EW -God's Law is Perfect Because God is Perfect (06/28/20)
Notes
Transcript
Good morning, and welcome to LWC.
96 I have seen a limit to all perfection,
but your commandment is exceedingly broad.
There is a limit to all perfection…
In other words there is no such thing as perfection in this world.
There is no perfect home
There is no perfect job
There is no perfect day
and certainly no perfect person…
Home’s get dirty, and need constant maintenance
Jobs are exhausting, and at times even frustrating
The best day has its trouble
Why?
Because everything good that God created has been subject to futility
This is what happened when man sinned against God in Genesis 3.
And if something, or someone seems perfect to you…
then spend enough time with them, and you will eventually see what the psalmist describes:
that there is a limit to all perfection
Couples experience this in their honeymoon phase - that is when they can’t find any fault in their beloved one...
And yet those of you who married the “perfect spouse” may have been surprised when you saw the limit to their perfection.
(I don’t know if my wife ever thought I was perfect, but she has certainly seen the limit to my perfection many many times.)
96 I have seen a limit to all perfection,
but your commandment is exceedingly broad.
This is amazing… and terrifying.
consider this:
The psalmist knows that there is nothing perfect… but then is shocked in that he has yet to find fault with God’s commandment (that is his instructive word)
The perfect car you once drove eventually broke down - there is a limit in its perfection
The one who’s health was once perfect got sick, there is a limit to their perfection
Even at times we look at what seems like a ‘perfect church’ but upon spending enough time… it starts to show the same limit as that perfect car or the person in perfect health
And yet the psalmist says that God’s commandment is exceedingly broad.
That is to say - he has spent much time with the commandments of God
reading the Scriptures
Meditating on the Law of the Lord day and night
And he has yet to find any limit to the perfection in God’s commandment
Unlike the laws made by man, that need to be amended and changed as fault with them are found…
There has yet to be found a fault with God’s command, because the law of the Lord is perfect.
And the law of the Lord is perfect, because it accurately reflects the perfection of our God:
This is why no one is without sin....
because the law of the Lord is perfect, and we are not
Isa 40:6.
English Standard Version Chapter 40
All flesh is grass,
and all its beauty is like the flower of the field.
7 The grass withers, the flower fades
when the breath of the LORD blows on it;
surely the people are grass.
8 The grass withers, the flower fades,
but the word of our God will stand forever.
This is why Jesus said
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.
While there is a limit to yours and my perfection…
as each and every one of us has sinned against God and disobeyed his perfect command.
God alone is perfect. And he alone was able to keep the perfect law, perfectly in the person of the Lord Jesus Christ.
And in keeping the commands perfectly he died innocently.
and in dying innocently he has credited to us… who have a limit to our perfection… his perfect righteousness.
21 For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.
This is the good news that we believe
This is the good news that we proclaim
And this is the good news that saves us from our sins.
And for for many many years this perfect gospel has been proclaimed
The good news of the gospel has been summarized in the Apostle’s Creed.
As we do every Sunday, let us recite the Apostle’s Creed together.
I believe in God the Father Almighty
Maker of Heaven and Earth
And in Jesus Christ
His only Son out Lord
Who was conceived by the Holy Spirit
Born of the Virgin Mary
Suffered under Pontius Pilate
Was crucified, dead, and buried,
The third day he arose again from the dead
He ascended into Heaven
And is seated on the right hand of God the Father Almighty
From there He shall come to judge
The living and the dead
I believe in the Holy Spirit
The holy universal church
The communion of saints
The forgiveness of sins
The resurrection of the body
And the life everlasting
Amen