Law & Grace - Introduction to Law & Grace series

Good morning. Just wanted to let you know we have got the new electives planned out for this next calendar year, which is only less than a month and a half away, believe it or not. And we don't have sign-up sheets for that because with sign-ups for the Christmas party, it's easy to get everything too confused. So we'll hold off on that. But just so you might make your considerations, Mike Courtney and Craig Case will be teaching major Bible themes. 1 John will be taught by Roger, Bob, and Randy. And this one I had a hard time coming up with the title for.

At first I was calling it Process Verbs, but I thought people don't even have any idea what that is. So I said, what God is doing in the life of the believer. The idea is to talk about what does it mean to be conformed to the image of Christ. What does it mean to be transformed into the image of Christ, etc. And Craig Johnson and I will be teaching those.

So those are the electives going to be offered starting the beginning of next year for you to consider. No sign-ups yet. So we'll get those up at a time when it won't get confused with signing up for the Christmas party. Okay. What's ahead? That's the wrong kind of head. I need to correct that. That's better. Okay. What's ahead? What are we looking at here?

We had completed 1st and 2nd Corinthians about a month and a half ago. We went through a five-week series dealing kind of with ministries here at Holly Hills, starting with music. And this last Sunday, looking at the missionaries that Holly Hills is supporting or beginning to support. Now we're looking at a series on law and grace. rather than deal with it all in one little short duration study, it will actually be taking some months to take a look at this.

And so as we do, the schedule to date has been worked out through the middle of March. And we'll get that schedule out to you so that you'll be able to anticipate what's coming down the road. We'll do that by taking a stroll through three sections of scripture. Not a troll, a stroll. Okay, all right, here we go.

The first one will be Exodus through Joshua. We'll be taking selected passages from Exodus through the book of Joshua and taking a look at that and seeing what insights by examining those passages and then making some comparisons with New Testament passages. to get an insight into law and grace. We'll be looking at selected portions of the book of Matthew, perhaps looking at a couple other Gospels along with that, but generally speaking, looking at portions of the book of Matthew in order to get further understanding. We will then look at selected passages out of Romans through the book of James.

So that's the first part. We're going to be going Exodus through Joshua. We'll take us through the middle of March, according to the current schedule here. So we'll be progressing at that rate. I think you'll find it interesting, at least especially for this Exodus through Joshua portion, there'll be some opportunities for some different ways of presenting the scripture reading, there'll be opportunities for even some special songs, maybe ballads and things of that sort.

So, anyway, brace yourself. Okay, as we go through these portions of these three sections of scripture, we'll be comparing and we'll be contrasting. We'll be looking at the things that are similar or identical, and we'll be looking at things that are different, right? So we'll be looking at Israel under the law and the church under grace, comparing and contrasting. As we do so, we'll find that there are most certainly similarities between Israel and the church. That comes out here of Exodus 7-4. My people, the sons of Israel, God identified them as My people, the sons of Israel.

But in 1 Peter 2.10, it says, now you, as Peter wrote to the church body, of the church are the people of God. Similarity? Certainly. There will also be important differences between Israel and the church we'll be taking a look at, including where are you blessed? Where does your blessing find itself? Where is it located?

Now, a number of you have enjoyed various kinds of extreme sports with Brian and his very special little scooter kind of thing. I thought, you know, if you came off of I-70 with one of those, that that would be an extreme sport, you know? Maybe come off Eisenhower Tunnel. You know, it's a little tricky getting that thing steered properly, but anyway, that would be an extreme sport.

Now, but how about an extreme Bible study? We want to take a look here. There's a tendency among Christians to kind of go to extremes, to polarize what they see in scripture so that either Israel and the church are not that much different, just sort of different phases of the same thing. Either that or they are so different that there's nothing in common. And the church at various times, and it even happens today, has gone to either one of those extremes. We're going to avoid those extremes as we go through this.

And the reason we're going to do that is we're going to be observing, just looking, what's the same or similar. and what's different between them. What's the same or similar and what's different? And God's Word actually spells out those things. It spells out what's the same or similar, and it spells out rather clearly, I think, what's different. And we'll be observing both of those things. Seeing what's similar or the same and seeing what's different is, I think, rather important. And so you could ask the question, well, why does it matter?

Why would we consider it so important to compare and contrast law and grace and Israel and the church? Well, for one thing, it's a matter of what the Bible actually says. The Bible is the inspired word of God, and so what God intended to say does matter, doesn't it? Right?

So that's point one. But secondly, Making a distinction impacts relationships and identities. Relationships and identities do, in fact, matter. God has designed both life and eternity to require clarity of identities and relationships, both in time and in eternity. Let me give you a for instance.

37 years ago, Nancy and I were married here. 37 years ago today, OK? We were married right here in Palo Alto, California. Matter of fact, I think that's where Chad and Bronwyn are going, right? OK. So we were married there. And that's something that Nancy and I just are, of course, quite fond of recalling and recollecting.

Now, about 10 years later, not quite 10 years later, we had a daughter. We also had a son, which you can see there. But anyway, 10 years later, we had a daughter. And the daughter's name was Becky. And lo and behold, she grew up. So here's this daughter that grew up.

Now, if you look at it, you would say, OK, there's two females. They're all a part of the family. At one point in time, they had the same last name. So two daughters, or excuse me, two females, one's a daughter, one's a wife. But there's two females. They're both a part of the same family. Both, at least at one point in time, had the same name. And so there's a lot alike there, right? And I love them both.

Now, it's very important that I make a distinction regardless of what I see in common. If I failed to make the distinction between, in spite of what's in common, between my wife and my daughter, a lot of people would get very upset. A lot of people would get very upset, not the least of whom would be my daughter's husband. It is important, certainly in spite of what's in common, to see the distinctions.

It matters in identities and relationships. And the same thing is true eternally. It matters that we understand identities and relationships. Those make a difference. It's also a matter of life and death in more ways than one. We in the Church have been crucified with Christ. Why? So as to die to the law. To die to the law, the whole thing. So that Christ would do the living through us. It's no longer I who do the living, but Christ does the living.

But if we insist on living under the law, and there are Christians who do, Then we're going to be trying to be blessed by a ministry of death and condemnation. Many Christians are trying to be blessed by a ministry of death and condemnation. 2 Corinthians chapter 3 verses 7 and 9. It's not my words, that's the Apostle Paul's words. Can you imagine trying to be blessed by a ministry that is characterized by death and condemnation? God never intended that we in the church live that way. We're already blessed, so why do I need to try to do something to be blessed? Christ is our life. I don't have to try to find life or stay alive.

Christ is our life, and He is our righteousness. it's him so we have these contrasts to make on comparison two mountains one is on Mount Sinai where the law was given and as we'll see shortly when the law was given that Israelites were told don't you dare come close to the mountain if you do You must be killed.

As the law is being given, don't come close. The other mountain is Mount Calvary. Golgotha would be another name. The other mountain where not the law is given, but grace was shown. You have a chart like this on page one of your handout. I don't expect you to absorb it all at once. I wouldn't expect it of myself. So let's go through it one step at a time.

Scripture clearly portrays that both Moses and Christ are stewards. That is, each of them was entrusted by God with establishing something. Moses was to establish the Israelites under the law. Christ was to establish the church under grace. The principle of law is what reigns in Israel. The principle of grace is what reigns for us in the church.

And then whose works are you depending upon? Under the law, you're depending on your own works. You do it. You want to be blessed? You must do it. You want to avoid being cursed? You must do it. Under Christ, we rely on His works. It's His works that did the saving. It's His works that made me who I am in Christ.

The people group, Israel and the Church. Now, what's interesting is the passage that Randy read for us says actually that the nation of Israel was baptized into Moses. So the one who was given the responsibility to found and head each of these groups under the principle of law, in the case of Moses, and grace under Christ, There was a baptism into each one, a placing into, so as to be identified with. Baptized into Moses. We, as believers now, are baptized into Christ. There is a different baptism.

There's also a ministry characteristic, as we've referenced before, out of 2 Corinthians. This is very clear. 2 Corinthians chapter 3 says under Moses, it's a ministry characteristic of death and condemnation. Under Christ, it's a ministry characteristic of the Holy Spirit and of righteousness. Contrasting ministry characteristics. Ah, now the nature of the blessings. Under Moses, it's if blessings. It's conditional.

If you look at Deuteronomy chapter 28, verse 14 verses, it says, if you obey, you will be blessed. And it goes 14 verses, here's the blessings. But if you don't obey, then you will be cursed. Verse 15 of Deuteronomy 28 through verse 68 lists all the curses. It's amazing, the curses are much longer than the blessings.

But that's the way it goes with the law. If you want blessings, here's what you have to do, and here's the blessings. But whether you're blessed or cursed, it's earthly. It all has to do with your conditions here on earth. However, under Christ, the blessings are unconditional. This is why the Apostle Paul could write to the church at Ephesus, chapter 1, verse 3, you've been blessed with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, in Christ, already done deal.

And then later on, in chapter 4, he's going to say, okay, now that you know you're completely blessed, let's talk about your lying and your stealing. Right? That sounds like Ten Commandment problems, right? Except that the blessings are already there and to be counted upon.

You deal with moral issues because you're blessed. and you do the right thing and are motivated to do the right thing because you're blessed and not in order to be blessed. The blessings are all heavenly as opposed to under law, the blessings are earthly. Ah, and then finally, how do you interpret if I'm having earthly difficulties? If I'm having earthly difficulties under law, it's curses for disobedience. That's what you get. But under grace, does it mean that under grace you don't have any earthly difficulties?

No. But they mean something different. It's either one of two things. If we're having earthly difficulties under grace, it's either for discipline, to teach us to go back on the right path or it is for growth. It is for discipline or for growth. There are more points of comparison and we'll certainly get to them, but this is a good starter just to kind of get the picture.

There is quite a contrast between what Moses was seeking to establish under law and Christ under grace with us. There's one other point that I didn't talk about directly, but it's certainly very important and that's the distinction between law and grace impacts our access to and our intimacy with God. We have it here in pictures.

Under law, don't you dare get close to that mountain where Moses is meeting with God. Don't get close or you're gonna die. Stay away. Keep your distance. Under grace, draw near. We have access. Matter of fact, in the last several weeks, we've talked about that Ephesians 4, 11 through 13 passage. And that passage talks about a knowledge of Christ that is an intimate knowledge. What an amazing difference.

Under the law of Moses, distance from God was a legal requirement. We talked about the mountain, but even when Moses was at the burning bush out in the desert before the Lord commissioned him, or just as the Lord was commissioning him, Moses was told, don't come near. Moses was told, don't come near. Keep your distance, Moses. You know what's good for you. Keep away. Don't come any closer.

In the temple that was constructed in Jerusalem, this is a model of what it looked like during the time of Christ's ministry on earth and with the apostles afterwards. And what you find is that there's this area in the foreground. It's an area that the Jews were allowed to be in as long as they were qualified. There were certain disqualifications.

At each of the three entrances, one here, one over here, and one over here, there were signs, Gentiles are not to come in under penalty of death. Don't come in if you're a Gentile. And on top of that, Jews under certain conditions were also not allowed to go in. Through this gate here, only males were permitted to enter, and this was the working area of the priests. But in this place in here, the Holy Place and the Holy of Holies, that was only rarely to be entered. by one very qualified priest. And that's all. No more. Don't come close. Don't come close.

But under grace, we have access to God and are actually called drawn here. And to know Christ deeply and intimately, what a sharp contrast. Under law, it's don't you dare come close or you're going to die. Under grace, you've already been crucified with Christ, now come near. Isn't that an amazing difference? When we studied Isaiah several years back, Isaiah chapter 6, has Isaiah having a vision of being right there in the heavenly throne room. And after he describes what he sees, he is awestruck. He says, oh no, I'm a man of unclean lips. And he is just in shock. He is horrified. He says, I am quite unqualified to be here.

Under grace, and by the way, Paul told the believers at Ephesus this truth before he Two chapters before he started addressing their lying and stealing problem, he said, you've been seated with Christ in the heavenlies. You're already there, the place that Isaiah was horrified to be in because he was a simple, sinful man. How amazing, under grace, we already are seated there with him. We have intimacy, we have access. Here's the distance portrayed in Exodus 19, 12, and 13.

You shall set bounds for the people all around saying, beware that you do not go up to the mountain or touch the border of it. Don't even get sort of close. Whoever touches the mountain shall surely be put to death. No hand shall touch him, but he shall surely be stoned or shot through, whether beast or man. He shall not live.

In great contrast, Ephesians 2.18 and 3.11 and 12 says this, for through him, that is through Christ, we both have our access, that is both Jew and Gentile, have access in one spirit to the Father.

All the Trinity, Christ, the Son, the Holy Spirit, and the Father are involved in your access to God. Instead of the warning, stay away or you're going to die, It's each person of the Trinity is involved and you're having direct access through grace.

The next passage there in chapter 3, Christ Jesus our Lord in whom we have boldness and confident access through faith in Him. We have this amazing, astounding access to the Lord. What a tremendous privilege that is. Instead of being like Isaiah where he realized that he's undone, we realize instead that we have confident access before the Lord. We have an intimacy with the Lord. Rather than stay away, it's draw near. It's even more than that, it's stay near. Another principle that we'll see, and Randy read it for us here in the passage that he read for us in 1 Corinthians 10.

Moses recorded the things that happened to the Israelites for our benefit and our instruction. Have you ever seen something that happened to somebody and learned something from it? Maybe it was good. Maybe it was really bad, like, I'm not going to do that, right? But we learn from things that we see.

And that's why these were recorded. When Moses recorded these, it was so that not only was it a record for the people then, but it's a record for us now. These are recorded for our instruction. It's as if the Holy Spirit were saying, Moses, I want you to write this because thousands of years from now there are some people who are going to need to read and to learn from what you're going through. So write it down. It's written for our instruction. Among those benefits and things written for our instructions is that the law points to who Christ is and what he did for us. His identity and his accomplishments. The law records those things. The Passover. The blood marked on the doors so that those homes would be passed over and the firstborn preserved. The Passover Lamb.

John, in the Gospel of John, first chapter, twice has John the Baptist saying, Behold the Lamb of God. John alone, in fact, is the one who records in the New Testament that Christ is the Lamb. Revelation has it from beginning to end. But the law points to Christ as our Lamb real early. Christ is also, as Randy read for us in the passage, Christ is the rock.

As we step through these passages, we're going to see these things. There's very good purpose in it. But grace, as we've seen even in this 1 Corinthians 10 passage, also looks back on the law, to learn things from it. By comparison, what's similar, what's the same, and contrast, what's different.

We will, after going through Exodus through Joshua, step into the Gospels, primarily in the book of Matthew. But there's an insight into Christ's first coming that I want to underscore here. While Christ was the steward who initiated the church through the apostles in his first coming, his three years of ministry are often misunderstood by Christians. Christians oftentimes read through the Gospels and they think, oh, that's exactly what I'm supposed to do. That's exactly what I need to know. Well, maybe not.

He was first sent to earth to be born of a Jew, a Jewish woman. Joseph and Mary both were of the line of David. In the land of Israel, other than a brief sojourn as an infant into Egypt for safety from Herod the Great, Jesus spent his entire life from any record we have in the land of Israel to appeal only to the Jews. to receive them as their king and messiah. That is the gospel of the kingdom of God. It was, do you receive and accept me, Jesus was saying, as the king of Israel, as your king. And that's why he stayed in Israel.

That's why he told the disciples in Matthew chapter 10, don't go on a road that leads to the Gentiles. Go only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. Matthew 15, a Canaanite woman appealed to him, and you know what he said? I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. The Gospels, except for the very end portion of each of them, are directed specifically and directly at the Jews.

Only after it was abundantly clear that the Jews rejected him as their king, their Messiah, Under the law of Moses did Jesus begin to tell those disciples about this thing they'd never heard of before called the church. The church was put in place after the Jews had rejected Christ and not until. Made up of both Jews and Gentiles not under the law to make Israel jealous. To make Israel jealous. First, rejection had to take place so most of Jesus' earthly ministry was not spent addressing the church.

It was spent presenting the gospel of the kingdom with Christ as the King to the Jews alone, who were under the law, who were in the land. Because all but the very last part of the earthly ministry of Christ was to the Jews and to the land of Israel, as an appeal under the law, and Christ insisted that they stand by the law and not all the traditions, He appealed that they accept Him as their King and Messiah, the promised King, the descendant of David.

Because that's not understood. His words are often misunderstood. So we find believers now in the church trying to carry out parts of the law, trying to figure out, which part of the law am I supposed to live out? And there's some parts of the law, good luck. All right, so I'm supposed to, like Nancy and I had three kids.

We never went to the temple to go and present the infant like was done with Jesus, right? Why? There isn't any temple to go to. Hasn't been for over 19 centuries. Besides that, we're not Jewish. Right? There are many parts of the law you simply cannot follow. It is physically impossible to do so. I noticed that none of you brought your sheep into the church here this morning. Right? And frankly, we have no altar to do anything with. The sheep. So it's a good thing he didn't bring the sheep. Okay.

People are seeking earthly blessings in the church. Oh, give me the earthly blessings. How do I get the earthly blessings? And some will foolishly turn around and tell them, Oh, you can't out give God. So you just got to put more money in the offering and then you'll get more than you can possibly imagine. And so people get told that. People forgive so that they can be forgiven by God instead of recognizing that they're forgiven because they've already been forgiven.

They try to imitate the earthly life of Christ. Try to do what Jesus did. Well, you know what? This is going to sound funny. You should not try to do most of what Jesus did. Yeah. because his ministry was a specific ministry that you are not called to.

So here's Matthew chapter 10. He tells the 12 disciples, go out two by two and do not go on a road that leads to the Gentiles. Go only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. By the end of Matthew, and we studied it just last week, Matthew 28, he tells them, you are to be going into all the nations. to make disciples. See the difference? Matthew chapter 10, go only to the Jews. Matthew 28, go to all the nations and make disciples. Huge, massive difference.

Since the law and Christ's earthly ministry are misunderstood, many Christians misunderstand grace as well. If I don't understand the law and God's purpose in that, if I don't understand what Jesus came to do to present this gospel of the kingdom to the Jews, then you know what that does? That messes up the understanding of grace.

Wow! How about that? Misunderstand the two greatest principles that there are? They both get misunderstood. If I misunderstand law, I misunderstand grace. We need the law to understand grace. We need to have an understanding of the law to understand grace. The typical thing is for Christians to try to trim back the law into a number and magnitude that they can handle. That's typical. Give me ten. No, no, no, wait a minute. I don't know about that Sabbath thing. That's a little troublesome. Give me nine. I sure like that tithing thing, so let's make it ten again.

Wait a minute Let's see now I better add this other one to it and before long They're trimming and clipping and then of course, you know, we don't want to stone too many people in the church So we take the punishments away, you know, and we're snipping it back.

And so it's something we can handle if if you don't understand how absolutely overwhelmingly earth-shakingly awesome the law is then you won't understand how overwhelmingly heavenly shaking grace is. If you cut law down to size, to the right number, and make this a little easier to perform, a little easier to do, then all you need is just a little bit of grace, mini grace, maybe even micro grace, right? No, these are intended to be awesome, both of them. If we cut back the law, we won't understand grace. And grace is intended to be so amazing, Ephesians 2, 7, it will take God eternity to reveal that wonderful thing called grace to us. When we've been there 10,000 years, bright shining as the sun, it will take God eternity to reveal how awesome and amazing grace is.

But when we trim back the law to something that we think we can handle, we miss out on all that. Under the law, we try to do and not to do things in order to be blessed. But under grace, we rely on what Christ has already done. We do or don't do things not in order to be blessed, but because we're blessed. Forgive. Why? Because you're already forgiven.

Now, this is a perfect preface for the holidays here. We're looking at Thanksgiving before we meet again here. Christmas is just a little more than a month away. But the message of total, and I'll call it this, pedal to the metal grace, full on, all the way, is a perfect preface to the Thanksgiving and Christmas seasons.

Grace is not a matter of paying God back for what He did for us. Thankfulness is the ideal and God-intended response. That's exactly what God has in mind. God did not give you a present and say, here's your bill for the present. I hope that you're not giving any presents this season that are accompanied by the invoice. I hope you aren't. And God doesn't do that either. He doesn't say, OK, here's your grace gift, and now that I've saved you by grace, here's the bill.

Now you've got to pay me back. He doesn't do that. So the only appropriate response, and the response God wants, is that of thankfulness. That's exactly what He has in mind. And since grace is a gift in the very fullest sense, it's a gift, not something you give with an invoice, not something you give with a payment schedule. There is no paying God back for that gift. It is freely given out of His infinite love, infinite grace, infinite love. There's no need to pay Him back, and there's also not a chance that you ever could.

It's too amazing. It's too great. It's too astounding in magnitude. That's amazing grace. Let's pray. Lord, as we look ahead to the series, it simply lays out before us Your character, your amazing grace, your infinite love. And we thank you for that. We pray that as we go through this study, that the understanding would be very clear. We just ask that you would give us insight and understanding as we stroll through these passages and examine what you have intentionally revealed for us because you love us so very much. We pray in Jesus' name. Amen.