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God’s
Constitution for Living 8
Grace
Emmanuel Church
Pastor Sam
Chess
(Stop in the
Name of the Law)
As we read the Ten Commandments, we see God restricting Israel. I
don’t think they saw it that way. They (at least initially)saw that God
was loving them so much, as a people, that out of all the nations on
the earth God was giving them His Special Law. The fact that God cared
so much about them that he was willing to communicate with them in such
a specific way was to them a great privilege. Right after the giving of
the Law Israel considered following the Law a delight…something they
got to do in their special relationship with God.
There is a specific order to the Big Ten:
Commandment #1 Attitude toward God
Commandments #2-4 Actions toward God
Commandments #5-9 Actions toward others
Commandment #10 Attitude toward others
$64,000 question… do these laws apply to you or don’t they?
I. Stop in the Name of the Law!
Galatians 5:4 For if you are trying to make yourselves right with
God by keeping the law, you have been cut off from Christ! You have
fallen away from God's grace. Paul (Wow…you don’t have to worry about
committing adultery or stealing …it says so right there! If I’m worried
about how my murdering somebody will affect my relationship with God…
then I’m not walking in grace! It looks like if I am “in Christ” and
“walking in grace” I can commit adultery and waltz right into heaven…..
VS. (compare that to…)
Matthew 5:17 "Don't misunderstand why I have come. I did not come to
abolish the Law of Moses or the writings of the prophets. No, I came to
fulfill them. (NLT) Jesus
Do we have a huge problem here? Are Paul and Jesus is direct
disagreement? Is Jesus saying the law holds and Paul saying…don’t sweat
the small stuff.
No. Paul and Jesus are talking about the same thing from two
different perspectives. Paul is talking about the:
- Ceremonial parts of the Law…sacrifices, offerings, feasts,
festivals, foods
- Civil parts of the Law…. …circumcision…relationship with
neighboring countries
Jesus says all of these things are absorbed in the New Covenant …..
When you came to church today you didn’t go out and snag a lamb out of
the barn to sacrifice. If you go to McDonald’s today you aren’t going
to worry about mixing the milk and meat of the same animal. I noticed,
on the news, in a picture of the Israeli conflict, with Hezbollah, a
picture of a McDonald’s in Tel Aviv. Trust me…they are not serving
cheeseburgers! (I actually ordered one in Jerusalem one time….I didn’t
get it!) “We don’t mix the milk and meat of the same animal!”
Let me read more of Jesus words in Matthew 5:
Matthew 5:17"Don't misunderstand why I have come. I did not come
to abolish the law of Moses or the writings of the prophets. No, I
came to fulfill them. 18 I assure you, until heaven and earth
disappear, even the smallest detail of God's law will remain until
its purpose is achieved. 19 So if you break the smallest
commandment and teach others to do the same, you will be the least
in the Kingdom of Heaven. But anyone who obeys God's laws and
teaches them will be great in the Kingdom of Heaven.
If Jesus isn’t talking about laws about sacrificing animals or
mixing milk and cheese….what is he talking about?
What both Jesus and Paul agree on over and over is that God’s
moral laws do not go away just because of the change from the
Old Covenant to the New Covenant. Both Jesus and Paul take these few,
simple words of the Ten Commandments and the other moral laws of the
Old Testament and spell out in great detail how we are to walk them out
in our daily lives.
` No adultery in the Old Testament become “no adultery” in the
New..with the added admonition not to lust!
No murder in the Old Testament becomes “no murder” in the New
Testament with the added admonition not to hate!
God’s Moral Law plays the same positive role in our lives today that
it played in the Israelites right after Moses came down from the
mountain with the two tablets. How would you know that it’s wrong to
steal unless God was gracious enough to tell you. God’s moral law isn’t
something bad….it’s something good. Paul said:
Romans 7: 7-8 ….. But it was the Law that showed me what sin is.
I did not know it was sin to follow wrong desires, but the Law
said, "You must not follow wrong desires." 8 The Law made me know
how much I was sinning…..
Galatians 5:24 So the law was put in charge to lead us to Christ
that we might be justified by faith.
O.K…..Speaking of sinning…how are you doing with the eighth
commandment?
II. To Steal or not to Steal that is the Question
Exodus 20:15"Do not steal!
Whatever it means you are not supposed to do it. Webster defines
it:
Quiet moving of a hunter through the woods
The way a good baseball player gets to the next base
Artful way a person obtains another’s heart
Negotiating for a low price
Taking another’s property
KLEPTO- the act by which we dishonestly obtain something from
another person.
Have any here, this week, dishonestly obtained something from
somebody else that was not rightfully theirs?
George Gallup, in conjunction with the Wall Street Journal
conducted a poll with questions about misusing expense accounts at
work and under-reporting one’s income and a high percentage
responded that they did not believe these things were stealing. The
responses were virtually the same whether of not the respondent
reported regular church attendance. Gallup concluded:
Many of those who claim an interest in religion do not let it
affect their personal views on morality!
Should it? As long as you don’t rob banks or sneak into peoples
houses and steal their jewelry, can you pretty much, personally,
determine which other questionable acquisitions in your life are or
aren’t stealing?
Some, in our society feel it is morally right to take from those
who have too much as long as the recipients are in greater need.
Take from the have’s and give it to the have-not’s. The
have’s have what the have-not’s have not. So if the have-not’s
take what the have’s have, then the have not’s will have what
the have’s have.
Muslim theology teaches that morality stops where infidelity
starts. If you take something from another whether, it is their
goods or reputation, or life….if that person does not bow the knee
to Allah you have not only not done wrong, you have actually done
something virtuous.
The Israelites lived in a pagan society where most of their
neighbors had no moral mooring whatsoever….. that’s what they had grown
up with as well…it was all some of them knew and into that mindset
comes the admonition not to take anything from anyone else that was not
rightfully theirs.
Exodus 22: 1"A fine must be paid by anyone who steals an ox or
sheep and then kills or sells it. For oxen the fine is five oxen
for each one stolen. For sheep the fine is four sheep for each one
stolen. 3… "A thief who is caught must pay in full for everything
that was stolen. If payment is not made, the thief must be sold as
a slave to pay the debt. 4 If someone steals an ox or a donkey or a
sheep and it is recovered alive, then the thief must pay double the
value.
Exodus 21:16 "Anyone who kidnaps another (people stealing) and
either sells him or still has him when he is caught must be put to
death.
God made a lot of provisions protecting the have-not’s in society
but He was very explicit…. The fact that you don’t have something does
not give you the right to take from someone who does!
III. The Heart of the Matter….
Here is where it gets deeper and really, really important. You have
commands in here against idolatry, against murdering people, against
committing adultery…. Why is stealing such a big deal.
If I take you life…that’s a big deal…
If I take your wife…that’s a big deal…
But if I steal your Snicker’s bar…come on……
Here’s what you need to know. You remember this list from earlier:
Commandment #1 Attitude toward God
Commandments #2-4 Actions toward God
Commandments #5-9 Actions toward others
Commandment #10 Attitude toward others
Let me rephrase what this is saying: Your attitude and actions
toward God directly affect your relationship with Him! Your attitude
and actions toward other people also reflects back on your relationship
with God. If you break one of these commandments toward other people,
this issue you are creating is not just with the person you have sinned
against;
We already saw, from Scripture, that murdering someone is not
just a sin againt them but a huge sin against the God in who’s
image they were made.
Last week we saw, from Scripture last week, that committing
adultery is not just a sin with someone, or against the spouse of
someone, it is ultimately a sin against your Creator.
When you get to the command against stealing, the real issue is not
that you have deprived someone of their Snickers bar…. The real issue
is that you have broken faith in a relationship with another human
being which ultimately comes out as a sin against your Creator.
Often when some-one’s home is broken into they talk of feeling
violated. Ron and Paula had a break in a few months ago and the
things that they lost weren’t really the issue. The issue was
that someone had stepped over an invisible line and invaded their
lives in an immoral way. We have been broken into twice and I
can hardly remember what was taken but I do remember the sense of
vulnerability. (Steve’s shotgun)
Once you begin to understand that stealing is not just the act of
taking some little item that belongs to another but is in fact a
flagrant stepping over a line into a broken relationship that violates
a brotherhood God puts between all human beings…. You can start to
grasp that stealing can be much bigger than Snicker’s bars or shotguns.
Deprivation of Property
Deprivation of Liberty (kidnapping, slavery)
Deprivation of Dignity (stealing another’s reputation or
community standing)
Deprivation of Justice (oppressing another) God doesn’t take
this lightly…
Isaiah 10: 1 Woe to those who make unjust laws, to those who
issue oppressive decrees, 2 to deprive the poor of their rights and
withhold justice from the oppressed of my people, making widows
their prey and robbing the fatherless. 3 What will you do on the
day of reckoning, when disaster comes from afar? To whom will you
run for help? Where will you leave your riches?
5) Deprivation of Opportunity (stealing from employers or
employees)
God told Israel, I have entered into a covenant relationship with
you. As part of your covenant with me…I expect you to treat other
people as a reflection of your covenant relationship with me.(That
includes keeping your mitts off of everything that is rightfully
theirs!)
Once again, Jesus , rather than throwing away the Old Testament
moral command… .instead strengthens it. I don’t want you to just
tolerate other people…I want you to love them like I do! Part of
that love that you are going to develop for other people is going to
keep you from violating them by immorally taking from what they have.
Romans 13:8 Pay all your debts, except the debt of love for
others. You can never finish paying that! If you love your
neighbor, you will fulfill all the requirements of God's law. 9
For the commandments against adultery and murder and stealing and
coveting--and any other commandment--are all summed up in this one
commandment: "Love your neighbor as yourself." 10 Love does no
wrong to anyone, so love satisfies all of God's requirements.
A proper relationship with others keeps you from violating this
commandment by taking what belongs to them. If you do take what is
theirs, you are violating not only them… but also God.
If you haven’t knocked over a bank lately you should be commended
for that… however you also need to look deep inside and evaluate your
relationship to others to make sure you are not stepping over any other
line that God has defined.
Romans 2:21 you, then, who teach others, do you not teach
yourself? You who preach against stealing, do you steal?
Ephesians 4:28 If you are a thief, stop stealing. Begin using
your hands for honest work, and then give generously to others in
need.
Mark 15:27 With Him they also crucified two robbers, one on His
right and the other on His left.
Why not murderers or adulterers… Why thieves?
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