Sermons from Lone
Rock Bible Church Re-thinking the Rules (Part I1) Continuing our background study on the
Ten Commandments, we are looking for an understanding of the following: 1. God These were God’s words through
Moses to His people, having delivered them from the land of Egypt and setting them on a
course to the Promised Land. I’m sure you have heard about the
two fellows, who were trying to get the piano through the doorway. They were big enough
and the doorway was large enough but it seemed like they were not making much headway. One
of them, exasperated said, “I don’t know if we’re ever going to get this
piano into the house.” The other guy said, “Into the house? I thought we were
trying to get it out of the house!” I think about that sometimes when it
comes to the Bible. I was talking to a fellow pastor the other day. He asked, “What
are you preaching on?” “I’m preaching on the Ten Commandments.” “That’s
no big deal. Jesus took care of that.” I shake my head and I wonder. The biblical
understanding of the Ten Commandments is arguably the most fundamental truth for God’s
people in all the Bible If we do not understand that, if we marginalize that, could that
be why the church seems to be so ineffective and anemic in our culture today? I think
there is a relationship between the two. The marching orders for God’s
people begin here. The Ten Commandments, Law, Decalogue -- they are all used
interchangeably -- reveal both God’s character and God’s will. They cannot be
separated from one another. All people, not just Christians, not just those who are not
yet Christians, need a handle on these Ten Commandments. It is basic. I came up with six points that need to
be explored. We explored three of them a week ago and we will do three more today -- what
we need to know and understand before actually getting in and taking a commandment and
looking at it and explaining it and applying it. We need to know a number of truths. But
first I will review very quickly. 1. God We need to understand something about
God. They are His commandments. They do not only express what He wants, they express what
He wants in light of who He is. He is holy, He is unchanging. He tells us all about that
and He is the judge. He is the One with whom we have to do. He is the final court of
appeal. 2. People We need also to understand something
about people, you and me, folks. People are the only beings created in God’s image.
That can mean a lot of things, but most pointedly it means to be created in the image of
God who says, “Be ye holy for I the Lord your God am holy.” Whatever else, it
means being made in the image of God and includes the ability, the capacity, to be holy
like God is, somehow to reflect His holiness. People are made in the image of God.
People are responsible. People are accountable. The things that we do and say, left undone
and unsaid, actually do impact eternal things. We are eternal beings. We are also fallen.
That does not mean people are as bad as we can be, that the only difference between a
person and a bucket of slop is the bucket. What it means is we are fallen in that we are
incapable of ourselves to get right with God. We are not inclined to do it and we are not
able to do it. 3. Plan The short version of God’s plan
is this: His character be displayed in His people. That is what God wants. That is where
He is going -- that His character be displayed in His people to His praise and His glory.
He is the hero. He has to be hero. 4. Order of events Does it matter? As long as the job
gets done, isn’t it really the final product we are concerned with? I am going to
suggest that the final product has a lot to do with the order in which things are taken
care of. A lot of you fellows build houses.
Tell me -- at what point do you frame the wall relative to laying the foundation? Order
matters. This is perhaps the most fundamental
truth in this whole law thing. Order matters in home building and cooking and it matters
in how God puts His kingdom together. Here is how it works. Exodus 20, records an event
that took place in actual history. It took place in order of a sequence of other
significant events. Here is what did not happen.
Here are the Israelites languishing in Egypt. They are enslaved there. There are tons of
them and the Egyptians are making their lives miserable. So the people of Israel, as it
records in the first chapters of Exodus, cry out in their misery, “Lord, please help
us.” Here is what God did not do. He
did not show up through Moses or any other means and say, “OK fellows, here are the
rules. Here are ten of them. It’s a good start and as corollaries to the ten, here
are another 603. When you have them down, I will deliver you. Go to work.” That is
not what happened. In my estimation the biggest error,
the most fundamental mistake made with regard to how God works in people’s lives, is
here. Somehow, somewhere, someone got the idea that in the Old Testament people got right
with God by keeping the Law. That is absolutely not true. People did not get right with
God by keeping the Law. God stepped in and did Passover, the sacrificial lamb, the
deliverance from the land, and then He gave the rules. He did not say, “Here are the
rules. When you keep them, then we will do Passover and get you out.” The deliverance of the children of
Israel from the land of Egypt is throughout Scripture an illustration of the saving work
God does in the life of the individual. There is nowhere He says keep the rules and I’ll
get you out. The order of events is really
important. Here is what happened. The children of Israel were languishing in slavery in
Egypt. They cried out to the Lord their God and God sent them a deliverer. Through a
series of events, God delivered His people by His grace. That deliverance had to do with a
Passover lamb that was set apart, observed, slaughtered. The blood was spread above the
doorposts of the Israelites. Passover provided sacrifice. Passover provided deliverance.
God delivered by grace, got the people out, and then said here are the rules. The Law, the Ten Commandments, and the
following little rules that pertain to them was given, providing them with an accurate
view of God. Not just what God wanted but what God was like, because it is who God is that
dictates what He wants. They got a window into the soul of God through those rules. We
will explain that as we work our way through those ten. The Law provided people with an
accurate view of God, gave them standards and provided them guidance now that they were
free. This oversight, this business of
somehow not keeping that order straight -- Passover first, Sinai and the Law second --
gave rise to error that continues to this day. It is a history of error, if you will. God’s
people tended to get it wrong, speaking in terms of the Israelites. The Israelites got out
of the land of Egypt and it did not take them long to rebel. They came to believe fairly
quickly that they were automatically special. They thought God gave us Abraham and He
created a miracle nation through Abraham and through Sarah and through Isaac and Jacob,
and “aren’t we special!” “We are so special that God delivered us from
the land of Egypt.” They began to believe not only in their own unique special being,
but also if that is true, then that makes everybody else kind of less than special. God will tell them they are really
not. Moses, in Deuteronomy 7, makes that very clear, but nevertheless it was a mentality
that crept in and stuck. Because of that, it gave rise to the attitude that went something
like this. Since we are already pretty good folks, pretty special in the eyes of God, we
can earn our righteousness with our performance. We are not that bad. The apostle Paul
traces this out in the New Testament. In Romans 9:31, Paul says, speaking of the
Israelites, this is where they went wrong. They tried to make themselves righteous by
keeping the Law and they failed. They could not do it. It could not be done. That is the
story of how it went through history. They thought they could perform their way to a right
standing with God because, after all, “we are God’s people and we are special
anyway.” Their religion was one of doing, not
trusting. Paul, in Romans and Galatians and throughout the Epistles, hammers consistently
and firmly on “salvation is by grace through faith plus nothing.” Following the
model, Passover first, God’s deliverance first, guidelines for living later. Israel
was in error. It was not too tough, then, for many in the church to follow in that similar
vein of thought. Many in the church came to think, and
wrongly so, that in the Old Testament, people somehow were saved by their performance.
Again, that is nowhere stated. Think of it. The Bible is true. It states that the entire human race is incapable
of saving itself. Romans 3:9, says very clearly, “There is none who does good. There
is none righteous. There is none pursuing God, no, not one.” Certainly that would
include everyone. How could the rules change? How could it be that Abraham, according to
the Scriptures, was made right with God by faith and faith alone? Abraham is the paragon of faith. He is
the one we look to. He is the one the Jews were to look to. How did he get right with God?
Genesis 15:6, “Abraham believed.” That’s it, but that was lost somehow in
the natural performance orientation first of the Jews and later of many in the church. So to think wrongly, that the Old
Testament people were saved by something other than faith- by performance, it would seem
to be good news, wouldn’t it? Then a second wave of error was that Jesus, in the New
Testament, showed up and got rid of the Law. Many think Jesus showed up, we now have a New
Testament, and now the Law is gone and so also is the believer’s responsibility to
the Law. None of the above is what the Bible
teaches. I want to be as clear as I can be with this -- the whole notion of grace. Some
would think that grace means I don’t have to deal with God’s Law. It is as
though if we have grace, we have license. As though the notion of God’s grace is like
a “get out of jail free” card. Like a train ride with a free pass around God’s
Law, and we don’t have to deal with it any more. Don’t have to deal with the
character of God? And we are His children? Something is not connecting here. Grace is not a free pass around the
Law. Grace is supernatural empowerment to live it. Paul will say in the book of Romans and
in the book of Galatians -- there is nothing wrong with the Law. The Law is holy, just,
and good, Paul says. What is wrong with it? Nothing is. What is wrong with the keeping of
it? Me -- I’m the problem. My heart is naturally disinclined toward the Law. The Law
is not going to change. God is not going to lower the bar. God is going to change my
heart. That is the New Covenant. That is the New Testament. Not the doing away with
something that was not any good, but the changing of the ability to match it. Grace is not a free pass around the
Law. Grace is supernatural empowerment to have the heart and the will to keep it. 5. Role of Law This to me pulls a lot of the pieces
together. Imagine a serious Jewish youth, one who is in a seriously religious home. He
knows from the time he is old enough to process anything religious that the day will come
when he will be bar mitzvah’d. Bar mitzvah means “son of the commandment.”
He knows the day will come when he will have to stand and make a public commitment to
keeping the Law of God. He lives through his childhood with that knowledge ahead of him.
Finally he gets to that point, they have a party, they bar mitzvah, he makes a commitment,
he is now a son of the Law. If a person reaches that point, he is
basically saying “I can do this. I am going to do this thing. I see these rules and I
will rise to the challenge and I am going to do them successfully.” The apostle Paul
went through this as a Jewish young person. He was raised in this and he understood the
implications of making a commitment like that. Romans 7, has to do with what is the
Law supposed to do? Not what we made it do, not what we wish it would do, but what was the
design of the Law. In Romans we will get an insight into Paul’s reflection of that
event and what happened in his life. 7What shall we say then? Is the Law sin? May it never be! On the
contrary, I would not have come to know sin except through the Law; for I would not have
known about coveting if the Law had not said, "YOU SHALL NOT COVET." The Law on coveting is the tenth of
the Ten Commandments, and really, it is the only one that is inside the person. You can
kind of fool everyone else with the rest of them, but this one is internal. He is picking
out coveting here because it is an internal issue, fundamentally, so there is no escape
for him. He is saying, “I did not even know what coveting really was until I faced
the Law and the Law said ‘Thou shalt not.’ 8But sin, taking opportunity through the commandment, produced in
me coveting of every kind; for apart from the Law sin is dead. Something in me was awakened in me at
this point and I learned about the bondage of being, in Paul’s case, covetous. 9 I was once alive apart from the Law; Things were fine before I took that
stand and really faced this stuff. but when
the commandment came, sin became alive and I died; It had me. It was killing me. 10and this commandment, which was to result in life, proved to
result in death for me; You cannot find anything wrong with
it. It is a perfect commandment, reflecting the perfect heart of a perfect God. 13Therefore did that which is good become a cause of death for me?
May it never be! Rather it was sin, in order that it might be shown to be sin by effecting
my death through that which is good, so that through the commandment sin would become
utterly sinful. The Law shows us sin for what it is.
The process he is describing here is a process traceable to the natural heart of man, as
we come to confront the utter holiness of God. According to Romans 5 and Ephesians 2,
there is a natural animosity spiritually speaking, between a fallen man and a holy God.
Holy God says this and fallen man says, “No, I want it my way.” Paul is saying
“I faced coveting. I saw that this is God’s law and that unseen fallen soul
within me, knowing itself to be the enemy of God, says to my mind we do not fraternize
with the enemy. If He does not want me to covet, I am coveting.” Coveting surfaced,
and Paul said now I have to deal with it. The rest of Romans 7 is the struggle.
I know what is right, but I do what is wrong. It goes on and on and over and over again
until the end where he says, “Wretched man that I am. Who shall set me free from this
body of death? Thanks be to God through the Lord Jesus Christ.” Jesus will set him
free. This is his testimony of conviction and his breakthrough to victory because of the
struggle that the Law awakened within him. Galatians
3:24 The Law is our schoolmaster. The Law
is our tutor. The Law is our nanny. The Law is our governess. The Law is that responsible
oversight individual, who takes us to the Cross. That is what the Law is supposed to do
and that is what it did to Paul. He comes up against it and says, “I can’t keep
it. I’m helpless against it. All it is doing is making things worse.” Change the Law? No, you cannot change
the Law any more than you can God. Change me! Paul, and millions of others, cry out to God
for that change. The holy Law confronts natural flesh and makes it squirm and prompts it
to look for an answer, for forgiveness, for grace, for deliverance, for relief, for
freedom. Jesus says in John 11, “Come unto Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden,
and I will give rest to your souls. Come to Me.” The Law is our schoolmaster, takes us
to Jesus. Jesus is the answer. Jesus sets us free. That’s how that works. The role of the Law is distinct when
we are dealing with unbelievers as when we are dealing with believers. In the case of an
unbeliever, someone like Paul who said, “I have faced this Law and I cannot do it.”
Then the Law takes you to the one who can. After all, remember the Ten Commandments were
given -- “Thou shalt not, thou shalt not.” But that’s not all there is to
it. The moral Law, the Ten Commandments, lead right into the ceremonial law, which is God
saying, “Come to Me.” Forgiveness is available. Here’s how it works. The
Law pushes us there. An unbeliever needs to be confronted
with the Law. Always bring the Law to bear when sharing the gospel of Jesus. The wrong
approach is to say, “You are OK, you just need an adjustment.” No, you are not
OK. That’s the problem, you are not OK. “Have you ever lied?” “Well
yes, I have.” Then you have offended a holy God. You shall not bear false witness,
the Bible says. You have offended a holy God and you need to be forgiven. You don’t
need to be adjusted. You need to be moved from the moral law of God in the gracious
ceremonial law of God, if you will, which all points to Jesus, the ultimate Lamb of God
who takes away the sins of the world. The Law is what we use in evangelism. Always bring
it to bear on lost people. Have you ever stolen, ever lied, ever
hated? Jesus said the law is not just external. Guilty as charged. How would you like
someone to pay the penalty? Turn to Jesus. He paid it on the Cross. That’s how that
works. It is simple. The Law takes us there. I love the way Jesus’ half brother,
James, uses the illustration because we can all relate to it. In the first chapter of
James, verses 23 and 24, talks about the Word of God, or the Law of God, being like a
mirror. We look into the mirror to find out what is wrong, not what is right. We find
things that are wrong and we fix them. James says that is what the Law does. It reveals
what is wrong. It takes us to the solution. The mirror is for fixing things. For a
believer, the Law is first of all good theology. The Law pulls the veil back a bit and
reveals the heart of the God of heaven. What is He like? Remember, where the treasure is,
there will the heart be also. Heart always follows investment. If this is what He wants,
this must be what He is like. That is one of the reasons we are going to take each
commandment and let it take us to the heart of the living God. The Ten Commandments open the door to
great theology. Secondly, the Ten Commandments establish a standard of behavior for
personal behavior, spiritual behavior, moral behavior, also social behavior. It is a good
checklist. I love the story in Mark chapter 10,
where the rich young ruler comes to Jesus and says, “How do I get to heaven?”
Jesus said to keep the Law. The young ruler said, “I’ve done that.” Jesus
listed off a bunch of them but left out a couple, like put Me first. Like sell all and
give to the poor and follow me. He went away very sad. It’s good he went away sad.
That means he was probably thinking. He was probably soft-hearted. It meant he probably
will be back. Perhaps more than anything else, the
Law has to be a reminder to God’s people that salvation is by grace alone. Jesus paid
it all. The Law takes us to the Cross, every bit as much as when the moral law was handed
down on Sinai and took the people to the altar where the animal’s blood was shed as a
continual, on-going preview of one day when the Lamb would do the job once and for all. If
you were, for instance, an Israelite living during that time, the point would be this:
“I guess I blew it again. I had better get the critter to the priest. I am sorry for
my sin and Lord, I want this animal to represent the desire of my heart, that you forgive
my sin and that I trust in You alone.” It is a word picture that was designed to
reflect a contrite heart and to reveal a God, who was willing to forgive. A God of grace,
a God who would accept a substitute and indeed one day would in His own Son. Psalm 19:7 is the role or the job
description of the Law. 7The
law of the LORD is perfect, restoring the soul; These are the things the Law does. The
Law is our school master. It takes us to Jesus, moves us into a position of being right
with God. It is a wonderful thing. 9The
fear of the LORD is clean, enduring forever; The Law takes us to the Law giver and
the Law giver is a God of grace and a God of forgiveness who has already made a way. 6. Jesus Where does Jesus weigh in with the
Law? I got to thinking recently about Jesus living a perfect life. Jesus lived a perfect
life. I think of perfect life and I come up with a parallel: Has anyone here ever bowled a
perfect game? We think as the ball is rolling, “I got a strike.” “Hey, I
got a double.” The crowd gets silent. As the ball is rolled each time all the pins go
down, we ask ourselves,” Are they going to go down again? All of them.” The
tension heightens as the end is near. Let’s talk about baseball. There
was a perfect game on July 18, 1999, Yogi Berra Day. A perfect game in baseball is a game
where the pitcher must pitch a minimum of nine innings and not allow anyone to reach base.
It is a no-hit game, a shutout. In 130 years of professional baseball, there have been 17
perfect games. That’s one perfect game for every 15,000 games played. On Yogi Berra Day, in 1999, the entire
1956 Yankee team was there and Don Larsen threw out the first pitch to Yogi Berra. Up to
the mound stepped up Randy Cone and he started pitching. The opponents of the Yankees were
the Montreal Expos. Randy started pitching and he had one perfect inning, then two, three,
four. His infield and outfield were backing him up. The batters were coming up and the
batters were dropping. Randy Cone threw 88 pitches that day for a perfect game. Let’s go back to the Bible now.
What I think or you think is that Jesus lived a perfect life. Perhaps we tend to think
that Jesus got up in the morning, and went to a checklist on the wall, “Thou shalt
not this,” “Thou shalt not that,” and said, “I can do this.” Heads out into His day, has a
perfect day, comes home and says, “Whew, did another one.” One day follows
another, follows another. Think He can do it? He sure seems to be doing it, as though
Jesus was living one day at a time. Jesus did not attain a perfect life
one day at a time. Jesus lived a perfect life naturally. Why? He just was Himself,
naturally, because Jesus is God. The Ten Commandments are His character. How tough is it
for you to be you? Jesus went out every day and just was Jesus. He never broke the rules. He had two natures, human and divine,
but one person, meaning one decider, one will. Jesus lived a perfect life naturally. He
was perfect and unblemished and God, making Him the only sacrifice for the sins of the
world. Jesus is God. He has God’s character. The Ten Commandments reflect God’s
character. Here is the twist. Jesus lived God’s
character and Law naturally. Jesus lives God’s character and Law naturally today. He
lives now. He lives by His Spirit through His people. He has not changed. We are missing a
huge point of Scripture to think that the Jesus who lives thorough me is ignorant or is
ignoring the Law of His own heart. That could not be. He is perfectly engaged with His own
character now as He was then. He has not changed. If there is a problem, it is not with
Jesus nor with His Law. He lives now by His Spirit through His
people. When Jesus lives through His people by His Spirit, we get fruit (Galatians
5:22-23). We get the fruit of the Spirit. That’s what it looks like among people when
God’s commandments are lived out by His risen Son through His representative body,
the church. This is grace. Not a free pass around the Law, but a supernatural empowerment to have the heart and the will and the surrender to keep it, to live it. He will. The Law reflects God’s character. Jesus is God and He lives in and He lives through His people. We embrace Jesus. We embrace His character and embrace His Law. "Scripture
taken from the NEW AMERICAN STANDARD BIBLE®, Jim Carlson 2006, Lone Rock Bible Church, Stevensville Montana, USA |