©2004 Larry Huntsperger Peninsula Bible Fellowship

09/19/04

The Perfect Pathway To Freedom

9/19/04 The Perfect Pathway To Freedom

We are going to spend this morning

talking about the moral law of God.

I know that, in many religious circles,

if a preacher were to start the morning with that statement,

what would then follow

would be a series of strong exhortations

designed to attempt to motivate the listeners

into being more faithful

in their efforts to keep that moral law.

That is not what’s going to happen this morning.

It’s not

because, even though it might sound great,

and, if I could do it skillfully enough,

it might generate some level of emotional motivation with you

to try harder to be better,

in the end it would be powerless to bring about any enduring changes in our lives.

You see,

if you are not yet a Christian,

if you have not yet reached that point in your own pilgrimage with your Creator

where you have recognized your need for the forgiveness He offers us through Christ,

and if you have not yet placed your life into His hands,

any efforts on my part

to try to urge you to raise your moral standard of living would be useless

because you will not trust God’s laws at the heart level

until you first begin to trust Him at the heart level.

And if you are a Christian,

there already exists within you,

rooted deep within your spirit,

a hunger and thirst for righteousness,

a longing for a life that honors your Lord.

It is a hunger that was created within you by God Himself,

placed there by Him when you bowed before Him

and placed your life into His hands.

It is a part of that remarkable recreative work of God

accomplished by Him within every one of His Children.

This past week I was involved in a phone conversation

with a man who established contact with me

as a result of reading some things I’d written.

He calls every few months,

and this time he called because he was struggling with some sin patterns

that had been deeply imbedded in his flesh

during his life prior to his entrance into the family of God.

And in our conversation he said,

“What I want more than anything else

is to live a life that honors my Lord.

I’m just so sick of these battles inside me.”

Now, where in the world did that hunger for righteousness come from?

It came from that recreative work

that God has already accomplished within him, and in fact within every believer.

Throughout Scripture our Lord uses a number of different terms

in His efforts to communicate what He has accomplished within us.

He calls it our being born again.

He calls it the creation of “the new man” within us.

He calls it our receiving a “new heart”.

He describes it as our having a spring of living water flowing out from our innermost being.

He describes it as our entering into a Father/child relationship with God Himself.

He describes it as our entering into a marriage union with Christ.

He describes it as our becoming the body of Jesus Christ on this earth.

He describes it as our becoming living stones in God’s foundation for the human race.

He describes it as our being raised from the dead into new life in the presence of God,

seated with Him in heavenly places.

He describes it as our now being “in Christ”,

and as Christ now being “in us”.

He describes it as our having been justified before God by faith,

and as our receiving our entering into this grace in which we stand.

He tells us that we have now literally become the holy ones of God on this earth.

And all of those terms,

and all of those images,

and all of those mental pictures and many more

are given to us by our God

in His attempts to communicate to us the truth

that something huge,

and real,

and eternal has changed forever at the spirit level of our being

as a result of our reaching out to Him for the salvation He has offered us through Christ.

But my point here is simply this -

if we have come to God through faith in Christ,

one of the changes that God accomplishes within us

is His placing within us

a spirit-level trust in and respect for the moral commandments of God.

Now, obviously that does not mean

that we then live flawless moral lives as God’s people.

But it does mean that a huge change

has already taken place within us

in our relationship to His moral law.

And it also means that,

where we continue to live in disobedience to His moral law,

that disobedience generates tremendous tension in our lives,

and it also means that, at the center of that battle,

there still remain within us lies imbedded in our minds and emotions,

lies that are telling us

that the moral law of God is our enemy,

walling us off from the approach to life that will bring true fulfillment.

During the past few weeks

I have shared with you a diagram

in which I’ve pictured the moral law of God

as a protective framework surrounding us,

keeping us safe from self-destructive behavior in life.

If we are Christians,

our spirits can recognize and rejoice in that truth.

But when it comes to our daily living,

there are places where our minds and emotions

not only do not rejoice in that truth,

but where they recoil at it,

viewing the framework not as our great gift given to us by our God,

but rather as a cage we desperately want to escape from.

Depending upon what lies have been imbedded in us from our past lives,

It may be in the area of honesty,

places in our lives where we just know that some measure of deception is essential

if we are going to be able get what we believe we really need.

It may be in our sexuality,

places where we are certain the boundaries established by our God

are great in theory,

but simply will not work

or do not apply to our lives personally.

It may be in our relationship with authority,

places were, perhaps because we have been hurt by authority figures in the past,

we are now determined to resist submission to any authority at all costs,

telling ourselves it’s a sign of weakness

and that it will rob us of the kind of control over our own lives that will make us truly happy.

And one of the major focuses of God’s work within us

is His helping us to see these lies

and replace them with trust in Him

and in what He’s said to us.

It is a healing process He seeks to accomplish within us

because He wants us truly free,

and because all immorality brings with it bondage,

robbing us of our inner peace,

and destroying those relationships we value the most.

Our relationship to the moral law of God is a fascinating thing.

If it develops as God intends,

there are at least three distinct phases we go through

in our relationship to that moral law.

The first phase begins with open hostility

between our spirits and His Law.

Have you ever wondered

why in the world God presented His law as He did?

Why, when God first offered His Moral Law

in the form of the 10 Commandments,

why didn’t He word those commandments in such a way

that we could more easily hear His love in what He was saying?

Why didn’t He say something like,

‟My beloved creation,

I love you,

and I care about you far too much

to allow you to self-destruct through immorality.

I want you to know the truth.

I want you to know that

there are some things that will always hurt you,

some things that will always bring you pain,

some things that will destroy your relationships with the people around you.

Listen to Me, my people, and trust what I say.”

Why did He choose, rather,

to present His moral law

in the form of rigid,

inflexible,

nonnegotiable, divine demands.

THOU SHALT NOT commit adultery.

THOU SHALT NOT kill.

THOU SHALT NOT bear false witness.

THOU SHALT NOT steal.

THOU SHALT NOT take the name of the Lord your God in vain.

Why? Because the first great purpose of the Moral Law of God

was not to show us how life does work,

it was to show us the root problem

why life doesn’t work.

It was given in order to confront us

with our inner spirit of rebellion against our God,

because until that issue is resolved

no amount of changed behavior

will deliver us from the death within us.

It’s like a person in his mid thirties

who has been a heavy smoker since his teens.

He goes to the doctor for a check up

and is told that he has lung cancer.

He responds to that news by saying,

‟OK then, as of today I quit smoking!”

Quitting smoking is all well and good

but it will not meet the need of the moment,

and it will not solve the problem.

The cancer still exists.

And in the same way

making some changes to our moral conduct

will not restore us to God

or remove the death within us.

So, the first great purpose of the Moral Law of God

is to provide our rebellious spirits

with a confrontation with the Divine authority of God

that drives us to rebellion.

Rom. 5:20 The Law came in so that the transgression would increase...

I didn’t say that, God did.

But why would God want us to sin more?

Because He loves us

and He knows that what we long for

and what we need more than anything else

is a restored union with Him.

It is what we were created for,

and what our spirits hunger for more than anything else,

more than everything else.

But most of us will not forsake our rebellion

and reach out to Him

until we are forced to recognize

that running our own lives

independent from our God

is not working.

And nothing creates a sense of desperation

like the natural consequences of sin in our lives.

We may not use those words

to communicate it to ourselves,

but with most of us

it is our recognition

of our desperate need for help,

for healing,

for some answers outside of ourselves

that ultimately drives us to our God.

But recognizing our need

is only the first phase

of the three-phase pilgrimage

in our relationship to the Law.

After driving us to sin

in a way that makes us desperate for the answers

that only our God can supply,

there is a second major role

that the Moral Law of God serves in our lives.

After driving us to sin,

it is then used by God to condemn us

on the basis of that sin.

Phase #1 - it demands obedience from us.

Phase #2 - it condemns us when we fall short.

And for those of us who come to God

there will be a part of that process

in which God will place His moral law along side of our lives

and force us to recognize

how far short we have fallen.

We hear Paul talking to us

about that process in his own life

in Romans 7 where he says,

Rom. 7:13 ¶ Therefore did that which is good become a cause of death for me? May it never be! Rather it was sin, in order that it might be shown to be sin by effecting my death through that which is good, so that through the commandment sin would become utterly sinful.

Rom. 7:14 ¶ For we know that the Law is spiritual, but I am of flesh, sold into bondage to sin.

“...so that through the commandment sin would become utterly sinful...”

“...I am of flesh, sold into bondage to sin...”

Phase #1 - the law drives us to sin.

Phase #2 - the law then condemns us and finds us guilty before God.

And for obvious reasons

this second phase in our relationship to the law

is by far the most terrifying and painful.

It is at this point

that we find ourselves

standing guilty

and justifiably condemned before a righteous God.

And this is the work of the God of Love?

YES!

Because it is that desperation,

that sense of helplessness before the law

that prepares us for the Person of Jesus Christ.

We see this same pattern being modeled

in the life of Christ Himself

when He was here.

For hundreds of years

the Nation of Israel had reworked and reworked and reworked again

the moral law of God

until they had formed it into

an intricate religious system

with which they could be comfortable.

They told themselves

they could stand perfect before God

if they kept this rule

and that rule,

if they avoided this unclean thing,

and that unclean thing.

And at that crucial point in history,

preparing the world for His own crucifixion,

He blasted through all their religious games and said in effect,

“You can never be comfortable with the law.

You cannot hide in it.

You cannot hide from it.

You cannot run from it.

And there is no way you can ever fulfill its demands.”

Matt. 5:27 ¶ "You have heard that it was said, ' You shall not commit adultery';

Matt. 5:28 but I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman with lust for her has already committed adultery with her in his heart.

Matt. 5:29 "If your right eye makes you stumble, tear it out and throw it from you; for it is better for you to lose one of the parts of your body, than for your whole body to be thrown into hell.

Matt. 5:30 "If your right hand makes you stumble, cut it off and throw it from you; for it is better for you to lose one of the parts of your body, than for your whole body to go into hell.

And those who were there,

who heard Him,

and lived with Him,

were powerfully drawn to the person of Christ,

but they were terrorized by the teachings of Christ.

Why did He do that?

For the same reason

the Spirit of God reaches into our lives

and plants His law next to us

and says, ‟LOOK! YOU FALL SHORT!!!”

Christ did it when He was here,

and His Spirit does it in our lives now,

so that we will cry out, ‟GOD! Please help me! There must be another way.”

And only when the Moral Law of God

has first been able to create within us

that sense of helplessness and desperation

are we ready to hear our God saying,

Rom. 3:21-22 ¶ But now apart from the Law the righteousness of God has been manifested, ... even the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all those who believe...”

Rom. 3:28 For we maintain that a man is justified by faith apart from works of the Law.

Rom. 5:1 Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ,

Rom. 5:2 through whom also we have obtained our introduction by faith into this grace in which we stand...”

The law drives us to sin,

it then condemns us and makes us desperate for some other way back to God.

And then, having fulfilled that role,

it is removed from ever again serving

as the basis upon which we relate to our Creator.

Rom. 7:4 ¶ Therefore, my brethren, you also were made to die to the Law through the body of Christ, so that you might be joined to another, to Him who was raised from the dead, in order that we might bear fruit for God.

We in the Christian community

are world famous for blurring the line between Christ and the Law.

We subtly suggest

or blatantly profess that as Christians

our continued union with Christ

depends upon our obedience to the moral law of God.

God, however, does not blur those lines.

He simply offers us a choice.

We can choose to relate to Him

on the basis of the Moral Law,

or we can choose to relate to Him

through faith in the sacrifice of Christ for our sins.

If we choose the moral law of God

our security must rest

in our ability to keep that law perfectly

from the cradle to the grave.

If we choose the Person of Christ

then our security rests in knowing

that this day we stand accepted by God,

bathed in the radiance of His love for us,

for the same reason we were able to stand

accepted by Him

the first day we came to Him in faith,

because today,

just as then,

our faith in the death of Christ

cleanses us from all unrighteousness.

I love the way Paul says it in II Cor. 3:4-6:

2 Cor. 3:4 ¶ Such confidence we have through Christ toward God.

2 Cor. 3:5 Not that we are adequate in ourselves to consider anything as coming from ourselves, but our adequacy is from God,

2 Cor. 3:6 who also made us adequate as servants of a new covenant, not of the letter but of the Spirit; for the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life.

The letter kills.

It kills our ability to respond to the love of God now

just as it killed prior to our union with Him.

If you see your God

standing on the other side of that fence,

arms folded,

fists clenched,

turning His back on you until you get it right,

it will paralyze your ability

to grow in your walk with the King.

But there is one more phase

we need to look at

in our relationship to the moral law of God

before we can complete the picture.

In phase #1 the Law of God demands obedience, arousing our sinful passions,

and drives us to sin.

In phase #2 the moral law of God stands next to us,

condemning us as sinful,

and driving us to Christ.

But then, once we enter into Christ,

and the Moral law of God

forever ceases to be our judge and jury,

once we can rest in our peace with God

through our Lord Jesus Christ,

once we truly realize

that the moral law of God can never again condemn us,

can never again separate us from the love of our God,

for the first time in our lives,

we can look at the Moral Law of God honestly,

objectively,

and see in it what we could never have seen

when we were fighting against it.

And if we allow God

to lead us through all three phases

in our relationship with His moral law,

in this third phase we will discover

the Moral Law becoming

not our road map back to God,

but rather our road map into true freedom of spirit.

We will see

the way in which through the moral law

our God builds for us

an absolutely safe and secure framework in which we can live our lives

without ever getting caught again

in the bondage,

and addiction,

and self-destructive patterns that immorality always brings into our lives.

And in this third phase,

not only will we not resent the Moral law of God,

but we will discover within ourselves

a hunger and a thirst for righteousness

that becomes a driving force in our lives.