SPEAKER_00: Exodus chapter 20, verses 1 through 17, as I read for you the passage that we have been looking at for 10 or 11 weeks now.
SPEAKER_00: Exodus chapter 20, verses 1 through 17, the tender commandments.
SPEAKER_00: And God spoke all of these words, saying, I am the Lord your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery.
SPEAKER_00: You shall have no other gods before me.
SPEAKER_00: You shall not make for yourself a carved image or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is on the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth.
SPEAKER_00: You shall not bow down to them or serve them, for I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquities of the fathers on the children to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me, but showing steadfast love to a thousand generations of those who love me and keep my commandments.
SPEAKER_00: You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain, for the Lord will not hold him guiltless who takes his name in vain.
SPEAKER_00: Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy.
SPEAKER_00: Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord your God.
SPEAKER_00: On it you shall not do any work, you or your sons, or your daughter, or your male servant, or your female servant, or your livestock, or the sojourner who is within your gates.
SPEAKER_00: For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth and the sea and all that is in them, and rested on the seventh day.
SPEAKER_00: Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy.
SPEAKER_00: Honor your father and mother, that your days may be long in the land that the Lord your God is giving you.
SPEAKER_00: You shall not murder, you shall not commit adultery, you shall not steal, you shall not bear false witness against your neighbor, you shall not covet your neighbor's house, you shall not covet your neighbor's wife, or his male servant, or his female servant, or his ox, or his donkey, or anything that is your neighbor's.
SPEAKER_00: Ten tender words from God for us.
SPEAKER_00: We've been looking for a number of weeks at the Ten Commandments.
SPEAKER_00: I've obviously been emphasizing the fact that this is a kind thing that God did to tell us the way in which we're supposed to go.
SPEAKER_00: We don't have to figure it all out.
SPEAKER_00: We don't have to follow the way which is right in our own minds, but the way, the end thereof is death, as Proverbs said.
SPEAKER_00: God tenderly, lovingly, not with a harsh, cruel, imposing voice, but tenderly says, go this way.
SPEAKER_00: This is the way of life, don't go that way.
SPEAKER_00: So we've been looking at what God has said.
SPEAKER_00: We began 11 or 12 weeks ago with the question, why do what God says?
SPEAKER_00: And there's many different answers that could be given as to why we would do what God says.
SPEAKER_00: Can anybody tell me what the reason for doing what God says is that we've emphasized throughout this series?
SPEAKER_00: That it may go well with you.
SPEAKER_00: Thank you, Paul.
SPEAKER_00: Thank you.
SPEAKER_00: God tells us the way to go because that's the way where it goes well with us.
SPEAKER_00: That's the way we're meant to live.
SPEAKER_00: Lots of other reasons why we could and should do what God says, including the fact that God said it.
SPEAKER_00: That ought to be enough.
SPEAKER_00: He said it, so how high.
SPEAKER_00: But there's more to it than that.
SPEAKER_00: God said it because these are the ways of life.
SPEAKER_00: So I've tried to emphasize that we do what God says because that's the way that life works, and that's what God designed for us.
SPEAKER_00: And we've walked through the Ten Commandments.
SPEAKER_00: We saw no other gods.
SPEAKER_00: Put God first in your life.
SPEAKER_00: God first and everything else somewhere else in your life.
SPEAKER_00: One person first, one thing first, God first, and that's the way life works.
SPEAKER_00: Then it goes well with us.
SPEAKER_00: We talked about we are to have no other idols, no idols.
SPEAKER_00: We are to worship the God who is.
SPEAKER_00: We are to worship not the God that we want him to be, not a God of our own making, but the God who is.
SPEAKER_00: God wants to be worshipped for who he is.
SPEAKER_00: And in all kinds of ways we create our own image of a God that we want to have instead of the God who is.
SPEAKER_00: That's not the way life works.
SPEAKER_00: We saw we should not take his name in vain, and there's millions of ways we could take his name in vain, but the core of it is that we empty our relationship with God with all meaning.
SPEAKER_00: His name represents who he is, and to take his name in vain means to live in such a way that there's we can talk all we want, we can do all kinds of religious things, but if we remove the God talk and the Christian activities from our lives, are our lives any different from anyone else around us?
SPEAKER_00: Remove all the God stuff out of your life, activities and God talk.
SPEAKER_00: Would your neighbors notice any difference other than the fact that you don't get up on Sunday morning and go somewhere?
SPEAKER_00: That's what living in a way that takes God in vain, empties him of all meaning.
SPEAKER_00: Don't do that, that's not the way of life.
SPEAKER_00: It doesn't work that way.
SPEAKER_00: Remember the Sabbath day.
SPEAKER_00: We're to stop, we're to stop for goodness' sake.
SPEAKER_00: For God's sake.
SPEAKER_00: God stopped and did nothing for 24 hours.
SPEAKER_00: There's a pattern there for us.
SPEAKER_00: We're not the ever-ready bunny.
SPEAKER_00: We're not meant to go 24-7, 365, and yet we live in a society that pulls us and pushes us in every direction, in an unceasing chain of phrenic activities, and God says, stop.
SPEAKER_00: Focus on me, says God.
SPEAKER_00: Restore your soul, recreate.
SPEAKER_00: That's the way life was meant to work.
SPEAKER_00: Honor your father and mother.
SPEAKER_00: We talked about that very first and primary relationship.
SPEAKER_00: Not an easy one, especially if our parents weren't very honorable.
SPEAKER_00: Especially if our parents did us harm.
SPEAKER_00: And in our day, increasing numbers of people experienced that.
SPEAKER_00: And we wrestled with some of that.
SPEAKER_00: But how we relate to people ultimately flows oftentimes out of how we relate to our parents.
SPEAKER_00: So honor your father and your mother.
SPEAKER_00: It's a word with a promise.
SPEAKER_00: That's the way it goes well for us.
SPEAKER_00: No murder.
SPEAKER_00: You can murder with your hands, you can murder with your heart.
SPEAKER_00: No adultery.
SPEAKER_00: Keep your body and your mind sexually pure.
SPEAKER_00: No stealing.
SPEAKER_00: Let God be your provider.
SPEAKER_00: You don't have to take it into your own hands.
SPEAKER_00: And whether that's stealing in the way we normally think of it or all kinds of subtle taking into our own hands that which God is not in his wisdom and grace giving us.
SPEAKER_00: No stealing.
SPEAKER_00: Hands off, let God be your provider.
SPEAKER_00: That's the way life works.
SPEAKER_00: No false testimony.
SPEAKER_00: Be very, very careful what you say about people.
SPEAKER_00: That's the way life is meant to work.
SPEAKER_00: No coveting, no insatiable desire to grab things and pull them into our lives to fill some kind of a need that was only meant to be filled by God.
SPEAKER_00: Just as we're to trust God to be our provider, we're to trust God to be our satisfaction and not seek at all kinds of other places.
SPEAKER_00: Ten tender words from God.
SPEAKER_00: Well, we've been looking at why do what God says.
SPEAKER_00: And we've been looking at what God says, and now just to wrap things up, I want us to think about doing what God says.
SPEAKER_00: Now, this is not as simple as it may seem.
SPEAKER_00: I don't know if you've experienced that.
SPEAKER_00: Has anybody ever experienced that it's not as simple as it seems like I ought to be?
SPEAKER_00: You want to obey God, right, Gwen?
SPEAKER_00: I see that hand.
SPEAKER_00: You want to obey God.
SPEAKER_00: You know that life works better that way, but it's just not so simple.
SPEAKER_00: That's the thought I would like to explore with you today.
SPEAKER_00: And as we wrap up this series on the Ten Tender Commandments.
SPEAKER_00: Oh, it's interesting to me that God's word is refreshingly direct and to the point.
SPEAKER_00: It's not real hard to figure out what is meant by the Ten Tender Commandments.
SPEAKER_00: It's just not that difficult.
SPEAKER_00: Application is far more difficult for us.
SPEAKER_00: But it's so interesting when God's saying this is the way of life, it's very simple with relatively few words.
SPEAKER_00: I was uh exploring things.
SPEAKER_00: The uh the Lord's Prayer contains 66 words.
SPEAKER_00: And we make it so hard to pray.
SPEAKER_00: 67 words.
SPEAKER_00: That's all it took.
SPEAKER_00: Uh the Ten Commandments, 179 words.
SPEAKER_00: The Gettysburg Address, 286 words.
SPEAKER_00: The Declaration of Independence, 13,000 words, and the U.S.
SPEAKER_00: government regulations on the sale of cabbage.
SPEAKER_00: 26,911 words.
SPEAKER_00: Someone once said the reason why the Ten Commandments are so simple and clear is that they weren't drawn up by a committee.
SPEAKER_00: A lot of truth to that.
SPEAKER_00: The question that I want to ask, really, of myself in the first place, and of you, is are we listening?
SPEAKER_00: I mean, really listening and doing something with that which we hear.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus said, if you know these things, happy are you if you enjoy hearing about them.
SPEAKER_00: That's not exactly what Jesus said.
SPEAKER_00: If you know these things, happy are you if you do them.
SPEAKER_00: When we look at the scriptures, we realize that this matter of hearing God's word is far more than just the auditory phenomena of sound waves coming in and tickling those little hairs inside our ears.
SPEAKER_00: Our ears being tickled is not what hearing is all about.
SPEAKER_00: It's very interesting.
SPEAKER_00: James says in no uncertain terms, and this is taken from a paraphrase, the message, very powerful and I think an accurate portrayal, listening is not good enough.
SPEAKER_00: We must respond.
SPEAKER_00: He says, James says, don't fool yourself into thinking that you're a listener when you're anything but.
SPEAKER_00: Walt, don't fool yourself that you're a listener when we're anything but.
SPEAKER_00: Letting the word go in one ear and out the other.
SPEAKER_00: Act on what you hear.
SPEAKER_00: Those who hear and don't act are like those who glance in a mirror and walk away two minutes later, having no idea who they are or what they look like.
SPEAKER_00: Have you ever looked at a clock to see what time it was?
SPEAKER_00: And then realize you looked at the clock but you didn't see what time it was?
SPEAKER_00: Oh, you saw it with your eyes, but it didn't register?
SPEAKER_00: Has anybody ever done that?
SPEAKER_00: This morning, maybe?
SPEAKER_00: That's our problem.
SPEAKER_00: We can just let it go in one ear and out the other.
SPEAKER_00: And the question is, are we really listening?
SPEAKER_00: Now that forces us to ask the question, uh, how do we hear and respond?
SPEAKER_00: Because that's what hearing is.
SPEAKER_00: Hearing allowing it to penetrate our thinking to such a degree that it changes the way we act.
SPEAKER_00: And a Timothy Award, I'm so thankful for Iwana, and memorizing the scriptures.
SPEAKER_00: But just memorizing the Word of God is not enough.
SPEAKER_00: You can have it go in one ear and go through a little recorder in your mouth so you can spit it back out, but that's where it begins, knowing it, but then doing it is really the question.
SPEAKER_00: So I'd like us to look at a couple of passages of scripture that address this issue.
SPEAKER_00: And I'd like you to turn, first of all, to Matthew chapter 5, if you would please.
SPEAKER_00: Matthew 5.
SPEAKER_00: Turn in your Bibles, please.
SPEAKER_00: If you don't have a Bible, there's a Bible in the pew in front of you.
SPEAKER_00: Grab it, open it, read it, take it with you if you want.
SPEAKER_00: Matthew chapter 5, first book of the New Testament, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John.
SPEAKER_00: What we find if we listen to the words of Jesus is that this matter of hearing and doing is really not so simple.
SPEAKER_00: So we come here in the middle of the Sermon on the Mount.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus was taking the law and was expounding upon it and fulfilling it, giving it more depth and fullness, helping us understand what the import is, what the significance of it is for us.
SPEAKER_00: And in verse 17 of chapter 5, he says to his followers in the New Testament, do not think that I have come to abolish the law or the prophets?
SPEAKER_00: Don't think that I've come and I said it doesn't matter.
SPEAKER_00: I have not come to abolish them, but to fulfill them.
SPEAKER_00: For truly I say to you, until heaven and earth shall pass away, not an iota or a dot, a jot or a tittle will pass from this law until all is accomplished.
SPEAKER_00: Therefore, whoever relaxes one of the least of these commandments and teaches others to do the same, did you hear that?
SPEAKER_00: Whoever releases one, lightens one, and teaches others, in other words, these really aren't that important, or we don't really have to do them, will be called least in the kingdom of heaven.
SPEAKER_00: Whoever teaches them and whoever does them and teaches them will be called great in the kingdom of heaven.
SPEAKER_00: For I tell you that, listen to this, unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and the Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.
SPEAKER_00: The scribes and the Pharisees were those who were motivated.
SPEAKER_00: We give them a bad rap as we read the New Testament, and Jesus had many harsh things to say about them.
SPEAKER_00: But let that not cause us to fail to understand that they were trying to take God seriously, very, very seriously.
SPEAKER_00: That was a good thing.
SPEAKER_00: The way it worked itself out was what Jesus was arguing against.
SPEAKER_00: And so he says, for example, verse 21, you've heard it said to those of old, you shall not murder.
SPEAKER_00: But I say to you, everyone who is angry with his brother is a murderer.
SPEAKER_00: He goes on, verse 27, you heard that it was said, you shall not commit adultery.
SPEAKER_00: Where is Jesus getting all of this?
SPEAKER_00: He's giving a commentary on the living out of the tender commandments.
SPEAKER_00: Shall not commit adultery, but I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman with lustful intent has already committed adultery with her inner's heart.
SPEAKER_00: You see, what Jesus is saying, you think it's hard, you don't even know the half of it.
SPEAKER_00: As hard as you try, it's harder yet.
SPEAKER_00: It's very, very difficult.
SPEAKER_00: In fact, you might as well take a big old stinky camel and try to pass it through this tiny little eye of a needle.
SPEAKER_00: You might as well try to do that.
SPEAKER_00: Your righteousness has to be beyond the Pharisees.
SPEAKER_00: Just try.
SPEAKER_00: Will you take that that camel and push it through that little thing?
SPEAKER_00: It doesn't work.
SPEAKER_00: You see, Jesus is saying the words are true and they're tender.
SPEAKER_00: This is the way life works.
SPEAKER_00: But it is very difficult.
SPEAKER_00: The Pharisees and the scribes were zealous, and that zeal in and of itself is good.
SPEAKER_00: Are we desiring to be the people that God wants us to be?
SPEAKER_00: I hope that's your heart's desire.
SPEAKER_00: If that's not your heart's desire, then there's other things that we need to talk about.
SPEAKER_00: And I hope there is a longing and a and an inward an inward compulsion, or maybe it's being pulled, being drawn, being wooed by God towards Him and being and doing what He wants us to be and do.
SPEAKER_00: That desire is good.
SPEAKER_00: The problem is our ability to do it.
SPEAKER_00: Are you able to do what you desire to do?
SPEAKER_00: Prone to wander, Lord, I fear it.
SPEAKER_00: Prone to leave the God I love.
SPEAKER_00: Here's my heart.
SPEAKER_00: Oh, take and seal it, seal it for thy courts above.
SPEAKER_00: That's an expression of the fact that we want it and yet our hearts, we can't do it.
SPEAKER_00: It's very difficult.
SPEAKER_00: Lots more we could say about this passage, but I want us to turn to another one for a moment.
SPEAKER_00: It's not only difficult, it's very, very difficult.
SPEAKER_00: Or I could say it's not only very difficult, it's very, very, very difficult.
SPEAKER_00: Turn with me to Psalm 15.
SPEAKER_00: Open your Bible to the middle and turn left.
SPEAKER_00: Probably open your Bible, you'll end up in Psalms, towards the beginning of the book of Psalms, a text that we have, a passage we looked at a couple of weeks ago pretty briefly, but we need to re-emphasize it.
SPEAKER_00: Psalm 15.
SPEAKER_00: What is it that God requires?
SPEAKER_00: A Psalm of David.
SPEAKER_00: Oh Lord, who shall sojourn in your tent?
SPEAKER_00: Who shall dwell on your holy hill?
SPEAKER_00: Now that's an Old Testament way of saying, who can be close to you, God?
SPEAKER_00: Who can dwell with you?
SPEAKER_00: Good question.
SPEAKER_00: And then the answer is a frightening answer.
SPEAKER_00: He who walks blamelessly and does what is right and speaks the truth in his heart and doesn't slander with his tongue, does no evil to his neighbor, nor take up a reproach against his friend.
SPEAKER_00: It's all stuff we've been talking about in the tender commandment.
SPEAKER_00: In whose eyes a vile person is despised, but who honors those who fear the Lord, who swears to his own hurt, he keeps an oath even when it hurts and does not change.
SPEAKER_00: Does not take a bribe.
SPEAKER_00: He who does these things will never be moved.
SPEAKER_00: Who is it that can be close to God?
SPEAKER_00: He whose heart is and walk is blameless.
SPEAKER_00: You see, it's not just difficult.
SPEAKER_00: It's very, very difficult.
SPEAKER_00: The standard is beyond us.
SPEAKER_00: Our ability to fulfill that.
SPEAKER_00: It'd be really nice if God graded on a curve.
SPEAKER_00: I don't know what a curve is these days in uh in educational circles.
SPEAKER_00: Um I don't know, 75 is that passing?
SPEAKER_00: Is that a C grade?
SPEAKER_00: 85?
SPEAKER_00: What is it?
SPEAKER_00: Well, God does not grade on a curve.
SPEAKER_00: There's it's it's only pass-fail.
SPEAKER_00: I loved to take pass fail courses in college until I got a fail in one of them.
SPEAKER_00: What does pass fail with God?
SPEAKER_00: There is no curve.
SPEAKER_00: Now, you may be able to get a 68 on the scale if God were grading and curving.
SPEAKER_00: Or maybe you're a little bit better than that and you could get a 78.
SPEAKER_00: Or maybe you've been around all the Christian things all your life, and you know all the verses, and you have gotten rid of some of the socially unacceptable sins in your life, not the hidden ones in our heart, or those that are socially acceptable among Christians, but maybe you would be valued at a 92.
SPEAKER_00: God doesn't grade on a curve.
SPEAKER_00: Pass or fail.
SPEAKER_00: How are you doing, friends?
SPEAKER_00: It's very, very difficult.
SPEAKER_00: I've had the privilege of working with Christians and Christian leaders and Christian workers my whole life.
SPEAKER_00: Well, 40 plus years, that's not quite my whole life.
SPEAKER_00: I have yet to find someone who honestly could look me in the face and say, I got it.
SPEAKER_00: How are you doing with the Ten Commandments?
SPEAKER_00: Number one, check.
SPEAKER_00: Number two, check.
SPEAKER_00: Number three, check.
SPEAKER_00: Number four, check.
SPEAKER_00: Really?
SPEAKER_00: I don't know any, I know some people could say, yeah, I've got it all down pat.
SPEAKER_00: They may mean I know it with my mind.
SPEAKER_00: But who is there among us that knowing that God doesn't grade on a curve can say, wow, look at me! Before you say I can, I can say that.
SPEAKER_00: Look in the mirror.
SPEAKER_00: Or if the mirror doesn't help you, talk to your wife or your husband or your kids or a friend.
SPEAKER_00: So there's a lot of fuzzy thinking here.
SPEAKER_00: It's difficult.
SPEAKER_00: It's very, very difficult.
SPEAKER_00: Actually, what Jesus says, and I want us to turn to Mark chapter 10, what Jesus says is you can't do it.
SPEAKER_00: It is impossible to do what God says you should do.
SPEAKER_00: What a strange way to conclude the study of the tender commandments, right?
SPEAKER_00: No, actually not.
SPEAKER_00: It's the only possible way to conclude.
SPEAKER_00: Mark chapter 10, verses 17 and following.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus speaking to the crowds and also speaking to his followers, and it was a mixed bag, just like there is today, just like there probably is here.
SPEAKER_00: Or people with mixed hearts, just like you and me.
SPEAKER_00: Okay.
SPEAKER_00: Down to verse 17, there was one man in the crowd who had been listening to him.
SPEAKER_00: And so verse 17, a young man, a rich young man, and as he was setting out on his journey, as Jesus and the disciples were journeying, a man ran up and knelt on before him and said, Good teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?
SPEAKER_00: Now, be careful what questions you ask Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus has this irritating way of answering our questions with questions.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus, God has this way of not making everything black and white, but probing, probing into the core of our being.
SPEAKER_00: And so Jesus said to him, Hmm, why do you call me good?
SPEAKER_00: That wasn't the question.
SPEAKER_00: That wasn't the answer to the question that this man had.
SPEAKER_00: The question was, what can I do to be perfect?
SPEAKER_00: Or what can I do to inherit eternal life?
SPEAKER_00: Why do you call me good?
SPEAKER_00: No one is good except God alone.
SPEAKER_00: You hear what he's saying?
SPEAKER_00: If we try to get to eternal life by being good, past fail, we fail.
SPEAKER_00: No one is good except God alone.
SPEAKER_00: Verse 19.
SPEAKER_00: Do you know the commandments?
SPEAKER_00: Don't murder, don't commit adultery, don't steal, don't bear false witness, don't defraud, honor your father.
SPEAKER_00: What has Jesus been talking about?
SPEAKER_00: He's been talking about the tender commandments.
SPEAKER_00: Just pure and simple.
SPEAKER_00: And he said to him, the man who came up to him, Teacher, hey, wait a minute, Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: I have kept that all from my youth.
SPEAKER_00: The next phrase is phenomenal.
SPEAKER_00: And Jesus looked at him and loved him.
SPEAKER_00: Oh, I so appreciate the heart.
SPEAKER_00: This man was sincere.
SPEAKER_00: Now his sincerity was only causing him to fail.
SPEAKER_00: Okay?
SPEAKER_00: But Jesus saw his heart and he knew that this man, apparently he knew that he was tender towards God, and he was really wanting, he was really trying.
SPEAKER_00: And even though he made this totally stupid statement, yeah, I've been perfect all my life, instead of Jesus slapping him across the face, that's what I would have done.
SPEAKER_00: Aren't you glad I'm not Jesus?
SPEAKER_00: What crying?
SPEAKER_00: Haven't you been listening?
SPEAKER_00: And Jesus looked at him.
SPEAKER_00: And he loved him.
SPEAKER_00: He looked at him and he loved him.
SPEAKER_00: There was a right desire on this man's part.
SPEAKER_00: He didn't have the ability to fulfill it.
SPEAKER_00: Is there a desire on your part?
SPEAKER_00: I really don't expect that unless there was something going on in your life, you would get up.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, this may be the last sunny Sunday morning we have.
SPEAKER_00: Who knows?
SPEAKER_00: Next week it's going to be 60 to below, they tell me.
SPEAKER_00: No, that's February, that's what they're telling me about.
SPEAKER_00: But we're here, we've been here, we're listening, we're listening, we're.
SPEAKER_00: And there is something within your heart, I believe, that really wants to walk in the ways of life.
SPEAKER_00: And this man did.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus looked at him and loved him and said to him, Now, again, don't ask Jesus questions that you don't want an answer to.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus, who knows the heart of all people, looked at this man and knew that his heart was warm towards the things of God, but he also knew precisely, precisely, knowing the inner recesses and dark corners of this man's heart, he knew exactly what was not right.
SPEAKER_00: You lack one thing, sell all you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven and come following me.
SPEAKER_00: The man's response?
SPEAKER_00: He was discouraged.
SPEAKER_00: Disheartened by the saying, he went away sorrowful, for he had great possessions.
SPEAKER_00: If we're going to try to come to Jesus and try in our own strength and in our own way to fulfill the righteous requirements of God, we will, like this man, go away disappointed and discouraged.
SPEAKER_00: That's why the law often seems to us like a club, like a whip, something that's hurting us.
SPEAKER_00: The words of life, the problem is not in the words, the problem is within us.
SPEAKER_00: But if we try and try and try our best, okay, I'm at 65 now, and I want to get more than just a passing grade, so I'm going to try real hard and I want to get to 75, and I'm going to try really hard, and I'm going to get to 85, and maybe, maybe, maybe I could be as good as Walt.
SPEAKER_00: I've never heard anyone say that, by the way.
SPEAKER_00: If that's the way we're approaching Jesus, we will go away disappointed and discouraged.
SPEAKER_00: And Jesus looked around and said to his disciples, how difficult it will be for those who have wealth to enter the kingdom of God.
SPEAKER_00: Wealth was that guy's problem.
SPEAKER_00: What's yours?
SPEAKER_00: Now we've talked about ten possible problems, all of which has a thousand different manifestations.
SPEAKER_00: And you have more than one that you're wrestling with, and I do too.
SPEAKER_00: And the disciples, he went away disheartened.
SPEAKER_00: What was the disciples' response?
SPEAKER_00: The disciples were amazed at his words.
SPEAKER_00: And Jesus said to them again, children, how difficult it is to enter the kingdom of God, easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle.
SPEAKER_00: Verse 26.
SPEAKER_00: And the disciples in verse 24 were amazed, and now it says they were exceedingly astonished.
SPEAKER_00: When you begin to understand this matter of what it takes to do the will of God, this just blew their minds.
SPEAKER_00: They couldn't get their minds and their hearts around it.
SPEAKER_00: And so they said, well, who then can be saved?
SPEAKER_00: And that's what we're talking about.
SPEAKER_00: We're talking about salvation.
SPEAKER_00: We're talking about being able to dwell in the holy hill, to be close to God.
SPEAKER_00: That's what we want.
SPEAKER_00: That's what I want.
SPEAKER_00: That's what you want.
SPEAKER_00: Who then can be saved?
SPEAKER_00: Jesus looked at them.
SPEAKER_00: Very important.
SPEAKER_00: With man, it is impossible.
SPEAKER_00: It's not just hard.
SPEAKER_00: It's not just very hard.
SPEAKER_00: It's not just very, very hard.
SPEAKER_00: It's impossible.
SPEAKER_00: Good news, right?
SPEAKER_00: No.
SPEAKER_00: That discourages us.
SPEAKER_00: But read on.
SPEAKER_00: With man it's impossible, but not with God, for all things are possible with God.
SPEAKER_00: It's hard.
SPEAKER_00: It's very hard.
SPEAKER_00: It's impossible.
SPEAKER_00: So is God out to trick us?
SPEAKER_00: What's this all about then?
SPEAKER_00: My goodness, he spent so much of the scriptures telling us how to walk in his ways.
SPEAKER_00: And what's the point of God's commands?
SPEAKER_00: If it's not to enable us to accomplish what he wants, what in the world's going on?
SPEAKER_00: It's a fair question.
SPEAKER_00: Is this just all a setup?
SPEAKER_00: Is God just pumping us up and getting us excited to do what he wants us to do, that it may go well with us in order to smack us down?
SPEAKER_00: They went away discouraged.
SPEAKER_00: I'll never be good enough.
SPEAKER_00: And when we begin to get a sense of the righteous requirements of God, we have to acknowledge I'll never be good again.
SPEAKER_00: Never be good enough.
SPEAKER_00: There's a number of metaphors that could be used for the law of God, the requirements, the righteous, whether it's the Ten Commandments or others.
SPEAKER_00: It's been compared to a compass, a compass always points true north, and we've seen this is the way to go.
SPEAKER_00: At least we know what direction.
SPEAKER_00: A bridle, a bridle that which allows the rider to control this strong and powerful self-willed animal.
SPEAKER_00: And we're self-willed, and we need a bridle.
SPEAKER_00: We need to be directed, and God does that.
SPEAKER_00: It's gracious.
SPEAKER_00: A thermometer, the law reveals our spiritual state.
SPEAKER_00: A mirror, we begin to see ourselves as we really are.
SPEAKER_00: Those are all pictures, some of which we find in the scriptures, but the most prominent one to me we find in Galatians chapter 3, and I'd like to have you turn over to there as well.
SPEAKER_00: Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians.
SPEAKER_00: Galatians chapter 3, verse 24 and 25.
SPEAKER_00: The context of Galatians, and we're just jumping in the middle of a whole train of thought, has to do with the matter of this of this matter of the law and the correlation between law and faith.
SPEAKER_00: Verse 24.
SPEAKER_00: So then the law was our guardian until Christ came.
SPEAKER_00: That's a word that different translations translated different ways.
SPEAKER_00: It's hard to really get a feel for.
SPEAKER_00: I think the King James said, a schoolmaster.
SPEAKER_00: When I think of a schoolmaster, I think of somebody with a ruler ready to slap my fingers.
SPEAKER_00: And that's the way the law often feels.
SPEAKER_00: The word is more complex than that.
SPEAKER_00: The word is probably that of a guide or a guardian, or as it says as it says here, a tutor.
SPEAKER_00: Actually, the New American Standard Bible, that's the way it translates it.
SPEAKER_00: So the law was our tutor to lead us to Christ.
SPEAKER_00: The law, the revelation of God's will, was not designed for us to be able to just screw up our courage and act real, work and work and work and do it as well as we could.
SPEAKER_00: Because we'll never do it well enough.
SPEAKER_00: The law was given to be a guide, a tutor.
SPEAKER_00: The law was has become our tutor to lead us to Christ.
SPEAKER_00: You see, when you wrestle with the realities of what God expects from us, we can't do it.
SPEAKER_00: It's impossible, and we were never intended to be able to do it.
SPEAKER_00: Well, we were in the garden, but since the fall, in this world that we live in, we don't have the ability to do it, and our only hope is to be led to Christ.
SPEAKER_00: To be led to Christ.
SPEAKER_00: There is no power in the commands to fulfill what the commands require.
SPEAKER_00: The requirement is justice.
SPEAKER_00: We often say, I just want a little bit of justice.
SPEAKER_00: My friends, you and I don't want justice before God.
SPEAKER_00: We want grace.
SPEAKER_00: The law does not provide that which we need.
SPEAKER_00: Just the revelation of what God wants will drive us either to legalism or despair.
SPEAKER_00: And it was not meant to do either.
SPEAKER_00: It was designed to drive us to Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: Justice means we get what we deserve.
SPEAKER_00: I don't want what I deserve.
SPEAKER_00: Grace, grace, God's grace, grace that is greater than all of our sin.
SPEAKER_00: Grace gives us what we don't deserve.
SPEAKER_00: Justice demands righteousness.
SPEAKER_00: We can't do it, and God's grace brings to us that which is impossible for us.
SPEAKER_00: We get what we don't deserve.
SPEAKER_00: And the whole reason is there was a man who got what we deserved.
SPEAKER_00: When we think of Christ on the cross, do not think of Mel Gibson's video with or the movie with the tortures of Christ.
SPEAKER_00: Many people have been tortured to death.
SPEAKER_00: That was not what was special about Jesus' work on the cross.
SPEAKER_00: That was merely the outward, that was merely the forechamber.
SPEAKER_00: What happened on the cross is that God sent Jesus to hell.
SPEAKER_00: It's that simple, it's that awful.
SPEAKER_00: We deserve to go where he went.
SPEAKER_00: He deserved none of that.
SPEAKER_00: We deserve all of that.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus' death on the cross, being separated, separated from God.
SPEAKER_00: Never in one instant in the history of the world had the second history of the universe, had the second person of the Trinity been separated and experienced the wrath of God until on that cross, when Jesus died, the wrath of God which you and I deserve came on him.
SPEAKER_00: And what he deserved, we get.
SPEAKER_00: We get.
SPEAKER_00: And because of Jesus, I don't get justice.
SPEAKER_00: I get mercy and grace.
SPEAKER_00: And God is both just and the justifier of those who come to Him.
SPEAKER_00: God is still just.
SPEAKER_00: All of the punishment that we deserve, God didn't just kind of look aside and say, oh, well, it doesn't matter anymore.
SPEAKER_00: All of the punishment came upon Christ.
SPEAKER_00: And all that Christ deserves, we get substitution.
SPEAKER_00: He was our substitute.
SPEAKER_00: And our song, our song is a song of grace.
SPEAKER_00: Marvelous grace of our loving Lord.
SPEAKER_00: Grace that exceeds our sin and our guilt.
SPEAKER_00: There on Calvary, on Calvary, that was outpoured there where the blood of the Lamb was spilled.
SPEAKER_00: Grace.
SPEAKER_00: God's grace.
SPEAKER_00: Grace that is greater than all of our sin.
SPEAKER_00: Grace, grace, God's grace.
SPEAKER_00: Grace that will pardon and cleanse within.
SPEAKER_00: Where do you stand personally relative to Christ?
SPEAKER_00: If you haven't come to Christ through personal faith and trust, just remember it's a past fail.
SPEAKER_00: It really is.
SPEAKER_00: We come as failures.
SPEAKER_00: This is a group of failures that we just dress ourselves up on Sunday morning.
SPEAKER_00: We're all just crackpots.
SPEAKER_00: That's the way Paul talked about it.
SPEAKER_00: Broken pot shares.
SPEAKER_00: We try to look good, and we're not.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus, Jesus gives us what we need through faith in him.
SPEAKER_00: My friends, grace through faith in Christ.
SPEAKER_00: We are saved by grace through faith.
SPEAKER_00: It's not of ourselves, it's a gift.
SPEAKER_00: If you haven't received it, that's what you need.
SPEAKER_00: If you have received it, what you really need is for the new life to express itself.
SPEAKER_00: The leaves are changing now.
SPEAKER_00: The colors are changing.
SPEAKER_00: The colors of leaves don't change.
SPEAKER_00: All of those colors are there year-long.
SPEAKER_00: They're simply masked by chlorophyll.
SPEAKER_00: And when the chlorophyll dies out, the colors, the glorious colors that were there all along, they become manifest.
SPEAKER_00: And the Christian life is letting our true colors show.
SPEAKER_00: We've been changed on the inside, and we're not yet home, we're not yet there, but we're different, and that difference, those glorious colors that Christ implants in our heart and our soul, those glorious reds and yellows and golds, they become more and more visible.
SPEAKER_00: Christian life is simply a matter of allowing the indwelling life of Christ to live itself out and our colors transformed.
SPEAKER_00: And it's all grace.
SPEAKER_00: Patrick, would you come and lead us?
SPEAKER_00: We're going to sing hymn 201 marvelous grace of our loving Lord.