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BEGINNERS' CARE PACKAGE
Grace of God #4
Fred Coulter
…Just a little chart that I’ve put up on the board which will help us
understand a little bit more about the New Testament and New Covenant, and
the grace that we need. But first of all let’s go to Ephesians 2.
And this is a key verse, a key section which will help us to understand
about the relationship of ancient Israel to God, and that is the key to
understanding the difference between the Old Testament and the New
Testament. Here is a verse, once again, that you read along, you go
over and you just pass right by it and it really doesn’t tell us… No, it
does tell us what we need to know but we don’t get out of it what we need to
know because we’re not thinking in the terms that we really ought to.
Right here let’s begin in verse 11. He gets done showing about grace,
verses 4-10 and then he says, “Wherefore remember that you were once the
Gentiles [or in the past time you were once the nations in the flesh], who
are called uncircumcision by that called circumcision in the flesh made by
hand and that you were at that time apart from Christ…” (Eph. 3:11-12,
Berry’s Greek Interlinear, paraphrased). Now I want you to circle that
word if you have your interlinear because we will see this word again when
we come to Romans 3. Now apart means “separate from”, “apart from”.
It doesn’t mean that Christ was not there. Christ was there but they
were not called to Christ. They were not brought to God. They
were separate from God because God gave the Gentiles over to what?
Over to their own devices, over to their own gods and everything. Why?
Because God chose of all the nations only Israel. And God only worked
through Israel directly. And when they would go into captivity then
God would work from time to time in a secondary manner with the other
nations like Babylon and King Nebuchadnezzar. Like when He brought the
Assyrians to take away the northern 10 tribes, then He worked with then only
as much as to fulfill His will, but He never went to another nation directly
to deal with them as He did the Israelites.
Why would that be so? The reason it is so is because the Old Covenant
was also a marriage covenant. And for God to go to another nation and
deal with them as He did with Israel would be on God’s part committing
spiritual adultery. So that is why He gave them a bill of divorcement
and sent them away into captivity. But He did not marry another, or
enter into a covenant relationship with any other nation. That’s why
in Romans 7 it says concerning the marriage covenant, that Christ died,
therefore releasing that Old Covenant so that the New Covenant could be
established.
So the Gentiles were apart from Christ. Now notice, “…alienated from
the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers from the covenants of promise,
having no hope [or that is hope not having], and without God in the world…”
You’re either with the true God or you are without the true God. One
or the other. You can’t really be half way in-between. I mean
there are many categories in the world that are somewhat half way in-between
but you can’t be half way in-between as far as God’s relationship is
concerned. Either you are or you aren’t. “…But now in Christ,
you who were once afar off…” Now notice far off. That’s a key
thing that we want to cover. You might want to emphasize that.
“…Are become near by the blood of Christ. For He is our peace, Who has
made both one, and the middle wall of the fence [or partition] has been
broken down [or torn down] and the enmity contained in the decrees and the
laws of commandments He annulled in His flesh, that the two…” Now the
enmity contained in decrees and commandments and laws were not the Old
Testament because those are good laws. Paul called it Holy, spiritual
and good. These were the religious laws of the Jews on the one hand,
and the religions of the Gentiles on the other hand. They had
religions. They {garbled} what they thought was God, but they were
alienated from the true God. They were without God in the world.
“…That He might make of the two one new man, making peace; and might
reconcile both into one body to God through the cross, having slain the
enmity by it; and having come He preached the gospel of peace [or announced
the glad tidings of peace] to you who were afar off and to those who were
near” (vs. 12-17). Who were the ones who were near? Israel is
the one who was near. They did not have a relationship with God that
we can have under the New Covenant but they were closer to God. The
Gentiles were far off, they were removed. “…Peace to you who were afar
off and to those who are near. And that through Him we have access by
one Spirit to the Father.” A complete different arrangement. “So
that you are no longer strangers and sojourners, but fellow-citizens of the
saints and of the household of God…” (vs. 17-19).
Now, let’s go back to Deuteronomy 4, and let’s see from the very words of
God how He says that He would be near to them, that He would be their God.
Let’s begin in verse 6. “Keep therefore and do them
[that is the commandments, statutes, and judgments of God]; for this is
your wisdom and your understanding in the sight of the nations…” Now
that’s all the rest of the Gentiles, who were what? Far removed from
God. “…In the sight of the nations which shall hear all these
statutes, and say, Surely this great nation is a wise and
understanding people.” Now notice verse 7. “For what nation
is there so
great, who hath God so nigh unto them…” Now the closest
one to fulfill that was the Queen of Sheba. She came and saw Solomon,
and she said exactly those words. “This is a great nation, a great
God…” And tradition has it that she went back to her country and she
supposedly built a temple much like the one that Solomon had build.
And she commanded her people to worship the true God, and I think we have
some of the remnants today in the Ethiopians, who are supposed to be
Christians and they claim that they are descendants of the Queen of Sheba,
especially the house of the Emperor Heile Selasie. He called himself
of the lion of the tribe of Judah, is what he used to call himself.
Never the less, that’s what their relationship was. They were near to
God. We’re going to see several things as to why grace is needed in
relationship to this. “…Who hath God so nigh unto them,
as the LORD our God is in all things that we call upon Him
for? And what nation is there so great, that hath statutes
and judgments so righteous as all this law, which I set before you
this day?” (Deut. 4:6-8, King James). So there was a righteousness of
the law. Now where the religionists became all out of place on this
was when they created their own traditions and commandments, as the
Pharisees did, which what? They rejected the commandments of God that
they could keep their own traditions.
Now, let’s look at the chart that I’ve drawn up here on the chalkboard.
It has a white background but we can use these wipe-off type of things.
Now, under the Old Covenant I’ve put in the middle on each side of the Old
Covenant / New Covenant, put Abraham Covenant. Because this is
referred to in Romans 4, and it’s referred to in Galatians 3, that if you be
Christ’s, then what? Are you Abraham’s seed and heirs according to the
promise. And the Abrahamic Covenant was given when? Before he
was circumcised. So there were actually two covenants that were given
with Abraham. One, before his circumcision. The next one at the
time of his circumcision, coming up and leading to the time then when Israel
would be called as a nation out of Egypt.
Under the Old Covenant with Israel, here is the order of events. You
have God, and then angels would intercede for Israel with God. You had
the laws and commandments, and you had the temple, the high priest, the
sacrifices and there was no promise of eternal life. It was
justification to the temple, and the temple and nation to God. That’s
why they were near to God.
Now in the New Covenant, we have something better. We don’t get near
to God. That is why the Old Covenant could not do what the New
Covenant was supposed to do. The Old Covenant was not designed to
bring eternal life. The Old Covenant was designed to bring them near
to God. And as it says in Galatians 3, that the law was to lead them
to Christ. Why? Because you could see with the Old Covenant that
there were certain limitations that couldn’t be overcome. And the main
limitation was it could not open the way to have direct connection with God.
They were brought near to God, but in the New Covenant then, we have direct
connection with God the Father.
How do we have that direct connection with God the Father in the New
Covenant? With His Holy Spirit. See they were near. The
Gentiles were cut off. In other words it was true, God just cut them
off. They were cut off - nothing to do with God. The more you
study about some of these nations and things, the more you really understand
that that was so. Now they had good and evil mixed in their society,
and as Paul said that the Gentiles which had not the law when they do the
things contained in the law are a law unto themselves. So, they did
not have direct access to God.
Now, we have direct access to God the Father through Jesus Christ, and He
is our sacrifice and our High Priest. And He is also the mediator of
the New Covenant. In the Old Covenant the angels were the mediators.
God only put His presence in the temple and the holy of holies one day a
year, on the Day of Atonement. Here we have the presence of God in us
every day with His Holy Spirit. Quite a different thing. We have
the promise of eternal life and that necessitates grace. And the
reason you need grace is because the things in the Old Covenant, though they
were good, though they were holy, though they were righteous, could not
bring eternal life. It wasn’t designed to bring eternal life because
even though they were near to God, and they had indirect access to God, we
have direct access to God through Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit. So
it takes something more than was with the Old Covenant. That’s why we
need grace. And that as Jesus said, “Keep My commandments.” So
in the Old Covenant when they were justified to the temple, and the temple
and the nation to God, in the New Covenant we’re justified before God the
Father in heaven, receive the Holy Spirit, and instead of a physical temple,
we are the spiritual temple here on earth because we have God’s Spirit in
us.
The temple, as you will read under the Old Covenant in Exodus 25:8 or 9,
that He built the tabernacle so He could dwell among them. They would
have been a whole lot closer to God had they not sinned when He was giving
the Ten Commandments. When they sinned then God removed Himself yet
one step further from them. And that’s why we have the high priest
going in once a year.
Now it is completely different, as far as our relationship to God. In
the Old Covenant, even they could pray at the time when they were praying.
You know, it’s not saying that God would not hear their prayers, or answer
their prayers, but God was not directly involved in their life in creating
in them that which is going to be for eternal life. There is another
flaw, that we will see here in just a minute in the whole relationship of
man with God and that’s why we need the grace of God to compensate for that.
We’ll see that here in just a little bit.
Let me use another analogy. If you have an imported Japanese, or
foreign car, it is not designed to do the work of a bulldozer. So if
you put a blade on the front of that little car to do the work of a
bulldozer what would happen? You’d soon smash it up. It would
all wreck up, see. Nor is the bulldozer designed to go 60 m.p.h. or
more, down the highway. I mean what would happen to the highway and
the bulldozer if someone got that up and going 60 m.p.h. down the road.
It would just chew it all up. Well that, in a sense, is a good analogy
that the Old Covenant was not designed to give life. Or if there was a
law which could give life, verily, justification would have been by a law.
But there is the grace of God, and the forgiveness of sin, which then makes
it possible to have that relationship with God. And it’s not just near
to God, it is that God is in you, and that’s a whole totally different
relationship.
Now let’s go on and see why we need eternal life. I mean we need
grace in relationship to eternal life. Let’s go to Romans 3.
Now, I will just refer you to the series on the book of Romans. I’m
not going to go through in quite as much detail this particular time, as I
did then, but we’re going to pick it up here in verse 9.
Now you would have to conclude that if you were an Israelite and you were
near to God, you would conclude that you would be in a better relationship
than the Gentiles who were cut off and far from God. But not according
to the New Covenant. Because the New Covenant requires something else.
That’s why he says in verse 9, “What then? Are we better [that is than
the Gentiles]? Not at all: for we before charged both Jews and
Greeks all [are] under sin [that is, being with sin] according as it has
been written, There is not one righteous, not even one…” (Rom. 3:9-10,
BGI, paraphrased).
Now under the Old Covenant, what did Paul say his relationship with God
was? Blameless. He said in Philippians 3, the righteousness
which is of the law, blameless. What did it say of Zachariah and
Elisabeth, the mother and father of John the Baptist? They were
blameless. Why? Because their attitude was right. They
were near to God. And they were keeping the commandments that were
there. So as far as the Old Covenant was concerned they were
blameless, but were they without sin? No. Could not be. And the
Old Covenant was not designed to counterbalance and give the Holy Spirit to
counterbalance the human nature and the law of sin and death, as we will
see.
So they’re all under sin, “…as it has been written, There is not one
righteous, not even one: there is not [one] that understands, there is not
[one] that seeks after God [that’s in the spiritual sense we’re talking
about]. All did go out of the way, together they became unprofitable;
there is not [one] practicing kindness…” Now notice that is a
derivative of grace. This is charise too teta. It’s kind of an
awkward pronunciation. Sounds almost a like a little bit like you’re
talking about potatoes there. But it is a derivative of grace. “…There
is not so much as one. Their throat is an opened sepulchre…” (vs.
11-13). And this is exactly what happens.
I was talking with a man who was in charge of something called “Help
Yourself Real Estate”. And he just opened an office in Gilroy, and he
was telling me that the realtors, once they come in contact with them
because they sell for a flat fee of $2450, and they help you sell. In
other words if you’re going to show your house they just give you the names
and telephone number and you and the people work it out and they come and
look at your home and then you pay them only $2450. Well you know what
this does to the realtors. That wipes them out because normally
they’re used to 6% or 3% and no less than 1 ½% if they have a three way
split. So what happens first of all, the realtors ignore them.
Then they start bad-mouthing them, and then they start actively working
against them.
Well, he just opened his office in Gilroy. He got new desks, new
furniture, a new phone system, and all ready to go and he leased out an
office that used to be a jewelry store. So he thought everything was
going to be fine and safe, but someone threw a Molotove cocktail through the
window and burned out the inside of it and ruined all his new furniture, his
phone system and everything, and he didn’t take out any fire insurance so he
is down the tube with it.
Now these are probably, whoever did it, a good upstanding person who
probably belongs to one of the civic clubs, who probably goes to church on
Sunday. And you can find out how quickly the bitterness and the
stinging tongue will come when you bring up about the commandments of God
and the Sabbath. Boy they can be so nice and then just turn an evil face to
you right away. And that’s showing exactly how human nature is.
That’s just the way it is. “The poison of asps is under their tongues”
(vs. 13). I can prove that very quickly because if what is on these
three tapes concerning homosexuality were played on one of the stations up
there in San Francisco, they would almost have a war going on right during
the time the guy was speaking. You know they would. It just
shows and reveals human nature. That’s the way that human nature is.
“Of whom the mouth is full of cursing and full of bitterness; their feet
are swift to shed blood; ruin and misery are in their ways…” And
I submit look at Lebanon, look at Southeast Asia, look at Nicaragua, look at
Chili, look at South Africa. “…And a way of peace they know not…”
And they’re always seeking peace, aren’t they? They’re always talking
about peace, aren’t they. They don’t know the way. “…There is no
fear of God before their eyes. Now we know that whatsoever the law
says, to those in the law it speaks…” (vs. 14-19). Now that’s
virtually everyone because no one is exempt from the laws of God.
Although this is directly talking about those who are within the Old
Covenant.
But notice what it says here, “…that every mouth may be stopped, and that
all the world may be under judgment to God.” Now that’s all the world.
That’s not just Israel, that’s all the world, see. “Wherefore by works
of law there shall not be any flesh be justified before Him…” Now that
means, in His presence. They can be justified to the temple. And
because of the angels that were at the temple, the temple to God. But
from works of law no flesh can be justified in the presence of God.
Why? Because, as we will see, they still have the law of sin and death
in them and it takes something more than what we can do. It takes
something only what God can do. For here’s what law does… “…for
through law [is] the knowledge of sin” (vs. 19-20). That is the
function of law. Is it still the function of law today to show what
sin is? Yes. The function of law is to bring the knowledge of
sin to show what sin is. Then what does God determine that the penalty
of the law is? The wages of sin is death.
“But now apart from law [or that is separate from law, or separate and in
addition to the law, is what he’s talking about] the righteousness of God…”
Because in order to receive eternal life you need the righteousness of God.
And that can only be given to you. That can only be imputed to you.
Or that is, that can only be given to you in the way of Christ and the grace
of God. It can’t come any other way. Why can’t it come any other
way? Because God determined that’s the only way it’s going to come.
We have to have the righteousness of God in order to have eternal life.
“Now, separate from law…” You will notice it is not “the law”.
In the Greek there is no definite article. That’s important.
“…The righteousness of God has been manifest, being borne witness to by the
law and the prophets: even the righteousness of God through faith of Jesus
Christ towards all and upon all those that believe, there is no difference…”
(vs. 21-22). Now you see, God is not just working through the nation
of Israel alone. And this is what has angered the Jews so much.
Now I’ve been reading a book understanding the difficult sayings of Jesus.
It is a pretty good book, and the premise of the whole thing is that,
Matthew especially, perhaps Mark, maybe perhaps some of the things that Luke
had, were originally written in Hebrew but translated to Greek, not Aramaic.
The sacred-namer’s say that it’s in Aramaic, but it’s not Aramaic.
And it helps understand a few difficult things in Matthew, and so forth,
because it helps clarify it. But he has missed the whole point.
Now the people who are doing this is the center of the foundation for
Judo-Christian understanding. The reason he is missing a very
important point is this: there are no extant text of the New Testament
in Hebrew anywhere. I mean not even copies. Meaning, we have
copies of Greek manuscripts, and in certain cases it’s obvious that it was
translated from the Hebrew because it’s very similar to what the Septuagint
was, which was translated from the Hebrew into Greek. But because of
the hatred that the Jews had for the Gentiles, hatred, therefore when God
began dealing with the Gentiles, what happened?
Remember when the apostle Paul came back to Jerusalem and they found out he
was there. They went to kill him. And then he was arrested.
He said to the officer, “Now let me talk to the mob out here and see if I
can calm them down a little bit.” So he came out on the balcony and he
started talking in what? He started talking in Hebrew, and they were
all quiet. Remember what happened when he mentioned the name Gentiles?
Now this was before the destruction of Jerusalem. They went into a
wild frenzy. And they were ready to take Paul and dismember him.
So what happened? The captain of the guard had to throw him in the
clink that night, keep everybody away and then they snuck out at midnight
taking Paul down to Caesarea.
Now, the authors of this book are Bevan and Blizzard. Blizzard is quite
knowledgeable. And they missed the whole point of how much the Jews
have hated Jesus Christ. And he says we ought to go through all of the
writings of the Rabbis and that will help us understand the New Testament.
And I say, absolutely not. Maybe from a linguistic point of view it
could. But since the Jews hated Jesus so much, guess what they have in
their Talmud, in their Mishna’s? They have sayings very similar to
what Jesus taught about being nice and being good, so you have the
counterfeit over here. But God cut off and rejected and sent the Jews
away because they did not receive Jesus Christ. And even in the New
Testament Church there was a problem between the Jews and the Gentiles,
between circumcision and uncircumcision. So in going through the book
I can see exactly what will happen to that foundation. The Jews are
going to get in there and destroy the truth about Jesus Christ because that
has been their goal for 1900 years, and until God calls them that is still
going to be their goal - anyway they’re going to do it. And they can
do it nicely. They do it nicely today. I’ve heard Jews on talk
shows say, “Well, Jesus was a good man. Yes, we recognize that He was
a prophet like other prophets.” But that destroys the divinity of
Jesus Christ. And until God opens the minds of the Jews they are still
going to be at loggerheads with this: that God has made no difference
between Jew and Gentile in relationship to coming before God in the New
Covenant. And that’s the whole basis of the problem, and it’s 1900
years old.
So he said, “There is no difference for all have sinned and come short of
the glory of God…” (vs. 23). That is all Jews, all Israelites,
all Gentiles. “…Being justified gratuitously by His grace…” Now
it is God’s grace and goodness, His love and forbearance that He forgives
our sins, which makes us justified to God. “…Through the redemption
which is in Christ Jesus…” Notice it’s being justified freely by His
grace. There it is charite, if you want to circle the word
charise, in this case it’s charite. “…Whom God has set
forth a mercy seat through faith in His blood…” (vs. 24-25). That is
in the blood of Jesus Christ, because even though they had sacrifices under
the Old Covenant, what does the book of Hebrews tell us? The blood of
bulls and goats cannot take away sin. And who do you sin against?
You sin against God. So what takes away the sin before God? The
blood of Jesus Christ. What took away the sin before the temple?
The blood of animals. That’s why they were near to God. They
could not be brought into the presence of God.
“…Faith in His blood, for a showing forth of His righteousness, in the
respect of the passing by the of the sins that have taken place before.”
And of course as we know there is no such thing as future sin, although sin
will occur in the future because it is not yet done. Do you understand
what I mean? It’s like this ad for the Datsun or Nissan GX300.
This policeman comes up and here’s this thing parked on the road. And he
looks at, and here it is bright red. And they get the lights on it and
he looks at it and they play this music, and he looks inside, and walks
around it. He pulled up behind in his motorcycle. So then it shows
him standing there writing out a ticket. So the owner comes out and
says, “What are you doing?” He tears the ticket out and gives it to
him and says, “This is for speeding.” Now it never went anyplace.
Now what would happen when he’d go to court? That would not be a sin
because he did not do it. But if he did speed and got caught, he did
it. And when he got caught it was in the past tense. So all sin
is in the past tense, because it is an action and a thought that you do now.
I mean who knows what we’ll think tomorrow, I mean for good or for bad.
Now I have yard work to do tomorrow. Lots of yard work to do. So
by 12 o’clock tomorrow afternoon, or 2 o’clock in the afternoon when it’s
hot, I don’t really know what my future attitude is going to be.
Especially, we have more trouble with rotten hoses. You know, you
haven’t used them all summer. You go out there and hook them up to run
water and the end falls off because you buy this $3.98 hose, 50 feet.
I went out this morning just to turn it on, just to let the water run, you
know. You aren’t breaking the Sabbath if you water your lawn. So I
went out there and the hose fell apart on me. So I had one of these
handy-dandy little quick fix-it’s, so I put it on and I didn’t realize it
but I made both ends the same. (Laughter) Instead of one being
one way and one being the other way. So I though, “Oh no. Boy,
that’ll teach me to do that on the Sabbath.” Now I didn’t know I was
going to do that. I did not know that I was going to get up this
morning and run out there and say, “God I’m out and I’m going to fix this
hose, and we are going to water the lawn.” No, I just said, hey, well
it’s a little dry, and since Jonathan has to stay home and watch the dog
today, I’ll let him move the hose around. I went out and turned it on
and we ended up with all this total disaster over just a dinky rotten hose,
see. So it’s the same way that happens. My wife is laughing
because she saw it. You know, go out there and screw it in and you’re
looking, one piece is in one hand, the other piece is in the other hand.
She told me to be careful. I didn’t know how careful.
So anyway, it’s the same way with our relationship with God. That’s
why we’re told in the prayer that we are to ask for forgiveness of our sins
every day because every day there are sins that we will do. Either
sins of mental temptation, of or sins of omission, or commission and God is
not giving us a blanket thing for the entire future, as we will see a little
later on. So it is “…of the sins that are past in the forbearance of
God for the showing forth of His righteousness in the present time, for His
being just and justifying him that is of the faith of Jesus Christ” (vs.
25-26). Now when we come down to the Passover time, which will
probably in two or three weeks, then I’m going to give a sermon showing why
the sacrifice of Christ is what we remember, and why that is so very
important. But if we have the faith that Christ is the only One, where
it said, “I am the way, I am the truth, and I am the life…” , then if we
believe that then God gives us His grace, and He gives us that gift of grace
which is His righteousness. Because if God is going to give us eternal
life, that is the only righteousness that will qualify for it. Isn’t
that correct?
“Where then is boasting?” Cause the Jews can’t say, “Well, we’ve had
a religion now for over 3500 years. We’re near to God.” The Gentile
can say, “Well, so be it, but I have God’s Spirit to have direct
access to God. And that’s because of God’s calling, not because I’m
great or because I’m better than you, but because of what God has done.”
It says, “It is excluded. Through what law? Of works? No,
but through a law of faith” (vs. 27). Every time I read that it really
is kind of mind-boggling because if faith is opposite of law, how can you
have a law of faith? Well, the law of faith means that there is a
certain set way that God has ordained that faith is going to work. And
it’s based on belief and the attitude. And it’s based upon what God
has done. Remember, Jesus said that if any come some other way, they
are a thief and robbers. So it is a law of faith. “Therefore we
reckon [or, we calculate through this] that a man is justified by faith…”
Faith in what? In Jesus Christ. Faith in God the Father.
Faith in His sacrifice. Faith in what He has done separate and apart
from works of law. Now, “Is He a God of the Jews only, and not
also of the Gentiles? Yes, also of the Gentiles since indeed one God
it is Who will justify the circumcision by faith, and the uncircumision
through faith” (vs. 28-30). And that’s just a play on words.
Either by faith or through faith, it means exactly the same thing.
That’s why he used two different words. It’s a play on words.
“Do we then make void [or make of no effect] law through faith?” Now
notice this next statement , “May it not be!” The Greek here is me.
Those are the first two letters. Then genoito comes from the
word, as we saw there concerning begotten, and this is the same word that is
used for created. Hold your place here and let’s go to John 1:3.
It says, “For through Him all things came into being…” Now notice the
word “came into being”. It is ageneto. Now that is the
past tense of “coming into being”. This is “came into being”,
ageneto. So when you come back here to me genoito, it is
the same word and it really means “Don’t ever let that thought come into
your mind”, or “Don’t ever let that come into existence”, that kind of
thinking. It’s the same root word. Don’t let it ever come into
existence. It says, “May it not be.” The King James says, “God
forbid”, but that’s a complete mistranslation there. It means, “May it
never be.” And in this case, “May that thought never come into
existence. But we establish law” (vs. 31).
Now why do we establish law? Because through the process of
repentance, the receiving of God’s Holy Spirit, coupled with the grace of
God and the keeping of the commandments of God, we want to keep the
commandments of God. So we establish it because it becomes a part of
us. When it becomes a part of us, that’s the best way to establish
law. Just like with our children. When it becomes a part of
them, that they automatically do the things that we’ve been trying to teach
them all their lives, boy that’s fine. We don’t have to go around and
say do this, do that, do the other thing, don’t do this, don’t do that,
don’t do the other thing. It establishes it, and that’s what we’re
trying to do in teaching, isn’t it? We’re trying to establish it in
them so they will do it. So likewise with God. That’s why He
says that, “This is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel,
and the house of Judah after those days. I will put My laws into their
minds, and My commandments into their hearts.” And as we will see a
little later in the Greek, it means to write them in the tablets of their
heart. Now, the Old Covenant was what? He wrote them on tablets
of stone. And they were always to what? Have the Ten
Commandments written and placed at the door post when they would come in, so
they could see it when they come in and when they go out. And the
orthodox Jews still do it today.
Now when I was pastoring down in Torrence and Santa Monica, Santa Monica
area reached up into the Hollywood area. And when I would go visit in
the Jewish areas I could tell who was a Jew and who was a Catholic.
Catholics make sure they know they’re Catholic. They put a little
cross right up to the left side of their door. And the Jews put a
little…well it doesn’t really look like a McDonald’s thing, but that’s
the way it looked, only it has the Ten Commandments written on it and it’s
supposed to be the two plates. Even the Jews to this day do that.
They put this little thing, that it is the Torah, and they have the Ten
Commandments written on them. Now, we have it where then, we establish
law because it is in our hearts and our minds, and our inward parts.
In other words, we’re not seeking an opportunity to sin, hoping we won’t get
caught. That is a work of law. We are seeking an opportunity not
to sin. So if a temptation comes along, rather than saying, “Oh well,
no one’s around, I’ll do it.” We avoid it completely. We get
away from it completely. Totally different approach. One is
carnal, one is spiritual.
Now, chapter 4, we won’t go through all of chapter 4 but let’s come down to
verse 15. It says, “For the law works out wrath…” Now why can
the law, because it’s holy, and spiritual, and just, and good, as Paul said
in Romans 7, why does it work out wrath? Because every time you break
the law there is a penalty required. And what is the penalty?
The wages of sin is death. So the law works out wrath.
“…Wherefore, where there is no law there is no transgression.” Why?
Because we saw the law gives us what? The knowledge of sin.
Wherefore by the law is the knowledge of sin. The wages of sin is
death. “Wherefore the law works out wrath, the wages of sin is death.
And where there is no law there is no transgression.” So this is where
you come into a catch-22. The law tells us what sin is, and we are to
what? Repent of our sins. If we are to repent of our sins and
accept the sacrifice of Jesus Christ, we are brought into the relationship
of grace with God and we establish law.
Now, the Protestants say, “We do away with law altogether.” Then what
do you have? If you do away with law altogether, which is ridiculous.
It’s like walking in and saying, “I cancel the law of gravity.” But
everybody’s still sitting in their chair. You know, they’re not up
floating around. You can’t cancel the law of gravity. You can’t
cancel the laws of God. What happens when a person makes a
proclamation that you have no laws that you have to…then you have no
definition of sin. Then what happens? They go back and they
establish their own righteousness. “Well, yeah, murder is sin.
Well, we do need to honor mother and father.”
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