This is going to be there in a little bit, and then we're going to be in the New Testament as well a couple of times here this evening. You can hold your place in Exodus. We are going to get into part number four of our seven dispensations series. Lesson number four, I think. No, lesson number five, I'm sorry. We're in lesson number five. And so tonight, guys, again, we're going to introduce first, again, go back to our text verse on the screen. Why teach dispensationalism? What is the purpose of it? Paul said, by inspiration of God in 2 Timothy 2.15, said he showed thyself approved unto God. A workman that needeth not being ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth, not multiplying, not adding, not subtraction, by all means not correcting, by dividing it, putting the word of God where it belongs in our life and how we're going to serve the Lord. The Bible tells us in 1 Corinthians 11, verse 19, for there must be also heresies among you, that they which are approved may manifest among you. And that's what happens, guys. So there are heresies. There's false teachings. There's heretical teachings that are in our world today. And in all fairness, there is more heresy taught than there is truth. It is harder to find A Bible-believing, Bible-preaching church today that will stand on the Word of God the way it is written, holy and inspired, than to find one that is not. That's the reality of the day. We're living in the times where Amos said, there will be a famine in the land, but not a famine of food and water. What? A famine of hearing the Word of God. And I'm sorry, guys. Well, I'm not sorry. You know, if it's anything other than this inspired book right here, it's not the Word of God. You can read it all day long, not going to help you one bit. It's just going to confuse you, OK? So those seven dispensations we've been talking about for the past couple of weeks, guys, and we've already been through four of them, getting to the fifth one tonight. So we had the dispensation of innocence, then the conscience, human government, and then the last time, two weeks ago, we covered the dispensation of promise, okay, when God turned His attention toward one nation and to one family. And so tonight we're going to get into the dispensation of law. the dispensation of the law. And so what is the beginning of the dispensation of the law? The beginning of it. So the law of dispensation begins in Exodus chapter 20, Exodus chapter 20, when God gave the written law to Moses at Mount Sinai, okay? Now, the law itself consists of the commandments, the judgments, and the ordinances, all right? So that's what the law consists of. So the beginning of this thing is when the law is given, obviously, that makes sense. So if you're taking notes tonight, I'll go ahead and tell you that the commandments you're gonna find, the commandments are given in Exodus chapter 20, verses one through 26, and they are moral. So the commandments are moral, all right? They're how to live, what to do, how you should live, and things along that line. So the commandments, Exodus 20, verses one through 26, are moral. The judgments, the judgments, Exodus 21, verse 1 through 24. Exodus 21, verses 1 through 24. They are civil. They are civil, okay? And that's important for us to know. Commandments are moral. The judgments are civil. And then the ordinances, the ordinances. The ordinances, Exodus 24, verses 12 through 31, Leviticus, chapters one through eight, okay? So, they are religious. They are religious. Now, why do we break it up? Why are we dividing that up right here and right now? Because it's gonna tie into man's test. immense failure. So again, you can copy that down from up there. The beginning, we find Exodus chapter 20 when the law was given unto Moses. We have the commandments, the judgments, and the ordinances. The commandments, Exodus 21 through 26, are moral. The judgments, Exodus 21, 1 through 24, are civil. And the ordinances, Exodus 24, 12 through 31, Yeah, I think it's 12 through 31, Leviticus chapters 1 through 8. They are religious. Now here's the caveat with the law, the caveat with the law. Because what we always hear, we always hear that this law right here was, Israel was under the law, and they were, but we link ourselves too often, many times, that this law had something to do with salvation. The law, guys, was never meant, was not meant to save man, but rather show man his lost condition and his need for Christ, his need for Christ, his need for a Savior. Let me ask you a question. Are we under the law today? Yeah, we are. What is the first commandment? I shall love the Lord thy God, having no other gods before him. With all thy heart, mind, soul, right? So I ask you, if you don't love the Lord Jesus Christ with all your heart, soul, and mind, you've broken that law, all right? Honor thy father and mother. That's in the New Testament, right? I mean, the thing about it, guys, when you look, the Ten Commandments said, even from Mount Sinai, God never intended them to save the nation of Israel, but rather to show the nation of Israel their need for a Savior, their need for a Savior. Turn in your Bibles, if you will, to Romans in chapter 3. Just real quick tonight, Romans chapter 3. All right, Romans chapter 3, look down there in verse 19. Now we know that whatsoever things 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. What's the intention of the law? To bring guilt, to let you know you are guilty. 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 then verse 21 says, but now the righteousness of God without the law is manifest, being witnessed by the law and the prophets. So, again, law was never intended, man, to save anyone, but to show you your need for a savior. Look in Galatians in chapter 3. Some of you have seen the big replica in the back, a 10-foot tall replica that I built of the Ten Commandments when we were in the States. I preached a four-week series out of Romans chapter 7. on the four laws and used those as a towering evidence of what they did to us. Galatians chapter 3, and why am I in Ephesians? Galatians in chapter 3, what am I doing here? There we are. Verse 24, Bible says, So again, what is the purpose of the law? To show a man his need for Christ, okay? And I mean, you know, in the fact that the law is called a curse, amen, never meant to save. Galatians 3.13, Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the wall, being made a curse for us, for it is written, curse is everyone that hangeth on a tree. So we're not under the law any longer, but the law still exists in our life to reveal unto us our need for a Savior, our need for salvation, to convict us or we live in the life that we should or could. The Jews, guys, were so zealous, though, this is what ties into what I was talking about a moment ago of why I gave you the commandments, judgments, and ordinances. The Jews were so zealous about their law, or their new laws, if you will, they committed themselves to keep it before the religious, the redemptive section of the law was ever given. So they're trying to keep the law, okay, they were zealous over this thing, but the redemptive act was gonna be given, meaning the sacrifices and this and that. So they made such a bold commitment, Exodus 19, 8, and chapters 24 through 8, before God had given them the redemptive section in Exodus 24, 12 through 31, okay? And yet only a few weeks later, in Exodus chapter 32, they were worshiping a golden calf. So here they were, zealous over having this new law, but without the law yet, the redemptive act of the law, but they were zealous over following something, and what do they do? They end up worshiping some golden calf. By the time Exodus 40 rolls around, they have the tabernacle, they have the offerings by Leviticus chapter six, and the priests by Leviticus chapter eight. So they now have the redemption plan, which allows them to be reconciled to God if they violate the law. And we know they already messed up before the redemptive act was given. So what is man's responsibility? Man's responsibility here. We got something I think I missed a little bit there, buddy. So we'll back up, cool. So man's responsibility under the law, man was to keep God's commandments in the right spirit without becoming conceited and self-righteous, all right? He was expected to keep all of God's law without adding to it or diminishing front of it. Deuteronomy chapter four, verse two. Outside influences, such as the Babylonian Talmud and various traditions, were strictly forbidden. God wanted man to clearly see the wide gap that was existing between himself and man, the purpose, again, of the law. So when we look at the law, we see that's man's responsibility. And we already know the end of the story, that man fell. We understand that. But we've got to keep in mind, what was that purpose of the law? The purpose was to reveal unto man his need for the Messiah, his need for the Savior. Man's responsibility, man's responsibility under that was to not add to it, not to diminish from it, to stay away from outside influences, and also not to become conceited and self-righteous within that particular law, because remember, God has now focused his attention upon whom? Upon one nation. So what's God's attribute seen in the dispensation law? So God's most manifest attribute under the law is his holiness. It's His holiness. You know, the word holy occurs over 60 times in the book of Exodus alone. The first mention of the word holy is found in Exodus chapter 3 and verse 5, when God is preparing to begin a new dispensation with the calling of Moses. And he said, draw nigh hither, put off thy shoes, off thy feet, for the place where thou standest is holy ground. That's the law first mentioned, first time that it is there, and God's preparing Moses for a new dispensation. Oh my goodness gracious. Thank you, Siri. I have no idea why that happened or how. So, we have, where in the world was I? So, the first time that the law shows up, the word, I'm sorry, holy, shows up, is there in Exodus chapter three, verse five, where the new dispensation is now being prepared to occur. So let's get into man's test. and man's failure tonight, man's test and man's failure. So would man live by God's word alone? Again, that is the test, that is the goal. Don't add to the word. Would he live by every word? That's Deuteronomy chapter eight, verse three. Or would he give place to deceitfulness of sin and fail in yet another dispensation? Now we often, we know I mean, by the time we're in the fifth dispensation, we've seen the track record of mankind, and we still have two more to go, all right, to talk about. So we know Israel rejected the written law. They went after false gods. They eventually were carried away into foreign captivity. Later on, they rejected the incarnate law, which is Jesus Christ. And so, you know, those who have been entrusted to keep and honor the law actually killed the law giver. So not only did it was man's test where they tested as to whether or not they were going to uphold and honor the law, they failed in honoring that dispensation as well as in honoring the one who gave the law. Do you understand? And I know it's easy for us to sit back and say, yeah, well, we know, but that was the way it was supposed to happen that way. Just because God knew that it was going to happen in His omniscience, OK, doesn't mean it was supposed to happen that way. You understand? You can't sit here and just say, well, I went out, and I slipped up, and I made a mistake, and I went and got drunk, and I did this and that. But in getting drunk, I learned a valuable lesson. And when I learned that valuable lesson, now I won't ever do it again. So God meant for that to happen. Man, you're fooling yourself, man. Listen, when you sin, God ain't within a country mile of you, and that ain't His will. You've stepped outside. I don't care what kind of happens on the backside of it. It doesn't matter what positive thing happens on the backside of your life. After that, it doesn't matter a hill of beans. God was not in that thing, okay? So just because God knew that it was gonna happen, amen? That's one of the many multitude of problems with Calvinists, is that everything just, no, no. They happen because you make stupid decisions. That's why they happen, do you understand? And we need to know that, guys. And Israel made some, and again, we can go all the way back, as we mentioned just a moment ago, in that question in the book of Judges, you know, Israel continued to turn to pagan gods and idolatry because they left those things in their land that God gave them. In the land that God said, I want them all gone. Get them out of here. Because they failed to get them out of there, those pagans were left, their idols were left, their ideologies were left, their culture was left, their language was left, their people were left. Do you see the pattern? and it ate away at who and what Israel was. So what's the closing judgment? The closing judgment is twofold, okay? Christ is judged on Calvary as a payment for sin, all right? His statement, it is finished, found in John 19, verse 30, brings the law dispensation to an end, brings it to a close. Israel is judged for the next 2,000 years for murdering her Messiah. The temple is destroyed along with Jerusalem. Israel is dispersed amongst the nations. We see that in our modern day or in our modern years. Israel's present condition, although God will soon resume His dealings with the chosen people in the coming tribulation period, which is Revelation 6 through Revelation 19, but their present condition, guys, is they need to be saved just like you and I do. They're not safe because they're Jews. They're lost and bound to their sin and destined for hell if they do not accept Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior, hands down. And that's just, that's the way that is. So the disposition of the law was closed. When Jesus said, it is finished, he fulfilled the law. He fulfilled the law there. And again, I still, it doesn't mean the law is completely thrown away. What it simply means tonight is that we use the law in the manner that it was intended to be used, and that is to reveal our sinful state and dire need of a savior. Amen. Amen. I hope that was a blessing to you tonight. I hope if you have any questions at all concerning the dispensation of the law. Guys, I've kept these short and sweet and to the point. The seven dispensations, we could teach 12 months every Wednesday night on that and we could dig so deep that you'd probably be bored out of your mind by week two. But I wanted to hit the high points, and I think that's what we need. You need the high points hit, you need the square peg and a square hole, and a round peg and a round hole, know where to place each part of the Scriptures, and rightly divine them, the word of truth, amen?