How to Divide the Word of God

Text: 2 Timothy 2:15; Revelation 20:12

Series: Restoration Sermons

Date:

Speaker: Ed Rangel

Location: Waupaca Church of Christ

Bible Version: NASB 1995

Sermon Type: Expository

Learning Objectives

By the close of this lesson the hearer should be able to:

1. Identify the three biblical dispensations (Patriarchal, Jewish, Christian) and explain why the distinction matters.
2. Understand that the judgment will be by the law that was in force at the time of the individual's life — specifically, the New Testament for people alive now.
3. Explain the Hebrews argument: the priesthood changed, therefore the law changed, therefore we are no longer under the Old Testament law but under the law of Christ.
4. Distinguish the two divisions of the New Testament's instructions — to the sinner (what to do to be saved) and to the Christian (how to live).
5. Recognize that rightly handling the word of truth (2 Tim. 2:15) requires knowing which portion of Scripture applies to whom and under what covenant.

Thesis

The Bible must be divided rightly: the three dispensations are distinct, the New Testament is the law by which people living now will be judged, and within the New Testament there are two kinds of instruction — what God requires of sinners to be saved, and what He requires of saints to live.

Burden

"Be diligent to present yourself approved to God as a workman who does not need to be ashamed, accurately handling the word of truth" (2 Tim. 2:15). The word translated "accurately handling" (orthotomeō) means to cut straight — to divide rightly. The image is of a craftsman who cuts along the proper lines rather than across them. A person who takes Old Testament commands as binding on New Testament Christians, or who applies the sinner's plan of salvation to a saint who is already in Christ, is cutting crooked. The judgment will reveal whether we have handled the word straight.

Introduction

The Bible is one book — inspired throughout, profitable throughout (2 Tim. 3:16-17) — but it is not one uniform law code applying identically to every person in every era. It contains three dispensations, each with its own covenant, its own terms, and its own obligations. The person who is accountable before God is accountable under the law that was in force during his lifetime. For people living now, that law is the New Testament. The outline builds this sermon on four movements: the three dispensations, the coming judgment by the books, the change of priesthood that changed the law, and the two divisions of the New Testament's instruction.

I. Three Dispensations

A. The Bible spans three distinct periods of God's dealings with humanity, each defined by a covenant.

B. The Patriarchal Dispensation.

1. From creation through Sinai — the period before the law of Moses was given.
2. God spoke directly to patriarchs: Adam, Noah, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob. The covenant with Abraham (Gen. 12:1-3; 15; 17) is the defining covenant of this era.
3. The instruction in this period was given to specific individuals and nations, not a written codified law.

C. The Jewish (Mosaic) Dispensation.

1. From Sinai to the cross — the period of the Law of Moses.
2. "The law was given through Moses" (John 1:17); it was given specifically to Israel (Ps. 147:19-20; Deut. 5:1-5).
3. It was not given to Gentiles. It was given to Israel, and Israel was held accountable under it.
4. This dispensation ended at the cross: Christ "canceled out the certificate of debt consisting of decrees against us, which was hostile to us; and He has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross" (Col. 2:14).

D. The Christian (New Covenant) Dispensation.

1. From the cross and Pentecost to the second coming — the current age.
2. The New Testament is the law of this dispensation, and it is universal: it applies to "all nations" (Matt. 28:19; Mark 16:15-16).
3. "Go into all the world and preach the gospel to all creation" — the universality marks this covenant as distinct from the Jewish one, which was particular to Israel.

II. The Judgment and the Books

A. The coming judgment will be by the books (Rev. 20:12).

1. "And I saw the dead, the great and the small, standing before the throne, and books were opened... and the dead were judged from the things which were written in the books, according to their deeds."
2. The "books" include the books of individual deeds — but also, by implication, the law by which those deeds are measured.

B. Each person will be judged by the law under which he lived.

1. "For all who have sinned without the Law will also perish without the Law, and all who have sinned under the Law will be judged by the Law" (Rom. 2:12).
2. A patriarchal person is not judged by the Law of Moses. A Jew under the Mosaic covenant is not judged by the terms of the New Covenant retroactively. Each era is answerable under its own covenant.
3. We, living now, will be judged by the New Testament — the law of Christ.

C. Every person has the right to know what he will face at judgment.

1. "Always being ready to make a defense to everyone who asks you to give an account for the hope that is in you" (1 Pet. 3:15).
2. The gospel is not a secret. The law of Christ is not hidden. Anyone who wants to know what God requires can find it — and is without excuse if he does not.

III. The Priesthood Changed — Therefore the Law Changed

A. The argument from Hebrews 7:12 is the exegetical core of the dispensational distinction.

1. "For when the priesthood is changed, of necessity there takes place a change of law also."
2. The law of Moses was a priestly law, given to Israel as administered by the Levitical priesthood (Heb. 7:11).
3. If the priesthood changes, the law it administers changes with it.

B. Christ is our high priest — not of the Levitical order but of the order of Melchizedek (Heb. 7:17).

1. He is not a Levite; He is from the tribe of Judah (Heb. 7:14). He cannot serve under the Mosaic law.
2. His priesthood went into force at His ascension: "Now if He were on earth, He would not be a priest at all" (Heb. 8:4). He is priest in heaven, serving now.
3. Therefore the law in force now is the law that corresponds to His priesthood — the New Covenant.

C. Christ took away the old law to establish the new.

1. "He takes away the first in order to establish the second" (Heb. 10:9).
2. Col. 2:14: the certificate of debt nailed to the cross. The Old Covenant did not fade; it was fulfilled and superseded.
3. The Christian is not under the Law of Moses. Attending to it as a binding legal code — tithing, Sabbath observance, dietary laws, feast days — is to go back under a yoke Christ removed (Gal. 5:1; Col. 2:16-17).
4. The Christian is "under the law of Christ" (1 Cor. 9:21; Gal. 6:2) — not lawless, but under a new and better covenant.

D. We are judged by the New Testament, the law of Christ.

1. "There is one lawgiver and judge, the One who is able to save and to destroy" (James 4:12) — and His law for this age is the gospel.
2. "The word I spoke is what will judge him at the last day" (John 12:48).

IV. The Two Divisions of the Law of the Spirit

A. Within the New Testament, there are two distinct kinds of instruction directed to two distinct audiences.

B. To the sinner: what to do to be saved.

1. Peter held the keys (Matt. 16:19) and used them on Pentecost — he was the first to announce the terms of entry into the kingdom under the new covenant.
2. The terms he announced have not changed since Pentecost: "Repent, and each of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins" (Acts 2:38).
3. In every subsequent case where God's messenger addressed a sinner on the question of salvation, the same elements appear: faith, repentance, confession, baptism. No angel was permitted to change them (Gal. 1:8-9). Not even Christ changed them when He spoke to Saul (Acts 9; 22:16). Not even a heavenly vision changed them when Cornelius was told to send for Peter (Acts 10:1-6; 11:14).
4. The terms are fixed. They are not negotiable, they are not progressive, and they are not subject to revision by preachers, councils, or denominations.

C. To the Christian: how to live.

1. Once a person has obeyed the gospel and entered Christ, the instruction shifts to the demands of the new life.
2. "Instruct us to deny ungodliness and worldly desires and to live sensibly, righteously and godly in the present age" (Titus 2:12).
3. Three words: sensibly (toward oneself), righteously (toward others), godly (toward God).
4. The New Testament's ethical instruction — on marriage, on work, on the use of money, on speech, on the treatment of enemies, on the assembly — is addressed to saints, not to those outside of Christ.

Application

The practical application of this sermon is that your Bible reading should be done with this framework in mind. When you read Leviticus, you are reading the law of a different dispensation — profitable for understanding the typology that points to Christ, but not binding on you as a legal code. When you read Acts, you are reading how the gospel was preached to sinners — and the terms have not changed. When you read the epistles, you are reading the life-instruction addressed to you as a Christian. Cutting it straight means knowing which portion speaks to where you are and what God is requiring of you right now.

Conclusion

The word of God must be divided rightly. Three dispensations, each with its own covenant. The judgment will be by the New Testament for those who live under it. The priesthood changed — and therefore the law changed — from Moses to Christ. Within the New Testament there are two sets of instructions: what God requires of the sinner to be saved (fixed, unchanging, non-negotiable), and what God requires of the saint to live faithfully. The workman who does not need to be ashamed is the one who cuts these lines straight and lives accordingly.

Invitation

If you have not yet done what God requires of sinners — if you have not yet heard, believed, repented, confessed, and been baptized for the remission of your sins (Acts 2:38) — the terms have not changed since Pentecost. The keys Peter used are still available. The door is still open. Come and do what the New Testament says. If you are a Christian who has been confused about what part of the Bible binds you — who has been mixing Old and New Covenant obligations in ways that have produced guilt without clarity — let the law of Christ be your standard, and live under it with confidence. Come as we sing.

Word Study

Scripture Interlock Table

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Converted from H. Leo Boles, Outline 74. Doctrinal audit: core framework; the three-dispensation framework is the standard Restoration Movement hermeneutic — correctly preserved; the argument from Heb. 7:12 (priesthood change → law change) is the proper exegetical basis for the transition from Old to New Covenant; the plan of salvation for sinners (Acts 2:38 and the consistent pattern in Acts) stated as fixed and non-negotiable, with Gal. 1:8-9 as the guard; no Calvinist implication; no faith-only language; the instruction for Christians (Titus 2:12) identified correctly as post-conversion ethical instruction. OCR fix: none needed. Raw split extracted from source PDF page 74.

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