Pastor-teacher Don Hargrove

Faith Bible Church

Sunday, Oct 18, 2009

http://fbcweb.org/Audio.html

Salvation (Jn 3:36; 2 Cor 5:21); spiritual life (1 Cor 3:11-16; Mt 26:41), spiritual maturity (Prov 23:7; Eze 14:14).

GOD’S COVENANTS – Part 14: The Mosaic Law, Part 6:

Mosaic Law, Natural Law, Government, & 5 Stages of Moral & Spiritual Decay

(Messiah & A.C. #260)

A. Dispensations and Covenants.

1. Dispensationalism – help or heresy? Jn 1:17; Psa 89:30-37.

2. Covenants - 2 Covenants/Testaments or 8 Covenants?

B. The Mosaic Law and Natural Law.

1. Review of Mosaic Covenant (Rom 10:4; Js 2:10).

2. God has written in the soul of man the work (ἔργον) of the Mosaic Law.

3. This writing of the work of the Law into all men is known as “natural law.”

4. Natural law must be distinguished from positive law.

5. Natural law (ius gentium) is universal while positive law (ius civile) varies from tribe to tribe, state to state, and country to country.

6. These universal moral laws give mankind an innate or natural (φύσις) sense of rationality, order, law, right-wrong, morality.

7. There is a rich history in the understanding and developing of natural law.

a. Stoicism.

b. Greeks and Aristotle in particular.

c. Romans and Cicero in particular.

d. Thomas Aquinas (questions 90-108).

e. Great Britain and the English.

f. America and the founding generation

g. John Locke, the Declaration of Independence, and Natural Law.

C. Understanding natural law as it relates to government.

1. Understanding natural law is the key to understanding government

2. God and the form of government.

a. God is not particularly interested in the form of government.

b. Government was added due to man’s evil.

c. God is preeminently interested in the fixed and eternal truths.

d. There is no Scriptural basis for “divine right of kings.”

e. God actually warns man about the dangers of centralized power.

f. There is no divine sanctioning of democracy or republicanism.

g. Historically those who have set up governments in the name of God have ended up being the most apostate, blasphemous and ruthless.

h. It is far better to have a limited government which recognizes man’s natural rights than to have a government to “promote the glory and cause of Christ.”

i. In the millennium, Jesus Christ will rule the world as a dictator.

3. Historically there are 5 views on government as an institution.

a. No government – no recognition of gov as institution.

b. Family Government – government is a but a large family institution.

c. Social contract – government instituted by man’s consent.

d. Superior Power – government rights come from its power.

e. Christian: a divine institution designed to protect, punish, and tax.

D. The Christian view of government and natural rights.

1. Government is a divine institution.

2. All human rights are gifts from God.

3. The Christian view is that the state is a necessary evil.

4. The state is an evil not only because of the abuse of power by the magistrates, but also because it interferes with freedom.

5. The existence of the state is a partial punishment for man’s wickedness.

6. Unless the rights of government are given and limited by God, there is no systematic ground between anarchy and dictatorship.

7. Only the Christian view of government avoids the naiveté of humanistic govts.

        8. It is the Christian view of government which recognizes that all men are endowed by their Creature with certain natural rights on an individual basis.

9. Even in the American Experiment of Freedom there were seriously violations of these INDIVIDUAL endowed rights to ALL men - by Federalist and Anti-Federalists.

10. The American Experiment is simply another chapter in the book of the angelic conflict on man’s proclivity to evil and helpless apart from the Word of God.

E. There are 5 categories in natural law which we call divine institutions which has provided for the preservation of the human race.

#1: Volition – government is to protect our freedoms.

#2: Marriage – government is to protect marriages.

#3: Family – government is to protect our families.

#4: Limited Government – government is to protect us from others.

#5: Nationalism – government is to protect our nation.

F. Blessings, cursings, and degeneracy as related to the ML and natural law.

1. The 5 cyles of discipline on Israel, Lev 26; Dt 28.

2. Divine discipline on gentile nations for violation of natural law, Lev 18.

3. The 5 Stages of degeneracy of a people and nation, Rom 1:18-25.

a. Stage 1: Rejection of God as Creator, Rm 1:18-21.

b. Stage 2: Idolatry, 1:22-25.

c. Stage 3: Sexual immorality, 1:26-27.

d. Stage 4: Depraved mind, 28-31.

e. Stage 5: New morality; inverted natural law.

4. Reversionistic Client Nation: absence of BD with it natural consequences of FSH and new/inverted morality on a grand scale, Isa 5:11-21; Hosea 4:6.

5. Reversionism in the last days of the church – rejection of Bible doctrine and inversion of BD, 2 Thess 2:3, 7; 1 Timothy 4:1-3; 2 Tim 3:1-5, 13; 2 Pet 2:1-4; 2:14-15; 2:22; Rev 3:15-16.