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God's Commandments in a Lawless World

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God's Commandments in a Lawless World

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God's Commandments in a Lawless World

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How important are the commandments of God?

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Sermon presented by Bill Bradford on October 26, 2013 in the Brisbane, Queensland, Australia congregation.

 

I want to start with Psalm 119. Let's notice some things here and let's build a case for the fact that God's law needs to be better understood, better applied, better respected and certainly taken note of with regard to how we understand who God is. All that is very important, this is not a dull subject. This is a very important subject and there is a reason why it is neglected so much today. Psalm 119, the longest chapter in the Bible. I suppose a lot of you knew that! Did you know that all of the verses in Psalm 119 of which there are 176, each of them refers to, every verse, refers to in some way to God's laws or commandments. And you will find that in each verse you will find these words in each one and referred to in a slightly different way and sometimes the same way, but there is a point being made here. You will find the word "law," "commandments," "judgments," "statutes," "precepts," "testimonies," "word," and "ordinance" – all having to do with what God says with respect to law or commandments in one form or another.

Now in case you want to start reading and see if I'm right, don't do it now! I will tell you, verse 149 has the word "justice" which is similar, carries the same idea, so I will just simply say that so you don't have to worry about your search, you will find that is true. As a matter of fact, when you get home, if you are so motivated to read and check out, to check out if I'm right, well that's good, a good thing has happened. People will read their Bible and take a good look at it and see if what I just said is correct.

Now David had the utmost respect and love for God's laws. I have a question, why don't we hear it spoken of it very much at all amongst those who claim God, who claim to be representatives of God? And yet you find God's law and God's commandments, if I can put them both in the same, similar ideas. Why do you not hear about this? Why is it not said? There is a reason for that and there is, one of the prophets said, there is a conspiracy against the law. Why would that be? Well I think if we think about it enough we can see there is a natural antagonism toward somebody telling us what to do.

Has anybody here not ever had the idea that popped into their mind and have the thought and entertained it, just for a least a couple of minutes anyway, that nobody is going to tell me what to do? Ever had that thought? I've had that thought. Why? It's because some people don't have a right to tell me what to do. That's right, but you can't apply that to God. You can't imagine God who is the Eternal God, you can't imagine God who's the Creator God, the One who made everything that exists, speaking in terms to us with respect to what my behavior ought to be, what my attitude ought to be, what my thoughts should be, what all my actions should be and my words and everything else about me. Not speaking to me in terms of a command. Can you imagine God says, "Look, I know I'm God, I know I've created everything and I don't have a right to tell you what to do, so let Me give you a few suggestions!" Can you imagine God saying those kind of things? Sorry, I don't go for that. That's not God to me. Either He's God or He isn't. If He's not God, He doesn't have the authority, I'll make up my own rules. But He is God and He has the right to speak in that way, to people to whom He has given life, He's created and walked this earth by the way, you're breathing His air, right now as you speak and you don't have a mirror on you. It all belongs to Him, just wanted to remind everybody of that.

Can He tell me what to do? I'm not going to argue with Him, He's got the power of life itself and if He gave life to our first parents, He started life, life comes from Him. Does it not indeed? Life comes from Him. I do not generate life, I do not send a text message to my mom and dad and say, please have me, that never happened and I never chose my parents (I don't want to get in that part!). I never chose to be born, but I'm here. O.K, so there's somebody out here that is bigger, greater, smarter, wiser and I am here as a result of what He did, so are you. Does He have a right to tell me what to do? Yes, sure does.

Now He did not necessarily give that right to some other people, but He has the right. So what we find here and we'll get to this in just a moment are words that He spoke. However, let's…I want to first of all point out, here is how David himself, in this particular Psalm understood this. In Verse 97 and that's kind of half way through, I told you it was a long Psalm! Here is what he says in Psalms 119:

Psalm 119:97Oh how I love Your law! Would you say that's the general consensus amongst the Christian church today? I don't think so, again David spoke to that particular idea. How I love Your law! It is my meditation all the day.

You mean you don't want to watch Days of Our Lives on television instead? David is going to meditate on God's law, all the day. Now there was a reason for that.

Psalm 119:98You, through Your commandments, make me wiser than my enemies

Well how would that be, through the commandments of God that all of David's enemies then were inferior with their wisdom, if they would have any wisdom or smarts in any case, because if you are keeping God's commandments, you begin to see there's a much better way of life, you begin to understand consequences, you begin to understand how things are going to turn out, five years, ten years, fifteen years down the line. If you take a certain course of action, you know how it's going to turn out. You don't do that, and you don't obey God then you're going to find some different results – results that you didn't want. You find that today, you find this generally today in the world and society and our world that unfortunately there are a lot of things that are happening and they are building up. This is a result of the fact that we have forsaken God's laws

Psalm 119:98 - For they are ever with me.

They are EVER with me, doesn't say there is a time when I just sort of dwell on something else or I daydream about and fantasize about other things, I think about God's laws, this is exciting you might say. Wow, I thought this was dull. No, it was very very exciting, because, when you start putting all the pieces together and you figure out how God's Word is truth, His laws, His commands, all work for the good. This is a very exciting prospect. You get off of that, it's not exciting, it's horrible. So if you think horror is exciting, well then start going down that road. So you have two ways of life here, David began to grasp and he understood as he kept God's laws. He says:

Psalm 119:99I have more understanding than all my teachers, for Your testimonies are my meditation.

How would you sit and think about this over a period of time, all the testimonies, that is, what God Himself says and what He witnessed to. What has God witnessed to? When He says something He's witnessing to something, that's what's called the testimony. That is a sure and as solid as anything. You want to be put on a solid footing in your life? You want to be put on in such a way where you can have absolute confidence as to the way your life is going to transpire and the way it's going to turn out? There's a way that will cause it to do that.

Psalm 119:100I understand more than the ancients…you see our knowledge today has been built up on the wisdom of the world and we come to a certain point in our civilization in which we don't know the end of it, we don't know where it's going, its so uncertain. David says…I have, I understand more than the ancients because I keep Your precepts.

Precepts having to do with not just the actual thou shall do this or thou shalt not do this, it has a whole principle behind what God says to do and you understand, well why does He command this, so you understand the whole principle behind it. He says:

Psalm 119:101I have restrained my feet from every evil way…we start to get down to the fact as to why the law of God is such a neglected piece of information today. It is because people have to put some restraint on themselves and make some decisions to keep God's laws rather than simply taking the easy way out, many times, well I'll skip this point, I won't keep God's law…that I may keep Your word.

Psalm 119: 102 – I have not departed from Your judgments, for You Yourself have taught me. So there is a personal responsibility toward God and this way.

Psalm 119:103-104How sweet are Your words to my taste, sweeter than honey to my mouth! Through your precepts I get understanding; therefore I hate every false way.

So the more David understood, the more he was able to make the choice. He was able to make these kinds of choices. Now if it was left up to him, what kind of choices would he make? The fact that you have an authority so high, so unassailable as God Himself, then who says such things, gives a person confidence to carry it out in their lives irrespective of what everybody else is doing. If you did not have this, you would have nothing in your life to say, well I'm doing this because….what would be your reason?

Now I'm simply going to point out some things that God's laws are objective, they are the same all the way through for everybody, there is no difference as it would apply from one person to the next and God gives it to all of mankind. You say, Well I just thought it was God's people. The law is here, you can either read it or not read it, it's up to the person. So in that sense God's law is not one that makes you do anything, you still have choices, however you will have to answer for what you do, that's the nature of it, nobody ever gets away with this. You simply will have to answer for what you do, what you claim, what you know and even what you don't know. Because well, there's a chance and an opportunity to know if you want to.

So here is the most neglected part of the Bible, I want to go back to chapter 1 or Psalm 1 I think we would more correctly say because these are Psalms and not chapters as such. Psalm 1 – here is the first Psalm which kind of gives you an idea of what the whole book is about and see where David is focusing.

Psalm 1:1Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor stands in the path of sinners nor sits in the seat of the scornful.

Are there scorners in the world today - about God, about His authority, about the fact that He is the Creator and His commands? Yes there are, there are plenty of scorners who say God can't tell me what to do, they have all kinds of reasons why God can't tell them what to do and they don't even believe in God. He said: Blessed is the man who doesn't go down that route but here people who are scornful, who cannot accept the fact that God exists, nor His authority.

Psalm 1:2But his delight is in the law of the Lord

That is a very interesting statement – his delight is in the law of the Lord. Let me ask you this one question before we go further in this, one we have already been asking or commenting on. Would you say that statement describes the world today? Their delight is in the law of the Lord. You wouldn't say that would you? Let's take it one step further. Would you say that in the Christian world that would be true, that the delight of people who claim Christ, who claim God, anything like that, and the Christian religion, that the delight is in the law of God. Would you say that? A few, less of you, shake your heads. No, not up here either and it's not. Because why would you find such theological arguments that are so against the observance of God's laws. They're out there, we were subject to this ourselves, this is why we're here in this room today because of such an attack on God's law which has said, We obey Christ, we don't have to keep God's laws today. You folks remember this, remember how that went? Yes, that's how it went.

So I don't think you can say that in the Christian world that it is their delight, as it permeates their life, is in the law of the Lord.

Psalm 1:2 - …in His law he meditates day and night.

How many sermons…I can give you some places to go to tomorrow morning, 9:00 or 10:00, depends which one you want to go to or you can go to the afternoon ones and simply ask the question, are you going to hear a sermon or are you going to hear a message on God's laws outside of, you must give more money to us? I'm just simply asking you, I've been there, I've heard them, have you? Not afraid to go in there and see what they've got to say, I'll listen to them on television, listen to them on radio, I'll read their books. You can't quite characterize it this way, that in the law they meditate day and night. I just want to make the point.

Psalm 1:3He shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water, that brings forth its fruit in its season, whose leaf also shall not wither; and whatever he does shall prosper. The ungodly are not so…this world is going in a certain direction, it would be good to ask why. The ungodly are not so, but they are like the chaff which the wind drives away.

Psalm 1:5Therefore the ungodly shall not stand in the judgment

It's important to stand in the judgment, not wilt in the judgment, not wither because of the gaze of the person whose doing the judging. You've got to stand in the judgment. Now if you disobey God and you disregard what God has to say, and you didn't listen to God but you claimed His name in some form or another and you subscribe to a religion that has His name in some way or another, but you didn't do what He says, you better ask, Am I going to stand in the judgment? I'm just pointing that out.

Psalm 1:5-6 - …nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous. For the Lord knows the way of the righteous…we say, God doesn't know, that's not what he says here, David said, God knows…but the way of the ungodly shall perish.

What we have here is a person who, he did sin. When he sinned he understood he sinned and he repented of that sin, has now, in his discussion here and what he writes about is such respect for, such regard for God's laws and God's commandments, that it's something that's a part of his mind, it's part of his thinking, it guides and directs his ways, it teaches him what to say, it teaches him how to act and behave, it teaches him how to deal with all kinds of situations and as being king over Israel, he knew so much as to how to go about things as a result of God's law.

Now in Exodus 19, here was God's law given to a people and it was given in a way that the impact of it would be inescapable; you couldn't get away from it. And God chose to do it in a certain way because He's making the point here how important it is.

Exodus 19:1In the third month after the children of Israel had gone out of the land of Egypt, on the same day, they came to the wilderness of Sinai. For they had departed from Rephidim, and came to the wilderness of Sinai and camped in the wilderness. So Israel camped there before the mountain. And Moses went up to God. And the Lord called to him from the mountain saying, "Thus you shall say to the house of Jacob, and tell the children of Israel; ‘You have seen what I did to the Egyptians, how I bore you on eagles wings and brought you to Myself.'

Now, what He's saying here is that after the Israelites miraculous redemption from Egyptian bondage, you had a basis for the Israelites profound respect and gratitude toward God and motivated them to accept what He was about to propose. That is, they will be His people, they would belong to Him, if they would accept His commands. Now why would He do that? Well we'll find that out as we read along here. But basically it's this, I'll cover this again: this is the way God is, you're going to be His people, you got to understand the way He is and His laws reveal the way He is. Now somebody might say, Well I thought Christ revealed to us the way He is. Well that's true, but you have to have some reference, some basis for a definition as to what God is like.

So in the first instance or the most fundamental way, you understand what God is like and what God therefore would want you to be. As a result then of understanding His laws, that tells you something. David said this, we just read that. It tells you so much about God. So he goes on to say:

Exodus 19:3And Moses went up to God, and the Lord called to him from the mountain saying, "Thus you shall say to the house of Jacob and tell the children of Israel, ‘You have seen what I did to the Egyptians, how I bore you on eagle's wings and brought you to Myself, therefore if you will indeed obey My voice and keep My covenant, then you shall be a special treasure to Me above all people for all the earth is Mine and you shall be to Me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.' Now these are the words which you shall speak to the children of Israel."

So He says, Go down and tell them this, He says I want to give them His voice, His law and the basic terms of a covenant that he was going to make with them. He didn't have to make a covenant, this is a covenant, it was a covenant that would assure them of His duty of care. God had to put this, do you want it? They weren't requiring a covenant, God said, I'm going to put this in the form of a covenant, I want to make sure you understand what I am binding Myself to do for you. And He said, this is the way it's going to be, you are going to be a special treasure to Me…that's wonderful…above all people, because the earth is Mine. Notice He's establishing His authority here, the earth is Mine, I've got a right to do this, I can make a deal with anybody I want to, so He is.

Exodus 19:6 – "You shall be to Me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation" – now speak these words, tell them, here's the deal, so they'll know.

So he does. We find that on Mount Sinai that the people weren't to come up on that mountain, they knew that's where God was, it says in verse 18:

Exodus 19:18Now Mount Sinai was completely in smoke because the Lord descended on it in fire. Its smoke descended like the smoke of a furnace and the whole mountain quaked greatly. And when the blast of the trumpet sounded long and became louder and louder, Moses spoke and God answered him by voice and the Lord came down upon Mount Sinai and on the top of the mountain. And the Lord called Moses to the top of the mountain and Moses went up.

Now what better place than to give the commandments of God, an important part of what God is about to say here, what better place than to do it right from the top of the mountain, with a blast of the trumpet? Israelites didn't sound that trumpet by the way, they heard it. And here is when God was about to step in with what He was going to say. Now this is interesting, a lot of the Bible, most of the Bible is NOT God's direct statements – it is what He inspired other men to write. Now it's still the Word of God, don't make a mistake on that one, it's still the Word of God, still as true as anything else that He inspired. But He's inspiring and men write it as God would lead them and inspire them, but it's in a sense it's filtered through the man at the time under the circumstances in which they wrote, you find that in the Bible, I don't think that's a problem for anybody, we understand that's how it's done.

This is different – here He speaks, He's speaking – this doesn't come through anybody. Now in a sense Moses brings it down, but they know God is saying this, they know God is up there on the mountain and He is speaking. It says in Chapter 20:1:

Exodus 20:1And God spoke all these words…He says…"I am the Lord your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage."

So actually, some churches fell that's a part of the first commandment, we don't necessarily take that position, but some do, thought I would tell you that. Now we feel the first commandment is, "You shall have no other gods before Me." Verse 2. He's laying down the authority of one God and more than commanding belief in one God, He has to establish His authority and His commandments then become commandments, they are not suggestions. "You shall have no other gods before Me." He's got to make that the first one, He establishes that.

So the commandments of God, when given to His people whom He redeemed, was to show that He had a special relationship with them. I'm not going to go through all of this, I appreciate in the sermonette that some of this was read, especially the one on the Sabbath, we may refer to one or two a little bit later on. Deuteronomy 7:9.

Deuteronomy 7:9 – "Therefore know that the Lord your God, He is God, the faithful God who keeps covenant and mercy for a thousand generations with those who love Him and keep His commandments."

Now what would you think about a God who, somewhere along the line says, You know, I really didn't mean what I said the first time, I want to change this." Oh really, you're going to change this? O.K., fine, but how long is that going to last? You have to start asking these questions. So does it mean God didn't think it through? Does this mean He says, I really messed up on this, I made a mistake and now I've got to change it. What does this mean? No! God knows exactly what He's saying right from the very beginning. This is what we've asserted all along. God's commandments are God's commandments, He knew exactly what He was doing right from the very beginning all the way through to the very end, He doesn't change. If He did change like this, you would not have a kind of confidence in Him that you are personally looking for, you would be tossed back and forth by every wind of doctrine that kind of comes along here, what would happen? How can you count on that? You can't count on it.

Deuteronomy 7:10 – "He repays those who hate Him to their face, to destroy them, He will not be slack with him who hates Him; He will repay him to his face." He's establishing who He is and that He's got a right to do this.

Deuteronomy 7:11"Therefore you shall keep the commandments, the statutes, the judgments which I command you today to observe them."

All right, again, it was to be so unseemly for God to give it as, Well you do it if you want to, or some of this, well these are suggestions but you sort of make up your own mind on it. You're not going to have God saying it that way.

Deuteronomy 7:12 – "Then it shall come to pass because you listened to these judgments and keep and do them, that the Lord your God will keep you with the covenant and the mercy which He swore to your fathers."

So, you mean He made an oath earlier, you mean He said something to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, especially Isaac and He said it to all of them in fact. He said, Because your father Abraham has kept My charge, My commandments, My voice, he's done all of this, I will make him a great nation and I will make one out of you and I'll make one out of your descendants and it's all based upon a mutuality. Mutuality – I appreciate David's term, "Do you care?" That one says, I will do this and the other one says I will do that. You can say it that way. But if you listen to God, if you obey God, then we have a covenant that's going to work. As far as I'm concerned, it's an everlasting covenant, it's something that just never ends.

Deuteronomy 7:13 – "And He will love you and bless you and multiply you; He will also bless the fruit of your womb and the fruit of your land, the grain of your new wine and of your oil and increase your cattle and your offspring of your flock, in the land of which He swore to your fathers to give to you." These people were the recipients of promises that had been said 400 years earlier, it's quite amazing. God is not forgetting this, God is who He is and He doesn't forget and He's going to carry out what He said.

Deuteronomy 7:14 – "And you shall be blessed above all peoples; there shall not be a male or female barren among you or among your livestock. The Lord will take away from you all sickness, and afflict you with none of the terrible diseases which you have known, but I will lay them on those who hate you." Ah, so God's involved.

Deuteronomy 7:16 – "You shall destroy all the peoples whom the Lord your God delivers over to you; your eye will have no pity on them, nor shall you serve gods and that will be a snare to you." This is quite amazing what He promises them.

Deuteronomy 7:17 – "If you should say in your heart, ‘These nations are greater than I, how can I dispossess them?' – if you will not be afraid of them but you will remember well that the Lord your God did to Pharaoh and all of Egypt; and what trials your eyes saw, the signs and wonders, the mighty hand, the outstretched arm, by which the Lord your God brought you out, so shall the Lord your God do to the peoples of whom you are afraid."

We have a relationship here between God Himself and the people of enormous proportions, yet we find God's commandments are sometimes made irrelevant, watered down, criticized, claimed to be outdated and archaic, rationalized in all kinds of ways today, even legislated against as we see today, right? We have legislation now directly against God's laws. And they are replaced and redefined. And in the Christian world, they are substituted with either traditions of men or of organizations or churches or whatever, or they are substituted with a relief only in Jesus's doctrines. This is what happens.

Now we have to somehow cut through all of this. People want a relationship with God, they want God to do things for them, they want God to get them out of trouble, they want God to save them, to heal them, be kind to them, without them having any obligations toward Him by way of obedience. And so we developed an idea, we are saved by grace.

Look, everything is by grace, you're here by grace, the earth is here by grace, the universe is here, God didn't have to do any of this if He didn't want to. Everything that's here by grace. However, there are obligations, there is mutuality, if I can put it that way, a whole new theology has emerged where God's commandments don't seem to feature very much. The Jesus concept has taken over Christian theology. Jesus died for me, Jesus loves me, Jesus accepts me, Jesus is with me and He loves me unconditionally. You've heard that term? I don't know if you believe it or not but that is not so. There is a mutuality, there are obligations and He understands people have weaknesses, He understands people sin, He understands people fall short simply because we're human and so yes, there has to be where we somehow are still accepted, He does not forsake us and He will stay with us in spite of our sins, He will still do that as long as we're willing to take that step further and to make those changes.

You know a lot of this has been done because of people's feelings about themselves. Well, we don't want to hurt anybody's feelings, we don't want to make it too hard for you, we don't want to upset you by telling you you're a sinner. Nathan didn't worry too much about that when he went to David and he said, "You're the man who did this terrible thing, and you know what's going to happen? You're going to die!" He didn't worry about how it made him feel, as a matter of fact he didn't even worry if David was going to turn around and kill him. He brought the message to David. Now David needed to understand, here was Nathan's reason; Nathan the prophet reasoned this way to David: do you know what God has done for you? Do you know He made you king, do you understand He has given you everything that you have. Do you know that you would have been still out there following the sheep, following the female sheep, taking care of them and their lambs, that's where you'd be right now. I'm the one who made you what you are today. Now you turn around and you do this, you go take another man's wife.

So David is sitting there, kind of stunned about the whole thing and he ought to be stunned. Nathan wasn't worried about whether he made David feel bad or not. I imagine about that time he was feeling absolutely terrible, he wished he wasn't there! That's how bad it was.

Now here's what has to be understood about God's law. We're going to talk about the Jesus Principle here, that God thinks so much about what He tells us to be, what He wants us to be, and His way of life as defined through His law, is so important to Him, He sent His Son, Jesus Christ to come down and to die for the fact that you committed those sins. Now I want you to tell me now, how important God's law is. That's how He sees it. He doesn't minimize it, He doesn't reduce it to a suggestion, He doesn't diminish from it but this is simply the way God is and He has every right to tell us, every right. He does make a way, He makes a way for us to understand Him.

I want to go back to a couple points here, Deuteronomy 7 if we're still in this area.

Deuteronomy 7:6 – "For you are a holy people to the Lord your God, the Lord your God has chosen you to be a people for Himself, a special treasure above all the peoples on the face of the earth. The Lord did not set His love on you nor chose you because you were more in number than any other people, for you were the least of all peoples but because the Lord loves you.

The Lord made the decision, He said, these are the people here. Now I'm going to take Abraham, I'm going to work this thing through Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, it's going to be done through let's say, a choosing, which is unmerited, He didn't choose Ishmael, though he was the firstborn of Abraham. Isaac, Sarah is the one who is going to bear him, let's get that straight, I'll be the one to cause it. When it came to Esau and Jacob, He said, I'm choosing Jacob, before he was ever born. Unmerited choice. You thought that was just New Testament didn't you? That's Old Testament. He's made the choice, He's doing this and He said, I'm going to work up this plan, I'm going to establish you as a nation and I'll bring you to the land of Egypt, I'm going to do this, I'm going to rescue you, I'm going to make a great nation out of you and He gives them His law and He gives them the land to go into. This is absolutely wonderful arrangement that God has here. And He said, I want you to keep My commandments.

Now you might think, what's the problem here? Why? Why would you go after other gods of the people around you, that you're kicking them out of the land anyway but yet you're going to serve their gods. Now this is not smart, this is not good. Why would you do such a thing as that? Now God says…what do the commandments represent? Commandments represent the way He is and God says, the only way you're going to understand Me is you're going to have to listen to the commands that I give and you follow them and you'll be a holy people. Now in Leviticus 11, let me buzz over to Lev. 11 to show you the principle, how much it is a principle. Leviticus 11 – now here is the end of His instructions about what you should eat. You say, these laws don't apply anymore. You hear that? Yes, you hear that. These don't mean anything anymore, this is Old Testament. Wait a minute; all of God's laws are good. So He says here:

Leviticus 11:41 Every creeping thing that creeps on the earth shall be an abomination, it shall not be eaten. Whatever crawls on its belly, whatever goes on all fours or whatever has many feet among all creeping things that creep on the earth, you shall not eat for they are an abomination. You shall not make yourselves abominable…don't make yourselves this way, don't make yourselves abominable…with any creeping thing that creeps nor shall you make yourselves unclean with them lest you be defiled with them. Why? Notice the rationale here:

Leviticus 11:45 – For I am the Lord your God, you shall therefore consecrate yourselves and you shall be holy for I am holy. Neither shall you defile yourselves with any creeping thing that creeps on the earth for I am the Lord who brings you up out of the land of Egypt to be your God. He says, I want to be your God, don't do this. You shall therefore be holy for I am holy, this is the law of the animals and the birds and every living creature that moves on the waters and every creature that creeps on the earth to distinguish between the unclean and the clean and between the animal which may be eaten and the animal which may not be eaten.

Now look, I don't think anybody's got a problem with that here, but it simply makes the point, why does He say to do this? Because I want you to be holy because I am holy. He says, this is what I would do. You know what He's saying? He says, if I were a man and I was here on this earth, this is what I would do, this is the way I would act, this is what I would eat and this is what I would not eat, that's what He's telling them. He says, I would act in a certain way, I will keep everyone of those commandments, every last one of them, He would do it and that's exactly what Jesus Christ did.

Jesus wanted to make it very plain that you couldn't break the least of God's laws, the least of them. In Matthew 5:17, once again, how important are the commandments of Christ? Matthew 5, Jesus here was expounding on the law. Where is He doing this? He's doing this on a mountain. Where was the law originally given? On Sinai, spoken by God on a mountain. So too is this spoken by God on a mountain, spoken, direct from Him, this is it. God's commands were spoken on this mountain. That's why it's called the Sermon on the Mount. So He starts to say, let me explain to you how you should understand what God wants, how you should understand the way God is and what you are to be yourself.

Matthew 5:17 – "Do not think that I am come to destroy the law or the prophets, I did not come to destroy but to fulfill."

Destroy means what? Well, to loosen, or to loosen down, to disintegrate, to dissolve or throw down, to fulfill, to make full, to fill up, make replete. Actually it means literally cram, complete and satisfied. I've got a glass here, thank you for the water! Now would you say that's a full glass? You don't want to answer on that do you? Look, it's not a full glass, it's got about an inch left at the top – are you thirsty right about now? Now you could fill that all the way up to the top, then you would have a full glass. Now you still wouldn't have a full glass actually because of the molecular adherence that you have here in the water and it will go a little above the top. You can get so much in it, it's unbelievable, isn't it? That's what He meant by fulfilling the law, He filled up the law so much that it's inescapable as to what He would mean by keeping the law.

Matthew 5:17 – "Don't think I've come to destroy the law or the prophets.

You know what the greatest single message of the prophets are? What's the message of the prophets, over and over again? How come you keep breaking My law, how come you do this as a nation, how come you do this individually, how come the priests do this, how come the civil servants do this, how come, the Levites, how come you have a temple, you use My name and you're still breaking My law? He said, Do you understand what's going to happen, do you understand there's a penalty? Read the prophets, this is the message, the overall primary message. And I'm simply asking you this today, if you just added up what the Bible says, how would it read, how would it read? Now you would come up with certain conclusions.

Matthew 5:18 – "Assuredly I say to you, till heaven and earth pass away, one jot or one tittle will by no means pass from the law until all is fulfilled."

Meaning everybody is either going to fulfill every bit of the law…now when I say that, what do you think about? Do you say, that's too hard? That's tough, that's unfair, He can't really expect that of us. Really? Well we'll see. When God speaks, He means what He says, it's not a matter of saying, you mind if I just pass on this one? He didn't give you an option. You're either going to say, you know, God went all the way with you, or opt out, don't do the halfway thing. You've got to go the whole way with God. Nothing is going to pass from the law.

Matthew 5:19 – "Whoever therefore breaks one of the least of these commandments…you see how He understands this…and teaches men so, shall be called least in the kingdom of  heaven, but whoever does and teaches them shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven. For I say to you, that unless your righteousness exceeds the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, you will by no means enter the kingdom of heaven."

He's talking about entering the kingdom of heaven and He goes on and He talks about what it means to be angry with your brother and following the command, you shall do no murder and so He expands on the sixth commandment, seventh commandment and the eighth commandment, He just expands on it, and the ninth commandment. To show what God mean, not what the Pharisees meant, not what the religious people meant but how He means it. In Luke…you know what, let's skip that!

Let's conclude. I think you've got both a sermonette and a sermon today on this, I have any number of other points I could bring out. Now by respecting God's Word and deciding to keep God's commandments, you show that you are serious about a relationship with Him. How else would you do this? By getting emotional? I don't think so. It just doesn't make sense to expect a relationship with God, without you understanding that you have a part and a relationship with God to obey Him. You have your part in it. Acts 5:32, Peter said this:

Acts 5:32 – "We are His witnesses to these things, and to also the holy spirit whom God has given to those who obey Him."

People say, well just give me more of God's spirit, that's what a lot of people do, they want more of God's spirit, more power and they ought to ask the question, Am I really obeying God? Am I doing my part? Am I doing what I should do?

Two last points. 1 John 5:2. This is said several times in the New Testament.

1 John 5:2By this we know that we love the children of God when we love God and keep His commandments. Keeping the commandments has to do with loving God. For this is the love of God, that we keep His commandments and His commandments are not burdensome.

The love of God is defined in terms of doing what God says. This is a very very simple point, but nonetheless needs to be made. Remember what Jesus Christ tells His disciples? If you love Me, you will keep My commandments. Don't talk about love, don't talk about doing great wonders, don't talk about performing miracles and all the things that people claim to do and you're still a child of lawlessness, He says, it doesn't hold water, I don't agree with it.

Revelation 22:14, let's conclude here because that is the end of the book and we don't have a lot more to read once we get to the end of the book. So we have to ask, when God started with His commandments, He's also finishing with His commandments and why so? Because His commandments will always be there.

Revelation 22:14Blessed are those who do His commandments that they may have the right to the tree of life and may enter through the gates into the city. You can be a part of that city, you can be a part of the whole economy and way of God from forever. Blessed are those who do His commandments. That's exactly what David said, it's exactly what Moses said and you follow this all the way through. That's exactly what Jesus Himself said, there's no difference in any of this.

Because God's commandments will always, always, always be kept and be observed by His people no matter how far out you want to go, God's law will be there.

Comments

  • fair64
    Pastor Bradford, I am a newly baptized member of the Church of God. I'm from Connecticut but I fellowship with the NYC congregation under your brother/pastor, Pastor Howard Davis. I just want to thank you for the teaching about God's Laws. I truly hadn't counted the costs of being Jesus' disciple, but here I am baptized and Holy Spirit-filled...so now I am beginning to realize what I have gone and done seeking out the TRUTH of the living God. Consequences, indeed. I remember when I first came to the TRUTH, it all seemed like so much to do and where do I start? So I prayed, and was led to the 4th commandment to keep the Sabbath holy and in that relationship I would learn and grow. I'd like to take David's example and learn how to meditate on His Word day & night. I want to learn to love God's law. I want to learn to do God's law!! So, leaving the past in the past, I reach forward to the realization that this race, this good fight...it's a daily thing. I do know that the "blood of the new covenant" changes my heart from stone into flesh and God said He would write His law on my heart and mind that I COULD DO HIS WORD. I have everything I need to obey God and I am ignorant no longer. So now let me look into Psalm 119 and pray before I begin to read that my heart will be the "good soil" and not rocky or filled with thorns. Then I will be able to go on to produce "good fruit" and hopefully be one to STAND IN THE JUDGEMENT!!!
  • Joe Camerata
    Thank you for your insightful message. We were just on Psalm 119 on the Bible Reading Program (BRP)today and I heard your message (yesterday) where it was stated how often the words commandment(s), law(s), statute(s) are used. I came across at least 94 times in the ESV. It certainly seems that even for people who struggle with "commandment-keeping" but only use a Bible that contains just the New Testament and Proverbs and Psalms are certainly still without excuse. It is mindful for each of us to study the Scriptures for all it is worth.
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