THE LAW OF FREEDOM
FROM DUST TO GLORY • Sermon • Submitted • Presented
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· 1 viewIn giving The Law God is not saying, “you better keep them if you want to become my people”. In giving The Law God is saying, “you better keep them because you are my people”.
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Transcript
And God spoke all these words, saying,
“I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery.
“You shall have no other gods before me.
“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 in the water under the earth.
You shall not bow down to them or serve them, for I the Lord your God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and the fourth generation of those who hate me,
but showing steadfast love to thousands of those who love me and keep my commandments.
“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.
“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. On it you shall not do any work, you, or your son, or your daughter, your male servant, or your female servant, or your livestock, or the sojourner who is within your gates.
For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested on the seventh day. Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy.
“Honor your father and your mother, that your days may be long in the land that the Lord your God is giving you.
“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.”
“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.
For truly, I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not an iota, not a dot, will pass from the Law until all is accomplished.
Therefore whoever relaxes one of the least of these commandments and teaches others to do the same will be called least in the kingdom of heaven, but whoever does them and teaches them will be called great in the kingdom of heaven.
For I tell you, unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.
We should not ask what would Jesus do but what did Jesus do.
and I shall walk in a wide place, for I have sought your precepts.
Precepts’ is the ‘narrowest’ word in the vocabulary of Psalm 119, covering every minute detail of applying the law of God to daily life. The verse thus voices a striking truth:
The psalmist found that the more closely he tied his life to the word of God, the more he found he was enjoying the largest liberty.
This is the way we are to think of the Ten Commandments—not as cramping restrictions but as the very gateway to the fullness we seek.
The law is not a cramping restrictions but as the very gateway to the fullness we seek.
The very fact that it is the law of God should at once show us that it cannot contain anything harmful to man’s welfare. Like everything else that God has given, the Law is an expression of His love, a manifestation of His mercy, a provision of His grace.
May my teaching drop as the rain, my speech distill as the dew, like gentle rain upon the tender grass, and like showers upon the herb.
For I will proclaim the name of the Lord; ascribe greatness to our God!
WHAT IS THE AIM OF THE LAW?
The law of the Lord is perfect, reviving the soul; the testimony of the Lord is sure, making wise the simple;
SALVATION
Now we know that whatever the law says it speaks to those who are under the law, so that every mouth may be stopped, and the whole world may be held accountable to God.
For by works of the law no human being will be justified in his sight, since through the law comes knowledge of sin.
THE LAW CAN REVEAL OUR SIN BUT IT CANNOT REDEEM US FROM OUR SIN.
If The Law is heeded it can lead a person to redemption's door but only faith can unlock it.
SANCTIFICATION
In giving The Law, God is not saying, “you better keep them if you want to become my people”.
In giving The Law God is saying, “you better keep them because you are my people”.
The law of the Lord was addressed to those brought out of bondage, and its aim was not to bring them into a new bondage, but rather to establish them in their new freedom.
The true ‘law of liberty’
As those who had come out of slavery they needed to be instructed in the behavior and lifestyle of the free. Such is the law of the Lord—it is the true ‘law of liberty’
But the one who looks into the perfect law, the law of liberty, and perseveres, being no hearer who forgets but a doer who acts, he will be blessed in his doing.
The supreme test of love is the desire and effort to please the one loved, and this measured by conformity to his known wishes.
Love for God is expressed by obedience to His will.
Only One has perfectly exemplified this, and of Him it is written,
I delight to do your will, O my God; your law is within my heart.”
But we ought so to walk even as He walked
whoever says he abides in him ought to walk in the same way in which he walked.
Simple but searching is that word of His,
Whoever has my commandments and keeps them, he it is who loves me. And he who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will love him and manifest myself to him.”
And again it is written,
By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God and obey his commandments.
For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments. And his commandments are not burdensome.
The “waning” of love, then, means departing from, failing to keep, God’s commandments!
WHAT IS THE EFFECT OF THE LAW?
IT DRIVES US TO CHRIST FOR SALVATION.
We use The Law as a means of revealing who God is and what He demands.
We use The Law as a means of revealing to man who he is and what he cannot do.
In the year that King Uzziah died I saw the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up; and the train of his robe filled the temple.
Above him stood the seraphim. Each had six wings: with two he covered his face, and with two he covered his feet, and with two he flew.
And one called to another and said: “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts; the whole earth is full of his glory!”
And the foundations of the thresholds shook at the voice of him who called, and the house was filled with smoke.
And I said: “Woe is me! For I am lost; for I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips; for my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts!”
Then one of the seraphim flew to me, having in his hand a burning coal that he had taken with tongs from the altar.
And he touched my mouth and said: “Behold, this has touched your lips; your guilt is taken away, and your sin atoned for.”
And I heard the voice of the Lord saying, “Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?” Then I said, “Here I am! Send me.”
IT DEVELOPS CHRIST-LIKENESS FOR SANCTIFICATION
Exodus 20 is not the introduction of The Law but the inscription of The Law.
The Law existed in verbal form before it was ever written in visible form. It was not given so that man might earn God’s love but to show man how to love God and his fellow man. The greatest and second greatest commandments have existed since creation.
The Ten Commandments is the Bible’s fundamental statement of ‘the law of liberty’.
The Law does not enslave us but sets us free. Prohibitions do not restrict freedom but provide real freedom.
A negative command is far more liberating than a positive one, for a positive command restricts life to that one course of action, whereas a negative command leaves life open to every course of action except one!
We see this, law of liberty, at work in the garden of Eden. The single negative command, ‘You must not eat of it’ left open the broad prospect that ‘You are free to eat from any tree in the garden.’
Our duty to God and Our duty to our neighbour.
The Ten Commandments show what a rounded, perfectly balanced life should look like. This is demonstrated by the way they are presented. We are told that there were two ‘tables’ or tablets of the law, and traditionally the first (commandments one to four) has been spoken of as ‘our duty to God’ and the second (commandments five to ten) as ‘our duty to our neighbour’.
God reaffirms the Abrahamic covenant with His people.
There is one other important connection that we need to make concerning The Law. In Chapter 19 God reaffirms the Abrahamic covenant with His people. History tells us that covenants could only come into force until it was given in written form.
TWO COPIES
Two identical copies were made, one of which was retained by the king and the other by his servants. It is significant that Israel kept both of the tablets produced on Sinai together in the ark (Exod. 25:16; 40:20). This shows that Yahweh, the Great King who is the covenant-maker, was also the resident king among his people, and the covenant was his to guard and guarantee. The Lord, wanting his people to enjoy all the benefits of the covenant he had made with them, set his law before them.
The keeping of the commandments show my love for God.
God’s covenant show His love for me. We love God because he first loved us. We can obey his command because he has kept his covenant.
WHAT DOES THE LAW ACHIEVE?
SALVATION OR DAMNATION
Luke 18:18-30 - Luke 19:1-10
Scripture provides for us a commentary on each command.
We do not have time to go through each commandment in detail. However, Scripture provides for us a commentary on each command. I recommend you read Deuteronomy 6-25.
What does this command teach me about God?
As we read each commandment we should ask ourselves, “what does this command teach me about God?” The character of God undergirds everything. God tells them to do something because of who he is.
When we obey His commands we reflect His glory in this world and we represent His will in this world.
Before the Lord announced his law he pointed to himself with the words, I am the LORD [Yahweh]. Leviticus 19 helps us to understand the significance of this. There we find an odd and jumbled collection of the Lord’s laws—religious, domestic, social, horticultural, ritual, agricultural and sexual.
Leviticus 19 is held together by the recurring affirmation, ‘I am the LORD’ (sixteen times in all).
In our English translations this sounds like a demand to submit to his authority: ‘Do what I tell you because I am the Lord’. We would, of course, be untrue to the Old Testament if we overlooked this authoritarian note (e.g. Deut. 6:1), but ‘the LORD’ is the divine name, Yahweh, and the recurring affirmation is equivalent to the Lord saying,
‘I want you to live this way because “I am who I am”
For this reason, Leviticus 19 begins with a call to the Lord’s people to be like him:
“Speak to all the congregation of the people of Israel and say to them, You shall be holy, for I the Lord your God am holy.
‘Be holy because I, the LORD your God, am holy’—you must be what you must be because I am what I am.
The law of God reflects the character of God. It is the likeness of God expressed in precepts, and
Obedience to the law of the Lord ‘triggers’ in us ‘the image of God’ which is our real nature.
In other words, we live the truly human life when we obey the Lord’s law.
If we love our God then we will love 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.
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 Lord is saying to His people today,
REFLECT my glory and REPRESENT my will in this world by obeying my commands.
Let those purchased by The Law Keepers blood sing with the Psalmist
Oh how I love your law! It is my meditation all the day.
The Lord is saying to those who are not His people, “you have fallen short of my glory