FOUR WAYS OF SETTING ASIDE GOD'S LAW

2 SETTING ASIDE GOD'S LAW The Bible contains God's law. As long as man lives in harmony with that law, he pleases God. When he violates that law, he sins. Sin is the transgression of law, or lawlessness.

3 1 John 3:4 Whosoever committeth sin transgresseth also the law: for sin is the transgression of the law. (KJV) Whoever commits sin also commits lawlessness, and sin is lawlessness. (NKJV)

4 SETTING ASIDE GOD'S LAW The Bible contains God's law. As long as man lives in harmony with that law, he pleases God. When he violates that law, he sins. Sin is the transgression of law, or lawlessness. The Bible is plain as to the penalty assessed for sin.

5 Ezekiel 18:20 The soul who sins shall die. The son shall not bear the guilt of the father, nor the father bear the guilt of the son. The righteousness of the righteous shall be upon himself, and the wickedness of the wicked shall be upon himself.

6 Romans 6:23 For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

7 SETTING ASIDE GOD'S LAW Let us study how God's law was set aside in olden times. The Old Testament - which was "written for our learning" - contains many examples of this. God's law was set aside in four ways. Deliberate Sins Sins of Neglect Sins of Substitution Sins of Deluded Hearts

8 DELIBERATE SINS And the fire on the altar shall be kept burning on it; it shall not be put out. And the priest shall burn wood on it every morning, and lay the burnt offering in order on it; and he shall burn on it the fat of the peace offerings. (Lev. 6:12) With this prohibition before them, it would be a deliberate sin for the priests to put out the fire. It would be to sin with full knowledge of the law and its penalty.

9 This is also seen under the New Testament. Baptism is a condition of salvation. He who believes and is baptized will be saved; but he who does not believe will be condemned. (Mark 16:16) You see then that a man is justified by works, and not by faith only. (James 2:24) To teach the doctrine of "faith only" - which sets aside baptism as a condition of pardon - is to deliberately set aside God's word.

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11 SIN OF NEGLECT A fire shall always be burning on the altar; it shall never go out. (Lev. 6:13) To neglect the fire and let it die would be a sin. Carelessly permitting the fire to go out would be as surely sinful as deliberately putting the fire out.

12 SIN OF NEGLECT Therefore, to him who knows to do good and does not do it, to him it is sin. (James 4:17) So many today know their duty but keep neglecting and putting it off. If the sins and the transgressions of the Old Testament were punished, How shall we escape if we neglect...? (Heb. 2:3)

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14 SINS OF SUBSTITUTION This is committed by those who thought something else was just as good. To substitute their ways for God's was a terrible sin.

15 SINS OF SUBSTITUTION Notice a case in Leviticus 10:1-2. Then Nadab and Abihu, the sons of Aaron, each took his censer and put fire in it, put incense on it, and offered profane fire before the Lord, which He had not commanded them. So fire went out from the Lord and devoured them, and they died before the Lord.

16 SINS OF SUBSTITUTION These two priests offered fire which God had not commanded, and which, therefore, was "strange fire." Physical death was the penalty.

17 SINS OF SUBSTITUTION This case serves to condemn all other substitutions which men have introduced. That which Jehovah has not authorized is sinful even though it may not be expressly prohibited. The absence of authority to do a thing makes the doing of that thing wrong just as surely as if there was a prohibition against doing it.

18 SINS OF SUBSTITUTION God's law relative to music in worship is found in the New Testament. Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom, teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord. (Col. 3:16). To use some other kind of music would be to offer that which God commanded not, and, therefore, "strange music."

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20 SINS OF DELUDED HEARTS In this, the offender thought he was doing right. God's law was set aside in ignorance. A case to illustrate: in 1 Kings 13, the young prophet. He thought he was doing God's bidding, but was told "Thou hast disobeyed the command" (V.21).

21 1 Kings 13:1-2 And behold, a man of God went from Judah to Bethel by the word of the Lord, and Jeroboam stood by the altar to burn incense. Then he cried out against the altar by the word of the Lord, and said, "O altar, altar! Thus says the Lord: 'Behold, a child, Josiah by name, shall be born to the house of David; and on you he shall sacrifice the priests of the high places who burn incense on you, and men's bones shall be burned on you.'"

22 1 Kings 13:3-4 And he gave a sign the same day, saying, "This is the sign which the Lord has spoken: Surely the altar shall split apart, and the ashes on it shall be poured out." So it came to pass when King Jeroboam heard the saying of the man of God, who cried out against the altar in Bethel, that he stretched out his hand from the altar, saying, "Arrest him!" Then his hand, which he stretched out toward him, withered, so that he could not pull it back to himself.

23 1 Kings 13:5-6 The altar also was split apart, and the ashes poured out from the altar, according to the sign which the man of God had given by the word of the Lord. Then the king answered and said to the man of God, "Please entreat the favor of the Lord your God, and pray for me, that my hand may be restored to me." So the man of God entreated the Lord, and the king's hand was restored to him, and became as before.

24 1 Kings 13:7-9 Then the king said to the man of God, "Come home with me and refresh yourself, and I will give you a reward." But the man of God said to the king, "If you were to give me half your house, I would not go in with you; nor would I eat bread nor drink water in this place. For so it was commanded me by the word of the Lord, saying, 'You shall not eat bread, nor drink water, nor return by the same way you came.'"

25 1 Kings 13:10-12 So he went another way and did not return by the way he came to Bethel. Now an old prophet dwelt in Bethel, and his sons came and told him all the works that the man of God had done that day in Bethel; they also told their father the words which he had spoken to the king. And their father said to them, "Which way did he go?" For his sons had seen which way the man of God went who came from Judah.

26 1 Kings 13:13-16 Then he said to his sons, "Saddle the donkey for me." So they saddled the donkey for him; and he rode on it, and went after the man of God, and found him sitting under an oak. Then he said to him, "Are you the man of God who came from Judah?" And he said, "I am." Then he said to him, "Come home with me and eat bread." And he said, "I cannot return with you nor go in with you; neither can I eat bread nor drink water with you in this place.

27 1 Kings 13:17-19 "For I have been told by the word of the Lord, 'You shall not eat bread nor drink water there, nor return by going the way you came.' " He said to him, "I too am a prophet as you are, and an angel spoke to me by the word of the Lord, saying, 'Bring him back with you to your house, that he may eat bread and drink water.' " (He was lying to him.) So he went back with him, and ate bread in his house, and drank water.

28 1 Kings 13:20-21 Now it happened, as they sat at the table, that the word of the Lord came to the prophet who had brought him back; and he cried out to the man of God who came from Judah, saying, "Thus says the Lord: 'Because you have disobeyed the word of the Lord, and have not kept the commandment which the Lord your God commanded you,

29 1 Kings 13:22-24 but you came back, ate bread, and drank water in the place of which the Lord said to you, "Eat no bread and drink no water," your corpse shall not come to the tomb of your fathers.' " So it was, after he had eaten bread and after he had drunk, that he saddled the donkey for him, the prophet whom he had brought back. When he was gone, a lion met him on the road and killed him. And his corpse was thrown on the road, and the donkey stood by it. The lion also stood by the corpse.

30 1 Kings 13:25-26 And there, men passed by and saw the corpse thrown on the road, and the lion standing by the corpse. Then they went and told it in the city where the old prophet dwelt. Now when the prophet who had brought him back from the way heard it, he said, "It is the man of God who was disobedient to the word of the Lord. Therefore the Lord has delivered him to the lion, which has torn him and killed him, according to the word of the Lord which He spoke to him."

31 1 Kings 13:27-30 And he spoke to his sons, saying, "Saddle the donkey for me." So they saddled it. Then he went and found his corpse thrown on the road, and the donkey and the lion standing by the corpse. The lion had not eaten the corpse nor torn the donkey. And the prophet took up the corpse of the man of God, laid it on the donkey, and brought it back. So the old prophet came to the city to mourn, and to bury him. Then he laid the corpse in his own tomb; and they mourned over him, saying, "Alas, my brother!"

32 1 Kings 13:31-32 So it was, after he had buried him, that he spoke to his sons, saying, "When I am dead, then bury me in the tomb where the man of God is buried; lay my bones beside his bones. For the saying which he cried out by the word of the Lord against the altar in Bethel, and against all the shrines on the high places which are in the cities of Samaria, will surely come to pass."

33 1 Kings 13:33-34 After this event Jeroboam did not turn from his evil way, but again he made priests from every class of people for the high places; whoever wished, he consecrated him, and he became one of the priests of the high places. And this thing was the sin of the house of Jeroboam, so as to exterminate and destroy it from the face of the earth.

34 SINS OF DELUDED HEARTS Let us modernize this case. Suppose God had told the young prophet to believe, repent, confess and be baptized. The world ridicules but he believes; his friends chide but he repents; he is offered power and position if he will deny the Lord but he confesses; he makes preparation to be baptized.

35 SINS OF DELUDED HEARTS But he meets an old prophet who tells him it is not essential. He believes what he is told and fails to obey. God does not punish instantly as He did then, and He does not punish in the same way. But if He punished every transgression then, how can we hope to escape?

36 SINS OF DELUDED HEARTS Many are traveling ways that seem right. There is a way that seems right to a man, But its end is the way of death. (Prov. 14:12) God has appointed a day of judgment. Truly, these times of ignorance God over- looked, but now commands all men everywhere to repent, because He has appointed a day on which He will judge the world in righteousness by the Man whom He has ordained. He has given assurance of this to all by raising Him from the dead."

37 Conclusion: These things were written for our learning. Our blessings and opportunities are much greater than were theirs. If they could not sin with impunity, neither can we. We should take heed lest we fall "after the same example of unbelief." (Hebrew 4:11).