Sermon

The Law and the New Testament Christian

Mt. Victory Baptist Church

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  1. So we're going to turn to Romans Chapter 3.

    Romans 3 chapter mention

  2. Does anybody need a copy of the lesson for tonight?

  3. We have a few of them. Anybody raise your hand and

  4. Charlie will take them around and give them out.

  5. And just a couple other things to mention.

  6. Number one, I failed to mention earlier that the Belize bylaws

  7. and all of that stuff that we're adding in, we've had, we've had

  8. we've we've been working together with a lawyer.

  9. Christian Law Association, or it's actually the National

  10. Center for Life and Liberty. But you know, so they wrote

  11. those bylaws for us. They're very well aware of the

  12. situation and we've done as much of the due diligence as we can

  13. to make sure that everything is covered and that we're doing

  14. everything is legally above board as possible.

  15. And so they were very satisfied. I actually had a lot more in it

  16. that I had written out and they condensed it way down and said

  17. you don't need all that. So anyway, look, read through

  18. that. If you have any questions, then

  19. then let me know. I want to mention this too.

  20. If we have some men that can help out with this after the

  21. service, we're going to set up the baptism, the the baptistry.

  22. We, we're going to do a baptism this Sunday.

  23. I think we have 3 or 4 that are planning to be baptized.

  24. And so if we can, if you can help out with that, that would

  25. be a big help. And I just let me mention this

  26. too. Obviously Brian mentioned that I

  27. was working or that I was there at the graduation for the police

  28. and I had to slip out. It wasn't done yet, but it's a

  29. tremendous opportunity. And, and I know, you know, it's,

  30. it's, it's a ministry that most of you don't see anything of.

  31. You see some police officers come in and out and, you know,

  32. we've, we've been able to really do a lot on a, on a side that

  33. most people don't see, but especially for the, for the

  34. graduation, which is, you know, Brian mentioned that, you know,

  35. they don't, they don't change the schedule for our church

  36. service and they, they take the facilities when they can get

  37. them. And, and this was a very big

  38. graduation. And so I do the, I, I open this,

  39. the graduation in prayer. But they, the bigger opportunity

  40. is that, you know, I, I go into the police Academy at least once

  41. a month, sometimes more, depending on the, the situation.

  42. But I spend some time with the officers, just just me and the

  43. officers and, and have some. Kind of good.

  44. Heart to heart talks with them, give them great opportunity to,

  45. to get to know me, me to get to know them before they get out on

  46. the road and, and have an impact.

  47. And so tonight, as I usually do, I, I talk to them and I get to

  48. present all of them with a Bible.

  49. And you know, I put a note in the front of it for all of them,

  50. put a, put a gospel track in there and everything as well.

  51. So, you know, there's, there's going to come a point for a lot

  52. of them where they hit a rough spot because they always do.

  53. And that's where that influence comes in.

  54. And, and what you don't see as many of the, the times of

  55. sitting down at breakfast, you know, early in the morning or,

  56. you know, many different opportunities that I've had to

  57. share the gospel with somebody for two hours.

  58. And, you know, those are just doors that God's opening up.

  59. And, you know, we've seen some fruit from it.

  60. I believe we're going to see a lot more from that.

  61. But at the very least the seeds are being planted.

  62. And you know, those are, like I said, it's a, it's a ministry

  63. that it's a ministry that most of you don't see, but it's a

  64. ministry and it's a very, very needed ministry.

  65. You know, you just no telling what what God can do with, with

  66. some of these, you know, officers and how God will use

  67. it. And we have a few coming right

  68. now that that we're praying for. So just just keep praying for

  69. them. And, and I keep praying for that

  70. ministry, but. I want to try.

  71. To get all the way through this tonight, I know it's there's,

  72. it's kind of long, but some of it's a little bit redundant,

  73. basically saying the same things.

  74. And so it's, it's just making the point over and over again.

  75. So we'll kind of cover it a little bit closer at the

  76. beginning and then, you know, just just kind of touch on a

  77. couple different things as we make our way through next

  78. Wednesday. We have an evangelist, Eric

  79. Ramos, that's going to be coming through.

  80. He's, I've been a friend of mine for a long, long time and he's

  81. going to be down in this area. And so he, he mentioned

  82. something about coming to church and I said, man, you need to

  83. preach for us. So he's going to.

  84. And so, so that's another reason why I want to try to get through

  85. this tonight as well. I don't, I don't like to take

  86. two weeks with a, with a week in between to try to finish

  87. something up. So.

  88. Turn over to Romans chapter 3 and we're going to jump into

    Romans 3 chapter mention

  89. this. But I think so.

  90. So this is the law and the New Testament Christian.

  91. And and as he mentions here at the beginning, there's a lot of

  92. confusion about the law of Moses and what place it has in a

  93. Christian life. And you know, there's a lot of

  94. people. So, so to finish the statement,

  95. it is essential for every believer to settle this issue on

  96. a solid scriptural footing. The following major New

  97. Testament passages. Passages clarify this matter.

  98. And that's what we're going to look at tonight is those

  99. passages. But the idea here is this, well,

  100. the Old Testament is the Old Testament.

  101. We don't have to follow any of that anymore.

  102. The New Testament is the New Testament and that's the only

  103. thing that we have. We're not under the law.

  104. We're under grace. So everything that was written

  105. in the Old Testament doesn't, doesn't apply to us today.

  106. Only the things that are in the New Old Testament apply to us.

  107. That's, that's kind of the thinking.

  108. OK, not not to mention that most of the world still follows the

  109. 10 commandments and the 10 commandments are in the Old

  110. Testament. Why do we follow the 10

  111. commandments? Why were those not done away

  112. with when Christ came and established the new covenant and

  113. got rid of the old covenant? He got rid of the law and now

  114. we're under grace. Why do we still follow the 10

  115. commandments, Right? That's kind of the question.

  116. Why, why do we, how do we pick and choose which ones we follow

  117. and which ones we don't? Because very clearly we don't

  118. sacrifice animals anymore, right?

  119. Very clearly we don't follow the feasts and all the special holy

  120. days and all of those things, right?

  121. So why don't we do that? But we, but we still follow the

  122. 10 commandments. What, what is the difference

  123. here? And that's, that's kind of what

  124. we're talking about here. Now there's another side of this

  125. too, another aspect of this, which is basically, you know,

  126. the, IT explains the reason why most of the other religions in

  127. the world are not the way to Christ, right or not, not, not

  128. the way to heaven, I should say, because they're not going

  129. through Christ or going through works.

  130. And when I say most of the other religions, I'm saying that you

  131. don't have to be a Baptist to go to heaven right now, Why not go

  132. first class? But at the same time, you don't

  133. have to be a Baptist to go to heaven.

  134. There are others who are preaching the truth who are

  135. different in other doctrines from us, but they are preaching

  136. the truth. Most of them, though, are not

  137. preaching the truth because it's a works based salvation.

  138. The Catholics, the Mormons, the, the Methodists, the

  139. Presbyterians, many of them are, it's, it's all based on your

  140. works and what you can do to earn your way to heaven.

  141. Even if they don't say that, but many of them are, you know,

  142. they, they include that you have to be baptized or that you have

  143. to be baptized as a baby or that your baptism as a baby is enough

  144. to save you. And all of those things are

  145. works, right? Even if it's even if it's only

  146. baptism even. And there are there are groups

  147. out there, religions, if you want to call them that, out

  148. there who say you have to be saved and baptized to go to

  149. heaven, right? Baptism is necessary for

  150. salvation. Well, even if you don't include

  151. anything else, it's still a work, right?

  152. It's still something that you have to do to earn your way to

  153. heaven. And it's not just Christ, it's

  154. Christ plus baptism. It's Christ plus baptism and

  155. communion. It's Christ plus baptism and,

  156. and you know, praying the rosary, Christ plus baptism and,

  157. and communion and praying the rosary and confessing your sins

  158. to the priests and, and, you know, doing all of these

  159. different things. And most of the religions that

  160. that that wrap themselves around works are an offshoot of

  161. Catholicism, right? It's not the only one, but

  162. Catholicism was started all the way back in the three hundreds

  163. under Constantine. So everything that has come

  164. since then has pretty much come as part of an offshoot of the

  165. Catholic Church, right? The Baptist, And this is not

  166. what our point is tonight. But the Baptist Church was never

  167. part of the Catholic Church. That's why we don't consider

  168. ourselves to be Protestants. I'm not a Protestant.

  169. I was never inside the Catholic Church protesting anything,

  170. right? I was always on the outside of

  171. it protesting the Catholic Church.

  172. And I say I am talking about Baptists.

  173. Baptists are not Protestants, right?

  174. The the Methodists came out of that.

  175. The Presbyterians came out of that.

  176. The Lutheran's came out of that. You know, obviously you have

  177. Martin Luther who was, who was part of the Protestant

  178. Reformation. He was protesting what was going

  179. on in the Catholic Church. But Martin Luther did not want

  180. to get rid of all of the doctrine of the Catholic Church.

  181. He wanted to change some of the things about the Catholic

  182. Church. Now, what he did was very bold

  183. and he took a very strong stand in a in a day and age when it

  184. was nothing for them to bump you off, right.

  185. And he, you know, very easily could have.

  186. The thing is with a lot of those guys that we consider to be the

  187. reformers, they were, they were just as bad as the Catholics

  188. when it came to persecuting the people that didn't agree with

  189. them. So here they are protesting the

  190. Catholic Church, they establish their religion and then they

  191. start killing the Baptist and the Waldensians and everybody

  192. else who didn't agree, the Anabaptist, the people who

  193. didn't agree with them, right? So how are you any different?

  194. You're not right. And it's, it's because all of

  195. that was based on works, right? They called them Anabaptist

  196. rebaptizers. Well, basically what they're

  197. saying is no, I got baptized as a baby in the Catholic Church.

  198. I don't need to get baptized again.

  199. You're doing it wrong. You're rebaptizing everybody

  200. when what they're saying is you need to be baptized after

  201. salvation, right? And a Baptist and, and a lot of

  202. other things that go along with that.

  203. But that will kind of explain some of these things here.

  204. So Romans chapter 3, if you've ever, and I hope, hope you have,

    Romans 3 chapter mention

  205. if you've ever taken somebody through the gospel, you've come

  206. to Romans chapter 3. And Romans 323 is where most of

    Romans 3 chapter mention

  207. us would start. Now you could start in a couple

  208. other places and, and lead them to Romans 323.

  209. But verse #19 is where we'll start with this.

  210. And this is kind of the first step in soul winning.

  211. But verse #19 Now we know that what things so ever the law

  212. saith, it saith to them who are under the law, that every mouth

  213. may be stopped, and all the world may become guilty before

  214. God. Therefore by the deeds of the

  215. law, there shall no flesh be justified in His sight.

  216. For by the law is the knowledge of sin.

  217. And we could stop right there, and that would pretty much sum

  218. everything up. The law was given to help us

  219. understand that we are sinners. That's why the law was there,

  220. because you know what? You can't do?

  221. It can't keep the whole law. Nobody can.

  222. There's two ways to heaven, right?

  223. Everybody says there's only one way to heaven, Jesus Christ.

  224. There's two ways to heaven. You could be perfect.

  225. You could be perfect and you would go to heaven, right?

  226. But since nobody fits in that category, then the only option

  227. that we have is through Jesus Christ, right?

  228. But that's what the law is there for.

  229. The law is there to tell you that you're not perfect and that

  230. you can't get to heaven be on your own because you're not

  231. right. So verse #2021.

  232. But now the righteousness of God without the law is manifested,

  233. being witnessed by the law and the prophets, even the

  234. righteousness of God, which is by faith of Jesus Christ unto

  235. all and upon all of them that believe.

  236. For there is no difference, for all have sinned and come short

  237. of the glory of God, being justified freely by His grace

  238. through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus.

  239. So three things that we want to look at here under this passage.

  240. And here we go #1 the law of Moses or the old covenant was

  241. given to show men that God is holy and that they are sinners.

  242. And we looked at verse #19 Now we know that what things soever

  243. the law saith, it saith to them who are under the law, that

  244. every mouth may be stopped and all the world may become guilty

  245. before God. Men naturally think that they're

  246. righteous, right? I've, I've talked to people who

  247. when I've said the Bible says that all is sinned and comes

  248. short of the glory of God. Now, I think you, you could

  249. admit that you're a Sinner, right?

  250. Well, I wouldn't say that, but how can you not admit that

  251. you're a Sinner? But there's people, many people

  252. who don't believe that they're that they're sinners.

  253. You know, maybe I've, you know, told a little white lie before

  254. or something like that. But I'm not, I'm not a bad

  255. person. I'm not, you know, so they

  256. compare themselves to the human standards of righteousness.

  257. Well, compare compared to the guy that's sitting down there on

  258. death row in jail, I'm a pretty good person, right?

  259. Even if they admit that. Well, yeah, maybe I've told a

  260. lie here and there, or maybe I've done, you know, some things

  261. that I shouldn't have done, but overall, I'm a pretty good

  262. person. I think God will probably let me

  263. into heaven, right? What are they comparing that to?

  264. They're comparing their righteousness to somebody else's

  265. righteousness. Not God's, for sure, and

  266. certainly not to the word of God, but they're comparing it to

  267. the human standards of righteousness and with each

  268. other rather than with God's perfect law.

  269. What God's perfect law helps us to understand is when you

  270. compare yourself to that, you fall way short.

  271. And that's why we have Romans 323 for all have sinned and come

  272. short of the glory of God because of that sin.

  273. Take the 10 commandments for example.

  274. And again, they're all listed here.

  275. I'm not going to take the time to turn over to Exodus chapter

    Exodus 20 chapter mention

  276. 20, but we've broken every one of them.

  277. We put other gods before the one true God.

  278. We've made idols and worshiped Him.

  279. We worship and serve ourselves more than God, and we make our

  280. own selves into idols. We've taken the name of the Lord

  281. in vain. We've broken the Sabbath and

  282. treated all days the same, neglecting to set apart even one

  283. day for the worship of God. We've dishonored and disobeyed

  284. our parents. We've killed, we've committed

  285. adultery, we've stolen, we've lied, we've coveted, right?

  286. Well, there's a few of those that I've never done.

  287. All right, let's go to Matthew, right?

  288. Matthew chapter 5. You don't have, you can turn

    Matthew 5 chapter mention

  289. over there. In fact, let's turn over there

  290. for a second. Matthew chapter 5.

    Matthew 5 chapter mention

  291. OK, we're coming back to Romans chapter 3.

    Romans 3 chapter mention

  292. But look at look at Matthew chapter 5.

    Matthew 5 chapter mention

  293. Because Jesus changed everything about the whole intent of the

  294. those 10 commandments, right? And you could say, well, I've

  295. never committed adultery. Well, I've never murdered

  296. somebody. Well, I've never done this.

  297. But Christ thought that not only is perfect external obedience

  298. required, but perfect internal obedience is required, right?

  299. And he, he turns all of that on his head.

  300. Verse 21. Matthew chapter 5.

    Matthew 5 chapter mention

  301. Verse 21. You've heard that it was said by

  302. them of old time, Thou shalt not kill.

  303. Oh, there you go. I've never killed.

  304. I've never killed anybody. And whosoever shall kill shall

  305. be in danger of judgment. Verse 22 But I say unto you that

  306. whosoever is angry with his brother without a cause shall be

  307. in danger of the judgment. And whosoever shall say to his

  308. brother, Raqqa shall be in danger of the council.

  309. But whosoever shall shall say, thou fool shall be in danger of

  310. Hellfire. You get angry at somebody that's

  311. that's that's a hard issue and that's God sees it as murder,

  312. right. So you may never have actually

  313. taken out a knife and stabbed somebody or, you know, shot

  314. somebody or something like that, but you get angry at a brother

  315. without a cause. That's the same as murder in

  316. God's eyes. How about this one verse, verse

  317. 27. You've heard that it have that

  318. it was said by them of old time. Thou shalt not commit adultery.

  319. Oh, I've never committed adultery.

  320. I would never right, but I say unto you, that whosoever looketh

  321. on a woman to lust after her hath committed adultery with her

  322. already in his heart. So you have perfect external

  323. obedience. And Jesus took it a step

  324. further. Now you need perfect internal

  325. obedience if you're going to live up to God's law, right?

  326. So the law of Moses requires perfect obedience.

  327. And James chapter 2 and verse 10 tells us that whosoever shall

    James 2 chapter mention

  328. keep the whole law and yet offended one point, he's guilty

  329. of all, right? That means 11 sin, one sin is

  330. enough. So Christ is teaching that not

  331. only does God require that perfect external obedience, but

  332. he quite requires that perfect internal obedience, right?

  333. Which changes everything. Well, I'm not under the law

  334. anymore. I'm under grace.

  335. So those things don't matter to me, OK, Take them out.

  336. Take those things out. Jesus made it a lot more

  337. difficult than what the law did, right?

  338. Right. I almost take the law because I

  339. can, I cannot commit adultery. I could not murder somebody.

  340. But when you, when you put it into a heart aspect and that

  341. changes it up, that that changes it a lot, right?

  342. Have you ever been angry? Have you ever looked at a woman

  343. with lust? Have you ever done these other

  344. things in your heart? That's what that's the standard

  345. that we have to live up to. So the Law of Moses or the Old

  346. covenant was given to show men that God is holy and that

  347. they're sinners #2 the law of Moses cannot bring salvation.

  348. So we're back over in Romans chapter 3, back over in Romans

    Romans 3 chapter mention Romans 3 chapter mention

  349. chapter 3 and verse #20. Therefore, by the deeds of the

  350. law there shall no flesh be justified in his sight.

  351. For by the law is the knowledge of sin.

  352. The law can't do anything to get us to heaven, right?

  353. The law only brings the knowledge of sin.

  354. The Old Testament cannot bring salvation because it requires

  355. perfect holiness, whereas man is a fallen Sinner and cannot live

  356. up to the requirements. So the law of God can only curse

  357. us that we're justified, that we're justified.

  358. No flesh shall be justified in His sight.

  359. That means to declared righteous by God.

  360. The law can't do that. The law can't declare us

  361. righteous. The only thing that the law can

  362. do is condemn us, right? Only God can declare us

  363. righteous. And I've used this several

  364. times, even recently. Justified, it means I'm standing

  365. before God just as if I'd never sinned, right?

  366. That's what justified is when God sees me, He sees me as

  367. somebody with the righteousness of Jesus Christ.

  368. God cannot declare A Sinner righteous on the basis of the

  369. law of Moses because that requires perfect obedience.

  370. So the law of Moses can't bring salvation and, and, and

  371. basically then as we read, that leaves no one righteous verse.

  372. Actually Romans chapter 3 and verse #10 as it is written,

    Romans 3 chapter mention

  373. there is none righteous, no, not one, because there's nobody who

  374. can live up to the perfect standard of the law of Moses.

  375. Nobody can do that. So #3 then salvation is through

  376. faith in Jesus Christ. And we read the rest of those

  377. verses already, but it's but, but it concludes in verse #24

  378. being justified freely by His grace through the redemption

  379. that is in Christ Jesus. So the way of salvation is not

  380. through the law of Moses, it's through the blood of Jesus

  381. Christ. The law demanded that the Sinner

  382. died. Jesus then died in our place,

  383. and that's where you would take somebody to Romans chapter 6 and

    Romans 6 chapter mention

  384. verse 23. For the wages of sin is death,

  385. but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our

  386. Lord. The law demanded that blood be

  387. shed, and Jesus shed His righteous blood in payment for

  388. our sin. Hebrews 922 the without the

  389. shedding of blood, there is no remission of sins right, because

  390. of what Jesus Christ did on the cross.

  391. Somebody who as a Sinner can believe on Jesus Christ and we

  392. can be saved because of the righteousness of God through

  393. faith doesn't have anything to do with how we keep the law or

  394. don't keep the law. The believers justified freely

  395. and that means that salvation is a gift of God that was purchased

  396. by Jesus Christ and the Bible says that it became the becomes

  397. the propitiation for our sin. What does that word propitiation

  398. mean? Well, propitiation means a

  399. satisfaction of a debt. He became the satisfaction of

  400. the debt we had a debt that we could not pay.

  401. He paid a debt that he did not owe, but he became the

  402. satisfaction of that debt for us.

  403. And, and I know that you, you understand that.

  404. I mean, if you are, you know, I, I, I saw a, a YouTube video,

  405. just a compilation of, of this guy who, he's got some kind of

  406. channel or something. And he goes around and, and

  407. there's people, you know, and he and, and it's, you know,

  408. typically they look a little bit less, you know, wealthy.

  409. And they're, they're checking out at a grocery store and they,

  410. they check all their, you know, they scan all their items.

  411. And then he comes walking up and he says, excuse me real quick.

  412. And the people are just kind of like, OK, what are you know,

  413. what are you doing? And he sticks his card up there.

  414. Card reads it beep And he walks away And they they go back up

  415. there and they start fumbling through their wallet to pay and

  416. they and the cashier says it's already been paid.

  417. He said, what do you mean it's already been paid?

  418. Yeah, that guy just paid it for you.

  419. And he's like, what is that what he was doing?

  420. I was wondering what he was doing.

  421. Where, where did he go? You know, but that that's

  422. exactly what the propitiation is.

  423. You had a debt that you owed and somebody else came in and paid

  424. that debt for you, Right. And that's exactly what Jesus

  425. Christ is to us. We had a debt that was so great

  426. we could never pay it right now. Obviously, those people probably

  427. could pay it at the cashier because they were getting ready

  428. to. It's just, I mean, how nice it

  429. is to have somebody come up and pay that for you, right?

  430. But Jesus Christ paid a debt that there was no way that we

  431. could pay. It was greater than anything

  432. that we could ever pay back. It was greater than anything

  433. that we could ever do to earn anything that would be anywhere

  434. close to enough. But Jesus Christ did that for

  435. us, and that's what that word propitiation means.

  436. Now we're close. Let's go over to Romans Chapter

    Romans 7 chapter mention

  437. 7. Romans Chapter 7, verse one

    Romans 7 chapter mention

  438. through 4. No, you not, brethren, for I

  439. speak to them that know the law, how that the law hath dominion

  440. over a man as long as he liveth. For the woman which hath an

  441. husband is bound by the law to her husband so long as he

  442. liveth. But if the husband would be

  443. dead, she's loosed from the law of her husband.

  444. So then if while her husband liveth, she be married to

  445. another man, she shall be called an adulteress.

  446. But if her husband be dead, she's free from that law so that

  447. she's no adulteress, though she be married to another man.

  448. So Paul is using an example here.

  449. He's he's basically saying, all right, if if you're married and

  450. while you're married, you go marry somebody else, you're

  451. living in adultery, right? That's what adultery is.

  452. But if the husband dies, you're loose from that.

  453. You can go marry somebody else if you want to, because you're

  454. not under that law anymore. And then he brings it to the

  455. conclusion verse #4 Wherefore, my brethren, ye also are become

  456. dead to the law by the body of Christ, that you should be

  457. married to another, even to him who is raised from the dead,

  458. that we should bring forth fruit unto God.

  459. So we have a couple points underneath this passage #1 the

  460. law is not the Christian's rule in life.

  461. Christ is our new husband or a new Lord, and he rules our lives

  462. through the new covenant. We we're freed from that old

  463. covenant, right? I'm not, I'm not living in

  464. adultery. And I mean, I'm just using this

  465. example because I'm trying to live with the law and with

  466. Christ at the same time. No, I died, the law died to me

  467. because of what Christ did for me.

  468. So I'm free from all the law. I'm not free.

  469. I'm not, I'm not bound by any of those things because of what

  470. Christ did. And he and he uses an example

  471. you're trying to serve. God under the old law is like a

  472. woman who serves a husband only out of fear.

  473. She cooks and cleans the house because she's afraid not to.

  474. Serving God under the new law is like a woman who serves a

  475. husband out of love. She cooks and cleans house for

  476. her Master, but not because she's afraid of what he's going

  477. to do to her, but simply because he loves her and treats her so

  478. well that she in turn loves him. That's exactly how it is with

  479. God, right? I don't, I don't serve God.

  480. I don't live for God because I'm afraid that he's going to send

  481. me to hell. Because if he's my, if Jesus

  482. Christ is my Savior, and I know for sure that I'm on my way to

  483. heaven, as we've talked about extensively, you can't lose that

  484. salvation. So I don't serve him because I'm

  485. afraid that he's going to take away what I have.

  486. I serve him because I'm so thankful that he gave me what I

  487. do have and he loves me and I love him and I just want to

  488. serve him because of what He's done for me.

  489. I'm not, I'm not under the law. I'm not obligated to, to serve

  490. him. I'm not obligated to live for

  491. him. I'm not obligated to do things

  492. that are pleasing to him, right? Because he's not I, I'm saved.

  493. I, I'm not, I don't have to do those things.

  494. I get to do those things. That's the difference #2 The Law

  495. of Moses cannot condemn the believer.

  496. The believer says dead to the law as a wife is to a deceased

  497. husband. The Lord Jesus Christ took our

  498. condemnation upon Himself on the cross, and we're safe in Him

  499. from all fear of eternal judgment #3 The Christian has a

  500. new power, which is the indwelling Holy Spirit.

  501. Verse #6 But now we are delivered from the law, that

  502. being dead, wherein we were held, that we should serve in

  503. newness of spirit, and not in the oldness of the letter.

  504. Chapter 8 and verse #1 There is therefore now no condemnation

  505. which are in Christ Jesus who walk not after the flesh, but

  506. after the capital S Spirit. We're not under the law anymore.

  507. I'm not in that flesh. I, I can live in the Spirit now.

  508. And so I have when you get saved, the Holy Spirit comes and

  509. indwells you. It comes in and lives inside of

  510. you. And now I'm not doing this on my

  511. own. Now I'm not now I don't have to

  512. try so hard to please Christ. Now obviously we're fighting the

  513. flesh every day. We have things that we battle

  514. every day, but I have the Holy Spirit helping me do those

  515. things. Now let's go over to 2nd

  516. Corinthians chapter 3. Second Corinthians chapter 3,

    2 Corinthians 3 chapter mention

  517. and this is a long passage, so I'm not going to read the entire

  518. thing right here. I'm going to jump around in this

  519. as we go through this. So there's a few things, four

  520. things in under this passage that gives us some more insight

  521. into the law and the New Testament Christian.

  522. And these things are is this contrasting the Old Testament,

  523. the Old Covenant with the New covenant #1 the Old Covenant was

  524. the law of Moses. And we have Second Corinthians

    2 Corinthians 3 chapter mention

  525. chapter 3 and verse #7 But if the ministration or the

  526. dispensation of death written in engraving in stones was

  527. glorious, so that the children of Israel could not steadfastly

  528. behold the face of Moses for the glory of his countenance, which

  529. glory was to be done away. Verse 13.

  530. And not as Moses, which put a veil over his face, that the

  531. children of Israel could not steadfastly look to the end of

  532. that which is abolished. What he's saying is, OK, Moses

  533. was dealing with the old law and even that was so glorious that

  534. Moses had to cover his face with with a veil because it was it

  535. was shown so brightly. Now obviously had been in the

  536. presence of God, but what he's saying is if you think that's

  537. glorious, imagine what the new covenant is like.

  538. If you think the old law is is glorious, imagine what it's like

  539. living under Christ instead of under the law.

  540. It was written in engraving in stones that that specifically

  541. refers to the 10 commandments #2 the old covenant was

  542. administration of death as we just read and administration of

  543. condemnation verse #9 for if the ministration of condemnation be

  544. glory, much more death, the ministration of righteousness

  545. exceeding glory. He's, he's given us a contrast

  546. here, comparing contrast, right? If, if you thought that was

  547. good, you can't even imagine how good this is, right?

  548. That's what he's doing. He's comparing all these

  549. different things. This is because it required, it

  550. required perfect obedience from the heart.

  551. And we being sinners are incapable of providing that

  552. level of obedience. But now we can live in the power

  553. of the Holy Spirit and how we can live righteous before God

  554. because of what Jesus Christ did for us.

  555. If you thought it was good to have some of those, you know, I

  556. mean, look, God, God blessed Israel, right?

  557. God, God bless them for following him.

  558. Was was he blessing them because they were following him

  559. perfectly? No, in fact, the opposite of

  560. that was true, right? But he still blessed them

  561. because they followed him. And if you thought that those

  562. blessings of God were good because you followed him here

  563. and there, imagine how much better the blessing is of

  564. knowing Jesus Christ as your Savior, knowing that those sins

  565. are under the blood of Jesus Christ, knowing that everything

  566. is already taken care of. You thought that was good.

  567. You thought those were blessings.

  568. Look at this. That's a real blessing.

  569. That's what he's saying here. That's what he's comparing in

  570. contrast. So #3 the old covenant has been

  571. done away in Christ. Verse #11 For if that which is

  572. done away was glorious, much more that which remaineth is

  573. glorious #4 the believer has a new law.

  574. Verse 17. Now the Lord is that spirit, and

  575. where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty.

  576. But we all with open face, beholding as in a glass the

  577. glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory

  578. to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord.

  579. So the fact that the believer is not under the law of Moses does

  580. not mean that he doesn't have a law.

  581. In fact, we're held to a much higher law, the law of Christ.

  582. We're not, we're not looking at the holiness of the law anymore

  583. that we have to live up to. We're looking at the holiness of

  584. Christ that we have to live up to so far from, oh, well, we're

  585. not under the law anymore. So I don't have to do those

  586. things because I'm not under the law.

  587. I can live my life how I want to because I'm under grace.

  588. That's the way a lot of Christians live.

  589. And I can go do whatever I want to, right?

  590. If I want to, if I want to do this, I can do it because I'm

  591. under grace. There's no law to condemn me

  592. anymore. I'm a I'm, I'm saved.

  593. I'm on my way to heaven. I can.

  594. I can do what I want to do. And what Paul is saying is no,

  595. not necessarily. Yeah, you can.

  596. You're not going to lose your salvation, but you're not living

  597. up to the holiness of the. Law.

  598. Anymore you're living up to the holiness of Christ, and that's a

  599. much higher standard. Romans chapter 8, verse 29.

    Romans 8:29

  600. Let's go back over there real quick because this is kind of

  601. what it all comes down to. Of course, you know, verse 28.

  602. We know that all things work together for good to them that

  603. love God to them who are they called according to his purpose.

  604. But verse 29 says for whom he did foreknow.

  605. He also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his

  606. son that he might be the first born among many brethren.

  607. That is not Calvinism. That is not saying that he's

  608. predestining some people to be saved and others not to be

  609. saved. That's not what he's saying

  610. here. He's saying the ones that that

  611. that are saved. He's already predetermined.

  612. He's already predestined us to be conformed to the image of his

  613. son. That's what we're supposed to

  614. be. So as we see him in the

  615. Scriptures, we are to change to his image and we are changed to

  616. his image. Let's go over to Galatians

    Galatians 3 chapter mention

  617. chapter 3. Galatians, chapter 3.

    Galatians 3 chapter mention

  618. Another passage here that discusses the Law and our

  619. standing as New Testament Christians.

  620. Verse #10 For as many as are of the works of the law are under

  621. the curse, for it is written cursed is everyone that continue

  622. with not in all things which are written in the book of the law

  623. to do them, but that no man is justified by the law in the

  624. sight of God. It is evident.

  625. For the just shall live by faith, and the law is not a

  626. faith, but the man that doeth them shall live in them.

  627. Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a

  628. curse for us. For it is written cursed is

  629. everyone that handeth on a tree that the blessing of Abraham

  630. might come on the Gentiles through Jesus Christ, that we

  631. might receive the promise of the spirit capital S through faith.

  632. Boy, what a what a tremendous passage if you just sit there

  633. and try to absorb everything that he's saying in there.

  634. But a few things about this. Number one, the Law of Moses or

  635. the Old Covenant required perfect obedience in all things.

  636. Men, therefore cannot be saved by it.

  637. We've already talked about that, and that's what I'm saying.

  638. Some of these things are redundant, but it's just a

  639. confirmation passage. It's a passage that's saying

  640. exactly the same thing in a different way.

  641. But because it requires that perfect holiness, it can only

  642. bring a curse upon us. We cannot live up to the holy

  643. requirements of the law. But Christ took the punishment

  644. that was demanded by the law. And we read in verse #13 Christ

  645. hath redeemed us from the curse of the law.

  646. Being made a curse, curse for us.

  647. How was He made a curse for us? Well, because cursed is everyone

  648. that angles on a tree. He hung on that tree.

  649. He died in our place in order to provide us with that eternal

  650. salvation. And only Christ could do that

  651. because He was perfect and He had lived up perfectly to the

  652. law. He was the only one that could

  653. have redeemed us back to God. Because of that #3 the Law of

  654. Moses is our schoolmaster to lead us to Christ.

  655. Let's go. Let's go to verse 23 of

  656. Galatians chapter 3. But before faith came, we were

    Galatians 3 chapter mention

  657. kept under the law, shut up unto the faith, which should

  658. afterward be revealed. Wherefore the law was our

  659. schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ, that we might be

  660. justified by faith. What does a schoolmaster do?

  661. It's a teacher, right? They teach you the things that

  662. you need to know. And that's exactly what the law

  663. was doing. The law was teaching us.

  664. You cannot live up to this standard.

  665. You cannot be perfect. That's all the law was there

  666. for. It was to be the schoolmaster,

  667. to appoint us to Christ and to teach us that we needed Christ

  668. because we couldn't. We couldn't live up to that

  669. standard on our own. And so that's the major purpose

  670. of the law. It was designed by God to show

  671. this Sinner has fallen and lost condition and to lead him to

  672. faith in Christ. And then #4 is that the believer

  673. is not under the law of Moses as a rule of life.

  674. Galatians chapter 3 and verse 25.

    Galatians 3 chapter mention

  675. But after that faith has come, we are no longer under a

  676. schoolmaster, right? So the believer's law is not the

  677. law of Moses. The believer's law is the new

  678. law. It's the law of Christ, a means

  679. to be conformed to his image. The believers new law is also

  680. called the law of the Spirit as we well we can read that in

  681. verse #16 now to Abraham and his seed, where the promise is made.

  682. He saith not and to and to seeds as of many, but as of 1 and to

  683. thy seed, which is Christ. And this I say, that the

  684. covenant that was confirmed before of God in Christ, the law

  685. which was 430 years after, cannot dis annul that it should

  686. be made that that that it should make the promise of none effect.

  687. For if the inheritance be of the law, it is no more a prom of

  688. promise, but God gave it to Abraham by promise.

  689. So by walking in the Spirit, which means obeying the Spirit

  690. and yielding to the Holy Spirit, a believer is not fulfilling the

  691. law of the flesh. We're fulfilling the law of

  692. Christ and the law of the Spirit.

  693. Let's go to Colossians chapter 2.

    Colossians 2 chapter mention

  694. Colossians chapter 2. I hope this is painting a

    Colossians 2 chapter mention

  695. picture for you. A lot of these, as I said, a lot

  696. of these things are saying the same thing, they're just saying

  697. it in a little bit different way.

  698. But it's all saying the law cannot be kept perfectly.

  699. And because you can't keep the law perfectly, you are a Sinner

  700. and you are condemned because of the law.

  701. Therefore, you need something besides the law to redeem you

  702. back to Christ. Christ died on the cross to pay

  703. for that sin that we could not and to pay for that unholiness

  704. that we could never live up to that standard.

  705. And because of that, we can be saved, not by the law, by

  706. Christ. Colossians chapter 2 and verse

    Colossians 2 chapter mention

  707. #13 And you being dead in your sins, and the uncircumcision of

  708. your flesh, hath He quickened together, quickened means made

  709. alive. You were dead, He made you

  710. alive, having forgiven you all trespasses, blotting out the

  711. handwriting of ordinances. That was against us, which was

  712. contrary to us. I love this and took it out of

  713. the way, nailing it to His cross, and having spoiled

  714. principalities and powers, He made a show of them, openly

  715. triumphing over them in it. Let no man therefore judge you

  716. in meat, or in drink, or in respective and holy day, or of

  717. the new moon of the Sabbath days which are a shadow of things to

  718. come, but the bodies of Christ. Now what we're, what the Bible

  719. is saying here is, well, a couple things.

  720. Number one, I've used this illustration many times, but you

  721. have all of your sins written out and you, you go to stand

  722. before God and God says, why should I let you into heaven?

  723. And you present your list and he says, there's whosoever shall

  724. keep the whole law and yet offended at one point you're

  725. guilty of all of it. If you had one thing written

  726. down against your name, I can't let you into heaven, but you

  727. have thousands, thousands over your lifetime.

  728. I can't let you into heaven, right?

  729. But when you accept Christ as your Savior, he takes all of

  730. those sins and he covers them under his blood.

  731. So when you stand before God, God no longer sees the list of

  732. all your sins. There is no law to condemn you

  733. because there's no sin that goes against your account because

  734. it's all been covered under the blood of Jesus Christ.

  735. So the law can't condemn you. Only the blood of Jesus Christ

  736. can justify you when you stand before God so he doesn't see all

  737. of your sins. All he sees when he looks at you

  738. is the blood of Jesus Christ covering your sins, right?

  739. That's what faith is. That's what repentance is.

  740. It's all, it's all of those things that we've been talking

  741. about that are all tied up in that.

  742. But Christ took away the old covenant or the law of Moses.

  743. He did that by fulfilling the demands of the law and paying

  744. the price that we owed for breaking the law, right?

  745. Whether that be a fine or whether that be jail time or

  746. whatever it happens to be, He paid the penalty that we deserve

  747. to pay. And of course, then the believer

  748. doesn't follow the old covenant. The law contains types and

  749. shadows that point to Christ, but the believer has Christ

  750. himself, right? Why are we under grace instead

  751. of under the law? Because the law was just a

  752. picture. It was just a, it was just a

  753. picture to point us to Christ, right?

  754. All the things that they did with the sacrifices, why don't

  755. we do those anymore? Because those sacrifices were

  756. just pointing to Christ and he's here.

  757. We don't need that anymore. All the you look at all of the

  758. things that they did in the in the Tabernacle boy, and there's

  759. so many of them. Why don't we do those anymore?

  760. Isn't that part of the law? Isn't that part of the Bible?

  761. No, we have Christ. He fulfilled all of those

  762. things. All of those things were just

  763. pictures and types pointing to the real thing and the real

  764. thing came. He's already here.

  765. So we don't have to live under those things anymore.

  766. We're freed from all of those things because we have Christ.

  767. All of those things were there to teach them about the the

  768. Messiah that was coming. Although those things were there

  769. to teach them who was coming and what was going to happen when he

  770. did come. But he came.

  771. So I don't have to live under those things anymore.

  772. I don't need the shadows and types.

  773. I have the real thing, right. Well, if you're, if you are,

  774. let's say a husband and wife and you're separated for a while

  775. because, you know, you're on a business trip or something,

  776. you're right. Or maybe just say that the the

  777. husband's in the military and he went away and he's been gone for

  778. a year, right? And you're standing there at the

  779. airport and you know what direction he's coming from and

  780. you see his shadow on the wall. Are you going to be so excited

  781. to run over there and hug the shadow?

  782. Right. Oh, I'm so glad to have you

  783. back. Oh, you want the real thing,

  784. right? Forget the shadow.

  785. That's just telling you, hey, he's right around the corner.

  786. He's almost here, right? And that's exactly what the law

  787. was. There's nothing to embrace about

  788. the law. There's nothing great about

  789. that. It's just, it's just a type.

  790. It's just a picture to show you that the real thing is coming.

  791. And then he came. Why would I want the shadow?

  792. I don't need that anymore. I don't need the types and the

  793. pictures and all of those things.

  794. I have the real thing, right? And there's no reason to embrace

  795. all of that. He's here.

  796. And that's exactly what this the Bible is talking about.

  797. We don't follow the old covenant anymore because we have the real

  798. thing. He's here, right?

  799. All right, now let's go to 1st Corinthians chapter 10.

  800. And we'll end with this because this is kind of where we bring

  801. all of this together. So we don't need the law

  802. anymore. The law was just to point us to

  803. Christ, right? Everything that we see was just

  804. a type A shadow. We cannot live up to the perfect

  805. holiness of the law. And so Christ comes, He redeems

  806. us back to himself. We're justified by faith in

  807. Christ. We've repented and asked Christ

  808. to forgive us of our sins and come into our heart and to save

  809. us, and he does. But what about the rest of the

  810. law? What about, what about the 10

  811. commandments, right? What about the other things that

  812. we find in God's word? Which ones do we follow?

  813. Which ones do we not follow right.

  814. So this is this is kind of where all of this comes together.

  815. So let's let's look at First Corinthians chapter 10 and we'll

    1 Corinthians 10 chapter mention

  816. just read the first 11 verses there.

  817. Moreover, brethren, I would not that you should be ignorant how

  818. that all of our fathers were under the cloud and all passed

  819. through the sea and we're all baptized unto Moses in the cloud

  820. and in the sea and did all eat the same spiritual meat and did

  821. all drink the same spiritual drink for the drank of that

  822. spiritual rock that followed them.

  823. And that rock was Christ. But with many of them, God was

  824. not well pleased. For they were overthrown in the

  825. wilderness. Now these things were our

  826. examples to the intent. We should not lust after evil

  827. things, as they also lusted, neither be idolaters, as were

  828. some of them as it is written. The people sat down to eat and

  829. drink, and rose up to play. Neither let us commit

  830. fornication, as some of them committed and fell in one day

  831. three and 20,000 Neither let us tempt Christ, as some of them

  832. also tempted and were destroyed of serpents.

  833. Neither murmur ye, as some of them also murmured and were

  834. destroyed of the destroyer. Now all these things happen unto

  835. them for in samples, and they are written for our admonition

  836. upon whom the ends of the world are come.

  837. So pretty clearly then, some of the sins in the Old Testament

  838. are still condemned today, right?

  839. Just because we're not under the law anymore doesn't mean that we

  840. can be idolaters, doesn't mean that we can commit fornication,

  841. doesn't mean that we can tempt Christ, doesn't mean that we can

  842. murmur, doesn't mean that we can do all of those things right

  843. just because we're not under the law anymore.

  844. He said they did it and they were punished.

  845. And if you do it, you're going to be punished, right?

  846. So though the law of Moses is not the believer's rule of life,

  847. it is an important source of instruction for the Christian

  848. life. We learn from its examples.

  849. And that's exactly what the Bible says there in verse #11

  850. Now all these things happened unto them for in samples.

  851. And they are written for our admonition, our instruction.

  852. That's what they're there for. And so we draw the spiritual

  853. lessons from the things that we read in the law.

  854. In first Corinthians chapter 10, Paul draws lessons from Israel's

    1 Corinthians 10 chapter mention

  855. wilderness wanderings. That's exactly what he's talking

  856. about. They, they got water from the

  857. rock. They followed those things, but

  858. God wasn't pleased with them. And a lot of things they did

  859. this and this and this and this and this.

  860. And God had to punish him for it, right?

  861. So we learned the lessons about Christ as the rock and the

  862. living water. And we are warned not to go by

  863. idolatry and fornication or to murmur against God.

  864. The New Testament is filled with such lessons from the law of

  865. Moses. First Corinthians 5.

  866. Paul draws lessons from the Passover.

  867. Let's go over to Hebrews chapter 3.

    Hebrews 3 chapter mention

  868. Hebrews chapter 3 and verse #7. The writer of Hebrews who I

    Hebrews 3 chapter mention

  869. believe is the apostle Paul is no guarantee, but I believe it

  870. was Paul that wrote the book of Hebrews.

  871. He's drawing lessons from Israel's unbelief in the

  872. hardness of their hearts in the wilderness.

  873. Hebrews chapter 3 and verse #7 I was in Chapter 7, sorry.

    Hebrews 3 chapter mention

  874. Hebrews chapter 3 and verse #7 Wherefore as the Holy Ghost

    Hebrews 3 chapter mention

  875. saith today, if you will hear his voice, this is coming from

  876. Psalm 95. Harden not your hearts, as in

  877. the provocation in the day of temptation in the wilderness,

  878. when your Father's tempted me, proved me, and saw my works 40

  879. years. Wherefore I was grieved with

  880. that generation, and said, They do all way air in their heart,

  881. and they have not known My ways, so I swear in my wrath they

  882. shall not enter into my rest. Take heed brethren, lest there

  883. be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief and departing from

  884. the living God. But exhort one another daily

  885. while it is called today, lest any of you be hardened through

  886. the deceitfulness of sin. Those first 5-6 verses were

  887. taken directly from the Old Testament and he's saying these

  888. warnings to them in the Old Testament are the same warnings

  889. to you today. Better take heed to him, better

  890. follow him, right? So the New Testament is filled

  891. with with those lessons from the Law of Moses.

  892. So we interpret lessons from the Law of Moses by comparing

  893. Scripture with Scripture to see if the lessons are supported by

  894. the rest of Scripture. In other words, the laws that we

  895. follow from the Old Testament are restated in the New

  896. Testament, maybe not in the exact same way, but the same

  897. sins that were sins in the Old Testament, that are sins in this

  898. dispensation and in this new covenant era are listed again,

  899. right? And that is the moral laws.

  900. The moral laws are laws that that don't change.

  901. They're God's, they're God's laws, right?

  902. You can have your dietary laws and your civil laws.

  903. And that's why if you get a spot on your head, you don't have to

  904. go to a priest and get him to look at it and say, OK, it's

  905. going away, you're fine, you're cleansed, go dip, you know, go

  906. do this, go do that and you're fine, right?

  907. Why don't we do any of those things?

  908. Well, those are all civil laws. They're ceremonial laws as well.

  909. None of those things are restated for us to do in the New

  910. Testament. But the moral laws, we see them

  911. restated in many places in the New Testament, right?

  912. So here's a couple passages to consider.

  913. All right, let's look at Deuteronomy 22.

  914. Five, Let's go back there. Old Testament, Old Testament

  915. Deuteronomy 22 five. In fact, it's actually written

  916. there. You know, if you don't want to

  917. go all the way back to Deuteronomy 22 five, you don't

  918. have to. The woman shall not wear that

  919. which pertaineth unto a man, neither shall a man put on a

  920. woman's garment, for all that do so are abomination unto the Lord

  921. thy God. Well, that contains A moral

  922. principle that there should be a distinction between the sexes

  923. even in how they dress, right? Which gets rid of all of your

  924. transgender everything, right? Cross dressing and all of that

  925. kind of stuff. I mean, a man should wear a

  926. man's garment, a woman should wear a woman's garment.

  927. That's what the Bible is saying. And that's a principle that

  928. remains valid in the New Testament dispensation.

  929. It's very clear by comparing Scripture with Scripture.

  930. The teaching of Deuteronomy 22 is confirmed in Genesis, where

  931. we find that God made man male and female.

  932. I don't think there's anybody that's going to argue with that.

  933. Well, that's Old Testament God. Didn't he only made male and

  934. female in the Old Testament or did he Right.

  935. We find that all again in the New Testament, right.

  936. And so if, if you made them male and female, it's, it's confirmed

  937. in First Corinthians 11/13 or three through 15, where we find

  938. that the sexes are to be distinguished by their hair

  939. length. There, there are to be

  940. differences in the sexes, right? You ought to be able to look at

  941. somebody and say, this is a man, this is a woman, right?

  942. By the way that they look, by the way that they dress, by the

  943. way that they act, you ought to be able to see those things,

  944. right? Well, Deuteronomy 22, five

  945. woman, they can wear whatever they want to.

  946. Man, you can wear whatever they want to.

  947. That's Old Testament. Well, yeah, that's in the Old

  948. Testament, but we see it restated in the new and we see

  949. the moral law that goes along with that in Genesis and really

  950. in a lot of other places throughout the Old Testament as

  951. well. Let's look at Leviticus chapter

    Leviticus 19 chapter mention

  952. 19 because here's another one that a lot of people like to to

  953. use today when it comes to especially tattoos and

  954. piercings. Right now you have a tattoo from

  955. before you were saved or something like that.

  956. It's not you get all rip your flesh off and you know, get rid

  957. of it. But at the same time, OK, you

  958. shall not make any cuttings in your flesh for the dead nor

  959. print any marks upon you. I am the Lord.

  960. Well, what's a cutting in your flesh?

  961. It would be body modification, right?

  962. That's what they call it today, scarification, if you want to

  963. call it that, right? Piercing everything you can find

  964. to Pierce on your body, right. And then what is print any marks

  965. upon you? What would that be?

  966. Pretty obviously a tattoo, right?

  967. They used to do that all the time in Pagan cultures.

  968. Those that was that was what they did, right?

  969. That was part of who they were. Now, the moral lesson of

  970. avoiding Pagan customs such as tattoos that are associated with

  971. idolatry and moral reprobation is confirmed again in the New

  972. Testament in a lot of other passages, and there's several of

  973. them that we could look at. But because we're close, let's

  974. just do 1st Corinthians 10 and 2nd Corinthians 6.

  975. So go there and you'll see this basically restated exactly,

  976. again, a different way, but exactly the whole purpose behind

  977. why God was telling them those things in the Old Testament,

  978. right? Why did God tell them in the Old

  979. Testament? Don't make a cutting in your

  980. flesh for the dead and don't print anything on you.

  981. I am the Lord. Why was He telling them that?

  982. That's what the pagans do, right?

  983. There ought to be something different between the people of

  984. God. I am the Lord.

  985. There ought to be something different between the people of

  986. God and the pagans, right? You don't do what they do.

  987. Well, God used those two examples about making cutting in

  988. your flesh for the dead. Who did that?

  989. The Pagan cultures, right? Who?

  990. Who printed marks upon you? The Pagan cultures did that,

  991. right? So does the Bible say in the New

  992. Testament, thou shalt not get a tattoo?

  993. Doesn't say that, but the same moral principle that God used to

  994. establish this in the Old Testament is exactly what is

  995. used again in the New Testament, right?

  996. First Corinthians chapter 10 and verse #20 But I say that the

    1 Corinthians 10 chapter mention

  997. things which the Gentiles sacrifice, they sacrifice the

  998. devils and not to God. And I would not that you should

  999. have fellowship with devils. You cannot drink the cup of the

  1000. Lord and the cup of devils. You cannot be partakers of the

  1001. Lord's table and of the table of devils.

  1002. Do we not provoke the Lord to jealousy?

  1003. Are we stronger than he? Right.

  1004. What is he saying? We don't do what the, what the

  1005. world does. We don't do what the pagans do.

  1006. We're different. You're, you're different.

  1007. I'm your father, not the world. You can't have it both ways.

  1008. You can't have the world and the flesh.

  1009. You can't have God and the devil.

  1010. You can't, you can't have both of those.

  1011. Let's look at 2nd Corinthians chapter 6, in fact.

  1012. Yeah, well, let's, let's look at it.

  1013. We're close. Second Corinthians chapter 6 and

    2 Corinthians 6 chapter mention

  1014. verse #16 I mean, this is about as clear as you can get.

  1015. And he's quoting, he is quoting directly from Isaiah 52.

  1016. What agreement hath the temple of God with idols?

  1017. For ye are the temple of the living God, as God hath said, I

  1018. will dwell in them and walk in them, and I will be their God,

  1019. and they shall be my people. Wherefore come out from among

  1020. them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the

  1021. unclean thing, and I will receive you, and will be a

  1022. father unto you, and you shall be my sons and daughters, saith

  1023. the Lord Almighty. What's he saying?

  1024. This is the things that they do in their temples.

  1025. OK, And we don't have temples today, but you're the temple.

  1026. Your body is the temple. So if you're not going to do

  1027. those things that the Gentiles and the and the pagans did in

  1028. their temples, then the principle for us today is don't

  1029. do it to your body. Your body should be separate.

  1030. You should look different from the rest of the world because

  1031. you are different. All right, let's look at one

  1032. more. Let's go to Ephesians chapter 5

    Ephesians 5 chapter mention

  1033. and we'll be done. That's where the law comes in,

  1034. OK? The law can't.

  1035. The law can't condemn me because I'm not under the law anymore.

  1036. I'm under grace. I'm under I've accepted Christ

  1037. as my Savior. I know that my sins are forgiven

  1038. and I'm on my way to heaven. And because I know that the law

  1039. can't condemn me anymore. But now I'm not under the law,

  1040. I'm under Christ. I'm not under the holiness of

  1041. the law. I'm under the holiness of

  1042. Christ, and the holiness of Christ is a much higher standard

  1043. than just the holiness of the law.

  1044. So do I have to do all of those things?

  1045. No. I can, I can go to heaven and

  1046. drink, drink my way there, right?

  1047. I could, because if I'm saved and I know it, I'm not going to

  1048. lose my salvation, right? I could, I could smoke my way to

  1049. heaven sucking on cancer sticks, right?

  1050. I could get there that way. And I'm not going to lose my

  1051. salvation because I'm not under the law.

  1052. I'm under grace, I've, I've got the freedom to live my life the

  1053. way that I want to live my life. But I don't do those things, not

  1054. because I can't, but because I don't want to.

  1055. Because I'm not just trying to live this holiness of the law

  1056. anymore. I'm trying to live the holiness

  1057. of Christ. And that's a much, much higher

  1058. standard, right? Ephesians chapter 5 and verse

    Ephesians 5 chapter mention

  1059. #11 and have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of

  1060. darkness, but rather reprove them.

  1061. So if I can't have fellowship with the unfruitful works of

  1062. darkness, then I shouldn't be looking like them, shouldn't be

  1063. acting like them. I shouldn't be doing the things

  1064. that the world does right. And, and make no mistake, look

  1065. tattoos. It's rebellion, right?

  1066. That's why. That's why when somebody gets a

  1067. tattoo and they're like, I'm just afraid to go home and tell

  1068. my mom that I got a tattoo because I don't know what she's

  1069. going to say. Well, why does it matter, right?

  1070. If you're not ashamed of it, then why does it matter what

  1071. she's going to say? Why does she even care if you

  1072. get a tattoo, right? Because people inherently know

  1073. that's what the, that's what rebels do, right?

  1074. That's what people who are in rebellion do.

  1075. Same thing with body modification and all of that

  1076. kind of stuff. I mean, you know, you see these

  1077. people that have their entire body tattooed, right?

  1078. They're living in rebellion against culture, against God,

  1079. against everything, right? Why?

  1080. Why? That's why we don't do it.

  1081. Because that's not who we are. We're not living in rebellion.

  1082. We're living in obedience, right?

  1083. And and so all of these things that he says don't have

  1084. fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness separate from

  1085. them. You're people of God.

  1086. You shouldn't look like the people of the world.

  1087. You can't have that. And this at the same time be

  1088. different, right? Well, that's exactly what he was

  1089. saying in the Old Testament too. Don't mark your body, don't cut

  1090. your body up. That's what the pagans do.

  1091. And you're not a Pagan. You're of the Lord.

  1092. I'm the Lord do what? Do what people who who are of

  1093. the Lord do, right? It's the same exact principle

  1094. that God was given them in an in the Old Testament and he gave it

  1095. to us again in the New Testament.

  1096. All right? So those same moral laws that

  1097. applied in the Old Testament are the same moral laws that applied

  1098. today, which is why we should still follow the 10

  1099. commandments, right? Thou shalt not take the name of

  1100. the Lord thy God in vain. Oh, and yet people say that all

  1101. the time. OMG, you're taking the name of

  1102. the Lord in vain, right? You're taking God's name in

  1103. vain. Well, that's an Old Testament

  1104. law. No, no, he said it again in the

  1105. New Testament. It's a moral law that should be

  1106. followed today, right? All of those things.

  1107. That's why we do it. So that's why we go all the way

  1108. back to that first statement. There's a lot of confusion about

  1109. the law of Moses in what place it has in the Christian life,

  1110. and it's essential for every believer to settle this issue on

  1111. a solid scriptural footing. So am I under the law anymore?

  1112. No, the law can't condemn me anymore.

  1113. I'm under Christ. But the holiness of the law is

  1114. sure a whole lot easier than the holiness of Christ.

  1115. But that's not our standard anymore.

  1116. This is. So can the law condemn me?

  1117. Can I go to hell for taking a drink of alcohol?

  1118. No, not necessarily. No, because if you're saved,

  1119. then that thing can't condemn you anymore, right?

  1120. But you're sure living far under the holiness of Christ that you

  1121. should be living up to, right? Are we going to be perfect?

  1122. No, but we should be trying to be.

  1123. We should be trying to live in the holiness of Christ because

  1124. I'm not under the law anymore, right.

  1125. It's the same way that that the same illustration that he used

  1126. with, with a, a wife wanting to do things for her husband,

  1127. right? Wanting to serve her husband.

  1128. Why would she want to do that? Because she's afraid of what

  1129. happens if she doesn't. No, because He loves her so much

  1130. and He treats her so well, and she can't do anything but serve

  1131. Him and love Him. That's the way it is with

  1132. Christ, right? Do I serve Him because I'm

  1133. afraid that I'm going to lose my salvation?

  1134. No, I serve Him because He's a good God and I serve Him because

  1135. of everything that He's done for me.

  1136. And I serve Him because He's given me eternal life and I

  1137. don't have to spend one second in hell because of what He's

  1138. done for me. I want to serve Him because I

  1139. get to and because I love Him and because he loves me.

  1140. I don't serve him because I have to.

  1141. I serve Him because I want to. That's the life that a believer

  1142. is under when it comes to the new Covenant, right?

  1143. No, I'm not under the law anymore.

  1144. I'm under grace. But grace brings with it a whole

  1145. lot higher standard. And that's the standard that we

  1146. should be trying to live to. Hope it makes sense.

  1147. Let's pray. Father, again, we thank you so

  1148. much for your goodness to us. Thank you for the opportunity

  1149. that we've had to spend some time here together this this

  1150. evening. I pray that it would be a help

  1151. to us and God, I pray that you'd help us to, to do everything we

  1152. can with your power to live in the holiness of Christ.

  1153. God, may you help us to, to do everything we can to live up to

  1154. that standard. I do pray that if there is

  1155. anybody in here that doesn't know for sure that they're

  1156. saved, that they get that settled for sure.

  1157. God, for those who know that they are, may you help us to not

  1158. live as if we are under the law, but live as if we are under the

  1159. holiness of Christ. And may you help us to be

  1160. examples and testimonies for you to a lost and dying world who

  1161. need Christ. I pray that you just send us

  1162. away from here this evening with your blessing.

  1163. Thank you again for all you do for us in Jesus name, Amen.