Exodus 20:1-17 - The Purpose of the Law
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But when the Pharisees heard that he had silenced the Sadducees, they gathered together. And one of them, a lawyer, asked him a question to test him. “Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?” And he said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets.”
Introduction
Introduction
We have looked at all of the ten commandments.
Before we move on I want to conclude with a sermon that wraps up or summarizes the ultimate lessons we should take from our study of the moral law.
Three points:
The Purpose of the Law
The Heart of the Law
The Fulfillment of the Law
The Purpose of the Law
The Purpose of the Law
The law shows us our sin and our inability to keep it.
Romans 7:7 “ if it had not been for the law, I would not have known sin. ”
Baptist catechism 87,
Q. Is. any man able perfectly to keep the commandments of God?
A. No mere man since the fall is able in this life perfectly to keep the commandments of God, but does daily break them in thought, word, or deed.
Tim Chester -
Exodus for You Checklist
the sobering fact is that we have not kept any of God’s Ten Commandments
James 2:10 “For whoever keeps the whole law but fails in one point has become guilty of all of it.”
The law reveals our need for a savior.
Baptist catechism 89
Q. What does every sin deserve?
A. Every sin deserves God’s wrath and curse, both in this life and that which is to come.
For all who rely on works of the law are under a curse; for it is written, “Cursed be everyone who does not abide by all things written in the Book of the Law, and do them.”
Romans 6:23 “For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
Hell - Mt. 25:41 ““Then he will say to those on his left, ‘Depart from me, you cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels.”
The law points us to Jesus as that Savior
Our guardian until Jesus came Galatians 3:23-24
Now before faith came, we were held captive under the law, imprisoned until the coming faith would be revealed. So then, the law was our guardian until Christ came, in order that we might be justified by faith.
Baptist catechism 90,
Q. What does God require of us that we may escape his wrath and curse, due to us for sin?
A. To escape the wrath and curse of God due to us for sin, God requires of us faith in Jesus Christ, repentance unto life, with the diligent use of all the outward means whereby Christ communicates to us the benefits of redemption.
The Heart of the Law
The Heart of the Law
Obeying God is more than outward conformity to His law.
Our problem is not the law, it is our hearts.
It is not the things we do that defiles us.
And he said, “What comes out of a person is what defiles him. For from within, out of the heart of man, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, coveting, wickedness, deceit, sensuality, envy, slander, pride, foolishness. All these evil things come from within, and they defile a person.”
Our hearts are evil and defiled:
Jer. 17:9 “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked; who can trust it?”
The law is spiritual and concerns our thoughts and affections as well as our words and actions.
Example in the 10th - Coveting
Rom. 7:14, “For we know that the law is spiritual, but I am of the flesh, sold under sin.”
Mt. 5:21-22 “You have heard that it was said to those of old, ‘You shall not murder; and whoever murders will be liable to judgment.’ But I say to you that everyone who is angry with his brother will be liable to judgment; whoever insults his brother will be liable to the council; and whoever says, ‘You fool!’ will be liable to the hell of fire.”
Matt. 5:27-28 “You have heard that it was said, ‘You 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 in his heart.”
The law calls us to love
The Law is fulfilled through love, so it calls us to love - Rom. 13:8-10
Owe no one anything, except to love each other, for the one who loves another has fulfilled the law. For the commandments, “You shall not commit adultery, You shall not murder, You shall not steal, You shall not covet,” and any other commandment, are summed up in this word: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” Love does no wrong to a neighbor; therefore love is the fulfilling of the law.
The summary of the law.
“Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?” And he said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets.”
Loving God
You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise.
Loving our neighbor
If anyone says, “I love God,” and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen cannot love God whom he has not seen. And this commandment we have from him: whoever loves God must also love his brother.
How? 1 John 4:7-11
Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God. Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love. In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him. In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins. Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.
Since the law is an internal matter God alone judges correctly.
1 Sam. 16:7, “man looks on the outward appearance, but the Lord looks on the heart.”
The Fulfillment of the Law
The Fulfillment of the Law
Matthew 5:17 “Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them.”
How did Jesus fulfill the law?
He accomplished the purpose of the law
He perfectly obeyed the law
He received the curse that His people deserved for their disobedience of the law.
He is the fulfillment of the types and figures of the Ceremonial and Civil law.
He perfectly loved God and others.
Ernest Reisinger, says of Jesus, “He explained the law’s meaning, He expressed its character, He embodied its duties, and He endured its penalty.”
Jesus fulfilled each of the ten commandments
Phil Ryken,
“Jesus worshiped God alone, honored God’s name, kept the Sabbath holy, obeyed his parents, loved his enemies, told the truth, and did everything else God commanded him to do...We are idolaters, rebels, liars, and cheats, and thus we could never be saved by our own obedience. But everything Jesus ever did counts for everyone who trusts in him. By faith in Christ we offer perfect obedience to God’s law.”
Our only hope of fulfilling God’s commandments is our dependence on Jesus’ righteousness.
Anthony Salvaggio,
From Bondage to Liberty: The Gospel according to Moses The Remainder of the Law Summarized
Jesus lived for our salvation as much as he died for it. Without the life and death of Jesus, the law that came through Moses could only bring condemnation and death to us. But by Jesus’ perfect obedience imputed to us and by his perfect sacrificial death on our behalf, Jesus accomplished what the law never could—he made his people righteous and holy
For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do. By sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh, in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.
Fulfilled in us (in Christ)
We read in Rom. 8:1-4
There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. For the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death. For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do. By sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh, in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.
Application
Application
We do not come to the law to be justified.
For by works of the law no human being will be justified in his sight, since through the law comes knowledge of sin. But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law, although the Law and the Prophets bear witness to it— the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. For there is no distinction:
John Murray,
“Law can do nothing to justify the person who in any particular has violated its sanctity and come under its curse. Law, as law, has no expiatory provision; it exercises no forgiving grace; and it has no power of enablement to the fulfillment of its own demand. It knows no clemency for the remission of guilt; it provides no righteousness to meet our iniquity; it exerts no constraining power to reclaim our waywardness; it knows no mercy to melt our hearts in penitence and new obedience. It can do nothing to relieve the bondage of sin; it accentuates and confirms the bondage.”
Walk in obedience, not to be justified, but because you are justified.
Eph 2:10 “For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.”
John 14:15 “If you love me, you will keep my commandments.”
Salvation precedes obedience.
The law teaches us how to live in a way that honors God.
Praise God that Christ came to fulfill the law that we could not.
That in Christ we are declared righteous even though we have sinned and fallen short.
Praise God for such a Savior.
Closing Hymn: 486 God, Be Merciful to Me
Benediction: Now, grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To him be the glory both now and to the day of eternity. Amen.