Principles for Understanding the Law (2)

Introduction: The Weight of Preaching God's Word

0:03 The following sermon was delivered on Sunday morning, March 10, 1996, at the Trinity Baptist Church of Montville, New Jersey. Now may we again look to God in prayer, asking that he would grant both preacher and listener the aid of the Holy Spirit, the understanding that he alone can give us in the word of truth. Let us pray. Our Father, we do thank you that your ear is open to the cry of the righteous, and we know that in Christ alone we have a righteousness that answers to all the demands of your law, and that we who have by faith fled to him are declared accepted in the Beloved, that he has made unto us not only wisdom from you, but righteousness, sanctification, and redemption. And therefore, emboldened in the light of what we are in him, we plead that you would have mercy upon us as we now turn to your word,

1:23 that you would grant us the understanding, the illuminating ministry of the Holy Spirit. May we know your presence attending the word, that it may be said of the preaching of that word in this place, in this hour, that it came not in word only, but also in demonstration of the Spirit and of power. Hear us and answer our cry, we plead, in Jesus' name. Amen.

2:00 Now those of you familiar with what are commonly called the pastoral epistles will know that they are full of many directives to Timothy and to Titus, and among those many ministerial directives given by the Apostle Paul to his spiritual son, Timothy, few exert a more constant and sobering pressure on the conscience of every true servant of Christ than the directive of 2 Timothy 2.15. And I did not know that Pastor Steve would be mentioning that text at the end of his presentation. This morning, do your utmost or give diligence, Paul says to Timothy, to show yourself approved unto God, a workman who needs not to be ashamed, handling a right, but cutting a straight course in the word of truth. And every true servant of God yearns that he might be approved of God in his labors as a minister of the word. He desires to be a workman who has, no just cause to be ashamed ultimately before God who has appointed him to that work and task. And he knows that the only way he can maintain that posture

3:24 is by handling the word of God with integrity. And it is the pressure of this solemn charge originally given to Timothy, but now resting its weight upon all who are called to labor in the word and integrity. And it is the pressure of this solemn charge originally given to Timothy, which has caused me to seek to establish with you a solid biblical foundation and framework for an in-depth exposition of the Ten Commandments. If someone were to ask me, why have you spent 15 messages establishing a foundation and framework for preaching on the Ten Commandments, I answer very simply in the language of this text, I do not know. I do not want to be ashamed before God having been a careless workman in handling this portion of the word of truth. And in the course of seeking to establish that foundation and framework for our in-depth exposition of the Ten Commandments, we have come near the end of that foundation and framework labor by seeking to bring into sharp focus, by seeking to bring into sharp focus, by seeking to bring into sharp focus, an answer to the question, what biblical principles should regulate the manner

Review of First Two Principles for Understanding the Law

4:48 in which the Ten Commandments are to be understood, preached, applied, and received into our consciences? More briefly, in the question of the larger catechism, question 99, what rules are to be observed for a right understanding of the Ten Commandments? And then the larger catechism sets forth eight rules that are to be observed to attain a right understanding of the Ten Commandments. And I apprise you of the differing perspectives that have been expressed by Bible-believing, Christ-loving servants of God who have addressed this subject. And then last week, we began to consider what I regard as four fundamental, Fundamental principles or rules that must be understood and be constantly operative if we are to attain to a right understanding of the Ten Commandments. And we considered the first two last Lord's Day. The first was this, the sins forbidden and the duties commanded extend to every faculty of our humanity.

6:12 The commandments do not merely touch what we do with our hands or where we go with our feet, but they touch and extend to every faculty of our humanity. And we examined two portions from the Sermon on the Mount. The Mount in which the Lord Jesus himself, dealing with the commandment, you shall not kill, in Matthew 5, 21 and 22, and with the command, you shall not commit adultery, Matthew 5, 27 and 28, clearly demonstrates that these commandments extend to every faculty of our humanity. The Pharisees who had externalized and truncated the significance of the Ten Commandments. The significance of the commandments had taught in such a way that unless a man's hand wrapped itself around a murder weapon and plunged it into the heart of another, they regarded such a person as having kept the command, you shall do no murder. But Jesus indicates that that commandment touches the disposition of the heart and also the words that find their way into our lips. And likewise with the commandment, you shall not commit adultery.

7:34 The Pharisees and the rabbinical traditions had taught unless your body was joined in an illicit sexual union with another, you had kept the commandment. Jesus said no. The commandment extends to the look of the eyes and to the desires and thoughts of the mind, the fantasies of the soul. Whoso looks to lust has...

7:59 committed adultery. And so we established from the Word of God, not the opinions of theologians, not the stuff of catechisms, but from the Word of God, that God intended that when we confront the Ten Commandments, we confront them as a divine standard of righteousness extending to every faculty of our humanity. Right now, that wandering mind is a violation of the First Commandment. Deal with it.

8:41 You see? Your body's here, but where's your mind? Roaming over the wastelands, wherever it goes.

8:52 You see, the commandment touches every faculty of our humanity. And then secondly, we saw that where a sin is forbidden, the opposite duty...

9:04 is commanded. And where a duty is commanded, the opposite sin is forbidden. And where in the Bible do we find that principle established? Well, again, we went to the Sermon on the Mount and we saw in Matthew 5, 21 through 26, that the command, you shall not murder, not only forbids murder in the external deed and in the internal disposition, but the very opposite disposition and action.

9:34 A disposition of love, of goodwill, of amicable relationships with our fellow man. And Jesus said, if you bring your gift to the altar, and there, there is a breach between you and another, you are to seek reconciliation. And likewise, with respect to the command having to do with the Sabbath, we are to keep it holy. The prophet Isaiah indicates that doing and speaking, and thinking thoughts that do not regard the day as set apart unto God, are a violation of that commandment, Isaiah 58, 13.

10:14 And then we looked likewise at Matthew 15, 1 to 4. So that when, under God's blessing and in His providence, we work through the Ten Commandments, and come to something forbidden, and say that that commandment also demands the opposite...

Third Principle: All Sins and Duties in a Category are Included

10:33 virtue that we have biblical warrant for handling the Ten Commandments that way. And where a duty is commanded, the opposite sin is forbidden. Now this morning we will focus our attention on the third of these four rules or principles that must guide us in our understanding and application of the Ten Commandments to our consciences, and it is this. When a sin is forbidden or a duty commanded, all sins and duties in that category are included. When a sin is forbidden or a duty commanded, all sins and duties in that category are included. You see, we must always remember that the Ten Commandments command us to do the Ten Commandments to contain a summary of our duty to God and to man. They were intended to be a comprehensive, pocket-sized guide with respect to God's changeless standards of right and wrong. And therefore, in His wisdom, God has given us a brief summation of our moral duty, specifically identifying categories of sin and duty.

11:59 By designating one specific element of that category of sin or that category of duty. However, as these commandments are expounded, I will be insisting that each specific issue addressed contains within it all of the sins and all of the duties within the category of that particular sin or duty that is spoken. For example, when we come, God willing, to the fifth commandment, Honor thy father and thy mother, we will seek to demonstrate that that commandment applies to every divinely instituted relationship where there is authority vested in a person or in an institution, and we as creatures are obligated to respect that authority. In other words, the fifth commandment, dealing specifically with the divinely deposited authority in parents and the responsibility of children in the face of that authority and that relationship, is but a specific application of a broader category of concern and duty.

Biblical Warrant from 1 Timothy 1:8-11

13:24 Well, the question is, on what biblical grounds will I be warranted to do? On what biblical grounds should you allow your conscience to be invaded and held captive to dealing with the Ten Commandments in that way? Well, you have a right to ask the question, and I have an obligation to answer it by persuading your judgment from the Scriptures that this is precisely how the law of God is handled in the Bible itself. And so I want to direct your attention this morning to two basic passages in which, to my judgment, the matter is made abundantly clear and forever settled. Turn, please, to 1 Timothy chapter 1, a passage which we studied when I was seeking to demonstrate that in the New Testament, in the New Covenant documents, the Ten Commandments are found as a binding and changeable document. And so I want to direct your attention this morning to two basic passages in which, to my judgment, the matter is made abundantly clear and forever settled. And so I want to direct your attention this morning to two basic passages in which, to my judgment, the matter is made abundantly clear and forever settled.

14:31 And so I want to direct your attention this morning to two basic passages in which, to my judgment, the matter is made abundantly clear and forever settled. And so I want to direct your attention this morning to two basic passages in which, to my judgment, the matter is made abundantly clear and forever settled. And so I want to direct your attention this morning to two basic passages in which, to my judgment, the matter is made abundantly clear and forever settled. And so I want to direct your attention this morning to two basic passages in which, to my judgment, the matter is made abundantly clear and forever settled.

14:31 And so I want to direct your attention this morning to two basic passages in which, to my judgment, the matter is made abundantly clear and forever settled. standard of righteousness, 1 Timothy 1, 8 through 11. Now we come back to the passage this morning for a different purpose. But we know that the law is good if a man use it lawfully, as knowing this, that law is not made for a righteous man, but for the lawless and unruly, for the ungodly and sinners, for the unholy and profane, for murderers of fathers and murderers of mothers, for manslayers, for fornicators, for male homosexuals, for men-stealers, for liars, for false swearers, and if there be any other thing contrary to the sound doctrine according to the gospel of the glory of the blessed God which was committed. To my trust. Now here in this particular passage, we saw in our previous dealings with it, the context, these would-be law teachers who were turning aside the very purpose of God in the giving of the law and engaging in that which Paul describes as endless genealogies and vain talking. They did not understand the purpose of God in the giving of the law, and we had occasion,

15:57 to note, that most likely when Paul says, the law is not made for a righteous man, that was not a matter of debate. He's speaking there of the ideally righteous man, of which there is none but Jesus Christ. I did not come to call the righteous, Jesus said, but sinners. The law is not made for those who have no sin, but.

16:21 And then there follows these three couplets, if you look closely at the passage, but for the ungodly, and sinners, for the unholy, and profane, I'm sorry, but for the lawless, and unruly, for the ungodly, and sinners, for the unholy, and profane. And most commentators agree that in those broad strokes, Paul is summarizing the manifestations in a comprehensive way of indifference to the first table of the law, or those commandments dealing more specifically with our relationship to God. And whereas that may not be something that can be proved conclusively, the vast majority of responsible commentators that I have consulted take that position, but there is no question, and the structure changes, beginning with the words, for murderers. At this point, we have the next five commandments, or commandments five through nine, clearly setting the structure. By which Paul identifies certain sins. Murderers of fathers and mothers, fifth commandment, honor thy father and thy mother. Sixth commandment, you shall not kill, or you shall not commit murder,

17:44 manslayers. Seventh commandment, you shall not commit adultery, fornicators, abusers of themselves with men. You shall not steal, eighth commandment, men stealers. You shall not bear false witness, for liars and false swearers. In other words, it is clear that in this section of the passage, Paul clearly has in mind the framework of the Decalogue, specifically commandments five through nine. But now when he takes those commandments, you will notice that he does not in a wooden way simply use the language of the Decalogue. But he takes them. takes in each of those instances different terminology that identifies sins in the same category as that which is identified in the Decalogue.

18:46 So we look through them, and what do we find? He says the law in its lawful use is to be brought to bear upon the consciences of those who are indifferent to the fifth commandment. And what is the highest expression of failure to honor father and mother? It would be to slay them.

19:11 And while the marginal reading some of you may have says smiters or strikers of fathers and mothers, as best I've been able to ascertain in doing a word study, the rendering murderers is correct. The highest expression of failure to honor father and mother is to be a murderer of a father and a murderer of one's mother. Now the point is, you see, that when the commandment says honor thy father and thy mother, it is dealing with a category that goes beyond religion. The mere limitation of those specific words.

19:54 Likewise, when we come to the next commandment, the standard word for murder or for killing is not set before us, but we have set before us manslayers. Those who do murder, who slay another man. Then the seventh commandment, fornicators. Abusers of themselves.

20:20 Abusers of themselves. Abusers of themselves. He could have used the standard word for adulterers, but he doesn't. He uses the broader word that applies to every single form of sexual deviation.

20:32 Fornicators. Those guilty of pornea. That's the broadest use. And then he uses a term that describes male homosexuals.

20:43 Now is he excluding lesbians, female homosexuals? No. But you see, he is illustrating. He is illustrating the principle.

20:52 And the principle is that which I've stated on the front end of the message, that when a sin is forbidden, all of the sins in that category are included. And therefore the apostle can say the law was made not merely to expose married people who break their marriage covenant by having illicit sexual contact with someone other than one's wife or husband, but for fornicators. Those guilty of a broad range of sexual impurity. Those who indulge in homosexual perversion.

21:31 They likewise come under the condemnation of the seventh commandment. And then he goes on to say with regard to the eighth commandment, thou shalt not steal. What is the most aggravated expression of theft? When you actually, when you actually take another man's person as a commodity.

21:57 The very kind of thing that was done in institutionalized slavery in its origins.

22:04 When tribes of people were invaded by outsiders, and it's going on today, and not just white against black, but black against black.

22:17 And they literally steal human beings to make them property to be sold to the slaves. In the service of others. Well you see little would we have thought when we looked at the Decalogue in its original institution. You shall not steal.

22:35 That God is including in that, the very platform on which much of institutionalized slavery was launched. But according to the apostle, the law was made to expose this most aggregated form of theft. But according to the apostle, the law was made to expose this most aggregated form of theft. But according to the apostle, the law was made to expose this most aggregated form of theft.

22:55 In which you do not merely take the property of another, but you take another to be your property. And then likewise the ninth commandment, thou shalt not bear false witness. What does he include? He says for liars.

23:12 For those who in any way deliberately misrepresent the truth. Well the original statement in the Decalogue is, you shall not bear false witness against your neighbor. But you see that's just a specific expression of a broader concern, namely the sanctity of truth. And therefore whenever and wherever, for whatever reasons we indulge in the lie, we are condemned by the ninth commandment.

23:44 Why? Because when a specific sin is condemned in the law of God, all the sins in that category are condemned. And so he also mentions false swearers. That is those who lie under oath.

24:02 The Mark Furman's and his ilk of this world. That can solemnly swear to tell the truth. And then under oath lie. False swearers is relevant as the wretched breakdown of honesty in our so called court system, our so called administration of justice.

24:29 So do you see how Paul used those commandments? He did not in a wooden way simply take the language of the Decalogue. But as he moved down through those five commandments, he had no sense that in any way he was going beyond the intention of God. He says the law is good if a man use it, lawfully.

24:57 He would not then turn around and use it unlawfully. Where do the ten commandments condemn homosexuality? The commandment you shall not commit adultery focuses upon the sanctity of one's sexual activity in every single area of that activity. Not merely one's fidelity as a married man or woman to one's spouse in the marriage.

25:24 Likewise with regard to the other commandments where the apostle clearly indicates that the specific sins identified are but one of that category and he goes on to say at the end of this passage and if there be any other thing contrary to the sound doctrine according to the gospel of the glory of the blessed God, which was committed to my trust. In other words, there will be found in the law of God that which will expose and condemn as sin any ethical aberration from the demands of gospel holiness produced by the proclamation and application of the gospel to the hearts of sinners. If there be any other thing so that Paul clearly indicates though he has gone beyond the words of the Decalogue and expanded the significance, he has not exhausted the full significance of the law of God. And therefore when I stand God willing and say this commandment which is couched in these words

26:46 identifying this particular aspect of a category of sin, but here is the larger category, I am standing on the ground of the principles clearly established by the Spirit of God through the apostle Paul in his treatment of a passage explicitly concerned with the right use of the law of God. And therefore if we find a reluctance to have the law of God search us in all of its depth and breadth, we are resisting the very, the very impress of God's intention in the giving of that law. Now the second passage to which I direct your attention is Colossians chapter 3. Remember now I am seeking to establish but one fundamental principle when a sin is forbidden or a duty commanded all sins and all duties in that category are included. The second passage is Colossians chapter 3. Having set forth the privileges of the Colossian Christians in terms of their union with Christ, they have died with Christ, they have been raised to newness of life in Christ, at the coming of Christ, they will be manifested with Him in glory.

Biblical Warrant from Colossians 3:3-6

28:13 Verse 4 of Colossians 3. Now he turns to the practical application of their position in virtue of their union with Christ. You have died with Christ, you have raised with, been raised with Christ, you will be manifested in glory with Christ at His return, so what? Well he tells them in verse 5, put to death therefore in the light of what you are in Christ, in the light of what has transpired in virtue of your union with Christ, put to death therefore your members which are upon the earth, fornication, uncleanness, passion, evil desire, there is a string of four things mentioned without any connective. Notice, fornication, uncleanness, passion, evil desire. Then we have a conjunction. And covetousness, which is idolatry, for which things sake comes the wrath of God upon the sons of disobedience.

29:22 Now what is the relevance of this passage? Well here in this passage Paul is calling believers by the guidance of the Holy Spirit to an ongoing mortification of sin. And as he does, he first of all focuses upon sins which would all be violations of the seventh commandment. The four things named together and grouped together would come under the heading of the seventh commandment, the sanctity of one's sexual appetites and desires and activities.

30:00 And he says put to death in conjunction with the activity of any of your members that which would lead to and involve you in fornication, uncleanness, passion, and evil desire. But now he turns to a second area of concern and he says and covetousness. And the word for covetousness could be rendered insatiable greed. And covetousness or insatiable greed, now notice what he says about it, which thing is idolatry? Have you seen the significance of that? He could have simply stopped and said, and covetousness or insatiable greed, allowing the remembrance of the tenth commandment to forever settle in the conscience of anyone aware of God's holy law that covetousness is sin. You shall not covet.

31:11 But he doesn't stop by merely naming covetousness or this kind of insatiable greed but he identifies it as idolatry. Well, I thought idolatry was a breach of the first commandment. I thought idolatry was the worship of anything other than the true God as our God. I thought idolatry was what we saw in the previous hour when Pastor Steve showed on the screen these people in these Roman Catholic churches kneeling before these icons and statues and these representations of a dead Christ and rubbing handkerchiefs upon them. I thought idolatry was having any other God beside the one true God as our God looking upon any person or thing as having God-like qualities and virtues. But you see, according to this passage, when the Spirit of God identifies the sin of idolatry, it is putting its finger, he is putting his finger upon anything in that category. So when the Scripture says, you shall have no other gods before me, it is not merely prohibiting putting any other object in the place of God and calling it God

32:41 or bowing down to it as God or recognizing it as God. It also includes all sins of that kind. Giving to anything affection and desire that belongs only to God Himself. And therefore he says covetousness, this kind of intense burning greed for something is of the very essence of idolatry.

33:13 Why? Because the command, you shall have no other gods before me, does not merely touch specific objects of worship that we might call gods. It involves the sanctity of the heart being given to God alone as the object of supreme delight and desire. And to allow the heart to be set upon any other thing in that way is to be guilty of breaking the first commandment.

33:48 It is to be guilty of idolatry. Why? Because the first commandment forbidding that sin forbids all sins in that category. And therefore the apostle can say that covetousness is not like idolatry or covetousness has similarities with idolatry, but covetousness is idolatry.

Application to the Unconverted: The Danger of Your Sin

34:17 And he can do that because the apostle understood and worked with the principle more fully opened up and fleshed out in 1 Timothy 1 that in the law of God when a sin is forbidden all the sins in that category are included. Now why is it important to understand this principle? Why is it important to come to the Ten Commandments with this principle, this rule affecting our understanding of the law of God? Well I want to show the relevance first of all to you who are unconverted amongst us, to you the people of God, and then the relevance with respect to the person and work of our Lord Jesus Christ himself. First of all to the unsaved among us. Have you asked yourself recently this very simple question? Why do you yet remain in your sins?

35:15 Impenitent and unbelieving? In spite for many of you the repeated appeals that are given to repent and to flee to Christ, the repeated entreaties of father and mother and friends and Sunday school teachers and pastors and others that God has put around you, have you asked yourself why is it that I still remain in my sins, impenitent and unbelieving? Well is it not basically because you really don't believe your state and your condition are as bad as those who love you tell you it is? Isn't that basically it?

35:58 You really don't believe your state and condition is as bad and as dangerous as God says it is? I'm trying to illustrate this. This may seem like a crude illustration but perhaps God will use it. Suppose three minutes from now those rear doors should burst open and a man should speak in a very strident but dignified demeanor so we knew he wasn't demented.

36:28 Sirs, ladies and gentlemen, children, I'm sorry to break up a worship service but I'm here as a representative of the town of Montville and I have at my side an engineer, a structural engineer. We received a call an hour ago. Someone was passing by the building and they saw a crack at the corner of the building where one of the main supports for the main structural beams is. They stopped and to their amazement before their very eyes they could see the crack continuing to open.

37:01 They stopped by the town engineer's office and brought him over and he's looked at it and in the past half hour he has seen before his own eyes the crack is opening and he's convinced that in any moment that support could give way and this main structural beam collapsed and this entire roof come down upon everyone in this building here at Trinity Baptist Church and we're urging you to take seriously our concern. Well, if we believed him, what would happen? Well, the first thing that would happen is probably the chairman of the deacons would go and pull the alarm lever and hopefully we would all make the rehearsed orderly exit that we plotted out and went through a few months ago when we had a fire drill. If we really believed that our condition was that dangerous and an appeal went out to get out of the sphere of danger anyone who would sit here and say, well, I think I'll just take an early afternoon nap either did not hear and understand the warning did not believe it or was a flat out fool. If you believe to the warning would you not with me make an exit out the doors? But you see, if you didn't believe the warning

38:29 you thought it was all a ruse. If you really were not convinced that your situation was dangerous or if you were just a flat out fool you'd disregard it. You see, if you believed it you would of necessity act upon it. Could it be that this is the reason why some of you remain so perpetually in the world completely indifferent to all the overtures of God's mercy in the Gospel?

38:59 You really don't believe that your situation is as bad and as dangerous as in the name of God we tell you it is. But I want you to turn back to the Colossians 3 passage and see how bad and how dangerous it really is. For when the apostle has applied the law of God in some of its breadth to the seventh commandment and to the first commandment notice what he says in verse 6 for which things sake that is on account of you Greek students you have the ah with the accusative on account of which for the cause of which things, what things these breaches of God's law according to what God intended when he gave his law so that when he said you shall have no other gods before me he regards as of the essence of idolatry a heart full of greed and covetousness. In other words God regards the things that his law condemns according to his intention in the giving of the law and with respect to those things

40:26 notice what the text says for which things sake literally is coming right now not shall come simple future but is presently coming the wrath of God upon the sons of disobedience the wrath of God is continually coming Romans 1.18 the wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men that wrath comes in the revelations described in Romans 1 but it is also coming in the sense that it is on its way it is as certain to arrive more certain than tomorrow morning if you and I believe that the things which God's eye discerns in our thoughts in the extent of our whole humanity that are violations of the law if the things God sees are the opposite virtues of the sins condemned are not being worked out in us and the duties commanded their opposite sins are not being avoided if these are the things that God regards as violations of his law then our condition is indeed a lot worse than we've regarded and our situation

41:54 far more dangerous than we've ever considered that law that reaches to the whole of your humanity so that murder and adultery touch attitudes words looks and desires that law which reaches outward it includes every sin in the specific categories addressed in the decalogue what a frightening thing to turn to Revelation 20 and see the picture described by John when the Lord himself sits upon the throne of his judgment and it is said that the books shall be opened and the dead shall be judged according to their deeds judged out of the books God himself has statutory law and God who knows the thoughts and the intents of the heart every desire every word every desire every look every glance that God will have recorded all that he knows of every deflection from his holy law according to this standard when he names a specific sin in the decalogue he's including every sin in that category my unconverted friend what a horrible thing

Application to Believers: Love for God's Broad Law

43:20 to meet God with the law books open according to that standard you see now why the ten commandments were never given to be a tongue ten rung ladder by which we climb to heaven no the law was added because of transgression the scripture says by the law comes the knowledge of sin and why we urge you to flee to one who lived out perfect conformity to that law died under the curse of that law and to be found in Christ with a righteousness not your own may God be pleased by the power of his spirit in the use of his holy law to bring some of you who are unconverted out of the horrible grip and vortex of your present apathy and bring you to the place where you have no rest till you know that all of God's controversies with you in the light of his law have been settled by another and then to you the Lord's people you remember we said that one of our goals in our study of the ten commandments was to pursue the education of our consciences by the law of God well if we are to do that as we ought we must learn as the psalmist did

44:48 and here I refer you to Psalm 119 and verse 96 we must learn to make this confession wrung out of personal inward comprehension of this very principle Psalm 119 and verse 96 I've seen an end of all perfection everything that man creates everything that man produces has its limitations I've seen an end of all perfection but my commandment is exceeding broad my commandment is exceeding broad not narrowly narrow and truncated as the Pharisees taught but exceeding broad when it says you shall not kill it is identifying every sin in the category of murder every sin that would be a violation of our recognition of the absolute sanctity of human life you shall not bear false witness the sanctity of truth and anything that is a violation of that sanctity comes under the sword of the Lord polytheism will not have ab voltages and shall not have have

46:08 ab customer in your duty commanded. All sins and all duties in that category are included. If that is our perspective, then we'll find ourselves saying in verse 97, Oh, how love I've I law. It is my meditation all the day. We will seek to bring our minds and hearts into contact, not just with the Word of God generally, which is the subject of Psalm 119, including all of the facets of precepts, commandments, its history, and the rest. But surely we will, as part of our meditation, seek to have our consciences constantly honed by the breadth of the significance of God's holy law. And if that is true of us, the more we exceed the exceeding breadth of the demands of the law, each sin and duty of its kind included, the more we will love God.

47:30 We will lash ourselves to Christ and His righteousness alone. That's why Paul, as a mature, older Christian, whose conscience had undergone years of being sensitized by the pressure of the law and of the gospel, said as a mature man in Philippians chapter 3 and verse 8 and following, I count all things to be lost for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord. For whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them but refuse, that I may gain Christ and be found in Him, not having a righteousness of my own, even that which is of the law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which is from God by faith. He said, that is the one prize that I possess. Above all others, that I may be found in Christ. And you see, those who oppose a searching application of the law of God to Christians don't understand this principle. The more

48:45 the law searches me in its breadth, the more I will despair of any righteousness of my own doing, standing me in good stead in the court of God. And that will lash me more tightly and securely to Christ. And Christ alone, and to the righteousness of God in Him. So believer, if you love Christ, you'll not fear. Coming to the law of God with this rule guiding our understanding of the law, that every sin and duty addressed in the Decalogue includes all of the sins and duties in that category. And if we come to have our consciences educated, then it will again and again expose us to the law of God. We will expose the fallacy, no matter how much we may be making progress in grace, of ever thinking that we want one thread of the fabric of the righteousness with which we stand before God to be made on the loom of our own performance. We'll want a perfect

49:52 righteousness, the one that God has made upon the loom of the perfect life of His beloved Son. Ability to follow the law. Oblivion, but the law. the cruel death of the cross undergone by His Son.

50:08 And furthermore, it will not only make us prize more and more the righteousness of God in Christ and lash us more firmly to Christ alone, it will cause us to walk in more humble dependence upon the grace of Christ, to work in us at levels we perhaps have never even asked God to work before. For why? Because the soil of our hearts was fallow and crusty and hard, because we had a shallow, truncated, narrow view of what the law of God demanded. But when that ten-pronged planter ripped through the fallow ground of our hearts as the people of God, we found areas that we never realized stood under the scrutiny of the law of God. It will not only drive us out of ourselves, and more and more into the objective righteousness of God in Christ, it will make us walk in more humble, prayerful dependence upon the grace of Christ. Our whole concept of holiness will move deeper and more inward, and we will cry to God that at the deepest springs of our being, wherever God's law touches us, there the grace of God would enable us to be conformed to the image, of Christ. And then finally,

Application to Christ: His Sinlessness and Vicarious Atonement

51:34 do you see what the application of this principle will mean as we contemplate our Savior? And I confess that amidst what has been, many times,

51:45 intellectually, mentally exhausting labor in these background studies, the delight has come whenever I've turned my mind to the Savior. And as I've done it again in preparation for this morning, think of this. If indeed this, this principle is valid, that when God specifies a given sin and a given duty, every sin and every duty in that category is included, if the Lord Jesus fully performed with every faculty of His holy humanity, every duty delineated in the Decalogue, and every duty of His time, if our Lord Jesus avoided every sin, condemned in the Decalogue, not only in terms of every faculty of His being, being free from the stain of sin in that area, but every single sin in that category, do you not see what an amazing thing it is that it could be said of Him He was holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners, living in a, sinful world, growing up in a home with half-brothers and sisters who were sinners and open unbelievers

53:12 until later on in life. For the Scripture says, even His brethren did not believe upon Him. Exposed to bad examples, exposed as a little boy growing up to the dirty words that the boys in the neighborhood would begin to speak, thinking that was a sign of emerging manhood. And when there would be rivalry and jealousy, think of what a real humanity was in that real city of Nazareth, in a real sinful world.

53:44 It's one thing for a pagan to say of him, I find no fault in him, a man whose eyes were blind to his own sins. When the Father before whose eyes all things are naked and open can speak out of heaven and say, this is my Son, my beloved One, in whom I'm well pleased, think what that means. He could not find one. Stay in the deepest recesses of the soul of His well-beloved Son to the broadest streams of every relationship to His Father as well as to His fellow men.

54:23 This is my Son, my beloved, in whom I am well pleased. And then do you see how this principle magnifies not only the glory of our Lord's sinlessness, but the wonder of His vicarious sin-bearing? You see how it magnifies it? If the Scriptures mean what they say, He bore our sins in His own body up to the tree.

54:55 1 Peter 2, 24 The Lord has made to light or to strike upon Him the iniquity of us all, Isaiah 53, 6. What did He bear? He bore our sins. What are our sins?

55:12 Are they merely the gross forms of specific violations of the sins prohibited by name in the Decalogue? Failing to do the duties specifically identified in the Decalogue? No! Our sins include everything in every category of sin, and every failure to perform everything connected with every category of duty.

55:41 And the omniscient eye of God saw the full measure of our sins. And without entering into a realm where God has been silent as to whether or not there is an exact mathematical equivalence of God totaling up the number of our sins, I would not dare touch the sacred cross of Christ with speculation. But I want to be honest with my Bible. He bore our sins in His own body up to the tree.

56:12 Who can measure the massive mountain that was made from A.N. Martin's sin? Who can measure?

56:23 Who wants to measure the mountain that I raised and that I continue to raise?

56:36 He bore it in His own body.

56:43 Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law. And what does that curse entail? The specific violations of the law of God. They shall be judged each one according to their deeds.

56:57 Christ went into judgment for us. He was charged with the deeds with which we would be charged and damned in the day of judgment. And I say it reverently in the language of old Rabbi Duncan. Christ on the cross bore our sins.

57:17 He bore our sins. He bore our sins. He bore our damnation. And He bore it lovingly.

57:23 Dear people, that's what our sin did be. That explains at least some of the mystery of the cry of abandonment. My God, my God, why have You forsaken me? See, if we believe and apply this principle in our understanding of the Ten Commandments that when a sin is forbidden or a duty commanded, all sins and all duties in that commandment in that category are included.

57:54 To contemplate the sinlessness of our Savior is to admire and love Him hopefully with a new appreciation of what it means to have a sinless Savior. And it is to be brought to new levels of gratitude for all He was willing to bear when He who knew no sin was made sin for us. That we might be made the righteousness of God in His name. Let us pray.

58:35 Our Father, we do own with shame our sin and confess with wonder and amazement that You would ever have so loved the likes of us as to send Your only begotten Son into the world that taking to Himself our humanity in that humanity He might live and He might die that we might have a righteousness not our own but a righteousness which You Yourself confer upon us and reckon to us in virtue of uniting us to Your Son covering us as it were in the very robe of His perfect righteousness causing us to be accepted in the Beloved One. We pray that You would take Your Word and apply it with power to the heart of saint and sinner alike this day and may it bear holy fruits to Your glory and to our good. We plead through our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.