2nd Corinthians 11:3-4, “But I fear, lest by any means, as the serpent beguiled Eve through his subtilty, so your minds should be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ. For if he that cometh preacheth another Jesus, whom we have not preached, or if ye receive another spirit, which ye have not received, or another gospel, which ye have not accepted, ye might well bear with him.”
I am going to teach this Bible study quite different than I normally would. I usually go directly to 2nd Corinthians 11:3-4 and explain the passage. But in this blog I want to first explain the Old Testament law and then build upon that, to teach you the Holy Bible. I think you will find much of this information edifying, filling in those puzzle pieces that give the Christian believer a firmer grasp of the Word of God overall. In other words, in this blog I want to help you see the Big Picture, which will help you understand many other Scripture passages as well.
The Apostle Paul was frustrated and upset with the churches of Galatia. Why? It was because they had embraced a counterfeit gospel. Just like today, people thousands of years ago often became confused, simply because they were naïve and ignorant of spiritual matters. It is in our old fleshly human nature to be unlearned in the things of God. 1st Corinthians 2:14, “But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.” This is why a good Bible teacher is worth more than gold. And I mean that!
The Old Testament Ceremonial Laws
Throughout the Old Testament under the Mosaic law, the Jews (God's chosen people) were required to observe a strict regiment of ceremonial laws. By “Mosaic law” I mean that God gave His laws to His servant and prophet, Moses, to give then to the people of God. These Mosaic laws were intended to teach greater spiritual truths (not just to the Jews, but also to the Gentiles, even today). God gave the world a conscience through the nation of Israel. That is, God chose Abraham's descendants to be His ambassador nation to the rest of the world, to preach the Gospel of free grace, and to be a peculiar people zealous of good works (Exodus 19:5-6).
But sadly, Israel rebelled, choosing instead to worship idols and forget the Lord their God. So God divorced Israel. Jeremiah 3:8, “And I saw, when for all the causes whereby backsliding Israel committed adultery I had put her away, and given her a bill of divorce; yet her treacherous sister Judah feared not, but went and played the harlot also.” The weeping prophet Jeremiah in this verse is referring to the northern kingdom of Israel (Samaria was the capital). God raised up the nation of Assyria (Iran today) against the wicked northern kingdom of Israel, overthrowing it in 722 BC. The southern kingdom of Israel (whose capital was Judah) continued in prosperity, but was overthrown by the nation of Babylon in 586 BC. In Jeremiah 3:8, God is simply telling the Jews in the remaining southern kingdom that they saw the rebellion, invasion and fall of their sister up north, but they
The ceremonial laws were only for:
- Jews (a specific people)
- Old Testament (a specific time)
- Palestine (a specific place)
The Bible teaches that these ceremonial laws ceased at Calvary, because they were nailed to the cross with Christ. Colossians 2:14, “Blotting out the handwriting of ordinances that was against us, which was contrary to us, and took it out of the way, nailing it to his cross; And having spoiled principalities and powers, he made a shew of them openly, triumphing over them in it.” Subsequently, God does not expect anyone to keep the Sabbath Day in these modern times. Some people choose to still observe the Sabbath Day to honor God, which is fine, just so long as you don't insist that it be done; or God forbid, require Sabbath keeping to prove that you are saved (this is what the cult of Seventh-Day Adventism wickedly does).
And let me plainly say, dear friend, that salvation has ALWAYS been by grace through faith. I am saddened when I hear well-known preachers (e.g., Peter S. Ruckman and William P. Grady) teach that people were saved by WORKS under the Mosaic law. Nothing could be further from the truth (Acts 10:43). Keeping the law in the Old Testament was a matter of service, just like today. Salvation is the free gift of God; Service is what we do with that gift! No one has ever been saved by service, that is, by serving God.
Keeping the law under the Old Covenant was a matter of obeying God to please Him, which if the Jews failed to keep the law, God punished the nation. Proof of what I say is that God sent the Jews into 70 years of captivity in Babylon (one year for every seven years that the Jews failed to keep the Sabbath Day). God punished the nation of Israel with Babylon.
That is what is happening now in Ukraine. God has raised up Russia to judge Ukraine. Look at this shameful video of Ukraine's president dressed in drag, a sodomite, dancing with homosexuals! Search the internet and you will find hundreds of articles identifying Ukraine as THE MOST CORRUPT NATION IN EUROPE!!! Ukraine is long overdo for judgment and God is using Russia to do it! That doesn't mean Russia is without fault, it just means that Ukraine is worse! Babylon wasn't a godly nation, but they shined in comparison to the depths of wickedness to which Israel had sunk! How wicked was it? In Ezekiel chapter eight, God carried Ezekiel's spirit by the Holy Spirit from Babylon to Jerusalem, to show him the Jewish priests worshipping the sun, moon and stars in IDOLATRY. These were the entrusted spiritual leaders of Israel, worshipping creation instead of the Creator!!!
I wanted to take some time, to explain the Old Testament system of ceremonial laws, which centered around the tabernacle and the work of the priestly tribe of the Levities. Once each year the high priest was required by God to kill a lamb. It had to be a young male lamb without spot or blemish, because it represented the sinless Lamb of God, Jesus Christ. The high priest cut the lamb's throat and let the blood drain into a basin (bowl). He then took that blood and entered into the holiest inner court of the tabernacle. Only the high priest could enter into the holy place, and not without blood!
I absolutely LOVE the book of Hebrews!!! It is all about the blood of Jesus. A great teacher, regardless of the subject, takes a complicated matter, breaks it down, and makes it simple to understand. Any teacher who cannot do that ought not be teaching!!! I have sat in countless classes during my lifetime, where the person teaching rambled off a bunch of data, statistics and information, but they didn't make any sense. Those were horrible unqualified teachers!
I humbly believe that God has given me the gift of writing and teaching. I give ALL the credit to God for anything good accomplished through my website ministry. Dear reader, did you know that the heresy of Lordship Salvation is rooted in the Old Testament law? It is absolutely true! What does that mean? Well, what is God's law? The law are God's commandments. Everyone is familiar with the Ten Commandments which God personally gave to Moses on Mount Sinai (Exodus 20:1-17). Actually, Moses gave about 720 laws in total for the Hebrews to follow! If you think that is too many, consider that there are now over 1,000,000 laws, regulations and codes on the books in the United States!!! Good golly Miss Molly!
The purpose of God's law is expressly stated in Romans 3:19-20 and also in Galatians 3:24-26:
Boy, I love those helpful passages of Scripture! If all of the incompetent pastors and preachers today, would simply study these passages of the Bible, they would realize that telling someone to “repent of their sin” or “turn away from your sinful ways” dRomans 3:19-20, “Now we know that what things soever the law saith, it saith to them who are under the law: that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become guilty before God. Therefore by the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified in his sight: for by the law is the knowledge of sin.”Galatians 3:24-26, “Wherefore the law was our schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ, that we might be justified by faith. But after that faith is come, we are no longer under a schoolmaster. For ye are all the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus.”
God said, “I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery (Ex 20:1-2):
- “You shall have no other gods before me” (Exodus 20:3).
- “You shall not make for yourself an idol. You shall not bow down to them or worship them” (Exodus 20:4-6).
- “You shall not misuse the name of the Lord your God” (Exodus 20:7).
- “Observe the Sabbath Day by keeping it holy” (Exodus 20:8-11).
- “Honor your father and your mother” (Exodus 20:12).
- “You shall not murder” (Exodus 20:13).
- “You shall not commit adultery” (Exodus 20:14).
- 8th “You shall not steal” (Exodus 20:15).
- “You shall not give false testimony” (Exodus 20:16).
- “You shall not covet” (Exodus 20:17).
God never intended for anyone to keep the law to get to Heaven. Rather, God gave the law to show humanity our hopeless to merit Heaven on our own. The law gives man the knowledge of sin (Romans 3:19-20).
Romans 3:19-20, “Now we know that what things soever the law saith, it saith to them who are under the law: that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become guilty before God. Therefore by the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified in his sight: for by the law is the knowledge of sin.”
So when anyone comes along preaching that you must turn away from your sins to be saved, what they are really doing is trying to put you under the law to be saved. The Bible plainly teaches, as we just read in Romans 3:20, that no one has ever been justified by keeping the law. Everything about the law was for our learning...
Hebrews 10:1, “For the law having a shadow of good things to come, and not the very image of the things, can never with those sacrifices which they offered year by year continually make the comers thereunto perfect.”
We learn from the Ten Commandments that we cannot keep it. No matter how hard we try, we fail at keeping God's law perfectly. That seems the same as trying to lose weight... impossible. I'm kidding of course. With proper nutrition and eating only certain natural foods and baked foods, we can lose weight slowly but surely. However, no one has ever perfectly keep God's law. That is, no one is without sin among mankind. We are all horrible sinners (Romans 3:10-23). God gave the law to help mankind. He chose to give the law to the world through the chosen people, the Jews. But that which God meant to be a blessing, the foolish Jews turned into a big stumbling block:
1st Peter 2:7-8, “Unto you therefore which believe he is precious: but unto them which be disobedient, the stone which the builders disallowed, the same is made the head of the corner, And a stone of stumbling, and a rock of offence, even to them which stumble at the word, being disobedient: whereunto also they were appointed.”
R.C. Sproul's Ligonier ministry, heretic Dr. Burk Parsons, spoke this blasphemy:
“True repentance is actually striving to live in a new way, in a consecrated way, that we would be striving to change our behavior, change our actions, change our motives, and that we would pray that God would help us to do so.” ~Dr. Burk Parsons
No, that is reformation, not Bible repentance. Another heretic, John C. Ryle foolishly says:
“Let us beware of any repentance, falsely so called, which is not of this character. Action is the very life of 'repentance unto salvation.' Feelings, and tears, and remorse, and wishes, and resolutions, are all useless, until they are accompanied by action and a change of life. In fact they are worse than useless. Insensibly they sear the conscience and harden the heart.” —Pastor J.C. Ryle (1816-1900)
It's true, Jesus was a friend of sinners, and because he was a true friend, He called those friends to repent of their unbelief and believe; but He did not require them to turn away from sinning to be saved, which would be works. When asked how to be saved, Paul and Silas simply told the Roman jailor to: BELIEVE ON THE LORD JESUS CHRIST (Acts 16:30-31).
Those wicked preachers today who teach that you must turn from your sin to be saved are preaching another gospel, with another spirit, and it is not what the Holy Bible teaches!
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