Monday, May 20, 2013
The Purpose of the Ten Commandments, Part 17 of 26
TEXT: "For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the Lord; I will put my laws in their mind and write them on their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. None of them shall teach his neighbor, and none his brother, saying, 'Know the Lord,' for all shall know me, from the least of them to the greatest of them. For I will be merciful to their unrighteousness, and their sins and their lawless deeds I will remember no more" (Hebrews 8:10-12).
IDEA: When we become Christians, we exchange the Law as a standard and see the Law as a goal.
PURPOSE: To help listeners understand how a study of God's Law shows us what God wants us to be.
When the Japanese make cars, they say they have a goal of zero defects.
Do you think that every car that comes off the assembly line is without any defects?
Do you see any difference between a standard and a goal?
Do the Japanese really have a goal or do they have a standard?
As a standard, every car with a defect coming off that line fails; what they really have is a goal.
I. Before we come to Christ, the Law is a standard that condemns us.
The standard is absolute.
As a standard, the Law finds us guilty and condemns us.
It's like having a standard that Olympic athletes have to run a 2-minute mile; some run faster than others but no one can reach that standard.
It is futile to try to keep the Law as a standard of righteousness in order to be acceptable to God.
II. When we become Christians, we are declared righteous because of Jesus Christ, and the Law becomes a goal.
As a goal, the commandments show us what God wants us to be.
As a goal, they show us what the Spirit of God will do in us to change us.
Hebrews 8:10-12 states: "For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the Lord; I will put my laws in their mind and write them on their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. None of them shall teach his neighbor, and none his brother, saying, 'Know the Lord,' for all shall know me, from the least of them to the greatest of them. For I will be merciful to their unrighteousness, and their sins and their lawless deeds I will remember no more."
What is the difference between the covenant that God made with Israel and the new covenant He makes with all the people He brings to Himself?
As a goal, we can be motivated because God is doing in us what the Law points to.
III. When we fail to reach the goal, we can throw ourselves back on the mercy of Christ, but then we get up and live the way He wants us to live.
If I try to swim in the Olympics, it would take me 15 minutes to swim for that which the record is 2 minutes. If I keep getting into the pool, I may get closer to the goal with practice.
