How I love Thy Law

For the choir director. A Psalm of David. A Song. There will be silence before You, and praise in Zion, O God, And to You the vow will be performed. O You who hear prayer, To You all men come. Iniquities prevail against me; As for our transgressions, You forgive them. How blessed is the one whom You choose and bring near to You To dwell in Your courts. We will be satisfied with the goodness of Your house, Your holy temple. By awesome deeds You answer us in righteousness, O God of our salvation, You who are the trust of all the ends of the earth and of the farthest sea; Who establishes the mountains by His strength, Being girded with might; Who stills the roaring of the seas, The roaring of their waves, And the tumult of the peoples. They who dwell in the ends of the earth stand in awe of Your signs; You make the dawn and the sunset shout for joy. You visit the earth and cause it to overflow; You greatly enrich it; The stream of God is full of water; You prepare their grain, for thus You prepare the earth. You water its furrows abundantly, You settle its ridges, You soften it with showers, You bless its growth. You have crowned the year with Your bounty, And Your paths drip with fatness. The pastures of the wilderness drip, And the hills gird themselves with rejoicing. The meadows are clothed with flocks And the valleys are covered with grain; They shout for joy, yes, they sing.

There is much to unpack in this Psalm. The theme of course is God is great and His creation bears us witness.

I think one of the most profound moments in Christian lives is when you conceive that Christ is God. Yes, you know it instinctively. But do you believe it in an active sense? By this, I mean “John throws the ball” kind of present active indicative sense?

If I replace God with “Christ” in this Psalm, we grasp part of this lesson. If I replace “God” with “The Holy Spirit” we grasp part of this lesson.

I say part, because God is full of inter-Trinitarian cooperation in all these things. We see in Genesis 1 that all three members of the Trinity are working together in creation. As we read through Paul’s epistles, we become aware that there is inter-Trinitarian cooperation in Salvation.

The concept is lost if you pay only lip service to the concept of the Trinity, and instead are Patripassionist - believing Christ is the Father - or if you are Modalist - believing that Christ is only one manifestation of God at any one time, or if you are Pantheist - believing in three separate gods. And there are a lot of Christians who do not understand the Trinity, and have very little understanding of it. It’s nearly impossible for man to understand - note I said ‘Nearly’ - so many of us grasp onto one philosophical construct of it and stop thinking about it.

And really, one could be involved in a sermon series lasting years in which you study the Trinity.

This is one reason why there will be silence before God. When Job was done with his foolish protests against God, his endless declarations of innocence and his protest that God cursed Job unfairly, God responds with a lengthy series of questions. All of these questions are designed to show God’s magnitude.

Where were you when I laid the foundations of the earth?

Where were you when I sealed the doors of the seas? The Psalms say that God set boundaries for the oceans - “Thus far and no more.”

If that doesn’t seem like much, remember the devastating effects of those rare moments when the seas are temporarily released from those boundaries. Humans are swept away and killed, helplessly. The earth is washed away. Everything in its path is destroyed. In some places wiped clean. In others, everything the seas had swept up is dumped in one spot.

Answer me this, Job.

Job’s response was, “I spoke once, twice… and no more.”

He is silent before God.

There is silence before God, and praise. This Psalm alone adds a number of reasons why.

You who hear prayer.

You who forgives our sins.

You who choose us

You who bring near the ones you have chosen.

You who gives us the harvest

you who blesses us.

During the Passover seder, there is one prayer that is sung, called Dayeynu. It is enough.

The Dayeynu prayer shares much of the same structure of this song, except the refrain Dayeynu - it would have been enough - is recited in between each recounting of God’s mighty deeds.

If you had left us in bitter bondage in Egypt, but had given us your laws, it would have been enough.

If you had given us the Sabbath but left us in Egypt, it would have been enough.

If you had brought us out of egypt alone, it would have been enough.

In the case of this Psalm, if You heard prayer alone, it would have been enough.

If You forgave our sins alone, Dayeynu.

If You had chosen us alone, Dayeynu.

If You had brought us near to You in our lifetimes alone, dayeynu.

If You had given us the Temple alone, it would have been enough. Dayeynu.

The lesson here is that God has done all of these things, when any one of them alone was more than we deserve.

One of the points of Reformed understanding is that we all deserve the worst punishment forever. None of us have earned anything less than the very worst torment forever for our sins.

But God.

Those two mighty words.

But God.

Chose.

Unworthy.

Me.

For the glory of His grace.

God died for me.

For the Glory of His Grace.

Willing to show mercy, God saves some.

Why not all?

Why is Universalism wrong?

Doesn’t love win?

Where Rob Bell gets this wrong is that God has every right as a thrice Holy God is that we deserve our punishment.

God must punish some. He is a righteous judge.

Why does He not save all? We deserve only destruction, unending torment, forever agonized by the thought we earned this, that we deserve this, and it’s never ever ever going to end.

God willing to show mercy, saved some.

He chose us.

Drew us near.

Died for us.

Brought us into His house.

Surely goodness and mercy will follow us, and we will dwell in the house of the Lord forever.

God will dwell amongst us,

wipe away every tear.

John 14:23–29 NASB95PARA

Jesus answered and said to him, “If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word; and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our abode with him. He who does not love Me does not keep My words; and the word which you hear is not Mine, but the Father’s who sent Me. “These things I have spoken to you while abiding with you. But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all that I said to you. Peace I leave with you; My peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you. Do not let your heart be troubled, nor let it be fearful. You heard that I said to you, ‘I go away, and I will come to you.’ If you loved Me, you would have rejoiced because I go to the Father, for the Father is greater than I. Now I have told you before it happens, so that when it happens, you may believe.

The words of Christ here are difficult. Not as difficult as John 6 and the “Eat my flesh, drink my blood” passage. That one bothers people, but with good reason - and Christ had reasons for saying it. Briefly, I’ll just say that had to do with seeking the bread which endures to eternal life - if Christ is the bread you labor for, you will live forever.

It kind of has bearing on this.

What we’re left with is Galatians, Colossians and Hebrews.

Hebrews points out there’s no longer a propitiation for sins under the old covenant of animal sacrifice.

Galatians reinforces this by telling us we are no longer under ceremonial laws.

This brings us to the last part of the law - there was moral, civil and ceremonial.

Civil laws can only be enforced in Israel, under the theocracy. It was also enforced under the monarchies. but the problem was, if the king was evil, he had little interest in enforcing civil laws. These are the laws enjoining a penalty, such as breaking the sabbath, causing someone financial loss, murder, theft or idolatry. In these cases, what is not enforced is the penalty side of it.

Civil laws had two phases of it: the moral law, and the civil law. “You shall not make an idol or bow down to it” is the moral law - “let him who bows down to an idol be put to death by stoning with stones” is the civil punishment.

The civil punishments are not in force at this time. They will not be until the theocracy - a kingdom ruled by God - is in force. In case you’ve never read Revelation, we will have a millennium where Jesus Christ will return and literally rule in Jerusalem. That’s a theocracy.

The ceremonial laws - the wearing of shatnes or mixed fibers, Tame’ and tahor or the laws of cleanness and uncleanness, the Tsaar or laws of leprosy, the laws of kashrut- eating kosher, wearing of tsitsis and tefillin, or the prayer shawl-ceremonial fringe and phylacteries, and mezuzot - placing the commandments of God upon your doorpost - these are all examples - a few, that is - of the ceremonial laws. I just covered huge sections of Numbers, Leviticus and Deuteronomy in just a couple of sentences. You’re welcome.

What it boils down to is this - Christians are left with the ten commandments in some traditions, such as Presbyterians. Reform Baptists take the position that since nine of the ten commandments are repeated in the New Testament, we have the nine commandments. The Lord’s Day is not the sabbath. However, observance of the Lord’s day replaces the sabbath, and it is enjoined that we keep the Lord’s day - however, Christian tolerance is extended to those who believe in a sabbath day. Since this replaces the sabbath day, we’re essentially left with the ten commandments.

This is difficult because there are elements of Christianity which protest against any observance of law. This is known as anti-nomianism, the belief we are not to engage in any observance of the law in any kind.

Why is this difficult?

Because most of us are taught something in Christian churches that literally violates the Scriptures. The Bible enjoins the keeping of the ten commandments. This is so prevalent that I literally have a very hard time telling you that you need to keep the commandments.

Let me be clear on this - this in no way affects your salvation. You were saved without the law, indeed despite the law. You do not maintain your salvation. The law has nothing to do with your salvation.

However, the ten commandments are understood to be important.

In what way?

You were saved, elected by God. We all understand that. All that the Father gives to Christ He drew. To do so, He quickened, or “raised from the dead”. You are now to walk in the newness of life.

The law has three uses - to convict you. To bring you to Christ. And to serve as a lantern, to light the path you should walk.

Let’s get this part out right away. What happens if you don’t keep the ten commandments?

You don’t get rewards for it.

Here’s the funny part - this is the most unnecessary sermon of all time. if you are saved, you instinctively want to keep the ten commandments. Let’s look at them.

We understand that the adoption of any idols, anything that shares the affection and allegiance you’re supposed to show to Christ, is idolatry. That it’s sin. right? Anyone here feel comfortable with adopting any other gods?

We understand that the making of a graven image for worship is wrong. Nobody needs to tell us that.

Is there anyone who feels comfortable taking the Lord’s name in vain? Hint, that should be a ‘no’. If you’re doing it, you need to stop. Does anyone have a problem with that?

We dealt with the Sabbath day as the Lord’s day.

Honor your father and mother. Anyone feel the need to disrespect your father and mother? Be rude to? disobey? We understand already this is a bad thing.

We don’t have to be told not to steal.

we don’t have to be told not to kill.

we don’t have to be told not to bear false witness. We all know that’s wrong.

We all know it’s wrong to commit adultery. I don’t have to tell you this is forbidden.

We all know we should not covet. Even if it is a Dave Smith Prophet synthesizer or an Oberheim OBX synthesizer. I repent of that every day, but it would be so nice to have one...

That’s the ten commandments. These are all that is truly enjoined upon Christians. If you’re saved, you’ll want to avoid the prohibited ones automatically. We just proved that.

And this is the fulfillment of the passage in John 14. You’ll want to keep the commandments of Christ. The Holy Spirit will call these things to your mind automatically. The penalty for not keeping the law is removed. There’s no penalty. If you’re saved, you’ll automatically keep these things. Why? It’s a lamp unto your feet, a light unto thy path.

That is the purpose of the law for the christian. With the penatly removed, you can join King David in reciting Psalm 119… Oh, how I love thy law!

Father, we thank you for saving us, for helping us to know you through your inerrant word. keep us this coming week in your will, help us to walk righteously before you, and blameless. In Jesus name we pray, amen.

Numbers 6:24–26 NASB95PARA

The Lord bless you, and keep you; The Lord make His face shine on you, And be gracious to you; The Lord lift up His countenance on you, And give you peace.’

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