Good morning and welcome in everyone. Today, we are going to take a look at a passage of scripture, but before we do that, I wanted to tell you a little story.
Over the past 15 years, Andrew and I have collected a lot of pine cones for the state nursery in Minnesota, but sometimes, when we are out walking in the deep woods, we will come into some very swampy areas that we need to cross over. We will take a big log, or some sticks, and drop them across the water so that we can get to the other side without getting wet. It takes some dexterity, kind of like a gymnast on a balance beam, in order to get safely to the other side.
In Vietnam, a Cầu khỉ (cow-key) is a handmade bamboo or wooden pathway across a stream or gully; it’s more commonly known as a monkey bridge. Some people have suggested that it got its title because you need to be very agile, kind of like a monkey, in order to get all the way across without falling off. Sometimes these bridges are made out of coconut trees, bamboo, or just plain rope. Maybe you have ventured out onto a rope bridge, maybe at a summer camp somewhere, with only a few handrails to hold on to. You have to carefully watch your step, and hang on tightly to make sure that you don’t fall off.
This reminds me of the Christian Life.
Today, there are many people who profess Christianity, but instead of holding onto the teachings of the New Testament faith, they are venturing into Judaism once again. They are trying to be justified by following the things of the Old Testament, rather than following and trusting in Christ. Just like people can slip and fall off a monkey bridge, these people have slipped and fallen away from Grace.
Galatians 5:1-5 ¹ Stand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free, and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage. ² Behold, I Paul say unto you, that if ye be circumcised, Christ shall profit you nothing. ³ For I testify again to every man that is circumcised, that he is a debtor to do the whole law. ⁴ Christ is become of no effect unto you, whosoever of you are justified by the law; ye are fallen from grace.
As I have taught my family for 20 years, there is a difference between Judaism and Christianity. They are two different belief systems. You cannot combine them together in some dual covenant theology, as many people still attempt to do. Try combining oil and water and see what happens. If a professing Christian, was going to attempt to follow the Old Testament, they would need to be circumcised, they would need to start up animal sacrifices, and they would need to follow the rest of the things contained in levitical law. Scripture is clear that those who serve the tabernacle are not worthy of the altar that we serve through Christ. I understand that Jews continue to do this because it is their religion, but for a Christian to do this, they are not trusting in what Christ our Savior, (both theirs and ours) has freed us from. At that point, a Christian’s faith in Jesus becomes corrupted. We have been delivered from the demands of the Old Testament, just as the Israelites were delivered out of Egypt. Freedom! But just as certain Israelites wanted to return to Egypt, some Christians want to do the same thing today, by returning to bondage to what Christ has freed us from. This has perplexed me for many years. Can you imagine a judge pardoning somebody from prison, but a few months later, the free man wants to go back to prison. It’s a simple analogy, but this is exactly what certain people who profess the Christian Life are doing today. Obviously we need to follow and obey the commands and teachings of the New Testament, but we are not under the Old covenant any more. The only thing that one can learn by trying to keep the Old Testament is that they are sinners. If they don’t recognize that fact, it’s because they are lying to themselves.
Romans 3:19-20 ¹⁹ Now we know that what things soever the law saith, it saith to them who are under the law: that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become guilty before God. ²⁰ Therefore by the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified in his sight: for by the law is the knowledge of sin.
Every soul that has ever lived has sinned. Kings and all those who are an authority. Governors, sheriff’s, policemen, peasants, servants, and anyone who has ever breathed the breath of life into their lungs. When it comes to sin, we are all equal in the eyes of God. The Apostle Paul called himself the chief of sinners. Sins will be punished by God, and when someone refuses to believe in Jesus, they reject the free offer of forgiveness, because of which, they will die in a state of sin and outside of the grace of God.
John 8:24 “I said therefore unto you, that ye shall die in your sins: for if ye believe not that I am he, ye shall die in your sins.”
The Old Testament should have taught people that they could not get to heaven without God’s help. It’s because we are all mortal, and we are all sinners. But when we come to Christ Jesus, we are no longer under that by which we are held in our past, because we have entered into the New covenant of God found in Jesus.
Galatians 3:24-28 ²⁴ Wherefore the law was our schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ, that we might be justified by faith. ²⁵ But after that faith is come, we are no longer under a schoolmaster. ²⁶ For ye are all the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus.
As a Christian we are freed from the demands of Judaism. Jews can find this same freedom when they trust in the Messiah that God the Father sent to save them, Jesus Christ the Lord.
2 Corinthians 3:13-17 ¹³ And not as Moses, which put a vail over his face, that the children of Israel could not stedfastly look to the end of that which is abolished: ¹⁴ But their minds were blinded: for until this day remaineth the same vail untaken away in the reading of the old testament; which vail is done away in Christ. ¹⁵ But even unto this day, when Moses is read, the vail is upon their heart. ¹⁶ Nevertheless when it shall turn to the Lord, the vail shall be taken away.
¹⁷ Now the Lord is that Spirit: and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty.
The Apostle Paul warned the church not to fall away from the grace of God. He was a Jew who had left everything Judaism had to offer to become a Christian. He understood that Jews could not be justified by the law. Once somebody becomes a Christian, they must not get involved trying to keep the things that God has abolished. We must cast out the old, and embrace the new, through faith in Jesus Christ.
Galatians 4:21-31 ²¹ Tell me, ye that desire to be under the law, do ye not hear the law? ²³ But he who was of the bondwoman was born after the flesh; but he of the freewoman was by promise. ²⁴ Which things are an allegory: for these are the two covenants; the one from the mount Sinai, which gendereth to bondage, which is Agar. ²⁵ For this Agar is mount Sinai in Arabia, and answereth to Jerusalem which now is, and is in bondage with her children. ²⁶ But Jerusalem which is above is free, which is the mother of us all. ²⁷ For it is written, Rejoice, thou barren that bearest not; break forth and cry, thou that travailest not: for the desolate hath many more children than she which hath an husband. ²⁸ Now we, brethren, as Isaac was, are the children of promise. ²⁹ But as then he that was born after the flesh persecuted him that was born after the Spirit, even so it is now. ³⁰ Nevertheless what saith the scripture? Cast out the bondwoman and her son: for the son of the bondwoman shall not be heir with the son of the freewoman. ³¹ So then, brethren, we are not children of the bondwoman, but of the free.
In order to get all the way home to heaven, we need to keep ourselves in the grace of God. We need to follow the teachings of the New Testament with the understanding that Christ has abolished the old. To make the attempt to follow the teachings of Judaism, is to slip off the bridge into the river. It is to fall from God’s grace. Hold on tight, don’t look back, and keep your eyes focused on the narrow path that is in front of you, just like we would, crossing over,…
….The Monkey Bridge
Let’s think about these things for right now. We can be found on your web browser by searching, tlkjbc where you can find our diaries distributed through various platforms. We are not associated, nor affiliated with any other religious groups. You can get our entire podcast feeds directly, along with transcripts at tlkjbc.com or I suppose that you could find us somewhere up here, in the Great Northern Minnesota woods. Peace to you, and Lord willing, we will talk with you some more tomorrow. Till then, bye bye everybody. ❤️
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Teufer Lake King James Bible Church 