The Sabbath in the NT - The Moral Law #2

Introduction to the New Testament's Witness on the Moral Law

0:04 The following message was preached Sunday, September 13th, 1998, to Emanuel Reform Baptist Church of Sea-Tac, Washington. The speaker is Pastor Robert Martin. This message is the 11th in a series of 24 titled, The Christian Sabbath.

0:23 This morning we return to our series on the Christian Sabbath, and we began today to take up the witness of the New Testament on that subject. We came to try to understand what the New Covenant has to say about keeping one day in seven holy to the Lord.

0:45 As we began this morning, we are trying today to understand something of what the New Testament has to say generally about the moral law of God.

0:57 Now, certainly, what we're doing this morning and this evening is not exhaustive. There is much more. There are many other passages in the New Testament that we're going to talk about. There are many other things that could and perhaps should be known about the moral law.

1:13 And if indeed this was a series on the moral law, we would enter into a study of those passages. I'm trying today in something of summary fashion to give us some sense of what the New Testament has to say about the moral law, and in particular to ask the question that even as we have seen in working our way through the Old Testament, we have seen that the New Testament has to say that even as we have seen in working our way through the Old Testament, so now as we come into the New Testament, is there any indication in the Scriptures, is there any warrant to treat the fourth commandment any differently than the way that the Bible would lead us to treat the other nine commandments of the moral law, the other nine commandments of the ten commandments? Our question is, does the New Testament witness concerning the moral law leave us with the same impression that the fourth commandment is to be regarded even as the rest? Now we looked at several passages of Scripture this morning. We considered, first of all, our Lord's teaching in the Sermon on the Mount. Then we considered how He dealt with the rich young ruler, and how He brought the moral law to bear upon His conscience.

2:29 And then we considered a series of passages of Romans 3, 19 and 20, Romans 4, 15, and Romans 7, and 1 John 3, 4, passages that indicate that the standard for determining what sin is under the New Covenant is still the moral law. And especially the Romans 7, 7 passage, where Paul makes reference to the fact that it was the moral law, the tenth commandment specifically, that was used of God to Him to show Him that He was a sinner in need of a righteousness. A righteousness that He did not possess. Now as we close this morning, I ask you to consider several other passages. I listed three other passages for your consideration, passages that we would take up tonight along the same line of thought, on the same theme of what does the New Testament have to say generally about the moral law, again with the assumption that what is said generally about the moral law, what is said generally about the ten commandments, will apply. to the fourth commandment as well. Now the next passage that if we had had time this morning we would have considered is 1 Timothy chapter 1.

The Law's Proper Use: 1 Timothy 1:3-11

3:49 And I ask that you turn to that portion of God's Word first this evening, 1 Timothy chapter 1, I'll read verses 3 through 11. 1 Timothy 1, verses 3 through 11. Paul writing to his protege Timothy, giving him instruction, concerning the ministry that he was to carry out, says, beginning verse 3, As I exhorted you to tarry at Ephesus, when I was going into Macedonia, that you might charge certain men not to teach a different doctrine, neither to give heed to fables and endless genealogies, which minister questionings, rather than a dispensation of God which is in faith, so do I now. Now, but the end, but the charge, is love out of a pure heart, and a good conscience, and faith unfeigned, from which things, some having swerved, or having missed the mark, have turned aside into vain talking, that is, into empty talking,

5:06 desiring to be teachers of the law,

5:10 though they understand neither what they say, nor whereof they confidently affirm. But, but, we know that the law is good if a man use it lawfully. As knowing this, that law is not made, or the law is not made for a righteous man, but for the lawless and unruly, for the ungodly and sinners, for the unholy and profane, for smiters of fathers and smiters of mothers, for manslayers, for fornicators, for abusers of themselves, with men, for men-stealers, for liars, for false-wearers, and if there be any other thing contrary to the sound doctrine or the sound teaching, according to the gospel of the glory of the blessed God, which was committed to my trust. Now, that's quite a mouthful. It's all basically one or two sentences in Paul's letter to Timothy. But now, what do we learn from these verses?

6:19 Well, from these verses, it seems that we learn that Timothy was to stay at Ephesus in order to warn certain men not to stray from sound doctrine.

6:33 In fulfillment of Paul's prophecy, if you'll remember in Acts 20, as Paul is saying farewell to the Ephesian elders, he warned them about perverse men that would arise from within seeking to lead away disciples after themselves. Well, apparently, in fulfillment, of that prophecy, some indeed did present themselves at Ephesus as teachers of the law. Men who spoke with great confidence, but Paul says who were in fact ignorant of the law's proper use, ignorant of the law's true purpose. And apparently, following the custom of the Jewish rabbis of the day, these men allegorized the law. They used it to spin all kinds of, fables and all kinds of stories, fantastic fables which would have impressed the naive, those who indeed did not understand the law or understand its purposes. And the end result of sitting under that kind of ministry, the end result of receiving that kind of instruction from the law, would have been the same as what happened in Judaism. The Jews, when they began to lay hold on that kind of teaching, a trivializing of the law, a converting, of the law into fables, the converting of the genealogies

8:00 into all of these very intricate ways of bringing out principles that in fact were never there. The real end result of that, of taking the disciples away from a proper focus on the right use of the law, the end result was to lead to moral laxity. The people became less holy. All of the attention that focused on the law because it did not use the law properly, because it did not press the law in terms of its real principles, but wove these fantastic fables out of it that were very interesting stories, but really had nothing to do with what God required.

8:41 The end result of that was to lead the people, in fact, into looser and looser morals, into moral laxity. Now that seems to be the climate in which Paul is writing to Timothy. These men have come into the church, they're weaving these fables, they're acting, just like the rabbis did, and the end result is, it's leading the people away from a true and proper use of the law of God. But now Paul says, this is not according to the gospel.

9:11 The purpose of the gospel, the purpose of the law, which was subservient to gospel aims and ends, the purpose of the gospel and of the law was to bring men to repentance for their sins. Its purpose was to bring men to Christ that they might believe on Him. Its true purpose and use, as Paul says, was to bring men to love out of a pure heart and a good conscience and faith unfeigned. And one of the old writers commenting on this passage and the real gist of what Paul is saying to Timothy makes this observation.

9:53 He says, All doctrines and ordinances and forms are just so far beneficial to us, as they are useful in producing this effect in our hearts and lives. That is, the things that are preached to us, the things that are taught to us, how the scriptures are presented to us, are just so far useful to us as they have the effect of bringing us to the repentance of our sins, bringing us to Christ that we might believe on Him, bringing us to the state indeed where there is love out of a pure heart and a good conscience and faith unfeigned. Now, you see, the use which these teachers were making of God's law was not producing this effect in their hearers. Instead, their teaching was leaving men alone in their sins.

10:47 Now, in this context, Paul says that the law indeed is good and that it was made for those who need its check and restraints. Consider what he says, verses 9 and 10 again. He says, He says the law was not made for a righteous man, but for the lawless and unruly, for the ungodly and sinners, for the unholy and profane. That is, the law was designed to be a check and a restraint upon the sin of man.

11:25 That's one of its main uses. To be a barrier. To be a boundary. Saying, this far, but no further.

11:33 Do not do this. Thou shalt not do this. Alright, that's the purpose of the law. That's one of its purposes.

11:40 To be a check and a restraint. And in that sense, it wasn't made for the righteous man. It wasn't made for those who indeed are godly. It isn't made for those who are pure in their thought and pure in their action.

11:55 It's made for the unruly, as Paul says. It's made for the ungodly and sinners. It's made for the unholy, for the profane. It's made for those who need to be restrained.

12:04 But now, notice how Paul goes on. He doesn't just stop with these general descriptions for who the law was designed. For the lawless and unruly, ungodly and sinners, unholy and profane. But now notice he says, for smiters of fathers and smiters of mothers.

12:23 He says the law in essence was made for violators of the fifth commandment. For those who dishonor mother and father by striking them.

12:34 And then he goes on to say it's for manslayers. It's for those who are violators of the sixth commandment. For those who violate the commandment, thou shalt not kill. It's made, he says, for fornicators, for abusers of themselves with men.

12:52 For those who are violators of the seventh commandment. And then he goes on and says it's made for men-stealers. For those who are violators of the eighth commandment. For liars, for false swearers, those who are violators of the ninth commandment. And then he concludes, he sums up the whole by saying, and if there be any other thing contrary to sound teaching or sound doctrine. Now what is he saying? Well in the context it seems that he's saying if there be any other violation of the moral law that is like the things that I just described. That's for whom the law was made.

13:36 Now again, the focus of this text is the second table, the so-called second table of the moral law. It has reference more directly in the context to those transgressions of God's law that have to do with our relationship with one another. But shall we imagine that Paul would have us think that the first table of the law, those laws that have to do with our relationship to God himself, that that is excluded? Is that what he means when he says if there be any other thing contrary to sound doctrine, well would not worshipping another God be contrary to sound doctrine?

14:18 Would not the making of an image be contrary to sound doctrine? Would not the taking of God's name in vain be not according to the gospel contrary to sound doctrine? Well you see, not at all. That would be to misread Paul.

14:37 That would be to misunderstand him. The sins condemned under the first table of the law are still sins, the law still condemns them, and the fourth commandment is still there. It is contrary to sound doctrine. It is contrary, it is not according to the gospel to disobey the command, remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. The sins condemned under the first table are still sins, and the moral law in its full scope is still enforced to restrain the lawless and the unruly, the ungodly and sinners, the unholy and profane. The fourth commandment is still there to restrain those who had profaned God's day.

15:29 Do you feel the pressure of that text? That's what the law was for. This is not Paul, an old covenant Israelite. This is the Apostle Paul, a new covenant Christian speaking. Speaking to Timothy how he is to order the life of the church at Ephesus, what emphasis he is to make, what warnings he is to give to those who present themselves as teachers of the law. This is how they are to use the law. They are to recognize it in its true force and in its true meaning. But now there's a second text that we'll consider tonight, and that's found in Galatians 3. And please turn there.

Christ's Redemption and the Abiding Validity of the Law: Galatians 3:13

16:10 Galatians 3 and verse 13.

16:15 Now as I indicated this morning, in one sense this passage of perhaps more than any of the others that we've examined today, has had a tremendous impact on my own thinking this week. As I've read this passage, it seemed to me that a truth leapt out of the page at me. There's nothing new that I hadn't seen before, but it came with peculiar force to my own conscience. Especially on the issue of what is the role, does the moral law have any continuing validity under the new covenant? And look at what the Apostle Paul says, Galatians 3, Galatians 3 and verse 13. Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law, having become a curse for us. For it is written, Cursed is everyone that hangs on a tree. But now I'm very much concerned with the opening words of that verse. Christ

17:14 redeemed us from the curse of the law, having become a curse for us. Now here I want to make one simple observation. And please hear me carefully. Listen very carefully to what I'm saying. Apart from the abiding validity of the moral law of God, during the present epoch of the new covenant, Christ's death on the cross has no relevance whatsoever.

17:52 Does that statement shock you? Let me say it again. Paul has said Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law, having become a curse for us. Apart from the abiding, enduring, continuing validity of the moral law of God, in the present epoch of the new covenant, apart from that continuing validity of the moral law, Christ's death on the cross, His becoming a curse for us, has no relevance.

18:29 None whatsoever. If it is not any longer, sin, to violate the Ten Commandments, if it is no longer sin, transgression, iniquity, to violate the Ten Commandments, then from what law's curse does Christ redeem us by His death on the cross? Do you understand the train of thinking? If violating the Ten Commandments is no longer sin, then what law is Paul talking about? From what law is Paul talking about? From what law's curse does Christ redeem us?

19:21 Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law, having become a curse for us.

19:28 What law did Christ bear the curse of, if it was not the moral law of God? Do you feel the pressure of that passage? Do you not understand that if the moral law does not have abiding validity under the new covenant, then the death of Christ on the cross has no relevance?

19:49 If it is no longer sin to break the Ten Commandments, then why did Christ go to the cross to bear the curse of a law that has no relevance to us? What relevance could His death possibly have had?

20:04 Ah, Pastor, I see. I see. Christ redeems us from the curse due to our transgressions. But to our transgressions of what law?

20:17 Well, to God's moral law.

20:21 Apart from that law, apart from the fact that we are sinners who have violated that law, His death, has no relevance to us.

20:31 Well, we say, Christ redeems us from the curse due to our idolatry, to our violations of the first and second commandments. Christ redeems us from the curse due to our vain use of God's name,

20:49 our violations of the third commandment.

20:53 Christ redeems us from the curse that is due to our violations of the fifth commandment to our dishonoring mother and father. Yes, Pastor, I see that. He redeems us from all of those crimes that are violations of the sixth commandment, not merely literally murder with our hand, but that murder in our heart. He redeems us from our adulteries and our thefts and our lies and our coveties. I see it, Pastor, if those things are not still sins, then what are the sins from which He redeems us? Ah, but why do we stop there? Well said. He redeems us from all of those things.

21:38 But that only covers nine of the ten commandments of the moral law.

21:44 Does Christ not also redeem us from the curse due to our Sabbath breaking?

21:53 Is that not also why He went to the cross? To bear the curse due to our violations, our transgressions of the fourth commandment? Paul here speaks of the moral law generally. Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law, having become a curse for us.

22:14 He does not redefine the law in terms of only nine commandments.

22:26 Do you feel the pressure of this text?

Paul's Christian Experience with the Moral Law: Romans 7:14-25

22:32 Now turn with me, please, to Romans chapter 7.

22:38 Now in one sense, I'm a bit embarrassed to bring us back to Romans 7 tonight and to seeking to understand verses 14 through 25. I say I'm a bit embarrassed because we've been here recently. In the church membership series, we examined this passage as part of trying to understand what the responsibilities of church members are. And so much that I'm going to say to you tonight, if you were to lift a transcript of that message from the church membership series, much would be very common. And I don't apologize for that. I don't have anything better to say on this text than what I said before. But I do want us to see it in its relevance to the issue before us tonight. Look with me, please, at Romans 7.

23:27 Verses 14 through 25.

23:31 Paul says, We know that the law is spiritual, but I am carnal, sold under sin. For that which I do, I know not. For not what I would, that do I practice, but what I hate, that I do.

23:49 But if what I would not, that I do, I consent to the law that it is good.

23:56 So now it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwells in me. For I know that in me that is in my flesh dwells no good thing. For to will is present with me, but to do that which is good is not. For the good which I would, I do not, but the evil which I would not, that I practice. But if what I would not, that I do, it is no more I that do it, but sin which dwells in me. I find then the law that to me who would do good, evil is present. For I delight in the law of God after the inward man, but I see a different law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity under the law of sin which is in my members. Wretched man that I am! Who

24:46 shall deliver me out of the body of this death? I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord. So then, I of myself, with the mind, indeed serve the law of God, but with the flesh the law of sin.

25:06 Now you will know that in this passage, Paul as part of an autobiographical description of his own experience describes his relation as a Christian to the moral law of God.

25:23 In verses 7 through 12 in the segment of this chapter that just precedes, he's already described, has he not, the role that the moral law played in his coming under conviction of sin.

25:38 There he tells us that the tenth commandment, the moral law of God prohibiting coveting, that that commandment was instrumental in bringing him to a practical, experiential conviction that he was a sinner. The very text we looked at this morning, I had not known sin except through the law. For I had not known coveting except the law had said, thou shalt not covet. Now, understanding something of Paul's history, we would conclude that very likely covetousness was the last vice that Paul suspected in himself. But it was the first sin to be exposed when the moral law finally came to bear on his conscience, and he came to an awakened conviction of his sinfulness. He tells us that before the moral law came to his conscience, that he was in a state summed up in the language, sin was dead to him. And what he means by that is that he had no real conviction of his sinfulness. But when the moral law came with convicting power, showing him that he was, in fact, a covetous man, his self righteous, self satisfied

27:07 sense of being right with God died. As soon as the tenth commandment came home, showed him what was in his heart, all of his pretensions being blameless according to the law, all of that simply evaporated. It showed him a level of relationship to the law that he had never imagined. In a word, God's moral law, the tenth commandment, coming to bear on Paul's conscience, convicted him that he was a sinner, in fact, in need of a righteousness that he did not possess. And in this role, showing him his need of a saving righteousness, showing him that indeed he was a sinner, Paul concluded, verse 12, the law is holy, and the commandment holy, righteous, and good.

27:59 Now, coming to our text, verse 14, Paul says, for we know that the law is spiritual, but I am carnal, sold under sin.

28:13 Now, you will know, I'm sure, there's a change of tense at this point. He's no longer speaking using the past tense, he begins to use the present tense for the rest of the chapter. The scene changes. The scene changes from Paul's past experience to his present experience with the moral law.

28:35 As Shadd observes, he says, he looks into himself as he now is. That is, as a converted man, as a Christian, as a new covenant Israelite, he looks into himself as he now is, and finds in the mixed experience of holiness and sin, a striking contrast to the unmixed holiness of the law. The law, he says, is spiritual, but I am carnal, sold under sin. And the language that Paul uses in this text is so strong that some have argued that he really can't, in the end, be describing his experience as a Christian man. He can't, in the end, be describing his experience as a truly converted man. And yet, when he uses such phraseology, but if what I would not, that I do, when he uses such language, that which I hate, I do, when he uses that kind of language, his words do ring true. They ring true in the experience of those Christians who have come face to face with the fact and the vigor of their remaining sins.

29:53 That's what Paul is describing. He's depicting a warfare, a warfare between his renewed will, his new will, his new heart, his new mind. He's describing a warfare between who he is as a new creature in Christ, a warfare between that and his remaining sinful corruption.

30:16 There's a battle going on. The flesh, though it does not reign, yet remains.

30:23 He does not describe the experience of an unregenerate man. He does not describe the experience of a man who is in total bondage to reigning sin, to one who is in the flesh and under sin's dominion. He portrays instead the experience of a Christian on those occasions when remaining sin manifests itself in violations of God's moral law. This wasn't the totality of Paul's experience. He's describing how he thinks, how he feels when he sins, when Christians sin against the light of God's Word,

31:01 when Christians sin against the dictates of their conscience in those transgressions. We do, in fact, to pick up some of the imagery from the earlier chapter, chapter 6, we do, in fact, yield to our indwelling sin's efforts to reassert rule in us. We yield our members to sin.

31:19 And the feeling of carnality, the feeling of captivity that we experience in such cases is real. It's an intense feeling.

31:33 We feel ourselves to be unclean. We feel ourselves in a very real sense, having yielded our members to sin in that sin, in that transgression. We feel ourselves in some sense having been taken captive by that sin. That's real. That's real Christian experience.

31:50 But how different is the experience of the unregenerate who serves sin with abandonment? How different that of the Christian who, as John Murray says, reproaches himself for the sin he commits and bemoans his being carried away captive by it. How different that experience is. It says, this is Paul, the Christian writing.

32:15 It is not Paul the unconverted. Now, for our purpose today, we're not going to try to open up this text, not try to deal with Paul's description of the warfare itself, what he calls that war between the law of his mind and the law of sin which is in his members. We're not going to try to deal with the warfare between his renewed will and his remaining sinful corruption. Our purpose is solely to understand, brethren, what this text says concerning his attitude to God's moral law.

The Law is Spiritual (Romans 7:14)

32:48 That's our purpose tonight. As a new covenant Christian engaged in a battle with his remaining sin, committed to putting to death the deeds of his body, how did Paul, how does he express himself, how did Paul view the law of God, how did he view his ongoing relationship with the law of God as a Christian man? Now, that's our focus in looking at this text. Well, we've already seen that when Paul viewed the role that the law played in his conversion, his verdict was the law is holy and righteous and good. Well, in this portion of the chapter where he focuses on his relation to the law as a converted man, he says four things, four statements that are relevant to our concern tonight. Four things about how he related to how he perceived the moral law of God as a Christian man, not as an unconverted man. Verse 14 is the first statement. He says the law is spiritual. The law

34:04 is spiritual. Paul the Christian says the law, the same law he's describing back in verse 7 when he speaks of the moral law of God that revealed to him his covetous nature. He says that law is spiritual. And it is likely that term spiritual has a two-fold sense. First of all, the word spiritual indicates the divine origin and character of the moral law. For example, 1 Corinthians 2.13, the phrase spiritual words means words that are taught by the Holy Spirit. So here, calling the law spiritual, Paul is saying that the law is a revelation of the mind of the Spirit. It's a

34:50 revelation of the moral will of God. That's what the law is. That's its source. That's its character.

34:57 But the term spiritual also implies that the law is addressed to the inner man as well as to the outward actions. So that the law, the moral law of God commands internal as well as external obedience, holiness of heart, as well as holiness of deed. And that's of course how Jesus is describing the moral law in the Sermon on the Mount, isn't it? That's what He's doing when He comes to those commandments and says you have heard but I say. He takes every one of them internally and says there's a violation of this law that you've not imagined. There's a violation of the heart that perhaps never manifests itself in an outward deed, but it is nonetheless a breaking of that law. It addresses the Spirit. And that's how Paul, indeed, as we read Romans 7, that's how he experienced the tenth commandment in his own conversion, wasn't it?

35:53 He experienced it as a law which reached into his heart.

35:59 Until it reached into his heart he was blameless according to the law.

36:05 But he discovered that the law is spiritual. And taken together it seems to me that he is saying as he expresses what his view of the moral law is as he's expressing how does Paul the Christian think about the moral law. He is saying that the moral law is a revelation. It's a revelation.

36:25 It's a revelation of God's moral will given by the Spirit as a rule for our conduct in the inner as well as the outer man. The law, he says, is spiritual. That's how I look at it as a Christian. That's how I view it. That's how I think of it.

Consenting to the Law's Goodness Even in Sin (Romans 7:16)

36:39 I don't think of it as something that has no relevance to me. It is spiritual. But now secondly in verse 16 we find another statement that reveals his attitude towards God's law even when he disobeys God's law. It's one of the most curious statements that's found in all of the Scriptures.

36:58 He's describing how he thinks about God's law even when he's broken God's law. And again he speaks true to Christian experience. Verse 16, Romans 7. But if what I would not that I do, I consent to the law that it is good.

37:18 If what I would not, if that which I do not desire to do in the innermost recesses of who I am, if I do it nonetheless I consent to the law that it is good.

37:31 When it is true of him that when I would not that I do that is when he sins. That's what he's saying. When it's true of me he says when I sin.

37:43 When it's true that I sin against the prevailing commitment of my mind and heart to God's law. In my conscience Paul says I do not however repudiate God's law as the standard or norm or rule by which my actions are to be judged.

38:06 In the experience of conviction of sin which inevitably follows his doing what he ought not to do. He says I consent to the law that it is good.

38:20 And Charles Hodge trying to express in more in words more expressive to our way of thinking he says what he did he disapproved. But to disapprove and condemn what the law forbids is to assent to the excellence of the law. In other words to agree with the law to approve of the condemnation of the law against oneself is to approve of the law. When Paul comes under conviction for his sins there is a constant feeling of self disapprobation or self disapproval and a sense of the excellence of the law in the Christian's mind.

39:03 He is therefore never disposed when the Christian when the true Christian comes under conviction of sin. Hodge says he is never disposed to blame the extent or severity of the law. He admits the fault to be in himself.

39:20 When he comes under conviction of sin he doesn't say well the law is too strict. The law is too broad. The law is too narrow. No he says the problem is not the law the problem is me.

39:33 The problem is I have gone against the deepest commitments of my heart and mind. I have violated what I think to be good. and true and righteous and holy and spiritual.

39:45 The problem is not the law the problem is me. And Paul as he is describing his relationship to the law never comes to the point that he is ready to say well you know the problem is we have got a law we really don't have to live by because Christ has set it aside.

40:02 No the problem is not the law. Paul says the problem is me. The problem is my sinful heart. The problem is my remaining sin. The problem is that sin which yet dwells in me. The law is holy. The law is righteous. The law is good.

40:18 The law is spiritual. I consent to the law that it is good by the very fact that I am under the conviction of having broken it.

40:29 I take my stand with the law. The law is right. You are a sinner Paul. What you did was wrong. Now there is a man who has a right attitude towards God's law. There is a man for whom God's moral law is not irrelevant.

Delighting in the Law of God (Romans 7:22)

40:44 Alright now there is a third statement. Found in verse 22.

40:50 In verse 22 though Paul confesses I see a different law in my members. Warring against the law of my mind.

41:02 Though he confesses that that is reality. This warfare is a reality.

41:09 And though he confesses that nevertheless the prevailing disposition of his soul towards God's word is found in the words or God's law is found in the words I delight in the law after the inward man. Verse 22. For I delight in the law of God after the inward man. Notwithstanding all of the struggle. Notwithstanding all of the frustration that he experiences in his battle with remaining sin.

41:45 Now do you know what that's like? Do you know what it's like? The frustration.

41:52 The struggle. The struggle. The feeling that for every step forward you're taking two steps back. Paul experienced that.

42:01 He was frustrated with his remaining sin. In the warfare he did not emerge always victorious in every individual battle. He won the war by the grace of God but he came out with blood, his blood all over himself. He understood the frustration but notwithstanding all of the struggle all of the battle, all of the warring all of the frustration that he experienced in his warfare with his remaining sin, he tells us I delighted in the law of God. When I called to the law of God, I did not merely think of it in theoretical terms. Oh, it is holy. It is righteous. It is good.

42:42 It is spiritual. I consent that it is good. He does not have merely a mental relationship to the law of God.

42:51 No, he says I delight in the law of God. That's an expression of where his heart was at. And he did not do so in a surface external way.

43:05 He tells us he did so in the deepest recesses of his soul.

43:09 That law of God that he regarded as spiritual and good which he regarded as the rule by which he was to live as a Christian which he regarded as the standard by which his conscience was to judge him and to hold court over his actions. That law is not, he says, a rule that he accepts grudgingly. It is not a rule that he resents. It is instead the delight of his heart. Here he echoes something of the psalmist in Psalm 119. I love thy commandments above gold, yea, above fine gold. That is not a casual surface relationship to the law of God. I love your commandments, God, above the greatest treasures. Therefore

43:59 I esteem all thy precepts concerning all things to be right and I hate every false way. Your testimonies are wonderful, therefore does my soul keep them. The opening of your words gives light. It gives understanding to the simple.

44:13 I opened my mouth wide and panted. I longed for your commandments. Your law is my delight, the psalmist says. There is a man whose heart does not regard the moral law of God as irrelevant to who he is and how he lives under the new covenant of Jesus Christ.

Serving the Law of God with the Mind (Romans 7:25)

44:36 But now forth, consider what he says in verse 25. In this verse, Paul sums up his description of the warfare. He sums up his description of the warfare between the law of his mind and the law of sin which is in his members. He says, So then, I of myself with the mind indeed serve the law of God with the flesh, the law of sin. So then I of myself with the mind indeed serve the law of God with the flesh, the law of sin.

45:17 Now in this passage, in this entire last half of the chapter, Paul has acknowledged, he has fully acknowledged his remaining corruption. That there is sin still dwelling in him.

45:33 That he is still subject to temptation and still subject to failure in the face of temptation. Still subject to yielding his members as instruments to unrighteousness and to iniquity. He confesses it. He acknowledges it.

45:47 He makes no pretension to sinless perfection. He makes no pretension to being above the struggle or outside the struggle. No, he fully acknowledges this is my experience as a Christian. He fully acknowledges his remaining corruption. And he confesses that his flesh, his remaining sin serves the law of God. Or serves rather the law of sin. He confesses that. He acknowledges that. That's the bent of my remaining sin. That is the bent of my flesh. Given full reign, it would serve the law of sin. Left to itself unchallenged.

46:28 Left to itself unmortified. That's the direction it would go. It would yield itself completely again to the dominion of sin. He acknowledges that.

46:39 He acknowledges in essence that the root of every sin is still there in seed form in his heart and all it needs is the right fertilizing, the right amount of sun and water and sin will break forth.

46:55 He acknowledges that. And it's that which brings out that cry in verse 24, wretched man that I am, who shall deliver me from the body of this death.

47:07 That's how he feels about his sin.

47:11 But he also confesses with the mind, with the consent of who he most deeply and centrally is as a new creature in Christ.

47:23 He says, I serve the law of God. You say, Paul, you're a walking contradiction. Well, so be it. That's the Christian experience.

47:38 With my mind, he says, with the consent of who I am most deeply and centrally as a new creature in Christ, I serve the law of God.

47:51 Now it seems to me that this is the climax of all that Paul's been trying to say to us about his relation to the law of God. What we see in this statement is that the moral law is more to Paul than an object which he acknowledges is spiritual and good.

48:13 It is even more than an object in which his soul delights. It is much more than that.

48:20 His view of God's law in his mind and heart came to practical expression. He did not merely have an attitude toward God's law.

48:35 He did not merely regard it as spiritual. He did not consider the law as, oh, how wonderful the law is. He did not simply find delight in the inward man when he thought about the law. Oh, I delight in God's law. I treasure it above gold and silver and precious stones.

49:00 No, who he was towards God's law went beyond that.

49:05 What he felt about the law came to expression in how he lived and how he sought to order his life. All of the warfare. What was the purpose of it? The purpose of it was to bring the flesh under to mortify remaining sin so that he might walk with God, so that he might serve his Master.

49:35 That was the purpose of it. The purpose of the warfare was not merely to relieve Paul of his conscience so that he could sleep at night. No, the purpose was far beyond that. The purpose was so that he could honor his Master by doing his Master's will.

49:57 His view of God's law in his mind and heart came to practical expression in his seeking to serve God's law in his walk as a Christian.

50:10 That language, with my mind I serve the law of God, takes us into another realm altogether.

50:20 And indeed, if that had not been his attitude toward the law, if it had not been his attitude that in serving my Master I must do his will, and his will is found in the law,

50:36 if that attitude had not been present, if he had stopped with merely an opinion about the law of God, it's spiritual, it's holy, it's righteous, it's good.

50:48 And I think it's a wonderful thing. If he had stopped there, he wouldn't have been a Christian.

50:56 He would have had no reason to believe that he had ever been converted by the grace of God if it stopped there.

51:05 It had to engage the will. And there had to be effort to walk in service to his Master. Is that not the litmus test of receiving Christ as Lord?

51:23 It's not merely to say He is my Lord. Yes, He's a wonderful Lord. I delight in Him as Lord. It's to serve Him as Lord.

51:35 Which shows that we have received Him as Lord. Though Paul struggles greatly with and against his remaining sin, God, not his remaining sin, is his Master.

51:50 And the moral law is the revelation of his Master's will. And therefore he says he serves the law of God because it is the revealed will of his Master. That's why he serves the law. It's not because the law has some independent power over him or some independent influence with him.

52:14 Its authority is the authority of his Master. That's why he serves the law of God. Well, in a word, God's moral law which once came to bear on Paul's conscience, convincing him that he was a sinner in need of righteousness he did not possess, that same law continues as the rule of his life.

52:39 He serves his Lord by walking in the light of that law, by serving that law, all of it.

The Moral Law's Undiminished Authority for New Covenant Believers

52:49 There's no hint in anything that he says that he regards any commandment in that law differently from the rest. Who is this man?

53:04 Is this Paul the Old Covenant Israelite? Is this Paul the legalistic Pharisee? Or is this Paul the New Covenant Christian?

53:22 What he says about the moral law of God, what he says about the Ten Commandments, in fact, is very relevant to him as a Christian. It is still the standard by which his conscience judges his actions and his attitudes.

53:42 And were he to violate any of the commandments, including the fourth commandment, the holy, good, righteous, and spiritual law would convict him of his sin. His flesh may indeed desire to use the Sabbath in an unholy way.

54:09 Paul does not give us a complete transcript of how his heart related, how his remaining sin related to the law of God at every point. He tells us about coveting. He tells us how the law came upon his conscience at that point. But we need not think that Paul never had any other controversy with the law of God. He was a man of flesh and blood. He struggled with sin on a broad range just like we do.

54:36 And we must not think that he never had any struggle in his own mind and in his own heart and in his own practice over the fourth commandment.

54:46 His flesh, just like our flesh, would have desired to use God's day as our day. His day. His flesh was no different. His flesh would have desired to use the Sabbath in an unholy way. And indeed, in the warfare between the law in his members and the law in his mind, he may indeed have stumbled in that very area. We don't know. He doesn't give us a full transcript, a full autobiography of his Christian life.

55:20 One thing is clear from this statement that serving the law of God his master meant that he had to keep his commandment. But that had to be the prevailing disposition of his heart. That had to be the commitment, the prevailing commitment of his heart and mind and soul and will.

55:43 He delighted in the law of God. He served the law of God. And he warred against anything that would draw him away from that service. Now there's a sense in which we now have come to where we began this morning. In the text that we've examined today,

56:07 have we seen anything about God's law that would cause us to regard the fourth commandment differently from the other nine commandments of the moral law?

56:23 These, as I went through the concordance, I took down the concordance, looked up every reference to law, commandments, commandment, commands, etc. in all of the New Testament. These are the great mountain peak passages where Christ and his apostles address their attitudes, their view of the moral law under the New Testament. Have we seen anything in these mountain peak passages that would lead us even one inch in the direction of thinking that we ought to regard the fourth commandment any differently from the other nine commandments that serve as the real core of God's moral law? Does not the evidence so far favor, indeed, does not the evidence indeed strengthen the case in favor of the premise that it is yet God's will for his new covenant people, as with his people in every preceding age, that we should remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy? So far it seems to me we've seen nothing to turn us away from that assumption. We've seen much, I hope, to cause us to embrace the fourth commandment as our duty.

Anticipating Jesus' Teaching on the Sabbath and a Call to Obedience

57:51 Now next Lord's Day morning, God willing, we're going to come to what our Lord Jesus Christ had to say and what he himself did with reference to the fourth commandment specifically.

58:07 Those incidents where he spoke to this subject,

58:12 those incidents where by his own example he challenged the misconceptions of the fourth commandment that were prevalent in the culture in which he lived.

58:27 Now I invite you to begin to look through the Gospels and ask yourself the question, what did Jesus say? And what did Jesus do?

58:39 And to ask yourself very specifically the question,

58:45 does Jesus as the Lord of the Sabbath, for that is how he identifies himself,

58:53 does he ever use his authority as Lord of the Sabbath to cancel the Sabbath, to cancel the fourth commandment? I challenge you to think of that question this week.

59:13 I think what you will discover is that though he used his authority as Lord of the Sabbath to correct the distortions and misapprehensions and misuse of the fourth commandment by the scribes and the Pharisees, he never used his authority as Lord of the Sabbath to set the Sabbath aside.

59:37 You won't find it. Not in anything he says. Not in anything he does.

59:47 Brethren, shall we not keep God's day holy?

59:51 As I said this morning, I'm not interested I could care less about the premise, about the idea that we're simply here to instruct your minds. The way to your heart, the way to your will is through your mind. Brethren, I am not satisfied, I'm not interested to stop with your mind. I'm after your heart and I'm after your will. It is my purpose to so speak, to marshal every argument I can bring to bear legitimately from the Word of God that as God's people to every one of us, we would remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy. In the end of the day brethren, my concern is that we not sin.

60:45 Is that not a legitimate concern?

60:49 I think I know most of you people very well and I don't believe that there's one of you here who with the light of God's Word before you would say, I see it, but I don't care. I would rather have my sin. I would rather have my way rather than do what God says.

61:15 I sincerely believe there's not a one of you that would take that attitude.

61:20 But I am not the Lord of your conscience. God is the Lord of your conscience and the instrument that He has to come to your conscience is the Word of God.

61:31 That is why on an issue where the devil has constructed more trap doors and more secret passages and more ways of escape than on any other issue that I am presently aware of, more ways for people to slip out from under the plain implication of the Word of God, that's why I've been determined from the very first message now 11 messages ago to leave no passage in this Word unturned that had relevance to the issue. I don't want to leave myself. I do not want to leave you with any door unguarded that the devil could tempt you and say, well, yes, but you really in the end of the day don't have to worry about the Fourth Commandment.

62:21 Well, brethren, pray. Pray. When we come to the words of Jesus, we come to the words of the great prophet.

62:29 We come to the words of our Lord and Master. We come to what He said and what He did about the Sabbath.

62:39 And I ask that you pray that indeed when we gather in this auditorium next Lord's Day morning that our hearts would be ready to hear the voice of our Master.

62:51 Well, let us pray. Our Father, we do again thank You for Your Word. We thank You, O Lord, for the marvelous revelation it is of Your mind.

63:04 And, Father, I do ask You that if in anything I have mishandled Your Word anywhere in this series, Lord, do show me.

63:12 Father, I will make it right.

63:15 Lord, if I have handled Your Word faithfully, if I have expressed Your Mind accurately,

63:23 Lord, if I have laid upon Your people no burden but that which You lay upon them, then, O Lord, I pray that by the Spirit You would seal these truths to our hearts and grant us grace, O Lord, grant us that delight in the law of God that would move us, delighting in You and delighting in Your law to serve You and to serve the law. Lord, we ask that You would work this in us for we would be a holy people, a people who are different from the crooked and perverse generation which surrounds us. Lord, look with mercy on us. Look with mercy upon Your church in these days so few are willing to take any stand. We ask, Lord, that You would look with grace upon us and bless us for Your own name's sake. Amen.