Sunday School January 7, 2024

The Law Part 3

When I was young, my family experienced something very difficult.

When I was about 4 or 5, my mom suffered from severe depression.

I still remember her having to go to a mental hospital for a few months.

I remember the pressure on my dad during that time.

During that time, my parents put me in K4 kindergarden and I had to have a lady I don’t even remember who she was pick me up from school until my dad could get off work and pick me up.

During that time, both of my parents felt distant.

It was tough as a little kid seeing little of your dad, because he was working

and not seeing your mom at all because she was unstable.

Fast forward 5-10 years, my dad always took me to school.

I still remember many of those car rides in our old blue 90’s minivan.

I remember the talks we shared on the 20 minute drive to school.

I remember the evenings we would go out, my dad and my brothers and play tennis on the courts near Byrnes high school.

I remember the board games we would play.

There were a lot of good times growing up.

To many people from the outside looking in, we looked like a perfect family I’m sure.

However, looking back, even I was blind to some of the sufferings in my home, but I see now how my mom suffered mentally.

She wasn’t hospitalized the rest of my time at home, but here’s what I do know.

Through it all,

1. my dad did the best he could.

2. My dad was personal.

He had a way of drawing me close.

Even when there was so much going on in his life, he drew me close and connected with me and my brothers

My dad was and still is very personal.

Before Christmas...

When we spoke a few weeks ago about the law, we discussed gratitude.

Through the law, God gave us a mirror to show us His standards.

As we look at ourselves in the reflection of God’s law, that mirror shows us our imperfections.

We quickly see we cannot live up to God’s standards.

At that point we have 2 choices…

We try harder to wrongly to live up to His standards.

Or we surrender and trust what He did on the cross was enough.

The latter is our only hope.

Trusting Jesus. Trusting His death was enough to pay the price of sin that we owe.

This brings us to our lesson today:

God’s law is personal.

When we hear the word “Law” we sometimes assume this.

A list of dos and don’ts

a “If you do this… then the punishment is …”

It’s impersonal.

We also assume its confusing. It’s something only police officers, lawyers, and judges understand.

For example: Have you ever tried to read a legal document or contract? It’s so confusing and difficult to understand.

Also, the reason we might assume we obey a law is so that we won’t get punished.

We want to avoid punishment.

The reason I don’t speed is not because I don’t want to have fun, but because I’ve experienced how un-fun it is to pay a speeding ticket.

What I want us to see this morning though is God’s law is not like that.

God’s law is personal.

God’s law is directed towards the heart of man.

It’s internal (our hearts) and external (behavior)

And our response to God’s law should be gratitude.

Whereas our experience with laws is typically cold and impersonal.

God’s law is warm, personal, and leaves us thankful.

Deuteronomy 10:12–19 “12 And now, Israel, what does the Lord your God ask of you but to fear the Lord your God, to walk in obedience to him, to love him, to serve the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul, 13 and to observe the Lord’s commands and decrees that I am giving you today for your own good? 14 To the Lord your God belong the heavens, even the highest heavens, the earth and everything in it. 15 Yet the Lord set his affection on your ancestors and loved them, and he chose you, their descendants, above all the nations—as it is today. 16 Circumcise your hearts, therefore, and do not be stiff-necked any longer. 17 For the Lord your God is God of gods and Lord of lords, the great God, mighty and awesome, who shows no partiality and accepts no bribes. 18 He defends the cause of the fatherless and the widow, and loves the foreigner residing among you, giving them food and clothing. 19 And you are to love those who are foreigners, for you yourselves were foreigners in Egypt.”

Deuteronomy 10:20–22 “20 Fear the Lord your God and serve him. Hold fast to him and take your oaths in his name. 21 He is the one you praise; he is your God, who performed for you those great and awesome wonders you saw with your own eyes. 22 Your ancestors who went down into Egypt were seventy in all, and now the Lord your God has made you as numerous as the stars in the sky.”

There is no american law that says:

“Fear God… love him… serve him with all your heart and soul… for your own good… change your heart and stop being stubborn… because God shows love to foreigners, you must too...”

There’s no human law anywhere ever that has said that.

God’s law is different.

God’s law contains encouragement, care, reassurance.

It captures the love of God given to His sons and daughters.

Read 1 Samuel 16:7 “7 But the Lord said to Samuel, “Do not consider his appearance or his height, for I have rejected him. The Lord does not look at the things people look at. People look at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart.””

The internal is important to God.

The condition of our hearts matters to our loving Father.

You can do all the right actions…

You can say all the right things…

You can go to all the church services…

You can help all the people in need…

but if you’re heart hasn’t been changed by the grace and mercy of Jesus.

None of it matters.

Isaiah 29:13 “13 The Lord says: “These people come near to me with their mouth and honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. Their worship of me is based on merely human rules they have been taught.”

God is not a policeman, He’s a loving Father.

The law isn’t mean’t to be an exhaustive list of dos and don’ts

Yet throughout time, people have missed this about God.

The Pharisees in the New Testament are a notable example.

They took God’s law, applied legalism, and made the law all about behavior.

They forgot the internal (what is important to God) and focused on the external (Behavior)

Read Mark 3:1–6 “1 Another time Jesus went into the synagogue, and a man with a shriveled hand was there. 2 Some of them were looking for a reason to accuse Jesus, so they watched him closely to see if he would heal him on the Sabbath. 3 Jesus said to the man with the shriveled hand, “Stand up in front of everyone.” 4 Then Jesus asked them, “Which is lawful on the Sabbath: to do good or to do evil, to save life or to kill?” But they remained silent. 5 He looked around at them in anger and, deeply distressed at their stubborn hearts, said to the man, “Stretch out your hand.” He stretched it out, and his hand was completely restored. 6 Then the Pharisees went out and began to plot with the Herodians how they might kill Jesus.”

Jesus never says the law is bad.

Again, it’s all about the internal.

If our heart is wicked, but our behavior is good, it doesn’t matter. God is not pleased.

If our heart is changed by the work of Jesus, God is pleased.

This is the core of the law.

Let’s take one law in particular. Honoring the Sabbath.

You know what that law really is?

It’s a command from God to rest.

Why would we need a command to rest?

Because God knows as Humans, we do not naturally rest.

We work hard, once we gain momentum in our work, we don’t want to stop.

We want to keep going and going and going.

But God says no…

I didn’t create you to operate that way.

You need to rest.

So God didn’t just suggest it, he modeled it at creation on day 7 and then commanded it as one of the 10 commandments.

Finally this morning I want to talk about God’s order of events from the Exodus to the giving of the law and why the timeline of events matters.

We need to understand that the Exodus, the people leaving Egypt, came before God gave the law.

*Show graphic on bottom of page 23*

Exodus

God didn’t show up in Egypt and say “Obey me Israel, then I will save you if you deserve it...”

He never said that.

He didn’t say, “You’ve had bad behavior, change and then I’ll save you.”

He didn’t require any behavior changes from Israel.

God invited them to trust Him.

God invited them to a relationship— a father / son relationship.

Mt. Sinai*

After the people were saved from the Egyptians, then God gave the law.

The law came after God saved them, after salvation.

God saved them, then he called them to obedience.

He appeals to their obedience out of gratitude for what He has done for them.

God made Israel His son before He told them about the laws.

In other words, Israel didn’t earn the right to be God’s son through their good behavior.

Salvation is never man’s work. It’s God’s.

The same model is true for us.

Our Exodus is God calling us out of a life of sin and to place our trust in Him to save us.

He calls us to trust ath God will do all the work, we simply need to trust and follow.

Our Sinai comes next.

Once we trust and follow, then God will lovingly show us how to live.

This is important for us to understand personally, but also very important for how we relate to unbelievers.

What draws people to Jesus first is God Himself.

We can’t save people, only God can.

So for us, it’s important that we show God the Father to them.

It’s important that people know what saves us isn’t our behavior, we didn’t deserve to be saved, and neither do they.

How do I know I didn’t deserve it?

Because when I examine the law, the law shows me my imperfections, not my perfections!

Like that mirror we discussed last week.

When you look at your own face in the mirror, you might see imperfections the closer you look.

You see a pimple here, or a blackhead there.

You see a scar you didn’t realize you had.

When you’re like me, you skin starts to wrinkle up a little bit in places making you guess where you might have permanent wrinkles 20 years from now.

The mirror shows us, not our perfections, but out imperfections.

That is the law.

It reminds us...

only through the grace and mercy of Jesus that we are saved.

It is AFTER these things and only after these things that we then consider how we should live as believers and look to God’s law.

The law shows us our need for God, but it also shows us how to live as a son of God.

We need both.

How are you treating the law in your own life?