Presence of Moral Law in the New Testament (3)

The Danger of Self-Righteousness and the Law's True Purpose

0:03 The following sermon was delivered on Sunday morning, December 3rd, 1995, at the Trinity Baptist Church of Montville, New Jersey. The wisest mere man that ever lived upon the face of the earth,

0:24 the man named Solomon, has, by the guidance of the Holy Spirit, recorded in what we call the Book of Proverbs, a number of little aphorisms, pithy statements concerning the whole spectrum of life now and even matters pertaining to the life to come. And one of those proverbs reads as follows, There is a way which seems right to a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death. There is a way that seems right to man, but the end thereof are the ways of death. Indicating that because something seems right to us does not mean that it is right. And in nothing, in nothing is this more tragically true than with respect to the most important concern, concern in the world, namely, the concern embodied in the answer to the question,

1:45 what must I do to be prepared to die and go to heaven after I die? And the way which seems right to so many is the way of seeking to make themselves fit for heaven on the basis of what? what they can do to earn the favor of God. They think of God as kind of a celestial school teacher who has a performance chart stuck on his desk, and every time you do your assignment, you get a little gold star.

2:25 And if you've got enough gold stars, God will look and smile benignly and say, Good boy, good girl, good man, good woman, you've got enough performance stars, welcome into my presence. That's the way that seems so right to so many, but it is the way according to the Scriptures which leads to death. For according to the Scriptures, all such notions are nothing other than man, seeking to effect his own salvation by his own deeds that he might build a shrine to his own glory. Whereas the Scriptures tell us that it is by grace, unmerited favor that we are saved, not through getting gold stars, but through faith, and that not of ourselves. It is the gift, the gift of God, not of works, that no man should boast. Now why do I say these things at the outset of the message this morning?

3:48 Well, for the simple reason that we have begun a series of messages in preparation for a detailed exposition of the Ten Commandments. And I must remind you continually in the course of these studies that we dare not think that these commandments were ever given by God to constitute a ten-rung ladder by which we would climb into heaven. Or some kind of a gold star producing machine out of which we crank our little stars with their stick-em-on-it and can put them on our performance chart. But rather these ten words of God instead of being a ten-rung ladder by which we climb to heaven are a ten-sided mirror by which we see how utterly unfit we are for heaven. That seeing our unfitness we may be driven out of any thought of little gold stars based on our performance.

5:08 And run into Jesus Christ as our only hope of life and salvation. And even as the people of God standing within the exposing influence of that ten-sided mirror to recognize that our peace and our acceptance with God does not rest upon the extent to which we are conforming ourselves to the standard of God reflected in those ten words of God from Sinai. But as surely as that ten-sided mirror initially drove us to Christ it must continually keep us in Christ by an active faith as the only ground of our acceptance and our peace with God. Now in seeking...

Review of the Foundation: Man's Obligation and the Law's Summary

6:08 In seeking to lay a biblical foundation for our study in the Ten Commandments let me briefly remind you of what we've established in the first six messages. We've established first of all that man as created by God is under an inescapable obligation to render to God perfect obedience. And the ground of that obligation...

6:39 The ground of that obligation is the creator-creature relationship and that will not be cancelled in heaven nor in hell. For all eternity every soul in hell will still be under an inescapable obligation to render perfect obedience to God his creator. We consider that the standard of that obedience is always God's revealed will. Not man's ideas of what God may require.

7:13 And the ultimate proof of that inescapable obligation is the work of Jesus Christ on behalf of sinners and the coming day of judgment. And then the second major principle we've been seeking to establish is this. If as a creature of God I'm under an inescapable obligation to render obedience to God then the burning question is where has God deposited a revelation of his will for me as his creature? And so we've been seeking to establish this second fundamental premise that the obedience which God requires of man is comprehensively summarized not exhaustively detailed but comprehensively summarized. In the Ten Commandments. And the proof of that as we have seen is that all men indicate and reveal the influence of the Ten Commandments upon them by nature. Romans 1.32 and 2.14 and 15.

The Law's Presence in the New Testament (Previous Passages Reviewed)

8:28 And then secondly because of the unusual circumstances surrounding the giving of the Ten Commandments upon Mount Sinai and now it is this. This third category of evidence that we are working with together the obvious presence of the Ten Commandments in the New Testament as an unchanging and binding standard of righteousness. And last Lord's Day we looked at four basic passages from the New Testament from the words of our Lord Jesus Matthew 5.17-20 and then the illustration of what he established.

9:09 And then the illustration of what he established. And then the illustration of what he established. There in the next two paragraphs as he does what I hope you will remember in terms of the illustration of the Rembrandt picture strips away all of the veneer and the soot and the dust over two of the commandments in the Decalogue and cause them to stand out in all of their breath in all of their searching and heart revealing power indicating that the righteousness that will obtain in his kingdom is a righteousness to be measured by the standard of his own holy law. And then we looked at Romans 7.7-14 and verses 23 and 25 of that chapter where having said some rather negative things about the law necessary things in terms of how the law fits into the matter of our acceptance with God Paul takes up the question is therefore the law sin? And he answers may it never be and indicates that as a man who was arrested by the risen Christ by a direct revelation from heaven yet this side of the cross this side of the descent of the spirit

10:34 and in a context of being converted and converted and commissioned by a direct revelation from heaven the law uttered upon Mount Sinai had a function in God's dealings with Paul that was essential to his conversion. He said I had not known sin except the law said you shall not covet and until a man knows sin experientially in the level of his felt consciousness sin. He will never go to Christ for Christ said I came not to call the righteous those who have no felt consciousness of their sin but sinners to repentance and that very law which discovered to Paul his desperate need of a righteousness that he could never attain though he had more gold in his performance chart than any of his contemporaries it was that very law that undid him that after he became a Christian he said I now delight in that law with my inward parts I delight in that very law and then we looked at Romans 8 4 in which the very end for which Christ died for his people

11:59 and God condemned our sin in his flesh was that the righteous ordinances of the law might be fulfilled in us who walk not after the flesh but after the spirit and then Romans 13 8 to 10 where in the midst of practical directives to new testament Christians if I may use that terminology Paul does not scruple at all to bring forward the law of God as the standard of righteousness for the people of God now we proceed in that line of argument to consider hopefully this morning three more crucial texts which validate this assumption or this assertion that in the new testament we find the ten commandments as binding standard of righteousness turn please to Galatians chapter 5 verses 13 through 15 remember what our concern is we want to see if after the perfect obedience of Christ

Galatians 5:13-15: Freedom from Legalism, Not from the Law

13:25 in his own life his carrying that obedience to death upon the cross in which he bore the curse of the law for his people having been raised from the dead and gone back to the right hand of the father and sent the Holy Spirit as the dynamic and life of the new covenant kingdom and the new covenant kingdom and the new covenant kingdom and the new covenant community living apostles interpreting the significance of the work of Christ giving directions for the government and life and ministry of the churches of Christ for the church is built upon the foundation of apostles and prophets Jesus Christ himself the chief cornerstone is there any room in this new economy of things is there any necessity for those ten words of God don't call them the ten words of Moses and if you hear me doing it nail me I'm determined those words will not come out of my mouth because they're not biblical the law of Moses is a biblical term but not the ten words of Moses they are the ten words of God spoken by the mouth of God inscribed by the finger of God upon tables of stone and there are many who would say all of those blessings of that which is God which Christ accomplished in his perfect life

14:52 in his substitutionary death in his place at the right hand of the Father in the descent of the Spirit in the apostolic writings we do not need anything that comes echoing from Sinai and what I'm seeking to establish is that in the New Testament we do indeed see our Lord and the inspired men of the letters of the New Testament without any embarrassment saying that all of these privileges that have come in the fullness of time do not cancel the ten commandments as a binding authoritative changeless standard of righteousness now that's what I'm driving at one thing and I'm going text after text so that if any of you are ever shaken from your moorings into antinomianism my hands are clear you're unmoored unstable shifted because you either didn't listen or you've got at the heart of an antinomian and you didn't want to listen and you want to hear somebody tell you free from the law or happy condition I can sin as I please and there'll still be remission dear people great issues are at stake in what we're doing so we move now to this fifth pivotal passage in the New Testament Galatians chapter 5

16:19 now it's at this point that I wish I could turn the sermon into a classroom and suppose I were to ask you from your knowledge of the New Testament what is the great burden or the great concern of the Galatian letter I would hope that many of you if not all of you would say something along this line the great burden and concern of the Galatian letter is the concern to call these people back to the true gospel of the great gospel in the grace of God there were people who were infecting the Galatian churches with a doctrine we call it the Judaizers a doctrine that was neutralizing the purity of the gospel of Christ look at verse 6 of chapter 1 I marvel that you were so quickly removing from him that called you in the grace of Christ unto a different gospel which is not another gospel only there's be some who trouble you and would pervert the gospel of Christ so here is the burden of Paul as he writes he bypasses the normal words of commendation and the rest and he plunges right in to the heart of this concern

17:47 and he says I marvel I'm amazed that you're moving from the God who called you in his grace in the context of pure gospel preaching to something that purports to be another gospel and even a better gospel but which indeed is no gospel well what was it? well look at chapter 2 verses 15 and 16 here's a summary of the problem we being Jews by nature and not sinners of the Gentiles yet knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law but through faith in Jesus Christ even we believe even we believe on Christ Jesus that we might be justified by faith in Christ and not by the works of the law because by the works of the law shall no flesh be justified here is the burden of this epistle a gospel that said Christ alone received by faith alone is the heart and soul of the gospel sinners in their guilt sinners in their hell deservingness sinners in their filth and in their bondage the only gospel for sinners is Christ alone received faith alone

19:16 now along come the Judaizers and say no that's a defective gospel our gospel is Christ yes faith yes but where Paul has put a period full stop put a comma and a plus sign circumcision and submission to and commitment to the entire mosaic system that is the keeping of Levitical prohibitions the keeping of feast days etc. now listen carefully listen carefully the Judaizers were not saying you're saved by Christ alone by faith alone but trusting only in Christ in the posture of faith out of love to Christ you should seek to do the will of Christ and in seeking to do the will of Christ keep an eye on the ten commandments that's not what they were teaching whatever Paul says about not being saved by the not being under the problem was not that he received news that the Christians in Galatia were clinging to Christ alone by faith alone and having the faith that works by love were seeking to please God

20:43 and please Christ by doing the will of God and the will of Christ and had an eye to the ten commandments as a guide to the conscience that was not the problem look carefully at chapter 4 verses 8 to 10 how be it at that time not knowing God you were saved by Christ you were in bondage to them that by nature are no gods but now that you've come to know God or rather be known by God how do you turn back again to weak and beggarly rudiments or elements where unto you desire to be in bondage over again you are observing days and months and seasons and years I'm afraid of you lest by any means I have bestowed labor upon you in vain you see what he's saying you're going back to thinking that these types and shadows now that the substance has come that they can add something to Christ they've pointed to Christ you have Christ and all that they've pointed to is yours in Him and so in chapter 6 verses 12 and 13 he underscores this again as many as desire to make a fair show in the flesh they compel you to be circumcised only that they may not be circumcised only that they may not be circumcised only that they may not be circumcised only that they may not be persecuted for the cross of Christ

22:12 for not even they who receive circumcision do themselves keep the law but they desire to have you circumcised that they may glory in your flesh what were the Judaizers doing? they were saying that to be saved i.e. to have your sins forgiven to be accepted in the court of heaven to have a certain title for heaven to be right with God you needed Christ plus circumcision and you needed Christ and submission to the entire mosaic framework or you would not be saved now that that is a proper conclusion is validated by the apostles themselves if you turn back to Acts 15 I know this may be a little tedious but if you love your soul follow the argument I don't know how to make it any simpler there was a problem and what was the problem? look at verse 1 of Acts 15 certain men came down from Judea and taught the brethren saying except you be circumcised after the custom of Moses you cannot be saved alright? the issue is clear you see it from the word of God now you see the issue? this was the heart of the issue of the Judaizers to be saved Christ by faith is not enough

23:40 it must be Christ faith plus all commitment to circumcision and to the keeping of the entire mosaic system you've got to become a practicing Jew if you are to be a true Christian and what is Paul's concern? it is to show them that in the issue of salvation now follow this closely it's all or nothing it's either all of grace or it's all of grace or it's all of works and there's no middle ground you want a salvation by grace? then it's by grace alone and if it's by grace it is in Christ and received by faith alone you want a salvation by works? then it's circumcision the law of Moses and perfect obedience to every revealed tenet in that law and there's no mixing now where does he state that? look at chapter 5 and verse 2 behold I Paul say unto you that if you receive circumcision now you see the significance of this he's not saying if for just social custom or if for hygienic reasons if someone is circumcised Christ will profit them nothing in this context what's he saying? if you receive circumcision thinking that by so doing

25:09 you get a plus sign after Christ alone faith alone and you receive circumcision thinking that will complete your salvation what does he say? if you receive circumcision for that intention and with that end in view Christ will profit you nada and all that is from Christ by faith but I want to make sure in case his merit stars aren't enough I can put up a couple of my own by being circumcised and keep the law of Moses he said no it's all or nothing you either stake your soul or you try to add anything to that and Christ will profit you nothing you're out all on your own not one act of Christ obedience will ever be credited to you not one iota of his sufferings under the curse of the law will be credited to you you're out all nakedness before God base your own brownie points your own merit stars and you won't have any you have Christ to come and make up anything you lack in the matter of salvation

26:38 it's all or nothing you see that in the passage alright read on yea I testify to every man that receives circumcision that is with this intention he is a debtor to do the whole law you are severed from Christ you who would be justified by the law you who say alright my performance starting with circumcision and keeping the law of Moses submitting to the whole mosaic economy that will be my to heaven he said you are fallen away from grace you see what he's saying there's no mix and match here in the matter of salvation it's all of grace or if it's all of works and he's established that there is no way that any man can be justified by the works of the law why when we get inside that pencil and begin to look at ours what happens we experience what Paul did and by the law comes the knowledge of sin or in the language again of Paul's sin by the commandment becomes exceedingly sinful and when we rightly view the law of God then we see ourselves for what we are and then we're ready to throw ourselves wholly entirely

28:06 upon Christ alone and embrace him by faith alone now you say Pastor Martin why did you go through seventeen minutes of a kind of overview of the book of Galatians you said you wanted us to turn to Galatians 5 well I hope you'll see the rationale for it now notice how the fifth chapter begins a ringing call to stand fast in the liberty that Christ has procured for all who have trusted in him alone and are clinging to him by faith alone for freedom did Christ set us free stand fast therefore and be not entangled again in a yoke of bondage and that people say see you've been set free in Christ from the curse of the law from the galling sin provoking law from the sin provoking power of the law from the impotence of the law to change your heart to give you power to obey God everything pertaining to the law is a yoke of bondage you're set free in Christ you're free therefore as a Christian don't ever let the ten commandments get into your conscience

29:33 you have nothing to do with Sinai you've graduated far beyond anything God spoke on Sinai you love everything he has spoken in his Son and if you so much as look over your shoulder to those ten words you're putting yourself under a yoke of bondage is that what he means? no the yoke of bondage is the thing he goes on to deal with that we've already looked at in the next verses putting themselves through circumcision under the entire mosaic system and when he is done castigating them for being so foolish you were running well who hindered you that you should not obey the truth and he ends up in verse 12 with a verse which if I translated literally you'd be shocked he is irritated with a holy irritation and he says these knife wielders and then he tells them what he wishes they would do but now we come to verse 13 for you brethren were called for freedom for freedom hear the echoes of chapter 5 verse 1 stand fast in the freedom wherewith Christ has made us free and then he warns about any mixture of any works of any kind whatsoever in the matter of salvation

31:01 it's all or nothing all of Christ or all of your own works Christ will save you your works will damn you it's all or nothing but now you see he recognizes there's another danger there's not only the wretched horrible danger of the Judaizers that's legalism but there is the danger of antinomianism or license and turning the grace of God into an excuse for sin so having said you brethren were called for freedom notice the negative admonition in 13a only do not you use your freedom for an occasion to the flesh you are called for freedom you are liberated from all of the dietary laws you are liberated from all of those other things that were distinctive of the whole mosaic economy furthermore you are liberated from the laws power to condemn you you are liberated from the laws power to gall you into sin because that very law has been written upon your heart and you've been given a disposition that delights to obey I delight to do thy will oh my God yea thy law is within my heart

32:27 but he says be careful lest that freedom become an occasion the word he uses for occasion in its classical significance meant a base of operation we'd say a launching pad a base station when mountain climbers are going to climb a vast mountain peak they have a base station that's their fundamental point of operation he said only don't use your freedom as a launching pad a base station in order to indulge your flesh that is your remaining sin that's the negative exhortation he recognizes that very real danger then there is the positive exhortation but here's the opposite through love be servants one to another better rendered through love under the motivation and compelling power of love which is the fruit of the spirit one another as slaves doesn't mean put yourself in bondage to another human being but he uses the verb which means to serve as a slave serve as slaves one another in other words in the impulse and under the influence of that love which is the fruit of the spirit

33:55 rather than using your liberty from the condemning galling crippling conscience smiting influence of the law rather than using that liberty to indulge yourself now you're free to do something good for somebody else you've got a clear conscience you've got a liberated heart the whole world you've been set free from the tyranny of self-esteem as your God and self-interest and self-will and self-sabotage you've been set free but don't use your freedom as an occasion to the flesh but through love do bond service one to another now having given the negative exhortation or admonition and the positive exhortation what does he introduce as the crowning motivation look at it for that little connective for is used as a logical band between verse 13 and 14 what does he give us the crowning motivation for the whole is fulfilled in one word even in this you shall love your neighbor as yourself

35:23 oh wait a minute Paul in this epistle you've been saying again and again it can't be justified by the works of the law you who want to put yourself undelivered from Christ talk as though the law has binding authoritative words to say to us that's exactly right and it's obvious that when he says for the whole law is fulfilled in this one word you shall love your neighbor as yourself from the parallel passage in Romans 13 we studied last week we know what law he's talking about not the ceremonies of the mosaic system not the details of Levitical sacrifices and offerings not the dietary laws sanitary laws is fulfilled you shall love as yourself now you see if the law was not to bind the conscience of new covenant believers

Galatians 5:13-15: Conclusions on the Law's Authority and Christian Freedom

36:48 clinging all alone by faith alone why would Paul in an epistle where he is demolishing every last vestige of works righteousness and legalism why would he introduce this as the crowning motivation to obey his admonition and his exhortation you tell me did Paul temporarily backslide and become a Pharisee and feel that if somehow I detach myself totally from the decalogue I'll come to pieces psychologically and be fragmented and frazzled emotionally no as I trust we understand that the ten commandments as comprehensive summary of our moral duty are an binding standard of righteousness for the most privileged and advanced saints in the new covenant the observations that we make from this text are two the apostle unashamedly assumes the binding authority of the moral law is still enforced

38:12 upon the Galatian Christians why speak of the law fulfilled if its authority to regulate the conduct of believers is negated by the gospel if by the deeds of the law no flesh should be justified as Paul says in this very epistle if the work of Christ has fulfilled all types and shadows of the mosaic system and in the gathering of the new covenant dismantled the old theocracy the Jewish state the apostle makes it very plain that something that was delivered in that whole complex of the mosaic legislation the very words of God from Sinai are soup broth dispensational that is they ride above the varying epochs of redemptive history in which God is moving from the period of the patriarchs into the deliverance and constitution of the nation into the conquest of Canaan and ultimately into the dispersion the coming of Christ and then his work in the coming of the spirit and now the gospel goes out among the nations and God has no covenant nation there has been a dismantling of the theocracy

39:40 but what abides through all of that as we saw originally stamped on the heart and consciousness of Adam and Eve in innocence and the remnants of it still show their influence right down through to this present day is that the ten words of God are a comprehensive summary a binding comprehensive summary of man's duty to God and then the second thing that is clear from this passage is that the apostle affirms that conscientious concern to fulfill the law is in no way an attack or an infringement upon gospel freedom procured by Christ you hear me this passage clearly indicates that conscientious concern to fulfill the law the ten commandments is in no way an attack or an infringement upon the gospel freedom procured by Christ Paul did not become a different man from chapter 5 verse 1 by the time he got to chapter 5 and verse 14 for freedom did Christ set us free stand fast therefore and be not entangled

41:06 in a yoke of bondage don't use your freedom as a launching pad for the flesh but through love do bond service one to another for the whole law stands fulfilled in this one word would you be a law keeper who does not add anything to the perfection of the work of Christ for your salvation that adds nothing to the unique capacity and function of faith as that receptive grace that takes Christ and all that is in him would you have a relationship to the law that in no way infringes upon those sacred sanctuaries of the souls only refuge it is indeed not only possible but mandatory that the same mind and conscience and psyche that glories in the perfection of Christ's work and that that work becomes mine when the savior is embraced by faith alone that in that same soul and psyche and mind there can be an earnest scrupulous yearning to fulfill the law of God

42:32 without any thought that any part of any measure of my obedience adds one point of one performance star to the record that Christ is already perfected for me Paul assumes that that is the mindset of a true Christian and when anyone tells you that the yoke of bondage in chapter 5 in verse 1 is a scrupulous concern out of love to Christ in dependence upon the Holy Spirit to keep the law as it defines the revealed will you stand and look them in the face say it sweetly but say it firmly say my friend that may be your experience but it's not mine for I find I'm never more free than when I am most conscious that I am living in the way my creator made me to live and when I can acknowledge that any ability I have so to live is all of his grace and of the work of his spirit and is out of a motive of love and the constraint of his own grace and mercy to me in Jesus Christ don't tell me it's a yoke of bondage

44:02 that's like going out here and yanking some bird out of a tree in the church property and sitting him down saying now little birdie I've been watching you for the last week and I've been noticing that never once have you made your way to the nearest pond and jumped in and joined a fish for five or ten minutes you seem continually to be in the trees in the air on the rooftops isn't that miserable bondage you are bound to the air and to the tree tops and to the telephone wires isn't that miserable bondage that you can't go down with the fish in the local pond and if the bird could speak you know what he would say to you he'd take his little bird foot and scratch his little bird head and he'd say you crazy something wrong with you bondage to flap my wings and have them split the air bondage to be able to turn my flight feathers and come to a quick halt and perch up on the wires and watch you silly little people have to drive your cars in the parking lot and watch and wait for traffic lights when I can go any direction any time no matter what the light says

45:30 you call this bondage you get the point you see freedom is the ability to be and to do what I was made to be and to do and I was made to be and to do the will of God and my freedom is God's graciously imparted ability imperfectly but really and truly to seek to fulfill the law of my God all of you who find yourself irritated that you're here today mom and dad brought you husband or wife brought you irritated that you can't watch all the filth and garbage that your buddies can watch on MTV that you can't go pull playboy magazines out of your dad's dresser drawers like your buddies can and you're irritated at it you want to get rid of these restraints so I'd be free now what you're feeling my friend is the chains of your own sin who so commits sin is the bond slave of sin God didn't make you for your eyes to gawk at a playboy magazine God didn't make your ears to hear the vile words

46:52 and see the vicious vile brutal pornographic sights of MTV God never made you for that and if you think that's your liberty and you're determined to have it the price you'll pay is going into hell in bondage and live with your chains forever for freedom did Christ set you free don't be entangled with a yoke of bondage don't let anyone ever tell you that there's anything you ought to do or can do or should do that in any way will improve one ten thousandths of a gram your acceptance before God that goes beyond what Christ has done and that is yours by faith alone don't you let anyone budge you from Christ alone by faith alone but don't you let anyone tell you that that glorious confidence of acceptance in Christ means that you're so spiritual that you can just as it were feel the pulse of what pleases God no I remind you of the words of the old Puritan

48:19 law is love's eyes and without it love is blind if you love me Jesus said do what your heart tells you no no he didn't say that if you love me keep my commandments law is directive love is motivating if you love keep my commandments if I may use another analogy God's law is the tracks or are constitutes the tracks along which the train runs by nature there's no steam in the boiler there's no coal in the hopper it sits there dead cold steel on the rails no power to move what does grace do grace stokes the boiler grace fills the hopper grace impels to move the motion of pleasing God as my liberty but grace will lead me along the tracks of God's law as the only path that is well pleasing unto him so then turn with me to a second passage much more briefly

Ephesians 6:1-3: The Law's Authority in the Highest Gospel Context

49:47 I want to spend the majority of my time on this first one because the book of Galatians is so abused in seeking to take out of the consciences of God's people a fastidious concern for evangelical law keeping we turn now to the next book Ephesians chapter 6 verses 1 and through 3 children Paul remembered that there would be children in the church at Ephesus so he addressed them children obey your parents in the Lord for this is right honor your father and your mother which is the first commandment or which is a primary prominent commandment with respect to promise that it may be well with you and that you may live long on the earth now why do I bring forward this passage well again think for a minute what do you know about the book of Ephesians how does it begin some of you can remember the dark ages when I preached 50 messages on the first chapter of Ephesians that marvelous eulogy to the triune God verses 3 to 14 in which Paul breaks out and rhapsodizes as he theologizes blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ who has blessed us with every blessing

51:15 in the heavenlies in Christ Jesus and then he focuses upon his free sovereign electing love and the spotlight as it were focuses upon the Father's place in our glorious trinitarian salvation then it shifts to the Son in whom we have redemption through his blood the forgiveness of sins God's wisdom has abounded to us in Christ and the spotlight shifts to the Son and then in verses 13 and 14 it shifts to the Holy Spirit in whom we were sealed unto the day of redemption it's one of the most marvelous passages in all of scripture in which the whole of our salvation from eternity to eternity is attributed to the cooperative one-willed one-souled endeavor of Father, Son and Holy Ghost as dear Pastor Blaise has said so strikingly it takes the whole trinity to save one sinner and the whole trinity saves any sinner who's ever saved and then he goes on in a prayer to close the chapter that they would have their eyes open to understand what is theirs in Christ and what Christ and the Father have in them and then you know chapter 2 1 to 10 you have this exquisite description of how that salvation comes to sinners who are dead and God quickens them to life and unites them to Christ and raises them up to sit

52:44 in the heavenlies in Christ and the great conclusion of it all is for by grace have you been saved through faith and that not of yourselves it is the gift of God not of works that no man should boast then starting in chapter 2 and verse 13 he shows not how this salvation came to individual sinners but how it came to sinners in terms of their grouping as Gentiles and Jew and this salvation now has broken down the middle wall of partition that God himself raised and now in Christ God constitutes one new man one living temple and the marvel and the mystery of that breaks out and carries over into chapter 3 and Paul starts a prayer and then he goes off and enlarges a bit more and then he ends up with that magnificent prayer that they would know the unknowable that they would comprehend the incomprehensible that they might know the love of Christ that passes knowledge now why do I give that brief overview to underscore if ever the mind and soul of the apostle was throbbing with the highest gospel realities it was when he penned the book of Ephesians then he starts in chapter 4 as we heard this morning saying now I want you Ephesians to live a life that in some measure answers to the glory of your privilege I want you to walk worthily of the calling wherewith you were called and then he describes that life as it's lived out first of all

54:14 within the church as a body then in verse 17 he starts describing it as that life is lived out in the world amidst ungodly people and you're not to walk as the Gentiles walk and then he comes into chapter 5 with further exhortations that are in that general direction but all of those exhortations from 4.1 to 5.21 are made to the people of God as a whole made to God's people indiscriminately but starting in 5.22 he's going to single out three distinct groups in the domestic sphere wives and husbands children and their parents slaves and their masters and that's the order in which he approaches them and once he addresses the inferior he then addresses the superior when he addresses the one who is to submit he then addresses the one to whom they are to be submissive qualifying what they are to do and you will know from your knowledge of the book of Ephesians that some of the richest teaching on the work of Christ is found in the first set of directives beginning in verse 22 wives be in subjection to your own husbands as unto the Lord the husband is the head of the wife as Christ is the head of the church himself the savior of the body as the church is subject to Christ so let the wives be to their husbands

55:42 and everything husbands love your wives as Christ loved the church gave himself for the church and then he gets so carried away with this wonderful focus upon Christ love for the church his purpose to perfect it that he says though I'm talking about husbands and wives I'm also talking about Christ and his church and there's a wonderful sense of almost we might call holy distraction so once in a while when preachers lose their track because something glorious grips their heart don't fall asleep apostles did that when they were writing letters but now in that setting now this is the significance in that setting he's going to turn to the children and he wants to have a word for the children so what does he say to them children obey your parents in the Lord and whatever that term means it does mean that this call to obey has reference to all of the great realities that have been unveiled in the coming of the Lord Jesus in the salvation of Christ for his people whatever that means it means obey with your reference point being the Lord Jesus and what he's done and who he is and what his claims are and why are you to do this look at the passage for this is right it's right and it's right because God established the parent child relationship

57:12 and it's right because God made it that way you don't need any other reason than that why am I going to obey you mommy because it's right well why is it right because God made it that way why did God make it that way God has a place for people that ask sassy questions like that you better stop asking them Luther said that to someone who asked one of those questions he said sir God has a place called hell for people who ask questions like that God doesn't need to sit down across the table with you and answer all your silly questions nor mine children obey your parents in the Lord for this is right now look at verse 2 honor your father and your mother and however we render this and I don't want to get into technicalities but this is a difficult point of exegesis what Paul is probably saying which is a first rank commandment in conjunction with a promise not saying the first commandment with a promise because there is one earlier but whatever it is he says honor your father and your mother which is the first commandment or a first ranked commandment with respect to promise that it may be well with you and you may live long in the earth what did he do you see what Paul did

58:37 after taking us up into that almost angelic praise of trinitarian salvation in church chapter 1 blessing God the Father God the Son God the Holy Spirit for that great salvation after describing its application and power to dead sinners the amazing way that God now in Christ in the church has broken down the middle wall of partition making one new man in Christ to cause principalities and powers to gasp and lose their breath he says that now unto principalities and powers in the heavenlies may be made known through the church the manifold wisdom of God his soul is suffused with the most lofty glorious gospel realities imaginable and what does he do in the middle of that he says honor your father and your mother he gives a direct quotation of the sixth commandment as it's found in the Greek translation of Exodus chapter 20 and of Deuteronomy chapter 5 you mean Paul goes from the heavenlies in Christ election redemption sealing of the spirit quickened with Christ raised with Christ one new man in Christ would he go to the beggars of elements

60:05 of something that's a hangover from Sinai did he suddenly revert to becoming a Pharisee bound to the law did he get nervous that up till now he hasn't mentioned the law the questions answer themselves don't they in the mind of the apostle Paul there was not one thing in all the glorious realities opened up and expounded in the book of Ephesians that in his judgment negated the binding unchanging authority of the moral law and therefore he does not scruple to say in a letter addressed to Christian assemblies honor father and mother which is the paramount or is a first ranked commandment with respect to promise and then of all things he actually quotes the promise that is given to that commandment that it may be well known with you and you may live not long in the land

61:31 which the Lord thy God gives thee but he changed it to make it fit with the new covenant that you may live long upon the earth he recognized that in that commandment there was an element in the promise that was unique to the nation in the land and by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit he changes it now to apply to the people of God scattered throughout the earth and says as a general rule long life will come to those who obey the fifth commandment now what conclusions would these Ephesians have drawn number one by an inescapable law of association they would have considered that the ten commandments in their entirety possessed a binding authority over the people of God in the gospel age Paul without qualification singles out one commandment quotes it as a commandment and even the promise to the commandment and does not say parenthesis but I want you to know that's the only one that applies in this gospel age by an inescapable law of association every Ephesian sitting there listening

62:58 the morning this letter was first read would have had every reason to assume that this one commandment quoted directed to children was one of that tire unitary revelation of God's moral will for his people and they would not have been wrong to have made that association secondly they would have considered that a serious regard for the norms of the ten commandments in no way demean the glorious provisions of God's grace in the gospel they would have had every right to assume that a serious concern for the commandments in no way neutralized the most comprehensive the most sensitive appreciation for all of the provisions of grace in the gospel and thirdly they would have considered that a serious regard to regulate their lives by the ten commandments was not a path of bondage but one of blessedness for he said this is the first commandment first rate first with respect to promise so that every child's initial thoughts there at Ephesus who perhaps had come out and this was primarily a gentile church remember who had come out of paganism their thinking about the ten commandments

64:25 would not be bondage but blessedness not bondage blessedness blessedness and then it's interesting when you read on he then goes on to say fathers provoke not your children to wrath but nurture them in the chasing and admonition of the Lord and when he deals with servants and masters he mentions Christ and God and the Lord and the relationship to him he has not forgotten all of the pressure of these glorious gospel realities but in the mind and spirit of the apostle Paul the ten commandments as a changeless binding authoritative revelation of God's will for men was in no way in contradiction to anything provided in the gospel and so dear people when we embark upon our study of the ten commandments and you begin to feel the pinch of their searching pressure upon your conscience you may run around and try to find a book or a tape by an antinomian who tells you don't ever let the ten commandments get in your conscience I hope the exposition of these two passages I had hoped to get to the James 2 8 to 12 passage and even possibly the first Timothy 1 passage I deliberately bypassed hours of study

Concluding Exhortation: Flee to Christ and Embrace His Law

65:54 in first Corinthians 7 19 first Corinthians 9 I think it's verse 22 Romans 3 and verse 31 and I couldn't help but think of the writer of Hebrews who said time will fail me to tell of Barak and of Samson time will fail me to go to all the texts in the New Testament that underscore the ten commandments are indeed an unchangeable and a binding standard of righteousness until this present world order is done in at the coming of the Lord Jesus at the table tonight we will look at one other passage very appropriate to the communion service but I would say in closing and I do appreciate what I sense to be a careful attentive hearing by the vast majority of you this is not simple stuff to work through but I've labored to make it as clear as I know how and I've labored in preaching it to throw heart and soul and mind into it but I want to say to you all you who sit here Christ alone by faith alone is not a description of you you've not seen yourself in such a light that you've become convinced that unless you can be enveloped in the righteousness of Christ the righteousness wrought

67:23 upon the loom of his perfect obedience to the law here in our condition the righteousness woven upon the loom of his going to that place called Golgotha and there bearing the unleashed fury of the wrath of God against the sins of men you've not been convinced that what you are by nature and practice and thought and intention and deed and motive and desire is so vile and heinous that were you able in the next ten seconds to change your nature and give yourself the power to perfectly keep God's law from that point on till the day you breathe your last breath you still wouldn't be fit for heaven because who's going to take care of all the sins that were committed up till ten seconds ago who's going to blast them out God is a purer eyes than to look upon iniquity and will by no means clear the guilty those sins whose wages is death must be paid for you say I can't make myself perfect no you can't and that's why you need to get into Christ for in him there is a perfect righteousness woven upon the loom of his own

68:51 obedience his obedience unto death even the death of the cross and the only way you can get into Christ is by faith by laying hold of him as he presents himself in the gospel and says come to me I'll give you rest believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved of God he is made unto us wisdom and righteousness that according as it is written he that glories let him glory in the Lord oh my unsaved friends stop trying to get more silver stars on your achievement chart there aren't enough in the universe to impress God stop it cease it from your own works throw yourself upon an able and a willing and an inviting savior why would you turn away from a savior like that whose desire is to envelop you in a righteousness that when you stand before the God of the universe his eye will find no fault in you and may I say it reverently he'll be legally bound to take you into his presence in the righteousness of his son you will have earned heaven

70:21 in your representative and dear child of God with such a savior as that who among us wants a liberty a so called liberty that leaves us with an insensitive conscience and with vague notions of what pleases God doesn't having such a savior like that make you cry out with Paul Lord what will you have me to do and impart the Lord says you want to know what I'd have you to do then study my law thy word is a lamp unto my feet and a light to thy path to my path I esteem all of thy precepts concerning all things to be right I delight to do thy will oh my God yea thy law is within my heart and let no one dear child of God ever budge you from welcoming the law to the Lord that be you ye I am in the womb of God I am in the womb of God and I am in the womb of God and I am in the womb of God and I

71:50 am here strength no and may i say you don't even deal with the law in the light of sinai child of god that law comes to you in the pierced hand of your savior and all of your dealings with it are in the light of his gracious redemption may god grant that we will be convinced from the scriptures you see why i've laid the foundation some of your i know you've got a bit impatient why are you going to get the first commandment well give me a little credit all right i'm not a child i've been a christian for 40 close to 45 years and if these issues are not settled in our hearts somewhere along the way the study of the 10 commandments will do us harm and i don't want to harm you i want to do you good let us pray our father if the mere contemplation of your grace has set forth in your word that times over overwhelms us and we feel that our frail mortal mortal frames will break beneath the glory

73:09 what will it be to see face to face and to know as we are known oh god we thank you oh we praise you for your word thank you for your dear son thank you for your holy law and we pray that you will write upon our hearts the great issues that we've wrestled with this morning and for those who sit here who have not fled to christ alone to lay hold of him by faith alone oh god make him desirable and precious in their eyes that even sitting in this place their hearts may run out to him and lay hold of him and his salvation help us as your people that as we embark upon this study of the Ten Commandments, not a one will come under unwarranted legal bondage. Grant, O Lord, that our liberty will be enhanced as our knowledge of your will is increased. May our sensitivity to what pleases you be increased. Our awareness of what displeases you, for Lord, we don't want to displease

74:33 you. We do love you, and we do want to obey you. Teach us. Give us grace. Give us power.

74:41 Increase our motivation. Seal to our hearts your word, we pray, in Jesus' name. Amen.