Compiled and Written
by
Keith Hunt
(1985)
The following is a transcript of Mr. Keith Hunt's sermon given on
January 12th 1985.
Some preachers want you to believe that the Ten commandments are
done away. Nailed to the cross some may say. They try to back up
this teaching with a few verses not from Jesus, Peter, James or
John, but from Paul and one of their favourite passages of Paul
is Galatians 3:19. One of the passages that they give to try to
say that Ten commandment law, now that Christ has come is done
away with. Galatians 3:19 "Wherefore then serves the law? It was
added because of transgression, till the seed should come to whom
the promise was made,..."
You see they say the Ten commandments were only till Jesus
Christ. A few other verses that they give -- just a little
further down. Verse 24 and 25. These verses are also used to
abolish the Ten commandments. "Wherefore the law was our
schoolmaster to bring us to Christ that we might be justified by
faith, but after the faith is come we are no longer under a
schoolmaster." So there they say, the Ten commandments were just
up until Christ, Christ is come, faith is introduced so we're no
longer under obligation to obey the Ten commandments. These anti-
nomanist preachers believe that the law here mentioned by Paul
and Galatians 3 is the Ten commandment law, and that law, so they
say, was ONLY till Christ and now we are no longer under
obligation to obey it. Friends can this really be the case? Are
we now free to murder, steal, lie, worship idols, use profanity,
commit adultery and such like things? Surely, no reasonable,
logically thinking Christian, can believe that he is free to do
such acts.
We need to listen carefully to what Peter wrote about Paul's
writings. 2 Peter the third chapter. Let's see what Peter had to
write about the writings of Paul. 2 Peter the third chapter and
beginning in verse 15, "And account that the longsuffering of our
Lord is salvation, even as our beloved brother Paul also
according to the wisdom given unto him hath written unto you. As
also in all his epistles speaking in them of these things; in
which are some things hard to be understood which they that are
unlearned and unstable wrest, as they do also the other
scriptures, unto their own destruction". Verse 17 - "You
therefore, beloved, seeing you know these things before beware
lest any of you also being led away with the error of the wicked
fall from your own steadfastness."
Peter here didn't pull any punches. He said that people who would
come along and twist the scriptures of Paul, pervert them, are
the wicked. Now, we have to ask ourselves what does the Bible
mean by the wicked? What is a Bible definition of the wicked? We
can find a definition in God's word in Psalm 119. A Bible
definition as to what constitutes the wicked. Psalm 119 and verse
53 says this - "Horror has taken hold upon me because of the
wicked that forsake your law." The Bible says that the wicked
forsake the law of God. Those who will forsake the law of God,
those who will say that you don't have to obey it, that you can
break those commandments at will are termed in the Bible as the
wicked.
Now let me give you one of the keys to understanding the Bible.
The plain easy to understand verses should be read and believed
first then the harder sections can be tackled. You see Peter
admitted that in some of the writings of Paul there are some
things that are hard to understand. Now, here was Peter a man
filled with the Holy Spirit, a man that was mightily used by the
Lord to preach His truths and to preach the way of salvation, and
yet Peter said there are some things that Paul has written that
are hard to understand. And one of the keys in understanding the
Bible is that you don't tackle the hard things first, you go to
the plain easy to understand scriptures, you read and believe
them first and in the light of what those scriptures teach then
you can start to understand the harder sections of scripture.
And there is one more key. One more very important key when you
are studying and reading God's word. Jesus said "The scripture
cannot be broken." There is no contradiction in God's word. If
you get that clearly in your mind, you are going to go a long way
in starting to understand the word of God because there cannot be
any contradiction. If you come across one verse that seems to
contradict another verse, always remember, there cannot be a
contradiction. There has to be some other understanding and then
you go about searching for that understanding because God's word
cannot contradict itself.
As a background to the book of Galatians let's look at and read
the plain verses of the New Testament that teach the perpetuality
of the Ten commandment law. Let's first of all see what Jesus
taught.
Matthew the fifth chapter. In Matthew chapter five and beginning
in verse 17, Jesus said "Think not that I am come to destroy the
law." Now Jesus says "think not" and a lot of people think. The
Bible says "don't think" and a lot of people do think. Well,
Jesus here said "think NOT that I am come to destroy the law or
the prophet. I am not come to destroy but to fulfil" and in the
Greek this means to fulfil, to fill to the full, to complete, to
fill it right up. Yes, that was certainly what was prophesied of
the coming of the Messiah in Isaiah the 42nd chapter, it was
prophesied that the Messiah would come and would magnify the law,
would make it honourable and magnify it. Fill it up to the brim
full.
Verse 18, Jesus said "For verily I say unto you. Till heaven and
earth pass, not one jot or tittle shall in no wise pass from the
law, till all be fulfilled," and that Greek there means, till all
comes to pass. Till all that has been written in the Old
Testament come to pass. All the prophesies come to pass, and
friends those prophesies have not all come to pass yet and there
isn't going to be one little speck that is going to be taken from
God's word until all things have been fulfilled. Then he goes on
to amplify it - what He was saying. "Whosoever therefore shall
break one of these least commandments." Which one do you think is
the least commandment in the law and the prophets? Well,
whichever one it is Jesus said that "Whosoever therefore shall
break one of these least commandments and shall teach men so
shall be called the least in the Kingdom of heaven, but whosoever
shall do and teach them the same shall be called great in the
Kingdom of heaven." How plain that is. Here is Jesus' teaching,
New Testament teaching. Verse 20 "For I say unto you", you my
people my disciples, "that accept your righteousness.." and a
Bible definition for righteousness, Psalm 119:172 where it says
"all your commandments are righteousness". There's your Bible
definition for righteousness, Psalm 119:172. And Jesus said
"accept your righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the
scribes and Pharisees" and didn't the scribes and pharisees at
least externally proclaim that people should obey the laws of
God? Sure they did, but, of course, the scribes and Pharisees
were hypocrites. They said one thing and lived another, but Jesus
said to His disciples "accept your righteousness, exceed the
righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees you shall in no case
enter into the Kingdom of heaven."
Matthew 19 - Let's see something else that Jesus taught about the
commandments of God. Chapter 19 and beginning in verse 16 "and
behold one came and said unto him, Good Master what good thing
shall I do that I may have eternal life?" I thinks it's Luke or
Mark that say in giving this account that this man said "What
shall I do that I may IN-herit eternal life" not "What shall I do
to be justified", "What shall I do to get saved", but "What shall
I do to inherit eternal life?" Verse 17 - and Jesus said unto him
"Why do you call me good? There is none good but one, that is
God," God the father, "but if you will enter into life, if you
will inherit life, keep the commandments." Yes, Jesus was saying
if you want to INherit eternal life you better have the attitude
of being willing in your mind to obey the commandments of God. An
attitude of life that you have, that you are willing to serve and
obey the commandments of God. "And he said unto him, which? Jesus
said, you shall do no murder, you shall not commit adultery, you
shall not steal, you shall not bear false witness." Now where do
those commandments come from? They come from the commandments
that are given in Exodus 20, commonly known as the Ten
Commandments. Jesus further stated, "Honour your father and your
mother and you shall love your neighbour as yourself." And the
young man said unto him in verse 20 "All these things I have kept
from my youth up. What do I lack?" He felt that he was keeping
the commandments of God. You know he wasn't deliberately just
hating them and despising them and willfully breaking them, but
there was something in his life that he didn't really realize, in
one point he was breaking a commandment of God, but he didn't
fully realize it. And then Jesus said to him, "If you will be
perfect, go and sell what you have and give to the poor and you
shall have treasure in heaven and come and follow me. And when
the young man heard that saying he went away sorrowful for he had
great possessions."
He really then found out that he actually was breaking one of
God's commandment. The commandment of idolatry. He had placed his
riches above serving God all the way. But nevertheless Jesus'
teaching was that we as Christians should have the attitude to
obey the laws of God.
The Gospel of John 15:9,10 - "and as the Father has loved me, so
have I loved you. Continue you in my love", Jesus said. And what
is the love of Jesus. Well, verse 10 tells us. "If you keep my
commandments, you shall abide in my love even as I have kept my
Father's commandments and abide in His love." And what was one of
the commandments of Jesus? Well, one of the commandments we just
read, where he said to the young man "If you will enter into
life, be willing to keep the commandments." And so loving Jesus
is being willing to do what Jesus taught and what Jesus said and
what Jesus commanded us to do. Let's look at chapter 14, and
verse 15. Jesus said "If you love me, keep my commandments." And
verse 21, "And he that has my commandments and keeps them, he it
is that loves me and he that loves me shall be loved of my Father
and I will love him and will manifest myself to him." Then going
on, verse 23, "if a man love me, he will keep my words" and what
are some of the words that we have read, some of the words are
what Jesus said to this young man "If you will enter into life,
keep the commandments" and Jesus says here "If you love me, keep
my words and my Father will love him and we will come into him
and make our abode with him. He that loves me not keeps not my
sayings." And we have just been reading, haven't we, some of the
teachings and sayings of Jesus "and the word which you hear is
not mine but the Father's which sent me." So everything that
Jesus said came from the Father. It was just as if the Father was
speaking.
Let's see what James taught. Chapter 2 of the Book of James.
James 2:9,12 - "but if you have respect of persons you commit sin
and are convinced of the law as transgressors for whosoever" -
verse 10 - "shall keep the whole law and yet offend in one point
be as guilty of all. For he that said do not commit adultery said
also do not kill. Now if you do not commit adultery yet if you
killed, you are become a transgressor of the law. So speak you
and so do as they that shall be judged by the law" and what law
was he talking about? Obviously, the Ten commandment law. The law
that contains "you shall not commit adultery or you shall not
kill". And James said "So speak and so do because you will be
judged by the law of liberty." He didn't call it a law of
bondage. He didn't call it the cursed law, he called it a law of
liberty.
Let's see what the apostle John taught in 1 John 2:1 - "My little
children these things I write unto you that you sin not." Now we
should stop here and ask what is sin. Well, if you skip over to
the same book 1 John 3:4 you will fined that John will tell you
what sin is. "Sin is the transgression of the law" and John is
plainly writing here and says to Christians that our object, our
goal, our ATTITUDE of mind should be that we do not want to sin.
And so putting Scripture with Scripture, we should not be
breaking the commandments of God. We should not have that
attitude of wanting to break the commandments of God. We should
have the attitude of wanting to obey them, not wanting to sin.
Now notice verse 3 and 4 of chapter 2. "And hereby we do know
that we know Him, if we keep His commandments. He that says, I
know Him," oh yes I'm a Christian, I've been converted, I have
God's spirit. "He that says I know Him and keeps not His
commandments is a liar." John didn't pull any punches. He just
nailed it right on the head. "And the truth is not in him. But
whosoever keeps His word, in him truly is the love of God
perfected. Hereby know we that we are in him. He that says he
abides in Him ought himself so also to walk, even as he walked."
Jesus kept the Father's will. Jesus did the Father's will. He
kept the Father's commandments. Jesus came, set us that example
of how we should live, and those who claim that they are
Christians, if they are not following the example of Jesus Christ
and yet they claim they are Christian, John says they are just
liars.
Chapter 5 of this book and verse 1 to 3 - "Whosoever believes
that Jesus is Christ is begotten of God and everyone that loves
Him that begot loves him also that is begotten in him. By this we
know that we love the children of God when we love God and keep
his commandments." Now does this sound like the New Testament is
doing away with the commandments of God? Verse 3 - "For this is
the love of God that we keep His commandments" - and His
commandments are a burden, His commandments are a curse. No, it
doesn't say that, it says "His commandments are not grievous."
Then 2 John verse 6, we read this - "And this is love." This is
love. Yes, the New Testament, the Bible says that we should walk
in love. Well, what is the Bible definition of love. "This is
love", John said, "that we walk after His commandments."
And now let's turn to the last book in the Bible, the Book of
Revelation chapter 14. Let's see a Bible definition of the saints
of God. Revelation 14:12 - "Here is the patience of the saints",
here is what the saints are enduring, performing - the patience
of the saints. "Here are they that keep the commandments of God",
the commandments of the Father - the Ten commandments, some
people like to say, you have the commandments of God which are
the Ten commandments and then you have some new commandments of
Jesus Christ and the commandments of the Father are done away
with, and now we have to live by the new commandments of Jesus in
the New Testament. Well, for a Bible definition of the saints of
God, it says that they are ones that keep the commandments of God
the Father and the faith of Jesus. You see, BOTH the commandments
of the Father and the faith of Jesus. Let's turn to Revelation
22:14. Right at the end of the Bible, what do we find? Revelation
22:14,"Blessed are they that do His commandments. That they may
have right to the tree of life and may enter in through the gates
into the city." Now when we read those verses, does that sound
like the New Testament does away with the Ten commandments of
God?
Let's see what Paul taught. Yes, the apostle Paul that some like
to use a few of his verses to say that Paul taught that the Ten
commandments are now abolished, done away with, nailed to the
cross. Let's see some other verses that Paul taught, remembering
one of the rules of Bible understanding is that the Bible cannot
contradict itself. Romans 2:13 - "For not the hearers of the law
are just before God, but the DOERS of the law shall be
justified." Does that sound like Paul was doing away with the law
of God? Chapter 3 and verse 31 - "Do we then make VOID the law
through faith. God forbid! No," Paul went on to say, "we
ESTABLISH the law." Through faith we establish the law. Chapter 7
and verse 7, Paul said - "Is the law sin? God forbid!" again he
said, "No. I had not known sin but by the law. For I had not
known lust except the law had said you shall not covet." You see,
the law defines what sin is. If the law is done away with since
Christ, then there would be no definition as to what was sin and
consequently there would be no sin. But the law defines what sin
is. Verse 12, Paul said - "Wherefore the law is holy and the
commandment is holy, it is just and it's good." Does this sound
like Paul did away with God's Ten commandments? Let's note his
verse 14 - "For we know that the law is spiritual." And friends I
submit to you that spiritual things are eternal. They are
forever: Verse 22, let's look at Paul's attitude. Did Paul hate
the law of God? Let's look at verse 22, Paul says - "For I
delight in the law of God after, the inward man." Paul's inner
most being was to delight in the law of God, not to try to tear
it down and destroy it and do away with it. Let's turn to chapter
13 and verse 10. Paul says - "Love works no ill to his neighbour,
therefore, love is." Here is another Bible definition of what is
love. "Love is the fulfilling of the law." Love, true love, is
the doing, the performing of the law.
1 Corinthians 7 - let's go to another very plain scripture that
Paul was inspired to write. 1 Corinthians 7:19, where Paul wrote,
"Circumcision is nothing and uncircumcision is nothing but the
keeping of the commandments of God." Yes, something physical.
like circumcision, Paul said, is really not the point. It's
really nothing, but - and you could say here that on the other
hand - what is important is the keeping of the commandments of
God, something physical like circumcision is nothing. But the
main thing is that we have the attitude of a willingness to keep
the commandments of God. Chapter 15 and verse 34 where Paul said
this "Awake to righteousness and sin not." Paul said "awake to
righteousness" and I've given you the Bible definition of
righteousness, Psalm 119 verse 172 "All thy commandments are
righteousness." Paul said we need to awake to righteousness and
sin not, and sin is breaking the commandments of God.
No, Paul did not teach that the law of God was something to hate,
despise, neglect, do away with. He did not teach that we should
just willfully break the commandments of God. On the contrary he
taught the opposite. He taught that our attitudes should be as
his was that "I delight in the law of God." His attitude was that
he called it just, and holy, and good.
Now, do we begin to see. If Paul is saying in Galatians 3:19,24
and 25, that the Ten commandment law was only until Christ and
since then it has been abolished, done away, nailed to the cross,
we have large contradictions not only in the teachings of Paul,
but in the entire New Testament. Jesus said "the Scripture cannot
be broken", it cannot contradict itself, there cannot be any
contradictions in the New Testament regarding the Ten commandment
law.
Brethren, Paul is not teaching in his letter to the Galatians
that the Ten commandments law is done away. If he was, notice how
contradictory and illogical he would be with what he wrote in
Romans the 3rd, 4th and 5th chapters. Let's turn to a few
passages in Romans 3,4 and 5. If Paul was doing away with God's
Ten commandments in Galatians, then notice how contradictory it
is to what he stated in the Book of Romans 3:20 - "Therefore by
the deeds of the law there shall be no flesh be justified in His
sight, for by the law is the knowledge of sin." Now if the law
was only till Christ and then it ceased to exist, then how would
you have the knowledge of what sin is? Since Christ, there would
be no knowledge of sin, if the law has been down away with. But
Paul said "for by the law is the knowledge of sin." And notice
verse 23 - "for all have sinned and come short of the glory of
God." Everybody has sinned whether you lived before Christ or
after Christ. Everybody has sinned. Notice Chapter 4 verse 15 -
"Because the law works wrath, for where no law is, there is no
transgression." Now Paul just got through saying all had sinned
and by the law is the knowledge of sin. Everybody before and
since Christ have sinned, but you see he also went on to say that
if there isn't any law, there is no transgression, there is no
sin. So if in the Book of Galatians, Paul was doing away with the
law of God and he's trying to teach in Galatians as some people
want you to believe, that it was only until Christ and then it
was nailed to the cross and ceased to exist, then there would be
no transgression since the time of Jesus. Nobody, then, has
sinned since the time of Jesus, and if nobody has sinned since
the time of Jesus, nobody has needed a saviour.
Do you see by putting these scriptures together, how completely
illogical it is to teach that the law, the Ten commandments of
God, have been abolished or done away with? If the law of God was
abolished with Christ, let me repeat, no one has sinned or needed
a saviour since then! Do you see how utterly ridiculous it is to
teach that God's Ten commandment law is abolished? Do you see now
why Peter said that those who would twist and pervert the
writings of Paul were unlearned?
Yes, brethren, friends, some of these "do away with law"
preachers may have PhD's after their names, some may have gone to
theological school for four, five, six years, but if they tell
you that God's holy righteous Ten commandments are abolished,
then I tell you very frankly that they are Biblical illiterates.
They haven't even passed the first grade in Bible reading.
You need not be in confusion about the way of salvation. You need
not be in confusion over this matter. You need to request our
book "Saved by Grace" which will go into great detail regarding
salvation (it is now all on this Website and not available in
book form any longer). It will go into great detail regarding
sin, regarding repentance and the law and grace and the true way
to salvation.
We will continue next time in this series on the Book of
Galatians. Next time we will start to look at some of the
background to the Book of Galatians, because that's very
important in understanding the book of Galatians. We need to
understand the background, what went on before Paul had to write
the Book of Galatians. And when we start to understand some of
the background that led up to Paul writing that book or letter
which it really is, a letter to the people of Galatia, then I
think we will be able to come to understand the book of Galatians
a lot better than we maybe have in the past.
So next time we will start to look at the background to the Book
of Galatians.
...............
TO BE CONTINUED
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