Sunday Night Bible Study - Should We Pick and Choose - Part 3

Good evening and welcome to Sunday night Bible study with Pastor Joe. So I apologize. It has been so long since we've done one of these. But we are here now and we're talking about the law the Old Testament exes Leviticus numbers Deuteronomy all of that.

What are we to obey? What are we not to obey? This is part three of this series. Go check out the first two parts if you haven't yet. How do we handle stuff like don't wear two different types of material as clothing.

Don't a muzzle an ox why it's treading the grain. How do we handle laws like that? How does it apply to our lives today? That's what we're trying to decide. Why does it seem that we pick and choose? Things like that.

The Moral, Ceremonial, and Civil Distinctions in the Law

So let's jump right in week one. We talked about we set the standard just so everyone knows obeying God is the most important thing to him. Go see that video for that week two. We talked about The purposes of the law what the Bible says the purposes of the law were.

Are excuse me as a mirror to show our simpleness to restrain evil to reveal what's pleasing God and most importantly to point to Jesus Christ. Now when we talk about the distinctions of the law, that's what we're talking about today, but distinctions of law Christians have typically broken these down into three categories.

At least for the past 500 years and those categories are as follow as follows with the law. We have the moral law. The ceremonial law and the judicial or civil law now. These distinctions you can see in some of the confessions and creeds like the Westminster Confession, for example.

Should be seen as helpful guides or shortcuts not biblically binding as those categories don't exist. Explicitly in Exodus Leviticus Deuteronomy, etc. But they are helpful shortcuts for us to look at.

For example Christians have typically said something like this that the moral law is binding always the ceremonial laws filled in Christ and the in. The judicial or civil law is fulfilled in Christ. But is applicable to us where the moral equivalency where the general equity applies today.

The Letter and the Spirit of the Law

So For example when Jesus told the Pharisees you're following the letter of the law but not the spirit of the law. If my daughter if I say Sit down. She sits down like this and I say you listen me understand me.

She goes. Yes, sir. That requires some discipline quick fast in a hurry and Someone might look on say yeah, but she obeyed you. I would say yes. She obeyed the external letter of the wall, but she did not obey the internal wall.

She did not obey. Fully in her attitude and her heart and that can't go unpunished. The same is true of the law guys. The law of God at the Sinai Covenant. Remember we're not under a Sinai Covenant, but the law of God still applies to us.

Always was about the heart of the matter. Not just the external obedience. Well, the Tenth Commandment was coveting. Well, that is a heart matter you can't see that someone covets unless they break another commandment like stealing right.

Coveting was internal. It was always about the internal heart intent behind it. So moral law would be something that's just a moral statement, there's not a punishment involved with it. There's not a.

It's not about how you sacrifice or dress or eat, but it's like you shall not murder. Shall not commit adultery. It's a moral law. Those moral precepts are binding now and always to all cultures in all time forever.

How the Civil Law Teaches Love of Neighbor

The ceremonial law is fulfilled in Christ the civil or judicial law. Like if your ox gets out. And Kill somebody else's animal, right? That's one thing and you've got to help out there but if The fence that it got out of you knew it was broken and you chose not to fix it.

You owe even more. The parapet around the house we talked about before. So that people wouldn't fall off and hurt themselves. The idea of that is you are in charge of the safety of the hospitality of those you invited into your home.

That's what the law is trying to teach us how to love our neighbor. When Jesus said all the law hangs on this you love the Lord your God with all your heart soul mind and strength and you Love your neighbor as yourself.

The law teaches you how to love your neighbor. Teaches you how if someone was your slave your servant because they had a debt they couldn't pay and by the way, y 'all look. Yes, of course, there's slavery in the Bible.

Don't apologize for what's in the Bible. It's a historical book. So it actually accurately represents things. However, if you have in mind a 19th 18th century idea of The Caribbean trade slayed in North America or something like that.

No, God forbids that Exodus 21 16 if anyone was caught kidnapping. Selling another person or in possession of a kidnapped person that person who was guilty of that would be put to death. If you sold another human put to death if you kidnap somebody put to death if you were found in possession of them put To death they were capital crimes.

Isn't it amazing people say stuff like Well God. Why didn't God outlaw slavery? Well that kind of slavery that you're talking about he did exodus 21 16 and people will put the death for it. Oh God, why would God kill them?

Isn't it amazing how people want God to stop evil and God stops evil they complain because he's too harsh. People don't want God to be the answer. They just want an excuse to not believe in him. Anyway the point being The ceremonial law.

How you are to sacrifice how you are to purify yourself what you're to wear. During the sacrifice the festivals the Sabbath. Those are fulfilled in Christ and our main passage for that. So the first distinction was the moral binding always ceremonial laws fulfilled in Christ the judicial or civil law.

What crops to do where you put your houses all that stuff that. Even though it's filled and that was just for ancient Israel. Okay, the general equity of it moral preset behind it still binding Colossians 2 16.

It's pretty clear on this. Colossians 2 16 says this. Therefore let no one pass judgment on you in question of food or drink or regard to a new festival new moon or Sabbath. These are a shadow of the things that come but the substance belongs to Christ.

Guys disarming the Sabbath was one of those capital crimes. There are 16 of them. I'll read them out loud to you premeditated murder kidnapping striking or cursing your parents. Irreconcilable rebellion sacrificing the false gods violating the Sabbath blasphemy false prophet human sacrifices divination adultery bestiality incest homosexuality premarital sex or rape.

Those were all capital crimes. By the way, I don't know about you, but I'm guilty of at least one of those if not more. And if you think about it with Jesus the standard of adultery. Which was always a standard not just an external dance.

But a heart of the matter if you look on a woman with lust with Jesus the standard of murder not just You killed somebody but the hate in your heart before you killed them. You're guilty of murder. And then with the book of James if you've broken one of the laws you've broken all the law.

Every one of us are guilty of one of those guys. The law is there to multiply the trespass, but we're sin abounds grace abounds even more. One of the laws that says you will be put to death. Is sacrificing the false gods Exodus 22 20?

When Moses came down from that mountain with that wall in his hand carved in a stone tablet. What were all the Israelites doing? Sacrificing to a false God. If God's law the maximum punishment was. It would be killed.

If God had done the maximum punishment every one of them would have been killed. When he sees that they sacrificed to the golden calf 3 ,000 of them are killed. Well, our question shouldn't be why did those 3 ,000 not.

The question is why did any of them live? They all broke the law? Because God had mercy. Someone say yes, but he still had these harsh judgments. That was the just judgment for the crime they committed.

But he had mercy on all the rest of the people of Israel. God has always been a God of mercy. There's no such thing as the mean God of the Old Testament and the sweet Jesus in the New Testament that assumes his daddy same God father son Holy Spirit same plan all along now.

The ceremonial all you see here don't let anyone judge you on the Sabbath. Well, that's one of the capital crimes. Those were always a shadow pointing to Jesus. When Jesus came there's some radical changes that happen.

But these weren't just new ideas that Jesus sprung on them. The Old Testament already prophesied and foreshadowed. These things would be coming. Turn with me to Hebrews chapter 8. Hebrews chapter 8 verse 1.

Now the point what we're saying is this we have such a high priest one who is seated at the right hand the throne of the majesty in heaven a minister in the holy places in the true tent of the Lord set up not man.

For every high priest is appointed to offer gifts and sacrifices. Thus it is necessary for this priest also to have something to offer. Now if you were on earth, he would not be a priest at all since there are priests who offer gifts according to law.

They serve as a copy and shadow of heavenly things. For when Moses was about to erect the tent. He was instructed by God saying. See, they make everything according to the pattern that was shown you on the mountain.

But as it is Christ has obtained a ministry that is much more excellent than the old as the covenant he mediates is better. Since it is enacted on better promises. For if the first one had been faultless there would have been no occasion for a second.

For he finds fault with them when he says. What we're about to read is a quote from Jeremiah 31. Written 600 years before Jesus died says this. Verse 8. Behold the days are coming declares the Lord when I will establish a new covenant with the house of Israel with the house of Judah.

Not like the covenant made with their fathers on the day I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt. For they did not continue in my covenant. And so I showed no concern from them declares the Lord.

But this is the covenant I will make with the house of Israel to those days declares the Lord. I'll put my laws in their minds and I'll write them on their hearts and I will be their God and they will be my people.

And they will not teach each other and their neighbor and the brother saying noble Lord for they will all know me. From the least to the greatest follow the merciful toward their iniquities. I'll remember their sins no more.

Verse 13 in speaking of a new covenant. He makes the first one obsolete and what is becoming obsolete and growing old is ready to vanish away. It is not that the Old Covenant. The Sinai Covenant is not important.

It's obsolete. It's fulfilled in Christ. The filled means filled up amusement. Point taken mug. Point taken podcast. Point taken Christian podcast. By the way on YouTube go subscribe to the point taken Christian podcast.

Go subscribe to it and excuse me. Go subscribe to the point taken Christian podcast. And check us out on Saturdays Brother Andrew brother hunter and then I'm just there to just chip in every now and then.

We take biblical and spiritual matters and we chat it up as brother hunter says. So go check it out. Point taken Christian podcast on YouTube. Fulfilled in Christ means it is filled up. So you can't add anything to it.

It's already full. It doesn't mean not important means fulfilled filled up completed. The Old Covenant is fulfilled in Christ. That doesn't mean the moral obligation behind it is no longer important it is.

That's what it means when we say the law is fulfilled in Christ. So when we speak to someone says, why do you not? Follow the book of Exodus. I do as Jeremiah Ezekiel and Jesus told me to. The parts that are fulfilled in Christ I dare not add to them.

When it says he is the internal sacrifice eternal means forever. I'm not gonna make another sacrifice when it says he did it in the tabernacle in heavens. Not one made by man. I'm not making another tabernacle when it says for by one offering.

He's perfected forever. Those are sanctified when it says he is our high priest forever. I'm not gonna elect another high priest. When it says let no one judge you based on festivals new moon or Sabbath.

I'm not going to do that because that is fulfilled in Christ when Romans 7 says. Just like a married woman when her husband dies. She is freed from the covenant with him. So when Christ died the law died to him.

We are not bound as a married woman to that law anymore. The law was our guardian. Galatians 3 says until Christ came. At the same time Jesus says not one jot not one iota. Not a dot. Will be removed from the wall until all is accomplished.

The moral precept behind it is still there even though. Some radical changes happened the Law is still there and it's written on our hearts and our minds to teach us how to love our neighbor. I Hope that makes sense, please guys.

You know, this can be a complicated one. Sometimes ask questions put in the comment section. Send messages. Hey, we can talk about it on the podcast in more detail. And there's three of us and three minds bouncing off each other is better.

All of us is always gonna be smarter than one of us. Send it to the the podcast question thing put in a comment. Whatever you want to do. I want to be able to help you as much as I can. Again, I apologize.

It's been so long since we had one of these. This is part three of our series on the law. Why does it appear that we pick and choose and I hope today started and we're not done here to really help you get the teeth Of what we're doing here.

Why Christians Still Obey the Law in a New Way

Why do we pick and choose? Well, we don't pick and choose in the sense of what we want and what we fancy. We do we obey it. We still obey it just in a different way than nomadic Israel did in the wilderness.

Okay, we obey it as God told us to. He told us to not make judgments based on the ceremonial law of Colossians 2 16 17 because the substance was always Jesus. So that was the feast and the festivals for example as part of a ceremonial law.

I do celebrate Passover by celebrating Jesus. I celebrate Yom Kippur. I Celebrate firstfruits by celebrating Jesus and I see those as always pointing to Jesus and he's a fulfillment of that. They're not it's not that we're not important anymore.

They're obsolete because they are fulfilled filled up in Jesus. Moral still binding on my heart my mind the general equity the moral precept behind this Judicial and civil law is still binding on me. It teaches me how to love my neighbor.

When I borrow someone's lawnmower and it breaks. I owe them a lawnmower if I paid them rent Exodus 22 then I don't owe them a lawnmower because that was tied up in the expense of me renting it from. Things like that teaches me how to love my neighbor.

Mission Trip Update and Closing Exhortation

Alright guys. I love you all very much. We will continue with this next time and We have a mission trip next week, so you might not have a video next week because oh. And I need you guys to be in prayer for that.

An advanced team of us seven of us are going to Puerto Rico. To set some groundwork and lay the groundwork. I should say for maybe a future possible big mission trip there in 2022. We got some work to do.

We got some pastor and church to work with so be in prayer for that. I will be going on that trip. So actually there may not be a video next week. Maybe the week after All right. I love you guys very much.

Have a good rest of your Sunday evening. And worship God obey him this week. I'll see you guys next time check out the wild moment on Thursday. Bye.