Law & Gospel (4 parts)

March 17, 2007 10:20 am admin Sermon-Series, Chapter 7, Romans, Sermon-Texts

A four part sermon series addressing the theme of Law & Gospel from an exegetical treatment of Romans 7:7-12. These sermons were originally preached in February and March of 2007 at The Resolved Church in San Diego, CA.

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THE LAW & GOSPEL SERIES: FOUR PARTS
by Pastor Duane Smets

LAW & GOSPEL - Part I

:: The Resolved Church :: February 18, 2007

duane matthew smets
(pastor/overseer/evangelist)

Romans 7:7-12

7 What then shall we say? That the law is sin? By no means! Yet if it had not been for the law, I would not have known sin. For I would not have known what it is to covet if the law had not said, “You shall not covet.” 8 But sin, seizing an opportunity through the commandment, produced in me all kinds of covetousness. For apart from the law, sin lies dead. 9 I was once alive apart from the law, but when the commandment came, sin came alive and I died. 10 The very commandment that promised life proved to be death to me. 11 For sin, seizing an opportunity through the commandment, deceived me and through it killed me. 12 So the law is holy, and the commandment is holy and righteous and good.

“Law and Gospel - Part I”
I. The Charge: “Law is Bad”
II. The Defense
1. Law Uncovers Sin
2. The Example of Coveting
3. Sin and Opportunity
III. The Jesus

introduction

Good morning. Good to see you all. Hopefully you got a chance to enjoy our nice hot summer day in the middle of February yesterday…if you didn’t go to the beach today because it is amazing outside here in San Diego while the rest of the nation east of California is covered in 10 feet of snow. Actually, I’d probably rather be there because snow is fun and you’ll never see it in San Diego because the last time it snowed here was 1967 and I don’t think any of it even started to stick.

So welcome to church. Today we are starting the first of a few sermons on law and gospel from Romans 7:7-12. Which is really exciting because there is nothing funner to talk about than law and sin and death right? It sounds about as fun as reading the dictionary or doing laundry or digging ditches or something. Sorry if those are things you do for fun…I didn’t mean to offend you. J

Here is what is going on. We’re studying this book, Romans, which is about how God is glorious and that is shown to be most glorious not only because he created everything but because he saves people who don’t love and adore Him for making such beautiful things for us to enjoy. The First five chapters of this book talk about how we are in a terrible mess because of this because we have offended God and there is rightly hell to pay for it but the good news is that Jesus came and died and rose again so that we can get a clean bill of health on his account and start new or fresh through believing in him…that means having faith that he died in our place paying the hell we owe. He can do that because he is God and we can believe in that because there is good reason to think Jesus is real, that He is really God, that He really died, and He really rose again, and that this kind of viewpoint really makes a lot sense with what we know about ourselves and what we know about this world.

What’s happened in the book is that presenting this gospel has kind of upset some people because then does that mean that since Jesus takes care of our problem for us does that mean that we can just live however we want and do whatever we feel like? So in chapter six, Paul addressed this issue and told us, no, that is abusing grace. He said that is like being given a brand new life and then shooting yourself to death right away, it is like being a slave that is freed but just going back to your old abusive slave master, and he said it is like cheating on your brand new spouse.

So in chapter six he dealt with this issue of abusing grace. Now in chapter seven he has another problem to deal with and that is this thing called “law.” And that is where we are today. So let’s read the text and pray.

God, I thank you for these people here today. I pray that these words of your Bible would make sense to us and would help us to understand and know and love the gospel. May your law makes sense to us, may we know our depravity and the way it messes with us, and most of all would we know our great need for your Son Jesus. Amen

I. The Charge: “Law is Bad”

Paul, the human author (God’s the author behind the author), starts this new line of thought with these words, “What then shall we say? That the law is sin?” He’s a smart dude and he anticipates the reactions of the people reading or listening to him. So he writes in this sort of dialogue or conversational manner and he brings up this question. Is the law sin? Based on all that stuff I’ve said already, what do you think? Is the law sin? What do you think? In the verses we’ve been studying for the last month, verse 4-6, he said some pretty harsh stuff about the law…that we need to die to it, that it arouses sinful passions, that it held us captive, and that it is old and now instead there is new life in the Spirit. That’s pretty intense. It seems like the natural answer is yes. Well, I guess so, the law sucks and is bad. It sure sounds like it. Right?

But then the lawyer in Paul, he was trained as a professional lawyer from the time he was a little kid, and so the lawyer kicks in right away and makes us feel real stupid because he cries NO! By no means! And then he gives us seven reasons why the law is not bad. And that is too much for us to cover in one sermon. It’s bad enough that I gotta try and make stuff like law and sin and death sound interesting to you J and so I can do justice and honor to God’s Bible and not preach for the next 3 hours straight I’m going to break these verses up into 3 weeks. And it is going to be good. I joke about law, sin and death but the truth is that this is really good stuff for us as Christians…because the more we understand these things the more we will understand the why we feel and act the way we do and the more we will come to love and adore Christ our savior.

So first off, what does law mean here? When I hear the word “law” I almost immediately want to start cussing and shouting and throwing things because I hate those stupid street sweeping parking tickets, I hate getting pulled over for speeding or not wearing my seatbelt or whatever. And most of all since I was in high school I’ve been hassled for skateboarding and have been kicked out of a hundred million skate spots always by some jerk cop who is overwhelmed with his sense of authority and can’t find anything better to do than bother kids who are trying to do something useful and positive with their time. J That’s why whenever I watch “Cops” on TV I’m always rooting for the bad guy. I just want him to sock the cop in the face and then run and get away or something. J

Now, Romans was written almost 2000 years ago and the church in Rome that it was written to had a mixed audience, some Jews and some native Greco-Romans. The Jews loved “law” because it was what made them special. They were the people who were given God’s supernaturally inscribed law on tablets of stone called the ten commandments. Jewish children at age five began to be taught how to read and write by writing the law in honey so that they would know that God’s law was sweet and good. So if you are a Jew and you’re hearing what Paul is saying, you are pissed.

Greco-Romans had their own pride for their law. They were the most powerful nation on the planet at the time, and stayed so for over 1500 years. Any country they encountered they would easily defeat because they were so powerful. They had a the biggest and strongest army. They had the most affluential philosophers, artists, and religion. They would come in and immediately impose their law and structure after taking over a city, demanding alligience and taxes to Ceasar, the emperor, and all who opposed it were crushed.

In the book of Romans, Paul has taught us that law is not only what God physically wrote in the ten commandments and the rest of the Jewish Torah but is also the inner sense of right and wrong that is written upon the heart of every human being throughout time. That sense of “ought” and sense inside of us where we all know that it is wrong to steal cars, murder babies, and have sex with strippers and pictures of them and other people we are not married to.

So here is the charge or the question, is law bad? Apparently it has some pretty bad effects on us as human beings apparently and so Paul is going to try and help us understand that and how that works. There are seven reasons he gives why the law is not bad and today we’re just going to look at the first three.

II. The Defense
1. Law Uncovers Sin

After crying out, “NO!” the law itself isnt’ bad, he says, “…if it had not been for the law, I would not have known sin.” This is the theme of this paragraph that continues throughout the whole thing. The argument is that the law is not the problem but it is us, that we are the problem, it’s us, we are bad…the law just shows us that, it uncovers or exposes what is really going on inside us, sin.

So, Paul’s proposition is that the reason we need to die to law, the reason law arouses sin, the reason law holds us captive…is because we are sinful, not the law. The law just functions to show us that we are sinful, that we have a condition, that there is something wrong with us.

It is an experiential question about the depth of who we are as human beings. And not just before we become Christians. Everything after chapter five includes the post-christian. After you become a Christian or sometimes ways down the road after becoming a Christian is when you really start to realize how messed up you and how much you really do need Christ.

I started studying Romans about nine years ago now. And when I first started studying it I listened to a whole class on Romans being taught by an old professor named Dr. Eno and I remember he said before you are a Christian you are like this dead body and if you drop a one ton weight on the dead body it doesn’t feel anything, but once you begin that new life in the Spirit that’s when you begin to feel the weight of your sin. That’s when the real struggle begins.

I’ll tell you what, after following Christ for a while now…now I know what I am capable of. I had no idea how deeply depraved I was when I first became a Christian. I knew I needed Jesus but I had no idea how much. We are capable of such horrendous evils…yes, even after you become a Christian.

But we don’t like that do we? To be told that we are sinners. It violates this supposed universal law of niceness right? Where you never say anything negative to someone. Of course, unless it’s behind their back. But it is true. And we need to know it. And that is what the law does for us.

This is the way the law works…for everyone. The picture here is sort of like the catscan machine they use at the hospital. You lay on it and your head goes in under this coffin like thing filled with light and somehow it can look inside your body and find out what is going on underneath your skin. We all have this disease, sin, and the law uncovers and exposes that disease laying dormant in us and shows us that it is there and that it needs a remedy.

2. The Example of Coveting

In order to help us understand, Paul gives us this example of coveting. He says, “I would not have known what it is to covet if the law had not said, “You shall not covet.” What does it mean to covet? Here is a definition: To have a strong desire to posses something that belongs to somebody else. Here is another definition: Living in America. Houses, cars, boats, surfboards, guitars, shoes, pants, jackets, tattoos, cd’s, books, cell phones, computers, plasma tv’s, money to buy more stuff, and especially that new iphone that’s coming out. I want it. J Christmas here is ridiculous. We make our wish lists while kids in Africa cry because their hungry. It’s crazy. We are coveting gone rampad and I’m guilty. There’s no question.

“You shall not covet.” What’s he mean when he says we wouldn’t know what it is to covet if the law didn’t say it. Does he mean, Jewish law, the ten commandments or does he mean the moral law written on our hearts? Does it matter? They both come from God and they both say the same thing, right? We know there is something wrong with always wanting. Our lack of satisifcation. That immediate thing inside us that springs up when we see something new that someone has and we want it. And it only seems to get worse the older you get.

But his point is clear. If God never wrote that in our hearts or made it one of the ten commandments it wouldn’t know it was wrong. Our sinfulness would not be uncovered…the sin beneath the sin.

It is interesting that he picks out coveting, the last of the ten commandments, as his example. It is interesting because it is the clearest commandment that deals with the desire of our hearts as oppossed to exterenal behavior. Coveting is an affection…a want, a desire. The other commandments assume desires behind them. You steal because you desire to have something that you can’t afford. You commit adultery because you desire to have sex with someone who is not your wife or because you don’t want to wait for marriage. Coveting relates directly to the desires and is behind every one of the commandments.

And on top of it all coveting brings everything back to the issue of God because coveting says my desires, not God’s, my desires are the measure of right and wrong, what is good and bad and true and false. Coveting says says my will and desires are the standard, what I want things to be. And what is that but the desire to be our own God. It is the root of rebellion and the commitment to be our own god to ourself, where we are the final authority in our life. Where what we decide is what happens. Where i am god. And is nothing other than a violation of the first commandment starts out by God saying “You shall have no other gods before me (Ex. 20:3).” That is why Jesus said all the commandments are summed up in this one phrase, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind (Mt 10:37).”

Do you get it? Law shows us that we don’t love God but that our hearts are naturally disposed toward rebellion against him. Nothing is ever enough for us, we are never satisfied, because what we really want is to worship ourselves rather than God. The law isn’t the problem. We are. We have a sin problem and we need a savior. We need Jesus.

II. The Defense
3. Sin and Opportunity

Coveting is a strong example of our natural inward disposition toward rebellion. But Paul adds even more to it with this word “opportunity.” The word “opportunity” in Greek is the word, aphorme, which means a military base of operations for an attack. So an opportunity would be an outpost where a camp is set up not too far from the front lines and from there it sends out soliders to attack and seize their unsuspecting victims.

So get the picture. Sin is this thing in us, it’s part of us, and it is lying dormant like a sleeping dog…but the moment it hears law it springs up, roars to life, and grabs law and turns it into a military base of operations to kill and destroy.

How does sin do this? How does it work? Know yourself. It works one of two ways, it either says “you could never keep all the commandments perfectly so why even try, just do what you want and have fun, that is all that matters. Or it says, “you can do do this, just work really hard and be really disciplined and have strong willpower and you can beat this, you are better than everyone else, so just do good and when judgment comes you will be fine.” Do you get it? Sin kills both ways, it takes the law and makes it a base to either make you self-indulgent or self-righteous.

It’s Anna Nicole Smith tweaked out on the floor and it’s Ted Haggard saying he’s better because he’s not gay. It’s crack babies and the prozac life and it’s church kids who think they’re better because they go to “christian” school. It’s dancing and drinking till you puke and it’s refusing to ever let alcohol touch your lips because you say your body’s a temple. It’s spending every dime you’ve got on anything you want and it’s never spending anything because your above materialism and greed. It’s no desire left unfufilled and all restraints cast off and it’s only desiring perfection and thinking you’ve got what it takes. Sin takes coveting and hits both marks by either letting desire run wild or by letting you think you are good because you don’t covet, which is really just another form of coveting…it’s just coveting a pat on the back.

The Jesus

Alright. So that’s all a pretty big downer and we only got through three of Paul’s seven reasons. We’ll do another three next week and talk about his Paul’s personal life that’s wrapped up in his use of the word “I” and we’ll talk about how decption works and how this all relates to death and the promise of life. And then in two weeks we’ll spend a whole sermon on chapter twelve on how the law is holy, righteous, and good.

But we did three reasons and I don’t want you all to go home depressed and have to shoot up or something so let’s talk about Jesus for a few minutes. The point of the passage isn’t to get all sad bastard anyway, it’s to help us love and appreciate and long for and adore Christ and his grace. Romans 7 is a deep chapter. It’s not a long chapter, only 25 verses. The longest chapter in the Bible has 176 verses. But Romans 7 goes deep into the psychology of how sin works in us. It takes a hold of any and every thing and corrupts it.

Romans 7 is like this song that builds and builds and builds and then climaxes with this great release at the end in verse 24-25 where it cries out in frustration saying, “Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death?” and then answers “Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord!.”

So here is where Jesus fits in this whole deal. The charge or question has been that law is bad. It sure seems to cause a lot of problems. But Paul’s point has been that the law isn’t the issue it’s us. We have something wrong with us called sin and what law does is it uncovers this reality, it expresses itself in coveting and takes every opportunity to kill us whenever we encounter law. So how does Jesus change things?

Jesus changes things because when the law hits him it uncovers nothing evil. 1 Peter 2:22 says, “He committed no sin, neither was deceit found in his mouth.” The scalpel of the law cuts Christ open and exposes nothing but purity and genuine love of God flowing from his heart. Never coveting, always satisfied with the glory of God, nothing but a desire for the perfect will of His Father. The law finds nothing in Christ but complete fulfillment. That’s why Jesus said, “I did not come to abolish the law…but to fulfill [it] (Mt 5:17).” And yet our faultless and flawless Christ was led to the slaughter to die a lawbreakers death as our substitute.

That’s the gospel. That’s why Christ is so good. We get his excellence in exchange for our infirmity. We get his lawfulness for our lawlessness. His fulfillment for our failure. His comfort for our coveting. His consolation for our contempt. His joy for our anguish. If you are a Jew you love this Jesus because He is the perfect depiction of the law you love so much. If you are a Greco-Roman you love this Jesus because he is the most magnificent emperor or Lord you have ever served.

In chapter six of Romans Paul showed us that Christ is great because he is the resurrected King and the worthy Master. Here in chapter seven, Paul has shown us that Christ is the perfect spouse and how he is the perfect Lord and Lawkeeper.

This is the message today, Jesus Christ is glorious. And we need him…desperately. Because the law shows us our sin and we need a savior and Jesus is sufficient!

conclusion

Let’s conclude this morning with some application. Knowing what we now know about the law and how it works in us, how should we then live? I think the answer must go like this: When we hear the law, whether it is the prick of our conscience in our hearts or when we read it in this book or hear it from the preacher…rather than allowing our sin to seize an opportunity for ruin we need to seize the opportunity for redemption in Christ.

So when the command do not covet is heard, what we do is realize our sinful desire to covet and then turn to Christ and cry, Lord save me. You do not covet. Make me satisfied with you and you alone. Help me to trust you for my needs. Help me to make wise decisions with my money that will honor you and your kingdom. Help not to be jealous of others prosperity but rejoice that you died for me. Help me not make my own desires the ground of what is right and wrong for me but humbly submit to your law and your fulfillment of it in my place. Help me to neither be self-indulgent or self-righteous. Help me not to rush your will and bring about what I think I want and need but provide for me in your time and in your way. Christ, you are my treasure. You are my sole source of hope for salvation from my sin. Jesus you are good and you are everything. May I love you with my whole heart, soul, mind and strength.

I think that is how we do it. We recognize our inability and accept Christ ability and accomplishment on our behalf. And this has a real practical outplay for us as well. Have you ever wondered how you are supposed to read or understand all those laws you read in the Old Testament? If the Bible is sort of new to you, I’m talking about the rest of the 637 commandments that are in there in books like Leviticus and Numbers. How is some of that crazy stuff like sacrificing three tenths of an ephah of fine flour once a month (Num 28:12) supposed to make any sense to us? What do you do with that? Go outside and start throwing flour into the wind? J

No. When you read that be thankful for Christ who fulfilled all the law perfectly for us. Think of him, who was the last sacrifice, given up to God on the cross on our behalf. And now we get to be part of the new covenant provided for by his blood.

And lastly, spread the news of the goodness of Christ. The gopsel really is good. Jesus really is amazing and people are not going to know about it unless you tell them. Don’t be afraid to tell people that they are jacked up lawbreakers, if they’re your friends and you’ve earned their respect they’ll listen to you. They know it’s true about themselves. They just don’t know about Jesus other than him being some sort white bearded dude in a robe that wierdos like and want you to come to their church so he can take their money. J

For the kids here, this is what God wants you to learn from His Bible today: when mom or dad tell you to do something and you don’t want to do it, that’s because you are a sinner and you need Jesus to save you. Jesus always loves to do what His Father tells him and if you love Jesus he will help you love to do what you know you should. So believe in Jesus and he will always take care of you.

LAW & GOSPEL - Part II

:: The Resolved Church :: February 25, 2007

duane matthew smets
(pastor/overseer/evangelist)

Romans 7:7-12

“Law and Gospel - Part II”
I. The Charge: “Law is Bad”
II. The Defense
1. Law Uncovers Sin
2. The Example of Coveting
3. Law as Opportunity
4. Sin’s Life and our Death
a. A Metaphor and Wordplay
b. Paul’s story
c. Spiritual Death
5. False Promises
6. Law as Deception
III. The Jesus

introduction

Good to see everyone this morning. Last week there was like 2 people here who were either not sick or out of town for the holiday. Or maybe I just pissed everyone off the week before or something? J That’s my church planting strategy…to try and upset as many people as possible and maybe that will make everyone want to come here and join in our mission to give the gift of the gospel to this city. This city where only 6% of the people even claim to know Christ and of that 6%, at least half of them seem to be the black belt in gospel sort who are just trying to convince the other 94% of the city that they are really good at Karate.

My goal isn’t really to upset anyone, honestly. I just refuse to preach some panzy Christ who looks like some quiet vagabond who paints his nails red, wears a dress and gets high a lot because he’s all about love. And I also refuse to preach some Christ who wears some suit with a CEO badge, is always getting on your case, and requires you to go to Jesus camp to get politically brainwashed for his cause. Yes, Jesus loves you if you work at “Lips” if that’s the sort of thing you’re into right now and he loves you if you are sittin’ in the senator’s seat because that’s where you think you should be. Jesus called both types of people his friends…the people who played by the rules and those who didn’t.

Sometimes I feel like there is this pressure for us to dress Jesus up, to try and make people want him, where he is like this sort of moldable clay figure that we can make look however we see fit. He’s not some aimless wanderer roaming from party to party and he’s not some buisness executive running from board meeting to board meeting. That’s not Jesus. The Jesus of the New Testament is the Lord and Savior and no amount of lipstick, ties, patchouli oil, and microphones you give him is going to enable us or anyone else to see the true glory of how great he really is.

And the way our eyes are opened to see how beyond all comparisions and descriptions, he is meets and exceeds every desire and expectation that we could ever have…the way we are best able to hear the his powerful and tender call to us to repent and believe and come to him…and for that call to be sweet rather than sour…is for us to be cut to the heart and know our great need for him. That’s why we don’t mince on things like sin, death and hell here at The Resolved Church. And I believe that is why Paul didn’t mince either and that’s why he wrote things like chapter 7 of Romans, which we are in the middle of studying, and right now we’re talking about the law and it’s a big deal and it’s caught huge in the middle of all this. But I really believe that if you would really listen and look at this text and try to learn, that, if you’re not a Christian you might see why we are so hung up on this Jesus person and if you are a Christian you might see Jesus like you haven’t quite seen him before and that pursuing His glory in your life and this city would consume you.

Let’s begin in prayer: God, trying to navigate this life seems like a terrible mess, especially when we try to add religion into all that. And God I am asking that we would not only be able to really figure some things out about you for ourselves, which seems like an impossible task in itself, but I am also asking that you would fill us with passion and creativity to figure out how to spread the true message of your Son Jesus in a place that is filled with misunderstandings, mistreatments, and misuses of your Word. May how we deal with your Bible today be pleasing to you, may the attitude of our hearts be pleasing as we seek you in these moments, may today count for your kingdom and your glory I pray. Amen

The Charge: Law is Bad

The charge: law is bad. Same first point as last week, this is week 2 of a three part sermons series dealing with law and gospel from Romans 7:7-12. First let me bring us to speed, which means reminding us where we’re at and catcing some other up.

Paul is on a mission to show us the glory of Christ. The glorious thing he showed us in the first five chapters is the God is beautiful and His world is beautiful and that we as human beings have made a mess of it and are really messed up inside and Christ died and rose and that changes everything and now through faith, belief in Christ alone, things can change for us, really change…we can know God, be declared not guilty on the basis of Christ work on the cross, and we can be part of his coming kingdom when all the rest of the world will be re-born. That was the first five chapters.

But that message, that gospel, creates some problems. And so in chapter six he dealt with the problem of grace, how if we really believe all that stuff we have a tendency to just do whatever we want because God loves us so much and saves us no matter what we do. Now in chapter 7 he’s dealing with another side of that coin, the law…What God demands from us. Paul told us that law can’t save us or fix us and that because there is law, we break it and our sinful passion runs wild, we can’t escape it, we just seem to perpetually screw up, it’s like we’re held “captive” to it and so what we need is a whole new way of life and that is life in the Spirit following Jesus.

So here is where we are at, because Paul said all that, he anticipates a response. He’s writing to Jews and Greeks who both love their laws, and he said all this gnarly stuff about law and so he knows what his readers are going to say, what they are probably thinking…”Dude, are you saying the law is bad? Are you crazy? Lay off the drugs Paul.” And so Paul answers. Let’s read the text (read text).

The charge is that law is bad and Paul gives seven reasons why it’s not. Last week we looked at the first three. He said, no law just uncovers or exposes this bad thing inside of us called sin, then he used coveting as an example for how sin takes a law, like “don’t covet” and rather than being happy or satisfied in God, rather than love God and his creation, we want all kinds of other things, which leads to outward actions where we end up breaking more and more laws. That was the second reason, and the third reason was that word, “opportunity” which means a military base of operation. And we talked about how sin either takes the law as an opportunity for us to be self-indulgent, where we say “hell with it, I can’t keep all these commandments so screw it I might as well just live my life and have fun.” Or, if it doesn’t do that, sin takes the law as opportunity to be self-righteous where we say “I can do it, if I just work really hard.” And then you think you are great for doing it and you love to let everyone know it.

So that was his first three reasons or defenses and that bring us up to speed to this moring where we’re looking at the next reason which has three parts to it. Sorry, if that felt like a lot of review. That’s one of the reasons why we all need to be here each week, because God intends for us to study His word together and when you study it right each week builds on the week before. I’m not trying to be lame in mentioning it…I’m just trying to jab at you a little. J

It’s okay to miss every once in awhile, especially if you are sick or have to be out town or something…that why we record these sermons and put them on itunes, so you can download them and listen so you’re ready for the next week. Don’t worry, we don’t take attendance and I don’t keep some sort of checklist in my head if you are here or not. I’m not that OCD. J But I am driven, I am after this thing in this city, I’m giving my life to it and I need you guys, and right now at the size we’re at, this Sunday morning service is the main regular thing we got going on.

Okay, enough of that, now that I made everyone mad at me again. Let’s look at these next three reasons.

Sin’s Life and Our Death
a. a metaphor and wordplay

Reason number four, sin’s life and our death. Look at verse 8, in the middle of it…For sin came alive and I died. The very commandment that promised life proved to be death to me. For sin, seizing an oppurtunity through the commandment, deceived me and through it killed me.” Sin came alive, I died, life proved death to me, and it killed me. Death, death, and killing. Fun stuff.

So check it out…what we got going on is a word play and a metaphor here. Sin came alive…so he almost gives sin this sort of personality…like it is this sleeping dog or something lying dormant or dead inside each one us, until it is awakened by law, by commands. But here is the word play, sin comes alive in his life, by either that self-indugent or self-righteous abuse of the law, and what happens is that he dies. So he’s not talking about physical death here…a different kind of death. He’s using death as a metaphor for what happens to him spiritually…because of the law, sin springs to life and it kills him. Inside, death and darkness fills him and his spirit is crushed.

Do you see it? Do you follow what he is saying? Maybe, you are like…“well, yeah, I get the logic of it but what does that mean experientially? How does that happen? What does that look like in a person’s life to die spiritually when sin comes alive?

Keep that thought, that question in your head…We’ll talk about it a little more directly in a moment but first maybe we can get some clues from Paul’s life, because he uses the words “I” and “me” here a bunch right? “I died.” “Death to me.” “Deceived me.” Now this is going to become a really big deal when get to verse 13-25 and I’ll preach a whole sermon asking who the “I” is in those verses. So I don’t want to get ahead of myself here because it is really better to talk about that then because of what is in those verses. But it does have some bearing on how we understand what it means for us to die spiritually when sin comes alive from hearing the law. Here’e the deal, some people say it doesn’t refer to Paul’s life at all, and then of those people who say it does refer to Paul’s life argue about when or what part of his life.

Sin’s Life and Our Death
b. Paul’s Story

Maybe Paul is doing something weird with his use of “I” and “me.” We’ll talk about what that could be but first, let’s just assume he is talking about his own personal life, I mean we have to at least consider it right…because it sure sound like he is talking about himself and there would have to be a lot of overwhelming evidence to show us that he isn’t. So let’s consider his life and see if it fits at all (story taken from Philippians 3:4-7, Acts 7, 9).

Paul, his name wasn’t always Paul, it used to be Saul…that’s what his parents named him. His family was of the tribe of Benjamin. Saul, was the name of the first king of Israel, he was from the tribe of Benjamin too. His family was devoted. They made sure Saul was circumcised on the 8th day and from that day on began to groom him in Judaism…training him up as a Jewish lawyer, a Pharisee. There is no doubt, Saul had the first five books of the Bible memorized in Hebrew, word for word by the time he was thirteen. He was an expert. He studied under the well known rabbi Gamaliel and was a prize student. And not only that, he wasn’t a stuffed up academic, but he was passionate…he was one who they said had zeal. He loved the Jewish law, and the Jewish system…he followed it perfectly, blameless.

On the sabbath day, they were not supposed to take more than one-hundred steps. Saul always counted. And he was passionate about the Jewish law taking back its rightful place in the political government and didn’t want anything to stand in the way of that. So he hears about this guy Jesus and this new religion called Christianity, so he sets out to destroy it. In the passionate dedication to the law, he stands by and has a guy named Stephen killed for saying Jesus fulfilled the law. After that he’s on a trip to Damascus, to go snuff out more of this Christian crap and have some people arrested but then something happens.

On his way to Damascus, all of the sudden there is this bright light that shines down out of heaven, leaving him blind for three days…and in that moment when this blinding light falls down all around him and he goes blind, he hears a voice saying, “Saul, why are you persecuting me?” And Saul’s like “What the F!? Who the hell are you?” And the voice answers and says, “I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting.” And from that moment on Saul was a changed man. He saw the glory of Christ, he was cut to the heart, he changes his name to Paul and makes the mission of his life to bring glory to Christ, so he ends up planting all these churches in a bunch of different cities and then writes half the New Testament.

It’s a pretty great story. It tells you about the kind of stuff that happens when a person’s heart gets gripped with the glory of God and His gospel. It makes me wonder about the gospel in our day and time and in this city and what could happen if our hearts where that gripped with glory.

Okay, so you might think that story is whack and didn’t happen. That’s fine…you don’t have to believe that happened. But either way we do know there was this huge change in Paul’s life where he went from being a self-righteous religious rabbinic snob (sound familiar, like a lot of christians today?), to a broken, glory driven, Christ exalting, gospel lovin’ dude and now he’s got some things say about the law he spent 25-30 years studying before he completely flip-flopped and became convinced that Jesus is the Lord of Glory.

So, let’s go back to our text. Paul says, he was alive apart from the law but when the commandment came, sin came alive and he died. He says the commandment promised life but proved to be death. And he says that the commandment deceived him. Now, when we consider Paul’s life, what do you think? Do you think it fits? It sure sounds like it to me. Then there is this question, “Well okay, is he talking about his experience before or after a Christian?” Interesting. What do you guys think? He’s talking past tense so, it sounds like he could be talking about the law before he was a Christian…but…he’s talking about the law in a way that he would have only talked about it after becoming a Christian, huh. Because before he was a Christian he loved the law and thought he was blameless in regards to it.

So here is what I think. I think he is talking about both. I don’t think our experience with the law, when we hear a commandment, do this or don’t do that, whether it is in our conscience or when it is something somebody tells or whatever…I don’t think that changes a whole lot after we become a Christian. It’s still there. I think Paul is looking back on his life from the time he was a little kid and he is re-interpreting his experience to align it more with his current experience and beliefs.

You know you can do that right? You can become convinced of some new truth, or some significant experience can happen, and you can start to look at your life story and everything that has happened and re-interpret it. That’s a good thing. You can re-write the autobiography of your life. Some of you need to do that. You need a paradigm change and need to start thinking about some things differently and you need to look at your past differently.

Sin’s Life and Our Death
c. Spiritual Death

Alright. So I said we would talk about this experience a little more in depth. How our person hears “law” and sin comes alive and we die and experience spirtual death. I think this happens in one of two ways. We talked about it last week in terms of self-indulgence and self-righteousness. Today I want to probe a little bit deeper and talk about it in terms of the effects as crisis and ignorance.

First let’s talk about crisis. Crisis is the effect of self-indulgence. Sin lying dormant, hears the law and it gets discouraged, frustrated, or even mad after trying a little and failing, and so it says forget it…I can’t do it and so you go on just living life however you want to. You become your own God, the captain of your own soul, following your own religion and you do whatever seems right to you. What this looks like might be diffferent depending on the person. But it’s late nights with random people who only look good after your 5th gin and tonic. Or maybe it’s your sole devotion to that one person who you think will solve all your problems if he would just love your or treat you right…And you’re willing become a unic or shave your head if that will help. Or maybe it’s having it all and being able to buy whatever you want or maybe it’s having nothing and hating your job and never having enough…the American dream. Kill yourself working until you got it all or forget working because that means I have to get up before 12 in the morning and can’t play video games until 3 at night.

There’s ton of things it could be and I’m not clever enough to name them all. But here is what happens…you can only do that so long, before you realize you are dead inside. That’s crisis. It’s that moment when you’re by yourself and you finally stop for a second and you starting thinking and questing and saddness and regret overcomes you and you realize you have made a mess because you stopped caring. Crisis that hits because of your self-indulgence. Some of you need to have a crisis. Or some of you have them and you swear that things are going to change but you just enter the whole self-indulgent cycle all over again.

That’s one way. I think that one experience where the commandment comes, we know it and hear it, but it kills us. Here’s the other way, ignorance. Ignorance is the result of self-righteousness. Sin lying dormant, hears the law and it gets all riled up and excited and charges after the law giving it’s all, trying to do everything just right, and after a little success you start to feel pretty good about yourself…and before you know it you are just cruisin and everything is good and everyone else is just stupid because they’re not living like you. You become your own God, the law becomes yours and you wear it well, following it perfectly. It’s refusing to even think or talk about God, like he’s some coffee refill you don’t need because you’re all good. You got it down. Or it’s waving your Jesus flag like he’s some sort of brand to put on your t-shirts and jeans. Jesus wore a robe. So unless you’re gonna make Christian leisure suits for Playboy mansion, I think you’re out of luck. I’m sorry…it’s just that putting a metal fish or a “My boss is a Jewish Carpenter” bumper sticker on your BMW just makes it look trashy.

Sin is raging in your self-righteousness and you don’t even realize it. That’s Ignroance. Where you don’t even realize what a mess you are making for yourself and those around you and nobody can tell you and you won’t listen and if anyone says anything to you, you either tell them to leave you alone or to shut up or you just tell them they’re wrong. Ignorance is not listening to good advice and it’s like you’re a brainwashed zombie walking through life just eating everyone up and sapping the life out of them. You’ve gotta wake up. You’re a burden and nobody likes you and you’re giving Jesus a bad name if you’re the ignorant sort who claims him and if you’re not the kind who claims him then you’re surely the one who bags on him all the time and you just don’t know what you’re talking about.

I can’t tell you what it’s like for you. But I think everyone one of us falls into that. I’ve got my wounds. I’ve been been to both parties and both of them suck. And maybe this whole sermon sounds repetitive. It’s just that more than ever I really believe that this city needs the gospel, the real gospel. I hadn’t realized how deep the clutches of the self-righteous gospel and the self-indulgent gospel were in this city. And if that’s you, don’t think I’m coming down on you and trying to scare you off. We need you and you need us. But I also realize now more than ever that a weak willed, low morals, wishy washy Christianity isn’t going to win the city either.

And my goal isn’t to try and make perfect people. Yeah, I think getting drunk, having sex of any kind with people you’re not married to, using illegal drugs, or absuing legal ones, spending your money on all kinds of junk…yeah, I think that stuff is bad for you and isn’t going to make you happy. But I’m not just trying to make you look better and stop doing those things. Those things are just cosmetic and are easy to pick on as examples. But what I’m really trying to do is open up the glory of Christ to your soul. That’s my main goal. Those things are not the problem…they’re just symptoms of not seeing and savoring Christ. And sometimes you got a hit a few crisis first, you got to walk through some times of ignorance, I wish we didn’t…but its true that after you become a Christian you are not impervious to crisis and ignorance.

The Jesus

But here is why the gospel is good, Jesus. I said last week that the end of every one of these sermon in Romans 7 is Jesus because the whole chapter is building until this great climax at the end where Paul looks back on everything he just said about the law and sin and says, “Who will deliver me from this body of death? Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord (Romans 7:24-25).”

So let’s conclude today by just talking about Jesus for a couple minutes. Jesus delivers. How? This sermon has been about how because of sin, every human ends up taking the law and misusing it one way or another and regardless of which way it kills us inside. Spiritual death.

How does Jesus deliver us from crisis and ignorance? Last week I talked about how Jesus fulfilled the law for us. This week here’s how I want to answer that question, 2 Corinthians chapter 4. 2 Corinthians 4:4,6 “The god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelievers, to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God. For we proclaim…for Jesus sake…God, who said, ‘Let light shine out of darkness,’ has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.”

If you are in crisis, you feel the death and the meaninglessness of everything around you and it is dark…behold Christ. Infinite glory, incomparable excellency, who with the lowest humility possible suffered evil on a cross for you, so that you might know joy. He is compassionate and forgiving and he doesn’t just invite you to himself…he demands it. All else pales in comparison and it destroys us. Jesus says behold my glory, give up meaningless things, come and enter my rest and my joy by following me.

If you are in ignorance, you have thought you were fine, doing things right, when all along you’ve just been trying to convince yourself that you have it all together and that things are okay…behold Christ. Complete and true perfection of the one and only Son of God, who accomplished all things for you, his work for your joy. Christ came so that you wouldn’t have to bear the burden of trying to keep it all together. Jesus says, let the knowledge of my glory shine. Embrace unflinching trust in Christ alone and walk in humility and love for others who have yet to see.

I love the Paul’s story. He is a determined guy. He knows what he thinks about things. He is confident and passionate about his disbelief in Christ and about his own righteousness. But then he literally sees the light of God’s glory and hears the tender and powerful voice of Christ and he is changed. That is such a wonderful picture of the gospel. Where ignorance hits crisis and the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus shines into a person’s heart.

conclusion

Here is the conclusion for today. Christ is everything. Yes the law shows us the darkness of our sin and it kills us. But God has given us Christ who is shone in our hearts. And when that happens we trade self-indulgence for Christ indulgence and self-righteousness for Christ’s righteousness. Being a Christian is everything being about Christ because he is the most supreme knowledge, joy, and life.

So for application…indulge in Christ. Give up things that you know keep you from him. Let Christ be your righteousness and not your own ability to do things right or not. Trust and follow him.

Kids, follow Jesus. He is everything you could ever need and want. He is better than any toy, any game, or any ice cream. Rely on him to help you live the way your mom dad tell you that you should, because Jesus is perfect and does everything right.

LAW & GOSPEL - part III

:: The Resolved Church :: March 4th, 2007

duane matthew smets
(pastor/overseer/evangelist)

Romans 7:7-12

“Law and Gospel - Part III”
I. The Charge: “Law is Bad”
II. The Defense
1. Law Uncovers Sin
2. The Example of Coveting
3. Law as Opportunity
4. Sin’s Life and our Death
a. A Metaphor and Wordplay
b. Paul’s story
c. Spiritual Death
5. A False Promise
6. A Deception
III. The Jesus

introduction

Good morning everyone. This is the last week we’ll spend on verses 7-11 of Romans 7 talking about the relationship between law and gospel. Next week a good friend of mine, Philip Struyk and his wife and little baby will be with us, and he is going to preach on the story of the prodigal son, a guy who was lost in the craziness of this world but then found his way. So it will be a good week for you to invite someone to church if you’ve been thinking about doing that. Then the week after that I’ll preach a whole sermon on verse 12 and we’ll look a little more closely at the ten or tender commandments and how they are a reflection of the God we adore and strive worship.

Here’s where we are today…for the last two weeks now we’ve been digging into these verses, trying to get into the author’s head. That’s Paul, the ex-lawyer, ex-executionist, ex-self-absorbed jerk…turned Christian and now he’s giving his every breath to try and convince the people of his time and the people of ours that Jesus Christ is in fact what what we need as humans and that Jesus really is for everyone everywhere because we’ve all got this issue with sin, which really shows itself when it bumps up against law or commands.

Last week we took some time talking about Paul’s life, his story and how he got converted and how he saw, looking back over his life the way that law worked in him. His argument has been that the law is not bad, but that sin, in us, just uses the law to work it’s evil, and the result is that the law just ends up looking bad. Sin in us either takes the law and tells us we can’t do it so forget it or it takes the law and says we can do it because we are good people. The result is that we become either self-indulgent or self-righteous which can go on for awhile…but will utimately lead you to a point of crisis or a state of pure ignorance. The good news of the gospel is that Jesus delivers us, he becomes our idulgence, our righteousness, and with a strong arm he rescues us in crisis and he kindly confronts us with truth that breaks our ignorance.

This week, we’re mainly going to focus on verses 9-11 and look at the next two of Paul’s seven reasons in his defense of why the law is not bad. This week we’re looking at God’s overrall purpose in even making a law and then we’ll look at how that played out in the story of humanity. Which are Paul’s last two lines of defense in his attempt to exonerate the law from those who might misunderstand him and hear him saying, the law sucks, we don’t need it and we never needed it or the law is awesome because I so good at it and privileged because I know it.

So let’s read the whole section because verses 7-12 all go together. Let’s pray.

God, Holy and good Father of all things, Lord of history, time and our days…we come to you this morning asking for insight into your Bible, this book you birthed long ago so that we might know and understand the depth of your glory as you have revealed it in your Son Jesus. Would you impart your Spirit to us today so that we might perceive and understand and be drawn with great affection into your grace. Teach us who you are and they way that you have set things up. Give us an awareness of ourselves, who we really are as humans and what we need in our lives, wherever we are at in them. Amen.

A False Promise

First point for today, A False Promise. In verse 9 we read “I was once alive apart from the law, but when the commandment came, sin came alive and I died.” Last week we talked about how by the age of 13 Paul had memorized word for word the first five books of the Hebrew Bible which is our Old Testament. That’s called the Torah or the Law. So in Paul’s reflective experience he started encountering the written commandments from as far back as he could remember.

As far as the internal moral commandments, that sense of “ought” or “law” within all of us…I’m sure, Paul too, like us began encountering that as well as far back as he could remember. Do you remember the first time you either felt or were told that something was wrong? I don’t. I sure do remember getting in trouble a lot…that’s for sure. I can still picture my mom’s face and her finger shaking in my face saying, “no!” I can’t really think of what I did but I do remember thinking that maybe if I made a sad enough face, I would be in trouble. That’s all I really cared about, was not getting caught and if I did get caught not getting punished.

So there is law in two ways so far, what we feel or know is true and right, and there is what people, usually our parents, tell us is true or right. For Paul, a Jew, and for his parents, that second type of law was totally wrapped up in what the Torah said and even more specifically, the peak or summary of the Torah, the ten commandments…where the internal ought and the external command match up.

So what I want to do is probe a little bit deeper this morning into the phrase, “when the commandment came.” And the reason I want to do that is because thought Paul has been using his personal experience, he has been using it to relate to the corporate experience of his fellow Jewish brothers…and even beyond that he believes that what happened in the corporate experience or history of the Jews is specifically related God’s intention of revealing himself to all mankind.

Here is why I say this because in Acts 13, Paul is preaching to a huge crowd, almost the whole city of Antioch, where there a ton of Jews and Gentiles, and he quotes a passage from Isaiah in the Jewish Hebrew Bible and says, “So the Lord has commanded us, saying I have made you a light for the Gentiles that you may bring salvation to the ends of the earth (Acts 13:37 - Is. 45:7).” A bold statement for a Jew to make. But when we look at the whole Old Testament, we discover this theme, that Israel was intended to be a light to the nations, to bring the whole word into the love and favor of God. In Exodus 19, just before God gives the ten commandments he says, “you shall be my treasured possession among all peoples…and you shall be a kingdom of priests (Ex. 19:5-6).” So God’s design of Israel was for them, as a nations, to be a channel of God’s grace to everyone else…a kingdom of priests.

What that means for us is that when God gave the ten commandments, that had a lot of significance for us. So in Romans 7 when Paul says “when the commandment came,” I don’t think the story of when God gave the ten commandments could be very far from Paul’s mind or the mind of his listeners. And the story proves to be very tellling for us on how a commandment comes as life and turns out to be death to us.

A False Promise
a. The Commandment Came

So here’s the story. We’re back in Exodus. Moses has already led the people of Israel out of Egypt were they were slaves for 430 years. When they’re leaving all these crazy things happened…apparent miracles attacking each one of the supposed Egyptian gods. Now they’re out in the desert, not knowing what to do or where to go and so Moses does what any good leader should do and he goes up on a mountain to meet with God and get some direction.

He gets up there…God shows up in this thick cloud, lights the whole mountain on fire, and causes an earthquake. That’s how God does things. So Moses is up on the mountain with God and God is speaking to him for forty days…telling him how they are to worship and live, how they are going to be this kingdom of priests, and when God’s done he gives Moses these two tablets of stone, with the ten commandments written on them by God.

Moses has got to be stoked. He just spent over a month with God, on a mountain, and God gives him this gift to take back to the people, these stone tablets with God’s instruction on them. Moses comes down the mountain, his face is somehow exuding light from being in the presence of God, and he gets back to the camp where all the people are and they have taken all the women’s gold earrings and thrown them into fire pots to melt them all and then use their tools to form this golden calf. It’s hard to tell how big is was…there were 600,000 men not including women and children, so their were easily over a million people in the camp. Something like the size of San Diego. So it is probably a pretty big golden calf and when Moses gets there they are having a party, getting drunk, and they’re singing and dancing calling this calf they made the god who delivered them out of Egypt.

Moses is so pissed he throws the stone tablets on the ground and breaks them. These tablets, engraved by God with the ten commandments, the first line reading “I am the LORD…you shall have no other gods before me.” The next line, “You shall not make for youself a carved image, or any likeness of anything that is heaven above or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under ground. You shall not bow down to them or serve them for I (am) the LORD your God (Ex 20:2-4).”

Do you see how this story helps to understand Romans 7:9-10? “9 I was once alive apart from the law, but when the commandment came, sin came alive and I died. 10 The very commandment that promised life proved to be death to me.” This story is a picture of all humanity.

We know God is God…that he is real and that we should love and worship him and him only. The commandment is already there, written on our hearts, the moral ought. But we can’t seem to follow it, at least for very long…we’re so short term, so we start doing our own thing. Then the commandment comes. Someone telling us striaght out that we are screwing up, that our way of life is wrong, and the written Word spoken to us…is immediately death. We are ruined because we know it’s true and then we either begin to give excuses or try and find some way out of punishment.

A False Promise
b. Is Life Promised?

Now, here is the question, did the commandments promise life? verse 10 says, “The very commandment that promised life.” So Paul summarizes all law or commandments in singular way here, “the very commandment,” what God says he requires and is right…was there a promise of life in accomplishing the law? Doing exactly what it says perfectly? Is that what God offered in the commandment? If you merely do this, this, and this then you will be okay, you will be saved. Is that the offer?

It kind of sounds like it right? Exodus 19:5 “If you will indeed obey my voice and keep my covenant, you shall be my treasured possession.” Deuteronomy 30:16 “I command you today to love the LORD your God, to walk in His ways and to keep His commandments and His statutes and His judgments, that you may live and multiply, and that the LORD your God may bless you in the land where you are entering to possess.” It sounds like, if you keep my covenant, do what I command, then there is life, salvation, favor.

But notice something with me. Notice the word, covenant, a relational agreement. Notice that keeping God’s commandments flows out of loving the LORD God. Almost every time there is a promise made of life or blessing in one way or another, there is always something about loving God and seeking him and knowing him.

So keep the question in your head. In looking at the whole course of history, God gave written commandments at one time. Was the reason because God was offering a contractual agreement, like if you mow my lawn I’ll give you ten bucks? Is that what is going on with law? So just sort of set that over here and we’ll come back to it. Let’s talk about the Law and deception for a couple minutes first.

A Deception

Verse 11 says, “For sin, seizing an opportunity through the commandment, deceived me and through it killed me.” What we have here is another Old Testament story reference. Paul is masterfully clever in the way that he crafts his sentences. Like an artist with their colours Paul with his words picks striking language to bring us full course into the weight of what he talking about.

Look at the word “deceived.” With the use of this word and with the sequence of reasoning Paul has been using he throws us right into the garden of Eden with Adam and Eve. I’ll show you how in a second but first let’s go there and recount the story. It’s good for us to go other places in Scripture and get to know our Bibles better…because part of becoming or being a Christian is embracing the worldview of the history of God and his people that are presented in this book.

So Adam and Eve and the story of the garden of Eden. Some of you know it well but you may not have thought of it quite in these terms. God creates the universe, we don’t squabble here at The Resolved about whether God used evolution or not…doesn’t really matter on a theological level because even if evolution is true something had to start and carry through that process…something like God.

The Bible pictures the story this way… God creates the heavens and then the earth and then he fills the earts with plants and animals and he puts man in the middle of it. God gives the man a woman, puts them in this beautiful garden and tells them to be fruitful and multiply and to take care of his creation.

The place is lush. There’s all kinds of beautiful trees with different kinds of fruit, there are rivers that flow through the garden, there is wildlife all around, the climate is perfect…everything is perfect. Genesis 2:9 says that everything was “pleasant to the sight and good for food.” San Diego is a beautiful place but it’s a dump compared to the garden of Eden.

Its like Maui on speed. Adam and Eve the first man and woman are on their honeymoon. They just cruise around having a lot good fun kinky sex, they eat a lot of good food, drink as much as they want, go swimming a lot…it’s good times. An age of innocence if you will, in paradise.

They do whatever they want and it’s all pleasing to God which makes it pleasing to themselves and everything is right. There’s one command from God, don’t eat of this one tree. Not because there was necessarily anything specifically bad about this tree except that God said not to eat of it because if you disobey him, you will know evil and pleasure and free love will run from you.

So God gives a command, a law… And like us, or rather us like them…once they hear that command they are drawn to breaking it, they are deceived, coveting starts going crazy…that want for something else than what God has given, they do the one thing God said not to do and the dark sad emo ending is that this disobedience leads a death sentence. And now, ever since, like some prophets, preists, poets and preachers have had to give no fun sermons about sin and death. Honestly, I’m not some sicko that just loves talking about sin all the time. J I just know that actually talking about it is the only way that we can ever really begin to find Christ and start to build a life of real joy instead of fake fleeting deceptive joy.

So that’s the story. Here’s the parallels with Romans 7: there’s an age of innocence in both (“I was once a alive apart from the law” = freedom & fun in Eden), there’s a commandment God in both (moral ought or ten commandments = don’t eat of the tree), there’s a coveting in both, there’s a deception in both, and there’s a disobedinece to the command in both. Striking comparisions.

Let’s look a little deeper at the deception. How did deception work in the garden? In the garden there’s a talking snake. There’s always a talking snake, whether it is the voice of a supposed friend or a voice in your head, there’s always a talking snake. And here is what the snake says, “Did God actually say, ‘You shall not eat of any tree in the garden? …You will not surely die. For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened and you will be like God, knowing good and evil (Gen 3:1-5).’” How does deception work? It takes a little truth and mixes it with a little untruth. Do you see that? You will not surely die…not right away at least, not to mention the emotional death and suffering that will occur. God knows when you eat of it your eyes will be opened and you will be like God. An appeal to a desire to be our own God and make our own rules for our life. True, eyes are opened…not true, you will be more like God.

How does deception work in Romans 7? “10 The very commandment that promised life proved to be death to me. 11 For sin, seizing an opportunity through the commandment, deceived me and through it killed me.” What does the deception sound like? It sounds like to me that the deception was thinking that simply obeying the law or the commandment would grant life. And isn’t that the same thing being offered in Eden? You will not die. Deception.

So again, let’s ask the question we asked when we talked about the coming of the written law on Mt. Sinai…why did God give the law? Why did he even put this one tree in the garden and give a commandment about it? Why did he put a moral ought in us? Why did he give written commandments on top of it all? What the purpose? Is the reason to offer life and teach that if we are good enough we can do it and earn life and salvation by how well we perform?

The Jesus

I don’t think so. I don’t think that was ever the purpose. Not in the garden of Eden. Not at the foot of Sinai. Not in 1st century Palestine. And not in 21 century America in the city of San Diego. Here’s why I say that…I alluded to it earlier when I mentioned that the conditional statements surrounding God’s law in the Old Testament are almost always accompanied by some reference to loving God. But this is what I think and you can disagree with me if you want, if you want to be of that sort of dispensational breed that thinks God saved different ways at different times or dispensations…I think the purpose of the law was and is and always has been to point us to our need for Christ. In the Old Testament too? Yes.

Here is why I say that. Galatians 3:23-24 “Before faith came, we were kept in custody (or held captive) under the law, being shut up (or imprisoned) until the coming faith would be revealed. So then the law was our tutor (guardian/schoolmaster) to lead us to Christ (NASB).”

That word tutor is so significant. This is one place that I actually really really like the NIV translation (that rarely happens)…but the NIV uses the word “schoolmaster.” That’s a good translation. The greek word is paidagogos, that’s where we get the English word “pedagogy” which means teaching, like in school. So what this verse is saying is that God gave the law for the purpose of teaching us that we need Christ!

That is the reason for the law. That is why God speaks it into our consciences, why God gave it in Eden, why God gave it on Sinai, why it abounded in the 1st century, and why God continues to let his law be known now. So that we would come to know and love the gospel of Jesus Christ! There is an intimate connection between law and gospel. Law shows us the brokenness of our hearts…with a holy hammer it cracks open the hard outer shell and shows us weak and sick and then the wonder of the Gospel remedy is able to pour in and heal and restore and give life and love and meaning and purpose.

This is exactly what Jesus himself taught. After he rose from the dead he spent some time with a a couple of guys, one named Cleopas, and Jesus took them through the whole Old Testament and beginning with Moses (the law), and all the prophets (obey the law), he showed them how it all pointed to him (Lk 24:27). On another occasion during Jesus’ famous sermon on the mount he said this, “Do not think I came to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have come…to fulfill them (Mt 5:17).”

Do you see? The purpose of the law, the promise of the law is for us to realize that we can’t do it. We are too weak and too inadequate and God is too holy, too perfect, too wonderful for us ever to attain his perfection. So out of love we cry, Lord help!

Moses got this, along with a few other godly men in the Old Testament…men like Abraham and Elijah and David, and Isaiah and handful of others. Moses is a good example. After he comes down the mountain, smashes the tablets, he doesn’t know what to do. So what does he do, he goes to prayer. It’s one of my favorite stories in the whole Bible. Listen to what he prays, he says, “You say to me, bring up these people (command), but you have not let me know whom you will send with me (I can’t do this God). Yet you have said, I know you by name and you have also found favor in my sight. Now therefore if I have found favor in your please show me now your ways, so that I might know you in order to find favor in your sight.” And God answers and says, “My presence will go with you and I will give you rest (Ex 33:12-14).”

Moses knew the commands of God were too great and that he needed a mediator. He knew he needed Christ, a God-man but didn’t know his name. That’s what Jesus says about the Jews of the Old Testament who truly loved God. In John 8, Jesus says this, “’Your father Abrahm rejoiced that he would see my day. He saw it and was glad.’ So the Jews said to him, ‘You are not fifty years old, and have you seen Abraham?’ And Jesus said to them, ‘Truly, truly, I say to you, before Abraham was, I AM (John 8:56-59.” Oh the glory of the Son of God…it makes me tremble to hear his words.

conclusion

Okay let’s conclude with some application. There’s a lot of things we could take from today. Let’s begin with “the commandment came.” Just as there was a specific time in history when God gave in written form the law he had already given in our hearts…there was a specific time in history when God gave his Son to us. Galatians 4:4-5 says, “When the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law.”

So look at history through the eyes of God. That what you experience inside lines up with what God has been working throughout all of history. There is one big metanarrative, one big story going on, and the significance and happiness and meaning of your life is the point at which you connect to that big story and the place that you connect at is Jesus. Those before Jesus came on the seen look forward in faith and those who came after look backward in faith. So if you haven’t converted and become a Christian yet, embrace Christ today.

If you have made that turn, but you came to him selfishly, trying to earn some salvation, like getting Jesus was a law of promise just to get into heaven, repent of that and begin to wholly rely on the fullness Christ and not your own strength. We all need that. So often I find myself slipping back into the law, I keep going back to it, getting deceived, thinking there is a promise of life that I can fulfill myself. I can’t. I need Christ despertly.

So let’s read our Bibles so that we get convicted so that we discover more of the quanity and quality of our sin so that we will find great joy in experiencing the savior rescuing us of from it. Saint Augustine said it this way, “God commands what we cannot do that we may know what we ought to seek from him.” Digging into God’s law will help us know how we can better seek and savor Christ.

Let us not think that following Christ and loving God through following his commands means that things will go well for us. Easyness is not promised, deep joy and truth and love is, but not material prosperity with no season of difficulty. That is not the gospel. The gospel is a promise of Christ who will be our all if we cry out for mercy.

How about deception. Apply what we have learned today. Know that law can neither save you nor sanctify you but it can show you what you need. You nor anyone else will ever naturally think they are sinners unless confronted with law. Even if we admit to do bad we are stubborn to see it as sin that violates God’s law. But law is not sin. It never saved anyone and it never will it was not meant to. It cannot make you better, it cannot heal you, it cannot purify you…only Christ can do that.

Think about how you work. How sin works in you. When there is a prohibition about something it awakens a desire to transgression. There is this famous story about Saint Augustine when he was a kid hanging out with his friends and they stole some pears…not because they wanted to eat them but merely for the pleasure the excitement of stealing them and disobeying the law. I know that is true about me. Every time I see that movie, Point Break it makes me want to go rob a bank…not for the money but just for the fun of wearing a president’s mask and waving a gun around and taking off with a bunch of cash. That sounds fun! And that is sickness in us. When we’re told not to do something there is almost immediately something fun about doing it.

So here is an application…know that is true about your nature, recognize it as rebellion, and then plead for Christ to change you so that you don’t have to experiment with sin in order to find out the sinfulness of sin. Listen, you don’t have to go commit adultery and get wasted to discover that it is wrong no more than you have to drink all water in the ocean to find out it’s salty. Trust God’s Word and don’t buy into deceptive lies like you need this, or you deserve this, or this is okay, or this will make things better. Only Christ is all there is.

Jesus said, “If you keep my commandments you will abide in my love (Jn 15:20).” That doesn’t mean keeping the commandments is abiding in love…it means the fruit of abiding in the love of Jesus is keeping the commandments. So don’t get it reversed. Begin to build a life for yourself in the garden of love for Christ, where his life-giving vine is supplying your every need and giving you great strength and passion and wisdom to carry out his commandments.

That’s what we as The Resolved Church are trying to do in this city. We are on a mission to build a garden within this city…a place where the gospel of Jesus Christ flourishes in abudance. We need people who are willing to get an idea of how to love the city and then to lead a group in carrying it out. We need people who love Christ and his church so much that they’re willing to let it affect their lives to the point that we join together in this huge undertaking instead of just trying to fit it in. We have much ahead of us and we don’t have the strength so we cry out Lord help!

Lastly, for the kids, both in age or at heart or in understanding…your life is like a story, like in a book or a movie, and the thing that makes your story so great is when you meet and come to know Jesus. But in your story many things will come along to try and trick you into thinking you don’t need Jesus. So don’t be tricked into thinking that you can find happiness on your own without him because you can’t. That is a not a true promise.

Now we are going to take communion and give our money. This is a time for believers when worship and adore Christ and receive his loving grace provided for on the cross through the elements of seeking him in prayer and partaking of some bread and wine. This also a time where those who are part of this church give our money as part our worship of Christ to support His church and the expansion of His kingdom in this city and beyond. If you’re new with us don’t worry about giving and if you’re not new, get on board.

LAW & GOSPEL - part IV

:: The Resolved Church :: March 17, 2007

duane matthew smets
(pastor/overseer/evangelist)

Romans 7:7-12

“The (Ten)der Commandments”
Law and Gospel - Part IV
Romans 7:12

introduction

Good morning. Welcome to The Resolved Church. If you are new with us this is the part of our service where we take this book seriously and together strive to learn it and live by it. Last week my friend Philip was her and he preached an amazing sermon about the prodigal son and the love of The Father, the God we worship. It worked out kind of well because we have been in this series studying this little chunk of Scripture, Romans 7:7-12, which is all about law and gospel. And why it works out good is because we have one last verse, verse 12 to deal with, which is all about God the Father (I’ll show you how in a minute).

Paul, the author of Romans presents it as his 7th reason why the law isn’t bad. And as we have learned in our other three sermons, “law” here can mean either the internal moral law, that inner sense of right and wrong in all humans, or it can mean more specifically the 10 Jewish commandments which is core of their sacred Jewish Torah. The really striking thing is that these 10 commandments almost identically line up with the commandments we find inside ourselves in this inner sense of right and wrong.

So today I have a few goals or things I want to do. The first thing is to show you why I think verse 12 is really talking about the being of God. The second thing is to run through these 10 commandments and see how they reflect God. And then the third thing is to show how they lead us to the gospel of Jesus Christ…which is what this is really all about, that law leads us to Christ. That was the main point of my sermon two weeks ago, law is our schoolmaster to teach us Christ. The main point of Philip’s sermon last week was that the Father loves us. And the main point of this sermon today is that these two things are the same, the Father loves us by giving us the law so that we will find the great joy of knowing and living for Christ.

Verse 12 is About God

Let’s read our text so that we know the thought flow going on here and to remind ourselves that it is Scripture driving us and not just clever sermons. (Read vs.7-12 and re-read vs.12 at the end) It is interesting that verse 12 at least from the outset doesn’t even look like a reason. It just sort of looks like a statement. If the charge is that the law is bad and Paul is saying no its good and here’s why…simply just saying the law is good isn’t a reason, that’s the question that’s on the table, whether it is good or not because a whole lot of bad seems to come from it…if there was no law then people wouldn’t break it and there wouldn’t be sin and we wouldn’t be so confused and miserable, so why have the law, it seems bad.

But verse 12 is a reason if we recognize Paul’s literary geniusness. I think the thing that will help us best see it is by going to a passage in the gospel of Luke (18-18-22), where this young, loaded, corporate exec. in an Armani suit, driving his M3 rolls up to Jesus and says, “Good Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?” And Jesus, rather than answering his question right aways says something interesting…he says, “Why do you call me good? No one is good except God alone.” Interesting. So first Jesus recognizes God as the source of all goodness, what is right and true and just. Then Jesus says this, “You know the commandments: Do not commit adultery, Do not murder, Do not steal, Do not (lie), Honor your father and mother.” And the guy responds…“All these I have kept from my youth.” Cocky jerk know it all. J Then Jesus, probably with a half smirking and half with a sad face says, “One thing you still lock. Sell all that you have and distribute to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven, and come and follow me.”

You see the guy got the letter of the law and thought he could earn his way by doing everything just right, the same way he got ahead in every other part of his life. But he missed the heart of the law…treasuring God. He missed that the law is about the being of God, about his pure and utter goodness…about God’s holy righteousness.

I think Paul is saying the same thing in Romans 7:12. I think he is saying that the law is not bad because it is a reflection of who God is…that it emanates out of God’s very being. “The law is holy, and righteous and good” because it comes from God! Goodness is not some abrstract reality that God ascribes to or follows. If it was then wherever that came from is God and is what we should be worshipping.

But maybe that isn’t super clear to us right from the outset. And on top of it all…we’ve reference the law a lot as we’ve been studying this passage over the last few weeks but we haven’t really talked much about each of the specific commandments. So what I want to do is go back into the Old Testament, into the Hebrew Bible and look at the Ten Commandments one by one in hopes that by doing so we will better see how they reflect God and his love for us and how great a treasure the gospel of Jesus is.

The Ten Commandments Reflect God

Let’s begin in Exodus 19. Exodus 19 is the chapter right before God gives the ten commandments. Before he gives them he gives this speech. I’m not going to read the whole thing but I’ll read just the beginning starting in verse 4. “You yourselves have seen what I did to the Egyptians (that’s where Israel was in slavery against their will for 430 years), and how I bore you on eagles’ wings and brought you to myself. Now therefore, if you will indeed obey my voice and keep my covenant, you shall be my treasured possession among all peoples, for all the earth is mind and you shall be a kingdom of priests and a holy nation (Ex. 19:4-6).” What happens after that is some narrative description about how Moses goes up on Mt. Sinai and how God envelopes the mountain in fire and inscribes the ten commandments on tablets of stone and then beginning with Ex.20 we read the commandments.

But before we read them, I just want us to notice the context we just overviewed…because the context is a very fatherly context. Did you hear it in those words I read a second ago? “How I bore you on eagles wings and brought you to myself…you will be my treasured possession.” Do you hear the voice of a tender and loving heavenly father? God swoops down, like an eagle to rescue us and then says “look father knows best” and gives some commandments. We have to recognize that because a lot of us may have had horrible earthly fathers and on top of that we don’t even like the word “commandment.” It just tastes bad and you want to spit it out. But that is not what these ten commandments are. Rather than rigid rules they are compassion and concern, rather than rejection and refusal they acceptance and affection.

I titled my sermon “The Ten(der) Commandments” to emphasize the goodness of God, our heavenly father, that we see reflected in his instructions. I have to give credit to a man named Ron Mehl for the title and for much of the content of this sermon. I knew Ron Mehl since I was a young boy, he was a Pastor of a church in Oregon and was friends with my parents and he actually paid for a good portion of my second theology degree. He died 2003 of Luekemia and five years before his death he wrote a book titled, “The Ten(der) Commandments.” So a lot of today’s content comes from some things I’ve gleaned from him and that book.

Now we could spend the next 3 months if we wanted to studying each of these ten commandments in depth but we’re not going to do that, we’re just going to run through each of them today and hopefully catch a glimmer of God’s beauty and wonder and glory that is woven through their eternal character.

So, first commandment. “You shall have no other gods before me.” Is this the harsh statement of some insecure being trying to convince us that he is better than the next guy? I don’t think so. Remember the context, who God has shown himself to be. He is the all-powerful, all-good, all-knowing, everywhere present Creator who brings life and beauty and meaning to everything. When God says, “have no other gods before me” he is telling us not to put any person, object, tast, duty, pleasure, priority, or affection in front of him because nothing else can satisfy because He is the all-satisifying being of the universe.

Just as in a marriage, the beginning point is a covenant between two people that they will be devoted to each other only. When I married Amy I was making a commitment that I would have no other women before her but would devote my life to putting her first.

When it comes to God, this first commandment is the hardest thing about being a Christian…staying close to Christ and keeping him first. Recognizing that needing him and living for him is what builds a happy satisfied life…keeping him first and not letting anything else get in the way. We know this in our hearts deep down…that there is only one true God and that we should worship him and him only.

Second Commandment. “You shall not make for yourself a carved image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is under the earth. You shall not bow down to them or serve them for I the LORD your God am a jealous God.” Now is this just some archaic and outdated directive that only applied for people back then or people in various eastern and animistic cultures since we in America don’t carve images and worship them?

I don’t think so. Images matter a lot. In every culture and especially in our culture. This show on TV “America’s Next Top Model” is amazing. There’s like 12 girls or something. None of them have eaten for like months and they all have boob jobs. They’ve got long hair, short hair, red hair, fro hair, or extensions. They are truly artists with their make-up, boots, shirts, jeans, ear rings, every article of clothing carefully accentuated…I mean it, they are super talented in how they are able to make themselves look and pose and everything, it’s incredible. J Now I’m not trying to bag on it. I think they’re all incredible hot, though none of them are as beautiful as my wife. J

I’m not so sure that it is terribly bad to want to express yourself in some way by how you dress.
But you can’t tell me that image doesn’t matter to us. And it matters to God to because he is Spirit and is the most beautiful being that we can ever conceive. That’s why we’re to worship him. You see we become like what we worship, what we value most. You can try other things but in time will discover they are worthless and make you feel drained of value. That is because the image of God is where all worth and value lies. What he thinks of you and not anyone else.

In Romans chapter 8, which we’ll begin studying in a couple months says that the point of the gospel is to mold us to the image of Christ. Jesus is the exact representation of God and we have all effaced his image in us and Christ restores beauty and meaning and life to us who have become unwanted, lost and confused.

Third Commandment. “You shall not take the name of the LORD your God in vain.” Names matter a lot huh? If I say Kanye West…you get a picture in your mind and a whole slew of things about him that come along with that picture right? Like hip hop, money, music…that are all connected to his name. Or if I say Angelina Jolie…same thing, you get a picture in your mind along with all these things you know about her right? She’s a movie star, hooked up with Brad Pitt, adopts kids from Vietnam. So names matter right because they represent who a person is.

And God is a person. So what do you think of when you hear his name? God. What comes to mind? If God is the most meaningful person in all of existence and is the source of everything that is good, true and right and loving then that name is a pretty holy name. We should rightly feel a sense of reverence and fear and respect at the name of God and not use it lightly. That makes sense if there really is a God…that we shouldn’t take his name in vain, especially when he expresses such tender loving care for us…constantly enabling the world to go around and providing food and rain and sunshine.

I find it interesting that God and Jesus Christ are the only ones who ever get cursed. I’ve never heard anyone say, “Ah Buddha!” “Mohommed Damnit!” “Hare Krishna!” I think that is because God, the one true God is fixed in our hearts and we know he is real deep down and we know he hears and we want him to know when we are mad, hurt, or frustrated. But there is a better way to do that then cursing him, it’s called prayer.

Acts 4:12 says that Jesus is “the only name given under heaven whereby a man can be saved” and Philippians 2:9-10 says that “God has exalted (Jesus) and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow…and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the father.”

Fourth Commandment. “Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the LORD your God.” God, our good heavenly Father, knows what we need…he knows we need rest…he knows we need rest in him.

Everything in God’s creation needs rest, even dirt. Ron Mehl in his book talks about dirt, he says, “Farmers don’t plant the same things in the same fields year after year. They may plant corn one year, but the next year they’ll plant beans on the same parcel of ground. Why? Because the corn will take certain nutrients out of the soil, and the beans whill put ‘em back in. If a farmer can afford it, he will let whole tracts of ground lie fallow for a year or more and not plant anything because the land benefits from rest. After a year or two of lying easy under win and rain, snow and sun, it yields a greater, more bountiful crop.”

If dirt needs rest, how much more do we. God knows that he is the source of true rest. He knows we need a day to go and seek him and worship him…a holy day. A sunday. A day to enjoy his creation and a day to enjoy the study of His Word together with his people. Rest comes in two forms, as play and as worship. We need a chance to get away from our everyday life and we need a chance once a week to go worship God with his people. That’s why Hebrews 4:9 & 10:25 after talking about the eternal rest Christ provided for on the cross says that “There remains a Sabbath rest for the people of God…(so) let us not neglect[ing] to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encourage[ing] one another…”

Rest is us knowing that God is working for us…that it isn’t luck, how much we are determined or how hard we work but it is God, who works in us to will and to do his good pleasure. I’ll just throw this in here too…there’s an implied command here also for the lazy ones, who are all play and no work. You’re just “resting” all the time, working on your beer belly and video game skills. The command here is get a job dummy.

Fifth commandment. “Honor your father and mother, that your days may be long in the land that the LORD your God is giving you.” This is a tough one. Right in the middle of the ten commands. And this command has a promise in it, a desire of the loving heavenly father for us…that our life will be well and long.

Last week Philip talked about how our picture of God the Father often has a lot to do with what kind of earthly father we have had in life. And it is a hard question to answer if we ask, why should I honor my father or my mother, especially if they were not there or if they mistreated us in some way, which has left us hurt, dejected, and angry? We long for loving parents. We long for a perfect father, like God.

But there is no exceptions in this commandment is there? It doesn’t say that we only honor good parents does it? I believe the reason is because God knows that how we respond to our family history has a big effect on our life, either good or bad and God wants to protect us from destructive attitudes, patterns and behaviors and the way that happens is by honoring our father and mother, regardless of whether or not they were there and were loving.

That is hard, especially hard for some. How do you even begin to do that? By coming to know the heavenly Father and finding his forgiveness for the ones who have wronged us and by coming to know his love for us which we extend toward them. That’s not easy. The innocent party always pays more emotionally and volitionally. But that creates a better life. And how do we come to know the heavenly Father? By embracing Christ in your life.

Jesus prayers a long prayer right before he goes to be arrested and crucified and he at the end of his prayer he says this, “O righteous Father, even though the world does not know you, I know you and these know that you have sent me. I made known to them your name, and I will continue to make it known, that the love with which you have loved me may be in them and I in them (John 17:25-26).”

Sixth commandment. “You shall not murder.” It is amazing how easy it is to become numb to murder. It is everywhere all around us but we are mostly unaffected. Every single time the news is on there is a report of some new killing and every other TV reality show or day show seems to be people getting angry and violent toward each other. Killing has become cool and even fun. Microsoft is coming out with Halo 3 soon which is going to be the most expensive video game ever sold. It will cost $130 to buy so that you can go around shooting other people while you talk to them live over the internet.

This commandment gets at the heart of God which is love because the murder comes from anger which breeds hate and if it is not dealt with, it results in violence. Why do we get angry? Usually because we have been hurt and we want to hurt back.

God teaches us the hardest lesson of all when Jesus Christ, the Lord of the universe, hung on a cross…murdered and chose not to retaliate, though he said he could call a whole legion of angels to his side to strike back. God is a long-suffering God. Not an unjust God but a God who wants us to learn that His lovingkindness is better.

Seventh commandment. “You shall not commit adultery.” This commandment is about sex but it is also about more than sex. God is all about sex. He made sex. God designed human to enjoy having sex in all kinds of ways, he enabled us to make babies through it, and to protect each other spiritually with it. It reflects the intimacy God intends for there to be in a covenant relationship between two persons.

And sex doesn’t work when it is not within marriage, period. Whether your having sex with with a TV screen, a picture in your mind, or someone physically in your bed who is not your husband or wife…it will not turn out well for you. Sex is not bad…some couples are having sex enough. And some of you may be having sex and you shouldn’t and that is because you are immature and you need to grow up. Immaturity always wants what it wants when it wants it and will not wait. And God knows that if we do not follow his plan and his design in this area it will mess us up good.

There would never be any divorce or any single parents if we as a people got a hold of the huge significance of this command and what is best for us as humans. Adultery is not compatibliity and marriage does not end when love does. There is something eternal going on with sex and the relationship of a husband and a wife.

Now that’s intense. I know. I mean to be…because there perhaps nothing so flagerantly a foul in our cutlure right now than this…and I am on a mission to try and make some people happy. You guys don’t know how much my heart breaks when I hear about you guys sleeping with people you’re not married to. I hate it…it is so gut wrenching.

But praise God for the gospel, because in Jesus there is forgiveness and there is acceptance and love. 2 Corinthians 5:17 says, “If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.” So embrace Christ, be loved by the heavenly father, and make a change about how you are going to live your life and who you are going to live it for…Christ or for someone who cannot and will not really love you because they don’t know or live for him.

Eighth commandment. “You shall not steal.” I’ve never played it but for awhile I kept hearing all this stuff about this video game called “Grand Theft Auto” where the goal is to go around and steal cars, money, and women. I’ve got to be honest…the idea of stealing a car sounds so fun. It’s right up there with my dream of robbing a bank just for the fun of it. To steal a car and then get runned down by the cops trying to get away. It just looks so fun.

I tried to steal a Nirvana CD when I was in high school. All my friends were stealing stuff all the time, so my first time I tried steal this Nirvana CD from Walmart. Back then they had these huge plastic things on the CD’s with things in them that set off the detectors you walk through when you go out the store. So I thought I was smart and took the CD to the hardware department and cut the thing off with some big ole’ metal snips. I put the CD in my pocket and just to be sure I went throught the check out line and bought a snickers. As I was about to walk out the door this guy grabs my arm, he has the plastic CD case in his hand, he asks for the CD and tells me to leave and never come back. J

So what is up with stealing. I think we mainly have a desire to steal for a few reasons…because we don’t have what we think we need or want, we want instant happiness, and we want status or to impress other people. And this relates to God in a big way because he is our provider…he has made the earth in such a way that we can grow and make and obtain food and clothes…and knowing Him is what makes a person happy long-term. God knows that possession cannot give us peace. That money cannot buy the measure of satisfaction we long for.

That’s why I worry sometimes about some of you college kids, because you just want to get your degree so you can get a job that is going to make you a lot of money so that you can buy a lot of things, thinking that hen you will be happy. And it simply isn’t true. The most important thing for you to do is to figure out what God wants you to do because only when you are doing that will you be happy.

Jesus says, “Do not be anxious about your life, what you shall eat or what you shall drink, nor about your body, what you shall put on. Because life is more than food, and the body is more than clothing.” Why do we get anxious or worried about these things? I think the reason is we are afraid we will loose some pleasures, some praise from people, or we are afraid about the well-being of our physical life.

John Piper says this, “We ought not to be anxious about food and clothing because food and clothing cannot provide the great things of life - the enjoyment of God, the pursuit of his gracious favor, the hope of eternity in his presence. We get anxious about food and clothing to the same degree that we lose sight of the great purposes of a God-centered life.” Jesus said, “I have come that (you) may have life and have it abundantly (John 10:10).”

Ninth commandment. “You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.” That means don’t lie. Words are so powerful. Dishonesty breeds discontent. Words cut deep. Words shape lives. From a husband to a spouse, from a parent to a child, from a teacher to a student, from a friend to a friend. Words can either build up or tear down and can in an instant bring a whole house crashing down. It is something we know too well, lies make more lies which make more lies. And in the end there is nothing good.

This commandment reflects the truth of God in an amazing way. There is so much out there today when it comes to God and religion. Everybody seems to have there own idea. And into this world of confusion and doubt God speaks and gives us His Word. God doesn’t intend for us to be broken and hurt and misunderstood and baffled by him. God is source of all truth and commands for us to tell the truth because he is not a God of deception but of perfection. And knowing him and his word of truth is what brings confidence and assurance into ones life. Without truth there will always be fear and hesistation.

In regards to this commandment Jesus comes to us and says “I am the way the truth and the life, no one comes to the father but by me (John 14:6).” And for those struggling to find what is true he says, “If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples and you will know the truth and the truth will set you free (John 8:31-32).”

Lastly, the tenth commandment. “You shall not covet.” We talked about this a bunch when we first started this series on “Law and Gospel” because Paul referenced this commandment as his first reason for why the law isn’t bad back in verse 7 of Romans 7. The heart of this commandment is desire, our affections. Coveting is to have a strong desire to posses something that belongs to somebody else. Coveting is a an affection, a want, a desire…and so this command deals with the desire of our hearts as oppossed to exterenal behavior.

This concludes and connects all the other commandments because they all assume desires behind them. You steal because you desire to have something that you can’t afford. You commit adultery because you desire to have sex with someone who is not your wife or because you don’t want to wait for marriage. Coveting relates directly to the desires and is behind every one of the commandments.

The Commandments to the Gospel

That’s the ten commandments driving by them at about 80 miles an hour. Maybe you feel a little drained after that. It’s a lot. It’s heavy. And as heavy as it is it is also hopeful. These commandments are truly the tender loving care of our heavenly father who knows us best and knows what we need. And these commandments lead us to the glory of Christ. They make him shine because as these commandments are a reflection of God himself, they are a reflection of Christ.

Colossions 1:15-20 says “(Jesus) is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. For by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities - all things were created through him and for him. And he is before all things and in him all things hold together. And he is the head of the body, the church. He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in everything he might be preeminent. For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of the cross.”

This is the conclusion of Romans 7:7-12 on “Law and Gospel.” The law leads us to the gospel of Jesus Christ. The gospel is that Jesus, the God-man, came to earth, died an eternal death to God’s wrath in our place because we have all broken these commandments time and time again and it’s a great offense to the love of our heavenly father. So Jesus died for us and rose again and lives today as the victorious king over all and is spreading the message of his kingdom through us until the day he returns in all his power and might.

And that is what we are about here at The Resolved Church…spreading the message of the kingdom of Christ. I was careful as I went through each of the commandents to show you how each of them reflected the character of God, and how each commandment is something that is discernable in our own hearts regardless of whether we read it in this book or not, and then I was also careful to show you how each commandment pointed to Christ and how Jesus fulfills each commandment.

But there was one thing I left out and that was any reference to community. Yes, these commands are for us individually but they are also for us together. They are given so that we might create a way of life together that reflects God as our treasure as we grow and build in love. You see you can’t live life together with people if you are lying to each other, sleeping around, and being angry with each other all the time. It doesn’t work and one of the many beautiful facets of the gospel is that it changes us into being a certain type of people…the kind that really and truly care for eachother.

That’s what I want The Resolved Church to be. A movement in this city which lives a different way of life because of who we treasure, Christ together. We are trying to build a city within this city, so that others will see our joy and satisfaction and truth by how we live and love and then be drawn in through the gates in that we build through all kinds of creative means. Our heart is to beat with mission because we know that this city’s heart is dying because it does not have Christ as its treasure. So join in as we join Christ and His (ten)der commandments. Let’s pray.

Law & Gospel (4 parts)

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