You can’t legislate morality. Really?

Steve Brown:
You can’t legislate morality. Really? Let’s talk, on Key Life.

Matthew Porter:
If you’re sick of guilt and manipulation. And if you’re looking for an honest and thoughtful presentation of Biblical truth. You’ve come to the right place. This is Key Life with the founder of Key Life Network, Steve Brown. Keep listening for teaching that will make you free.

Steve Brown:
Thank you Matthew. If you have your Bible, open into the 10th chapter of the book of Acts. And I spent time yesterday reading that entire chapter, and I’m not going to do that again, but I’m going to be referring to it as we go along. Now, as we talk, we’re going to be talking about prejudice and how it was so much a part of the Jewish community in the first century. And sometimes today it’s still is. And if you think that I’m here to put down Jews, for that, then you’re crazy. As a matter of fact, the church does not have a wonderful record in dealing with Jewish people. For a long time, I was a part of an organization where one of the things we did was to have dinners for prominent Jewish people. And often, I would be the one who would speak. And I would say, the only reason we are here is to ask forgiveness for what has been done in the name of Jesus Christ. That statement accomplished stuff you absolutely wouldn’t believe. One, one prominent Jewish business man started crying and he said, I want to thank you. And I said, why is that? He said, all of my life I’ve been accused of killing Jesus. When I was a boy, they chase me down when I was coming from school and beat me up because I was a Jesus killer. And I don’t know Jesus, I don’t know anything about him, but whenever people say things like you said tonight, there’s always a kicker. And I didn’t hear a kicker now. I didn’t hear a word that was a kicker. I just heard you asking for forgiveness. And you have no idea what that means to me. And so, as we go through this, I’m going to be saying some things about Jews and about Goyam. I’m going to be saying some things about prejudice in a context that has to do with religion. But it’s a microcosm of a macrocosm of teaching. In other words, little for the big purposes that we are facing in our time, as we deal with prejudice and division and hatred. Now, before we get into this, I want to say a couple of things that are important, by way of a preliminary. Nothing that I’m going to teach on this broadcast about the 10th chapter of Acts should cause anybody to believe that I do not advocate racial justice and laws that affirm racial justice. Have you heard people say, you know, you can’t legislate morality. Of course you can legislate morality. Are you crazy? We legislate morality all the time. We do it with speed signs. There’s a speed limit. And we legislated a moral action with this speed sign. What about for laws against murder? What about laws that have to do with pedophilia? Of course we can legislate. And we do it all the time. And in fact, laws are reflection of how a culture views particular acts. And it speaks not just of the law enforcement, but people and what they think, it has to do with an entire culture where the culture agrees certain things are acceptable. In other words, love is acceptable. Certain things are not acceptable, killing is not acceptable, and we’re going to have laws that deal with that sort of thing. And so, as we look at civil rights laws, they’re important because they reflect a view that is important. And then one other thing, and then we’ll get down and start looking at this text in particular. No one should take the attitude that things I say relate only to Jews who are prejudiced against Gentiles, they relate to all of us who have certain prejudices. I suffer, because my rights have been removed and because I am disliked because I’m bald. And I’m being facetious of course, but it’s everywhere. And once you see it, and once you understand it, you can begin to take it to God, to deal with in your own heart. And you can see what needs to be done in other places. Every so often someone will say to me, oh Steve, I wish my husband were here to hear that sermon. You were talking about him or I wish my friend would have been here, to hear that sermon. Listen, we don’t understand as long as think it’s for, or somebody else. I think I’ve, I’m having trouble talking here. I think I’ve told you about Brant Hanson’s book on self righteousness, The Truth About Us. It’s a book you ought to get. It’s just wonderful. But he was talking to his wife, and he said, and he said to her, but Jesus was angry at the money changers. And she said, honey, you don’t understand, you’re the money changers. And all of a sudden a reaction, like shut my mouth. That’s what’s going on here. And it’s what ought to be going on in the life of every Christian, as we consider these issues from the 10th chapter of Acts. It’s not about them. It’s not about somebody else. It’s not about us being right and they’re being wrong. Or a particular group being good and another group being bad. It’s about us. And that’s what repentance is. And repentance is the first step to awesome power and change in our culture. There’s no other way. You think about that. Amen.

Well, it’s Wednesday and sometimes when I have time on Wednesdays, I take the time to answer one or two questions. And as you know, Pete Alwinson will be in on Friday and we spend the entire broadcast answering questions. We love your questions. And we take you and your question seriously. In fact, we’ve set it up, so technically you can ask a question any time you want to, 24 7. You dial 1-800-KEY-LIFE follow the instructions and record your question. And sometimes we put that on the air. Or you can send your question to

Key Life Network
P.O. Box 5000
Maitland, Florida 32794

In Canada, it’s

Key Life Canada
P.O. Box 28060
Waterloo, Ontario N2L 6J8

Or you can e-mail your question to [email protected]. And, if you can help us financially, and the answer to your question has nothing to do with that. Some of you can help us and some of you can’t. And if you can, be as generous as you can, and I promise we’ll be faithful with your gift. And those places where you can ask questions are places where you can contact to give. And by the way, you can do that on your phone, text Key Life at 28950. That’s 28950 and just follow the instructions. And so, if you can help us financially, please do. I promise we’ll be faithful. If you can’t, say a prayer for this ministry. Alright. Let’s turn to one or two questions. This is an e-mail. Why is the Old Testament law important? Why were there so many laws in the first place? As Christians under Christ, are we still required to follow the law? Well, the first thing that needs to be said, is that all of Scripture is valuable and true. The propositions and the stories, the admonishments and the laws, are all from one God. And so far as I know, he’s never changed his mind, but there is a way that is Biblical to understand the law. There are three kinds of laws and one of them is a judicial law. You, killed somebody, you could be executed for that. And that’s in the law. There is also the moral law, that would include, but not exclusively, there are other places and other moral laws, but the best example is the Ten Commandments. That is the moral law. And then that is a third kind of law and it kind of has to do with religious stuff, like the way you kill the sacrifice and how you build the temple, etcetera, etcetera. And the Bible, the Old Testament is filled with all three kinds of those laws. Now, the religious law is no longer relevant because it was a shadow of a reality, the book of Hebrews says, and the reality was Jesus. And so, you don’t have to sacrifice a lamb anymore because the Lamb has been sacrificed and chose to be sacrificed for us. And there are other areas where that is true. And so, the religious law is no longer relevant. What about the judicial law? Well, they were given because at that time Israel was a theocracy. In other words, it was a government that was ruled by God and was kept going by God’s people. And there were certain things about God that were very important in a theocracy and we don’t live in a theocracy anymore. And so those laws are, now they’re helpful, but they’re no longer relevant. And then there is the moral law and the moral law has two primary purposes. There’s some others. But let me just tell you two because that’s all the time that I have. First, the Psalmist says the law of God is perfect. What does it mean by that? It tells you the truth about how to live, about what’s good or bad and what’s right and what’s wrong. And that’s very important, but even more important said Martin Luther. The law, lets you know who you really are and what you need, and that would be a Savior. As you go through the laws of God, you are able to see what’s right and how rarely you did what was right, what was good and how good you weren’t. That’s when you run to Jesus and the law has done it’s purpose. Hey, I’ve gotta go. But first let me say, Key Life is a listener supported production of Key Life Network.