On the Law

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he's still doing real estate I'm not sure what it is he said it was new employment so I don't
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I don't know you know what what the situation is anyway hey
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Wilbur once you're up just pray and then we'll always we thank you for another day of life we ask you now as we go into this study that is beneficial for us because it's your work yeah
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I would say
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Jim and Patty they have visitors or something so they weren't able to be here anyway so I want to continue what we've been doing and well as this morning
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I want to switch to a different topic remember what we said that the book that we're using has a multitude of different topics and and covers a lot of things and on all these subjects we could spend a great deal of time but that's really not the purpose the purpose is to try to get some understanding and in many different things at least enough so that we have a strong foundation to to work with in our lives so anyway this morning
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I want to talk about the law of God a little bit and ask us to think about that and and I want to say this come on we just started so you didn't miss anything
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I want to talk about the law of God but not in in the sense of the discussion that continually goes on whether we are still obligated to obey the law as it was laid out in the
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Old Covenant or the law that is laid out in the New Covenant and and and there is a distinction to be made in that between the
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Old Covenant and New Covenant I would say and and maybe you understand it but I would say that there are many who will not address the
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New Covenant versus the Old Covenant with the covenant that God made with Israel when they came out of Egypt but rather they'll go back all the way to the garden and they'll talk about covenant of works and different administrations of the covenant of grace and and all those things but I don't really want to deal with that right now but I will we will do it at a later point and certainly
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Sproul who's a great thinker and a great author was Presbyterian and his thoughts on law are somewhat different than our thoughts on law as New Covenant believers but what
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I want to do is I want to continue along this path of what kind of laws God lays out in in his word that we can see in life and so certainly there are a number of ways to consider
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God's law. First is there's the law if you will of the creation of the things that God has made and and I would say there are abiding principles let's just think about that what would be an example of a of a law and when
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I'm saying one I mean a principle that God has put in place that we can trust rely on and see it as it lays out.
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Gravity sure yeah I mean could you imagine if if what goes up doesn't come down all the time
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I mean you just think about that or you think about how the the the planets move and they have there's this exact orbit that they keep and the stars and they as they because otherwise it would be nothing but crash and bang if you will and just take another one you just take about the principles that God has given to us and we take for granted a lot of times we like in other words why does water boil what is it a hundred and was it what water boils at 121 degrees or something like that anyway or water freezes at 32 could you imagine if that law that principle did did not always continue on that if all of a sudden uh water froze at another temperature or water boiled at can you imagine the chaos that that would cause them and how how could we really rely on a principle that we can trust would always be in place so when you think about that you think about how
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God has laid out laws it really is something that we ought to pay attention to and think about in our life that that God has been so gracious if you will in that area alone and and we take it for granted don't you think we just assume that um you put water in the freezer and it's going to freeze at a certain temperature or uh you throw something up in the air and and it's definitely going to come down just let's think about something here's a quick joke you know i'm not good on jokes and i'll usually tell jokes but nevertheless um there was a priest and a jewish guy and they were having a discussion on giving and so um you know what already george i think so okay so so the priest says he gives this much money to God and the jewish uh rabbi says well here's what i do i throw my money up in the air and whatever
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God wants he keeps whatever hits the ground is mine so but just that thought really of that that's a principle that God has put in place so when we think about the law of God not so much thinking solely about it from the standpoint of the ten commandments or law of Christ because again at a later point we'll have this discussion about that but there are these abiding laws that you and i rely on depend on um and we ought to praise
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God for them we really ought to and not just take them as if they are um as if we're entitled to them or or that it could change because again that gives us such a a comforting feeling oh there's the lost brother siri found him we were doing deacon work man oh well are you putting the cover back on i think it's heavy yeah i know it is um okay so that's one law the law of of just merely the principles that God has established in the universe and so we can trust on that and depend so there's another kind of law and it's um if you will i'm going to call them moral norms that there are things that God has established and they are characteristic of God himself in other words they are things that reflect his attributes and he's put that law and as we looked at um in the past he's put it within the conscience of man um can you give me an example of what you think might be a moral norm that it no matter where you go no matter how uh you live no matter how what kind of culture or what time and civilization you live in that there's this moral truth that abides forever murder murder absolutely because that's something that God has
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God created us in his image right and after his likeness and so is murder ever right i'm not talking about war because that's a totally different discussion but from the standpoint of taking someone else's life and taking the image of God and and destroying it that that would be a moral norm that God has established and there's no argument about that no matter where you go although people might as we looked at in the past um let me plug this in that people might assume that it's it's up to them to make that decision it's not and it's never right always wrong and God will hold people in account for it you think any other moral norm that might be okay stealing yeah adultery yeah um and you could say from the point of um it's just like marriage and divorce now i'm going to say that because when you listen to what
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Jesus said Jesus said what was the reason that God allowed divorce the hardness of the heart but he then says from the beginning it was what it was not so and that a man shall leave his father and mother and cleave to his wife and the two shall become one flesh and when
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God is joined together let no man put asunder so yeah we could say that and we could say that about uh many of the things that we would find let me pose this as a question for us to think about would you agree that there are laws that God established even under the old covenant and again when
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I say old covenant now I mean the covenant that God established with Israel when he redeemed them out of Egypt or if you want to go back even further those moral norms that God established even all the way back in the
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Garden of Eden that we could say are still binding upon everyone at every time and you brought it up brother right many of the things in the in the
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Ten Commandments although we would have to have a better understanding or a clearer understanding let's take for example um let's take example of the
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Sabbath and again I don't really want to discuss this too detailed at this point but would you agree that there's a moral norm that God has put in place that man ought to worship
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God we agree men men ought to worship
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God is that the same as saying that men ought to keep the
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Sabbath okay um and many people would say that in that sense that the
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Sabbath is an abiding moral principle and law that should not be broken
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I would say I disagree with that from the standpoint of men ought to worship
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God and they ought to give God the glory in everything but that we are not as bound by we're not bound by what was in a sense in trying not to get too far into this the sign of the covenant is
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I believe which was what was the if you could read it in Exodus I think it's Exodus 32 right it says that the the sign of the covenant that God made with Israel was the keeping of the
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Sabbath and so again those very things these moral norms if you will which are a reflection of him are things we ought to keep but they're not as not as binding in the sense of the law as it was laid out because what was the punishment you brought up uh you brought up things from the
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Ten Commandments what was the punishment for breaking the Sabbath you remember the man who picked up the sticks on the
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Sabbath what did he do that was it he was gone and so um it had a different outworking but I do believe the the purpose of it or the the norm of it was that we ought to worship
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God so so you have the law and the creation in the universe you have moral norms that God has established to uh to all men at all times and then there are a number of laws that God established well
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I'm forming in a question I just like to form things in a question would you agree that there are laws that God established in history for a specific time for a specific reason to a specific people sure sacrifice would be one and certainly again it goes back to what it goes back to that covenant that God made with Israel when he took him out of Egypt and if you read through Leviticus and you read through Numbers all those things that God said that they must do there wasn't an option just again the man who picked up sticks on the
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Sabbath there wasn't any option that because in that sense the penalty was already laid out you do this you get that interesting isn't it that the
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Ten Commandments are if you will written in both positive and negative what we should do and what we what shouldn't do but within that thought there are those laws that God established for a specific time and a specific purpose sacrifice would be one can you think of any others how about the dietary laws you think about that um
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I mean you were only allowed to eat what certain animals and you're only allowed to eat uh certain things that came out of the sea
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I mean they weren't fighting over crab legs and lobsters and though in in those days or bacon those that's sorry stuff um but here's the point the point is
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God who is perfect in all his ways and God who is all wise has this very specific purpose for putting those laws in place and God alone
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God alone has the right to take those things away so um again as new covenant believers and we we could look and we will look at a couple of examples but um if you think what
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Paul says in Colossians Colossians 2 um he says what about he says let no man judge you in the keeping of what feasts and festivals and sabbats and whatnot well why is that no longer to be thought of as it was thought of back then because God had a very specific purpose
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I want to show you something um if you have your Bibles go to Acts chapter 10 a minute and I I thought about this because and this was a big issue um to them but I want you let's just read
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Acts chapter 10 for a little bit so in Acts chapter 10 there was a certain man in Caesarea called
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Cornelius the centurion of the Italian regiment and devout man and goes on and on and he's told in a sense to send for Peter okay so the next day in verse 9 the next day as they went on their journey and drew near the city
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Peter went up to the housetop to pray about the sixth hour and he became very hungry and he wanted to eat but while they made ready he fell into a trance and saw heaven open and an object like a great sheet bound at the four corners descending to him and let down to the earth and in it were all kinds of four -footed animals of the earth and wild beasts and creeping things and birds of the air and a voice came to him said rise
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Peter kill and eat Peter said not so lord for I have never eaten anything common or unclean again this was something that they were under obligation for right this was not an optional thing where they could decide well
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I'll just eat bacon you know today this was an obligation that it could not break but here's what's interesting uh in verse 14 when he says not so for I have not eaten anything common or clean and the voice spoke to him again the second time look what it says what
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God has cleansed you must not call common this was done three times and the object was taken up into heaven so what this is telling us is that what was binding at one point and a law was no longer to be considered the same way as it was in the past so we know the story right so he goes and he meets the house of Cornelius and he relays the story of how he saw this vision and then what's interesting as he comes back to the
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Jews they begin to chide him because what because he ate with gentiles which again um as it was laid out before it would have been something that they shouldn't have done my point in that is is try to get us to think about we have laws in the universe we have moral if you will norms and then we also have laws that were established for a very specific purpose for a very specific time and that God alone has the right to alter those laws just any disagreement any any thought on that about um who has the right to to not only establish it but to remove it or if you will change it alter it and so certainly um we do well to consider that now
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I want us to think about something else I want us to think about the law um in a more general way as far as what has been given to us what would it be like if we lived without laws
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Chicago Portland I mean you you know what's really interesting about that it's just a thought maybe you think a little differently maybe you agree that there is an antinomian uh which means against law right there's an antinomian attitude these days that that um that maybe even a generation ago at least in the
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United States that even a generation ago might not have been um as blatant how many of us would say that as we grew up as we were growing up because none of us here are under 21
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I'm confident in that no no brother no see that gray in that beard that's that's a revealer um
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I know you're out brother but but just think about it would we not say that even a generation ago and if you need to consider it as a generation be 30 years or 40 whatever way you want to define a generation that there seemed to have been more um respect for the law that that there was almost um
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I don't want to say reverence in the wrong kind of way but there was this respect that people had for authority for rules for laws
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I remember when I saw a police officer there was a bit of uh respect to be had
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I mean I still have it today but there was a bit of respect to be had versus what we see today um you didn't hesitate to say
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Chicago baby but you know and I was just reading yesterday about what's going on in Portland it's terrible isn't it that the things that people and it's just if you will it's just this attitude against um any sort of rules or laws and it really
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I think it's also connected to people wanting to be autonomous and autonomous simply means you want to be ruled by yourself you don't want anybody telling you anything about anything um just like in in certain aspects of it uh how many of us have never said to a young person who thinks that they can do whatever they want whenever they want however they want and and at some point usually something like a huge um compare and contrast we went to the
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Dominican Republic this year yeah and uh you got hate on the same island you have Haiti and you have a
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Dominican Republic Haiti is a mess man everybody's starving there's no rule law everybody's killing but there's only some people you know that that's comparing continent and although that uh
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Dominican Republic it was a it's still third third world is right there's still right sense of of law there right you know people you know doing something and then also in Israel and Palestine huge Palestine right there and it's destroyed you know with Hamas and all that and then you got
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Israel who has the rule of law and it's a much better um country yeah there's there's just this if you will there's a benefit and I and I'm going to spend a few minutes thinking about that but there's a certain benefit to um and again
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I believe the law is a gracious provision by God right because man being man whose thoughts and intents of his heart are not
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God honoring but even as Jeremiah says the heart is deceitful and desperately wicked who could know it that man apart from law even in the civil arena there would be it would be as crazy as as water boiling at one point and and then water freezing at another point and changing and changing and flip -flopping all over the place um
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I want you to look at this if you would in first Timothy in the very first chapter and let's just let's just think about this for a minute um in chapter one of first Timothy and I'll just pick it up in verse eight and he says this this is
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Paul but we know that the law is good we could stop right there and discuss and and use that as a a gracious provision of God knowing this that the law is not made for a righteous person but for the lawless the insubordinate for ungodly for sinners for unholy for profane for murderers of father and murderers of mother mothers for manslayers for fornicators for sodomites for kidnappers for liars for perjurers and if there is any other thing that is contrary to sound doctrine so what is that teaching us it's teaching us that that the law is absolutely essential if you will to curb what what is the law what does the law do in a way of curbing it promotes judgment if you break the law right there's a penalty there you go through the red light there's a penalty
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I've never gone through a red light so do you have anything to say baby can you soften that a little bit just straight up I know
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I did always ask the wrong questions um but yeah if you think about that without law where would we be and to your point lawless nations and how again
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I'm saying a couple more times the gracious provision by God given to us for law so with that in mind and probably the most uh at least in the new testament let's just look at Romans 13 a minute and you guys always praying for the leaders of us yeah so we could lead a we could what live a quiet and peaceable life not necessarily a prosperous life although that's in the thought of having quietness and peace but really we want the government to because the law is not for the righteous right so if we're righteous we should be following God's rule for us in our lives and therefore against the ungodly it binds them and holds them in place so let's just read
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Romans 13 for a second because again it's so pointed and so clear in that sense so it says this let every soul not just certain let every soul be subject to the governing authorities for there is no authority except from God and the authorities that exist are appointed by God and of course we could have a big long discussion about how does that work out when the rulers are evil and at what point do evil rulers bind us and and we could even go into the book of Acts remember when
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Peter and John were told they couldn't what couldn't preach Christ and they said well um if you think it's better for us to obey you or God you will let
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God judge but we're going to preach Christ but if you think about it these authorities are appointed by God therefore whoever resists the authority risks the resists the ordinance of God and those who resist will bring judgment on themselves for rulers are not a terror to good works but to evil do you want to be unafraid of the authority do what is good and you will have praise for the same for he is
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God's minister to you for good but if you do evil be afraid for he does not bear the sword in vain for he is
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God's minister an avenger to execute wrath on him who practices evil remember that's what it said in first Timothy that the law was not made for the righteous but for the unrighteous and he gives us a whole list of things um which by the way to what you had said before you read through that listing in uh first timothy much of that is contained where in the ten commandments right so again um moral norms that God established are still binding on us as long as we understand um how it operates and again the
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Lord not being for the righteous but rather for the unrighteous he's
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God's minister in verse four an avenger to execute wrath on him who practices evil therefore do good therefore you must be subject not only because of wrath but because of conscience sake for because of this you also pay taxes they are
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God's ministers attending continually to to this very thing render therefore all their due taxes to whom taxes are due customs to whom customs fear to whom fear and honor to whom honor so there is a um a reality of these laws that have been established by governments and um there was a lot of abuses of this in history and we could spend much time on that and certainly at at one point um the roman catholic church thought that the government was to be used by them as their sword and and even in even in the protestant reformation there are certain areas where um those reformers thought that the government was to be used by God uh used by men as God's sword and therefore if you think about it when we come up with this thought of when we first established a separation of what church and state it really that to me is another gracious provision by God because who's to have the authority the government has a civil authority but they shouldn't have any a a rethought an authority over who we worship and how we worship and then you you could almost take that and flip it around and say well why we're supposed to be i don't know if i should even how many of us would say we live in a christian nation how many of us would say we live in a nation that calls itself christian yeah but if you if you think about it we don't obey the very laws that God has given to us in and yet we claim to be
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God's people and yet we don't follow God's law and i'm not just talking about what was legislated on on tablets of stone um if you ever want to read a good book about it i'm not even sure it's around there's a book out by John Ressinger and maybe you've heard of him maybe you haven't he uh brother you heard of him yeah yeah yeah because you would have heard from him being up north right no not necessarily but to other okay okay yeah and he he was a he started actually there was a uh the sound of grace was was and he has a book called tablets of stone and it's a really good read i was looking for the other day i can't find it probably somewhere in my room um but he draws out this distinction how there was these uh if you will moral norms that God established from the beginning and those are still binding then he makes a distinction between that truth of moral norms and what was given to Israel on Mount Sinai and that and if you think about it and again i'm trying to steer away from this but i guess you can't a little bit um many people will just simply say that the law that God gave
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Israel it was moral civil ceremonial okay that there were moral aspects of it agree yeah were there civil aspects of it yeah agree um and there was ceremonial and that would include the dietary laws and some of the other things and um i mean there were civil laws that God gave
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Israel that we would not want to say we're still bound with today because it under those laws um if a kid was disobedient to his parents to a certain extent it wasn't like it was that's it take him out and stone him um i mean i kind of got on the kids a little bit just before because they run up and down the hallway but under the old covenant if they continually did that man it was a career -ending move if you will so you think about that you think about how there has been if you will laws
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God has established in the universe that are kept in place by God and it's a gracious provision then there are laws that God has established through this moral if you will norm that God has given us then there are these laws that God has established that have been abrogated if you will um to such an extent that we are no longer bound to them and then we have these laws that as we just talked about that are laid out for us and given to us by God but they had a purpose and they're no longer burning and certainly we talked about the
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Sabbath we talked about other things so i'll finish it with this and then i'm going to read a quick quote quote from Sproul's book and then we're out of here just turn to Matthew chapter 5 for a minute and i'm going to leave this really for you to think about more than anything else but what
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Jesus said in in Matthew 5 and i'm sure at some point in the future we'll have a further discussion about it look what he says in Matthew chapter 5 and should be verse 17 okay
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Jesus said he said do not think i came to destroy the law or the prophets i did not come to destroy but to fulfill for surely i say unto you till heaven and earth pass away one jot or one tittle will by no means pass on the law till all is fulfilled and so we'll come back to that because that's a very powerful statement that we'll have to consider as we work through more of what laws are we really under are we still bound by these moral norms and i'm going to say we are are we bound by certain things in the universe i would say we are are we bound by certain things that God established for a specific time and a specific purpose i'm going to say perhaps not but let me just read this to you and this is
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Sproul's book it's article five uh topic five in sons of the law of God he says this as God's creatures we are required to do what is right
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God demands that we live according to his moral law moral norms which he has revealed to us in the bible
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God's law is the ultimate standard of righteousness and the supreme norm for judging right and wrong as our sovereign
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God has the authority to impose obligations on us to command our obedience to bind our conscience he also has the power and the right to punish disobedience when we violate his law and sin may be defined as disobedience to God's law some laws in the bible are directly based on the character of God and we talked about that these laws reflect the permanent transcultural elements of relationships both divine and human other laws were intended for uh temporary conditions of society and we talked about that right the ceremonial laws and part of the civil laws that were laid out this means that some laws are absolute and eternal while others may be annulled by God for historical reasons such as the dietary and ceremonial laws of Israel only
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God himself may set aside such laws human beings never had the authority to set
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God's law apart and we talked about that right because what was the thing that God revealed to Peter it was that what
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God said was no longer unclean was no longer unclean it wasn't just what
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Peter said wasn't what the gentiles said it wasn't what the pharisees said it was what