Is The Law Relevant Today?

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. What you're about to watch is a sermon, a message from Apologia Church's worship service.

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So thank you again so much for watching these and sharing them. God bless you. Brothers and sisters, if you would turn with me in the Bible to Jeremiah 31 31. Jeremiah 31, verse 31. It's a familiar passage hopefully to many of us and critical to understand the context.

The people of God have come out of Egypt. The people of God have gone through the wilderness. People of God have been given all the dress rehearsals of the Old Testament. The dress rehearsals. They've been given the training wheels.

The law of God given to the people of God as a blessing to the people of God. Consider that for a moment. We think about the law of God in the way today that people express it, that it was this harsh strong sort of God of justice and righteousness and wrath and we have in the New Testament is the God of love and peace and grace.

Jesus comes to help the father out from his Old Testament revelation. The law of God is given in a different way in the Old Testament. In Deuteronomy chapter 4, God actually says that his law given to his people was supposed to be their wisdom in the sight of the peoples.

And the people were going to look into the law of God as it was given to his people and they were going to say what kind of people is this that has a God so near to it as them and have statutes and rules so righteous as this law.

The law was supposed to be seen as a gift, but also at the same time the law was given with promises of blessings and curses. It was a particular covenant where God says I'll bless you if you obey. I'll curse you if you disobey.

Here's what I want you to do. And so they had temple, they had priests, they had these dress rehearsals. They were doing a play. The substance wasn't the temple. The substance wasn't the sacrifices. The substance wasn't the gold.

The substance wasn't in all the things that they were given to mark them out from all the other nations. Those were training wheels to teach the people of God about separation, about the holiness of God, about the holiness of the people of God.

The law of God had rudimentary elements in it that were never meant to last forever because they were only the shadow. They were not the body. They were the shadow and not the substance. The substance was Jesus and he was coming.

So they have the dress rehearsals. They have the acting this out. They have the stage play going on to teach the people of God about what was to come. They knew the Messiah was coming. They knew someone was coming that was going to have dominion over the earth.

They knew that salvation was coming to the ends of the earth. The nations were going to come to God. God was going to give his grace and his love to even pagans. They know what's coming. They don't know all the details.

God is giving them promises in Revelation over time. And here is one of those promises that was anchored into the hearts of the people of God long before Jesus comes. Hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of years go by.

After this is given.

This promise just sort of hangs there, suspended, just over them and they're waiting. They're waiting. Which explains, by the way, the excitement in the first century about Jesus. Not only do they know from other prophecy like in Daniel chapter 9, Messiah is coming.

He's coming at this time. They could count down the days in Daniel chapter 9 about when Messiah was coming. They knew the angel Gabriel had told them when to start counting down. They knew that this was the moment Messiah is going to show up and that's why they're going, who's the Messiah?

Where's the Messiah? Are you the Messiah? Are you the Messiah? Where's the Messiah? Who is he? Now, by the way, that prophecy you can show lands, I believe, on the baptism of Jesus Christ to the day. However, there's this excitement about what is going to happen.

When is God going to finally reveal this Messiah that brings salvation to the ends of the earth? And Jeremiah 31 is just hanging over them, just waiting to be fulfilled. Expectation, expectation, promise, waiting.

Is God going to be faithful to this promise? He always has in the past. He's always kept his word. He's always done everything that he says he's going to do. He's done it. But goodness gracious, it's been hundreds and hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of years.

Where is this fulfillment? When's it going to happen? So just think about that as you read this text together with me. It's hung over them, waiting for the fulfillment. Jeremiah 31,.

Verse.

31. God says, hear now the holy and inspired word of God. This is the covenant that I'll make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the Lord. I will put my.

Law.

Within them, and I will write it on their hearts, and I'll be their God, and they shall be my people. And no longer shall each one teach his neighbor and each his brother, saying, know the Lord, for they shall all know me from the least of them to the greatest, declares the Lord, for I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more.

Thus far is the reading of God's holy and inspired word. Let's pray as his people. Father, we come into your presence, thanking you for the gift of your word. Thank you that we stand on the other side of this promise in fulfillment.

Thank you that we get to look back, Lord, at this perspective of history where we just get to see you saying and then you doing. Lord, you put us in a time where we just get to receive all these benefits.

There's no expectation of, is it going to happen? Is it going to happen? And these promises, they're all yes and amen. They've all landed on us, and here we sit now,.

Lord,.

Most of us, the descendants of pagan ancestors, Lord, with the benefits of the new covenant and salvation and forgiveness, and God, we praise you. Help me, Lord, to teach your people today in a way that honors you and glorifies you.

Speak through me, God, to your people. Teach according to your word and by your spirit. In Jesus' name, please change us. Amen. Jeremiah 31, 31. A new covenant is coming. It is powerful. It is different.

It is new. But God says he's going to do something. He says about Israel that Israel was seen as his wife. He was in a marriage relationship with Israel. That was his wife, his bride. And he says, even though I was your husband, you broke a covenant with me.

And in God, also in the Old Testament, in Ezekiel, just read from about 16 onwards, you'll see that God even describes his relationship with his people as, I'm your husband, you're my wife. He says, but you're different.

He says, because even though I beautified you and made you amazing and I put a ring in your nose and all these beautiful jewels all over you, he says that you wouldn't play the harlot with all the other nations.

You wouldn't gave yourself away. And he says you're different than other other harlots in that they usually get paid for what they do and you didn't even ask for payment. You just gave yourself away to everybody.

That's how he describes it. And that's the context of this, the unfaithful wife of God. Unfaithful Israel. And God says this, despite your unfaithfulness, despite the fact that you've broken covenant with me, despite the goodness that I've given to you, he says, I'm going to make a new covenant with you.

And he says, and this one's going to be different.

He says this way,.

I.

Will take my law and I'll put it within you. I want you to consider for a moment this very critical detail. Before God talks about the forgiveness that he's going to give to his people, forgiving their iniquity, and listen closely, remembering their sin no more,.

He says this.

Substantial promise. I'm going to take.

My.

Law.

And I'm going to do something different. I'm going to put it within you. And he says, I'm going to write it on your heart. Now, just go backwards for a minute now. This is vitally important to get. When God comes into relationship with his people and he delivers them out of bondage from Egypt and they're starting to make their way into the promised land, you remember all the faithlessness even after all the crazy miracles?

I mean consider for a moment now, you saw God turn water into blood. You saw the locusts come across Egypt. You were there when they had the goats or sorry the sheep with no spot and no blemish with the blood over the doorposts and the judgment of God passing over and you saw the water crash down on the enemies of God.

And yet they go into this land. They're making their way. Moses goes up to receive the law. And what are the people of God doing down there? They're like, man, this is uh, this is taking kind of a long time with this, you know, hanging out with God and receiving all these instructions and everything.

Maybe he's not coming back. I'll tell you what, let's get all of our gold, all of our jewelry. Dudes, take the earrings out of your ears. Yes, the guys had earrings in their ears too, right? Take the earrings out of your ears and ladies too.

Take all this jewelry and let's do something. Let's make a, let's make an image we can worship, right? We can't see this Israel God. He's like spirit or something. Like all the pagans have a God in their temple to worship.

Let's get one we can put together and stand before and start worshiping, right? And so they get down there have a little celebration, but we know the story about the ten commandments. Where did God write the ten commandments?

On tablets of stone. Right? On tablets of stone. So here's the covenant made to the people of God. Faithless Israel. They see all God's amazing acts in the history and they still won't obey, won't obey, won't obey.

And God gives them his law, which is an expression of love for God and love for who? Neighbor. Love for God, love for neighbor. The two tablets represent, here's how you love God. And the other one says, here's how you love your neighbor.

Like don't steal from them, don't commit adultery, don't lie, don't kill them, don't covet their stuff, that kind of stuff. Love for God, love for neighbor. And then when Moses comes down, we know the moment of the tablets and the stone.

We know this epic moment in history, but that's the story of Israel. And then the story of Israel just sort of goes in and out of disobedience and obedience, disobedience. And then God blesses them with his love.

They come out of all these epic moments of failure and then love. Failure and then love, failure and then love. And then here God says in a new covenant, listen, he's doing something new. But we need to consider what that newness is.

Is the newness devoid of the law of God? Consider that for a moment. We think about the new covenant today as Christians in the West, in a way that denies what scripture says about the new covenant, what Christians have historically believed about the new covenant.

We talk about the new covenant in this way. It's just about forgiveness. It's just about going to heaven one day, escaping this world and getting there someday. Right? We just want to escape this physical world and go to the spiritual.

The new covenant is just about forgiveness. But notice when God introduces the new covenant, what's he say about it? It's going to be different in that I'm going to write my law within you. Whereas before the people of God, watch, have stone tablets outside of them, exerting pressure on top of them.

It's outside of them directing towards them. God says in a new covenant, not only am I going to forgive you your sins and your iniquity, but I'm going to take that law, that law that you constantly despise and you break, and I'm going to take it and do something new.

I'm going to put it inside you. And rather than writing it on stone tablets outside of you, exerting pressure on top of you, I'm going to write it in your heart. Do you see the difference? The new covenant, of course, is about forgiveness.

But also the law of God is a constituent element of the new covenant. It's not irrelevant to the believer. The goodness of God's law is just that, goodness, righteousness, faithfulness. It is, it is the expression of love for God and love for neighbor.

What does Jesus say when he's asked, master, what's the greatest commandment in the law? What's Jesus say? One, love God. Two, love neighbor. And Jesus says all of the law and the prophets are built upon these two commandments, love God and love neighbor.

All of the law of God is built upon those two commandments. And so Jesus calls us, of course, to obedience, to love for God and love for neighbor. But the glorious thing about the new covenant is that it's not like the old.

Now we have the spirit of God who's made us alive. We have the law of God written inside of us now as believers by God's own hand and, and this is the kicker, the amazing part of it, all of our iniquity and our sin is gone.

Now watch, here's, here's where we have to make application as brothers and sisters. Do you really believe that? And I mean on a moment to moment basis as a child of God, all of us have to face our own sanctification, our own failures as children of God.

God will say things often in his word that are glorious, powerful, amazing truths, that we will check the box as Christians and say, yes, I believe that. But the question is, do you actually believe it?

And does it actually transform your worship and your intimacy with God? So for example, did you hear it? I'll forgive their iniquity and remember their sin no more. Is that how you approached God this morning when you woke up?

Did you approach God in that way? Did you came before your father in his throne room? By the way, there was no veil there. There was nothing separating you from him. Did you come before God this morning, Sunday morning?

Did you come before him into his room, his throne room? Did you come before him as he is singing over you as the scriptures say? By the way, I mentioned this a little earlier today. I don't have any ability to comprehend what that even sounds like.

What's that even like for God to sing over me? Did you walk into his throne as he was singing over you? Did you walk into it with a recognition that all of my sins have been washed away, all of them? He's not holding it somewhere in the back of his heart going, well, I'm supposed to love you because I promised to, but I know what you were up to.

Or I know what you've been thinking. Or I know what you did. Did you walk into his throne room this morning with the knowledge, the full knowledge and understanding and rejoicing over the fact that your iniquity is completely forgiven?

That your sins are completely washed away. That there's nothing else remaining. No more personal beatings to be done. You don't have to flog yourself and spill any of your own blood. That God isn't impressed with your weeks on end grieving over your sin when you've pled for forgiveness.

He isn't impressed with it. It's not adding anything to the story. God in Christ has washed away all of your sin. You've been declared righteous in his eyes, not because you are worthy of it, not because it's deserved, not because it's something you've done.

It is all an act of his grace and love because of all of his promises. There's nothing left to do. It's all God's glory and it's all based upon his own promise. Do you believe it? Because listen, if you believe it, it ought to affect, as a Christian, it ought to affect how you approach God daily.

Somebody says, I struggle so much with sadness all the time and depression and I struggle with loneliness or I struggle with guilt and despair. Let me just say, first and foremost, the answer is Christ and the gospel.

Have you turned from sin to trust in him? But if we're there now, if we're God's people and we say, yes, I trust in Christ. God lives in me. I've received his forgiveness and salvation. Then I want to say this to you.

The answer to freedom and healing out of the guilt and the shame is not going to be found in personal exertion of effort. It's not going to be found in you trying really, really hard to get over the guilt and the shame.

The answer is simple. Do you believe him? Because you can believe one of three voices. You can believe yourself. And let's be honest, we are historically unreliable.

Amen?

Only some of you said that. You're still deceived.

Two,.

You can believe the devil and the bible says that he is the father of lies.

So,.

Not a good choice. Or you can believe God. And God cannot lie. So the answer to freedom from loneliness and sin and shame and depression and all the rest is as God's child who's been bought by him into this new covenant with his law written within you with all your sins washed away is to believe him over you.

We believe our experiences. We believe our circumstances. We believe our... let's be honest about this. Be truthful. You believe your own inner monologue much more than you believe God's word very often.

Your interpretation of your circumstances. Your interpretation of how things ought to be. Your interpretation of your guilt and your shame. And here's the answer. Do you trust in Christ?

Yes?

Are you trusting in Christ today? Then this is what God says.

He.

Has made a covenant.

He cannot lie.

And he says he's going to put his law within you. And he says that he's going to forgive your iniquity and all your sins. Never even remember them. So take that guilt and shame. Take that loneliness and despair.

Take that when you feel like there is no pleasure and joy and delight in your life. The answer is ultimately be standing on the rock of his word and getting off the sinking sand of your own autonomous interpretation of things.

The answer is this right here. This promise in Jeremiah 31. But here's what I want you to hear from me today. This is so vital in terms of what does God do in the new covenant? He says he's going to put his law.

Now watch real fast. Which law is Jeremiah referring to? The known law. The law that God has given. The law that the psalmist says, we've read it today in service, Psalm 119, is a light unto my path. That law.

God's going to take his law and write it now inside of you. That's a constituent element of the new covenant promise. Not just forgiveness, but the people of God we're going to carry now God's law out into the world and broadcast his standards of righteousness, his standards of justice.

You want to see it? I want you to see it. Isaiah chapter 2. Go to your bibles.

Isaiah.

Chapter 2. Go backwards from Jeremiah. Isaiah chapter 2. Glorious promise about what God's going to do in the new covenant. I want you to see this because it is a light and a blessing to the world in so many ways.

Isaiah chapter 2. It says in verse 1 of Isaiah chapter 2, the word that Isaiah, the son of Amos, saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem about 600 years before Jesus. It shall come to pass in the latter days that the mountain of the house of the Lord shall be established as the highest of the mountains and shall be lifted up above the hills and all the nations shall flow to it and many peoples shall come and say come.

Let us.

Go up to the mountain of the Lord to the house of the God of Jacob that he may teach us his ways and that we may walk in his paths for out of Zion.

Shall go.

The.

Law.

And the word of the Lord from Jerusalem. Brothers and sisters, that is a very beautiful picture a portrait of the future of what God's going to do in salvation for the world. First thing I want you to hear in that is did you hear the uniqueness of that?

What do the Jews think about themselves and their relationship with God? Who are they? We're God's chosen people. We're his people. We're the distinct and separate nation. We're the people he set his love upon the unique people of Israel.

We've got the genealogy. We've got father Abraham had many sons. Many sons had I hear the kids laughing. They're like, what is this fool doing today? Many sons had fought that's what they're saying. Like that's our song like father Abraham.

Like that's our guy and this is the nation. We are we're very special in all the world and they were they were. Absolutely, but here isaiah is saying about 600 years before jesus that many Nations are going to come now stream up to the mountain of god.

And by the way, if you haven't noticed water doesn't go up. It goes down. So what is this very amazing picture of nations? Streaming like water being pulled up a mountain. That's the father drawing His elect from all over the world.

He's drawing them up his mountain to himself. But notice what it says they're going to do not only they're going to be drawn now pagan nations drawn up to god's mountain come into zion to the Place of the people of god now, we're going to have pagans who love yahweh the lord god of israel.

What kind of new covenant is this? This is crazy. This is amazing. This is the whole world. It's not just israel. It's the world coming to god. That's redemption. That's a new creation. That's something entirely new and god's going to draw the nations but what's it say the nations are going to do.

They're going to say as they come this. Come, let us go up to the mountain of god of the lord to the house of the god of jacob that he May teach us his ways. That we may walk in his paths for out of zion.

That's the place of the people of god shall go. The Law brothers and sisters isaiah is a jew about 600 years before jesus. Long after the time of moses, please come with me here on this think with me now.

Which law is isaiah referring to? The known law. The law of god the law is going to go forth from the people of god. That is a constituent element of what god is going to do in messiah salvation. Forgiveness he'll justify the many as he'll bear their iniquities.

He's going to be pierced through for our transgressions. But what else is god going to do? He's going to put his law within the people of god write it on their hearts. And the law is going to go forth from the people of god into the world as a blessing to the world.

They're going to say come let's learn his ways. Look at that law. Look at the blessing of that law. Look what god is doing. Another promise you're still in isaiah. Just move over now to isaiah 42. Another promise about what god is going to do in the new covenant what he's going to do with this messiah isaiah 42.

Isaiah chapter 42. My wife tells me that I go too fast when I go through scripture, so i'm slowing down. She's my help mate. And she's helping you now, too. So.

Isaiah 42.

Watch.

Verse one. Behold My servant whom I uphold my chosen in whom my soul delights I have put my spirit upon him. He will bring forth. What's the word?

Justice.

He will bring forth justice to the nations. He will not cry aloud or lift up his voice or make it heard in the street. A bruised reed he will not break in a faintly burning wick. He will not quench. Did you catch that?

Be honest you look at that and don't we go we go. What's exactly what what's that? What's that mean? A faintly burning wick. He will not quench. He's not gonna Break a bruised reed. He will not cry aloud or lift up his voice or make it heard in the street.

Well, this is really strange. God's servant the one he upholds Wait, hold on is going to bring forth justice Among all the nations. Righteousness justice is going to now fill the nations. He's going to bring it forth, but he's going to do it.

Without.

Breaking a reed without crying out being aggressive. A faintly burning wick he will not quench. Here is this humble gracious Messiah and servant who's going to do something that governments throughout history have tried to do apart from god and his law.

But he's going to accomplish it. Just consider for a moment. Don't government systems. Try to enforce or employ standards of justice. Do they not? You're like not this country not any longer. Think about it.

In the last 100 years how many government institutions have been raised up Pretending to actually raise up the standard of justice in a society and what they have brought is tyranny. Tyranny why. Because they're not enforcing god's standards of justice.

They are enforcing man's standards of justice. And have you noticed when human governments try to actually enforce? Justice in their nation. It becomes a tyranny. And when you walk into the hall with all the books and the law and the code and the standards of justice.

It is a hallway that you can't see the end of and it is paper upon paper and ink and ink. It is this extended hallway that never ends. And when people try to employ justice apart from god apart from god's law.

It is tyranny. It is harsh. It is heavy-handed. It is hard and oftentimes in human culture it leads to death. It leads to genocide. You cannot even fathom. I cannot even fathom the bodies that are piled upon each other Under the earth over the last 100 years of human governments that have tried to enforce what they say is justice.

And here's what isaiah says this chosen one this messiah. He's going to bring forth justice in the earth, but he's not going to do it like human governments. He's not going to do it by lifting his voice loud in the streets.

He's not going to do it with physical power and domination. And it says this he will not grow faint or be discouraged till he has established justice in the earth. And here's the word the coastlands wait for.

His.

Ready.

Torah.

The word is torah the coastlands.

Wait.

For his.

Torah.

So one of the promises of the messiah's kingdom of the new covenant is the law now goes from stone tablets outside of us. To inside of us. God is going to have his law go forth from the people of god.

The nations are going to come to god and this messianic figure is going to establish justice in the earth. The coastlands are waiting for his torah. They're waiting for it and god's going to do it and he's not going to be faint or discouraged until he has accomplished it.

Take that discouraged christians in 21st century north america. God's going to accomplish this work. It's not up to us. Ultimately. He will accomplish all of his purposes. Another promise I want you to see is ezekiel 36.

Ezekiel chapter 36 is a favorite one for reform folks. We have it on our t-shirts. We put it on memes. We say it all the time and that's that god takes a heart of stone and gives a heart of what? You know, you're in a calvinist church when everyone goes flesh.

That's regeneration y 'all.

Ezekiel 36.

This is a big promise and it is part of the new covenant promise. We can't divide our bibles up. And separate the promises of god from the old testament from the new our god is not divided. He is. Here's the word immutable.

Don't let it throw you. Here's what it means.

Unchanging.

He does not change. These promises are promises for you and I today. Ezekiel chapter 36 Ezekiel 36. Here's what I love. Watch this.

Oh, this is so good.

This is so good. Ezekiel 36 start in verse 32. We often don't do that when we read this in church. We start at 33 and on. But here's what god says. In 32 well, let me do this. Let's let's do this everyone start at verse 21.

Verse 21 god says this. But I had concern for my holy name which the house of israel had profaned among the nations to which they came. Israel my people have profaned my name. I have concern for my holy name my standards my righteousness.

You guys have profaned my name. You've made me look bad. You've given me a bad name among all the nations god says. But look what he says in verse 32 at the end of this discourse. He says it is not for your sake that I will act.

Declares the lord god. Let that be known to you. Sounds like such a parent, right? Make sure you know that. Be ashamed. And confounded for the lord what your ways oh house of israel. God is saying that this i'm not doing this for you.

I'm, not doing it for your glory. I'm not doing it for your name. I'm not doing it ultimately because of you. I'm doing it to vindicate the holiness of my great name that you've profaned among all the nations i'm going to act.

To uphold the greatness of my glory and by the way, that's the promise you want to hang on not your obedience not your. Um, not not just because of you and your personality and how amazing you are to god, right?

This is about god and his glory. He says you know i'm doing this and i'm doing it for my glory so you can take it to the bank. And god says this in verse 22. Therefore say to the house of israel thus says the lord god.

It is not for your sake oh house of israel that i'm about to act. But for the sake of my holy name which you have profaned among the nations to which you came. And I will vindicate the holiness of my great name.

Which has been profaned among the nations in which you have profaned among them and the nations will know. That I am the lord declares the lord god when through you I vindicate my holiness. Before their eyes and watch here's how he's going to do it.

I will take you from the nations and gather you from all the countries and bring you into your own land. I will sprinkle clean water on you and you shall be clean from all your uncleannesses and from all your idols I will cleanse you.

Hey brothers and sisters, how's that for hope in your sanctification? How's that for hope and freedom from drug and alcohol addiction. How's that for hope and freedom from pornography addiction? How's that for hope and freedom from the mean-spirited and rude behavior between spouses?

How's that for hope and freedom from selfishness? How's that. For hope and freedom from a lack of love. God says I will cleanse you. And I will cleanse you from all your idols. Your idols i'll cleanse you from them.

That's what god's going to do in the new covenant. He is doing this and then he says this. He says and I will give you a new heart. And a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh now pause there one of um.