GET A LIFE! NOT RULES.


August 25, 2002 am

And Moses went into the midst of the cloud, and got him up into the mount: and Moses was in the mount forty days and forty nights.

(Exo 24:18)

And he gave unto Moses, when he had made an end of communing with him upon mount Sinai, two tables of testimony, tables of stone, written with the finger of God.

(Exo 31:18)

And when the people saw that Moses delayed to come down out of the mount, the people gathered themselves together unto Aaron, and said unto him, Up, make us gods, which shall go before us; for as for this Moses, the man that brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we know not what is become of him.

(Exo 32:1)

And Moses turned, and went down from the mount, and the two tables of the testimony were in his hand: the tables were written on both their sides; on the one side and on the other were they written. And the tables were the work of God, and the writing was the writing of God, graven upon the tables. And when Joshua heard the noise of the people as they shouted, he said unto Moses, There is a noise of war in the camp. And he said, It is not the voice of them that shout for mastery, neither is it the voice of them that cry for being overcome: but the noise of them that sing do I hear. And it came to pass, as soon as he came nigh unto the camp, that he saw the calf, and the dancing: and Moses' anger waxed hot, and he cast the tables out of his hands, and broke them beneath the mount.

(Exo 32:15-19)

And he said unto them, Thus saith the LORD God of Israel, Put every man his sword by his side, and go in and out from gate to gate throughout the camp, and slay every man his brother, and every man his companion, and every man his neighbor. And the children of Levi did according to the word of Moses: and there fell of the people that day about three thousand men.

(Exo 32:27-28)

The former treatise have I made, O Theophilus, of all that Jesus began both to do and teach, Until the day in which he was taken up, after that he through the Holy Ghost had given commandments unto the apostles whom he had chosen: To whom also he showed himself alive after his passion by many infallible proofs, being seen of them forty days, and speaking of the things pertaining to the kingdom of God:

(Act 1:1-3)

And suddenly there came a sound from heaven as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled all the house where they were sitting. And there appeared unto them cloven tongues like as of fire, and it sat upon each of them. And they were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance.

(Act 2:2-4)

Then Peter said unto them, Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost. For the promise is unto you, and to your children, and to all that are afar off, even as many as the Lord our God shall call. And with many other words did he testify and exhort, saying, Save yourselves from this untoward generation. Then they that gladly received his word were baptized: and the same day there were added unto them about three thousand souls. And they continued steadfastly in the apostles' doctrine and fellowship, and in breaking of bread, and in prayers.

(Act 2:38-42) ---------------

Many people come to Jesus and His Church and seek a book of rules or a Catechism to memorize.

That is not what Jesus came to give.

The Jews claim that the day Moses received the Ten Commandments, God instituted a feast entitled the Day of Pentecost, or feast of weeks.

I read to you the events of the day Moses gave the ten commandments, and the events of the same day about 1,500 years later, when God gave the Holy Ghost to the disciples.

Two similar scenes on the same day, but yet so different.

Moses goes up into a mountain and after forty days receives two slabs of stone with 10 commandments on them.

  • He brings them down for Israel to obey.
  • They've already broken the first law of not worshipping any other gods.
  • And Moses breaks the tables.
  • He tells people to come to the Lord's side.
  • Then he tells the Levites to slay all who refused to come.
  • 3,000 die.

Jesus preached forty days about the kingdom of God.

He ascends into Heaven and obtains the promise.

And I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you forever;

(John 14:16)

Wherefore he saith, When he ascended up on high, he led captivity captive, and gave gifts unto men.

(Eph 4:8)

Thou hast ascended on high, thou hast led captivity captive: thou hast received gifts for men; yea, for the rebellious also, that the LORD God might dwell among them. Blessed be the Lord, who daily loadeth us with benefits, even the God of our salvation. Selah.

(Psa 68:18-19)

Jesus went to the Father.

  • He would give the Comforter.
  • He would give gifts for men.
  • John 7:39 says Holy Ghost would be given when Jesus was glorified.

He ascends to the Father.

  • Like Moses taking the tables of Law, He receives the gifts.
  • He comes down as Moses came down, but in another form.
  • He comes as the Holy Ghost.

And I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you forever; Even the Spirit of truth; whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth him not, neither knoweth him: but ye know him; for he dwelleth with you, and shall be in you. I will not leave you comfortless: I will come to you.

(John 14:16-18)

But the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you.

(John 14:26)

Jesus is the Holy Ghost.

  • It's Jesus in Spirit form.

And instead of handing them tables of stone as He came down for them to memorize and obey and stick on their doors and hang on their walls, Jesus goes right inside the hearts of the 120 people.

  • They are filled with His Holy Ghost.
  • And instead of Moses saying, "Who is on the Lord's side, let him come to me," Peter is filled with the Spirit of Jesus and says, "Repent and be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ everyone of you, and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost."
  • And instead of 3000 souls being slain that day by the sword, 3000 souls are saved that day by the Sword of the Word of God preached to them!

And of his fullness have all we received, and grace for grace. For the law was given by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ.

(John 1:16-17)

Moses smashed the tables of stone in representation that Israel broke the commandments the day they received them.

Behold, the days come, saith the LORD, that I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel, and with the house of Judah: Not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day that I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt; which my covenant they broke, although I was a husband unto them, saith the LORD: But this shall be the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel; After those days, saith the LORD, I will put my law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts; and will be their God, and they shall be my people.

(Jer 31:31-33)

Jesus came down with the LAWS OF GOD, too.

  • But instead of giving them to hang in their homes and on their walls, to copy down and write in books and parchments, Jesus came Himself on down into their hearts.
  • He wrote it into their hearts.
  • I kinda think talking in tongues, when you get the Holy Ghost, is sort of speaking forth these words of Life as God puts them into your hearts!

Go ahead and talk on tongues when you feel God filling you!

  • He's writing words in your heart and laws in your souls.
  • From the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh!

And the commandment, which was ordained to life, I found to be unto death.

(Rom 7:10)

For we know that the law is spiritual: but I am carnal, sold under sin.

(Rom 7:14)

The problem was in giving a carnal people a spiritual law.

Giving a fleshly people a spiritual rule.

Its like a spiritual law on a rock tablet.

God has to make us spiritual, and then give His law to us by putting it into our the spiritual part of us - our hearts.

Today it can be so easy for you to mistaken God's intentions and think you have to approach God and take a set of rules home with you.

  • God is trying to show us that He came to GIVE US LIFE.
  • He wants to get inside our hearts and fill us with His Spirit.

Forasmuch as ye are manifestly declared to be the epistle of Christ ministered by us, written not with ink, but with the Spirit of the living God; not in tables of stone, but in fleshy tables of the heart.

(2Co 3:3)

But if the ministration of death, written and engraven in stones, was glorious, so that the children of Israel could not steadfastly behold the face of Moses for the glory of his countenance; which glory was to be done away: How shall not the ministration of the spirit be rather glorious?

(2Co 3:7-8)

People's hearts are desperately wicked.

The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?

(Jer 17:9)

But something happens to our hearts when God fills us with His Spirit.

A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you: and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes, and ye shall keep my judgments, and do them.

(Eze 36:26-27)

God gives us a new heart and that deceptive one is not in us any longer!

  • Do not mistaken it.
  • Our hearts are not deceptive when God gives us new ones!
  • They're being written with the Laws of God.
  • And that makes us able to keep God's ways.

There was something missing in the Old Covenant under Moses with Law.

The New Testament comments about this:

For if that first covenant had been faultless, then should no place have been sought for the second. For finding fault with them, he saith, Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah: Not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day when I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt; because they continued not in my covenant, and I regarded them not, saith the Lord. For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, saith the Lord; I will put my laws into their mind, and write them in their hearts: and I will be to them a God, and they shall be to me a people:

(Heb 8:7-10)

There was a fault.

  • The covenant itself was actually good, but the fault was that FLESH MESSED THINGS UP FOR US.

For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh: That the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit. For they that are after the flesh do mind the things of the flesh; but they that are after the Spirit the things of the Spirit. For to be carnally minded is death; but to be spiritually minded is life and peace.

(Rom 8:3-6)

3000 beneath Law die

3000 in grace are given life.

Two covenants.

Two come down from Glory.

Get a life, not Rules!

You cannot approach God as though you are gaining a set of rules.

  • That sort of Christianity is error.
  • Real Christianity has LIFE.

When you really get the Spirit and then learn to lean upon Him in faith and prayer...

This I say then, Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh. For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh: and these are contrary the one to the other: so that ye cannot do the things that ye would.

(Gal 5:16-17)

But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, Meekness, temperance: against such there is no law.

(Gal 5:22-23)

When you follow the Spirit that works in your heart inside, you will find yourself doing things that Moses' Old Law cannot touch nor criticize!

  • The law is not against the things your heart is moved upon by the Holy Ghost to do.

When say do not get rules, I am not saying there is nothing wrong and there is no sin.

  • I am saying that the Life God gives in His Spirit will cause you to instinctively know what is right and wrong.
  • And you will also learn of the Spirit inside you the things of the Bible as you study.
  • The Spirit will never make you feel something that the Bible says is wrong is to be considered right.
  • The Spirit and the Word agree always.

Without the Spirit, when you express yourself you are going to do some sinful things.

  • But if you get the Holy Ghost and pray and seek God and praise Him, you will find you want to express forth love and goodness and righteousness.
  • Because He writes His laws into your hearts.

And the scribes and Pharisees brought unto him a woman taken in adultery; and when they had set her in the midst, They say unto him, Master, this woman was taken in adultery, in the very act. Now Moses in the law commanded us, that such should be stoned: but what sayest thou? This they said, tempting him, that they might have to accuse him. But Jesus stooped down, and with his finger wrote on the ground, as though he heard them not. So when they continued asking him, he lifted up himself, and said unto them, He that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone at her. And again he stooped down, and wrote on the ground. And they which heard it, being convicted by their own conscience, went out one by one, beginning at the eldest, even unto the last: and Jesus was left alone, and the woman standing in the midst. When Jesus had lifted up himself, and saw none but the woman, he said unto her, Woman, where are those thine accusers? hath no man condemned thee? She said, No man, Lord. And Jesus said unto her, Neither do I condemn thee: go, and sin no more. Then spake Jesus again unto them, saying, I am the light of the world: he that followeth me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life.

(John 8:3-12)

We were made from the dust of the ground.

  • Jesus writes with his finger in the ground as people accuse an adulteress, and demand she be killed.
  • Jesus did not come to kill.
  • He came to give life.
  • But how can he give life to an adulteress?
  • He can write with his finger in her heart made of dust from the ground and put His laws into her.
  • And she will change.
  • Her heart will be different.
  • And she can leave and go and sin no more.
  • Law could not do that.
  • Moses could only say she should be stoned.
  • But Jesus was going to do more than Moses.
  • Never contradict Moses and say Moses was wrong.
  • But when Moses could force her to change, Jesus could change her.

They say Law is like a mirror.

  • It shows you how dirty you are.
  • And it judges you.
  • But Grace is the water, soap and face cloth that washes the dirt away.
  • And cleans you.

Moses said THOU SHALT NOT.

  • Ten times.

Jesus said BLESSED ARE THE...

  • Nine Times.

Notice Moses trying to make you.

  • But Jesus talking about people who are already made a certain way.
  • It's CHANGED LIVES today, not stone rules and commandments.
  • Changed lives live the way stone rules tried to have man live.