Principles for Understanding the Law (1)

Introduction: The Need for Principles in Understanding the Decalogue

0:03 The following sermon was delivered on Sunday morning, March 3, 1996, at the Trinity Baptist Church of Montville, New Jersey. Now it is indeed good in God's providence to be back worshiping amongst you after an absence of one full Lord's Day, last Lord's Day, and half a Lord's Day, the one before that. And yet how grateful I am, as I'm sure many of you are, for the evident blessing of God upon the ministry of Pastor McDiarmid in conjunction with the Singles Weekend, and also of the brethren who ministered here this past Lord's Day. Now for those of you who attend upon this ministry regularly, you know that for a number of Lord's, I have been seeking to establish from the Scriptures what I would describe as a responsible and a balanced framework for a series of sermons expounding the Ten Commandments, those ten words spoken by the very mouth of God from Mount Sinai,

1:20 those ten words written by the very finger of God upon tablets of stone, those words which by the explicit command of God were subsequently placed in the immediate special presence of God in the Ark of the Covenant. And from numerous passages of the Word of God, we have established that man, as created by God, is under a solemn and inescapable obligation to render, obedience to God. And further, we have established that the will of God, which is to be the rule of man's obedience, is summarily comprehended or comprehensively summarized in the Ten Commandments. Then in the last two messages, I sought to set before you those goals, which are the first and the second, and the third, and the fourth, and the fifth, and the sixth, and the sixth, and the seventh, and the eighth, and the tenth, and the tenth, and the tenth, and the tenth, and the tenth, and the tenth, and the tenth, and the tenth. Which ought constantly to be kept before us as we work our way through the Ten Commandments. First of all, those goals with respect to those of you who are not the children of God.

2:42 For those of you who are unconverted. For those of you, young or old alike, who are yet under the wrath of God and in bondage to your sins. And our goals in the proclamation. The proclamation of the Ten Commandments are that by the Spirit attending the preaching of the law, you may be brought to understand and to feel your desperate need of Christ and His salvation.

3:14 And that you may then look away from yourself to the perfect obedience of Christ. The Christ who submitted Himself to the very law that you have. That fulfilling that law in its precepts and in its penalties, a perfect righteousness might be wrought on behalf of sinners. But then we have specific biblical goals in the preaching of that law for you who are the Lord's people.

3:47 And I stated them negatively and positively. Our preaching through the Ten Commandments negatively is not intended, in any way, to erode your joy and peace. The joy and peace that ought to accompany justifying faith. The Scripture says there is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus.

4:16 And we should not fear coming to these ten words of the living God, thinking that somehow a close examination of the Word of God, will bring us to the truth. The condemnation of the Ten Commandments will undermine the joy and peace of justifying faith. Nor is it my goal in any way to turn you from the expectancy and confidence that ought to accompany sanctifying faith. The Scriptures tell us that sin shall not have dominion over you.

4:51 The Scriptures affirm everywhere that the grace of God in Christ, and by the Holy Spirit, has broken the dominion of sin, and has endowed us with the gracious ability to walk in the ways of God, albeit not perfectly, yet really and truly. And so we have no desire whatsoever that our preaching of the Ten Commandments will rob you of the joy and peace, or the expectancy and confidence, of the life of faith. But positively stated, it is our goal that with reference to the Christian life, we may together, pursue an increasingly accurate education of our consciences, that we may further pursue an increasing measure of the spirit of genuine penitence, watchfulness, in conjunction with our own remaining sin, and that we may pursue greater measures of felt dependence upon Christ, both as the only ground of our acceptance before God, and also as the only source of power to live a life that is well-pleasing to God according to the directives of His law.

6:16 And then finally, with reference to our relationship to the Lord Jesus Christ Himself, it should be our goal that in the study of the Decalogue, we will see with renewed understanding and come to a deeper appreciation of the extent of the sinlessness of our Lord Jesus. For the more we understand of the demands of the law, and realize that our Lord Jesus before all of those demands was utterly without sin, the more we should appreciate the glory of His sinlessness, and the more we see of the breadth of the law, and all of the sins in us which it exposes, then the more we should appreciate His vicarious sin-bearing, His vicarious curse-bearing. For He bore our sins, and bore our sins in His own body to the tree. And the Scripture says, To whom little is forgiven, the same loves little. But to whom much is forgiven, the same loves much.

7:29 And I will be underscoring those goals along the way again and again, so that by the grace of God and the blessing of the Spirit, they will be realized in our study of the Ten Commandments. Now, this morning, we take up a very crucial issue with respect to any responsible handling of the Ten Commandments, and that issue is this. What biblical principle should regulate the manner in which the Ten Commandments are to be understood, preached, and applied, and therefore received into the consciences both of sinners and of saints? What rules, what principles should guide us with reference to our understanding of the Ten Commandments? What did God really intend when He said, You shall have no other gods before Me? What did God really intend we should understand when He said, You shall not kill, you shall not covet?

Historical Precedent for Establishing Interpretive Rules

8:41 Well, any who have handled the Ten Commandments in various ways, frameworks of reference, have recognized the importance of this question. In the larger Catechism of the Westminster Standards, Question 99 asks, What rules are to be observed for the right understanding of the Ten Commandments? And then, in the answer given, there follows a list of eight specific rules that are to be followed in order to connect the Ten Commandments to God, the Son of God, and the Holy Spirit. to come to a right understanding of the Ten Commandments, and under those eight rules there are nothing less than dozens of scriptures footnoted illustrating those eight rules which the Westminster divines judged as vital in coming to what they called a right understanding of the Ten Commandments. There was a man by the name of Bishop Ezekiel Hopkins, a preacher in England in the 1600s, a man who went to glory in the year 1690, and he preached a series of sermons on the Ten Commandments, and the substance of those sermons has become

10:04 in book form a classic work on the Ten Commandments. Well, in his introductory materials, laid out before his people, Ezekiel Hopkins wrote as follows, But before I come particularly to treat of the words of the Decalogue, I think it requisite to propound some general rules for the right understanding and expounding of the Commandments, which will be of great use to us for our right apprehending the full latitude and extent of those Commandments. The psalmist tells us the Commandments of God are exceeding broad, Psalm 119 and verse 96, and so indeed they are, in the comprehensiveness of their injunctions, extending their authority over all the actions of our lives. But they are also exceeding straight as to any toleration of the commandments of God. And so indeed they are, and so indeed they are, in the comprehensiveness of their injunctions, extending their authority over all the actions of our lives. But they are also exceeding straight as to any toleration

11:12 or indulgence given to the unruly lusts and appetites of men. Now that we may conceive somewhat the breadth and reach of the law, observe the following rules. Then you know how many rules he gives? He gives ten rules to his people, saying, These ten rules must be constantly kept in mind in the exposition, leading to a right understanding of the Commandments of God. Now, why have I taken the time to apprise you of what the Westminster divines felt were the necessary eight rules for a right understanding of the Decalogue? And the old bishop, his conviction that there were ten rules essential to a right understanding of the law of God. Well, my first and simple reason is that it is clear that there has always been a general rule that the general conviction among responsible preachers that simply to plunge into a study of the Ten Commandments without setting out the rules, the principles that will guide our study and

12:29 preaching of those commandments is irresponsible and reckless, especially when dealing with something that has as its very goal the invasion of the law of God. Now, what I don't mean to say is that the first rule of the Westminster divines, and if I were to go into that study in the last ten years, I would have that the issue of right understanding of the law, the intendedmelon, the practice, and the purpose of the law, which are central to the spiritual life of theyalogists, is one of the most important rules in the斑l sin of the West ми sts or the spiritual life of those who do righteousness. The first rule is a right understanding, the second rule in the Ten Commandments of God, and the third rule in the ten of Revelation, which is the very principle of the gospel, and the second rule in the Ten Commandments of God, is a necessary eight rules that must must be some establishment of certain principles or rules of interpreting, expounding, applying the Ten Commandments before we actually engage in such an exposition. And my second purpose in apprising you of the perspective of the Westminster Divines and of old Bishop Hopkins is to incline you to appreciate the fact that as I've weighed what the Westminster Divines have written, as I've weighed what the old Bishop has written and what many others have written, I have presently come to the conviction that in my own judgment

13:57 there are but four fundamental and basic and clearly established principles from the Word of God that must be stated and constantly operative in the world. In our study of the Ten Commandments. And what I propose to do is to set forth two of those rules this morning and, God willing, the final two next Lord's Day morning. What are then the rules that should guide us in our study of the Ten Commandments?

Principle 1: The Law Extends to Every Faculty of Our Humanity

14:31 Well, the first is this. The sins forbidden and the duties commanded in the Decalogue extend to every faculty of our humanity. The sins forbidden and the duties commanded in the Decalogue extend to every faculty of our humanity. As we take up of the commandments one by one in pursuit of those goals that were expounded two weeks ago, it is vital, to understand that not only do all of these commandments come to each of us individually and address us as individuals standing in the presence of God, but they address the totality of what we are in our created humanity. And if it is true of the Word of God in general, as is stated in Hebrews 4, 12, that it is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, joint and marrow, and is

15:53 a discerner of the thoughts and the intents of the heart, how much more is it true of God's holy law that it addresses us not merely in terms of what we are in our created we do with our hands, where we may go with our feet, what we may speak with our lips, but it touches the most deep inner springs of what we are, the mind, the affections, the motives, the thoughts. It goes as deep as the most hidden, deeply embedded springs of our being, as well as extends to the broadest streams of the patterns of our visible and external actions. Well, you say, Pastor, where can you establish that clearly from the Word of God? And my answer is, it is clearly established from our Lord Jesus Christ Himself. And I would ask you now to turn to the fifth chapter of the Gospel of Matthew, where we see this.

17:08 This rule for handling the Decalogue, clearly illustrated and established by our Lord Himself, that the sins forbidden and the duties commanded in the Decalogue extend to every faculty of our humanity. Matthew chapter 5, verses 21 and 22. You have heard that it was...

17:43 It was said to them of old time, you shall not kill, and whosoever shall kill shall be in danger of the judgment. A quotation from the Decalogue, Exodus chapter 20 and verse 13, and then a quotation from Deuteronomy 5 and verse 17. These two divine injunctions brought together, you shall not kill, and whosoever shall kill shall be in danger of the judgment. But I say unto you, that every one who is angry with his brother shall be in danger of the judgment, and whosoever shall say to his brother, Racha, shall be in danger of the council, and whosoever shall say, Thou fool, shall be in danger of the council. Of the hell of fire. Now in order to think our way through these words of our Lord Jesus, note with me what our Lord identifies as the common understanding of the sixth commandment. You have heard that it was said to them of old times.

19:02 He is saying to His hearers, you are all aware of the rabbinical traditional interpretation of the sixth commandment, you shall not kill. And the common understanding perpetrated by the rabbis, by the official teachers of that day, was that the sixth commandment primarily focused upon the activity of a hand that would actually wrap itself around a knife and plunge it into a man's heart, or to use contemporary instruments of murder, the finger that actually pointed the gun and pulled the trigger. And blew someone's brains out, or the hand that would drop the poison into the cup that would take the life of another, or the hands that would pick up a club and bash a man's head to pieces. And if you did not, with the hand, actually wantonly take the life of another human being in a way forbidden by God, then you could look at the sixth commandment, breathing, out of a large body, with your hands raised extraordinary, and say, I have not broken the sixth commandment. When the command says, you shall not kill, if my hand is not the instrument of murder,

20:27 the sixth commandment leaves me uncondemned. I stand righteous before the law, in terms of the sixth commandment, unless I have willfully, Yes, I have willfully, wantonly, actually taken the life of another human being. That was the common understanding of the sixth commandment. But now notice, secondly, the true meaning of the sixth commandment.

20:55 Verse 22. But I say unto you, with the emphasis upon his own unique person, position, and authority, but I, even I, say unto you, I who gave the law upon Sinai, I who know perfectly the intention of that law, I say unto you, that everyone who is angry with his brother shall be in danger of the judgment, and whosoever shall say to his brother, Racha, shall be in danger, of the counsel, and whosoever shall say, thou fool, shall be in danger of the hell of fire. Now as our Lord, with his own conscious, plenary authority, gives the true meaning of the sixth commandment, what is Jesus saying? He is saying that the sixth commandment goes beyond the meaning, mere murderous action of a man's hand.

22:16 You'll notice what our Lord focuses upon. He focuses upon a disposition of the heart. I say unto you that everyone who is angry with his brother, he deals with something that goes beyond the activity of the hand, that may never find expression in the activity of the hand. It may be known only to God and to the one in whose heart it is present.

22:49 Here is unrighteous anger, the very spirit of murder. And Jesus is saying that to have that disposition in the heart is to come into the framework of violating the sixth commandment. The violation of the commandment brings you under, under the judgment. I'm saying to you that anger brings you into the sphere of the judgment of the law because it is a violation of the injunction, you shall not murder.

23:28 And then he focuses in two examples upon the activity, not of the hand, but of the mouth. And whosoever shall say to his brother, raka, apparently a term, a term of contempt. If you wanted to demean someone and to speak down to them, to speak in a very derisive, demeaning way, you would use this term, raka. And whosoever shall say, thou fool.

24:02 And there is considerable debate as to precisely what this means, but obviously it is speaking of someone, not in an innocent, jesting way, but out of the spirit that is malevolent, that is of the very spirit of murder. And if you say to another, you fool, you shall be in danger of the hell of fire. So what is the true meaning of the sixth commandment? Our Lord clearly establishes that the sin of murder, forbidden in the sixth commandment, extends to every faculty of our humanity. Not just to the hand that would pick up the knife, or pull the trigger, or drop the poison pills in the glass, but it extends to the disposition that is allowed in the heart. And the words that are framed upon the lips, and the words that are framed upon the lips, And He says men will go to hell as violators of the sixth commandment who never wrapped their fingers around a knife and never pulled the trigger

25:24 and never dropped the poison pills and never picked up the club. And here our Lord Jesus clearly establishes with respect to the sixth commandment that indeed the sin forbidden extends to every faculty of our humanity so that when we consider the command, you shall not kill, we must go beyond a mere consideration of whether or not we have willfully, deliberately, and wantonly taken the life of another. We must ask whether in our hearts, there is anything of the disposition that given the proper circumstances and given its full expression would result in murder and whether there is in our lips and upon our lips that which is indicative of the very spirit of murder. For our Lord says the dire consequences of breaking the commandment as...

26:39 At any level, with any faculty of our humanity, unless that sin is righteously pardoned, it will land us in hell. It will bring us under divine judgment. Why? Because we have broken the commandment as God intended the commandment to regulate every faculty of our humanity.

Principle 1 Illustrated: The Seventh Commandment and Internal Lust

27:09 Now see the same principle. In the next paragraph, with regard to the seventh commandment,

27:16 Matthew 5, 27, we'll have occasion to come back to the latter part of the paragraph we began to consider as we look at another principle, but we're focusing now on this first rule that must guide us and we're asking the question, where do we get this rule? We get it from the Son of God Himself who is the divine interpreter of how the law is to be understood and how to be understood. And preached and applied and let in to the theater of every man's conscience, saved or unsaved. Verse 27, You have heard that it was said, You shall not commit adultery.

27:59 But I say unto you, that everyone that looks on a woman to lust after her has committed adultery already with her in me. His heart.

28:16 Now again, what was the common understanding of the seventh commandment? When Jesus said, You have heard that it was said, You shall not commit adultery. Again, He is referring in what we would call cryptic summary language that view of the seventh commandment which was current in the day of our Lord, perpetuated by the rabbis, perpetuated by the scribes and the Pharisees, and that, was basically this, that if your body is not joined to the body of another in an illicit sexual encounter, you have not broken the seventh commandment. The seventh commandment goes no further than bodily parts and bodily actions in the realm of the sexual activity of married people.

29:11 You have heard that it was said, You shall not commit. Adultery. And there was this truncated understanding of the true significance of the seventh commandment. So we move from the common understanding to the true meaning of the commandment.

29:29 Again, notice, our Lord brings forward His own unique unrivaled authority and says, But I, even I say unto you, that everyone that looks, He brings in the eye. He brings in bodily parts other than primary sexual organs that may be joined in illicit sexual unions. He says the seventh commandment goes beyond your primary sexual organs. Touches your eyeballs.

30:08 Touches your eyeballs. But I say unto you, that looks on a woman to lust after her. To desire her. Now He's moving into the internal motions of the soul where desire is framed and formed.

30:32 Whoso looks, the activity of the eye, with a view to lusting, to desiring, here are the motions of the soul. He says has committed adultery with her already. In His heart.

30:55 Now we have the heart mentioned.

30:59 The very deepest seat of what makes us what we are. Out of the heart, the scripture says, proceed. The issues of life. Jesus said, for from within, out of the heart, proceed.

31:13 And then He describes all manner of sins. Do you see what our Lord is doing? He is coming in a frontal attack upon this truth. A truncated, externalized view of the significance and meaning of these specific commands in the Decalogue.

31:33 He is saying here with reference to the seventh commandment as He did with respect to the sixth, that the sins forbidden in the seventh commandment extend to every faculty of our humanity. It is not enough to say my primary sexual organs have not been engaged in any illicit sexual contact and activity with a man or woman.

32:04 Jesus says this command touches your eyes. It touches affections and desires. It touches the very state and the condition.

32:20 Now do you see that clearly from the passage? That our Lord Jesus Christ Himself, not so, the kingdom of grace is established out of His love for the world, is in the kingdom of grace. He makes Himself the Lord in His own way. He is His own God.

32:41 Here He is in His own image. He is the Lord who is the Lord. He is the Lord of the world. Here He is in His own vision and He is the Lord.

32:50 How will He pick out what is not His own for Him? He is God and He is God. He is God who is in the kingdom and He is God. He is a God.

32:59 Of the new covenant, there is to be an understanding of the Decalogue that causes everyone who comes near those ten words to remember that the sins forbidden and the duties commanded in the Decalogue extend to every faculty of our humanity. And the dire consequences of breaking the command at any level, what will they be? Look at verse 29. And if thy right eye causes thee to stumble, pluck it out and cast it from you, for it is profitable for you that one of your members should perish, and not your whole body be cast into hell. You see what he is saying? If you are breaking the commandment only at the level of a look. But it's a way of life so that you could be called a looking adulterer, not a Christian who struggles with remaining sin involving the sin of wrongful looks over which the true believer mourns

34:16 and for which he seeks the forgiveness and the pardoning grace of his Savior and makes fresh application to the fountain open for sin and uncleanness. He's not speaking of that. But he's talking about the person who content that because his primary sexual organs do not engage in a violation of the seventh commandment, he need have no concern about the rest of his humanity. The rest of his God-given faculties of that humanity.

34:51 And Jesus says, If the eye is allowed to be an adulterer, the adulterous eye, unchecked and undealt with, the person in whom that eye is found will be cast into hell as a violator of the seventh commandment. And likewise he says the same with respect to the hand. If thy hand causes thee to stumble, cut it off cast it from thee. It's profitable for thee that one of your members should perish and not the whole body go into hell.

35:29 My significance is there are several options and it's not my intention to even open them up this morning. Suffice it to say that what Jesus is doing here is underscoring again the commandment touches all the faculties of our humanity. And if we do not make conscience of the authority of God in the commandment at every level of our humanity, and we are content simply to say, well, I'm not breaking the law of God at this level and at this level, and I need not care about every level of what I am as a creature made in the image of God, the result will be that you'll be cast into hell. Now I trust from these two examples of our Lord, your judgment is persuaded that when I state that one of the rules that will guide us in working in the kingdom of God, in working through the Ten Commandments, is this rule that the sins forbidden and the duties commanded in the Decalogue extend to every faculty of our humanity, that this is not some arbitrary principle picked up by evangelical or Puritan or Reformed tradition, but it's one that grows out of the very words of the Son of God, the infallible interpreter of the significance and meaning of the law of God.

Application of Principle 1: To Unconverted and Believers

36:56 Now I want to make application then of this first rule very briefly to you who are not Christians.

37:06 You see why one of the goals of this series of studies in the Ten Commandments is that you might come to understand and feel how much you need a Savior. You may sit here this morning and may have sat many mornings when Christ has been set before you as the sufficient. Willing, able, inviting Savior of sinners. You've been entreated and exhorted.

37:37 You have been warned and threatened and you have been wooed and every legitimate means has been used to get you to engage the Savior of sinners. And yet you have stood at a distance from Him. And could it be that one of the fundamental reasons is you really are not convinced? You are so bad a sinner as to need such a Savior.

38:07 And when you are urged to flee from the coming wrath, you are really not sure that the wrath is indeed coming. And could it be that behind that is this perspective that you have rocked along content that when you look at the Ten Commandments in the light of your training, your upbringing, the restraints placed upon you. By a Christian whole, the restraints of a context of ministry that keeps your conscience sensitive at certain points that you look through the Ten Commandments and you really feel that you come up smelling pretty good. Because like the Pharisees and like the rabbis of our Lord's day, you have failed to recognize that every sin forbidden and every duty commanded in the Decalogue extends beyond what the Holy Lamb said in the Talmud. Therefore, may you enter into the Holy Land in a sense of salvation. may you enter into the Holy Land in a sense of salvation. May you enter into the Holy Land in a sense of salvation.

39:01 to every faculty of your humanity, so that when the Scriptures tell us, you shall have no other gods before me, that is not simply a prohibition to bowing down to something made of wood and stone that men call a god, but it has to do with the state of your heart, much so that Paul can say in Colossians chapter 3 that covetousness is idolatry, that if in your heart, unknown to anyone but you and God, you have an inordinate affection, an attachment of desire to some person or thing that goes beyond the ardor of your attachment to God, or rivals that attach. You are an idolater, as much exposed to the wrath and judgment of God as if you were to get up from your seat where you sit this morning and put some jade object carved by man here on the communion table, bow down in front of it and begin to mutter prayers to it. Oh, may God help you, my unconverted boy, girl, man, or woman, whoever you may be, as we work our way through this.

40:25 Through these commandments to recognize this vital principle that every sin forbidden and every duty commanded in the Decalogue extends to every faculty of your humanity. That's why Paul could say in the day of judgment, he said, men will be judged according to their thoughts, he said. Their thoughts will be judged according to my gospel. My gospel that sets forth Christ as a vicarious sin bearer who dies under the curse of the law that we broke, that gospel declares that in the day of judgment, even men's thoughts will come under scrutiny. Why? Because God's law extends to the thoughts and to the intentions of the heart. Remember when God said, I've had it with the human.

41:26 I've had it with the human race and blotted out the entire race of men in the days of Noah. This was his great complaint. He saw that the imagination of the thoughts of the hearts of men was only evil continually. Now, it's interesting, isn't it, that when the situation is described externally, it is described in terms of violence filling the earth.

41:56 But when God speaks about that which distresses him the most, it was that the imaginations of the thoughts, the imaginations of the thoughts, you can't go any deeper than that. The first springs of that which rises out of the man, the imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.

42:24 May I say a word to you who are the Lord's people? Will you not pray that as we work our way through these commandments, that God, by his Holy Spirit, will take his holy law and bring it to bear upon the deepest hidden springs of our internal existence, as well as cause it to touch the broadest streams of the external visible patterns of our life? Anything short of that. Will not be a responsible dealing with the very intention of God's holy law.

43:03 For the sins forbidden and the duties commanded in the Decalogue extend to every faculty of our humanity, and therefore our prayer must be the prayer of the psalmist in Psalm 139. Search me, O God, and know. My heart, try me and know my thoughts. See if there be any wicked way, any way of pain in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.

43:43 This will be a proper education of our consciences. Yes, the law of God does touch the external acts, but it goes beyond the hand and the primary sexual organs, as we have seen in these two examples given by our Lord, and touches attitudes of the heart, dispositions of the affections, the look of the eye, and the words spoken by the mouth. But then consider this principle with reference to the perfect, sinless obedience of the Lord Jesus. Do you see what this means when the Scripture says he was holy? Harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners. Do you see what this means? This means that in the deepest recesses, if I may use the term without being irreverent, of every fiber of the holy soul of the Son of God, out to every word spoken, every glance as a child, as a teenager.

45:00 As a full-grown man, every gesture, every facet of his holy humanity, not once, not once, in one area, did he deflect one ten-thousandth of an inch from the perfect rectitude of God's holy law. That law under which he voluntarily placed himself. That he might. That he might in our condition obey where we disobey and effect a righteousness of his obedience that can be credited to us, that demands the sentence from the Almighty upon his throne, that we be justly admitted into his presence as those who in our surety and our substitute. Perfect. Perfectly obey the law of God. And I trust that there will be a new level of appreciation and love for the Lord Jesus as the sinless one, as we keep this principle in mind in studying the law of God.

Principle 2: Forbidden Sins Imply Commanded Duties (and vice versa)

46:21 But then the second principle that we must keep before us is this. The second rule in a right understanding of the law of God. Is this. When a sin is forbidden, the opposite duty is commanded.

46:36 And where a duty is commanded, the opposite sin is forbidden. When a sin is forbidden, the opposite duty is commanded. And where a duty is commanded, the opposite sin is forbidden. When a sin is forbidden, the opposite sin is forbidden.

46:40 And where a duty is commanded, the opposite sin is forbidden. And where a duty is commanded, the opposite sin is forbidden. And where a duty is commanded, the opposite sin is forbidden. And where a duty is commanded, the opposite sin is forbidden.

46:45 And where a duty is commanded, the opposite sin is forbidden. And where a duty is commanded, the opposite sin is forbidden. And where a duty is commanded, the opposite sin is forbidden. And where a duty is commanded, the opposite sin is forbidden.

46:49 And where a duty is commanded, the opposite sin is forbidden. is forbidden. When a sin is forbidden, the opposite duty is commanded, and where a duty is commanded, the opposite sin is forbidden. Now you ask, where in the Bible do you get that rule? And I answer, turn with me again to Matthew chapter 5, to see our Lord Jesus establishing that proper rule, principle, for understanding the Ten Commandments. We come back to Matthew chapter 5. What is the commandment that our Lord has taken up in verse 21? It is the commandment, thou shalt not kill. And once He established that that

Principle 2 Illustrated: The Sixth Commandment and Reconciliation

47:44 commandment extends to all of our human flesh. It can be violated not just with the hand that holds the knife, but the heart in which the anger burns, and the lips that speak the demeaning, derisive terms. Then He goes on to demonstrate this principle, that the sin of murder forbidden involves the opposite duty of maintaining a relationship of love. Love and amicableness amongst our fellow men. Look at the passage, verse 23. If therefore, He hasn't introduced another subject, He is still dealing with the significance and meaning of the sixth commandment. And He goes on with this connective, if therefore, you are offering your gift at the altar, and there remember that your brother has ought against you, leave there your gift before the altar, go your way, first be reconciled to your brother,

49:00 and then come and offer your gift. Here He deals with a situation where there is a fissure, a fracturing of the relationship between fellow worshipers. He calls them brothers. And He says that if in the midst of devotional exercises described here, in terms of temple worship, you are conscious that there is indeed a fissure, and that your brother has reason to have this fissure in the relationship your brother has ought against you, whether or not it's founded in reality or not. Again, that can be debated and expounding and applying the passage, but the principle is clear. Our Lord says the sixth commandment not only forbids murder, but it commands the establishment and the maintenance of a climate of love and goodwill between brethren. If you remember your brother has ought against you, leave your gift, be reconciled to your brother. Then He moves into another realm in the next verse. Agree with your adversary

50:12 quickly. Here is someone who's not a brother, but apparently a worldling who has made himself an adversary to you, and is even contemplating your brother's death. And He says, contemplating litigation in the courts. And the Lord says, agree with him quickly while you are with him in the way, lest perhaps the adversary deliver you to the judge, and the judge deliver you to the officer, and you shall be cast into prison. Verily I say unto you, you shall no means come out thence till you've paid the last farthing. What's the heart of the significance of the words of our Lord Jesus? He is saying that the sixth commandment that forbids murder, that forbids the sin of murder, a forbidding of the sin that goes beyond the mere activity of the hand, but touches the disposition of the heart and the words of the lips, is a prohibition that also commands that we do everything in our power to maintain at the human level amicable, loving, open-faced, non-adversarial relationship.

51:23 Do you see that in the passage? It troubled me for years, why the Lord went on without introducing another subject, but now I see why the Lord did that. He's saying this is how you're to understand the Decalogue. When it says you shall not kill, it is not only forbidding the sin of murder and all of the extent of what that means according to Jesus, but it is commanding the very opposite duty, which is the duty of maintaining love and a climate of love in interpersonal human relationships. This can be demonstrated as well with the two commandments. If you're familiar with the commandments, you know that eight of them are couched in the negative, you shall not, only two in the positive. So people who have trouble with the negative, you shall not, only two in the positive. So people who have

Principle 2 Illustrated: The Fourth and Fifth Commandments

52:24 trouble with the negative, you shall not, only two in the positive. So people who have troubles with negative preaching have trouble with the all-wise God who gave the Ten Commandments eight-tenths of it negative. The two positive injunctions are Commandments 4 and 5. Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy, and honor your father and your mother. Well, when God says, remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy, He is saying remember the Sabbath to regard it as something that is not holy. Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy, and honor your father and your mother. Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy, and honor your father and your mother. It is set apart and to be marked by a commitment on your part to recognize that I have sanctified this day from creation and that this day is marked out for purposes that I have designated in my own sovereign arrangement of man in relationship to his world.

53:26 Now, the command is positive. Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy. That is a duty commanded. But you see, implicit in that is a forbidding of any sin that would be the opposite of hallowing the day, regarding it as a different day, regarding it in a simply common way is to violate that commandment.

53:53 And this is why Isaiah could do what he did, and I ask you to turn to Isaiah 58.

54:00 In going after the consciences of the formalists of his day,

54:11 he says in verse 13, Isaiah 58 and verse 13, If you turn away your foot from the Sabbath, from doing your pleasure on my holy day, my sanctified day, my set-apart day, and call the Sabbath a delight, and the holy of the Lord honorable, and shall honor it, now notice, not doing your own ways, nor finding your own pleasure, nor speaking your own words. In other words, he says the command, remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy, prohibits thoughts, thoughts and words and actions that are reflective of simply regarding it as any other day. So that the duty commanded, remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy, includes a forbidding of the opposite sins. And therefore the prophet can go after the consciences of the formalists of his day with respect to their Sabbath breaking, in these very terms. And you find our Lord doing a similar thing

55:37 with regard to the fifth commandment in Matthew 15. You'll see what our Lord does when He is going after the hypocritical actions of the Pharisees, who under the guise of devoting their substance to God were neglecting indigent parents. They were accusing Jesus of breaking their traditions and He turns upon them and says in verse 3 of Matthew 15, Why do you transgress the commandment of God because of your tradition? Now notice verse 4.

56:12 For God said, Honor your father and your mother. Quoted directly from the Decalogue. Exodus 20, 12 or Deuteronomy 5 and verse 16 or verse 10.

56:29 That's God's command. But interestingly, in the book of the law, God had said in Exodus 21 and verse 17, He that speaks evil of father or mother, let him die the death. And the Lord Jesus brings in the negative aspects and implications of the fifth commandment and joins those negative implications to the positive command taken right out of the Decalogue. For God said, Honor your father and your mother and he that speaks evil of father or mother, let him die the death.

57:11 And then He goes on to demonstrate that in the way they treat their indigent parents with this sophistry of saying what they may need for their well-being has been devoted to God. It is Corban. And therefore I can say, God bless your mom and dad and be utterly indifferent to providing for their well-being. And therefore I can say, and in this way violate the fifth commandment.

57:36 In that very setting, our Lord brings into focus the flip side of the positive injunction. Honor your father and your mother. That's a positive duty. But it also includes that which God Himself explicitly said in the book of the law that opposite sin is forbidden.

57:56 He that speaks evil of father or mother, let him die. Let him die the death. And so this principle then, this rule that will guide us in our handling of the Ten Commandments, when a sin is forbidden, the opposite duty is commanded. And where a duty is commanded, the opposite sin is forbidden, is established here in the words of our Lord Jesus and in the words of the prophet Isaiah.

Application of Principle 2: To Unconverted and Believers

58:26 Now then, let me in conclusion this morning again seek to make a point of reference to the book of Isaiah. I seek to make that three-fold application that I made after considering the first rule or principle to you who are unconverted, you who are comfortable in your sins, because you look at the law in a very limited way and you say, well, I'm not worshipping false gods. Oh, but the question is, if the sin forbidden in the first commandment, you shall have no other gods before me, demands the opposite virtue, namely, that the one true and living God be your God and that you love Him with all your heart, mind, soul, and strength and that you serve Him and that you glorify Him and that you honor Him. Now where do you stand? Oh, you say, I'm not worshipping an idol of sticks and stones or jade or bronze. I do not have any other gods before the one true and living God.

59:32 Ah, but do you own the one true and living God as your God? You see? Maybe that's why you're comfortable. Because you've had this limited, truncated view of the law of God.

59:47 When the Scripture says that you shall not murder, God is concerned with something more than merely abstaining from the wanton destruction of the life of another human being. He is demanding of you, that you do all within your power by His grace to maintain loving, amicable relationships with all of your brothers, with all of your fellow human beings. You see, when we begin to take this principle seriously, then we with the psalmist will say your commandment, O God, is exceeding broad. And as it begins to search us out and expose the many areas in which our thoughts, and our desires, and our motives, and our ambitions, and our actions and reactions violate this holy law, hopefully by the grace of God there will be some of you who begin to see for the first time sin is not just a little three-letter word invented by preachers or writers of the Bible to scare us. It's the ugly, venomous, deadly, hellish reality that will damn you. Unless you can find a righteous pardon for every single one of your sins,

61:14 unless you can find a righteous pardon for every single one of your sins, from the deepest secret sins that have their origin in the springs of the deep recesses of the heart, to those sins that can be seen and observed by anyone who looks at the pattern of your life, by unconverted friends, it is a horrible thing to be an unforgiven, uncleansed sinner when the measure of your sinnerhood is God's holy law in all of its breadth, telling us that the demands of the Decalogue reach to every faculty of the soul and every sin forbidden demands the opposite duty, and every duty commanded forbids the opposite sin. My unconverted friend, you live on the edge of eternal destruction to live another day without the covering of the blood and righteousness of Christ. And for you, God's people, do you see how applicable this principle is to us?

62:35 When our Lord Jesus spoke out of heaven concerning His life, concerning His own dear Son, this is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased. It means that He saw in His Son that obedience to His law that incorporated this principle so that there was nothing in His Son that was not well pleasing to Him. Therefore, if He has made unto me righteousness, God sees me in that perfect righteousness wrought by the obedience of our Lord Jesus, culminating in His vicarious curse-bearing on our behalf, and we are accepted in the Beloved One. And surely then, out of gratitude to Him, we should desire that this principle of the law by which He lived and under which He functioned in the eye of His Father, would be the principle with which we live and seek by the grace of God when we hear the words, Thou shalt not, not only to respect the demands of the law in its negative injunction, but to ask ourselves what is the opposite virtue

64:01 inherent in that prohibition, and to seek in the strength of Christ and the power of the Spirit to work out, that principle of God's law for the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ. God willing, the Lord spares us to meet next week. We'll look at two other basic principles that will guide us in our handling of the Ten Commandments. But I trust that our consideration of these two this morning has carried your judgment that when we move into the commandments and begin to expound and apply them, believing that they touch every faculty of our humanity, that every sin prohibited, the opposite duty is commanded, every virtue commanded, the opposite sin is condemned, that our consciences will be open to every impress of that law that will not only lead us to see our duty to discover our sin, but to flee afresh to Christ and to see in Him the perfection of His obedience as we have never seen it before and trust in Him as we have never trusted before and look to Him for grace and strength to live a life well-pleasing to God

65:29 as we have never looked to Him before. Let us pray. Our Father, we acknowledge that coming close to the search, light of Your holy law, we are conscious that there is so much about us that is vile and unclean and that should You give to any one of us what we deserve, surely the hell of fire would be our portion. We pray that even today You will take Your holy law and by it bring to some hearts a felt knowledge of sin that they have never known before, that coming to that felt knowledge of their sins, they may flee to Christ and Christ alone for a just pardon, for a covering for all of their sins. We pray for us who are Your people. Help us, our Father, to welcome Your law into every single nook and cranny of our lives, that we may be able to see You and that we may earnestly and honestly plead with You. Search me, O God, and know my heart.

66:56 Try me and know my thoughts. See if there be any wicked way in me and lead me in the way everlasting. Seal then Your word to our hearts. And even in the contemplation of these things, prepare us for our gathering tonight and we shall remember afresh.

67:18 The bloodletting of our Lord Jesus by which Your wrath was appeased and turned away from all of our wicked breaches of Your holy law. O God, may we glory in Christ as never before as we understand more fully what He did and what He bore that we might be accepted before You. Dismiss us now with Your blessing resting upon us. We plead through Jesus Christ, our Lord.

67:52 Amen.