Participants:
Series Code: ICJ
Program Code: ICJ190020B
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00:01 Some people think that the apostle Paul actually somehow
00:04 did away with the law of God. 00:05 I love the book of Romans, by the way, 00:07 and the book of Galatians. 00:08 And in the book of Romans chapter 3, after it gives that 00:12 beautiful picture of Christ as our substitute 00:15 and the fact that we're saved by grace, 00:17 he then adds this, he says, "Do we then make void 00:20 the law through faith?" 00:22 And then he says, "God forbid!" 00:24 I love that old King James version in that point. 00:27 "God forbid!" 00:28 "Certainly not! 00:30 We establish the law." 00:32 We establish the law. 00:33 The grace of Jesus establishes the law 00:37 because He establishes it in the human heart. 00:39 And that's why I want to talk about the old and new covenant. 00:41 There's a lot of confusion about the old and new covenant. 00:44 And there doesn't need to be. 00:46 But let me just give you a little quick synopsis 00:49 and ask which one you'd rather have. 00:52 The old covenant was based on types and symbols. 00:56 The old covenant, in essence, pointed forward 00:59 to the new covenant that we would have 01:01 when Jesus would come. 01:03 I don't have time to get into Galatians and Romans, 01:05 but just to give you a little quick synopsis. 01:07 The old covenant had an earthly Sanctuary. 01:12 And it was temporary. It wasn't meant to last forever. 01:16 And then people sacrificed animals, the blood of animals, 01:22 for the forgiveness of sin. 01:23 Now the blood of animals, the New Testament is very clear, 01:25 the apostle Paul says it could never actually atone for sin. 01:29 It only pointed forward, forward, if you please, 01:34 to the coming of Jesus who was, as John the Baptist said, 01:37 "Behold, the Lamb of God 01:40 that takes away the sin of the world." 01:43 So that old covenant pointed forward to the fulfillment. 01:48 The blood of bulls and goats... 01:50 People have always been saved the same way. 01:52 Some people think that people in the Old Testament 01:55 were saved by their works. 01:56 And that's just foolishness. 01:58 They're all saved by faith. 02:00 When an Israelite sacrificed a lamb, if he had true faith 02:03 he knew that the lamb is not saving him. 02:07 It pointed forward to the Lord Jesus, the coming Messiah, 02:10 as Isaiah talked about in Isaiah 53. 02:13 That Messiah would save him. 02:16 He would become the suffering Lamb. 02:18 Of course, as I mentioned earlier, the Jewish leaders, 02:22 they didn't want a suffering Lamb. 02:23 They wanted the Lion of the tribe of Judah. 02:26 But you have to have the suffering Lamb, 02:28 the sacrifice of the Lamb of God, 02:31 before Jesus can come as King of kings and Lord of lords. 02:35 So going back to the old covenant, 02:37 an earthly Sanctuary, it had the blood of animals, 02:42 it had seven special feasts that could 02:45 fall on any day of the week. 02:47 They were called sabbaths. 02:48 But they're not like the seventh day Sabbath, 02:50 the weekly Sabbath that's constant in the Ten Commandments 02:53 that was given to Adam before the fall. 02:56 These came after the fall and are part of the solution 03:00 to the sin problem. 03:02 And they pointed forward to a reality 03:05 of Jesus in the heavenly Sanctuary. 03:09 And then the law of God was written on stone. 03:13 It was written on stone. 03:15 Now the new covenant... 03:16 That's kind of a simple overview. 03:18 The new covenant does this: 03:20 the new covenant has a heavenly Sanctuary. 03:23 I should have said also that the old covenant 03:25 has earthly priests. 03:27 But the new covenant has a heavenly Sanctuary 03:30 and it has a heavenly High Priest, the Lord Jesus. 03:35 Now that Sanctuary that's in heaven was not made by man. 03:38 The earthly Sanctuary only pointed forward to it. 03:42 And then, of course, it doesn't have the blood 03:45 of bulls and goats, it has the blood of Christ. 03:47 I ask people, what would you rather have 03:50 for your Salvation, what would you rather depend on, 03:53 the blood of bulls and goats or would you rather 03:55 depend on the blood of Christ? 03:56 Well, obviously the answer is clear. 03:59 And then, of course, the law of God. 04:01 The law in the old covenant was on stone. 04:03 But in the New Testament, and even in the Old Testament 04:06 He predicted He would do this, He writes the law of God 04:10 on the human heart. 04:12 But let me stop here. 04:14 The law of God never changes. 04:18 Because it's a reflection of His character. 04:20 The Lord says, "I am the Lord, I change not." 04:24 The New Testament says Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, 04:28 in the Old Testament, He's the same today, and forever. 04:32 He doesn't change. 04:34 The principles, the law of God, the Ten Commandments, 04:37 they never change. 04:39 It's just they're written in a different place, so to speak. 04:42 In the new covenant we have the living Christ. 04:45 And this living Christ, who is the living Ten Commandments, 04:50 the living Ten Commandments, this living Christ actually 04:54 comes into our hearts. 04:56 That's why the apostle Paul says, 04:57 "It is Christ in you, the hope of glory." 05:01 That's why we can't keep the law of God on our own. 05:03 Never could. 05:04 Never shall be able to. 05:07 The only way we can keep God's law 05:09 is if the living Christ is in us and controlling us. 05:13 And when He controls us, then we live out His life. 05:17 He life is lived out in our life, 05:19 in our actions and interactions. 05:21 There should be no war in our heart over the law of God. 05:24 The grace of God doesn't do away with the law of God. 05:28 It empowers the Christian to have the requirements, 05:33 as Paul said in Romans chapter 7, 05:35 the requirements of the law in our hearts. 05:38 So it empowers us, it doesn't destroy, 05:42 it doesn't destroy the law of God in any way. 05:46 That's been a false thing that's been set up, 05:50 and a false picture, and people have shot at it, and so forth, 05:54 that somehow God's grace changes it. 05:57 It never changes. 05:58 In fact, the first battle and the last battle 06:00 in the great controversy is over the law of God. 06:04 It always has been. 06:05 That's where the battle has been all of these years. 06:10 And it's a battle between the laws of man 06:14 and the laws of God, 06:15 between the religion of the Bible 06:18 or the religion of fables and tradition. 06:21 I want to ask a question. 06:23 Why do we see so much crime today? 06:24 It's just like it's just everywhere, 06:26 all over the world. 06:28 Even in the Protestant world, so to speak. 06:30 Why do we see so much crime? 06:32 And I think here's the answer to that. 06:34 Because religious leaders have themselves 06:36 tampered with the law of God. 06:39 And so when religious leaders stand up in the pulpit 06:42 and they voice that God's law doesn't matter, 06:44 that it's been done away with, now people reason that, 06:49 "Well, if they can do it, why can't we do it?" 06:52 And so, people today are acting out their own commandments, 06:59 their own emotions. 07:00 They make their own commandments. 07:02 They adjust the commandment. 07:03 Well, if it says, "Don't commit adultery," 07:04 "Well, that didn't quite mean what it said." 07:07 So everything becomes relevant. 07:09 For our world today that we live in, there's no absolute truth. 07:13 But there is absolute truth. 07:15 God's commandments don't change because God doesn't change. 07:20 And so, when religious leaders teach that God's laws 07:22 have been done away with, they're teaching confusion. 07:25 And confusion is another word for Babylon. 07:29 They're teaching what pleases men, not what pleases God. 07:35 Because what pleases God is what is most important, 07:37 according to the apostle Paul. 07:40 And this is how the church becomes Babylon. 07:43 When it starts changing God's law, 07:45 when it thinks it's more important 07:47 than what God has said, 07:49 when it tries to make the commandments of God relative 07:52 to everybody's feelings and emotions, 07:54 and what they think are their needs, etcetera, etcetera. 07:58 Instead of conforming to the law of God 08:00 we conform to our own wants. 08:02 And this becomes confusion. 08:04 That's why you're seeing such craziness in the world. 08:08 I mean, people can't even figure out what genders they are. 08:11 And I say that kindly. 08:12 It's confusion. 08:14 It's just confusion everywhere you turn. 08:17 So let me just go on here. 08:19 And the Protestant churches of the wilderness, of course, 08:23 have embraced today the Roman principles 08:27 of putting church and state together. 08:30 Which is another way of man being in charge, 08:32 of doing what he wants to do, 08:34 and taking God out of the equation. 08:38 I mentioned before how the common good is going to be the 08:41 great theme in the end of time. 08:44 So I want to just go down to, 08:47 here's a Catholic Catechism quote. 08:49 It says, "In respecting religious liberty," 08:53 and here it is, it uses this word again 08:55 from this Catholic Catechism, "In respecting religious liberty 08:58 and the common good of all..." 09:00 In other words, if they don't think that religious liberty 09:04 serves the common good of all, then they are quite willing 09:08 to change it, of course. 09:10 Quite willing to change it. 09:11 "In respecting religious liberty and the common good of all, 09:14 Christians should seek recognition of Sundays..." 09:17 In other words, not just recognition, but legislation. 09:21 "...and the church's holy days as legal." 09:24 There's that word, legal holidays. 09:28 So you can see where they're headed. 09:30 So if it's a law, then you don't have religious liberty. 09:34 If you believe the seventh day is the Sabbath, 09:36 but the law says something different, 09:39 then you're going to be in trouble with the law. 09:42 And this coalition, this Babylon is going to seek to control, 09:46 it's going to seek to control the great military power 09:49 of the United States. 09:51 Its amazing miracles are going to convince Christians 09:54 and pagans that God is with them. 09:57 The religious coalition will be the Babylon 10:01 of the New Testament, of the book of Revelation. 10:04 And the result will be a revival of Dark Age persecution. 10:08 And it's heartbreaking. 10:09 So American might and prestige, under the control of 10:13 this coalition, will influence the rest of the world 10:17 to follow suit for the common good. 10:21 So Babylon is pictured here in a way as invincible. 10:25 But she has a problem. 10:27 She's not invincible. 10:29 And the Bible says that God Himself 10:30 is going to bring her down. 10:31 One of the most sad things, maybe equal to that 10:34 would be the book of Lamentations, 10:35 is the picture in Revelation chapters 17, 18, and 19. 10:40 It describes the fall of Babylon. 10:43 It's huge. It's worldwide. 10:47 All the economics that everybody hoped for, it's gone. 10:50 All the worldly wealth they wanted, it's gone. 10:54 Everything that people had desired, and they thought that 10:57 these religious powers, this religious coalition 10:59 would bring them, all of this peace and prosperity 11:03 and economic power, it's gone. 11:07 It's all gone. 11:09 The opportunity for this world is gone. 11:13 In fact, the angel says, "The marriage won't be 11:16 heard in you anymore." 11:17 The angel is pictured as throwing a millstone 11:20 in the ocean with violence, and he says 11:22 this is how Babylon is going to be thrown down. 11:26 And he talks about how everything 11:28 goes silent in Babylon. 11:30 Why? 11:31 Because it's overthrown. 11:34 It's finished. It has an epic fail. 11:36 Don't put your hopes on Babylon. 11:39 In the end of time there's going to be trouble everywhere. 11:42 But Babylon is not going to be your hope. 11:45 Your only hope is to put your trust in the Lord Jesus. 11:48 Let Him come into your heart. 11:50 Let Him write His law in your heart. 11:53 And let Him write it in an ink that will never be erased. 11:58 Make up your mind that Jesus and His Word, 12:01 Jesus and His commandments, this living Christ, 12:05 is more important to you than all the worldly prosperity 12:10 that you can even dream of or think of. 12:13 And by the way, Jesus is coming. 12:15 And when He comes, He's going to bring a new heavens 12:19 and a new earth. |
Revised 2019-12-09