over in Titus chapter 3. Titus chapter 3. I just wanted
to read verse 9 because I just want to look, maybe think out
loud a little bit tonight on avoiding controversies in the
law. It's Titus chapter 3 and verse
9. But avoid foolish questions and
genealogies and contentions, and we looked at those last week,
and strivings about the law, for they are unprofitable and
vain. Avoid strivings about the law,
arguments and feudings and fussings about the law. And this was commonplace
in the New Testament, and naturally it would be because they were
common into that transition from the Old Testament into the New
Testament and having to let go of all of this law. And the Pharisees
and the scribes and the Sadducees had so many of their traditions
mingled together with the law of Moses. So they had some controversies
concerning the law. Most of their concerns about
the Law and about keeping the Law was nothing but pretense. They pretended to love the Law.
They pretended to understand the Law of Moses. But they had
mixed so many of their traditions with that Law, and really they
counted their traditions in so many instances more important
than the Law of God. They asked the Lord Jesus one
day, they said, why do your disciples transgress the tradition of the
elders? And what were they doing? They don't wash their hands before
they eat. And that's very important to
them. They were very convicted about that. And if they forgot
to wash their hands, they would literally get up and repent ask
for forgiveness and wash their hands and sit back down to eat. But the Lord Jesus said this
about them. He said, why do you transgress
the law of God by your traditions? They tithed. You know they tithed
everything. If they had herbs in their garden,
they tithed herbs, mint and cumin and so on. They fasted more than
the law even required. The law required fasting on certain
days, but very, very few days. They fasted twice a week and
paid tithes of things the law didn't require them to pay. But
the Lord Jesus said, You do all of these things, but you have
omitted the weightier matters of the law and the prophets.
And the weightier matters that they are overlooking were these
three things. He told them judgment or justice
and mercy and faith. It was amazing that these same
fellows that talked so much about the law and all their traditions
keeping them, they robbed widow's houses and thought nothing about
it. And in a day when there were
poor people and sickness all over that country, they wouldn't
lift so much as one of their little fingers to relieve somebody. Where's the justice in that?
Where's the mercy in that? I saw a politician back, maybe
it's been almost a year ago now, when they celebrate Lent. I saw
one of the politicians and he had some ashes or pain or something,
you know how they rub on their head to show humility and everything. I knew that guy. I knew of him. When I see him, I know him. And
you know that same guy supports a woman's right to kill her baby?
I thought, where's the justice in that? Ceremony, you know,
outward show. But where's the justice? And
the Lord said, you've passed over justice, you've passed over
mercy, and you've passed over faith. Man, the Old Testament,
Moses talked about faith, didn't he? And the Lord Jesus told him,
said, if you'd have believed Moses right, you'd have believed
Me. Because he wrote of Me. But they didn't believe Moses,
and they didn't believe Christ. They had passed over all of that
for their silly tradition. They professed concern for the
Law as God gave it to Moses. They professed that concern and
they professed a concern in the prophecies and promises of the
coming of the Lord Jesus Christ. But there was something that
outweighed every bit of that and that was their traditions
and their ceremonies. And Paul said it like this, he
said, they make a fair show in the flesh. That's what their
whole life, that's what their religion was about, making a
fair show in the flesh. Everything they did, the Lord
said you do it to be seen of men. The righteousness that they
professed was a righteousness that was outward. He said you
make the outside of the cup and the platter clean. But He said,
inside of you there is excess and all uncleanness. And you
appear so beautiful outwardly like the sepulchers of the fathers
that's dead. But He said, inwardly you're
full of dead man's bones. You stink. And God sees your
heart, doesn't He? And that which is highly esteemed
before men is in the eyes of God, not abomination. And the
Lord Jesus said this to them. He said, Moses gave you the law
and yet none of you keep it. None of you keep it. And you
know what the response to that statement was? You have a devil. You have a devil. And Stephen
said this to them. He said, You have received the
law by the dispensation of angels and none of you have kept it.
Not any of you keep it. And you know what the response
to that was? They were cut to their heart and gnashed on Him
with their teeth and stoned Him to death. They professed to be
concerned about the law. They professed to keep it. But
the Lord Jesus and all His apostles said, none of you keep it. None
of you keep it. You are more concerned with your
traditions than you are with the law that God gave to Moses. And I tell you, We and everybody
else will stop fussing and arguing and creating controversies about
the law. I'll tell you when it'll cease
when we come to understand this. First and foremost, by the law,
we're guilty. We're guilty. We're guilty, aren't
we? That's where we start. And you
know it's hard to cause much controversy when we all plead
guilt, isn't it? By the deeds of the law shall
no flesh be justified in his sight. By the law is the knowledge
of sin. And the Jews didn't know that.
They never heard of such a thing. The Apostle Paul went from a
young man up until the time the Lord opened his heart. And he
said, I had no sin until God showed me the law. And when the
commandment came, sin revived and I died. I died. Guilty. Guilty. These Jews wouldn't
own that. They went about to establish
their own righteousness and it was a mixture of law, circumcision,
Traditions of men and a little faith in Christ. They just mixed
everything up to establish a righteousness before God. You hear people talk
today about having a relationship with God. You hear that all the
time. Lost people talk about, I need
to work on my relationship with God. You hear that? I just heard
that yesterday. We heard it yesterday. I'm going
to work on my relationship with God. Well, here's a good place
to start. I'm guilty. I'm guilty. And until I find
a way to remove that guilt, I ain't going to have a relationship
with God. And the way that guilt is removed, you and I know, it's
by the blood of Jesus Christ God's Son. And if we attempt
to remove that guilt in any other way, we just deepen our guilt. We turn to the law and talk about
the law and fuss about the law. That just deepens our guilt.
We're guilty. And the only way to have that
guilt removed is through the redeeming blood of our dear and
blessed Savior. Let me reiterate a couple of
things that I said last week just quickly about the law. the law of Moses, the law God
gave to Moses. And it was one law, basically,
but it consisted in three branches. There were three branches of
the law. The Jews knew this well. First
of all, there was the ceremonial law. That was of course the priesthood
and all the sacrifices and the tabernacle and the holy days
and the feast days. That was what you and I referred
to as the ceremonial law. And then they had the civil law,
the civil law, how they lived their daily lives in the nation
in regard to their association with one another, how they acted
in their communities. And man, the civil law, regulated
every aspect of their life. From the time the Jew was born
until the time he died, his daily life was regulated. Who he associated
with, what food he could eat, what kind of animals he could
plow with. If he borrowed an instrument
off of his neighbor, how he had to take care of it. If something
happened, how he had to fix it. If you borrowed an animal and
he died, how much you had to pay for it? If you had a bull
that was known to butt and you didn't put it up and it butted
somebody to death, they would kill the bull and you. Their
whole life was strictly regulated by the civil law. That's one of the reasons why
they were told not to go into other countries and other nations
and have fellowship with them and sit and eat with them. It
was a strict law. And you know this law was so
strict, you would be punished. You would be punished. If you
got out of line and you broke this law, you would be punished
and sometimes even put to death. They would get together, the
elders, and have you put to death. Sometimes God would put you to
death. That's how strict this law was. You remember David when
he was bringing back the Ark of the Covenant out of the land
of Philistine. He was going to bring it back
there in Jerusalem. And they carried it on this ox
cart. And boy, David got himself in
trouble. And the ox stumbled and the cart shook and used David's
friend, Rechian, to support the ark. And the Scripture says God's
anger was kindled against him and God smote him. God killed
him. Nobody was to touch that ark.
The law said no. No. And boy, it scared David
to death. David said, I don't want that
at my house. Not like this. Until he found out that the priests
were to carry that ark. So this civil life in the Jews
was strictly regulated. And here's what Peter said. Remember
what Peter said? He said it was a yoke that neither
we nor our fathers were able to bear. And Moses, when he got
the law on Mount Sinai, he said, I exceedingly fear and quake. So it was a strict lifestyle.
If you were a Jew, man, you toed the mark, you walked the line,
or you suffered for it. They stoned people all the time,
didn't they? Found a man picking up sticks on the Sabbath day.
He said, Lord, what do you want us to do with him? He said, kill
him. Kill him. I mean, you couldn't make a mistake.
When the priest offered sacrifices and they sprinkled the blood
seven times, let them sprinkle it eight. They'd drag him out
of there because God would kill him. The ceremonial law and this
civil law was very, very rigid, very rigid. I don't know how
these fellows had time to turn to all these traditions and commandments
of men. They had enough to take care
of as it was. But the third branch of the law,
of course, is what we call the moral law or the Ten Commandment
law. That's what we hear most about
today. I want you to turn to a couple of places with me. Look
over in Deuteronomy chapter 4. You and I are not too familiar with
this because we're Gentiles. We just don't, you know, we read
it in the Scripture, but we don't live it out like they were in
the New Testament. So when we hear Paul say, you
know, avoid these controversies in the law, we don't understand
what's the problem. Why would you even tell us that?
Boy, there was controversy in the law. But look here in Deuteronomy
chapter 4 and look in verse 12. And the Lord spake unto you out
of the midst of the fire, there in Mount Sinai. And you heard
the voice of words, but saw no similitude, saw no likeness of
anything. You only heard a voice. And He
declared unto you His covenant, which He commanded you to perform,
even ten commandments, and He wrote them upon two tables of
stones. His covenant. And what was that
covenant? Ten Commandments. It was the
Ten Commandments. Let me show you one other place.
Look over in Exodus chapter 34. Sometimes if you want to study
on this, you'll see all three of these covenants. If you'll
begin to study in Exodus chapter 19, there when Israel stood around
Mount Sinai and Moses went up into the mountain The Lord wrote
those Ten Commandments on stones. You'll start studying there in
chapter 19 of Exodus through chapter 34. You'll see the giving
of all three branches of the law. He gave the Ten Commandments. He wrote them down on stones.
And then He gave the ceremonial law, wrote all that down, how
the priest was to be ordained, what he was to wear, and all
of that. the pattern that Moses was to make the tabernacle by,
and then he gave them the civil law, how they were to live with
each other among the nation. He gave them all of that. He
gave that to Moses. And then look what he says here
in verse 27 of chapter 34 of Exodus. Exodus chapter 34 verse 27, And
the Lord said unto Moses, Write thou these words, for after the
tenor of these words I have made a covenant with thee and with
Israel. That contained the ceremonial
law and that contained the civil law. In verse 28, And he was
there with the LORD forty days and forty nights, and did eat
neither bread nor drink water. And he wrote upon the tables
the words of the covenant, the Ten Commandments. That is what
he says again, the Ten Commandments. And I want you to look now in
verse 29 and look what happened as Moses came down off of the
mountain. Look at the glory that was bestowed
upon him as the Lord brought him up to his presence. And it
came to pass when Moses came down from Mount Sinai with the
two tables of testimony in his hands, when he came down from
the mount that Moses wished not that the skin of his flesh shone
while he talked with him. And when Aaron and all the children
of Israel saw Moses, behold, the skin of his face shone, it
shined, and they were afraid to come near him. And Moses called
unto them, and Aaron and all the rulers of the congregation
returned unto him, and Moses talked with them. And afterward
all the children of Israel came nigh, and he gave them in commandment
all that the Lord had spoken with him in Mount Sinai, until
Moses had done speaking with them, he put a veil upon His
face. But here now is what I want to
say about all what I've said here about these three branches
of the Law. This was a covenant. That's what
it tells us here in Deuteronomy 4. This was a covenant that God
made with the children of Israel. This whole Law the Ten Commandment
Law, the Ceremonial Law, and the Levitical Law, the Civil
Law, it was a covenant that God made with the nation of Israel.
And listen, this whole thing has been abolished. This whole
law as a covenant has been abolished. It has been done away with. It
has been replaced. by a better covenant, a better covenant. Look over
now and let me show you that. Look over in 2 Corinthians. Look
in chapter 3. 2 Corinthians chapter 3. 2 Corinthians chapter 3 and look
in verse 3. Stay with me just for a minute.
Don't let me lose you. 2 Corinthians chapter 3, now Paul
is going to talk about the very thing here that you and I have
just been looking at, this covenant of works, this law, the law. In verse 3, Forasmuch as ye are
manifestly declared to be the epistles of Christ, ministered
by us, written not with ink, but with the Spirit of the living
God, not in tables of stone, but in fleshly tables of the
heart. And then he goes down in verse 6, who also has made
us able ministers of the New Testament, New Covenant, not
of the letter but of the Spirit, for the letter kills, the law
kills, but the Spirit gives life. But if the ministration of death,
written and engraven in stones, was glorious, what was engraven
in stone? Well, the Ten Commandments for
sure weren't they? And it was glorious. How glorious was it? Well, the children of Israel
could not steadfastly behold the face of Moses for the glory
of his countenance. Look at this. Which glory was
to be done away. Done away. In verse 8. How shall not the ministration
of the Spirit rather be glorious? More glorious. For if the ministration
of condemnation be glory, much more doth the ministration of
righteousness exceed in glory. For even that which was made
glorious had no glory in this respect by reason of the glory
that excelleth. For if that which is done away
was glorious, much more that which remaineth is glorious.
See then that we have such hope, we use great plainness of speech,
and not as Moses which put a veil over his face, that the children
of Israel could not steadfastly look to the end of that which
was abolished." It was abolished. This is something that I'm sure
the Jews fought tooth and toenail against. But this whole system,
even the Ten Commandments, and remember this because I'm coming
back to this in just a minute, as a covenant, remember that,
that's the key word here, as a covenant with the nation of
Israel, it was abolished. All of these this law with the
three branches, the scripture says Christ abolished in His
flesh upon the cross. He abolished it. Having abolished
in His flesh the enmity, even the law of commandments contained
in ordinances, for to make in Himself of two, Jew and Gentile,
one new man, so making peace. So it's abolished. The whole
three branches of that law is abolished. Look in another place.
Look in Hebrews chapter 8. I think the Apostle Paul in 2 Corinthians
3 is speaking mainly, I don't say solely but maybe mainly,
concerning the Ten Commandments law. Probably in Hebrews chapter
8, He is speaking mainly of the Levitical Law, the Ceremonial
Law. He seems to make a distinction in that here. But look what He
says in Hebrews chapter 8. Look in verse 4, speaking of
the Lord Jesus. If He were on earth, He should
not be a priest. seeing there are priests that
offer gifts according to the law, who serve unto the example
and shadow of heavenly things, as Moses was warned of God when
he was about to make the tabernacle. For see, said he, that you make
all things according to the pattern shown to thee in the mount. But
now hath Christ obtained a more excellent ministry, by how much
also is He the mediator of a new covenant, a better covenant,
which was established upon better promises. For if that first covenant
had been faultless, then should no place have been sought for
the second. 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." That's spiritual Israel. That's the elect of God. That's
the believer, not natural Israel. NOT ACCORDING TO THE COVENANT
THAT I MADE WITH THEIR FATHERS IN THE DAY WHEN I TUCKED THEM
BY THE HAND TO LEAD THEM OUT OF THE LAND OF EGYPT." We just
read about that covenant, didn't we? Why was it annulled? Why was it abolished? Because
they continued not in My covenant, and I regarded them not, saith
the Lord. This is the covenant that I will
make with the house of Israel after those days, saith the Lord.
I will put my laws in their mind and write them in their hearts
and I will be to them a God and they will be to me a people.
And they shall not teach every man his neighbor and every man
his brother, saying, Know the Lord, For they shall all know
me from the least to the greatest, for I will be merciful to their
unrighteousness, and their sins and iniquities will I remember
no more, in that he saith a new covenant, he hath made the first
old. Now that which decayeth and waxeth
old is ready to vanish away." So that covenant of law that
God made with Israel on Mount Sinai that had these three It's
waxed old. It's vanished away as a covenant. And these self-righteous, legalistic
Jews, they were still in the early church seeking their standing
with God by this covenant, causing all kinds of controversies in
the church. They were saying Christ is not
enough. Faith is not enough. Grace is not enough. We must
be circumcised and keep the law of Moses. And the apostles of
Christ continually told them this. Your covenant is abolished. Your law has waxed old and vanished
away. And now, if God isn't merciful
to you and forgives your sins for Christ's sake, and write
your laws in His mind and push them in your heart. You're without God and without
hope because your covenant's gone. It's gone. And boy, I tell you, come A.D.
70, it was manifest, wasn't it? That whole thing ceased. They
haven't had a priesthood or a temple or any kind of civil laws to
amount to anything since that day. It vanished away. Vanished away. But we can't stop
here. We can't stop here. If I confuse
you any yet, I'll get you all confused. While I got you, I'll
confuse you some more then. But this, we have to ask this
question. This question has to be asked. It's easy, and this
question has been asked. It's easy to see how the ceremonial
law and the civil law could be abolished. That's easy to see
that. But how can even God abolish
the Ten Commandments? How could that possibly be? They're
moral. They're moral. They're not ceremonial. They're not civil. They're moral.
Not all of them are. And here's the key. I used to
be concerned about this, about the Ten Commandments. But when
you look at the Ten Commandments, They're not all moral. You have
your first table towards God. You have your bottom table towards
man. And what's that one commandment
packed right in between those? Remember the Sabbath day to keep
it holy. That's not a moral commandment.
The Jewish Sabbath has been abolished, hasn't it? It's been abolished. Nobody kept it. from the time
God rested on the Sabbath day when He finished His work until
the time He revealed it to Moses and told the children of Israel
to keep it. Then it became a sin not to keep it. But it wasn't
a moral thing. It was more figurative, a ceremony. It typified the rest that the
people of God had in Jesus Christ the Lord. the Ten Commandment Law was abolished,
but as a covenant, as a covenant it was abolished. This is very
important to remember this. God has never abolished a moral
law. He has never abolished a moral
principle that I know of, that I know of in all the world, God
has never done that. What was wrong morally in the
eyes of God yesterday is morally wrong in the eyes of God today.
That can never change. Ceremonies may cease, civil laws
are subject to change, but moral laws are absolute. They cannot change. How confusing
it would be if they could. If what was sin against God yesterday
was not sin against Him today, wouldn't that be confusing? If
something yesterday was not sin and it's sin today, how confusing
that would be. It's impossible that that could
be so. It wasn't a sin in the early
church to stop keeping the Sabbath day Sabbath because it wasn't
a moral issue to begin with. It wasn't a moral law to begin
with. It wasn't a sin in the New Testament church for the
Jews to stop circumcising their children. It wasn't a moral law
anyway. It was a ceremonial thing. But any sin, Old Testament or
New Testament, that's a sin against moral. It was a sin then and
it's a sin now. This is so important is the moral
aspect of the Ten Commandments. The moral aspect of the Ten Commandments. And when I say the moral aspect
of the Ten Commandments, I'm talking about the first and second
table with that one not in there. Take out and remember the Sabbath
of the day to keep it holy. That was a covenant, a covenant
with Israel, with the nation of Israel. Never pertained to
you, never pertained to me. It was to them. But the moral
aspect of that first table and the second table, listen, had
already been instituted long before it was given to Moses
and the children of Israel as a covenant. When God put on their
love the Lord thy God, that just didn't begin on Mount Sinai.
When you put on their love your neighbor as yourself, that didn't
begin at Sinai. Who did that have its beginning?
Who did the moral aspect of the Ten Commandments begin? As far
as humanity is concerned, it was instituted in the Garden
of Eden when God created Adam upright and moral creature. He created him that upright and
moral creature and this law was at the very core and center of
his being. What law was that? Love the Lord
your God. Love the Lord your God. And all that that entailed. When God made Adam, He made him
upright. And he was a moral creature.
And from the depths of his being, he loved God. He loved his Creator. Obeyed
his Creator. Worshipped his Creator. Served
his Creator. And esteemed Him. Highly in His
heart and in His mind. As far as humanity is concerned,
that is where the moral law had its rise in humanity. When He came from the hand and
breath of God, God put it in Him to love His Creator. And there is something else.
is likened to it, our Lord said, love your neighbor as yourself.
And all that that entails, all that that entails was in
that man's heart and his wife's heart. Nobody since the fall
of Adam has loved their wife like that man loved his. And
nobody has ever loved their husband like that woman loved him. It
was in their hearts. God created them that way. And
the Bible says, for this, for this love's sake, you won't commit
adultery? You won't bear false witness?
You won't steal? You won't covet what your neighbor
has? That first table has to do with
loving God supremely. The second table has to do with
loving You fell a man supremely. And this covenant that Adam was
under, this was the covenant that he was under. This was the
law that was in his heart. And this he broke by his willful
disobedience and plunged the human race into sin and enmity. against God and under the awful
judgment of that offended God. And a sinner is not right with
God until he is reconciled through Jesus Christ and his sins are
forgiven. And listen, this moral image
is restored in him. It must be restored in Him. And the Lord Jesus said, I came
to restore what I took not away. And what is it? This is one aspect
of it. This moral image that Adam lost
there in the garden. And a man is never right before
God until God puts His laws in his mind. and writes them upon
the table of His heart. And this is what's done in the
new birth. When a man is born of God, he's
born of love and he knows God. And those who don't love, they
don't love God, they don't love the church, they don't love their
fellow man, they're not born of God and they know not God
because God is There are two kinds of people, brothers and
sisters, as you and I look out through this world. We go shopping. You meet them in the grocery
stores. You watch people. You see them on your job, your
co-workers, your relatives, your neighbors. There are two kinds
of people in all of this world, just two kinds of people. You
have the people that are in Jesus Christ. They are under the covenant
of grace. They have their sins forgiven.
They have this moral image restored in them. And you have everybody
else that's living under a broken covenant of works, under the
judgment of God. And that's what happened in the
fall. In that moment of time when Adam disobeyed God, he lost
this moral image. He lost his life. He lost his
righteousness. He lost his standing with God.
And at that moment in time, it affected the whole of humanity. And now, he has to be restored. And one of the things he restores
that's restored in his heart is this moral image that he lost. I know when he says here in Hebrews
8, he talks about, I'll put my laws. I know. I know there's
different laws. I know there's the law of life.
The Law of the Spirit of Life, there's the Law of Faith, and
there's Grace and Mercy. But here's the greatest, I think.
When He says, I'll put My Law in their heart, I think it has
to be the Law of Love. It's Love. Love is restored. Upon these two hang all the Law
and the Prophets. and love your neighbor as yourself.
Now abides these three, faith, hope, and charity, and the greatest
of these is love. It's love. A child of God don't have to
carry a plaque around with him. He don't even have to carry his
Bible to read it to find out that he's to love God. It's written on his heart. Not
with ink, but with the Spirit of the Living God. Not in tables
of stones, but in fleshly tables of His heart. Dear old, I've
said this, told you about this so many times, J.C. Philpott
and Horatius Bonar. Two great preachers in the 1800s.
And sometimes you'd think they hated
each other. And it was over their relationship with the law. One of them believed that the
law had nothing to do with his daily life. The other believed
that the law was his rule of life. But here was the thing. You couldn't tell one bit of
difference in the way those two men lived. They both loved the
Lord and loved His people and sought to help their poor fellow
man. Children of God have their personal
convictions, they have their preferences, they have more or
less light, but here's the thing that binds them together if it's
truly there, love. That's what we lost in the garden,
wasn't it? That's what God put in Adam's
heart and Eve's heart, love. The covenant they were under
was a covenant of works, but it was a covenant of love. And
that's what's restored now in our hearts with who knows how
many other laws that God puts in our hearts. His Word that's
third, isn't it? And that heaven-born child of
God will never be satisfied fully. until he's brought to the time
and place that he can love God with all of his heart, mind,
soul, and strength without any distraction. That's what I'm concerned about,
ain't you? That's what I'm concerned about. Lord bless His Word. I hope I
didn't get you confused on some things. Give you some things
to think about.