One Way to Know God Better

[Music] more greetings everyone i want to thank our singers what a beautiful piece and thank god for giving so much wonderful talent to this congregation and especially to our young people i very much appreciate what they do sometimes people ask i don't know if this happens so much in other parts of the country but around in the bible belt sometimes it does someone will just come up to you on the street and say do you know the lord do you know the lord there's a lot of ways you can respond to that uh but you know the bible says that in the kingdom of god all in the house of israel is going to know the lord and says that specifically turn please to jeremiah chapter 31 verses 33 and 34. jeremiah chapter 31 verses 33 and 34. speaking of christ's millennial rule god promised this to israel through the prophet jeremiah and something that is of considerable interest to us today as well but this is the covenant that i will make with the house of israel after those days says the lord i will put my law into their minds and write it into their hearts and i will be their god and they shall be my people he's going to put their law into their minds and write it into their hearts well he's they're going to know god's law they're going to understand it it's going to be in their minds but he said he's going to write it in their hearts that's kind of an interesting expression um i've noticed that well usually in the bible in the old testament when it talks about from the heart i wish that they would from their heart they would keep my commandments from the heart is kind of talking about the seat of the will so when it says from the heart it means something you really want yourself this gift is from the heart i give this to you from the heart it's something i wanted you to have i wanted to give it to you or it was something that was said from the heart it was something they really meant well he says he will write it on their hearts it will be something that they desire something that they choose and i will be their god and they shall be my people no more shall every man teach his neighbor and every man his brother saying know the lord they shall all know me they will all know me he says from the least to them to the greatest of them says the lord for i will forgive their iniquity and their sin i will remember no more they will be able to have it in their hearts so how will the house of israel come to know their god well you know only a few in judea could recognize him at all he came to visit them the same one that said what we just read came to visit them nobody knew him he said if you had known me you would have known my father also they didn't know him when he came they couldn't recognize him and when he comes next he said through jeremiah that i will put my law in their hearts i will write it or my law and their minds rather and write it on their hearts and forgive them and then one result from that is that they shall all know me well well maybe that's a good way to know the lord in the future god will reveal a lot about himself through the laws it's important for us to remember that he does it for the church as well today appreciated uh what we heard a little bit earlier from mr d simone he mentioned uh applying god's law this time of the year we want to think about it well how do we apply well of course looking into the mirror of his word is one way we do that and we see ourselves reflected in the mirror of his word which reflects god's own character how do you know god and do you seek to know him in ways in all the ways rather that he provides he has many ways for us to do his spirit we is one way of course but also in his law and in his word he reveals himself what he is like should all want to know the father and jesus christ in order to develop our relationship with them and to become like them and because christ cleanses of our sins by his sacrifice something that we keep in mind and we're thinking of in these days we now have him living in each of god's converted people christ living in us we need to know our master one way that we can know god better is the same way that god tells us the house of israel will know in the kingdom of god by studying practicing and internalizing god's law well you know that i think you already understand it and sadly this wonderful valuable essential way of knowing our father is something that is completely rejected by the world they don't understand it and they really don't like his law they can't say oh i love i think law they'll say oh it's not away with i'm free i don't have to have that anymore by studying the biblical statutes it's a very helpful way to gain insight into god's character and to know him better it's not the only way at all but one way to help you in your bible study and to know the lord is to study those statutes today the sermon won't be on a comprehensive exposition of the law but rather we'll focus on just one thing how we can learn things from the statutes from the statutes they are very very valuable the title is one way to know god better and first we'll learn how god's law i'll be reminded of how god's law reflects his character we can look into it and see the way he is what he thinks is right and wrong what he chooses to be right and when he chooses to be wrong because that's the definition of it and the second thing is we'll look at some statutes as examples and perhaps as we examine ourselves now we can look at some of these things as we study god's word and find heal the statutes here and i can look at this and i can know more about myself and about god and how to examine myself but not only for this time of the year but for the rest of the year as well helping us to learn more about god so the first point is god's law reflects his character and his priorities god's law reflects his character in his priorities when god set up the nation of israel he gave them pretty much everything they needed including wise statutes and judgments that were based on his commandments i got an older copy of unger's bible dictionary it's got a very helpful commentary on the source of the ten commandments this comes i'm going to read something to you i've always really liked this and i've used it a number of times before this comes from the 1966 version of what goes on the decalogue i'm going to read from that in my notes the foundation and source of the moral law is god's character i am the lord your god who brought you out of the land of egypt out of the house of slavery is the way the ten commandments are introduced the hebrew name used here everlasting eternal almighty intimates that the principles of the law have their standing in the character of god i am thou shall that's the connection and that is what makes the moral law so awesome in its unchangeable majesty it is law because god is it cannot be changed without changing the character of jehovah himself right is what it is because god is what he is and therefore is as unchangeable as god i always kind of like that it really puts it pretty well there's a lot more we can say about it it's interesting this is essentially a protestant document angers but there are people who understand that and i hope more can understand it in the future god's commandments reflect his very character they communicate what he defines as right and wrong and god does not change just for instance malachi 3 5 says for i am the lord i do not change and then in hebrews 12 27 he says it again jesus christ is the same yesterday today and forever you could switch those and they would be saying the same things because it's about the same individual turn to deuteronomy chapter 6 verse 1 deuteronomy chapter 6 and verse 1. the biblical organization of the law is commandments statutes and judgments that's the way they're presented we talk about that a lot sometimes he'll just say keep my commandments and my statutes or just reference the statutes or the commandments separately but here we'll see it verse 1 he is moses has just given in the previous chapters the ten commandments and then he says therefore you shall keep the commandment the statutes and the judgments which i command you today to observe them commandments statutes and judgments so that organization is given in a number of places i'll just mention deuteronomy 5 31 also in deuteronomy chapter 7 deuteronomy chapter 8 even over in first kings 8 58 commandments statutes and judgments now some sort of reorganize the law in to um in a theological sense as moral law civil law and ceremonial law and that may have its uses but you don't find that organization in the bible when god tells us about it he puts it a different way he the gods is his revelatory organization from it the statutes derived from the ten commandments so the principles that the statutes contain further communicate god's character regarding right and wrong so we can look at a statute and say all right well how does that statute come down why did he put it there and then we can look at it and find well how is god reflecting his priorities his sense of right and wrong of so forth in this particular statute the judgment often implemented various aspects of the statutes on the local level in israel and under that was under the old covenant i might add that our jewish friends have a talmudic teaching that there are 613 commandments i don't know if you've heard that before but that there are 613 commandments in the pentateuch the first five books of the bible but that also includes a number of um sacrificial laws it includes the statutes and a number of talmudic traditions as well along with the commandments and the statues and such traditional lists may be of interest but we look to god's word directly as opposed to the rabbinical tradition we're not trying to be jewish here we just want to obey god that's what we're trying to do so to summarize point number one god's divine law reflects his character and it reflects his priorities god said that if we love him we will keep his commandments that's in throughout the bible love me and keep my commandments the love of god is keeping his commandments you can't love god without keeping his commandments that's because he's presented himself to us in his commandments what he thinks is right and wrong this is stated in both the old testament and the new testament so point number two did you know that the apostle paul affirmed the use of the statutes to gentiles sure did let's have a look let's look at the statute we'll start off with deuteronomy chapter 25 and verse 4. deuteronomy chapter 25 and verse 4. well this is a statute and you could read right over this and say okay well it's an interesting statute great for back in those days but really not anything that i'm too interested in because i don't have cows you shall not muzzle an ox that treads out the grain now anybody here have an ox or have oxen abrasive oxen maybe maybe you got some cows out back huh you got some grass-fed grain you want a new friend yeah well even if you do have cattle where you live you don't use them to tread out the grain do you so do you have to own an ox in order to benefit from this statute well turn to first corinthians chapter nine and verse nine and ten first corinthians chapter nine and verse 9 and 10. here's the apostle paul applies a principle in the statutes when he was teaching the church in corinth greece these are greeks he's not speaking to jewish people might be a few scattered in there but these this is this is a gentile greek church in a very lively port city for it is written in the book of in the law of moses you shall not muzzle and ox while it treads out the grain is it oxen god is concerned about or did he say it altogether for our sakes what what's this oxen got to do with us he's asking this question well he answers his question for our sakes no doubt this is written that he who plows should plow in hope and he who threshes in hopes should be partaker of his hope if we have sown have spoke some spiritual things to you is it a great thing if we reap your material things so he's saying here that it's it's okay for the ministry to live on the ministry we pay our ministers with your tithes and offerings so that they can support themselves and their families and serve you and also serve in all of our churches paul was saying that while this statute required kindness to a working animal his primary purpose was a spiritual lesson for the church what did he say there that's exactly what he said did you uh do you have to own an ox rather to keep this well no paul said he noticed is it oxen god is concerned about or did he say it altogether god for our sakes no doubt so this is a statute given to presented to a gentile church by the apostle paul as being for our sakes cool are there any more maybe we can find some more maybe there are lots of them that we can learn from because god is saying this is one of his priorities something that we should know about i'll just mention one other here quickly first corinthians 5 1-5 we have paul being very critical of the church for allowing a man who is having an affair possibly even a marriage with his father's wife and the statute for that is leviticus 18 8 it forbids the um that particular practice the nakedness of your father's wife you shall not uncover so that he was applying a statute to the church there as well first timothy chapter 3 verses 14 and 15. first timothy chapter 3 verses 14 and 15. here paul is also affirming an instruction to timothy the validity and the importance to the church of the law and the prophets beginning in verse 14 but you must continue in the things which you have learned and been assured of knowing from whom you have learned them that from your childhood you have known the holy scriptures which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith which is in christ jesus when paul was writing about the holy scriptures he was referring to the old what we call the old testament canon that was extended in that time because we know that because timothy learned them as a child the new testament hadn't been written yet so we know that that's what he was talking about paul wanted timothy to remember that while his salvation comes through faith in christ god's commandment statutes and judgment would give him valuable understanding and valuable growth wise for salvation aiding in his life and ministry building his faith putting his faith into action living faith in jesus christ verses 16 and 17 paul continues all scripture is given by inspiration of god and is profitable for doctrine for a proof for correction for instruction and righteousness that the man of god may be complete thoroughly equipped for every good work we have our faith in christ but we want to grow in his stature we want to know about him we want to know our god so if we want to do that then there are things we can study in his word and know about him but maybe we didn't know we could do it before we can learn from these things while we can learn from all of the scriptures the judgments um we won't really go into those today but they were applied to the ancient nation of israel under the national covenant made at sinai and were implemented as civil laws of course that covenant ended with christ's death and the application of the judgments of course ended with the end of the nation of israel for instance the church in the past and the apostles time and today advocates the commandment requiring fidelity in marriage we do not advocate stoning for it nor did paul in his day as well so to summarize point number two we should all remember that in addition to defining sin god's divine law provides us with valuable doctrine and reproof and correction and instruction in righteousness that is necessary to do all the good works that he has for us to do living faith we are to have living faith there are two kinds of faith and the church does not recommend that you seek your salvation through dead faith we think that's not a very good idea nor do any of the writers of the new testament you know instead of asking do i have to keep the statutes is he saying that i have to keep the statutes maybe the better question is is there things i can learn from the statutes how can i keep the statutes what's there for me to learn from to grow from and to know my god different question god's people ask the latter question point number three point number three we have the two great commandments the two great commandments matthew chapter 2 verses 35 through 40 matthew 2 verses 35 through 40. jesus was asked about the greatest commandment someone came up to him and gonna put the question to him then one of them a lawyer asked him a question testing him okay see how much this bumpkin from nazareth really knows let's see what he says teacher which is the great commandment of the law and jesus said to him you shall love the lord your god with all your heart with all your soul and with all your mind this is the first and great commandment and the second is like it you shall love your neighbor as yourself on these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets it's interesting jesus was quoting himself as quoted by moses in deuteronomy 6 5 and leviticus 19 18. he was quoting himself through moses i'll just read deuteronomy 6 4 you shall love the lord your god with all your heart with all your soul and all your strength this wasn't something new that he just made up on the spot this was from the law of moses leviticus 19 4 you shall not take vengeance nor bear any grudge against the children of your people but you shall love your neighbor as yourself i am the lord he says and puts his name there hmm fits pretty good with the first sermon that we heard today how do all the law and the prophets hang on these two commandments they've got them all hung there somehow they're all hung the law and the prophets descend from these two commandments how do they do that well he certainly was not saying that those two commandments negate the ten now some people say well you know if you love god with all your heart and mind and strength and everything you don't have to keep the ten commandments you can forget about those just love the lord well that's not a very good idea you can't love god with all your heart if you worship idols you can't love god with all your heart if you take his name in vain you can't can you love god with all your heart if you profane his sabbath hmm interesting question and we cannot love other people mankind is ourselves if we steal from them or if we harm them we hate them you can't love who you hate no this is a summary of the commandments the first world commandments have to do with how we love god and are summarized by the first and great commandments the first four the next six commandments have to do with the love of our fellow man and are summarized by you shall love your neighbor as yourself it's interesting that the fifth commandment honor your father and mother which has to do with our relationship with our physical parents also transitions us between the love of mankind and the love of god and when you go all the way down to the last commandment the tenth commandment you shall not covet and gives us a good bit of detail to that remember that paul said in colossians 3 5 covetousness is idolatry covetousness is idolatry it's greed is basically what it is so it ends with idolatry covetousness and which circles us back around to the beginning the lord is our god and we shall have no other gods the two great commandments are expressed by the ten commandments then the statutes derive or descend from the sin from those commandments and generally speaking the judgments and implement the principles of the statutes locally in israel the law is god's government which he applies in love he's given to them us to them for our good he tells us and generally speaking the prophets were god's voice to the people so god instructed uh those prophets to communicate israel's transgression of the law if you read through the prophets he's telling them the prophets are telling them their sin and telling them calling them to repentance and he reminds israel of the agreed upon covenant that he had with them through the prophets again and again and again and then he reminds them of the consequences of breaking his law and breaking those commandments and statues and the consequences of breaking the covenant that he had with them he also communicated god's promise of his coming government the kingdom of god saying for instance out of zion shall go forth the law and the word of god from jerusalem i love that one i look forward to that i know you do too i'd hate to be the poor guy who walks up to jesus christ in that day it says the law can't go forth from zion has done away with [Music] i don't think anybody is going to do that god's law will still reflect who he is and it will still be a blessing for all of mankind when it spreads throughout the world in his prophesied kingdom okay summarize point number three we can see why jesus said on these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets it derives from god's governmental law which derives from love of god and love of mankind simple beautiful elegant point number four statutes apply today some examples let's look at some of these the statutes applied today just some examples the apostle paul gave the gentile church in corinth greece an example of not muzzling the ox as the application of a statute to people who were spiritual israelites but were not part of physical israel so here are a couple of additional examples statutes that show the character of god let's look at these and perhaps you thought of this before but perhaps you haven't let's look at them leviticus 19 verses 35 and 36 leviticus chapter 19 and verses 35 and 36 this is an application of the commandment thou shalt not steal so israel was instructed in this particular case you shall do no injustice in judgment it measurement of length or weight or volume you shall have honest scales honest weights and honest effort an honest hin i am the lord your god who brought you out of the land of egypt i'm always interested in these things you haven't noticed on a lot of these he stamps his name i am the lord your god i elohim that's he snaps his name right after it there maybe we ought to pay attention to that well a hint or a hint is it's roughly two gallons it's a liquid measure and an effa is a dry measure of about a bushel i don't doubt if any of you have a hen or an athlete in your home um maybe you've got a bucket uh uh maybe you've got a gallon a five gallon can of gas or something this doesn't apply to you then you don't even have enough oil do you so how could this apply to you well an honest ten or an alpha defrauds the other person of their part of the measure if you do not have an honest weight or an honest measure let's just say you have some scales we have scales here that was the way they did it we have scales at the supermarket you haven't looked on that thing it's been certified by somebody by the state you know many of the statutes you already keep they're incorporated into the laws of the state of north carolina and united states of america they are wise they are good just measures are part of the law of north carolina and there's a department and a guy comes around and he checks these things well what they said was that in your scales you know you could you could take a a you know something of the thing that you put on one side that gives you a certain amount of weight that you're going to measure by shave that rascal down a little bit you know and now all of a sudden you don't have to give the person quite as much you cheated them out of their amount because you didn't have adjustment weight or you say hey i got a great idea you got the hen over here let's make it a little bit smaller let's do a new hen and we're going to make it down a little bit smaller here so that it only has about three quarters of a hen in it and i can measure this out and you know who's got who's to know who's to know you know i'll save a lot of money and i can make more profit that way covetousness greed dishonesty lying that's what all those things were about it defrauds the other person of what they are supposed to get and it violates the commandment thou shalt not steal simple do you have an honest ten and do you have an honest alpha well you don't have to own one to obey this statute our god is a god of truth and jesus said sanctify them by your truth your word is truth that's john 17 17. his truth sanctifies us and the deception of dishonesty and greed and covetousness that theft comes from is completely alien to him no part of him is that way so god forbids theft and deception in all its forms and this statute derives from the commandments that says thou shalt not steal and you shall not bear false witness a god is a god of giving not a god of getting he's a god of love and a god of truth what's in your heart what's that old commercial what is in your wallet what's in your heart is it god's law do you want to be that way when you have a chance to choose and you're completely free to do it what do you choose god wants to know he wants to know because he wants you to choose as he does forever forever so he's going to develop us and teach us and we need to know him so that we can choose as he does and in a time of examining ourselves well that's a real good thing to be doing do we choose as god does do we forgive as he does as we heard earlier do we make peace as he does as we heard earlier how do we behave and how do we choose how can we apply the principle of this in our lives what does an honest tin look like today well it means that we observe honesty in all our dealings with others not just in weights and measures do we give people what they bargained for are they shorted somehow let's look at some examples of what a dishonest alpha or hen might look like today okay i'm going from preaching to meddling here how do you measure out your labor you got 40 hours a week to put in eight hours a day to put in are you giving eight hours or is it only really a six or seven going on in there are you doing are you giving all that you were contracted to do give full value to people god is that way and in addition it's just good business it's just the way that we should be we don't if we don't give full value for what we're paid for then we may be taking something we don't deserve interesting to think about it that way keep it in mind good thing some good news about that happily many employers are really happy to have you guys they love to have church members working for them once they figure us out because they know that this this same fellow the same woman who is will not work on the sabbath they're not going to steal from the supply cabinet either they're not going to take something from the um from the warehouse that they shouldn't take they're going to give me a full day's work or maybe a little extra for it they know that by the way if you're ever having trouble getting a job you might remind them of that okay just say look you're worried about the sabbath well here's some other things that i keep as well i do not lie to you i do not steal from you i will make peace i'm not going to create problems within your organization he said you got any more members at your church listen some employees are smarter than they look guys so uh said be sure to be sure about that because it is important it is a valuable thing that we have have you ever had someone to work with that represented that they do really good work but their quality wasn't so good maybe i you know you see guys maybe you're working on construction jobs and there's somebody and he just never does things in a workmanlike manner it's always the quality is always down a little bit never quite getting as much and people have to come back and correct the work and things like we can go on for this a long time but our god is a god of quality give the quality that people need that they expect give the full measure of work the full measure of labor the full measure of quality these are just two examples and now that since you know the biblical principle you can think of others on your own god is a god of quality of truth and of giving leviticus 19 9-10 is another statute leviticus 19 verses 9 and 10. something we can learn from in god's word when you read the harvest of your land you shall not wholly reap the corners of your field nor shall you gather the gleanings of your harvest you shall not glean your vineyard nor shall you gather every grape of your vineyard you shall leave them for the poor and the stranger there is again i am the lord your god but his name on that one maybe we should look at it carefully do you have to be a farmer to learn from this one i know that we have some people here that have uh farms and um and raise vegetables and farms and so forth notice that like the statute that god stamps his name on it so perhaps this one expresses his character let's see well there's minimal gain from cleaning one's own field or gleaning a vineyard just a story some years ago we were we had the privilege of going to the feast and france served actually in uk and france that year afterwards we decided to just drive around a little bit on the french countryside and we would stay in some bed and breakfast and just eat locally it was a wonderful trip and this was up in the area where there were just vineyards vineyards vineyards everywhere and since it's the feast time they were gathering a lot of grapes so we were just kind of sitting there on the porch of this bnb and all of the workers were coming in from the vineyards that surrounded this place it was really nice so afterwards we just said well let's go out and walk out there so we walked out among the vines nobody cared and that were that it had already been harvested but there were there's a grape a few grapes here and a few grapes there um what were those i think they were grenache really good they were ripe and ready to be harvested but you know it occurred to me as we walked along we had to look a little bit for each time to find a few grapes here and there if we had this big vineyard if we had tried to glean that we would have to like take a a basket one of these baskets we would have been like a couple hours walking up up in his summer here and here's one more over here to fill that thing up to get enough to make it you know worthwhile to go out there and do it would have taken a long time to do it the thing about gleaning is there's a there's a point of diminishing returns on that you can go out and take your um you know cut your field or harvest all of your grapes and so forth but if you go back and try to do it again it takes a lot of labor for very little gain well it provided for the poor and those had have no resources but their own labor for them it wasn't a factor they could go out and do it and spend all the time they wanted to but it made no sense for the owner of it it makes it possible for them to spend their labor productively getting necessary food but the guy who gleaned his field at the point of diminishing returns didn't want anybody else to have any of the fruits they're not going to get any of mine i'm not going to let those people out here i'm going to take every last bit from myself even if i lose money doing it it made no sense to do that in ancient israel god made the gleaning laws not only for the benefit of the poor but also to keep the landowner from greed okay a guy who gleaned his field was frankly being a little greedy and god built fairness and honesty into his statutes not greed everybody benefited even the landowner even the vineyard owner and all those people who could go had the time to do it the poor they could go out and they could use the labor productively how would you apply the applica the gleaning statute in modern times what does a person who gleans his own field look like today well there's one way i mean i've had a business career in my past and let me tell you down in south florida there are some guys who do not leave anything on the table whatsoever they um they do not believe that they have succeeded in negotiations until the other guy is hurting they are tough negotiators i say about some of these people you know they not only not don't leave anything on the table they don't leave the varnish on the table when they when they are through with it they are tough negotiators and are very greedy about those things well a good thing to do i think is to be sure when you're dealing with people that everyone benefit i always would try to leave something on the table so that everyone who had a part in it got something from it it was good business and also you didn't have the contentiousness and it lacked the i think the greed of many people that i saw leave some varnish on the table that's like not gleaning your field so to summarize point number four we should be looking at the statutes and finding god's character and priorities in them and then seeking to apply the principles that they contain in our lives if you'd like more study of the statutes i can give you some lists here for your notes they are found mostly in the following chapters for you to look at exodus 20 through 24. exodus chapter 20 through chapter 24. leviticus chapters 19 through 27. they kind of scattered through there there are other things there as well numbers 18 and 19 and 27-36 and deuteronomy 12-20 okay let's just make a quick point about the sacrificial laws a quick point about that please remember that the chapters containing statutes all contain many of the um ritual laws sacrificial and purification laws this is point number five it will be a brief one and these things don't apply to us today because of christ's ultimate sacrifice hebrews 7 verses 26 and 27 hebrews chapter 7 verses 26 and 27. for such a high priest was fitting for us who is holy harmless undefiled separate from sinners and has become higher than the heavens who does not need daily as those high priests who offer up sacrifices first for his own sins and then for the peoples for this he did once and for all when he offered up himself the perfect complete sacrifice hebrews 9 11-15 hebrews chapter 9 verses 11 through 15. turn over a few pages but christ came as high priest of the good things to come with the greater and more perfect tabernacle not made with hands that is not of his creation not with the blood of goats and calves but with his own blood he entered into the most holy place once and for all having obtained eternal redemption for the blood of bulls and goats in the ashes of a heifer sprinkling the unclean sanctifies for the purifying of the flesh how much more shall the blood of christ who was through the eternal spirit offered himself without spot to god cleanse cleanse you from your conscience cleanse your conscience from dead works to serve the living god and for this reason he is the mediator of the new covenant by means of death for the redemption of the transition the transgressions under the first covenant that those who are called may receive the promise and eternal inheritance first corinthians 3 16-17 first corinthians chapter 3 verses 16 and 17. i'm working up to tell you that you have sacrifices to give not of the kind that the priest gave but we still have this to do the church of god is christ's temple because of the indwelling of god's holy spirit verse 16 do you not know that you are the temple of god and that the temple of the spirit of god dwells in you if anyone defiles this the temple of god god will destroy him for the temple of god is holy which temple you are first peter 2 5 first peter 2 5. the church offers spiritual sacrifices acceptable to god through jesus christ our mediator we don't have to go back and do all of the things before in fact there isn't even a sanctified priesthood you know when we were in israel for the feast we saw many people who were ultra-orthodox there but they did not do the sacrifices you know why it would have been a sin they are not sanctified and haven't been for a couple of millennia they may be in the future but not now and we keeping an eye to see when those sacrifices may resume but you also as living stones are built up a spiritual house a holy priesthood to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to god through jesus christ that's what we do what are some we won't go through the list and make a great ceremonette someday but how about your songs spiritual songs a lonely horror night i used to know a guy on sabbath he go around singing hymns under his breath all the time just love to hear that that was his sacrifice your prayers are like an incense going up to god your good deeds and love for one another your faithfulness all of these things your spiritual sacrifices god values those more than all of the blood and all of the goats and bulls and everything that they ever had because you're the end result of it summarize point number five the new testament explains that we do not need for sacrifices to be offered up for our sins because of christ's ultimate sacrifice as a practical matter even the jews do not have sanctified priesthood to do it anyone else to offer those things would be the sin of presumption it is not done today point number six so what is one way we can know god better one way to do that well a great way to benefit from the study of the statutes is to look for the character of god in them and to discern how it applies in our lives today when you find a statute and you read it look for god's character in it kind of like hens and ephis and the things we talked about just a little practice there they're profitable in some like wakes and measures are wisely incorporated into our modern laws they make us better employees and we make us more christ-like they're there for our good they're good things luke chapter 6 and verse 38. luke chapter 6 and verse 38. jesus tells us about how god's character is expressed and how he measures things let's see the hint and the alpha in god's hands here it is give and it will be given to you good measure pressed down shaken all together and running over will be put into your bosom for this with the same measure that you use it will be measured back to you sound familiar ah we just talked about it this is god's way of applying a just effort and a just hin giving is part of his character measure for measure you want to be like him measure like he does he never shorts anybody never shorts anybody but he will measure to you by the same measure that you measure to others interesting things to keep in mind the second commandment ends by saying showing mercy to thousands who love me and keep my commandments loving god and keeping his commandments john chapter 5 in verse 3 for this is the love of god that we keep his commandments and his commandments are not grievous the love of god is keeping his commandments that's how we love him we see this over and over in the old testament and the new testament john 2 3 and hereby we do know that we know him if we keep his commandments oh you want to know the lord you want to know the lord are you keeping his commandments all 10 of them well those who love god and want to know him don't necessarily ask how much of god's law do i have to keep uh we ask how much of god's law can we keep how much of god's law can i keep because i love the law it's him if i love his law and love his commandments then i love him as well my love for his law comes out of my love of god it says that in both the old testament and the new testament love god keep his commandments the principles contained in god's divine law reflect his character and we need to know how many ways we can apply god's character in our lives looking for god's character in his statutes and applying them in our lives helps us to know the lord [Music] you

Channel: Living Church of God

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Length: 52min 5sec (3125 seconds)

Published: Fri May 21 2021