It's a rather large book of truth and it is an anchor in a world full of lies. We thank you that it doesn't change, that you don't change, and that we can trust it and trust you. We pray today that you'd help us as we look into the issues of how to interpret your word, that we would do it correctly and come to a right understanding of things. and that today's lesson would go toward that end. I pray in Jesus' name, Amen. Okay, so the last time that we met we were dealing with how to deal with the Old Testament and what do you do with it. And what we saw is that really the starting place for that is the New Testament. So you look at the New Testament and see how did the New Testament regard or treat the Old. and specifically how did Jesus regard the Old Testament? How did the apostles regard the Old Testament? And what we saw is that they had a great regard for it. They did not hold it in contempt. They certainly didn't treat it as though it was some revelation by a different God or that God had had some sort of personality transplant along the way and became somebody completely different. That he's the same God yesterday, today, and forever. But that then leads us to the next really logical step in question and that is then why is it that there are things in the Old Testament that we no longer observe? Because there are plenty of things that we no longer observe. Why is it, for instance, that when you look at the Ten Commandments and you see commandments like you shall not commit murder, you shall not commit adultery, you shall not steal, you shall not bear false witness against your neighbor, you shall not covet, you shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain you shall have no other gods before me and so on that we look at those and we say that's good and that's for today that's not something that's passe or out of date just because we're in the New Testament and those commandments were given in the old doesn't mean it's okay to commit murder today before God or it's okay to commit adultery or any of those other sins So why is it then that there are other commandments in the Old Testament that we do not any longer follow or observe or abide by? For instance, say Leviticus 19.9, you are to keep my statutes, you shall not breed together two kinds of your cattle, you shall not sow your field with two kinds of seed, nor wear a garment upon you of two kinds of material mixed together. Anybody in here wearing polyester? I probably am. I don't really pay attention to such things, but probably am. Probably if you look at the little tag, it's probably polyester. It's probably not just pure cotton. So am I sinning? Am I appearing to sin before you because I'm wearing a shirt made together of two kinds of material? And if not, why not? Upon what basis would I say so? How could I defend myself? Well, what we're going to see here is that there are three distinct kinds of law in the Old Testament. There is moral law, there's ceremonial law, and there's civil law. Now, let me say at the outset that you're not going to find those categories listed in the Old Testament. you won't find a section of Leviticus that says okay this is the ceremonial law and over here is the moral law and over here is the civil law or also called judicial law. The Old Testament doesn't give us those categories and it doesn't separate those kinds of laws from one another. They're all mingled together one after the other and sometimes aspects of ceremonial in one verse with aspects of moral law in the same verse. But what we do find is that the New Testament itself does give us at least some sense of a category even if it doesn't give us a name for it regarding these laws. When you look at the New Testament and the way it deals with the old you'll see that it itself is taking some of the old and saying this is still in force this is still applicable today no matter what century you live in and then there are other laws from the Old Testament that are no longer in force so whatever terms you use, whatever categories you come up with theologians at least for hundreds of years have used these three moral, ceremonial, and civil. So let's look just first at the moral law we touched on this the last time we met that there is a kind of law that endures and you see this in Romans 2 that all mankind have a law written on their hearts and this is what provides content for their conscience so everybody has a conscience and that conscience accuses them when they do things that are wrong and it congratulates them if you will when they do what is right But there has to be some standard for right and wrong that is the same for everyone and that doesn't change to provide some information for the conscience to work with. And that's what you see in Romans 2, 14-16 there on your page. For when Gentiles who do not have the law do instinctively the things of the law, these not having the law are a law to themselves. and that they show the work of the law written in their hearts, their consciences bearing witness and their thoughts alternately accusing or else defending them on the day when according to my gospel God will judge the secrets of men through Christ Jesus." So Gentiles who don't have the law, they didn't have the Bible at all, they didn't have the Ten Commandments written on two tablets of stone in an ark in their place of worship. Nevertheless, they had a conscience and a sense of right and wrong. This is why long before God ever wrote the Ten Commandments on two tablets of stone, when Cain killed Abel, pretty early on in human history, he knows he's done wrong. Why does he know he's done wrong? If the law had not been formally given yet, because it's written on the hearts and the conscience, and he knows it. There is a moral law then also written on the hearts of believers and particularly in a greater, more powerful, enduring way than what an unbeliever has in his conscience. And you see this in a couple of different promises in the Old Testament where we're told about a new covenant that is coming. and Ezekiel 36, 26-27 is one of those note the words here, moreover I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh I will put my spirit within you and cause you to walk in my statutes and you'll be careful to observe my ordinances So this new thing that he is going to do in this new heart, we call this regeneration, is to give them a heart that is soft, not hard, and one that inclines the person to walk in God's commandments. That's why when a person is genuinely saved, they are living a new life. They are indeed a new creation, because they have the law written on their hearts in a much, much greater way than they did before, and they are walking in God's statutes. Not perfectly, of course. Hebrews 8, 8-12 is another passage that speaks of this, and this is really a quotation from Jeremiah 31 in the Old Testament. It says, for finding fault with them, he says, behold, days are coming, says the Lord. when I will effect a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah not like the covenant which I made with their fathers on the day when I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt for they did not continue in my covenant and I did not care for them says the Lord for this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days says the Lord I will put my laws into their minds and I will write them on their hearts and I will be their God and they shall be my people And they shall not teach everyone his fellow citizen, and everyone his brother, saying, Know the Lord, for all will know me, from the least to the greatest of them. For I will be merciful to their iniquities, and I will remember their sins no more." So you see that promise, I will put my laws into their minds, and I will write them on their hearts. This is the beauty of the New Covenant. This is why Hebrew says it's a better covenant, enacted upon better promises. So there is this law. Well, what law? What law is written on the heart? And the answer is that it's the moral law, which is summed up in the Ten Commandments. When we talk about the moral law, we're talking about the Ten Commandments. Jesus said, and we quoted this verse the last time we met, In Matthew 5, 17 through 19, do not think that I came to abolish the law or the prophets. I did not come to abolish but to fulfill. For truly I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not the smallest letter or stroke shall pass from the law until all is accomplished. Whoever then annuls one of the least of these commandments and teaches others to do the same shall be called least in the kingdom of heaven. But whoever keeps and teaches them, he shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven. And then Paul says in Romans 3.31, do we then nullify the law through faith? May it never be. On the contrary, we establish the law. So there is this law that will not pass away until heaven and earth pass away. And it's still here, right? And since it's still here, then the law, some aspect of the law is still here and still in force and shall not pass away. And yet what we're going to see is when we look at other New Testament passages, there are indeed parts of the law that are no longer in force today. And we'll talk about why that is. you read through the New Testament and you see the quotations of the Ten Commandments and they are quoted in such a way as that the clear implication is we're supposed to continue to observe these. So you have Romans 13, 8-10 where Paul says, Oh nothing to anyone except to love one another for he who loves his neighbor has fulfilled the law for this you shall not commit adultery, you shall not commit murder, you shall not steal, you shall not covet, And if there is any other commandment, it is summed up in this saying, you shall love your neighbor as yourself. Love does no wrong to a neighbor. Therefore, love is the fulfillment of the law. So you can see that Paul is saying that a New Testament Christian does not take the Ten Commandments and say, oh, well, forget about those. Those are no good anymore. That's just the Old Testament. No, it's very much applicable today. the verse that we're memorizing out there is, you know, the greatest commandment and the second greatest commandment. And that greatest commandment, love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength. And the second greatest, love your neighbor as yourself, sum up the ten commandments. The first four commandments are summed up in the greatest. The last six commandments are summed up in the second greatest. at two tables of the law and it would seem that on the first table is the first four dealing with our relationship with God and the last six are dealing with our relationship with our neighbor, summed up by love your neighbor as yourself. Oh, there's other passages that we won't look up there. I just included them if you want to look them up on your own. Matthew 19 and James 2 where the Apostles, well, Jesus and then James, the Apostle, is applying the Ten Commandments in the modern setting. Now, let's talk about the ceremonial law. This is the law that is complete and it's finished and it is why I do not believe I'm sinning by wearing polyester. Or eating pork, for instance. I assume some of you have eaten pork before. Are you a Sennite? Yeah, alright. Those poor Old Testament Jews, I don't know how they got along without pork chops. Today, thank goodness, we don't have to abstain from such things. But why do we not have to abstain from such things? because there are certain parts of the Old Testament that are ceremonial in nature, meaning they have to do with days of preparation. There are ceremonies that are pointing to the coming Messiah, and they are preparing the people for His coming. Well, once He comes then, you stop preparing, right? It's like two people that get married. They have preparation before the marriage. They have an engagement. They may be doing all sorts of things to get the wedding ready and so forth. There may be courtship or whatever. Those are days of preparation. Once they're married, those two don't really want to go back and pretend that they're courting again and go back to the days of preparation. No, we're done with that. That's served its purpose. We've arrived. And that is the nature of the ceremonial law, arriving at a place in which we've arrived. Jesus has come. So all of those laws that prepared the people for the coming of the Messiah have no purpose or use anymore because Jesus has arrived. And so some of those examples would be, for instance, circumcision. In Galatians 5, 1 through 6, and other passages, Galatians 6, 12-15, Acts 15, 1-21, that's where they had the first council, first church council. There was a big controversy because there were certain Jewish people that were going around teaching that the Gentiles must be circumcised to be saved. Paul is dealing with that in the book of Galatians. They're known as the Judaizers. He calls them the false circumcision. and he resists them very strenuously because they are trying to teach New Testament Christians you must be circumcised to be saved. He says in Galatians 5, 1 through 6, it was for freedom that Christ set us free. Therefore keep standing firm and do not be subject again to a yoke of slavery. Behold, I, Paul, say to you that if you receive circumcision, Christ will be of no benefit to you. Now just to pause, one may do this today for health purposes that has nothing to do with the religious purposes. One is not doing it to try to fulfill certain commandments of God in that respect, but rather for health purposes. So it's the motivation that is in play here. And I testify again to every man who receives circumcision that he is under obligation to keep the whole law. You have been severed from Christ, you who are seeking to be justified by law. You have fallen from grace. For we, through the Spirit, by faith, are waiting for the hope of righteousness. For in Christ Jesus, neither circumcision nor uncircumcision means anything but faith working through love." Well, circumcision was commanded in the Old Testament. To be a Jew, you must be circumcised. That was not an option. you were cut off from your people if you were not circumcised excluded you're not even a true Jew you are not even eligible for the blessings of God if you're not circumcised and so how is it that it came from being obligatory to Paul talking like this because this is ceremonial in nature. When you look at circumcision in the Old Covenant, one of its purposes is to separate the Jews from the Gentiles. They were to be completely separate. They got their own land. They had boundaries around it, very specific boundaries. They had laws that were specific and unique to them. They had circumcision that set them apart from the other nations. They had dietary specifications of what they could and couldn't eat that was different from the Gentiles. And all of this served to separate them from the corrupting sinful influence of the nations, to keep them separate. Well, then in the New Testament, you come along and Jesus breaks down the dividing wall. And the prohibition against Jews and Gentiles mingling together is gone. And it's just taken away and removed. That's no longer the purpose. Now, Jesus sends his Jewish apostles out to the Gentiles, to the nations, to evangelize them and take the gospel to them. Because they are too going to be brought into the fellowship and to the household of God. and they will all be one in Christ Jesus and so perhaps you've heard the the verse of the ending Galatians 3 there is neither Jew nor Greek for all are one in Christ Jesus these racial distinctions are not important anymore And Ephesians 2, it's called the dividing wall and it's been broken down because the two groups have been brought together under one heading, under Christ Jesus. So if we have a Jew here and a Gentile there and they're both in Christ, then their being in Christ is the important thing, not what race they came from. They're human race. And so if those things serve to separate them for a while, then if we come now with a new administration and it's no longer good to be separated, then it would make sense that the laws given to make sure they are separated no longer apply. Because if you don't want them separated anymore, then you certainly can't be insisting on those very laws that served to separate them. which is the same thing the food laws did. You remember the vision that Peter has in Acts chapter 10 where he is up on the house, the rooftop, and he's going up there at the hour of prayer and he starts to receive a vision while he's up there and he's hungry and a sheet is lowered down out of the sky and there's all these unclean animals on it. The unclean animals of Leviticus chapter 11. And God tells him in the vision, arise Peter, kill and eat. Peter says, by no means Lord, I've never eaten anything unclean. And God says to him, what God has cleansed, no longer consider unholy. And it happens three times. And right after that, Peter is perplexed as to what all this means. There's a knock at the door. And Cornelius, who is a Gentile, has also received a vision that Peter is staying at this house. He sends people from his household to go get Peter, according to God's directions. So there they are at the door. And he goes down and talks to them, and they explain why they're there, and he goes with them. And one of the first things he tells Cornelius is, you know how unlawful it is for me being a Jew to associate with Gentiles. And yet God has shown me that I should call no man unclean. So, well I thought we were talking about animals here. Wasn't it animals that came down on the sheet? Yes, but that's the whole point. Those unclean animals were symbolic of unclean Gentiles. And what God is now showing Peter is that those distinctions are no longer valid. I am cleansing them by faith just as I am doing Jews. And so the food laws which serve to keep the two groups separate and we don't want to associate with the unclean Gentiles and so we have unclean foods we're not supposed to touch that keeps us separate from them and also reinforces this principle of there's unclean things out there no longer have application today because God has broken down that dividing wall and brought the two groups into one so this is the problem then you get into where you maybe have certain people that are trying to go back to Leviticus 11 and come up with dietary laws and rules for better living. Those foods were never given so that we could live a long time or so the Jews could or because they had anything to do with diet or anything to do with nutrition. That is a notion that's kind of brought into the text from an American culture that is very preoccupied with such things. When you look at the text itself and you look at Acts 10, you look at the principles that are taught there, you see, oh no, this is ceremonial law in the days of preparation. The days of preparation are over. We've arrived. Jesus has brought down the dividing wall. Therefore, I can eat pork chops and don't have to abstain from such things because those kinds of laws we're only preparatory in nature. You see there in 1 Corinthians 7.19 circumcision is nothing and uncircumcision is nothing but what matters is the keeping of commandments of the commandments of God. You see the distinction that's being made there? Circumcision is a commandment but Paul is distinguishing between circumcision as one kind of commandment which he says is now nothing versus other commandments of God and what I would suggest to you is that distinction he's making is the distinction between ceremonial law and moral law the same would be true of holy days and Jewish festivals the reason that we do not well I should say don't have to observe Passover some people I suppose might I don't think they need to I don't think there's any requirement that they do so The reason that we do not have to observe Passover and the Feast of Booze and observe those sorts of things is because those were also preparatory in nature, leading to the coming of Christ, such that once He arrives, their purpose is now dissolved. You see this in Galatians 4, 9-11. He says to the Galatians, now that you have come to know God, or rather to be known by God. How is it that you turn back again to the weak and worthless elemental things to which you desire to be enslaved all over again? You observe days and months and seasons and years. I fear for you that perhaps I have labored over you in vain." See, and the reason is because of the motivation here. The Jewish false teachers are coming in and saying, you've got to keep these. and they're teaching that these things are meritorious. By observing the feasts, by being circumcised, by following the food laws, you are getting points with God. And it is departing from the idea of being saved by grace. And it's taking people who have experienced the fullness of Jesus' arrival and the benefits of that and then trying to put them back in time into days of preparation such that Jesus is coming now is really of no use, of no benefit. It's an insult, it's an insult to Jesus to go back to days of preparation when he has arrived and fulfilled the purpose of those things. In Colossians 2, 9-17 the issue comes up again Notice how Paul is dealing with Jesus and what he has done and accomplished and then how he applies that to certain rules about do not eat, do not taste, do not touch and observing certain holy days. For in him all the fullness of deity dwells in bodily form. That him is Jesus. And in him you have been made complete. and he is head over all rule and authority and in him you were also circumcised with a circumcision made without hands the removal of the body of flesh by the circumcision of Christ having been buried with him in baptism in which you were also raised up with him and through faith in the working of God who raised him from the dead When you were dead in your transgressions and the uncircumcision of your flesh, He made you alive together with Him, having forgiven us all our transgressions, having cancelled out the certificate of debt consisting of decrees against us, which was hostile to us. And He has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross. When He had disarmed the rulers and authorities, He made a public display of them, having triumphed over them through Him. So all of that is, here's what Jesus has done through His work on the cross. And taken all this enmity away, taken all the hostility away. and therefore, you know, so what? Therefore no one is to act as your judge in regard to food or drink or in respect to a festival or a new moon or a Sabbath day. Things which are a mere shadow of what is to come but the substance belongs to Christ. Those things were a shadow of what's to come. It's like Jesus is up here in the future and the sunshine is on him and it casts a shadow backwards into time. And so all these ceremonies and the food laws and the Passover, the feasts, and circumcision itself among some other things are all part of the nature of shadow. But once you keep moving, you keep moving ahead in the centuries until the day when Christ arrives you don't live in the shadows anymore. You live in the reality and the light of Jesus. The sacrificial system obviously is abolished. I'm assuming no one has ever here flown over to Israel and sacrificed a sheep on an altar in a temple that isn't there. Yes? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, that's a very good question. In fact, there's lots of controversies over that. And what seems to be the case when you study the Sabbath issue is that there are two aspects of the Sabbath. There is a moral aspect of it and there's a ceremonial aspect. And so they had the Sabbath day, of course, once a week, which is part of the moral law, the Ten Commandments, and that is enduring. In other words, we still must worship God and give Him His time. That didn't cease to be a requirement for us. We still need rest, but we are not living in a holy land. America is not the Holy Land as much as we might like America or be proud of its beginnings. It's not the same as Israel. We don't have instructions in the Bible about America and here's where your borders will be and those kinds of things. And we don't have a theocracy where the government is literally just completely using the law of God. In fact, increasingly not. So land Sabbaths, for instance, where every seven years the land is supposed to be let go and not planting and harvesting that year. That's done away with. The 50th year Jubilee was a Sabbath as well where the land is allowed to go fallow for that year. That's no longer applicable because we're not in a, you know, we're not in Israel. Those of us who are unique to Israel. So those kinds of Sabbaths are done away with and it gets a little bit tricky determining, okay, what parts of the Old Testament regarding the Sabbath day which for them was the seventh day and for us is the first day what parts of that carry over and what parts are not so some people talk about a Sabbath principle meaning that the principle of the day of rest is there but for instance does that mean that you need to on like they would start their Sabbath Friday evening and it would go to Saturday evening and finish you know on the evening of Sabbath at dusk And does that mean that's what we need to do Saturday evening to Sunday evening? You know, lots of questions there that people debate a lot on. And there's been a lot of ink that has been spilt on that issue and so forth. Does that kind of answer your question? Yeah, go ahead. Please do. Tithing. That's another one that's an interesting thing. I do not look at tithing as an exclusively Old Covenant issue. Certainly we don't have a temple and we don't tithe necessarily in the same way. It's not like, okay, you harvest your field full of corn, which is only exclusively for farming people, and you bring a tenth of that into the storehouse of the temple. We don't have those circumstances, so we can't follow exactly in the same way. But why we would abandon the principle of a tenth for what? For what principle instead of it? I don't see any New Testament guidance other than give it all away. The only difference you see in the New Testament maybe is people sold all they had But of course, that's a specific context. When you left to go follow Jesus, He's only here for three years, and you go and sell all you have to come follow Him. He doesn't intend for everybody to be homeless and become beggars and burden everyone else. So eventually you're going to have to have a job again, and you need a place to live, and you're probably going to buy a couch to sit on. and so there is a context to that go and sell all you have but certainly the generosity that you see in the New Testament is well beyond a tithe but I just look at a tithe as a baseline as a sort of a starting point you have your tithes which is the tenth and then offerings are beyond that and some people would definitely disagree with that and say that the tithe is exclusively Old Testament but I I just don't see that there's any substitute principle given us instead and so I don't know why it wouldn't continue to be a guide for us. That's just my personal view. Any other questions? So the sacrificial system is clearly abolished. We're not sacrificing animals anymore. Why would that be? because Jesus has come and been sacrificed once for all. Really, if you want to just have a starting point for how to think through all of this, you go to the book of Hebrews. The book of Hebrews is devoted to this entire subject. It deals with all about the old covenant that is no longer in place and why it's no longer in place. So the book of Hebrews is very valuable for that. A passage from there, Hebrews 7, 17-28. For it is attested of him, that is Christ, you are a priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek. For on the one hand there is a setting aside of a former commandment because of its weakness and uselessness, for the law made nothing perfect. And on the other hand there is a bringing in of a better hope through which we draw near to God. and inasmuch as it was not without an oath, for indeed they became priests without an oath, but he with an oath through the one who said to him, the Lord has sworn and will not change his mind, you are a priest forever, so much the more also Jesus has become the guarantee of a better covenant." So the covenant that we're in now is better than the old one and that's all by design. The former priests, on the one hand, existed in greater numbers because they were prevented by death from continuing. But Jesus, on the other hand, because he continues forever, holds his priesthood permanently. Therefore, he is able to save forever those who draw near to God through him, since he always lives to make intercession for them. For it was fitting for us to have such a high priest, holy, innocent, undefiled, separated from sinners, and exalted above the heavens, who does not need daily, like those high priests, to offer up sacrifices, first for his own sins, and then for the sins of the people, because this he did once for all. when he offered up himself. For the law appoints men as high priests who are weak, but the word of the oath which came after the law appoints a son made perfect forever." So why do we not have sacrifices anymore? Why do we not have a priesthood anymore, which is supposed to be the sons of Aaron? Well, for one thing, because of what happened to the Jews in 70 AD and their almost complete annihilation and the destruction of the temple and their records and all of that, it's difficult to know what tribe you're even from, if you're a Jew. And to establish an Aaronic priesthood, they don't have a temple, they don't have official priests, and so forth. So there's not even been the ability to do this for the longest time. And so what are we supposed to do for all these thousands of years and wait for some temple to be rebuilt? No. We don't even want a temple to be rebuilt because that would be an insult to Jesus. Because what the text is teaching us is that when Jesus came, he completed the priesthood. He was a priest, a priest forever. Unlike they who died, as we all do, and ceased to be able to do their job, Jesus was raised again and therefore holds his office permanently. And so as a permanent priest sitting at the right hand of God, he does not die daily, he doesn't bring animal sacrifices. The book of Hebrews is clear, that never took away sin. Never once, when an Israelite brought in an animal, as a sin offering, did it take away sin? That was all shadows, that was all preparation, that was all symbolic of the One who would be coming, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world. He is the Lamb of God and since He comes and suffers once for all, and there's nothing missing in his sacrifice there were no sins missing there was nothing lacking in what he did it was sufficient for all believers for all time so that to go back then to animal sacrifices is to suggest that Jesus was not enough that his death on the cross didn't fully satisfy God and when he was on the cross and said one of his last words it is finished that he really didn't mean it. But the truth is, of course, that he did mean it. It is finished. He finished the work completely. He bore all our sins in his body on the tree. He didn't miss any of them. He didn't forget any. He didn't suffer five minutes less than he was supposed to suffer. He fully exhausted all the wrath of God there was to pour out for those who believe in him. and suffer completely. So the sacrifices are obviously no longer in place. We talked about the food laws. Due to the time issues I won't read to you. I've already basically summarized the Acts 10 passage there where Peter with the sheet and the animals that come down In Mark 7, 18-20, you have this quarrel with the Pharisees who are surprised Jesus and his disciples don't ceremonially wash their hands before the meal. And he says, nothing that goes into the mouth defiles the man, but what comes out of his heart and then out of his mouth defiles the man. And in that passage it says, as an explanatory note by Mark, thus he declared all foods clean. You can't be defiled by the food that you eat. might be made sick by it, but you're not going to be defiled by it. There's no ceremonial defilement or impurity that comes my way of food. So that brings us to the last category and that would be judicial law. Judicial law or civil law has to do with those kinds of laws that are unique to a theocracy when you've got a church-state government that's one. So there's no separation between church and state in Israel. It's one. The government is the church is the government is the church. And the laws that the government enforces are God's laws that he gave them to enforce. Well, when you're not in Israel and the Old Covenant and you're in another nation today like ours, which is about as good as it gets on planet Earth, What do you do with these Old Testament civil laws? And mostly what they have to do with is the punishments. Here's what will be done to you if you do this. And so what happens when your civil government is no longer, you know, a chosen by God, set apart nation that basically is using the Bible for its civil code? there are things that do not continue. The church now is the people of God, not a nation. And the church has not been given the sword. So we don't kill people. So when somebody does something wrong within the church, we don't stone them. Now, as I pointed out before, we shouldn't react in horror that they stoned people because who was it that told them to do this? It was God. Too often the reaction is, oh, that's just horrible. No, the sin is what's horrible. And the fact that he commanded them to stone them is a statement on how horrible the sin is, not on what an ogre God is. So we have to be really careful in how we deal with these Old Testament passages, lest we be found criticizing God himself. You cannot criticize the way that things were done in the Old Covenant without criticizing God. unless you want to suggest that God didn't write it, and then you're in a whole other world of trouble. But why do we not do those same civil penalties today? Because what we see in the New Testament is that God did not set it up that way for the church. He set up different kinds of penalties, and it's not the death penalty for the church. That's the state's job. and we'll see that in Romans 13 but first is first Corinthians 5 what the church has given to us and this is rare you know these days I mean I growing up in church I never heard of it church I grew up in never practice this but it's called church discipline it was actually quite common in previous days in previous centuries but the church today has become paralyzed by one of the verses we looked at early on in the hermeneutics judge not lest you be judged and have set that verse up against other verses and have created sort of a hierarchy of verses like this one's more clear than that one or this one's more important than that one or more noble than that one God doesn't give us such a hierarchy we don't have the authority to do that What he gave us was church discipline such that when a person is committing a scandalous sin, I'm not talking about just any sin, I mean everybody sins every day. The church is not to excommunicate or throw out everybody for every sin they commit. There'd be nobody left. We're talking about scandalous type things. The things that are generally public are dealt with as we see here in 1 Corinthians 5. Private matters are dealt with one-on-one. If they listen to you, Jesus says, you've won your brother. If they don't listen, take one or two more so that every fact will be established by two or three witnesses. If they listen to you, you've won your brother. If they don't, take it before the church. Then make it public. If they listen to you, you've won your brother. If they don't, then let them be to you as a pagan and a tax collector. Meaning, you disassociate from them. They're not a part of your church anymore. That's the way Jesus tells us to deal with it in Matthew chapter 18. When the matter starts out as an unknown to the public, private issue. But when it's already public, as in 1 Corinthians 5, you go straight to the last step. in this case it's a rather gross situation where the man is involved intimately with his father's wife meaning that there is apparently a stepmother that's why you would be called father's wife rather than your mother but it's still considered incestuous and you see in first Corinthians 5 here it is actually reported that there is immorality among you and immorality of such a kind does not exist even among the Gentiles that someone has his father's wife. You have become arrogant and have not mourned instead, so that the one who had done this deed would be removed from your midst. For I, on my part, though absent in body but present in spirit, have already judged him who has so committed this as though I were present. in the name of our Lord Jesus when you are assembled and I with you in spirit with the power of our Lord Jesus I have decided to deliver such a one to Satan for the destruction of his flesh so that his spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus see a couple things over there when you are removed from the church you are handed over to Satan raises lots of questions but one thing that should be very clear is that there's protection and safety in the church and in the fellowship of the church and then when you are cast out from that you are being handed over to Satan and that's not a good thing but the goal is that his spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus that it will have a redemptive effect upon him that he will be brought to repentance sadly it doesn't always happen that way he says your boasting is not good they're like bragging about this on how tolerant they are Do you not know that a little leaven leavens the whole lump of dough? Clean out the old leaven so that you may be a new lump just as you are in fact unleavened. For Christ our Passover has been sacrificed." Just to stop here for a minute, there's an interesting verse for the Passover with the ceremonial law. Why do we not keep Passover? Because Christ is our Passover and has been sacrificed. Therefore let us celebrate the feast not with old leaven, nor with the leaven of malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth. I wrote you in my letter not to associate with immoral people. I did not at all mean with the immoral people of this world or with the covetous and swindlers or with the idolaters, for then you'd have to go out of the world. You'd have to go to Mars or something and live there in order to completely disassociate yourself from all immoral people. They're all around you, everywhere. But what he means is, I did not at all mean the immoral people of the world, but actually I wrote you not to associate with any so-called brother Someone who says they're a Christian and acts this way. If he is an immoral person, or covetous, or an idolater, or a reviler, or a drunkard, or a swindler, not even to eat with such a one. For what have I to do with judging outsiders? Do you not judge those who are within the church? Those who are outside, God judges. Remove the wicked man from among yourselves. Now, that's capitalized there, not by me, because I'm trying to make some emphasis here, but the New American Standard Version capitalizes all Old Testament references. So when it says, remove the wicked man from among yourselves, Paul is quoting the Old Testament. And when you look back and see where did it say that, well, it's in Deuteronomy 13, 5, Deuteronomy 17, 7, and a couple other places in Deuteronomy. And when you read how it's applied in Deuteronomy, it's the death penalty. That's how they removed the wicked man from among them in the Old Testament. They stoned them. Well, what we're seeing here is, by this quotation, is that this is the new covenant equivalent. This is what the church does when there's leaven in the dough, destructive leaven that will spread and leaven everyone. This is how you remove the wicked man from among you. You don't stone them, you remove them from the church fellowship. And this is how the church deals with that today. So that gives us a hermeneutical principle on dealing with those Old Testament passages. We don't just simply say, well that's the Old Testament or that was back when things were barbaric and mean. No, we say God is the same God considers sin in the camp every bit as serious as he ever did. It's just that now the church is a different unit than the nation of Israel. It's a spiritual body of people and they're not a government like the state is and they don't put people to death, they excommunicate. These things are still useful in some respect, even though we're not a nation anymore and we don't do those things, they're still useful as we look at them because 2 Timothy 3, 16-17, all scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness. so that the man of God may be equipped for every good work." It didn't say all scriptures inspired by God except Deuteronomy 13.5 and except Deuteronomy 17.7 and except all these verses that deal with these severe penalties. No, that's part of the scripture that is useful for teaching. It teaches us how much God hates sin, how serious it is. It teaches us very clearly that the wages of sin is death. it's useful for condemning and restraining sin. 1st Timothy 1 8-11 Paul says we know that the law is good if one uses it lawfully. realizing the fact that law is not made for a righteous person but for those who are lawless and rebellious, for the ungodly and sinners, for the unholy and profane, for those who kill their fathers or mothers, for murderers and immoral men and homosexuals and kidnappers and liars and perjurers and whatever else is contrary to sound teaching, according to the glorious gospel of the blessed God with which I have been entrusted. So the law, and he's referring to Old Testament law here, is useful as long as one uses it lawfully. And it's not made for righteous people, it's made for the unrighteous. It condemns sin, it shows us what sin is. It restrains that, in a sense, because of the understanding of God's hatred of it. It's also useful to guide the civil magistrate in matters of justice. So in Romans 13, 1-5, you have Paul saying, Every person is to be in subjection to the governing authorities, for there is no authority except from God, and those which exist are established by God. Therefore whoever resists authority has opposed the ordinance of God, and they who have opposed will receive condemnation upon themselves. For rulers are not a cause of fear for good behavior, but for evil. Do you want to have no fear of authority? Do what is good, and you will have praise from the same. For it is a minister of God to you for good. But if you do what is evil, be afraid, for it does not bear the sword for nothing. For it is a minister of God, an avenger, who brings wrath on the one who practices evil. Therefore it is necessary to be in subjection, not only because of wrath, but also for conscience sake." This is the purpose of government. It's not to provide you with Obamacare or Medicare or Social Security or food stamps or whatever it might be. It is to punish evildoers. And if the government doesn't punish evildoers, this will become a very, very scary society indeed. It's scary enough already because of increased lawlessness. But if the government is not punishing Evildoers, look out. There are many people who are restrained by nothing but that. It is the fear of being caught. It is the distaste for going to jail and in those rare instances when it leads to an electric chair or something like that, there is distaste for that. That keeps people from being as bad as they would be. And Paul teaches that that's the purpose of the government. Now, a lot of times when we read that passage, we immediately think of the exceptions. And we think, well, I know lots of governments that are evil, and they are a cause for fear for righteous people. But Paul is, I don't think, speaking absolutely here, I don't think Paul's naive about that. You know, he doesn't have an exalted view of the Roman Empire, I don't think. He knows full well that governments can persecute the righteous and that that does go on. But at the same time, even those governments that punish righteous people, say for being Christian, also do things like punish thieves and say that no you can't just murder anyone you want to and no you can't just steal anybody you want to from anybody you want to and no you can't go vandalizing people's property and no you you can't rape and you can't do all these other things because civil magistrates have a vested interest in there being some civility inside society they get really busy if it's not in ways they don't want to be. If you're a civil magistrate and you have to go putting out fires constantly because society is just, everybody's killing one another, everybody's stealing, because there's no consequences against it, you're going to have a big mess. And so the civil magistrate has a vested interest in punishing evil behavior, and self-interest tends to dictate that even the civil magistrate, who is sometimes darkened in his understanding, can figure out that you shall not commit murder is a good law to have. And just don't tell him it's in the Bible, or he might strike it from the record. But, generally speaking, there's such common sense, you know, that it benefits society and even the magistrate himself, such that they want to do these sorts of things. Think of it this way, even though we don't live in a theocracy, we're not in Israel, what laws do we want the government to enforce? Allah? His laws? Buddha's laws? Whose moral law would we like the government to enforce? If they're going to have, they've got to have some law. They've got to have some basis from which to say this is right and this is wrong. And this will be punished here, this wrong behavior will be punished. What standard do we want them to use? Personally, I'd prefer they use the Bible to determine morality, to determine right and wrong. And we're blessed in this nation because for a long time this was the standard. Still is in some ways, though there are lots of attacks against it. So there's the civil law. You have these three kinds of laws, moral, ceremonial, and civil or judicial. And hopefully that helps you understand why some things in the Old Testament are no longer in force and that's okay. It doesn't mean we're sinning. And then there are the things which are ongoing and enduring because they are moral in nature. Any questions as we close? I know I've kind of gone over time as it is. Alright, thank you for your attention. You may be dismissed.