One Christian writer recently wrote that Christians are not required to obey any commandments contained in the law, and we need to separate ourselves from the Old Testament. Is this true? Is this scripturally accurate according to the New Testament? Let's find out today.
Greetings. Thank you for tuning in to listen to equipping the Bride podcast. I'm brother Jason DeMars from Beaufort, South Carolina, a minister at Bethel Tabernacle. New episodes of this podcast are posted every Friday. You can watch this podcast on YouTube and listen to it on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, and Spotify. If you have any questions, testimonies or prayer requests, please let me know@jasondemars.com. I also have free books and tracks available at my website, and shipping is free as well. May the Lord richly bless you.
God bless you. Just want to take a few minutes to give you a little update. This is recorded Wednesday morning and released on Friday, but everyone has been asking me about the earthquake in Turkey and Syria and about believers there. And I've been in touch with believers in in Turkey. The, the groups that I've worked with in the past, and though they felt the shake, the, or the earthquake and their, their homes sh shook they're fine and they're all doing well, so we're thankful to hear that. But we know that there's a lot of Christian people and, and Muslim people as well facing terrible circumstances right now in Southeast Turkey and across the border into Syria. They're estimating over 11,000 dead as of this point in time. So, horrible thing I've been, I've been in some villages in different places and I've been in the city the city of Ana.
We had a church there years ago and people immigrated and moved to different areas in Turkey. And so I know these areas and I know that, you know, some of the buildings are modern and could withstand an earthquake, but other than a lot of the buildings are older, and with any kind of big earthquake like that you could just looking at them, you thought, well, my, these will crumble anytime. So very hard circumstance, difficult circumstance. So please keep the people there in prayer. And I know that there's a lot of work underway to, to provide clothing and food and things and people of reaching out to me. We don't have any contacts there and we're not engaging at this point in time in any humanitarian efforts there. But certainly be in prayer. And if you have any questions for me about that, feel free to reach out to me at either of my websites, jason demars.com or present truth mn.com. Alright, so I meant, as I mentioned in the intro, we're gonna be looking at the law and many Christians have this standpoint and, and now we're seeing quote unquote relevant pastors today wanting to divorce themselves from the law of Moses, and especially regarding the homosexual movement, and I don't even L G B T Q that's going on. And churches that are wanting to experience huge growth, they're having to compromise their stand regarding homosexuality and perversions.
And so that's what we're seeing, and they're fi trying to find a theological way to run themselves out of this. So this is Andy Stanley. He's a pastor, I think of North, north Point megachurch in the Atlanta area. He's, this is from sometime back, but it's, it's relevant because he's now, again, he's hosting a huge meeting where Christian parents can learn how to raise their children up to be a part of this LGBTQ plus movement and how to raise your children as, as gay or lesbian. And my goodness, what a departure from the Bible. So this is from an article I I grabbed on the internet. Last week, Stanley wrote a piece for Relevant magazine in which he argued that Christians are not required to obey any of the commandments found in the first part of their Bibles. Participants in the new covenant are expected to obey the single command Jesus issued as part of his new covenant, as I have loved you, so you must love one another.
He goes on to write, the church has a terrible habit of selectively rebranding aspects of the old covenant and smuggling them into the new. This is a concept that you hear, and many times when you speak about modesty or, or just, they look at you sisters and say we don't have to obey the Old Testament. This is a concept that keeps coming up. We don't have to obey the Old Testament. Is that right? Is that true? Let's look at the scripture. Now. The scripture itself is gonna teach us how to relate to the Old Testament. We have the New Testament and Old Testament, even those terminologies, old Cov, old Testament, and New Testament parts of our Bible, those were invented after the scriptures. Now, we can base that somewhat on the book of Hebrews where he speaks about the old covenant and the new covenant.
However, Jews call their portion of the Bible the Tok, and that refers to the Torah and the prophets, the wisdom, literature and the history. So the, and we, the new, the new Covenant, of course, we understand the New Testament is means a new covenant. So let's look at what the scripture says, and let's see, let's build, let's, let's, let's see if it really is that we should separate ourselves from the Old Testament and that we're not required to obey any commandments. Now, Psalm 19, verse seven through 11, let's see God's thoughts about the law and the commandments. The instructions of the Lord are perfect, reviving the soul, the decrees of the Lord are trustworthy, making wise, the simple, the commandments of the Lord are right, bringing joy to the heart. The commands of the Lord are clear, giving insight for living reverence for the Lord.
Fear of the Lord is pure lasting forever. The laws of the Lord are true. Each one is fair. They're more desirable than gold, even the finest gold, they're sweeter than honey, even honey dripping from the comb. They're a warning to your servant, a great reward for those who obey them. All right, so this is lifting up the law and the commandments. They're an expression of the nature of who God is. Psalm 36, 1 says, the transgression of the wicked sayeth within my heart that there is no fear of God before his eyes. Proverbs one, seven says, the fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge, but fools despised, wisdom, instruction, and instruction. So without the fear of the Lord, we cannot start to gain spiritual understanding.
That's the start God, by his wor, by the law. The commandments shows us that we are sinners. It shows us that we should have a fear for God because if we tr if we go against God's word, God will punish us with death and hell, and ultimately the second death. So the law teaches us to fear the Lord and the fear of the Lord is pure lasting forever. Does God require obedience to his word, or do we just have one commandment as, and Andy Stanley says, now you're, you're gonna see, think I'm taking a <laugh>, a big sidetrack, but I'm not taking a sidetrack here. This is important to establish from the scripture verse Samuel 15, 22 and 23. These things are not merely things from the Old Testament, and you can't dismiss them for from the past. This is God dealing with sa with Saul through Samuel.
And it wasn't that God was requiring Saul to obey the law, though he was. But in this circumstance, he was, this was another command directly for Saul, the leadership of the Holy Ghost through the prophet to the king, to utterly destroy everything in this conflict that he was taking and to take nothing for himself. But he, he does. And so Samuel comes and says in verse 22 and 23 of verse, Samuel 15, have the Lord is great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices as in obeying the voice of the Lord. Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice into harken, than the fat of rams. For rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft, and stubbornness is as iniquity and idolatry, because thou has rejected the word of the Lord. He's also rejected the from being king. So we see obedience to God's commands is key. If we don't obey, there will be consequences.
And disobedience and stubbornness is likened under witchcraft and iniquity and idol ideology. Iniquity is, you know what the right thing to do is, but you willfully choose to do the opposite. Ecclesiastes 12, 13 and 14 says, let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter. Fear God and keep his commandments for this is the whole duty of man. For God shall bring every work into judgment with every secret thing, whether it be good or whether it be evil. So God is looking to us and seeing, are you obeying the word? If you're not obeying the word, God will bring you into judgment. If we dismiss the Old Testament entirely and have it as no application, how do we show the world what sin is? And you can't really say, well, love in your neighbor. Sin is much more than that. The apostle Paul is very clear. Each of the apostles is clear, sin is unbelief, and unbelief produces all kinds of wicked behavior.
Now, here's the promise of the the new covenant, Andy Stanley megachurch pastors that want your church to grow to huge heights and, and millions of dollars. Are you teaching your people this basic truth of the Bible? This is the new covenant and God's purpose for the new covenant. Jeremiah 31, 31 through 34, behold the days come say at the Lord that I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah. Here's the promise for a new covenant. What is the promise? What is going to happen from the new covenant? Not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers. And the day that I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt, which my covenant, they break, although I wasn't husband unto them. Say it the Lord. Alright, so the old covenant is not gonna be according to the new cov old covenant.
It's gonna be a new one, verse 33. But this shall be the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days. Say it the Lord, I will put my law in their inward parts and write it in their hearts and will be their God, and they shall be my people. So this is God's plan and program. He's gonna take the law, the old covenant, which by the flesh and humanly speaking, the Jews were unable to obey. He's gonna take that law and he's gonna write it in their hearts so that they obey the Lord. It's verse 34. And they shall teach no ma man more every man, his neighbor, and every man, his brother saying, no, the Lord, for they shall all know me from the least of them unto the greatest faith. The Lord forever forgive their inequity, and I will remember their sin no more.
So God is going to come with a different approach in the new covenant. He is going to by the Holy Spirit, enter into their hearts and write the word, write the law the commandments on their hearts so that they obey them. Now let's look at this in a bigger picture, because in, in Romans, this is spoken about, it's spoken very clearly. Read through the book of Romans, every chapter, every line, every verse, and you will see the right application of the law. The Jews went about to establish their own righteousness as though their salvation was based on obedience to the law. Only the law's purpose was to show us that we are sinners. This is what Paul wrote. The law's purpose was always to show us that we were sinners. How was Abraham saved? How was Abraham made Righteous? Abraham was not made righteous by obeying the law.
He didn't have the law yet. It came many years later. 430 years after Jacob went to 400 years after Jacob went to Egypt, is when the law came. Abraham believed God and it was imputed unto him as righteousness. This was always God's way of bringing salvation. David was not saved by his obedience to the law. He didn't. He failed to obey. David said, blessed as the man to whom the Lord does not impute sin. So again, it's key and it's critical to understand the book of Romans. We've all sinned and fall short of the glory of God, both Jews and Gentiles. Whether you have the law or you don't have the law, you've sinned and are under judgment and God will punish you. So the necessity is that we have the law written on our hearts.
That's what the new covenant is. All right, so what, what is the law? Okay, you have three parts, three aspects to the law. You have the ceremonial law, you have the national law, and you have the moral law as Christians. The ceremonial law we know was fulfilled in Christ. We don't continue the ceremonial law anymore. We have that fulfilled in Christ in his sacrifice. How about the national laws of Israel? We are not required to follow those. That's clear. Circumcision is not required for Gentiles. The the laws of, of on pork and so forth, it's not required for the Gentiles. But the moral law is certainly required, but we are not justified by the moral law. The moral law shows us the nature of God. And if we have the Holy Spirit within us, that Holy Spirit is gonna lead us and direct us to obey the 10 Commandments. What are the 10 commandments?
Let's, let's just look at it real quick before we, before we finish this today. I'll go into more detail on it in the next, in the next couple episodes. But you shall have no other gods before me. You second commandment. That's the first commandment. Second commandment. You shall not make any grave an image. Third commandment, don't take the name of the Lord your God in vain. Fourth commandment. Rem it. Remember the Sabbath day to keep it Holy fifth commandment. Honor your father and your mother. Six, you shall not kill. Seventh, you shall not commit adultery. Eight, you shall not steal ninth, you shall not bear false witness. 10Th, you shall not covet. Okay, the only one of these commandments is left off, and that's the Sabbath. We're told that Christ is our Sabbath and we don't, we don't need to fulfill a Sabbath. Absolutely. It's a principle of God's word that, that our body needs mental, physical, spiritual, emotional, rest a hundred percent. But Christ has become our rest. We don't need to obey the law in order to be saved. We put our faith and trust in Christ. And then that, then the Holy Spirit comes into us, writes the word on our hearts, and by it we become obedient to the law. And we, and we know the Lord.
Even in the Old Testament, even in the Old Testament, they knew the two greatest commandments were these. And the whole law was fulfilled by it. Even the Pharisees, even though they misapplied many things, the Pharisees knew this as well. You shall love what's the greatest commandment? You every Jew knew this. You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, with all your strength. And the second is like unto, unto it, you shall love your neighbor as yourself on this hang all the law and the prophets. If you look at the 10 Commandments, it's the same thing. It's has to do with loving God and loving your neighbor. That's it. God is ri writing those on your heart. Andy Stanley thinks that loving God and loving your neighbor is a new thing. It's not new <laugh>.
What the new covenant does is it carefully and wisely paraphrases the 10 Commandments. And it puts within us the power to obey them. We don't do away with the law. We establish the law. The law is not for the righteous. The law is for sinners and wicked, right? So if God by the Holy Spirit takes the word and writes it in our heart, we're gonna obey it. We're gonna fulfill the law, right? Not by outward, not why not by outward fulfilling it, but by inward fulfilling it. The Holy Spirit living within us, bringing us and leading us to obedience to the Word. This is clear. This is a clear and simple teaching of the Old Testament. Okay, well, we go on. The Old Testament has many principles in it. It has many stories in it. It has many things, and it's all written for our admonishment so that we, through the encouragement and, and chastisement of the scriptures might have hope that our faith would be built.
So there's things in the Old Testament that we can understand as principles. You'll see many things in the Old Testament. It's an abo this, don't do this. It's an abomination to God. Well, we don't do a do away with those things if it makes God, if it's an abomination. And and it's a moral aspect. We understand these things are applic applicable. We can read in second Corinthians, Paul goes through a list of things and says, if, if anyone does these things, he will not inherit the kingdom of God. Some of those things are effeminate ism, homosexuality, adultery lying, gossip, et cetera, et cetera. Those things are a key portion of the old covenant. The change that these people are the, these so-called teachers, false teachers, I will say is what they are. The change that they're not seeing is what the new covenant is to a actually accomplish.
And that's to by the Holy Spirit. God writes his word on our heart. And by faith we're made righteous in God's sight. It's the blood of Christ that makes us righteous, not the law, but we don't do away with the law. We establish it is what Paul says. Christ fulfilled the law. What did he fulfill? He fulfilled the sacrificial portion of it. The ceremonial portion of it. What else did he fulfill? He, he fulfilled the perfect righteousness of the law. So that when God, when we put our faith and trust in Christ, God then imputs the righteousness, the perfect righteousness of Christ to us so that when God sees us, he sees that we've perfectly fulfilled the law. But it goes beyond that. Then God says, I've given to you the Holy Spirit. When we receive the Holy Spirit, then we, we begin to live a sanctified life. And that life is lived in accordance with God's word. It doesn't dismiss or turn away from God's word. No, it establishes it in our hearts. We become the living word. The law shows us and tells us we're sinners. The law was a school master, but we don't get rid of the law. We establish it. John one 17 says, for the law was given by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ. Well, truth came through Moses too.
But what was God trying to show? The law comes from Moses, absolutely. But, but so we see a contrary grace and truth. So God's purpose to give grace to believers comes to us through Jesus Christ, through his shed blood, through his teaching, through his establishing the old covenant, through giving us the Holy Ghost Romans. Let's look up Romans six verse one. I'm gonna get to that and read that it Roman six one very familiar scripture to all of us. What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin that Grace May abound? God forbid, how shall we that our dead to sin li live any longer therein? No, you not that so many of us that were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into his death. Therefore, we are buried with him by baptism into death. That like us, Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father. Even so, we also should walk in newness of life, right? So we're dead with Christ and we're freed from sin and the Holy Spirit comes within us. And then we walk in newness of life. If you're not walking in newness of life, a and how do we know if we're walking in newness of life? Our life lines up with the word
Not just Matthew to revelation, but genesis to revelation. Of course, we understand the ceremonial law. The national law is fulfilled. It's finished. That's over with. But the moral law is not the moral law expressed the character of God. God's purpose is for us to have one wife. A man should be married to a woman, and he should be completely faithful, both physically, emotionally, and mentally to that woman and the woman to the man. And the Bible establishes these things. We don't do away with what the word of God says in the Old Testament. It's all the word of God. But it's a matter of rightly placing it, rightly dividing the word of truth. All right, Romans seven, what shall we say then? Open seven, seven. What shall we what then shall we say that the law is sin by no means. Yet, if it had not been for the law, I would not have known sin for what?
I I would not have known what it is to covet. If the law had said, you shall not covet and verse 12, Roman seven, where for the law is holy and the commandment is holy and just and good, the Bible says, be holy. For I am holy. We can't do that on our own. That's why God gives us the Holy Spirit. That Holy Spirit conforms us to obedience to the word love God with all your heart, et cetera, and love your neighbor as yourself. That's the encapsulation of the law. And they knew that when the law was still in effect and the law is still in effect today, the moral law, only way to bypass out of being responsible for that moral law is to get into Christ. And by one spirit, we're all baptized into one body by the Holy Spirit baptism, we receive Christ into our hearts and we're changed and we're made into his like likeness. It isn't a matter of us obeying the letter of the law step by step. No. The Holy Spirit comes into us and we begin to walk in and obey the law of the Lord. Now you say, I don't have to obey it. That's right. You don't have to obey it.
The Holy Spirit in you will lead you to obedience to the word from Genesis to Revelation. We can't minimize that or turn away from that. And you know, looking at this question that we ask, is it true that Christians are not required to obey any commandments contained in the law? And we need to separate ourselves from the Old Testament. We need to do that. Are we ex, are we not expected to obey? We are expected to obey, but not in our own power. The Holy Spirit in, in us will lead us to obey. We could say in a way it's like an outward reflection that an inward work has taken place. If you're walking in disobedience, if you're disobeying your parents, if you are worshiping other gods, if you're taking God's name in vain, if you're lying, if you're stealing, if you're committing fornication, if you're coveting everything that belongs to your neighbor, are you walking in, in the Holy Spirit?
Are you walking in love? Do you have the Holy Spirit? No. The Holy Spirit is gonna lead you away from doing those things, right? So this is so simple, so easy. The Christian world has twisted and perverted it. What a shame. This is like ABCs and they're running from ABCs as hard as they can. Why? Because they want to be relevant in today's culture. And they don't know. The only way to be relevant is to get back to the Bible. And that's what I issue the call to these, these these men and these men who are perverting God's word and trying to bow down to the homosexual movement. I'm telling you right now, we're not bowing down to the homosexual movement. We're not bowing down to this, these L G B T Q thugs, I don't care what they say, they can cancel my sh my show on YouTube. I don't, I'm gonna speak the truth cuz God's word says so. Not because I think what what I think, but because of what God's word says. And these men are gonna answer to God for perverting God's word. What a what, what a horrible place to be. Lord, deliver us from this. Deliver us from our own thinking, our own ways, our own desires. Well, we'll bring it to a close for this week. Love you all again. Any questions, prayer requests or testimonies, please let me know. You can find me@jasondemars.com. God bless you.
Thank you for listening to Equipping the Bride podcast. New episodes are posted every Friday. I wanna remind you that if you have any questions, testimonies, or prayer requests, please let me know@jasondemars.com. I also have free books and tracks available at my website and shipping is free as well. Please, I ask you to remember the believers and the missions work in the Middle East in prayer. May the Lord richly bless you.