Returning to God through the Book Of The Law

Tune in as we discuss the Book of the Law and its importance while leaving our old identity behind and turning to God while breaking sin and old identities. 

Transcript

SPEAKER_02 0:00

Welcome back for another episode. So, kind of a three-part series here. We talked about seeing through the lens of God's eyes, like towards each other, seeing God in nature. Now, how do we view God in our lives, in our personal lives? And like, how do we use the law today? How do we judge each other today and judge God in a sense? Like, do we misjudge who God is, the character of God? And I kind of want to start off with Yeah, I kind of want to go over to Kings 22, I believe, where King Josiah talks about the book of the law, where the high priest uncovers it, goes into God's treasury, sees it's empty. And what was this book of the law? Because when the king saw this, he tore his clothes and laminate and told the people to get rid of the idols, and he was seen in the eyes of God as a good king, like out of all the ones mentioned in two kings. So, what were they talking about exactly? Do we misuse the law, the Ten Commandments? I mean, Jesus simplifies this for us to two love God above all with your heart, mind, soul, and to in likeness, love your neighbor as yourself. So, how do we misuse this? How were the Pharisees misusing this in the day? And I kind of want to look back at the original story in Exodus when with the ten plagues of Egypt mirroring the Ten Commandments, because I was looking at this a while back, and when you look at it, it's almost a parable of heaven and hell. It's almost the opposite image. So God challenges basically the false idols of Egypt because they hold no power. And when you look at it, they mirror each other, the Ten Commandments to the Ten Plagues. And when you go down, it's all blasphemies that we to this day kind of use against God, we misinterpret it with God. For example, the false idol of medicine and healing, that plague was spoils for the people of Egypt. Sorry, I want to go back a little bit. Because God is our healer, that's why they call them Jehovah Rapha, Jehovah Jirah, our provider. And in today's world, it seems like we kind of book God as a second source of those things. We go to medicine to be healed instead of going to God. We go to earthly things, earthly ways to make money, our own understanding, instead of asking God what we should do. Because He is the one who provides everything for us, whether we know it or not. So do you have anything to add on that part so far?

SPEAKER_00 3:27

Yeah, yeah. And this is such an interesting talking point because I can definitely relate to a lot of what we're going to be kind of covering here. And the the basis of the message is yes, like for the believers, right? We believe in God, but like what do we sometimes or oftentimes put in front of him? Right. So like going back to like the healing of medicines, right? Yes, there are times where you can pray, ask God what you want to do, ask him to heal, you know, like wait for that active word, everything. But then also sometimes, yeah, we're led to go to the hospital and get treated that way because maybe we're supposed to talk to someone there, or you know, passing by planting a seed, right? But the concept is are we so dependent on the modern medical system that it is our first and sometimes only thought process on how to move forward with the situation we're in? You know, and do we not serve the God of impossible? Did he not create everything? No, everything functions, nothing goes unseen with the one true living God. You know, and it just kind of like restructures that like let's rewire our brains to like start going to God first and see what he is leading you to do. And yeah, that's just like a big a a big piece of what I really feel is predominant in today's world. Yeah, everything is so quick to oh, I gotta go to this pharmacy, I gotta go to this hospital, I gotta get this medicine, I gotta get this shot, I gotta get this pill, and then you all of a sudden look at this you're dependent daily, weekly, monthly on it. And I'm not I'm not saying there's certain situations where like you know, stuff happens, but like again, rewiring our brain to kind of go to put the faith in God. Do we have faith in some other things in this world?

SPEAKER_02 5:46

Amen. I mean, and when I kind of look at these things, it goes back to the original sin, right? If you eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, you will be like God. So do we think we are like God when we go and try to do things on our own understanding? Or do we try to do those things with him? I mean, pray to God. Ask him, hey God, do I go you know, to this thing? Do you want me to pray over myself? Do you want me to go to the hospital? Whatever you get, go with it. Test God in those things. I mean, he wants you to test them, he wants you to have that relationship with them. It's not going to be prominent right away, but you will build that communication with him, I guess. You'll learn how to hear his voice.

SPEAKER_00 6:35

Yeah, he definitely wants you to come to him and ask him. I mean, look at Jeremiah 33, 3. Great verse. We kind of talked about that a few episodes back, where God is literally asking his people to just seek him and he will answer questions and show you things that you do not know. But I want to, before we keep continuing on the commandments, if if you mind, I would like to actually go back to this um King Josiah story. And I kind of want to paint a picture some from for some listeners tuning in here, and I can I can really relate to this part here. So again, if you have not read one or two kings yet, I'm completely fine. I'll just, as Robert already kind of did, give a quick backstory. There's a lot of kings that were not right in the Lord's eyes, as it kind of states in scripture, because they did not follow the law or didn't even care to look at it. But then again, the high priest and the secretary found the book of the law, brought it to King Josiah's attention, and once Josiah read those words, he was like, Oh wow, we are not following the word. Like, we are not following God's law. And in this time, mind you, this is kind of when like the promised land never really fully got developed because sin kind of again corrupted it and it led people astray and then would get overrun by Philistines, I mean Amalekites, you name it, right? So one could say in this time, God would kind of feel distant. God was always right there. Couldn't be closer. But sin can feel make him feel distant. Like let's be 100% real with it. Sin can make him feel distant. He wants to speak, he wants to hear you to hear. He's actually is speaking, and he wants in but the sin separates and feels distance, right? So when that law was read, and Josiah tore the clothes in the sign of repentance, he was working with his establishment with the Lord to remove idols of the land of the people. So again, let's let's paint this picture a little bit. They weren't following the law, they were doing things they weren't supposed to, they did not know. Once they found out what they needed to do and kind of turn back to the Lord, repent, put God first, they restore their relationship with them, like repent of the sins, and this is the whole point of what Jesus did on the cross for us. The blood covers all the sins. Sometimes God feels distant, even though he's right there with you, because we're putting something first before him. What if we removed that thing that was being put first in front of God? How much closer would you feel? And I just kind of want to like let you sit on that. Whatever kind of comes to your mind, your memory of what that could be. Maybe that was something you were contemplating doing right now, listening to this podcast or doing that thing. I don't know what it could be, right? What if God feels distant because we're putting something else first? Yeah, so I hand it back to you.

SPEAKER_02 10:09

Yeah, I mean, and sometimes it's giving that sin more power than God, too, you know, saying, Oh, well, God can't help me get over this thing, not me. You know, he just defeated all sin, but not this one thing that I do. I mean, that's probably the biggest lie because I mean, who's more powerful Satan under God? Not even a comparison. But yeah, I mean, and when we kind of look at the life of Jesus, did he ever hold somebody down for their sin, or did he see us as what we were supposed to become? And he brought that out in the people that he went to preach to, unlike the Pharisees who condemned the people with their sin, like we were just discussing uh previously to this. And now when we go over to the Ten Commandments, the the parable, the opposite side of this, the first four are about God, right? But when we look at the plagues, after the fourth plague, it only affects the Egyptians. There's a divided, there's a division between God's people and the Egyptians, right? So what are the four the first four commandments? So you shall only have one God. There's only one God, there is only one God. Two, you shall not have any false idols. Three, you shall not say God's name in vain. So again, God cannot overcome those sins, God cannot, blah, blah, blah. That's saying God's name in vain. Against who God really is. God won't heal me. That's saying his name in vain. Saying he's not capable of doing those things because God is good, God is love, God is all those things. That is who God is. And that same God wants to have that relationship with you. And that's the truth. Four, you shall keep the Sabbath day holy. Remember the Sabbath. Right? Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath, correct? Well, if Jesus Christ is the Sabbath and Christ is with all and in all, then we have Christ at all times. That is the connection between the first four and the rest of them. So now we are covered by the blood of Christ on the rest of them. Kind of hard to follow, right? So honor thy mother and father would be next. We only have one father in heaven. Right? We are in covenant, the bride of Christ is the body of Christ.

SPEAKER_01 12:55

We are in matrimony with God when we accept him as our Lord and Savior. Thou shalt not steal.

SPEAKER_02 13:06

We were purchased with a cost we are no longer our own. Do you not know we are no longer our own? Thou shalt not bear false witness against your neighbor. So this is interesting because this is against nine, the plague, which is supposedly the sun, all powerful sun god, false idol, Ra, which is the plague against him would be darkness. But it was a darkness where one could not see another. And where do we see this in society now here? And this is this sums up the second one: love thy neighbors thyself. So does our hatred for each other not really see the potential in them? And like you said, my friend said, it's easy to see the bad in each other, but it takes more character, more Christ-likeness to see the good and the potential in that person. So do we spend our time lifting that person up or bringing them down? Jesus didn't judge us prematurely, so who are we to judge each other? And if Christ thought a sinner like me was good enough to be saved, then how is that other person not? Because the truth is, God is in all of us. So why would I judge my brother by judging my brother? I would be judging God himself because God is in all. That is why we are judged by the measure and how we judge. If that makes sense. And all these kind of come down to ten. Now, ten was against Pharaoh himself, who claimed to be God, a man who claimed to be God, unlike Jesus, who was God, who became son of his own creation, man. And when Pharaoh refused to give up the people, claiming to be God again, thy shall not cover thy covet thy neighbor's wife, goods, etc. The firstborn died. Well, Satan doesn't want to release us from the power of sin.

SPEAKER_01 15:19

Right? There's two spirits that could be in us fully.

SPEAKER_02 15:26

Christ or the Antichrist. Satan already lost this battle. He lost the battle over Moses' body, as stated in Jude. He lost the battle when Jesus died on the cross because he said, This is my body who I give up to you. He did not force, it was his choice to die for us. And when we accept him as Lord and Savior, we receive salvation through the redemption, the gift given by grace, if you will.

SPEAKER_01 16:04

So we are no longer bound by the power of sin.

SPEAKER_02 16:13

And do you have anything on that? Because that was kind of a lot.

SPEAKER_00 16:19

Yeah, no, absolutely. The thing that really popped to me, and I think is a really powerful, impactful, overlooked part of this is the darkness part, like around that ninth commandment or like the plague, where it is stated in this book in Exodus, right? Where like brother could not see brother. And I mean, you could you could put this in any any structure, right? It could be like sister, Nazi sister, brother, not see sister, sister, not see brother, you know, coworker, Nazi co-worker. It could be grandparent, not see son, or whatever it might be, right? You could even be spouses. Husband can't see wife, wife can't see husband, any area, right? And it is always what I've noticed, always comes down to one common thing: the inability or lack of care to see the other person's point of view, and then respond to it by just listening. Don't respond to speak, respond, just listen. Odds are you guys probably agree on more than you think you disagree. Odds are, however, when's the last time you genuinely did that? We're often so quick to want to assume. Why do we want to assume? Because our flesh likes being right. But something I also heard from a very good friend, you can't be right and righteous in Christ at the same time. It's one or the other. If you always want to be right, okay, you you can, you can choose that, but you're gonna start having some clashes with some point of views that you're missing.

SPEAKER_02 18:22

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 18:24

But how often do we do we like, you know what? I'm not going to assume what's going on with their life. Maybe they lashed out at me, they ripped me off, whatever it might be, right? For a second, for five minutes, five minutes. I'm telling you, five minutes, just sit there. Like, God help me understand what they're going through. So I don't take this personally for one, because I give it to you, but two, so I can under help understand that that wasn't them. Like that wasn't how you see them either. I was having a bad day, you know, and watch some relationships, start to reconcile. Watch some relationships that you maybe have struggled with having 10, 15, 20 years start to actually mend. Watch even your marriage grow. How about that one? Yeah, you know how how many of us, you know, see so many. I mean, look at the statistics nowadays. Most of the time it's because they you only want to say your opinion and not hear the other. So let's be 100% real. That's the common denominator. Yeah. And then just like meet in the middle on the same page and just get the same path going forward. I mean, it it is a very powerful concept, and I think this actually relates to a New Testament concept in Matthew, where it's like, before you talk about the speck in your brother's eye, why don't you take the plank out of your own? I think it's actually just a cross connection here.

SPEAKER_02 20:01

Yeah, definitely, definitely.

SPEAKER_00 20:02

You know, and that that's just like a uh what really popped to me when you were kind of sharing this months ago. That was the that was a part that really popped to me because I mean, I bet you everyone listening, including ourselves right now, can think of examples of where when you finally actually heard the other side, you're like, oh, yeah, I didn't really I didn't really think about that. I didn't like consider that. That actually makes a lot of sense. You know, that was silly of me to think a different assumption. I understand now, you know it it is that simple, but our flesh doesn't want to do it, and that's the battle.

SPEAKER_02 20:40

Yeah, I mean, and like if we can't see the good in people, try to see the Christ in people. Try to bring that out in people. Because here's the thing would you even recognize Christ if he was right next to you? I'm not saying the looks, I'm saying would you be able to identify him by his character?

SPEAKER_00 21:05

That's good. That's good.

SPEAKER_02 21:06

Because there, I mean, if Jesus came back, I'm sorry, when Jesus comes back as the Son of Man again. I mean, when okay, let's when we look at the end of Luke, for example, he's talking to two people that just watched the crucifixion. And Jesus is like, what are you what are you guys all bent out of shape for? He's like, Don't you know a great prophet just died? What are you new to town? And he's like, Who are you calling dead among the living? Like, they didn't rec like how does that make sense? How do you not recognize the man that just died in front of you the most brutal possible way? Having a conversation with you, and you don't even recognize him. And this happens a couple times at the end of Luke. I believe in some of the other gospels as well. But would would we be able to recognize? The son of man if he was right next to us? His own brothers, his earthly brothers didn't even recognize him as son of God. So what if God was in your own household? Would you recognize him? And I think that's a very important question we should ask ourselves. Because who says God cannot do it again? And how do we treat each other? Because God is in us all. Or do you walk and act like the Pharisees? Do you walk and act like all the people who constantly turn their back on God and condemned all the works that Jesus successfully did for us?

SPEAKER_01 22:54

Why would we backtrack? So why do we have division? Is Christ divided, like Paul says?

SPEAKER_02 23:04

We just want to prove these points. We want to prove like the theological debates instead of just loving each other and bringing each other together as one. Like it makes no sense to me. So instead of trying to win a debate to divide, why don't we bring everybody together? Is basically what I'm saying. Because we are one, not separated.

SPEAKER_00 23:33

Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. And yeah, I just again great three-part message here of just kind of like I I guess I would label renewing the mind a little bit. Renew the mind of once we were once taught and renew the mind back to the scriptures, back to the scriptures and walking in that love through grace and mercy. And just honestly obeying the word and getting to know God's character. And I think these are the past three episodes have been great talking points, overviews, examples of understanding from like a different true perspective of the character that's revealed. Yeah. It's there, but we have to see it. We have to choose to see it.

SPEAKER_02 24:25

Yeah. And I mean, kind of how we were talking before we kind of started this podcast. You know, we've come to realize personally, and I think you could agree, Jesse, that the thing God wants most like from us is that relationship. Yeah, we're messy. Yeah, we have problems. Yeah, we're not perfect. Great. He wants to work on those things and build you up. He wants to father you. He wants to guide you. He wants to make you the best you could possibly be. Why? Because he designed you for that reason. So embrace that. And if you kind of want to just end with that John example almost.

SPEAKER_00 25:13

Yeah. So it's it's found in John, the book of John, where John writes of the disciples running to the tomb after Mary Magdalene informs them that Jesus Christ is living. And John writes that Peter ran to the tomb, but John got there first. And it's really interesting, but there's actually kind of like some deep connections behind it. Because if you look in the Hebrew context, Peter means rock, and the law is the rock, right? But John in Hebrew means a love. So as they're going towards Jesus, like to get to Jesus, the love outran the law. You know, getting to him. I also believe that Moses, being the one that encrypted the law on the rock, got to the promised land, but couldn't enter into it. The love of Jesus gets you into it. Like accepting that love from Jesus, like the cross, right? Like putting your full faith and trust in him, like the love he had for you, you in turn receive it, right? I think there's also a contextual meet, like a cross-reference meaning there. And again, John got there first. So the law is all run by the love. We are to obey the commandments, obey the word, obey the scriptures, but not bound to them in the way of like it's condemning to us, it's freeing. They're to help us be free from the world. Through his love, grace and mercy, we're to walk out of the worldly ways and into his grace. And the law helps us stay true to that.

SPEAKER_02 27:13

Yeah. Yeah. And you're saying that kind of makes me think how the church was built up on the rock. I will build my what does he say? What's the exact? I always like the ecclesia or I will build my church.

SPEAKER_00 27:33

I build my church.

SPEAKER_02 27:34

Yeah, on this.

SPEAKER_00 27:38

I'd I'd have to look at it.

SPEAKER_02 27:39

I know. I can't. I I we talk about it so much, and for some reason I forgot.

SPEAKER_00 27:44

However, and uh on and on this rock I will build my phone my church.

SPEAKER_02 27:48

And on this rock, I'll build my church. Meaning the law. Right? Until the truth, the spirit of truth comes in.

SPEAKER_00 27:57

But meaning that Jesus was the Christ.

SPEAKER_02 28:00

Yes. Yes.

SPEAKER_00 28:01

On this rock, because when it was announced that Jesus was the Christ. The foundation on this rock. Like that phrase.

SPEAKER_02 28:07

Yep, on Jesus, not anything else. Because if we build our foundation on anything else, it it won't stand. However, like he said, the the law being the rock, we tend to stumble. You know, there's how many verses about the cornerstone, and they stumble and they strike their foot on stone. I mean, when we take the power of the law and we use it to judge each other, we stumble on the one thing that was supposed to save us. Because we no longer are bound by it. We are saved through Christ who completed it. Like I said.

SPEAKER_00 29:02

Well, God bless.