't expect this. The story of Jesus is told in detail in the Old Testament. And one of those stories of Jesus and his kingdom is in Isaiah chapter 2.

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And what's it say about the nations coming up to the mountain of God, brothers and sisters? What's it say? They'll stream up to the mountain of God, Isaiah 2.

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Quick thing that's important to note about that. How cool is that? Stop for a second and look around the room.

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Just go ahead and do it. Now, we need more color in here, dang it. But look around the room.

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Look at all the brown. Look at all the black. Look at all the white. All the colors in this room.

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This room, most of us are descendants of pagan parents. Sorry, no offense.

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I mean, sorry, ancestors. Sorry. I just... Let me rephrase that.

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Pagan ancestors. No offense to your moms. Most of us are descended not from a

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Jewish heritage, but from pagans. And here you have today in the 21st century in America, in the desert, we have people joined together to worship and serve and love the

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Lord God of Israel because of Jesus. And how'd you come to Jesus? Through your own efforts?

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Or were you drawn by the Father? And isn't it amazing? Isaiah 2 gives this beautiful portrait, this beautiful picture of the nation streaming up to the mountain of God.

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The odd thing about that is that water doesn't go up, brothers and sisters. It flows down.

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So what's this water doing streaming upwards to God's mountain? God's drawing the nations to himself for salvation.

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But here's an important point, Isaiah chapter 2. It says very clearly in Isaiah chapter 2, part of the kingdom of God promise is that as God draws the nations, his

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Torah, his law goes forth from Zion. Another promise.

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Jeremiah 31, famous promise. Jeremiah 31, 31, the promise in a new covenant. He says,

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I'll make a new covenant, not like the one before, even though I was a husband to them. He says the new covenant is what?

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He's going to put his law, where? On their inward parts. Now we have

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God writing his law not on stone tablets outside the people of God, exerting pressure on people who are in the flesh.

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But now we have the law of God written within us, within the people of God.

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That's a constituent element of the kingdom of God promise. It was, listen closely, it was not, this is so vital for our day, it was not simply a message about going to heaven one day.

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Let me say it again. The promises from the old testament was not, were not, simply a message about going to heaven one day.

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The promise was, of course, justification, salvation, redemption for the people of God and Jesus as a gift by God's grace.

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But there was more to the story of what God was going to do in the world. Example, Ezekiel 36.

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Famous passage for reform folks, right? God says he's going to remove a heart of what? Stone and give a heart of flesh, soft heart, malleable heart.

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He says he's going to sprinkle clean water on them. He's going to cleanse them of all their idols.

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He says he's going to put his spirit within them and cause them to observe his, what?

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Statutes. Part of that promise of the old testament was that as Messiah's kingdom came into the world,

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God was going to do some amazing things. He was going to take the law now, not on stone tablets, put it inside of people, inward parts.

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It was going to go forth from the people of God. God's going to put his spirit into people and cause them to observe his statutes and there's more to the promises, but we have to go on.

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Now we need to talk just briefly about the goodness of God's law because this is critical. In our day, we oftentimes hear even professing

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Christians dissing the law of God. Not thinking in categories, not thinking in categories.

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We see in one place the law of God's called a curse, the curse of the law. Oh, so that must mean that all of the law is a curse.

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It's just the curse of the law. Well, that's a particular category, a discussion with people who are trying to use the law as a mediator between them and God.

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Using the law as some form of justification between them and God. But here's the question.

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Does God see his law merely as a curse? Is it this oppressive, mean, horrible, awful system?

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Is that how Jesus viewed God's law? Is that how the people of God are supposed to view God's law? But more importantly, is that how

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God spoke of his law? Quickly go to Deuteronomy chapter 4 as a reference point. Jesus tells us the two greatest commandments are love

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God and love neighbor and all the law and the prophets are based upon that. Just a quick point.

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We did this last week, but once more for reference. Deuteronomy chapter 4 verse 6.

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God says to his people keep them and do them for what will this that will be your wisdom and your understanding in the sight of the peoples who when they hear all these statutes will say surely this great nation is a wise and understanding people for what great nation is there that has a

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God so near to it as the Lord our God is to us whenever we call upon him and what great nation is there that has statutes and rules so righteous as all this law that I set before you today.

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There is an element of course to the law of God over fallen people in the flesh who cannot submit to God's law who are not even able to do so.

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There's an element of course to the law of God that it's a curse on fallen people in terms of blessings and cursings.

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God says obey and I'll bless you disobey. I'll curse you. But here's the question

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Can we think in the category of Deuteronomy chapter 4 the category of the psalmist in Psalm 119 where the psalmist says, oh how

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I love your what? law Deuteronomy chapter 4

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God says that the nations were supposed to look into the law of God given to Israel and say

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What is this? A God so near to them Statutes rules so righteous as this.

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Are you kidding? You see the pagan nations They had statutes and laws as well

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Like we do today unjust laws they had laws like well cut their lips off Crime, uh cut his lips off.

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You stole something. Uh, what's just uh, cut the hand off maim them God's law doesn't engage in that kind of injustice

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God's laws and statutes are a reflection of his own character and they are just They are just and so the pagan nations looking inside wanted to go to Israel for vacation

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And then hang out and stay Because the laws were so righteous and so good question.

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Does God call his law here in any way bad? Or poor or unjust no

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He said it was supposed to be actually for the nations a way for them to see who God truly was

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And by the way, that is the essence of this discussion. Please hear me on this god's law is a reflection of his own character

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God's laws are a reflection of his own character God isn't simply saying willy -nilly

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Well, let's try this and then let's try this and then maybe this for this maybe this way God's law is a reflection of his own righteous character and jesus says listen closely

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All of the law and the prophets are built upon what everybody love god and what?

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Love your neighbor all and as we reflect on that We need to consider of course god's perspective of the law.

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Just go read psalm 119 But then also hebrews chapter 2 verse 2

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I want you to see this with your own eyes go there quickly We're moving fast today for a reason hebrews chapter 2

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And verse 2 go there new testament near the end of it hebrews chapter 2 new testament verse 2

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This is how? The writer of hebrews speaks about the law of god in the new covenant

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He speaks in a different kind of category hebrews chapter 2 verse 2 for since the message declared by angels proved to be reliable and listen closely and every transgression or disobedience received a just Retribution, how shall we escape if we neglect such a great salvation?

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So what does the writer of hebrews say about god's law? That it was just not unjust

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Now, let me ask you a question in the context of society and loving our neighbor come with me on this now Let's start applying god's word and not let it just go over our heads.

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Let's not be mellow headed here Would you say that in our own culture and society and communion communities that we have unjust laws in our nation in our communities?

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Yes So would you say that that's a bad thing? And do you think god is concerned with it?

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So when we think about in terms of justice and love for neighbor The law of god is said to be what?

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just Just the writer of hebrews says that every Transgression or disobedience received a just retribution justice

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That's not a bad thing That's a good thing and one final word on that in terms of god's concern today for justice

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Listen closely because this is huge It's huge There's a huge movement going on right now like as we speak today

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With people who are professing christians who are part of this social justice movement, right

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And the interesting thing is there's a part of me as a pastor as a brother in christ

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As a believer. It's a part of me that's kind of excited to hear people saying like justice matters to god, right?

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But the problem is is that many of those today who are calling out for justice in society and calling themselves believers

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Aren't looking to god's standards and his law as the measure of what actually is just They're just going the way of the neo -marxist

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And the liberals and all those who are creating their own standards of what is actually just god's law is just God's law is good and god's law was supposed to shout to the nations.

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Look at this god. Look what he's like Now is god concerned today in the new covenant with justice in the world?

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This is massive It's vitally important for us to grab hold of this. There are eschatologies out there views of the end and the end times

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That essentially are dismissive to what happens in the world. Hey, it's The worst the world gets the better it is for us, right?

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Why? Because the world is going to hell in a handbasket. Why bother polishing brass on a sinking ship?

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Right. We're just going to get ratcheted out of here. The worse this gets the better it is for me any moment i'm going to leave behind my undies and i'm

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Right guy yesterday at whole foods. I ran into fan of our ministry was blessed by it He goes now jeff.

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I have some disagreements with you. I said that's fine We have unity around the gospel brother. It's fine.

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Like i'm not even trying to have that fight with you He said okay good good and we're talking a bit He's all excited and i'm helping him with some mormonism stuff so he can reach mormons

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And I said hey man, it's great talking to you today. You really blessed me. You really encouraged me so I started to walk away and he goes

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I will Never mind. I said what he goes. Well, I was going to say here there in the air But I know you don't believe in the rapture

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I just wanted to share that with you. I thought that was funny. Um But there's a perspective I used to hold it like it doesn't matter what happens around here in the world

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Because you see jesus will handle all that stuff later later And justice is not a concern for god today

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All this stuff. We just need to get people to heaven one day But it's interesting because if you look at the old testament the promises of the messiah's kingdom isaiah chapter 42

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Specifically says that god's servant is going to establish justice in the earth

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Justice in the earth and he will not grow faint or weary until he has done.

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So If the kingdom of the messiah is a present reality Then the one who is ruling on his throne right now

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Psalm 110 1 is putting all of his enemies under his feet as a footstool for his feet and he is in the process

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Of defeating all of his enemies bringing salvation drawing the nations and establishing justice

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So the question is how do I know what's just well jesus gave us a basis He said there's two great commandments love god and love who?

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All the law and the prophets based upon this and here's how it works You say well, how are all the law and the prophets based upon love for god love for neighbor and it's pretty easy here

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It's actually written on the back of this church here those 10 commandments, right? Take them take one of those from the first table god says you shall have no other god before Me I mentioned last week

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We gotta be careful how we read that right because you can say it in a way like no other god before me Like let me be first And then get all the other ones after Right like they can come after but actually no other god before me is no other god in my sight before me

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What's that love who? God, what about that second table all kinds of stuff in there about neighbor like don't lie to them

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Don't steal from them Don't commit adultery Don't covet Right love god love neighbor

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First second all the law and the prophets built upon love for god and love for neighbor and you think okay

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That's interesting. But what about all those other laws? Well, what's jesus say about all those laws of justice?

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In the old testament, what's he say about all of them? All of them are built upon what?

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Love for god and love for neighbor So when I talk to brothers and sisters and they are brothers and sisters today

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Who have a different perspective of the law of god in the new covenant? What I like to ask is do we at least have those?

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Do we have love for god and love for neighbor under the new covenant? Do we have those and when they say yes,

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I say thank you. You just gave me all of it Because if you have love for god and love for neighbor as the basis you've given now the basis of all

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Of the laws of god love god love neighbor. I'll give you an example I did it to you for you last week just as a as an interesting one.

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It's one of my favorites deuteronomy 22 verse 8 God tells his people to build a parapet around the roofs of their houses

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And I mentioned last week that if you don't see the scriptures, I think in a biblical way

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Someone might actually leave and start going to their house and home depot and building like a railing around their house in arizona

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That would be very hot on those tiles. Okay, it's not what it means. But what does that law reflect love for who?

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Neighbor why because then they would actually go up to their rooftops at night to cool off They would store stuff up on their roofs

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They would hang out up there. And so they were told to put a railing around the roofs of their houses to love their neighbor love neighbor

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Okay, how? Don't kill them Okay how preserve their life

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Build a railing around the roof of your house so they don't fall off Now you look at that today and you say well How do

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I actually apply the general equity of that passage today go start building railings around the roofs of our houses?

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No, the that is a case law example. You take the general equity of it and you say it's the principle of the preservation of life

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So how do we apply that just law that love for neighbor law today as christians?

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Anyone have a pool? It's a good idea to put a railing or fence around your pool to Preserve life and to stop little children from falling in or how about you have property with a well in it?

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You actually can build a fence around that well to do what to preserve life to ultimately love who?

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Neighbor to love neighbor Another example is exodus chapter 22.

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You can go there later and that's laws about theft and repayments Now you notice that the writer of hebrews said in hebrews 2 2 that every transgression or disobedience received a just retribution exodus 22

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Actually lays out how to properly love neighbor the victim now watch this is critical because it actually happens today

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Do we love our neighbors? Sometimes we send christian missionaries to places that we haven't experienced

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We don't know what it's like Christian missionaries that go to places to risk their lives to preach the gospel And when they go to some of these places some of these places have laws about theft

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And you could lose your hands You could be maimed There could be an injustice in that society where they hate their neighbor and they maim them for theft

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Is it exodus 22 god actually has a different way of dealing with theft. What's god say? Well put them into prison for five years and then through coercive taxation tax the culture around them

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Give them three hots and a cod every day and possibly a sex change Because that's what we have today

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You stole something now the state's the victim and now we're actually going to create this entire society over here

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Where we fund this thing by taking money away from these people their property We're going to take through coercion to pay for this person's theft.

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So now how many victims do we have? We have the initial victim of the theft and now how many other victims do we have?

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We have everybody else god says this here's how you deal with theft ready It's profound

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Pay it back You will pay it back justice

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And he has different levels like if it's a standard kind of theft thing you pay it back and then there's double And there's if you stole something from somebody's business where they used to actually operate a business

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Now you're going to pay more to make sure that you cover all their business costs and what they did there But god has a means to say you pay it back

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That's what you do cut off a hand. No pay it back Put them in prison for five years

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No pay it back and the glory of it is the love for neighbor is that the victim is made whole

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You've loved your neighbor now and more so watch this it brings the person who stole

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Into a place of reconciliation and wholeness with the victim and now the thief is now brought back and restored to society

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Both neighbors are loved Love your neighbor. That's what god's law does it brings justice

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God's law is concerned with the victim's rights Because it's about love for neighbor love god and love neighbor

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It's interesting because we live in a country today the united states of america Started off in a very very different way today.

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The christian worldview is in the atmosphere You had of course puritans those lovely reformed puritans that came over here

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You had people who were anglicans and baptists and congregationalists and presbyterians my heroes

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Uh, even though i'm a baptist because we're just right in more areas. Um It's all for my presbyterian friends in here just just playing with you.

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Um We had christians that came over and the christian worldview was in the atmosphere were we an explicitly christian nation?

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not necessarily, but it was in the atmosphere and we had a history behind us of the law of god and History of christians being oppressed by justice systems and the christians when they established laws

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Would point to god's law as the basis. Our first supreme court justice was john jay and he actually pointed

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Explicitly referenced and pointed to Laws of god from the old testament as the basis for our laws give an example of some of the laws that you experienced

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The benefits that you and I experienced today because of the christian worldview and god's law.

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How about this one? I have the right to remain Silent you all know that one, right?

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I have the right to remain silent. That means I have a right against self -incrimination Where in the world did that come from atheism

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Right Does that come from the atheistic worldview? No, I have the right to remain silent.

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Where would that come from? Well, there's a whole history behind that law that goes back to god's law What's that say that you are not to receive an accusation against somebody except on the basis of what?

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two to Three witnesses and god actually says as well that you are not to take the testimony of one

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Witness ever it must be on the basis of two to three god's law says this

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If somebody is guilty The person is being accused doesn't need to help

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If they're truly guilty, there are two to three independent lines of witness and testimony that will prove their guilt and you're not to receive any accusation on the basis of one witness and certainly not based upon suspicion or Perception So that law in itself that we benefit from today

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The log in self -incrimination is a christian law. How about this one? We have in our bill of rights united states of america.

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Where'd those come from atheism? No, the christian worldview the law that says this You are not allowed to search my stuff without a what?

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a warrant Well where that comes from the christian worldview on what basis You can't just come into my house assume my guilt and start searching for a crime

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What do you have to do? You have to go to a judge and do what to that judge present?

56:59

evidence Of my guilt so the judge issues a warrant to now begin pursuing this but only on what basis?

57:08

evidence and proof you have to assume my Innocence we always are to assume the innocence until there is proof of guilt.

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Where's that come from? It comes from the law of God It does not come from atheism brothers and sisters the assumption of innocence now quick point here because it's a part of the discussion today

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I'm, just going to put this in so we can reference it. This is just a real quick point We hear a lot today about um separation of church and state

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Well, this is important jesus says the basis of all god's law is love god and love neighbor all of god's commandments are based upon love

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For god love for neighbor. Well, one of the things that's interesting Is that it was the christians that gave the world the idea of a separation of church and state?

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But we never meant ever separation of god and state ever

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Separation of church and state is because in the law of god those two realms

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Were separate and distinct realms under god The people of god the church were supposed to be under god and the state was supposed to be under god

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But they were two different realms of authority. I gave you examples last week, right? of the king and the priest different offices

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Saul Lost the kingdom when he tried to break that separation of church and state

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Uzziah was struck with leprosy when he tried to offer incense Now as an aside in terms of where we're at today

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In the kingdom of jesus and his full authority. Remember this Jesus says in matthew 28 18 through 20 all authority in heaven and where brothers and sisters

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On earth has been given to me. Let's stop there for a second and let's do what we always need to do Are we allowing those truths to simply go right over are we actually embracing what it says?

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Jesus says all authority in heaven and christians say I believe that and jesus says and on earth

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Has been past tense given to me Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations baptizing them in the name of the father and the son and the holy spirit

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Teaching them to what? Obey teach the nations to obey why because jesus has all authority in heaven and where On earth in psalm chapter 2 the promise of the coming messiah's kingdom

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The father says to the son ask of me I'll give you the nations for your inheritance the very ends of the earth for your possession

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And then the father has a word to the kings of the earth He says to them kiss the son obey the son or you'll perish

59:54

In the new testament jesus is said to be sitting on his throne putting his enemies under his feet

01:00:00

And of course, we know the famous way that we speak about jesus. He is the king of kings the lord of Lords, here's the challenge.

01:00:10

Is that true today? Yes Did the kings of the earth under the new covenant?

01:00:17

Are they? required before god to obey the son Yes The authority of jesus isn't an authority that just exists in some spiritual realm

01:00:28

It exists here and now and the duty of the church is to proclaim the good news of the kingdom

01:00:34

Call people to repent and to believe and to proclaim christ's word and his excellencies to every single realm

01:00:41

Now quick thing under the new covenant. This is uh fun And I think exciting is the law irrelevant today

01:00:49

Jesus says the greatest commandments are to love god love neighbor all of god's laws based upon That love god and love neighbor the writer of hebrews says these laws were just God says in deuteronomy 4 the nation's supposed to look at these laws and say wow, what a god

01:01:07

That's my paraphrase by the way of that but romans 3 31

01:01:14

You can go there romans 3 31 This is right after 328

01:01:20

Now this entire section in romans, this is post cross listen closely post resurrection post ascension the apostle paul

01:01:30

Opens up romans his systematic explanation of the gospel. He opens up with the

01:01:37

Directive and call to bring about the obedience of faith among all the nations for the sake of his name he thinks he begins to explain the fallenness of all of mankind really

01:01:48

And then to the jews who have the law but don't do what's in the law themselves All jew and gentile are under sin and then he begins to explain that nobody can be declared righteous through the law

01:02:02

The law was given to shut our mouths that the whole world may be silenced before god

01:02:11

And in romans 3 28 after paul explains jesus a propitiation for our sins

01:02:17

How god is just and the justifier of the one who has faith in jesus how god had patiently?

01:02:25

Waited for this moment where he gives everything to jesus to show his justice romans 328 paul says this therefore

01:02:35

We conclude that a man is justified by faith Apart from works of the law.

01:02:42

Someone says where do you get this idea of faith alone? faith

01:02:48

Apart from the works of the law Is faith over here? by itself alone

01:02:57

Therefore we conclude that a man is justified by faith apart from the works of the law and everyone goes

01:03:02

Yes, it's faith alone in christ apart from any work of law. The law was not given to justify anybody

01:03:08

It's just like god said to abraham abraham believed god and it was credited to him as righteousness

01:03:15

Right, but then paul actually gives a little more detail after he says it's through faith alone apart from any work of law and in romans 331 the apostle paul gives us some important words that I hope we all embrace he says in the same

01:03:30

Conversation about justification through faith alone in christ alone apart from any work of law

01:03:36

This is all the work of god. He says 331 in the new covenant post cross post resurrection

01:03:45

Post ascension the apostle paul says about the law of god Do we then overthrow the law which law?

01:03:55

The same law he's talking about in the context of the law not being able to justify you Do we then overthrow the law?

01:04:03

By this faith, oh we're christians now, so the law is Void, it's irrelevant because we're not saved by it.

01:04:11

We're justifying through faith paul says this by no means on the contrary we

01:04:21

Uphold or we establish the law There I believe is the biblical and balanced perspective

01:04:31

On the law of god, we are not justified through the law. It can save none of us. We are not righteous

01:04:37

We are fallen all of our righteousnesses are as filthy rags before god's throne.

01:04:42

You need a foreign righteousness It's a gift of god through faith that comes from above. It's not your own you're hiding in christ.

01:04:50

However We do not now overthrow god's law

01:04:56

Through faith we actually establish it how well one of the promises of god in the old testament

01:05:02

Was that god by his spirit was going to fill us and cause us to observe his statutes

01:05:09

What's the promise jeremiah 31 31 the new covenant promise? Where was god going to write the law?

01:05:17

On our inward parts. So how could we say as christians now i'm saved Let's disconnect the old testament from the new god's law is irrelevant

01:05:26

It's void now paul says by no means actually because you're saved

01:05:32

Because you're declared righteous because you're in christ and saved only through faith now

01:05:38

You uphold it You say what's that look like? Let me tell you brothers and sisters.

01:05:44

It looks like love god and love who? Neighbor and if someone says well, what in the world does that mean

01:05:51

I go well, let me show you Let me show you In which aspect of life do you mean?

01:05:59

and somebody might say Okay, but I know that there's changes and the answer is of course

01:06:06

But here's what I want to argue While there are changes in the new covenant in terms of how we're to view the law of god

01:06:15

Obviously we don't come in here on sundays and watch pastor luke kill a bull right

01:06:24

We don't watch your pastors on yom kippur start having scapegoats That would be really weird and if it ever happens you have my permission to leave

01:06:33

Right. So what's there are differences? But here's here's what you see in the new testament Listen closely because this is one of I think the important elements of this what do you see with the new testament writers?

01:06:44

You see the assumption of continuity if you're writing down write that one down you see the assumption of continuity

01:06:53

Except where there's explicit word from god that there's a transformation for example

01:07:05

The old testament had sacrifices it had priests. It had a holy place.

01:07:10

It had festivals And We go but we have jesus now so we don't have sacrifices priest holy place and festival and I would say

01:07:20

No, not like that, but you still do God still in the new covenant demands sacrifice

01:07:29

But it's done It's over It's a once for all

01:07:35

And god still has a priest for us But he now is our high priest forever he's seated on his throne and he lives forever to make intercession for us

01:07:45

He's the priest we always needed. He's the perfect priest. You say well, what about a king? And we have the king.

01:07:52

He's the king of kings and the lord of lords. How about a temple? Well that temple's gone now, right?

01:07:57

Nope. You still have a temple, but it's just a different kind Well, how about festivals like the all those festivals like do we do those?

01:08:05

Well, I would say in the way the new testament authors do in the transformed way I'll give you an example in first corinthians 5 8 first corinthians 5 8 the apostle paul says here's the transformed way

01:08:17

To view the festival He says don't do it with 11 like going through your house and doing the symbolic action of moving leaven around He says now remove the leaven of malice from your hearts

01:08:29

So we still actually acknowledge what that festival was pointing to but we do it in the transformed new covenant way

01:08:36

But what do you see? This is vital to get listen closely if you checked out come back now because this is an important element

01:08:43

You see in the new testament the assumption of continuity the assumption of continuity

01:08:49

Except where there is divine revelation of a transformation example the book of hebrews tells you about the

01:08:58

Transformation what did it mean to have a priest? Who's our priest now? What did it mean to have a sacrifice?

01:09:04

What's the sacrifice now? It's transformed. But how about that continuity somebody says?

01:09:09

No, we're in the new covenant under grace Not under law So it's all irrelevant.

01:09:16

Let me give you some examples and think about the timeline. We're almost done here. So follow me post cross post resurrection post ascension

01:09:25

The writers of the new testament the work of christ is behind them now here. So they spoke about the law

01:09:32

The ten commandments ephesians chapter 6 verse 1 we just did this one, right? The apostle paul mentions to the children who by the way

01:09:42

Were there in service apparently because he's addressing them Go family integrated, right?

01:09:48

That's just one Example we like to play with but in ephesians chapter 6 verse 1 The apostle paul addresses the children and listen to what he does not say

01:09:56

He does not say now brothers and sisters. We know that the law of god is void and defunct and over now

01:10:04

But we're going to pull this one We're going to pull this one and we're going to maintain this one under the new covenant

01:10:10

The apostle doesn't do that. He assumes the continuity of god's law and he says to the children

01:10:16

Honor your father and your mother obey your parents in the lord for this is the first commandment with a what?

01:10:22

A promise all parents are like promise. I know it He assumes the continuity of the law of god

01:10:30

And somebody might say yeah, but that's the ten commandments There's a full expression there of love for god and love for neighbor.

01:10:36

And yeah, that's maintained in the new testament But not all the other peculiar laws of the old testament like we don't need to look to the general equity of those laws

01:10:44

Those laws are defunct and over and finished now Really? Then how come the apostle paul assumes the animal husbandry law?

01:10:54

of the old testament in first timothy 5 18 When he's speaking to a pastor when he's speaking to a young man, essentially he says what?

01:11:05

Don't muzzle the ox while it treads Don't muzzle the ox while it treads

01:11:11

Notice again when he actually takes that law and brings it over into the life of this believer

01:11:17

He doesn't say now we know That the law is defunct and over and it's finished now

01:11:22

But we're going to pull this animal husbandry law Over into the new covenant.

01:11:28

What does the apostle paul do? He assumes the continuity of the law of god.

01:11:34

It's general equity Now, of course, we don't pull that animal husbandry law and start buying property in queen creek saying all right guys

01:11:42

Let's get the muzzle on the ox, right? Let's figure this out. No, we take the general equity What's the general equity of that law according to the apostle there?

01:11:50

Don't muzzle the ox while it treads What's that mean? Anyone know?

01:11:56

Oh, no, i'm failing. Okay Pay Take care of people who are working for you

01:12:04

Take care of people who are working for you. If something is working for you. Don't muzzle it So it can't take care of itself while it's doing the work

01:12:14

And it watch this. Oh, this is big. Are we so guilty of this? Let's be honest with ourselves as christians There are certain things that are like kind of normative and christian experience and that's christians trying to get a hookup

01:12:25

Right You got a christian friend in church who does a particular thing and we're always trying to get the hookup, right?

01:12:32

Like, you know, can you just do it for me? Right? You work on cars. Hey, he works on cars Can't you just do it for free will and sort of making them do it for free?

01:12:43

Or say for example, you've got somebody that's uh does things in houses like you're like can't you just do it because you love the lord

01:12:52

And you love me Right, don't muzzle the ox while it treads that god that's god's law.

01:12:58

It matters today animal husbandry law Don't muzzle the ox while it treads, you know, we should be doing as christians not just paying them but paying them really well blessing

01:13:06

We should be a community that blesses and cares for and takes care of people's needs We don't muzzle the ox while it treads but quick point there watch ten commandments paul assumes

01:13:16

It's continuity and he says children obey their parents in the lord and somebody says what about those strange animal husbandry laws?

01:13:23

He does that too. He says don't muzzle the ox while it treads you take that general equity you apply it today.

01:13:29

Why? love your neighbor next one

01:13:34

How about judicial laws? How about the laws in the area of justice from the old testament, well the apostle paul in the same account

01:13:43

He says right under the animal husbandry law He just assumes another law and he says this receive no accusation

01:13:50

Against an elder unless it's on the basis of two to three witnesses.

01:13:56

Where's that from? Well, that was the law for the judges of the old testament for the court system

01:14:03

And what's paul do he assumes it's continuity he doesn't say it's all over it's defunct But we're going to grab this one and toss it in here.

01:14:10

He assumes its continuity and its general equity Another example and this is a big one if you're taking notes, these are some powerful points

01:14:18

So write them down and go read them later in acts 25 11. This is a big one. I'll finish here in acts 25 11

01:14:27

The apostle paul is on trial This is a big one

01:14:32

Jesus has died Jesus has been raised. Jesus is now ascended

01:14:38

Jesus is seated Paul now has a ministry that's gone from the jews to the gentiles now

01:14:46

And now they're proclaiming the gospel and there he's on the run. He's in danger from his own countrymen from robbers

01:14:52

He's adrift at sea. He's having a hard time and he's preaching the gospel preaching the gospel and now he gets picked up And you know what?

01:15:01

He says in acts 25 11 while on trial. He says this He says if i've done anything worthy of death

01:15:12

I do not object to dying If i've done anything worthy of death

01:15:19

I do not object to dying Oftentimes you hear christians today professing christians today who will look at the death penalty passages in the old testament

01:15:32

And they'll say well not under the new covenant right We just want everyone to be saved and the answer is that's a category error

01:15:40

The church is proclaiming the gospel for salvation. The state is god's deacon his servant to establish justice and to not wield the sword in vain and christians will actually

01:15:51

Actually blend concepts and they'll try to they'll distort things and they'll say well We don't want as christians to actually say the death penalty, right?

01:15:58

That's mean God says it was just that when somebody's been proved to be a rapist

01:16:06

The state executes them when somebody's been proven to be a murderer the state executes them

01:16:13

And paul says under the new covenant He says in the judicial context. He says if i've done anything worthy of death,

01:16:21

I don't object to dying There's paul now watch ten commandments assuming the continuity animal husbandry assuming the continuity

01:16:29

Laws for the justice system two to three witnesses assuming the continuity laws for the death penalty

01:16:37

Assuming the justice of the continuity of that the apostle paul

01:16:42

Demonstrates how that looks in terms of upholding the law Now quick thing in terms of application

01:16:50

Application Follow me now. What are the two greatest commandments love god love neighbor?

01:17:00

When the law is now Explicated and brought out more you see what it means in the ten commandments to love god and love neighbor

01:17:07

In the system of justice you see what it means to love neighbor god calls those things just but how do we apply it today?

01:17:15

In community with one another this is so important. Oh, listen, this is so so important Because you're going to face this and i'm going to face this all the time brothers and sisters

01:17:24

I promise it's coming In christian community with each other we need to have two great commandments

01:17:31

We are committed to together at all times love god and love each other love god and love each other and there's something

01:17:40

There's a way that that looks as we're in community together growing Listen, we're going to blow it with each other

01:17:46

Yes I see some heads nodding. You're the one that's going to blow it.

01:17:51

Okay We're going to blow it you're going to fail as a christian i'm going to fail you as your pastor

01:17:56

You're going to fail your sister in christ. You're going to fail your brother in christ. The question is is how do we actually?

01:18:03

Resolve these things and love one another and grow How do we apply god's standard of two to three witnesses?

01:18:11

from the old testament In the new testament upheld both two to three witnesses well

01:18:18

When you're in a community with women And you're all together And you start hearing things about another person

01:18:26

And something that they've done something that they're guilty of when someone's whispering in your ear You need to ask the question.

01:18:32

How do I love that neighbor right now? How do I do it? Say I Shouldn't hear that right now.

01:18:41

I can't accept that accusation without Witnesses and maybe you should go talk to that person yourself

01:18:50

What's god saying deuteronomy 19 15 that we are never to receive an accusation on the basis of one witness

01:18:57

If one witness comes forward, there's no other evidence. No other independent evidence It's just one person say so god says you do not accept it

01:19:06

There must be witness and evidence now brothers and sisters. We have a benefit today that they didn't have then and that's screenshots audio recordings video recordings

01:19:20

And now we have the benefit of if one person witnesses something through a video Now they can show it to people and now you have a million witnesses.

01:19:28

Do you see it? So that counts as a witness as well we have so many benefits and tools today, but how about this one this is huge a lying witness in deuteronomy chapter 19 verse 16

01:19:41

God tells the people of god in the judicial system if you have a lying witness come forward

01:19:48

How are you supposed to handle that? Here's what god says for justice if somebody comes to court

01:19:54

And they are a lying witness god says that that person Should get the punishment that would have come to the person they were accusing so for example

01:20:05

One way to bring justice in society is to actually stop people by causing godly fear

01:20:12

From lying in court by saying if you're lying in your testimony You will get what they were going to get which means if there's accusations of say rape that are false accusations

01:20:25

Those accusations are minimized When the person making the accusation knows that they will get the same punishment that they were actually trying to have them get

01:20:35

But there's something important there it says that the judges of israel listen closely we're supposed to cross examine the witnesses

01:20:43

To actually see if they were telling the truth Which means that just because there are witnesses that come forward in a situation doesn't mean you just accept their testimony

01:20:52

What we shouldn't do is say here's two or three people saying one thing Here's two or three people saying one thing and so god's standard says it's true

01:21:02

That's not what it says the witnesses according to god were to be cross examined case in point

01:21:07

Were there witnesses brought to jesus trial? Multiple witnesses.

01:21:13

What was the problem with those witnesses? They were lying But hey, there was two to three of them, right?

01:21:19

No, they were lying god's law says this you must have two to three independent lines of witness and evidence

01:21:26

And then even then they need to be cross examined to see who's telling the truth which means listen closely when we live in community with each other if there's a conflict between a brother and another brother or a

01:21:39

Sister and a sister and someone comes say to the elders of this church and they say

01:21:44

I have an accusation What we say as elders is i'll hear the accusation, but you need to know that i'm going to go and talk to the other person

01:21:54

I'm going to hear their testimony And I want to know if you have any other witness or evidence outside of your own say so that proves your claims and charges right now you should know

01:22:07

As a body of believers at apologia church that the elders of apologia are committed to god's law in terms of resolving conflicts

01:22:15

When someone comes and makes an accusation we do not say I accept We cross examine

01:22:22

We look for the two to three independent lines of witness We don't accept just somebody say so And we examine the witnesses and evidence and as brothers and sisters.

01:22:32

How do we perfectly love one another? By upholding god's standards of loving god

01:22:39

And loving neighbor and it looks like something and it's explained in god's law This is the verse

01:22:45

I want to end on for today Let's go to it together Let's see who gets there first Ecclesiastes Ecclesiastes chapter 8

01:23:07

This is actually like my wife's favorite book to read Which I think makes her kind of a weirdo

01:23:17

No, I think it's funny because we were talking one time about like favorite book book She loves to read and she said oh ecclesiastes.

01:23:23

I was like, that's so funny. That's not one. I would pick as my favorite um I love it

01:23:29

But um, I just thought that was interesting Ecclesiastes 8

01:23:35

I want you to see this text verse 11 Because the sentence against an evil deed is not executed speedily

01:23:43

The heart of the children of man is fully set to do evil Because The sentence against an evil deed is not executed speedily

01:23:54

The heart of the children of man is fully set to do evil When we think about loving neighbor around us today as we preach the gospel of god's grace and forgiveness in jesus and we look at the culture round about us that christians have disengaged from at many levels and we wonder why there is such a furious

01:24:13

Level of injustice and evil and wickedness around us book of ecclesiastes says people's hearts are emboldened to be wicked

01:24:22

When the sentence is not executed speedily when justice isn't brought when it isn't immediate

01:24:29

People's hearts are emboldened to do wickedness when we abandon god's perfect law of loving god and loving neighbor and how it's

01:24:38

Explicated in the old testament how god expresses it when we abandon god's standards of justice

01:24:44

We can see the kind of culture and society we have round about us and it's really a question of this

01:24:50

Do we love our neighbors? Do we love our neighbors? Love from neighbor demands that I want justice for them

01:24:58

Love for god demands that I uphold his law and his standards Now the call of christians today is not to go into the world and take the law of god and drop it on society

01:25:11

It's not a mediator. It will not make people right with god. However Jesus makes people right with god

01:25:18

And the call to the world is to command People to repent and to believe the good news to call people to be reconciled to god through faith in jesus

01:25:28

Now when a culture and society round about us comes to christ and is reconciled to god

01:25:34

What happens to their hearts brothers and sisters? They're changed what's written on inside them

01:25:41

The law of god and what is the command of jesus as he ascended? What did he tell us to do with the nations teach them to Observe all that I have commanded you and one of the things that jesus said

01:25:55

About commands was that we were to love god and love neighbor and we were not to teach anybody to disobey even the least of these commandments

01:26:04

We were to do them and teach them and he says do not even begin to think that i've come to destroy it

01:26:10

I've come to fulfill it. Let's point people to loving god and loving neighbor on this basis.

01:26:17

Amen Let's pray father. I thank you lord for your word. I pray that lord you would challenge us change us transform us renew us

01:26:24

Please lord god Use us as your people lord to proclaim The salvation that we have freely in jesus to the world to call people to repent and believe

01:26:34

And I pray that you would allow us god to have a passion And a strength to hold on to Your perfect command to love you and love one another in jesus name.