All right, just keep your finger there in Hebrews chapter eight now, I'm preaching both
sermons today. So normally, you know, we preach through the book of Genesis, I'll be preaching
through the book of Genesis chapter 20. For the second service, I just thought it'd be
work better if I if I changed it around just today. We're actually going to be starting
a new series, which will be primarily preached during the midweek services. And I was kind
of scratching my head between two things. There have been two series that I wanted to
work through. One was on the end times, I really want to get through the end times again,
I've got the end times bug in me again, I kind of want to look at it again. And so I
want to cover that at some point. But what I decided to do instead, is to cover to go
for a series, which I'm calling the rightly divided series, the rightly divided series.
So keep your finger there in Hebrews chapter eight. And please turn to Second Timothy chapter
two, please. Second Timothy chapter two. Second Timothy chapter two, verse 14. Second
Timothy chapter two, verse 14. Now, we can all learn from the books of Timothy, we can
learn from the books there in Titus, okay. But these are known as the pastoral epistles.
First Timothy, Second Timothy, Titus, written from the Apostle Paul, two pastors, two bishops,
okay. And so these are great books for pastors to learn and to grow from. The instruction
of being a pastor is found in these books, but look, it's profitable for everybody, okay.
But here in Second Timothy chapter two, verse 14, here, speaking to the pastor, it says,
of these things, put them, the them being the church, right, the flock that's under
that pastor, of these things, put them in remembrance, charging them before the Lord,
that they, you guys, strive not about words to no prophet, but to the subverting of the
hearers. And then verse number 15, study. So the pastor's job is to study, all right.
You say, well, hold on, aren't you meant to study before you became the pastor? Yeah,
but it's a continual study of the Word of God. Study to show thyself approved unto God,
a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth, but shun
profane and vain babblings, for they will increase unto more ungodliness. One way for
us to combat vain and profane babblings, you know, one way to get rid of nonsense in this
church is to make sure that we rightly divide the word of truth, to make sure that we preach
according to the Bible. When the Bible speaks here of rightly dividing, you know, some
people take the position that this is about dispensationalism, right? That rightly dividing
means you've got to, you know, study the dispensations, because there's a, you know, honestly, I'm
not joking here, those, the dispensations believe you cannot understand the Bible without
first understanding dispensationalism. But how odd is that, do you think, for God to
be telling a pastor, hey, now that you're pastoring, in fact, you've even been commanded
to be ordaining bishops, but make sure you now study dispensationalism. I mean, hey,
this guy's been pastoring for a while now, this guy's been, this guy's got, you know,
experience, this guy's been called to ordain other men over other churches, and you're
telling me God's telling, oh man, make sure you study dispensationalism. Man, if he was
so important, he would have had to study that long before he became a pastor. All right,
so this is, look, when the Bible speaks about rightly dividing the word, basically, what
it means is, this is a big book, isn't it? There's a lot in here, there's a lot to study,
there's a lot to read, and the pastor's job is to just divide it, you know, break it up
to feed the flock of God. And so what I want to do today is basically go through a new
series, start a new series called the Rightly Dividing Series. And we're going to start
off by looking at the Old and New Testaments, the Old and New Testaments, seeing what are
the differences between these two covenants, these two testaments. And, you know, when
it comes to you just reading your Bible, a lot of things are obvious. You know, the reason
you don't today go and sacrifice an animal is because as you've read through the Bible,
it's quite obvious that Jesus Christ is that, you know, ultimate sacrifice, that the Lord
Jesus Christ has, you know, you know, all those Old Testament sacrifices, just a picture
of who Jesus Christ was, what he would accomplish, and his sacrifice there on the cross, his
burial and his resurrection. Some things are very clear, some things are very obvious,
okay. But then as you desire to study and know the Word of God more, you're going to
be asking more questions about the Old Testament. And what are the differences there? You know,
you're reading through the Old Testament, you know, there's more Old Testament in your
Bible than there is New Testament, and you'll be scratching your heads wondering, you know,
are we still meant to be following this? Are we still meant to be doing that? Are we still
meant to be observing the Sabbath? You know, are we still meant to be, you know, doing
certain, you know, celebrating certain feasts and festivals that they used to have in the
Old Testament? And so my goal for this sermon is to, you know, well, first of all, I can't
go through every command and every practice in the Old Testament and tell you whether
they're still applicable today. But my goal today is basically to give you some good rules
by which as you read through the Old Testament, you can decide for yourself in your own personal
study if this is still relevant today in the New Testament, rather than spilling out
every little detail for you. Okay, so that's my goal today. Now turn back to Hebrews chapter
eight, please. Hebrews chapter eight. Look at verse number 13. Hebrews chapter eight,
verse 13. The Bible read, in that he saith, a new covenant, or this is another way of
saying a New Testament, he hath made the first old. Now that which the kath and waxeth old
is ready to vanish away. Okay, so the Old Testament today has vanished away. Okay. And
as this was written here in the book of Hebrews, it says it was getting ready to vanish away,
meaning that some of the Israelites were still carrying through those Old Testament practices.
And God puts an end to it all. When the temple is destroyed in 70 AD, when Jerusalem is burnt
up, then by then you can definitely say, man, all those Old Testament practices, they've
all been vanished away, they've all been done away with. Okay. And, you know, some
people today are trying to bring back those Old Testament practices. You know, the Jews
in Israel are trying to bring back some of these things that were done away with. We
have a new movement, you know, known as the Hebrew Roots movement, people that, you know,
so-called Christians feeling that we need to go back to the Old Testament, and we need
to go back and dress a certain way, we need to go back and celebrate a certain way and
to, you know, to call Jesus by the name of Yeshua, or some crazy things like that, things
that are not found in your Bible. And this is because they've not rightly divided the
Word of Truth. Okay. So it's important for us to go through this series, where we go
a little bit deeper, we go a little bit deeper, we increase our understanding, we increase
our knowledge, so we can then be better students of the Word of God. But look at Hebrews chapter
eight, verse number six, please. Hebrews chapter eight, verse six. The Bible says now,
But now that he obtained a more excellent ministry, by how much also he is the mediator
of a better covenant, which was established upon better promises. The first thing I want
you to understand the differences between the Old and the New Testament, or the Old
and the New Covenant, is that the New Covenant is a better covenant. It's built upon better
promises. And Jesus Christ here is called the mediator for us. He's our media between
man and God. It's through Jesus Christ that we receive salvation. It's actually through
the blood of Christ that allows us to enter into this new covenant. Verse number seven.
For if the first covenant had been faultless, now was the first covenant faultless? No,
it says if it were, meaning that it wasn't. Okay, it wasn't a perfect covenant. Then it
says, then should no place have been sought for the second. The second covenant exists
because the first covenant had faults in it. Okay, it wasn't a way in which you could obtain
salvation. But the new covenant is surely a way where you can obtain salvation. Find
out verse number eight. For finding fault with them, He saith, Behold, the days come
saith the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel, and with the house
of Judah, not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day when
I took them by the hand to lead them out of out of the land of Egypt, because they continue
not in my covenant. And I regarded them not saith the Lord, for this is the covenant that
I will make with the house of Israel after those days, saith the Lord. Now look at this.
Jesus Christ is saying, look, this is the covenant with the house of Israel with the
house of Judah. And there was a false teaching today that says the Jews, the Israelites today
are still under the old covenant. Well, how can they still be under the old covenant?
Okay, it's vanished away. It's not away with. The new covenant was the promise that was
given to Israel, okay? And as the Israel of God, if you're saved today, you also have
been given this promise of the new covenant. Verse number 10, verse number 10, for this
is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days saith the
Lord, I will put my laws into their mind and write them in their hearts, and I will be
to them a God, and they shall be to me a people. Now this is what's interesting about the new
covenant is that everyone that's in the new covenant are a people of God, and God has
written his laws in our minds and in our hearts, okay? You know what this means in effect?
If you were perfectly walking in the Spirit of God, if you were perfectly walking in that
new man, you wouldn't even need to read through the Old Testament to know what's right and
wrong, because the Holy Spirit of God would lead you into that truth, okay? Now this is
the topic for my next sermon, which I don't want to get into too much right now, but you
see that the Lord is working in our minds and in our hearts directly, rather than, you
know, stone tablets, which he had given to Moses to speak to the people of God in the
Old Testament. Verse number 11, and they shall not teach every man his neighbor and every
man his brother, saying, know the Lord, for all shall know me from the least to the greatest,
for I will be merciful to their unrighteousness, and their sins and their iniquities will I
remember no more. That's what's beautiful about the new covenant. If you're in the new
covenant, God has forgotten your sins and iniquities, all right? Verse number 13, in
that he saith a new covenant, he hath made the first old, now that which the calf and
waxeth old is ready to vanish away. So it's ready to vanish away there when this was written
here in the book of Hebrews, it's definitely vanished away today in 2019, okay? It's definitely
done away with, and now we are operating under New Testament times, okay? Now, let me break
this up a little bit. When people talk about the Old Testament, you know, when I get up
here to preach or other preachers get up here and we talk about the Old Testament, we could
mean a number of things, that there could be a different ways in which we express what
we mean by the Old Testament, and it usually comes with context. If you just listen to
the preacher, usually the context will dictate what they're talking about. But let me give
you some ideas of what the Old Testament means to some, you know? If I said to you, turn
to the Old Testament, what am I talking about? I'm talking about the first 39 books of the
Bible, right? From Genesis to Malachi. And I'll be saying, look, just turn to the Old
Testament, I'm talking about those first 39 books in the Bible. But then there are other
times when you talk about the Old Testament, people are preaching about the Old Testament,
and what they're talking about there is basically the actual law that God gave to Moses, and
that Moses then gave to the Israelites. And those laws of God are found in the book of
Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and they're repeated again in the book of Deuteronomy. Okay, and
so sometimes that's what people talk about, you know, those, those not the first five
books necessarily, but the four books following the book of Genesis, when God actually gives
the law to Moses, okay? Some people think of the Old Testament like that. Some people
think about the Old Testament in the terms of a timeframe, okay? And you can basically
break this up in two ways. Basically the timeframe being from Moses, where he received the laws,
until the death of Jesus Christ, okay? And that would include the four Gospels, or most
of the four Gospels, okay? Because as Jesus Christ walked the earth 2,000 years ago, he
was operating under the Old Testament ways, okay? He was operating under Old Testament
laws, and so some people give a timeframe like that. Some other people have a similar
timeframe like that, but it's not from Moses to Christ, or the death of Christ, but it's
from Adam, they would say, right? From Adam till the death of Christ. And what they mean
again is because Genesis is a book written by Moses, operated under the Old Testament,
and so we learn about Adam and Eve and all the creation, all the things that we're going
through in the book of Genesis, and so we would just lump that in as Old Testament,
okay? Now I don't think any of that is necessarily, you know, it's just the way we term things,
okay? And usually you just understand it by the context of the preacher, the way they're
preaching something. You'll understand what they mean. So I'm not going to be that pedantic
and say, well, this is what it means to be Old Testament. You know, you're not explaining
it correctly. Just people have different interpretations of how they would use that term. And then
there is another very foreign way that people use, some dispensationalists use, basically
when they say the Old Testament, they mean another thing. Also timeframe, but they also
believe that in the Daniel 70th week, the future week to come, which they like to term
the tribulation period, they will call that Old Testament as well, because they believe
that God has finished up with the Old New Testament and has gone back to Old Testament
ways there in the final seven years that come in the future. You're not going to hear that
from a church here. You're not going to hear that from preachers here. But that is some
people lump that in as well as the Old Testament. And they're the sort of the more the hyper
dispensationalists. Now, what I want you to do is go to Hebrews chapter nine, please,
you guys in Hebrews eight, so just go to the next chapter, Hebrews chapter nine, verse
six, Hebrews chapter nine, verse six. And we're just going to read a portion here. And
the book of Hebrews is probably the best book in the Bible, that explains some of the key
differences between the Old Testament and the New Testament. So Hebrews chapter nine,
verse six. And here it says, Now, when these things were thus ordained, the priest went
always into the first tabernacle, accomplishing the service of God. So if you guys remember
in the Old Testament, they would have to go to the tabernacle or to the temple to do,
you know, temple worship, sacrifice animals, you know, you know, sprinkling the blood and
the mercy seat, these kinds of things, these kind of sacrifices, verse number seven, but
into the second went the high priest alone once every year, not without blood, which
he offered for himself. And for the errors of the people, the Holy Ghost is signifying
that the way into the holiest of all was not yet made manifest while as the first tabernacle
was yet standing. So in the temple, in the tabernacle, there was a place of the holiest
or the Holy of Holies. And that was limited to the high priest entering there once a year.
But this was signifying, this was a picture of us entering into the holiest before the
Lord God, okay? And you'll soon see that this was made available to us through the
Lord Jesus Christ. Verse number nine, which, and here it is, which was a figure, it's a
picture, it's a foreshadowing, a figure, for the time then present in which were offered
both gifts and sacrifices that could not make him that did the service perfect as pertaining
to the conscience. Look, offering gifts and sacrifices in the Old Testament made nobody
perfect. Not even the guy that would enter in, not even the high priest that would enter
in sprinkling that blood on the mercy seat. It did not make him perfect on the inward,
inside in the conscience, no. Verse number 10, which stood only in meats and drinks and
diverse washings and carnal ordinances imposed on them until the time of reformation. And
so here in the New Testament, we start getting a breakdown of the changes. Here in verse
number 10, the meats and the drinks, how they were restricted from eating certain things
or offering certain meats, diverse washings, the rituals they would do to be cleansed before
they could serve in the temple, the carnal ordinances, things that mattered on the outside,
the flesh imposed on them until the time of reformation. You say, what's the time of reformation?
Is that the Protestant reformation, right? When the Christians talk about the reformation
today, they think about the Protestant movement. No, the time of reformation according to the
Bible is when Christ came, okay? When Christ came in and brought in the New Testament.
Verse number 11, but Christ, here it is, but Christ being come and high priest of good
things to come by a greater and more perfect tabernacle, not made with hands, that is to
say not of this building, neither by the blood of goats and calves, but by his own blood,
he entered in once into the holy place, having obtained eternal redemption for us. So we,
you know, the high priest in the Old Testament was a picture of the high priest, Jesus Christ.
The sacrifices that would be offered in the temple was a picture of the sacrifice of Jesus Christ.
Okay, all of this stuff is just a foreshadowing, a figure of Jesus. Verse number 13,
for if, if the blood, right, if the blood of bulls and goats and the ashes of an heifer
sprinkling in the unclean, sanctifying to the purifying of the flesh, how much more shall the
blood of Christ, who through the eternal spirit offered himself without spot to God, purge your
conscience from dead works to serve the living God. Could the blood of bulls and goats save you?
No, okay? If it could, if, you wouldn't need Jesus Christ to come and be that sacrifice.
Verse number 15, and for this cause he, speaking of Jesus, is the mediator of the New Testament,
that by means of death for the redemption of the transgressions that were under the
First Testament, they which are called might receive the promise of eternal inheritance.
For where a testament is, there must also of necessity be the death of the testator.
Hey, who's the testator of the New Covenant? Jesus Christ. When did the New Covenant come
into effect? When did the New Testament come into effect? It says here, by the death of the
testator. Okay, it was by the shedding of blood that actually opened up the doors to, into the
New Testament or the New Covenant. Verse number 17, for a testament is a force after men are dead,
otherwise it is of no strength at all while the testator liveth. This is the idea of a will.
You know, if you were to write out a will, you know, and you were to, you're concerned about how
your possessions, your finances were handled after your death, you would write out a will,
but that will will have no effect while you're alive. It's not till you die that that will now
has an effect, okay? That's kind of the same idea. We needed the Lord Jesus Christ to die for this
New Testament to come into effect. Verse number 18, whereupon neither the first testament was
dedicated without blood. Even the Old Testament, in other words it's saying here, was dedicated
by blood. The New Testament by the blood of Christ, the Old Testament was also dedicated
by blood. Verse number 19, for when Moses had spoken every precept to all the people
according to the law, he took the blood of calves and of goats with water and scarlet wool and hyssop
and sprinkled both the book and all the people saying, this is the blood of the testament which
God hath enjoined unto you. Now we read a quite chunky passage there and I just wanted to bring
a few things there that you can see. That the Old Testament, many of those things were pictures of
Jesus Christ. Number two, that by the offering of blood we enter into testaments, don't we?
New covenants, you know, the New Testament by the blood of Jesus Christ. The Old Testament there is
explained, Moses did it by the blood of calves and of goats and he sprinkled it upon the people
there in the Old Testament. I don't know if you guys were aware of that but that's how they
entered into that agreement, into that covenant with the Lord God. The other thing I want you to
realize is that these covenants, these testaments were given by God. God is the one who came forth
presenting these covenants and he's the one who basically is making it open for people to enter
into, okay? You cannot create a new covenant yourself. It's like, God I'm making a covenant
with you, I'm making a testament with you, you know, I'm going to sprinkle blood. No, no, it's
got to come from the Lord God and both things were done by the shedding of blood or by the
sprinkling of blood and I might just quickly show you this in the Old Testament just to help you
understand this. If you guys go to Exodus 24 now, Exodus 24, please turn there. How would you like
to actually, you know, if I came here and we killed a couple of animals and we got the blood,
all right guys, I start sprinkling on you guys and how would you feel about that? It's pretty
crazy, right? But you know, it was a serious thing that they entered into, it was a serious
agreement that they entered into the Lord God there in the Old Testament. Exodus 24 verse 3,
Exodus 24 verse 3, and Moses came and told the people all the words of the Lord and all the
judgments and all the people answered with one voice and said, all the words which the Lord have
said we will do. So you know, all of Israel says yes, we want to enter into this testament, this
covenant with the Lord God and I might just drop down to verse number six and Moses took half of
the blood so he sacrificed or maybe verse number five and he sent young men of the children of
Israel which offered burnt offerings and sacrificed peace offerings of oxen unto the Lord and Moses
took half of the blood and put it in basins and half of the blood he sprinkled on the altar
and he took the blood of the covenant and read in the audience of the people, they read the scriptures
and they said all that the Lord have said we will do and be obedient. Hey that's excellent, I love
their hearts, they're in the right place, everything that God says we're not to do, we're going to do,
we're going to be obedient to the Lord. I hope you have those hearts as well, I hope you can say yes,
everything that I see written here in the scriptures I will be obedient, I will do
what God asked me to do. All right, they have their hearts in the right place, you know that
they mess up many times in the Bible but they're right here, they're saying the right thing. Verse
number eight, and Moses took the blood and sprinkled it on the people and said behold
the blood of the covenant which the Lord have made with you concerning all these words. So you see
how these covenants come to be. God approaches men, he opens up a way, he then, you know,
it's that you enter in through the shedding of blood and if you're saved today you have entered
into the new covenant by the blood of Jesus Christ, okay. So even the blood of Christ, you know,
when these animals, when it was all sprinkled on the people, that was a type, that was a picture,
you know, of you being cleansed from your sins through the blood of Jesus Christ.
I hope that gives you sort of an idea of the Old Testament. Let's talk about the New Testament now,
you know, when we say, when we use the term as New Testament, again we can mean slightly
different things and again the context of the preacher will help you understand what they're
talking about but some ideas of what the New Testament is, you know, most often again turn
to the New Testament, what are we talking about? We're talking about the last 27 books in your
Bible from Matthew to Revelation but also when it comes to the New Testament we might be talking
about a time frame, okay, and we saw that the New Testament did not come into effect until the
death of Christ so some of the time frame that we're thinking about there would be from the
death of Christ so that would be some parts of the four gospels, you know, and to the rest of the
New Testament books, all right. So we'd say that's a time frame of the New Testament and
again the hyper dispensationalist though, those that take it to a real
degree when they think about which books are the New Testament they'll say basically none of the
gospels are the New Testament, they'll say the book of Hebrews, the book of James, that's not
for the New Testament, all right, that's not for you, all right, and they'll say not just that,
they'll say most of the book of Acts, well most of the book of Acts are for you but not all of it,
okay, and a little bit of the book of Revelation just till the churches and then after that,
you know, from chapter five that's not for you either, okay, so I mean that's called a
hyper dispensational view where they just, and look you can go even more extreme to that
where people basically look at the book of Romans and start saying well these chapters
are for the Jews, these chapters are for the Gentiles, these chapters are for the church of God
and they'll break these things up to these crazy divisions which have never been called for by the
Lord to look at that, okay. Now you say well what about the gospels, you know, the four gospels we,
you know, it's a bit of an interesting thing because we have Jesus Christ walking the earth
in Old Testament days and so some people take the view that the teachings of Christ
are not for us, look we've just, we've spent, you know, a long time going through the book of Luke,
didn't we, week by week, chapter by chapter, there are some Christians that say well that
was a waste of time because that wasn't even, you know, intended for the church, that was for
Old Testament Israel, that was in Old Testament times, well let me clarify a few things there
very quickly. If the teachings of Christ were not for us but were for Old Testament saints,
that's not much of a ministry, okay. Christ's ministry was only three years long, first of all,
okay, number one. Number two, the gospels, the writings, Matthew, Mark, Luke and John were not
written till after Christ was resurrected from the dead. So even during those three ministries of,
three years of ministry of Christ, the New Testament wasn't even written for anybody,
like those books weren't even written, so nobody could profit for them. The only way you could
profit, if that's how extreme you take it, the only people that could profit from Christ's teaching
were the disciples that were with him day and night for three years and that's it,
not for the rest of Israel, not for any believers today and these are the words of the Messiah,
these are the words of the Lord Jesus Christ, of course they're profitable for us today,
okay, so we'll prove it, well okay yeah I agree, Jesus Christ walked the earth in Old Testament
days but his teachings were New Testament teachings. Jesus Christ taught on the Trinity,
Jesus Christ taught on not just the sins, you know, that you commit in the flesh but the sins
that you commit in the mind. Jesus Christ harped on about that, about the internal matters, okay,
and the New Testament prophets built upon this, the New Testament, you know, writers built upon
this about, you know, focusing on the internal as well, not just on the external matters,
you know, the New Testament writers, you know, they were, you know, the gospel writers,
they were all believers that lived during New Testament days, they didn't publish their works
until New Testament times, okay, so we could read it in New Testament times, okay, the teachings of
Christ were New Testament related, okay, yes there are some things that have to do with the Old
Testament where he would, you know, send lepers, cleanse lepers to the priest, of course we don't
need to do those kinds of things but when it comes to the moral issues, when it comes to our
relationship with God, when it comes to salvation, when it comes to dealing with our brethren,
all those things, in fact he teaches about how to, you know, deal with conflict within a church even,
Jesus Christ does in the gospels, these are all things that are important for us in New Testament
days to believe and to hold to and you don't need to turn there but Ephesians chapter 2 verse 19
says now therefore ye are no more strangers than foreigners but fellow citizens with the saints
and of the household of God and look Ephesians, this is written to a New Testament church
and are built upon the foundation of the apostles, who are the apostles? The ones that walked with
Jesus Christ, that learned from Jesus Christ during Old Testament days, right, and prophets,
hey those are the Old Testament prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief cornerstone,
this is what we build our teaching on, our church upon, Jesus Christ the chief cornerstone,
if we don't have the teachings of Christ here, I don't want to have church, we don't have the
chief cornerstone, we don't have the right foundation if we're not looking at Christ
and learning from him and building our foundations upon him and his teachings,
of course his teachings, of course Matthew, Mark, Luke and John are relevant to the church, relevant
to New Testament saints, of course it is, okay, otherwise it was a waste of the ministry, really,
three years, only a few of you guys really knew what he taught and now no longer applies,
how ridiculous, you know, and so we need to rightly divide, rightly divide, okay, and this is why
I'm focused on this series now, and the other thing that I want you to notice about one of
the key differences, and this is going to be, this is going to help you a lot when it comes to you
reading the Old Testament, okay, turn to Galatians chapter 3 please, Galatians chapter 3.
Galatians chapter 3 verse 21 please, Galatians chapter 3 verse 21.
There are people that believe in Old Testament days you were saved by being under the Old
Testament, nobody was saved because they were under the Old Testament, nobody, okay,
now here's a key difference that you need to understand about the old and the new, everybody
that is in or under the New Testament, everyone that is, you can only be under or in the New
Testament if you are saved, okay, in other words in order for you to be saved today you have to
enter into that new covenant, okay, that's true, and then some people take that truth and say well
therefore in order for you to be saved in Old Testament days you had to be under the Old
Testament, no, that's one of the key differences, you know, you were never saved because you were
part of the old covenant, okay, you were never saved. Let's look at this, Galatians chapter 3
verse 21, Galatians chapter 3 verse 21. If, sorry, is the law then against the promises of God?
God forbid, for if there had been a law given which could have given life,
verily righteousness should have been by the law. Let's read that again, for if there had been a law
given which could have given life, could the law, could the Old Testament laws give life, eternal
life? No, no, okay, verily, if it could then verily righteousness should have been by the law,
okay, and so if in Old Testament days you're saved by your works, you're saved by keeping the law,
if that was possible then you would still be required to be saved by your works, by your
righteousness today, okay, in other words it was never by works, it was, you could never be saved
by being under the Old Testament laws. Verse number 22, but the scripture has concluded all
under sin, yes, even the Old Testament saints, right, that the promise by faith of Jesus Christ
might be given to them that believe. How are we saved? By believing the gospel, okay, that's how
we're saved. How were the Old Testament saints saved? By believing as well, by grace through
faith. Verse 23, but before faith came we were kept under the law shut up unto the faith which
should afterwards be revealed, wherefore the law was our schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ that
we might be justified by faith. What is the Old Testament? What are the Old Testament laws for?
To be a schoolmaster, to be a teacher, for us to say wow, look at the laws of God, look at his
commands, we cannot do this, we cannot achieve this what God is asking for us, and it's not even
perfection, all right, it's not even, look, I can't even do what God has asked us to do in the Old
Testament, these Old Testament saints had the right heart, yes we'll do it, yes we'll obey,
good on them, but then they realize man, we can't do it, we're falling short, the nation's falling
short, you know, we've come short of the glory of God and so it's pointing us to Christ, if we can't
do it we need a savior, we need somebody that can do it and that can be our substitute. This is what
the whole point of the Old Testament was, to show us our failings, okay, to be that schoolmaster,
to bring us to faith in Christ. Verse 25, but after that faith is come we are no longer under
a schoolmaster for ye are all children of God by faith in Christ Jesus. Were the Old Testament
saints, you know, were they children of God? Yeah they were, if they were saved they were children
of God, but how were they children of God? By faith in Christ Jesus, by faith in Christ Jesus,
all right, now how much do they know about Christ? That's debatable, you know, I believe Abraham knew
a lot, the Gospels preached unto Abraham the Bible tells us, okay, and then, you know, throughout
history, throughout the history of the Israelites, they've gone through spiritual darkness, they've
gone through spiritual highs, blessings of the Lord, they had prophets coming unto them, you know,
expounding the word of God. We know that the Old Testament was constantly just picturing Jesus
Christ, the Old Testament saints were saved by faith as far as what had been revealed to them
by God, but everything they do was a foreshadowing, was a picture, was a what was pointing to Jesus
Christ, pointing to the shedding of blood that would save them from their sins and their faith
was placed upon those truths that God had revealed. They may not have known the name of
Christ, in fact they didn't know the name of Jesus Christ, okay, but they knew enough in order for
them to be saved by faith just as we were. Now if you guys can go back to Hebrews chapter 10 verse 4
please, Hebrews chapter 10 verse 4, actually you don't need to turn, I'll just read it to you
quickly, Hebrews chapter 10 verse 4, it says, for it is not possible that the blood of bulls and of goats
should take away sins. Listen, that's a clear scripture, don't fight it,
just believe what God says, for it is not possible that the blood of bulls and of goats should take
away sins. Were the Old Testament saints ever saved by the sacrifices, by the shin of blood?
No, it could never take away sins. They were saved just like you and I, by grace, by God's grace,
a free gift through faith, through faith that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God, it's free,
not of works, lest any man should boast. Man, the Old Testament saints would have been full of
boasters if they were being saved by their works. No, no, no, these were, you know, the saints there,
they had to humble themselves just like you and I and realize we're sinners needing the Savior,
needing the salvation of the Lord. Now please go to Romans chapter 4 please, a familiar passage
to many of us but we need to look at this quickly. Romans chapter 4 verse 1,
Romans chapter 4 verse 1, how were the Old Testament saints saved by the shedding of blood
of the animals? No, we just read it very clearly, no, okay, could not be done. Romans chapter 4 verse
1, Romans chapter 4 verse 1, the Bible reads, what shall we say then that Abraham, now remember
Abraham, yes, we read about him in the Old Testament books, but Abraham lived prior to
the Old Testament coming into effect, so that came with Moses, remember? So this is before the
Old Testament but then it says, what shall we say then of Abraham our father as pertaining to the
flesh have found? For if Abraham were justified by works, he have where of to glory but not before
God, for what saved the scripture? Abraham believed God and he was counted unto him for
righteousness. How were saints saved before the Old Testament came into effect? By believing on
the Lord, okay, by grace through faith, okay. Look at verse number four, now to him that worketh is
the reward not reckoned of grace but of debt, but to him that worketh not but believeth on him that
justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness, even as David. Verse number six,
who's David? King David, when did he live? When the Old Testament was in effect, he was the king
of Israel, even as David. How was David saved? By grace through faith and he's operating under
the Old Testament covenant, the Old Testament, the Old Covenant, even as Abraham also describe,
describeth the blessedness of the man unto whom God imputed for righteousness without works.
Guys, how were Old Testament saved? Old Testament saints saved in the Old Covenant without works.
They weren't saved by works. That's foolishness. It's foolishness. You know, if you believe they
were saved by works, you don't believe the Bible, okay. And I'm afraid for your soul, okay. I'm
afraid for your soul if you believe people can be saved by some other way, you know, besides by
grace through faith. So very clear, verse number seven, saying blessed are, look at this, what is
David saying? Verse number seven, saying blessed are they whose iniquities are forgiven and whose
sins are covered. We just read that the blood of bulls and goats did not take away sin. So how was
his sins covered for? How were they paid for? Guess what? By the blood of Jesus Christ, the
same as you and I, okay. Verse number eight, blessed is the man to whom the Lord will not
impute sin, all right. That's very clear. I don't want to harp on about that. You guys know very
well how we are saved and how anybody in any time frame could ever be saved by grace through faith.
Now let's talk about the Old Testament very quickly. And there's a lot of laws, there's a
lot of things. I mean, just read through Exodus to Deuteronomy. I mean, there's so many things that
have been instructed by God and placed upon the Old Testament Israelites. And actually, before I
cover that, let me just try to summarize what I just explained for the last sort of 20 minutes,
is that Old Testament saints were saved by grace through faith, just like you and I, okay, and not
by the Old Testament covenant that they entered into. What I'm saying to you is this, that there
were people walking the earth that were not Israelites, and they were still saved if they
had placed their faith on the Lord Jesus Christ, okay, if they had placed their faith on the Lord,
all right. They were still saved, even though they may not have been part of that nation,
okay. And look, you say prove it. Well, all the Old Testament saints before the nation of Israel,
Abraham, all right, you know, Noah, you know, Enoch. I mean, there's heaps of people that we
can read about that we're going through in the book of Genesis, we're still going through the
book of Genesis, we still haven't entered into the time that the New Old Testament has come into
effect. All those rights, even Lot, out of all people, even Lot was saved before he, you know,
you know, he didn't, and then these guys never entered into the Old Testament covenant, okay.
And what that means is that when the Israelites, the children of Israel, when they came out of
Egypt, and Moses gave them the law, and they entered into that covenant, that would mean
there were many Israelites that were not saved that were in that mix. Many Israelites were saved,
many Israelites were not saved. There was a mix of people, just like anywhere, just like our
nation of Australia. There are saved people, there are people that are not saved, just like the
nation of Israel. People were saved, some people were not saved. And here's the thing, even if an
unsaved Israelite did all the ceremonies, you know, took the offering, took it to the priest,
and, you know, the blood was shed, you know, they did all the practices, they kept the Sabbath,
but if they believed that their salvation was by works, or, you know, they didn't place their
faith in the Lord God, guess what? They were not saved. They were just going through ceremony,
okay. Now those ceremonies are good, again, they were foreshadowing, they were pictures of Christ,
okay. But if they were not saved, I mean, if they did not have their faith in the right place,
they were not saved, okay. Now the same is true. You could have an Israelite in those days that
was saved, that had placed their faith on the Lord, but maybe they were disobedient with the
ceremony, with the practices. Maybe they didn't take their offering as much as they used to,
maybe they should have. Maybe they didn't take their tithes into the storehouse as much as they
should have, okay. Maybe they didn't do those kinds of things, but guess what? They were saved,
all right. They were saved because it's by faith, all right. And this is something you need to
understand as you read through the Old Testament, okay. Some of the men we read about are saved,
some of the men we read about are not saved, okay. And the Bible doesn't always, you know,
make it very clear to us who are saved and not saved. But we need to understand that salvation
has always been by faith, not by the entering of that Old Testament or that Old Covenant, okay.
That needs to be understood. That's a major difference with the New Testament because
everybody in the New Testament is saved, okay. Everybody under the New Covenant is saved. But
let's talk about the Old Testament laws for a moment. And basically there are many, many people,
and I like how they break it down. They break down all the laws, the commands, the practices
into three key categories, okay. And this is important for you to remember, so maybe write
this down if you have a pen. But the three categories are the ceremonial laws, ceremonial
laws. The next one are the moral laws. And the third one are the civil laws. And we're going to
go through each one of them right now. So the ceremonial laws, all right. Now,
some examples of what the ceremonial laws are, they're primarily centered on the temple or the
tabernacle, primarily centered around the priesthood, the sacrifices, those kinds of
things, okay. So part of these were the feasts. You know, they would have these, these feasts,
some of the feasts you might be familiar with, you know, the Passover, the unleavened bread,
the Feast of the Firstfruits, the Feast of Weeks, which we also know as Pentecost in the
New Testament, the Feast of Trumpets, the Day of Atonement, the Feast of Tabernacles. As you're
reading through your Old Testament, as you're looking at all these feasts, these celebrations,
again, they were centered into the tabernacle or the temple. These are, these fall under the
ceremonial laws, okay. The other things that were part of the ceremonial law were the offerings,
so they would bring, you know, you know, animals or things like that, you know. And some of these
are the burnt offering, the meat offering, the peace offering, the sin offering, the trespass
offering. Now, one day I would like to preach for all these things, the feasts and different
offerings. I'm still trying to work out some of the things, some of the details myself,
but one day I'd like to break it down for you guys and just to help you understand those feasts
and those offerings. But you know what, those feasts and the offerings, again, when you start
to study it out, are just pictures of Jesus Christ. Once again, it's all there. And, you know,
for example, the sin offering. What's our offering for sin? Jesus Christ, right? The peace offering.
How do we make peace with God? Through Jesus Christ. The trespass offering. You know, he cleans
us from our trespasses, our sins and trespasses. And it's all pointing us to Jesus Christ. What
else is part of the ceremonial law? The priesthood. We covered that a little bit. The high priest,
all the other priests, the Levitical priesthood, all that, the tabernacle, the temple. And so all
those kinds of things associated with as you read through your Bible fall under the ceremonial law.
Now, I'm not going to get you to turn there just quick. I'm going to read to you from Colossians
chapter two, verse 16. Colossians chapter two, verse 16. The Bible reads, let no man therefore
judge you in meat or in drink. This has to do with the festivals and the dietary requirements
that came upon the Israelites. Or in respect of a holy day, that's about the feast, the celebrations.
Or of the new moon or of the Sabbath days. Which are, look at this, verse number 17,
Colossians 2 17. Which are a shadow of things to come, but the body is of Christ. All these
ceremonial laws, all these kinds of things that they did back then, were a shadow of things to
come, of Christ. So what I'm trying to say to you is that these ceremonial laws have no
place for us today in the New Testament. It's all been fulfilled in us, for us, through Christ.
And maybe some of these feasts are also going to be fulfilled in the second coming of Christ.
But all of it was a picture of Jesus Christ. Then we have the moral laws. The moral laws
basically deal with two things. Our relationship with God and our relationship with our fellow man.
Okay. And this is kind of nicely summarized for us. I mean, there's a lot of laws, but
nicely summarized for us in the 10 commandments. Many people recognize the 10 commandments as a
good summary of a lot of those laws, the moral laws between ourselves and God and with ourselves
and our fellow man. Please take your Bibles and go to Matthew 22, please. Matthew 22, verse 36.
Matthew 22, verse 36.
Matthew 22, verse 36. So we will summarize it to the 10 commandments, but we can summarize
it even more. Okay. And in Matthew 22, verse 36, the question gets asked to Jesus,
Master, which is the great commandment in the law? Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the
Lord thy God with all thy heart and with all thy soul and with all thy mind. This is the first and
great commandment. And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself.
On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets. You want to keep all the law,
everything the prophets ever taught? You want to keep it all? Just love the Lord God with all
your heart and to love your neighbor as you love yourself. That's what Jesus Christ says. All
right. So we, you know, Jesus Christ summarizes it even more for us, but the moral law is still
important for us. It's how we treat our fellow man. Okay. The reason we don't go out there and
just murder somebody, right? We don't just go in and infringe someone's private property,
you know, go and commit theft. Or, you know, we shouldn't be doing those things. It's because
the Lord laid those things out for us in the law. And what's also great about the moral law,
it helps us realize, man, we've sinned. We've broken these things. Again, that schoolmaster
that'll bring us to Christ, the need for a savior. And finally, we have the civil laws.
Now some of these laws, you know, they try to break it down nicely. You're not going to have
this breakdown in your Bible. Okay. But some of these things obviously overlap. Okay. And
when it comes to the civil laws, it has to do with the moral laws. Okay. But criminal offenses.
So for example, obviously I shouldn't steal from you. Okay. But if I did steal from you,
I've now committed a criminal act and should be punished for that. I should be punished for that
by the proper authorities, by the government, by the laws of the land. And that's what the civil
laws are all about. Okay. And you say, well, that was the Old Testament. That was God dealing
with Israel. And I'm going to read to you from Romans 13 verse four. And we've looked at this
before. It says here, for he, speaking of the government, he is the minister of God to thee
for good. But if thou do that which is evil, be afraid for he beareth not the sword in vain,
for he is the minister of God, a revenger to execute wrath upon him that doeth evil.
So here's the thing. You know, the civil law also still is expected to be followed in the
government today. And here, again, which nation or which power was over the Israelites at this
point in time or the Jews? It was the Roman Empire. And still, we see in the scriptures
that other nations, other governments are to carry out civil laws. Okay. And to punish
those that commit criminal offenses. And so, you know, things like the death penalty should be
carried out by every government, you know, for rape, for kidnapping, those kinds of things
deserve the death penalty, you know, to prosecute false witnesses, people that are making false
accusations, you know, they should be prosecuted as well for theft. Those kinds of things,
people should be punished, people should be expected to recompense, you know, the wrong
that they've done. And this is why civil law today is still important. Okay. So when it comes to
those three things, ceremonial laws, moral laws, civil laws, what I'm saying to you right now is
that the ceremonial laws are done away with. They've been fulfilled, not so much done away
with, they've been fulfilled. They've been, it's done. It's done in Jesus Christ. Okay. But when
it comes to the other two aspects, our relationship with our fellow man, that's important. We need to
know how to treat one another. Okay. And, you know, the laws in our Western nations in the past
have basically built, you know, their laws on the word of God, you know, and that's a great thing
that they've done that in the past. Now, as generations go by, they're slowly moving away
from all those things that the word of God says, and they go in with the wisdom of man instead.
And civil laws, that's important as well. Now, here's the thing, you might say, well, hold on,
you know, wasn't that just for the nation of Israel? Let's say we had the pleasure of
starting our own nation. All right. We found a piece of land that nobody owned and we say,
hey, let's all go there. And we say, well, we need a government. We need to make sure
that we punish evildoers. How should we start, do you think? Well, let's, how about we decide what
we think is right and wrong? Do you think we're going to come to an agreement on that? Do you think
we're going to come to an agreement what's right and wrong? Maybe a little bit. Okay. But it's not
going to be perfect. We're not going to see eye to eye with those things. What about when it comes
to punishing evildoers? When it comes to punishing evil workers, are we going to come see eye to eye
on that? Absolutely not. There needs to be a standard somewhere. There needs to be something
by which our governments, our lawmakers, our politicians can say, hey, this is what we're
going to hold to. This is what we're going to, you know, use as our standard, as our moral compass.
You know, what better than the word of God? What better than how God feels about sins,
how God feels about crime, how he delegates punishment, you know, and recompenseful things
that are done. Hey, the best approach is to go to the word of God. And this is why as a preacher,
you know, I will call out a government when they're doing wrong things, you know, when they're
legalizing abortion, when they're allowing homosexuality, these kinds of things. These
things need to be preached against, okay, coming from the word of God. This is right. But it's also
right for me to preach the moral laws to challenge you guys on the sins you're committing,
you know, the failure you guys have in your lives to go back to the word of God. This is God's stand.
This is how God wants you to live according to his ways. And the only way you can accomplish that
is by being in the spirit, by walking in the spirit of God. So these things are important.
We have the moral laws, we have the civil laws. But the question is, how should these be applied
today? You know, because does Australia, does our nation of Australia have a covenant with God?
Did God come to Australia and say, well, here, Australia, here's my covenant with you,
let's go shed some blood, you know, and put this into effect? No, that never happened.
There's no nation today, you know, there's no physical nation, not even Israel, there's no
physical nation today that has a covenant with God, no physical nation today that has a covenant
with God. So how do we apply these things, you know? Well, let me just say this, we've,
I'm going to read to you from Exodus 19, verse five, just say, I've got a few passages,
you don't need to turn there, I'll just read to you. Exodus 19, verse five, this is when God is
speaking to the Israelites, the children of Israel, he says, Now therefore, if ye will obey
my voice indeed, and keep my covenant, then ye shall be a peculiar treasure unto me, above all
people, for all the earth is mine, and ye shall be unto me a kingdom of priests, and an holy nation.
Old Testament Israel was a holy nation, was a nation that belonged to the Lord God. All right,
belong to the Lord God. Here's the thing, though, that's under the old covenant, isn't it? But under
the new covenant, guess what? There is also a nation that belongs to God, under the new covenant,
but this is not a physical nation, this is the spiritual nation. First Peter chapter two,
verse nine says, that ye, speaking of us, First Peter chapter two, verse nine,
that ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, and holy nation. You see,
the covenants have to do with nations. The Old Testament covenant had to do with Old Testament
physical Israel, but the new covenant has to do with the spiritual nation of all believers,
of all nations, and we make up a holy spiritual nation belonging to God. Okay, so we as a spiritual
nation are accountable to God, just like the Old Testament Israelites as a physical nation were
accountable to God. Now why is that important? It's because, here's the thing, and this is
a position I take, I don't know if you all agree with this or not, but why is it that I'm in favor
of the death penalty for moral laws, you know, or criminals, crime that men do against men,
you know, to our fellow man? Why am I in favor of that, but not in favor of putting, say, you know,
people of a false religion to death? Why? Because here's the thing, remember, these covenants deal
with our relationship with our fellow man, and it deals with our relationship with God. Okay, now
our nation of Australia does not have a covenant with God, meaning there is no expectation that
they would carry out these kinds of civil punishments for people that don't have that
proper relationship with God. But here's the thing about our nation, we deal with fellow man,
we deal with our fellow man, and so those moral laws, those criminal offenses that we can do to
our fellow man should be punishable by the things that we read in the Bible. Hope that kind of makes
sense to you. Okay, hope that kind of makes sense. There is no covenant, there's no agreement for
Australia to be God's chosen people, and for Australia to say, hey, that the Lord God of the
Bible is our God, and so I don't believe people of a false religion or who do not believe in God
should be put to death as they did in the Old Testament days if they were part of that Old
Testament covenant. Okay, now there are two consequences to this, okay, there are two
consequences to being a nation under God, all right, and I just explained to you one of those
things is that I don't believe Australia should be putting non-believers or false believers to death,
okay, but the other key thing that comes into play are the blessings and the cursings of God.
Now very quickly, Old Testament Israel, okay, under the old covenant was blessed and cursed by God
based on their obedience to the Lord God, okay. So if they were obedient to the Lord, they did what's
right, I mean they never were perfect, but as far as God is concerned, hey, they're achieving
certain things, they would be blessed on the land, okay, they would be fruitful, they would be
profitable on the land, but if they turned their hearts against the Lord, they went to worship
other gods, those kinds of things, then the Lord would curse them, many times they'll be taken into
captivity, many times they would go to war against our surrounding nations, okay. So that's the
old covenant, but when it comes to the new covenant, and what I'm trying to say is this guys,
is that if you're a believer in the old covenant and the Lord was cursing the nation of Israel,
yeah, you would feel that curse, you would experience that curse because you were under
that old covenant, even though you were saved, okay. But in the new covenant, in the New Testament,
I believe the blessings and the curse sins operate differently, okay, and that's because
I don't believe believers, New Testament believers can be cursed by God, even in your disobedience.
Say, why is that? Well, because Christ became the curse for us, okay. All our disobedience,
all our sins were put onto Christ as though he did them, and God's wrath, God's judgment was put
on Christ instead of upon us, and we're blessed because we have the blessing of the Lord Jesus
Christ in his perfect obedience. And so I do not believe New Testament believers get cursed by God,
but then you say, but what about chastisement? Well, that's a blessing, all right. Just like
a loving father chastises their wayward son, wayward daughter, hey, they do it for their
profit, they do it because they love them. When you're chastised by God because of your
disobedience, because your failure to walk in the ways of the Lord, and he brings chastisement
upon you, he's not cursing you, he's blessing you, he's trying to help you, he's trying to
get you out of that rut, he's trying to make you more like a child of God, to walk after his ways,
okay. And so that's one of the benefits of being in the new covenant is that we cannot be cursed
by God. Now here's the thing, God might chastise you to death, okay, but again, it's for your
profit, okay. If the Lord ends your life, it's so you don't damage yourself any further. I mean,
if it's to that extreme, all right, it's just that you don't ruin your life or ruin the lives
of your loved ones, you know, any more than what you already have, okay. But again, that's a
blessing when you're chastised, even to death, you will go to be with the Lord, okay. So that's one
of the consequences. The second thing that I noticed, difference between the old covenant
and the new covenant, one of the differences regarding this is that a lot of the Old Testament
prophets, they would preach against their authorities, you know, the governing authorities
against the kings, even when you look at John the Baptist, why did he lose his, you know,
he was operating under the Old Testament, John the Baptist, why did he lose his life? Because
he preached against, you know, Herod, for taking his brother's wife, you know, and he was in prison,
he lost his head, you know. And so one thing you'll notice about the Old Testament, they would often
preach against their, you know, the governments, you know, the kings, the rulers of the day.
Say why? Because the nation they were under, you know, if the rulers, the kings were in
disobedience to God, God would raise up a prophet to preach against them, okay. Now I don't believe
that's going to happen necessarily. Now I'm not saying that it's wrong for us to preach against,
you know, our presidents and our prime minister, I'm not saying it's wrong, but that's not so much
a call of the New Testament believer, okay. Even when Christ came on the scene, he didn't spend
his time, you know, preaching against, you know, the governing authorities, he didn't spend his
time preaching against the Roman Empire or anything like that, he spent his time preaching against,
you know, the false religious leaders, okay, that were leading people on a wrong path,
they were preaching another gospel, you know, leading people to hell, that was his focus,
that was his focus, he was preaching against the religious leaders of the day, okay. And that's so,
you know, again the reason for, the reason I don't spend my time preaching against our,
you know, our prime minister and our politicians, well, I mean, there's a lot to preach against,
you know, I don't want to waste my time doing that, but also because our nation's not under
that covenant with God, so, you know, that's, it's not as necessary in the same way as it was
in the Old Testament days, all right. So I hope that kind of gives us a picture of some of the
differences there. Now I'm going a bit long here, but I'm going to just finish up on this.
Why is it important to rightly divide? Why is it important to rightly divide?
Please go to, let's see, please go to 2 Kings chapter 18, 2 Kings chapter 18.
I'm going to speed through this, but there's a great story in the Bible about the brass serpent.
If you guys know, I'm going to read to you a little bit from the book of Numbers 21,
while you go to 2 Kings 18, Numbers 21 verse 5. If you remember, there was a time when the
Israelites were upset with Moses, and God is angry with the Israelites, and he sends these
snakes to bite them, and many of them are dying from the venom of the snakes, and they call out
to Moses for help, and the Lord says to, you know, Moses goes to the Lord for mercy, and the Lord
tells Moses, look, here's what you've got to do. I'll read it to you. Verse number, verse number
eight, and the Lord said unto Moses, Numbers 21 verse eight, and the Lord said unto Moses,
make thee a fiery serpent, and set it upon a pole, and it shall come to pass that everyone
that is bitten, when he looketh upon it, shall live, and Moses made a serpent of brass, and put
it on a pole, and it came to pass that if a serpent had bitten a man, when he beheld the
serpent of brass, he lived. That's what we get out of him. Look and live, you know, look and live,
and so as these people were poisoned, or you know, by the venom of the snakes, if they looked onto
that brass serpent, that thing that was created by Moses, they would live, they would overcome
their sicknesses, and Jesus Christ then uses the same story in John 3 14. He says,
and as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted
up. Speaking of his crucifixion, look and live. How are we saved? By looking to Christ, by accepting
his sacrifice. Verse 15 he says, that whosoever believe in him should not perish, but have eternal
life. You see, even the bronze serpent back then, what was that picturing? What was that
a figure of? What was that foreshadowing? The sacrifice of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Okay, so look at 2 Kings 18 now, 2 Kings 18 verse 1. Now it came to pass in the third year of
Hosea, son of Eli, king of Israel, that Hezekiah the son of Ahaz, king of Judah, began to reign.
Verse number 3, and he did that which was right in the sight of the Lord, according to all that
David his father did. He removed the high places, and break the images, and cut down the groves.
Look at this, and break in pieces the brazen serpent that Moses had made. Well how dare you?
Why would you break that serpent that Moses had made? Why? Because look, for unto those days the
children of Israel did burn incense to it, and he caught it near Hashetan. So what happened?
The Israelites took that image of the brazen serpent, and in this day they started to burn
incense. They started to worship it. They started to say, wow, this is an amazing thing. You know,
this has religious power here. You know, we can earn our salvation by worshiping burning incense
unto this brazen serpent. You see what happens, right? But actually it was meant to be a picture
of Christ. If we're trying to keep the ceremonial laws, you might as well just burn incense to that
serpent, to that brazen serpent. Hey look, it was just a picture. It was just there to be fulfilled
in Christ, to point us to Christ. This is why we need to rightly divide, because we don't want to
get off on a, you know, on a goose chase. We don't want to, you know, start believing crazy things,
coming up with crazy doctrines, because we haven't rightly divided the word of truth.
If things have been fulfilled in Christ, let it go. All right. I remember when I knocked on the
door of a seventh-day Adventist, they're trying to convince me, you got to keep the Sabbath day to be
saved. You know, and I spoke to them, I said, look, Christ fulfilled the Sabbath. Christ is my Sabbath
rest. I keep the Sabbath every day of my life, because I'm in Jesus Christ. They're like, no, no, no,
salvation is by going to church on Saturday. I mean that, look, they might as well just be burning
incense to the brazen serpent, because the Sabbath was just a picture, a foreshadowing of the rest
that we would have in Jesus Christ. The seventh day, I'm not rightly dividing the word of truth,
okay. Again, if you're trying to force people to be circumcised, trying to force people to eat
dietary laws in the Old Testament, just burn incense to the brazen serpent. That's what you
should be doing. These Hebrew roots movement, you know, all these people that want to go back to
these ceremonial laws, just do it. Just burn incense to the brazen serpent. You know, you're no
better off. Just do it, you know. And that's why we as New Testament believers need to be careful
with how we read the scriptures. I hope I'm giving you some pointers here to help you understand the
differences between the old and the new. Now, just in conclusion, guys, I appreciate your patience,
but in conclusion, let me give you five simple rules to understand the difference between the
Old and New Testament, okay. And I basically, I've covered it, but just in summary, five simple
rules. Number one, everybody who has entered the New Covenant by the blood of Jesus are saved,
okay. But the Old Covenant was never a method by which salvation of the soul was received,
never, okay. That's point number one. That's going to help you as you read through the Bible.
Number two, the New Testament does not repeat every Old Testament command. If you haven't noticed,
your Old Testament's much larger than the New Testament, okay. It doesn't repeat every command,
but it clarifies what has been changed, okay. If the New Testament hasn't changed something,
then it's more likely, yes, that, you know, that's something we should still be doing,
all right. Point number three, all ceremonial laws were foreshadowing that which was fulfilled
in Christ. You don't need to keep any of those ceremonial laws, okay. If it's a picture,
a foreshadowing of Christ, we don't need to keep those laws. Number four, moral laws are still in
effect today because it teaches us how we can relate to our fellow man and it exposes our sin
nature, our need for our Savior. And number five, our governments today should base their laws and
judgments on the civil laws outlined in scripture, except when it comes to dealing with the nation's
relationship with God, okay. That's the only exception to that that I see. So those are five
things. If you want me to go through some of those things with you after the service,
please let me know. Let's leave it there and let's pray.