Video Transcript: What Do Old Testament Laws Mean for Today?

Video Transcript: What Do Old Testament Laws Mean for Today?

What do Old Testament laws mean for today? If you're someone who takes the Bible as God's word, and you want to take all of God's word to heart, what do you make of all of those Old Testament laws? According to the count of the Rabbi's, there are 613 laws, just in the five Books of Moses. What do we do with those laws? And what do they mean for us? 

Here's just a sample of some laws from the Book of Leviticus. You shall bring your offerings of livestock from the herd or the flock. And there are many different laws about what kind of offerings you bring, what kind of animals they should be, how you should slaughter them? Are we supposed to be slaughtering animals still today? And follow that command from the Bible? How about this one? Everything in the waters that has not fins and scales is detestable to you? Does that mean you're sinning if you eat shrimp, or lobster, or oysters? You shall love your neighbor as yourself. How does that one apply to us today? Anyone who curses his father, or his mother shall surely be put to death? Do we execute children and young people who directly curse a father or a mother? You shall dwell in booths for seven days. Every year should have a feast of tabernacles, where you make little booths for yourselves out of branches and you live in those. Are we supposed to be doing that yet today in order to obey God? That's just a small sample of some of the laws that are in Leviticus. And I could give many, many, many similar examples. How do we understand these laws? And how do they apply to us today? 

Well, does Jesus get rid of the law?  Some people would say, “Oh, just forget those books of Moses, forget the rest of the Old Testament, we live in the New Testament.” That is not what Jesus says, “Do not think that I have come to abolish, to get rid of the law or the prophets. I have not come to abolish them, but to fulfill them. I tell you the truth until heaven and earth disappear, not the smallest letter, not the least stroke of a pen, will by any means disappear from the law, until everything is accomplished.” So, in some sense, as long as the universe lasts, the law lasts and must be fulfilled. “Anyone who breaks one of the least of these commandments,” says Jesus, “and teaches others to do the same, will be called least in the kingdom of heaven. But whoever practices and teaches these commands will be called great in the kingdom of heaven. For I tell you that unless your righteousness surpasses that of the Pharisees and the teachers of the law, you will certainly not enter the kingdom of heaven.” Jesus is very clear that He did not come to just wipe out the law. And He's very clear that even the least commandment, matters a lot. 

And so, let's learn a little bit more about how God's commandments apply to us today. Now, if you've read your New Testament, you know that there are many statements in the New Testament teaching that we are not under law. Now, what's that mean? If Jesus says that the law is meant to be fulfilled, and not just to be gotten rid of and that even the least commandment matters? What does it mean to say that we are not under law? In the first place, it means that our standing with God does not depend on our ability to keep the law. We are declared righteous, apart from law. We are right with God through faith in Jesus, because He perfectly obeyed God's law on our behalf. And because of His perfect obedience, our salvation does not depend on our ability to keep the law perfectly. It also means that we are free from the laws’ covenant curses. Jesus suffered God's curse against sin, and in doing so He canceled the record of debt that stood against us. The Bible says, “God made Him a curse, as it's written, cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree.” And because He took the curse, we don't have to. 

A third way in which we're not under law is that our power to live for God does not come from the law itself, but from the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit writes God's law on our heart and gives us the desire to keep the law and the ability to grow in our obedience to keep God's law. So, we don't depend on the law for the power to change our lives. It gives us directions, but the power comes from the Holy Spirit. Here's a fourth way in which we are not under law - the old rituals of the law are replaced. The old covenant signs, which were pointing to Jesus and to the realities of the coming new covenant, these signs give way to new covenant reality in Jesus Christ. So those are four senses in which we are not under law. We are right with God through faith in Jesus and not through obedience to the law. We're free from the laws of covenant curses against law breakers, we are empowered by the Holy Spirit to live new lives, and the ritual elements of the old law are replaced by the reality. 

But having said all of that, having said that, we're not under law in those senses that are taught in the Bible, we are still called by God, to live according to the moral law that He gives us. We uphold and fulfill the law, the apostle Paul was very clear that we're not under law in the sense as we just talked about, but he also said that we don't overthrow the law by this faith. He says, “We hold that one is justified by faith apart from the works of the law. But do we then overthrow the law by this faith? No, by no means, on the contrary, we uphold the law.” A little later Paul says, in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, that's why Jesus came. So, the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us who walk not according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit, it's in Jesus Christ that the law is fulfilled. And as His life takes shape, and us by the Spirit, we more and more fulfill that law. 

Now, as we think about how Old Testament laws apply to us, and what they mean, for us, it's helpful to distinguish between three different kinds of Old Testament laws. This is kind of a rough and ready division, and there's overlaps and complexities at times. But nonetheless, these three types of Old Testament law are helpful to distinguish. First ritual laws: rituals about temple, tabernacle, sacrifices, special days, foods you can and can't eat, and so on. These rituals were signs that pointed ahead to Jesus Christ, or they were also signs that were picturing spiritual realities. And today, the literal practices are discontinued, because the things they pointed to have come. But studying these pictures, and these signs can still teach us today about Jesus and still picture some spiritual realities that we do need to live by. A second kind of Old Testament law is civil law. Now civil law are basically case laws that were there for governing the nation of old covenant Israel. And today, there's no country that is the holy nation in the sense that old covenant Israel was. The church is God's new holy nation, scattered throughout all countries. But we can still learn many things that help us in our life together as church, and we can learn principles of governance, from the Old Testament civil laws. Now, there's also a third kind of law, which is extremely important, the moral law. God's rules for holy love towards God, and His rules for holy love towards our neighbor. And these apply in all times, and in all places. Today, these commands still direct us. So, with those three kinds of moral of law laid out ritual, civil and moral, let's consider each one in a little more detail, look at some examples, and see a little bit more about what Old Testament laws mean for us today. 

First of all, let's think about some of the ritual laws. The tabernacle and the design for it, and the practices connected with it were given to Moses and then later on the temple that David collected materials for, and that Solomon built and later another temple was rebuilt. All of this material about tabernacle, and temple have been fulfilled. Jesus tabernacled with us, literally, John one, verse 14, says the Word became flesh and tabernacled with us. In the Old Testament, the tabernacle and the temple were God's way of making His presence very real among His people. And especially the Ark of the Covenant in the Holy of Holies, was the focus of God's presence among His people. Now that Jesus has come, Jesus is the focus. Jesus is also called Emmanuel, or God with us. And so, He is the temple living among us, and He also makes us a temple for His Holy Spirit, as the scripture says. And that's how tabernacle and temple are fulfilled today. 

Jesus told a Samaritan woman that a time is coming and has come, when they're not going to worship God on this mountain or on the mountain in Jerusalem but people will worship God in spirit and in truth. And that is the way that we are tabernacles and temples of worship to God today. In the tabernacle and ritual system, there were priests, there were the high priests and the other priests who were offering sacrifices. But with the coming of Jesus, He is our only high priest. The book of Hebrews is extremely clear about that, that the old priesthood has given away to the eternal, perfect priesthood of Jesus Christ. And at the same time, all believers are priests. The priesthood of all believers is taught in the Bible. Even Old Testament Israel was chosen to be a holy priesthood, a nation of priests, and the New Testament speaks of us, Christians, being made a kingdom of priests. So, we have just one high priest, the Lord Jesus Christ. And then all of us who follow Jesus are to be priests in interceding for the world, in witnessing to others, in offering ourselves to God. 

Now the priests offered sacrifices, and Jesus offered the sacrifice of Himself. Jesus is called in the New Testament, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world. It also says, Jesus, our Passover lamb has been sacrificed. So, He's the ultimate sacrifice, and no other sacrifices are necessary. All the ones in the Old Testament that were pointing to Him, are no longer practiced anymore. Jesus as the ultimate sacrifice, and then we are to offer our bodies as living sacrifices as it says in Romans chapter 12. Or in the book of Hebrews, it speaks of offering the sacrifice of praise lips that profess His name. And so, we're still offering sacrifices, but not dead animals, but living humans, ourselves offered in sacrifice to the Lord Jesus Christ. The Old Testament prescribed many special days. There's a long list of them in Leviticus 23 and some of these are explained and defined elsewhere too. 

The Sabbath - every seven days, a time to rest from all work. The Passover - every year, remembering God's deliverance of the people of Israel from Egypt. The Feast of First Fruits - right at the end of the Passover, where they’d offer the very first elements of the harvest to God. The Feast of Weeks - which came seven weeks or 50 days after Passover. And this was also called Pentecost. And then the Feast of Trumpets, the Day of Atonement, the Feast of Tabernacles are of booths, these were all special days. And I can't get into detail on all these but let me give just a few hints. In the New Testament, in Hebrews four, it says that we need to enter into God's eternal rest, and Jesus Christ is our Sabbath rest. And we must seek to enter that rest by faith in Jesus Christ. So, Jesus is the fulfillment of the Sabbath rest. And the New Testament says that we should no longer be requiring Sabbaths of new converts and believers. Jesus is our Passover lamb. And Jesus gave bread and wine to His disciples on the Thursday night of the Passover and said, “This is My body and this is My blood.” And the Hebrew reckoning is that Thursday night, and that Friday were the same day. The day starts with Thursday night and then carries over into Friday. So, He offered the bread and the wine and said this is My body and this is My blood. And then on that day of Passover, He sacrificed Himself when His body was nailed to the cross. The Feast of First Fruits landed on the first day of the week. And on that first day of the week, Jesus rose from the dead. First Corinthians 15 says, “Christ has been raised from the dead, the first fruits of those who have fallen asleep.” And later on, in the same chapter, First Corinthians 15, it says, “Each in his own order, Christ the first fruits, and then after that all those who are His at His coming. We are going to be raised all of us at His coming and His resurrection is the first fruit. So, He fulfills that feast of First Fruits. The Feast of Weeks, Pentecost. We know from Acts chapter two, that on the day of Pentecost, the day where the completion of the harvest was to be celebrated, Jesus poured out His Holy Spirit after He had ascended to God's throne. And that Holy Spirit came on to the church in power and in might and in riches and fulfillment. And I could go on about many other ways in which Jesus Christ has fulfilled these special days and feasts. Obviously, the Day of Atonement. He is our atonement, and He offered Himself as a sacrifice of atonement, through faith in His blood. The Feast of Booths, they always had to remember that they had once been traveling from Egypt to the Promised Land. And as we study the Feast of Booths, we remember the New Testament telling us that we're still pilgrims and strangers on our way to a better world. So, these are ritual laws that are important because they point to Jesus Christ. They point to spiritual realities that are still there today. But we don't have to, and indeed, we should not try to carry out all of the literal details of these Old Testament rituals and feasts. 

Here are a few more examples. Circumcision was a key sign of the old covenant. And scripture says, in the book of Colossians, that we have been circumcised with a circumcision made without hands, by putting off the body of the flesh by the circumcision of Christ, having been buried with Him through baptism, in which we were also raised with Him through faith in the powerful working of God who raised Him from the dead. So, circumcision is no longer required under the new covenant. It's replaced by a bloodless ceremony of baptism. And it's a ceremony which applies to male and female equally, and so it's a better sign and more inclusive than circumcision and it's not bloody. Thus showing that Jesus’ sacrifice is the final shedding of blood. Studying however, what circumcision meant in the Old Testament can still help us because it speaks of putting off that old self. It speaks of being marked as one of God's chosen, and one of those who was called by faith to serve Him. 

Another kind of Old Testament law are laws that were symbols of separation. There were laws of eating only certain animals, and then avoiding other animals and not being allowed to eat them. You were not allowed to consume blood because blood was a sign of sacrifice and of atonement, and the life was in the blood. There were laws about no mixed fabrics. Those of us who were say combo of cotton, and polyester today would be violating those laws if we were still bound by Old Testament ritual laws. There were laws against mixing crops together and having two different kinds of crops mixed together in the same field. Laws against breeding certain kinds of animals together that would produce sterile offspring. Laws against yoking different kinds of animals and ox and a donkey together to pull a plow at the same time. These laws were symbols of separation that God had called the people of Israel to be different, to be unlike the nations around it. And these various laws were given to cultivate this sense of separateness, of being set apart by God for His special purposes. Still today, Christians are to think of themselves as a people set apart, not any longer by keeping all of the ritual laws that were required to the people of Israel, but nonetheless, to be a holy nation under God. 

There were also symbols of purity, and wholeness. And so, you had laws about yeast, or about leaven and about getting rid of the old leaven every year, at the time of Passover. And it was a sign of getting rid of sin. There were these laws about mold and mildew in your house and how to get rid of it. And if you couldn't get rid of it, the necessity of destroying the entire building. Laws about diseases such as leprosy and cleansing and uncleanness. Laws about various kinds of discharges that made you ceremonially unclean. Laws about what to do after childbirth, which had left you ceremonially unclean. Laws about who touches dead bodies, and what that means and how to be cleansed of that. And so, you have all of these laws, and they're picturing the importance of purity and wholeness. And the fact that in a fallen world where we're sinful and where we become diseased and unhealthy, we don't have the right to just walk right into God's presence; because He's holy. He’s separate from that. We can't just go up to God as unholy and broken people. But the good news of the gospel is, God comes to us. When Jesus comes and touches someone with a disease of leprosy, Jesus does not become unclean; the leper becomes clean. When a woman with a discharge of blood that she's had for years and years and been unable to get rid of, and has been ritually unclean because of it, as well as the health problems associated with it, she touches Jesus’ robe, instead of making Jesus unclean, she's healed, and she becomes clean. When Jesus touches the dead, He doesn't become ceremonially unclean, they become alive. And when Jesus mingles with people who are of mixed racial background, or sinful, it doesn't corrupt Him, it wins them to the kingdom of God. And so, these Old Testament pictures of separateness and purity and of our unworthiness to approach God are fulfilled when Jesus comes and approaches us as God among us and brings His life, His purity, His wholeness into our lives. And so, the Old Testament rituals are no longer fulfilled. because Jesus has come and has brought a new and better covenant. 

Now, when we read the New Testament, there are places where these ritual laws are explicitly repealed. I'm not just making up my own ideas and saying, “Oh, yeah, some of these rituals, we shouldn't practice anymore.” The Bible explicitly says that some of them do not apply anymore. Jesus Himself says, “Do you not see that whatever goes into a person from outside cannot defile him, since it enters not his heart, but his stomach and is expelled?” Thus, He declared all foods clean. Jesus says that all foods could now be eaten because you're not polluted by what you take into your body, your real problem is your heart and the food had just been a symbol. The apostle Peter had a vision of various animals being let down from heaven in a sheet. And in that sheet were quite a few animals that were considered unclean, which a Jewish person under the old covenant would not be allowed to eat. And he was told, taken and eat in that vision. And Peter said, “No, I've never eaten anything that's unclean.” And the voice came and said, “What God has made clean, do not call common.”So again, you have this notion of what had previously been unclean, was now clean. And the picture of those foods was given to Peter in order that he would go and associate with Gentiles and welcome them into the people of God. The time of separation of clean and unclean was over. And Gentiles were to be welcomed on a large scale into the kingdom of God. And with the welcoming of the Gentiles, the food requirements were dropped for both Gentiles and for Jews. 

The apostle Paul said, “You observe days and months and seasons and years, I'm afraid I may have labored over you in vain.” He says, “You don't seem to get it that with Jesus Christ, all of those feasts and seasons have been fulfilled, and you should focus on Christ, not on the Old Testament signs and symbols.” 

The scripture speaks of it as the reality replacing ritual shadows. When somebody is walking around the corner of a building, you might see their shadow shortly before you see them. But once they arrive, your focus is on the person, not primarily on the shadow. Or if you look at an ultrasound of a little child, you may see some dim outlines and make out the child. And maybe that's the best picture you can get of the child at that particular point. But when the child's born, your main focus is on the living child, not on the old shadow. Hebrews says that the priesthood and the temple and all those other things, and the priests serve a copy and shadow of the heavenly things. The law has but a shadow of the good things to come instead of the true forms of these realities. “Therefore,” says the apostle Paul, “let no one pass judgment on you in questions of food and drink, or with regard to a festival, or a new moon or a Sabbath. These are a shadow of the things to come, but the substance, the reality, literally in the Greek, the body, belongs to Christ. These other rituals were the shadow, Jesus is the real body, of which those other things were just the shadow that we knew Christ was approaching. 

So, there are these varieties of rituals, the literal details are not binding on us anymore. And yet, it's profitable to read them because they're pointing to Jesus, and it's profitable to read them because they may be pointing to abiding spiritual principles. Take the notion of getting hitched. There's the law in Deuteronomy 22, verse 10, “You shall not plow with an ox and a donkey together.” Now, that literal requirement is no longer in effect. And if somebody did get the notion, I'm not sure why they would, but if they wanted to plow with an ox and a donkey together, they wouldn't be violating God's commandments anymore. And most of us could say, “Well, I kind of got that law taken care of. I haven't plowed with an oxen donkey together lately.” Good on that one. Well, that's not the main point of this law or the abiding spiritual point. 

The apostle Paul says, “Do not be unequally yoked with unbelievers for what partnership has righteousness with lawlessness.” But still today, at least in America, we sometimes speak of marriage as getting hitched and we sometimes apply this word from Second Corinthians six verse 14, being unequally yoked as being married to someone who does not share your commitment in Christ. And the Bible says don't do it. Don't get hitched with somebody who is an unbeliever because you can't have partnership with them. So don't enter into a marriage, don't enter into a tight business and financial partnership with an unbeliever who may have totally different priorities and totally different standards than you do, These are the principles, the ongoing principles that lie behind the command of don't hitch the ox and the donkey together. The literal requirement of an Old Testament ritual law or civil law might no longer be in effect, but that law may symbolically show us a moral principle that still applies today.

The Bible speaks of us being the temple of the living God, as God said, “I will make My dwelling among them and walk among them, and I will be their God, and they shall be My people.” That's a quote from Leviticus 26. And still today, we're so glad that God is living and dwelling among us. And then the Old Testament call, this one from the book of Isaiah, “Therefore, go out from their midst and be separate from them, says the Lord, and touch no unclean thing, then I will welcome you, and I will be a Father to you, and you shall be sons and daughters to Me, says the Lord Almighty.” So, we're to think of ourselves as God's temple. We're to think of ourselves as a people set apart. We are to avoid what is unclean, and unholy, not as defined by Old Testament rituals and details anymore, but nonetheless, as understood as walking in purity, before the face of God. So that's the first kind of Old Testament law ritual laws, signs pointing to Christ or picturing spiritual realities. And today, the literal practices are discontinued. But studying those laws can still teach us much about Christ, and about our relationship to Him and how to live for Him. 

A second kind of law, civil law, case laws for governing, old covenant Israel. And today, no country is the holy nation. But we can still learn valuable principles of governance for the church in some cases, and also for civil society. A few examples of civil case laws, yet safety laws among them, you shall build a parapet around your roof. Now, today, you might say, well, I guess I'm violating God's law because I don't have a railing around my roof. Well, back in those days, they had flat roofs in that society, in some parts of the world still might, where they would have flat roofs where people would spend time on the roof, might work up there, or sleep up there or have little children playing up there, and you better have a railing around that roof so that somebody didn't take a nosedive off the roof and get hurt. There were laws about having a mean ox or a mean bull. And if an ox gores somebody, and it had never done anything like that before, then you handle it one way, and you pay some restitution to the person, the injured or dead person's family. But if that bull was known to gore people in the past, and then it killed somebody, the owner of that bull was subject to being killed himself, because he should have restrained that bull or killed that bull because he knew it was a mean bull. Now, in many parts of the world, we don't have to worry about a mean bull anymore. My father still raises cattle but a lot of you listening to this, aren't you in the cattle business? But the principle still applies that we should be watching for the safety of others in the way that we build in the things that we do. And still today, many societies have various safety laws. 

There were property laws. How do you divide the land? How's the land given to the various tribes and the various clans within those tribes? There were laws about gleaning about leaving a certain amount of the grain behind and not purposely making sure you got everything. Leaving any grapes that fell on the ground, just leave them on the ground. So, the poor people could come in and pick up the leftovers and have a way through their own work to be able to supply their needs. The Year of Jubilee, every 50 years people who had been slaves to pay off their debts were set free, and the debts were canceled, and their lands were returned to them. Ways in which the huge inequalities in society could be made a bit more equal again. And we may not have laws about gleaning or laws about Jubilee in various societies, but the concerns that lie behind those laws. How do we keep the poor from being totally ground into the dust? How do we keep a few people from gaining more and more till they have almost everything and others have almost nothing? These are biting issues that we need to pay attention to. 

The civil case laws regarding the kingship and among other things, it says, “Well, the king of Israel should not have too many horses. He shouldn't live in excessive luxury and have too much silver and gold. He shouldn't take many wives. He should study God's law, keep it. Know that he's not above it and enforce that law. Now, some kings such as David had too many wives. Solomon had way, way too many wives, too many horses, too much silver and gold. And those laws were given to show what's wrong with the king. And still today, we might not have the exact same law applying to our rulers. But do we really want rulers who have tons of women and hog all kinds of property for themselves and rely too much on horses and military force. 

Or laws about damage control is another kind of civil case law. There are regulations for war. There's regulations for divorce and how to properly document it and how the woman who has been divorced is to be regarded, and so forth. There are laws regarding slavery. And some people read those laws and they say, “See, God was in favor of divorce. God was in favor of slavery, or at least the Old Testament claimed He was. The Old Testament must not be believable. You've got to understand that these are civil case laws meant for governing a particular society and for limiting evil in a fallen situation. Jesus was asked about that divorce law that first appeared in the Law of Moses. And it said, “You know, anyone who divorces his wife must give her a certificate of divorce.” And the Pharisees and others asked Him does that mean divorce is fine? And Jesus says, “No, haven't you read that from the beginning, God made them male and female, and brought them together as one flesh. And what God has joined together, let no one put asunder.” He said, “Moses gave you that law about divorce because of the hardness of your hearts.” So, there were civil laws that were given to hard hearted people to restrain at least the worst abuses. The same happened with regard to slavery. Not every law about slavery in the Old Testament is a law about God's ideal for how human society ought to be. Its reining in the worst abuses of the institution of slavery. And still today, the purpose of civil government is not to create heaven on earth. Very often, it's more just to prevent hell on earth, and do some damage control and restrain some of our worst impulses and some of our worst institutions. 

Another example of civil case laws are those where you're deciding guilt and figuring out who's guilty. And we're told there should be at least two witnesses when anybody is accused of something. And still today, we want to make sure that we don't sentence innocent people. So there better be strong evidence, and preferably witnesses who saw them in the act. There are also procedures for determining guilt, kind of, “He said. She said,” where a husband suspects that his wife might be guilty of adultery. But he can't prove it, and nobody saw her. So, the Old Testament says, “Well, you mix up this certain kind of drink, and then she has to drink it. And if her belly swells, she's guilty. If her belly doesn't swell, she's not guilty. Now you don't say, “Okay, we need to figure out that exact potion. And then every time we get a, he said, she said court case today, we have the woman drink that and we'll find out who's lying.” No, that was a case law given by God in that setting for those people as a procedure, for the people of Israel to use not as the abiding way to always determine guilt in cases of adultery, or rape. 

Then another kind of civil case law was simply the penalties. And here's where civil law was kind of tied to ritual and moral law. Sometimes there were punishment for violating ritual and moral laws, as well as just for violating laws of the country. In some cases, you had to make restitution and make payment. In other cases, you might have to be exiled for certain offenses, and in other cases, you will be executed or killed. And so, part of the civil law was the penalties that were applied. 

Now, we have a new holy nation under the new covenant. The holy nation of the old covenant was Israel, one people with one land. But the holy nation of the new covenant is the church. Many peoples living in many lands and the church doesn't govern any particular nation, any particular country. It's not the church's job to punish unchurched, evildoers, because the new holy nation is a different thing than the old holy nation was. The Church teaches God's laws to professing Christians and the church rebukes sin. The church  excommunicates, kicks out of the church, people who commit blatant and serious sins. The church excommunicates them, but it doesn't execute them. It only excommunicates them if they refuse to repent. 

Now, as we look at the Old Testament laws, that are particularly concerned with civil governance, how do we apply those? Well, different peoples, different cultures, different eras are not bound by all the details of God's old covenant civil regulations that were meant for the Jewish nation in a mainly rural culture back then, during the era, of the covenant era before Christ. The laws enforced in Israel didn't always express God's created ideal as we've seen, but we're there to limit extreme evil and so we shouldn't expect every law given, every civil law to be pointing out God's ideal for holy human conduct. The biblical principles that are given there should be studied and have been studied in the past by some of the great leaders and statesmen to inform good government. And it's just foolish to completely ignore God's laws that were given as civil laws for governing that society. God is the one to judge all the nations, but the church must judge its own, at least to some degree and deal with serious sins that occur among the people of God. Scripture says judgment begins with the house of God. We have to leave the judgment of some things to God Himself, but the church does have to be a disciplined, and holy community. 

So, we've looked at ritual laws. We've looked at civil laws. Now, let's think about moral laws. And these are rules for holy love towards God and neighbor that apply in all times and places. And today these commands still direct us here are some of the examples - you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength. Jesus says that is the greatest commandment in all the law of God. The second greatest commandment is love your neighbor as yourself. “And on those two commands,” says Jesus, “depend on hang all the law and all the prophets.“ The 10 commandments are moral laws. You shall have no other gods before Me, you shall not make for yourself an idol or an image, you should not misuse or take in vain the name of the Lord your God. Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy, this one has changed somewhat, as I've already mentioned. And the implication of the Sabbath command is that we rest from our evil works, and that every day we rest in the righteousness of Jesus Christ, and also that we don't work ourselves to death that we don't work others to death, and that we gather regularly with the people of God to worship Him. And under the new covenant Christians have typically done that on the first day of the week to celebrate Jesus’ resurrection and the outpouring of the Holy Spirit. At any rate, the fourth commandment in some ways about concerning the Sabbath is the most challenging of the 10 commandments to apply in its moral sense. If you go on, honor your father and your mother, you shall not kill, you shall not commit adultery, you shall not steal, you shall not give false testimony, you shall not covet. These are moral laws of God, that continue to apply for all peoples in all places. There are many other laws as well, you shall not live with a male as with a woman, it's an abomination. Now, how do you know that's not just a ritual law? Well, it occurs in a chapter, which has law after law about sexual immorality. And in the New Testament, it's very clear several times again, that God still opposes homosexuality. And when in doubt about a law ask this, if it's an Old Testament law, does the New Testament repeat it? If the New Testament repeats it, and applies it in this very same way, it's still binding. If the New Testament repeals it, like it repealed the festivals, then you don't have to live by those laws anymore. Do not turn to mediums are necromancers, people who try to get in touch with the spirit of the dead, don't try to get in touch with fortune tellers, and all of that do not seek them out. That's an abiding moral law. The New Testament is very clear that we shouldn't get into the occult, and mess around to the spirits of demons, or try to contact the spirits of the dead. Sometimes it's hard to know for sure whether something is a moral law or primarily a ritual one. Here's an example. You shall not make any cuts on your body for the dead or tattoo yourselves. Now, this is part of not doing things that the pagans do as part of their worship. Does that mean that it would always be wrong to get a tattoo? If your intention had nothing to do in your mind with paganism? Well, maybe leave that one to further prayer and thought, but the Bible, as a rule doesn't look very fondly on doing stuff to your body that radically changes its appearance or inflicts pain on it, because our bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit. But again, this there are some laws, and this is just one example where it's a little bit tough to know whether God is giving an abiding command, no tattoos, or whether it's within its context, saying, “Hey, this is what the nations around you are doing as part of their pagan worship and I don't want you to do it while they're doing it.”  

Now, the Bible is very clear that we can't just ignore God's morality that He gives us. “Do not be deceived: neither the sexually immoral nor idolaters nor adulterers nor men who practice homosexuality, nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards nor revilers, nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God. And such were some of you. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God.” So, there are things that characterize people who have no place in God's kingdom, things that are violations of God's law. But Christ washes and sanctifies and justifies. And He doesn't do it so that we can keep on wallowing in that stuff. Scripture makes that very clear. Love each other, for the one who loves another has fulfilled the law. The commandments, you shall not commit adultery, you shall not murder, you shall not steal, you shall not covet, and any other commandment are summed up in this word, you shall love your neighbor as yourself. Love does no wrong to a neighbor. Therefore, love is the fulfilling of the law. 

So, we have God's moral laws of love and the particulars of love. And God's moral law helps us to understand what love involves. And as we hear of God's moral law, what can it do for us? Well, one thing it can do is something that's not very inspiring or uplifting. It can tell us how rotten we are. God's law is a teacher of sin. It can show us our sinfulness and our desperate need of a Savior and drive us towards Jesus. And that's why if pastors and evangelists no longer speak of God's law, after a while, you're going to have people who see no need for the gospel. Who see no need for Jesus. Why would you go to the doctor, if you don't even understand that you're sick? And the law is one of the great teachers of sin, to help us understand our great need for God. The law cannot save us. It is not our means of self-salvation. God's law cannot help us to earn God's favor. Only Jesus can earn God's favor for us. God's law can't help us to change ourselves. If we're told what to do, and then left to ourselves will actually become worse, in rebellion against what we know of God's law. Only the Holy Spirit can change us inside and make us want to keep God's law and give us more power to live up to it.

So, the law does not save. I'll just say that again. Because this is a talk about law. God's law does not save, it cannot save. It was never meant by God to save anybody. It is a teacher of sin, first of all, and then once we've been saved, it's a pattern of love. God's law shows thankful, saved, spirit filled believers, the pattern of love towards God and people. Love is not just a vague feeling. Love is not just some sort of fog bank with no definition. Love has a shape. Love has a pattern. And God's laws show us the shape and pattern and boundaries of love. And that's a wonderful, and valuable purpose of God's law is to show us how God wants us to walk. Many people want to have God's guidance in their lives. Well, if you want God's guidance in your daily life, one of the most important places to start is just knowing God's commandments in the Scripture and applying them to the way you live. 

Now, I want to mention a few demonic lies about laws, the kinds of lies that Satan makes up. Some of these you can deduce from what I've already said, but I just want to make them very clear. One lie of the devil is legalism. Legalism is the claim that law is your ladder to God. Just work on the law, work on obeying the laws, do enough good deeds, and you will earn your salvation. Many religions are built on legalism, but it is deadly. It is a lie of the devil. 

A very different kind of lie, but still a lie of the devil is antinomianism. Anti means against nomos means laws. So, antinomianism means people are just against law. Law is bad. Ignore the moral laws and do whatever you like. An early heretic named Marcion tossed out the whole Old Testament and most of the New Testament and just took those passages that he thought were against law and kept those. But the mainstream church kept the Old Testament and kept the whole New Testament, kept the whole word of God as God's word to be listened to, believed and obeyed, because antinomianism is a lie of the devil. 

Ritualism is another lie of the devil, where he leads you to focus on ceremonial details, on smells and bells and candles and robes and incense and all kinds of human rituals, rather than on Christ or the Holy Spirit, or love. Now, this doesn't mean every ritual is always a bad thing. But if it is drawing attention away from Christ, or if it's being used as a means of judging people or judging other churches, then it's being used in a very demonic way. Jesus dispensed with most of the rituals of the Old Testament in His coming after fulfilling them, so that we don't have to follow those. Do we really think then that humans could invent a whole bunch of their new rituals? And that those are going to be a wonderful improvement? Ritualism which focuses on this, that and the other thing that churches do to keep people busy, or vestments, and so on, but detract from Christ, these are a deadly strategy of the devil. 

And then here's the fourth demonic lie about laws, civil religion, your country is God's holy nation. And so, you try to force your fellow citizens to act like Christians even when they're not. And meanwhile, very often, you ignore church problems. There's no church discipline, you never put anybody out of the church, no matter how serious their sin, and yet you're trying to get laws passed to run your nation in a Christian manner. That's just a terrible mistake. Some people want to get the 10 commandments in courthouses and in public places that are sponsored by the government. And they don't even have the 10 commandments in their own home, or in their church and certainly not in their own hearts. Sad to say, less than half of evangelical Christians or people who claim to be evangelical, even know five of the 10 commandments. So even the people who claim to believe that the Bible is the Word of God, don't even know God's moral law, yet many of those same people might be lamenting the fact that their nation is not as godly as it ought to be. Hey, if the church isn't godly, and if God's people aren't paying attention to these laws, don't run around trying to make your nation buy into some version of civil religion. 

So, we've seen three kinds of Old Testament laws, the ritual, the civil and the moral laws. Now what I'd like to do is to take that distinction and read one particular passage from the New Testament, which shows this in action. As kind of a case study or an example of how the apostle Paul, guided by the Holy Spirit, took Old Testament laws and applied them to a particular situation. I want to look at first Corinthians chapter five. The chapter begins by saying, “It's actually reported there is sexual immorality among you, and of a kind that is not tolerated even among pagans, for a man has his father's wife.” He is sleeping with his stepmother. “And you are arrogant, but you not rather to mourn? Let him who has done this be removed from among you.” So, Paul becomes aware of this situation of a member of the church, who claims to be a Christian. The stepmother probably doesn't claim to be a Christian. And so, there's no word about what to do with her. But with this man who claims to be a Christian, Paul says that he is committing terrible immorality. Now, the Old Testament moral law says do not have sexual relations with your father's wife, with your stepmother, in other words. And it says that quite a number of times, and Paul takes that moral law. And he says, even the pagans usually know that much. And don't let a Christian get away with violating that moral law. “For though absent in body, I am present in spirit. And as if present, I've already pronounced judgment on the one who did such a thing. And when you are assembled in the name of the Lord Jesus, and my spirit is present with the power of our Lord Jesus, you are to deliver this man to Satan for the destruction of the flesh, so that his spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord. They are to put him out of the Christian fellowship, out of the protection of the Lord and His angels, let him know that he's in Satan's realm. And whatever happens to him happens to him that's destructive and painful. And the hope is that he will not have much fun out there, and that he will turn back to the Lord that his spirit may be saved, that he'll repent and come back to the Lord. That's the purpose of church discipline. That's the purpose of excommunicating somebody,  is so that they will miss so much what they found among God's people. That they will feel so desolate, when Satan's dominion is again exercised over them, that they'll want to come back and be among God's people and repent of their sin again. 

“Now,” Paul says, “your boasting is not good. Do you not know that a little leaven leavens the whole lump? Cleanse out the old leaven, that you may be a new lump, as you really are unleavened. For Christ, our Passover Lamb has been sacrificed. Let us therefore celebrate the festival, not with the old leaven on the leaven of malice and evil, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.” Now you see what Paul is doing here. He's taking ritual things related to the Passover Feast and applying their spiritual realities to Christians. No longer are Christians required to slaughter a lamb in a certain way or to splash its blood in a certain place, or to roast it and eat it in a certain setting. But that doesn't mean they should just say, “Ah, Passover lamb, let's forget all about that.” Christ is our Passover lamb, and He's been sacrificed. Now, in the old Passover Feast, they had to get rid of the old leaven, the old bread, they’d always keep a lump of the old bread that had all already been leavened and had had some rise to it; so, they could put into a new lump of dough, so that dough could rise too. But every year at Passover, they were to start over clean, with no leaven in the bread that they used for Passover and the Feast of Unleavened Bread. Now, people were no longer required as Christians to keep that feast, literally. But they were required to get rid of the old leaven and be a brand-new lump of bread. Some Christians still today kind of getting a dither over whether there should be yeast and leaven in the bread they eat for communion or not. It doesn't matter. What does matter is the leaven of malice, the leaven of evil. That's the leaven you have to get rid of and have the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth. So, you see, you're not required to have the lamb. You're not required to sweep your whole house to get rid of all yeast and leaven and all of that any longer. But the spiritual principles of looking to Christ, the Lamb, and of getting rid of the malice and evil, that are a terrible leaven, those things still abide. You see how Paul did that? He took ritual laws from the old covenant and gave them their fuller spiritual meaning for new covenant people. He applied the deeper realities of the old covenant symbols. 

And then Paul says, I wrote to you in my letter not to associate with sexually immoral people. Not at all, meaning the sexually immoral of this world or the greedy and swindlers or idolaters, since then, you need to go out of the world. The world is full of people like that. And I'm not telling you to leave the world. Jesus had earlier prayed, “My prayer is not that You take them out of the world, but that You protect them from the evil one.” So, Paul isn't saying, “I'll just judge the world for all its evils and try to get out of it. Just now I'm writing you not to associate with anyone who bears the name of brother, if he is guilty of sexual immorality, or greed, or is an idolater, reviler, drunkard or swindler, not even to eat with such a one. So, you can befriend non-Christian people, if your aim is to show them love, and to let them know more of Jesus Christ and to win them over to Him. But it's dangerous to associate with somebody who calls himself a brother, and yet is involved in great and serious evil, whether it's sexual evil. Sometimes young people hang around with the wrong crowd, who are calling themselves Christians who go to their same church, but are involved in sexual immorality, or are getting drunk every weekend. That's deadly. And it's important to avoid those who call themselves brother Christians are sister Christians, and yet are just wallowing in things that you know, are dead wrong. So, the big concern isn't so much about who you happen to associate with from the world as long as you're living as a Christian, but don't band together with those who call themselves Christians and are corrupting and polluting the church. 

For what have I to do with judging outsiders? Is it not those inside the church whom you are to judge? God judges those outside. Purge the evil person from among you. And purge the evil person is a direct quote from Deuteronomy and several different portions where it's telling them to execute the person who has committed various sins. Now, you see how Paul is applying it, he does not say to execute this person. Excommunication from church the new covenant holy nation replaces or excommunication from church, which is the new covenant holy nation replaces execution in the civil law of Israel, the old covenant, holy nation. And we don't spend all our time excommunicating our executing those who don't claim to be Christians in the first place, because they don't identify with the holy nation, as the people of God. We may speak, still God's word to them and urge them to repent. We may warn them that nations that blatantly violate God's laws that slaughter the unborn, that wallow in sexual immorality that trample on the poor, that such nations are subject to the judgment of God. But we do not have the obligation to decide who gets executed or who gets excommunicated from that nation. As leaders in the church and as fellow members in the church, our obligation is to judge those within the church when they commit really serious and open sins and leave it to God to judge those outside the church. 

So, you see how in this passage, those three kinds of Old Testament laws were all being applied. The ritual laws: signs pointing to Christ, our Passover lamb, signs that were pointing and picturing spiritual realities of getting rid of the leaven of malice and wickedness. And so, we learn from those discontinued practices and they can still teach us. We learned from the civil laws of execution except they're applied in a different manner, through excommunication, church discipline. We learned from the moral laws that you just can't sleep with anybody you want. And there are many other laws too, that still apply for today – rules for holy love towards God, and neighbor. That apply in all times, and in all places. And those commands still direct us today. So, there is enormous benefit in studying God's holy law and laying it to heart. “How I love your law,” is the testimony of the Psalms. “It's sweeter than honey, it's more precious than gold.” A true Christian should not spit upon God's laws or just ignore them or say they're not worth studying or reading anymore. 

The New Testament says [neither uncertain], neither circumcision or uncircumcision counts for anything but keeping the commandments of God. So ritual law may have been left behind. But God's Commandments are still very important, and we want to apply them. We're not outside the law of God, but we're under the law of Christ. Bear one another's burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ. If you really fulfill the royal law, according to the scripture, you shall love your neighbor as yourself, you are doing well. Jesus wants us to fulfill the law of Christ, the moral law. And this again, doesn't happen by our own efforts. It's not our way to heaven. It is the way that we live as people already saved by Jesus’ sacrifice and indwelt by His Holy Spirit. The promise of the coming new covenant that was given in the Old Testament was I will put my law in their minds and write it on their hearts. The Holy Spirit lives in us making that law sweet to us and precious to us. And scripture says you are a letter from Christ written not with ink, but with the Spirit of the Living God, not on tablets of stone, but on tablets of human hearts. Jesus says simply, “If you love me, you will keep my commandments, do not think that I have come to abolish the law or the prophets, I have not come to abolish them, but to fulfill them. I tell you the truth until heaven and earth disappear, not the smallest letter, not the least stroke of a pen, will by any means, disappear from the law until everything is accomplished. Whoever breaks one of the least of these commandments, and teaches others to do the same, will be called least in the kingdom of heaven. But whoever practices and teaches these commands will be called great in the kingdom of heaven. For I tell you that unless your righteousness surpasses that of the Pharisees and the teachers of the law, you will certainly not enter the kingdom of heaven.” As people in Jesus Christ, we have righteousness that surpasses that of the Pharisees and the old teachers of the law. We have the righteousness of Jesus Christ Himself credited to us, when we believe in Him by faith. We have a transformed heart, which surpasses that of the Pharisees and the teachers of the law, because the Spirit of Jesus comes to live within us. And we have the commands of God which are precious to us, and which we are progressing more and more by God's grace in keeping so that we may fulfill the commands of Christ.