Dr Greg Bahnsen - Loving the Law: Continuity Between the Old and New Testaments (Part 2)

Coming back. Good morning to you all. We're trying to get some basic training in Christian living, but, you know, many times without it being the intention of those who do the teaching and the writing, there are those who teach us in the Christian church in a way that is really a stumbling block. They say things which are not well thought out and not well grounded in the word of God. And even though the people who say these things may have a reputation and influence and some kind of authority in the church, Christians can get very confused because what they're saying just doesn't seem to match up with what is written in the Bible. We saw that last night, didn't we? There's quite a trend in the Christian church today to rid Christian living of rules, especially external rules. That seems so legalistic, so cold, so, so authoritarian, so out of place, out of step, so politically incorrect, we might say in this day and age. A Lutheran theologian by the name of Paul Altheus once wrote these words. He said, the Christian ethic is an ethic of the Spirit. This guidance by the Holy Spirit implies that God's concrete commands cannot be read off from a written document. An inherited scheme of law. The living and spiritual character of the knowledge of what God requires of me in the present moment must not be destroyed by rules and regulations. And last night, as we just walk through very easily, not a lot of complicated notions and concepts here, but just very easily walk through what we see in the Bible, we found how terribly out of step that attitude. And I'm not trying to pick on Dr. Altheus here this morning. After all, he's just expressing what so many different people say. But we found that it just cannot be squared with what God says. We saw that the lordship of Christ our Savior is a central concept for the Christian. We come to know the Lord Jesus as our Savior. We must submit to him, as I just said, as the Lord. And we talked about that, how important that is, that he is the Lord. Over and over again. The New Testament shows us that he was raised from the dead, that he'd be acknowledged as Lord. This is the confession that all of God's people have. And if he is the Lord of our lives, then we follow him with singular devotion. Purity of heart is to will one thing, and that is to make the Lord Jesus the most important thing, the authoritative guidance, the very reason we live in everything that we do. And if he is the Lord we saw, it naturally follows that he gives us something to follow, right? He doesn't say, I'm your boss, I'M your manager, do your own thing. Jesus is Lord, and therefore he offers us guidance for our lives. And if we admit that he is the Lord and confess that, then we must submit to his commands. It's not enough to call Him Lord on the day of judgment. Jesus said, many will say, lord, Lord. And I'll say, I don't know who you are. Depart from me, you who work iniquity. If you work lawlessness, I have nothing to do with you. And so again last night we saw that if we confess Jesus as Lord, we submit to his commands. And his commands call for a distinctive and call for a comprehensive style of living from his people. And thus we must oppose the trend to rid Christian ethics of external rules. We must oppose that trend that says rules are out of place in the Christian life. We must oppose the very thing that Paul Altheus has said in this quote that I started with this morning, where you see, most people in the Christian church today say, we don't want external rules, we want internal promptings. We want the subjective bumps of the Spirit, if you will, to get us going this way or that way to do what God would have us to do. Yet that simply will not square with the teaching of the Bible. In fact, even if you think of what the Bible teaches us about the internalization of the law in the New Covenant, you cannot square that with the rejection of external rules. What does the Spirit lead all people to do in the new covenant? Romans 8:4, to fulfill the ordinance of the law. It's those who walk by the flesh that cannot submit to the law of God. Those who walk by the Spirit do so. The law is written on our heart to empower the keeping of the law. It's not written on our heart that we can dismiss it. God's not burying the law in us internally so that now we don't have to look at the law or care about it. He's rather putting it in our heart because out of the heart are the issues of life. And we saw last night the futility of seeking rules from reading nature. The reading of nature by men who corrupt and suppress God's revelation in unrighteousness is not going to give us the kind of guidance we need if we're going to please the Lord. And so I don't know if you noticed this last night, but what I said at the end of my presentation then, is that we are to follow the Lord Jesus with a distinctive lifestyle. But that lifestyle doesn't come from inner promptings, and it doesn't come from the external reading of nature, where do we find that lifestyle? It's right here in this book. It's the commands of the Lord. Christian Living, anybody can see if you just read your Bible and think about this and don't let voices all around you mislead you. Christian Living calls for devotion to the Lord. Devotion by observing God's will, as it's found in the commandments of Scripture. And so, as we're calling this conference, devotion to the Lord simply means loving God's law. Oh, how love I thy law. It is my meditation all the day. Now, this morning, as we come to our second lesson, we have to stop and say, but wait a minute, Dr. Bonson. Whoa, whoa, whoa, wait a minute. You're telling us we're supposed to love the Lord's law, and you've shown us a lot of verses that prove that point. We can understand how you've gotten to that conclusion. But isn't there a whole other line of thought in the Bible that stands opposed to that? Isn't it equally true that the Bible teaches us we have to be careful about the law of God because we're not saved by law, we're saved by grace. And others will say, well, we don't want to follow the law of the Old Testament because we are New Testament Christians. And so it's these two problems that I'd like us to address this morning. Is it true that we need to be wary of the law of God because salvation is by grace? And is it true that to the degree we follow the law of God, we only follow that which is in the New Testament? E.J. carnell, in a book entitled Christian Commitment, wrote many years ago that the law of love, the law of love that Jesus gave us is not a religious summary of the Ten Commandments. He said, no, it's not. Indeed, he said, the New Testament stands in judgment over the ethic of the Old Testament. And so we follow in the New Testament a law of love that is opposed to the Old Testament. And I'm going to quote this. I don't think you'd believe me if I didn't bring it right to you in this form. He actually said this? Can you believe it? He actually said, and I quote, degrees of moral peace. Degrees of moral peace measure the degree to which our affections conform to the will of God. You want to know whether your feelings are in conformity with the will of God, then what degree of moral peace do you have inside? And so we don't go to Old Testament law. In fact, we stand in judgment of Old Testament law. That isn't the way we want to pursue Christian commitment and loving the Lord. And I'm here to tell you this morning, it ain't so. It just ain't so. And as popular as that point of view may be, it makes no difference what the statistics are. The Bible says, let God be true, though all men are liars. You can line up all the theologians in the world and they may say, that's right. We don't want that Old Testament law. And you know what God says. Your opinion means nothing. If God teaches us in His Word that His law is binding from COVID to cover in the Bible, it makes no difference whether theologians want to agree with that. Your job as believers is to do what the Lord tells you in His Word. If we are genuine disciples, if we are truly disciples of the Lord Jesus Christ, he says, you will abide in My Word and that Word will set you free. That will be the word of truth that sanctifies you and sets you off from the world. Open your Bibles, please, this morning to Romans the third chapter, Romans, chapter three. Let's do just a little bit of exposition to see what Scripture itself tells us about this question of Old Testament versus New Testament when it comes to Christian living. In the third chapter of Romans. If I can bring you all up to speed here just for a moment. The Apostle Paul has said that we are justified by faith and not by the law. We are justified by faith, by trusting in the Lord Jesus Christ. Justification does not come through obedience to the law. Now, there's a question that any cultured Jew is going to ask Paul. At this point, there's really no way around it. An intelligent Jew, someone who has paid attention to the Old Testament, is familiar with the Old Testament, knows how to think, is critically minded. A Jew is going to say, now wait a minute, Paul, let me understand you, right, you're saying we don't gain justification by the law. That's what we Jews have been trying to follow. We don't gain justification by the law. We gain it by faith. And so aren't you telling us then that your doctrine of justification nullifies the teaching of the Old Testament? Paul, aren't you really saying that Christianity represents a new religion? Isn't Christianity a nullification, a turning against the Old Testament? Now, if you take someone like Carnell or other theologians that have that point of view, we'd have to say, well, of course. That's right, Grace, what did Scofield say? I quoted last night? Grace is in A sphere totally separate from an antagonism to law. So, of course, the New Testament stands in judgment. Excuse me, The New Testament stands in judgment of the Old Testament. As Carnell has said in the quote this morning, the cultured Jew asked Paul that. He goes, paul, aren't you saying justification by faith sets us against the Old Testament? And then I want you to see how Paul answers that question. In the very last verse of Romans 3, he says, do we then make the law of none effect through faith? So he poses the question. He says, is what I have taught you about faith being the way in which we are justified? Does that nullify the Old Testament? Does that nullify the law? Have we voided out the law? Have we said, oh, turn away from the law? Forget that God has a new plan now. When he says we are to be justified by faith, Paul answers the question that should be on all of our minds as we say, well, now, what's the relationship between the Old and New Testament? And what's Paul's answer? I don't know what translation you have. My American standard says God forbid. Now, the Greek doesn't actually have God's name in there, but that idiom is used to express the strength of the Greek. Ume may it never be. Of course not. You could translate it. Absolutely not. No, no, no. That's the Bonsen paraphrase exclamation point. Never can it be the case that the law is made of none effect through faith, God forbid, no. We establish the law. Isn't that amazing? Paul says, what I'm teaching you about justification by means of faith establishes the teaching of the law. It's not set in contrast to the law. It is the very setting it up, confirming it. It's the very statement all over again with emphasis, of what the law itself had taught. If you're going to avoid confusion in your thinking as a Christian about the question of God's law, you're going to have to recognize that the New Testament uses the word law in a wide variety of ways. There's no one way in which the expression the law or just the expression law is used. Paul doesn't use the word law in only one way, but in a variety of ways. I'd like to illustrate that just from Romans chapter three, time is too short to do a systematic presentation of this. So I'm not claiming to cover all the different uses, but just in this chapter, I want you to notice five different uses of the word law. Isn't that amazing? In one chapter, 31 verses, sometimes the Law refers to the Old Testament as a whole. Verse 19, the beginning of verse 19. Now we know that what things soever the law saith, it speaketh to them that are under the law. There at the beginning of the sentence, Paul says, we know the things the law states. That's an illusion. That's an allusion to what the Old Testament says in Psalms and Isaiah. Because David, excuse me, Paul has just quoted David in the Psalms and quoted Isaiah from his prophecy. And then he says in verse 19, now we know what things the law says. And so it turns out that David and Isaiah count as the law. Therefore, the law here is being used as a title for what we would call the Old Testament as a whole. But that's not the only use of the word. Because in the second use of the word law in this expression, Paul is now referring to the sphere of liability to God's righteous judgment. To put it simply, the law refers to God's jurisdiction. Now we know that what things soever the law, the Old Testament says it speaks to them that are who under the law, under the jurisdiction of God and subject to his judgment. And then thirdly, in verse 20, the very first use of the word law in verse 20. Now, law refers to what we would call legalism, the effort to gain merit and favor before God by obeying the commandments. So verse 20 says, because by the works of the law shall no flesh be justified in his sight. By the attempt to gain God's favor through obedience, the works of the law, no one is going to gain God's favor. No one will be justified. No flesh can be justified through legalism. Isn't that amazing? We've only looked at a verse and a half and already Paul has used the word law for the Old Testament, for the jurisdiction of God, and for legalism, the works of the law. And then in verse 20, continuing at the end of the verse, the word law refers to the publication of God's holy will for our conduct and our attitudes. My paraphrase, the moral code. What God wants us to do, how he wants us to live our lives. Because by the works of the law, legalism shall no flesh be justified in his sight. For through the law, meaning the moral code, through the law comes the knowledge of sin. That's how we learn what is right and wrong. And God tells us, do this, don't do that. I hope I'm not going too fast. Does this confuse you? Paul expects you to read cautiously, to listen carefully, to do better than modern theologians often do. Paul says the whole Old Testament tells us that every mouth is stopped and all the world is brought under the judgment of God. Because what the law says, it says to those who are under the law, and by the works of the law, by legalism, no flesh will be justified. It's through the moral code contained in the law that we find out what is right and wrong. It's through the law that we gain the knowledge of sin. And then, just to illustrate one other use of the word law in this chapter, jump down to verse 27. Now, the word law refers to a system or order of things, a principle or method of operation. Where then is boasting? Paul says, where then is glorying? It's excluded by what manner of law? Of works? No, but by a law of faith. He says, what is the system of operation? What's the principle that is at work here? He says, is it a system of law? Is it by a law of works? No, but by a law of faith. Here law cannot be that which stands in contrast to faith. Faith. Because then the expression a law of faith would make nonsense out of Paul's words, wouldn't it? Law cannot be standing against faith. Because he speaks of the law of faith, the system of operation, the principle of faith. And this is so fascinating to me, I want to take just a moment more on it. Notice with what ease Paul moves from one sense of the word law to another sense of the word law in just one sentence, verse 21. But now, apart from the law, a righteousness of God has been manifested being witnessed by the law and the prophets. That's fascinating. And I think Paul does this sort of thing for literary attention. He says, apart from the law, a righteousness of God has been manifested being witnessed by the law. And what can that mean? The law witnesses to that which is apart from the law. Well, apart from the law, that is, apart from the works of the law, we find a different method of justification, a righteousness of God manifested that the law and the prophets give testimony to. And so the justifying righteousness, the justifying righteousness which stands in conflict with the law is proclaimed by the law. That principle of justification by faith which stands against to the law is what the law taught. You get it? Paul says these Jews who think they can oppose Jesus by going to the Old Testament, these Jews who oppose justification by faith proclaiming the law are actually standing in contrast to and are condemned by the law itself. Turn to Galatians, the second chapter. Paul could hardly put it more clearly, it seems to me, than when he says in verse 19 for I, through the law, died unto the law, that I might live unto God dying unto the law, that he might live unto God. We know what that means. Paul says, I stopped trying to save myself. I died to the law. I no longer tried to approach God and gain his favor through obedience. And where did Paul learn to die to the law? Where did Paul learn to put aside legalism? He says, and I through the law, died to the law. It was the law itself that taught me not to use it as a way of justification. It's the law that said, don't try to gain God's favor by your own merit and your own effort. That's fascinating. Those who want to pit the Old Testament against the new have not understood Paul correctly at all. Paul is not pitting the law, meaning the Old Testament, against justification by faith. He's pitting the Old Testament against the legalism that rejects justification by faith. Because, he says, the law itself teaches you not to be a legalist. And so you can understand then this last verse of Romans 3, when Paul answers the question that we've posed here this morning, does the doctrine of justification by faith stand opposed to the Old Testament law? Paul says, do we make the law of none effect through faith? Of course not. We establish it. What we teach about faith is the very establishing, the very confirming, the very substantiating of what the Old Testament had taught all along. And so this will help us to understand a couple of verses that are often brought up and confused young Christians. Well, confused as old Christians do, about the Christian's attitude regarding the Old Testament in Romans 6. I want you to notice verse 14. This is perhaps the most insidious and misleading verse of all the Bible. Read out of context. It's a great verse. Read in context, out of context, it's done untold damage. Here's what it says. You're not under the law, but under grace. That settles it. Dr. Bonson, you're all wet. You don't know what you're talking about. The Bible says we're not under the law anymore, we're under grace. Is that what the verse says? Let's pay a little closer attention. First of all, read the entire verse. For sin shall not have dominion over you because. Because you are not under law, but under grace. Whatever this expression, not being under law but being under grace means, it's used to support the truth that we are not under the dominion of sin. Sin shall not have dominion over you. Why is that? Because you're not under law, you're under grace. Well, if sin doesn't have dominion over you, then that means we stop sinning. And what is sin according to Paul? How do we learn what sin is? Through the law of God. He says, you're no longer under sin. That is to say, you're no longer bound to and in bondage to breaking the law of God. Paul's whole point is to explain why it is we keep the law of God. So how can you're not under law, but under grace have as its implication you don't have to keep the law anymore. His whole point is to show why we do keep the law. Read the next verse. Verse 15. Paul then says, what should you understand from this? What then? What follows from this? Shall we sin because we're not under law, but under grace? Is that what I'm getting at? Am I telling you you can go right ahead and break the law? Go ahead and sin because you're not under the law. And what's his answer again? God forbid. May it never be, never forget it. Nada, you're out of here. Paul says, that's not what I'm teaching at all. And so what's he mean that we're not under the law? He means you're not under the mere provisions of law. You're not simply under the provisions that the law has for obedience. And, and what provisions are those? What does the law contribute to our obedience? How does the law help us to obey? It doesn't. The law is dead and lifeless. It cannot impart the power to obey. Paul says, but you're not under the law. You're not simply under some code that's out there, that stands as an accuser against you, that cannot do anything to bring about complex with its demands. Paul says, you're under grace. What does grace do? Grace empowers the law so that now we can keep it. Why is it that sin doesn't have dominion over you? Why is it that lawlessness doesn't govern your life anymore? Because you don't have simply the law, you've got the grace of God. And shall we sin therefore since we're not under the law, forget it. Paul says, may it never be. And so this verse, which is so popular especially with dispensationalists, to try to throw off the teaching that you're getting in this seminar about loving the law of God, that verse has been distorted in a criminal fashion to teach the very opposite of what Paul is trying to teach. Isn't that perverse? Now mind you, I love my dispensational brothers I think they do damage to the church and that's why I warned. But I'm not here to just call names and try to put them down. But they have to understand that it's displeasing to God to take a verse and turn it inside out to teach the very opposite of what God intends. The reason why we keep the law is because we're under the grace of God. That's what Paul is saying. Do we make void the law through faith? God forbid we rather establish the law. But. Well, there's another verse that is similar to this that is quoted often by people and that's Romans 10:4. So move ahead in your Bibles there now Romans 10:4, and I'll read what my translation says. For Christ is the end of the law unto righteousness. To everyone who believes. The end of the law that terminates the law, you'll be told if Christ is the end of the law, the law no longer has any kind of authority or validity in the life of the Christian. It's the terminus, the cutting off, the final point of the law. Well, you might think that's what Paul saying again, if you read the verse out of context and especially if you read it out of context in an English translation. And I have to apologize here, I hate it when a teacher comes in and says, well, if you knew the Greek, if you knew the Hebrew, Because I realize most Christian audiences don't. And so isn't that a convenient way to get your way? Because who's going to fight back? You know, you're going to say, well, what can I say, Dr. Bonson? But sometimes it's inevitable, especially when translation give an impression in English, which are misleading. And so all I can tell you is if you'll pick up a commentary or check with somebody who knows the Greek, they'll tell you what I'm telling. What I'm saying here is true, may not agree with my interpretation, but I'm going to tell you something about this word end. The Greek word is telos, from which we in English speak of teleology. Telos means the aim or purpose of the something. And so Plato, for instance, speaks of the telos of a knife. I'm not sure if he uses the knife, but the telos is what a knife serves, what its aim or purpose is. Okay, well, telos, because it's the aim or purpose, say of a race, also represents the end for which it exists. And when you get to the end of the race, the purpose of the race, then the race is over, correct? And so this Greek word can be taken in either way. It can be the aim of the law, the very purpose of the law, or the terminus of the law, that which puts an end to the law. And of those two uses, which do you think Paul intends? If we read this in contrast context. And to put it in context, let's back up to chapter 9, verse 30. The division between chapter 9 and 10 is artificial. It's one that men introduce later for convenience. So don't let that throw you. If I were doing this, I would never have broken Paul's thought at what you call chapter 10, verse 1. Because Paul is continuing what he begins in what we call chapter nine, the 30th verse. What? What shall we say then? That the Gentiles who followed not after righteousness, attained to righteousness, even the righteousness which is of faith, But Israel, on the other hand, following after the law of righteousness, did not arrive at that law? So here's the conundrum. Paul says, the Gentiles, they arrived at righteousness, the righteousness of faith, but they weren't even looking for it. The Jews, on the other hand, had the law. The Jews, on the other hand, had the law of righteousness. And they didn't gain what the law was all about. They didn't gain the righteousness that the law teaches. But Israel, following after the law of righteousness, did not arrive at that law. And then verse 32, this is you love it. Whenever Paul says why or what, then, boy, you better pay attention. Let me explain this to you. Paul says, why? Is it because they sought it not by faith, but as it were, by works? What was Israel's problem? Was Israel's problem that they were too devoted to the law of righteousness? Not at all, he said. But they could never gain the righteous and of the law as long as they sought it by works. Israel thought, we'll do it in our own strength. We'll please God, you know, we're going to do all the right things and avoid all the wrong things. We'll keep all these laws and then we'll sit down and say, oh, what a good boy am I. And God must agree with that. God must be so pleased with us. Here we are, good little Jewish boys and girls, doing what Jesus, excuse me, what God wants us to do, to do, he's got to be happy with us. Paul says, that was the mistake. They sought the righteousness of the law not by faith, not by humble trust in God's provision and empowering, but by their own strength and their own accomplishment, they sought it by works. Now as long as Israel is trying to please God in its own strength by the works of the law and not trusting God, then what happens when the Messiah comes? Do they need a Messiah? Who needs a Messiah? We're doing pretty good. God's got to be awfully pleased with us. Didn't you hear us? Oh, what a good boy am I. I've been keeping the law. So Paul says in verse 33. Excuse me. At the end of verse 32, they stumbled at the stone of stumbling, even as it's written, behold, I lay in Zion a stone of stumbling and a rock of offense. And he that believes on him shall not be put to shall shame. Because Israel did not follow the law by faith, but as it were by works. Paul says, then they stumbled at the stone of stumbling. They stumbled at the Messiah. Jesus, you see, came into the world as the Old Testament, as the prophet Isaiah had prophesied, and he would be a stone over which Israel would fall. Because Israel was so proud of itself, so attempting to keep the law in its own strength, that when the only provision for keeping the law, the Messiah shows up when that which is the object of faith came. Since they weren't seeking righteousness by faith, they wanted nothing to do with him, they stumbled over him. And now Paul says, what a shame to break the line of thought here. But chapter 10, verse 1. Paul says, Brothers, my heart's desire and my supplication to God is from for them that they might be saved. For I bear them witness that they have a zeal for God, but not according to knowledge. Paul says, I want the Jews to be saved so badly. They are my brothers and they are zealous for God. But it's a stupid zeal. It's an ignorant zeal. Verse 3, 4. Being ignorant of God's righteousness and seeking to establish their own, they did not subject themselves to the righteousness of God. Now what has Paul taught up to verse four. Now as we get back to the verse we started with, Paul says the law never did teach righteousness by obedience. It taught righteousness by faith, trusting God's provision and empowering that. Then you go out and try, try to please him, not earning your salvation, but living out your salvation in obedience. That's what the law taught. The Gentiles understand that. But Israel, being self righteous, is ignorant of God's provision, ignorant of the need for the Messiah, and goes about trying to establish their own righteousness by works, as it were. He says, as it were, by works not by faith being ignorant of God's righteousness since they sought to establish their own. But Christ is the end of the law unto righteousness. Now what's he getting at here? Don't you see? But Christ, this one over whom they stumbled, Christ was what the law pointed at. Christ was the end and purpose of the law for righteousness. All along the Messiah was promised as the one who would bring righteousness to his people. And so again Paul is not telling us that Jesus terminates the law. He's saying the law was pointing to Jesus all along. The attempt to pit Jesus against the law is exactly the opposite of what Paul wants us to understand. He says the law and Jesus are continuous. They are harmonious because Jesus is the very point the law. He's the purpose of the law. It's what the law was aiming at all along for righteousness to everyone who believes. Because justification righteousness has always come through believing, through trusting God and His provision, rather than in self sufficient self righteousness trying to obey the law and gain favor than acceptance with God. So friends, we've been dreadfully misled by dispensational theology in our day. We may love our dispensational brothers and we may honor the fact that they are believers and seeking to follow the Scripture, but they have misread the scripture badly. We cannot pit the Old Testament against the New Testament because Paul refused to do it. How often have we seen him this morning say God forbid, God, God forbid. Don't put aside the law. In fact, it's what the law teaches that Paul teaches. It's the Old Testament law that teaches that New Testament believers are justified by faith. And so don't put aside the law. We rather establish the law by what we believe as Christians. And so we've seen that if we follow the lordship of Jesus Christ, we should love God's law. And now this morning we found that loving God's law is not something that's pitted against the Old Testament. It's in fact the very substantiation of what the Old Testament itself taught. Because God doesn't have two different ways. God is not of two minds. And aren't you glad that God is not of two minds? What kind of God would that be? We're supposed to believe that God went through this whole Old Testament period laying down a law saying try to please me, Obey, obey, obey. And then finally said, what a mistake. They can't do that. This is worthless. No one's going to make it. I got to change the plan. So then God says Now here's a different way of doing it in the New Testament. Now, I'm overplaying this. I'm making a caricature of it so you can see its true character and essence. But if that's your view of God, then you're in deep trouble. You know why? Because for all you know, in a few years, God's going to once again smack his forehead and say, nah, nah, nah. Where did I get the idea that justification by faith is the way to go? No, I got a different idea. If God can be of two minds, God can be of three. And therefore what you're trusting right now is your way of salvation. God may change that again, and then where will you be? But I don't worship a God like that. The God I worship never alters what goes forth from his mouth. God never has to change. You know why? Because he never makes mistakes. God says, I change not. That's why you're not consumed. That's your assurance. That's your rock confidence that I don't change my mind. And so any version of Christian living that suggests to you, that implies to you or openly teaches you that you don't have to follow the Old Testament because God changed his mind. Boy, I hope you'll get up and run, put your hands in your ears and run for dear life and say, never, never, never. Paul said, God forbid. God forbid, God forbid. May it never be. I will not listen to this nonsense. This is not glorifying to God. It's not true to the text of Scripture. Okay, so I hope I've convinced you two things. We must love the law of God, and you must not pit the Old Testament against the New Testament. Oh, but there's a problem, and that's that we do read in the New Testament certain statements that clearly appear to dismiss the law of God. Paul describes himself in First Corinthians 9:20 as not being under the law. In Ephesians 2:15, Paul says Christ abolished the law of commandments contained in ordinances. In Romans 7:6, Paul says, you have been discharged from the law. In Galatians 2:9, Paul says, I died unto the law. And so we have a number of statements in the New Testament that categorically appear to dismiss the law and its authority in the life of the Christian. Equally, we have statements in the New Testament that tell us that the law has not been put away. So how do we resolve this? How can we take care of this? And I'm going to try to give you a brief answer, but I hope a persuasive and effective one. If you'll turn in your Bibles to First Timothy, Chapter 1, And the eighth verse there says, but we know that the law is good. Paul prefaces his remark by we know. He's saying, there's no doubt about this. This is one of the non negotiables. You can take this for a sure starting point. We know this, that the law is good. And then he adds this qualification. If a man uses it lawfully, you see, the law is good, but only when it's properly used. Only when the law is used as it is intended to be used, that is the lawful use of the law. When the law is abided by in terms of its own character and direction, then it's a very good thing. Well now this implies that the law might not be used lawfully. Somebody might take it and use it to an improper end. You know, people do that, right? They pervert things. God created something very good known as the hemp plant, marijuana. Marijuana is good. I know that it's good because Paul tells me, because everything created by God is good. He says, if it's sanctified by the word of God in prayer, every creation of God is good as long as you use it in the way God intends for it to be used. And it's set apart by the word of God in prayer. But now, does that mean that when people smoke marijuana to get high, that's good? Well, God didn't give us marijuana so that we could lose our senses and lose our self control and act like drunken jerks. We know that because we're not supposed to be drunk with wine, we're not supposed to lose self control. And so though marijuana is good, people can use it for a way God didn't intend. I'm just giving you an illustration. I just thought you'd remember if I talked about marijuana. The law of God is like marijuana. Boy, if I've gotten in trouble for other things I've said, wait till this comes back. Let's see how it finally gets back to me what people are saying. Bahnsen's likening the law of God to marijuana. Yeah, in this sense that's a very good thing. But people don't always use it the way they're supposed to. And when you use marijuana in the way God doesn't want it used, then it's no longer good. Likewise, by analogy, we could say that the law of God is a very good thing. But when you don't use it the way God wants you to use it, it's not a good thing. Now, do you have any illustrations that you can think of just from this morning's message as to an unlawful use of the law of God. Was the law of God given in the Old Testament that we might try to keep it and say, oh, what a good, good boy am I. Did God give his law so that we can earn brownie points, use it as a stairway to heaven? No. And so what happens when people take the law and they use it that way? That's an unlawful use of the law. That's a use of the law contrary to its own character, contrary to its own directions. People can get a lot of trouble when they don't read the directions. You know last Christmas Eve when you're trying to get that bicycle put together? You learned that, didn't you? I said, ah, who needs these directions? Give me a wrench. I'm going to go to town here. About 4:30 in the morning, you said, where are the directions now? I love it when people get new computer material, you know, equipment. They say, oh, I hate manuals. I'll just kind of get going on my own here. Try to learn. When all else fails, read the instructions. And when you don't read the instructions in the law of God, you pick up this new Torah and say, oh, look at this. God wants me to earn my salvation. God wants me to be a good person in my own strength and my own righteousness. No, go back and read the instructions. Paul says, we know that this is good, the law is good, but only if you use it in the way the law intends to be used. So I want to suggest to you that the reason why the New Testament has positive statements about the law and equally negative statements about the law is found right here in what Paul says in 1 Timothy 1:8. And that's because the law itself is good. But the New Testament is very negative when the law is not being used properly. In Romans 7:14, Paul says, We know that the law is spiritual. And in Romans the eighth chapter, Paul says, those who walk after the Spirit will fulfill the ordinance of the law. Indeed, those who don't walk by the spirit, but by the flesh, are at enmity against God, because the mind of the flesh is not subject to the law of God. On the other hand, the law, not those who use it in the flesh and contrary to its proper use, the law itself is very good. It is spiritual. And in chapter 7 of Romans at the 12th verse, Paul concludes, so then the law itself is holy, and the commandment is holy, righteous and good. That's my conclusion. Not too bad, you see, not too insecure a place to finish. If we say what the Apostle Paul himself says, I conclude that the law is a very, very, very good thing. So good, so wonderful, so holy and righteous, that it's nothing less than a mirror of God's own character. You want to know what God is like, what it would be to be godly in this world? On the creaturely level, Then look at the law of God. Because God shows you his character here. Here's how you are holy. Here's how you are loving. Here's how you are good. Here is how you are just and righteous. How much of the Old Testament should we follow? Why do I have to ask that question? Well, before we end this lesson, we have to acknowledge that there are some things in the Old Testament we don't do anymore. All right? We're not bringing bloody sacrifices to Jerusalem or bringing sacrifices to become bloody in Jerusalem at the altar by a high priest. Correct. We're not following a system of rituals and feast days that have been ordained by God. We don't have a priest on earth that wears all the special garbs and goes through all the rituals of cleansing and intercedes for us. We don't have a day of atonement when the high priest goes into the holy of holies and on and on and on. So we don't do everything that's written in the Old Testament. Now why is that? Well, it's not because anything in the Old Testament has passed away. It's rather because the New Testament teaches us not to do those things anymore. Man shall live by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God. This is what Jesus said. If we live by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God, that means when God later alters what his people are supposed to do, we know that that's the acceptable, indeed that is the required thing. God requires of us that we will no longer bring animal sacrifices. Why? Because Jesus is the once for all sacrifice for the sins of his people. And because Jesus teaches us that we no longer do what the Old Testament is getting at. I want you to turn with me to Colossians, the second chapter, and maybe this will help you understand the point. Colossians, chapter two, Verse 16 says, Let no man therefore judge you in meat or in drink, or in respect of feast day or a new moon or a Sabbath. You'll get different interpretations of that. And that's not real important from my point, but my interpretation here is that Paul is referring to the different offerings of the Old Testament because there were meat offerings, drink offerings, feast day offerings, new moon offerings, and Sabbath offerings required in the law. None of the other interpretations that are available can match the strength of that, I think, because not all the things mentioned by Paul fit the interpretation offered. This is not the ceremonial law per se, for instance, the dietary strictures of the Old Testament, because there are no drink restrictions in the Old Testament, but there are offerings that are drink offerings, meat offerings, etc. Well, one way or another, whatever it is, that we're not supposed to be judged in terms of verse 17 gives you the reason which are a shadow of the things to come, but the substance, the body, is Christ. Paul says the reason why we're not judged about certain things in the Old Testament anymore is because those things were a foreshadow of the body of Christ. And here the word body. There may be something of a pun, but it's not so much that Paul's referring to the physical body of Jesus. He's comparing body versus shadow, so that if you go in the afternoon and you stand in the sun, your body cast the shadow on the ground. And he's contrasting the substance, the reality, versus the image or the shadow on the ground. And in the Old Testament, God gave us a shadow of the substance that was coming. And what the shadow was all about was Christ. Now, there are things in the law, therefore, that look ahead to the redemptive work of Jesus Christ. And with respect to those things after the body comes, why would you follow the shadow? Does that make any sense? Hebrews 10:1. For the law having a shadow of the good things to come, not the very image of the things, can never, with the same sacrifices year by year, which they offer, continually make perfect them that draw near. The law has a shadow shadow of the good things to come. And so those elements in the Old Testament law that were shadows of the good substance of the redemptive work of Christ which would come, those things are no longer followed today. And we shouldn't feel guilty about that. That's not breaking the law of God. That's keeping the law of God. The way in which you keep the stipulation of the Old Testament that says, says without the shedding of blood, there is no remission. The way in which you keep that is by trusting in Christ's redemptive work. It's not by bringing animal sacrifices. God is not pleased when you bring shadows over against the substance that he's provided. And so as New Testament Christians, I want to insist that we don't do everything in the Old Testament. But I do want to insist the things we no longer do from the the Old Testament are explained to us in the Word of God. Those things are not decided on by our own preconceptions. I don't want you to have the idea that because we no longer bring animal sacrifices to a physical temple in Palestine, that therefore you can go to the Old Testament and pick and choose the things you like. And that's what so many Christians do. They'll say, oh well, we don't have to do that. That's the Old Testament. Here's Jesus answer to those who automatically dismiss anything from the Old Testament. Matthew, the fifth chapter in the Sermon on the Mount, Matthew 5:17. Jesus says, do not think that I came to abrogate the law or the prophets. I did not come to abrogate, but to fulfill. If you have the idea that the reason I have arrived is because I want to put aside the Old Testament. Jesus says, you don't understand my mission at all. I came here to give the Old Testament its full measure, to fulfill it. Now, the Pharisees don't do that. They don't give you the full strength of the law. Jesus came to give the nuclear strength of the law, to give it its full power. The Pharisees are always diminishing. They're always rationalizing, they're externalizing, they're making excuses for not doing what the Old Testament really said. He says, don't you think then that I came to set aside the law or the prophets. I came to give them their full measure. Truly, I say to you, till heaven and earth pass away, not a jot or a tittle shall in any wise pass away from the law till everything is done. You know what a jot is? It's the smallest letter of the Hebrew Alphabet, the Yoda, or the smallest letter of the Greek Alphabet, the Iota. Just a slight stroke of the pen. And Jesus says, not the smallest letter passes away because of my coming. Moreover, he says, not even a tittle. A tittle is only the part of a letter. Only a very, very small part of a letter. And so how much of the Old Testament did Jesus say we have the right to set aside? None of it. None of it. Therefore, verse 19 says, Therefore whoever shall break one of these least commandments and teach men so shall be called least in the kingdom of heaven. Jesus doesn't say, if you break the big important ones, then you're in trouble. But of course, who cares about those little minor ones? That's the way we approach things, right, we say, oh, that's so peripheral. That doesn't make a big deal of difference. You know how big a difference it makes? It makes all the difference in the world as to how you stand before God and what rank you will have in his kingdom. If you teach men, you don't have to keep that commandment. Jesus says, God will demote you in his kingdom. The least commandment is upheld by Jesus. And so the attitude we must take if we love the law of God, God is, I must obey every bit of it until the lawgiver tells me otherwise. I must do everything God has taught. And then if God shows me a new way or a new application of what he said previously, then of course I follow that as well. But I never ever take it upon myself to dismiss any word from the Lord. For man shall live by every word that prepared proceeds from the mouth of God. Every word that proceeds from the mouth of God. James says, if we keep the whole law, but violate in only one point, we have broken the entire law. Not a jot or a tittle shall pass away. Jesus says. And so we don't take the attitude it's Old Testament, therefore we don't have to do it. We say it's Old Testament, and if God has shown us an application, a new application of it, that is the shadows passed away for the substance, praise be to God. But unless the lawgiver tells us this, then we must assume we should do it down to the very least commandment. Let me conclude by having you remember what Paul says about the value of Scripture. In 2 Timothy 3, verse 16, Paul says, For all Scripture is inspired of God. All Scripture is breathed out by God, every bit of it, even the least commandment. All Scripture is inspired of God and therefore profitable. Profitable for doctrine, that is, for teaching, for reproof and correction and instruction in righteousness. That the man of God may be perfect, perfectly furnished unto every good work. If you want to be perfectly equipped, if you want to be fully dressed for righteousness, you need the whole Bible. And so away with this New Testament Christianity mentality. We are whole Bible Christians, cover to cover Christians from beginning to end, Genesis to Revelation Christians, because every bit of it instructs us in righteousness. And to the degree that we set aside any part of Scripture, to that degree, we are not equipped to do what God wants us to do in this world. And so you see the problem, the problem in the Christian church, maybe the problem in your Christian life in this day is that a lot of us have a lot of gaps in our clothing. We're not fully equipped for righteousness. We've got big areas of our life that are exposed because we're not following every scripture that God has given us.