Rules...Reasons...Results

        1.  God, our creator, established RULES for human behavior.

      2. God has specific REASONS for the rules He has made.

      3. There are definite consequences for disregarding and disobeying God’s rules: the RESULTS of practicing sin and evil as a way of life. This applies to believers and unbelievers.

God gave Moses the rules to teach His people, Israel, on Mt. Sinai after they came out of Egypt. The Isrealites wrote the rules down and kept them to teach all generations what God expects of the people who belong to Him. The rules He gave Moses are called the Mosaic Law. It consists of three parts:
 

I.         Moral Code (Ten Commandments) Exodus 20:3-17   Deuteronomy 5:7-21 This section deals with personal attitude toward God and man.  Christ was there at the giving of the Law.

I Corinthians 10:4-14 “…they drank from the spiritual rock that accompanied them, and that rock was Christ. Nevertheless, God was not pleased with most of them; their bodies were scattered in the wilderness. Now these things occurred as examples to keep us from setting our hearts on evil things as they did. Do not be idolaters, as some of them were; as it is written: ‘The people sat down to eat and drink and got up to indulge in revelry.’ We should not commit sexual immorality, as some of them did—and in one day twenty-three thousand of them died. We should not test Christ, as some of them did—and were killed by snakes. And do not grumble, as some of them did—and were killed by the destroying angel. These things happened to them as examples and were written down as warnings for us, on whom the culmination of the ages has come.”

II.      Spiritual Code (Levitical Feasts and Offerings) Exodus 35-40  Leviticus 

Feasts and offerings were teaching rituals about Christ’s redemption.

Hebrews 10:1 “The law is only a shadow of the good things that are coming—not the realities themselves. For this reason it can never, by the same sacrifices repeated endlessly year after year, make perfect those who draw near to worship.”

Matthew 5:17 ““Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them.”

Romans 10:4 “Christ is the culmination of the law so that there may be righteousness for everyone who believes.”

I Corinthians 5:7 “Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed.”

III.     Social Code (general conduct and responsibility) Leviticus (diet, sanitation, taxation, military service, marriage, childbirth, divorce)

a.      diet,  Leviticus 11

b.      childbirth, Leviticus 12

c.      leprosy,  Leviticus 13-14

d.      bodily secretions, Leviticus 15

e.      incest and perversion, Leviticus 18

f.       benevolence, Leviticus 19

g.      apostasy/idolatry, Leviticus 20:1-9

h.      perversion, Leviticus 20:10-17

i.       kinsman redemption, Leviticus 25:47-49

j.       disobedience, Leviticus 26 (cycles of discipline)

Humanity was imprisoned under the law until Christ’s redemption was revealed. Galatians 3:24-25-

“So the law was our guardian until Christ came that we might be justified by faith. Now that this faith has come, we are no longer under a guardian.”