The Connection Between Repentance and God's Law

You have been baptized because our baptismal statement has been the same for at least 70 years. It hasn't changed. You may have witnessed that a question was asked to a person before they were plunged to the immersion of the water. After they were asked if they accepted Jesus Christ as their personal Savior, because obviously it's all about Christ, they were asked another question. And the question we asked last week was, have you repented of your sins? And when the person answered affirmatively, they were told as a result of the repentance of your sins, which are contrary and against God's holy, righteous, and perfect law, and since you accepted Jesus Christ as your personal Savior, I baptize you, and we baptize the person at that point. But why is this statement in a baptismal ceremony? Why talk about sin at all? Why talk about law at all? It's interesting to me because many professing Christians that I know don't really understand what sin is. And many of them don't understand what God's commandments are. Even the Ten Commandments, there are segments of Christian belief that believe that the Ten Commandments were done away. That the Ten Commandments are obsolete, that they've been put aside, that they've been replaced with something. They've been obsolete since Jesus Christ was nailed to the cross. Many are taught today that the commandments of God are a burden, and that they've been replaced with something like faith or grace, as if faith or grace somehow is contrary to standards and rules and God's law. So what's the truth about sin? What's the real nature of the Ten Commandments? Today I would like to answer these questions in this sermon. Let's begin by going to Genesis chapter 4. Genesis chapter 4, and I'll ask a question as we start today. Were the commandments of God instituted before the time of Moses? This is an important question because many very sincere people believe that the Ten Commandments were only introduced to Moses, and that therefore they were part of the law of Moses. All the stuff you find in the Old Testament is a complete package along with the Ten Commandments. And that when the law of Moses was done away, all the rituals and regulations, then the Ten Commandments were done away as well. That's how the philosophy goes. But I want to ask the questions. Were the commandments of God instituted before the time of Moses? Genesis chapter 4, beginning in verse 1, going back to the time of the early history of Man. It says, Now Adam knew his wife Eve, meaning they had miracle relations, and she conceived and bore Cain, and said, I have acquired a man from the Lord. So she gave God credit. She realized what a beautiful creation it is for a child to be born.

Verse 2, and she bore again, and his brother was Abel. Now Abel was a keeper of sheep, but Cain was a tiller of the ground. Verse 3, and in the process of time, of course, the parents taught them about worshiping God, acknowledging the Creator. In the process of time, it came to pass that Cain brought an offering of the fruit of the ground to the Lord. So it might have been wheat, something that he grew.

He was an agricultural type farmer. And it says here that he brought an offering of fruit of the ground to the Lord. It doesn't even say it was his best. It doesn't say that it was choice. Prime, it just says that he brought the fruit of the ground as an offering to the Lord. And that was one type of offering. In contrast, it says Abel also brought of the firstborn of his flock and their fat. So Abel brings the best that he's got. The choice is the most desired, which was the firstborn animal that had been waited for so long as whatever it was that cow went through gestation, or whatever animal it was, he waited eagerly.

Finally it was born, it was the firstborn of the season. The most anticipated, the most important to him, and he took that. And he brought that to God as an offering. It says in the Lord respected Abel in his offering, but he did not respect Cain and his offering.

Why? Because Cain tried to give God's second best. Cain was giving a token offering. There's a good lesson and a value there about our own life, isn't there? That God wants the best from us. He doesn't want ritual. He doesn't want us to just go through the motions. He doesn't want us to be an autopilot. He wants our best. That means the best of our time, the best of our lives. That's what God wants from us. It says, and Cain was very angry and his countenance fell.

God could look at his face and see that he was upset. Cain was visibly upset. So the Lord said to Cain, why are you angry and why has your countenance fallen? If you do well, will you not be accepted? God says it's not really this hard, Cain. All you have to do is have your brother's attitude and I'll love you as much as I love your brother. You'll be as accepted and as awesome and as wonderful in my eyes as your brother is. All you have to do is do what's right. I'm not an exclusive God. I'm not favoring your brother over you. I love your brother because your brother's giving me his best.

If you do well, will you not be accepted? And if you do not do well, sin lies at the door. God says, I perceive an attitude in you called hate, later expressed by Jesus in Matthew chapter 5, when Jesus was giving the spiritual perception of the law of God. He says sin lies at the door. The new international version says sin is crouching. In other words, sin is ready to pounce on you because your attitude is bitter. You have hatred towards your brother in your heart. Continuing, and its desire is for you, but you should rule over it.

The head should rule over the heart. Where did we hear that? We heard that last Sabbath, didn't we? He said, you should take control. You should seize control of your emotions and your attitude. And you should rule over it. Now Cain talked with Abel, his brother, and it came to pass when they were in the field.

That Cain rose up against Abel, his brother, and he killed him. So Cain sinned by killing his brother Abel. Now, I'm not going to finish the story about what happened because that's not the point of the sermon. The point is, I want you to notice that it says sin lies at the door. That's what God told him, and he killed his brother. In order for sin to exist, the law of God must exist that defines something as being wrong.

It defines and acts as sin. In order for sin to be in the heart of Cain, a law had to exist that said, if you hate someone, that's bad. If you think of murdering someone or if you physically kill someone, that is bad. That is evil. Now, one may say, how do we know that the law broken was one of God's moral law, later proclaimed as one of the Ten Commandments? The answer is the context. God looks at his heart, he mentions that he hates his brother, sin is crouching, it's lying at the door, and what does hate lead to? Hate leads to what he did. It leads to murder.

It leads to killing someone. That later would become known as the Sixth Commandment. Thou shalt not kill. But you know, even before this event, Adam and Eve coveted the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, didn't they?

And that got them in trouble. What is coveting? It's the Tenth Commandment. You shall not covet. They dishonored their father by not obeying him, didn't they? When God said, this is what you should do and don't eat of this tree and the aid of it, didn't they dishonor? They disobeyed their father? That violated another one of God's commandments, honor your mother and your father. How about when the serpent lied to Adam and even told them something about themselves that was untrue, that you have eternal life already. You're not going to die if you sin, if you... Yeah! You're not going to die why it's going to take you to a whole new level.

Yeah, it took them to a whole new level, alright? Shame, guilt, despondency, and the human race has been at that whole new level, unfortunately, ever since, hasn't it? So, the serpent lied to Adam and Eve.

These are all transgressions of God's great moral law that later would be known of as the Ten Commandments. It's rather absurd to think that God created Adam and Eve and didn't teach them the very moral laws that would govern their relationship with their Creator and with each other. You know, a little over a year ago, I got a new lease car. And like every other car that I've ever bought in my life, I opened the glove compartment and you know what was there? There was an owner's manual that told me how to have a healthy relationship with the car.

And it says you should change your oil every 6,000 miles, not 60,000 miles. Right? And it says you should do all of this maintenance to keep a healthy relationship with this major investment that you just made called an automobile. Why would we think that God would have created Adam and Eve and not given them an owner's manual, given them His law for them to live by and to regulate their happiness and fulfillment in their lives?

So we see very early on that sin is mentioned in Genesis 4, the sin of murder that was reflected by the fact that Cain killed evil. Now let's go to Genesis chapter 18. Let's take a look at another example. Genesis chapter 18 and verse 17, God's relationship with Abraham.

Genesis 18, 17. And the Lord said, just to give you a little bit of background, the Lord was going to destroy Sodom and Gomorrah because of a sexual deviation that was going on in those cities.

And He says, God says, I know this man. You know what I like about Abraham? I know that he's going to teach the things that I teach him to his children and grandchildren. He's going to pass on that knowledge to his children and grandchildren that they may keep the way of the Lord, that they can be righteous, that they can live a life of justice. And that the Lord may bring to Abraham what he has spoken to him. And the Lord said, because the outcry against Sodom and Gomorrah is great, and because their sin is very grave. And we'll stop right there, because again, it's not the purpose of the sermon to go through these stories except to point out the fact that God says that sin existed. This is about 500 years before Moses was even born. So we're nowhere near the time of the Ten Commandments being given. One may ask, well, how do you know that the law broken was one of God's great moral laws proclaimed as the Ten Commandments? And again, the answer is context. Sodom and Gomorrah were being judged by God because of sexual deviancy. And sexual deviancy violates the marriage covenant relationship that God established from the beginning. That was with one man and one woman. That's God's marital relationship. That's a type of relationship that produces a healthy family. God is a family. God is building a family. That's why the marriage relationship is so important to him. So here again we see that one of the laws that later are known as the Ten Commandments when given by Moses, one of these laws, the law of the sacredness of marriage is being violated by a society, and God refers to it as sin. Genesis chapter 26 and verse 4. Genesis chapter 26 and verse 4.

Well, we're still in the book of Genesis here.

God speaking to Abraham, I will make your offspring as numerous as the stars of heaven, and I will give to your offspring all these lands and all the nations of the earth shall gain blessing for themselves through your offspring, because Abraham obeyed my voice and kept my charge, my commandments, my statutes, and my laws. I want you to notice the clear distinction between the commandments and statutes and laws. Sometimes the words, commandments, and laws are used interchangeably in Scripture, and sometimes they are clearly separated like in this case.

And what I want to emphasize is the fact that you cannot take God's eternal law, which are His value system, a law that says you shouldn't steal from someone, that is part of God's value system.

You don't steal from someone because you are taking something that doesn't belong to you. You are hurting someone else who probably worked hard for what they have.

That's not some temporary law that you can just do away. That's part of God's value system. That's who and what He is. Just not killing someone violates God's value system. Now God has the right to do that because He is the Creator, and He has the right to take someone's life like I have the right to tear apart a birdhouse that I made that looks odd.

So I break it down and I tear it apart and I start over again. I'm the creator of that object. I have the right to do that. God has the right to take human life, but we don't. That is the prerogative, of course, of the Creator. So the thing that I want to emphasize here is that it's an error to assume that the word law always refers to the Ten Commandments and the later law of Moses as a package because they are distinct. They're different from one another. Let's now go to Genesis 39 and verse 9. Get back to our examples of seeing sin defined before the Ten Commandments are ever given.

Genesis chapter 39 and verse 9. I won't go into this great detail because I mentioned this briefly in the sermon last week. We're all familiar with the story of Joseph becoming the household manager of Potiphar, and Potiphar's wife tries to tempt him into committing adultery. Now, it is thought by many, and this is just speculation, that like many officials in Egypt, that Potiphar was a eunuch, and that his wife was a trophy wife. If you were a high official, you obviously would want to have this beautiful trophy wife that you could show off to all of your peers. But because he was a eunuch and she was a trophy wife, let's just say that there he goes, that she might have been a little bit lonely. So she was tempting Joseph to commit adultery with her, and his response, Genesis chapter 39 and verse 9, he says, there is no one greater in his house than I, nor is he kept back anything from me but you, because you are his wife. How then can I do this great wickedness and sin against God? So it's obvious to Joseph that adultery is a violation of God's law. He doesn't even say here that it's a sin against Potiphar. He says, by doing this with you, madam, would be a sin against God. Sexual relations outside of marriage violates. That marriage covenant that's known later on is the Seventh Commandment.

So once again we see long before the Ten Commandments are given, there are eternal laws that God reveals to people so that they can regulate their lives and their conduct. Let's take a look at Genesis chapter 42. Genesis chapter 42 and verse 18. This is an interesting little story. Joseph decides the toy with his brothers a little bit. He wants them to squirm. He wants them to be in torment for a while, so they come to Egypt to buy grain. They don't recognize him, but he recognizes them. So he's going to play with them a little bit. He also does something that's kind of cute. He understands what they're saying. Again, they don't recognize who he is, but what he does is he uses an interpreter, and he says to the Egyptian interpreter, he speaks to the interpreter in Egyptian, the Egyptian speaks to Semitic, to Hebrew, to his brothers. They respond to the Egyptian interpreter, and then the Egyptian interpreter in Egyptian speaks to Joseph. But all the time, he knows exactly what they're saying. So he puts on this front, because he wants them to roast. He wants them to squirm a little bit, because of what they did to him. So he accuses them of being spies, and he puts them in a prison and lets them rot for three days. And by the way, you know what the penalty for spying was in ancient Egypt, treason? It was not a five-dollar fine. It was death. So we'll pick up the story here. Then Joseph said to them the third day, so he lets them roast for a while, lets them stew. He says, Do this and live, for I fear God. If you are an honest man, let one of your brothers be confined to your prison house. So leave one brother behind, he says, but you go and carry grain for the famine of your houses and bring your youngest brother to me. That's Benjamin. So your words will be verified, and you shall not die. And they did so. And they said to one another, We are truly guilty concerning our brother, for we saw the anguish of his soul when he pleaded with us. And we should not hear that we would not hear. Therefore, this distress has come upon us. Remember, they sold their brother into slavery because they were jealous of him. He was preferred by their father. Verse 22, And Reuben answered them, saying, Did I not speak to you, saying, Do not sin against the boy? What's that word that's there again? Sin. How do you know what sin is if there isn't a law to define that something is bad and evil? They hated their brother, and that was not a good thing. Therefore, behold, his blood is now required at us. He says, We're getting payback because of the way that we treated our brother Joseph.

Verse 23, But they did not know that Joseph understood them, for he spoke to them through an interpreter. So Reuben knew what sin was. How did he and his brother Joseph, who had resisted Potiphar's wife, know what sin is? They were taught by their father, the laws of God, perhaps taught by their grandfather Isaac.

How did Isaac know? He was taught God's commandments by his father, Abraham. Remember God had said to Abraham, I know him, and what I like about Abraham is I know that he will teach his descendants my laws and my commandments and my statutes. Now let's go to Genesis chapter 50 and take a look at the final words of Joseph's father, Jacob, as he dies. Genesis chapter 50, we'll pick it up here in verse 17.

Remember, we're not at Mount Sinai yet. There are no officially no written laws given to anyone at this time. Genesis chapter 50 and verse 17, Thus you shall say to Joseph, I beg you, please forgive the trespass of your brothers and their sin, for they did evil to you.

Now please forgive the trespass of the servants of the God of your father, and Joseph wept when they spoke to him.

As it says in the New International Version, now please forgive the sins of the servants of the God of your father, and when their message came to him, Joseph wept.

Now a person might ask again, if they're rather skeptical, how do we know that the law broken was one of God's moral law proclaimed later as the Ten Commandments? So again, the answer is always context. The brothers of Joseph coveted the relationship that he had with his father. What is governing? That's the tenth later known as the Tenth Commandment. They failed to honor their father. They knew that Joseph was his father's favorite. And yet they took something very precious away from their father, his own son.

They dishonored their father. That later becomes known as one of the Ten Commandments. They also hated Joseph. They lied to their father, saying that he had been destroyed by a wild animal. They put blood on his clothes and brought the clothes back and lied to his father. What is bearing false witness? Thigh is violating yet another one of what are later codified as the Ten Commandments. So these scriptures obviously indicate that the commandments of God were known and recognized from the time of Adam through the lives of the patriarchs. So what happens? They go into Egypt. At first they're welcomed into Egypt as long as Joseph is alive and then a period of time goes by. And another pharaoh arises. Joseph grows old and dies. And eventually the Israelites are despised in Egypt. They become slaves in Egypt and they lose their knowledge of God. So it's only right and understandable that Israel would have lost the knowledge of God, including the knowledge of his commandments, when they were slaves in Egypt for hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of years. Let's go to Exodus chapter 19 and verse 20. It's for this reason that the Ten Commandments were given by God at Sinai to this slave people coming out of Egypt who had lost knowledge of God. So now let me ask another question. Who gave the Ten Commandments to the nation of Israel?

Well, if you look at the Bible that we have it, Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy, those were all penned by Moses being a mediator, meaning God spoke directly to Moses. Moses would write it down and as a mediator he would tell the people what God said. But the Ten Commandments are different. The Ten Commandments are unique. There is no mediator. The words are directly from God to the people. Exodus chapter 19 and verse 20 says, then the Lord came down upon Mount Sinai. So he's going to reveal his law to the people of Israel. On the top of the mountain and the Lord called Moses to the top of the mountain and Moses went up. And the Lord said to Moses, I want you to go down and warn the people lest they break through to gaze at the Lord and many of them perish. God says, my glory is too magnificent for them to look at me. It's like looking directly at the sun, but only being ten feet from that ball of fire in the sky. If they get curious and they break through the barriers you put up and they come up here to see God, they literally are going to die. He says, so you've got to be careful. Verse 22, and let the priest who come near to the Lord consecrate themselves lest the Lord break out against them. But Moses said to the Lord, the people can not come up to Mount Sinai, for you warned us, saying, set bounds around the mountain and consecrate it. The Lord said to him, go down and come upbringing Aaron with you, but do not let either the priest or the people break through to come up to the Lord. Otherwise, he will break out against them. So Moses went down to the people and told them. Then God spoke all these words.

God was at the top of the mountain. They were at the bottom of the mountain. Along with thunderings and lightnings and complete terror, God doesn't just speak the Moses and then Moses tells the people what God says. As is usually the case, God spoke directly to the people. It says, then God spoke all these words and the Ten Commandments are given. Now in fear they pleaded with Moses to become a mediator. They were naturally afraid of God's awesome power that was reflected by lightning and thunder and shaking like an earthquake. But from the top of Mount Sinai, God thundered out the commandments into the ears of the people. This was a rare, very rare event because, again, usually God spoke with Moses and he brought the words to the people as a mediator. Let's confirm this event later on, Deuteronomy chapter 5 and verse 1. Let's go there and again confirm the fact that this law, that these commandments are given directly between God to the people themselves. And the reason we want to emphasize this is the importance of these commandments. Far more important than the rituals that Moses is given. Far more important than the civil laws and the statutes that Moses records down in the books of Leviticus and Deuteronomy. Deuteronomy chapter 5 and verse 1, he's recalling the history of what had occurred that we read in Exodus 19.

Now verse 4, the Lord talked with you face to face on the mountain in the midst of the fire. I stood between the Lord and you at that time to declare to you the word of the Lord, for you were afraid because of the fire and you did not go up to the mountain. He said, and once again he mentions what the Ten Commandments are.

Now what does it mean here that when Moses says I stood between you and the Lord at that time? Well, God knew that he needed to give his commandments to Moses in the form of tablets of stone. This was done to leave a written code for the people since an oral message would soon be corrupted. Have you ever played that game where you get like ten people in a row and you make a statement to the first person?

And they say it to the second, they say it to the third and fourth. You get to the tenth person and say, okay, repeat to me what you heard. And usually they repeat back to you something that is totally different than what was said to the first person. That's why you can't have an oral law. You have to have something written down or it becomes corrupted. So why is it significant that God gave his Ten Commandments directly to the people?

It's because God's law, the commandments, is a separate law given before there was a law of Moses. The Ten Commandments were spoken and later written directly from God and were not simply a part of the law of Moses. The Ten Commandments stand on their own. The Ten Commandments reflect the value system of God. And God says, God believes, that no matter what kind of covenant he makes with anyone, that you have to conform to his value system. They have a deep personal relationship with him. And that value system includes treating other people with dignity, not stealing from them, not lying from them, not committing adultery.

It means worshiping the one true God. It means not using God's name in vain. It means not murdering or killing another human being. And it means setting aside the holy time that God has designated every week to worship and to honor him. That is so important to God. Now, God later gave the commandments to Moses on stone tablets, and this too is significant, because, can you tell me of anything else that God wrote with his own finger?

You can't. The only thing God ever wrote with his own finger on the tablets, because they needed to be written down, or they would be distorted if just left orally by something he said from a mountain face to face to the people, he knew they needed to be written down.

But they just weren't written down by Moses. They literally were written down on his own finger. And this is another powerful analogy of the importance of God's great law. No other law or statute or judgment in the Old Testament was written by the finger of God. And this symbolizes coming from his finger that these words, that these laws, are part of his very being, his character, and his nature. You know, on a human level, we sign a contract with our fingers.

We put an implement between our fingers, and we sign a contract validating an agreement. The signature validates one's authenticity and personal integrity. We sign it, that implement between our fingers, saying, I will live up to this. God wrote the Ten Commandments. God says, I live by these principles. These are my value system. And as a human gesture, pointing the finger is a statement of direct authority from one party to another.

That's what pointing the finger is. God pointed the finger using his authority, doing something very unique, and that is writing his laws on those tablets of stone. Well, now let's go to the New Testament. Matthew 5, verse 18. Did Jesus ever differentiate between the law of Moses and the Ten Commandments?

Did Jesus Christ himself ever differentiate between the law of Moses and the Ten Commandments? Matthew 5, verse 17. Jesus says, Do not think that I came to destroy the law or the prophets I did not come to destroy, but to fulfill. But as shortly as I say unto you, till heaven and earth pass away, not one jot or one tittle will by no means pass from the law until all is fulfilled.

So in context, Jesus discusses the law. What he's primarily meaning here in context are the books of the law. Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy, and the prophets that we know as part of the Old Testament. He states that he has not come to abolish them, but to fill them to the full. The Greek word that he used here is nomos. That Matthew uses here is nomos.

It's a word used to convey a parfaitling out of regulations. Now let's go, however, to verse 19, and we're going to see where Jesus uses another word when he refers to commandments.

He says, beginning in verse 19, Whoever therefore breaks one of the least of these commandments. This is a different word that Matthew uses, the Greek word entole, because Jesus is referring to the law of God here. Not simply the law of Moses or part of the Old Testament. Whoever breaks one of the least of these commandments and teaches men so, shall be called least in the kingdom of heaven. By the way, it doesn't even say that they'll be there. It's just that they'll be called least by people who are there. They'll be called least in the kingdom of heaven. But whoever does and teaches them, he shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven. For I say unto you, that unless your righteousness exceeds the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, you will by no means enter the kingdom of heaven. Now that sounds pretty dark, doesn't it? You know, they were pretty righteous people. They prayed a lot more than we prayed. They worshipped a lot more than you and I worship. So how can our righteousness exceed that of the scribes and the Pharisees? Well, it exceeds theirs because we have Jesus Christ and His righteousness living in us. You see, where we fall short while we're growing and while we're developing the mind of Christ, where we fall short, we have something that they didn't have. We have the righteousness of the Son of God Himself living in us, making us right and holy in the eyes of God, in spite of our personal flaws and weaknesses that we should be working on. Let's continue. Jesus says, you have heard that was said to those, you shall not murder, and whoever murders shall be in danger of judgment. He says, but I say unto you, whoever is angry with his brother without cause shall be in danger of the judgment. If you hate your brother, He says, this is more severe, isn't it? He says, in the past, you were taught the physical aspects of the law. You were taught that if you murder someone, it's a sin. Jesus says, that's not good enough. I'm telling you that if you hate your brother, if you despise your brother without a genuine cause, you've already murdered him in your heart. You have sinned. He says, later on, that it was said in the past that you shouldn't commit adultery. He says, if you look at a woman and lust after her with your eyes, and you imagine doing something you shouldn't be doing in your mind, He says, you've already committed adultery with her in your heart. So is He doing away with God's Ten Commandments? Oh my, no. He's not only not doing away with the Ten Commandments, He is applying a spiritual, attitudinal dimension to God's law. That's what Jesus Christ is doing here. Let's take a look now in Matthew 19 and verse 16. Matthew 19 and verse 16. Matthew 19 and verse 16, Now behold, there came to Him one who said, Good teacher, what good thing shall I do that I may have eternal life? So He said to them, Why do you call me good? No one is good, that is, but God. No one is good, but one that is God. And basically Jesus was just warning him not to idolize rabbis, not to idolize people. He said, But if you want to enter into life, keep the commandments. And He said to him, Which ones? What kind of commandments are you talking about? He says, You shall not murder. That's one of what became known as the Ten Commandments. You shall not commit adultery. You shall not steal. You shall not bear false witness. Honor your father and your mother. You shall love your neighbor as yourself. I want you to notice a young man's question was not about a physical old covenant promise. He doesn't say, What do I need to do to acquire more land?

What do I need to do to have more crops? What do I need to do to be blessed? He says, No, I have a tough one for you, Rabbi. What do I need to do that I may have eternal life? It's an interesting question. Did Jesus believe that keeping the commandments alone could attain eternal life? Well, certainly not. But the young man believed Jesus was a special messenger from God. He just called him good. Jesus just corrected him. He had faith in Christ. He could see by his miracles that Jesus Christ was the Son of God. So faith isn't the issue here. Jesus could see that the young man's heart lacked certain qualities. And you know what? The young man was wealthy. The young man was rich. And Jesus, because he was the Son of God, could look in his heart and say, You know, this young man has no problem with the first four commandments. He worships the one true God. He doesn't make graven images. He doesn't do any form of idolatry. He doesn't use God's name in vain. He keeps the Sabbath. Those aren't an issue. But because the young man was so wealthy, he was greedy, it was all about him. He didn't love his neighbor. This was the test of faith that this young man would have to face. So faith isn't the issue. Jesus could see that the young man's heart lacked the qualities of love towards his neighbor. But he had the basic qualities of faith in God. That's why the first four commandments are not mentioned. Jesus was telling the young man that he needed to walk the walk and follow the example of Jesus Christ. He said, if you want to be in the kingdom, you're going to have to overcome the fact that you don't love your neighbor. These are the laws, these are the parts of God's great moral law that you need to keep. The ultimate test would be to see if this young man was willing to sell his possessions to become a disciple. He failed the test. He was very wealthy and he didn't want to do it.

So there again, Jesus Christ is confirming the importance of the law. Now, some say that Jesus told this to the young man because Jesus was born under the law. That's a phrase used by Paul in his writings. Jesus was born under the law, of course, referring to the law of Moses. So would Jesus have told the young man important information about salvation that would soon be obsolete in a year?

Do you think that's some kind of cosmic, cool joke? Jesus is going to be crucified in about a year. A young man comes up with a serious question and says, What do I need to do to inherit eternal life? And that Jesus would give him an answer that would be obsolete in a year?

Does that even make any sense?

If you follow this line of reasoning, then Jesus no longer required the first three commandments. People say, well, he doesn't mention the Sabbath, so the Sabbath must be done away. Jesus didn't say he had to keep the Sabbath. Well, Jesus also didn't say he had to worship only one God. Jesus didn't say that he had to refrain from making idols or images of God. Jesus didn't tell him that he needed to stop using God's name in vain. Those were givens. He didn't need to tell the young man that. The young man kept first four commandments faithfully. His problem was that his heart was greedy and selfish, and he didn't love his neighbor.

Now, let's go to Acts chapter 15. Acts chapter 15.

I'll ask another question here. Were the Ten Commandments discussed during the ministerial conference of Acts 15? There are many who write, many intelligent men, scholars, and others who say that Acts 15 settled at once and for all. There was a ministerial conference in Acts 15, and they decided then and there that the Ten Commandments were done away. Well, let's see what happens. Acts chapter 15 and verse 5. It says, put some of the sect of the Pharisees who believed, so they were believers, who had self-righteous Pharisaical backgrounds, rose up saying it's necessary to circumcise them and to command them to keep the law of Moses. Now, the apostles and elders came together to consider this matter. So that's what the discussion of the conference is. There's no mention of the Ten Commandments. There's no mention of God's commandments. In context, it's regarding circumcision, and it tells us circumcision and the law of Moses. Those are the laws and the judgments and the statutes that God gave to Moses, and he in turn gave to the people as a mediator. Remember that since God's commandments existed before Sinai and were given face to face to the nation, it's an error to consider them as limited to the law of Moses as something that's done away if the law of Moses become obsolete.

The conclusion of the conference was that the following requirements of the law of Moses would be requested of Gentile believers. So here's the conclusion. Acts 15 and verse 19, Therefore I judge that we should not trouble those from among the Gentiles who are returning to God, but that we write to them to abstain from... And I find this interesting in a lot of ways because the discussion is the law of Moses, and what should they tell them to do? They tell them to do four things directly from the law of Moses.

From things polluted by idols, from sexual immorality, from things strangled, and from blood. For Moses has throughout many generations those who preach him in every city, being read in the synagogues every Sabbath. Now that last verse is kind of muddled by the New King James.

I'm going to read it from the New Century version. It says, they should do these things because for a long time in every city, the law of Moses has been taught, and it is still read in the synagogue every Sabbath day. You know what they're doing? You know what they're saying? They're saying, if you want to find out more about this information, go to your local synagogue on the Sabbath day and you'll hear the law of Moses read to you.

This is actually an endorsement and encouragement for them to keep the Sabbath day, because it's there in the synagogue that they will hear the word of Moses read. So if they have any misunderstanding what it means to abstain from things polluted by idols, from sexual immorality, from things strangled, and from blood, they can go to the synagogue on the Sabbath day and they can hear more about the law of Moses. So all of the above activities are part of the law of Moses. These were to be retained from the law of Moses, because they were considered so heinous to Jewish Christians.

So let's see what the verdict was. Verse 22. Let's drop down to verse 22. Then it pleased the apostles and elders with the whole church to send chosen men of their own company to Antioch with Paul and Barnabas, namely Judas, who was also named Bessabbas and Silas, leading men among the brethren. They wrote this letter to them, the apostles, the elders, and the brethren, to the brethren, who are of the Gentiles in Antioch, Syria, and Cilicia.

Greetings! Since we have heard that some who went out from us have troubled you with words unsettling your souls, saying that you must be circumcised and keep the law to whom we gave no such commandment. We'll stop right there. So what is the theme of the conference in Acts 15?

It's circumcision and the law of Moses, but not all of it. The Ten Commandments aren't in discussion. The Sabbath day is not in discussion. Just like if it's okay to kill somebody is not in discussion. It's okay to steal from somebody is not part of the discussion. It's okay to lie to someone is not part of the discussion. What is the discussion? It's circumcision, a physical act that really has nothing to do with salvation. So again, the purpose was to discuss circumcision and the law of Moses, whether it was required for the Gentiles for salvation.

Well, after the conference, what comments did the apostles have to say about the commandments? We'll just look at a few here. I'm running out of time, but we'll just look at a few here. Let's go to 1 Corinthians 7 and verse 19. It's after the conference that I'm going to quote every book here written after the conference.

What commandments or what comments did the apostles write to the church about the commandments of God? 1 Corinthians 7 and verse 19. People like to use Paul to prove whatever they want to prove. Paul was a scholar, and I have to admit that the writings of Paul can be easily twisted. If one is so inclined, you can passionately teach that Paul was for marriage, that Paul was against marriage.

You can passionately teach that Paul believed it's okay to eat meat offered idols, that it's not okay to eat meat offered idols. You can basically, through the writings of Paul, teach anything you want to teach. You can find something in his writings to teach anything you want to believe. But we don't do that. We take his writings at face value. 1 Corinthians 7 and verse 19. He says, Circumcision is nothing and uncircumcision is nothing, but keeping the commandments of God is what matters.

Wow! This is from this man who's supposedly the great theological liberal, that's going to preach grace, that's going to preach all of these things. That does away with the law, supposedly, is going to paint the law as wicked, as something that's obsolete and gone. Quickly, Romans chapter 7. Romans chapter 7. Let's pick it up here in verse 10.

Again, I apologize, I had a little too much information, and now I have to make it the Cliff Notes version. Romans chapter 7 and verse 10. Another writing of Paul to the church of Rome. He says, And the commandment, which was to bring life, the commandments of God, I found to bring death. Why? Because it reminded him he was a sinner. He was worthy only of death. Because he broke them all.

For sin, taking occasion by the commandment, deceived me, and it killed me. I was as good as death. And verse 12, he says, Therefore the law is holy, and the commandment holy, and just, and good. Doesn't sound like to me that he believes that the commandments of God are obsolete or done away.

First John chapter 2 and verse 3. First John chapter 2 and verse 3.

First John chapter 2 and verse 3. John wrote, Now by this we know we love him if we keep his commandments. He who says, I know him and does not keep his commandments is a liar. So anyone who says, Oh yeah, I know Christ. Hey, we're like this. Jesus Christ and I, I mean, we have a personal relationship. I'm his personal representative. And John says, And he doesn't keep his commandments. That man, that woman, that person is a liar. And the truth is not in him. But whoever keeps his word, truly the love of God is perfected in him. By this we know that we are in him. He who says he abides in him also himself to walk just as he walked.

So how do we do? How are we doing? Did Jesus observe the Sabbath day? That's how he walked. Are we walking as he walked? Jesus kept the other commandments. Are we walking as he walked? Let's now go to chapter 5, verse 1. We're in 1 John already, chapter 5 and verse 1. Whoever believes that Jesus Christ, or Jesus is the Christ, is born of God, and everyone who loves him, who begot, also loves him, who is begotten of him. For this we know that we love the children of God when we love God and keep his commandments.

Let's go to 2 John real quick, verse 1, 2 John 1 and verse 6. He says, This is love, that we walk according to his commandments. This is the commandment that you have heard from the beginning, that you should walk in it. Let's take a look at a scripture from James and others. We've looked at Paul's writings. We've looked at some things John said.

Let's go to James chapter 1 and verse 22. James chapter 1 and verse 22.

James is talking about the importance of putting on the mind of Jesus Christ, that we can't be hearers only. We can't come to church just to be entertained. We have to receive the knowledge that God gives us, and then we have to do something about it.

He says, Be doers of the word, and not hearers only deceiving yourselves. For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man observing his natural face in a mirror. For he observes himself, he goes away, and he immediately forgets what kind of man that he was. So if we're just hearers, we look into the mirror, we look into our life, and we say, Oh, look at all the stench and filth, and look at the fact that I need to clean up my life, and I need to make changes in my life, and, hey, the ball game's starting! And they turn around, and they just go on to something else.

But in contrast, verse 25, but he who looks into the perfect law of liberty, he who looks at those commandments and says, How am I doing? And not just the physical aspects of the law, but the spiritual application of the law, taught by Jesus Christ. He who looks into that law of liberty and continues in it, wakes up every day and says, I want to become more like Christ. Help me, Father. Strengthen me. Grant me more of your spirit. And is not a neglectful hearer, but a doer of the work. This one will be blessed in all that he does. Well, brethren, today we have examined the commandments, or the law of God. We've seen that they existed before Moses became a mediator of the Old Covenant. We saw that God's law is eternal, and it reflects his own value system. God will not have a deep relationship with anyone who blatantly respects his value system, or tries to substitute their own value system with God. We also saw that Jesus Christ and his disciples confirmed the validity of the commandments of God by what they said, and by what they taught, the words that came out of their mouths, and their very own examples. In a future sermon, what we'll do is we'll look at some so-called difficult scriptures in the New Testament that some use to say that God's law has been done away, and we'll do that in a sermon in the future. One final scripture, and then we'll end our sermon today. Psalm 19, verse 7. Psalm 19, verse 7. I'll leave you with some encouraging words about the law of God, as recorded by David.

David obviously did not get the memo that the law was done away. Psalm 19, verse 7. He said, the law of God is perfect, converting the soul. How does it convert the soul? It tells me where I'm falling short. It tells me those areas deep into my heart and my mind that I still need to clean up, that I still need to grow in. It's perfect, converting the soul. The testimony of the Lord is sure, making wise the simple. The statutes of the Lord are right, rejoicing the heart. The commandments of the Lord is pure, enlightening the eyes. It opens our eyes spiritually to see ourselves the way that we are, and the fact that we need to repent. The fact that we need God's Spirit within us is that comforter. We need God's presence. We need God's power within us to make the changes that we need to make. The fear of the Lord is clean, enduring forever. The judgments of the Lord are true and righteous altogether. More to be desired they are than gold, yea, than much fine gold, sweeter also than honey and the honeycomb. Brethren, have a wonderful Sabbath.