Ten Commandments

[0:00] So we are continuing in our series on the Ten Commandments. We're doing just a couple, two, three messages here to provide an introduction, kind of a setup, to make sure we have the right perspective as we start going through each of the Ten Commandments individually.

[0:21] And we won't just be looking only at those Ten Commandments. We'll use that as an opportunity to explore all of God's law in the Old Testament. But it's really important that we understand how to view the Old Testament law as Christians.

[0:41] You know, the law is under something called the Old Testament. That means it's old. And there's something that came newer, something that came after. We are under the Age of Grace, which is founded upon the New Covenant established in Jesus Christ's blood.

[1:00] But what does that mean? How are we as Christians supposed to view the law? What is our relationship to this law of Moses? Should we completely detach ourselves from it?

[1:13] Should we just ignore it and focus only on the New Testament? Because, well, we're New Testament Christians. Should we keep any of the Old Testament laws?

[1:24] Should we keep all of them? Maybe. If we keep just some of them, how do we know which ones we ought to follow, which ones we ought to keep, and which ones that we shouldn't?

[1:36] Some people say, oh, the only Old Testament laws that you should pay attention to or keep are the ones that Jesus repeated in the New Testament.

[1:46] Or maybe some of the other New Testament writers repeated in the New Testament. Is that the rule that we should follow? Some people say, well, you can just kind of ignore the whole Old Testament law.

[1:58] And as Christians, we're just supposed to live by the leading of the Holy Spirit. And so we just determine right or wrong for ourselves based on what the Holy Spirit says. Is that how we ought to live our Christian lives?

[2:14] Last week, we took a look at the law and split it up into three categories. And then looked at the general or primary purpose of each of those categories.

[2:26] I gave you a handout, or I gave you two. And one of them has those three categories listed. And so you can reference that as we're talking.

[2:39] But I just want to do a quick review of what we talked about last week. Again, this isn't something where the Bible has three columns that it lists each law under the three categories.

[2:51] But I think this is a fairly established paradigm perspective that many theologians over the years have put forth as a way to understand the law of Moses.

[3:05] The first one is the moral law. You have the moral law. These are aspects of fundamental right and wrong. They describe what sin is and what righteous things are.

[3:19] You shall not murder. You shall not steal. You shall not commit adultery. Those are fundamental principles of right and wrong. The purpose of the moral law is not to make you righteous.

[3:37] And we'll get into this more in a few minutes. But is to reveal sin. Identify sin. And ultimately it points to our need for a savior.

[3:49] Because so many of us, we have recognized. Not everybody has recognized. But you should. That we have failed to keep the law. To do what we ought to do. The second is the civil law.

[4:04] The civil law is meant to restrain evil. These are part of a judicial system or a legal system in a nation. And so when we look at the law of Moses, it was a law system for, or a legal system for the nation of Israel.

[4:22] It included judges and governors, punishments, guardrails to try to restrain evil in that society.

[4:34] And to keep order. And then the last category is the ceremonial law. These had to do with the sacrificial system and the feasts that were kept, the special days to be observed.

[4:49] Certain dietary restrictions on what you could or couldn't eat. How you planted your fields. The kind of clothes that you would wear. And these were intended to be, and we looked at a bunch of several New Testament scriptures that explain this more than what was explained in the Old Testament itself.

[5:11] But these things were what the Bible calls types and shadows and symbols to point to something more concrete.

[5:22] And primarily to point to the Savior. To point to Jesus Christ and what he would accomplish in the future. So, but the next question is, with all of that in mind, with these three categories and these three purposes in mind, the next big question that I'd like to answer today is, today for us, what is our relationship to the law?

[5:54] What is our relationship to the law? I asked you to open up earlier to Galatians 3. Go ahead and, if you haven't already, turn there. Galatians chapter 3. And we're going to read a passage.

[6:06] Verse 19 through 25. Galatians 3, 19. Here's what it said. Here's what it says. What purpose then does the law serve?

[6:17] It was added because of transgressions, till the seed should come to whom the promise was made. And it was appointed through angels by the hand of a mediator.

[6:29] That's actually a reference to Moses. Moses was the one who mediated the law. Now, a mediator does not mediate for one only, but God is one. Is the law then against the promises of God?

[6:42] Certainly not. For if there had been a law given which could have given life truly righteousness, which would have been by the law. But the scripture has confined all under sin, that the promise by faith in Jesus Christ might be given to those who believe.

[7:00] But before faith came, we were kept under guard by the law, kept for the faith which would afterward be revealed. Therefore, the law was our tutor to bring us to Christ, that we might be justified by faith.

[7:15] But after faith has come, we are no longer under a tutor. What this describes, by the way, the entire letter to the Galatians is Paul trying to rescue the Galatian people from putting themselves under the law system of the Old Testament.

[7:39] He's actually very animated and quite upset in this letter because the Galatians have been tricked, they've been duped into putting themselves under the Jewish law.

[7:52] And the whole letter is about how they should not do that. It's detrimental to their Christian faith. And here he's describing the value of the law, its purpose, what it is intended for.

[8:05] And in here is a little bit of a history. And what we find as we read here, as he says in verse 19, what purpose then does the law serve? He says it was added because of transgression.

[8:19] And so let's look a little bit about the history of where this law came into play as we look through the history of the world. You know, in the very beginning, we look at Adam and Eve in the garden and they sinned and they fell and sin entered into the world.

[8:40] And after that fall, we read about the very first sin. Now, I don't know if it was the very first sin completely, but it's the one, the very first kind of story or account of a grave sin.

[8:53] And what was that? Cain and Abel, right? In which Cain murders his own brother. At the end of that account, God is, you know, he really condemns Cain for killing his brother.

[9:13] And Cain is very upset and he's frightened. And he tells God, he says, you know what, people are going to come after me and they're going to try to take vengeance on me because of what I did.

[9:26] And God actually gave a commandment. And it might seem funny and strange why God would do this, but he basically, he put a mark on Cain and he commanded that no one was allowed to take vengeance against Cain.

[9:41] Why would he do that? You see, from this whole time from the fall until really the time of Noah, right after the flood, theologians call this the dispensation of conscience.

[9:58] It was an era in which men were, they basically just lived by the law that was in their hearts. They lived according to their own conscience.

[10:11] There wasn't a written legal system. There wasn't sanctions or punishments that came with laws. They just lived according to what their heart told them to do. Then, oh, excuse me, a few other scripture references to kind of describe this.

[10:31] In Romans chapter 5, Paul is speaking about the law and about sin. And he makes this side comment. He makes this side comment. This is Romans 5.13.

[10:43] He says this, for until the law, sin was in the world, but sin is not imputed when there is no law. He was saying, hey, before Moses entered the picture with the law, with those Ten Commandments come down from Mount Sinai, before then, there wasn't any law, but there was still sin before there was the law, right?

[11:05] But that sin was not imputed. There were no sanctions. There was no condemnation from a written record that said, hey, if you sin, these are the consequences. But yet, sin was still in the world.

[11:19] In fact, God judged the world for their sin through the flood. Also, I think the Bible describes this era, which isn't just unique to that time period, but there has been throughout history people who have lived without the law of Moses, right?

[11:43] Even during the time of Moses. Even today, there are people who have no idea that there's anything called a law of Moses. Does that mean that they are without any law at all?

[11:56] Well, in Romans chapter 2, verse 12, it speaks to another kind of law even though it's not written down. Romans 2, verse 12, For as many as have sinned without law will also perish without law.

[12:12] And as many as have sinned in the law will be judged by the law. So, if you don't have the law of Moses, you'll still, you'll still be identified as a sinner and you'll still perish without that law.

[12:28] And those who do have the law, well, you'll be judged by that law and perish if you don't keep it. Verse 13, For not the hearers of the law are just in the sight of God, but the doers of the law will be justified.

[12:42] For when Gentiles who do not have the law by nature do the things in the law, these, although not having the law, are a law to themselves who show the work of the law written in their hearts, their conscience also bearing witness, and between themselves their thoughts accusing or else excusing them in the day when God will judge the secrets of men by Jesus Christ according to my gospel.

[13:11] So, even without this written law, there is a law in our hearts. this applied during that era when there was no law at all written down. That era we call the dispensation of conscience from the time of Cain and Abel all the way through to the time of Moses.

[13:30] But even now, there are people who only live by their conscience, yet it is still the moral law of God. Then, we read in Genesis 9 about when the flood came to an end and Noah and his family came out of the ark and God gave them a couple of instructions and one of those was about introducing a law.

[13:57] It was just a single one but it was a law against bloodshed. He says this, Genesis 9, 6, whoever sheds man's blood.

[14:08] By man, his blood shall be shed for in the image of God he made man. There it is right there. The kind of prototype or the precursor to you shall not what?

[14:22] Murder. Right there. And so, a law in which man is supposed to uphold some kind of a criminal code is prototyped, if you will, or precursored right here in Noah.

[14:39] Then later on comes Moses and he goes up onto Mount Sinai and he comes down with those Ten Commandments and not just the Ten, right, but 613 total.

[14:52] The Ten were written down on stone. I'm sure the other ones were written on parchment, I imagine. But the law of Moses established a whole written record of what the law should be that Israel as a nation was supposed to follow.

[15:16] And going back to Galatians, this is what Paul is talking about in Galatians was the purpose of that law to be a tutor.

[15:28] Let me read this again, going back to Galatians. Galatians chapter 3 and let's look at verse 22.

[15:42] But the scripture talking about the law has confined all under sin that the promise by faith in Jesus Christ might be given to those who believe.

[15:53] But before faith came, we were kept under guard by the law kept for the faith which would afterward be revealed.

[16:06] So, the law was a tutor or a schoolmaster to bring us to Christ. Keep that word in mind by the way. So, in my, I don't know what my translation uses the word tutor.

[16:19] The law was a tutor. In other translations it uses the word schoolmaster. master. But I want you to keep in mind that word master. The law was a master ultimately intended to bring us to Christ.

[16:37] But then what does it say happens after you have been brought to Christ? Well, Galatians 3.25 But after faith has come, we are no longer under a tutor.

[16:51] We are no longer under that master. Once the Savior has come, once faith is made available in the Savior, once we are made righteous and clean through his blood, then we are no longer under that master.

[17:10] Its duty as a tutor is finished. That purpose, that role is no longer needed. And you know what?

[17:21] Because the law is no longer our master, also sin, the Bible says, is no longer our master. Romans chapter 6 verse 14 says this, Romans 6 14, For sin shall not have dominion over you, for you are not under law, but under grace.

[17:46] Sin shall not be your master, because you are not under the law, the law is not your master, but instead you are under grace.

[17:58] And this describes the age of grace in which we live. God will God will be your God will be your life. I have asked the question, why didn't God just send Jesus right after the fall in the garden?

[18:17] Why thousands of years? Why all of this dramatic happenings with the flood and with Cain and Abel and with this law of Moses and Abraham?

[18:30] Abraham, why didn't he just send Jesus right away to die for the sins of the world? And I really think that it's because God had to really set up, prepare us to receive the Savior with some really important lessons that were taught through history.

[18:52] During that dispensation of conscience in which man just did what was right in their own eyes, they just followed their hearts. How did things turn out?

[19:05] Very, very poorly. In fact, the Bible describes that era before the flood as man only did evil continually. Wow, that didn't turn out very well.

[19:18] So, the lesson is this, the law in your heart cannot make you righteous. It cannot make you good. The law in your heart cannot make you good.

[19:31] So, what's the next thing? Well, what if we take this law and we set it in stone? We put it in black and white letters and we bring along with it punishments?

[19:44] Maybe then that law can make people righteous. Is that what happened with the nation of Israel? Did the law make them a righteous and a godly people?

[19:56] It didn't. It failed. Not because the law was bad but because men were evil. Their hearts were corrupt. The second lesson with the law is that law in stone also cannot make you righteous.

[20:13] It cannot make you good. And so, God introduced another era with the coming of Jesus Christ who died for the sins of the world.

[20:25] And through his blood made a pathway of forgiveness and a relationship with him open because of the atoning sacrifice of Jesus Christ.

[20:39] And so, what we needed to learn was what cannot make us righteous so that we would understand more clearly what can make us righteous and good.

[20:51] And that is knowing God. It is a relationship with him. That is the one thing that can make us righteous. A relationship with God.

[21:03] You know, I mentioned earlier that the first law that we see established in the Bible or brought up in the Bible is with Noah.

[21:15] Right? But if we can go back and we can find actually an earlier law all the way back in the very, very beginning in the garden. Do you all know what I'm talking about here?

[21:27] In which God presented to Adam and Eve two trees. A tree of the knowledge of good and evil and a tree of life. And he said this with that tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

[21:42] You shall not eat of it and if you do you will surely die. And I really think that that tree represented something.

[21:55] What does that describe? The tree of the knowledge of good and evil? What is it that gives you the knowledge of good and evil? Well, it's the law.

[22:06] The law tells you what is right and what is wrong. And so I really think that this tree of the knowledge of good and evil represented the law.

[22:18] And did God want them to eat of that law? Did he want them to partake of that tree, of its fruit? No, he said don't do it. Stay away from it.

[22:30] Instead, God gave them something else, a tree of life. And they could partake of that to whatever extent they would want to. they could eat of it freely.

[22:43] And I think that that tree, that tree of life represented something else. That tree represented God himself. That they were to partake of God himself freely.

[22:57] That he's the one that we need to be upright, to be holy, to be good. Not to partake of this law system.

[23:08] That's not what's going to give us life. It's instead God ourself. He is our life. He wants us to partake of him.

[23:19] And really, I think that's what it means to be under grace. When the Bible says we are not under law, we're under grace, we have a relationship with God that has been opened up for us because of the blood of Jesus.

[23:34] And as we relate to God and learn to love him more, we can become like him. So with that as the foundation, understanding that, then, well, what do we do now with the law?

[23:50] We're kind of back to the same question. What do we do with this law thing? Well, let's look at a few ideas. As Christians under grace and not under law, how do we view the law?

[24:05] The first thing to consider is that the law has been stripped of its power. If you are a believer, if you are in Christ, the law is stripped of its power over your life.

[24:22] Romans 8, verse 1 says this, there is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus, who do not walk according to the flesh, that's the law system, by the way, but according to the spirit.

[24:38] And what is the spirit? Well, that's God. Those who don't walk according to the fleshly way of things, but according to walking with God, that's us, right?

[24:51] That's describing us in Christ, there is no condemnation. The law has been deprived of its power to condemn us.

[25:03] So, when the Bible says we're not under the law, it means, hey, that law does not have any power over you anymore. It cannot condemn you. Another one, you know, part of the law was, if you keep all these things, there are many blessings that will come your way.

[25:23] But sometimes we forget the other part of it, that if you don't keep the law, it comes with many curses. And so, in Galatians chapter 3, Paul speaks to this and says this, Galatians 3.13, Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law, having become a curse for us, for it is written, cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree.

[25:53] He was cursed by hanging on a tree so that we would no longer have to be under the curse of that law. That law has been deprived of its power to bring any curse on us.

[26:11] Amazing. Well, the other thing, too, is, you know what, this law cannot make you righteous. It can't make you good.

[26:23] It can't make you unrighteous either. In Romans chapter 10, verse 4, it says this, For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness. Because of Christ's work, the law, any semblance of idea that we had, that the law could make us righteous, has been put to an end.

[26:46] Jesus, through his death on the cross, he makes us righteous. For the Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes.

[27:03] The law can't make us any more righteous than we are in Christ. The Bible says that we are the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus. Do you know that?

[27:16] Do you really understand that? You are perfectly righteous, accounted that way anyway, according to God's ledger, because you trust in Christ.

[27:29] And so there's nothing that the law can do to make you more righteous or less righteous than what God has identified you as. So the law can't make us righteous, it can't condemn us, it can't bring a curse upon us, but the law still has some things that it can do.

[27:53] The law doesn't have power over believers, but what about unbelievers? You know, go ahead and turn there, 1 Timothy chapter 1.

[28:06] 1 Timothy chapter 1. Who was the law made for? was the law made for God himself to kind of regulate his behavior?

[28:21] No, God didn't need the law for that. Is the law needed to make a good person better? No, you're already good.

[28:35] Here's what Paul says about the law in 1 Timothy chapter 1 verse 8. But we know that the law is good if one uses it lawfully. Hey, there's a proper way to use the law.

[28:47] Knowing this, that the law is not made for a righteous person, but for the lawless and insubordinate,! for the ungodly and for sinners, for the unholy and profane, for murderers of fathers and murderers of mothers, for manslayers, for fornicators, for sodomites, for kidnappers, for liars, for perjurers, and if there is any other thing that is contrary to sound doctrine, according to the glorious gospel of the blessed God, which was committed to my trust.

[29:14] The law is made for the wicked, for the rebellious, for those who do all of these things that is listed here, for the sinner, and for those who are not in Christ, they haven't trusted in Christ, do you know what condemns them?

[29:32] It's the law. it's the law that shows them, buddy, you're in big trouble. It's, even if it's not the written law of Moses, right, some people just dismiss that, well what about that law of conscience in their own heart?

[29:48] That condemns them as well. And that should be brought to bear on any unbeliever. And by the way, we can use this as we share the gospel with people. Some people are not interested in what Jesus did on the cross.

[30:00] You know why? Because, well, why do I need Jesus? Why did he die for me? I don't need anybody to die for me. Because they haven't understood the, really the severity of their own sin.

[30:16] And as we evangelize people, we can use this law in a proper way, in a lawful way, to show people, you know what, you're in big trouble. And we ought to do that.

[30:27] Unless they turn to Christ, the law will condemn them. And does condemn them, by the way. The other thing that we can use the law for today, as believers, is for instructions in righteousness.

[30:46] Turn to 2 Timothy chapter 3. 2 Timothy chapter 3. This is written by Paul, by the way, who is the one who railed against the Galatians, for putting themselves under the law.

[31:04] Yet we also see from Paul, him, talking about the usefulness of the law, how the law should be used. And this is what he says to his son in the faith, Timothy, in 2 Timothy chapter 3, verse 16.

[31:20] 2 Timothy 3, 16. All scripture, here he's talking about the Old Testament, is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable. It's profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, and for instruction in righteousness.

[31:37] Today as Christians, as believers, even though we are under grace, we are not under the law, we can still look to the law for its instruction.

[31:48] Its instruction in what does righteousness look like? What does unrighteousness look like? Paul also is not afraid to quote specific commandments.

[32:03] In Ephesians chapter 6, he's speaking about fathers and mothers and children, and he's speaking to the children, and he wants to make sure that they're obedient to their parents.

[32:13] That's an important thing, right? He says in Ephesians 6, 1, children obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right. And then he quotes the fifth commandment.

[32:25] Am I getting this right? I think it's number five. Honor your father and mother, which is the first commandment with promise, that it may be well with you, that you may live long on the earth.

[32:37] Hey, here's some instructions in how to live righteously from the Ten Commandments. Let's use this, let's look to this. It doesn't mean that it has the power to condemn you, to sever your relationship with Christ or with the Lord, but hey, it does provide some instruction on how we can be more like God, how we can be more like our Savior.

[33:10] Romans 8, 3, Romans 8, 3 says this, for what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh. So the law couldn't do, couldn't make us righteous, not because it was weak, but because we are weak.

[33:25] God did by sending his own son in the likeness of sinful flesh on account of sin. He condemned sin in the flesh, that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled!

[33:37] in us. Because God, because of what he did through the cross, and he changed our relationship, instead of being separated from God, and now we are united with him, we have a relationship with him.

[33:52] Because of that standing, now we actually have the wherewithal, we have the equipping, because we have a relationship with God, to do what it says here, that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us.

[34:09] The law has a righteous requirement, things that are good, things that people ought to follow. Not to make us righteous, but it does show the way.

[34:20] But hey, we can read the instructions, and we can grow in our relationship with the Lord, by putting those two things together, we can grow in actual practical righteousness, living out the life that God gave us to live.

[34:36] love. The next way that we can use the law is looking at the civil law in the Old Testament.

[34:49] Did anything change between Moses and Christ in the power of the law or the usefulness of the law to restrain evil in society?

[35:01] No, it still works the same way. Having laws, and you see this in every nation across the globe, every nation has some kind of semblance of a justice system, and it's useful, it's useful to try to maintain peace and order and a semblance of justice in society.

[35:23] And Paul speaks to this in Romans 13. Says this, Romans 13, 3, For rulers, are not a terror to good works, but to evil. Do you want to be afraid or unafraid of the authority?

[35:38] Do what is good, and you will have praise from the same. For he is God's minister or servant to you for good. But if you do evil, be afraid. Be afraid.

[35:49] Be afraid of what? Of the law. Right? For he does not bear the sword in vain. These aren't recommendations from the government.

[35:59] For he is God's minister, again, a servant, an avenger to execute wrath on him who practices evil. Therefore, you must be subject not only because of wrath, but for conscience sake.

[36:14] There is still this role of the law in our civil society. you know what? There are a lot of people out there who don't like Christians. They don't like their Bible.

[36:25] And especially kind of in a more of a democratic republic like we have here in America, there are people that wish that Christians could not be involved in the law making process. Right? They'd rather keep things just secular.

[36:39] Where do secularists get their law? They kind of just make it up out of thin air or what they usually do is they borrow it from Christianity, but they don't want to be held to everything that they find in the Bible.

[36:55] Right? And so as Christians we ought to advocate for good laws that are based on fundamental morality that is described in the Bible. Now we ought to be careful, right?

[37:07] Because when we look at the law, the civil law in the Old Testament, there's a mixture of things that enforces. It enforces both moral laws, but also ceremonial laws.

[37:19] And I think we would make a mistake if we tried to advocate for laws that enforced ceremonial things that were intended just for that Jewish nation.

[37:30] I think we as a nation have done that in the past. We've taken things that were not fundamental matters of right and wrong. I think about blue laws enforcing that business is not open on Sundays.

[37:47] Those kinds of things. But when it comes to matters of fundamental right and wrong, hey, we're part of this legal system too. We get to, at least for now, right?

[37:59] I know there's lots of people that would like to prevent Christians, and in some nations they do. They don't allow Christians to speak up on these matters. But as long as we have a voice, we can go to the scriptures and say, hey, the Bible says these things.

[38:13] This is what's right and wrong, and we can make this part of the laws in our nation. And if we do, it will bring more order, more peace, more justice to our society.

[38:25] And then lastly, the other thing that we can look to the law for is specifically at those ceremonial laws. Now, we don't just follow them and do what those ceremonial laws say.

[38:39] Those were specific things for Israel, but they revealed something. They pointed to something in the future, and that can still be instructive for us.

[38:50] The sacrifices and the feast days and the food regulations and the circumcision, they all pointed to either spiritual truths or something about Christ, either what he accomplished back then, or there are even still ceremonial things or laws in the Old Testament that point to future things, even future for us, that are still going to happen.

[39:09] Have anybody ever heard of the Feast of Trumpets? Feast of Trumpets that Jews even today still keep? That hasn't been fulfilled yet, but there's a time coming in which a trumpet will sound, and the Savior, the Messiah, will come back for his own.

[39:29] There's still fulfillment, and we can learn by studying and reading about these ceremonial things that help us, build us up in our own faith, what God has done for us, and also look forward to the future.

[39:42] So let me kind of summarize with this. Reading the law as Christians. As we read the law, there are three things to consider. One, as we read each of these laws, try to identify what kind it is.

[39:53] Is this a ceremonial law? Is this a moral law? Is this a civil law? And then consider what is the purpose of the law? Is it to reveal sin?

[40:06] Or restrain evil? Or to point me to what Christ has done? To reveal Christ? And then lastly, try to understand and keep in perspective what my relationship to the law is.

[40:21] There's two ditches that people can put themselves under, right? They can say, oh, I'm under the law. I'm under its condemning power. I'm under its curse. Man, if I don't do these things, God's going to be, he's going to curse me.

[40:32] He's going to do something. And boy, have I heard that over and over and over again. I remember listening to a family on TV and they, what was it, some kind of non-Christian secular music came on and they thought, oh, I'm going to be cursed because I listened because this came on and, you know, went into my ears.

[40:55] That kind of thing happens over and over and over again and people don't realize that they can have confidence in their relationship with God even when they don't do the things that they ought to. That's what God wants from us.

[41:08] He wants us to know that we are secure in him even when we fail. So we're not under the law but we can learn from it.

[41:20] And so, yeah, again, the two ditches. We don't want to just ignore the law but also we don't want to put ourselves under it. We need to find that middle ground, really that proper lawful use of the law as Paul put it to Timothy.

[41:37] The law is good if it is used lawfully. So I'll end with this, just kind of summarize. The law is not our master. It can no longer condemn.

[41:51] It can no longer curse. It can't make us more righteous than God has made us. It can't make us less righteous than God has made us. but it does remain our teacher.

[42:07] It's not our master but it is and continues to be our teacher instructing us in what is righteous and what is good and what is true.

[42:18] So we can continue to learn from the law and that's what we will do through this series. We will learn from the law. We can never, ever, ever allow ourselves to be put under its mastery, under its power, under its condemnation.

[42:35] The law can actually be very dangerous if we make the mistake of using it unlawfully. That's what Galatians is all about. The danger of putting yourself under the law.

[42:47] But if we view it rightly, it can be hugely beneficial to us to teach us how we ought to live in this life.

[42:59] I'm going to end right there. I was going to take some time for questions. And we're kind of out of time but I'm going to go ahead and open it up.

[43:13] Does anybody have any questions that come to mind when it comes to kind of this perspective of how we should view the law?

[43:25] Or comments? I know it's been a while since we've done this. All right, we got one in the back. Brave individual. people. Hey.

[43:42] I do have a couple questions but I need to formulate them in my mind. But just as a general thought, I know you mentioned Romans 13.

[43:55] And to that end, I thought 13, 8 through 10. Okay. Was there a specific question?

[44:09] Romans 13, 8 through 10 you said? Yeah. Oh, okay, let me read it. Yep. Oh, no one anything except to love one another for he who loves another has fulfilled the law.

[44:21] For the commandment, you shall not commit adultery, you shall not murder, you shall not steal, you shall not bear false witness, you shall not covet. And if there is any other commandment, our all summed up in this saying, namely, you shall love your neighbor as yourself.

[44:32] Love does no harm to a neighbor, therefore love is the fulfillment of the law. So, maybe I'm way off base, but I spent the past couple days reading through Exodus and studying the law.

[44:53] And I read through it first and then I remembered the section in Romans and I came back and I re-read this section. And when I re-read it, then I went back and re-read the laws in Exodus and it got me thinking that part of the problem with the law may be a lack of seeing the forest for the trees.

[45:19] laws. So, maybe there's a focus too much on the literal words of the law rather than the intent of the law.

[45:35] And so, when I read Exodus, I didn't necessarily break them down into the categories that you had, but what I did see was among the commandments and the ordinances, I saw laws which seemed to be indicating a guidance of love of God and laws that seemed to be indicating a guidance of love towards your neighbor.

[46:05] The way that I view it, and you can tell me if this answers your question or at least speaks to it, is that the last verse that we read there, it says, love does no harm to his neighbor, therefore love is the fulfillment of the law.

[46:22] So, if you love your neighbor, you will not murder him. You will not steal from him and you will not, you know, commit adultery with his wife, let's say, right? If you love your neighbor.

[46:34] But, is the law fulfillment of love? The law, or excuse me, love fulfills the law, but does the law fulfill love?

[46:46] If you do not murder your neighbor, do you love your neighbor? Maybe not, right? Just because you don't steal your neighbor's car, does that mean you love him?

[46:58] No. And so, love is greater than the law, right? And what we need to grow in, what's most important that God wants from us, is to grow in love.

[47:09] God is love. He wants us to be like him. Does God, you know, not steal because, well, that's what it says in the Ten Commandments? No.

[47:20] He doesn't do those things. God is righteous and good because he is love, because of his love. And so, really, love is the most important thing. And the commandments just kind of describe the things that love would never do.

[47:35] And so, they're not sufficient in and of themselves. Just like not doing a list of things is not the purpose for what we were made. We were made to have loving relationships with God and with one another.

[47:49] Does that at all speak to kind of what you're asking? Okay. Thank you. All right. Maybe one more if anybody is really excited to say something.

[48:03] Otherwise, we can wrap it up. I hope this has got, you know, all of you thinking. I hope this is helpful. I really, really enjoy studying and teaching on these things.

[48:15] You know, I mentioned last week, sorry, am I missing anybody? I see some people moving around, but maybe you're just scratching your nose. That, you know, years ago, I remember watching Barack Obama on television mock and ridicule the Bible, really, you know, as a Christian, because he was changing his view on same-sex marriage and from being against it to being for it.

[48:41] And he says, you know, in Leviticus, it does say that homosexuality is an abomination, but, you know, it also says that eating shellfish is, shellfish wrong too.

[48:53] And it was his way of undermining the morality of the Bible for his own purposes. And I think if we as Christians could be better equipped to understand, because for a lot of people, that, Christians, they're like, well, that's kind of a good point.

[49:12] What do I do with that? Is eating shellfish wrong? Should I, you know, should I not go to Red Lobster anymore? And so they don't really understand how to rightly divide when it comes to the Old Testament.

[49:23] So I think having that understanding gives us a better, puts us in a better position to speak to these things. So, anything else? Okay, we'll wrap up.

[49:33] Let's pray. Father, as we continue to study your word and the Old Testament, even though these things are old, even though there's changes that have been made, the law does not apply in the same way.

[49:45] It no longer has condemning power. It can't make us righteous, but it is still good. It is still holy and righteous and good, as Paul says in Romans. We pray that you would continue to teach us through your word about right and wrong and understanding.

[50:01] how to live uprightly, how to love our neighbor correctly. Love is the most important thing. We want to grow in love, but we need to understand how to do that rightly.

[50:15] We thank you for your word and all the instruction you provide us. In Jesus' name, amen.