The Old, New, Or Both? 10-5-25 AM

I.            The purpose of the Old Testament.

a.      The Old Testament, or Law of Moses as it is called in Nehemiah 8:1, was to govern the lives of the Jews (Exodus 34:27).

b.      It was to govern them morally, doctrinally, but also nationally.

           i.      We have the Constitution to govern the U.S.

           ii.      They had the Law of Moses to govern them as a nation, because Israel was a theocracy, a nation governed by God.

c.       This law was only for the Jews (Deuteronomy 5:2 – made a covenant with us).

d.      Paul tells us one of the purposes of the Law was to make sin known to the Jews (Romans 7:7).

           i.      The Law made Jews aware of their sin.

           ii.      Paul said he wouldn’t have known it was a sin to lust unless the Law was present to tell him.

           iii.      Notice Romans 3:20.

           iv.      If there had been no law, there would have been no sin (Romans 5:13).

e.      Also, the Law served to bring people to Christ (Galatians 3:24).

           i.      By pointing out sin, it showed the need for a Savior.

           ii.      The Law was not to serve the purpose of saving man.

           iii.      It was impossible for the sacrifices of the Law to do that (Hebrews 10:4).

f.        These verses show us that the Old Testament served two very important purposes: to make man aware of sin and to bring man to Christ.

II.            The period of the Old Testament.

a.      The day that Moses came off the mount from receiving the Law, his face shone (Exodus 34:29ff).

           i.      This scared the people of Israel.

           ii.      So, every time he spoke to them, til his face appeared normal again, wore a vail over his face.

b.      But notice what Paul, by inspiration had to say about this event (2 Corinthians 3:7-13).

           i.      Three times in these verses reference is made to the Law of Moses being done away with at some point.

           ii.      The idea is that the Law of Moses was only for a certain period of time.

c.       Galatians 3:19 tells us the ending point of the Law of Moses.

           i.      It was to last til the seed came.

           ii.      Verse 16 tells us Who the seed was that was to come - Jesus.

d.      The Old Law was never intended to be permanent.

e.      Instead, it was to bring man to Christ and His ability to save (Galatians 3:24-29).

III.            The promise of a New Testament

a.      The thing that many miss is that the Law of Moses, the Old Testament, was never meant to be permanent.

b.      Jeremiah 31:31ff.

           i.      Long ago, God told the Jews that there would be a new covenant, or testament, between Him and His people.

           ii.      It would be different in that, under the new covenant, there would be no more remembrance of sin.

           iii.      All the Old Testament sacrifices did was remind God’s people of their sin (Hebrews 10:1-3).

c.       We know this promise was fulfilled because of what we read in Hebrews 8:6ff.

d.      Jesus talked about His relationship with the Old Law (Matthew 5:17).

           i.      Jesus said He was not simply destroying the Law.

           ii.      Instead, He fulfilling it or completing it.

           iii.      The reason He could say this is that the Law was in place to bring men to Him, He was the fulfillment of the Law.

e.      God never intended for the Old Testament to remain in place and had let the Jews know that such was the case.

IV.            The performance of the change.

a.      The Old Testament was put in place to make men aware of their sin and to bring them to Christ.

b.      It was only intended to last until Christ came and the Jews had been promised that there was going to be a change.

c.       The question comes then, when was the change performed?

d.      The New Testament makes this very clear:

           i.      Colossians 2:14.

           ii.      Ephesians 2:15.

           iii.      This was done when Jesus was crucified on the cross.

e.      Jesus instituted the Lord’s Supper and said that His blood was the blood of the New Testament and was shed for the remission of sins (Matthew 26:28).

f.        The change took place at His death (Hebrews 9:16-17).

g.      The fact is that Jesus took away the first, the Old, and replaced it with the second, the New (Hebrews 10:9).

h.      The fact is, you and I have been delivered from the Old Law when we came to Christ (Romans 7:1-6).

i.        The book of Hebrews points out that there had to have been a change in covenants because we have a new:

           i.      Priesthood - from Aaron to Jesus (Hebrews 5:1-10; 7:11-14).

           ii.      Sacrifice – from continual sacrifices to the sacrifice of Jesus (Hebrews 10:1, 10-12).

j.        It is important to understand there was a change because it shows we can’t find authority in the Old Testament.

           i.      There is a New Testament example of this.

           ii.      The apostles showed that Old Testament authority is not valid in the way they dealt with circumcision.

           iii.     There were Jewish converts who were teaching that Gentile converts needed to be circumcised.

iv. The apostles put an end to this idea when they stated that they had given no such commandment (Acts 15:22-29).