Light on the Hill

James Kaddis: Today on Light on the Hill, see why it's so important that we focus on the spirit of the law and not just the letter of it. When we look at a passage like the one that we just read in Mark regarding the Sabbath, you must use this passage. This is such a good passage as perhaps one of the most powerful demonstrations to you of why it's important to not just be satisfied with doing what the law says, but to understand the spirit of it. Recognize the fact that the reason why God gives it to us is so that we may be benefited.

Guest (Male): I have found the peace only comes from you. I have found the joy only comes from you, because all I need is you. All I need is you. All I need is you.

Guest (Male): There are many laws and commands found in the pages of the Bible. While obedience to them is important, we must also stop to consider the spirit behind them. Today on Light on the Hill, we'll hear how the Pharisees got off track as they focused entirely on the letter of the law when it came to the Sabbath. Jesus masterfully points out to them and us the spirit with which it was given. Here's Pastor James Kaddis in Mark chapter two.

James Kaddis: What these Pharisees did was they took these laws, this one law, and they made hundreds of laws. Those hundreds of laws were designed to hold to the letter, but holding to the letter destroyed their minds and their hearts. Holding to the letter kept them from understanding basic, simple principles.

They're talking about how what Jesus did was unlawful. Look at what Jesus says here. This is heavy and you're going to understand this is going to come together in a minute. He said unto them, "Have you ever read what David did when he had need and was hungered, he and they that were with him? How he went into the house of God in the days of Abiathar the high priest and did eat the showbread, which is not lawful to eat but for the priests, and gave also to them which were with him?"

And he said unto them, "The Sabbath was made for man and not man for the Sabbath. Therefore the Son of Man is Lord also of the Sabbath." It's pretty heavy. What does Jesus do when he starts talking about them being unlawful? This related to them eating. You must understand that the reason why they were going through the fields wasn't to make an extra dollar or put extra dollars in their pockets so they could move on with ministry or grow the ministry funds.

The reason why they were going through the field was so they could eat. They didn't have McDonald's back then. They didn't have Chick-fil-A or fast food restaurants. If you wanted to eat, you had to get your food. All Jesus' men were doing was eating. That's all they were doing. They were eating. Jesus appropriately brings out what may be one of the biggest sore spots in the minds of these men.

They know that what David and his men did was not only technically unlawful according to their law and according to what even the law of God said, but what it did was it completely blew out of the water every single rule that those men had wanted to make. Why? Because just think about it. If you were to go and eat the showbread that was only made for the priests to be able to eat, God would strike you dead. You would die.

You could walk into that area of the tabernacle and eat that showbread and you wouldn't live. God would kill you. You walked into the tabernacle in an unworthy way and God would kill you. Did you ever notice that David took showbread from the high priest at that point? He ate it and God sustained him and protected him. He ate it and God blessed him. God kept him and his men.

When push came to shove, those men were going to die if they didn't eat the bread. They needed to eat the bread. The spirit of all of the laws even as they sit for the tabernacle was to sustain the very soul of man, the mind, and the heart of man. Jesus is saying a bunch of soldiers walked into the tabernacle and ate bread that only the priests are supposed to eat. Look at what happened to them.

Then Jesus reveals the spirit of the law of the Sabbath. He says at the end of this, "The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath." Remember all the conversation that we just had. The letter of the law took the Sabbath and turned the Sabbath into another work obligation. The letter of the law took the Sabbath and made something that was very special turn into something that was burdensome and overbearing.

The spirit of the law took something that could have been burdensome and overbearing and made it special, miraculous, and even exciting. When the Sabbath was used in the way that it was intended by God to be used, it became all of those things. When it was used outside of the context that God chose to use it in, it became something completely different.

I need you to see this because there's a much bigger principle at hand. This isn't something that just relates to the Sabbath. This is something that relates to everything that you do in your life. This is something that drives how you should be thinking as a whole. It should be the thing that drives how you even approach what you approach. If you begin to understand the spirit of the law and how the spirit governs how the letter is written, then absolutely everything changes about how you live your life and how people's lives continue to change.

By the way, anybody who has a background in law enforcement would agree with this. Although most academy instructors do a terrible job of doing this, they still do it. Even at the federal level, they do a terrible job of doing this. They spend a whole section of your law enforcement training teaching you the difference between the spirit and the letter of the law. They do it all the time. Before they go over the penal code or the United States Code, they spend a lot of time talking about 42 USC 1983, which is the Civil Rights Act.

Go over that code and they try to help you understand the spirit of the law that was written there versus the letter. It's funny if you teach it right, then you begin to realize there are some serious problems with the Civil Rights Act like mega, huge, big problems that created bigger problems than you would even think. In law enforcement, they teach this to their law enforcement officers. Why do they teach it to them? Because they don't want law enforcement officers running around giving a ticket to anybody who breathes.

That's not what they want to produce. They want to produce law men and women who will recognize that the law that's been given to them has become a tool for them to accomplish something that is for the general benefit of the population. Beyond that, it goes beyond even the picture of discrimination. Discrimination is a good point. Let me give you one quick example of this. This is a real important one.

I used to go through this all the time as a chaplain. I'd be in a police car with somebody. We would see somebody blow a red light. They would blow a red light and then either I would do it sometimes or the officer that I'm with. We'd immediately turn on the lights and sirens. We'd carefully go through the intersection even though the intersection's at a red. We'd carefully go through the intersection and go as fast as we can to catch up with the guy that just blew the red light.

We'd pull the guy over. Probably three out of ten times the guy would be a smart Alec and say, "I demand you have a ticket too." Oh boy, here we go as though I haven't heard this one before. "Why is that, sir?" "Because you ran a red light just like I ran a red light." What you failed to understand was that I had to run the red light with great regard for the safety of others because you ran the red light without regard for the safety of others.

The spirit of the law was both being honored. In that context, I was understanding that the reason why I'd been given the liberty to do what I do is so that people would be safe. At the same time, there might be a moment in time where you have a lapse of judgment as a law enforcement officer and decide to create a competition between you and your fellow officer as to how far you can go across town or even across the state with lights and sirens.

You wouldn't be honoring the spirit of the law in doing that. When you turn on your lights and sirens just so that you can do whatever you want, you've now actually broken the law. Although you did not break the law as it's written, you have certainly violated the spirit of the law because you are abusing the power that's been entrusted to you. That's what's happening here with the discussion of the Sabbath.

We are given liberties to do the things that we do for a purpose and when that purpose is violated, the liberties no longer become liberties. They actually become destructive tools. That's where we get the term abuse of power. That's where we get the term discrimination. That's where we get these types of terms that get thrown around all the time because we don't understand it. Jesus basically said, "You guys need to wake up. The Sabbath was made for man. Man was not for the Sabbath."

The Sabbath was a tool that was designed to serve mankind. You've used it as a tool to oppress mankind. He's going to give us another example of this. Look at verse one of chapter three. "And he entered again into the synagogue and there was a man there which had a withered hand. And they watched him whether he would heal him on the Sabbath day that they might accuse him." Isn't that sad? Jesus walks into a room where there's a man who has a known disability and they know that Jesus is going to heal him.

They're not sitting there and wondering, "Wow, on the day that's supposed to be our day of reprieve, on the day that we're supposed to rest, we can't wait to watch God give this man rest by giving him his arm back." That's not their thinking. No, he's going to work. He's going to work by stretching his hand out. We're going to catch him in the act. We're going to get him this time. Watch what happens. And he said unto the man which had the withered hand, "Stand forth."

By the way, I have to just stop to say this for once. It's never a good idea if you are a fully able-bodied person to walk up to somebody who is not able-bodied and tell them to do something that they can't do. It's just never a good idea. I remember as a police explorer, this happened to me many years ago. It was very embarrassing. At the front desk of Norwalk station at the LA County Sheriff's Department, I see a guy.

At the time I'm around 6'2". I walk up to the front desk. I'm wearing a uniform. Nobody knows the difference between an explorer uniform and a deputy uniform. I walk up to the front desk because that's what we had to do. We had to work the front desk. I see what looks like a guy who's crouching down. So I'm thinking in my mind that he's up to no good because he's crouching down behind the desk. So I walk up to him and go, "Get up!" just like that.

As loud as I could be, "Get up!" We did things like that. This was pre-Rodney King. "Get up!" I look over and I'm shocked because I see this guy who looks scared to death. He's shocked because he's sitting in a wheelchair. He can't get up. Do you understand how embarrassing that is? When you think a guy is crouched behind the desk and you go, "Get up!" and he's sitting behind a wheelchair. I thought you were hiding behind the desk. He was such a sweet, graceful man. He was all good. But do you understand how embarrassing that is? That's just crazy.

Jesus telling this guy to stretch himself forth is like that. It's like walking up to a person in a wheelchair and going, "Come on, man. Get up!" That's how it would feel. Can you imagine being the guy that's on the other side of that where someone walks up to you and your hand has never worked and says, "Stretch it out. Come on, stretch it out." You would just be mad. Like me, I don't know about you, but I'm not the type of person that gets all sad and wants to hurt myself. I'm the type of person that gets mad and wants to hurt you.

If you came to me and said that, I'd be pretty darn offended. I'd be pretty upset. But look what happens here. This is pretty incredible. And he said unto them, "Is it lawful to do good on the Sabbath days or to do evil? To save life or to kill?" Wow. Think about that for a second. How are they going to answer that question? Because the question is profound. "Would it be more lawful for me to save a person's life on the Sabbath day or would it be more lawful for me to kill them on purpose?"

Because if this person is sick and he's hurt and he asks for my help, I can save him right now. But if I don't, then he suffers. Which is more correct? You know they're not going to answer that question. The question is brilliant. Look what happens. "And when he had looked round about on them with anger, being grieved for the hardness of their hearts, he saith unto the man, 'Stretch forth thine hand.' And he stretched it out and his hand was restored whole as the other."

Isn't that amazing? They held their peace. Did you notice that? When he asked them that question, they held their peace. They wouldn't say anything. Why? Because they knew they couldn't answer it. Not only did they hold their peace, in other words, not only did they not answer Jesus' question, they were so angry. Jesus did not get angry with them. Rather, he was grieved by their anger and he allowed their anger to give him compassion for the person that needed to be ministered to.

And he reached out to them and he ministered to that man. He told that man, "Stretch out your hand." And that man stretched out his hand and he was healed. Isn't that amazing to see what that must have looked like? But then look what happens. "And the Pharisees went forth and straightway took counsel with the Herodians against him how they might destroy him." They took counsel against him how they might destroy him. I'm going to stop right here because I think it's appropriate. We don't have enough time to move on because I wanted to spend at least another ten minutes with the next section.

But I'm going to stop here. But I want to say this because it's really important. I want to say that there are several big lessons we can learn from this. Number one, the more we seek out the spirit of the law, the better we will become at fulfilling the letter of it. Let me say that one more time. The more we seek out the spirit of the law, the better we will become at fulfilling the letter of it.

If your job as a Christian is believed to be reading the Bible as much as you can just to read the Bible, reading it a few pages a day just so you can put another notch on your belt, whatever it might be, you are never going to understand the Bible and it will never have the effect on you that God intended for it to have. But if you look at the Bible saying, "I don't understand why God tells me to do this, but I know the reason why he tells this to me is because he wants me to be blessed."

"Lord, show me the value of this. I know that the letter of the law was designed by the spirit, of course, to provide for me benefit. I can't understand your law. Your law makes no sense to me. I do not understand why you would tell me something like this, God. It makes zero sense. Why do I have to do this? It doesn't make sense." And you seek to find out the why, you seek to understand more behind the intent of God's laws, it transforms your life.

It teaches you things you never thought you could possibly learn. Can I give you one really good example of this? This is such a powerful one. Tithing. This is not an area that I like to talk about a whole lot. But I was modeled what tithing looked like from a very faithful man and woman in my mom and my dad. There would be times where we would have things happen where we couldn't go to church for two or three weeks at a time. And my dad went out of his way to say this, "I cannot be dishonest with God."

Then he would write a check for all the times that he missed when he didn't go to church for those weeks because he always liked to write a check every single week. And he oftentimes wrote a little bit more because in his mind it was interest that he had to give to the Lord. That was his way of thinking. I didn't understand it at the time, but as I got older and started really walking with the Lord, I really wanted to understand why my dad was so bent on tithing exactly and perfectly and honestly and never missing a day or whatever.

I realized very quickly that my dad drew a direct correlation behind the blessings and the bounties that he's received and the God who gave it to him. My dad recognized and my mom recognized that everything that they had was given to them by the Lord. Get this, guys. They were scared of not effectively or correctly showing their gratitude to God for what he did for them. That's why they did what they did. They weren't worried about what the membership record would show. They weren't worried about how people would think about them.

They were always worried about not honoring God because what God gave them was so much more than what they could have ever given him. I took that into my adult years and I took that into the life that I now live and I've learned so much more than I ever could have possibly learned if all I did was, "I'm just doing it because I have to. This is miserable." I know now that God will not and cannot bless me if I don't recognize where my blessings came from and act accordingly. You learn that really quickly.

So my point behind it is this. When we look at a passage like the one that we just read in Mark regarding the Sabbath, you must use this passage. This is such a good passage as perhaps one of the most powerful demonstrations to you of why it's important to not just be satisfied with doing what the law says, but to understand the spirit of it. To recognize the fact that the reason why God gives it to us is so that we may be benefited.

By the way, can I give you one more last thought on this? This is just an illustration. In the book of 2 Timothy, Paul does something really interesting. In 2 Timothy, Paul gives a warning to Timothy telling Timothy how bad it's going to be in the last days. He says, "Know this, that in the last days perilous times will come." And then he gives this massive list of all of the evil things that are going to happen in the last days. But that to me is not the most profound part of 2 Timothy chapter three.

Because after he gives a list of all of the evil things that are going to happen in the last days, he talks about men but evil men and seducers will wax worse and worse, deceiving and being deceived, and then he goes on and saying, "Continue in the things that thou hast learned." And he says this, "Look at this verse sixteen. This is going to be my proof that people in the Bible understood this principle. The more they were familiar with the law of God, the better they were aware of the spirit versus the letter of the law of God."

Paul, by the way, was a master of it. He did this very well. Especially in Romans he talks about this when we start talking about the law versus the spirit. But look at what he says here in verse fourteen, "But continue thou in the things which thou hast learned and thou hast been assured of, knowing of whom thou hast learned them." In other words, continue in the law of God knowing that God has given them to you, knowing the people who gave it to you who handed it down, referring to his relatives, and the God who put it down to you.

He says, "Understand where you've received these things and that from a child thou hast known the holy scriptures, which are able to make thee wise unto salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus." And then reminds him of something, Timothy. He says, "Timothy, know this. This is the spirit of the law. This is the spirit of the Bible right here. Look at this. All scripture is given by inspiration of God and is profitable for what? Here's the spirit. The spirit of the law right here. For doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness that what? That the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good works."

Timothy, I want you to understand the spirit of the law that you might be able to master the letter. You're not going to master the letter unless you understand the spirit. That's what Jesus is demonstrating to these guys on the day of the Sabbath. And my encouragement to you would be to gain the bigger picture. See, don't mitigate this picture. Don't attenuate this picture to simply saying, "Yeah, I got to take a day of rest." That's important and it's really good and you need to do that. But expand your heart to the bigger picture. Expand your heart to the discussion that Jesus is trying to have with these men that says, "You err because you don't understand the spirit by which this was written." This was written for man, but not man for it. You have a backwards way of thinking. Time to wake up.

Guest (Male): This is Light on the Hill with Pastor James Kaddis, and we're currently going through the Gospel of Mark. Listen to this study and more at lightonthehillradio.com. Pastor James's teachings are also available through the Light on the Hill app and at oneplace.com. You can listen to us wherever you get your podcasts as well. When you have a moment sometime today, send us an email. We'd love it. It's encouraging to hear what the Lord is doing in our listeners' lives and it's an opportunity to thank the Lord for what he's doing. There's a place to contact us at our website, lightonthehillradio.com.

We've been blessed by the feedback we've received thus far regarding Pastor James's new book, *The Last Book*. If you haven't ordered a copy yet, we'd encourage you to do so. This guide to Revelation covers the first half of the book, giving you what you need to know about the rapture and the end times in a clear and concise manner. Request your copy today at lightonthehillradio.com or through Amazon. Now, with these concluding thoughts, here's Pastor James.

James Kaddis: Folks, this would be the encouragement that I would have for you. When you see the word of God being taught to you, when you know that there are things that you have to do, don't just do those things, but seek to understand the spirit as to why you've been instructed to do it. Because when you begin to understand the spirit as to why you've been instructed to do it, you will recognize that doing those things is a lot easier. That's one of the things we're trying to enforce with our children right now.

With our children, we spend way more time telling them no. We spend more time reprimanding them. We spend more time being strict with them than we do anything else. The number one word that comes out of my mouth with my children is no, no, no, no, no. Stop, stop, stop, stop, stop. Hey, hey, hey, all the time. But you know what's becoming even more interesting and more cool and more viable and more sweet? It seems as though as my children are getting older, they're loving their father more and more. They're loving their mother more and more.

You want to know why? Because the one thing that is critical to me and to my wife for my children is that as they are given the wise constraints that keep them safe, that keep them from destroying their lives, they're also going to know the spirit by which those constraints are being given. They're always going to be told they're loved. They're always going to be kissed. They're always going to be hugged. They're always going to be embraced, always going to be received, always going to be cared for and loved for.

My daughters are always going to be told they're beautiful. My son is always going to be embraced by his father and kissed. It will never stop happening. Why? Because when I tell them that I need them to do something, the first thing that will go through their mind eventually will not be, "Dang, I wish I didn't have to do this." It will be, "Something must be up because Baba wants me to have the best, so I'm going to listen."

And that's the way we need to start thinking about our heavenly Father. We need to think about our God the same way. We need to think about God and say, "Lord, I'm believing this, not for the desire to simply follow the strict guideline that you give me, but it's with the understanding that you've got my best in mind for me." My challenge to all of you is if you don't physically, consciously look at it this way, it's time to start. Amen.

Guest (Male): More from the book of Mark coming up next time on Light on the Hill with Pastor James Kaddis. This listener-supported program is brought to you by Calvary Chapel Signal Hill.

Guest (Male): I have found the peace only comes from you. I have found the joy only comes from you, because all I need is you. All I need is you. All I need is you.