2004-12-24
Good Morning Faithful Ones,
This morning it is finally time to turn to a new segment in this series of messages on true faith. It is the true intent of God’s law. The ancient Jewish rabbis who commented on the original Ten Commandments ballooning them up to 613 laws (which only Christ Himself could keep in total) didn’t really understand this. That is how the practice of traditional Judaism became buried in a litany of rituals so complex that the God’s original intent for the Law was not understood by the average Jew. As for people nowadays, have you ever wondered why it is necessary for a witness testifying in a court case to swear he will tell the truth on a Bible? It is because, sadly, lying has become a way of life.
We can turn to MT 5: 17-20 to gain a clearer understanding of what Christ teaches us about the Law. In verses 17 & 18, our Lord makes is crystal clear that He has not come to do away with the teaching of the Law of Moses and the prophets. Not until the “end of things will the Law be done away with,” Christ states. MT 5: 19-20 gives us His and thus, the Father’s, perspective. “So then, whoever disobeys even the least important of the commandments and teaches others to do the same will be least in the Kingdom of heaven. On the other hand, whoever obeys the Law and teaches others to do the same, will be great in the Kingdom of heaven. I tell you, then, that you will be able to enter the Kingdom of heaven only if you are more faithful than the teachers of the Law and the Pharisees in doing what God requires.”
This goes right to the heart of the debate Christ had during the last week of His life with the Pharisees in the temple. They were more interested in form (ritual) than they were in the content of God’s will for those who believe in Him. They had lost contact with God’s intent for how the Law should be obeyed. They surely were not pleasing God, which we know from HE 11: 6 cannot be done without faith. Christ was letting those who were willing to listen that the Pharisees would not gain entrance into the Kingdom of heaven without recognizing the error of their ways and changing them. If we put this in today’s times, those who do not spend time in the word and have an active prayer life will miss understanding of the Law and the need to be faithful and obedient. These are the people who fool themselves into believing they can depend on themselves and that being deceived this way isn’t the work of the devil. We have to go back to PR 3: 5-6 to see God’s will. “Trust in the Lord with all your heart. Never rely on what you think you know. Remember the Lord in everything you do, and He will show you the right way.” Our Lord Jesus was aware of the pitfalls of relying on sources outside of the Father. That is why He makes this statement in MT 7: 15, “Beware of false prophets, which come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves.” In case we ever questioned whether or not Peter’s teaching was in line with Christ’s, look at what Peter warns in 1 PET 5: 8, “Be alert, be on watch! Your enemy, the devil, roams around like a roaring lion, looking for someone to devour”
Naturally, there is much more to say about the God’s true intent for the Law. However, it’s right at this point to raise a question that was raised in the temple by the Pharisees. LK 17: 20-21, “Some Pharisees asked Jesus when the Kingdom of God would come. His answer was, ‘The Kingdom of God does not come in such a way as to be seen. No one will say, ‘Look, here it is!’ or, ‘There it is!’; because the Kingdom of God is within you.” This concept was nothing new at the time Christ reiterated it. Long before, Jeremiah had written in LAM 3: 40, “Let us examine our ways and test them, and let us return to the Lord.” The Psalmist in PS 145: 13 wrote, “Your Kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and Your dominion endures throughout all generations.” Christ was only repeating what the Father told Him, as anyone who is faithfully obedient would do. God is unchangeable, as shown in JAS 1: 17, “Every good gift and every perfect present comes from heaven; it comes down from God, the Creator of the heavenly lights, Who does not change or cause darkness by turning.” The same notion is uttered in HE 13: 8, “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever.” The same can be said for the teaching of His word. Under the circumstances, mankind can’t blame Christ for saying the same things that were taught in the OT, but we need to wake up them in our own lives and our lives as members of congregations. To my way of thinking, there isn’t anything more important to us than the Kingdom of heaven. To know that it is in existence today in the hearts of the believers gives me great comfort. With our faithful obedience to the laws of God and our understanding of God’s intent for them, gotten from study of the Scriptures and prayer, we are gaining entrance into the eternal Kingdom, the one that all the forces of evil can’t destroy. With our freedom, which comes from knowing and acting out the truths God gives us [JN 8: 32], we are making the Kingdom of God alive. We are answering the call that God has given us to living lives of holiness [1 PET 1: 16]. God knows we are not perfect and He also knows the true intent of our hearts.
PRAYER: O Lord, throughout the Scriptures You have given us clear statements of Your will for our lives. We are still sinners, imperfect and wanting spiritually. We accept the truth that we can’t please You without faith [HE 11: 6], nor can we gain the Kingdom of heaven without understanding our spiritual poverty without You [MT 5: 3]. You gave us a very long and very special Psalm in PS 119, which is all about Your Law. I was privileged to study it in detail in my past and in overview in a recent Sunday school class. Our real happiness is in understanding and obeying Your laws, as they bring light into our lives that can’t be there without them. You want us to trust in You and to have confidence in Your Law. Your desire that we are devoted to it and that we see it’s value in our lives. You want us to know that obedience to Your Law delivers us from spiritual death and that Your Law is just. Your love for us is so evident in it that it should never be missed. Paul stated our purpose to please You in 2 COR 5: 8-9, “We are full of courage and would much prefer to leave our home in the body and be at home with the Lord. More than anything else, however, we want to please Him, whether in our home here or there.” Your purpose for us is given in EPH 1: 4-5, “Even before the world was made, God had already chosen us to be His through our union with Christ, so that we would be holy and without fault before Him. Because of His love, God had already decided that through Jesus Christ he would make us His sons-this was His pleasure and His purpose.” So, Dearest Abba, we come before You to acknowledge Your compassion, the unselfishness of Your sacrifice of Christ on the cross for our salvation, and Your patience with our often bumbling efforts to work through the challenges of our lives. Our intent is not to sin, but to obey Your Law faithfully. We aim to seek You out at every turn and to follow Your direction. We pledge to open our spirits wide to the influence and direction of Your Spirit. We offer You our eternal love, praise, and thanks. In Christ’s holy name, we pray. Amen.
Next week in the light of Paul’s statement of our purpose before God in 2 COR 5: 8-9 [given above], we will begin looking at various human sins upon which Christ taught in MT 5: 21-48. In each case, we will obey Jeremiah’s wise advice given in LAM 3: 40 above to “examine our ways and test them” and how to find a way to return to the Lord. We must remember that God never calls us to do something that He hasn’t first equipped us to do. Of course, there is no promise that finding the way to “return to the Lord” will be easy. However, it is something WE CAN DO. In my own experience, I can testify to the truth of this. That is because I have seen deeply addicted alcoholics and drug addicts, go through recovery programs and succeed in becoming productive citizens with God-led lives. I have seen former prison inmates come out and not become recidivists because they allowed God to direct their lives. EPH 1: 18-20 tells us that all believers have been given the same power to battle the adversary to victory (in Christ’s name) that God used to raise Christ from death to eternal life at the Father’s side. We should not forget this, and we should live lives bathed in the light that God sends us from heaven. My mother always said that the hardest things to achieve are the ones most worthwhile. She is right. People who have battled the devil’s influences in their lives and won become some of the most valiant soldiers Christ has in His army. We can take comfort that God is right there with us in the arena of battle, rooting us on the victory in Christ. Praise be to Him!
Grace Be With You Always,
Lynn