Contrasting The Mosaic Law, & The 10 Commandments - What do we need to know - Sunday notes 3-14-21

Lord We are grateful for our fellowship together and for making this possible for us this morning…. Open our eyes today that we may see more clearly your path and your essence…Bless our study as we go forward ….

We ask these things in Jesus name..

Amen

     We have a lot on our plate this morning and I will do my best to get through it all as comprehensively as is possible. In the interest of time it has been necessary to abbreviate some concepts or to distil them into something suitable for us today.. with that in mind we will be comparing, contrasting and identifying the Mosaic Law or the Law of Moses, The 10 Commandments known as God’s Law, and to some extent the nature of sin as these are all are woven into a beautiful tapestry of love and protection for us….

Quickly introducing us to the concept of sin we can refer to Paul in Romans 2 & 3..

Referring to Paul Regarding sin….

In Romans 3 we find a question-and-answer scheme. These are in fact responses one might expect from someone opposed to what Paul wrote in Romans 2. However, Paul quotes from a series of Old Testament passages here. These Scriptures show that those writers also agreed that nobody, not one person, deserves to be called righteous.

Paul declares emphatically that no one will be justified by following the works of the law. ROM. 3:20 “Therefore by the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified in his sight: for by the law is the knowledge of sin.” It will become clear exactly what he meant by the last part of this statement as we go on…

Finally though, In this reading, he arrives at the “Good News”: righteousness before God is available apart from the law through faith in Christ's death for our sin on the cross. Faith in Christ and also faith in his purpose…

Before go further I’d like to share with you a bit of correspondence that I received just this morning as I happened to be piecing together the opening message for today.. I think you’ll see why as we go on..

In her letter She starts out by saying….

Yes! The man with palsy... :

Explain: now this is in reference to Mark 2:1-12 also mentioned in Luke 4, I believe…..

I’ll refresh your memory by just reading a few verses….

1 And again he entered into Capernaum after some days; and it was noised that he was in the house.

2 And straightway many were gathered together, insomuch that there was no room to receive them, no, not so much as about the door: and he preached the word unto them.

3 And they come unto him, bringing one sick of the palsy, which was borne of four.

4 And when they could not come nigh unto him for the press, they uncovered the roof where he was: and when they had broken it up, they let down the bed wherein the sick of the palsy lay.

5 When Jesus saw their faith, he said unto the sick of the palsy, Son, thy sins be forgiven thee.

6 But there were certain of the scribes sitting there, and reasoning in their hearts,

7 Why doth this man thus speak blasphemies? who can forgive sins but God only?

8 And immediately when Jesus perceived in his spirit that they so reasoned within themselves, he said unto them, Why reason ye these things in your hearts?

9 Whether is it easier to say to the sick of the palsy, Thy sins be forgiven thee; or to say, Arise, and take up thy bed, and walk?



10 But that ye may know that the Son of man hath power on earth to forgive sins, (he saith to the sick of the palsy,)

11 I say unto thee, Arise, and take up thy bed, and go thy way into thine house.

12 And immediately he arose, took up the bed, and went forth before them all; insomuch that they were all amazed, and glorified God, saying, We never saw it on this fashion.

As I am aware of many prayers coming to me from others..and the act that I encourage others to do..that is to pray for those who in some form or fashion has touched your lives. I noticed in a profound way `that Jesus extended forgiveness to this man through the love and faith of his friends who brought him there.. He received the blessing of forgiveness because he was interceded for by his friends who loved him.. through “their” faith he was healed…. It was a remarkable thought for me and so I shared this with the person who is writing this letter.. so now you have some context….

She continues…..

I remember that thought coming to me a while ago, and it made me see the value of praying for others who may not even be praying for themselves! It's like an answer to prayers when someone else is helped by God. Also reminds me that all the prayers of our Moms and Dads for us are still being answered!. Great understanding, Gil ! Actually, I had never heard anyone speak of this myself, but truth keeps coming out of our efforts to seek truth, ...this is a wonderful example of truth, truth revealed.” We will continue to seek out God’s truth here, in this bible study, day by day…Little by little as God will make it known to us….

But she continues…

She says……. I believe I understand something today that gives me a sense of peace and better understanding. I have been reading some chapters in Job....not easy going. This morning, I finally understood something. I have always chafed at being expected to be "obedient". And, I think I still refuse to be obedient to people who want to dominate me. As far as God's will for us, I don't think that I desired to be disobedient, but it just seemed to require some kind of blind obedience that fairly angered me. Well, after reading and thinking about things discussed in Job, I now see that we cannot always understand God's mind about things related to ourselves, because his thoughts are so infinitely above ours. Now this is the kicker……”But, to obey what we come to understand is his will, keeps us on the right path until we can see his purpose. Hard to explain. But I have a little more peace about this. I guess it means we have to trust that he has only the best in mind for us.

I wanted to share this with you this morning because it directly relates to the Mosaic Law and God’s law which are the 10 commandments… and of course directly connected to all of these rules and regulations for our lives are the events or times when we take our own way..when we make our own rules…so we’ll talk a little bit more about sin…. As this woman pointed out so well, in her note to me, avoiding sin is often not so easy… and blind trust,, in other words “faith” can be also quite an extraordinary feat or achievement for us.. One that can require huge desire and motivation and grit to achieve ,often in the face of our inner conflict… We really need a lot of help to defeat sin… You know sin reminds me an awful lot of addiction.. Any smoker will acknowledge the powerful influence of the cravings.. Any X smoker can attest to what the trauma of quitting is like ( I say any.. I think most can ) When you put them down in 30 minutes or less that urge is beginning to set in.. in an hour its powerful already and it only gets harder for a while… It doesn’t last 40 days and 40 nights.. maybe ½ that time and you begin to stop reeling from the impact.. But during that time period, however long it is, you know if you just pick up a cigarette or cigar or plug if you chew that it would just go away.. You would immediately be soothed and all of the trauma, all of the craving that’s making you crazy, would just disappear, immediately.. Of course it would have just sucked you in again because in 10 or 15 minutes it would start all over again… It’s the nature of addiction and it never ends unless you find a way to just turn away.. Spiritually we call that repentance… Turning away from sin and turning toward redemption… Repentance and redemption are 2 sides of the same coin..

But isn’t this how the devil works, sucking you in ??? Preying on our vulnerabilities and weaknesses.. and he knows them all because he is an expert on human nature and an expert on what make us tick… Of course like the seduction of a cigarette to take the craving away , in our quest to achieve immediate gratification, Satin will gladly accommodate… And should you rebuff his advances he will never stop tempting you until he has your life, lock stock and barrel.. until he has your soul…

So we have the Mosaic Laws, God’s Law or the 10 Commandments and Sin to tackle…

By the way.. Jesus said there are 2 defences against Satin, which of course would also be defences against sin.. “to know the scripture and with prayer”… Matthew 22:29 Jesus addresses the scribes in the tabernacle ..Jesus is commenting on their lack of knowledge..”Jesus answered and said unto them, Ye do err, not knowing the scriptures, nor the power of God.” The implication here is that to “know” the scripture is to also know the power of God… Jesus in reference to prayer said “And I tell you, ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you.” Through prayer and with faith….

As we strive to learn and grow in the way of the Lord He will open doors for us, expand our knowledge spiritually.. He will open our eyes to things we never saw before “And”…..when we know more we do things differently… So we need to live our lives as best we are able and “Trust that He has only the Best in mind for us..”

So we can digest the words of Jesus and Paul and others about handling sin internally and communicate our troubled thoughts and confusion to God in prayer..


But sin also has a basis in the rules and regulations that we need to strive to live by. As we look at these things we need to look at and Compare Moses’ Law and God's Law or the Ten Commandments.

We have laws and we learn laws so that we can live safety and happily together….

Well so it is with God’s law.. God’s law is not negative its positive…God gave his laws to his people so that they could live in harmony together and be conveyed through life happily and safely.. And yet through that’s true and that is how it worked, there was a negative twist in that the law ,when you read it or when you hear it, it reveals the truth about yourself. Just like when I would see Manila LTO watching the vehicles go by; as I drive by I tense up..that revels something about who I am ..Not who they are but who I am and so the Law of Moses revealed man’s sin because here God is saying do this don’t do that ..when we read that we say, well it says don’t do that but I’ve done that already ..It says do this but I haven’t done that so well either..

It reveals that I have fallen short ..Its sort of like a glass of water ..If you take a glass of water that has some dirt or impurities in it and it looks cloudy if you just leave it for a time it begins to settle at the bottom ..all of those imputies..that dirt.. And when you look at it it’s deceptive..it looks crystal clear after a while..the dirt has settled ..if you take a spoon however and start mixing it up the truth is revealed…the dirt gets mix up in the fluid and you can see that its cloudy ..the law is like the spoon..the law sturrs up the nature within us ..The reflection of the Law upon us shows what we really are and what our inclinations really are about…Thats why Paul said in Romans chapter 7 ..I would not have known sin unless it were for the law ..Remember he also said that Nobody can be justified by it too but it does reveal our need …

Now as believers , here we are as new testament believers this morning reading or considering an old testament book of the Law of Moses.. And you probably know as a Christian that the new testament says we are not under the law.. did you know that??.... meaning we’re not under the covenant of the law..John chapter 1..The law was given by Moses but grace and truth was given by Jesus Christ making a comparison between two totally different covenants…but though we are not under the law , the bottom line of our lives ought to be that we want to please God..and that is the bottom line of the law..The law in the 10 commandments, if you were to sum it all up ..its irreducible minimum would be #1 that we love God supremely ..and #2 have sincere affection for one another.. loving God..Loving each other..and that sums up the law.. Jesus said “you will love the Lord your God , quoting from the law, with all of your heart , with all your mind, with all your soul, with all of your strength ,and you shall love your neighbour as yourself…On these 2 hang all of the law and the prophets…So the principles of the law in the 10 commandments Exodus, chapter 20 are 2 fold..there is an axis here.. You have a vertical and a horizontal axis ..the first 4 commandments talk about your vertical axis.. Man to God thats the relationship..The next 6 commandments are horizanial..Man to man or woman to woman and how we relate with each other..so relating to God is on the vertical and than Man’s relationship to his fellow man is horizontal .. The 1st commandment tells whom we should worship. I am the Lord your God..You will have no other God beside me..

the second commandment tells us how we should worship.. The first whom we should worship ..the second how we should worship…You will have no graven images that’s the 2nd commandment..”who” and then “how”.. The 1st worship God exclusively the 2nd worship God correctly…The first commandment forbids false Gods but 2nd commandment forbids the false worship of the true God…make sense? No images..He says don’t cast an image that represents me that you would bow down to it and worship it…and it’s because an image by its very limitation miss represents God.. you can never make an image that fully captures the personality of God.. so it will misrepresent God as soon as its made..no matter how beautiful it is ..its doesn’t fully represent the totality of his character and nature. So it is instantly, at once.. a misrepresentation of God and because it misrepresents God it misleads people by impressionistic means.. We cannot know the character of God in a way that would allow us to duplicate it in any form…

The 3rd commandment in verse 7 “You will not take the name of the Lord your God in vain…” The word in vain is chav in Hebrew which means to empty something of its content or its meaning…Don’t empty God’s name of its value; its content.. its meaning.. it is to be a name spoken of reverently in a holy fashion..

verse 8 the 4th commandment …”Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy” ..About 90 times in the old testament the term Sabbath appears..about 55 times in the new testament ..The word Sabbath in Hebrew Shabbat simply means to cease…to stop…Because God worked 6 days on creating the heavens and the earth and on the 7th day he rested..he stopped…This day is set aside..why? to honor God…Its interesting that when we go from the old testament to the new that the Jewish nation made the Sabbath work…not rest….there were 39 restrictions that people knew about besides what the Talmud said about what you could not do on the Sabbath..There were actually 24 chapters devoted to what you could and could not do on the Sabbath… 24 !!!!! It became more work to keep the Sabbath then it was to work for 6 days….Jesus said that the Sabbath was made for man..Man was not made for the Sabbath..The Sabbath, part of the 10 commandments is part of the covenant God made with Israel.. It does have a principle. It does have a fulfilment. And the fulfilment in the new testament is fulfilment in person of the Lord Jesus Christ…he is our rest..He is our Sabbath..Therefore , Hebrews says, it remains a rest for the people of God and whoever enters into that rest has ceased from his own works as God did from his…God finished the work at the cross so that is why of all of the 10 commandments the one commandment that is not repeated for the church to keep is the Sabbath..If you will..its nullified Colossians chapter 2 tells us ‘Let no one judge you in respect to a festival or a Sabbath day which is a shadow of things to come but the substance is of Christ…So it is the only non-moral commandment and therefore as part of the covenant of Israel is not enforced upon the church.. Now the early church often met on the Sabbath but soon , we read in the book of Acts , 20 that they began meeting on the 1st day of the week.. Why they gathered on the first day of the week the answer was simple..The first day of the week is when Jesus got up out of the grave by resurrection and we celebrate resurrection power.

Now if your worried or do not feel comfortable ignoring the 7th day Sabbath …..possibly we could do a Saturday night service here… Seriously ..I sort of like what Paul said..He said one man esteems one day of the week above all others ..another man says all the days of the week are alike..Let each one be persuaded in his own mind..closed quote..Thats kind of where I am personally ..I like to worship God everyday of the week…I do my best to make everyday the Lords day… But the judgement or preference ..the choice is yours to make… If your hung up on a day its perfectly ok…you have the prerogative ..you have the grace.. We won’t judge you but the bible says your not to judge us either…

Verse 12..the 5th commandment..This is the commandment that every parent loves to quote and every child hates to hear..”Honor thy father and mother ..It is interesting that the 1st commandment of the second section is not thou shalt not murder…. It is honour thy father and mother.. Because it applies to everyone.. Everyone has parents….Not everyone has a wife..not everyone necessary has a neighbour.. but everyone has parents or you wouldn’t be here…A child’s first words are not Stock market or Fox news.. It is usually dada or mama.. It is a primary relationship and therefore it is #1 in the 2nd section of the 10 commandments..

Verse 13 the 6th commandment You shall not murder…The old king James said Kill..The new king James says murder and most modern translations say murder because that is the idea of the word..Its not thou shall not kill because even in the next chapter God will prescribe killing for certain things..So this is the intentional taking of life for personal reasons…Not for national reasons..not for judicial reasons… this is important because it tells us that to God life is sacred..

Death should always be viewed through the lens of the value we put on life..So if you believe that life is a gift from God that we were created by God , in his image..and that we exist because God made us so ..then to take a life..to murder is an insult to and an assault against God himself…But if you feel that man is just the result of a cosmic accident then to end a life is just a biological process…nothing moral is attached to it.. Its not from God ..do as you will…You can take the life of an unborn baby..you can tke the life of an old person..because there not valued in society.. So death is viewed by the value we place on life.. God places a high value on it, because we’re made in his image and after his likeness.. So he makes this declaration ..You shall not murder..

Verse 14 is the 7th commandment. You shall not commit adultery…Now in the commandment God is building a fence not just around life but around marriage..God recognises that the sexual impulse is one that he gave to us..That would be a revelation to some people…They talk about to being into sexuality as though it were actually created by them..We’ll God invented it.. give him credit..it was his idea…The impulse is God given and because it is God given it must be God governed.. God directed or God guided..so hes building the fence around marriage.. You shall not commit adultery..

Verse 15.. 8 th commandment..You shall not steal…Let me just back up for just a moment..

Sex is a gift by a good God to a people that he loves..In its proper domain its beautiful..Its a beautiful expression…as one man and one woman are devoted to each other its beautiful..if you take it out of its context its no longer beautiful…..In some circumstances it can be ugly and its ravaging…

I love to see a beautiful garden beautifully kept garden I’m amazed when you have beautifully dark soil and the enriched nutrients that are in it ..the seedlings pop up from and in that context the dirt looks good but if I were to take a scoop of that dirt and throw it in the middle of your living room floor then it would be dirty, ugly..certainly out of place..it dosen’t belong there…. Bingo..Its the idea behind that commandment.. thou shalt not comment adultery… I say that because sometime when people look at God commandments it feels negative and repressive….if you saw a sign that says do not enter you might say that’s restrictive or negative I’ll go where I want.. but what if the next line said explosives?? Now I interpret that sign and not being negative but being positive so you don’t get blown up.. We need to remember that God loves us and search for the positive in a seemingly negative command or message…So weather a commandment says you shall or you shall not they are all positive…

So back to #8 You shall not steal… Stealing was a problem from the very beginning..Its interesting that in this era.. during the time of Genesis we read about watchtowers built that when you have a piece of property you would build a watchtower on it. Why? So you could watch in case thieves would come into your land and steal things.. We know this all too well here in the Philippines.. Back then they would steal food growing in the fields ..I found something interesting that another ancient form of stealing was taking a rock marker that marked the boundary of your property and moving it.. sometimes a little each day until they had actually stolen your land.. So now God is drawing a fence to protect personal property..of course there are many way to steal right.. Using company assets for personal needs is a form of stealing, There are infinite ways of stealing.. But we can even steal from God.. by not keeping his commandments…

Verse 16 is the 9th commandment.. You shall not bear false witness against your neighbour…This commandment is based on the character of God himself.. God loves truth…God hates falsehood.. Remember how Christ spoke with such distain about those who were hypocritical??? Because their lives were dishonest.. they were a sham.. they were a lie….In proverbs 6 it says that God hates a lying tongue …

Verse 17 is the 10th commandment . You shall not covet and it is spelled out specifically.. Your neighbours house, his wife, his servants.. and so on.. Thou shalt not covet .. the 10th commandment is far different from all of the proceeding commandments. All of the other commandments deal with outward actions.. This deal with the hidden inward attitude,.. nobody see you if you covet..But it is that strong inordinate desire that you have to own something that someone else processes…You know people have made an industry of finding ways to keep you dissatisfied… If you pay attention to the commercials on tv you see that they have gone to work on your children so that they will work on you.. :0 Its so common we don’t even think about it anymore… They create a need in your mind and then seek to also fill that need.. Prime marketing 101 in 2021… consider Lazada or Shoppee…. I don’t think I have to belabour this point.. But it is peace in our hearts and contentment in our lives that God seeks to give us if we are willing to receive it..He wants for us the opposite of what coveting represents….Thats why it is a commandment..thou shalt not covet.. Peace and contentment… so the 10th commandment deals with the inward workings of our mind and heart..

We cannot deceive God but he will do a work inside of us if we allow it..if we desire it….

MANY people often confuse Moses Law with God's Ten Commandment Law, but they are very different.

Moses' law was the temporary, ceremonial law of the Old Testament. It regulated the priesthood, sacrifices, rituals, meat and drink offerings, etc., all of which foreshadowed the cross. This law was added "till the seed should come," and that seed was Christ (Galatians 3:16, 19). The ritual and ceremony of Moses' law pointed forward to Christ's sacrifice. When He died, this law came to an end, but the Ten Commandments (God's law) "stand fast for ever and ever." Psalm 111:7,8.

As I was reading through these commandments it occurred to me that there is so much more to be said about each and every one of them…They are worth considering in more depth as they can and should shape our direction each day.. Of course in this bible study to discuss the nature of sin, the Law of Moses and the 10 commandments in approximately one hour was a daunting task albeit one that I enjoyed. So in the interest of time we could not in great depth discuss God’s great Law..

To summarize . When God led the children of Israel out of Egyptian bondage, He delivered to them in fiery majesty the Ten Commandments. This Holy law was spoken by God, written by God, recorded on tables of stone, and is of eternal duration. At the same time the ceremonial law, of temporary usage, was also delivered to the children of Israel. This law dealt with the ceremonial rites of the Jewish sanctuary service, and concerned itself with a system of religion that passed away at the cross. Large sections of Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy describe in detail this temporary law. The ceremonial law can easily be identified in scripture. It talks about circumcision (a religious Jewish rite), sacrifices, offerings, purifications, holy days and other rites associated with the Hebrew sanctuary service. There are 613 commandments in the Torah , 10 of which are the 10 commandment held up for us by Jesus. The rest of the remaining 603 are man’s way of helping out God improve his system.. Pretty audacious if you ask me…

Dear Lord we ask this morning for your blessing upon this bible study and all who are in attendance this morning and those who could not be with us. We ask for forgiveness not only for ourselves but for all who believe in our Lord and saviour Jesus Christ but have fallen or stumbled along the way, for all those with an honest heart we ask for your blessing on them for your compassion to them…. We thank you Lord for hearing our prayers and for allowing us to intercede for our brothers and sisters …. So many of us suffer from health issues this morning Lord. You know who they are we ask that they be healed if that be your will .. We are thankful this morning for your word. Help us to understand more deeply the secrets locked into this bible that we study so we can know thee better… We ask these things in Jesus name..

Amen