Law & Grace - The whole law & all the laws - Part I (can't 'slice & dice' the law)

Good morning. We have been since the middle of November working on this topical series called Law and Grace. And our theme through this has been saying that though certainly God gave laws, 613 of them, to the Jews through Moses, that we as believers who are in the church and who have put our trust and faith in Christ for salvation, have been identified with Christ, and are therefore not under law, not under any of them. We, however, are carrying out the righteousness that God requires by the life of Christ and by His doing rather than by the outside instrumentation of any laws. So, hence the passage that Wayne read for us and the passage that we led in with here. All the commandments that I am commanding you today, you shall be careful to do. That was spoken to the Jews, to the people of Israel, as they were preparing to enter the Promised Land.

I also have something else. You notice this is a little sideways? Well, so is your handout. The handout usually is a kind of a portrait format. We've got a landscape format. So anyway, if you can make that adjustment, just bear with me. Be patient. We'll be fine. OK.

Many groups within Christendom, and notice I use that term Christendom. And I mean by that even those teachings that we would say they don't even teach a saving gospel. So we include within that some of the groups that come two by two and knock on your front door, right? So many groups within Christendom hold some subset of the laws of Moses.

They like to pick and choose and many occasions add to the law of Moses that they've already whittled down. So it's a very interesting arrangement. We want to make it smaller and then we have to make it larger. I'm not sure quite how the logic works out on that, but that's frequently what takes place. Those of this view, what do they do? They pick and choose from among the 613 of the laws of Moses to assemble the ones that they claim are right and then will add to them.

So that process seems rather frankly consistent throughout most of Christendom, most of what gets called Christianity. They claim that we ought to follow this particular set of laws that they have chosen In order to be right before God, some of them to get saved, some of them to stay saved. In other words, yeah, you get saved by faith, but you remain saved by keeping the law. Or in order to be blessed, or some other similar terminology.

And yes, there are disagreements. As a matter of fact, last I checked, the estimate was there's something like 30,000 different Christian denominations. I'll leave it up to you to look them all up. Okay. What is common, however, is to hold to the Ten Commandments. It's fairly common in such situations to say that Christians are still under the Ten Commandments. However, we would make this point.

Few will hold to the Sabbath from sundown Friday to sundown Saturday. Close exceptions to that would be the Seventh-day Adventists, and believe it or not, there's another group, the Seventh-day Baptists. also hold to this sundown Friday to sundown Saturday, Sabbath, or something like that. So instead of 10, it's really 9.

The Ten Commandments, as we pointed out a few weeks back, were actually given by God and put on tablets of stone, as the expression goes, by the finger of God, to put the tablets in the Ark of the Covenant. The Ten Commandments were not given for us to just follow those and throw away the rest. The Ten Commandments were put on tablets especially because 613 laws all on tablets would not fit in the Ark of the Covenant, right? And especially, see the handles on the ark?

You have to pick it up. If you've got 613 laws all on tablets, you're not picking this thing up. Right? Okay. So that's one thing, I think, just to think, why were we given the ten? We were not given the ten to follow those and ignore the rest. Okay? That's not the way it was done. It was to put the tablets with those ten laws in the Ark of the Covenant that you were to carry. At least, they were. Okay.

Now, I'm going to tell you an ancient, old, old story. This is an old story I'm going to tell you about when I was at San Jose State. I was at San Jose State studying civil engineering, of all things. Now, it was fine to be studying, but how I got there and how I got back home was usually by bus. You know, starving student that I was. usually by bus and so I'd wait at the bus stop, you know, to get to the university and I'd wait at the bus stop to get home.

But one day as I was waiting at the bus stop, waiting for the next bus to come along, the one that I would ride, a very nice lady came up to me and began talking to me in very pleasant tones and, you know, a nice introduction. Then all of a sudden it was one of these Dr. Jekyll and Mrs. Hyde phenomenon. She just quickly, don't you know that the Sabbath is supposed to be on Thursday? And she was very emphatic about it, and boy was I glad when the bus came. I was also glad she wasn't going on the bus. But she didn't let that stop her. She continued to yell as the bus drove away about the Sabbath being on Thursday.

So there's another opinion. That's probably the 30,001 denomination. She may be a one-person denomination. I don't know. Just about nobody wants to carry out the death penalty. just about nobody, as required by the law for breaking any of the Ten Commandments. When was the last time we said, Bruce, you gathered firewood yesterday. You're going to have to die. Right? Yeah? We don't do that. Thank God we don't.

However, as you carry into modern Judaism the same laws and they've defined as time has gone on and technology has advanced, they've defined what is work on the Sabbath. So for example, according to modern Orthodox Judaism, you had better not flip a light switch on a Friday evening. It's against The Sabbath law. Now, you've broken the Sabbath if you've done that.

Many want to add to that ten, or sometimes nine, you snip it out, to giving a tithe, a tenth. And they'll go about teaching. I heard one fellow who taught that you always ought to give God a tenth. And as a matter of fact, if you have failed to do so, then you owe God back tithes. and you have some catching up to do. And that God won't bless you. God won't bless you. That was perfectly timed. I don't know how you did that. God will not bless you unless you give this tenth and catch up with the ones you haven't paid.

So that gets frequently added. Now, you've seen before and after pictures. Here's the before picture of before Arnold Schwarzenegger was governor of California, and here's the after picture. Okay. So, we're going to do before and after, but not quite the same way. Before and after in the context, okay?

Before the commandments about tithing in Deuteronomy 14 and 15, right before the tithe commandments are the food laws. Such as not eating crab or lobster or anything that comes from a pig or a camel. Things of that sort. And there's all these details. Matter of fact, imagine the disciples when they went fishing in the Sea of Galilee. They just couldn't take all the fish and sell it. They had to go through. This fish gets sold to the Gentiles. This fish gets sold to the Jews. This fish gets sold to the Gentiles. This one gets sold to the Jews. If it didn't meet the food laws, whatever came out of the net, that didn't meet the food laws had to be set aside. You couldn't sell it to Jews, but you could sell it to Gentiles.

So, do not allow a pastor to go and pound the pulpit about tithing and then go have some bacon. Do not allow a pastor, after he's done pounding the pulpit about tithing, go to Red Lobster. That's bad. Do not let the pastor who is pounding the pulpit about tithing go out and have shrimp for lunch. Bad deal. It's in conflict with the very passage that he just talked about and drew from in Deuteronomy 14 and 15 that talks about tithing.

Now we talked about the before, how about the after? Right after the tithing commands are all the laws about letting your land be uncultivated every seventh year. And if you know, every pastor does that, right? They let their land be uncultivated every seventh year? Of course they do, right? Let it rest.

Don't seed it. Don't harvest from it. The truth is there is nothing in the context of Deuteronomy 14-15 where the tithing is taught about that justifies applying tithing to Christians, but to leave out the food laws and the land laws. Nothing justifies that. Then you will hear people say, and that's why I have this in quotes, but we need some laws so that we don't go hog wild. Now let me tell you, I've seen hog wild. I've seen hog wild. We had our hog with brand new little piglets.

In a fenced in area there was one solid wall of 4x4s. We nailed pig wire to that and then put another solid wall of 4x4s. One of our guests decided that now with these cute little piglets, this would be a great time, a great time to go and snag one of those. So he had a stick and a little string, you know, and a noose and he went, that was all it took. We found out what hog wild meant. That hog went right through both layers of four by fours and all the pig wire and they went flying and everyone around there went flying too.

And I could never ever do it again, but suddenly I found myself on the barn roof. That's what hog wild is. This view, the idea that we need some laws to keep us from going hog wild, fails to recognize that Christian believers are indwelt by Christ in the Holy Spirit. It's a complete failure to recognize that.

Are Christ and the Holy Spirit prone to going hog wild? Are Christ and the Holy Spirit ones who need a little extra rules to keep you from going out of bounds? Do Christ and the Holy Spirit need a few carefully chosen constraints to keep them godly? No. No. We don't need some laws to keep us from going hog wild. We do need to know what scripture says about Christ and the Holy Spirit. That's what we need. That's what we need. Now, I'm going to go through a series of Old Testament passages from the Law of Moses, one of them. that Wayne read for us is the one from Numbers 15. The others will, with the last one as an exception, be from the book of Deuteronomy.

This Numbers 15 chapter first talks about the Jews having these tassels on each corner of a cord of blue. And they would put this on various kinds of garments, typically an upper garment, so you don't have tassels dragging in the dirt and the mud and everything. So an upper garment. And so the tassels might be variously configured. Their term for it is tzitzit. Those are tzitzit. And it's glad that it's a good thing you're tzitziting. Tzitzit is what those are, those tassels.

Why did he have them on there? Well, the rest of the passage that Wayne read for us explains why. You know how you tie a string around your finger to remember something? Maybe you don't, but at least you get the idea. This is the string around the finger, only it isn't string around your finger, it's string hanging from your clothes. That's what it is.

It's to look at it and remember all the commandments of the Lord. A few of them? A select few. The ones that I like? The ones I think I can do? No. Which of them? All. All of the commandments of the Lord. All 613. So as to do them and not follow after your own heart and your own eyes after which you played the harlot so that you may remember to do all my commandments. Deuteronomy 4, 5, and 6. And the number at the corner there indicates you also have it on your handout, on page one. See, I have taught you statutes and judgments, just as the Lord my God commanded me, so here's Moses speaking, that you should do thus in the land.

You, who's you? Israel. Which land? The land of Israel, right? How many of them? All of them. Every single one. Now you've got that memorized, don't you? All 613? 365 of them are things not to do. Thou shalt not. 365. Total between the 365 don'ts and the rest of them things to do, 613. You've got them all memorized? Good. Good. Okay.

Finally, surely this great nation, which great nation? Israel. One great nation. Israel is the one who's given the law. Deuteronomy 4, 7, and 8, continuing on in that same chapter. For what great nation is there that has a God so near to it as is the Lord our God wherever we call on Him? Because after all, the Lord was showing Himself in a pillar of cloud by day and of fire by night. Or what great nation is there that has statutes and judgments as righteous as this portion of the law? This part of the law? This select few? No. This whole law.

The whole thing. Which I am setting before you today. You. You, the people of Israel. Here's Deuteronomy 5, next chapter. But as for you, stand here by me, that I may speak to you all the commandments and the statutes and judgments, which you shall teach them, that they may observe them in the land which I give them to possess. Teach them. Who? Israel. In the land? Which land? The land of Israel. Israel as they're going into the land.

Was it meant for everybody? No. Was it meant that we pick out a few of the laws? Oh, I like this one. Oh, this one here is particularly good. Just warms the cockles of my heart. No. None of that. All of them. Every single one. So he goes on, so you shall observe to do just as the Lord your God has commanded you. You shall not turn aside to the right or to the left. I don't think he means politically. Anyway, you shall walk in all the way which the Lord your God has commanded you that you may live. Why does he say that you may live? Because in 2 Corinthians chapter 3, Paul called the law what?

A ministry of death. You see, if you don't follow the pen, they don't go Bad boy. You suddenly become a geologist. You study rocks really close. And people are generous because they make them really close to you. A lot of them really fast. You become a quick expert in geology. And where do you do that? That you may live in the land, the land of Israel. It was given to Israel that they may live and not die and get killed and in the land, the promised land.

Deuteronomy 8.1. You know, it's interesting as we go through Deuteronomy, Deutero means two and namos means law, so it's the second giving of the law. It's not the second law like he's adding more, but it's the second giving of the same laws. He's repeating them all before they walk into the promised land. He's giving them the whole law, and as he does so, notice what he keeps doing.

All the law, the whole law, every law, and he does that here again in Deuteronomy 8.1. All the commandments that I'm commanding you today, you should be careful to do. A select few, just the ten, just the nine plus one, No, all of them, all 613. You should be careful to do that you may live, because you don't want to die. And multiply and go in and possess the land. Which land? The land of Israel, which the Lord swore to give to your forefathers. Deuteronomy 11, 8 and 9.

You shall therefore keep every commandment which I am commanding you today. How many? Which ones? every commandment which I'm commanding you today, so that you may be strong and go in and possess the land, the land that's being promised to you, the land that God is giving you, into which you're about to cross to possess it, so that you may prolong your days on the land, that is, you want to prolong the days and not have them cut short by studying rocks, right? the land which the Lord swore to your fathers to give to them and to their descendants, a land flowing with milk and honey." That's milk and honey, not milk and money. Okay.

Deuteronomy 11, 31 and 32. For you are about to cross the Jordan to go in to possess the land. You, the people of Israel, to possess the land, that is the land of Israel, which the Lord your God is giving, and you shall possess it, and live in it, and you shall be careful to do all the statutes and the judgments which I am setting before you today, every single one. You, the people of Israel, the one to whom the land was promised." And here we step out of the book of Deuteronomy into the book of Psalms, Psalm 147, 19, and 20. He declares his words to Jacob, his statutes and his ordinances to Israel. Remember Jacob, the father of the Israelites, was also given the name Israel by God himself.

So that's why the two words are written there. He has not dealt thus with any nation, and as for his ordinances, they have not known them. Nobody else gets these, just you. And by the way, this words, he declares his words, that in the Hebrew is the same as his translated commandments elsewhere. He declares his commandments to Jacob, his statutes and his ordinances to Israel. See that? The statutes and the ordinances, basically synonyms for the words, the commandments that he gave.

Not with any other nation, just Israel. One of the things that's very clear as we look through these passages, and Psalm 147 of course summarizes it, again and again we see that the law was given to the people of Israel and not to any other nation or nations. It's very clear in that Psalm passage that we again quote here on the slide, but also in all the prior passages we read and looked at. And by the way, those passages that I gave you are not all of them. There are more. I just selected some. All 613 laws. Every single one. As we pointed out in the past, there's even one of them that says if you find a piece of fruit and there's a worm in it, you can't eat it. The worm, that is. Anyway, so that's one of the laws.

I bet a number of you have fabric that has somewhere on your body mixed fibers. The Jews were not allowed to have that. I'm glad the Lord doesn't suddenly take those all away from us. We'd be embarrassed, all of us, including me. Those are some of the laws that are included. Again and again we also see that the law of Moses was to be lived out in the land that was promised to Israel. Dozens of times this in the land or similar phrases are used throughout the law. In the land, in the land, in the land, in the land.

One of the difficulties that the Jews have had since New Testament times and even a little bit before, most Jews live outside of the land of Israel. Even with the reformation of the nation of Israel, that's still the case. Most Jews live outside of the land of Israel. I'm sure that most of those who live outside the land of Israel live in the apartment building that Nancy and I used to live in. But most of them live outside the land of Israel. The truth is, as you read through the law, it's very difficult to follow the law living outside the land.

What do you give a tithe for? The tithe is to be given to the Levites The Levites who are in the temple. Well, what happens if you live a thousand miles away? You're going to take all your food to Israel? Well, it's difficult, isn't it? You can't take your food into Israel. Not with a thousand miles, especially not a tenth. A tenth of everything you produce goes to Israel so that you can give it to the Levites who work at the temple. Oh, that's another thing. Where's the temple?

And do you know who the Levites are? No. So it's very difficult to live in the land and be living as a Jew even now, but even now those who live outside the land of Israel have a very difficult time carrying it out. The Law of Moses was not written so that any other people than those Jews who live in the land of Israel could or should keep it. Who else had the specific land of Israel, the one, THE land that Moses kept talking about, and the tribes by those names? Nobody else has got that.

So, how many pastors who pound on their flock to tithe 10% really live in Israel and are from the tribe of Levi and make animal sacrifices in the temple every day? How many pastors do that? I would dare to say none. So why are they pounding the pulpit to pay a tithe? There is no biblical basis for choosing from among the laws of Moses and I would dare say there is every biblical basis for saying that you must keep all of them, all 613, period. If you're going to insist on the law, do not go picking.

All of them are to be followed. We looked at numbers. All. All. Deuteronomy 4. All. The whole law. Deuteronomy 5. All. All. Deuteronomy 8. All. Deuteronomy 11. Every and all. See that? Every single law is to be kept. No picking, no choosing. There are those who have the audacity to add to the laws God so clearly gave. with a straight face. All of the 613 laws and they come to God and they say, God, you missed one. Oh, yeah? God, you missed one. You see, we're not supposed to get blood transfusions. Oh, yeah? Or, no, we're not supposed to eat any meat. Yeah? Really? There's variety among the various groups because there's no basis for choosing laws. There's none whatsoever. It's all arbitrary. This group comes up with one law. One group comes up with another.

The Jehovah's Witnesses, until the late 20s, used to have Christmas celebrations paid for by the rest of the members for all their leadership at the headquarters. And they made money, you know those Awake and Watchtower magazines? They made money by advertising for Christmas cards in those magazines. And then all of a sudden in the late 20s they decided, no, that's against the law, it's all vile. How'd they come up with adding it? Where does the Bible talk about Christmas and Christmas cards? You can't do that. It doesn't. It takes incredible audacity to think that you can go add that. and somehow define holiness as that. By the way, there's one point of clarification I make.

You'll come across various people who have to have this glutton-free food. You know what I'm talking about? Anyway, or they decide to eat or grow things organically, or they discover I'm allergic to peanuts, or I've got to have a particular drug or some other kind of medical supplement.

This is not legalism, okay? This is a making decisions to be healthy. It's not making decisions to be holy. You see the distinction there? People will in fact make choices. Sometimes they are given no choice. They simply have to remain free of eating certain foods, they have to take this or that, and that's a decision to be healthy, that's not a decision to be holy. See the distinction there?

So this isn't legalism if someone has these kinds of health-related decisions. That's not saying I'm not eating this food or I'm not doing this in order to be blessed. It's not seeking blessing, it's simply health, not holiness. Okay, so that's not legalism.

Now, Here is, I think, the big tragedy, the tragedy of mini-law, going and picking and choosing which laws I'm going to live by, which laws I'm going to beat other people over the head with. It seems that some people whittle the law down to a more manageable size, one that a human being can handle a bit more easily. 613, well, that's a little tough. 10, I can probably remember, so I'll pick 10. There's a problem with that. Because the law is cut down to a more manageable size, it seems all the more fitting to cut grace down to a bite size as well.

If I only have a mini law, then I only need a little bit of grace. God, I don't want this fire hydrant kind of grace, you know. I'd like just a little trickle enough to fill the cup once in a while. So because people have a trimmed down law, they don't see the law as awesome. They don't see the law as ominous and overwhelming. They see it as, oh, I can handle that. And therefore, they need just a touch of grace. Not too much. Just a little bit of grace. I'm fine with that. Yeah, that's good. Some churches even have one of those isms. Some churches even teach grace is something God forces on you.

So, but they want grace trimmed down to something smaller because they don't need all that much grace. Just a little bit will do. Mini law and mini grace are all we need from a mini God. If I can trim the law down to size, then I really don't need that much grace and God doesn't have to be all that big either. It's all quite manageable, you understand, right? Here, however, is what God intended. God intended that the Law of Moses reflect God's most awesome and infinite moral character.

The people who were around the mountain and who were blown away by what they were seeing were supposed to be. They were supposed to be blown away by what they saw. The one who thinks he has the wisdom to choose from among the laws of Moses is spiritually dense. They don't get it.

God intended that the law of Moses be so awesome and overwhelming that we are in ultimate desperation for God's even more amazing and very awesome grace. Spectacular grace. Amazing grace. That's what God had in mind. He wanted us to be blown away by the immensity and overwhelming and ominous character of the law so that we would come desperate before Him for His amazing grace and realize, no, this isn't anything I can manage. I don't manage the law or pick from it. I don't manage grace either. This is all God's job and not mine.

Ephesians 2, 4-7, the address to the church puts it this way, after describing the condition of man who is unsaved, he says, but God, well those are two very good words, but God being rich in mercy, he doesn't just say God has mercy, he has a wealth of mercy because of his didn't say he just has love for us because of his great love with which he loved us even when we were dead in our transgressions made us alive together with Christ by grace you have been saved amazing grace and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus so that in the rolling ages to come this age and the next one and the next one and the one after that when we've been there 10,000 years right In the ages to come, He might show the surpassing riches of His grace.

Wealth, immense wealth of grace. Massive amounts, but not only that, surpassing. The word means like over the top, overthrown. Way over the top wealth of His grace in kindness towards us in Christ Jesus. You see, the law, people can try to keep here, here on this planet. Grace, the one that God has revealed to us in Christ, the one He's revealed to us in His Word, grace is so awesome that it's going to take rolling ages to come for Him to reveal that. One age, and then the next, and then the next, and God is still revealing His grace, and we gasp in awe every time He reveals more. That kind of grace.

So let's not have any mini-law. Let's not have anybody thinking they can snip and slice and dice. Ever see those infomercials where they're doing all the slicing and dicing? God never intended the slicing and dicing for the law. He wanted it to be ominous. He wanted it to be overwhelmed. He wanted it to look scary. Why? Because then we would realize our need for His most amazing and astounding spectacular grace. That's what we really need. That's exactly what God intended. No mini law, no mini grace, no mini God. Ominous, frightening law. The whole 613 of them. Many of whom you fail, you're dead.

He wanted that so that we would see the need for that amazing grace. That awesome grace that is so phenomenal and spectacular it takes forever to show us the extent of it. When we've been there 10,000 years, we will have just begun to see His grace. God, in rolling ages to come, will show, not just tell us about, He will demonstrate His amazing grace.

No mini-law, no mini-grace, no mini-God. Full-on, awesome, ominous law. Full-on, pedal-to-the-metal, eternal grace. out of an awesome God. Let's pray. Lord, as we look at this passage, we thank you for your most amazing grace. We thank you that it is grace that overwhelms the sin. Under the law, animals would be sacrificed day in, day out, week after week, month after month, year after year, never quite getting the job done. But with your most amazing grace, it is greater, much greater than all of our sin. Amazing, astounding, spectacular grace. Thank you. In Jesus' name, amen.