December 17, 2024 • 46 mins
“The code of the law kills, but the Holy Spirit makes alive.”
As Believers in Jesus, what do we do with the law? What is the law really, and didn’t Jesus come to abolish it? The Busses tackle this very important and controversial topic suggested by a listener. This enlightening discussion will give you a much bigger picture of the law, beyond a list of dos and don’ts. When we let the Scripture interpret itself with the breath of the Holy Spirit to guide us, we can see the true meaning behind what it’s all about. So, listen in to know how you can live in fulfilment of the law, just like Jesus did. The “how” is simpler than you may think.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
Jesus is trying to teach us that there's more to this.
(00:06):
Because the Pharisees came back from Babylon saying,
we got in big trouble because we didn't keep the law.
So let's keep the law really, really well.
With an iron fist.
But they were only interested in how it looks
on the outside, because that's all they could see.
Because man judges by the outward appearance.
(00:27):
But God looks on the heart.
God promises in Joel 2.28 to pour out His Spirit
on all humanity.
Welcome to Global Outpouring, where we contend
for that promise outpouring.
We equip for that outpouring so that we may engage
(00:50):
in that very outpouring.
I'm Philip Bus.
And I'm Sharon Bus.
Welcome to the podcast today.
We're going to tackle a subject that was suggested to us
by one of our listeners, Cheryl Hewer.
And she has given us a subject that we've been meditating
about this for weeks before we brought it,
because we wanna do a really good job of it.
(01:12):
But we're gonna jump into a controversial pool here.
Because there are many different schools of thought
about what about the law?
What is the law anyway?
And has Jesus redeemed us from the law?
And should we keep the law?
And so it's something that we feel at Global Outpouring,
(01:33):
the importance of comparing scripture with scripture
with the leading of the Holy Spirit.
The word of God needs the breathing of the Holy Spirit
on it in order for us to get the understanding
of what the Holy Spirit meant in the first place
when He said the things that He said
that have been recorded in the scriptures.
(01:54):
So we're going to take a deep dive into this subject.
And I believe that you'll find that it's enlightening
and it's going to be perhaps life-changing.
That's what we do this for,
because we want to equip the saints to be ready,
to be mature, to be disciples in these days
so that we can be ready to help others come
(02:16):
into the fullness of the truth
and they won't get sidetracked by the commandments of men.
Thank you so much for joining us today.
We're really, really glad that you're with us.
We know that this is an important subject
for you to have a good understanding about
so that you can give answers to others
(02:37):
who are questioning you.
And perhaps you have questions yourself.
So this is a great opportunity
for us to look into this together, look into scripture,
compare scripture with scripture
with the leading of the Holy Spirit.
But before we get started,
we want to encourage you, if you haven't already done so,
to go to our website, globaloutpouring.net,
and make sure that you have subscribed to our email list
(03:00):
because we want to be able to stay in touch with you
and make sure that you've marked your calendar
so that you can be with us
for the Global Outpouring Convention 2025,
May 21st through 24th,
at the St. Louis Airport Marriott Hotel
in St. Louis, Missouri.
It's going to be a time of glory.
It's going to be a time when you can get to know people,
(03:23):
a time when you can meet new folks
that you've never known before
that are on the same path going towards the glory,
going towards the outpouring.
The theme for this one is on the threshold of outpouring.
We feel like we're just so on the threshold.
It's like the waters have already begun to rise,
like they're already ankle deep, maybe knee deep,
(03:45):
but pretty soon we're going to be in waters to swim in.
And that's what we are preparing for,
that we're contending for, that we're equipping for,
so that we can all be involved
because it's going to be all hands on deck.
As the Holy Spirit is poured out in such a powerful way
that we are anticipating, we want you to be equipped.
And so that's why we're doing what we're doing.
(04:06):
If you want to help us, there's a donation page
on our website and we would be so grateful
if you would help us with the costs
of producing this podcast.
It's costly.
And we would greatly appreciate your help.
So today, I want to start out with a little bit
of Cheryl Hewer's email that she sent.
We encourage people to give us feedback.
(04:28):
You can put something on that webpage,
globaloutpouring.net.
There's a feedback form there, or you can email us,
feedback at globaloutpouring.org.
And we love to hear from you.
It really, really encourages us
because we don't hear from people very often.
But when we do hear, we are just so delighted.
And Cheryl wrote quite a lengthy email
(04:51):
and really encouraged us a whole lot.
I won't read the whole thing,
but she says, you're always encouraging us
to give you ideas for a podcast.
And this goes for you too, listener.
If there's something that you want to hear something about,
we want to hear from you about what it is
so we can take it to the Lord and bring it back to you.
She says, as I've continued to read Romans,
I've been pondering many of the references to the law.
(05:14):
I think many people have questions
if the law is good, bad, important today,
or maybe it was for the Jews only.
I have heard many strange and contradictory things said.
I know some things that I believe concerning the law
and things that I've been taught concerning the law.
Let me share some of those thoughts
and maybe you can add to them or correct them
(05:34):
where I'm wrong.
Well, I don't think you've been wrong in anything
that you've written here, Cheryl.
I think you've got some tremendous points
and we're gonna cover those as best we can.
In the Old Testament, the Hebrew word Torah
is translated law.
For example, the following,
and this is actually the first mention,
and there's a principle in Bible interpretation
(05:54):
that you get something of the real meaning of the word
by the first place that it was used.
So this word Torah, which is often translated law,
is the first time, and she's quoting
from the Amplified Classic,
"'For Abraham listened to and obeyed my voice
and kept my charge, my commands, my statutes, and my laws.'"
(06:14):
That's Genesis 25, five.
So he starts out with the law coming from Abraham.
Not from Moses, but that's an interesting concept.
Yeah, it is.
It certainly is.
So she goes on to say law is Strong's number H8451
and the word is Torah.
(06:35):
That would be understood as the teachings of God.
I'm not sure this lines up with our Western thinking
of the meaning of law, and Cheryl, you're absolutely right.
A lot of people misunderstand that,
and I think that's why we have some
of the serious misunderstandings that we have.
She says, this is consistent throughout the Old Testament.
In Romans, a scripture that Sharon mentioned
(06:56):
in Give Your Body to God, that's a few episodes ago,
so that the righteous,
this is quoting from the Amplified Classic,
so that the righteous and just requirement of the law
might be fully met in us who live and move
not in the ways of the flesh, but in the ways of the Spirit.
Our lives governed not by the standards
and according to the dictates of the flesh,
(07:17):
but controlled by the Holy Spirit.
That's Romans 8.4.
And I just think that is one of the key scriptures
to help us understand where God is trying to take us,
even as we're preparing for the outpouring,
that he's looking for people who know how
to walk with the Holy Spirit
and be controlled by the Holy Spirit.
(07:38):
And so she goes on to say, requirement of the law
is fully met when our lives are controlled
by the Holy Spirit.
I think we could just stop and say amen there
because I think you've got the right idea, Cheryl.
She says the law is holy, just, a good thing and spiritual.
And then she quotes Romans 7.12 to 14
from the Amplified Classic.
The law therefore is holy and each commandment
(07:59):
is holy and just and good.
Did that which is good then prove fatal,
bringing death to me?
Certainly not.
It was sin working death in me
by using this good thing as a weapon
in order that through the commandment,
sin might be shown clearly to be sin,
that the extreme malignity and immeasurable sinfulness
of sin might plainly appear.
(08:21):
We know that the law is spiritual,
but I'm a creature of the flesh,
carnal, unspiritual, having been sold into slavery
under the control of sin.
That's so well put.
Thank you, Lord, for Romans 7.12 to 14
in the Amplified Classic.
And then she gives this verse,
a verse many people quote stating that the law kills,
(08:43):
but the spirit gives life.
It is he who has qualified us,
of course this is talking about Jesus.
It is he who has qualified us,
making us to be fit and worthy and sufficient
as ministers and dispensers of a new covenant
of salvation through Christ,
not ministers of the letter of legally written code,
but of the spirit for the code of the law kills,
(09:06):
but the Holy Spirit makes alive.
And there's a reference there to Jeremiah 31, 31.
This is a quote from 2 Corinthians 3, 6
from the Amplified Classic.
Now, Jeremiah 31, 31 is the beginning of
where it talks about the new covenant
that was going to be instituted.
And that was instituted on the night that Jesus
(09:27):
was betrayed when he took the cup.
And he said, this cup is the cup of the new covenant.
And then she goes on to quote Romans 3, 20
from the Amplified Classic.
For no person will be justified, made righteous,
acquitted and judged acceptable in his sight
by observing the works prescribed by the law.
For the real function of the law is to make men recognize
(09:49):
and be conscious of sin, not mere perception,
but an acquaintance with sin,
which works toward repentance, faith and holy character.
Wow, that's so well put in the Amplified Classic.
So she says, actually, because the law is holy,
just a good thing in spiritual,
it points to the sin in us
so that we may repent and receive life.
(10:09):
God made promises to the Israelites
and gave them the law to live by
because there was a promise covenant there.
So give your body to God.
Yeah, absolutely.
So she says these things that I've been pondering.
So I've been pondering from this email for several weeks
and I've been making notes
and I've got way too many pages of notes
(10:32):
for us to even cover effectively.
But I think Cheryl has covered the essence of it already.
But I just want to bring a little bit more
about the idea of Torah because she mentions
that Strong's number 8451 in the Hebrew is the word Torah.
(10:53):
And it comes from an interesting word
that I think that you would want to know about.
It comes from the word Yara.
And that means to throw or cast or shoot.
It's even talking about rain, the falling of rain.
And it means to direct, teach, to point out,
(11:16):
to show, to instruct.
This is what Torah is for.
Now let's define what is Torah.
It's the first five books of the Bible.
Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy.
Right, so when people want to throw out Torah.
(11:36):
They're throwing out all the commandments.
Well, it's not just the commandments.
See, they want to throw out the commandments.
They want to throw out the law.
The law.
What they would be throwing out,
if they're throwing out Torah,
is the story of Genesis, the beginning, how things began.
They would be throwing out the story of Noah
and what happened when the Nephilim took over
(11:59):
and everything was so bad and God saved them.
Yeah, it's all the history.
It's history. History of creation.
History of creation, history of the beginning of covenant.
Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, the sons of Jacob, the tribes,
how they went into Egypt,
how they were rescued from Egypt.
All of these things are really critical
(12:19):
to our understanding of our Father.
Yeah.
And when he introduces himself on Mount Sinai.
I'm the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.
Exactly.
Yeah.
And he shows up on top of Mount Sinai as consuming fire
and he speaks directly to the entire nation.
Yeah.
He's not just speaking at the very beginning.
(12:41):
He gives the 10 commandments,
or as it's written in Hebrew,
the 10 things.
It doesn't even call them commandments.
Interesting.
It calls them things.
And he introduces himself first as I am Yehovah, your God.
Mm-hmm, yeah.
Have no other gods before me.
Yeah, that's the first commandment.
That's the first thing.
And first of all-
(13:01):
Have no other gods.
Exactly.
So they've come out of Egypt
where they had a whole bunch of gods
and they watched the 10 plagues
deal with all of those 10 Egyptian gods
and show Yehovah to be superior.
Now there's nothing about that that you should throw out.
That's right.
These are things that are critical
(13:23):
for our understanding of who God is and how he is.
And it shows you how much what God thinks of sin.
Yeah, exactly.
And what he thinks of other gods.
Ooh.
What did Jesus say?
You are my friends if you do what I command you to do.
Exactly.
Command, because I looked that up,
because that's strong, but that's just what it means.
(13:45):
Right.
Command, and so God commanded the 10 commandments
and Jesus commanded, if we do what he tells us,
he'll be our friend.
Right.
Don't you wanna be a friend of Jesus?
Absolutely.
Yeah.
And Jesus pointed out to them
what is the most important law.
And if you only take the New Testament,
(14:06):
so much of the New Testament
is quoting the Old Testament.
It's quoting the Old, yeah.
Okay, so a lot of people just say,
no, I'm a New Testament Christian
and I don't even read that Old Testament.
And so you're missing the story of creation.
You're missing the Psalms.
You're missing the Proverbs.
You're missing the prophecies about Jesus coming
and the things that are going to take place.
(14:27):
There's so many prophecies that Jesus fulfilled
and many that he hasn't fulfilled yet
that he's going to fulfill when he comes again.
So there's a beautiful saying that I heard,
and I don't know who said it in the first place,
but I've made it my own.
The New Testament is in the Old Testament concealed
and the Old Testament is in the New Testament revealed.
(14:49):
So you really need both.
And if you look at the writings of Paul,
for instance, what he says in 2 Timothy 3.16,
all scripture is given by inspiration of God
and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof,
for correction, for instruction in righteousness.
(15:10):
Now, if we're supposed to throw out the Old Testament,
if we're supposed to throw out the Torah, the law,
then why would Paul say that?
Why would Paul?
Because, hey, when Paul wrote that,
that was the only scripture there was,
was the Torah and the writings and the prophets.
So what's called, we call the Old Testament
(15:33):
the Hebrew scriptures.
In Hebrew, they call it the Tanakh.
And that word is really an acronym
and it's referring to like the T sound for Torah
and the N sound for Nevi'im,
which is the Hebrew word for prophets,
and Ketuvim, which is the Hebrew word for writings.
(15:54):
So that's like the Psalms and Proverbs and Ecclesiastes,
the things that aren't necessarily the Torah or the,
I'm not sure where the history ones fall,
First and Second Samuel, First and Second Kings.
I think First and Second Chronicles
are considered part of the Ketuvim.
Anyway, that's not important.
What's important is that we need the Old Testament.
(16:17):
And I don't even like to necessarily call it
the Old Testament, but here's where we need to find
our balance and find comparing scripture with scripture,
what the Lord is trying to teach us, okay?
He's trying to teach us things.
Now, I remember hearing a teacher or two in my life
(16:39):
saying, you know, all these 613 laws
that the Jewish people have or the Hebrew people have,
613, how can you keep 613 laws?
They couldn't keep them themselves.
Well, that may be.
Isn't that what the council, they said,
said, why do you put all these laws on the Gentiles?
(16:59):
This is when the Holy Spirit was poured out.
Well, we can't keep them ourselves, you know?
Yeah.
You know?
And what I don't know is whether they were even referring
necessarily to all of the 613 laws
or whether they were also talking about the traditions
that have gone with it.
Let's put it in perspective.
That the Pharisees brought.
But here's the deal.
To put this in perspective, our US Congress
(17:24):
has enacted approximately 200 to 600 statutes
during each of its 118 biennial terms.
So more than 30,000 statutes have been enacted since 1789.
And there's another.
30,000?
That was from Wikipedia.
And then another from, I guess,
it's the University of Connecticut.
(17:45):
They've had an article online called
300,000 ways to do time with a federal crime.
And they say that there's approximately 300,000 laws
on our books.
Just federal laws.
That doesn't mean your state laws or your county laws
or your municipal ordinances.
(18:07):
You know, like we have an ordinance
as you drive into our little nearby town of Jasper.
Population less than 500.
I think it's like 483 or something like that.
And there's a sign there that says
that there's a city ordinance for truckers
not to use their engine brake.
Their jake brake.
OK?
(18:27):
So that's an ordinance.
So there's one more thing.
There's all these different things that you,
how do you even know what all the laws are?
You can't.
You don't know unless you brake one and you get pulled over.
Yeah.
Like there is an ordinance here in Arkansas
that you can be ticketed for going too slow
and keeping more than how many cars behind you?
(18:48):
If there's more than two cars behind you,
they can give you a ticket for holding up traffic.
Yeah.
Even if you're going the speed limit.
Yeah.
How does that one work?
But all I'm saying is 613 laws really
isn't as much as you might think.
And when you also consider the fact that there is no temple.
And a whole bunch of those laws were outlining
(19:12):
how temple worship is to be done,
how the sacrifices are to be done.
How these are instructions.
Instructions of how to do things.
But I think Jesus gave us a wonderful picture
when the young man asked him, what's the most important law?
And Jesus said, here, O Israel, the Lord our God, Yehovah
(19:36):
our God, Yehovah is one.
And you shall love Yehovah your God with all your heart,
with all your soul, with all your mind,
and with all your strength.
And the second is like unto it, love your neighbor as yourself.
And he goes on to say, on these two
hang all the law and the prophets.
So if you don't have time to study Torah,
(20:00):
if you don't have time to learn all the fine details,
if you'll just do everything out of love for God
and love for your neighbor, you're
going to be OK, because really what it boils down to.
Because we're trying to get back to doing things by the Spirit.
Right.
The Holy Spirit is at work in us,
(20:21):
bringing us to a place of relationship with our Father.
Jesus died so that we could have our relationship restored
to our Heavenly Father.
He fulfilled all the law.
And I think it's well put in what
he said in the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew 5, 17
(20:43):
through 20.
Think not that I am come to destroy the law or the prophets.
I am not come to destroy, but to fulfill.
For verily I say to you, till heaven and earth pass,
one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law
till all be fulfilled.
Now, let's just back up on this for just a minute.
(21:05):
What's a jot and what's a tittle?
You need to know the Hebrew.
OK, so in the Hebrew language, the smallest
letter in the Hebrew alphabet is the yod.
The yod.
Y-O-D is how you would spell it in English.
And they've transliterated it as jot instead of yod.
So it's talking about the smallest letter.
(21:26):
And the tittles would be the little markings
that give some other kind of pronunciation.
I don't think the pronunciation marks were
added until the Middle Ages.
But there were other marks even in the ancient Hebrew
manuscripts.
So the tiny little manuscript items
(21:47):
that are part of the communication, the instruction
from God, Jesus says that until heaven and earth pass,
not one of these things is going to pass away.
Wow, that's thick amendments.
So yeah, it's everything.
It's the whole ball of wax, so to speak.
The whole enchilada.
(22:08):
You could say that too.
Then he says in verse 19, let me just back up and say this.
There will be a day when heaven and earth shall pass away.
That day is coming.
And there's going to be a new heaven and a new earth.
And I don't think there will be a need for the law.
Although, I think, this is just my opinion,
I think that God has so many more dimensions to his word
(22:34):
that we're going to discover for all eternity.
And if sin is taken out.
Yeah, there's no need for the law.
There's no need for the law because everybody will
be so in love with Jesus.
Right.
So the whole point of everything that God gave to the Israelites
on Mount Sinai and the whole history,
the whole of the Hebrew scriptures
(22:56):
are to show us what it's to be like on earth as it is in heaven.
When Moses was up in the mount with God,
I believe that he was given an opportunity to look into heaven.
And then God told him, here's how you do it on earth.
I think we talked about that in a podcast a while back,
(23:17):
where he saw into heaven, he saw the lamp stand in heaven.
He saw the seven spirits of God as flaming fires in heaven.
And God said, OK, here's how you do it in the tabernacle.
You make this candlestick out of gold
and make it out of one piece of gold.
And he shows him the ark in heaven.
And he says, now here's how you're
(23:38):
going to do it on the earth.
Yeah, on earth as it is in heaven.
Exactly.
And that's what the whole Hebrew scriptures, I believe,
is laid out for us so that, for instance, you
find the principle of substitution
in the Old Testament.
Like you have the ram that was caught in the thicket that
substituted for Isaac.
(23:59):
And you have the sacrificing of an animal
to cover for your sins.
You don't have to die for your sins.
The animal can die for your sins.
It's teaching us the principle of substitution.
And then in Genesis 49, 11, there's
a promise to Judah that he washed his garments in wine.
And then I'm going to quote from the Young's literal
(24:20):
translation, the blood of grapes his covering.
And I see that as a promise of, OK, so Jesus
comes from the tribe of Judah.
And he's giving us this picture that the blood of grapes
can substitute for his blood when he said,
you need to eat my body and drink my blood.
(24:41):
But we have a substitution.
There's the grapes, the blood of grapes.
So the principle of substitution is
all through the scriptures.
And we need to understand that on Earth as it is in heaven.
Jesus did all of these things to substitute for us.
Yes.
Hallelujah.
Hallelujah.
(25:01):
So I think it really has a lot to do
with the children of Israel having just come out
of Egypt.
And it's really the next generation that
comes into the promised land.
Right.
Because I'd never heard the law before.
Right.
They were given the instructions at Mount Sinai.
And Joshua was commanded when they got into the land
(25:25):
to go and write a copy in like plaster of stone
and write a copy of this.
Well, it must have been a huge stone,
unless he was just supposed to write the 10 things.
It may have been the 10 things.
I don't know.
Remember how many rocks it would take to write it?
Would take a lot.
So I don't know exactly what was written.
(25:46):
But I know that they've discovered up on Mount Ebal
this thing that God told Joshua to build an altar there.
Yeah.
That's right.
And it's there.
They don't have the plastered rocks so far.
They haven't found that.
But the point is that it's almost
like the children of Israel were a substitute for us
to look at.
(26:07):
Oh, OK.
So that we could learn how to live in love with God
and learn how to live in love with each other.
What's the easiest way to learn something
by somebody else's mistakes?
Yeah, if you can manage to learn by somebody else's mistake.
We try to teach our kids.
Yeah.
Do these things so you don't have to go through these things
like we did.
(26:28):
Yeah.
But it doesn't seem to stick.
Sometimes.
Sometimes people are smart enough to learn.
But a lot of times we're not.
You have to find it out the hard way yourself.
Yeah, that's true.
That's true.
It's human nature.
Yeah, it is.
So it's interesting, back to Matthew 5,
that Jesus goes on to describe even stronger things than what
(26:51):
were actually written in the law of Moses.
And he's trying to show us that what God intended
was not what they were getting in the teachings
that they were getting from the Pharisees.
So I'm going to read this from the voice translation
from verse 20.
For I tell you, you will not enter the kingdom of heaven
unless your righteousness goes deeper than the Pharisees,
(27:13):
even more righteous than the most learned learner
of the law.
As you know, long ago, God instructed Moses
to tell his people, do not murder.
Those who murder will be judged and punished.
But here's the even harder truth.
Anyone who is angry with his brother
will be judged for his anger.
Anyone who taunts his friend speaks contemptuously
(27:34):
toward him or calls him loser or fool or scum
will have to answer to the high court.
And anyone who calls his brother a fool
may find himself in the fires of hell.
So he's trying to say, look, it's not just
about keeping the letter of the law on the outside.
He's keeping it on the inside.
(27:54):
Exactly.
He's looking for hearts.
A man looks on the upward appearance,
but God looks on the heart.
Exactly.
Yeah.
And so then he goes on talking about getting over your grudge
with your brother and make things right
before your brother takes you to jail.
And then he goes on in verse 27.
As you know, long ago, God forbade his people
to commit adultery.
(28:15):
You may think you've abided by this commandment,
walked the straight and narrow.
But I tell you this, any man who looks at a woman with lust
has already committed adultery in his heart.
So he's trying to show that the intent of the law
was supposed to be deeper.
It's not Jesus.
Jesus isn't changing the law.
It's like he's giving the amplified version.
(28:37):
OK, that's good.
Because people didn't get it.
They were getting it like, this is
how we are supposed to behave.
And so we will do these things.
But it's like the little kid that was standing up
in the high chair.
And mama said, sit down.
No.
Sit down.
(28:58):
No.
Sit down.
No.
Quack, quack, quack, quack, quack.
And the child sits down but says,
I may be sitting down on the outside,
but I'm standing up on the inside.
We have to be doing the same on the outside
because God has done something in us.
(29:21):
And I've been saying for years that the law,
the purpose of the law, is to show us
what it looks like to love the Lord your God
with all your heart, with all your soul,
with all your mind, with all your strength.
If you're loving God, here's how it's going to manifest.
Like there's a law about if you want to rob the eggs
(29:42):
or the fledgling baby birds, you don't also
take the mother bird.
So that gives her a chance to have another brood next year.
She can go on living.
You've got to feed your family.
Go ahead and take her eggs, but don't kill the mother.
It makes sense.
It's loving.
There's wisdom behind it.
(30:03):
There's wisdom in these instructions.
Going on, Jesus is trying to teach us
that there's more to this.
It's deeper than how you're practicing it.
Because the Pharisees came back from Babylon saying-
Captivity.
Yeah, they came back from captivity in Babylon.
(30:24):
We got in big trouble because we didn't keep the law.
So let's keep the law really, really well.
With an iron fist.
But they were only interested in how it looks on the outside
because that's all they could see.
Because man judges by the outward appearance.
But God looks on the heart.
Yeah, because what did Jesus call them?
(30:45):
Hypocrites?
Mm-hmm, he did.
Whitewashed, sepulchers?
Yes, he did.
He just laid into them.
Yeah.
And God wants us to be loving him.
And that's why there were some
who recognized Jesus when he came.
You know, the folks that blamed the Jews
for everything that ever went wrong,
(31:06):
they called the Jews Christ killers, right?
They've not been instructed properly to do that.
That's just evil.
That's absolute evil.
Because there were lots of Jews that did embrace him.
And they were the beginning of the church.
Right, that's right.
And the common people heard him gladly.
And it says in Acts that there were many priests
(31:29):
that believed.
And we know Nicodemus, he was probably in the Sanhedrin.
And Joseph of Arimathea, he was in the Sanhedrin.
There were people that were touched in their heart
and they believed.
And they followed Jesus.
And they got the message.
And they carried the message to the nations.
Yes.
(31:49):
Because they were once again scattered to the nations.
So in order to get the word of God to the nations,
they had to be scattered.
Yeah, and the way it happened too, it was just wild.
That was horrible.
But you have to realize that it wasn't just the Jews
that were unbelieving that were scattered.
(32:11):
It was also the believers.
The believers were also scattered.
And they took the word of God to the nations.
And the nations have embraced Messiah,
just like when Joseph was sold into Egypt.
And he went through the troubles that he went through
to get him ready to become the viceroy.
(32:32):
Well, what happens when a mother bird kicks the babies
ready to get out of the nest?
She says, okay, sonny or whatever, go fly.
No, she boots, no, he's not gonna go on a zone.
Yeah, he's comfortable.
He's comfortable.
It doesn't tell him he's in a free fall
that he raises his rings and discovers, okay,
(32:52):
I can do this. I guess I can fly.
You know, and every bird goes through it.
Right, and mama bird usually pulls the feathers
out of the nest to make it uncomfortable.
Oh, wow.
So, you know, God has ways.
If we won't obey him, and when he says,
go into all the world and preach the gospel,
he may have other ways of getting us out into all the world
to preach the gospel.
(33:14):
So anyway, we know that the principle is
that it's not really the law that has been done away with.
It's about learning to live by the Spirit
so that you're automatically doing the things of the law.
And Romans talks about how the Gentiles are often
(33:35):
doing the things of the law without even having the law
because they have a conscience
and they're paying attention to their conscience.
The Holy Spirit is there in us from the get-go
to give us a conscience so that we know right from wrong.
And when the believers, you know, when they got to say,
just let them abstain from things, strangle the blood.
And what was the other command?
I forget.
(33:56):
You know, instead of-
Adultery, stay away from adultery.
No, adultery, instead of trying to put all these laws,
you know, on them, and even circumcision.
Well, yeah.
That was a big one.
Well, but-
Because that was the kind of the keeping of the law.
Yeah, and the Pharisees among them said,
every believer has to be circumcised.
Well, no, the council heard from the Holy Spirit.
(34:18):
No, that's not necessary because look what happened
when Peter went to the house of Cornelius.
All these people believed
and they were filled with the Holy Spirit
and they were not circumcised.
So why should you have to circumcise them now?
They came by faith.
And Paul over and over is expressing how it's by her
(34:40):
faith, it's our faith, it's our faith.
Faith is not done away with.
Yeah.
And love is not done away with.
It's about loving.
It's about learning to walk by the Spirit.
And faith is a part of that and love is a part of that.
And the thing about circumcision, as I have pondered it,
I believe that circumcision has to do with the promise
(35:04):
that God made to Abraham and Isaac and Jacob
of giving them the land.
So it belongs to them.
And I think that's the reason why they didn't circumcise
the children during the 40 years they were in the wilderness
so that when they got there into the promised land,
the first thing that they did was they circumcised.
(35:26):
Even before they had their first battle, they circumcised.
And I believe that it was so that they would be
the fulfillment of the blood covenant shed on the land
because Abraham was circumcised on the land,
Isaac was circumcised on the land,
Jacob was circumcised on the land,
the 12 patriarchs were circumcised on the land.
(35:48):
Then they went out into Egypt.
And they continued the custom of circumcision
among themselves, but there was something
about the necessity of we have come home now.
This place belongs to us.
And this blood covenant has to do with the promise
(36:08):
for the land.
That's very good.
That's my opinion.
That's how I see it.
I don't think it's a doctrine that you need to,
you're not gonna die on this hill.
But let's just talk about a couple more things.
Galatians 6.2 says, bear one another's burdens
and so fulfill the law of Christ.
So there's a new law that comes in the New Testament,
(36:34):
but I think you could probably find it
or the sense of it in the Old Testament as well.
But he's writing to the Galatians
and the Galatians were Gentiles.
Let's just look at Galatians 3.19 through 29.
And I'm reading from the voice translation.
Now you're asking yourselves,
so why did God give us the law?
(36:55):
God commanded his heavenly messengers to deliver it
into the hand of a mediator for this reason,
to help us reign in our sins until the offspring
about whom the promise was made
in the first place would come.
A mediator represents more than one, but God is only one.
So you ask, does the law contradict God's promise?
(37:18):
Absolutely not.
Never was there written a law
that could lead to resurrection and life.
If there had been, then surely we could have experienced
saving righteousness through keeping the law,
but we haven't.
Scripture has subjected the whole world to sin's power
so that the faithful obedience of Jesus the anointed one
(37:39):
might extend God's promises to everyone who has faith.
Before faith came on the scene,
the law did its best to keep us in line,
restraining us until the faith that was to come
was fully revealed.
So then the law was like a tutor,
assigned to train us and point us to the anointed
so that we will be acquitted of all wrong
(38:01):
and made right by faith.
But now that true faith has come,
we have no need for a tutor.
It is your faith in the anointed Jesus
that makes all of you children of God,
because all of you who have been initiated
into the anointed one through the ceremonial washing
of baptism have put him on.
It makes no difference whether you are a Jew or a Greek,
(38:24):
a slave or a free man, a man or a woman,
because in Jesus the anointed,
the liberating King, you are all one.
Since you belong to him and now are subject to his power,
you are the descendant of Abraham
and the heir of God's glory according to the promise.
So this-
Oh, it's very well written.
Isn't that really well written?
(38:44):
It's a good translation.
Yeah, yeah, it's a messianic translation.
They're trying to help us understand the truth,
the truth of the purpose of the law,
that we don't become offended over things, okay?
And James 2, 8 talks about,
if you fulfill the royal law according to the scripture,
(39:04):
you shall love your neighbor as yourself, you do well.
So loving one another is a royal law.
Royal law.
It's something bigger than anything else.
So Philip, would you close with reading Ephesians 2,
11 through 16 from the voice?
Sure.
So never forget how you used to be.
Those of you born as outsiders to Israel were outcast,
(39:28):
branded the uncircumcised
by those who bore the sign of the covenant in their flesh,
a sign made with human hands.
You had absolutely no connection to the anointed.
You were strangers, separated from God's people.
You were aliens to the covenant they had with God.
You were hopelessly stranded without God
(39:48):
in a fractured world.
But now, because of Jesus, the anointed and his sacrifice,
all of that has changed.
God gathered you who were so far away
and brought you near to him by the royal blood
of the anointed, our liberating King.
Hallelujah.
He is the embodiment of our peace,
sent once and for all to take down the great berry
(40:10):
of hatred and hostility that has divided us
so that we can be one.
He offered his body on the sacrificial altar
to bring an end to the laws, ordinances, and dictations
that separated Jews from the outside nations.
His desire was to create in his body one new humanity
from two opposing groups, thus creating peace.
(40:33):
Yes.
Effectively, the cross becomes God's means
to kill off the hostility once and for all
so that he is able to reconcile them both to God
in this one new body.
Amen.
Wow, isn't that beautiful?
The way that most of our other translations are written,
it talks about Jesus abolishing the enmity
(40:55):
as though the law itself is the enmity.
And the word enmity, because we don't use that much
in our real day-to-day talk, it means hostility,
a reason for opposition or hatred.
The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language,
fifth edition that I found on the internet,
(41:16):
says that enmity means deep-seated, often mutual,
hatred, a feeling or state of hatred or animosity,
the quality of being an enemy, hostile,
or unfriendly disposition.
And that's what we're seeing now
with all of this anti-Semitism.
Yeah.
So what Jesus actually abolished was the wall
(41:37):
that's between Jews and Gentiles.
The partition.
He destroyed, and what's sad to me is how the church
through generations and generations has persecuted
the Jewish people, calling them Christ killers,
when it wasn't actually the Jews that did it,
it was each and every one of us.
(41:59):
Our sins were what crucified Jesus.
He came because he loved us.
God so loved the world.
And we don't typically see that
when we look at the Old Testament,
because we look at it as so many books,
and it might take up,
depending on what kind of paper your Bible is printed on,
(42:20):
it might be two inches of pages.
But it's covering centuries and millennia.
Yeah.
And when people think that God was so angry
in the Old Testament, there were lots and lots of places
where people had the blessings of God
because they were being obedient to him.
Obedience brings the blessings.
Yeah, and it was always something like 400 years,
(42:43):
which would be a number of generations
where God kept giving them another opportunity.
Well, maybe the next generation will follow me.
Well, maybe the next generation will follow me.
And they would have their times of revivals
when they would come back and serve the Lord.
But people get the idea that God was just mean
in the Old Testament, but he wasn't.
(43:04):
He always has been the loving God.
Yeah.
And he always has loved. Slow to anger.
Slow to anger. Great mercy.
Exactly.
And we have lost sight of that
when we don't really read with the idea
of this covers centuries.
He was slow to anger.
He was very patient and kind.
Over 400 years, it would be
(43:24):
before he would bring the hammer down.
So, you know, but now this time it was 2,000 years
from the time, not quite 2,000,
but nearly 2,000 years since the Jews
were scattered into the nations.
But then God started bringing them back
because he made a promise to them in the Old Testament.
(43:44):
Old Testament.
So it's still good.
Long thousands of years ago.
This is prophecy being fulfilled.
So moving into walking with the Holy Spirit,
letting the Holy Spirit give us enlightenment
about what the scripture means,
comparing scripture with scripture.
That's how we equip ourselves.
That's how we get understanding
so that we can bring the light of the world to the world.
(44:09):
Because Jesus said, you are the light of the world.
Come on, arise, shine.
Your light has come.
It's time for this outpouring.
And it's time for you to have a clear understanding
of our Father's heart for the world.
He wants to pour out his Spirit on all flesh.
And he wants to use you, listener.
He wants to use you.
So just keep tucking him into your heart,
(44:32):
tucking your heart into him.
It's about becoming one with our Father
and with his purposes for your life.
Father, in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ,
we're asking you right now
to minister to each and every listener
that they will have a fresh new revelation
of how much you love them.
(44:52):
Yes, Father.
And how much you have a plan.
And you just want to show them how much you love them
and how you want to work with them
to bring them into the fullness
of what you designed them to be,
to be used in these days to bring your kingdom,
your kingdom come, your will be done
(45:14):
on earth as it is in heaven.
In Jesus' name, amen.
Amen.
Amen.
Amen.
Amen.
Amen.
Amen.
Amen.
If you enjoyed today's podcast,
please subscribe, rate, and review this podcast
on Apple podcasts or wherever you listen to podcasts.
Your review helps the podcasting platform
(45:35):
suggest this podcast to other listeners
who are also looking for a great move of the Holy Spirit.
Check out our website at globaloutpouring.org
to find out more information, read our blogs,
connect with us, and donate.
You can also browse our web store
for life-changing anointed books.
Until next time, this is Sharon Buss.
(45:55):
And I'm Philip Buss.
God bless you with this overwhelming loving presence.
[♪Happy Music supported by Dark Div scarf plays to the end of the video. It's still the music baked, but your inspector is right here to make sure we're not a正確 mal 경찰 H13!]
Jesus is trying to teach us that there's more to this.
(00:06):
Because the Pharisees came back from Babylon saying,
we got in big trouble because we didn't keep the law.
So let's keep the law really, really well.
With an iron fist.
But they were only interested in how it looks
on the outside, because that's all they could see.
Because man judges by the outward appearance.
(00:27):
But God looks on the heart.
God promises in Joel 2.28 to pour out His Spirit
on all humanity.
Welcome to Global Outpouring, where we contend
for that promise outpouring.
We equip for that outpouring so that we may engage
(00:50):
in that very outpouring.
I'm Philip Bus.
And I'm Sharon Bus.
Welcome to the podcast today.
We're going to tackle a subject that was suggested to us
by one of our listeners, Cheryl Hewer.
And she has given us a subject that we've been meditating
about this for weeks before we brought it,
because we wanna do a really good job of it.
(01:12):
But we're gonna jump into a controversial pool here.
Because there are many different schools of thought
about what about the law?
What is the law anyway?
And has Jesus redeemed us from the law?
And should we keep the law?
And so it's something that we feel at Global Outpouring,
(01:33):
the importance of comparing scripture with scripture
with the leading of the Holy Spirit.
The word of God needs the breathing of the Holy Spirit
on it in order for us to get the understanding
of what the Holy Spirit meant in the first place
when He said the things that He said
that have been recorded in the scriptures.
(01:54):
So we're going to take a deep dive into this subject.
And I believe that you'll find that it's enlightening
and it's going to be perhaps life-changing.
That's what we do this for,
because we want to equip the saints to be ready,
to be mature, to be disciples in these days
so that we can be ready to help others come
(02:16):
into the fullness of the truth
and they won't get sidetracked by the commandments of men.
Thank you so much for joining us today.
We're really, really glad that you're with us.
We know that this is an important subject
for you to have a good understanding about
so that you can give answers to others
(02:37):
who are questioning you.
And perhaps you have questions yourself.
So this is a great opportunity
for us to look into this together, look into scripture,
compare scripture with scripture
with the leading of the Holy Spirit.
But before we get started,
we want to encourage you, if you haven't already done so,
to go to our website, globaloutpouring.net,
and make sure that you have subscribed to our email list
(03:00):
because we want to be able to stay in touch with you
and make sure that you've marked your calendar
so that you can be with us
for the Global Outpouring Convention 2025,
May 21st through 24th,
at the St. Louis Airport Marriott Hotel
in St. Louis, Missouri.
It's going to be a time of glory.
It's going to be a time when you can get to know people,
(03:23):
a time when you can meet new folks
that you've never known before
that are on the same path going towards the glory,
going towards the outpouring.
The theme for this one is on the threshold of outpouring.
We feel like we're just so on the threshold.
It's like the waters have already begun to rise,
like they're already ankle deep, maybe knee deep,
(03:45):
but pretty soon we're going to be in waters to swim in.
And that's what we are preparing for,
that we're contending for, that we're equipping for,
so that we can all be involved
because it's going to be all hands on deck.
As the Holy Spirit is poured out in such a powerful way
that we are anticipating, we want you to be equipped.
And so that's why we're doing what we're doing.
(04:06):
If you want to help us, there's a donation page
on our website and we would be so grateful
if you would help us with the costs
of producing this podcast.
It's costly.
And we would greatly appreciate your help.
So today, I want to start out with a little bit
of Cheryl Hewer's email that she sent.
We encourage people to give us feedback.
(04:28):
You can put something on that webpage,
globaloutpouring.net.
There's a feedback form there, or you can email us,
feedback at globaloutpouring.org.
And we love to hear from you.
It really, really encourages us
because we don't hear from people very often.
But when we do hear, we are just so delighted.
And Cheryl wrote quite a lengthy email
(04:51):
and really encouraged us a whole lot.
I won't read the whole thing,
but she says, you're always encouraging us
to give you ideas for a podcast.
And this goes for you too, listener.
If there's something that you want to hear something about,
we want to hear from you about what it is
so we can take it to the Lord and bring it back to you.
She says, as I've continued to read Romans,
I've been pondering many of the references to the law.
(05:14):
I think many people have questions
if the law is good, bad, important today,
or maybe it was for the Jews only.
I have heard many strange and contradictory things said.
I know some things that I believe concerning the law
and things that I've been taught concerning the law.
Let me share some of those thoughts
and maybe you can add to them or correct them
(05:34):
where I'm wrong.
Well, I don't think you've been wrong in anything
that you've written here, Cheryl.
I think you've got some tremendous points
and we're gonna cover those as best we can.
In the Old Testament, the Hebrew word Torah
is translated law.
For example, the following,
and this is actually the first mention,
and there's a principle in Bible interpretation
(05:54):
that you get something of the real meaning of the word
by the first place that it was used.
So this word Torah, which is often translated law,
is the first time, and she's quoting
from the Amplified Classic,
"'For Abraham listened to and obeyed my voice
and kept my charge, my commands, my statutes, and my laws.'"
(06:14):
That's Genesis 25, five.
So he starts out with the law coming from Abraham.
Not from Moses, but that's an interesting concept.
Yeah, it is.
It certainly is.
So she goes on to say law is Strong's number H8451
and the word is Torah.
(06:35):
That would be understood as the teachings of God.
I'm not sure this lines up with our Western thinking
of the meaning of law, and Cheryl, you're absolutely right.
A lot of people misunderstand that,
and I think that's why we have some
of the serious misunderstandings that we have.
She says, this is consistent throughout the Old Testament.
In Romans, a scripture that Sharon mentioned
(06:56):
in Give Your Body to God, that's a few episodes ago,
so that the righteous,
this is quoting from the Amplified Classic,
so that the righteous and just requirement of the law
might be fully met in us who live and move
not in the ways of the flesh, but in the ways of the Spirit.
Our lives governed not by the standards
and according to the dictates of the flesh,
(07:17):
but controlled by the Holy Spirit.
That's Romans 8.4.
And I just think that is one of the key scriptures
to help us understand where God is trying to take us,
even as we're preparing for the outpouring,
that he's looking for people who know how
to walk with the Holy Spirit
and be controlled by the Holy Spirit.
(07:38):
And so she goes on to say, requirement of the law
is fully met when our lives are controlled
by the Holy Spirit.
I think we could just stop and say amen there
because I think you've got the right idea, Cheryl.
She says the law is holy, just, a good thing and spiritual.
And then she quotes Romans 7.12 to 14
from the Amplified Classic.
The law therefore is holy and each commandment
(07:59):
is holy and just and good.
Did that which is good then prove fatal,
bringing death to me?
Certainly not.
It was sin working death in me
by using this good thing as a weapon
in order that through the commandment,
sin might be shown clearly to be sin,
that the extreme malignity and immeasurable sinfulness
of sin might plainly appear.
(08:21):
We know that the law is spiritual,
but I'm a creature of the flesh,
carnal, unspiritual, having been sold into slavery
under the control of sin.
That's so well put.
Thank you, Lord, for Romans 7.12 to 14
in the Amplified Classic.
And then she gives this verse,
a verse many people quote stating that the law kills,
(08:43):
but the spirit gives life.
It is he who has qualified us,
of course this is talking about Jesus.
It is he who has qualified us,
making us to be fit and worthy and sufficient
as ministers and dispensers of a new covenant
of salvation through Christ,
not ministers of the letter of legally written code,
but of the spirit for the code of the law kills,
(09:06):
but the Holy Spirit makes alive.
And there's a reference there to Jeremiah 31, 31.
This is a quote from 2 Corinthians 3, 6
from the Amplified Classic.
Now, Jeremiah 31, 31 is the beginning of
where it talks about the new covenant
that was going to be instituted.
And that was instituted on the night that Jesus
(09:27):
was betrayed when he took the cup.
And he said, this cup is the cup of the new covenant.
And then she goes on to quote Romans 3, 20
from the Amplified Classic.
For no person will be justified, made righteous,
acquitted and judged acceptable in his sight
by observing the works prescribed by the law.
For the real function of the law is to make men recognize
(09:49):
and be conscious of sin, not mere perception,
but an acquaintance with sin,
which works toward repentance, faith and holy character.
Wow, that's so well put in the Amplified Classic.
So she says, actually, because the law is holy,
just a good thing in spiritual,
it points to the sin in us
so that we may repent and receive life.
(10:09):
God made promises to the Israelites
and gave them the law to live by
because there was a promise covenant there.
So give your body to God.
Yeah, absolutely.
So she says these things that I've been pondering.
So I've been pondering from this email for several weeks
and I've been making notes
and I've got way too many pages of notes
(10:32):
for us to even cover effectively.
But I think Cheryl has covered the essence of it already.
But I just want to bring a little bit more
about the idea of Torah because she mentions
that Strong's number 8451 in the Hebrew is the word Torah.
(10:53):
And it comes from an interesting word
that I think that you would want to know about.
It comes from the word Yara.
And that means to throw or cast or shoot.
It's even talking about rain, the falling of rain.
And it means to direct, teach, to point out,
(11:16):
to show, to instruct.
This is what Torah is for.
Now let's define what is Torah.
It's the first five books of the Bible.
Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy.
Right, so when people want to throw out Torah.
(11:36):
They're throwing out all the commandments.
Well, it's not just the commandments.
See, they want to throw out the commandments.
They want to throw out the law.
The law.
What they would be throwing out,
if they're throwing out Torah,
is the story of Genesis, the beginning, how things began.
They would be throwing out the story of Noah
and what happened when the Nephilim took over
(11:59):
and everything was so bad and God saved them.
Yeah, it's all the history.
It's history. History of creation.
History of creation, history of the beginning of covenant.
Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, the sons of Jacob, the tribes,
how they went into Egypt,
how they were rescued from Egypt.
All of these things are really critical
(12:19):
to our understanding of our Father.
Yeah.
And when he introduces himself on Mount Sinai.
I'm the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.
Exactly.
Yeah.
And he shows up on top of Mount Sinai as consuming fire
and he speaks directly to the entire nation.
Yeah.
He's not just speaking at the very beginning.
(12:41):
He gives the 10 commandments,
or as it's written in Hebrew,
the 10 things.
It doesn't even call them commandments.
Interesting.
It calls them things.
And he introduces himself first as I am Yehovah, your God.
Mm-hmm, yeah.
Have no other gods before me.
Yeah, that's the first commandment.
That's the first thing.
And first of all-
(13:01):
Have no other gods.
Exactly.
So they've come out of Egypt
where they had a whole bunch of gods
and they watched the 10 plagues
deal with all of those 10 Egyptian gods
and show Yehovah to be superior.
Now there's nothing about that that you should throw out.
That's right.
These are things that are critical
(13:23):
for our understanding of who God is and how he is.
And it shows you how much what God thinks of sin.
Yeah, exactly.
And what he thinks of other gods.
Ooh.
What did Jesus say?
You are my friends if you do what I command you to do.
Exactly.
Command, because I looked that up,
because that's strong, but that's just what it means.
(13:45):
Right.
Command, and so God commanded the 10 commandments
and Jesus commanded, if we do what he tells us,
he'll be our friend.
Right.
Don't you wanna be a friend of Jesus?
Absolutely.
Yeah.
And Jesus pointed out to them
what is the most important law.
And if you only take the New Testament,
(14:06):
so much of the New Testament
is quoting the Old Testament.
It's quoting the Old, yeah.
Okay, so a lot of people just say,
no, I'm a New Testament Christian
and I don't even read that Old Testament.
And so you're missing the story of creation.
You're missing the Psalms.
You're missing the Proverbs.
You're missing the prophecies about Jesus coming
and the things that are going to take place.
(14:27):
There's so many prophecies that Jesus fulfilled
and many that he hasn't fulfilled yet
that he's going to fulfill when he comes again.
So there's a beautiful saying that I heard,
and I don't know who said it in the first place,
but I've made it my own.
The New Testament is in the Old Testament concealed
and the Old Testament is in the New Testament revealed.
(14:49):
So you really need both.
And if you look at the writings of Paul,
for instance, what he says in 2 Timothy 3.16,
all scripture is given by inspiration of God
and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof,
for correction, for instruction in righteousness.
(15:10):
Now, if we're supposed to throw out the Old Testament,
if we're supposed to throw out the Torah, the law,
then why would Paul say that?
Why would Paul?
Because, hey, when Paul wrote that,
that was the only scripture there was,
was the Torah and the writings and the prophets.
So what's called, we call the Old Testament
(15:33):
the Hebrew scriptures.
In Hebrew, they call it the Tanakh.
And that word is really an acronym
and it's referring to like the T sound for Torah
and the N sound for Nevi'im,
which is the Hebrew word for prophets,
and Ketuvim, which is the Hebrew word for writings.
(15:54):
So that's like the Psalms and Proverbs and Ecclesiastes,
the things that aren't necessarily the Torah or the,
I'm not sure where the history ones fall,
First and Second Samuel, First and Second Kings.
I think First and Second Chronicles
are considered part of the Ketuvim.
Anyway, that's not important.
What's important is that we need the Old Testament.
(16:17):
And I don't even like to necessarily call it
the Old Testament, but here's where we need to find
our balance and find comparing scripture with scripture,
what the Lord is trying to teach us, okay?
He's trying to teach us things.
Now, I remember hearing a teacher or two in my life
(16:39):
saying, you know, all these 613 laws
that the Jewish people have or the Hebrew people have,
613, how can you keep 613 laws?
They couldn't keep them themselves.
Well, that may be.
Isn't that what the council, they said,
said, why do you put all these laws on the Gentiles?
(16:59):
This is when the Holy Spirit was poured out.
Well, we can't keep them ourselves, you know?
Yeah.
You know?
And what I don't know is whether they were even referring
necessarily to all of the 613 laws
or whether they were also talking about the traditions
that have gone with it.
Let's put it in perspective.
That the Pharisees brought.
But here's the deal.
To put this in perspective, our US Congress
(17:24):
has enacted approximately 200 to 600 statutes
during each of its 118 biennial terms.
So more than 30,000 statutes have been enacted since 1789.
And there's another.
30,000?
That was from Wikipedia.
And then another from, I guess,
it's the University of Connecticut.
(17:45):
They've had an article online called
300,000 ways to do time with a federal crime.
And they say that there's approximately 300,000 laws
on our books.
Just federal laws.
That doesn't mean your state laws or your county laws
or your municipal ordinances.
(18:07):
You know, like we have an ordinance
as you drive into our little nearby town of Jasper.
Population less than 500.
I think it's like 483 or something like that.
And there's a sign there that says
that there's a city ordinance for truckers
not to use their engine brake.
Their jake brake.
OK?
(18:27):
So that's an ordinance.
So there's one more thing.
There's all these different things that you,
how do you even know what all the laws are?
You can't.
You don't know unless you brake one and you get pulled over.
Yeah.
Like there is an ordinance here in Arkansas
that you can be ticketed for going too slow
and keeping more than how many cars behind you?
(18:48):
If there's more than two cars behind you,
they can give you a ticket for holding up traffic.
Yeah.
Even if you're going the speed limit.
Yeah.
How does that one work?
But all I'm saying is 613 laws really
isn't as much as you might think.
And when you also consider the fact that there is no temple.
And a whole bunch of those laws were outlining
(19:12):
how temple worship is to be done,
how the sacrifices are to be done.
How these are instructions.
Instructions of how to do things.
But I think Jesus gave us a wonderful picture
when the young man asked him, what's the most important law?
And Jesus said, here, O Israel, the Lord our God, Yehovah
(19:36):
our God, Yehovah is one.
And you shall love Yehovah your God with all your heart,
with all your soul, with all your mind,
and with all your strength.
And the second is like unto it, love your neighbor as yourself.
And he goes on to say, on these two
hang all the law and the prophets.
So if you don't have time to study Torah,
(20:00):
if you don't have time to learn all the fine details,
if you'll just do everything out of love for God
and love for your neighbor, you're
going to be OK, because really what it boils down to.
Because we're trying to get back to doing things by the Spirit.
Right.
The Holy Spirit is at work in us,
(20:21):
bringing us to a place of relationship with our Father.
Jesus died so that we could have our relationship restored
to our Heavenly Father.
He fulfilled all the law.
And I think it's well put in what
he said in the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew 5, 17
(20:43):
through 20.
Think not that I am come to destroy the law or the prophets.
I am not come to destroy, but to fulfill.
For verily I say to you, till heaven and earth pass,
one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law
till all be fulfilled.
Now, let's just back up on this for just a minute.
(21:05):
What's a jot and what's a tittle?
You need to know the Hebrew.
OK, so in the Hebrew language, the smallest
letter in the Hebrew alphabet is the yod.
The yod.
Y-O-D is how you would spell it in English.
And they've transliterated it as jot instead of yod.
So it's talking about the smallest letter.
(21:26):
And the tittles would be the little markings
that give some other kind of pronunciation.
I don't think the pronunciation marks were
added until the Middle Ages.
But there were other marks even in the ancient Hebrew
manuscripts.
So the tiny little manuscript items
(21:47):
that are part of the communication, the instruction
from God, Jesus says that until heaven and earth pass,
not one of these things is going to pass away.
Wow, that's thick amendments.
So yeah, it's everything.
It's the whole ball of wax, so to speak.
The whole enchilada.
(22:08):
You could say that too.
Then he says in verse 19, let me just back up and say this.
There will be a day when heaven and earth shall pass away.
That day is coming.
And there's going to be a new heaven and a new earth.
And I don't think there will be a need for the law.
Although, I think, this is just my opinion,
I think that God has so many more dimensions to his word
(22:34):
that we're going to discover for all eternity.
And if sin is taken out.
Yeah, there's no need for the law.
There's no need for the law because everybody will
be so in love with Jesus.
Right.
So the whole point of everything that God gave to the Israelites
on Mount Sinai and the whole history,
the whole of the Hebrew scriptures
(22:56):
are to show us what it's to be like on earth as it is in heaven.
When Moses was up in the mount with God,
I believe that he was given an opportunity to look into heaven.
And then God told him, here's how you do it on earth.
I think we talked about that in a podcast a while back,
(23:17):
where he saw into heaven, he saw the lamp stand in heaven.
He saw the seven spirits of God as flaming fires in heaven.
And God said, OK, here's how you do it in the tabernacle.
You make this candlestick out of gold
and make it out of one piece of gold.
And he shows him the ark in heaven.
And he says, now here's how you're
(23:38):
going to do it on the earth.
Yeah, on earth as it is in heaven.
Exactly.
And that's what the whole Hebrew scriptures, I believe,
is laid out for us so that, for instance, you
find the principle of substitution
in the Old Testament.
Like you have the ram that was caught in the thicket that
substituted for Isaac.
(23:59):
And you have the sacrificing of an animal
to cover for your sins.
You don't have to die for your sins.
The animal can die for your sins.
It's teaching us the principle of substitution.
And then in Genesis 49, 11, there's
a promise to Judah that he washed his garments in wine.
And then I'm going to quote from the Young's literal
(24:20):
translation, the blood of grapes his covering.
And I see that as a promise of, OK, so Jesus
comes from the tribe of Judah.
And he's giving us this picture that the blood of grapes
can substitute for his blood when he said,
you need to eat my body and drink my blood.
(24:41):
But we have a substitution.
There's the grapes, the blood of grapes.
So the principle of substitution is
all through the scriptures.
And we need to understand that on Earth as it is in heaven.
Jesus did all of these things to substitute for us.
Yes.
Hallelujah.
Hallelujah.
(25:01):
So I think it really has a lot to do
with the children of Israel having just come out
of Egypt.
And it's really the next generation that
comes into the promised land.
Right.
Because I'd never heard the law before.
Right.
They were given the instructions at Mount Sinai.
And Joshua was commanded when they got into the land
(25:25):
to go and write a copy in like plaster of stone
and write a copy of this.
Well, it must have been a huge stone,
unless he was just supposed to write the 10 things.
It may have been the 10 things.
I don't know.
Remember how many rocks it would take to write it?
Would take a lot.
So I don't know exactly what was written.
(25:46):
But I know that they've discovered up on Mount Ebal
this thing that God told Joshua to build an altar there.
Yeah.
That's right.
And it's there.
They don't have the plastered rocks so far.
They haven't found that.
But the point is that it's almost
like the children of Israel were a substitute for us
to look at.
(26:07):
Oh, OK.
So that we could learn how to live in love with God
and learn how to live in love with each other.
What's the easiest way to learn something
by somebody else's mistakes?
Yeah, if you can manage to learn by somebody else's mistake.
We try to teach our kids.
Yeah.
Do these things so you don't have to go through these things
like we did.
(26:28):
Yeah.
But it doesn't seem to stick.
Sometimes.
Sometimes people are smart enough to learn.
But a lot of times we're not.
You have to find it out the hard way yourself.
Yeah, that's true.
That's true.
It's human nature.
Yeah, it is.
So it's interesting, back to Matthew 5,
that Jesus goes on to describe even stronger things than what
(26:51):
were actually written in the law of Moses.
And he's trying to show us that what God intended
was not what they were getting in the teachings
that they were getting from the Pharisees.
So I'm going to read this from the voice translation
from verse 20.
For I tell you, you will not enter the kingdom of heaven
unless your righteousness goes deeper than the Pharisees,
(27:13):
even more righteous than the most learned learner
of the law.
As you know, long ago, God instructed Moses
to tell his people, do not murder.
Those who murder will be judged and punished.
But here's the even harder truth.
Anyone who is angry with his brother
will be judged for his anger.
Anyone who taunts his friend speaks contemptuously
(27:34):
toward him or calls him loser or fool or scum
will have to answer to the high court.
And anyone who calls his brother a fool
may find himself in the fires of hell.
So he's trying to say, look, it's not just
about keeping the letter of the law on the outside.
He's keeping it on the inside.
(27:54):
Exactly.
He's looking for hearts.
A man looks on the upward appearance,
but God looks on the heart.
Exactly.
Yeah.
And so then he goes on talking about getting over your grudge
with your brother and make things right
before your brother takes you to jail.
And then he goes on in verse 27.
As you know, long ago, God forbade his people
to commit adultery.
(28:15):
You may think you've abided by this commandment,
walked the straight and narrow.
But I tell you this, any man who looks at a woman with lust
has already committed adultery in his heart.
So he's trying to show that the intent of the law
was supposed to be deeper.
It's not Jesus.
Jesus isn't changing the law.
It's like he's giving the amplified version.
(28:37):
OK, that's good.
Because people didn't get it.
They were getting it like, this is
how we are supposed to behave.
And so we will do these things.
But it's like the little kid that was standing up
in the high chair.
And mama said, sit down.
No.
Sit down.
(28:58):
No.
Sit down.
No.
Quack, quack, quack, quack, quack.
And the child sits down but says,
I may be sitting down on the outside,
but I'm standing up on the inside.
We have to be doing the same on the outside
because God has done something in us.
(29:21):
And I've been saying for years that the law,
the purpose of the law, is to show us
what it looks like to love the Lord your God
with all your heart, with all your soul,
with all your mind, with all your strength.
If you're loving God, here's how it's going to manifest.
Like there's a law about if you want to rob the eggs
(29:42):
or the fledgling baby birds, you don't also
take the mother bird.
So that gives her a chance to have another brood next year.
She can go on living.
You've got to feed your family.
Go ahead and take her eggs, but don't kill the mother.
It makes sense.
It's loving.
There's wisdom behind it.
(30:03):
There's wisdom in these instructions.
Going on, Jesus is trying to teach us
that there's more to this.
It's deeper than how you're practicing it.
Because the Pharisees came back from Babylon saying-
Captivity.
Yeah, they came back from captivity in Babylon.
(30:24):
We got in big trouble because we didn't keep the law.
So let's keep the law really, really well.
With an iron fist.
But they were only interested in how it looks on the outside
because that's all they could see.
Because man judges by the outward appearance.
But God looks on the heart.
Yeah, because what did Jesus call them?
(30:45):
Hypocrites?
Mm-hmm, he did.
Whitewashed, sepulchers?
Yes, he did.
He just laid into them.
Yeah.
And God wants us to be loving him.
And that's why there were some
who recognized Jesus when he came.
You know, the folks that blamed the Jews
for everything that ever went wrong,
(31:06):
they called the Jews Christ killers, right?
They've not been instructed properly to do that.
That's just evil.
That's absolute evil.
Because there were lots of Jews that did embrace him.
And they were the beginning of the church.
Right, that's right.
And the common people heard him gladly.
And it says in Acts that there were many priests
(31:29):
that believed.
And we know Nicodemus, he was probably in the Sanhedrin.
And Joseph of Arimathea, he was in the Sanhedrin.
There were people that were touched in their heart
and they believed.
And they followed Jesus.
And they got the message.
And they carried the message to the nations.
Yes.
(31:49):
Because they were once again scattered to the nations.
So in order to get the word of God to the nations,
they had to be scattered.
Yeah, and the way it happened too, it was just wild.
That was horrible.
But you have to realize that it wasn't just the Jews
that were unbelieving that were scattered.
(32:11):
It was also the believers.
The believers were also scattered.
And they took the word of God to the nations.
And the nations have embraced Messiah,
just like when Joseph was sold into Egypt.
And he went through the troubles that he went through
to get him ready to become the viceroy.
(32:32):
Well, what happens when a mother bird kicks the babies
ready to get out of the nest?
She says, okay, sonny or whatever, go fly.
No, she boots, no, he's not gonna go on a zone.
Yeah, he's comfortable.
He's comfortable.
It doesn't tell him he's in a free fall
that he raises his rings and discovers, okay,
(32:52):
I can do this. I guess I can fly.
You know, and every bird goes through it.
Right, and mama bird usually pulls the feathers
out of the nest to make it uncomfortable.
Oh, wow.
So, you know, God has ways.
If we won't obey him, and when he says,
go into all the world and preach the gospel,
he may have other ways of getting us out into all the world
to preach the gospel.
(33:14):
So anyway, we know that the principle is
that it's not really the law that has been done away with.
It's about learning to live by the Spirit
so that you're automatically doing the things of the law.
And Romans talks about how the Gentiles are often
(33:35):
doing the things of the law without even having the law
because they have a conscience
and they're paying attention to their conscience.
The Holy Spirit is there in us from the get-go
to give us a conscience so that we know right from wrong.
And when the believers, you know, when they got to say,
just let them abstain from things, strangle the blood.
And what was the other command?
I forget.
(33:56):
You know, instead of-
Adultery, stay away from adultery.
No, adultery, instead of trying to put all these laws,
you know, on them, and even circumcision.
Well, yeah.
That was a big one.
Well, but-
Because that was the kind of the keeping of the law.
Yeah, and the Pharisees among them said,
every believer has to be circumcised.
Well, no, the council heard from the Holy Spirit.
(34:18):
No, that's not necessary because look what happened
when Peter went to the house of Cornelius.
All these people believed
and they were filled with the Holy Spirit
and they were not circumcised.
So why should you have to circumcise them now?
They came by faith.
And Paul over and over is expressing how it's by her
(34:40):
faith, it's our faith, it's our faith.
Faith is not done away with.
Yeah.
And love is not done away with.
It's about loving.
It's about learning to walk by the Spirit.
And faith is a part of that and love is a part of that.
And the thing about circumcision, as I have pondered it,
I believe that circumcision has to do with the promise
(35:04):
that God made to Abraham and Isaac and Jacob
of giving them the land.
So it belongs to them.
And I think that's the reason why they didn't circumcise
the children during the 40 years they were in the wilderness
so that when they got there into the promised land,
the first thing that they did was they circumcised.
(35:26):
Even before they had their first battle, they circumcised.
And I believe that it was so that they would be
the fulfillment of the blood covenant shed on the land
because Abraham was circumcised on the land,
Isaac was circumcised on the land,
Jacob was circumcised on the land,
the 12 patriarchs were circumcised on the land.
(35:48):
Then they went out into Egypt.
And they continued the custom of circumcision
among themselves, but there was something
about the necessity of we have come home now.
This place belongs to us.
And this blood covenant has to do with the promise
(36:08):
for the land.
That's very good.
That's my opinion.
That's how I see it.
I don't think it's a doctrine that you need to,
you're not gonna die on this hill.
But let's just talk about a couple more things.
Galatians 6.2 says, bear one another's burdens
and so fulfill the law of Christ.
So there's a new law that comes in the New Testament,
(36:34):
but I think you could probably find it
or the sense of it in the Old Testament as well.
But he's writing to the Galatians
and the Galatians were Gentiles.
Let's just look at Galatians 3.19 through 29.
And I'm reading from the voice translation.
Now you're asking yourselves,
so why did God give us the law?
(36:55):
God commanded his heavenly messengers to deliver it
into the hand of a mediator for this reason,
to help us reign in our sins until the offspring
about whom the promise was made
in the first place would come.
A mediator represents more than one, but God is only one.
So you ask, does the law contradict God's promise?
(37:18):
Absolutely not.
Never was there written a law
that could lead to resurrection and life.
If there had been, then surely we could have experienced
saving righteousness through keeping the law,
but we haven't.
Scripture has subjected the whole world to sin's power
so that the faithful obedience of Jesus the anointed one
(37:39):
might extend God's promises to everyone who has faith.
Before faith came on the scene,
the law did its best to keep us in line,
restraining us until the faith that was to come
was fully revealed.
So then the law was like a tutor,
assigned to train us and point us to the anointed
so that we will be acquitted of all wrong
(38:01):
and made right by faith.
But now that true faith has come,
we have no need for a tutor.
It is your faith in the anointed Jesus
that makes all of you children of God,
because all of you who have been initiated
into the anointed one through the ceremonial washing
of baptism have put him on.
It makes no difference whether you are a Jew or a Greek,
(38:24):
a slave or a free man, a man or a woman,
because in Jesus the anointed,
the liberating King, you are all one.
Since you belong to him and now are subject to his power,
you are the descendant of Abraham
and the heir of God's glory according to the promise.
So this-
Oh, it's very well written.
Isn't that really well written?
(38:44):
It's a good translation.
Yeah, yeah, it's a messianic translation.
They're trying to help us understand the truth,
the truth of the purpose of the law,
that we don't become offended over things, okay?
And James 2, 8 talks about,
if you fulfill the royal law according to the scripture,
(39:04):
you shall love your neighbor as yourself, you do well.
So loving one another is a royal law.
Royal law.
It's something bigger than anything else.
So Philip, would you close with reading Ephesians 2,
11 through 16 from the voice?
Sure.
So never forget how you used to be.
Those of you born as outsiders to Israel were outcast,
(39:28):
branded the uncircumcised
by those who bore the sign of the covenant in their flesh,
a sign made with human hands.
You had absolutely no connection to the anointed.
You were strangers, separated from God's people.
You were aliens to the covenant they had with God.
You were hopelessly stranded without God
(39:48):
in a fractured world.
But now, because of Jesus, the anointed and his sacrifice,
all of that has changed.
God gathered you who were so far away
and brought you near to him by the royal blood
of the anointed, our liberating King.
Hallelujah.
He is the embodiment of our peace,
sent once and for all to take down the great berry
(40:10):
of hatred and hostility that has divided us
so that we can be one.
He offered his body on the sacrificial altar
to bring an end to the laws, ordinances, and dictations
that separated Jews from the outside nations.
His desire was to create in his body one new humanity
from two opposing groups, thus creating peace.
(40:33):
Yes.
Effectively, the cross becomes God's means
to kill off the hostility once and for all
so that he is able to reconcile them both to God
in this one new body.
Amen.
Wow, isn't that beautiful?
The way that most of our other translations are written,
it talks about Jesus abolishing the enmity
(40:55):
as though the law itself is the enmity.
And the word enmity, because we don't use that much
in our real day-to-day talk, it means hostility,
a reason for opposition or hatred.
The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language,
fifth edition that I found on the internet,
(41:16):
says that enmity means deep-seated, often mutual,
hatred, a feeling or state of hatred or animosity,
the quality of being an enemy, hostile,
or unfriendly disposition.
And that's what we're seeing now
with all of this anti-Semitism.
Yeah.
So what Jesus actually abolished was the wall
(41:37):
that's between Jews and Gentiles.
The partition.
He destroyed, and what's sad to me is how the church
through generations and generations has persecuted
the Jewish people, calling them Christ killers,
when it wasn't actually the Jews that did it,
it was each and every one of us.
(41:59):
Our sins were what crucified Jesus.
He came because he loved us.
God so loved the world.
And we don't typically see that
when we look at the Old Testament,
because we look at it as so many books,
and it might take up,
depending on what kind of paper your Bible is printed on,
(42:20):
it might be two inches of pages.
But it's covering centuries and millennia.
Yeah.
And when people think that God was so angry
in the Old Testament, there were lots and lots of places
where people had the blessings of God
because they were being obedient to him.
Obedience brings the blessings.
Yeah, and it was always something like 400 years,
(42:43):
which would be a number of generations
where God kept giving them another opportunity.
Well, maybe the next generation will follow me.
Well, maybe the next generation will follow me.
And they would have their times of revivals
when they would come back and serve the Lord.
But people get the idea that God was just mean
in the Old Testament, but he wasn't.
(43:04):
He always has been the loving God.
Yeah.
And he always has loved. Slow to anger.
Slow to anger. Great mercy.
Exactly.
And we have lost sight of that
when we don't really read with the idea
of this covers centuries.
He was slow to anger.
He was very patient and kind.
Over 400 years, it would be
(43:24):
before he would bring the hammer down.
So, you know, but now this time it was 2,000 years
from the time, not quite 2,000,
but nearly 2,000 years since the Jews
were scattered into the nations.
But then God started bringing them back
because he made a promise to them in the Old Testament.
(43:44):
Old Testament.
So it's still good.
Long thousands of years ago.
This is prophecy being fulfilled.
So moving into walking with the Holy Spirit,
letting the Holy Spirit give us enlightenment
about what the scripture means,
comparing scripture with scripture.
That's how we equip ourselves.
That's how we get understanding
so that we can bring the light of the world to the world.
(44:09):
Because Jesus said, you are the light of the world.
Come on, arise, shine.
Your light has come.
It's time for this outpouring.
And it's time for you to have a clear understanding
of our Father's heart for the world.
He wants to pour out his Spirit on all flesh.
And he wants to use you, listener.
He wants to use you.
So just keep tucking him into your heart,
(44:32):
tucking your heart into him.
It's about becoming one with our Father
and with his purposes for your life.
Father, in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ,
we're asking you right now
to minister to each and every listener
that they will have a fresh new revelation
of how much you love them.
(44:52):
Yes, Father.
And how much you have a plan.
And you just want to show them how much you love them
and how you want to work with them
to bring them into the fullness
of what you designed them to be,
to be used in these days to bring your kingdom,
your kingdom come, your will be done
(45:14):
on earth as it is in heaven.
In Jesus' name, amen.
Amen.
Amen.
Amen.
Amen.
Amen.
Amen.
Amen.
If you enjoyed today's podcast,
please subscribe, rate, and review this podcast
on Apple podcasts or wherever you listen to podcasts.
Your review helps the podcasting platform
(45:35):
suggest this podcast to other listeners
who are also looking for a great move of the Holy Spirit.
Check out our website at globaloutpouring.org
to find out more information, read our blogs,
connect with us, and donate.
You can also browse our web store
for life-changing anointed books.
Until next time, this is Sharon Buss.
(45:55):
And I'm Philip Buss.
God bless you with this overwhelming loving presence.
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