The display of God's grace within the Old Testament Law, using Psalm 119 as a foundational text. It argues that while the law reveals sin and our distance from God, the ceremonial aspects of the Old Testament, including symbols and types like the brazen serpent and the Passover lamb, prophetically pointed to Christ and His redemptive work. The sermon emphasizes that salvation in every age is based on Christ's death and requires faith, with the content of that faith evolving through progressive revelation. Ultimately, the Old Testament's sacrificial system, though a shadow, provided a knowledge of forgiveness and fellowship with God, demonstrating God's grace even under the Law.
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this great nineteen psalm. We do well to read the whole psalm, but we're dealing with the great subjects of the display of grace under law. And therefore we're going to read verses seven through eleven. The law of the Lord is perfect, converting the soul. The testimony of the Lord is sure, making wise the simple. The statutes of the Lord are right, rejoicing the heart. The commandment of the Lord is pure, enlightening the eyes. The fear of the Lord is clean, enduring forever. The judgments of the Lord are true and righteous altogether. More to be desired are they than gold, yet in much fine gold, sweeter also than honey and the honeycomb.
Moreover, by them is thy servant warned, and in keeping of them there is great reward. Now let's pray. Father, we thank you. for the law of God but above the law of God we thank you for the grace of God that grace manifested in our Lord Jesus Christ help us our Father to make this word exciting and to those who listen and may it please thee our God to stir enough to stir in us a genuine hunger and thirst for righteousness that only thy word and the spirit can fill. We thank you that those who do hunger and thirst shall be filled, and we thank you for it.
Remember those who are laid aside. We think of Mrs. Beichert in Pennsylvania and ask your blessing upon her. We think of the members of the family that are gathered, and we ask for thy comfort for them. And for the others who are bereaved today, we just commit them to thee and ask for thy special help in Jesus name. Amen. We got a telephone call this morning that the man who taught me the electrical trade died this morning or he died yesterday and I was told about it this morning and it leaves a real hole in your life when you think back over the many years and all the labors he put in teaching me to do electrical work.
And now he's in eternity. It's one of those things. Well, every person who is genuinely saved and he's growing. Now, one of the sad things is that not everyone who is saved is growing. But if you're genuinely born of God and you're growing in the grace and knowledge of our Lord Jesus, there has to be an increasing appreciation in your life for the grace of God. This is one of the things that a growing Christian never loses. He never loses an appreciation for the grace of God. Now, when I was a young believer, one of the things that made me hunger and thirst after righteousness was to see the correlation between the Old Testament and the new.
To see Christ in the Old Testament. When I first came to Burlington and started daytime Bible classes, I ran a series of classes on the theme, Christ in all the Scriptures, going through every book of the Bible. And it was a thrill to me, and I believe it was one of the things that created a real appetite among those who started in the class in those days. Christ in the Scriptures. And it was all in outline form and all in the form of a chart as well.
Now because the grace of God is so precious to every believer, and since in the Word of God, in verses like Romans six, fourteen, it is contrasted with law. where we read, For sin shall not have dominion over you, for you're not under law but under grace, we have a tendency to veer toward grace and think that law and grace could never coexist under any circumstances. And last Sunday night's message and tonight's message and probably another at least, we're going to deal with this matter of grace and law in the Old Testament and God's display of grace in the Old Testament and one of the passages where it's displayed is right here in the nineteen psalm where the psalmist who is living under law cries out the law of the Lord is perfect converting the soul the testimony of the Lord is sure making wise the simple however We must keep in mind some things that I laid down last week concerning the law.
I'm going to repeat them. There are four things that I mentioned last week, and often those of us who are known as dispensationalists, we're accused of the opposite of what I'm going to say. First, the basis of salvation in every age is the death of Jesus Christ. Apart from the death of our Lord Jesus Christ, no one could ever be saved. And one of the great objections of covenant theologians to the Schofield Reference Bible. And if you talk enough about the things of the Lord and you run into the right people, you're going to hear this accusation that Schofield taught two ways of salvation, one way under law and another way under grace.
I don't believe he did, but he's accused of it. He's accused of it. Remember, the basis of salvation in every age, whether under the law or under grace or in the kingdom, it's by the death of Jesus Christ and by his death alone. Then second, the requirement for salvation in every age is faith. Faith. Without faith, it is impossible to please God. This was the part of the message this morning by Brother Clayton Davis, the importance of believing the message of the Word of God.
Faith cometh by hearing, hearing by the Word of God. And then the object of faith in every age is God. And God the Father is a prominent member of the Godhead that was known under the Old Testament economy. In the New Testament, the prominent member is our Lord Jesus Christ. And therefore, we read that we have faith in our Lord Jesus Christ. But now watch this. Number four, the content of faith changes in the various dispensations. And I believe this is what Schofield means in these notes.
And I believe this is where we, who are dispensationalists, are misunderstood. And I'm going to say it again. The content of faith in the various dispensations changes. Why? We simply recognize the obvious fact of progressive revelation. We certainly should know more of God now than the Old Testament believers knew. For we have the New Testament. I wonder sometimes, however. I'll be honest with you. When I see what some of those Old Testament believers knew and understood, I marvel, you see.
And beloved, there is such a thing as progressive revelation. Here in the Nineteenth Psalm, the psalmist says, the law of the Lord refreshes the soul. Now, there's a twofold sense in which the Jewish temple service of God sets forth this great refreshment that the psalmist had in his mind. When David spoke of Ahifafel and when Ahifafel turned traitor on him, he said this about him, he said, we went hand in hand to the house of God together.
And it hurt David greatly when Ahithophel refused his friendship and turned and became a friend of the traitor Absalom. But there was a twofold sense in which the temple service set forth the display of this great refreshment that he spoke of in Psalm nineteen. And remember, this becomes a display of matchless grace under the period of the law. And by the way, it should rejoice the heart. When we see these things, it should cause us real joy. I need to make two definitions.
For definitions are very important. And when I find Christians who haven't defined words, the words of Scripture, the important words of Scripture, I realize that they're really not grasping and they're really not growing. First of all, a symbol. What is a symbol? We talk about the symbolic meaning of something. Well, what is a symbol? A symbol is a visible cover of something invisible. A symbol is a visible cover of something that is invisible. Now, let me explain that.
The Ark of the Covenant was a symbol of something. When the priests carried the Ark of the Covenant before the children of Israel, what did it mean? It meant the presence of God was going before them. They couldn't see the presence of God. They couldn't see God. They could see his presence. The cloud was there. And the cloud rested over the Ark of the Covenant that was carried by the priests. So you see, a symbol... is a visible cover of something that is invisible. In other words, it is a material garment of a higher truth and impression and expression of something spiritual and supernatural.
And beloved, when the priests carried the Ark of God, and by the way, there came a time when during the days of King of... Samuel or was it King Saul? No, King Saul wasn't king yet. The children of Israel said, let's take the ark of God to battle. Maybe it will save us from our enemies. They had little respect for that which was symbolized by the ark. They had very little respect for it. So a symbol. you see, is a visible cover of something that is invisible.
Keep that before you. Now, another definition, a type. A type is a prophetic symbol. That's what a type is. A type is a prophetic symbol. It can be a person. It can be a thing. It can be an institution. or an event. Now, when we talk about a prophetic symbol, we mean that it is prophetic of Christ and His redeeming work. And I'm going to point out a few of these tonight. A type is a prophetic symbol, and the reason it's prophetic is in the Old Testament, and it pointed forward to something that's going to happen in the future, and what was going to happen, Christ was going to come, and His redeeming work.
that he's connected with his first advent he came to deal with a problem of sin that's what he did now a type speaks of Christ and a type points to the future and a type becomes messianic prophecy it really does now the right and duty to interpret the type follows in the nature of the Old Testament as being in itself a divine revelation. The Old Testament, beloved, is a divine revelation in preparation for the salvation that's coming. Now let's think of a type.
You see, types as such were established as such by our Lord Jesus Christ Himself. And I want you to think about two of them. John three, verse fourteen. Our Lord takes an incident in the Old Testament, and he said, That speaks of me. As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have eternal life. When the brazen serpent was lifted up on the pole in the camp of Israel, it became a prophetic type.
It became a prophetic symbol of the death of our Lord Jesus on the cross on Calvary Hill. That's what it became. For the more, the manner. Remember what our Lord said in John six? I am the bread of life. He that cometh to me shall never hunger. He that believeth in me shall never thirst. And just as God gave the Israelites when they came forth out of Egypt, that spiritual food, the manna, daily, as He gave it to them, Christ is the food of these people.
I am the bread of life. But then we have types that Paul speaks about. First Corinthians chapter five, remember Paul said, even Christ Our Passover is sacrificed for us. Just as God instituted the Passover in Egypt to the children of Israel, and they observed it year by year. Every time that Passover was observed, it pointed forward to the person and work of our Lord Jesus Christ. Furthermore, Paul in the fifth chapter of Romans, in verses twelve through twenty-one, we see a great type in contrast.
And that's how it's used there. Adam, who stands for the federal head of the old creation, and Christ, who stands as the federal head of the new creation. And all men are in Adam by nature, and by grace all men are placed in Christ. So you see a type in Scripture is a prophetic symbol. And this is so important to see. And I don't think this is difficult. But once you see it, and you pick them out for yourself, and the Spirit of God shows you the person of Christ in the Old Testament, it's a delight.
It's a joy, and it becomes a blessing. But we need to move on. Now there are four groups in the Old Testament of typical appointments under the law, which give us a grand display of God's matchless grace. Four groups of typical appointments. And every one of these points to Christ. Number one, the place of service for God. The place that God appointed. where men would draw near unto him. And there were three of them. There was a holy of holies.
There was the holy place. And there was the court. In the court, there was a brazen altar. That's as far as the ordinary Israelite could go. But then there was a holy place. If you were a priest, you could go there every day of the year. But if you were the high priest, once in the year, one day out of the year, you could go into the very holiest of all, where the Ark of the Covenant was. So it all points to Christ. Now it's amazing that there are three of these. Three places.
The court. There were two great pieces of furniture in the court. There was a brazen altar. and the labor of cleansing. And the brazen altar speaks of the cross. For that's where the Israelites met the priest. It was there that he brought his sacrifice. It was there that the sacrifice was slain. It speaks of Calvary. But you see, once you've been at the cross, you can't enter into the holy place apart from the daily cleansing provided by the labor. The labor is so important. And it's amazing that while there were three sections to the tabernacle that spoke of Christ in a particular way, three appointed places where they must meet with Him, there were three distinct buildings as well.
There was first of all the tabernacle. Then second there was Solomon's temple. And then third there was Zerubbabel's temple. Isn't it amazing the multiples of threes that come up? And I think it speaks of the Lord Himself. But then we also have the persons who were in the service of God. There were the high priest and there were the Levites. Now they were all from the tribe of Levi, both the high priest as well as the Levites. But when you think of the Levites, according to Numbers chapter four, They were divided into three groups also.
There were the Coethites, the Morariites, and the Gershonites. Here were the three groups of the Levites who ministered unto God. And they and their ministry, they all spoke. And what they did, they spoke of the person and work of Christ. But then, what about the activities in the service of God? The activities in the service of God also spoke of Christ. The offerings that were brought with and without blood. Do you ever think of that little verse there in the book of Hebrews?
Almost all things are by the law purged with blood. Ever think of that word almost? Almost all things are by the law purged with blood. Why does it say almost? If someone was to say to you, I thought that it was only by blood. I thought it was only by blood if somebody said, what does that word almost mean? Is that really in the text? Yes, it's in the text. You can't get away from it. What does it mean? I'll tell you what it means. It means almost. Understandest thou what thou readest.
Is what Philip said to the Ethiopian eunuch. What wasn't purged by blood? What wasn't? If almost everything was, what wasn't? You see, when you studied a trespass offering, in the book of Leviticus chapter five, the trespass offering, which basically was a sin offering, a nonsweet savor offering. In the trespass offering, if a person was too poor to bring a lamb or a goat or pigeons or a turtle dove, if he just brought a handful of flour, it would be accepted by God.
God made provision for the poor. and this and then I read a passage like that and I think of the mess that we have the day in religion where people are preaching a healthy wealthy and wise gospel that every believer ought to be wealthy the word of God says God has counted the poor rich in faith and heirs of the kingdom we read in the book of James not primarily the rich but the poor The poor have the gospel preached to them is what our Lord said in praise to the Father. The poor. Never forget the poor. Our God does it.
And that little word almost there in Hebrews chapter nine has reference to the poor. The man who was that poor, he couldn't bring two turtle doves. And you remember our Lord's family was poor, but they did bring turtle doves. for the purification of Mary when she came to offer a sacrifice for purification. Now, there were sacrifices with and without blood. There were precepts that were regarding purification. Purification that took place at the birth of a child, purification that took place at the death of a member of the family, and purification in regards to leprosy, three areas.
Three areas again. Notice a multiple of threes. Three areas. And then there were religious practices. Again three areas. There was circumcision. There were vows. And there were fasts. And these things were the activities in the service of God. And finally there were seasons for service of God. There were seasons for service. There was a Sabbath. Much is said in the Old Testament about the Sabbath. Then, second, there were the Feast of Jehovah, which were also Sabbath.
And then there was the sabbatical year. And finally, there was a year of Jubilee when every man went back to his own possessions. Now from the Nineteenth Psalm, that was a long introduction. But everything... in every area that I mentioned. That was a symbol and a type. A symbol being the visible cover of that which is invisible. And a type being that which is a prophetic symbol for it pointed forward to the person and work of our Lord Jesus Christ. Now let us look at the display of God's grace through all of this.
The moral ordinances that God gave to Israel in the Ten Commandments showed the distance which existed between a holy God and a sinner. And that's exactly what Paul cries out in the book of Romans and in the book of Galatians. By the law is the knowledge of sin. Anyone who squarely looks at the law of God must learn immediately the distance between sin. God and the sinner, that the sinner is morally corrupt and that the sinner is totally lost. A good illustration of this is in Mark ten, the rich young ruler.
The rich young ruler thought he was really a, and he was a good fellow, you know. He could say to the Lord, all these have I kept from my youth up. Now he really hadn't, but he thought he had. He's like a lot of other people. A low estimate of the holiness of God. He thought he was all right. And remember that by today's standards, our Lord Jesus was a very poor evangelist. What church today would bypass a rich young ruler? He has everything going for him. Number one, he's young. Number two, he's rich.
And number three, he's got leadership qualities. He was a rich young ruler. Everything that we're looking for today, that young fella had. But our Lord let him go. Our Lord spoke to the rich young ruler. He mentioned a few of the commandments out of the second table of the law that... table which has to do with our fellowship man to man the human if I may use the expression the human commandments the first table have to do with our relationship to God the second table has to do with our relationship with our neighbor our Lord said to the rich young ruler now there's one thing that you lack and when he told him that He really pinpointed his problem.
Part of what our Lord said, thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. That was part of it. And the rich young ruler said, all these have I kept from my youth. Our Lord said, well, if that's the case, that you love your neighbor as yourself, sell what you have and give it to the poor. And come and follow me. But you see, his love was not for his neighbor. His love was for his money. He loved money more than he loved his neighbor. You see, and the sin of the rich young ruler was the tenth commandment. Thou shalt not covet.
And the tenth commandment more than any other of the other nine. shows the spiritual application of the law. For no one is ever sent to jail for breaking the Tenth Commandment. You can't tell when a person breaks the Tenth Commandment. It's a secret thing of the heart. But the law of God when it comes to bear down upon the sinner, and he sees himself as God sees him, that holy law of God exposes the heart to the all-seeing eye of God, and we see ourselves as God sees us. And God's word says, thou shalt not covet, and no one ever commits adultery without coveting first.
No one ever steals without coveting first. No one ever bears false witness apart from coveting first. And Paul cried out in Romans chapter seven, I was alive without the law once. But when the commandment came, sin revived, and I died. And the commandment that he speaks of in Romans seven is the tenth commandment. When God gave the commandment, thou shalt not covet. It slew Saul of Tarsus. He could judge his life and measure himself by other men until God dealt with what was in the heart.
And you know we can do that. We can play act in a lot of religious areas. But when God exposes our hearts to ourselves in His holy presence, we see the moral distance that exists between a holy God and a sinner. That's what the law does. You see, the chief object of the ceremonial law of Israel. was fellowship. Fellowship, the Ten Commandments, was to show our moral distance. But God instituted the ceremonial law in order that sinners could draw near and fellowship with Him on the basis of that which had symbolized prophetically the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Now then, In their sacrifices there was a remembrance made every year. So we read in Hebrews chapter ten, having reference to the day of atonement. But the chief end of those sacrifices was what? The forgiveness of sins. That they might have a kphar, a covering for sin. And that they could enjoy fellowship with God. Now the whole result. of the ceremonial system under the law was a corresponding intercourse with the most high. They could fellowship with Him.
That's why the priests under the Old Testament were called those who draw near. The thought is fellowship. Those who draw near. The very place was called the tent of meeting. Who met? God met there. with those who drew near. Furthermore, the covering of the ark, which was the center and most important piece of furniture, was called the mercy seat, the halasterion, or the propitiatory, the place where propitiation was made for the sinner.
In fact, it was a spot where God says, There, I will commune with thee. from above the mercy seat, from between the cherubim. God met with them there. Exodus twenty-five, verse twenty-two. So before Calvary, before our blessed Lord hung on the cross on Golgotha's bra, mankind as a whole possessed only an indulgence of God that we read about in Romans three. where it says that where it speaks of the redemption or of sins that are passed through the forbearance of God and Paul on Mars Hill speaks of it and he says in the times of those ignorance God winked at but now he commandeth all men everywhere to repent all men mankind as a whole only possessed an indulgence of God God put up in mankind as a whole.
But Israel, those who had the law on the ground of their sacrificial system, they had a knowledge of the forgiveness of sins. That's why David in the thirty-second Psalm and the first verse cries out, Blessed is he whose iniquity is forgiven and whose sins are covered. what a and in Romans chapter three we read what advantage then as a Jew well he has an advantage every way because God through the ceremonial law that he gave to Israel their sacrificial system they could know the reality of the forgiveness of sins something the Gentiles didn't have mankind in general only had the indulgence of God but Israel new forgiveness.
Why? Because of the symbols and the types. But that's what they had. It was a shadow of things to come. We read in Hebrews chapter ten and in Colossians chapter two. But we'll go just a step further and then we'll stop. I'd like you to think with me now for just a moment of rejoicing under law. Not only the revelation, but the rejoicing. The Old Testament prophets rejoiced over the blessing of the life-giving effects of the law. The ceremonial law.
And the whole of the ceremonial law, beloved, was nothing but pure grace. He had only given them the moral law, the Ten Commandments, who would have killed the last man? Who would have? For they're all under condemnation. For you see, for the prophets, for them the law was not only an exposure of guilt that led to despair, but it was a joy of hearing God's grace. Now let us notice a few contrasts. Now I'm taking for granted that the verses I'm going to quote are familiar to you.
Let's contrast Romans three twenty. Paul says in Romans chapter three verse twenty, but a law is a knowledge of sin. In Psalm one hundred three verse four, David cries out that we are crowned with divine grace. David under law cries out we're crowned with divine grace. Paul under under grace He says, by the law is a knowledge of sin. What a contrast. So there's a great display of grace under the law. But there's a second contrast. In Second Corinthians chapter three and verse six, Paul says, the letter kills.
That's what he says. In the nineteenth Psalm that we read in the eighth verse. The psalmist cries out, the statutes of the Lord rejoice in the heart. The law of God is refreshing. It's refreshing. Then Paul in Romans seven twenty four, he cries out as a man under law, O wretched man that I am. The first psalm says, Blessed is the man that walketh not in the council of the ungodly. In the thirty-second psalm, he cries out, Blessed is the man to whom the Lord will not impute sin.
Finally, Paul in Galatians three-thirteen, he says, Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law. He tells us that the law was a curse. Israel's high priest in Numbers chapter six and verse twenty-four said, The Lord blessed thee and keep thee. The Lord make His face shine upon thee and be gracious unto thee. How could He do it? Divine grace, beloved, that was manifested in the symbols and types of the Old Testament, this ceremonial law.
And one of the best ways that I know for a child of God to grow in grace is to study this section of the Old Testament and to see how it relates to the person and work of our Lord Jesus Christ. It does something to the inside of you when you behold it. One thing and I'm through. When I dated Phyllis, she lived at one end of the Pennsylvania Turnpike and I lived beyond the other end. In those days it only... existed from Carlisle to Donegal, which is east of Pittsburgh.
And she was about sixty miles east of that area in a place called Somerset. And every time I'd make a trip to see Phyllis, I'd always have a long time of prayer, asking the Lord to give me someone to ride with me, a hitchhiker. In those days a lot of fellows were thumbing a ride in order that I could witness to him and tell him about faith in Christ. That was my whole purpose. Because the shortest distance between two points is good company. And I wanted some company and I wanted to tell them about Christ.
It burned in me to relate to some poor sinner, the person of Christ, how that in Holy Scripture... The Old Testament cries out, He's coming, He's coming, He's coming. And then to show them from the New Testament, He has come. He has come. And the cross on Calvary shows the answer. It's the answer to the sinner's need. And you can find in Christ complete forgiveness. I don't know of a greater joy in life than to be able to take the Bible. and to use the Old Testament in declaring Christ in the new.
I hope I wedded your appetite if it hasn't already been wedded for the Old Testament scriptures. What a display of grace we have under law. Now let's pray. Our Father, In the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, we thank you for the gospel. For the gospel declares the greatness of the work of our Lord Jesus. And we thank you that when we study the tabernacle, the temple, the service of God, the divine appointments, we behold the great picture that you gave of your dear son.
to the Israelite. And when he believed, he was saved. We have a completed picture today. And when we believe, we're saved. And I thank you for it. Take the word now and bless it to every heart. For Jesus' sake, amen.