"The Law of Life and Love (Foundations of Faith #2) - Pastor Doug Batchelor

[Music] [Music] thank you for coming and joining us for our foundations of faith seminar this special revival series is designed to talk about what some of the issues might be if we expect the reformation to continue the bible tells us in psalms 11 3 that if the foundations are destroyed what will the righteous do and the devil is doing all he can to undermine and destroy the foundations of god's work in god's church his people and we're going to talk about one of the foundational teachings in our presentation tonight but i like to always start with an amazing fact i think most of you there would recognize this icon that you find over there in pisa italy better known as the leaning tower of pisa i've been there i used to always call it the leaning tower of pizza when i was growing up you know but it's actually pisa and it's an interesting story in 1173 they began building this bell tower it's about 180 feet high and they kind of halted construction after they you know got up about 40 50 feet they noticed that it was tilting slightly but they were determined to finish it it still took them 200 years because of various wars and financial setbacks to actually complete the tower but the list the lien continued to increase and architects and engineers realized that they had built it with sandy ground it just did not have a well-thought foundation for all of the weight that was going to rest upon it so over the years the tower gradually began to lean more and more and more finally by 1990 it was leaning 15 feet off center and they realized that eventually there was going to be a catastrophic failure and they have occasional earthquakes in italy so they had to close it to the public i went before they closed it and we were able to go up when i was a kid and closed it for 10 years it only took 40 million dollars for engineers to figure out a way to hydraulically pump things underneath it and reinforce the foundation and try to bring it back so now it's still leaning but it's only leaning about half of what it was before and 2000 they opened it back up to the public if you don't have a good foundation everything else gets destroyed and our presentation tonight we're going to be talking about a foundational truth and if you don't get the foundation right if it's not square everything else in the building will suffer now in particular our study tonight is going to be on the law of god and how christians are supposed to relate to that if we're going to understand salvation we must understand something about sin and how do you define that so we're talking about the laws of life and love you know one of the first things the lord did when he saved the children of israel from the land of egypt is he brought them through the red sea and he didn't take them directly from egypt to the promised land he actually had them turned south brought them into the wilderness to mount sinai and there he did something he's never done since he had never done before where god audibly spoke in the hearing of an entire nation with his own voice would you like to have heard that are you sure they were terrified they told moses don't let god speak to us anymore you talked to him he talked to you you talked to us by the way that's called being a mediator moses like christ became a mediator and god spoke audibly and there were the thunders and the lightnings and he said if even a beast touches the mountain it was to be killed and then he wrote with his own finger this beautiful expression of his will better known as the ten commandments you can read about this in deuteronomy 4 13 and it says so he declared to you his covenant which he commanded you to perform commanded you to do what think about observe even the ten commandments god did not say i'm going to give you my ten suggestions he did not say these are ten recommendations god didn't tell the nation i have 10 really good ideas let me know what you think he is god we are the creature he's a creator he says these are my commandments they're not open to discussion it's not multiple choice we're not supposed to get a discount and the reason i say that is many christians do not understand that now the great reformation brought people out of terrible darkness into marvelous light but it didn't bring them all the way out because the darkness that they were in was so deep and one of the areas where we still need a great reform among god's people is to rightly understand the foundation of god's government which is his law even martin luther had tremendous respect for the ten commandments martin luther emphasized grace so much that people think that that he you know had something against the ten commandments and that's not true martin luther actually wrote songs about the ten commandments he um he had a catechism he said we should pray our way through the ten commandments but even he didn't completely understand it if you look at martin luther's catechism he left out the second commandment that talks about idolatry they thought that was sort of rolled into the first commandment idol worship was so predominant back then that they just didn't really know what they were doing and he misunderstood something about the fourth but he said you know this is god's moral law we need it it helps us recognize our need of god and so the ten commandments are something that we must really uh know and appreciate so then god not only spoke it with his voice he then wrote it with his finger and then moses brought the law down to the people and they said all the lord has said we will do so they agreed to this covenant and so we're going to be going through some of these principles that deal with the law of god tonight and i've got a lot to cover so you pray for me as we share first of all using question answer format as we enter the last days i want you to notice who does the devil especially hate you can read in revelation 12 17 the dragon was wroth with the woman and he goes to make war with the remnant of her seed that keep the commandments of god and have the testimony of jesus christ now you know right away if you're making the devil mad you're doing the right thing and something that the devil especially hates is the law of god and his whole objective is to get people to break god's law because the law defines what sin is can god's moral law or the ten commandments be changed you might be wondering why would you even ask that question in a church revival setting now god spoke it with his voice he wrote it with his finger he wrote it in stone to represent how unchanging it is but i asked that question because there are even christian ministers that say once you accept jesus you no longer need to keep the ten commandments that we're not under the law now we're under grace and it's true we are under grace i'll explain that a little later but they think that means that the ten commandments were just for the jewish nation he knew they couldn't keep it he gave them the law to prove they couldn't keep it would god command us to do something we couldn't do but now we're under a new dispensation and now we're under a dispensation of grace which i guess they think is lawless and that is one of the false teachings that uh where we need reform in christianity god's law is just and holy and good the law of the lord is perfect converting the soul the law does not need changing the purpose for the gospel is that we might be transformed it's not to delete the law the bible says where there's no law there's no sin is there still sin in the world today then there must be law i was doing a um a debate on television matter of fact john lowe mccain was with me years ago we were in concord california on channel 42. john and i and two or three other ministers and the subject was on the commandments for this particular debate and one of the opposing friends said we can't keep the law god proved that you know with the children of israel they they broke it we he just wanted us to know we can't keep it and i said well do you believe the devil can tempt us to sin well yeah do you believe god can keep us from sin no we're all it's a human name we're all thought we can't i said so you're telling me that your devil is bigger than your god but my bible says greater is he that is in you than he that is in the world now my loner have you heard these things before even throughout christendom you hear people say well you know that's the old law that's we can't keep that the purpose of the plan of salvation is to transform us so we become new creatures and old things are passed away and all things are made new and he helps us to not only be hearers but what doers of the word can you say amen can god's moral law be changed or repealed what did jesus say you can read in luke 16 verse 17 it is easier for heaven and earth to pass than one tittle of the law to fail a tittle is just it's like a small what would be the equivalent of a dash or a crossing of a t it was the smallest character jesus said heaven and earth needs to pass away why he can read in psalms 119 verse 89 forever oh lord your word is settled where it's in heaven and you read in revelation it tells about the ark of god being open in heaven and there was the the heavens being opened the temple of god and there's the ark now what's in the ark the ark was a golden box that held the rocks and on the rocks were the ten commandments it's the foundation you know jesus said he is the rock it's a rock that was used to bring down goliath it's a rock that brings down that image in daniel chapter 2 and god wrote his word his law on stone to represent its eternal nature that's what makes me shudder when i hear christians say oh we don't need to keep the ten commandments anymore christians didn't used to say that pastors didn't used to say that but i'll talk more about that this week again psalms 89 verse 34 my covenant i will not break nor alter the thing that has gone out of my lips the ten commandments was called the covenant i'm not going to break my covenant does god break his covenants if there's anything that's clear in the bible hundreds of years go by thousands of years go by after god makes a covenant he keeps it he does not forget in fact the reason jesus had to come is because god's word doesn't change all of his commandments are sure they stand fast forever and ever can you say amen that's psalm 111 verse 7 8 and again malachi 3 6 he says i am the lord i don't change now one reason we know that god's law does not change and we've really got to start with this understanding of the whole building is going to be crooked if christianity does not understand what to do with the ten commandments everything else gets tweaked is because when you seek to alter the law of god you're trying to change the character of god because the law of god is an expression of who god is consider for a moment what the bible says about the personality and character of god it also says about the law of god the bible says god is good it says the law is good romans 7 12 says god is holy god is just god is perfect god is love there's the references on your screen says the law is those things as well and there's more the bible says that god is righteous his law is righteous he is truth his law is true he is pure his law is pure he is spiritual he is unchangeable he is eternal and so is his law so when you attempt to delete or alter or change the law of god it's really an affront to who he is christ is the word the law was the most perfect revelation of god's word it was the most awesome demonstration of god speaking to humanity they heard him they felt at the ground shook they got a written transcript of the meeting and to say well he didn't really mean that or he's changed part of that if there is any point in the bible where you could put your finger and say this is the part that would never change that would be the spot and that's the spot the devil has attacked god's law is actually being attacked by people even within the church in the name of god why because the law identifies sin and if you get rid of sin you don't need a savior from sin according to the bible what is sin i get several verses well you're going to all quote that one but there's actually several definitions in the bible for instance it says in romans 3 20 by the law is the knowledge of sin so it's through the law we know what sin is you can also read in romans 14 verse 23 whatever is not from faith is sin god wants us to live by faith and you know sometimes your conscience says you know i don't feel right about that and it's kind of like the the irish wife told her husband when he held his shirt up to window and sniffed it to see if he could wear it another day she said if it's doubtful it's dirty and so if it's not a faith it's probably not good sin is the transgression of the law now that's the one that we typically remember and that's sort of like a dictionary definition so clearly if you're breaking god's law that's a sin well you know there's been an increase in crime in north america in the last generation and i think it's interesting between 1963 and 1980 the courts began to do more and more to delete a moral influence from our culture and i've got to be careful what i say because i agree with roger williams it said for a government you need to divide the ten commandments where you've got the first four commandments deal with man's relationship to god no government should ever tell you what his name is or what he looks like or when to worship him or how to worship him but no government can survive if it deletes the last six and they basically in 1980 said that ten commandments are unconstitutional do am i the only one that remembers when we had the ten commandments in a public school i went to public school i still remember they had it on like this gold foil on the wall and the other thing it says the golden rules it was public school in california of all places southern california even and i still remember that and by the time i was in school in new york you began to see it less and less and finally it was taken out of the schools this is a little dated it's a 2010 fba crime clock statistics a violent crime occurs every 25.3 seconds a murder every 35.6 minutes in north america rape every 6.2 minutes robbery every 1.4 minutes and it goes on you know what the sword details are it's just do you know that there are more young men killed every day in north america in gangs than soldiers overseas why was it devin moore who became so absorbed in a video game called grand theft auto in alabama that talked about killing police and stealing cars he ended up killing three police and stealing their cars and then he began to quote the video game you don't think that what young people are taking in and the values and the morals they're hearing are having an impact on what's going on in our culture if they have no moral guidance they say there's no god you're just a biological accident then nothing is right or wrong and it's survival of the fittest and if you have to murder somebody to survive well it was too bad for them the character just shot what 50 people in las vegas well you shot hundreds and everyone's trying to figure out why well if you continue to live in the society where you don't say something's right and some things are wrong and you must respect human life god says so and you'll pay for it if you don't but if you think that you just die and you turn into dust and you say hey i want to make my name in history everyone's trying to figure out why i did it i think that's why he did it he wanted to go out with a bang because he felt his life was meaningless to what law is the bible referring when it says sin as the transgression of law first john 3 4. paul said i had not known sin but for the law for i not known lust except the law said thou shalt not covet now where do you find the law thou shalt not covet what group of laws ten commandments you realize there's a number of different laws sometimes the word law is used sort of in a general sense in the bible and it's talking you've got health laws there's civil laws there's ceremony laws but we're talking tonight about the great moral law the ten commandments you know it even says in the bible you read in james 1 23 it says the law of god is something like a mirror whoever looks into the the law and he goes his way not being a doer just a looker just to hear but he doesn't do it's like a man who looks in a mirror and forgets what kind of person he is now when i get to this point in the message i i often like to do an illustration just to help people understand this so you know i did my best to take care of sanitation and makeup before i came but suppose that i should miss something i didn't look in the mirror before i got here and i get here and i've got a mark on my head would it be distracting to you if i'd come out when john introduced me i said good i'm glad to see everybody we're so glad and you're thinking does he know well i want to tell you something you may not know i don't see anything how am i going to see there's anything wrong ah that's how convenient all right so this would be borrowed from the hope channel makeup room this would be um oh man look at that that's what's going on here now i see i'm trying to make it worse um so this what does this represent the law of god okay so i feel fine i don't see anything wrong but then i look here and i say oh it's pretty clear that there's something that is not right something out of place something that needs correction and so since i felt okay until i looked at this object here the problem clearly is in the mirror right i felt okay until i looked at this and so i got to get rid of this and we'll be okay this is the attitude that some christians have about the law i don't like looking at the law why not it makes me feel bad i look at the law i get convicted god wants me to feel good that's not true god does not want you to feel good about doing bad the bible says you should be afraid if you disobey there's a certain fearful looking forward to of judgment and so your problem is not solved by saying well i'll just you know ignorance is bliss i won't look at the law and i'm okay you haven't taken care of your problem jesus came not to save us in our sin but from our sin so does the law then it shows me my problem clearly it must save me too right no when i look at this i think well i felt okay until i saw this so maybe this is supposed to somehow take it off that's not its function its function is to show me i've got a problem so where do i go for a solution not to the law it's the grace of the blood of jesus now i asked them to see if they could find me a red cloth or for the program the best they could do was i didn't have time to go to the store and now i'm wondering if i can actually do it so what would this represent the blood of christ and so i was afraid of when i'm going to work so this then takes away the problem but how do i know it worked do i still need this even after this is taking care of the problem i say oh praise the lord the bible says let every man examine himself whether he be in the faith second corinthians and so we always need the law to show us what is sin and what is god's will amen so it's amazing to me that god was able to summarize his word in ten commandments to explain you know the ten commandments are comprehensive they cover almost everything another little amazing fact for our friends watching we're not too far away from washington dc where you've got the biggest library in the world i think i've got a few notes here about the library of congress that i thought was fascinating now the library has got 151 million items in it first built in 1800 it's not now just in the picture you see it's actually housed in three separate buildings 838 miles of book corridors 34 million books i told you had 151 million items they're not all books 3.3 million recordings 13.4 million photographs 5.4 million maps 6.5 million pieces of sheet music and it's growing exponentially every day you know solomon said of making many books there is no end and much study is a weariness to the flesh and yet god was able to summarize his law in 325 words isn't that incredible and it's comprehensive and it's something any child can memorize i hope that you have memorized the ten commandments it's a it's a beautiful reflection of god's will for all of us now ultimately a christian is what a follower of christ did jesus keep the ten commandments what was his pattern let's look at some verses john 15 verse 10 christ said very clearly i have kept my father's commandments certainly that would include the ten right and you read in first peter 2 verse 22 who committed no sin how much sin what is sin transgression of the law jesus committed no sin i've heard people before point to where the jews accuse jesus of breaking the sabbath and it says he broke the sabbath it didn't say it says he they accused him of that jesus did not sin because if he didn't if he did sin and he's our savior we're in trouble because god needed a perfect sacrifice he kept his father's commandments and he said well that's because he did what we could not do well there's some truth to that but the bible tells us that he gave us an example that we should walk even as he walked that's a pretty high standard you're right it is and all of us we've all sinned right but you can't say that god's standard is less than jesus we're already pretty good at lowering the standard so how many have sinned that's our next question i think you already know that romans 3 23 for all have sinned and come short of the glory of god and in the old testament isaiah says in chapter 53 verse 6 all we like sheep have gone astray everybody has sinned we've got this selfish dna that we inherited but what the plan of salvation does is god gives you a new heart and when you fall in love with the lord instead of being motivated by selfishness you're now motivated by love now we know that transgression of the law is sin and we have all sinned what is the penalty for sin the wages for sin is death it's pretty serious so we need to understand what the law is all about because the bible says that the penalty for breaking the law is a death that's about as serious as it gets so to deny that there is a law is not going to help you i don't want to go to the doctor and have him say well you know that looks a little bit like poison ivy and then have him whisper to his nurse he's actually melanoma he's doomed but i don't want to make him nervous i'd rather know the hard truth and i have him say you've got something serious and we need to treat it sin is serious it is contagious and it's deadly if you doubt that it's deadly what did it do to jesus he had to die for our law breaking am i right some say the ten commandments are not binding for new testament christians but what did jesus say now i'm gonna stick mostly with new testament now for friends who might be thinking well but that was old testament so you can't just quote the ten commandments they think well it was the old law jesus said very clearly in matthew 19 17 if you will enter into life keep the commandments can that be understood and you know when he talked to the rich young ruler he said which jesus began to quote from the ten commandments before the young man interrupted him and said oh yeah i know that i've kept those all my life he really hadn't but jesus said keep the commandments again john 14 15. he said if you love me do what keep my commandments then if you go to the last book in the bible in revelation 22 14. blessed now it's blessed good or bad does blessed mean you'll be happy or sad blessed are those who do his commandments that they might have a right to the tree of life and enter through the gates of the city the bible says his commandments are not grievous when you've got a new heart and you love the lord you want to do those things that are pleasing to him amen so if you're struggling with obedience what's the solution you know last night we talked about the importance of personal devotions the better you know god the more you will love god the more you love god jesus said if you love me keep my commandments the more you'll want to please him and so if you're struggling with your your obedience the solution is get to know the lord better amen the boy that would bring a revival another one revelation 14 12 here is the patience of the saints and by the way this is just before the second coming is pictured in revelation 14. here is the patience of the saints here are they that keep the commandments of god in the faith of jesus identifies his people in the last days as a commandment keeping people not to be saved but because they love the lord and they are saved they have a high regard for the law you know what i'm sharing with you 100 years ago people probably would have gone to sleep and said oh yeah we've known that but there's been a change in christianity and with this there there's a while where you know things got so legalistic that the pendulum started swinging towards grace and and you can even see that in the bible a lot of what paul wrote he was writing to pharisees who had accepted jesus and they were telling all the gentile converts to christ you've got to keep all these ceremonial laws and paul had to explain that we're not saved by the law keeping we're saved by grace so paul really emphasized that james was dealing with another group that were saying hey we're under grace we don't need to keep the law and he said look if you're if if you're being a here and not a doer you don't understand and so you you even see a little bit of that tension in the bible where there are two extremes and i'm always worried when i talk about the law people are going to go away thinking pastor doug are you saying that we're saved by keeping the law no we're saved by what by grace but when you are saved by grace you're going to have a great love for what god loves you're going to prioritize what god prioritizes god made a big deal about giving his law to his people as a foundational document before any of the other laws he brought them to the mountain before they built the sanctuary before they became a nation he gave them his law now did the ten commandments begin at mount sinai or are they eternal was adultery a sin before mount sinai you remember what joseph said to potiphar's wife how can i do this terrible thing in sin against god you remember when god said to cain before he murdered his brother sin lies at your door so murder was a sin and then god says abraham kept my laws my statutes and my commandments long before the ten commandments so when people tell you well the ten commandments were for the jews nonsense god's moral code of right and wrong is an expression of who he is it didn't just begin at mount sinai it wasn't cardified there at mount sinai there's a statement um quote from billy graham i sometimes like to share at the time of this broadcast he's still alive i think he's about 98 years old and he used to do this question answer article in the paper question does god still expect us to keep the ten commandments you'll be happy to know he said yes the ten commandments are just as valid today as when god gave them to moses over three thousand years ago jesus said i tell you the truth until heaven and earth disappear not the smallest letter not the least stroke of a pen will by any means disappear from the law you say amen all the pastors used to know that and you could have gone to just about any church and the kids were memorizing the ten commandments but i watched it change i know a pastor that he came into his district and he saw the kids had the ten commandments on the wall in their sunday school and he went and took him down and the teacher said what are you doing he says we're teaching them legalism that's the truth and if you start with that generation that happened about 40 years ago what do you end up with anything goes but are people saved by keeping the law absolutely not the only thing that saves us what can wash away my sin nothing but the blood of jesus ephesians 2 verse 8 and 9 and this is the point that martin luther wanted to especially emphasize it's not through works that we do is through grace for by grace you are saved through faith that not of yourselves it is the gift of god not of works lest any man should boast nobody gets the credit saying i worked my way to heaven anybody that's in the kingdom is going to be there because of the grace of the lord and doesn't living under grace by faith make keeping god's law non-essential i don't know and paul was afraid that people were going to misunderstand his statements romans 6 15 he said what then shall we sin what a sin breaking god's law shall we sin break god's law because we're not under the law but under grace god forbid and again he says in romans 3 31 do we then make void the law through faith god forbid yea we establish the law and he says again in romans 2 13 it's not the hearers of the law that are just before god but the doers of the law will be justified but they're doing it because they love the lord now you're saved by grace but what are you judged by you're going to take it up with jesus i didn't say it but jesus said every man is going to be judged according to his works that sounds like contradiction pastor doug you're telling us we're saved by grace but we're judged by our works it's really easy your works are going to demonstrate whether or not you are saved that's why jesus said not everyone that says unto me lord lord is going to be in the kingdom but what he that does the will of my father in heaven and so it's not just the here's but it's the doers so he wants us to do his word number 10 how is it possible to keep the 10 commandments the bible says god sending his own son in the likeness of sinful flesh condemned sin in the flesh that the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us who walk not after the flesh but after the spirit god's righteousness will be lived out in our lives there'll be a transformation like i said you become a new creature i'm very passionate about this because i mean i was you could have thrown the book at me as far as the ten commandments when you first met me and through the grace of god i fell in love with the lord he convicted me of my sins he began to transform me and i am so different now i've got um a friend that recently passed away i won't say his name we were at the same place in our lives many years ago and i took the christian path he took another path and he basically self-destroyed through sin killed him he'd still be alive now if he had taken the christian path the wages of sin is death and it breaks my heart when you think about people you know and they say no to jesus and you cannot mock god what you sow you're going to reap he wants to save us and he often intervenes and saves us from ourselves but even the thief on the cross who was saved by grace did not suddenly come off the cross so there are consequences to breaking the ten commandments again you read in philippians 1 6 he that has begun a good work and you will perform it until the day of jesus christ he'll finish what he starts in your life god is the author and the what the finisher of our faith now you've probably heard pastors say before i may not be what i supposed to be i'm supposed to be but i praise god that i'm not what i used to be and you know as i stand before you let me just pause here and issue a disclaimer and i talk about the importance of the ten commandments and the importance of obedience does everyone here know that i am not declaring myself as exhibit a of obedience jesus is exhibit a of obedience and he is the goal he's the ideal that we are all striving for and when i fall and i fail i do not get discouraged i repent because you shouldn't feel good about doing bad i confess i embrace and believe in the blood of jesus that washes away my sin i get up and by his grace i don't make that same mistake again and whenever i get in trouble i always say lord please teach me whatever you're trying to teach me through this so i don't have to take this class again can you say amen so you want to make progress because you otherwise you're going to keep having the same problems over and over again you cannot be able to blame everybody else but he's doing a work in you you come to jesus just like you are and you are justified you continue walking and he teaches you you're sanctified he saved the children of israel from egypt were they saved because they kept the ten commandments or were they saved by the blood of the lamb they sacrificed the lamb and they began a journey to the promised land they were saved by the lamb but before they got to the promised land they got to the law at mount sinai they were not saved because of the law but they did not go to heaven or the promised land deliberately breaking it is that true that's the plan of salvation in a nutshell right there saved justified by the lamb then they learned sanctification in the wilderness and they had their ups and downs but that generation that trusted god they made it into the promised land how much can we do through the lord i can do all things through christ who strengthens me that's why i have no patience for people that give more credit to the devil than god we're always making excuses for sin why don't we make some good excuses for obedience because jesus can help us i've just seen so many people i got a friend he was just a desperate alcoholic for 20 years he found the lord and he hasn't had a drink in 20 years and he goes into prisons and he tells everyone about jesus and he is just as excited now as he was 20 years ago because he loves the lord and so i don't have patience when you tell me about oh well you know we just can't change yes you can god is in the power of changing hearts and whatever it is you're struggling with and you think oh i've fallen so many times you're in good company mary magdalene out of whom jesus casts seven devils a righteous man may fall seven times but he gets up again and you will end up making progress in your walk so i want to clarify something what is the old covenant and why did it fail well the old covenant you read about in deuteronomy 4 13 and we started with this one he declared unto you his covenant which he commanded you to perform even ten commandments and he wrote them on two tables of stone why two first four commandments deal with our love for god the last six commandments deal with our love for our fellow man i heard someone say once that when god made adam adam had to concentrate on the first four commandments because it was a god-man relationship when god made eve that included the horizontal relationship isn't that right then you got the other commandments i mean now he couldn't have a father and mother without eve and couldn't have the seventh commandment without eve right and it goes on it says all the people heard him declare the covenant the ten commandments and they said in exodus 19 8 notice this all the lord has said we will do now covenant is based on an agreement and god said here's my law they said we will do it but did they before moses even came down the mountain with a written transcript they made a golden calf and they were breaking all the commandments notice god does not say the problem with the old covenant was the law the problem was with their promise he said i'm going to make a new covenant on better promises instead of the promise of the people we will god says i will write my law finding fault with them not the law with them the people i will make a new covenant with the house of israel and with the house of judah for this is the covenant that i will make with them after those days saith the lord i'll put my law in their minds and write them in their hearts and when you love the he's not getting rid of the law that's why paul says love is the fulfilling of the law when we love the lord we don't defile his name we don't insult him with graven images when we love our neighbor we don't lie to him we don't kill him and so when i hear people say well nobody can really keep the law you've heard it i'd like to hear a guy on his wedding days he stands before the pastor and the pastor says do you promise to forsake all others keeping her solely under yourself as long and he said well you know nobody can really keep the law how do you think that marriage is going to do you're expecting perfect obedience aren't you on your wedding day you're making a commitment for seeking all others and can you keep that commandment yes you can people can be faithful to each other and you can be faithful to god so let's believe that with the lord all things are possible now are there some old testament laws that are no longer binding on new testament christians the bible's pretty clear that when jesus died the high priest tore his garments because we have a new priesthood now you are a royal priesthood the bible tells us the bible tells us the veil in the temple was torn because we have a new temple we are a living temple you are the temple of god your body is the temple of god and so the old system of sacrifices and circumcision and a lot of the ceremonial laws that was nailed to the cross they were written on paper they were not in the ark they were in a pocket on the outside of the ark it's different the bible says in ephesians 2 15 having abolished the law of commandments contained in ordinances taking it out of the way nailing it to the cross and you can find a number of those yearly feasts these are not like the weekly sabbath part of the ten commandments these were annual feasts that's why paul says in romans look if one man regards one day unto the lord another man regards every day like well if you're going to keep these jewish feet say you know that said don't require everyone else to do it because this is different he said but the ten commandments whole different category so it's a distinction between the moral law of the ten commandments just look at it one is written on paper one is written on stone one is by the hand of moses one is by the finger of god one is put in the ark one is outside the ark one is have an eternal nature god spoke one with his voice the other is spoken by moses did god make a distinction then we shouldn't be worried about making the same distinction the ten commandments stand completely apart and by their their own and by the way you can't carve up the ten commandments and say well we're only gonna keep this one or that one it's a package deal amen so what motivates a person to keep god's law we've touched on this that four letter word what is it love it's kind of like i got one head and that one head tells my two arms what to do and at the end of those two arms i get ten fingers and it's like you've got i know this doesn't work mathematically because you've got four on one hand and six on the other but uh you get the first four commandments that deal with my love for god the last six commandments deal with my love for my fellow man salvation is summed up and love the lord with all your heart love your neighbor is yourself it's this love relationship and it's this love relationship and i always feel like the pope when i do that you've got the the vertical you you've got the vertical love relationship and you've got it's a cross is what it is and it's all summed up in love and jesus was the perfect expression because he connected god with man he showed us what the father is like and then he showed us how to love each other he is the essence of the cross therefore paul says romans 13 10 love is the fulfilling of the law and again matthew 22 37 he said you should love the lord your god with all of your heart and with all of your soul with all of your mind and if you love the lord like that are you going to keep those commandments first john 5 3 this is the love of god that we keep his commandments and his commandments are not grievous so can i be a real christian without keeping his commandments is an area where we need some reformation and the foundation needs to be restored there's been a breach hereby do we know that we know him if we keep his commandments and again first john 2 verse 3 and 4 he says he that says i know him and keeps not his commandments is what a liar and the truth is not in him so whenever you're in doubt do the same thing if you're thinking well lord you know should i keep the ten commandments or not i mean if you should ever get to that point where you're really not sure what would the answer be keep them just in case because i can promise you when you get to heaven god's not going to fold his arms and say i'd like to let you in but i can't why not lord you kept my ten commandments you're not going to get in trouble for that am i right you were too faithful to your spouse you didn't steal enough you should have told more lies i didn't see how absurd it is and yet pastors are telling people you don't need to keep the ten commandments that's called a doctrine of devils it's an area where the church needs to experience repentance and reformation if the foundations are destroyed what will the righteous do what are some of the glorious rewards of keeping god's law there's great benefit john 15 11 jesus said these things i've spoken to you that your joy might remain in you and that your joy might be full he doesn't want it to be a burden he wants it to be what blessing amen proverbs 29 18 he that keeps the law happy is he deuteronomy 5 i love this one deuteronomy 5 29 god you can hear him pleading he says oh that they had such a heart in them that they would fear me always and keep all of my commandments that it might be well with them and their children forever he wants it to be well with us keep how many commandments and again isaiah 48 18 another promise oh that you had heeded my commandments then your peace would have been like a river and your righteousness like the waves of the sea which goes along with psalm 119 verse 165 great peace have they that love thy law and nothing will offend them would you like that piece i heard a story years ago about a man that was driving between two cities and he had to go cross country and it began to rain he was taking this back highway and it began to rain where you got to turn the wipers on full speed and shortly after going through this little town where all he saw was a saloon light on a bar he looked way up the road he can see what looked like a drunk man staggering in the road wearing a black jacket he looked like he'd just gotten out of a bar fight and he's right in the middle of the road and he thought oh man if i got to get around that guy and he looked like he was trying to wave him down he thought that's the last thing in the world i want to do is be caught with this guy out in the middle of nowhere and so he kind of went off into the left lane the guy staggered off into the left lane he went and tried to go on the right lane he went into the right lane he thought i got to get around him somehow i know what i'll do is just when i get up to him i'll change lanes and accelerate and the guy's waving his arms and he's stumbling around and finally the man went off into the left lane he started to accelerate the man threw himself in front of the car he slammed on his brakes just inches tires just inches from the individual now he's frightened and he's scared he gets out the pouring rain he says are you out of your mind i could have run you over what are you doing and the man laid there sobbing and he said the bridge is out the bridge is out and i watched two cars a truck on a bus go off into the river and i couldn't bear to watch another person die the reason jesus died is because it was the only way to save us he has thrown himself in our path as an obstacle to our destruction you're going to run over them are you going to stop and say you know maybe i need to stop going my own way and running from god he's not your enemy he's your friend and he wants to save you if you have any question about how does the law fit in look at the cross jesus is up there because of our lawlessness he's up there because of our sins so how can we go on our way and say well thank you lord for giving me permission to continue sinning he said no i died to take you out from being under the curse of the law i didn't die to give you an indulgence to sin we need to repent of our sins and turn from our sin because sin will destroy us god says turn eternity why will you die he's desperate to save us but he won't force you you need to choose so jesus stands his hands are spread out and he says i gave my life i shed my blood to save you from breaking my perfect law i i want to redeem you but you need to respond as we conclude this program i'd just like to ask you and maybe you who are watching if you'd like to say yes lord i want to accept that sacrifice and by by your grace help me be a doer and not just a hearer of your word give me that new heart fill me with love for you so i am willing to do your will is that your preference let's ask him dear loving father thank you so much for the clear truth in your word regarding your law lord ultimately we want the new covenant we pray you will write your law in our hearts help us to do all we can to know you better and to serve you better we thank you in jesus name amen

Channel: Aaron

Views: 14,042

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Id: E0Q5qZ8ft7Y

Length: 52min 55sec (3175 seconds)

Published: Sun Jul 25 2021