God's Laws
Fundamentals • Sermon • Submitted
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Introduction
Introduction
Greetings…
Over the last several weeks we have been studying the theme “Fundamentals” with the express hope of being reinvigorated and reestablished in the pure spiritual milk that helps us grow up into salvation.
2 Like newborn infants, long for the pure spiritual milk, that by it you may grow up into salvation—
Today we are going to focus our attention on that which many in the realm of “Christendom” like to shuffle to the side or simply ignore which is “God’s Laws.”
When it comes to “law and the bible” there are basically two schools of thought.
First, and most widely viewed, is that God had law in the Old Testament but today we have grace instead of law.
The thrust for this comes from John 1:17.
17 For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.
Second school of thought is that God has always had law and even today we are under law.
The thrust for this comes from Galatians 6:2.
2 Bear one another’s burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ.
For this lesson I want us to focus on three questions concerning law.
First, what is law in God’s eyes?
Second, how many laws are there?
Third, what law are we to follow?
With this in mind let’s examine our lesson for today.
What Is Law In God’s Eyes?
What Is Law In God’s Eyes?
Defining The Word Law.
Defining The Word Law.
According to Webster’s dictionary the word law can mean…
“a binding custom or practice of a community: a rule of conduct or action prescribed or formally recognized as binding or enforced by a controlling authority”
The psalmist in Psalm 119:160 describes God’s “righteous rules” or “laws” as the “sum of his word.”
160 The sum of your word is truth, and every one of your righteous rules endures forever.
160 There is utter truth in all your laws; your decrees are eternal.
This all makes since considering the “sum of God’s Word” is meant to make man complete.
16 All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, 17 that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.
Summary
Summary
God’s law is his word, i.e., it’s that which judges man as either righteous (for obeying) or unrighteous (for disobeying).
48 The one who rejects me and does not receive my words has a judge; the word that I have spoken will judge him on the last day.
So God’s law is God’s word that judges us as righteous or unrighteous but then we must ask…
How Many Laws Are There?
How Many Laws Are There?
The Patriarchal Law.
The Patriarchal Law.
God has always had law for his people and there is no exception for those that lived prior to the creation of the Israelites (Exodus 1:1-7).
This law, though not named in the bible, is commonly called the “Patriarchal Law” because it seems to focus on the patriarch (head) of the family as the main leader of the worship.
Job for example made sacrifices for his kids.
5 And when the days of the feast had run their course, Job would send and consecrate them, and he would rise early in the morning and offer burnt offerings according to the number of them all. For Job said, “It may be that my children have sinned, and cursed God in their hearts.” Thus Job did continually.
There is significant evidence, however, that it was not limited to the patriarchs worship alone.
Cain and Abel worshiped God as well (Genesis 4).
4 By faith Abel offered to God a more acceptable sacrifice than Cain, through which he was commended as righteous, God commending him by accepting his gifts. And through his faith, though he died, he still speaks.
Remember, what we learned in our first point i.e., that God’s word that judges us is that which is God’s law and as such Hebrews 11:4 makes a powerful point.
Because Abel faithfully obeyed God in his worship and faith is based on God’s word (Romans 10:17) Abel was following God’s law.
So, everyone, up to the point of Mt. Sinai, was under the Patriarchal Law.
The next law created by God was…
The Mosaic Law.
The Mosaic Law.
While the promised lineage of Abraham were in Egypt, we find they go from being called the “sons of Israel” to the “people of Israel” and thus the Israelite nation forms.
When God brings his chosen people (Ezekiel 16) out of captivity and takes them to Mount Sinai (Exodus 6-19) we find this specific people are giving a law that is different than that which they had been under up to this point, the Patriarchal Law.
This law, given to Moses and then to the Israelites, would often be called “The Law of Moses.”
32 And there, in the presence of the people of Israel, he wrote on the stones a copy of the law of Moses, which he had written.
The Gentiles were not under this law as it was only for the Jews.
A Gentile could “proselyte” or “convert” to Judaism and thus have to adhere to it but that would be the only way it could happen.
15 Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you travel across sea and land to make a single proselyte, and when he becomes a proselyte, you make him twice as much a child of hell as yourselves.
Jews were under the Mosaic Law and the Gentiles were under the Patriarchal Law.
It’s good to remember that God did not forget the Gentiles when the Jews were established (Jonah) however, it is clear that the Gentiles (for the most part) forgot about God.
So, under the Old Testament banner you have two laws, the Patriarchal Law and the Mosaic Law.
Then came God in the flesh who brought about…
The Law Of Christ.
The Law Of Christ.
While Jesus was here on earth he lived under the law of Moses other wise known as the “law and the prophets.”
Paul would rightfully declare…
4 But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law,
Jesus not only lived under the Law of Moses but fulfilled it.
17 “Do not think that I came to destroy the Law or the Prophets. I did not come to destroy but to fulfill.
This fulfillment of the law that culminated with Jesus’ death upon the cross and in three days his resurrection created something new, a “new law” the Law of Christ.
Paul would declare he was “under the law of Christ” in 1 Corinthians 9:21.
21 To those outside the law I became as one outside the law (not being outside the law of God but under the law of Christ) that I might win those outside the law.
Paul would again, describe the grace he was under as “the Law of Christ” in Galatians 6:2.
2 Bear one another’s burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ.
Summary
Summary
So, as we go from Genesis 1 through Revelation 22 we see that God has created and thus allowed three different laws.
The Patriarchal Law, Mosaic Law, and the Law of Christ.
The last question we must ask then is…
What Law Are We To Follow?
What Law Are We To Follow?
Patriarchal OR Mosaic OR Christ.
Patriarchal OR Mosaic OR Christ.
As we mentioned in the last point Jesus, in the flesh, fulfilled the law of Moses i.e., the Law & and the Prophets (Matthew 5:17).
That is significant but what Paul tells the church at Rome and Ephesus further explains what that means.
In Ephesians 2 Paul is striving to communicate the “unity” in Christ between Jew and Gentile.
One of the ways he does this is by pointing out that Jesus abolished the “law of commandments” to create a way of peace between them.
13 But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ. 14 For he himself is our peace, who has made us both one and has broken down in his flesh the dividing wall of hostility 15 by abolishing the law of commandments expressed in ordinances, that he might create in himself one new man in place of the two, so making peace, 16 and might reconcile us both to God in one body through the cross, thereby killing the hostility.
The parallel book of Colossians makes this same point concerning the Gentiles in Colossians 2:13-14.
13 And you, being dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, He has made alive together with Him, having forgiven you all trespasses, 14 having wiped out the handwriting of requirements that was against us, which was contrary to us. And He has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross.
Thus, Jesus is said to have nailed the law that created division between Jew & Gentile to the cross.
In Romans 7 we find Paul again striving to created unity between Jew and Gentile in the church.
The Jews wanted to adhere to the Mosaic Law still (Acts 15).
Paul, using marriage as an illustration, makes this point concerning the law.
1 Or do you not know, brothers—for I am speaking to those who know the law—that the law is binding on a person only as long as he lives? 2 For a married woman is bound by law to her husband while he lives, but if her husband dies she is released from the law of marriage. 3 Accordingly, she will be called an adulteress if she lives with another man while her husband is alive. But if her husband dies, she is free from that law, and if she marries another man she is not an adulteress.
4 Likewise, my brothers, you also have died to the law through the body of Christ, so that you may belong to another, to him who has been raised from the dead, in order that we may bear fruit for God. 5 For while we were living in the flesh, our sinful passions, aroused by the law, were at work in our members to bear fruit for death. 6 But now we are released from the law, having died to that which held us captive, so that we serve in the new way of the Spirit and not in the old way of the written code.
Notice the Mosaic Law had to “die” in order for the Law of Christ to exist and by implication the Patriarchal Law as well in order for both Jew and Gentile to come under “one law” the Law of Christ.
This means that everyone from the resurrection of Christ, today, and until the coming of Christ i.e., the last judgment will be under the Law of Christ.
Summary
Summary
So, what significance is that to you and I?
It means we cannot go back and use anything from the Patriarchal Law or Mosaic Law for our authority.
In other words, when you are studying a subject and someone says “what about what psalms teach or the like” we must remind them that we are not under those laws anymore.
We are under a “better law” based on “better promises” why would we want to go back to the inferior.
6 But as it is, Christ has obtained a ministry that is as much more excellent than the old as the covenant he mediates is better, since it is enacted on better promises. 7 For if that first covenant had been faultless, there would have been no occasion to look for a second.
Conclusion
Conclusion
Today we are blessed beyond measure to be under the greatest law ever created, the Law of Christ.
Let each of us understand that blessing and not transgress or break that law and so miss the mark of righteousness.
4 Whoever commits sin also commits lawlessness, and sin is lawlessness.
Invitation
1 Behold, the Lord’s hand is not shortened, that it cannot save, or his ear dull, that it cannot hear; 2 but your iniquities have made a separation between you and your God, and your sins have hidden his face from you so that he does not hear.
6 who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, 7 but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men.
17 So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ.
6 And without faith it is impossible to please him, for whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him.
30 The times of ignorance God overlooked, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent,
32 “Therefore whoever confesses Me before men, him I will also confess before My Father who is in heaven.
8 in flaming fire, inflicting vengeance on those who do not know God and on those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus.
1 Now I would remind you, brothers, of the gospel I preached to you, which you received, in which you stand, 2 and by which you are being saved, if you hold fast to the word I preached to you—unless you believed in vain. 3 For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, 4 that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures,
3 Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? 4 We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life. 5 For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his.
7 But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin.