Sermon Tone Analysis

Connection with God (Part 1 - Belief)

God never gives up, never gives in, and never abandons.

He has given us in His Word the instructions for life and godliness (2 Peter 1:3; 1 Timothy 4:8; 2 Timothy 3:16 ).

The Law of God was not given just for Israel but for all humanity.

Therefore, God has given to us a blueprint for cultural reformation or what we label as revival.

In Genesis, man was given a Kingdom Cultural Mandate to define cultures according to the way of God as there was no other way.

In Matthew 28:19-20 Christ once again gives us a Kingdom Community and Cultural Mandate in which to define cultural ethics, morality and norms of life.

Yet, we to this day, cower as Christians to the intimidation of those who would claim moral superiority and authority in the name of ungodliness and anti-Christ as they force their immorality on us and our children and children’s children.

That book you hold in your hand and call the Bible is a divinely inspired canonized collection called the Tanakh תַּנַ״ךְ or B’rit Olam בְּרִית עוֹלָם meaning eternal covenant.

It consist of three parts: The Torah (Law), Nevi'im (Prophets) and Ketuvim (Writings).

The Torah consist of the Books of Genesis (Bereshit), Exodus (Shemot), Leviticus (Vayikrah), Numbers (Bamidbar) and Deuteronomy (Devarim).

In addition, you have the New Testament (B’rit Chadash בְּרִית חָדַשׁ meaning renewed covenant).

To separate the two implies that there are two separate covenants from God and propagating the idea of Replacement Theology (Jews are out and Christians are in).

However, you cannot have the new without the old.

It is all one covenant and plan of God.

The Torah (Law) alone is over 3,313 years old.

Throughout the Scriptures there are 613 (mitzvot מִצְווֹת - commandments) Mosaic laws.

These are the laws given to Moses when he goes back to God, after having given the Israelites the Decalogue (Ten Commandments) or Law of God, and the people find ways around them playing ignorant.

So, God breaks the Decalogue down in great and specific details.

Jesus did not eliminate the Law of God or Moses, but he fulfilled it all (Matthew 5:17).

I heard a disc jockey on a Christian radio station the other day say, “It does not matter if you do or don’t do what God says, it does not change what He thinks about you.”

What Bible is he reading?

You would think he was Moses or Peter and given all authority to interpret God’s commands with his own Christian relativism.

Of the 248 positive commands, there are 126 currently applicable.

And of the 365 negative commands, only 243 are still applicable.

The laws of religious rituals and ordinances for redemption from the curse of the law are no longer a yoke because of the work of Christ and the cross.

However, principles of intent in all of the law, still apply.

Every moral response to God’s ethical standards still apply in every sense of the Law of God.

(Illustration of running yellow lights - ignoring the conviction of the Holy Spirit.).

In Luke 16:17 Jesus says, “And it is easier for heaven and earth to pass away than for one tittle of the law to fail.”

And in Matthew 5:17, “Do not think that I came to destroy the Law or the Prophets.

I did not come to destroy but to fulfill.”

The phrase “to fulfill the Law” was a Hebrew idiom meaning to rightly interpret and set correctly the intent and understanding of God’s Law.

If one incorrectly interpreted the Law of God they were said to have “destroyed the Law and the Prophets”.

In Matthew 11 Jesus warns of those who are unrepentant.

Then He says this:

You might ask, “What yoke is He talking about?

I thought as a Christian I was now yokeless?”

He is talking about you living His life in righteousness, uprightness, right standing with God.

You are now yoked to Him to live as He lived.

To go and sin no more.

Let me put it to you this way, Jesus did not come to suddenly make your immoral lifestyle morally acceptable.

Sin is still sin to God regardless of what euphemisms today’s culture has chosen to call it.

(Illustration of wedding ring; taking it off while you flirt with sin, then put it back on for Sunday).

Some would argue that the Gentiles being grafted into the Covenant of Abraham need only stick to four restrictions according to Acts 15:20.

Yet, many Christian take great liberty in loosely embracing those four restrictions.

Basically, Acts 15:20 declares “Do not commit idolatry”, “Do not commit sexual immorality”, and “Do not commit murder” or drink the blood for life is in the blood according to Leviticus 17:10-11.

These pretty much sum up a large portion of the “Ten Commandments”.

However, the disciples were not saying that the Gentiles were not to follow the Law of God but were free from much of the Law of Moses (See Romans 3 ). in Romans 3 Paul is not saying that you no longer need confess, repent and live righteous.

He is addressing the fact that when you do, you no longer need live consciously condemned as those who only had the blood of bulls and goats to atone for them.

You have Christ.

This authority was given to Peter when Jesus said to him:

The whole point of the Law of God is to make straight a path for a Holy God to re-connect with man and man with his loving Creator.

It was the plan of a Father’s heart to restore his wayward children.

This Connection with God was a lengthy and generational process.

From the time that man separated himself from God, God had initiated a plan of redemption and restoration.

From the shedding of creations innocent blood to the atoning blood of Jesus Christ, God was in pursuit of renewed relationship with that which He loved most, you.

In the book of Exodus we see a similar process.

We see God confront that which enslaves and opposes His sovereign authority.

We see the blood of the lamb shed for the preserving of life.

Deliverance comes to God’s people.

Then there is a testing of their faith and a crossing over or commitment to God’s direction.

Then a removing of that which is unholy and a time of consecration.

During this time they encounter the cloud and fire of God, bread from heaven, water from a rock, and that which was bitter made sweet.

Both in Exodus 20 and Deuteronomy 5 God makes simple the blueprint for relational connection with Him, our families and our communities.

We refer to them as the Ten Commandments (aseret ha-dibrot עשרת הדיברות - meaning “the ten matters of life”)

From God’s perspective He was not issuing a grocery list of “Do Not’s”.

Instead, each is a statement of conversation between the Groom and Bride; between Jehovah and Israel; between the Creator and the created.

The first four have to do with your relational connection to God.

From the beginning God desired that man dwell in the holy presence of God through an intimate covenant relationship.

God made a covenant with man in the Garden of Eden but man broke it thus breaking the holy communion.

What is the first command?

Many Christians would say it is that you should have “no other gods before Him”.

But in reality, the first command is found in Exodus 20:1-2:

It is a command of identification and assimilation.

It is a command to “believe”.

It is a call to a covenant relationship.

It is a call to a way of thinking and living; a way of ethical surrender and moral embrace.

In this command we see the authority of God, the grace of God and the goodness of God.

We see His sovereignty and kavanah כַּוָּנָה (motive and intent) of redemption.

He not only identifies Himself by who He is but what He does and why He does it.

And in this is a call to man to set all his mental, emotional, spiritual, intellectual and physical faculties towards honoring and serving His will.

And in reality, the second command we often breakdown and separate as if it has no real correlation one to the other.

In reality, they are a part of the same conversational statement about proper and improper worship to the Lord of all heaven and earth.

Exodus 20:3-8 are the rest of the conversation.

They are not just merely separate rules.

They are the boundaries of the heart, mind, soul and spirit that are to be set on the Lord God in your daily living.

It is your daily worship to honor Him with your entire existence.

The Law of God does not bring condemnation to the one who loves the way of the Lord.

Condemnation is from the enemy.

It puts your failures in your face.

But failure is never final with Christ.

The Law of God through the Holy Spirit brings conviction.

Conviction gets a bad rap.

Condemnation comes after you sin.

Conviction comes before.

A strong sense of righteous conviction is like guard rails along the curve of a highway high atop a mountain cliff.

It keeps you safely on the right path.

Your belief in who God is leads you in the way.

Have you ever told your kids no and they whine “But why?”