Thus Sayeth The Lord - The Goodness of God's Law

Join us this week as Sam begins a new year of Catalyst with the launch of our new series, Thus Sayeth the Lord. In this introduction, we look at the goodness of God’s law, why it still matters today, and how it points us to Christ.

Transcript

Well, good evening, it's so good to have everybody here tonight. If I've not had a chance to meet you yet, my name is Sam Parker and I'm Senior Campus Minister for CCF and so, hello. So glad that you guys could make it for our first catalyst of the fall semester. We hope you guys week has just gotten off to a great start. Some of you guys are probably feeling a little overwhelmed. One week in and you're thinking, "What did I sign up for?" We hope that catalyst on Thursday nights can always be a good reorienting of priorities, of things that matter. And we want our catalyst every Thursday to be that reminder of what direction true north is. Sometimes we get off a little bit and we want to be able to be turning our hearts and our minds back to the Lord just for the brief time that we're together. And so, that'll look like some worship songs. If you don't like singing, that's okay. We want you to still feel welcome to come and join in with us and we come from a variety of denominational backgrounds. Maybe some of you come from no denominational background. We still want you here. We're so glad that you could join us. And then, yeah, we'll always break open the word of God. And so, I'll be introducing our series tonight. Before I do that, though, I do want to, there's one more small group to go over and that would be my own. I'll be doing a study this semester on the parables of Jesus. And so, I'm sure some of you all have a favorite parable, whether that's the Good Samaritan or the prodigal son. Some of them also are small, confusing. And so, what we're going to do is just spend some time looking at some really good methods of how to interpret and understand some of Jesus's parables. And then, that'll be the first two weeks and then the last ten weeks, the small group gets to decide which ten parables we will study and we'll take one each week. Mine's open to men and women and it'll be Thursday, sorry, Tuesday afternoons at 330 at Panera, which is also my second office. So, hope you can join me. So we start a new study this semester and it's going to take the whole school year to work through. And this was one that I actually, I was over a year ago, was thinking about and I couldn't wait for when we would finally get to do it. And so, I'm really excited for it. And this fall, we'll do a study that I've titled "Thus Sayeth the Lord." And so, we're going to go back to the Old Testament, we're going to go to Exodus 20 and we're going to look at the ten commandments of God and we'll work through those one commandment each week. That'll be this fall semester. Then in the spring semester, we're going to jump over to the New Testament and we're going to study Jesus's sermon on the Mount that we find in the Gospel of Matthew. And I've titled that one, "You have heard it said, Simon told me I should, Jesus is more of a sig than you are Simon." He didn't actually say that. He's going to be like, "I didn't say that." So over the course of the year, we'll be studying the giving of God's law, or at least the summation of God's law, which is found in the ten commandments. And then as we go to the spring, we're going to let Jesus teach us how His Word, His ways, works, fulfill that law in us and for us. So tonight, just to set the stage for the ten commandments, I want to take tonight and lay a good foundation. Let's be honest, probably most of us when we hear that the subject is going to be something pertaining to Old Testament law, it's kind of like, "Heh, heh, sounds exciting, Sam." In fact, I was a rather surprised that most of you that came to Catalyst during O-Week last week still came tonight, because I talked about it back then and you still came. So I'm glad for that. Old Testament law really often feels antiquated. Otherworldly from our modern era, certainly from our church culture today. So maybe you've answered this question, but maybe you've never really thought about it. What do we do with Old Testament law? Does it apply to today? Are we going to pick and choose some sections of the law and what we find helpful and ditch the rest? Are we going to ignore it? What I'd like to propose tonight is that the law of God that was given to Israel 3,500 years ago at Mount Sinai is as relevant today as it was then. And I believe that the law of God is relevant today as it has ever been, because lawlessness is as prevalent today as it has ever been. Wickedness is often proclaimed as good and that which is good can often be decried as immoral. And even within Christian circles, there are certain things that aren't addressed and are perhaps even encouraged, which God's word really would announce as sinful. And so it's no surprise that as the word of God is stifled, obedience is dismissed that sin and lawlessness would abound. I might be a little presumptuous in saying this, but there may even be a handful in this room tonight who are quickly wanting to shoot some holes in my opening. Maybe wanting to skip ahead and take me to some new testament passages. Well, same, don't forget that there's no condemnation for those who are in Christ, right? And all who profess Christ are saved, perhaps could go to the Old Testament law and bring up some rather crazy laws and say, how in the world are these still relevant today? I'd like you to hear me out. After I'm done this evening, I hope to have these concerns or questions. Perhaps it might raise a whole host of other questions that you might have concerning that, but at least to help you to see that the law of God is good. I also want to give three ways that the law doesn't benefit us and three ways that it does benefit us. And I think that'll be enough for week one. Well, I'd like to start with a Psalm. Psalm 19, 7 through 11, if you have the U version app, you can pull that up. If you open that up in the bottom right corner where it says more, you can click on that, go to events. It will list Christian campus fellowship and we have all our notes on there. That's if you're super techy and want to be on that. You can also just look up here at the screen. Or I'd love to hear pages turning if you have your Bible with you. That's always a favorite of mine. So Psalm 19, verses 7 through 11. The law of the Lord is perfect, reviving the soul. The testimony of the Lord is true is sure, making wise the simple. The precepts of the Lord are right, rejoicing the Lord is clean and during forever. The rules of the Lord are true and righteous all together. More to be desired are they than gold, even much fine gold, sweeter also than honey and drippings of the honeycomb. More over by them is your servant warned and keeping them. There is great reward. That's a, let's say short prayer. Father we thank you for your word and the light that it is for our feet and how it illuminates our path. Lord in this world we need your light to guide us, to give us wisdom, instruction, and so Lord we pray for that tonight. We pray that your spirit would quicken our hearts and our minds to understand who you are and what you ask of us. And we ask all these sayings in your name. Amen. Well in a few short verses, what does Psalm 19 tell us about God's law? It's laid out pretty simply and yet beautifully isn't it? Your law is perfect God. It revives the soul. Your testimony is sure. It makes the simple wise. That would be me. Your precepts are right. It causes the heart to rejoice. Your commandments are pure. They enlighten the eyes. Your rules are true. They are righteous altogether and there to be desired, more than gold, much fine gold. They're sweeter than honey and we are warned and in keeping there than there is great reward. What a wonderful summation of God's word and the impact that it has on the life that hears it and wants it and loves it. Scripture is abundantly clear that mankind benefits greatly from God's laws being declared and kept. Old Puritan writer Thomas Watson declared God's commands are not grievous. He commands nothing unreasonable. In other words, humanity benefits from God's law. Kevin DeYoung points out in his commentary on the Ten Commandments, it's kind of a long quote, I didn't put it up here, but I thought this was really good. He says, have you ever thought about how much life would be, how much better life would be if everyone simply kept the Ten Commandments? We may grumble about rules and regulations, but think of what an amazing place the world would be if these Ten Rules were obeyed. We wouldn't need copyright laws, patent laws, or intellectual property rights. We wouldn't need locks on our doors. We wouldn't need fraud protection. We wouldn't have to spend money on weapons, or maybe not for defense, but we might still spend money on weapons. We wouldn't need to spend money on weapons. You know, your patriotic president here, he likes that second member, I'm joking, sorry. I digress. We wouldn't need courts. We wouldn't need contracts. We wouldn't need prisons. Can you imagine what life would be like if people would simply obey the Ten Commandments? The law is not an ugly thing, it is good and righteous and holy. And then a good C.S. Lewis quote always goes along with about everything. He said, the good news of law is like the good news of arriving on solid ground after a shortcut gone awry through the mud, muck, and mire. After fumbling about in the squishy stinky mess, you're relieved to finally hit something solid. Anything you can trust, something you can count on. It may be hard for us at times to grasp that the law actually is what he calls it good news. We want to relate good news to the New Testament gospel. And I think it's often hard because we look at it through the lens of the New Testament good news, which isn't wrong. We look back at the Old Testament through Jesus, right? Many Starks iron suit that he built in a cave, right? It was pretty impressive. And the old cave suit looked like something, frankly, from a cave man, right? Clunky, bulky. It was useful at a time, but honestly, let's be honest, it just needs to go in a museum somewhere now, right? And we can sometimes think somewhat about the same about the Old Testament law, all right, Tony, go away. We can think maybe that sometimes the same way about the Old Testament law, but Jesus actually says otherwise, he says in Matthew 5, 17, "Do not think that I've come to abolish the law or the prophets. I have not come to abolish them, but what, to fulfill them?" But truly, I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not in Iota, not a dot will pass from the law until all is accomplished. Jesus' provision that he gave didn't negate the law, Jesus satisfied the law. This can be potentially difficult words for us to chew on, that Jesus would say nothing is going to pass from the law until everything is accomplished. We have enough understanding, probably, if we were raised in church, we know enough about Old Testament law that it's perhaps confusing, uneasy, or we just choose to remain willfully ignorant of it. We don't know what it is expected of us or what we're to do. Maybe we would just rather live without any of that, I just, I don't need any of it. John Lennon seemed to think the same thing when he wrote the song Imagine, a beautiful song, but really what he's trying to say is imagine a world where we don't need any countries or religion. There's not going to be any hunger. You may say I'm a dreamer, but I'm not the only one, and I hope someday you'll join me and the whole world will be one. And so he was imagining, okay, we don't need all those laws and rules. And here's the truth, guys. We live in a world, in a culture, that whether or not they're willing to admit it loves rules. The number one unwritten rule of any non-conformist group is there are no rules, which is pretty funny because that's a rule, right? Morality is always something that people are ready and willing to debate. It's to the idea of what is right and wrong. It's ingrained in humanity. We live in a age today that definitely, definitely proclaims a particular right and wrong. Moral codes and regulations are declared on billboards, Instagram reels, every other social media platform. It's hinted at in films. It's put to tune in music. There are cultural rules on issues of race, government, gender roles, sexuality, money. We find it everywhere, don't we? And it's rather intriguing that the one who created all of those things is the one who is told he doesn't get a voice in the mix. Judges and in the Old Testament, if you've read that, it's actually one of the most dysfunctional saddening books in the Bible. You read through it and it's just like, man, these people are a mass. And the last verse gives a summation of the book. And perhaps you know this verse, it's a critical verse to understanding the history of Israel at a time when there was spiritual mediocrity. It says this, "In those days there was no king in Israel, everyone did what was right in his own eyes." Sounds pretty accurate to today at times, too, doesn't it? Rather, the law of God is good, it is true, and by it says, "James 125, the hearer is blessed." So what may help us here at the beginning of the semesters is I want to make a few distinctions. I kept using the term Old Testament law, and when we hear that term, we might, at times, want to lump everything into one big pot. But that's not actually an accurate distinction. As the young words it again, he says, "Even under Moses, God's people did not take all 613 commandments as being essentially equal." There were lighter matters and way to your matters and different penalties for different infractions. And I think we actually understand that better maybe than we think we do. For example, in the United States, not all laws are equal, right? Some are regulatory laws of which I'm pretty sure there's about 100,000. There's traffic laws, right, Connor? I had to throw that out there. He was actually innocent, somewhat, yeah, yeah. There's laws that require fines, jail time, even the death penalty if broken or broken repeating, right? So within them are community service, but not all laws are the same, right? So within the mosaic law, what may be very helpful for us to consider is that there are three basic distinctions. I think I've got a little graphic for it, but first there are the moral laws that were expected of all Israel, and we can easily argue are actually expected of all humanity. Like the 10 commandments, there are, there were the judicial laws for Israel, which would have guided the nation in the regulations of life with one another. And there were ceremonial laws for how the people were to interact with a holy God. There would have been some overlap, it's kind of hard for, you know, there's a black line that definitely separates the two, but there would have been some overlap in some of those things. And really since the first centuries of the church, important church leaders like Aquinas, Augustine, others distinguished that when Christ came, two of those were found no longer to be applicable to the people of God. And so under the new covenant, the judicial and ceremonial laws that were binding upon Israel did not fall now upon God's people who were under a new covenant and in Christ. But the moral law remains. I think a fair question is to say, well, why? Why would that remain in the other aspects not? Because God created man in his image, God is a moral deity. He has a right and a wrong that is a reflection of who he is, and God does not change. And whenever he created us in his image, he gave us certain attributes that were to reflect who he was in the world. And so he expects and commands humanity to follow guidelines that would honor him and his creation and he has a right to have a penalty for not doing so. This is his creation and he has every right to declare so. Actually, if we look in the New Testament, we see Paul encouraging and reminding us of that. He tells us in Romans 2.15 that he says, "Even Gentiles show the work of the law is written on their hearts and their conscience bearing witness." In other words, what he's saying is, "God's moral law is ingrained in us." He coded us with it and it's only our fallen nature that seeks to quell, reject, and establish our own code, again, like John Lennon, and we like to imagine that we can come up with a better way. We can do better. So God's commandments stand as a testimony that life obeying God honors him and it lends itself to a full and blessed life. If I claim to love God, then I will desire to obey him. I worded that very carefully because I do love God and yet I find myself not always obeying him. I desire to, but I'm not perfect. What I do love him and to love is to desire to obey and the desire to obey is love. In all through man's history, from the prophets of the Old Testament to the words of Christ, to the New Testament epistles, to the authors over the last 2,000 years that have pinned wonderful, solid truths, point us that God takes seriously his commands and so his people that claim to love him should take them seriously as well. And we find that all of God's laws are summed up within what we will study this semester, the 10 commandments. And as I think we're going to see and be reminded of throughout the semester, all of these 10 commandments hang on what Matthew 22, 37 reminds us that to love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength. Well, I've thrown a lot of theology at you in a short time. And so I know it's our first week. Some of you guys maybe haven't slept much lately, so let's get to some practical stuff. All right. I want to shift here and spend just what time we have left. Giving some basic and I think very hopeful reminders as Alistair Begg presents in his book that is a wonderful commentary on the 10 commandments. It's just called Pathway to Freedom. And so he says there's three ways that the Christian is not under the law. So the first he says is this, the Christian is not under the law as a way of justification. The law is not how we are justified before God. Galatians 3, no one who relies on the law is justified before God. Your standing as a child of God through Christ's sacrifice is not based on your deeds or misdeeds done. Rather it is based on your belief, trust, and reception of Christ's deed and what He has done. When accused by the enemy or another, we can't respond with claims of obedience and good deeds. At 99% of the time I get it right and look at all these wonderful things I've done. We can't respond with that. Rather we respond with, yeah, I don't deserve it. I know that I am fallen. I know I am a lawbreaker, but the man on the cross told me that I could come. That is my justification. Not under the law as a way of justification. Secondly, the Christian is not under the law as it relates to mosaic legislation. In other words, we aren't bound in our interactions with one another, the way that Israel was bound under the mosaic law. Now throughout church history there have been movements to lay out all kinds of Old Testament laws for New Testament believers. But actually if we look to what Paul wrote about, he was the Pharisee of Pharisees. In Galatians and Colossians, he reminds us that that is not the case. Galatians 5.1 says, "To stay in fast in the liberty by which Christ has made us free." In other words, what he's saying is don't go back to a yoke of slavery under a legal code. Here in the chapter he says, "Well, no, that's a quote I've got just a little bit later on." So I'll say that. While not setting aside the moral law, Paul clearly says the mosaic regulations that would have prohibited food, travel, sacrifice, rules of cleansing, those are no longer put upon the New Testament believer. And then thirdly, the Christian is not under the law as a dynamic of sanctification. Now what does that mean? Sanctification is the process of becoming and remaining in a lifestyle of godliness and not worldliness. If it's this on process, the law doesn't change my heart's affections. And so as I'm being sanctified, Alistair Begg puts it this way, "We say notice in and yes to righteousness, not as a result of struggling to keep the law, but rather by the power of the indwelling spirit. The law is not our motivation. We don't live in a survival fear, striving because we won't be able to do it. We won't be able to maintain his perfect law." Galatians 310 says that all who rely on the works of the law are under a curse. Here in verse 3, he asks the Galatians, "Having begun by the spirit, are you now being perfected by the flesh?" Obviously no. He's not sanctifying us under the law, but by grace through faith. So those are three ways that the New Testament believer doesn't have to be concerned about the law. But then he turns around and he says, "Here are three ways that the law is good and it does benefit us." The first is this, the civil function of the law. What does that mean? Well, simply when a society applies God's standards to their norms, to their laws, good will result from it. We benefit greatly from a country that in large part, while not perfect, established many laws based off of God's law. We find in many ways where justice sometimes is perverted, but there is justice. There are laws to protect, to provide, to enact justice whenever someone has been wronged. When a society seeks to establish their own norms, confusion will always result. It's so simple. Follow God's created order and order follows. It helps out civilizations in or not God's ten commandments. Secondly, the law is helpful in what's called the pedagogical function of the law. That sounds really nerdy, very crazy to try to write down in your notes. I could spell it for you, but I'd probably get it wrong, too. This is actually my favorite one, though. So in Roman culture, a pedagogist was a slave who their primary job was transporting and taking the children to school. They weren't the teacher, but they were the one that delivered the young child to be taught. Martin Luther said, "The principal purpose of the law in its most valuable contribution is that it delivers us to our teacher and master Jesus Christ." He gives us a wonderful quota. It's too long to read, but he goes on to say that if it wasn't for the law, we would find ourselves righteous. But at times, we need the hammer of the law to cause us to say, "I'm broken, I'm sinful. What can I do?" Just like the man that came to Jesus and he tried to justify himself and he went away sad. But then in the beginning of Acts, the people of God went, "When they were cut to their hearts from Peter's speech and they came to him and they said, "What must we do?" He said, "Repent, be baptized." The law has the right purpose of taking us to Jesus Christ. Let the laws wait and holy demands push you, but only to push you to Christ. The law functions also, lastly, as a rule of life for believers. The law sends us to the gospel in Jesus. And then Jesus sends us back to the law to ask, "What is my duty for life? How can I honor God?" Those are the words of Samuel Bolton. And so by God's word, we're stirred and aroused to a desire, Lord, I don't want to follow your law that I might be justified and saved. I am justified and saved. Lord, show me the right way to live. Psalm 1934 says this, "Give me understanding. Give me understanding that I may keep your law and observe it with my whole heart." Thanks be to Jesus that by His death on the cross, that this can be the cry of my heart. Lord, I will follow you, I will proclaim you. So as we go through the Ten Commandments this fall, we want to continue to keep our eyes on Christ while also not being too quick to run to the New Testament. It's okay for us to sit on the law for a little bit. Each week we'll take one law and we'll break it down. We want to make sure that it does those things, that it leads us to Christ, that it helps us to see who God is in His holy ways and that He has a right to expect of His holy people to live under His commands. Let's close with the word of prayer and we'll have one more song. The word is what we need. Lord, as we walk in it, as we find our hearts and minds, stirred by it, confused by it, drawn to it, oh God, we thank You that we can look back through the lens of Christ into the Old Testament, not only to find how He has fulfilled your perfect law, but also the life that it calls us to live. Thank You that we can flip a few pages over to the New Testament to be comforted by Your wonderful promises when those times arise that our hearts convict us and our guilt seems to override our good deeds or that we can remember that the man on the cross invited us to Him and He gave us wonderful promises that we can stand on, so we don't have to stand on our own merits. We can come to You with humble hearts like what we sang about earlier, infesting our need for You and thanking You for the justification, the blessing that we have from a pure heart. We thank You that by Christ's sacrifice, our sins have been covered. Each of us can thank for just a brief moment of a number of ways in which we have grievously broken Your good law and yet Lord we can proclaim what Romans tells us that there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ. So help us as we look at Your good law and we also thank You for Your good news in Christ. We love You and we ask You in Your name, amen. and enjoy this and worship.