The Four Spiritual Laws

The Four Spiritual Laws

            A few years back there was a man named Vince Lombardi who took over the role as head coach of a failing football team called the Green Bay Packers. This team was in the midst of suffering through a ten year slump and had went 1-10-1 the year before he took over. In Lombardi’s first year, the Packers won the championship with essentially the same players. They had only replaced two insignificant players. He is famous for many things but with that team he is known for re-teaching them the basics of the game, even going so far as saying his now famous quote, “This…is a football.”

            We’re taking a short recess from the Sermon on the Mount this week. Don’t worry, we’ll pick right back up next week, but today we’re going back to the basics. We’re going to be discussing laws. Just like nature has laws that cannot be broken or adapted, God has laws that cannot be broken or adapted. Take the law of gravity. You can say, “I don’t believe in gravity. Gravity is just a crutch for the weak. Gravity is just an old outdated model of thinking designed to keep me from having fun,” but when you step off the roof of a ten story building…. What’s going to happen? Are you going to prove the law of gravity right or wrong? Right, 100% of the time. In fact in the history of mankind, there has never been a case of a person stepping off of a ledge or a cliff and went up instead of down. Just like the law of gravity cannot be broken or manipulated to fit our circumstances, God has spiritual laws that cannot be broken or manipulated to fit our circumstances or desires. There are four of these laws.

Law #1: God loves you and offers a wonderful plan for your life.

            John 3:16 “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.”      

There are billions of people in the world who have never heard that verse before. We’ve heard it so much we take it for granted, and don’t even really listen to it or think about what it means. Let me give you an illustration.

A switchman sat in a small shack on one side of the river where he operated the controls to turn the bridge and lock it into place when a train crossed. One evening as the switchman was waiting for the light of the day to come, he looked off into the distance thru the dim twilight and caught sight of the trainlights. He stepped to the controls and waited until the train was within a prescribed distance within the bridge. He turned the bridge into position, but, to his horror, found the locking control did not work. If the bridge was not secure in position, it would wobble back and forth at the ends when the train came on to it, causing the train to jump the track and go crashing into the river. This was a passenger train with many people aboard.  

He left the bridge turned across the river, and hurried across bridge to the other side of the river where there was a lever switch that could hold to operate the lock manually. He would have to hold the switch back firmly as the train crossed. 
            He could hear the rumble of the train now. He took hold of the lever and kept applying the pressure to keep the mechanism locked. Many lives depended on this man's strength.  

Then, coming across the bridge from the direction of his control room, he heard a sound that made his blood run cold. "Daddy, where are you?"  

His four-year-old son was crossing the bridge to look for him. His first impulse was to cry out to the child, "Run! Run!" But the train was close; the tiny legs would never make it across the bridge in time.  

He almost left his lever to run and snatch up his son and carry him but he realized that he would not be able to get back to the lever in time. Either the people on the train or his little son must die.  

He took a moment to make his decision. The train sped safely about, on its way, and no one aboard was even aware of the tiny broken body, thrown mercilessly into the river by the onrushing train. Nor were they aware of the pitiful figure of the sobbing man, still clinging tightly to the locking lever long after the train had passed. They did not see him walk home more slowly than he had ever walked: to tell his wife how the child had brutally died.

Sadly, that train full of people can easily be us. The majority of the people in the world will be born, live a full life, and die never giving a thought to Christ’s death if they ever even know about it.

John 10:10, “I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.” Christ came so that we could experience life to its fullest and that we may find deep meaning in it. Do you believe that the majority of people are living an abundant life, or just getting by? Are they living a meaningful life, or just passing time? Why do so many people waste their time drinking, smoking, doing drugs, playing video games, chasing one sexual encounter after another if they are not just passing time?

They are wasting away their in the doldrums of life because of…

Spiritual Law #2: Man is sinful and separated from God. Therefore, he cannot know and experience God’s love and plan for his life. 

            Romans 3:23 “For all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.” How many did it say? Most? Some? All? Just Michigan fans? No it says “all.” What does “all” mean? All means all. That’s me and you and Mother Theresa, and Ghandi, and the Quaker Oats man.

            Man was placed in the Garden of Eden, a literal place of paradise on earth, where they walked and communed daily and personally with the God of all creation. They were given one rule—don’t eat from that tree. But they willfully disobeyed the directives of God. And we’ve been going down hill ever since. Because of their sin, God could not stand to be in their presence any longer and banished them from the garden. A holy God cannot be in the presence of sinful man. Because of man’s rebellious self will, he chose to do his own thing, and fellowship with God was broken. This rebellious nature can take on two forms: 1) The active antithetical attitude where the person opposes God at every opportunity. We see this with atheists, the ACLU, and other anti-religion organizations; 2) The passive attitude where religion and God play almost no part in their lives. They are the CEO Christians--Christmas and Easter only. God plays no part in their lives and therefore, He cannot direct them. A moving car is a lot easier to steer than a parked car, even if it is headed in the wrong direction.

            Which of these two rebellious natures do you think is causing the most troubles for Christianity in America? People care about their cars, favorite teams, and their fantasy league football leagues, anything and everything that won’t be worth a hill of beans in a year, but could not care less about God or His son.

The Bible says in Romans 6:23 that the result of this rebellious nature is death. “The wages of sin is death.” There is a great separation between man and God that cannot be crossed. Man has been desperately trying to find a way to get to God since we were kicked out of the garden, and we do this through religion. Religion is man’s attempt to connect with God. Some of the ways people try to connect with God is through fasting, tithing, volunteering at the church, singing in the choir, saying a particular prayer over and over again. All of these fail because our efforts and good works are useless. The Bible says in Isaiah 64:6,

All of us have become like one who is unclean,
       and all our righteous acts are like filthy rags;
       we all shrivel up like a leaf,
       and like the wind our sins sweep us away.”

The word used for “filthy rags” means a dirty, used menstruation rag—a used Tampon or Maxi-Pad. This is what God thinks of our efforts to get to Him.

            The gulf is too wide; we cannot get to Him by our own efforts. It is like standing on the California shore and swimming to Hawai’i. It is impossible by our own human efforts, but Spiritual Law #3 explains the only way to bridge this gulf and restore that relationship we once had with God.

Spiritual Law #3: Jesus Christ is God’s only provision for man’s sin. Through Him you can know and experience God’s love and plan for your life.

            Romans 5:8 says, “But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” Imagine that. The same God that can’t tolerate any sin in His presence was willing to take on our sin problem head on, while we were still sinners—while we still had nothing to offer Him.

            And also in 1 Corinthians 15:3-6, “³For what I received I passed on to you as of first importance: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, ⁴that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures, ⁵and that he appeared to Peter, and then to the Twelve. ⁶After that, he appeared to more than five hundred of the brothers at the same time….”

            That’s what Christianity is all about. While we were still sinners, Christ took the punishment for our sins, was tortured then executed, buried, but praise God three days later He rose from the dead defeating death once and for all. If Christ had not taken our place, if Christ had not died, and if Christ had not rose from the dead, then we would all still be slaves to our sin, and doomed for an eternity in hell. But He did all of those things, so you wouldn’t have to face that fate anymore.

            He is the only way to God. In John 14:6 Jesus said, “I AM the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the father but through me.” What does no one mean? Some? Most? All? Only the really good ones? What about Ghandi? Was he good enough to get to heaven outside of Jesus? This is where many people separate themselves from Christianity. They call Jesus a good teacher and they call Him a wise man, but they reject that He is the only way to go to heaven. But here Jesus is very clearly saying that HE IS the only way to go to heaven. So either He’s lying and that wouldn’t make Him a good teacher or a wise man. Or He’s a lunatic because He certainly believed it enough to die for it, and that definitely would not make Him a good teacher or wise man. Or lastly, He is the Lord and He is exactly who He said He was. Liar, lunatic, or Lord? Those are our only three choices.

            But the last Spiritual Law is the kicker….

Spiritual Law #4: We must individually receive Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord; then we can know God’s love and plan for our lives.

            If I gave one of you the best Christmas present ever given. I bought it, I wrapped it, and I left it under the tree with your name on it, but if you never opened it and received it, the gift is worthless. If you look at it everyday, and consider receiving it but never actually do what good has it done you? Christ has given you an awesome gift, better than any gift anybody could ever give you, but if you only consider it but never receive it, it is worthless.

            John 1:12 says, “Yet to all who received him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God.” This is the new birth people speak of. Or being born again. You become a new creature in Christ, except this time you no longer have that sin nature weighing you down, but you have the righteousness Christ died to give you. 

             

Jesus Fulfills the Law

Jesus Fulfills the Law

We are now three weeks into our look at Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount. For those of you who are new this week, we have been discussing a fictitious wager between Satan and God that no man can live out the Sermon on the Mount in today’s world. This idea is from the movie The Wager with Randy Travis. But in order for us to decide for ourselves if we can live out the Sermon on the Mount, we need to know what Jesus preached on.

            Here are a few facts about the Sermon on the Mount before we get too deep into the discussion. First the “mount” was just a good sized hill. It was not a mountain. There was a large gathering of people around Jesus and it would have been wise of Him to teach from the hill: logistically, acoustically, and symbolically. Logistically, it would prevent the people from crushing Him. Acoustically, He was able to preach more effectively to a larger crowd. It is not known from which hill Jesus preached from, but scholars agree that it was probably near the northern shore of the Sea of Galilee near the town of Capernaum. If Jesus faced north, His voice could be heard over 200 yards away as if He was standing right next to you. And symbolically, Jesus’ going up the “mount” would have been seen as a reference to Moses going up Mount Sinai. The sermon, which was a collection of what Matthew and Luke recorded and should not be thought of as a word for word transcription, covers three chapters, 109 verses, and used over 2,400 words.

            Two weeks ago we discussed the “Beatitudes” which is a ten dollar word that means extremely blessed. These were the teachings Jesus gave us to show us how we can be extremely blessed. Last week we discussed what it meant to be the salt and the light of the world, and what that would look like in our schools. Today we are going to discuss Jesus being the fulfillment of the law.

            Matt 5:17-20 “Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them. ¹⁸I tell you the truth, until heaven and earth disappear, not the smallest letter, not the least stroke of a pen, will by any means disappear from the Law until everything is accomplished. ¹⁹Anyone who breaks one of the least of these commandments and teaches others to do the same will be called least in the kingdom of heaven, but whoever practices and teaches these commands will be called great in the kingdom of heaven. ²⁰For I tell you that unless your righteousness surpasses that of the Pharisees and the teachers of the law, you will certainly not enter the kingdom of heaven.”

            There are two key words in this passage: abolish and fulfill. Jesus sets these two words up in opposition of each other. Abolish comes from the Greek word Kataluo which means “to loosen down” and was used to describe both the destruction of the Temple, and the decaying of a human body at death. But it can also mean to overthrow, as in to render vain, deprive of success. When Jesus set these two words up in opposition with each other, He also picked sides. He very clearly stated that He did not come to abolish the law, but to fulfill it. In other words, Jesus said, “I didn’t come to destroy the law or make it useless. I came to make sure it succeeded.” (www.gotquestions.org/abolish-fulfill-law.html)

            The irony is that Jesus was constantly hounded by the religious leaders of the day for breaking the law. Jesus was accused of: healing on the Sabbath, picking grain on the Sabbath, not washing His hands before He ate, eating with ceremonially unclean people/ sinners, touching a man with leprosy, and forgiving sins/ blasphemy.

            Jesus said, “I did not come as an enemy of the law. I came as a friend of the law.” When we say “law” what do we mean? All laws? Speed limits? No Trespassing? The law refers to the first five books of the Bible, aka The Torah, aka The Pentateuch, aka, The Books of Moses. But more specifically it refers to the Ten Commandments. But the Jews, desperately not wanting to break the Ten Commandments set up other laws to be a barrier around them to protect themselves. For example: Let’s say your mom tells you not to be around Old Man Johnson. That’s the law. So to make sure you don’t break that law you won’t even go on his block. That would be one of the protective barriers to protect you from breaking the law. Over time, the Jews literally had thousands of these protective barrier rules to protect them. And as time progressed, there emerged groups of people called the Pharisees and the Scribes who built their entire lives around these laws--not breaking them, making new ones, teaching them to others, and of course looking down on those who didn’t keep them.

Law Illustration

            It all started in the Garden of Eden when Adam and Eve sinned by disobeying God’s only law, “Don’t eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.” Before that God walked with Adam in the garden in the cool of the evening. After they sinned, they were separated from God. A perfect and holy God cannot be in the presence of sin. As our sin nature was passed down from generation to generation, God designed a plan that would redeem man to Himself. Contrary to popular belief, the Ten Commandments was never set up as a way for a person to go to heaven. If you ask random people on the streets how a person gets to heaven, most would answer that you have to be good enough. Then if you ask the follow up question, “How do you know what’s good enough?” They will answer something about keeping the Ten Commandments.

            Even if we were capable of keeping the Ten Commandments perfectly from this point on, all of our sins up to this point would keep us out of heaven. And even if we were able to remain sin free up to this point and all the way to our death, the sin nature we inherited from our parents would keep us out of heaven. The only thing the Ten Commandments do for us is to show us just how bad off we are, and how much we need a savior.

Out of all of the evangelism tools there are in the world there is only one that the Bible says is perfect in converting lost souls. Wouldn’t you like to know what it is? It is the law. Psalm 19:7 “The law is perfect, converting the soul.”      

Let’s take a closer look at the Ten Commandments to see why that is.

1. You shall have no other god before me.

            This one may seem like an easy one because in our culture we don’t worship idols, and we don’t have thousands of gods like the Hindus. But what we do have is sports teams and sports stars, and celebrities. We have TV, Ipods, Ipads, and DVR’s. We have Facebook, Myspace and Youtube. How many of you initiated a conversation about a sports team or a game in the past week? How many of you initiated a conversation about Jesus Christ this past week? How many of you spent at least 3 hours watching television, a sporting event, or messing around on Facebook, Myspace, or Youtube? How many of you have read one whole chapter in the Bible this past week?

            We may not feel like we are worshiping these things but we are definitely putting them before God. If you are not spending time alone with God, you are spending it with whatever has become more important to you. What if you made a rule—one for one. One hour of TV= one hour of Bible study/ prayer. Would your life be different?

2. You shall not make any graven images of God

            God chose to be image-less except for His time here on earth. Any image of Him would be a misrepresentation of Him and, therefore, a sin. We might think we are in the clear again here, but have you ever said, or heard anyone say anything like, “A loving God wouldn’t send so and so to hell…” or “The God I serve won’t allow innocent people to….” Isn’t this making God into something He’s not? Or isn’t it trying to make God into a God we can feel more comfortable with? The truth is bad things happen to good and innocent people all the time. God is still the same God as He always has been and always will be whether we feel comfortable with Him or not.

3. You shall not take the Lord’s name in vain

            The name of the Lord is a special thing, so special rabbinical Jews will not even spell it. They write G*D in English. They won’t pronounce the name. Both of these rules are some barrier rules that we spoke of earlier. They were so concerned of misusing His name that they eliminated it completely. But in our culture, we seemingly have no problem saying GD this, GD that, or replacing a four letter word with the name of our precious savior and the one that gave us life. Or let’s say you’ve never uttered His name as a cuss word in your life. Have you ever prayed a prayer that sounds like, “O Jesus, be with Bill, Jesus, because, Jesus, he really needs you, Jesus. And Father, heavenly Father, be with my mom, Father, O loving Father….” If anyone had a conversation like that to me, “Hey Adam, can you, Adam, meet me at 7:00, Adam. O Adam, sweet Adam, if you could Adam, bring your truck, Adam, I need, Adam, to move a couch, Adam,” I would punch them in the face.

            The Lord’s name is precious and we shouldn’t treat it like it was a cuss word, or punctuation marks in our prayers.

            We’ve made it through 3. How are you doing? Don’t worry. It gets worse.

4. Keep the Sabbath day holy.

            I’m not a big Saturday vs. Sunday guy. If you want to worship on Saturday because the Jews did, that’s fine. If you want to worship on Sunday because that’s the day Jesus rose from the dead, that’s fine, too. But you ought to keep that day sacred. Have you ever done any work on the day set apart for worship? There’s a Little House on the Prairie episode where Charles is overly tired, sleeps in and misses church. He then wakes up and plows the field. His wife Caroline comes home and finds him in the field and tears him up for it.

5. Honor your mom and dad.

            Do you do everything your parents expect of you without them having to ask you…over and over and over again? Do you honor them with the clothes you wear? With the friends you hang out with? With the grades you make at school? With the way you treat other people?

6. Don’t murder.

            This one is easy until we get to next week’s lesson. Jesus said if you hate another person you already committed murder in your heart. And then there’s abortion. Remember what Horton said, “A person is a person no matter how small.”

7. Don’t commit adultery.

            Is pre-marital sex adultery? What if you are absolutely sure you are going to get married? What if you are marrying the person the next day? Sex with anyone you are not married to is adultery. You might say, “I’m cool with this one. I’m a virgin.” Again Jesus upped the ante on this one when He said, “If you have looked at a woman with lust, you have already committed adultery in your heart.” Have you ever looked at a man or woman with less than pure motives?

8. Don’t Steal

            Everybody at some point has taken something that doesn’t belong to them. Or when you are at work and you get paid by the hour, but don’t stay 100% productive at all times. That is stealing from your employer who is paying you to work.

9. Don’t Lie

            Everybody has told a lie at some point in their life. If you haven’t you’re lying.

10. Don’t covet your neighbor’s stuff

            Have you ever wanted something your neighbor has and it caused you to be angry or resentful towards them? Or did it cause you to think less of the things you already have? You can want the things your neighbor has without it being a sin. For example a kid at school gets a new CD and you get a chance to listen to it and you liked it. You decide you’d like to have it to. So the next time you’re at the store you buy a copy of it. Here’s an example of where it could turn into sin. A girl at school gets a new pair of jeans. You just bought a new pair last week, but these are better than yours. You start mumbling things under your breath about that person’s character. You beg your mom for an advance on your allowance. She doesn’t give it to you. So you steal money to go buy the new pair of jeans.

            If we were in a court of law and God was here as the judge, based on the Ten Commandments, would you be found innocent or guilty? So would you go to heaven or would we go to hell? Every one of us has broken every one of the commandments. Just being sorry about it and swearing we will never do it again won’t get us off the hook. A rapist and murderer who swears he won’t do it again would still go to jail. We wouldn’t let him go free would we? No there must be punishment.

            That’s where Jesus comes in. In order for man to be made right with God, there needed to be a perfect sacrifice. And bulls and lambs weren’t cutting it. It had to be something that had experienced all of the temptation we have experienced and still overcame and remained sin free. Jesus was the fulfillment of the law because He satisfied the law’s requirements. And when Jesus died on the cross for our sins, He became that perfect sacrifice that satisfied the wrath of God.