Modern Movements & the Law (11/28/2004)

Let me have you turn to 1 Timothy 1, verse 1, this morning, in preparing for this message.

As we were playing that last song, right towards the end of it, my mind was kind of going to some of the things that led to this message,

I believe, from the human viewpoint anyway. I've had a friend that's a brother in the

Lord, lives out in Denver, Colorado, and he's in his early 20s, so he's very susceptible to believing just about anything that he reads.

Not that everyone in their 20s is that way, but I think when you're young, you do have sometimes difficulty discerning things like that, more so than when you get a little bit older, because by the time you get to be my age, you've taken your lumps, and you've believed people sometimes when you shouldn't have, and you learn to be a little more critical in your analysis of things.

But anyway, he gave me a book, sent me a book he wanted me to read, and this is it.

It's not really a book, it's a booklet. It's called Nazarene Israel, The Original Faith of the

Apostles by Norman B. Willis. I don't recommend it, but I sort of,

I really have not read it word for word, but I skimmed through it, and when

I saw the table of contents with chapters such as, oh, here's a good one,

Why Circumcision is Still for Today, different topics like that, it really made my heart hurt a little bit, because it's interesting that in these last days, there seems to be a return to, not

Judaism, but to the Judaizers, those who would like to add the law to belief in the

Lord Jesus Christ, and it's coming on strong. There's several groups across the country that are growing very quickly who call themselves

Messianic Jews, and as all of you that have been around for much time at all know that my mentor was a

Jewish believer, Dr. Rocky Freeman, passed away, what is it now, three years ago, four years ago now, wow, and he was a very brilliant man.

He had four earned PhDs in theology and counseling and a couple of honorary doctorates, and he was fluent in at least three languages, and could read in Aramaic, Hebrew, Greek, and King James English, and yet he was extremely sound in his doctrine, and if these things had arisen in his day, he would have been really out there fighting and battling against this, because he, being a

Jewish believer, certainly would not have agreed with the Messianic movement of today, where they're bringing in the law of Moses along with believing in the

Lord Jesus Christ. He would have fought that, and so we are left here today to fight it, and then we have other things going on, you know, they're the other fastest growing movement in the universe right now, as far as the known universe that we know, of course, is the charismatic slash

Pentecostal movement. I really should switch that around the other way historically, I guess, and that is filled with doctrine that is very, very unsound as well.

Now, what you learn if you live for a little while is that a person's doctrine really does affect their life.

I mean, it's where their lifestyle comes from, and so it's important what we believe, and it just seems to me that when

I was first saved in 1976, I'm sorry, 78, began to study the

Bible, and it seemed like that you could get clear messages about what the Bible was all about, you could get some direction on where to begin to study, and what the faith really was, and now

I try to picture myself as a new believer, coming in and hearing every wind of doctrine that's out there, and it would be more difficult, it seems today, but then

Jesus said in the last days it would arise many false prophets, and so as we get more into those last days, we're going to see more and more false doctrine.

Most of these doctrines appeal to the flesh, and that's one of the great red flags that should go up in your mind.

There's nothing that appeals to the flesh of man more than legalism, believe it or not. Now that seems to be a paradox, because most of us would say, oh, we don't want to be brought under a bunch of rules and laws, we want to be free, and yet man will always go back to a set of rules, and the reason is because it's far easier to keep a set of rules than it is to want to literally walk with God and know him and give yourself to him, totally, and so man will always go back to the law.

Now, the Pentecostal -slash -Charismatic movement, they are into, they're very much like the early

Jews that Paul battled against, and even that Jesus rebuked when he says, you adulterous generation, you want to see a sign, you don't want to just live by faith, you want to see a sign, you want to see something, and that was the way that the

Jews were in the century of Christianity, and that's the way the Pentecostal -slash -Charismatics are today.

If you can't see God move in an unusual way in every church service, then God is not there, as far as they're concerned.

So if they can't see it with their eyes, the eyes of flesh, then it's not real. Now that is false.

We live in the church age, the church age predominantly is an age of faith. Jesus said it would be that way, he said the day comes, and now is, when you will no longer worship in Jerusalem.

Jerusalem is where they had all the trappings, where they had all the outward religion of the day, the beautiful temple, and all the things that went with the sacrificial services, and all of those things, he said that's going to be done away with, and you will worship

God in spirit. Can you show me spirit today? Is there any way that you can tell me what spirit is, or show me some of it today?

No, you cannot, because it's in the innermost holy of holies of your heart, and there's only two people there, and that's you and God, and the rest of us can't see in there.

And that's the way we worship God in the church age, and so all of these false movements of the end times, such as the charismatic

Pentecostal movement, it's very false, don't ever think that it's not, you've got a lot of good friends that are in it, and so do

I, and we love them, but they are caught up in doctrine that is given by men who don't know any more about that Bible than, at least not in the way the

Holy Spirit would give the sense of it, than a little child who can't even read, and it's very, very sad.

And now we have this movement that's growing fast, it may someday overtake the Pentecostal charismatic movement, and it is this movement to be brought back under the law.

Let me read to you just a little portion of this booklet, give you just a taste of what is out there.

The classic Orthodox thought, now they're talking about the Orthodox Judaism here, the classic

Orthodox thought is that one can save himself by the works of his hands without salvation by grace through belief in Yeshua.

Now they won't call him Jesus Christ, they always have to call him Yeshua. The Nazarenes, now this whole premise of this book is that Nazarene Israel is the true

Christian faith. Anytime that you pick up a book and they totally change the terminology of anything you've ever heard, that should raise a red flag, young people.

So when they have to redefine all the terms and give new words for everything, that should put up a red flag that you've got a problem.

But he goes on and he says now, the

Nazarenes, and these are supposed to be the good guys, the true Christian faith is supposed to have come from the

Nazarenes. They most certainly disagree with this, as would your average

Christian. Now we've become average Christians at this point. However, the

Nazarenes also disagree with the Christian hypothesis, colon, that mere salvation by grace through belief without works is sufficient.

Now that tells you their stance right there. But they take the rest of the book to try to cover that up and to get you to believe in the subtle little leaven that they throw in.

What the Apostles actually taught was that one needed salvation by grace through belief, and this is in italics, unto

Torah observance. So they're now going to define that what true belief is, is true belief, if it's real, is unto

Torah observance. Yet as Yeshua had said in Matthew 517, that until heaven and earth pass away, nothing in the law of the prophets will fall.

And then there's an entire chapter on circumcision is for today.

And just to give you the premise of this, it basically goes back and says, in quotes from Genesis, let me find it here.

Let me give it to you in his marvelous terminology. It basically says, okay, salvation was a free gift that was given to those who prepared their hearts to seek his face.

But it was still up to the creator to determine whether or not he was going to bestow that gift.

It could not be bought or earned. However, Genesis 17 tells us that the covenant of circumcision was an eternal covenant to be carried out forever and in all of Israel's generations, and that whosoever was not physically circumcised was to be cut off from among the people.

And so he goes on to argue the case in here that since it's an eternal covenant, we ought to still be keeping it along with the

Saturday Sabbath and all the other things. Now the thing about Jewish believers is that most

Gentiles feel inadequate when they're around them because they give the aura that, well, we know the Hebrew and you don't, and this religion is from us, not from you, and so you need to listen to us.

You've never even understood it. What you predominantly know, you learn from the Roman Catholic Church, which we all know is apostate, and that's kind of the line that they take.

And it can sound very, very good. I spent the greater part of two years listening to Russ Howe.

Some of you remember him. And a Jewish claimed to be a Jewish believer. He was about one -eighth

Jew, I think. But it was a great time because it caused me and many of us to go back and study the

Scriptures, restudy and restudy and restudy again certain things that we'd always believe that he would put in question.

And it's interesting, but it's one of the great theses that they have or premises that they have,

I should say, is that all of the fact, the reason that we no longer worship on Saturday and all of that is because of Constantine in around 357

A .D. when he made Christianity the real faith of the Roman Empire.

And he hated Jews, they say. And so therefore most of what we practice is because Constantine hated

Jews. And one of the things that sort of made Russ be quiet for a while was when

I was able to go in and through research show him that some of the early church fathers talked about worshiping on the

Lord's Day some 200 years before Constantine was born. So it had nothing to do with Constantine.

It already existed before he was born. And so what they do, they pretty much bluff hoping that you won't go check out what they say.

And young people, when you see little booklets like this, they're hoping you have never read the

Bible. And they're hoping you won't go back and challenge them and study. And they're hoping that you won't look in the back and see that there are no references.

They don't do any research. This just all comes from their brain. And so always be careful about things like that.

Now let me share with you, let's go into 1st Timothy 1 .1, one of the things that I am so thankful for.

And I do believe that our walk and experience in life brings to light scriptures we've known for a while and makes them even more meaningful.

And we learn even further, deeper things about the scriptures as we walk in life and experience as well.

And so some of these things that have happened with Katie and Jenny at school, with some of their friends that are in the charismatic movements, and you watch the things that they do and how they live, how their life goes out after you see them for two or three years.

And you see that their false doctrine really does affect the way that they live. And then when you see a very good friend of mine who they're trying to draw into this.

In fact, he's worshiping with a group of Jewish believers, Messianic Jews.

He likes their music. He likes their liveliness. I like that too. And it just draws you right in.

And they speak with such authority. I mean, if you're in your 20s and you come across one of these guys, they're going to make you think that they walked with Jesus for three years out in the wilderness somewhere before they ever met you.

And you better listen to me. That's the air that they have. It was interesting in Sunday school this morning that the class

Brother Otis taught showed very clearly that blindness has been brought upon the Jews, the

Israelites. Why would we want to believe someone teaching us doctrine who started out with blindness?

How do we know all the blindness has been removed yet? We don't know. So I don't think that they have any more authority to teach this

Bible than you do as you go in and study and pick up the Word of God and study it and read under the guidance of the

Holy Spirit. So don't ever let them make you believe that. Now, First Timothy 1 .1, read along with me.

The message this morning comes from verse 11.

So let's look at it first and then we'll go back to verse 1. But look at 11. It says, according to the glorious gospel of the blessed

God. And that's what I'm thankful for today. I am thankful that God has given us the glorious gospel.

The word gospel itself means good news. Ladies and gentlemen, I will tell you this. It would not be good news if it were true that you had to keep the law.

Because not a one of us from the youngest to the oldest can keep it. So we would have no good news if the good news message was this, that you believe in Jesus and then go keep the

Torah. Keep the laws of Moses. That would not be good news. The truth is, this morning we have the good news, the glorious good news of the blessed

God. Let's go back to verse 1. Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ, by the commandment of God our

Savior and Lord Jesus Christ, which is our hope unto Timothy.

Now, Timothy was a young preacher and Paul was instructing him in how to be a good minister.

And that's what this book is, this entire book is about. So he writes unto Timothy, my own son in the faith.

Paul had led him to the Lord and he's guiding him in a right way so that he, as a young man, won't get taken in by these

Judaizers. The same ones that are here today writing books like this. This same philosophy was around when

Timothy was in his 20s and Paul was trying to help Timothy to go the right direction and not be taken in by these false teachers.

Grace, mercy, and peace from God our Father and Jesus Christ our Lord as I besought thee to abide still at Ephesus when

I went to Macedonia that thou mightest change, charge some of them that they teach no other doctrine.

Do you see that they're having a problem here? Paul is talking to Timothy saying, I want you to go back there and charge them that you stop teaching another gospel.

Other than what gospel? The gospel that Paul was teaching. Paul had led them to the Lord and he was jealous over them because he didn't want them being led astray by false doctrine and false teachers.

He says, I'm telling you don't be adding other doctrines to the doctrine that you've been taught.

Neither give heed to fables and endless genealogies. One of the things that these

Jewish believers will always do is they'll bring in things you've never heard of before. They'll bring in things from some of the

Jewish books that they have that you've never read and probably never will read.

They'll bring in intellectual things. They'll bring in genealogies and ways to tie you all the way back in and say you know that if you don't come in and become a

Jew that you can't even be part of true Christianity. And they bring in these fables and just stories that they've made up that they cannot footnote.

They cannot show you where it came from because they just made it up. So we have fables and endless genealogies.

Paul is saying now you Timothy you go back and tell them don't give heed to these things. If it didn't come from this book, from the

Word of God, then don't give heed to these fables and stories and imaginations that people are bringing into this.

He says don't give heed to things that minister questions that can't be answered from the

Scriptures. Rather than godly edifying which is in faith, so do.

Now you see that he points him to a religion of faith. That's what true biblical Christianity is.

It is a religion of that which is not seen. It is religion of that of the heart, of the spirit.

We worship God in spirit and in truth. And Paul says stick with that.

He goes down now. I want you to look at verse 7. We're gonna look at all these verses but I want to skip down to make to so you get the gist of what

Paul is saying. These people that he's saying that I don't want you to allow them to teach any other doctrine.

Look at verse 7. They desire to be teachers of the law. Now do you see that?

There is a desire in the flesh of man to be teachers of the law.

Why? Because the law is difficult. The law is detailed. The law is something that if I can learn it, every jot and tittle of it, and you don't know it yet, then

I'm smarter than you are. That fills me up in the flesh. That makes me feel like I'm needed by you.

And so I desire then to teach the law so that I can bring you under the law and have you as one of mine under the law.

I can count your name. I can put a notch on my gun, so to speak. You know, I got another one. I got another one.

Always bringing them in into these new ideas of how we're gonna add this and this. Here's the way it works.

Jesus Christ and his blood and his finished work plus and then add anything you want to there.

They always gonna add something to that. Now these in particular, if it's the

Charismatics, they like to add plus signs and wonders. If it's the Judaizers, they like to add plus the law.

But it's always gonna be Jesus plus something. It's never just Jesus Christ and his marvelous finished work, which is the marvelous gospel.

Well, let's look and see what the Bible says the gospel is anyway. First Corinthians 15 1 says,

Moreover, brethren, I declare unto you the gospel which I preached unto you. And this is what

Paul said, Don't add anything to which also you have received and wherein you stand.

And here it is by which also you are saved. If you keep in memory what

I preached unto you, unless you have believed in vain, if you wander away from this, he says, you never were saved anyway.

And then he's gonna tell you what the gospel is. For I delivered unto you first of all, that which

I received, how that Christ died for our sins, according to the scriptures, how he was buried, and that he rose again the third day, according to the scripture.

That's the gospel. There is no more to add to it. It's all Jesus. It's all the work of Jesus.

And it's the finished work of Jesus that brought us to the place of justification. So he died, he was buried, and he rose again.

And Paul said, that's the gospel that I preached to you. Now these people, let's go back to verse 4 of 1

Timothy 1, neither give heed to fables and endless genealogies which minister questions rather than godly edifying which is in faith.

So do now the end of the commandment is love out of a pure heart. Now it's interesting because this little booklet has a chapter where he mocks that.

He says that these false Gentile Christians have taught a gospel that says the end of the law is just love.

And then he goes on to try to prove why that's wrong. The truth is, it's exactly right. I mean as the

Apostle Paul instructs Timothy here, he says, look, don't let these people add anything to the gospel that I've taught.

He says the end of the commandment, don't let them add law, because the end of the commandment is love out of a pure heart and of a good conscience and faith unfamed.

In other words, faith that is not faked. True faith from the heart. From which some have swerved and have turned aside unto vain jangling.

Now Paul calls it vain jangling when you begin to add things to the gospel. It's just jangling.

It's like jangling the change in your pocket. It really doesn't, it's not going to add one thing to it, but it sounds really good.

You can jangle that change. It sounds like you're rich. You pull it out and it's all pennies, you know. Usually those are the ones you don't, that you get stuck with, right, in your pocket.

And he calls it vain jangling. They are desiring to be teachers of the law and look what

Paul says about them, understanding neither what they say, he said they don't even understand the law, nor whereof they affirm, but we know that the law is good if a man use it lawfully.

Now the Apostle Paul is going to come in and he's not just going to tell Timothy what not to do, he tells him how to understand it.

The first thing, your first point this morning is that the end of the commandment is love.

We find that in verses 5 through 7. Paul teaches Timothy, look, if they try to make you feel that you need to add law to what you've got, remind them that the end of the law is love and true faith.

It is that which makes the law where it is worked out in your life by the

Lord Jesus Christ. You cannot keep the law except in Christ.

And so therefore he says the whole commandment is love. The second point we see here, he begins to tell what the true use of the law is.

Now this is kind of a slap in the face to a Judaizer. Look at verse 8, but we know that the law is good if a man use it lawfully.

Now he's going to tell us how to use it lawfully, knowing this, that the law is not made for a righteous man, but for a lawless and disobedient, for the ungodly and for sinners, for unholy and profane, for the murderers of fathers and murderers of mothers and manslayers, for whoremongers, for them that defile themselves with mankind.

It's homosexuals. So the law is made for homosexuals. For men -stealers, that people that, what do you call that?

There's one blank on it. Kidnapping, isn't that funny? I'm thinking men -stealers, right?

Men -napping. For liars, for perjured persons, and if there be any other thing that is contrary to sound doctrine, that's what the law is for.

Isn't that amazing? He says, he starts off, it's not for the righteous man.

The law is not for you if you're saved today. If you're born again, you've been made righteous by the blood of Jesus Christ.

The law is not for you. The law is for those who are not righteous. The law is to show them how exceedingly sinful they really are, so that God may choose to them to Jesus Christ, because the law exposes their sinfulness, and convicts them of the fact that they are breaking

God's laws. Now what's interesting, if you take all of that from verse 9 all the way through the end of verse 10, and you consider that to be in parentheses, and you just put it aside now, and you read verse 8 and verse 11, and leave the parentheses out, here's how it reads, but we know that the law is good if a man use it lawfully according to the gospel, the glorious gospel of the blessed

God which was committed to my trust. That's what the whole thing means. If you use it lawfully according to the glorious gospel, if you use the law in any other way, if you try to bring the gospel and make it be according to the law, you're wrong.

And that's what these people do. They try to take the gospel and then bring it back, and go back in time to a place before the cross, and bring it under the guidance of the law.

That's just backwards. What Paul teaches Timothy is it's the law is not bad, it's good if you use it lawfully, and the only way to use it lawfully is if it is according to the glorious gospel.

So the glorious gospel is the guide. The glorious gospel is that which shows us how to properly use the law, not vice versa.

And so we see here that Paul gives the end of the commandment, which is love. That's how you fulfill the law, is to have to walk filled with the

Spirit, walk with the love of God. Secondly, he shows us that the proper use of the law is to be according to the glorious gospel.

Well what is this law of the gospel? First of all, it's the law of love. Turn to Romans chapter 13 verse 8 with me.

The glorious gospel is a law of love, and therefore if we're going to use the law lawfully, we have to understand how to apply it, and how to enact it in our lives.

Romans 13 8 says, Oh no man anything but to love one another. For he that loveth another hath fulfilled what?

Just seeing if you're with me, did you find it? Hath fulfilled the law. If you love another with God's love, you have already fulfilled the law.

So why would we go back to the law if we've already fulfilled it? For this thou shalt not commit adultery, thou shalt not kill, thou shalt not steal.

Where are these coming from? The law, specifically the

Ten Commandments. Thou shalt not bear false witness, thou shalt not covet. If there be any other commandment, it is briefly comprehended in this saying, namely thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself.

Love worketh no ill to his neighbor, therefore love is the fulfilling of the law.

The Apostle Paul teaches his converts that the way that you can comprehend the detailed, difficult

Old Testament law, the Levitical laws, all of the laws of Moses, it can be comprehended in this one thing.

Love your neighbor as you love yourself with God's agape love, and you'll fulfill all the rest of the law.

He says it's that simple. That is the gospel that Paul taught. He did not go in and have the new

Gentile believers have to be circumcised. He didn't go in and force them to worship on Saturday.

He didn't require that they keep the laws of Moses. He taught them that they were in Christ, and because they're in Christ, Christ is seated in the heavenlies above the earth, and that the

Old Testament law was an earthly law for an earthly people, and now you're heavenly. You're above all that.

You're above the world, the flesh, the devil, and the law because it's for an earthly people. Paul just told us very clearly it's for people that are man -stealers.

It's for people that are fornicators, earthly people, people that have no clue of the heavenlies, have no clue of the spiritual life in Christ.

It's for those who are homosexuals, people that are not born again. That's what the law is for.

If you have the Lord Jesus Christ as your personal Lord and Savior, you've received

Him and you're baptized by the Holy Spirit, placed into Christ, where is Christ now?

He's seated at the right hand of God. That's where you are spiritually. You're above all of the earthly things.

The Bible teaches it so clearly. So first of all, Paul says the proper use or understanding of the law is to understand it through the gospel, the law of love.

If you love with God's love, you are fulfilling the law. Secondly, it is used as a schoolmaster.

Turn to Galatians chapter 3 verse 24. Wherefore the law was, that's past tense, was our schoolmaster to bring us unto

Christ that we might be justified by faith. So the law has its purpose.

It is to bring the lost person, as a schoolmaster would, to teach the lost person that his sins are exceedingly sinful.

That is the purpose of it. And the law is designed on the human level. As we look at it in time, the law is designed to be placed there to cause people to be brought to Christ because they see a need for Christ.

And this is the purpose of the law. It is a schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ that we might be justified by faith.

But after that faith has come, we are no longer under the schoolmaster. What does that mean?

We're no longer under the what? The law. So now how can you take and write an entire book and claim you're a

Christian? Although they don't use that word, you're not a Christian, you're a Nazarene Israelite. And to teach that the whole idea is that we're renegades, we're lawless.

All the way through this book they call us the lawless ones because we teach in salvation without the law.

So we're lawless to use phrases like that. And yet the Apostle Paul says that when we're in Christ, we're no longer under the law.

For ye are all the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus. For as many of you as have been baptized or placed into Christ have put on Christ.

Once that happens, there's neither Jew nor Greek. You see on this side of the cross, God doesn't see it as a

Jew and a Gentile, but they want to go back to that. They want you to believe if you don't become one of them, become a

Jew, you can't even be a Christian. But God says, I don't even see a Jew or a Gentile anymore.

I don't even see a male or female when it comes to spirituality. He says neither

Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free. There is neither male or female for ye are all one in Christ.

God sees us as already glorified. God sees us as in Christ seated by him at his right hand in heaven.

That's how the Father sees us. He doesn't look at the earthly things such as whether you're Jew, Gentile, black, white, yellow, male, female.

He looks at the heart. And if he sees that your spirit is one with the

Holy Spirit, that's what he sees. And so there is none of this being brought under the bondage of the

Old Testament law. And if you be Christ, then are you Abraham's seed and heirs according to the promise. You are de facto

Abraham's seed. You don't have to do anything to become his seed. You are made to be his seed when you're placed into Christ because Jesus Christ is his seed.

If you go back and read all the passages in the Old Testament about Abraham's seed, it doesn't say seeds with an

S. It says his seed. Therefore, it means Jesus. Jesus is his seed.

The Old Testament saints, they don't even, they didn't understand this fully. And the Jews of today certainly don't understand that you don't become

Abraham's seed by being one of the seeds. You're not Abraham's seed by simply being born a

Jew. In other words, that is a physical thing. But being

Abraham's seed, you have to be placed into Christ at salvation and you become part of Abraham's promise at that point, whether you're

Jew or Gentile, male or female. It's all the same. Another proper understanding of the law is found in Colossians chapter 2, verse 9.

If you look at that with me, it is a picture or a shadow. It says that the

Old Testament law is a shadow of the truths that are taught in the New Testament.

Now, let me ask you this. If God has brought you to this side of the cross and he's opened our eyes to things very clearly, it teaches that the

Old Testament prophets didn't even know. And he has brought us to the place where all of the

Old Testament events that took place were a shadow or a picture of what would be to come. And here we are out here in that which is to come.

We're here. Why would we want to go back to the shadow? I mean, let's put it this way, gentlemen.

If you could choose this, let's say your wife walks in the room and there's a bright light over here and it casts her shadow on the wall.

Would you rather live the rest of your life with that shadow or have the wife? Nobody answered.

So I guess, ladies, it's not determined, but I'll take the wife. Now, what these

Judaizers are saying is leave the wife and go live with the shadow. And that will be better, they say.

We've added a lot to what you have by letting you have a shadow. Now, if you can understand it that way, it's that simple.

And I say this to our young people and our teenagers so you'll never be tempted to become part of the

Messianic movement. Their trappings are marvelous. Their music is fantastic.

They're not all bad teachers, by the way. They don't all believe what this man wrote, either. And so some of them are great

Bible teachers. But you better be very careful that they're not pulling you back into this shadow.

Colossians 2 9 says, For in him dwelleth all the fullness of the Godhead bodily. That's Jesus Christ.

And ye are complete in him. Do you see that? Do you understand that in the context of this message this morning, that completeness means that you don't need anything else?

You don't need the Levitical laws. You don't need the laws of Moses. You don't need anything. If you have

Jesus Christ, you are complete. You are mature. You have the whole package in Christ.

For he is the head of all principality and power. You have, in my analysis,

I mean in my illustration, you have the bride. You don't have just the shadow. When you have Jesus Christ, you have the real thing.

In him, in whom also you are circumcised with the circumcision made without hands and putting off the body of sins of the flesh by the circumcision of Jesus Christ.

You see that teaches right there that the Old Testament circumcision was a shadow. It was something physical that pictured a spiritual truth.

And that is that Jesus Christ, when he comes into your life, he circumcises your heart. What does it mean?

It cuts the flesh out of your heart and leaves it spiritual. He separates between the new man and the old man and casts off the old man.

That's what physical circumcision pictures. So would you rather have that operation on your heart and have

God make you where you can walk with him and know him and love him and yearn to obey him because you love him?

Or would you rather just have a physical circumcision and keep the law?

Okay, gentlemen, all the gentlemen in the room have to go and be circumcised physically. Now you're going to be a great

Christian. That's what they're teaching. And so they say, let's go back to the shadow because the true circumcision of the heart is not enough.

Buried with him in baptism, wherein also you are risen with him through the faith of the operation of God, who hath raised him from the dead.

And you being dead in your sins and the uncircumcision of your flesh, hath he quickened, he brought you to life together with him, having forgiven you of all trespasses.

Now look at verse 14. Blotting out the handwriting of ordinances that was against us, that's the law, which was contrary to us, and he took it out of the way, nailing it to the cross.

There's an entire chapter in that little booklet ridiculing those who believe this. But how do you erase this from the scriptures?

The Bible does say that he nailed it to the cross. He nailed the handwriting of the ordinances to the cross and took it out of the way.

And having spoiled principalities, by the way, the nailing of the law to the cross is one of the ways that he spoiled the principalities and powers.

You know why? Because when you go out and you strive to keep a list of rules, which is what the law is, a list of rules, you have to then keep that by the flesh, because it's an outward fleshly thing.

There's no way that you can keep those rules without trying to keep the rules. And when you bring in the word try, that brings in the old man.

And so what happens is you fail. And as you fail, you then realize that the principalities and powers of darkness will come to you and accuse you and say, how can you belong to God?

Look at you, you just sinned. And they will hold you up to the law every time. Satan will hold you up to the law every time and say, you failed.

You're not really God. If you were God, you wouldn't have done that. So how did Jesus Christ give us victory over these principalities?

How did he spoil the principalities and powers and make a show of them openly, triumphing over them in it?

What was the it? He nailed the law of the cross. Let no man therefore judge you in meat.

Now this is what the Jews will want to do to you. They're going to say, well, you're eating ham. You shouldn't eat that.

You shouldn't eat that bacon. And drink, and in respect of a holiday, you shouldn't keep this holiday or that.

You should keep this one or that. Or of the new moon or of Sabbath, of the Sabbath.

If you're not worshiping on Saturday, they're going to tell you you're not walking with God. But the

Apostle Paul tells us very clearly, let no man judge you about which day you worship on, because you have a continual rest every moment of your life.

It's found in the book of Hebrews. Let no man therefore judge you in meat or drink, etc., which are the shadow, see verse 17, the shadow of things to come.

But the body is of Christ. So why would we want to go back to the shadow when we're already in the era of the things to come?

They have arrived, and we have the Lord Jesus Christ.

The spirit -filled life is what fulfills the law. And back in 1

Timothy chapter 1, verse 14 says this. It says, but put ye on the

Lord Jesus Christ and make no provision for the flesh to fulfill the lust thereof.

If you put on the Lord Jesus Christ, that's the same as being spirit -filled, and you walk in the spirit, then you will make no provision for the flesh.

You know what? You just automatically kept the whole law. You kept the whole law.

Now let me tell you how you can't keep the law. You can't keep it by trying to keep it.

Gentlemen, as soon as spring gets here and weather gets a little warmer and the young women of the town begin to put on their bikinis and their short shorts and their ultra tops and walk around, if you look on a woman in lust, you just committed adultery.

Now see what this particular group will tell you is why is it that you keep all the

Ten Commandments except the Saturday Sabbath and the tithing part, you leave those off? My answer is we don't keep any of them.

We don't keep any of the Ten Commandments. We've broken all of the Ten Commandments. If I've hated someone in my heart,

I murdered them, Jesus said. So show me a commandment you've ever kept. So if we cannot keep the commandments by trying to keep the commandments, how do we do it?

We do it by being in Christ, and we make that connection. The Holy Spirit has come into your heart.

He has indwelt your temple. He lives in the Holy of Holies. Now you're commanded to be filled with the

Spirit, which makes the connection where you are one with the Holy Spirit inside your heart, and as you walk as one with Him, you will keep the law.

Gentlemen, when spring gets here, you better walk like this. We'd all better walk like this. You walk in the

Spirit, and you know what happens when you see that woman? The first thought that comes to your mind is,

Lord, let me have the mind of Christ. Let me think of her like Jesus would think of her right now, and you won't have a problem, but you know what?

If you're trying to keep a set of rules, and one of them over here says, commit not adultery, and then you add to it, don't even think about it, and you say, that's how

I'm going to keep this, it'll never work, and that's what they want to take you back to, is the shadow, the rules.

They want to add a list to Jesus' blood plus this. It'll never work.

I hope all the young people in the room, when you go off to college, you remember what I taught you today, because it didn't come from me.

It came from the Holy Spirit, as the Apostle Paul instructed his young preacher, convert

Timothy, young man in his 20s. He said, when you go out there, Timothy, they're going to try to bring you back into the law.

Don't let them do it. Jesus is all. You are in Christ, and the love in your heart that he's placed there for him, and for yourself, and for others, is the fulfillment of the law.

Let's stand and have prayer together. Father, we thank you for your word, for it is the only thing that we have in these dark days to keep us on the path.

Lord, may each of us understand our responsibility to study the word of God, so that when false teachers write books, and give them to our friends, or even our children as they're off at college, we can answer these things from the word of God.

Lord, we thank you that you give us clarity. You give us an understanding of your word, as your

Holy Spirit teaches us. We pray for those who have been led down wrong paths.

Lord, you said in the last days, if it were possible, that even the elect might be deceived.

And we think we see some of our brothers and sisters who seem to us to be born again, and yet walking down the wrong path.

We pray for them, and ask, Lord, that you would move them into the scriptures themselves, and help them to believe what the word of God says, rather than what their books and their preachers are saying.

And Lord, give our young people strength to study, and to be sound, and to always be able to give answer for what they believe when they're away at school.

When their roommates and their friends come to them with garbage, that they will have the courage to stand and say, you know what, my

Bible does not say that. How do you answer this? Lord, give them that courage and boldness that they might be salt, as well as light.

We ask you to bless our fellowship together, our food together. We're thankful for the bounty that you've given us in this great country.

And Lord, we ask you to continue to use us as the salt and the light while we're here, and we ask it in Jesus' name.

Amen. Amen. Have a good book for sale if anybody wants it.