Focal Point

Dave Drew: Today on Focal Point with Pastor Mike Fabarez.

Pastor Mike Fabarez: The Old Testament, I know for a lot of people, is antiquated and maybe you're telling me it's obsolete. You've got to have your Old Testament. Don't say, "Well, it's old stuff, it doesn't matter anymore, it's old covenant, let's just move on. Can we go back to Romans?" No, no, spend time there and start looking for how all of that, as you step back and see all that, you see the picture of Christ in the scripture.

Dave Drew: And welcome to Focal Point with author and pastor Mike Fabarez. Today we conclude a message all about why don't we have to keep all those Old Testament ceremonies. When we come to passages in the Bible that describe ancient rituals and celebrations, many of us are tempted to just skip right over them. If we don't have to keep them, why study them? Well, hold on, because Pastor Mike explains that just because those ceremonies are obsolete doesn't mean they don't have value for us today.

Pastor Mike Fabarez: Be assured, and we should be completely assured, that Christ fulfilled the old covenant. The summary of the old covenant was this: do right and God will bless you; do wrong and you will incur his punishment. We might say that is simple, but it is actually impossible because we cannot always consistently do the right thing.

Here we are saying Christ came and somehow fulfilled the old covenant. He actually did everything that was required in the old covenant to live up to all the expectations and all the rules. His ministry, which is the focus of chapter nine, fulfilled all the ceremonial rules.

Here is why he fulfilled them all: because they were only parables of him. A parable is a story told alongside the truth to correspond to it and to point to it. He says all of these ceremonies and all the truths of the tabernacle—the holy place, the outer place, the lampstand, the showbread—all of that was an example, an illustration, a parable of Christ.

By a mere ministry, an existence of doing what he is doing in chapters seven and eight of Hebrews, fulfilling his calling as high priest, he has fulfilled all the ceremonial pictures, illustrations, and parables of him. In that regard, all the ceremonies are done, fulfilled, satisfied, and accomplished.

The ceremonies have been replaced with Christ. Therefore, we need to look at the ceremonies and say they were shadows. Colossians 2:13 says, "You were dead in your sins and the uncircumcision of your sinful nature, your flesh, this human sinful part of you that was rebellious against God. You were dead in that."

"But God made me alive with Christ and forgave us all of our sins, having canceled the written code," which is another phrase for this old covenant code, "with its regulations, including circumcision and what day you worship and how you should eat, that was against us, that stood opposed to us because we couldn't keep it all and that made us guilty before God. He took it away, nailing it to the cross."

"Having disarmed the powers and authorities, he made a spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the cross. Therefore, don't let anyone judge you by what you eat or what you drink or with regard to a religious festival or a new moon celebration or a Sabbath day. These are a shadow of the things that were to come; the reality, however, is found in Christ."

If Christ is your focus and you are a new covenant Christian looking at Christ, then not only are the symbols passed, it would be offensive to God if I cluttered my life with all the pictures of Christ instead of saying those are out of the way now. My focus is on Christ himself who brings me into the presence of God, not these temporary structures and these symbolic parables that are supposed to direct my attention to God's future provision. His provision is here; focus on Christ.

If you try to gain favor with a holy God by keeping ceremonial rules, you are not a Christian. You have to recognize that playing with the old covenant ceremonies is something that may lead you to think that if you do these things, God will like you. Take a look at what he says in Galatians 4:10.

He preached the gospel of Jesus Christ to these Galatian churches and he says, "You are observing special days like the Sabbath, and months, and seasons—all these festivals—and years like the seventh year for relieving debt or the year of jubilee. I fear for you that somehow I've wasted my efforts on you. I tried to reconcile you to God and now you're out there trying to keep all these ceremonial rules, these days and months and all this stuff. I think maybe I wasted my time on you guys."

The point of the gospel is to get these people right with God and save them from hell. He says maybe he did not do a very good job at that because of what they are doing. They are fixated on the ceremonies. In Galatians 5:2, he says, "Mark my words, I, Paul, tell you that if you let yourself be circumcised, Christ will be of no value to you."

Why would he say that to these people? Because he knew their heart. In verses three and four, he says, "I declare to every man who lets himself be circumcised that he is obligated to obey the whole law. You who are trying to be justified by the law have been alienated from Christ. You have fallen away from grace."

He was bringing them the message of the grace of God, riding into the presence of God on the coattails, on the robe hem of the great High Priest Jesus Christ. He is saying, "Get on board," and they are saying, "I'd like that, but I'm also going to keep these rules hoping I'll gain some brownie points with God." He says they cannot do that. It is either-or. Either you ride in on the merits of Christ or, like the Galatians, you get distracted by the ceremonies of the old covenant, and if you trust in that, Christ is of no value to you.

We are not talking about the fact that you gave up bacon. That is not the issue. The issue is people that are reading the Old Testament and saying, "Here's what he says, and if that's what he says, I'm going to do this because this is going to get me right with God." That is what we are talking about.

We are talking about adults who try to take the mark of the old covenant so they can gain favor with God. We are talking about people that say they have to keep these dietary rules and worship on this certain day because that is what God said. That is not what God is asking us to do. They were pictures and symbols and illustrations of the reality. Grab the reality and leave the ceremonies behind. That is what the new covenant is asking us to do.

How do we deal with the Old Testament? Should we stay away from it? No, it is good that you are carrying around the Old Testament. In Luke 24, Christ had actually finished and accomplished the old covenant requirements. It was all accomplished when he said on the cross, "It is finished."

When he said on the cross, "It is finished," do you remember what God did miraculously down the street at the temple in Herod's temple? The temple curtain ripped open, which showed that what Christ did just down the street, sacrificing himself for the people as the perfect lamb, provided access to that place. That was just a symbol of it, but you cannot hide the fact that Christ is taking people into the presence of God perfectly justified.

That is when all of a sudden all the ceremonies were set aside. Christ now, after the resurrection, after he said it is finished, turns their attention to the Old Testament again. In Luke 24:27, it says, "And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets," that's the Old Testament, "he explained to them what was said in all the Scriptures concerning himself."

That is why the writer of Hebrews says in chapter eight that the old covenant is antiquated. Now, let us talk about the tabernacle again and more things that I do not have time for, but we will talk about later. Why are we still talking about it? Because it all speaks of him by way of parable and illustration.

When we read the Old Testament, we need to look for the anticipation of Christ. When we look at the rules, when we look at the sacrificial system, when we look at the tabernacle, when we look at the temple, all of those pictures were put in place and all of them point to Christ. The Old Testament can be taught as Christian scripture because the Old Testament ceremonies are pictures of Jesus.

Therefore, we do not give up on the 39 books on the left side of your Bible; we study them. Do not say it is old stuff and doesn't matter anymore because it's the old covenant. Spend time there and start looking for how all of that, as you step back and see all that, you see the picture of Christ in the scripture. All of scripture is Christian scripture. All of scripture directs us to Christ, and we ought to study it with that in mind and not just gloss over it. Look for the connections that lead us back to Christ.

You are going to read the Old Testament and say, "It says you can't sow two different kinds of seed in the same soil. I don't see Christ in that." You're right. You might say they said an Israelite can't touch a dead body because if he touches a dead body, he's unclean. Is that some kind of germaphobe thing? What's this unclean and clean, and animals are clean and those are unclean, and split hooves and chews the cud?

I do not see Christ in that. You may not see Christ in that, but what you may see is a picture of holiness and a picture of approaching God in a way that changes how I start to look at my behavior. The apostles did this all the time. They drew some parallels. In Mark 7:14, Jesus calls the crowd to himself. He had something important to say, and he says, "Listen to me, everyone, and understand this. Nothing outside a man can make him unclean."

In a Levitical sense, there are lots of things outside the body that can make me unclean. But he's saying in a real sense, nothing can make you unclean that comes from outside the body. Rather, it is what comes out of a man that makes him unclean. After he had left the crowd and entered the house, the disciples were confused.

He said, "Don't you see that nothing that enters a man from the outside can make him unclean? For it doesn't go into his heart, it doesn't go into his spirit or his soul. It goes into his stomach and then out of his body." In saying this, Mark adds, Jesus declared all foods clean. He went on, "What comes out of a man is what makes him unclean. For from within, out of a man's heart, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, greed, malice, deceit, lewdness, envy, slander, arrogance, folly. All of these evils come from inside and make a man unclean."

I read Leviticus, and those are not the things that make a man unclean. It is all kinds of lizards and snakes and food you cannot eat and touching dead bodies and leprosy. But that is not the point. As I read the old covenant and Jesus is training us right here, when you read those Levitical ceremonial rules about cleanness and uncleanness, make the connection.

Do your best to draw the moral parallels because they are there. Paul drew them for us, for instance, when he quoted the Old Testament saying, "Touch no unclean thing." He was not talking in the Old Testament about what Paul is talking about in 2 Corinthians 6. In 2 Corinthians 6, he is talking about my behavior.

When they compromise at work to get a client, I am not supposed to compromise. When someone lies to get ahead, I am not supposed to lie to get ahead. He is saying all the differences between the redeemed and the unredeemed is like the whole cleanness issue. Do not touch the unclean thing. Draw the moral parallels for your life.

He starts talking about what righteousness has in common with unrighteousness and says you have to think about your behavior. So I read those and do not just go, "Well, that's a weird one," when you read Leviticus and Deuteronomy. Slow down and say what are some of the parallels that I can draw in my own life about what that is a picture of. What is the touching of a dead corpse in my life? Because there are opportunities for you and me this week to touch the dead thing that makes me before God unclean.

Ceremonially, I am not talking about that. I am talking about my behavior, my values, my thought life, all the things within me that make me unclean. Ceremonies are passed and worthless. We cannot require them and dare not do them to gain God's favor. As you read the scripture, don't toss it out; look for the anticipation of Christ. It is everywhere. Secondly, make sure that you draw the moral parallels because it will certainly enrich the way we think about fighting the battle to be righteous people.

Speaking of righteousness, there are not just ceremonies in the Old Testament; there are lots of ethical rules. Do not murder, tell the truth, honor your mother and father. What do I do with those? Are they fulfilled? Absolutely, completely fulfilled in Christ. The moral rules were fulfilled, yet they were promoted by Christ.

Christ did not go around promoting the fact that we should always think about coming to a tabernacle or a temple or not weaving together two different cloths for our clothes. There was very little discussion about any of that. Christ kept talking about the ethical implications of the law. When someone came to him and said, "What about the law? What's the greatest commandment?" he didn't say, "The whole thing about two different kinds of clothing."

He said this is it: it is the ethical rules. It is about loving God with all your heart, soul, strength, and mind. It is about loving your neighbor as yourself. These are the kinds of things that sum up the law and the prophets, the ethical teaching of the law and the prophets. He is pointing at these things and saying he is fulfilling them for us, but when it comes to you reading those things, I would really like you to do those. With God's help, I want you to do those.

When I read the Old Testament, I just feel a bunch of conviction because I read that coveting thing. I am not coveting my neighbor's camel, but I am coveting his motorhome. So how do I deal with that? You ought to let the law do its work, particularly if you are not saved. You have to let the law do its work.

Romans 3:20 says the law's purpose is to reveal sin in our lives. So let the moral rules convict you of your need for Christ. When you read the moral standards that are way up here, that if my neighbor doesn't have a cloak and I have two, I ought to take mine and give it to him. That is a convicting verse because you, like me, probably are touched with this little thing called greed.

So we ought to say how it is I can try my best to be open-handed and generous. But the problem is I struggle with that and fail at that. Even as Christians, we ought to say that is why I praise God for Christ. It is not a license for sin, but I am sure grateful that Christ has fulfilled every moral obligation of the law.

My failure keeps bringing me back to my need for Christ. That is why you high-achieving perfectionist types who sit there and pound yourself all day long for the failure of last Tuesday need to knock it off. It is not about you. It is about you recognizing in your failure that that is why we need Christ. Cling tighter to Christ. That is the goal of working through your failure and your feelings of guilt.

Stop it with this, "Well, I blew it, I'm so terrible." You are terrible; great, fantastic. So am I. But let us cling to Christ. That is why he came to take care of the ethical problems we had. Cling to Christ. That is what it is all about; it is about the grace of Christ. Where sin abounds, grace abounds even more, and that is the good news of the gospel.

It is not a license to sin. Let it convict you of your need for Christ. Secondly, with God's help, seek to obey those ethical rules. If he says do not covet your neighbor's camel, do not covet his stuff. He says do not covet your neighbor's servants. Stop it. Work hard with God's help because he's changed you inside to keep the rules.

1 John 3 is one of the best passages about the fact that New Testament believers still are to keep the moral law of God. He says if you sin, that is lawlessness. Sin is lawlessness; it is breaking God's rules. God's given us his ethical rules from the beginning of the Bible. We ought to understand because God lives in us, his seed abides in us, God is wanting a changed behavior.

Let us keep the Old Testament. Go to your bookstore and buy an old and New Testament; get the whole thing. I was moving some books the other day and I found my old high school yearbooks. Did you keep those? Well, I kept mine. Not so much because I liked all the people in my class, but there was someone in my class I liked a whole lot and she was in it.

Not only was my future wife in my yearbook, she actually signed it. I saved a whole page for her and she filled it up, and she saved one for me and I filled it up. I wrote all in Karlan's yearbook and Karlan wrote in Mike's yearbook. We wrote these things and there they were. I came across it this week and I'm looking at that and I'm thinking, "I'm hanging on to this."

I will cherish this. Not because I want to go back to high school—God forbid I do not want to go back to high school. I do not want to go back; I will cherish that yearbook because as we sat there and expressed ourselves to each other in that old covenant of high school, that old dispensation of going steady, there was a lot in there that looked forward to the anticipation.

I know our parents would be outraged with the stuff we wrote in each other's yearbook, musing about our future together. We even wrote in each other's yearbook that if we ever have a little girl together one day, we'll call her Stephanie. That was over 20 years before we brought Stephanie home from the hospital, our third child. That is why we kept trying, trying to shoot for that yearbook baby.

I think about that and I look at those words and I think I can look at it and say, "What puppy love, how silly, all the romance of high school," or I can say, "Look at that, the anticipation of something that right now I'll go home to lunch right now and I'll connect with my little three-year-old Stephanie and I'll say wow, all those years ago."

Look at that. Read that and say how that is a picture of what I love. I am not going to throw those yearbooks out. And not only that, I know they're not marriage vows, but I read how we expressed our love to one another in high school. I look at those things and I think I want to live up to that. Those are lofty. I want to live that out. I want to be that kind of person to my wife.

I want to live up to the standard of my high school yearbook. I want to enjoy and cherish and even reread the fact that we looked forward to a day just like this when we enjoy a home together and children together. I'm not getting rid of that. The Old Testament, I know for a lot of people, is antiquated and maybe you're telling me it's obsolete. You've got to have your Old Testament. You've got to read your Old Testament. You've got to study your Old Testament. Your life will be enriched by your Old Testament. Don't give up on it. Dig into it this week.

God, please help us to be good students of your word, to rightly handle the word of truth, to go back into the old covenant and see those anticipatory statements, those illustrations and parables of the coming Lamb of God, Jesus Christ. God, we know we're not called to engage and get tangled in the pictures. The illustrations were illustrations; the reality is Christ.

The ceremonies are almost in some ways dangerous to even think about participating in and we're not going to, but God, we are grateful for the way that those pictures kept pointing to the reality that we now experience. God, we also are grateful for the way you set that high standard in your word for us. You defined love for us by moral and ethical terms to live as godly people.

We know we fail at that, but we want to look at the old covenant and say by your Spirit's help, we want to live in step with your Spirit so that we might do more of what the old covenant requires of us ethically and morally. God, we love you very much. We want to love your word, not as an end in itself but as a means to an end to know you better and to enrich our lives as we might be able to walk in step not only with your Spirit but with a mindset on worshipping Jesus Christ the Son of God. We thank you for our time together in your word. Thanks for the book of Hebrews. In Jesus' name, Amen.

Dave Drew: In order to see the advantages of the new covenant, we have to take time to study the old one. You're listening to Mike Fabarez on Focal Point with a message about "Why Don't We Have to Keep All Those Old Testament Ceremonies?" It's one portion of a mini-series called Christ Changed Everything, which you can access any time by going online to focalpointradio.org. Or download the free Focal Point app for even more content to fuel your walk with God.

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When you give a donation of any amount to Focal Point today, we'll send you a book titled The Unfolding Mystery: Discovering Christ in the Old Testament. Author Ed Clowney takes you through the pages of the Old Testament and shows how the whole of scripture has Jesus in its sights: his character, his lordship, his saving work. The same thread that runs through the patriarchs, the priests, and the prophets runs straight to the cross.

Request The Unfolding Mystery when you make a donation to Focal Point today. Call us at 888-320-5885 or give online at focalpointradio.org. If you'd rather mail your gift, just address your envelope to Focal Point, Post Office Box 2850, Laguna Hills, California, 92654. And if this is your first time reaching out, ask for Pastor Mike's booklet, The New Covenant Age.

It's a clear, grounded look at how Jesus fulfills the law and what that means for the way we live now. It's yours free just for getting in touch. Call 888-320-5885 or go online at focalpointradio.org. I'm Dave Drew, inviting you to join us tomorrow when Pastor Mike digs into the fascinating and often confusing subject of animal sacrifices in the Old Testament. That's Tuesday on Focal Point.

Pastor Mike Fabarez: Every wish you could corner your pastor and challenge him with your toughest questions about the Bible, about faith? Well, now you can. Send me your questions. Head on over to focalpointradio.org and click on "Ask Pastor Mike" or send me a note on facebook.com/pastormike or twitter.com/pastormike. I can't wait to hear from you.