Sermon Tone Analysis

Announcements

Are there any announcements?

We are headed to the fall, therefore, soon we will move our start time back to 10:30am as the temp is dropping.

We currently have an online church directory.

The website/ phone app is Instant Church Directory.com.

You can sign up to access our current directory free of charge.

We will be updating this directory soon.

Once it is updated, we will be printing hard copies for those who desire one.

Introduction

Good morning and welcome to FCC, where we worship God in Spirit and in Truth, one verse at a time, one book at a time.

Before we get started today, I wanted to ask if anyone has the church cleaning extension pole that we use to clean the cob-webs around the ceiling tiles?

We have come as far as Matthew 5:17-20 and I am hopeful that we will close out this section of Scripture today and leave here today with a balanced view of law and grace and more specifically how the moral law applies to us.

Read Matthew 5:17-20

Prayer

Lord, thank you so much that we can gather together freely to worship you in song and in Word today.

We lift up our brothers and sisters around the world that do not have this freedom, but worship you any way like Daniel.

We ask that you stregthen them and give them, as well as us a double portion of your Spirit.

Lord as we study Matthew 5:17-20, we ask that you would open our eyes, or ears, and hearts to receive with meekness what you have for us this day.

Lord, many of us have struggled with law and grace for years, may today, we leave here today with a clear and concise view of there subjects and may we realize it takes the whole Bible, to make a whole Christian.

Please Father, help me to rightly divide your Word now, for your glory, for your honor, and praise.

In Jesus Name, we Love You! Amen

Review

Looking back we learned that that Jesus clearly did not come to destroy the law, but to fulfill it.

And we also learned that there are 3, maybe 4 divisions of the law, and today we will discuss those so we can have a better panoramic view of the law and thus understand our need for grace...

May today, be the day church that we get set free from the confusion we have have had over this subject over the years.

And may we come to Know the Father of the New Testament is not the God Father of the Old Testament, but rather the same Father who loves us.

I totally understand the difficulty with reading the OT with all the wars, killing, law, and sacrifice.

This is why we must read the OT, looking for Jesus and the Gospel.

The Bible Jesus read was the Law and the Prophets...

The Bible Paul read was the Law and the Prophets...

The Bible Peter read was the Law and the Prophets church, because the NT was not written yet.

However, let us not forget that Jesus was the living Word in flesh, Amen!

And the Word is still living today!!!

Last week, I mentioned that the Lord knew what was going on in the hearts of his listeners and he knows our hearts.

And how we know he knew this is by the first few words of of verse 17

DO NOT THINK!

He knew what was in their hearts and minds and this had to be reveling to all those who were listening.

And church, it is important for us to glean this nugget of truth for our own lives, God knows our hearts and minds.

So Jesus, knew their thoughts and that they were thinking he came to destroy or nullify the law, but he did not.

But, suddenly, here was a Man who did not belong to their schools, who not only taught, but also denounced their authoritative teaching.

Then, over and above that, He did not spend all His time in expounding the law.

He preached an extraordinary doctrine of grace and of the love of God which introduced such things as the parable of the Prodigal Son.

But, even worse, He mixed with publicans and sinners, sitting down and eating with them.

Not only did he not seem to observe all the rules and regulations; He actually seemed to be deliberately breaking them.

In His words He criticized their official teaching, and in practice He did the same.

So questions began to arise at once because of His theory and because of His practice.

‘Does this new Teacher not believe the Holy Writings?

The Pharisees and the scribes claim to be the exponents and the expounders of the Holy Scripture; does this Jesus of Nazareth, therefore, not believe it?

Church, since Jesus showed up, this is the first mention of the Law and the Prophets.

For the JEW, this was something new and revolutionary that was challenging their thinking , because every time they heard a message it had to do with the Law, the Law, the Law...

When we think of the prophets we need to remember that they actually taught the law, and they applied and interpreted it.

They went to the nation Israel and told them that the trouble with them was that they were not keeping God’s law, their main endeavour being to call the people back to a true understanding of it.

To this end they caused it to be read again and expounded.

But, in addition, they did foretell the coming of the Messiah....

Jesus came not to destroy church, but to fulfill.

How did Jesus fulfill the law?

He kept it perfectly, absolutely kept it perfectly church!!!

What is the Law?

For the sake of time, we are going to break the Law down into 3 divisions and although some scholars say there or 4 or even more divisions, I want to hone in on the controversy that surrounds us today.

*Ceremonial

*Judicial/ Civic

Moral

*denotes no-longer binding

God gave the ceremonial and dietary laws to Israel to not only protect them, but also the sanctify them form the pagan nations they were surrounded by.

Ceremonial Law

The ceremonial laws are called hukkim in Hebrew, which literally means “custom of the nation”; the words are often translated as “statutes.”

These laws seem to focus the adherent’s attention on God.

They include instructions on regaining right standing with God (e.g., sacrifices and other ceremonies regarding “uncleanness”), remembrances of God’s work in Israel (e.g., feasts and festivals), specific regulations meant to distinguish Israelites from their pagan neighbors (e.g., dietary and clothing restrictions), and signs that point to the coming Messiah (e.g., the Sabbath, circumcision, Passover, and the redemption of the firstborn).

Let’s look at a few of these more closely.

The reason why God said this was that the pagan nations surrounding Israel would shave the sides of the head as an act of worship and God wanted his special people to be set apart.

The Hassidic (Jews that migrated from Western Ukraine in the 17th century) and some of the Orthodox Jews still uphold this.

Truth be told church, God says we are in the world, but not of thew world.

Should we look like the world?

Should we act like the world?

So here, if you follow the dietary laws God gave to Israel, you cannot eat pork.

This means no bacon, not pulled pork, no ham sandwiches...

And as we look closely at this text we discover that the Jews do not eat:

Crab

Lobster

Shrimp

Does anyone know what pigs and bottoms feeder eat?

Church, even though all the ceremonial laws and festivals pointed to Jesus, there is some truth in eating healthy, because after all God is the one who created us.

But we are no longer bound to these laws.

Christians are not bound by ceremonial law.

Since the church is not the nation of Israel, memorial festivals, such as the Feast of Weeks and Passover, do not apply.

Judicial/ Civil Law

Judicial law is mixed throughout Exodus, Leviticus, and Deuteronomy.

These concerned things like property ownership and borders marriage vows , cities of refuge for suspected murderers, business transactions, and other legal situations.

These were to regulate the society and to help those in positions of mediation to settle disputes, determine crimes, and mete out punishment.

This by no means is an exhaustive list.

Here is just one illustration...

There is wisdom in the judicial and civil law that we could find for our life today, but again these are not binding.

Moral Law

The moral laws, or mishpatim, relate to justice and judgment and are often translated as "ordinances."

Mishpatim are said to be based on God’s holy nature.

This means that the Moral Law, is God’s character.

Therefore, when God said thou shall not murder, He was saying this because he is the author of life!

When God said not to bear false witness, which means Thou shall not lie, it is because he is Truth.

When God tells us in his word to not be impatient, it is because he is patient...

When God says do not hold grudges, resentments, or be unforgiving, it is because he is forgiving church....