5 God's Everlasting Law

Exploring God's Law: Insights from Prophecies of Hope

This post is a rough transcription done by AI. I will later come back and clean it up. 

Welcome to another episode of our Prophecies of Hope series. I am so glad you decided to join us for one more. Just a reminder, we do need your Bible. We are using the Bible as our primary source of information. We're gonna be studying it, diving in, and whether it's physical or digital, as long as you have a form, a version of the Bible so that you can follow along and dive in.

We want to learn from the word of God. The topic for this study is what happened to right and wrong and God's Everlasting Law. It's a good topic and I'm sure that you will learn some new things that hopefully will add value to your life. So if you do find this video or this series, if you've been enjoying them, appreciate them.

Subscribe to our channel, give us a thumbs up, leave a comment below, give us some feedback. We want to continue to produce content that will benefit your life. So I hope you're ready for this study. As we get ready to dive in, I invite you to bow your head with me as we pray. Father in heaven, we want to learn more about you as we read the Bible.

Lord, we understand that spiritual things our spiritually discerned. So please may Your Holy Spirit come into our hearts. May you teach us, Lord from the Bible, the lessons that you'd have us learn. I pray that you be with us in Jesus name, amen. All right, so a little bit about myself. My first job, fresh out of college was as a youth pastor in South Texas.

I'm talking way south, the Rio Grande Valley. And the main thing, the main attraction of that part of Texas, the very southern bo border, right there near Mexico was South Padre Island. So that was one of my favorite things to do. If I had a day off, some time off, I'd just gotten married and my wife and I would drive to South Padre Island and enjoy the beach.

It's very busy there during spring break, but most of the year, I mean, you have so much space and just the sand and the waves and it was just beautiful and perfect. And we would drive there and I was driving my wife to South Padre Island. I think this was the first time we were going there. We were following instructions, looking at the maps and, and driving out there.

And to my surprise, I see lights behind my car and I pull over thinking the police is going somewhere else, and then they pull over behind me. I'm like, oh no, what, what happened? What did I do? And sure enough, the officer comes up and I, I rolled down my window and he asked, do I know why he pulled me over?

And I said, actually, I don't what's going on? And he says, you were speeding. And I said, I wasn't speeding. I was going 35. And he said, no, no, no. You see that sign back there? And he points to a sign that was just, I mean, it's still visible from where I was. I just passed that sign. It says, that sign says that it's 25 miles per hour.

It's what we would call a speed trap. Right. You're, you're coming. I. In the highway and, and you're going 75 and then it slows down to 65, then 55, then 45 as you're going through the city. But then, uh, 35 when you get to downtown and there's this small area, and I believe it was in front of the library or a school or something.

Anyway, there's this, it's a tiny little town on your way to South Padre Island, and then it drops for 25 miles an hour for this little short section, and then it picks up again. And then looking at the map and looking at things and talking to my new wife, you know, just gotten married that been married for less than a year, and just excited about going to the beach, just the two of us, and having the day off and what we're going to do.

And I missed the sign and I got a ticket, my first speeding ticket on my way to South Padre Island because I missed the sign. The law that was there stating how fast I could go, said that I was, you know, breaking the law because I was not going according to that speed, because the speed limit was posted and I was not obeying the posted sign.

I found myself on the other side of the law right outside of the law, breaking the law, and I was going to appeal the ticket because it's my only ticket, my first ticket. I'm saying, look, I'm not, I don't go around driving like crazy. I don't go around disobeying, you know, the law. But then I had to drive all the way there again to appeal it.

And it was about an hour away from where I lived. And I thought, ah, it's not worth it. I paid the ticket. And this just goes to illustrate if the law had not been there, if that sign saying that the speed limit was 25 miles an hour had not been there, I would not have been doing anything wrong. I only knew that I was wrong.

The police officer could only pull me over because there was a law, there was a sign there saying how fast I should be going or I could be going. And I was not, I was going faster. I was doing 35 on a 25. And I use this to illustrate, um, a passage that we have in the Bible in the New Testament, in Romans chapter three.

Romans chapter three, verse 20. Romans chapter three, verse 20. It says. The following. Therefore, by the deeds of the law, no flesh will be justified in his sight. For by the law is the knowledge of sin. So in other words, keeping the law is not what justifies us. Nobody is going to be justified before God because they kept the law really well.

That's not the function of the law. Rather, the law allows us to know, gives us the knowledge of sin. What is sin? I don't know. But if I know the law, then going against the law, well that is sin. What was wrong with me driving at 35 in that particular strip of road? Well, there was a law saying that I should be driving at 25, and because of that law I was in, I was breaking the law and got a speeding ticket.

So another passage is First John. Not to be confused with the gospel of John first. John is all the way in the back of the Bible. First John, chapter three, verse four tells us something similar. It says, whoever commits sin also commits lawlessness, and sin is lawlessness. If you happen to have a King James version of the Bible there, it says, whosoever committed sin transgressive.

Also, the law for sin is the transgression of the law. Different translations. We talked about this in our first video in this series, so this word lawlessness also means transgression of the law. If you are a Greek scholar, if you like, you know, the Greek, ancient Greek language, um, or, or if you don't like, here's a little lesson on Greek.

I was just looking up this word. I was curious. Uh, so it, like, like in English, right? The, the a sometimes in, in front of a word, it's, it's a negative particle, right? It makes it the opposite of what it is saying. So the A makes the word, it makes it a negative, right? So not this thing. So in, in Greek, nomos means law.

And the word here for lawlessness is Mia. So there's an a Mia, which means without the law or against the law. So I look this up online, you can look it up. Um, blue letter bible.com. You can put in there the, the Bible verse. And that Bible verses one John three, four. And then you click on it, it'll give you the, the Greek, then you click on the word for lawlessness.

You're gonna get there anomia, and you have access to this information, uh, for yourself. If you wanna double check my work. So here's what it says. Anomia means without law and without law, because ignorant of it or without law because of violating it. So the word applies to both. Whether somebody's violating the law, it would be an nomia or someone is, um, ignorant of the law.

Also an nomia. And also there is contempt in violation of the law. That's the second definition. Or iniquity or wickedness, or as the new King James says, lawlessness not having the law or going against the law or rebelling against the law. So sin is defined partially that there's more definitions for sin, but one of them is lawlessness, being without a law, going against the law, rebelling against the law.

So another passage that addresses this is Romans chapter four, verse 15, where it says, because the law brings about wrath for where there is no law, there is no transgression. Going back to my illustration there on my trip to South Padre Island, if that sign had not been there saying that I had to go 25 miles an hour.

Going 35 miles an hour would not have been a crime, would not have been a sin going against the law, right? If there is no law, there is no transgression. If there is no speed limit, you can drive as fast as you want. And maybe there are those who wish there was no speed limit, right? You can just go as fast as you want and do whatever you want.

If there was no law, there would be no problem. At least some tend to think that way. I disagree. So, a little bit about myself. I was born in Brazil, as some of you know, from previous videos, but I, I grew up there for the first 12 years of my life. I lived in Brazil. I was born in the city of Salvador, in the state of Baia that's on the northeast on the coast.

And beautiful city, massive city. Back in 1999 when we went there to visit. Uh, the population was 2.8 million. That's roughly the population of Chicago that same year. So I was living in Brazil in the city. Well, not living, I was visiting at that time. I was already living here in the us but I was in a city that had the equivalent of the population of Chicago.

And what happened in 1999 is that the police decided to go on strike. Now, in one way, they were not getting paid enough for the work that they had to do. It was terrible what they were paying the police force. In another way, imagine being in a city of almost 3 million people and there's no police out in the roads.

Some people think Awesome, great, no oppression from the police or the government. I can do whatever I want. Um, it was terrifying. I was there as, uh, a teenager with my family and we were stuck inside my grandparents' house. That's, that's where my grandparents live. We were there visiting them 'cause it was dangerous to go outside.

People could come and steal your car. Uh, people could kidnap you, people could do whatever they wanted. Uh, there was a lot of violence. There was, uh, destruction of property. There was a lot of robbery, robberies and stealing. And, uh, it was chaos. It was terrible. It was terrifying. And then that brought in me a new appreciation for the law.

I want to live in a place where there are laws and where people obey the law. Because I found out that being in a place with my family where there is no law, no enforcement of the law, nobody's following the law, there's nobody to keep anybody from taking what's yours unless you are willing to defend that.

And then it, it just escalates. It's, it's pretty scary. So I am not someone who is against the law. I value a good and fair law. I would disagree with it 25 miles an hour, what felt like a speed trap to me. I don't think there's a need for there to be that 25 mile an hour segment of road going to South Padre Island.

But, you know, I, I do think that it's a good idea for people not to steal things from each other. Um, I appreciate those and not committing murder and, and so many others. Anyway, um, Ephesians two, eight.

Ephesians chapter two, verse eight. It says the following, for by grace, you have been saved through faith and that not of yourselves, it is a gift of God. And if I go on to verse nine, it says, not of works lest anyone should boast. This is a gift of God's salvation. We do not get salvation by keeping the law.

Now the danger is people say, oh, I don't need it for salvation. Then throw it out like, no, no, no, wait. There is, there is value to it, there is a reason for it existing. And, and we're gonna get into that more here as we go along. But I, I've, I've compared this and, and maybe this is not a good comparison, let me know in the comments in this video.

But here's a way that I think about it. Just because the law is not going to bring about my salvation, right? I'm not saved by keeping the law, or I don't become more saved by keeping it better. It doesn't mean that it doesn't have a purpose. It, it would be like me wanting to race my car and I get into my car and I, and I want the car to go faster, and I, and I try to upgrade and tweak and, and do what I can and with the tires and the engine and the fuel and everything to make the car go faster, right?

I want everything, take out anything that doesn't make the car go faster. And then I come to the seatbelt and I ask the mechanic or whoever is helping me in this project, and I say, does the seatbelt help the car go faster? And they say, no, it does not help the car go faster. Get rid of the seatbelt. But wait, it serves a purpose.

No. If it doesn't make the car go faster than I don't care. You know, there is a danger there. There is a danger when people say, because the law doesn't save me. The keeping of the law doesn't save me, then I don't need the law at all. And you wanna throw it out? Well, let's be careful. Let's slow down. If God thought it was important to tell us about it, to give us these guidelines, maybe it would be worthwhile paying attention to them.

There is some verses of the Bible that support this idea. It's not that I'm saying that the law saves us, that we save ourselves by keeping the law, but I'm just saying let's slow down and not throw it out either. Psalm 19. Verse seven, Psalm 19, verse seven says, the law of the Lord is perfect. Converting the soul.

The testimony of the Lord is sure, making wise, the simple, the law of the Lord, the testimony of God. It, this is talking about the Bible, right? So, so these words of God, the teachings, the guidelines, the law, it, it helps convert my soul. It gives me wisdom from God. And what is wisdom? Wisdom is knowing what to do in a given situation.

I don't always know what to do. The love of God helps me make better decisions. It gives me wisdom. It converts my soul. The Holy Spirit works. I believe in conjunction with the love of God, not opposed to it. Not against it, because you go against the love of God would be sin. Hmm. All these connections, right?

All these things coming together. I know I'm throwing maybe a lot at you, but hopefully this makes sense. Psalm 19, verse 11 says, moreover, by them, your servant is warned, and in keeping them there is great reward. Talking about the law, right? It gives me a warning. Don't do these things. I have found in my personal experience, whenever I rebel against the law of God, I disregard it.

I disobey it. I go against it. Not only do I hurt myself, I also hurt others. And the others that I hurt more often than not are the people that I love the most. Think about it when you lie. You hurt those people around you. When people commit adultery, when people steal right, it always increases. It adds on to the suffering that we have in this world.

Imagine living in a world where nobody stole, right? Imagine living in a world where everybody was always honest and never deceitful. I, I wanna live in that world because whenever people go against the law of God, it increases the suffering. It's when you get scammed, it's when somebody takes advantage of you.

It's when you buy something, thinking it's one thing, and then turns out it's another thing, right? We've all been there, we've all gone through experiences when somebody stole from us or deceived us, uh, or where we feared for our lives. It's not that somebody might kill us, not as opposed to danger or that too, but that doesn't go against the law anyway.

Um, it's, it's not pleasant. To live in an environment where there is no law. It's also not good to be in an environment where the laws are abusive and oppressive, and that's not the case with the law of God. So let's, let's study a little bit more. Let's go a little bit further. Romans chapter six. So back to the New Testament.

We go O testament, new Testament, o testament, new Testament, and see the harmony that we find in the Bible, in the word of God. Because the reason why we're spending this time that you are giving, sharing your precious time with me is because we want to study the word of God and find out what it has to say about, um, life and reality in general.

So Romans chapter six, verse 15, it says, what then shall we sin? Because we are not under the law, but under grace, certainly not. So here's the thing, right? If I am not saved by keeping the law. And should I just go and break it, right? If, if I'm not gonna be saved because I don't steal, should I then just start stealing?

Should I start committing adultery? Should I start telling lies and deceiving people because I'm not saved by keeping the law pulses? Certainly not. Are you crazy? That would not be good. And, and this is something that I, I, I, I hope we can all agree on. I'm not saying that keeping the law saves you. I'm saying that going against it is a bad idea.

It's not good for you. It's not good for anybody. Romans the same chapter, verse 16. It says the following, do you not know that to whom you present yourselves slaves to obey, you are that one slaves whom you obey whether of sin leading to death or of obedience leading to righteousness. So here's the thing, according to Paul.

Yes, we are saved by grace. We are under grace. We are not under the law, but we are also slaves. We're not really free. We are either slaves of the law unto righteousness, or we're slaves of sin until death. It's your choice. You're not saved by keeping the law by, by rebelling against the law, you make yourself slaves to sin, and that leads, leads to death.

At least that's my interpretation of this. First, if you interpret it differently, let me know in the comments below this video. So, so I hope you're, you're seeing all of these connections with the law in the place that it should have in our lives. Let's go back to the Old Testament now to Proverbs. And see, um, you know, what, what else can we learn about God's law and our relationship to it?

Proverbs 1625, it says the following, there is a way that seems right to a man, to a man, to a woman, to a person. There's a way that seems right, but its end is the way of death. Here is one of the problems that I addressed earlier when I'm trying to make a choice. I don't always know what the best option is.

Sometimes cheating may seem like the best option. Sometimes telling the lie feels like the easier path, the better thing, the best thing for me to do would be to deceive, to lie, to cheat, right? So I can get ahead so I can get my thing, so I can get everybody else is doing. I. And it may feel that way, but in the end, is it the best thing to do when everybody finds out and, and you've seen this, if you've been watching the news, it's, it seems like it's only a matter of time.

And we see these people in positions of power and influence falling because some lies, some deceit, some secret sin has come out into public, and some people even end up committing suicide because their favorite little sin, their, their secret sin was brought to light. There is a danger. So there is a path that seems right to a man, humanly speaking.

It seems like, yeah, that's, that's the right thing to do, but if it wasn't, oh, but in the end, it leads to death. So the law of God helps me make better decisions. It helps me make decisions that don't lead to death, but lead to life, even if those decisions are the harder decision at the moment. Not the easy decision, the right decision.

And if you care about making right decisions, the best possible decision, then the word of God, the law of God can offer you guidance so that you can live the best possible life. I'm not talking about an easy life. I'm talking about the best possible life you will be. A better spouse, a better son, child, father, grandfather, uh, worker, you know, employer, employee, uh, whatever area of life.

A a brother, brother, a better neighbor, a better citizen. Your life will be better and people around you will benefit when you choose to follow the law of God. Exodus going, continuing in the Old Testament. We're going to go to Exodus Chapter 20. Maybe some of you are already familiar with Exodus chapter 20.

This is where we find the 10 Commandments. There's lots of laws in the Bible about lots of different things. The 10 Commandments stand apart from all the other laws and teachings and guidance in the Bible. The 10 Commandments are different because they were written in tablets of stone by the finger of God, but we're gonna get to that in a little bit for now.

Let's just read from Exodus chapter 20, starting with verse one. It says, and God spoke all these words saying, so just to clarify here, these are not the laws of Moses. These are not the laws for the Jews. These were laws spoken by God. So if God felt that it was important to speak these laws so that his people could be aware of them, I think we could benefit from being at least aware of them.

God wanted his followers, his children, that he would bringing out of Egypt, taking to the Promised Land, his chosen nation. He wanted them to have the best possible life. He gives them these 10 laws. I believe this applies to all of humanity throughout all time, and I hopefully make that point clearer by the end of this video.

But let's jump in, uh, Genesis, uh, Genesis, Exodus, chapter 20, verse one, and God spoke all these words saying, I am the Lord your God, whom brought you. Who brought you out of the land of Egypt? Out of the house of bondage. This is interesting. Before God gives the children of Israel a list of things to do or not do, first he reminds them who he is and what he has done for them.

This is interesting because God did not come to the children of Israel, send Moses to them and says, Moses, take this, these tablets of stone. Take these 10 rules, this law to them, and once they can keep it perfectly, I'll come and deliver them. Right? It wasn't that their obedience earned their salvation, God deliver them.

God saved them while they were slaves, while they were living their lives. And who knows what had happened after 400 years of slavery in Egypt. Who knows what kind of moral, uh, guidelines, parameters they were following at that time, but God came and delivered them. Just like they were as slaves, brought 'em out of Egypt.

Um, that happens earlier in the Book of Exodus, if you want to go back and read that. So by the time we get to chapter 20, there's been, you know, a lot of things have happened and only now God says, Hey, let me, let me give you these guidelines. And he starts by reminding, by reminding them, I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage.

I am the God that frees you. I'm the God that provides for you. I'm the God that takes you from slavery and gives you freedom. So these laws are not going to make us slaves. They're not going to bind us and keep us from good things. Rather, they keep us from becoming slaves. I would argue that the 10 commandments, the laws of God in general, in the Bible, they give us freedom.

They set us free from the power of sin and other things. So anyway, back to the the Bible, verse three. This is what we often consider the first commandment. It says, you shall have no other gods before me. God says, I am the Lord your God. I brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage.

By the way, I did this for you, not any of the other gods. I want you to worship just me. Not anybody else, which I think is fair. If God is the one who is providing, who is delivering, who is guiding and saving, by all means follow him. You shouldn't follow some other God, okay? But God is saying, you can't do both.

You can't follow me and somebody else. You're free to go and follow somebody else if you want. It's not gonna go well, by the way, just the heads up, right? A word of warning. But if you're gonna stay with me, you can't have me plus another God. It has to be just me, no other gods before me. Fair enough.

That's that's the first one. So only one God and worship only him. Now, verse four, we go into what's often considered the second commandment, and this goes for a few verses all the way to verse six. It says. You shall not make for yourself a carved image, any likeness of anything that is in heaven above that is in heaven, beneath, or that is in the water under the earth.

You shall not bow down to them nor serve them for I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children to the third and fourth generations of those who hate me, but showing mercy to thousands, to those who love me and keep my commandments. There is mercy and there is blessings for those who keep God's commandments.

Now, it's interesting that the second commandment is not a repetition of the first commandment, and I used to think about it that way, don't have any other gods. And the second one is also saying, don't have any other gods. No. The second one is saying, don't make any image or likeness. So if I don't have any other gods.

And I'm worshiping the true God. Can I make an image of him? No. No. Images of God. And this was probably probably very frustrating to ancient Israel because all these other people around him, they had their gods and. They had like the, you know, the, the little shape and the image of their gods and the children of Israel had nothing.

They have text, right? They have a moral guideline. They have an understanding of the character of God. They have a history of how God acts and interacts with us. They don't know what God looks like. How many arms does he have? How many eyes does he have? What color is his hair? What color is his skin? Does he have skin?

How tall is he? How old is he? Does he have a beard? How long is the beard? What color is his beard? We don't know. None of that matters. And whenever we try to create an image of God, we are stepping outside of God's law. And there's a reason why he put this here. There are dangers in having images. Even if it's your best interpretation of what God looks like, be careful.

Be careful with a church, a religion, a denomination that creates an image of God for you to carry around to look at. And if it's supposed to remind you of who God is, we don't see that in the Bible. What we see here is a clear commandment, not to make any carved image or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above that is on the earth.

Beneath that is in the water beneath them, you shall not bow down to them. If you find yourself bowing down to an image of God or of something that you believe is there in heaven, a person or a being or a thing, this commandment clearly says, don't do it. Very clear. Don't bow down to it. Don't make the image.

This is not talking about other gods. That was the first commandment. This is talking about the real God. Don't try to make an image of him. Don't try to limit God. Don't try. It's, it's this thing that happens. I'm sorry I'm, I'm going long here on this one, but it's, it's like God created us in his image and then we returned the favor, right?

We end up making God in our image and then we start arguing over what God is like as far as physical appearance or essence, and doesn't seem concerned with that in the Bible. He cares more about his character and who he is. Anyway, let's keep going here for the sake of time. Verse seven. This is what would be considered the third commandment.

It says, you shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain. For the Lord will not hold him. Guiltless, who takes his name in vain. I notice that happens here in the US a lot. Um. People just say God's name with, they stub their toe if they're angry, if they're happy, if they're scared. I'd rather reserve the name of God for worship, for sharing and witnessing for praise, for prayer for.

You know, if I'm talking about God, but never use it as a curse word, never use it carelessly because the way that I treat the word of God, his name, it impacts my view of God, my understanding who of who he is and how important he is to me. Something for you to keep in mind. Sometimes by using his word carelessly, God becomes less important, less holy, less powerful, and then our relationship to him stops being what it should be and what it could be.

So the third commandment, do not take the name of the Lord your God in vain, and I would extend that to Christians. If I call myself a Christian, a follower of Jesus, a child of God, then I'd live life in a way that goes against the will of God, against the law of God, against God's plans for my life. I'm also blaspheming, I'm also taking his name in vain, carelessly.

Number, uh, verse eight, the fourth commandment. This is a long one. It goes from verse eight all the way to verse 11. Um, let's read it together. It says, remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy. Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord your God. In it you shall do no work you nor your son, nor your daughter, nor your male servant, nor your female servant, nor your cattle, nor your stranger who is within your gates.

For in six days, the Lord made the heavens, the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested on this and rested the seventh day. Therefore, the Lord blessed the sabbath day and hallowed it or made it holy. So interesting that this is the first command that begins with, remember. Actually, it's the only one in the 10 Commandments that begins with, remember, it seems like God is not establishing something new, but helping us not forget something that was established much earlier.

The, this commandment references creation, but we can talk more about that here in the future. Verse 12, the next one, it says, honor your father and your mother that your days may belong upon the land in which the Lord your God is giving you. This is interesting one. Uh, I, I've often read this and wonder is that a, is that a threat, right?

Honor your parents so that you'll live a long time. Well, it, it could be taken that way, I guess. I don't think that was the intention. I think the idea is, do you want to live a long life? A great way of achieving that is by honoring your parents, and I believe there is a lot of value in honoring our parents and that a society that does that well.

Is a healthy society. I also think it's good for the parents. I am a father, um, to, to make sure that we are living lives and treating our children in a way that makes it easier for them to honor us. Right? Let's, let's live an honorable life and then it makes it easier for our children to keep the commandments of God and honor us.

Some parents make it very difficult. Um, anyway, you can talk about the nuances of what it means to honor your father and your mother. Um, and well, we'll do that on a different one. Leave me a comment in the video if you'd like to pursue that further, or, or any of these. I'm kind of going through them here.

I don't wanna take too long. But the, the next few commandments are fairly quick. You shall not murder, you shall not commit adultery, you shall not steal, you shall not bear false witness against your neighbor. So these are all quick and easy, and most people agree on these and would not have an issue with them.

The last one is an odd one. The 10th commandment, it says, you shall not covet your neighbor's house. You shall not covet your neighbor's wife, nor his male servant, nor his female servant, nor his ox, nor his donkey, nor anything that is your neighbor's. And this is an odd commandment because it doesn't deal with an action.

It deals with something that happens in your mind. Coveting, you could say, it happens in your heart, right? It's an inner thing, and God cares about that too. In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus will even clarify what he means by some of these commandments. Even you shall not commit murder, you shall not commit adultery.

It's not just the action. What God really cares about is our intentions, our thoughts, our hearts, and the 10th commandment gives us a glimpse into that. So Exodus, since we're already in Exodus, let's jump forward to chapter 31. 'cause this clarifies something that I had mentioned in passing earlier. Exodus 31, verse 18 and says, and when he talking about God had made an end of speaking with him, talking about Moses on Mount Sinai, he gave Moses two tablets of the test of, of the testimony, tablets of stone, written with the finger of God.

So in Exodus 20, we have God speaking by Exodus 31 18. We find out that after God spoke all these words, he gave Moses tablets of stone with these words written on them, written with the finger of God. Interestingly, in chapter 32, the people come up with an idol because Moses is taking too long on top of the mountain and they begin to worship it and to, um.

You know, worship is the word, and anyway, it leads to all kinds of problems. But you can say, well, was the law created during that time in Exodus? Is this when God wrote it down? Is this when God is creating the law? And I would say no. And there is biblical, um, evidence for that. Genesis chapter 26, Genesis chapter 26, verse five.

It says, because Abraham obeyed my voice and kept my charge, my commandments, my statutes in my laws. So even the time of Abraham, even though we are not given a list of commandments, God says that Abraham obeyed his voice, kept his charge, his commandments, his statutes and his laws. Obedience to God's law was present even before the 10 Commandments were given in Mount Sinai on tablets of stone to Moses.

God has a law, it exists. And even before he was formally given in the tablets of stone, it already existed because otherwise there would be no sin. So for example, let's go to Genesis chapter 18. So we're going back even further. Chapter 18, verse 20. It says the following. This is Genesis chapter 18, verse 20.

It says, and the Lord said, because the outcry against Sodom and Gomorrah is great, and because their sin is very grave. This is, uh, this passage, Genesis 18. Uh, uh, especially chapter 19, you know, the destruction of Solomon Goor. What was the problem? Their sin was very great. As we've been talking, how can you have sin without the law?

You don't. There can only be a sin if people are going against the law of God. So whatever was happening in Sodom and Goor, and you can read the story and find out it was going against the law of God, it was sin, and God was going to judge them because of their sin. Same thing. If you go back to. I think it's Genesis chapter six, uh, and the story of the flood.

Uh, God destroys the world with judgment of water because of sin. Well, how can you have sin if there is no law? How can it be wrong unless somebody says, don't do it. It's like me getting the ticket there, going to South Padre Island, right? It would not be wrong for me to go 35 miles an hour unless there was a law signed, posted, saying that that should be going 25 miles an hour.

The Law of God existed before it was given, formally written in stone at Mount Sinai through Moses. Um, Exodus chapter 16, verse 28. No, not Exodus. Yes, Exodus. Sorry, I'm in the wrong book. Let's go to Exodus chapter 16, verse 28. It says, and the Lord said to Moses, how long do you refuse to keep my commandments?

And my laws. This is Exodus 16. We're not gonna get the 10 amendments into Exodus 20, and yet here we have God speaking about, um, verse 28, about going against his law. How long do you refuse to keep my commandments and my laws? Interestingly, here in Exodus chapter 16, what's being, what's happening here is the, the bread of heaven, the manna that the people, the children of Israel received while they were in the wilderness.

I would make a note of this. Go back, read the whole chapter so you can understand the story. When God here is talking about his laws, that they're not obeying. You should read verse 30 for a little bit more of context. It says, so the people rested on the seventh day, God was commanding them to rest. And they were not doing it.

They were breaking his law and he saying, no, no, no, you're free. You're no longer slaves. You don't have to work all the time. You can rest. Just an interesting points there. In Exodus 16, before we have Exodus 20 and the formal 10 commandments written in stone, we see the principles. We see the same things there.

If you even go back to Kain and Abel, when Kain killed his brother Abel, that was a sin that was wrong even though there were no 10 Commandments written in tablets of stone saying You should not commit murder, murder. It was already wrong. So I say this to say that the law of God has been in place even before it was formerly given at Mount Sinai, written in tablets of stones to the children of Israel we see with the destruction of Sodom and Goor.

They were not Israelis, they were not Jews. They're not the descendants of Abraham. Yet it was wrong, the flood. Genesis chapter six. There was no Abraham, there was no children of Israel. Yet, yet it was wrong. Cain killing his brother. That was wrong. They were not Jews. So this law seems to go much beyond.

They come from God to humanity, not just from Moses to the Jewish people. Let's jump back to the New Testament. Romans chapter four 15. I keep saying five, but it's chapter four. Romans chapter four, verse 15 says, because the law brings about wrath. For where there is no law, there is no transgression. So we may want to avoid the law because it brings about wrath, right?

If there was no law, there would be no transgression. But also think about it, if there is no law and anybody can do whatever they want, and with our sinful tendency to selfishness and to rebellion against the rule of God, is that a good idea? And also, you know, just think about where you live in, in your neighborhood.

Do you want to live in a place where there is a law that promotes peace and harmony and creates an environment for people to thrive? Or you wanna live in a place where there is no law and people can steal and take things and kill and commit adultery and lie and cheat and deceive and, and it's just the way, you know, it's not wrong.

There's no law. They're not doing anything wrong, right? They're not breaking any laws. Or would you prefer. Laws that bring about harmony and create an environment where we can thrive. I believe that God's laws promote peace and harmony, and they create an environment where us, our children, our business, our work, our lives can just thrive and be the best possible.

John chapter 14, the Gospel according to John, the same John who wrote John three 16. John chapter 14, verse 15, and I know John three 16 was spoken by Jesus. John recorded it. Um, so I'm not saying John said these words, but it's the book is where we read these words. John 1415, it says, they're quoting Jesus, if you love me, keep my commandments.

I'm not saying keep the commandments and you will save yourself. It's saying this is God's love language, right? Do you wanna show God love? It doesn't say Bring me flowers. It doesn't say offer a sacrifice. He doesn't say, give lots of money. He says, if you love me, keep my commandments. It's how we show love and appreciation.

Those of us who are married, it's very important for us to understand how our spouse understands love. Right? How can I say I love you in a way that they will understand that I love them. God's saying I'll understand. I totally get the idea. If you want to show your love for me, here's how you do it. Keep my commandments continuing.

Uh, Matthew 2237 through 38. This is interesting because Jesus is being, uh, questioned regarding the law. And his insert is so insightful and so helpful, and, and sadly, sometimes people rush through it and they miss the point. But let's, let's look at it a little bit carefully and see what the main idea is.

Matthew 22, starting with verse 37. Jesus said to him, he was asked, you know, teacher, which is the great commandment in the law, this is Matthew 22, verse 36, 37. Jesus said to him, you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind. This is the first in great commandment.

By the way, if you look at the tablets of stone for the 10 Commandments, usually we divide it in that the first tablet. It's all the laws referring to God. So if you love God with all your heart, with all your soul, uh, and with all your mind, you're not gonna have any other gods before him. You're not gonna make any graven images.

Uh, you're not gonna take his name in vain. And so all of these things resting on the Sabbath to spend that time with him, all of these are connected to loving God, um, more than anything else in the world. And then verse 39 and the second is like it, you shall love your neighbor as yourself. If you love your neighbor as yourself, you're not gonna commit murder, you're not gonna steal, you're not gonna lie.

You're not gonna commit adultery. So in these two, love God above everything else, love your neighbor as yourself. You summarize the 10 Commandments. It doesn't mean throw out the 10 commandments. It just means love is at the core of properly keeping the 10 Commandments. It's something that we do because we love God and because we love others, it makes us less selfish.

It keeps us from being completely selfish. So Jesus here places the law in the right frame, says on these two commandments, hang the law and the prophets. So he's saying the Old Testament, right? The law and the prophe, what we're studying here, prophecy in the Bible and the law. It's about loving God above everything else and loving others as yourself.

That's what it's all about. If you're keeping the law, but you're not doing it in a loving way, you're missing the point. The point is love. Love is how you do this the right way. And continuing, uh, in Matthew 22 versus, oh, I already did this one. Sorry, I get ahead of my notes sometimes. Now let's go back to the Old Testament, and this time we're gonna look at the book of Deuteronomy.

Deuteronomy chapter five verse 29, Deuteronomy chapter five. Such a fun word to say. Deuteronomy chapter five, verse 29. And there it says, oh, that they. Oh, that they had such a heart in them that they would fear me and always keep all my commandments, that it might be well with them and with their children forever.

God, looking at his children, wishfully, wishing that they would just keep his law. He says, oh, that they had such a heart in them that they would fear me and always keep my commandments. Why does God want that? He says here that it might be well with them and with their children forever. Your best possible life can only be found in harmony with the law of God.

That's why he gave us the law and he says, oh, if only they would keep it, their life would be so much better. It would be well with them forever. If only they would do this, it would be so good for them. So now let's go back to the New Testament. Let's look at Galatians chapter three, verse 24. Galatians chapter three, verse 24 says, therefore, the law was our tutor to bring us to Christ that we may be just that we might be justified by faith.

The law serves as a tutor. It points us to our need of Christ. Like I said before, we are justified by faith. The Bible teaches that clearly. The law reminds me that I need to be justified. The law reminds me that I am a sinner. The law points out to me that times that I fall short, that I rebelled, that I do something wrong.

I only know that I need a savior. I only know that I need grace and forgiveness and salvation because the law tells me where I've messed up, where I've fallen short, where I've made mistakes, and then I turn to Jesus to receive the salvation. Because of the law's existence, I understand my need of Jesus.

Without the law, there is no sin. If I have not committed sin, I don't need a savior. I don't need Jesus in my life. Do you see how this works? The law doesn't save me, but it points me to the savior. John three 16. This is a familiar verse. I believe many of you probably have this memorized, or at least you've heard it before.

John three 16 says the following, for God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son, that whoever believes in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. Jesus came and died so that we could receive the gift of everlasting life. Why did he have to die? Because that is the penalty for sin.

If that was not the issue, we would not have needed, I. For Jesus to come and to die for us. Romans chapter six makes this more clear. Romans chapter six, verse 23.

So if you follow along with me, Romans six, verse 23. It says, for the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus, our Lord. The law, the men's death. You break the law, you die. Jesus came and died even though he did not break the law. He died because I broke the law. He died in my place, and then he offers me the eternal life that belongs to him, and I get to live in Jesus.

This is so powerful and it also reminds us that God cannot just change his law. Otherwise, you could have just said, ah, nevermind. You know, just keep doing your thing. The law was too strict. It was a bad law anyway. Let's just do away with it. Jesus, you don't have to die. Turns out it was just a bad law. No.

God does not change his law because his law is perfect. It's a perfect representation of his character, of his will. When we keep his law, life is better for him to do away with his law. To change His law would cause more suffering because then if we're not keeping it right, if we're not aware that we're doing something wrong, we would still be living a selfish life causing sin and suffering and not even know why.

At least with the law, we are aware that we are in rebellion against the will of God something. To think about something to consider. Ephesians chapter two, verse eight. Ephesians two, verse eight says, for by grace, you have been saved through faith that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God. God gives us to us as a gift.

Keeping the commandments will not earn you salvation. For by grace, you have been saved through faith, then not of yourselves. It is a gift of God, not of works. Verse nine, lest anyone should boast. We cannot boast because we do not save ourselves. God saves us. But Ephesians two, oh, I I just read Ephesians two, verse nine.

Not of. Works lest anyone should boast. Keeping the commandments does not save us. I hope that this is clear. I am highlighting the importance, the value of the 10 Commandments, the commandments of God, the teachings of God in the entire Bible, but it's not by obedience to it that we save ourselves, but there is value in keeping them and obeying them.

Ephesians two 10 talking about the purpose of life, right? Continuing here, the very next verse. It says, for we are his workmanship created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them. Are you looking for meaning in life? You were created by God in Christ Jesus?

There's good works prepared for you to do. If you want to find meaning in life, live your best life. Do the good works that God created you to do. I'll read it once again, verse 10. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, we were made to obey God's law. We are our happiest. We are our best.

The best version of Marlon is the version of Marlon that keeps the law of God. The better I do it, the better my life is. When I fall short, when I fail, when I rebel against it, my life is becomes a little bit less than what it could be. I'm less of the husband that I could be. I'm less of the father that I could be.

I'm less of the pastor that I could be, but as I follow God's law, I become a better version of myself, their version that God intended for me to do. We were created for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them. We find ourselves in the will of God as we obey God's law. That's what we were created to do.

That is the best possible life that we can live. We're almost done here. Let's go to Revelation. This is a series on prophecy after all. Revelation chapter 14. Here's some interesting things, right? You look to the book of Revelation, the end of the world and all these things. Does it have anything to say with the law of God?

Revelation chapter 14, verse 12. It says, the following here is the patience of the saints. Here are those who keep the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus. Isn't that beautiful? God's people in the last days identified as having both, they're both keep the commandments of God and have faith in Jesus or the faith of Jesus.

It's both together, not one or the other. They're not against each other. Jesus and the law of God come together, and this is, these are God's people. In the last days. They have both. Revelation, chapter 12, verse 17 says the following, and the dragon was enraged with the woman and he went to make war with the rest of her offspring.

Remember a few videos back, we talked about the seed of the woman that were crushed, head of the serpent. He was talking about Jesus. Well, the woman has an offspring, right? You could call it the true church, the, the two children of God, the followers of God, the, the remnant that has been faithful to God throughout scriptures from Adam and Eve all the way down to the last days.

So these are the, the offspring of the woman, right? The god's people. So let me read that again. Revelation 1217 and the dragon was enraged with the woman and when to make war with the rest of her offspring, who keep the commandments of God and have the testimony of Jesus Christ. They have the testimony of Jesus once again, and they keep the commandments, commandments in Jesus together.

God's people in the last days do you want, do you identify as, as a child of God? You want to be part that remnants. In the last days, the Bible describes that group of people as having both being faithful and keeping the commandments of God and also having the testimony of Jesus Christ or the faith of Jesus Christ.

And the other passage that we read, um, in Matthew. 26 verse 39. Going back to Matthew verse 26, verse 39. It tells us something about the law of God. Matthew Chapter 26, verse 39. It says the following, talking about Jesus. He went a little further and fell on his face and prayed saying, oh my Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from me.

Nevertheless, not as I will, but as you will, and this is something we had talked about earlier, if God could just change his law, Jesus would not have needed to die. God could have said, nevermind. The law was bad. He was too strict. It was, you know, we're, we're gonna go into a new period now of, of grace. He no longer need the law, just do away with it.

No, Jesus had to pay the price. He had to fulfill the demand of the law. That the wages of sin is death. In John 1415, like we read before, Jesus says, if you love me, keep my commandments, John 1415. If you love me, keep my commandments. It's all about love, loving God, loving others. And if you want to live your best life, base it on love.

Put God above everything else in life. Love your neighbor as yourself, the other people around you. Just like you, love yourself. You will find that keeping God's law, it's not a burden. It's a joy. It helps you make better decisions. It converts your soul. It brings you closer to God. He helps you understand the heart of God.

Your life will be better. The people around you will benefit from you keeping God's law. Thank you for joining me in this study. Please let me know if you have any questions. Leave them in the comments. Um, we could always make another video and talk more about these. If you're in the Boise area, come in person and, and let's talk.

Uh, reach out to me. And we can talk and go deeper in any of these points that you might have some questions on. If this video was helpful for you, please give us a thumbs up, subscribe to our channel so you can be, um, aware of when more videos come out. And next one on our series, we'll be created for something better exploring the Sabbath.