Catechism Questions 47-50
Catechism Doctrine • Sermon • Submitted • Presented
0 ratings
· 1 viewNotes
Transcript
Question #47: Where is the moral law summarily comprehended?
Answer #47: The moral law is summarily comprehended in the Ten Commandments
Question #48: What is the sum of the Ten Commandments?
Answer #48: The sum of the Ten Commandments is, to love the Lord our God with all our heart, with all our soul, with all our strength, and with all our mind; and our neighbor as ourselves
Question #49: What is the preface to the Ten Commandments?
Answer #49: The preface to the Ten Commandments is, “I am the Lord thy God, which ave brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage.”
Question #50: What does the preface to the Ten Commandments teach us?
Answer #50: The preface to the Ten Commandments teaches us, that because God is Lord, and our God and Redeemer, therefore we are bound to keep all His commandments
Main Proposition:
Statement of Doctrine or Application
The Ten Commandments and our walk with our Lord.
Intro:
Statement of proposition
Over the last few weeks in the Book of Romans we have really done a good job at getting to the point that we (sinful, fallen people) cannot perfectly keep the law in which God has given
BUT because of the perfect obedient life that Christ lived, the work that Christ did on the cross and His ascension into Heaven we are imputed the righteousness of Christ.
With that righteousness that we are given as a free gift that we did not deserve we are to be obedient to God’s Law.
We will never be perfectly obedient, but at the same time we are driven to be as obedient as we can be.
We want to live a life that embodies the Word of God, the Laws of God.
This is not something that we do because we are forced to do so.
This is something that we want to do because we have a changed heart
We come to the realization that the Son of God who was perfectly righteous sacrificed his life for me a sinner.
He paid our debt and freed us from the bondage of this world, bondage of our sin.
Our sins rules our lives like a tyrannical master.
BUT now we are free. THAT is why we want to be obedient to God’s Law.
But what is the point of God’s Law? Up until this point in Exodus 20 there was no formal, written law. Why does God decide to make his moral law known to man?
Everything God does points back to Christ and Himself.
Other texts that support
1 “You shall therefore love the Lord your God and keep his charge, his statutes, his rules, and his commandments always.
God’s Law is not a suggestion of “if you want to do this you can”
God wants the ultimate glory. All of his laws that is laid down in the Ten Commandments gives God that ultimate glory in which he deserves.
Why does this matter?
It’s important for us to have the full picture of God’s Law.
We know the moral law is comprehended in the 10 Commandments
The sum of the Ten Commandments is to love the Lord our God with all our heart, soul, strength, mind
Because God is our Lord and Redeemer, we must keep all of his commandments.
What I love about having the true infallible Word of God is that we can let Scripture prove scripture, we can let Scripture define Scripture. We can see parallels between books of the OT and NT
For example we can see parallels between Exodus and Matthew:
Specifically for this lesson Exodus 20 and Matthew 5:17-48
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. 18 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. 19 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. 20 For I tell you, unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.
In these three verses we see coming from Jesus’ own voice what the law is, we see that the law points to Him because he is the only person who can truly fulfill the law.
It shows us our need for a savior. Grant said it best “We cannot wash our own soul.”
So as we get into our main points I want us to focus on three main questions:
1. Why does God give us his moral law?
2. What does the law do?
3. What are the benefits of the law for a believer?
Main Point #1: The Law shows God’s holiness and grace
Main Point #1: The Law shows God’s holiness and grace
Statement
God gives us his moral law to show his holiness and grace
This is something that can get overlooked when it comes to God’s Law. The fact that he gives us his law of what is required to further glorify him and enjoy him forever is something that can get pushed aside because of all a sudden the law that was written on our hearts is now in our faces. For the Jews we talked about how they were given the “oracles of God” in Romans. This is part of those oracles. They know God’s Law.
As one of my professors has said over the last few months “context is king” when it comes to scripture.
Prove
I believe that it is important to give some context to what happened in Exodus 20 by looking at God’s grace, holiness and love in Exodus 19.
As we read in Exodus 19:4
4 ‘You yourselves have seen what I did to the Egyptians, and how I bore you on eagles’ wings and brought you to myself.
This is such a powerful verse and shows us the want for us and God to have that mended relationship.
Something that we have been talking about in Romans is our ability to be obedient to God’s Word and God’s Laws.
What happens when a nonbeliever is obedient to God’s Law? Even though they are obedient to the societal law in God’s eyes they are still no obedient. God still looks at them as his enemy.
We are not talking about using the Law to bring us to salvation which is a dangerous belief, but seeing that God has given us His law because of His holiness and His grace.
He wants people to come to a saving faith which will allow people to spend eternity with Him.
In this verse we can even see the relationship between God and His people.
We see the imagery of God’s people on the wings of an eagle being carried out of trouble.
This is a great image of what life was like in Egypt for these people, these slaves and the signs and wonders of Yahweh from the ten plagues, the crossing of the Red Sea, that delivered and freed them from slavery and bondage.
God had protected them and provided for them during the difficult desert journey, bearing them on eagles’ wings to bring them to himself.
When we think of holiness I want us to think of it as the very foundation of his being. It is more than an attribute. God is 100% holy, 100% grace, 100% love, 100% righteous. We can’t look at these as compartments. Its through and through.
11 “Who is like you, O Lord, among the gods? Who is like you, majestic in holiness, awesome in glorious deeds, doing wonders?
There is no one as holy, more awesome in deeds or better at wonders.
This is the proper context of what led up to Exodus 20. So when we get to Exodus 20 we see God’s love for His people.
So God brings these people out of slavery through the most miraculous way. I mean 40 years in the wilderness, manna falling from the sky, towers of fire during the night, etc.
In Exodus 19:5-8
5 Now therefore, if you will indeed obey my voice and keep my covenant, you shall be my treasured possession among all peoples, for all the earth is mine; 6 and you shall be to me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.’ These are the words that you shall speak to the people of Israel.” 7 So Moses came and called the elders of the people and set before them all these words that the Lord had commanded him. 8 All the people answered together and said, “All that the Lord has spoken we will do.” And Moses reported the words of the people to the Lord.
God has proven himself more than anybody could ever imagine through impossible terrain and circumstances.
But we are fallen people so we can’t obey His Laws like he commands. Exodus 32 The Golden Calf.
Illustrations
There are times when I was a kid and my mom would tell me not to do this or that or not to eat this or not to eat that.
As a kid you don’t really understand why your parents lay out these rules for you. You think they do it because they are mean, but as you get older you realize that it is out of love for you that they laid out certain rules for you and your siblings.
In the same way multiplied by infinity and that is God giving us his law.
He knows what is best for us. So we need to be obedient.
Main Point #2: What does the law do?
Main Point #2: What does the law do?
Statement
The Law Points us back to Christ
The law points us to the only one that could fulfill the law perfectly.
Prove
when we take the Ten Commandments from face value what do we get? What do we see?
We see and think that “oh man salvation is mine as long as I can keep some of these laws”
There is a sense that we can become justified if I can keep more of these laws then other people.
God will look down on me as someone more deserving of eternal salvation.
BUT God never said keep these laws to the best of your ability. He never said be more obedient than Joe next door and you’re a lock. He said “keep my commandment.” Period.
What we need to realize is that there is only one person to ever walk the face of the earth that was able to fulfill the God’s Law.
As we have read in Romans 3:19-20
19 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. 20 For by works of the law no human being will be justified in his sight, since through the law comes knowledge of sin.
This pretty much stops any hope that anybody can be justified by the law.
“For by works of the law no human being will be justified in his sight, since through the law comes knowledge of sin.”
This verse alone gives us so much to think on, pray on and reflect on.
I want you to ask yourself: Do you try to justify yourself before God by the works of the law?
I know I used to. Before I came to a saving faith. I think it is normal for a nonbeliever to have that mentality. Doesn’t mean that it is a good thing, but normal none the less.
We are programmed to think that way for everything in life. So the world also makes us think that “salvation” is one of those things that we can do on our own.
BUT the law is pointing us to the one and only person that did fulfill the law because we couldn’t.
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. 18 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. 19 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. 20 For I tell you, unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.
Jesus went on to teach that not only is scripture absolute and that every single part of it is absolute. He taught that Scripture finds its fullest meaning in him. Lets think about that for a second.
We have to remember that Jesus Christ was the author during the OT period.
If any of you are ever a teacher if you want to get your point clear the first you must tell your students what you are going to say, then you must say it and finally you must tell them what you have said. Just like Jesus Christ he foretold his coming, he came and then he told people about it.
Christ fulfilled the law by dying on the cross and thereby satisfying forever the demands of the law against those who believe in him.
15 But Jesus answered him, “Let it be so now, for thus it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness.” Then he consented.
In other words, Jesus is stating that he is identifying with man in every way and as a man, perfectly fulfill all of that the law of God required.
Even though all of this is entirely 100% true we cannot miss the true meaning of why Christ came.
Christ came not to primarily obey the law, by keeping it perfectly, although that is true.
He came to die and in dying he canceled the claims of the law against all who would receive him as their savior.
When the law was given, the lamb was given. In ancient Israel the law and sacrifices went hand in hand. You cannot have one without the other.
God had providentially arranged that so when man sinned before the law he had a means of atonement.
This innocent sacrifice pointed forward to the full and perfect sacrifice of Christ.
Everything that has ever happened was perfectly and timelessly put there by our Creator. Pointing us to the one that will free us from the bondage of sin.
A few weeks ago in Romans we talked about the means of sin, the means of law. When we are under the law, when we try to justify ourselves by the law what is the ONLY end product? Condemnation. The law is 1,834,739,463,294,794-1. We are not the 1 that defeated the Law. Christ did.
When we are under the law the result is condemnation.
When we have faith in Christ the result is justification and righteousness.
Illustrations
Main Point #3: What are the benefits of the law for the believer?
Main Point #3: What are the benefits of the law for the believer?
Statement
So far when talking about the law we have seen God’s grace and holiness.
We’ve seen what the law points us to:
Jesus Christ and how a believer is imputed Christ’s Righteousness because of Christ’s perfect obedience to God’s Law.
Even though the law cannot give someone salvation, the law is still good and should be followed because a believer wants to obey his master.
Prove
Believer’s should still follow God’s Law to the best of his ability. As we have been reading in Romans we have seen Paul fighting with the believers about keeping the law.
People think that well okay we can’t be justified by the law, we can’t be saved by the law ALSO by God saving us it shows his immeasurable grace. So the more that we sin the more grace that God can show which would make Him look even better, more holy, more gracious.
False. Because we are not owed any grace and love. We do deserve judgment and condemnation.
We have to different camps the hyper-calvinistic and the antinomian
One thinks that because they are given this free gift they are exempt from following the law, it doesn’t matter if they follow the law and the other is hyper focused on the law.
BUT what benefits are there of the law for the believer?
That answer isn’t just a straight sentence
Believer’s are called to repent, be sanctified, live a life that resembles Christ. We are not perfect, Christ was perfect and was 100% obedient. So we should live a life as close to Christ as we can.
We know that obedience and works don’t save, but a truly regenerated heart is going to want to be a servant, they want to be a slave of Christ because that person knows the life that they were saved from and the eternal death that they were saved from.
Because a believer has true faith in Christ we are no longer under the law.
We are not judged by the law anymore.
We are to keep the law because we are grateful.
What should we be grateful for? The eternal life that has been given to us as a free gift by God.
Even though we are not judged by the law, we are not saved by the law we are commanded to obey his laws
Flowers in texts
12 “And now, Israel, what does the Lord your God require of you, but to fear the Lord your God, to walk in all his ways, to love him, to serve the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul, 13 and to keep the commandments and statutes of the Lord, which I am commanding you today for your good? 14 Behold, to the Lord your God belong heaven and the heaven of heavens, the earth with all that is in it.
Pretty much sums up what we have been talking about today.
These verses here calls us to justice, mercy and humility in our walk with God. To walk with God requires that we love him with all out heart, our entire being.
It means we must keep his commandments.
Here we have our holy, gracious God who called us when we hated him. He called us when we were his enemies.
That can sound like a strong take: “Michael I know people that aren’t believers, but they don’t hate God.”
Well if they do not love God with all of their being in God’s eyes it’s hate.
If we are going to love God with our entire being we have to love and obey God completely.
That means obedience
Illustrations:
That would be like me and Sarah getting married, but then completely ignoring the vows and promises that we made when we got married.
We are obedient to one another and the promises that we made the day we got married.
I made an Ephesians 5:25
25 Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her,
Our obedience shows our love.
It shows our hearts
A lot of people can say something, but if there is no action what does that actually tell us?
Apply or Confront
*Confront culture of False Teaching
Application Points:
Know in confidence that the law points us back to Christ
People at times will think that the law is just a way for us to either prove how righteous, moral or good we are
They don’t understand that the law has been fulfilled. We are no longer under the judgment, outcome of our law keeping abilities
The price of a believer is to give God and Christ our whole hearts and lives
We are to be obedient because of what we were saved from, the wordly life that we were taken out of and eternal life we were brought into.
I want you to think about this question: How much does God and Christ mean to you?
Are you striving to be obedient to God, wanting to show God the love, honor and glory that he deserves or are only worried about the benefits that THIS world can give you.
You cannot have both. You cannot serve two masters. God or the World.