If you got a Bible, go ahead and get it out. You’re going to need it. This is an easy, easy, easy, easy message to hear. It’s not going to be any stress to it. There’s no confrontation. It’s going to be super simple. I don’t know why you’re giggling. I really do mean it. What we need to do is we need to set a principle in order for the rest of the series, to make sense. We need to set a principle. It’s a hermeneutical principle that, in other words, there’s a tool of understanding in this principle that will help you understand your Old Testament. And why is that important? Well, these days, we’re being told by supposed pastors at supposed churches that we should unhitch from the Old Testament that we don’t need the Old Testament. The Old Testament is too violent, it’s too bloody, there’s too much condemnation, it looks like racism is happening. It’s all these arguments against the Old Testament. So we don’t need the Old Testament. We’re just focus on the resurrection, and then we can just unhitch from the rest of the Old Testament. That’s foolishness, family. That’s foolishness. The resurrection doesn’t mean anything. Without the Old Testament, you would never see the need for the cross. You would not know the sin that you were guilty of. The law would lose its ability to do what it’s to do. And that’s be a tutor to bring you to Jesus Christ. The Old Testament is literally what the apostles taught out of. It’s literally what Jesus taught out of you understand when He would open the scroll, He did that more than once. He would read from the law. And so, it’s not something we’re going to separate from. What we need to see is, how do we accurately understand it? There’s a principle, an Old Testament hermeneutic that’s simply a tool for you to understand the Bible, that when you read something in the Old Testament. It is fulfilled in Jesus Christ, but it doesn’t go away. It remains. Now it is lived out in the new and living way. And the Bible literally uses that term. We’ll see that in a minute. That’s literally the title of this message, “A New And Living Way”. Now some of you here, you know this. I know and I know you know it, but what we want to do is we want to make sure that this principle is taught and be recorded and kept on the website and kept on the app, so that people in the following years can go back and they can hear it, and they can understand how this applies to ultimately to tithes and offerings, how we handle our money. Because if you get this wrong, you’re going to get it wrong on several fronts and several interpretations of what the Old Testament is pointing to and telling us to do, and so that’s what we’re going to be doing.
Let me just give you a couple of verses. Just two, right? Really quick. Isaiah 40:8 says this, “The grass withers, the flower fades, but the word of our God will stand (whatever? No) forever.” That means eternally. That means the Bible is always going to be relevant as what was the revelation to man, the nature and character of God and what He accomplished through His Son. So, this is of supreme importance. It doesn’t go away. He’s talking about that. In fact, Jesus Himself says it this way, Matthew, 24:35, “Heaven and earth will pass away.” And they will. Right? There’ll be a new heaven and a new earth someday, He says, “But my words will not pass away.” They won’t. They’re not going anywhere. Does that include the Old Testament? It was the only Testament He had when they when He said that, yeah, it would be built up, and it would be explained through the apostles, and the words of Jesus would be recorded in four gospels. Got it, but the Bible is not in some kind of sense changing parts of it aren’t falling away like vestiges no longer needed. Every single word is breathed out by God, and it is profitable for everything described in the New Testament to happen. So, it’s necessary that we have it.
So, here’s what happens. People tend to take verses out of context. I don’t know if you’re aware of that, and oftentimes when they take them out of context, they misquote them, meaning that they’ll add some words, or sometimes they’ll leave some words out. I gave you an example last week, right? What about this? “Money is the root of all evil.” Doesn’t say that. It says, “The love of money is a root of all sorts of evil.” That’s important. That’s a different statement, isn’t it? Yes, it is. Well, here’s one such example, related to the law. This is Romans 10:4, is says “For Christ is the end of the law…” And oftentimes people will quote that and stop there, but that’s not the sentence. By the way, wow many of you like being taken out of context? Right? That’s not good, is it? Even one little grammatical error. Think about it. Think about how vital a comma is, right? Let’s eat, grandpa. Take the comma out and you’re a cannibal. Well, this doesn’t say, “Christ is the end of the law.” It says, “Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes.” Right? It’s the end of the law as looking to the law to try to become righteous in the in the sight of God, righteousness is a gift freely given by grace through faith in Jesus Christ, He was the one that kept the law perfectly. He’s the only Jew that ever did. And the only way you can come to God is through His righteousness, by His sacrifice, and that’s the gift that comes by grace through faith. You don’t earn it, you can’t afford it, and you wouldn’t want to buy it anyway, because, you know, you can’t do it. The law shows you your need. The law is not abolished. It’s simply been fulfilled. It’s very important that we understand everything that that says.
So let me say it to you this way when we talk about the law. Now I’m going to show you a man-made theological construct. Okay, I’m not saying this is in the Bible, but this is how the law is thought of if you’re studying theology. Okay? There are three categories of the law.
3 Categories Of The Law
– Moral Law
– Judicial Law
– Ceremonial Law
Three of them, there is the moral law, there is the judicial law, and then there is the ceremonial law. Okay? So let me explain. then you say the moral law, we’re talking about right or wrong. We’re talking, in general, about the Ten Commandments, any of the “Thou shalt nots,” right? That’s called the moral law. Second is the judicial law. And the judicial law are ordinances and commands and for businesses related to all kinds of things, civil accord, property, boundaries, justice, that’s what they’re related that’s what the judicial law is. And people separate these into categories. And then third is the ceremonial law. Ceremonial laws. And those are the laws and ordinances related to worship. Now, again, this is a human construct. I didn’t come up with this, but this is theologians throughout the years have done this, okay? And by and large, I agree with it. You can put these into categories, and I think it can be helpful from time to time. But what people tend to do is they tend to say, “This the moral law. Oh, that still applies.” Yes, we agree it’s still good that you don’t murder anybody. Sure. Stealing is still wrong. Jesus would condemn that. That’s we still have that in the New Testament. Then those of us that understand what the judicial law actually talks about, we would say, “Yep, we like that too.” Why? Because this makes government work. This kind of stuff actually works. Did you know that when you punish the wicked and you protect the innocent, that’s a good thing? Now you probably know that, there are people that don’t, but we would agree that that’s a good thing. And that you have boundaries and what are the restrictions on property ownership, and can you violate somebody else’s property? And should judges be impartial? Should they be bipartisan? How should they interact? Well, those things are explained in the Mosaic Law, and they’re really good. And so, if we follow that, what we would call a Judeo Christian ethic in a nation, hey, it goes really well. Actually, it works. We’ve rarely done it in America, but if we would, yeah, it’s a really good thing. Typically, though, what people do is they come to this and they but they say this, “But the ceremonial law, nope, that’s all done. That’s all done because that was temple, that was animal sacrifices, that was don’t eat that, that was don’t do this.” And then they would add this, and that included the tithe, and they add the tithe in there. So, they roll the tithe up into it, sometimes just completely unaware that there was actually more than one tithe in the Old Testament. And there was one that was the ceremonial one, and it was there. It really was. Had to do with worship, specifically funding it. I mean, read the Bible. That’s what they’re doing with it. It’s providing food for the tabernacle and for the priests. We’ll get to that starting next week, but we’re not going to even cover that this week. We want to learn the principle. And what we want to see is that x-ing that off is incorrect. The ceremonial law is lived out in a new and living way. Because here’s the thing, Jesus fulfilled all three, and none of them did He abolish but He gives it to us, and we live those out in a new and living way.
Matthew 5:17, one of many places we could go to see this clearly. He says this, “‘Do not think (and so that’s that should be a warning that you could be tempted to think this) do not think that I came to abolish the law or the prophets.” Don’t think that. Now you say, “Well, that’s so easy and clear. Why can’t people just read that?” I don’t know. I’ve become convinced that there are theologians and their issue is not that they don’t understand Greek and Hebrew and Aramaic and Chaldean. It’s that they don’t understand English because this is very clear. “Do not think I came to abolish the law and the prophets.” Got it, Jesus, and then He says this, “I have not come to abolish them, but to fulfill them.” Now, if He says that, He’s not going to abolish them, then these words have to mean something different. He didn’t say, “I’m going to fulfill them, and then they’re abolished.” He said, “I specifically did not come to abolish them.” So how did He fulfill them? Well, it’s very simple. He kept them perfectly, every single ordinance, every single command. He did not one time sin. Think about that, not through omission or commission, He never did what He wasn’t supposed to, and He always did what He was supposed to. So, if it was in the law of God, He never sinned one time. The only Jew that ever pulled that off, even to this day, He’s the only man that ever could the spotless, sinless Son of God, holy, innocent and undefiled. He wasn’t born into Adam. He didn’t have original sin. He was conceived of the Holy Spirit in the womb of a virgin. That’s how we can have a sinless Savior. That’s how He could be an atoneer, a sacrifice for our sins. Who are guilty. We needed the innocent, and we needed someone who had kept the law perfectly so that He could suffer that death that we deserve, bearing our sin, and yet rise from the dead, because death couldn’t hold Him, because sin had no claim on Him, you see? So that’s what actually happened. He fulfilled the law. I’m not sure if you’re aware of this, but Jesus never experienced any mercy. You know this. Hope you know this. Jesus never experienced mercy because He never needed it. And, by the way, Jesus wasn’t born under grace, He was born under law. He had to keep it all perfectly. This is Galatians 4:4, it says, “But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law.” That’s right, He was going to fulfill it. He was going to fulfill every single part of it, moral, judicial and ceremonial. You say, “Okay, well, if you didn’t abolish it, then how does that work?” Well, here’s how it works, His people, us, the church Christians, we now live out every single one of those ordinances, every single one in a new and living way. And so, for the next seven and a half hours, we’re going to go through every single- we could, we could. I would probably want to sit down but it’s an awesome thing. So, what I’m going to do is I’m going to show you, I’m going to give you demonstrations of these things, just kind of a 40,000 foot view. I’m going to give you four illustrations. I’ll give you one that’s really simple, two that are even easy, and then one that’s just wild out of left field. So therefore, you got something to look forward to.
When we talk about the moral law and when we talk about the judicial law. I want you to keep these in mind. Look, did Jesus fulfill them? Yes, He absolutely did. Do we walk them out in a new and living way, the Ten Commandments and all the judicial law? Yes, we do. How does it? How does it look? It looks like Romans 13:8-10. I can’t wait till we get here in the series. It’s gonna be a blast to unpack the whole thing. But it says this, “Owe no one anything except to love each other.” There it is. Why? Why is that so important? And, by the way, this is the Bible’s version of love, not your version of love, not sure if you’re aware of this, but to tell someone that their deeds are evil and to warn someone that they’re in wickedness and that they’re going to be under the wrath of God. That’s not hate speech, that’s love talk, because you’re actually putting yourself up as a target and taking the heat for that kind of person to get mad at you. But that’s the most loving thing you can do is to warn someone. I’ve had to keep that in mind these last few weeks, the heat has kind of gotten hot. Not sure if you’re aware of that, but that’s kind of what’s going on, and it’s been a tremendous comfort to me. I thought a lot about these words from RC Sproul, been on my heart. I don’t know if I’m going to get the quote right, but I think I can. It says, “Anytime I’m hated unfairly. I remember how I’ve been loved unfairly as well.” I didn’t deserve to be loved. So yeah, you get a little heat, you get a little hate. That’s okay. But loving someone is why is this so important? Here’s why, “For the one who loves another has fulfilled the law.” Now you could ask in what way? Well, he expounds upon it in the next two verses, look at 9 and 10, “For the commandments.” And then he’s going to give us a splattering of the Ten Commandments. Right? “For the commandments, (just going to name a few), ‘You shall not commit adultery, You shall not murder, You shall not steal, You shall not covet.” I love this right here. Thank You, Holy Spirit, for this. “And any other commandment.” Now, what does that mean? In the Greek that means “any other commandment”. Any other. You mean judicial? Yep. You mean moral? Yep. You mean ceremonial? Yep, all of them, “Any other commandment are summed up in this word, you shall (what? you shall) love your neighbor as yourself.” Then one more verse. Look at verse 10, “(love) love does no wrong to a neighbor, therefore love is the fulfilling of the law.” Can I just be honest with you? I am not tempted to steal your car. You should be happy about that, you know, because I could have snuck out there during worship, you wouldn’t have known. Right? Kind of have access to it, go in there, break your window, drive it. I can confess to you freely. I am not tempted to steal your car even the people that I really don’t like. I’m kidding. Why? Because I can love people I don’t like. I can love my enemies too. I don’t want to steal their car. Why? Because why would I steal the car of somebody I love, right? Why would I want to steal someone’s wife if I love that brother? Why would I want to break up a family? Why would I do that? Why would I want to bear false witness against my neighbor? If you love somebody, love is the motivator that works way more than law, but you’re fulfilling the law. Jesus fulfilled it in His life, death, burial, resurrection, ascension and His second coming. Got it. But does that mean it’s gone? No, we walk it out in a new and living way, and love is what fulfills the law. It’s very, very clear.
And here comes the statement, here comes the question, and here it is, we’ll put it up on the screen for you to see.
“But What About The Ceremonial Laws?”
Well, this is where people tend to get confused. And so, I’m going to do this, I’m going to give you four ceremonial laws, and you’re going to see how they’re fulfilled in Christ, and then you’re going to see how we walk them out in a new and living way. And if at the end of this, you’re not convinced, what I would ask you to do is be a noble Berean, have a noble heart, go with your Bible, find those ceremonial laws and see if Christ fulfilled them. We know he fulfilled all of them, and we know love walks it all out, but these we actually walk out in tangible, new and living ways. And we’ll start to see next week that the tithe is actually one of those, and it’s probably far different in the new and living way than you were trained, or maybe you weren’t trained at all, which is a form of abuse, because it’s neglect. This is where people get confused. They think He abolished them.
Let’s take the easiest one first.
Here’s
1. Passover.
That’s this should be obvious. I think one of the pastors talked about this doing communion even a couple weeks ago, right? But in case you didn’t hear it, let’s just paint the picture. The Passover is a ceremonial ordinance. Okay? It’s a ceremonial law. It was an ordinance given to the children of Israel to keep throughout their generations, right? That’s what God told them to do. And what’s the story, right? Children of Israel, they’re trapped in Egypt as slaves. God comes to Moses. He sends Moses and goes to Pharaoh. He says, “Let my people go, that they may come and worship Me.” Pharaoh won’t do it. God shows His power through plagues, and the very last one is He’s going to send the destroyer, and the destroyer is going to kill the first born of everyone in Egypt. The only way that someone would be spared was if they kept the Passover. The Passover was very simple. There would be a lamb or a goat. We call it a lamb because in general, speaking, it could be a lamb or a goat. And they kill that at twilight on the Passover day, the day before, the day before the night, as the night was coming, and they would paint that over the doorpost. Then when the destroyer would come, He would pass over. That was called Passover. We see the part of the commandment here, Exodus 12:5-6 chapter 12. Just these two verses, “Your lamb shall be without blemish, a male a year old. You may take it from the sheep or from the goats, and you shall keep it until the fourteenth day of this month, then the whole assembly of the congregation of Israel shall kill their lambs at twilight.” The lamb would give its life to cover the doorway to the person who should have been put to death. It was the only way to escape. Thus, the destroyer came and anybody who had that doorway covered, well, they were kept safe. And the Egyptians’ first borns all died. That was God demonstrating His power through Pharaoh.
You say, “Did Jesus fulfill the Passover?” I know it obviously yes. 1 Corinthians 5:7, “Cleanse out the old leaven that you may be a new lump as you really are unleavened. For Christ, our Passover lamb has been sacrificed.” There it is. He fulfilled it. He is the one who fulfilled it. He is the one that said, “This is a whole new covenant.” Look with me, 1 Corinthians 11:23-26 we usually read this when we receive Communion, don’t we? Paul says, “For I received from the Lord what I also delivered to you that the Lord Jesus, (watch this statement) on the night when he was betrayed.” What night? You know what night it was? Passover. That’s Passover night. That was the meal they had. That was what we tend to. Call the Last Supper. That term is not in the Bible, but it’s the Last Supper. And you’ve probably seen the photograph, right? They all lined up on one side of the table, right? That was a Passover meal. He had the Passover meal before He went across. Remember? They left. They sang a hymn. They walked. They crossed the brook Kidron, where already the animal’s blood was flowing underneath that bridge. And then He walked up and goes to the Garden of Gethsemane and laments and then is arrested. That’s what this talking about. And He’s there at the Passover. Had that last Passover. “On the night when he was betrayed, he took bread, and when he had given thanks, He broke it and said, ‘This is my body, which is for you. (Watch this, do this) Do this in remembrance of me.’” What was he doing? He was reinstituting the Passover in a new and living way. That’s what He’s doing. And so, we do that, don’t we? We take the bread and we take the juice, and it is a solemn ceremony that we’re keeping because we’re not looking forward to one day when a lamb will be sacrificed that could take away the sin. The lamb already came. Now we’re looking backwards and we’re proclaiming His death until He comes. He goes on. Look at verse 25, “In the same way, he also took the cup after supper, saying, ‘This cup is the new covenant in my blood. (He says it again, do this) Do this as often as you drink in remembrance of me. For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes.’” This is the Passover in a new and living way. Very simple, very basic. That’s the principle of it. Except you need to see that it’s not just one instance. It’s all of it. It’s fulfilled in Jesus, and we live it out as Christians in a new and living way.
Let me give you,
2. Sacrificial Offerings
These would be, sometimes of grain, sometimes of animal. It just depends. There were many, many, many, I’m not going to go in the details of them, but these were things that were offered up and either burned or bled and put to death. Burnt offerings, grain offerings, peace offerings, sin offerings, guilt offerings, including the Day of Atonement. Remember that one? That’s where the high priest would go into the Holy of Holies, and he could only go in there by himself, one man, once per year. And if God judged him as unworthy, He would put him to death. He had to atone for his own sin, and then he had to go in and do that. Well that was all of the sacrificial offerings highest point. Did Jesus fulfill the sacrificial offerings? I know you know this. Of course, He did. Here’s Hebrews 9:24-26 says, “For Christ has entered not into (here’s the temple language) not into holy places made with hands.” In other words, He did enter into holy place, the Holy of Holies, but not the one on the earth there “Which are copies of the true things, but into (where?) heaven itself.” You say, “Wait a minute, does that mean there’s a tabernacle in heaven?” It’s exactly what it means. You say, “How big is it?” I don’t know. I bet it’s big. And Jesus went in there, and He offered His blood. He went in as the sacrifice. He had died, and His blood was what was offered up, “But into heaven itself now to appear in the presence of God on our behalf, nor was it to offer himself repeatedly as the high priest enters the holy places every year with his with blood, not his own.” So, He was different than the other sacrifices. “For then he would have had to suffer repeatedly since the foundation of the world, if it had to be on repeat. But as it is, he has appeared once for all (once for all, that is all without distinction, not all without exception, once for all) at the end of the ages to put away sin (how? here it is) by the sacrifice of himself.” He fulfilled it. He fulfilled the sacrifices.
So, you say, “Well yeah but we don’t do sacrifices anymore.” Listen, yeah, we do. Yeah, we do. We still do sacrifices. Now, if you’re new, you might have just started sweating. “I knew it. People warned me about these guys.” We don’t do them in the old way. We do them in the new and living way. We still offer up sacrifices, don’t we? We do and what does it look like? It looks like Hebrews chapter 12 and verse one, by the way, this verse is after the illustrations of I’m sorry, Romans 12:1 after the illustrations of Romans 9:10-11, he says this, “I appeal to you, therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies (here’s the good news) a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God which is your spiritual worship.” Look, it’s a living sacrifice is the point here. This is the new and living way. Aren’t you glad it’s not a sacrifice we have to kill? That would be awkward, man. What if it was, what if it was- I got water all over me, Randy, I owe you wherever you are. What if it was a living sacrifice and then we had to put it to death. What if it was like a lottery when you came to church? We’re like, sorry you this morning. Like, oh my gosh, it’d be really hard to get people to become covenant members of that church. And when they want to kill the old man, they mean it. No, but it’s a living sacrifice. So, what do we do? We come to him because it’s been fulfilled in Jesus Christ, we’re able to go in and give a sacrifice that is us. He didn’t abolish it. Sacrifices are still being made. In fact, you made one earlier, when you raised your voice and what the Bible says, “The fruit of your lips giving thanks to His name.” Did you know you were doing it? Did you know you’re in your heritage, Christian in your lineage, were Jewish priests who did things in type and shadow, which our High Priest fulfilled, and you walked it out in the sacrifice in a new and living way? Man, it’s that big a deal. You understand? We’re not worshiping ourselves. We’re not singing about us. We’re singing to Him a sacrifice that’s pleasing to Him in a new and living way. Those are kind of easy.
But here’s,
3. The Priesthood
The priesthood. Exodus 28:1, God says to Moses, “‘Then bring near to you Aaron, your brother, and his sons with him from among the people of Israel to serve me as priests. Aaron and Aaron’s sons, Nadab, Abihu, Eleazar and Ithamar.’” So, He sets apart a family of people who will do what? They will minister to the Lord. That’s what a priest does. A priest goes to God on behalf of someone else. A priest serves God. A priest pleases God and takes care of God’s interests. That’s what a priest does. Well, here’s the question. We know what the priest did in the Old Testament, they were basically butchers. Honestly, they were constantly killing something and burning it and splattering blood and doing it again. It was on repeat. I’m telling you, it was quite a job to do that. You say, “Well, did Jesus fulfill the priesthood?” He absolutely did. Here’s Hebrews 4:14 “Since then we have a great (what?) high priest.” Tthere it is, He fulfilled that role. He went to God on our behalf and offered up not a sacrifice of blood of a bull or a goat or a lamb, but of His own blood. He was both the sacrifice and the priest who offered the sacrifice. Amazing. He “Who has passed through the heavens, (here He is) Jesus, the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession.” We have a high priest. He went there and took care of the chasm of sin that stood between us and God.
Now I just want to let you know you know what that means. You don’t need another priest. I don’t know if you know that, if you’re in Christ, you don’t need another priest. And maybe you’re here and you’re going, “Wow, man, what will all those Catholic priests do for a living?” I don’t know, learn to code. It’s funny, trust me, you didn’t laugh, but I did. Sometimes that’s enough. Yeah, we don’t need another priest. We don’t need somebody to go to God on our behalf. Why? Because Jesus did it. You don’t need a special pastor to do that. Now, we do pray for each other, but that’s not anybody being more of a priest than you are, because you have open access into heaven, because the sinless Son of God was slaughtered. But not only can you go in, but listen to me, you walk the priesthood out in a new and living way. I’m not sure if you’re aware of this, but if you are in Christ, listen to me. You are a priest unto God. Did you know that you’re called that in Scripture. This is Hebrews 10:19-20, “Therefore brothers, since we have confidence (look at that, “we have confidence”) to enter (enter where?) into the holy places.” What, how? “By the blood of Jesus” because the wrath of God has been completely extinguished on our behalf, heaven’s open. You remember what happened immediately when Jesus died, when He yielded up His spirit? What happened in the temple? The veil that separated the holy place from the Holy of Holies, where the Ark of the Covenant was? Was torn. The forbidding veil was torn from top to bottom, not bottom to top. Man didn’t tear it, God did. He tore it because Jesus’ flesh was torn. And the sacrifice was made, and the priests made the offering to who? To God the Father. That’s what was happening. And now we have open access. Why? As priests. Look verse 20 says, “How do we do it? Here it is, in the Scripture, “By the new and living way.” Not the old way of the letter. It’s the same thing but we do it in a new and living way. We go into the very presence of God, and not just once a year, but anytime we have open access. And we’re priests unto God. This is priest language that “He opened for us through the curtain that is through his flesh.”
And if you think that’s “Well, that doesn’t say we’re priests.” Well, it shows what we do as priests. But look with me at 1 Peter 2:4-5, and then 1 Peter 2:9, speaking to believers, “As you come to him a living stone, rejected by men, but in the sight of God, chosen and precious, you (that’s Christians, you) yourselves, like living stones are being built up a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.” You a holy priesthood. Now that’s a weird way to introduce yourself. I don’t think you should do it that way. I mean, it’d be kind of weird, right? You meet somebody for the first time. “Hello. I’m St. Stephen, priest of the Most High God.” Ooh, this isn’t room to boast, family. This is we understand that we didn’t earn this. We never could have afforded it. This was a gift purchased for us, but nevertheless, we are His priests. Is it fulfilled in Christ? Is the Old Testament fulfilled in Christ in the priesthood? Yes. So it’s abolished? No, no. I’m looking at a whole room full of priests. If you’re in Christ, you are a priest unto God. In fact, look down at verse nine, “But you are a chosen race, (not just a priest) a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness and into his marvelous light.” The priesthood is fulfilled in Jesus, and we walk it out in a new and living way.
You got to see the trend, and I showed you an easy one, and then I showed you two pretty, pretty obvious ones. And now I just want to go into left field. Okay, if you’ve never heard this before, then I wanted to find the most left field one that would help people, by the way. These are all ceremonial laws. These are all ceremonial offices. These are all ceremonial ordinances.
So here’s,
4. The Dietary Laws
You’re aware there were dietary laws, right? I’ve had people get in my face, literally telling them the gospel, “Well, you can’t eat shellfish then.” And I mean, if you like Cajun food, that’s bad news. It’s like, yeah, you know how to quote part of it out of context, but you don’t know what you’re talking about. So the dietary laws were given to the people of Israel. There’s no question what was kosher and what was not, what you could eat what you couldn’t eat, and they were divided. Foods were divided into two categories, clean and unclean. You could eat what was clean and you could and you had to abstain from what unclean. Those are listed out in Leviticus chapter 11. If you ever want to go read through those. It’s actually a kind of a fascinating study to do, particularly when you learn what you’re about to learn, it’s listed there. Now you might say, “Well, that doesn’t really matter. It’s been fulfilled in Jesus and all that.” I’m going to show you that we walk this out in the new and living way as well. And if you’re not concerned with the dietary laws, well, let me give you a preview. Okay? Because you may not worry about the shellfish, because you don’t care about what food’s like in Louisiana, but let me land the plane on you Texas, of which I am a Texan. Leviticus 11:1-2 “And the Lord spoke to Moses and Aaron, saying to them, ‘Speak to the people of Israel, saying, These are the living things that you may eat among all the animals that are on the earth.’” He tells them what they can’t eat. He goes back and forth between clean and unclean. But pay attention to verse seven and eight, Leviticus 11:7-8, “And the pig.” Oh. Oh, some of y’all just got nervous. “Oh, please tell us it’s been fulfilled.” Now, if you’re a young Jewish boy or girl, you would never know the difference. You never had a honey ham or something like that. You never had, you know, pork butt. You never had, you know, pulled pork, or pork sausage, or that thick maple bacon with your eggs, you don’t know what you’re missing. No bacon cheeseburgers. None of that. “The pig because it parts the hoof and is cloven footed, but does not chew the cud, is unclean to you. You shall not eat any of their flesh, and you shall not touch their carcasses. They are they are (what? they are) unclean to you.” Can’t do it. That was the ordinance. You say, “Wait a minute. This was fulfilled in Jesus?” Yes, how well two ways. Number one, He obeyed it. He never ate anything that was unclean. He kept the law perfectly. But also, He was the fulfillment of it revealing, listen, what the dietary laws were really pointing to. It’s way bigger than you think.
This is Mark 7:18-19. This is Jesus talking, “And he said to them, ‘Then are you also without understanding?’” Now, watch what He does. He’s going to take something that they understood meant on the outward, and He’s going to drive it to going to drive it to the heart. That’s what He does. “‘Do you not see that whatever goes into a person from outside cannot defile him, since it enters not his heart but his stomach and is expelled?’” Now what you see as a parenthetical statement here is text. This is still sacred text. It says, “(Thus he declared all foods clean.)” That’s in your Bible. I didn’t write that. That’s not my notes. “(Thus he declared all foods clean.)”. In other words, the dietary laws of the ceremonial ordinances had been fulfilled in Jesus Christ, not abolished. “So wait, ‘Oh, please, do we live it out in a new and living way? By bacon?”
No, we have to have it revealed to us what that new and living way is, and it’s shown to us in no uncertain terms in the book of Acts. This is Acts chapter 10. We’re going to pick it up kind of media res. Here’s what’s happening. The Gentiles have not been accepted as having the ability to come in hearing the gospel that that thought was still antithetical to the Jews, even those that come to Christ, right? Even those who believed that were there on Pentecost and as the early church grew but in Acts 10:9-16, what happens is, there’s a very famous Gentile man, and God deals with him, speaks to him and tells him to send for Peter. Send a group of your friends and have them go, your servants, actually, and go get Peter and tell him to come to you. That’s the deal. The Gentile is calling for the Jewish apostle, okay, we pick it up in verse nine, “The next day as they were on their journey.” The “they” here are the people that are going to get him. They’re going to go get, pick up Peter and bring him to the Gentiles. “The next day, as they were on their on their journey and approaching the city, Peter went up on the house top about the sixth hour to pray, and he became hungry and wanted something to eat, but while they were preparing it, he fell into a trance.” Now, this is descriptive. It’s not prescriptive. This is how God’s going to deal with the apostle because this is a moment in the early church where things need to be proven, because in Peter’s mind, Gentiles were not kosher. They would even say it this way, they’re unclean. They eat what’s unclean. They are unclean. They are the heathen. They are the outside. They are the nations. So, he has a trance verse 11, “And saw the heavens opened and something like a great sheet.” Think about a sheet the size of, you know, maybe this sanctuary, or even Grayson County, just full. He saw “A huge sheet descending, being let down by its four corners upon the earth. In it were (what?) all kinds of animals and reptiles and birds of the air.” In other words, in this sheet were all kinds of animals clean and unclean. Now keep in mind, Jesus has already declared all foods clean. “There came a voice to him: (and this is what it said, right?) ‘Rise, Peter; kill and eat.’” Now, he was a good Jewish man, wasn’t he? Yes, he was. So, he answers this, “But Peter said, (you know, it’s Peter), ‘By no means, Lord.’” That that’s never how you answer the Lord. You don’t say, “No, Lord.” You say, “Yes, Lord.” Why? Because He’s Lord. You only say, “Yes, Lord.” But he’s going to correct this the voice of God, as was his custom, “‘By no means, Lord; for I have never eaten anything that is common or unclean.’” And you know what? He’s probably telling the truth. He probably had kept the dietary laws. I mean, it’s fairly simple. Just stay away from the food that you’re not supposed to eat. Verse 15 says, “And the voice came to him again a second time, (here’s what he says) ‘What God (look at this, what God) has made clean, do not call common.’” Why is this happening? Well, you’re getting it. You’re getting the picture. I’m sure. Verse 16, “This happened three times.” By the way, when you see something in the Bible and its recurrence is three times, like when Jesus says you can’t serve God and money. When God, when Jesus repeats that, we covered that last week. When you see that, that’s the Bible’s way of giving emphasis. It really is. That’s a great hermeneutical principle. God is holy. Holy. Holy. That’s an emphasis through Scripture. Okay? “This happened three times, and the thing was taken up at once to heaven.” Now skip down to verse 19, Acts 10:19-20, “And while Peter was pondering the vision, the Spirit said to him, ‘Behold, three men are looking for you. (This is the three men that were sent) Rise and go down (because he was on the rooftop, right?) and accompany them without hesitation, for I have sent them.’” Now that’s the only reason he would ever be escorted by Gentiles to a Gentiles house. You just didn’t do that. Why? Because they were unclean. They were common. Now Peter’s starting to get the picture, and so what does he do? He goes with them, and he shows up, he tells them a bit of the story. He gives them the gospel, and as he’s giving them the gospel, the Holy Spirit, falls on these people, and they have the same kind of signs and wonders as the day of Pentecost, so that the apostle can become convinced and so that forever it would be recorded, yes, Gentiles too. Look at Acts 10:28, “And he said to them, ‘You yourselves know how unlawful it is for a Jew to associate with or visit anyone of another nation, but God has shown me that I should not call any person common or unclean.’” That’s what the dietary laws pointed to. You say, “So wait a minute, dietary laws were given so that someday Jesus would declare that that ordinance was over, and the fulfillment of it would be.” Now you don’t call anybody unclean. Do you know what that means? We don’t say of anybody. Doesn’t matter what tribe, tongue or nation they’re from, doesn’t matter what race they are. And listen, it doesn’t matter what political persuasion they are. It doesn’t matter what sexual supposedly orientation they are. It doesn’t matter if they think they’re a different sex. Every single person needs to hear the gospel of Jesus Christ. We don’t call them unclean or common in that sense. Now we tell them they have sin. We have to because the Bible says so, but they’re not common in the sense that God doesn’t want them, because what does God promise? He’s going to have a remnant of people, His bride from every tribe, tongue and nation under heaven. We walk it out in a new and living way.
The dietary laws have been fulfilled, and now it is open to everyone. This is Matthew 28:18-19, “Jesus came and said to them (that’s the disciples), ‘All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of (your favorite country only? no) of all nations.’” That’s the fulfillment of it. That’s why we broadcast the good news. That’s why we tell people to flee from the wrath to come. The law says, “You are condemned. You cannot keep it. Give up your righteousness is as filthy rags before a holy God. Throw off your own righteousness and throw yourself in the mercy of His, of what Jesus Christ did.” And we do that without any kind of selection. We broadcast it to everybody. You say, “Wait a minute, and we’re fulfilling the dietary laws?” Yes, we’re fulfilling the spirit of the dietary law that has been fulfilled in Jesus Christ. And now heaven is open to all who will come through the Son.
Now I’ve demonstrated it, moral law, judicial law, and even ceremonial law. I gave you four instances, and I could give you 40. Now it feels like a checkmate, unless your heart doesn’t want to hear it. Do you honestly think there’s even a possibility that the tithe has been abolished? No way. There’s no way. And next week, we’re going to look at what the purpose of it was, how Jesus fulfilled it, and how we walk it out new and a new living way. We’ll take two weeks to do that so we have a holistic understanding of it. And if you’ve been wrongly discipled under a stick of threat or a carrot, you know, a blessing, a guaranteed money, any of that junk, we’re gonna wash that off of you with the Holy Word of God. Some of you will take a power washer. Some of you, it’ll take an eye dropper. I just pray you come with a tender heart.
KEYWORDS
Old Testament, Hermeneutical Principle, A New And Living Way, Resurrection, Law, Leaven, Jesus Christ, Moral Law, Judicial Law, Ceremonial Law, Tithe, Offering, Passover, Communion, Sacrifice, Sacrificial Offerings, Priesthood, Dietary, New And Living Way, Love Fulfills The Law, Love, Heart, Fulfill, Lamb, Priest, Unclean, Common, Gentile, Last Supper, Bible Sermon, God’s Word, Scripture, Audio Sermon, Texas, Sherman, Ten Commandments, Gospel
SPEAKER
Steve LeBlanc