So we're going to turn to Romans Chapter 3.
Does anybody need a copy of the lesson for tonight?
We have a few of them. Anybody raise your hand and
Charlie will take them around and give them out.
And just a couple other things to mention.
Number one, I failed to mention earlier that the Belize bylaws
and all of that stuff that we're adding in, we've had, we've had
we've we've been working together with a lawyer.
Christian Law Association, or it's actually the National
Center for Life and Liberty. But you know, so they wrote
those bylaws for us. They're very well aware of the
situation and we've done as much of the due diligence as we can
to make sure that everything is covered and that we're doing
everything is legally above board as possible.
And so they were very satisfied. I actually had a lot more in it
that I had written out and they condensed it way down and said
you don't need all that. So anyway, look, read through
that. If you have any questions, then
then let me know. I want to mention this too.
If we have some men that can help out with this after the
service, we're going to set up the baptism, the the baptistry.
We, we're going to do a baptism this Sunday.
I think we have 3 or 4 that are planning to be baptized.
And so if we can, if you can help out with that, that would
be a big help. And I just let me mention this
too. Obviously Brian mentioned that I
was working or that I was there at the graduation for the police
and I had to slip out. It wasn't done yet, but it's a
tremendous opportunity. And, and I know, you know, it's,
it's, it's a ministry that most of you don't see anything of.
You see some police officers come in and out and, you know,
we've, we've been able to really do a lot on a, on a side that
most people don't see, but especially for the, for the
graduation, which is, you know, Brian mentioned that, you know,
they don't, they don't change the schedule for our church
service and they, they take the facilities when they can get
them. And, and this was a very big
graduation. And so I do the, I, I open this,
the graduation in prayer. But they, the bigger opportunity
is that, you know, I, I go into the police Academy at least once
a month, sometimes more, depending on the, the situation.
But I spend some time with the officers, just just me and the
officers and, and have some. Kind of good.
Heart to heart talks with them, give them great opportunity to,
to get to know me, me to get to know them before they get out on
the road and, and have an impact.
And so tonight, as I usually do, I, I talk to them and I get to
present all of them with a Bible.
And you know, I put a note in the front of it for all of them,
put a, put a gospel track in there and everything as well.
So, you know, there's, there's going to come a point for a lot
of them where they hit a rough spot because they always do.
And that's where that influence comes in.
And, and what you don't see as many of the, the times of
sitting down at breakfast, you know, early in the morning or,
you know, many different opportunities that I've had to
share the gospel with somebody for two hours.
And, you know, those are just doors that God's opening up.
And, you know, we've seen some fruit from it.
I believe we're going to see a lot more from that.
But at the very least the seeds are being planted.
And you know, those are, like I said, it's a, it's a ministry
that it's a ministry that most of you don't see, but it's a
ministry and it's a very, very needed ministry.
You know, you just no telling what what God can do with, with
some of these, you know, officers and how God will use
it. And we have a few coming right
now that that we're praying for. So just just keep praying for
them. And, and I keep praying for that
ministry, but. I want to try.
To get all the way through this tonight, I know it's there's,
it's kind of long, but some of it's a little bit redundant,
basically saying the same things.
And so it's, it's just making the point over and over again.
So we'll kind of cover it a little bit closer at the
beginning and then, you know, just just kind of touch on a
couple different things as we make our way through next
Wednesday. We have an evangelist, Eric
Ramos, that's going to be coming through.
He's, I've been a friend of mine for a long, long time and he's
going to be down in this area. And so he, he mentioned
something about coming to church and I said, man, you need to
preach for us. So he's going to.
And so, so that's another reason why I want to try to get through
this tonight as well. I don't, I don't like to take
two weeks with a, with a week in between to try to finish
something up. So.
Turn over to Romans chapter 3 and we're going to jump into
this. But I think so.
So this is the law and the New Testament Christian.
And and as he mentions here at the beginning, there's a lot of
confusion about the law of Moses and what place it has in a
Christian life. And you know, there's a lot of
people. So, so to finish the statement,
it is essential for every believer to settle this issue on
a solid scriptural footing. The following major New
Testament passages. Passages clarify this matter.
And that's what we're going to look at tonight is those
passages. But the idea here is this, well,
the Old Testament is the Old Testament.
We don't have to follow any of that anymore.
The New Testament is the New Testament and that's the only
thing that we have. We're not under the law.
We're under grace. So everything that was written
in the Old Testament doesn't, doesn't apply to us today.
Only the things that are in the New Old Testament apply to us.
That's, that's kind of the thinking.
OK, not not to mention that most of the world still follows the
10 commandments and the 10 commandments are in the Old
Testament. Why do we follow the 10
commandments? Why were those not done away
with when Christ came and established the new covenant and
got rid of the old covenant? He got rid of the law and now
we're under grace. Why do we still follow the 10
commandments, Right? That's kind of the question.
Why, why do we, how do we pick and choose which ones we follow
and which ones we don't? Because very clearly we don't
sacrifice animals anymore, right?
Very clearly we don't follow the feasts and all the special holy
days and all of those things, right?
So why don't we do that? But we, but we still follow the
10 commandments. What, what is the difference
here? And that's, that's kind of what
we're talking about here. Now there's another side of this
too, another aspect of this, which is basically, you know,
the, IT explains the reason why most of the other religions in
the world are not the way to Christ, right or not, not, not
the way to heaven, I should say, because they're not going
through Christ or going through works.
And when I say most of the other religions, I'm saying that you
don't have to be a Baptist to go to heaven right now, Why not go
first class? But at the same time, you don't
have to be a Baptist to go to heaven.
There are others who are preaching the truth who are
different in other doctrines from us, but they are preaching
the truth. Most of them, though, are not
preaching the truth because it's a works based salvation.
The Catholics, the Mormons, the, the Methodists, the
Presbyterians, many of them are, it's, it's all based on your
works and what you can do to earn your way to heaven.
Even if they don't say that, but many of them are, you know,
they, they include that you have to be baptized or that you have
to be baptized as a baby or that your baptism as a baby is enough
to save you. And all of those things are
works, right? Even if it's even if it's only
baptism even. And there are there are groups
out there, religions, if you want to call them that, out
there who say you have to be saved and baptized to go to
heaven, right? Baptism is necessary for
salvation. Well, even if you don't include
anything else, it's still a work, right?
It's still something that you have to do to earn your way to
heaven. And it's not just Christ, it's
Christ plus baptism. It's Christ plus baptism and
communion. It's Christ plus baptism and,
and you know, praying the rosary, Christ plus baptism and,
and communion and praying the rosary and confessing your sins
to the priests and, and, you know, doing all of these
different things. And most of the religions that
that that wrap themselves around works are an offshoot of
Catholicism, right? It's not the only one, but
Catholicism was started all the way back in the three hundreds
under Constantine. So everything that has come
since then has pretty much come as part of an offshoot of the
Catholic Church, right? The Baptist, And this is not
what our point is tonight. But the Baptist Church was never
part of the Catholic Church. That's why we don't consider
ourselves to be Protestants. I'm not a Protestant.
I was never inside the Catholic Church protesting anything,
right? I was always on the outside of
it protesting the Catholic Church.
And I say I am talking about Baptists.
Baptists are not Protestants, right?
The the Methodists came out of that.
The Presbyterians came out of that.
The Lutheran's came out of that. You know, obviously you have
Martin Luther who was, who was part of the Protestant
Reformation. He was protesting what was going
on in the Catholic Church. But Martin Luther did not want
to get rid of all of the doctrine of the Catholic Church.
He wanted to change some of the things about the Catholic
Church. Now, what he did was very bold
and he took a very strong stand in a in a day and age when it
was nothing for them to bump you off, right.
And he, you know, very easily could have.
The thing is with a lot of those guys that we consider to be the
reformers, they were, they were just as bad as the Catholics
when it came to persecuting the people that didn't agree with
them. So here they are protesting the
Catholic Church, they establish their religion and then they
start killing the Baptist and the Waldensians and everybody
else who didn't agree, the Anabaptist, the people who
didn't agree with them, right? So how are you any different?
You're not right. And it's, it's because all of
that was based on works, right? They called them Anabaptist
rebaptizers. Well, basically what they're
saying is no, I got baptized as a baby in the Catholic Church.
I don't need to get baptized again.
You're doing it wrong. You're rebaptizing everybody
when what they're saying is you need to be baptized after
salvation, right? And a Baptist and, and a lot of
other things that go along with that.
But that will kind of explain some of these things here.
So Romans chapter 3, if you've ever, and I hope, hope you have,
if you've ever taken somebody through the gospel, you've come
to Romans chapter 3. And Romans 323 is where most of
us would start. Now you could start in a couple
other places and, and lead them to Romans 323.
But verse #19 is where we'll start with this.
And this is kind of the first step in soul winning.
But verse #19 Now we know that what things so ever the law
saith, it saith to them who are under the law, that every mouth
may be stopped, and all the world may become guilty before
God. Therefore by the deeds of the
law, there shall no flesh be justified in His sight.
For by the law is the knowledge of sin.
And we could stop right there, and that would pretty much sum
everything up. The law was given to help us
understand that we are sinners. That's why the law was there,
because you know what? You can't do?
It can't keep the whole law. Nobody can.
There's two ways to heaven, right?
Everybody says there's only one way to heaven, Jesus Christ.
There's two ways to heaven. You could be perfect.
You could be perfect and you would go to heaven, right?
But since nobody fits in that category, then the only option
that we have is through Jesus Christ, right?
But that's what the law is there for.
The law is there to tell you that you're not perfect and that
you can't get to heaven be on your own because you're not
right. So verse #2021.
But now the righteousness of God without the law is manifested,
being witnessed by the law and the prophets, even the
righteousness of God, which is by faith of Jesus Christ unto
all and upon all of them that believe.
For there is no difference, for all have sinned and come short
of the glory of God, being justified freely by His grace
through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus.
So three things that we want to look at here under this passage.
And here we go #1 the law of Moses or the old covenant was
given to show men that God is holy and that they are sinners.
And we looked at verse #19 Now we know that what things soever
the law saith, it saith to them who are under the law, that
every mouth may be stopped and all the world may become guilty
before God. Men naturally think that they're
righteous, right? I've, I've talked to people who
when I've said the Bible says that all is sinned and comes
short of the glory of God. Now, I think you, you could
admit that you're a Sinner, right?
Well, I wouldn't say that, but how can you not admit that
you're a Sinner? But there's people, many people
who don't believe that they're that they're sinners.
You know, maybe I've, you know, told a little white lie before
or something like that. But I'm not, I'm not a bad
person. I'm not, you know, so they
compare themselves to the human standards of righteousness.
Well, compare compared to the guy that's sitting down there on
death row in jail, I'm a pretty good person, right?
Even if they admit that. Well, yeah, maybe I've told a
lie here and there, or maybe I've done, you know, some things
that I shouldn't have done, but overall, I'm a pretty good
person. I think God will probably let me
into heaven, right? What are they comparing that to?
They're comparing their righteousness to somebody else's
righteousness. Not God's, for sure, and
certainly not to the word of God, but they're comparing it to
the human standards of righteousness and with each
other rather than with God's perfect law.
What God's perfect law helps us to understand is when you
compare yourself to that, you fall way short.
And that's why we have Romans 323 for all have sinned and come
short of the glory of God because of that sin.
Take the 10 commandments for example.
And again, they're all listed here.
I'm not going to take the time to turn over to Exodus chapter
20, but we've broken every one of them.
We put other gods before the one true God.
We've made idols and worshiped Him.
We worship and serve ourselves more than God, and we make our
own selves into idols. We've taken the name of the Lord
in vain. We've broken the Sabbath and
treated all days the same, neglecting to set apart even one
day for the worship of God. We've dishonored and disobeyed
our parents. We've killed, we've committed
adultery, we've stolen, we've lied, we've coveted, right?
Well, there's a few of those that I've never done.
All right, let's go to Matthew, right?
Matthew chapter 5. You don't have, you can turn
over there. In fact, let's turn over there
for a second. Matthew chapter 5.
OK, we're coming back to Romans chapter 3.
But look at look at Matthew chapter 5.
Because Jesus changed everything about the whole intent of the
those 10 commandments, right? And you could say, well, I've
never committed adultery. Well, I've never murdered
somebody. Well, I've never done this.
But Christ thought that not only is perfect external obedience
required, but perfect internal obedience is required, right?
And he, he turns all of that on his head.
Verse 21. Matthew chapter 5.
Verse 21. You've heard that it was said by
them of old time, Thou shalt not kill.
Oh, there you go. I've never killed.
I've never killed anybody. And whosoever shall kill shall
be in danger of judgment. Verse 22 But I say unto you that
whosoever is angry with his brother without a cause shall be
in danger of the judgment. And whosoever shall say to his
brother, Raqqa shall be in danger of the council.
But whosoever shall shall say, thou fool shall be in danger of
Hellfire. You get angry at somebody that's
that's that's a hard issue and that's God sees it as murder,
right. So you may never have actually
taken out a knife and stabbed somebody or, you know, shot
somebody or something like that, but you get angry at a brother
without a cause. That's the same as murder in
God's eyes. How about this one verse, verse
27. You've heard that it have that
it was said by them of old time. Thou shalt not commit adultery.
Oh, I've never committed adultery.
I would never right, but I say unto you, that whosoever looketh
on a woman to lust after her hath committed adultery with her
already in his heart. So you have perfect external
obedience. And Jesus took it a step
further. Now you need perfect internal
obedience if you're going to live up to God's law, right?
So the law of Moses requires perfect obedience.
And James chapter 2 and verse 10 tells us that whosoever shall
keep the whole law and yet offended one point, he's guilty
of all, right? That means 11 sin, one sin is
enough. So Christ is teaching that not
only does God require that perfect external obedience, but
he quite requires that perfect internal obedience, right?
Which changes everything. Well, I'm not under the law
anymore. I'm under grace.
So those things don't matter to me, OK, Take them out.
Take those things out. Jesus made it a lot more
difficult than what the law did, right?
Right. I almost take the law because I
can, I cannot commit adultery. I could not murder somebody.
But when you, when you put it into a heart aspect and that
changes it up, that that changes it a lot, right?
Have you ever been angry? Have you ever looked at a woman
with lust? Have you ever done these other
things in your heart? That's what that's the standard
that we have to live up to. So the Law of Moses or the Old
covenant was given to show men that God is holy and that
they're sinners #2 the law of Moses cannot bring salvation.
So we're back over in Romans chapter 3, back over in Romans
chapter 3 and verse #20. Therefore, by the deeds of the
law there shall no flesh be justified in his sight.
For by the law is the knowledge of sin.
The law can't do anything to get us to heaven, right?
The law only brings the knowledge of sin.
The Old Testament cannot bring salvation because it requires
perfect holiness, whereas man is a fallen Sinner and cannot live
up to the requirements. So the law of God can only curse
us that we're justified, that we're justified.
No flesh shall be justified in His sight.
That means to declared righteous by God.
The law can't do that. The law can't declare us
righteous. The only thing that the law can
do is condemn us, right? Only God can declare us
righteous. And I've used this several
times, even recently. Justified, it means I'm standing
before God just as if I'd never sinned, right?
That's what justified is when God sees me, He sees me as
somebody with the righteousness of Jesus Christ.
God cannot declare A Sinner righteous on the basis of the
law of Moses because that requires perfect obedience.
So the law of Moses can't bring salvation and, and, and
basically then as we read, that leaves no one righteous verse.
Actually Romans chapter 3 and verse #10 as it is written,
there is none righteous, no, not one, because there's nobody who
can live up to the perfect standard of the law of Moses.
Nobody can do that. So #3 then salvation is through
faith in Jesus Christ. And we read the rest of those
verses already, but it's but, but it concludes in verse #24
being justified freely by His grace through the redemption
that is in Christ Jesus. So the way of salvation is not
through the law of Moses, it's through the blood of Jesus
Christ. The law demanded that the Sinner
died. Jesus then died in our place,
and that's where you would take somebody to Romans chapter 6 and
verse 23. For the wages of sin is death,
but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our
Lord. The law demanded that blood be
shed, and Jesus shed His righteous blood in payment for
our sin. Hebrews 922 the without the
shedding of blood, there is no remission of sins right, because
of what Jesus Christ did on the cross.
Somebody who as a Sinner can believe on Jesus Christ and we
can be saved because of the righteousness of God through
faith doesn't have anything to do with how we keep the law or
don't keep the law. The believers justified freely
and that means that salvation is a gift of God that was purchased
by Jesus Christ and the Bible says that it became the becomes
the propitiation for our sin. What does that word propitiation
mean? Well, propitiation means a
satisfaction of a debt. He became the satisfaction of
the debt we had a debt that we could not pay.
He paid a debt that he did not owe, but he became the
satisfaction of that debt for us.
And, and I know that you, you understand that.
I mean, if you are, you know, I, I, I saw a, a YouTube video,
just a compilation of, of this guy who, he's got some kind of
channel or something. And he goes around and, and
there's people, you know, and he and, and it's, you know,
typically they look a little bit less, you know, wealthy.
And they're, they're checking out at a grocery store and they,
they check all their, you know, they scan all their items.
And then he comes walking up and he says, excuse me real quick.
And the people are just kind of like, OK, what are you know,
what are you doing? And he sticks his card up there.
Card reads it beep And he walks away And they they go back up
there and they start fumbling through their wallet to pay and
they and the cashier says it's already been paid.
He said, what do you mean it's already been paid?
Yeah, that guy just paid it for you.
And he's like, what is that what he was doing?
I was wondering what he was doing.
Where, where did he go? You know, but that that's
exactly what the propitiation is.
You had a debt that you owed and somebody else came in and paid
that debt for you, Right. And that's exactly what Jesus
Christ is to us. We had a debt that was so great
we could never pay it right now. Obviously, those people probably
could pay it at the cashier because they were getting ready
to. It's just, I mean, how nice it
is to have somebody come up and pay that for you, right?
But Jesus Christ paid a debt that there was no way that we
could pay. It was greater than anything
that we could ever pay back. It was greater than anything
that we could ever do to earn anything that would be anywhere
close to enough. But Jesus Christ did that for
us, and that's what that word propitiation means.
Now we're close. Let's go over to Romans Chapter
7. Romans Chapter 7, verse one
through 4. No, you not, brethren, for I
speak to them that know the law, how that the law hath dominion
over a man as long as he liveth. For the woman which hath an
husband is bound by the law to her husband so long as he
liveth. But if the husband would be
dead, she's loosed from the law of her husband.
So then if while her husband liveth, she be married to
another man, she shall be called an adulteress.
But if her husband be dead, she's free from that law so that
she's no adulteress, though she be married to another man.
So Paul is using an example here.
He's he's basically saying, all right, if if you're married and
while you're married, you go marry somebody else, you're
living in adultery, right? That's what adultery is.
But if the husband dies, you're loose from that.
You can go marry somebody else if you want to, because you're
not under that law anymore. And then he brings it to the
conclusion verse #4 Wherefore, my brethren, ye also are become
dead to the law by the body of Christ, that you should be
married to another, even to him who is raised from the dead,
that we should bring forth fruit unto God.
So we have a couple points underneath this passage #1 the
law is not the Christian's rule in life.
Christ is our new husband or a new Lord, and he rules our lives
through the new covenant. We we're freed from that old
covenant, right? I'm not, I'm not living in
adultery. And I mean, I'm just using this
example because I'm trying to live with the law and with
Christ at the same time. No, I died, the law died to me
because of what Christ did for me.
So I'm free from all the law. I'm not free.
I'm not, I'm not bound by any of those things because of what
Christ did. And he and he uses an example
you're trying to serve. God under the old law is like a
woman who serves a husband only out of fear.
She cooks and cleans the house because she's afraid not to.
Serving God under the new law is like a woman who serves a
husband out of love. She cooks and cleans house for
her Master, but not because she's afraid of what he's going
to do to her, but simply because he loves her and treats her so
well that she in turn loves him. That's exactly how it is with
God, right? I don't, I don't serve God.
I don't live for God because I'm afraid that he's going to send
me to hell. Because if he's my, if Jesus
Christ is my Savior, and I know for sure that I'm on my way to
heaven, as we've talked about extensively, you can't lose that
salvation. So I don't serve him because I'm
afraid that he's going to take away what I have.
I serve him because I'm so thankful that he gave me what I
do have and he loves me and I love him and I just want to
serve him because of what He's done for me.
I'm not, I'm not under the law. I'm not obligated to, to serve
him. I'm not obligated to live for
him. I'm not obligated to do things
that are pleasing to him, right? Because he's not I, I'm saved.
I, I'm not, I don't have to do those things.
I get to do those things. That's the difference #2 The Law
of Moses cannot condemn the believer.
The believer says dead to the law as a wife is to a deceased
husband. The Lord Jesus Christ took our
condemnation upon Himself on the cross, and we're safe in Him
from all fear of eternal judgment #3 The Christian has a
new power, which is the indwelling Holy Spirit.
Verse #6 But now we are delivered from the law, that
being dead, wherein we were held, that we should serve in
newness of spirit, and not in the oldness of the letter.
Chapter 8 and verse #1 There is therefore now no condemnation
which are in Christ Jesus who walk not after the flesh, but
after the capital S Spirit. We're not under the law anymore.
I'm not in that flesh. I, I can live in the Spirit now.
And so I have when you get saved, the Holy Spirit comes and
indwells you. It comes in and lives inside of
you. And now I'm not doing this on my
own. Now I'm not now I don't have to
try so hard to please Christ. Now obviously we're fighting the
flesh every day. We have things that we battle
every day, but I have the Holy Spirit helping me do those
things. Now let's go over to 2nd
Corinthians chapter 3. Second Corinthians chapter 3,
and this is a long passage, so I'm not going to read the entire
thing right here. I'm going to jump around in this
as we go through this. So there's a few things, four
things in under this passage that gives us some more insight
into the law and the New Testament Christian.
And these things are is this contrasting the Old Testament,
the Old Covenant with the New covenant #1 the Old Covenant was
the law of Moses. And we have Second Corinthians
chapter 3 and verse #7 But if the ministration or the
dispensation of death written in engraving in stones was
glorious, so that the children of Israel could not steadfastly
behold the face of Moses for the glory of his countenance, which
glory was to be done away. Verse 13.
And not as Moses, which put a veil over his face, that the
children of Israel could not steadfastly look to the end of
that which is abolished. What he's saying is, OK, Moses
was dealing with the old law and even that was so glorious that
Moses had to cover his face with with a veil because it was it
was shown so brightly. Now obviously had been in the
presence of God, but what he's saying is if you think that's
glorious, imagine what the new covenant is like.
If you think the old law is is glorious, imagine what it's like
living under Christ instead of under the law.
It was written in engraving in stones that that specifically
refers to the 10 commandments #2 the old covenant was
administration of death as we just read and administration of
condemnation verse #9 for if the ministration of condemnation be
glory, much more death, the ministration of righteousness
exceeding glory. He's, he's given us a contrast
here, comparing contrast, right? If, if you thought that was
good, you can't even imagine how good this is, right?
That's what he's doing. He's comparing all these
different things. This is because it required, it
required perfect obedience from the heart.
And we being sinners are incapable of providing that
level of obedience. But now we can live in the power
of the Holy Spirit and how we can live righteous before God
because of what Jesus Christ did for us.
If you thought it was good to have some of those, you know, I
mean, look, God, God blessed Israel, right?
God, God bless them for following him.
Was was he blessing them because they were following him
perfectly? No, in fact, the opposite of
that was true, right? But he still blessed them
because they followed him. And if you thought that those
blessings of God were good because you followed him here
and there, imagine how much better the blessing is of
knowing Jesus Christ as your Savior, knowing that those sins
are under the blood of Jesus Christ, knowing that everything
is already taken care of. You thought that was good.
You thought those were blessings.
Look at this. That's a real blessing.
That's what he's saying here. That's what he's comparing in
contrast. So #3 the old covenant has been
done away in Christ. Verse #11 For if that which is
done away was glorious, much more that which remaineth is
glorious #4 the believer has a new law.
Verse 17. Now the Lord is that spirit, and
where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty.
But we all with open face, beholding as in a glass the
glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory
to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord.
So the fact that the believer is not under the law of Moses does
not mean that he doesn't have a law.
In fact, we're held to a much higher law, the law of Christ.
We're not, we're not looking at the holiness of the law anymore
that we have to live up to. We're looking at the holiness of
Christ that we have to live up to so far from, oh, well, we're
not under the law anymore. So I don't have to do those
things because I'm not under the law.
I can live my life how I want to because I'm under grace.
That's the way a lot of Christians live.
And I can go do whatever I want to, right?
If I want to, if I want to do this, I can do it because I'm
under grace. There's no law to condemn me
anymore. I'm a I'm, I'm saved.
I'm on my way to heaven. I can.
I can do what I want to do. And what Paul is saying is no,
not necessarily. Yeah, you can.
You're not going to lose your salvation, but you're not living
up to the holiness of the. Law.
Anymore you're living up to the holiness of Christ, and that's a
much higher standard. Romans chapter 8, verse 29.
Let's go back over there real quick because this is kind of
what it all comes down to. Of course, you know, verse 28.
We know that all things work together for good to them that
love God to them who are they called according to his purpose.
But verse 29 says for whom he did foreknow.
He also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his
son that he might be the first born among many brethren.
That is not Calvinism. That is not saying that he's
predestining some people to be saved and others not to be
saved. That's not what he's saying
here. He's saying the ones that that
that are saved. He's already predetermined.
He's already predestined us to be conformed to the image of his
son. That's what we're supposed to
be. So as we see him in the
Scriptures, we are to change to his image and we are changed to
his image. Let's go over to Galatians
chapter 3. Galatians, chapter 3.
Another passage here that discusses the Law and our
standing as New Testament Christians.
Verse #10 For as many as are of the works of the law are under
the curse, for it is written cursed is everyone that continue
with not in all things which are written in the book of the law
to do them, but that no man is justified by the law in the
sight of God. It is evident.
For the just shall live by faith, and the law is not a
faith, but the man that doeth them shall live in them.
Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a
curse for us. For it is written cursed is
everyone that handeth on a tree that the blessing of Abraham
might come on the Gentiles through Jesus Christ, that we
might receive the promise of the spirit capital S through faith.
Boy, what a what a tremendous passage if you just sit there
and try to absorb everything that he's saying in there.
But a few things about this. Number one, the Law of Moses or
the Old Covenant required perfect obedience in all things.
Men, therefore cannot be saved by it.
We've already talked about that, and that's what I'm saying.
Some of these things are redundant, but it's just a
confirmation passage. It's a passage that's saying
exactly the same thing in a different way.
But because it requires that perfect holiness, it can only
bring a curse upon us. We cannot live up to the holy
requirements of the law. But Christ took the punishment
that was demanded by the law. And we read in verse #13 Christ
hath redeemed us from the curse of the law.
Being made a curse, curse for us.
How was He made a curse for us? Well, because cursed is everyone
that angles on a tree. He hung on that tree.
He died in our place in order to provide us with that eternal
salvation. And only Christ could do that
because He was perfect and He had lived up perfectly to the
law. He was the only one that could
have redeemed us back to God. Because of that #3 the Law of
Moses is our schoolmaster to lead us to Christ.
Let's go. Let's go to verse 23 of
Galatians chapter 3. But before faith came, we were
kept under the law, shut up unto the faith, which should
afterward be revealed. Wherefore the law was our
schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ, that we might be
justified by faith. What does a schoolmaster do?
It's a teacher, right? They teach you the things that
you need to know. And that's exactly what the law
was doing. The law was teaching us.
You cannot live up to this standard.
You cannot be perfect. That's all the law was there
for. It was to be the schoolmaster,
to appoint us to Christ and to teach us that we needed Christ
because we couldn't. We couldn't live up to that
standard on our own. And so that's the major purpose
of the law. It was designed by God to show
this Sinner has fallen and lost condition and to lead him to
faith in Christ. And then #4 is that the believer
is not under the law of Moses as a rule of life.
Galatians chapter 3 and verse 25.
But after that faith has come, we are no longer under a
schoolmaster, right? So the believer's law is not the
law of Moses. The believer's law is the new
law. It's the law of Christ, a means
to be conformed to his image. The believers new law is also
called the law of the Spirit as we well we can read that in
verse #16 now to Abraham and his seed, where the promise is made.
He saith not and to and to seeds as of many, but as of 1 and to
thy seed, which is Christ. And this I say, that the
covenant that was confirmed before of God in Christ, the law
which was 430 years after, cannot dis annul that it should
be made that that that it should make the promise of none effect.
For if the inheritance be of the law, it is no more a prom of
promise, but God gave it to Abraham by promise.
So by walking in the Spirit, which means obeying the Spirit
and yielding to the Holy Spirit, a believer is not fulfilling the
law of the flesh. We're fulfilling the law of
Christ and the law of the Spirit.
Let's go to Colossians chapter 2.
Colossians chapter 2. I hope this is painting a
picture for you. A lot of these, as I said, a lot
of these things are saying the same thing, they're just saying
it in a little bit different way.
But it's all saying the law cannot be kept perfectly.
And because you can't keep the law perfectly, you are a Sinner
and you are condemned because of the law.
Therefore, you need something besides the law to redeem you
back to Christ. Christ died on the cross to pay
for that sin that we could not and to pay for that unholiness
that we could never live up to that standard.
And because of that, we can be saved, not by the law, by
Christ. Colossians chapter 2 and verse
#13 And you being dead in your sins, and the uncircumcision of
your flesh, hath He quickened together, quickened means made
alive. You were dead, He made you
alive, having forgiven you all trespasses, blotting out the
handwriting of ordinances. That was against us, which was
contrary to us. I love this and took it out of
the way, nailing it to His cross, and having spoiled
principalities and powers, He made a show of them, openly
triumphing over them in it. Let no man therefore judge you
in meat, or in drink, or in respective and holy day, or of
the new moon of the Sabbath days which are a shadow of things to
come, but the bodies of Christ. Now what we're, what the Bible
is saying here is, well, a couple things.
Number one, I've used this illustration many times, but you
have all of your sins written out and you, you go to stand
before God and God says, why should I let you into heaven?
And you present your list and he says, there's whosoever shall
keep the whole law and yet offended at one point you're
guilty of all of it. If you had one thing written
down against your name, I can't let you into heaven, but you
have thousands, thousands over your lifetime.
I can't let you into heaven, right?
But when you accept Christ as your Savior, he takes all of
those sins and he covers them under his blood.
So when you stand before God, God no longer sees the list of
all your sins. There is no law to condemn you
because there's no sin that goes against your account because
it's all been covered under the blood of Jesus Christ.
So the law can't condemn you. Only the blood of Jesus Christ
can justify you when you stand before God so he doesn't see all
of your sins. All he sees when he looks at you
is the blood of Jesus Christ covering your sins, right?
That's what faith is. That's what repentance is.
It's all, it's all of those things that we've been talking
about that are all tied up in that.
But Christ took away the old covenant or the law of Moses.
He did that by fulfilling the demands of the law and paying
the price that we owed for breaking the law, right?
Whether that be a fine or whether that be jail time or
whatever it happens to be, He paid the penalty that we deserve
to pay. And of course, then the believer
doesn't follow the old covenant. The law contains types and
shadows that point to Christ, but the believer has Christ
himself, right? Why are we under grace instead
of under the law? Because the law was just a
picture. It was just a, it was just a
picture to point us to Christ, right?
All the things that they did with the sacrifices, why don't
we do those anymore? Because those sacrifices were
just pointing to Christ and he's here.
We don't need that anymore. All the you look at all of the
things that they did in the in the Tabernacle boy, and there's
so many of them. Why don't we do those anymore?
Isn't that part of the law? Isn't that part of the Bible?
No, we have Christ. He fulfilled all of those
things. All of those things were just
pictures and types pointing to the real thing and the real
thing came. He's already here.
So we don't have to live under those things anymore.
We're freed from all of those things because we have Christ.
All of those things were there to teach them about the the
Messiah that was coming. Although those things were there
to teach them who was coming and what was going to happen when he
did come. But he came.
So I don't have to live under those things anymore.
I don't need the shadows and types.
I have the real thing, right. Well, if you're, if you are,
let's say a husband and wife and you're separated for a while
because, you know, you're on a business trip or something,
you're right. Or maybe just say that the the
husband's in the military and he went away and he's been gone for
a year, right? And you're standing there at the
airport and you know what direction he's coming from and
you see his shadow on the wall. Are you going to be so excited
to run over there and hug the shadow?
Right. Oh, I'm so glad to have you
back. Oh, you want the real thing,
right? Forget the shadow.
That's just telling you, hey, he's right around the corner.
He's almost here, right? And that's exactly what the law
was. There's nothing to embrace about
the law. There's nothing great about
that. It's just, it's just a type.
It's just a picture to show you that the real thing is coming.
And then he came. Why would I want the shadow?
I don't need that anymore. I don't need the types and the
pictures and all of those things.
I have the real thing, right? And there's no reason to embrace
all of that. He's here.
And that's exactly what this the Bible is talking about.
We don't follow the old covenant anymore because we have the real
thing. He's here, right?
All right, now let's go to 1st Corinthians chapter 10.
And we'll end with this because this is kind of where we bring
all of this together. So we don't need the law
anymore. The law was just to point us to
Christ, right? Everything that we see was just
a type A shadow. We cannot live up to the perfect
holiness of the law. And so Christ comes, He redeems
us back to himself. We're justified by faith in
Christ. We've repented and asked Christ
to forgive us of our sins and come into our heart and to save
us, and he does. But what about the rest of the
law? What about, what about the 10
commandments, right? What about the other things that
we find in God's word? Which ones do we follow?
Which ones do we not follow right.
So this is this is kind of where all of this comes together.
So let's let's look at First Corinthians chapter 10 and we'll
just read the first 11 verses there.
Moreover, brethren, I would not that you should be ignorant how
that all of our fathers were under the cloud and all passed
through the sea and we're all baptized unto Moses in the cloud
and in the sea and did all eat the same spiritual meat and did
all drink the same spiritual drink for the drank of that
spiritual rock that followed them.
And that rock was Christ. But with many of them, God was
not well pleased. For they were overthrown in the
wilderness. Now these things were our
examples to the intent. We should not lust after evil
things, as they also lusted, neither be idolaters, as were
some of them as it is written. The people sat down to eat and
drink, and rose up to play. Neither let us commit
fornication, as some of them committed and fell in one day
three and 20,000 Neither let us tempt Christ, as some of them
also tempted and were destroyed of serpents.
Neither murmur ye, as some of them also murmured and were
destroyed of the destroyer. Now all these things happen unto
them for in samples, and they are written for our admonition
upon whom the ends of the world are come.
So pretty clearly then, some of the sins in the Old Testament
are still condemned today, right?
Just because we're not under the law anymore doesn't mean that we
can be idolaters, doesn't mean that we can commit fornication,
doesn't mean that we can tempt Christ, doesn't mean that we can
murmur, doesn't mean that we can do all of those things right
just because we're not under the law anymore.
He said they did it and they were punished.
And if you do it, you're going to be punished, right?
So though the law of Moses is not the believer's rule of life,
it is an important source of instruction for the Christian
life. We learn from its examples.
And that's exactly what the Bible says there in verse #11
Now all these things happened unto them for in samples.
And they are written for our admonition, our instruction.
That's what they're there for. And so we draw the spiritual
lessons from the things that we read in the law.
In first Corinthians chapter 10, Paul draws lessons from Israel's
wilderness wanderings. That's exactly what he's talking
about. They, they got water from the
rock. They followed those things, but
God wasn't pleased with them. And a lot of things they did
this and this and this and this and this.
And God had to punish him for it, right?
So we learned the lessons about Christ as the rock and the
living water. And we are warned not to go by
idolatry and fornication or to murmur against God.
The New Testament is filled with such lessons from the law of
Moses. First Corinthians 5.
Paul draws lessons from the Passover.
Let's go over to Hebrews chapter 3.
Hebrews chapter 3 and verse #7. The writer of Hebrews who I
believe is the apostle Paul is no guarantee, but I believe it
was Paul that wrote the book of Hebrews.
He's drawing lessons from Israel's unbelief in the
hardness of their hearts in the wilderness.
Hebrews chapter 3 and verse #7 I was in Chapter 7, sorry.
Hebrews chapter 3 and verse #7 Wherefore as the Holy Ghost
saith today, if you will hear his voice, this is coming from
Psalm 95. Harden not your hearts, as in
the provocation in the day of temptation in the wilderness,
when your Father's tempted me, proved me, and saw my works 40
years. Wherefore I was grieved with
that generation, and said, They do all way air in their heart,
and they have not known My ways, so I swear in my wrath they
shall not enter into my rest. Take heed brethren, lest there
be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief and departing from
the living God. But exhort one another daily
while it is called today, lest any of you be hardened through
the deceitfulness of sin. Those first 5-6 verses were
taken directly from the Old Testament and he's saying these
warnings to them in the Old Testament are the same warnings
to you today. Better take heed to him, better
follow him, right? So the New Testament is filled
with with those lessons from the Law of Moses.
So we interpret lessons from the Law of Moses by comparing
Scripture with Scripture to see if the lessons are supported by
the rest of Scripture. In other words, the laws that we
follow from the Old Testament are restated in the New
Testament, maybe not in the exact same way, but the same
sins that were sins in the Old Testament, that are sins in this
dispensation and in this new covenant era are listed again,
right? And that is the moral laws.
The moral laws are laws that that don't change.
They're God's, they're God's laws, right?
You can have your dietary laws and your civil laws.
And that's why if you get a spot on your head, you don't have to
go to a priest and get him to look at it and say, OK, it's
going away, you're fine, you're cleansed, go dip, you know, go
do this, go do that and you're fine, right?
Why don't we do any of those things?
Well, those are all civil laws. They're ceremonial laws as well.
None of those things are restated for us to do in the New
Testament. But the moral laws, we see them
restated in many places in the New Testament, right?
So here's a couple passages to consider.
All right, let's look at Deuteronomy 22.
Five, Let's go back there. Old Testament, Old Testament
Deuteronomy 22 five. In fact, it's actually written
there. You know, if you don't want to
go all the way back to Deuteronomy 22 five, you don't
have to. The woman shall not wear that
which pertaineth unto a man, neither shall a man put on a
woman's garment, for all that do so are abomination unto the Lord
thy God. Well, that contains A moral
principle that there should be a distinction between the sexes
even in how they dress, right? Which gets rid of all of your
transgender everything, right? Cross dressing and all of that
kind of stuff. I mean, a man should wear a
man's garment, a woman should wear a woman's garment.
That's what the Bible is saying. And that's a principle that
remains valid in the New Testament dispensation.
It's very clear by comparing Scripture with Scripture.
The teaching of Deuteronomy 22 is confirmed in Genesis, where
we find that God made man male and female.
I don't think there's anybody that's going to argue with that.
Well, that's Old Testament God. Didn't he only made male and
female in the Old Testament or did he Right.
We find that all again in the New Testament, right.
And so if, if you made them male and female, it's, it's confirmed
in First Corinthians 11/13 or three through 15, where we find
that the sexes are to be distinguished by their hair
length. There, there are to be
differences in the sexes, right? You ought to be able to look at
somebody and say, this is a man, this is a woman, right?
By the way that they look, by the way that they dress, by the
way that they act, you ought to be able to see those things,
right? Well, Deuteronomy 22, five
woman, they can wear whatever they want to.
Man, you can wear whatever they want to.
That's Old Testament. Well, yeah, that's in the Old
Testament, but we see it restated in the new and we see
the moral law that goes along with that in Genesis and really
in a lot of other places throughout the Old Testament as
well. Let's look at Leviticus chapter
19 because here's another one that a lot of people like to to
use today when it comes to especially tattoos and
piercings. Right now you have a tattoo from
before you were saved or something like that.
It's not you get all rip your flesh off and you know, get rid
of it. But at the same time, OK, you
shall not make any cuttings in your flesh for the dead nor
print any marks upon you. I am the Lord.
Well, what's a cutting in your flesh?
It would be body modification, right?
That's what they call it today, scarification, if you want to
call it that, right? Piercing everything you can find
to Pierce on your body, right. And then what is print any marks
upon you? What would that be?
Pretty obviously a tattoo, right?
They used to do that all the time in Pagan cultures.
Those that was that was what they did, right?
That was part of who they were. Now, the moral lesson of
avoiding Pagan customs such as tattoos that are associated with
idolatry and moral reprobation is confirmed again in the New
Testament in a lot of other passages, and there's several of
them that we could look at. But because we're close, let's
just do 1st Corinthians 10 and 2nd Corinthians 6.
So go there and you'll see this basically restated exactly,
again, a different way, but exactly the whole purpose behind
why God was telling them those things in the Old Testament,
right? Why did God tell them in the Old
Testament? Don't make a cutting in your
flesh for the dead and don't print anything on you.
I am the Lord. Why was He telling them that?
That's what the pagans do, right?
There ought to be something different between the people of
God. I am the Lord.
There ought to be something different between the people of
God and the pagans, right? You don't do what they do.
Well, God used those two examples about making cutting in
your flesh for the dead. Who did that?
The Pagan cultures, right? Who?
Who printed marks upon you? The Pagan cultures did that,
right? So does the Bible say in the New
Testament, thou shalt not get a tattoo?
Doesn't say that, but the same moral principle that God used to
establish this in the Old Testament is exactly what is
used again in the New Testament, right?
First Corinthians chapter 10 and verse #20 But I say that the
things which the Gentiles sacrifice, they sacrifice the
devils and not to God. And I would not that you should
have fellowship with devils. You cannot drink the cup of the
Lord and the cup of devils. You cannot be partakers of the
Lord's table and of the table of devils.
Do we not provoke the Lord to jealousy?
Are we stronger than he? Right.
What is he saying? We don't do what the, what the
world does. We don't do what the pagans do.
We're different. You're, you're different.
I'm your father, not the world. You can't have it both ways.
You can't have the world and the flesh.
You can't have God and the devil.
You can't, you can't have both of those.
Let's look at 2nd Corinthians chapter 6, in fact.
Yeah, well, let's, let's look at it.
We're close. Second Corinthians chapter 6 and
verse #16 I mean, this is about as clear as you can get.
And he's quoting, he is quoting directly from Isaiah 52.
What agreement hath the temple of God with idols?
For ye are the temple of the living God, as God hath said, I
will dwell in them and walk in them, and I will be their God,
and they shall be my people. Wherefore come out from among
them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the
unclean thing, and I will receive you, and will be a
father unto you, and you shall be my sons and daughters, saith
the Lord Almighty. What's he saying?
This is the things that they do in their temples.
OK, And we don't have temples today, but you're the temple.
Your body is the temple. So if you're not going to do
those things that the Gentiles and the and the pagans did in
their temples, then the principle for us today is don't
do it to your body. Your body should be separate.
You should look different from the rest of the world because
you are different. All right, let's look at one
more. Let's go to Ephesians chapter 5
and we'll be done. That's where the law comes in,
OK? The law can't.
The law can't condemn me because I'm not under the law anymore.
I'm under grace. I'm under I've accepted Christ
as my Savior. I know that my sins are forgiven
and I'm on my way to heaven. And because I know that the law
can't condemn me anymore. But now I'm not under the law,
I'm under Christ. I'm not under the holiness of
the law. I'm under the holiness of
Christ, and the holiness of Christ is a much higher standard
than just the holiness of the law.
So do I have to do all of those things?
No. I can, I can go to heaven and
drink, drink my way there, right?
I could, because if I'm saved and I know it, I'm not going to
lose my salvation, right? I could, I could smoke my way to
heaven sucking on cancer sticks, right?
I could get there that way. And I'm not going to lose my
salvation because I'm not under the law.
I'm under grace, I've, I've got the freedom to live my life the
way that I want to live my life. But I don't do those things, not
because I can't, but because I don't want to.
Because I'm not just trying to live this holiness of the law
anymore. I'm trying to live the holiness
of Christ. And that's a much, much higher
standard, right? Ephesians chapter 5 and verse
#11 and have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of
darkness, but rather reprove them.
So if I can't have fellowship with the unfruitful works of
darkness, then I shouldn't be looking like them, shouldn't be
acting like them. I shouldn't be doing the things
that the world does right. And, and make no mistake, look
tattoos. It's rebellion, right?
That's why. That's why when somebody gets a
tattoo and they're like, I'm just afraid to go home and tell
my mom that I got a tattoo because I don't know what she's
going to say. Well, why does it matter, right?
If you're not ashamed of it, then why does it matter what
she's going to say? Why does she even care if you
get a tattoo, right? Because people inherently know
that's what the, that's what rebels do, right?
That's what people who are in rebellion do.
Same thing with body modification and all of that
kind of stuff. I mean, you know, you see these
people that have their entire body tattooed, right?
They're living in rebellion against culture, against God,
against everything, right? Why?
That's why we don't do it.
Because that's not who we are. We're not living in rebellion.
We're living in obedience, right?
And and so all of these things that he says don't have
fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness separate from
them. You're people of God.
You shouldn't look like the people of the world.
You can't have that. And this at the same time be
different, right? Well, that's exactly what he was
saying in the Old Testament too. Don't mark your body, don't cut
your body up. That's what the pagans do.
And you're not a Pagan. You're of the Lord.
I'm the Lord do what? Do what people who who are of
the Lord do, right? It's the same exact principle
that God was given them in an in the Old Testament and he gave it
to us again in the New Testament.
All right? So those same moral laws that
applied in the Old Testament are the same moral laws that applied
today, which is why we should still follow the 10
commandments, right? Thou shalt not take the name of
the Lord thy God in vain. Oh, and yet people say that all
the time. OMG, you're taking the name of
the Lord in vain, right? You're taking God's name in
vain. Well, that's an Old Testament
law. No, no, he said it again in the
New Testament. It's a moral law that should be
followed today, right? All of those things.
That's why we do it. So that's why we go all the way
back to that first statement. There's a lot of confusion about
the law of Moses in what place it has in the Christian life,
and it's essential for every believer to settle this issue on
a solid scriptural footing. So am I under the law anymore?
No, the law can't condemn me anymore.
I'm under Christ. But the holiness of the law is
sure a whole lot easier than the holiness of Christ.
But that's not our standard anymore.
This is. So can the law condemn me?
Can I go to hell for taking a drink of alcohol?
No, not necessarily. No, because if you're saved,
then that thing can't condemn you anymore, right?
But you're sure living far under the holiness of Christ that you
should be living up to, right? Are we going to be perfect?
No, but we should be trying to be.
We should be trying to live in the holiness of Christ because
I'm not under the law anymore, right.
It's the same way that that the same illustration that he used
with, with a, a wife wanting to do things for her husband,
right? Wanting to serve her husband.
Why would she want to do that? Because she's afraid of what
happens if she doesn't. No, because He loves her so much
and He treats her so well, and she can't do anything but serve
Him and love Him. That's the way it is with
Christ, right? Do I serve Him because I'm
afraid that I'm going to lose my salvation?
No, I serve Him because He's a good God and I serve Him because
of everything that He's done for me.
And I serve Him because He's given me eternal life and I
don't have to spend one second in hell because of what He's
done for me. I want to serve Him because I
get to and because I love Him and because he loves me.
I don't serve him because I have to.
I serve Him because I want to. That's the life that a believer
is under when it comes to the new Covenant, right?
No, I'm not under the law anymore.
I'm under grace. But grace brings with it a whole
lot higher standard. And that's the standard that we
should be trying to live to. Hope it makes sense.
Let's pray. Father, again, we thank you so
much for your goodness to us. Thank you for the opportunity
that we've had to spend some time here together this this
evening. I pray that it would be a help
to us and God, I pray that you'd help us to, to do everything we
can with your power to live in the holiness of Christ.
God, may you help us to, to do everything we can to live up to
that standard. I do pray that if there is
anybody in here that doesn't know for sure that they're
saved, that they get that settled for sure.
God, for those who know that they are, may you help us to not
live as if we are under the law, but live as if we are under the
holiness of Christ. And may you help us to be
examples and testimonies for you to a lost and dying world who
need Christ. I pray that you just send us
away from here this evening with your blessing.
Thank you again for all you do for us in Jesus name, Amen.