Cross Reference: Understanding the Bible - Part 1 - Pastor Raymond Woodward

tonight we begin a brand new series for the next few weeks and this series is called cross reference if if we were in a classroom tonight which we're not we're in church but if we were in a classroom they would call what we're going to do probably bible survey the purpose of this little series is quite simple it's to help us understand the plan of the bible and the plot of the scripture so we can better understand the purpose of our own lives as we read and as we study god's word and so tonight i want to begin where paul ended in mentoring his young protege timothy here's where paul ended this is the last letter he ever wrote he said timothy all scripture is given by inspiration of god and is profitable for doctrine for reproof for correction for instruction in righteousness that the man of god may be perfect thoroughly furnished unto all good works now if you've followed me around very much in teaching you've seen this before but i want to pause and share it one more time paul said that scripture is profitable for four purposes scripture affects both our belief and our behavior and so under belief scripture is given to us for doctrine what is doctrine doctrine is what we should believe scripture is also given to us by the way for reproof reproof is what we should not believe and so when you're reading scripture when you're going through your bible you should be looking for something to believe or maybe something not to believe that's called reproof so there's a yes or no from the scripture on our belief yes believe this no don't believe that but scripture doesn't just affect our belief scripture is meant to affect our behavior and again there's a yes and a no on our behavior in scripture scripture is also given in addition for doctrine and reproof it's given for correction everybody that has a child or has ever been a child you know what correction is correction is how not to behave and we teach our children how not to behave that's called correction but then the bible goes further than that it doesn't just tell us no don't act like that no don't live like that it gives us instruction in righteousness or how to behave paul said to timothy scripture is given for these four purposes and as we look through the scripture we should be looking for these things to speak to us as we're reading the bible now the bible calls itself the word and there are two major words in the new testament in the greek language the original language that brings us the new testament there are two words for the word and the first is logos and logos occurs about 300 times in the new testament and this is a big broad theological term it refers to the total revelation of the word of god everything that is god's truth is the logos but it also refers to jesus christ because the bible tells us in john 1 1 in the beginning was the word the logos and the logos was with god and the logos the full complete revelation of truth that was god but god went further than that god wasn't content to stay in heaven while here on earth we messed it up and we all ended up in hell in an eternity without him the word the logos was made flesh it dwelt among us and we beheld his glory the glory as of the only begotten of the father full of grace and truth aren't you grateful that god just doesn't uh deal with us after truth because truth would kill us if it wasn't meted out through god's grace god knows everything wrong we've ever done god knows every sin we've ever committed god could list you for all the endless ages every way in which humanity has broken his laws and his commandments but aren't you thankful he came not only with truth but with grace and that's the logos the full revelation of god so the word is the logos but jesus is the the living logos all of scripture points to him but when you're reading your bible when you're studying your bible when you're having your devotional time with the lord and you're praying maybe reading a scripture and talking to jesus can i just say it this way you don't just need the logos because the logo says you can study the logos the full revelation of truth the full revelation of god you can study that for a lifetime and never exhausted so you can't get it all done in one morning prayer session you can't learn it all you can't ingest it all you can't understand it all in just one in fact you can't even do that in a whole lifetime so there's something else that the word uses to refer to itself and that is the greek word rima maybe you've heard that it occurs about 70 times in the new testament and rima is not different than logos it's all god's truth it's all god's word but what arima is is a specific word from god that comes out of that full revelation of truth and it speaks to a particular person or a specific circumstance so it's never separate from the logos it's never contradictory to the logos but it's a specific word from the author of all scripture let me ask you a question have you ever been reading your bible and a scripture you just said later it just jumped out at me or i never saw that before that ever happened to anybody besides me you were just reading your bible and you know what happened out of the logos out of the full revelation of god god spoke a specific word to you that's what we want to happen when our pastors are teaching or preaching that's what we want to have happen when an evangelist comes by or somebody with a prophetic ministry comes by and they speak to us what we are looking for is a rhema a specific word that comes out of the logos we don't want anybody that gets outside of scripture we don't want a word under their spirit we don't want a word under their flesh or out of their mind we want a word from the word of god but we can't take in the whole word of god every service we'd be here for a while but what we need is a specific word from god for today look at these verses jesus said to the devil in the wilderness it is written man shall not live by bread alone but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of god jesus didn't use the word logos there he used the word rhema man doesn't live by bread alone you don't live just by eating your food every day if you're a child of god every day you need a word from god for today you might only have time to read one verse this morning but i hope you read that verse and you mulled it around in your mind and you maybe prayed over it and if you haven't had time yet you've still got time but every day you need a word from god it might be god bringing scripture back to your memory but you need a word from god it's not enough just to know a list of bible doctrines that's part of the logos that's beautiful and powerful but every day that you live you need god speaking to you and you need to be speaking to god ephesians chapter 6 and verse 17 paul said take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the spirit which is and he uses that word which is the word of god the rhema of god the devil's not scared that you know a few bible memory verses from sunday school that are so dusty in your brain that you can't even really fully quote them he's not scared of that i'll tell you what the devil is frightened of is somebody that has the word of god active in their life active in their heart active in their mind today i'm just going to push that a little bit because there's a resistance to that in today's culture we think we're so smart that we don't need an ancient book like the bible let me tell you you need those ancient words of god floating around in your spirit every day i'll tell you who the devil's afraid of somebody that has a red-hot word from god in their life i'm not saying you have to be a preacher i'm not saying you need to hit the evangelistic field or go to the mission field i'm just saying in your everyday life you need the word of god to get in your spirit that's called a rhema it's a specific word from god now this i think is absolutely gorgeous and beautiful this is called the bible rainbow i think this is absolutely astounding this visualization started on a computer it started as a collaboration between chris harrison and christoph romhild back in october of 2007 they put together a database of cross-references found in the bible you know like if you have a center margin in your bible that it takes one scripture and it tells you to look up another one that's a cross reference they put more than 63 000 cross references together and they struggled to find an elegant solution to render the data and as they were discussing it they decided we want something that's more beautiful than just functional but at the same time they didn't want it to be inaccurate they wanted something that honored and revealed the complexity of the data that they'd taken from the bible at every level in other words as somebody zoomed in on the data smaller details should become visible and this ultimately led them to this multi-colored arc diagram that you see on the screen it has been affectionately called the bible rainbow the bar graph that runs along the bottom here that is the chapters in the bible starting with genesis chapter 1 on the left the books of the bible alternate in color groupings between light and dark gray and the first book of the old testament and the new testament they're rendered in white the length of each bar on the bottom it indicates the number of verses in that chapter of the bible now we all went through this just a few weeks ago so you already know what that really long bar is in the center of the screen that's psalm 119 with 176 verses now this is amazing this really is each of the 63 779 references found in the bible they're depicted by a single ark in that rainbow and and here's what they did the color corresponds to the distance between the two chapters if it's a really long distance between something in genesis and maybe something in revelation that's that's a certain color the long ones are a different color than the short ones if it's one prophecy in malachi that refers to something in matthew it's a little short arc and it's a different color and it created on a computer this beautiful rainbow effect canadian psychologist professor and author jordan peterson has used this graphic in one of his lecture series and he talked about this he said the bible is actually the first hyperlinked book long before we had ipads or anything online that you could click on a link and go somewhere else he said the bible's actually a hyperlinked book well i got one up on dr peterson the bible is not only a hyperlinked book where all the prophecies connect one with the other in in this beautiful symmetry of god the bible's also a supernatural book and when we talk about cross references i love this little statement i wrote it down in the margin of my bible when i was a teenager and i really like it the new the new testament the new is in the old contained you read the old testament there's all kinds of shadows of the new testament contained there the new is in the old contained but the old is in the new explained the new is in the old concealed the old is in the new revealed the new is in the old portrayed but the old is in the new displayed see god planned the bible from beginning to end before the world was ever thought of in his mind so this little series is going to be i i hope mostly practical for you and it's mostly going to give you handles to understand the plot and the plan of scripture but i hope it's also something of beauty and something that's inspirational to you there are many ways to read and study the scripture some people call it the inspirational method maybe you use that you just kind of read until a verse connects with your spirit and then you talk to the lord about it that's a wonderful way to read and study the bible they call that the inspirational method there's the topical method where you look up all the scriptures you can find on grace or mercy or god's love or forgiveness that's a wonderful way to study there's the biographical way to study the bible that's where you just lock in on one character joseph or paul or david or saul if you really want to be depressed you can lock in on somebody and just study their life that's the biographical method then the theologians have this one it's it sounds more complicated than it is the exegetical method now you've probably used this and maybe you didn't know it the exegetical method is where you just go verse by verse and you look up a few words and you just meditate on it and you study verse by verse we've done that in many series here in the church we walk through a book verse by verse that's the exegetical method but one of the most beautiful ways to study the bible is what the theologians call the typological method you learn from the types and the figures and the shadows and the patterns and the symbols and the pictures that are in the scripture and and usually that's the old testament pointing ahead to something greater to something yet to come pointing to the new testament here's what god said about his own word remember the former things of old for i am god and there is none else i am god and there is none like me now watch this declaring the end from the beginning and from ancient times the things that are not yet done saying it doesn't matter what the government does it doesn't matter what the devil tries it doesn't matter if hell attacks it doesn't matter if you mess up or fail god said my counsel shall stand and i will do all my pleasure god could stand back in eternity past and he could plan and prophesy his entire word from that moment until the end of time so this is an amazing book we have access to it's the world's first hyperlinked book dr peterson said but it's a supernatural book so if you've got a book like that and it's part of your life and you're a christian there is incredible value in understanding the bible i'm not just talking about coming to church and hearing a sermon and getting kind of a little bit of inspiration that's very valuable but i'm talking about when you go home and you read the bible that you can actually kind of understand where things fit that's what we're going to try to do here and as you see the outline of the bible unfold you'll begin to see what i call cross references no not the little things printed in the margin but that everything in the bible points to the cross of jesus christ cross references you will see cross references unfold because god's word is written with the end in mind from the very beginning and with the cross at the center of all of human history so with that in mind i'm going to give you a little outline that we're going to follow for this series some of you your eyes have glazed over like a tim horton's donut already but just hang tight it's going to be fine we're going to do in this little series we're going to do 10 sessions not not 10 lessons but we're going to do 10 segments of the scripture first of all the first grouping of books in scripture we're going to call that the law everyone say law so this is the first five books genesis to deuteronomy and it's where uh israel receives the law of god and and we'll talk about that in a second then the next section is land everyone say land this is joshua to ruth where they finally get to their promised land and they enter it and conquer it and then once they've been there for a while and a few years have elapsed then we have rain everyone say rain and this is the kingdom of israel this is uh the united kingdom then the divided kingdom uh it's it's functional and beautiful then it's dysfunctional and awful but it's the kingdom and finally things fall apart and because of israel's rebellion and sin they go into captivity god allows that because they've strayed from him so far and then at the end of the old testament you have this everyone say rebuild they have to come back they have to rebuild the walls of the city they have to rebuild the temple and that's at the end of the old testament now in between all of that you've got books of poetry this is the psalms that we love to read and proverbs and those kind of books everyone say poetry and then you've got prophecy oh my goodness do you have prophecy 17 books of prophecy five are called the major prophets because they're long-winded they're longer and and twelve are called the minor prophets because they didn't preach as long so you would love the minor prophets but um there were major and minor prophets they spoke all during this time during the time that the kingdom was divided during the time that they were going into captivity and some of them even spoke when israel was coming back at a captivity so the books of poetry and prophecy kind of infiltrate the period of the rain and the rebuilding and that's the old testament do the old testament with me would you say those words everyone say law land reign rebuild poetry prophecy that's the old testament now we flip the page to the gospel of matthew and of course the first uh shining star of the new testament is christ because the gospels four of them tell his story and then he did not come to do everything he came to pay for everything he paid the price for our redemption but he left it to his church to preach the gospel and to help people obey the gospel and to evangelize the world so the next section is the book of acts just one book but that's the church so we've got christ then we've got the church and then we've got 21 books some longer some shorter many by paul some by other people but there are the books of teaching we call them the epistles and finally you've got this massive triumph at the end it's the book of revelation where the devil gets what's coming to him and the saints get what's coming to us too and it's a triumph for all of eternity so that's the new testament everybody say that with me say christ church teaching triumph that's the old testament and the new testament in 10 segments and that's kind of where we're going to lock in in this series a little bit so without any delay i want to just jump into all of these books of the law chapter after chapter after chapter of the law the first five books of the old testament are often referred to as the books of moses because historians and tradition tell us that he most likely wrote them we also call them the pentateuch meaning the five books but the jews refer to these five books as the torah torah is a hebrew word that means teaching doctrine instruction standards or law because god's law is the most important content that is found in the first five books of the bible not the story of abraham or joseph god's law is the most important content found here it's in the books of the law that god reveals his master plan for a people who will share his truth with the world first in the old testament and of course it foreshadows what happens in the new testament these books are filled with some of the most familiar stories in the bible uh creation and the flood adam and eve cain and abel abraham isaac and jacob and joseph some of the most familiar stories in the bible are here but it's not just stories these stories and the law of god they are important signposts that point ahead to an old testament nation and a new testament church so when you're reading the first five books of the bible you need to keep that in mind that god is setting up what everything else that's going to come one one author in fact uh eugene peterson who uh penned the paraphrase of scripture called the message he compared these five books to your life he compared him to the life cycle of a human being here's what he said he said genesis is like conception it's the beginning of everything the first man the first woman the first family the first nation the first sin uh all of that and so it's like the beginning it's like conception then exodus is like the birth and the infancy of an individual this is where israel experiences salvation when they're brought out of egypt and so it's like your birth being brought forth and it's like your infancy and then leviticus is like your education and if you didn't like school you won't like leviticus either leviticus is just going through all kinds of codes and laws and rules and commandments but it teaches a people who've experienced salvation about sanctification salvation is where god saves you from your sin sanctification is where god makes you like him and so that's important and then numbers i got a kick out of this i was reading this earlier today peterson said numbers is like your adolescence because you're in rebellion most of the time and that's what happens in numbers these people who've been saved and sanctified they've got the promises and the provision and the laws of god they've got everything going for them they rebel and they mess everything up so they're like your teenager whose brain by the way is not fully formed until they're 25 according to modern science so if we've got any under 25 year olds in here uh i just insulted you i think uh but for the rest of us we already knew that and so israel's brain isn't fully formed either and then you've got deuteronomy and deuteronomy is adulthood because in deuteronomy god gives them a second chance and a second choice to serve him and and they have to choose to serve god and so it's like the mature love that we would have for obeying our parents or for a partner in marriage or in life that kind of thing so so i thought that was really neat so this is the the law the first five books of the bible and i want to just give you a few handles i'm not going to be long the the purpose of this series is not hugely theological it's very practical and i pray that it'll be a help to you and if we get bogged down and and and we're not liking it we'll just quit and we'll do something else it's fine but i think you'll enjoy it and i hope it will bless you uh the book of genesis most of the major doctrine you don't believe that i'm going to quit in midstream but but i did last week so it's fine most of the major doctrines in the bible are introduced in seed form in the book of genesis if you think everything starts here creation the fall of man the entrance of sin god's promise of redemption they're all here the judgments of the flood the dispersion of the nations are here the patriarchs of israel are here abraham isaac and jacob it all begins here it's all setting us up for something to come the twelve tribes of israel begin here the twelve sons of jacob and the story of joseph is here one of my favorites in all of the old testament joseph takes up a lot of real estate in the book of genesis for a very good reason god uses joseph to save the nation that god has brought to birth they would have starved to death if it hadn't been for joseph and you know joseph's story he sold into slavery by his own brothers for pieces of silver that sounds very familiar and and he sent to egypt to a land that is not his own and he falls from his father's house with all the wealth that that his father jacob would have had now he's basically just a lowly slave in a foreign nation not his own but the hand of god is with joseph and joseph rises up through all kinds of obstacles and all kinds of issues and problems and then comes the day when pharaoh calls for him and joseph ends up being second in command in the empire of egypt and he's the one that comes up with the wise plan to save up food during seven years of plenty so there'll be enough food during seven years of famine and pharaoh is so impressed with this young hebrew man who can tell the future and interpret dreams and and has such wisdom that he changes joseph's name and he calls him zapanath panea and zapanoth panea means the savior of the world so here you have this story of this young man the first time you see him he's being uh betrayed by his brothers and sold for silver and so treated like a slave but the second time you see him he's seated on a throne and he has a name that's above every other name in egypt and if you want to get grain you have to bow before him and honor his name his name means savior of the world that's a pretty cool foreshadowing that's a pretty detailed picture of the one that would come that we love and that we serve we know the real savior of the world joseph was just a portrait pointing forward that's genesis and then prophetically god sends joseph to egypt all to set up the next book of the bible which is the book of exodus if i'm going to give you one verse out of these books this is the verse that probably is one of the most significant in genesis it's in the garden of eden and god addresses the serpent the devil who has just deceived adam and eve and here's what he says i will put enmity enmity is all out war i will put enmity between you the devil and the woman between thy seed and her seed it shall bruise thy head and thou shalt bruise his heel do you understand that genesis 3 15 sets up the conflict that your little life is part of today you are on the side of god so many people in the world are on the side of evil and sin and satan and that conflict rages today but the hope is in the cross this is a cross-reference because someday on the cross of calvary the devil's head is going to be smashed and crushed and jesus his heel will be bruised but he's going to come out of the grave victorious it's a cross reference and so joseph going to egypt that sets us up for exodus three and a half centuries pass between the last verse of genesis and the first verse of exodus and now the israelites are enslaved in egypt and they need deliverance the word exodus just means a way out and this is the book of redemption in the old testament please hear me if you study exodus if you read exodus you need to be looking for pictures and shadows of the plan of salvation all the way through the first third of this book describes israel's slavery the ten plagues the night of the passover god delivers them by blood on the doorpost water of the red sea and the pillar of cloud and fire god delivers israel from egypt by blood water and spirit it's amazing because that's the same way he delivers us in the new testament the middle third of the book describes their wandering in the wilderness and the giving of the ten commandments and god's miraculous provision of manna and so many other things and then the last third of the book it tells us something equally important it gives us god's pattern for the tabernacle and all the sacrifices the tabernacle is the most detailed type of jesus and the most detailed type of salvation in the entire bible i know when you read some of those chapters in your bible reading your eyes start to glaze over because you're thinking how many more boards and bars and pegs and ropes are there but if you could understand every piece of furniture every piece of construction in that tabernacle tent pictures jesus and pictures our salvation notice again if you go through the tabernacle you've got the brazen altar blood you've got the brazen laver water you've got the ark of the covenant spirit it's always the same that's a powerful picture of jesus death burial and resurrection it's a powerful picture of our repentance where we die to our old life and our baptism in jesus name and our spirit baptism the infilling of the holy ghost but here's what's important to notice in exodus i think it took one night for god to get israel out of egypt and it took 40 years for god to get egyptian attitudes out of israel and you are not that much different it doesn't take god a long time to forgive you it doesn't take god a long time to save you that happens when you obey the gospel but let me tell you god is not just going to save you and drop you on a church seat and leave you here to just kind of twiddle your thumbs until he returns he's going to build his character in you he's going to teach you his loss and if you're listening you should be getting closer to jesus and more like jesus the longer you do this some people have this almost sarcastic distaste for the laws of god not the scripture the scripture teaches us that when god's people are redeemed now they're ready to be sanctified now they're ready to follow god's commandments and and so that fact alone that god spends 40 years teaching israel his laws that fact alone is probably the very best introduction to the next book which is leviticus and leviticus oh my goodness that's major exodus chapter 20. here's what god said in the prelude to the ten commandments he said i am the lord thy god i have brought you out of the land of egypt i have brought you out of the house of bondage and then he drops the bomb thou shalt have no other gods before me i did this for you i did that for you i saved you from this i brought you out of that now have no other gods before me we call that the ten commandments but really that's probably just the ten agreements of course god will have no other gods before you if you brought us out if you redeemed us if you saved us if you freed us of course we'll have no other gods before you and so this is what god says to them it's absolutely powerful because i brought you out i now have the right to tell you how to live you would still be a slave if it wasn't for my power you would still be stuck in egypt baking bricks and building pyramids for pharaoh if it had not been for me bringing you out with my mighty hand so i don't want you to have any other gods before me and the obvious answer from israel is amen and i hope the obvious answer from us in our generation when god hasn't just brought us out of slavery god's brought us out of sin god's brought us out of eternal punishment god's brought us out of eternal judgment i hope our answer is of course god we would have no other gods before you that's the message of the book of exodus no other gods to such an extent that god we're willing for you to command our lives and steer our lives and direct our lives i want to take about a minute here and i just want to for those of you that have not seen this yet we did this in a series many months ago but i want to just take a moment and familiarize you one more time because the book of leviticus takes place in this building i want to familiarize you one more time with that beautiful structure called the tabernacle because it is the most detailed picture of jesus and the most detailed picture of salvation in the entire old testament so let's just take a quick look this is the tabernacle building this is called the tabernacle of moses in scripture because moses received the directions from god to build it so you enter this outer court and the first thing you come to is that brazen altar that's where blood is shed that pictures jesus death and it pictures our repentance just beyond that you come to the brazen laver this is where the priest washed his hands he buried his hands in the water jesus burial and our baptism and now you enter into the tabernacle structure itself it's covered with four layers of coverings on the inside it's beautiful fine twined linen and a whole lot of gold but on the outside it's just badger skins it looks plain on the outside but it's beautiful on the inside you walk into this room this is called the holy place there's the candlestick that's filled up with oil every morning and it gives light there's the table of showbread 12 loaves representing the 12 tribes and there's that beautiful altar of incense where the priest burned incense just like you pray and worship to god that's your incense but behind that heavy veil in the holy of holies is the ark of the covenant and the ark of the covenant it contains some sacred objects in israel's history but most of all it is covered by the presence and the power the shekinah glory of god and the tabernacle shows us a pattern for our salvation and a pattern for our lives when you get into the presence of god you need to have a life that is repenting consistently you need to have a life that is repenting constantly you need to live in a spirit of repentance you don't want to let sin catch up with you all over again you don't want sin to take your life over all over again that's that brazen altar but the bible refers in the new testament to the washing of water by the word now that you've been baptized in jesus name that covenant with jesus activates something in the word of god and every day that you live you need a relationship with the word of god and finally they're straight ahead that beautiful ark of the covenant every day that you live you need to spend some time in the presence of god i don't care if it's in a church building or in your car i don't care if it's on a walk in the park i don't care if it's sitting on your deck but somewhere you need to let that shekinah glory of god touch you every day because as the new testament says now you're like israel you're not your own you're bought with a price and that's why you glorify god in your body and in your spirit because they're both gods now we go from exodus and that tabernacle building to this very detailed book leviticus leviticus is the one you can confess it's okay leviticus is the one you kind of skim through in your bible reading because you don't understand a lot of it and that's okay because this is ancient it's powerful it's beautiful we sense that but it's sometimes hard to understand the book of genesis covers a time span of nearly 2 000 years and the book of exodus covers nearly 500 years the book of leviticus covers one month it's basically a month long teaching session and it gives the children of israel detailed instructions detailed laws to guide this sinful people in their relationship with god that's why there's so many sacrifices and so much bloodshed here because you've got sinful humanity trying to have a relationship with a holy god and so there's a lot of blood in leviticus you see human beings including you and me we are incapable of keeping god's laws consistently and that's why in the old testament there are blood sacrifices everywhere to atone for sin every time you read about a blood sacrifice in the bible that's saying humanity can't do it humanity has failed humanity has fallen short once again and that's leviticus you've got several feasts you've got five different offerings that are all about blood being shed the key words in leviticus are the word holy which god wants us to be and we have to be if we're going to fellowship with him the key words are holy and atonement because atonement is how god pays the price for you when you mess up and you're unholy the key concept of the book of leviticus is separation or sanctification of god's people from the world around them once you get past those blood offerings that are so much in the early part of leviticus then you get into all these trivial details details in the law of moses about diet and dress how to handle disease how to handle death and all of those laws are given we live in the new testament i'm so glad but they're given to teach us just how serious god is about having a separated people over and over these laws leviticus chapter 19 and 2 god said moses speak unto all the congregation of the children of israel say unto them ye shall be holy for i the lord your god am holy don't ever get messed up about a preacher or a teacher or an evangelist telling us we need to live holy lives god says that you need to be holy as i am holy you can't fellowship with me unless you are holy now we're going to do this a couple of times in this little series here's something that i think is very helpful in your understanding of the scripture because one of the critiques one of the criticisms one of the misunderstandings about this section of the bible the law of moses is this well we don't keep all those laws but yet you're telling us we should keep some of those laws we don't keep all of those commandments but yet in the apostolic church you still teach some of those commandments so what that what's that about that's a really great question and here is the answer there are three kinds of law in the law of moses there's the civil law this is the law that applied to daily living like we have civil law like stop at that red uh octagonal sign that's that's a civil law it's helpful you you'll save yourself a ticket and it's very good but our civil laws are not the same as the civil laws of ancient israel many of their laws gave rise to our modern statutes but a lot of those laws don't apply specifically today the principles are good uh don't steal and and don't do this and don't do that and treat your neighbor this way and don't move property boundaries and all of that the principles are good but the specific civil laws don't apply as much to us today but then there's another kind of law and this is where some of the misunderstanding comes there's the ceremonial law and this is the law that related specifically to israel's worship sacrifices and blood being shed the tabernacle and the dress code for the priests and all of that and the primary purpose of the ceremonial law was to point ahead to jesus now jesus fulfilled the ceremonial law he fulfilled all the types and the shadows he's the fulfillment of the tabernacle he's the fulfillment of every blood sacrifice he's the fulfillment so we're not bound by the ceremonial law today in the new testament this is what paul talked about when he said that law has been fulfilled and jesus came to fulfill the law and you don't have to obey that law he's talking about the ceremonial law but the principles that underlie it of separation and of holiness they still apply but we're not bound by the specifics of that law but then there is the undergirding of all these laws the civil law a lot of that doesn't apply ceremonial law it's been fulfilled we're not bound by it but now there's the moral law of god and the moral law of god that you find in these first five books it's the direct words of god the direct commands of god and it reveals god's eternal will so of course it still applies today because god never changes jesus christ the same yesterday and today and forever i am the lord i change not so of course this still applies today the ten commandments are a familiar part of this law so the ten commandments yes they still apply to us today unless god changes something in his word in the new testament i can think of a couple examples where he said now it's going to be a spiritual fulfillment but unless god changes it you and i have no power to change the moral law of god the ten commandments are very familiar but then there's another part anytime god says that's an abomination to me i would say it this way once an abomination all was an abomination unless god says it's clear now we still are very serious about those parts of scripture now there are parts of scripture that say this is an abomination of the jews i love our jewish friends but i could care less i'm not jewish uh there's there's a scripture that says this is an abomination to the egyptians well i'm not that either so that doesn't matter but if the scripture says this is an abomination to god we still take that very seriously and this is called rightly dividing the word of truth you need to know what applies and so so this is very helpful as you read these books you're going to see some statements that god says that's an abomination to me your ears need to pick up when god says that because that's still true today unless god himself alters it or changes it that's still true today the ten commandments they're still binding we we still uh obey the ten commandments around here thou shalt have no other gods before me don't take the name of the lord your god in vain we still obey the ten commandments how many obey the ten commandments that's a trick question now i'm going to get you to stand and list them see most people can't list them but they say they obey him that's that's kind of weird so that's the book of leviticus let's move on quickly the book of numbers this book gets its name from two numberings two times that god told moses to take a census but it's basically about their wandering in the wilderness for 40 years and that wandering happens because of their rebellion israel murmured against the lord they refused to believe his promise they refused to obey his command to take the land and as a result god let a whole generation die off that's the first 25 chapters of this book everybody's dying off that's the first chapter god up in heaven's got lots of time he's just waiting for them to die and then they take another census and the last 11 chapters he's preparing a new generation to enter the promised land and this book reminds us of something it's kind of a depressing book but it reminds us that if you're going to walk with god you're going to have some warfare in your life you're going to have some battles in your life and furthermore this book teaches us you better beware of unbelief they fail to enter their promised land because they didn't believe god and that's a warning to us that we had better believe god paul in the new testament in first corinthians 10 and 11 a very key verse a hinge in bible interpretation paul said all these things happened to them for our examples upon whom the ends of the world are come and so everything that they did if they rebelled and they lost out with god don't you rebel if they disobeyed and they lost it with god don't you disobey if they refuse to have faith and they messed up you don't refuse to have faith it's for our examples and all along the way even in the wilderness there are beautiful types like this one a brazen serpent lifted up on a pole and if anybody would look to that brazen serpent they would be healed of the plague and they would live do you know jesus referred to that incident when he had that nighttime talk with nicodemus he said like the serpent was lifted up on that pole so the son of man is going to be lifted up and when he's lifted up anybody that looks upon him anybody that looks to him they can be free of the plague of sin it's beautiful and powerful but if i was to give you one verse that summed up the book of numbers it would probably be this one and the lord said to moses how long will this people provoke me that's basically numbers in a nutshell how long will it be before they believe me i've showed them all kinds of signs how long before they're going to get their act together moses how long will these people provoke me you do not want the almighty turning around to an angel asking that question about you how long will these people provoke me numbers is meant to teach us that rebellion ends in destruction numbers is meant to teach us that when god says get up and go into your promised land it's time to salute and rally the troops and move out in god's will that's what numbers teaches us and let's let's finish here deuteronomy means the second law and it covers moses review of god's law god's law was first given 40 years earlier this time moses takes 40 days and he rehearses that law first given 40 years earlier he rehearses that law with this new generation just before they enter the promised land please notice it's a brand new generation but they're still governed by the same law the very last chapter of deuteronomy records moses death and it was probably written by his successor joshua jesus quoted from the book of deuteronomy more than any other book in the bible jesus loved this book now in the first four books of the torah the first four books of the law god chose israel but in the last book of the torah in the book of deuteronomy in the book of the second law the second chance in that book now god's waiting for israel to choose him and if i was to sum up this book in one scripture i would sum it up in the words of moses himself moses is speaking for god to the people of israel and he offers them a choice i call heaven and earth to record this day against you i'm calling heaven into the conversation you know what you're supposed to do you know what god's called you to you know what the plan of god has been outlayed before you and unfolded in your life you know all of that so i'm calling in heaven into the conversation today i call heaven and earth to record this day against you i have set before you life and death blessing and cursing and i imagine moses was pretty emotional at this point he had served that nation from the time that he had been raised in pharaoh's house then kicked out of pharaoh's house then banished from pharaoh's house and he'd led them through all of the exodus and he'd led them through the wilderness wanderings and he'd seen how it is that even god's people even people with a beautiful law even people with beautiful provision and beautiful commandments and god's laws that keep us safe they don't burden us they bless us but moses had seen how even god's people can sometimes take a look at everything god has given them and turn away from it and rebel and end up wandering and end up messed up and that first generation 25 chapters in the book of numbers that first generation they died outside of god's promised land because they rebelled against god's promises and god's commandments and so now moses is saying israel we've got one more chance here god's brought us right back this journey should have taken a couple of weeks it's taken 40 years and now we've stood here for 40 days and i've explained to you the law of god all over again god didn't change his law because you decided you didn't like it god didn't change one of his commands because you decided you weren't going to obey them it's the same law and now a second generation a new generation is faced with the same choice that the older generation messed up and so moses said today i'm calling to record heaven and earth and i'm setting before you the choices over here there's life over here there's death over here there's blessing over here there's cursing over here there's favor over here there's the displeasure of god i'm setting the two options before you and i imagine that old man this is not long before he dies i imagine his voice was cracking and his eyes were weeping tears down his face and he said therefore please israel this time choose life because when you choose life it's not just you that lives it's everybody else connected to you that has a chance to live and so that's the first five books of your bible i i didn't teach this tonight to get you to run the isles i taught this tonight so the next time you're sloshing around in one of those books maybe you can just get a picture that there's a cross reference going on here that brazen serpent is more than just an old story that prophecy in genesis 3 15 is more than just a curse on a snake everything is pointing ahead to the cross and everything brothers and sisters is pointing ahead to you and when the old leader moses stands in front of israel and he said over here you've got blessing over here you've got cursing over here you've got life over here you've got death please choose life do you understand that every new testament preacher when they preach the gospel to you they're saying the very same thing to you over here you've got life over here you've got death but this time the stakes are eternal over here you've got eternal life over here you've got eternal death over here you've got the blessing of god on your family over here you've got god taking his hand off and letting you run life by yourself so brothers and sisters saints of god dear friends please choose life there is no other choice that will bless you there is no other choice that will get you to heaven there is no other choice please choose life everybody say law the law is given why is the law given because if you didn't have law you'd never know what was messing you up between you and god if you didn't know what displeased god you'd never know why you were disconnected from god paul he said jesus christ came to fulfill the law but paul said thank god for the law it was our school master to bring us to christ when you're reading that old testament and you're having trouble understanding some of it just say to yourself it's the law law is a teacher law is an instructor law points us in the right direction but when you mess up on god's law that's where atonement comes in that's what all those blood sacrifices are about that's what that beautiful building called the tabernacle is about now that's all the old testament aren't you glad we don't live in the old testament there wasn't one animal brought in here to be sacrificed tonight nobody had to pay some kind of temple tax to trade an animal out in the foyer to bring it in and be sacrificed you know why because we have the great sacrifice we have the savior who died on the cross this bible is full of cross references i'm finished would you lift up your hands and let's just thank god for the beauty and the power and the authority and the provision of his word would you do that out loud with your voice lord jesus i thank you god for what you teach us in your word i thank you for the plan and the plot of your word that leads us to your purpose jesus i thank you that every scripture every character every incident every mistake it all points us to the foot of the cross and i thank you tonight that when animal sacrifices and bloodshed in the old testament could never change a heart you came so you could be the perfect sacrifice you came so you could be the complete sacrifice you came jesus so you could give us the power to overcome sin i set before my brothers and sisters tonight the same choice that moses set before israel it's life or death it's blessing or cursing and i say to this wonderful congregation choose life in jesus name in jesus name in jesus name thank you for being

Channel: Capital Community Church

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Keywords: capital, community, church, fredericton, nb, new, brunswick, canada, upc, upci, united, pentecostal, international, apostolic, sermon, preach, preaching, bible, study, teaching, bible study, cross, reference, cross reference, understanding the bible, understanding, the, cross reference understanding the bible

Id: hBqZ_35Y2QY

Length: 59min 39sec (3579 seconds)

Published: Wed Jul 07 2021