God's moral will - what

But we're continuing to study the will of God. And we've been through several weeks of God's sovereign will. We started last week on God's moral will. And we looked at one of the key things in God's moral will is the principle of understanding the life of Christ and the believer. We want to take a look this week, because the outline that I'd come up with is God's moral will. who, what, and where. And so last week we looked at the who, who is the life of Christ. This week we're looking at the what. What is God's moral will?

Now it's interesting, you go back, you go back all the way to the beginning, back in the garden. And here's Adam and Eve, As far as humans are concerned, just the two of them. Nobody else in the mix yet. Not even like Brian and Julia with a brand new kid or anything. Just them. And what could they do? What were they allowed to do? Eat of everything except that one tree. Boy, just all kinds of things.

I'm sure, you know, Both the tastiness of it and the ability to taste it was better than what we have now. There it is. God planted the garden. There it is. It's all laid out. What a deal. What a deal. All you got to do is pick it. Except what? Except the serpent. Yeah, don't pick him. What did God say? You can have everything but. It was this little circle around the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil. You have everything else but that one and don't eat it.

So they never touched it, right? But they did touch it all in all. That's right, they touched it. That touching was okay. What happened? The woman got him in trouble. Oh boy. But was that the final say? Was that the last issue to come up there? Because you mentioned the woman. No, both of them. Oh, Adam did too? One of the things that's often forgotten is that you look at the subsequent tests and where was Adam in the middle of this? Where was Adam?

You look at that in early verses of Genesis 3? He was off in the North 40, right? He did blame it on his wife, but where was he in the process? Did you ever take note of that? Here's Adam, and it actually says he was with her. So he's just kind of, you know, vegging out. What's that?

Yeah, yeah, just Connie's yeah, he was lost in space, you know and just kind of watching things go on and He was with her just kind of went along with this thing Then the trouble begins and it's interesting if you you look especially at Paul's writing. He doesn't say, you know first and second Eve His first and second Adam, you know and Adam is the one who gets a pointed at here is the real pivotal character in this thing.

Since then, there's this issue of what's right and what's wrong, isn't there? There's been an issue ever since of what's right and what's wrong. Now, probably the most thorough definition of that came when? When was it most explicitly defined what's right and what's wrong? You start reading through the Bible and certainly at various places you see things. But when do you start getting some real detail on what's right and wrong?

And this is like the introduction, isn't it? You get the Ten Commandments and the truth is most people just kind of focus on that as if that were it. But that's just the beginning. That's sort of the down payment. Because it's 10 initially, but when you count all total, you've got 613. So 10 is just a start. That's just to get the thing going. 613 laws, and who is that given to?

Not Bill Clinton? It was given to Moses, right? Yeah, it'd be nice, huh? Nothing unholy was to touch the mountain. Anyway. Alright, so now. So here's Moses, he gets the first 10, and then what we see after that going on through the rest of the books of Moses, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy, is 613 laws of do this, don't do that. 365 things not to do. The rest of them, do this. So here's all the rules.

Why a bunch of rules of do this and don't do that? Why? How come? Why do those matter? I don't know. Oh. God said they mattered. Okay, God said they mattered. Good. And God didn't just say, well, boys will be boys and girls will be girls. You know? Right? He laid some things out there with the law and it said this is wrong and this is right. Right? I mean, he made things downright clear.

Abundantly clear. And what's real interesting is there's very little grayscale in the whole thing. You've noticed that? You start looking at things, very little grayscale in this, you know. There's not a, you know, if there's 50% of that or 20% of this or 30, you know, it's black and white. It's real clear.

We've talked earlier, and I think the word Richard used is the essence of God. One of the things that the law reveals about God's character is that God is what kind of a God? He's a holy God. He's a holy God. And what that translates to is that God is a moral God. God is a God in whom right and wrong matter. Right and wrong makes a difference. So the law reveals that, doesn't it? Okay, so we've got this revelation of the morality, the moral character of the essence of God in the law.

Alright, so far so good. So that's what we're to live by, right? Nope, not now. Not now? Oh man, we went through all that work! I mean, people have been copying this stuff down and writing it and scribing it on stone and all kinds of things, and not now? I mean, boy, that seems like an awful lot of work to go through just to put it aside. Man, what a thing she said. Not now. That's a pretty bold statement. Well, not now. Does that mean God isn't a moral God anymore?

No. Man, she keeps making one bold statement after another. This is a brave lady. You're the one that keeps answering. You make these bold statements. It's phenomenal. Alright, so let's step our way through this thing. We have a moral God. Moral God gives 613 laws, 365 don'ts, the rest of them do's, things you're supposed to do. And Bertha makes these bold statements.

No, we don't have to follow those anymore. Alright? And I say, well that means that God's not a moral God anymore, right? And she says, no! I mean, this lady's amazing. Okay. So now, now, how come? Why aren't we, why shouldn't we just follow these laws and say, I mean, because that's after all, these reflect the moral character of God, right? The Lord told us, He says, I the Lord am holy. We're under grace, not the law these days. We're under grace, not the law. Now, what does that mean? So we can do anything. In the past, murder was punishable by death. Now, go ahead. Is that what he means? What's that? Okay.

God's character has not changed. How do we know God's character hasn't changed? Remember we looked at that before. A part of God's very character is God is an unchanging God. We see that in the Old Testament where he says, I the Lord do not change. First person statement. I the Lord do not change. He does not change. So we know that from that.

We can look at the New Testament, Hebrews 13.8 where it says of Jesus Christ, He is the same today, yesterday, and forever. The Lord is of character unchanging. So what's changed? Why aren't we under these 613 laws? He provided a Savior. Ah! So does that mean the law is bad? No? Why not? Well, God is unchangeable. The law that He gave Moses is still a good law. The law is still good? Man, this is amazing. God got rid of it, but the law is still good.

He knew that men just couldn't. We're not going to pull it off? We're not going to do it. Okay. Let's think of this here. Let's look at some biblical figures. Well-known biblical figures. We're not going to pull on anything obscure here. Here's Moses. Thou shalt not kill. And it means murder. Okay? Did Moses ever murder? He did. When did he do that? Yeah, here he was in Egypt when he was younger. Yep, he did it.

How about David? Now there's a guy that's mentioned through the Old Testament, New Testament. I mean, that guy, just as soon as he comes on the scene, you keep hearing about him. You keep hearing about him all the way into the book of Revelation. So here's this guy, David. He certainly must have followed the law perfectly. No, the Bible keeps talking about him. Why didn't he? What happened? Ah, okay. He took a bath with Sheba. Okay. Yeah, okay.

That's one if we just kind of start making a list, isn't it? Here's David can't pull it off, and he's someone the Bible, from the very first time he's written about, all the way to the end. It's very interesting. Now, it must have been a mistake to pick David, right? I mean, after all, he goofed up like that. It was a no mistake. No mistake, Richard says. Now that's a bold statement. No mistake. I think Bertha's stuff is rubbing off on me. Make these bold statements? Okay. What we're looking at here is exactly what Bob has pointed out.

The law is not a bad thing. As a matter of fact, the New Testament points out five uses for the law even now. And the bottom line is all five of those uses are for the unbeliever. But what we want to look at here this morning is we get this issue of God is a moral God and yet we're no longer under this law that is good. In a way, it's kind of a head-scratcher. You say, well, wait a minute. I got a law. God gave it. It most certainly came from Him.

The Bible never claims otherwise. And yet, here Bertha makes this bold statement that we're not under it. Now, can you prove that to me from the Bible? That we're not under this thing? I mean, I can go here and read right from the Bible where this law is given. We could spend the rest of this morning, you know, and cancel the rest of the services reading through this stuff. Where does it say we're not under law? But under grace, he said. Where have we got that? You're saved by grace?

Okay. Ephesians 2. Okay. Dead to the law. Ooh. Dead to the law. What does that mean? When we are identified with Christ, so the first one of the five, death, burial, resurrection, ascension, and seething, the first one, we died to the law. We don't have a relationship to the law. There is still a moral God, but we don't have a relationship to the law.

Alright, I've teased you enough here. Let's turn to Romans 6, verse 14. Let's start with verse 12 there, because I think that will give us some context. It says, Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body, that you should obey its lust. So this is a moral statement, isn't it? There is such a thing as sin. There is such a thing as sin that is contrary to God's moral character. So He's not denying that, is He?

And do not present your members... Is that a membership like in the Elks Club? What is that? What does it mean, members? Yeah, we've got this body here. Don't present your members, this mortal body, as instruments of unrighteousness to sin, but present yourselves to God as being alive from the dead. And why alive from the dead? Why are we alive from the dead? How can that be? It's because of our identification with Christ. We certainly died with Him, and in doing so, as Bob said, died under the law.

Having then been buried, we have been raised and when we were raised we were then alive from the dead and then he says in the middle of 13 and your members as instruments of righteousness to God for sin shall not have dominion over you now this is interesting sin shall not have dominion over you for you are not under law but under grace now if you're under law let's logic our way through this If you are under grace, then sin shall not have dominion over you. But if you're under law, what's going to happen? Isn't that interesting? We've got this law and it says sin shall have dominion over you because of the law. I thought the law was good. Isn't the law a good thing? What's the matter? What's the problem here? Where's the issue? Sin. So is the law sinful?

No, the law points it out. Ah, the law points it out. The law indicates it. Let's take a look here. If you drive down this street, one of the things you're likely to see on the side of the road is a sign and it'll say like 25 or 30 miles an hour. signed and tells you how fast you're allowed to go and going beyond that is against the law, right? Contrary to law. Now, how do I know that I've broken the law?

Ah, okay. We have an indicator. We have an indicator that tells you based on your speedometer, I've broken the law. Ah, this is another very powerful indicator. You've broken the law, yes. Yes, you've got this fellow who comes along with a nice little slip, a little colorful piece of paper usually, and that little piece of paper says, and agrees with you, but it was probably on your speedometer that you broke the law. You have an indication that the law has been broken, okay? Without the sign, without the speedometer, without the policeman who comes by and gives you this nice colorful piece of paper, cheerful colors actually. Without that, you don't know you broke a law.

But with those, suddenly you've got a measure that says, well, what do you know? I did. And there's nothing wrong with the law. The problem is I had no idea before. Now all of a sudden the law comes along and makes it very clear. Oh, I broke it and all the indicators that go along with it. I broke it.

So what he's saying here, the law is not a bad thing at all, but it most certainly indicates to us that God's moral character has been broken here. The expression of it has been broken and the law is the the written equivalent of the speedometer and the speed limit sign and the policeman's colorful piece of paper.

Not under law, but under grace. Let's talk about what's this grace? Is that a different law? What is it? It's God's unmerited favor to us. Okay, we had the law, and it most certainly tells me that I've broken a law. But now you're saying I'm under grace, and it's defined as God's unmerited favor. How does that help? Well, we have to do it, don't we? Ah! Okay, here's the key. This goes back to what we were talking about last week. The law points out the what, doesn't it? Grace points back to the who. Grace points back to the who, and the who is Christ. Now, what happened that suddenly, as Bertha makes this bold statement, what happened that suddenly I can take the law and set it aside. Why all of a sudden am I not absolutely bound to go take a lamb over to Jerusalem and present it for slaughter? Besides the fact that the temple isn't there anymore. Why am I not bound to go do that?

Christ fulfilled the law. He was the only one that could. Ah, alright. We charted through. Moses, I mean, great guy. Just a milestone in the walk of faith. Here's David, a momentous fellow. Memorable throughout all the pages of scripture from the very first pages that he shows up.

And yet, couldn't cut it. couldn't prove themselves up to the measure of the law. Christ fulfilled the law, but did he do so just by living according to it? How did he fulfill the law? His own sacrifice. The law kept pointing to him. The law kept pointing to him.

So we are dead in relationship to the law. as Bob pointed out earlier. Why do we say dead in relationship to the Lord? Dead to or dead unto? What does that mean? What's that talking about? Yeah, we are separated from. It's important to recognize that death is not just out on a slab cold, you know, dead. This isn't a mortuary issue, okay? It is It is separation from, and this is particularly the way scripture lays out this concept of spiritual death, a spiritual separation from the law.

The law is a good thing. God gave the law. The law reflects God's morality. The law is a measure of what's right and wrong and shows sin to be what it is. But we're under grace, the fulfillment of the law being in Christ, and now no longer by our best efforts to live up to the law, which never could measure up, but instead by His life. So let's, we've seen this neat thing here, this is not under law but under grace.

Let's page ahead a few pages. I'd like you to turn to the book of Ephesians, turn into chapter 4. Would someone be so kind as to read chapter 4, 25 through 29? Wherefore, putting away lying, speak every man truth with his neighbor, for we are members of one another.

Be ye angry, and sin not. Let not the sun go down upon your wrath, neither give place to the devil. Let him that stole steal no more, but rather let him labor, working with his hands the thing which is good, that he may have to give to him that needs. Let no corrupt communication proceed out of your mouth, but that which is good to the use of edifying, and that it may minister grace unto the hearers. Okay, thank you Richard. You guys almost had a good duet going there.

Anyway, I want to take a look at this. Now here's Paul, and one of the things I have to tell you, in the Greek there are several words that come across, verbs that come across as emphatic imperatives. It would have the important English, you must or you must not. Now, we got to ask something here. Does it sound like Paul's just starting back to create another law again? Is that what's going on here?

Is he saying Now this is all fine and good and well. You're under the law and under grace. As a matter of fact, Bertha even talked about, you know, you're saved by grace. Now he starts in chapter 4 after telling these people all these wonderful things.

Now he comes along and says, do this, don't do that. You must do this, you must not do that. Is he coming up with just another set of laws? No! Here's Richard again with these bold statements. I think I heard Bob say no too. Now this is amazing. Well, I think this has been, you know, beforehand. But the thing is to try to implement or reiterate, you know, the situation, you know. I mean, you're not... It's no new thing. Okay.

And I think that actually they should be told, well, I mean, these are Ephesians now. Okay. Paul has told the Corinthians this, he's told the Colossians that. So this isn't just unique to the church at Ephesus. This isn't just something for the Ephesians and everybody else gets something different. Yeah, you're right.

Now let's step our way through this. He's saying, do this, don't do that. Because we are in Christ, because we've been identified with Christ and we're not under the law, what is unchanging about God? Both before the law was given and now that Christ has come and we've been identified with Him. We're a new creation, okay? That's true. That's what God has made true of us. Has God's character changed? No, God's character is the same. God is still a moral God. Why is this different from what Moses came down from the mountain with? Why is this any different than that?

Let him who stole, steal no longer, but let him labor. Does that sound like, Thou shalt not steal? What's going on here? He's saying, not under law, but really you are. We're indwelled by the Holy Spirit. We should reflect God. What was happening under the law of Moses is, here's the law. The law is good. This law, God says, reflects my moral character as a moral God.

But did they have anything within them, different in who they were to match up with it. No, it was a you do it, huh? And the law was then only able not to help, but to show where we fall short. Some of you may remember, perhaps even with some humor in your thought, when I came here just about three years ago, that the very first Sunday I came to teach here, I was a candidate, I sang a song.

Right in the middle of the message. Acapella of all things. What a bold thing to do. And the words went like this. Do this and live, the law commands, but gives me neither feet nor hands. A better way His grace does bring, it bids me fly and gives me wings. The law says do this. As a matter of fact, failure is you're going to die. Death will result.

And yet what we see here is something radically different. What we have done in part is to read Paul's commands out of context in a way. Because we see, yes, there's this do this, don't do that. But what we've skipped over is the previous three and a half chapters, which have talked about the very life of the Lord. and the Holy Spirit indwelling the believer, and who you are in Christ, and those facts that are essential to what he's said here. It is not that he is laying out another law system of, okay, I've told you that law is no good, now I've got another law for you. It is instead that he is saying, based on who you are, based on your having died to these things, based on your identification with Christ. These things, because God is a moral God, and because it is His life in you, these things are now inconsistent with that life. Inconsistent with that life.

Does it then point us to, well boy, I better work really hard on getting under this new law? What does this turn us to when we look at these things? We need to look and say, these are not evidences of, boy, I better start working harder. These are not evidences of, boy, I better dig in.

These are evidences of, you know, I'm not depending upon the position that I have in Christ. I'm not depending upon the life that I have in Christ. Think of this, and we'll be going into this in detail when we get farther on in Ephesians. Look at verse 28. Let him who stole steal no longer, but rather let him labor, working with his hands with his good.

We've talked about how in Ephesus there was the temple of Artemis, which was one of the seven wonders of the ancient world. I mean, people were impressed. You come out of the harbor there at Ephesus and there was this kind of column lined you know, stone roadway, and you walked up and there in front of you was one of the seven wonders of the ancient world and some would say it was the top among the seven. Here is this massive Temple of Artemis and the law was that within a bow shot, and I'm not exactly sure what that figure is, but within a bow shot of the temple, if you were a criminal and could get inside that ring that you were free.

The law could not catch you, arrest you, prosecute you. You were free. And so what did it do? It was a magnet to criminals. And so he would write because some of those became believers. And so he would write to them, these people who had made it practically a lifestyle to steal and then run for this area around the Temple of Artemis. And he was telling them, you know, you who are stealing, okay? Steal no longer.

Not because we've got this law, but because it's not consistent with the position that I've spent three and a half chapters telling you about. Your position in Christ individually. Your position in the body of Christ. It's not consistent with that. Let's ask one other thing.

The law has consequences for failure, doesn't it? Consequences for failure. The law is looking to condemn you. Isn't it? The law is looking. You goofed up. Remember in the Gospels, here's this woman caught in adultery and what do they want to do? Stone her. Well, we caught her. See, the law is looking for, aha, I got you. See? The law brings that mentality. I can't wait to nail this person. Okay?

Instead, what this is looking to is the Lord is saying, don't steal, not because now we've got this law and we're ready to do you in. Don't steal. Why? Because the Lord says, I want life in you. Life in you. I'm not looking for death. I'm looking for life. There is a key difference. The law is looking for an opportunity to bring death and condemnation. What Paul is revealing is he's saying, don't steal, not because he's looking for an opportunity to condemn, but because he says, God is looking for the opportunity for life. God is looking for the opportunity for the blessings. Because what did he start off with? Here's this church where there are people who have had a lifetime habit of stealing, and how does he start off? Ephesians chapter 1 verse 3, after he gets through saying, Hi, I'm Paul. What does he say? Do these people have been stealing?

Yes, you've been blessed with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places. These are people who have been stealing their whole life. He also says in here, you let no unwholesome word come out of your mouth, which implies, guess what? They have a lifelong habit of all kinds of unwholesome words coming out of their mouth. And his exhortation to them when he gets through saying, Hi, I'm Paul, is you have been blessed with every spiritual blessing. You who have had a lifelong habit of foul words pouring out of your mouth. You have had a lifelong habit of stealing and running for that circle of safety around the Temple of Artemis. Get out and work. Yeah, get a job. Make yourself productive.

But the key thing in here is the law looks for how can I kill you? The difference here On one hand, you look at it and say, well, both of them point to morality. The difference here is, under grace, it says, how can I bless you? How can I give you life? It's interesting, the very last words of Christ recorded in the Bible are at the end of Revelation. And he says, behold, I'm coming quickly. My reward is with me. He's looking for how can I reward you, not how can I condemn you.

The law puts the emphasis on gotcha, okay? Gotcha. Does a policeman pull somebody over and say, boy, you were driving good, okay? He gives you this citation and it's to show up before the judge so the judge can congratulate you, shake your hand, right? No. looks to condemn. The law looks to nail you. Christ comes instead and says, my reward is with me. Paul is not laying these out with an eye to, how can I condemn you people?

But he's laying these out with a, this is consistent with how you've been blessed. This is consistent with the life of Christ. This is consistent with the body in which you've been placed. See that? Day and night difference. It is easy for Christians, and boy, probably a goodly percentage of Christendom is still caught up in the old part of this.

Not looking, not understanding our position, not understanding the life of Christ, not understanding the Holy Spirit within, and trying to get believers to fall under the law and to knuckle under the law. Now, look at verse 32 in Ephesians 4. What is it telling us there? Is the Lord looking to nail us for the things that we've done wrong? What does it say?

He's forgiven us. Wow. Forgive one another even as God in Christ forgave you. Notice it's not will forgive you if. How about that? It's not will forgive you if. It's a done deal. The forgiving is past. It's a done deal. Now that's different. That's different. It's you live this forgiving out now, looking back to the forgiveness you already have. Now that's upside down. The law says, you know, you forgive and yeah, you'll get some forgiveness. You even see some of that in the Gospels, don't you? That's because you're still speaking to Israel under the law. Here, you're forgiven. It's a done deal.

So as we look at the what of God's will, as we look at, certainly there is morality all throughout the New Testament. We look at the letters of Paul, Peter, John, There's morality issues all through it, still, because God is always unchangeably a moral God.

But the how is what's critical. This is the key to the song. Do this and live. The law commands, but gives you neither feet nor hands. The law is ready to condemn. A better way is grace does bring. It bids me fly and gives me wings. The grace of the Lord is the enablement to live the life of God which is moral. Indeed moral, but it's His life. So anyway, with that, let's pray.