Participants: Pr. John Lomacang
Series Code: ASHF
Program Code: ASHF000145A
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00:19 Hello friends, and welcome to another Bible study
00:22 here at the 3ABN Worship Center. 00:24 This is, A Sharper Focus. 00:25 And we thank you for tuning in tonight 00:28 for the beginning of a new topic. 00:31 And we'll introduce that topic in just a moment. 00:34 But sometimes we want to know where you're tuning in from. 00:37 I'll give you the web page in just a moment 00:39 where you can do a couple of things. 00:40 One, get a copy of the lesson, 00:43 and also access to videos and the prior lessons 00:47 and the prior videos, and also you can send us emails. 00:50 You can also visit our web page as well as our Facebook page 00:55 and send your requests or your questions to us. 00:58 But for the next 57 minutes or so we're going to have a time 01:02 studying the Word together, and we do pray that you'll 01:05 get your Bibles and your family. 01:07 If you're joining us from a church, 01:09 if you're joining us from within the United States 01:11 or around the world, we do welcome you again also. 01:14 But let's begin with a word of prayer before we open 01:17 the Word of God this evening. 01:19 Let's pray. 01:21 Loving Father in heaven, we thank You for the goodness of 01:25 Your mercy toward us, for Your grace, 01:28 for Your blessing, and Lord, also for the strength 01:30 that each of us receives when we call upon Your holy name. 01:35 Tonight as we open Your Word to study together, 01:38 we pray that Your Spirit will connect us across the airwaves 01:42 and that our minds will be furnished with knowledge 01:45 necessary, as well as the strength to live in 01:48 harmony with that knowledge. 01:49 We pray and thank You in Jesus' name. 01:52 Everyone said... 01:54 - Everyone said? ~ Amen. 01:56 There you go. There you go. 01:58 The website that you'd like to go to get a copy of the lesson 02:02 is the following website: 02:08 That's where you can download lesson number 35. 02:10 What number did I say? 02:12 Number 35. 02:13 And that is entitled, The Truth About the Christian Obligation. 02:17 The Truth About the Christian Obligation 02:20 Now at that very same website you can also access 02:22 the videos and the prior lessons. 02:25 And if you want to follow along a wonderful Bible study 02:27 at your home, or your church, or wherever, 02:30 go to the video first. 02:32 And then from the video, at the very introductions, 02:35 it will tell you what lesson to download to follow along. 02:39 Now before we go into our lesson though, 02:40 we always like to sing our theme song. 02:42 And our theme song is, Victory In Jesus. 02:45 Let's sing this theme song tonight. 02:55 I heard an old, old story, how the Savior came from glory, 03:03 how He gave His life on Calvary to save a wretch like me. 03:10 I heard about His groaning, of His precious blood's atoning; 03:18 then I repented of my sins and won the victory. 03:25 O victory in Jesus, my Savior forever. 03:33 He sought me and bought me with His redeeming blood. 03:40 He loved me ere I knew Him, and all my love is due Him. 03:48 He plunged me to victory beneath the cleansing flood. 03:56 I heard about a mansion He has built for me in glory, 04:03 and I heard about the streets of gold beyond the crystal sea; 04:11 about the angels singing and the old redemption story. 04:18 And some sweet day I'll sing up there the song of victory. 04:26 O victory in Jesus, my Savior forever. 04:33 He sought me and bought me with His redeeming blood. 04:41 He loved me ere I knew Him, and all my love is due Him. 04:48 He plunged me to victory beneath the cleansing flood. 04:56 He plunged me to victory beneath the cleansing flood. 05:06 Amen. 05:08 Tonight the topic is a new one. 05:11 Let's read that topic title together. 05:13 It's on the screen. 05:23 Now you know I always enjoy laying foundation for this. 05:27 The word, "obligation," is a very binding word. 05:32 It is not the truth about the Christian option, 05:35 or the truth about the Christian choices, 05:37 but the truth about the Christian obligation. 05:40 Now we live in a world today where people 05:43 have credit cards. 05:44 And is it an obligation to pay your credit card? 05:48 Come on, talk to me. 05:50 Is it an obligation to pay your house note? 05:52 Or your car note? 05:54 Or your light bill? 05:55 Well the answer is, "yes," over and over, 05:57 and over, and over again. 05:58 Any bill you have, it is an obligation, 06:01 it is a binding connection between you and the person 06:05 providing the service, or the thing that you have purchased, 06:09 or the things that are on time payments. 06:11 Now, "obligation," also, according to Webster's Dictionary 06:17 is an act or course of action to which a person 06:20 is morally and legally bound; a duty of commitment. 06:25 A duty of what? 06:28 A duty of commitment. 06:29 Morally and legally bound. 06:32 Now, let me go ahead and segue that 06:35 into the Christian world today. 06:37 You know, when we think about a bill that's due at the 06:40 end of the month, one of the reasons why Christians 06:43 sometimes choose not to give God an honest tithe 06:47 is because they think of their other obligations 06:50 above the obligation to the Lord. 06:52 So God, when you think about the Christian life, 06:56 and I'm using this analogy, first to the Christian, 06:59 because the world doesn't have any obligation to God at all. 07:02 Unless you give your life to the Lord, talking about obligation 07:05 is of no value. 07:06 It's like saying to a husband or a wife, 07:08 "It is your obligation to treat me well," 07:10 and somebody said, "Excuse me, I'm not even married to you." 07:14 That's in the husband/wife relationship. 07:16 But also the church member to the church member, 07:19 or person to person. 07:20 Each of us has an obligation to the other person. 07:23 The Bible says, "Love your neighbor as yourself." 07:27 But now going to the obligation portion of it, 07:30 usually, unless you sign a contract, you are under no 07:34 obligation to stick to the conditions of the contract. 07:38 Somebody recently told me, they said that they went to 07:41 purchase a car, and before they even looked at the car, 07:45 the car dealer said to them, "Sign this." 07:48 And they said, "What is that?" 07:49 They said, "Well that is a confidentiality clause." 07:53 They said, "Why would I need a confidentiality clause?" 07:56 They said, "Well, as you look for cars we want to 07:58 keep your information confidential." 08:00 And they person says, "What information?" 08:02 What they came to find out is, before they even go to look 08:06 at what car, the dealer, many of the car dealers, 08:09 had them sign a credit app 08:12 so they could look into their credit to determine 08:14 whether or not they could even afford 08:16 or whether or not this person is qualified 08:19 to even purchase a car. 08:21 Well, this person that already had their financing said, 08:24 "I'm not going to sign that paper." 08:26 They said, "You have to sign it." 08:27 They said, "No I don't have to sign it." 08:29 They said, "Well if you don't sign it, 08:31 we can't sell you a car." 08:32 They said, "Bye, bye." 08:33 And they went to another dealership, 08:35 and another dealership said the same thing. 08:37 And another dealership, the same. 08:39 They all had the scheme of running credit checks on you. 08:42 And what many people don't know is, when you run a credit check 08:45 the credit bureaus begin to say, "All these credit checks 08:48 begin to lower your credit score." 08:50 So this person, concerned about that and understanding, 08:53 she said, "I did all my homework, 08:56 made sure I knew how they played the game, 08:59 and I got my own financing. 09:01 So I was not obligated to sign anything 09:05 because I had already made my obligation 09:07 to the company or the bank that was going to finance my car." 09:10 When it comes to the Christian life, there are many things that 09:12 people choose to do. 09:13 Let me give you some examples. 09:15 In the world today some Christians choose to go to 09:17 church on Sunday. 09:18 Others choose to go on Saturday. 09:21 The question is, what is the obligation? 09:24 Is it a choice? 09:25 I'm not going to talk about the Sabbath or Sunday tonight. 09:27 We've talked about that in prior lessons. 09:29 Some people choose to have a foot washing service 09:32 in their churches, other people choose not to. 09:35 Well what's the obligation? 09:37 Some people choose to smoke as Christians, 09:39 others choose to drink. 09:40 And they say, in moderation. 09:42 But what is our obligation? 09:44 Some people eat anything, 09:46 some people eat only clean foods, 09:48 some people are only vegetarians, 09:49 some people are vegans. 09:51 What is our obligation? 09:53 And so when you think about the life of the Christian, 09:55 tonight we're going to talk about the obligation that 09:58 each one of us has. 09:59 And I want to begin with a text that's not on our lesson. 10:02 Go with me to Psalm 116, and we're going to look 10:06 at a beautiful verse, verse 12, that really lays the foundation 10:10 for the obligation. 10:12 Now when you think of the word, "obligation," 10:13 it's kind of like a parent saying, "Clean up your room." 10:17 I don't want this topic to be a, "Clean up your room," 10:19 "Go wash the dishes," "Take out the trash," 10:21 kind of topic. 10:23 I want this to be on a solid foundation of our 10:25 love relationship with the Lord. 10:27 Alright? 10:29 Let's look at Psalm 116:12. 10:31 And the psalmist asks the question, 10:34 "What shall I render to the LORD for all His..." What? 10:38 "...benefits toward me?" 10:41 In other words, when you think of... 10:43 And I look back at my life growing up in a house 10:46 where I didn't have to pay the light bill, 10:48 didn't have to pay rent. 10:50 That's one of the reasons why whenever my dad and I disagreed, 10:53 the man raising me, I would always let him win. 10:57 Because I was not about to mess up a good thing. 11:02 He said, "I pay the light, I pay the gas, I pay the rent." 11:05 I mean, the mortgage. 11:07 And so if he said do it, I did it. 11:11 Because my obligation was to be obedient 11:14 to the one who's providing all these benefits toward me. 11:19 But the way that the psalmist pens this is in a loving way. 11:25 In other words, to say, "Lord, You've done so much for me, 11:30 what can I do for You? 11:31 What would You want me to do?" 11:33 So tonight we're going to dive into the topic 11:36 by looking at, we've talked about the commandments 11:39 of God before, but we're going to look at them 11:41 from a completely different perspective. 11:44 We're not going to look at them as to what each of them says, 11:47 or a number of other aspects of the commandments of God. 11:51 The day of the Sabbath, and honor your father 11:54 and your mother, and thou shalt not commit adultery, 11:55 thou shalt not steal; we're not looking at all that 11:57 in particulars, but we're looking at it 11:59 in a total picture. 12:01 In other words, the last obligation I think that 12:03 Christians often sidetrack is not because they want to 12:07 sidetrack it, but because in many denominations 12:10 ministers and teachers say, "According to this, 12:15 you're not obligated to honor the law of God." 12:19 So today if you're not obligated to honor the law of God, 12:24 then you can choose to do whatever you want. 12:27 But let's see what the Bible says. 12:28 Let's go to question number one tonight. 12:31 Question number one. 12:32 And here it is. 12:35 What does the Bible list as the Christian obligation? 12:43 We're going to go to the book of Ecclesiastes 12, 12:47 and we're going to look together at verse 13 12:53 and verse 14, alright? 12:56 Ecclesiastes 12:13-14 13:01 And some of you are already there. 13:03 And if you've been following, if you did download lesson 35, 13:07 you probably know where we're going to be going next, 13:10 and next, and next, and next. 13:12 But let's look at what the Bible says. 13:13 What does the Bible list as the Christian obligation? 13:16 Let's read this first one together. 13:17 Are you all ready? 13:19 Let's read this. Here we go. 13:44 That's Ecclesiastes 12:13-14 in the King James Version. 13:49 Now if you look at verse 12 again, or verse 13, that is, 13:52 you'll see it says, "For this is the whole duty of man." 13:58 In the phrase, "whole duty of man," 14:01 what single word can you give me? 14:03 Think about it, what single word can you give me? 14:07 Oh, it's in the title of our subject. 14:11 Oh, no. 14:13 Obligation. 14:15 If I could read that again. 14:16 "Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter: 14:18 Fear God, and keep his commandments, 14:20 for this is man's obligation." 14:22 It's the whole duty of man. 14:24 God said, "This is man's obligation." 14:26 So write that down. 14:27 What does the Bible list as the Christian obligation? 14:30 And here it is. What? 14:32 Keeping the commandments of God. 14:35 The conclusion. 14:36 If you preached a long sermon or a short sermon, 14:40 if you gave a ten week series or a two day series, 14:43 or a one hour presentation, and you came down to the conclusion, 14:47 the Lord is saying, at the end of all that you've said, 14:49 the conclusion is we've got to keep the commandments of God. 14:53 Because whether it is secret or whether it is open, 14:56 whether it is good or whether it is evil, 14:59 everything that we do will be brought into 15:01 an obligatory investigation. 15:04 An obligatory investigation. 15:06 Now let me tell you what I mean by that. 15:07 Follow me carefully. 15:09 An obligatory investigation is, when you get a phone call 15:14 from a bill collector. 15:16 I won't ask if you've ever gotten one. 15:18 But if you've ever gotten a phone call, 15:20 and you don't identify the number... 15:22 I've known people through the years that said, 15:24 "If I don't identify the number..." 15:26 What? "...I don't pick it up. 15:28 I don't answer it." 15:30 Because people sometimes try to avoid their... 15:34 ...avoid their obligations. 15:37 So they figure, if they don't answer the phone, 15:40 that they don't have to pay the bill. 15:42 Now is that true or false? 15:44 That's false. 15:45 Whether you answer the phone or not, 15:47 the bill is due. 15:49 And then they answer the phone and the bill collector 15:51 would say, "We've sent you three letters, 15:55 we have left messages, and you say, 'She's not home.'" 16:02 Some people try to avoid, 16:04 some people try to avoid their obligations. 16:07 But an obligation is something that is unavoidable. 16:10 When you think of the commandments of God, 16:12 according to the Scriptures they are unavoidable. 16:16 Now, let me ask you the question before we go to the next one. 16:23 Since the person making the phone call cannot see me, 16:28 am I still obligated to pay the bill? 16:32 Okay. 16:33 Since I can't see them, am I obligated to pay them? 16:38 Okay, I'm trying to find a way to hook you guys, 16:40 but you're staying with me. 16:43 So whether we see them or not, we are obligated. 16:47 Am I telling the truth? 16:48 Doesn't really matter whether you see the person or not. 16:51 Sometimes one of the hardest things to do is... 16:56 And let's put this in a different context. 16:57 If you go to Wal-Mart... 16:59 That's our superstore down here in southern Illinois. 17:04 ...and all your groceries or all the items you purchased 17:07 are now checked out, and the cashier says, 17:10 "That will be $72.41," do you say to them, 17:15 "I'm leaving. I am not paying. 17:18 I'm taking all my groceries and I'm leaving." 17:21 Now why don't we say that? 17:22 Why don't we say that? 17:24 Because we see them. 17:26 They're face to face. 17:28 We feel the moment that they tell us the total, 17:31 we're going to write a check, pay it in cash, 17:33 swipe our debit card or swipe our credit card. 17:36 Because we're face to face. 17:37 There's something about a face to face connection 17:39 that gives us the sense of obligation. 17:42 But there's something about being absent, 17:44 there's something about the invisibility. 17:46 So as we think about the invisibility, 17:49 not being face to face with God, 17:51 let's look at why it is still our obligation 17:54 to honor the commandments of God. 17:55 Look at question number two. Here it is. 18:05 Let's go to Hebrews 4:13. 18:07 How does the Bible describe the reason 18:10 why we must give an account? 18:14 Okay. Hebrews 4:13 18:17 This is really an amazing thing. 18:19 A wonderful text. 18:20 Because in the... 18:23 Well let me go ahead and read the text first before we 18:25 run ahead of ourselves. 18:26 Here it is. 18:44 So, according to the first text, whether it is good 18:50 or whether it is evil, we will give an account. 18:52 Whether it is open to the eyes of man or not, 18:56 it is always open to the eyes of God. 18:59 In other words, there is no hiding from God. 19:03 So let's put the answer down here. 19:06 How does the Bible describe the reason 19:08 why we must give an account? 19:10 If you could summarize it, what would you say? 19:13 God sees it all, God knows it all. 19:17 You can't hide anything from God. 19:19 Use whatever kind of phrase that you'd like to put down there 19:22 for your answer. 19:23 God knows it all, God sees it all. 19:26 Do you think God has night vision? 19:28 Huh? 19:30 Of course He does? 19:32 Nothing is hidden from His sight. 19:35 "But all things are naked and open to the eyes of Him 19:37 to whom we must give an account." 19:39 Matter of fact, God sees so well, His word is a discerner 19:44 of the thoughts and intentions of our hearts. 19:49 If you look at the life of Jesus... 19:50 Matter of fact, in the book of Hebrews... 19:53 Okay, I'm going to turn there. 19:54 However, it's on the screen. 19:55 But I'll go ahead and turn there. 19:58 Jesus met many occasion where He looked at the 20:02 religious people of His day, and He said to them, 20:06 let's look at verse 12, 20:07 let's look at verse 12 of Hebrews 4, 20:10 He said to them, "Why do you think that in your heart?" 20:14 Can you look at somebody sometimes 20:16 and tell what they're thinking? 20:17 Have you been able to do that? 20:19 Now you wouldn't look across the room and say, 20:21 "I know what she's thinking." 20:22 But if you're interacting with someone and you say, 20:24 "Could you go to the store of me," and they go... 20:30 "Never mind. I'll do it myself." 20:33 "Can you go to the store for me?" 20:35 "Sure." 20:37 "Here's what I would like you to get." 20:38 Facial expressions says a lot. 20:40 What's the phrase we have? 20:41 A picture is worth a thousand words. 20:44 And the face, I tell you, the expressions 20:47 of the human is amazing. 20:48 It's detectable. 20:50 But look at verse 12 of Hebrews 4. 20:53 "For the word of God is living," or quick, "and powerful, 20:56 and sharper than any two-edged sword, 20:58 piercing even to the division of soul and spirit, 21:04 and of joints and marrow, and is a discerner 21:07 of the thoughts and intents of the heart." 21:10 When it says, "soul and spirit," it means, man's intellect 21:14 as well as man's actions. 21:16 Man's intellect as well as his actions. 21:19 So whether you do it or not, if you're thinking it, 21:22 the Lord knows. 21:24 The thoughts of man are not hidden from the Lord. 21:27 He is the discerner of the thoughts and intentions 21:30 of our hearts. 21:32 Alright, let's go to number three. 21:33 So far we've seen that one of the reasons why we must 21:38 live in harmony with the commandments of God is, 21:40 hey, we cannot hide from them. 21:43 Look at question number three. 21:54 James 2:12 21:57 James 2:12 21:59 Now what you're going to see so far is, we talked about 22:02 hidden things. 22:05 We talked about things that are clothed or naked, 22:09 if it's in the night or if it's in the day. 22:11 If we can't see it all, if we can't see it, 22:14 God still has access to it. 22:16 Now we're going to bring out another component 22:20 that has to do with the commandments of God. 22:22 James 2:12 22:23 Here it is. 22:35 So let's look at the things. 22:37 Thoughts, intentions; speaking, and doing. 22:42 Thoughts and intentions, speaking and doing. 22:48 Another place in the Bible, the Bible says, 22:50 "As a man thinketh, so is..." What? 22:52 "...so is he." 22:54 So we often respond in harmony with our actions. 22:56 We do things in harmony with what we desire to do. 23:01 That's why Paul the apostle talked about 23:02 that struggle he had. 23:04 He said, "I want to do this, but I do that instead." 23:07 I don't want to do that, and I want to do this." 23:11 See, he had that difficulty. 23:13 We're going to show you, not only the obligation, 23:15 but we're going to also reveal to you how you get the power 23:18 to live in harmony with God's obligations. 23:21 Alright, let's go to question number four. 23:22 So what else does the Bible describe 23:24 as a standard of accountability? 23:26 The law of what? 23:27 The law of liberty. The law of liberty. 23:30 The reason why it says, "liberty," is, 23:33 liberty is freedom. 23:36 Is liberty freedom, yes or no? 23:38 Liberty is freedom. 23:39 The Statue of Liberty. 23:42 We call her, Lady Liberty. 23:44 Now if the Statue of Liberty is a symbol of freedom, 23:48 why is it taught today that God's law 23:51 is a symbol of bondage? 23:54 You get the point? 23:56 So one of the reasons why many Christians 23:58 don't honor the commandments of God is because they're taught 24:01 by their clergy, "If you keep the commandments, 24:03 you're in bondage." 24:05 But that's not what James said. 24:07 He said, the law of what? Liberty. 24:09 And he sighted adultery, he sighted covetousness, 24:14 or, "Thou shall not kill." 24:16 He sighted two of the commandments out of the ten. 24:18 And he called it, the law of liberty. 24:21 Now when you drive down the highway 24:22 and you see the yellow line, 24:26 and you're going west, do you say, "You know, I'm so 24:29 tired of that yellow line. 24:31 I'm going to go in the other lane." 24:33 You might be able to violate that yellow line 24:35 for a few minutes, 24:37 until you meet somebody who decides to live in harmony 24:40 with the law. 24:42 You cannot really break God's law. 24:45 You'll discover that it's impossible to break. 24:48 Because the wages of sin is what? Death. 24:51 Now somebody once said, 24:53 as a matter of fact it was an illustration somebody put out, 24:56 they said, "If you think you can violate the law of gravity, 25:00 jump out of a 100 story building." 25:02 Now don't do this. 25:04 But if you jump out of a 100 story building, 25:06 you might think the law of gravity has been suspended. 25:11 It has not been suspended. 25:13 You'll think so for 99 floors. 25:18 But the last floor will remind you, you can't suspend 25:21 the law of gravity. 25:22 Not on earth. 25:24 You cannot violate... 25:25 You cannot break, I should say. 25:27 You can violate, but you cannot break the commandments of God. 25:31 Alright. Let's go to number four. 25:33 Number four. 25:35 Okay. 25:38 Wow! 25:39 Some question that we have to ask ourselves is here. 25:49 Now the reason why this is important is because 25:53 when you understand that the law of God has a specific function, 25:57 when you understand what that function is, 26:00 then you'll come to the conclusion, "Wait a minute. 26:02 I really do need to live in harmony. 26:03 I am really obligated to honor it." 26:07 When you know that something is there for your good, 26:09 then you say, "Wait, I need to live in harmony. 26:12 My obligation to this law needs to stay intact." 26:16 Right? 26:17 Romans 3:20 26:18 Romans 3:20 Let's look at that together. 26:22 The Bible says as follows... 26:38 So let's look at something now. 26:40 How many of you have mirrors in your house? 26:44 Okay, some of you don't have mirrors. 26:45 That's okay. 26:48 I remember going to a friend's house, family member's house. 26:51 And... 26:53 I won't say it. 26:55 Okay, my brother-in-law. 26:56 I remember years ago... 26:57 This was before he, his wife, and family 26:59 moved into their new house. 27:00 But when they were in their former house 27:02 I went over there and said, "You don't have mirrors." 27:06 And the only place, I found a mirror just in this room. 27:09 And I said, "You guys need mirrors." 27:11 And I'm always comfortable when I can... 27:15 Like, when we go to hotels or motels where we stay, 27:18 it always frustrates me when the only mirror is in the bathroom. 27:23 I'm thinking, "Don't they know we need a mirror in the bedroom? 27:25 Wouldn't it be nice to have a mirror on the 27:27 sliding closet door?" 27:29 And I'm always excited when there's a mirror on the 27:31 closet door in the bedroom and in the bathroom. 27:34 Because sometimes, you know, the bathroom, 27:38 you shower and it's all steamy. 27:40 The last thing to try to do is to try to use a mirror 27:43 after the bathroom is already steamed. 27:45 But it's not that I like to look at myself. 27:47 That's not the point. 27:48 The point is, the mirror shows you your condition. 27:53 Sometimes people go out and they're like, you know, 27:55 they say, "How you doing?" 27:56 And nothing irritates me more than a guy on television 28:00 and his collar is like that. 28:01 And you say, "Didn't he look in the mirror today?" 28:03 Can you imagine if I did that, they'd say, 28:05 "Didn't he look in the... Did somebody... 28:07 Would somebody tell him his collar is bent?" 28:09 "Oh, my collar is bent. Okay." 28:12 You know. 28:14 Like the guy that was, there was a commercial a few years ago 28:17 where this corporate executive, 28:19 he was meeting with some clients. 28:22 And as he was walking to the foyer to meet with 28:24 these clients, he passed each person and they 28:27 straightened his collar, straightened his tie. 28:30 His jacket was folded, they pulled his pocket out. 28:34 And they figured he was all ready to meet the clients. 28:38 And he smiled, and there was a big broccoli right in his teeth. 28:44 And it was so funny. 28:45 It was so funny. 28:47 Because the fact of the matter is, if he had only looked in the 28:51 mirror, he would have seen his condition. 28:54 And there's nothing as embarrassing as going home, 28:59 after you've had many conversations, 29:02 and you go home and say, "Oh man, nobody told me." 29:06 And you go like this. 29:07 It could be after fellowship lunch, it could be at work, 29:11 you're talking to people. 29:13 So I have a saying. 29:14 If you're really my friend, 29:15 you'll tell me if something is in my teeth. 29:17 Amen? 29:19 That's my statement. 29:22 So the point of the matter is... 29:24 That's my pet peeve. That's right. 29:26 Make sure that wherever you go, 29:28 carry an extra toothbrush with you. 29:30 Don't just find yourself in a situation where you'll discover 29:33 when you get home, "Oh man, they didn't tell me. 29:35 Now I know why they were looking at me that way." 29:39 The Lord looks at us. 29:43 The reason why He created the law is, He wants us 29:47 to see our condition as He sees our condition. 29:52 Isn't that right? 29:54 He sees our condition, but He wants us to see our condition. 29:58 Now let's go ahead and take that same illustration 30:00 to the final completion. 30:02 If I decide to cover all the mirrors in my house, 30:07 because I'm predisposed or I have a phobia for reflections, 30:13 I will look a mess when I go into society. 30:16 Right? 30:18 Ladies, they do everything they can to get that stray 30:21 piece of hair put back in line, or... 30:25 The stories can go on and on. 30:27 If we only had a mirror, there are many things 30:29 that we could have avoided. 30:31 The law does not... 30:33 Now let me take it to the next level. 30:35 The mirror doesn't fix your condition. 30:39 It just reveals your condition. 30:41 It does what? 30:43 Reveals our condition. 30:45 The law of God reveals our condition. 30:48 So when we say the obligation of the Christian 30:51 is to live in harmony with the law of God, 30:53 I would say the obligation of the actor is to look 30:55 in the mirror before he goes on stage. 30:58 Or the newscaster, male or female, to go and check 31:01 himself out or herself before they go in public. 31:04 Me, you know. 31:06 What if I came out here and my jacket was buttoned 31:08 all the way the other way, like this. 31:10 I've seen people do that. 31:11 You know, they button their jacket like that. 31:13 They're on television. 31:15 And they do the whole, I've seen a pastor do the whole sermon. 31:17 And I'm just losing my mind. 31:21 Because I'm saying, "His jacket!" 31:24 And he doesn't feel it. 31:26 And I say... 31:28 And I'm trying to... 31:32 Have you seen that before? 31:33 I had one example like that. 31:36 And my good friend Pastor John Stanton 31:40 and his wife Rochelle were the only ones that noticed it. 31:44 I was preaching in one of my churches in California. 31:46 In Fairfield. I remember that very well. 31:48 I had on a black suit, or so I thought. 31:51 When I stepped on the rostrum I thought I had on a black suit. 31:54 She said at the end of the sermon, 31:56 "You wore blue pants today." 31:58 "I have on what color? Blue? 32:00 I have on blue pants?" 32:02 I thought I had on a black suit. 32:04 Evidently I did not look in the mirror. 32:07 That's what often happens when you ignore the mirror. 32:10 And sometimes, oh this is another illustration, 32:12 sometimes your house is so dark that even the mirror can't help. 32:17 You see, the world is so dark that the mirror won't do much 32:21 for people that are living in the dark. 32:23 You need light for the mirror to work. 32:26 Amen, someone? 32:27 So let's go and get this answer down. 32:29 Question number four, what is the major function of God's law? 32:33 To show us our sin. 32:35 To show us our condition. 32:38 It's not going to fix it, it's going to show it. 32:41 But if you get rid of all the mirrors... 32:43 So I feel kind of badly for people that are taught 32:45 that they don't need a mirror anymore. 32:48 In other words, they don't need God's law anymore. 32:50 Get rid of the mirror and you'll be just fine. 32:52 One of the dangers in that is thinking you're fine 32:55 when everybody sees your real condition. 32:58 Okay, let's go to number five. 33:00 Number five. Wow! 33:07 Very important question. 33:20 Let's go to Exodus 31:18. 33:23 Exodus 31:18 33:25 Now this is a very interesting approach 33:29 to understanding God's law. 33:32 Let's look at the answer. 33:34 Exodus 31:18. And here it is. 33:58 Have you ever had to have something notarized before? 34:02 You know what that is? Notary Public. 34:04 You know, some people say, "Well I want to buy this 34:07 lawn mower from you." 34:09 And you say, "Okay, final sale. You cannot return it. 34:13 For 'X' amount of dollars." 34:15 And if it's only your signature, then sometimes it won't 34:20 stand up in court. 34:21 But if you sign it, and he signs it, and it gets notarized, 34:25 all of a sudden the notary's signature with the seal 34:28 makes that document a legal one, and a binding one. 34:32 Do you think that the commandments of God are binding? 34:35 And what makes the commandments of God binding? 34:37 Tell me, what do you see on the screen? 34:39 What's in yellow? 34:41 Written with the finger of God. 34:44 In other words, the notary is God. 34:47 What makes the commandments of God, what sets it apart from 34:50 other portions of the Bible is, 2 Peter 1:21, 34:54 "Holy men of God spake as they were moved 34:58 by the Holy Ghost." 35:00 But there was something in the Bible that God did not 35:02 leave to anybody else. 35:04 The commandments. 35:06 The commandments. 35:07 God put His own finger to that. 35:11 He inspired men to write. 35:13 But God didn't say to Moses, 35:16 "Why don't you write the commandments down. 35:17 I'll tell you what to write." 35:18 You know, if God had done that, we would have easily said, 35:22 "Moses wrote the Ten Commandments. 35:25 So it's Moses' commandments." 35:28 Moses was instructed by God to write the ceremonial laws, 35:33 the laws of diet, the laws of relationship, 35:36 the laws of cleansing and different kinds of ordinances. 35:39 But God did not give Moses the obligation 35:41 to write the commandments. 35:42 He said, "This is written by My finger." 35:44 So, if somebody sends you a check, and it's not signed, 35:48 can you cash it? 35:51 Don't do it. 35:54 Don't do it. 35:55 Some people might do it, you know. 35:58 Like the person that said, "I can't be broke. 35:59 I have more checks." 36:02 You get that the next program. 36:05 Some people will put their signature to a check 36:11 in somebody else's name. 36:12 What is that called? 36:14 Forgery. 36:16 The commandments of God were not forged by Moses. 36:19 They were written by the finger of God. 36:21 If somebody sends you something, and the agreement is, 36:24 "John Lomacang... God." 36:28 Jehovah is the next line. 36:30 And he says, "Okay, here. 36:32 I want you to live in harmony with that." 36:35 "Well who's the authority? 36:36 Oh okay, I see." 36:38 Now I'm going to give you some good news in a moment. 36:40 Because now where we are in our study is, 36:43 you're painfully aware of the commandments of God, 36:46 but you're also painfully aware of the fact that you're human. 36:51 You've got an obligation. 36:53 And you've seen in Scripture, the children of God, 36:57 the children of Israel, the New Testament apostles, 36:59 the disciples, 37:01 all the way down to all those who wrote in the Bible. 37:04 Solomon. 37:05 He had issues with living in harmony with 37:07 the commandments of God. 37:09 That's probably the understatement of the century. 37:11 When you have 700 wives, that's an understatement. 37:15 David and Bathsheba; he had an issue. 37:20 Elijah. Well Elijah... 37:21 No, not Elijah. 37:24 Jezebel and Ahab; Ahab had an issue. 37:27 Abraham; he had an issue. 37:30 His wife made suggestions, he saw nothing wrong with it. 37:33 And so you go through the Bible, 37:35 you find one man after the other; 37:38 and somewhere along the way, his human inability 37:42 clashed or was confronted by the perfect law of God. 37:48 So we talk about this obligation, and we say, 37:49 "Okay, well how could we live in harmony with the law of God 37:53 if we can't keep it?" 37:56 Let's go to the next question. 37:57 Let's unfold this carefully. 37:59 Question number six. 38:02 So question five, what sets God's law apart 38:04 from the other portions of the Bible? 38:07 God wrote it. 38:08 God wrote it with His finger. 38:10 Number six, here it is. 38:31 Okay. Beautiful. 38:34 You know, when you think about the beauty of God's law... 38:36 Here it is. 38:38 When you think about the beauty of God's law, 38:40 you think to yourself, "I don't have any issues with the law..." 38:48 Well let me not jump ahead of myself. 38:49 Let's read this. 38:50 I was going to reveal something that is after my next thought. 38:53 Here it is. 38:56 The Lord instructing His children. 39:22 The Lord is saying, "If you just live in harmony 39:25 with the commandments, the land that I'm giving you, 39:28 it is going to be just fine." 39:30 Now, let me ask you a question. 39:33 I don't often ask questions. 39:34 I've asked a lot today, but that's not my normal pattern. 39:39 Wouldn't you love to live in a community where 39:42 all your neighbors live in harmony with the 39:44 rules and regulations of your community? 39:47 Let me give you some examples. 39:50 Do not rebuild your engine in front of the house. 39:56 Now that may not be a law in southern Illinois. 39:59 But in some places I've lived they had restrictions. 40:02 In California you cannot park in front of your house 40:06 for more than 24 hours. 40:09 In New York, alternate side of the street parking regulation. 40:14 And in some communities you get a fine if your car 40:17 is up on, what are those, the jacks. 40:20 If you jacked up your car and there are car parts 40:22 on the ground, you can get fined heavily for that. 40:26 If your lawn is not kept manicured. 40:31 They have HOA in some communities where they don't 40:33 even ask you, they do it for you. 40:35 Because in some communities, they've discovered 40:38 that people won't really cut their lawns when it should be. 40:41 So they pay HOA or they pay the lawn service to do it. 40:45 These are obligations. 40:47 Wouldn't you like to live in a community where your neighbor 40:50 is so desirous of maintaining the value of your house 40:54 that he doesn't depreciate your value by what he does next door? 41:01 The scenario, did you follow that? 41:03 Because somebody once said, you can lose the value 41:05 of your house by what somebody next to you does. 41:09 See, in the very same way, the way we live 41:13 can impact the person next to us. 41:16 The Lord didn't say, "I want you to live 41:18 so that everything will be fine with you." 41:21 He said, "with you and your children." 41:23 How you live is going to impact your children. 41:27 How Christians live impact other Christians. 41:30 No man is an island. 41:33 So let's put the answer down. 41:35 How do we benefit from obedience to God's commandments? 41:39 How do we benefit? 41:42 That you'll live long. 41:43 It will be well with you and your family. 41:45 That you live a long life. 41:48 He will bless us and satisfy us with a long life 41:52 if we live in harmony with the principles that He has 41:56 established for healthy living. 41:59 That is, for a healthy relationship with one another 42:03 and with the Lord. 42:04 But now let's go to question number seven. 42:06 Question number seven. 42:08 So if you put that down. 42:09 I'll let you go ahead and paraphrase for your own benefit. 42:13 But when we live in harmony with God's law, 42:16 other people are blessed by our obedience. 42:19 Number seven. Alright. 42:35 Alright. Let's look at that. 42:37 Psalm 19:7 42:40 Psalm 19:7 Wow! 42:45 Okay. 42:46 I think we may have read this one before. 42:49 I want us all to read this together. 42:52 Because I've been giving you a break earlier tonight, 42:54 but this is a beautiful one. 42:55 Are we ready? Here we go. It's on the screen. 42:57 "The law of the Lord is.." What? 43:00 "...perfect, converting the soul..." 43:08 Wow! 43:10 "The law of the Lord is.." What? 43:11 Perfect. 43:13 It is what? Perfect. 43:14 There's nothing wrong with the law of God. 43:18 I saw a sign once, it was in one of the books that I 43:22 often take illustrations from. 43:24 There was a church, there was a Sabbath keeping church 43:29 that was very particular about honoring the Sabbath, 43:32 but they wouldn't cut their lawn. 43:35 And they had a sermon title on the screen was, The Law of God. 43:40 One of the neighbors, during the night, 43:43 went up to the marquee with a black marker 43:46 and added an "n" to the word, "law." 43:49 And they said, "What about the lawn of God?" 43:55 They said, "You can preach the law of God, 43:57 but look at your lawn." 43:59 So everything we do attests to what we say we should do. 44:06 So if you house is... If you yard is... 44:10 And you're talking about living in harmony. 44:12 I know there's a statement that we all wish was in the Bible. 44:15 Cleanliness is next to... 44:17 We all wish that was in... 44:19 We quote that so much. 44:20 But to some degree it's true. 44:22 But when you look at God's law, it does something to us. 44:25 The benefit of God's law, David says. 44:27 What does it do to the soul? What does it do? 44:31 It converts. 44:32 Now how does it do that? 44:34 It shows you the perfect path of life. 44:38 And if you follow that path of life, 44:40 it is like, let me go back to the illustration, 44:42 it is like a bright yellow line on a very curvy highway. 44:46 If you follow that, you're safe. 44:49 But if you can't see that line, at best you'll need fog lamps 44:54 or your vision needs to be better. 44:57 But as you follow God's law, something happens to your life. 45:00 It brings into you, it converts you from the way you thought 45:04 to the way you should think, 45:05 from the way you lived to the way you should live, 45:08 from the things you did to the things you should do, 45:12 from the kind of person you were 45:14 to the kind of person you can become in Christ. 45:16 Not only that, it does something else. 45:19 The last part of this, what does it do? 45:21 It makes you what? It makes you wise. 45:24 You know what wisdom is? 45:25 Wisdom is something we don't have. 45:28 The Bible says, if you lack it, ask God. 45:30 When you look at His commandments, 45:31 when you live in harmony with His law, 45:33 He says it makes you wise. 45:34 Now how can the commandments of God make us wise? 45:38 Well when you look at those ten commandments broken down, 45:41 the first four are obligation to God, our relationship with Him, 45:45 the last six are our relationship to one another. 45:47 When you live in harmony with that, people say, 45:50 "Wow, that person seems to have a very good character, 45:55 an upstanding citizen, a good Christian." 45:57 You know, they've been made wise after their obligation to God. 46:01 They've been made wise as to how they should treat one another. 46:05 And so it's not so much that we've come up with 46:08 this ethereal wisdom, but we have seen the principles of God 46:13 perfectly outlines in His law. 46:15 And we now know we operate in harmony with that. 46:17 And therefore, people may consider, "What wise people!" 46:21 No, we're informed, therefore wisdom is now in place 46:26 where it was not before. 46:28 So how does David describe the blessings of honoring God's law? 46:33 It brings conversion and it brings wisdom. 46:36 It brings conversion and it brings wisdom. 46:40 It's amazing. 46:41 Why would you argue with something 46:43 that could make you wise? 46:45 Why would you want to get rid of something 46:46 that is a part of your conversion? 46:49 Unless you have foreign money, you don't understand conversion. 46:54 But if you've had foreign currency, 46:56 you understand the importance of conversion. 46:58 You want to get the most. You want to get the most. 47:02 It reminds me of when I found 100 pesos. 47:06 I was working at Bank of America 47:08 many years ago in New York. 47:12 I found 100 pesos. 47:14 One hundred pesos. 47:18 And I said, "Today, while everyone else is gone to lunch, 47:21 I'm going to go to the currency exchange. 47:24 A hundred pesos? I need the money." 47:27 So I'm standing in line... 47:32 Got 45 minutes left. 47:35 40 minutes left. 47:36 I don't mind losing some lunch time because I've got 100 pesos. 47:39 When I convert that, I'll have me some money. 47:43 So I finally got to the window. 47:46 And the lady, I was waiting for her to ask me, 47:49 "What denominations would you like this in?" 47:51 You know, when you break it down. 47:53 So she said to me, "Sir, this is worth five cents." 48:02 I said, "Not so loud. 48:05 Just give it back. 48:06 I'm leaving." 48:07 And I crawled out of there, proverbially with 48:11 my tail between my legs. 48:13 And I just said, "Well I'll just keep it as a souvenir." 48:16 I lost 35 minutes on my lunch hour thinking that this 48:19 100 pesos meant 100 dollars. 48:22 I learned that conversion is important. 48:26 You better know what conversion is. 48:28 Because I wasn't wise about conversion. 48:31 I had one idea, but the lady behind the glass 48:34 had the knowledge. 48:36 So conversion is important. 48:38 The commandments of God helps you understand conversion. 48:42 It gives you, not a false estimation, but it gives you 48:46 the true estimation of the righteousness of God. 48:49 God's righteousness is never down here and ours is up here. 48:52 God's righteousness is always higher than ours. 48:55 Can you say amen? 48:57 Conversion. 48:58 "The law of the Lord is perfect, converting the soul." 49:01 So now let's look at question number eight. 49:03 Question number eight. 49:05 In what way does the apostle Paul speak about God's law? 49:10 In what way does the apostle Paul speak about God's law? 49:14 We're going to go to Romans 7:12. 49:17 Romans 7:12. Okay. 49:24 I always tell me people to turn. 49:26 I'm over there. 49:28 Even though I have it in front of me, I'll turn there too. 49:31 Because there's something else I might want to bring out. 49:33 Alright. Romans 7:12 49:36 In what way does the apostle Paul speak about God's law? 49:38 Here it is. He says... 49:48 So now let's look at that. 49:50 Holy... 49:54 Holy, just, good. 49:58 Holy, just, and good. 50:01 Let's go back to our mirror illustration. 50:03 Have any of you ever... 50:05 In an amusement park years ago called, Coney Island, 50:08 in Brooklyn, I use to love to go to Coney Island. 50:13 Have you ever stood in front of those mirrors 50:14 that are concave and convex? 50:16 You know what I mean? 50:17 It's either curved this way or it's curved this way. 50:20 Or it's curved like this. 50:22 And when you stand there, if you stand in front of the concave 50:26 like this, your body seems like you're 14 feet tall. 50:30 When you stand in front of the convex, 50:32 it seems like you're two feet tall. 50:34 It shrinks you. 50:36 When you stand in front of the concave/convex, 50:38 your legs are really short, 50:39 but the top of your body is really long. 50:44 That's why no one buys a concave or convex mirror 50:48 to look at him or herself in the morning. 50:51 Because you get a distorted view of who you are. 50:54 When you buy something, you want it to be good. 50:58 And good and just. 51:01 The law of God is not concave or convex, 51:06 or concave/convex. 51:07 It is clear. 51:09 So when we look into it, we have to conclude 51:11 there's nothing wrong with the mirror. 51:13 Where is the problem? 51:14 If there's nothing wrong with the mirror, 51:16 where is the problem? 51:17 Us. Us. 51:19 The issue is not the law of God. 51:22 So when somebody says, "Well, you're not obligated 51:24 to keep the law of God,: it's a dangerous thing. 51:27 Because what happens is, you have no standard of measurement. 51:30 And therefore, now you're living your Christian life 51:33 based on what you call, feel good. 51:36 Oh, it sounds good, feels good, tastes good. 51:40 In moderation. 51:41 You begin to establish your own standards of 51:44 what is right and what is wrong. 51:46 But the law of God, the apostle Paul says it's good. 51:49 There's nothing wrong with it. 51:51 And in that very same chapter he said, "The issue is me. 51:53 I am the problem." 51:55 Let's look at this in an expanded view. 51:58 Okay, let's go to number nine. 51:59 Number nine. 52:02 This is a wonderful question. 52:04 Number nine. 52:07 What impact... 52:09 And I put the word, "impact," in yellow. 52:20 Let's to go 1 Kings 18:18. 52:22 Very interesting story. 52:25 You know, if you spend time in the Bible 52:28 and ignore a lot of the Old Testament, 52:29 you miss some beautiful stories. 52:32 The challenge to Ahab. 52:35 The challenge to Ahab. 52:37 Well you know, the issue was, 52:39 Elijah, God's man, was considered the one 52:43 that is the troublemaker. 52:45 And a contingency was put together to find Elijah 52:48 and snuff him out. 52:50 Kill him. Get rid of him. 52:53 So Elijah all of a sudden shows up... 52:59 ...in the courts of Ahab, and he says to the servant, 53:03 "Go tell Ahab I'm here." 53:07 And he says, "Do you realize how long he's been looking for you? 53:12 And you want me to go tell him you're here. 53:16 And when I come back, you're gone, and I get killed. 53:19 Oh no. 53:20 That's not an arrangement I'm comfortable with." 53:22 And Elijah said, "I promise you, I promise you..." 53:28 Let's look at that. 53:30 Let's look at that. 53:34 Okay, let's look at that. 53:36 1 Kings 18 53:37 We're going to wind up with this one. 53:39 1 Kings 18:12 53:41 Well, verse 11. 53:43 "And now you say..." Well, verse 10. 53:46 "As the LORD your God lives, there is no nation or kingdom 53:49 where my master has not sent someone to hunt for you; 53:53 and when they said, 'He is not here,' 53:55 he took an oath from the kingdom or nation 53:58 that they could not find you. 54:00 And now you say, 'Go, tell your master, "Elijah is here"'! 54:06 And it shall come to pass, as soon as I am gone from you 54:08 that the Spirit of the LORD will carry you to a place 54:12 I do not know; so when I go and tell Ahab, 54:15 and he cannot find you, he will kill me. 54:20 But I your servant have feared the LORD from my youth. 54:24 Was it not reported to my lord what I did when Jezebel 54:28 killed the prophets of the LORD, how I hid one hundred men 54:31 of the LORD's prophets, fifty to a cave, 54:34 and fed them with bread and water?" 54:36 In other words, he's saying to him, 54:38 "Don't you know I did some good things? 54:39 Why are you trying to set me up? 54:41 Don't you see I've been good? 54:43 Why are you trying to set me up? 54:44 You trying to get me killed? 54:46 I've always done what the Lord wanted me to do. 54:48 Why are you setting me up? 54:49 I know that if I go tell him, you won't be here." 54:51 And look at verse 14. 54:53 "And now you say, 'Go, tell your master, "Elijah is here."' 54:55 He will kill me!" 54:57 "Then Elijah said, 'As the LORD of hosts lives, 55:01 before whom I stand, I will surely present 55:04 myself to him...'" When? "...today." 55:08 "So Obadiah went to meet Ahab, and told him; 55:13 and Ahab went to meet Elijah. 55:15 Then it happened..." 55:16 We're going to get our answer in verse 18 and 19, verse 18. 55:19 "Then it happened, when Ahab saw Elijah, 55:21 that Ahab said to him, 'Is that you, O troubler of Israel?'" 55:26 "You're the troublemaker." 55:28 And the question again, just so we get it: 55:30 What impact does disobedience to the commandments of God reveal? 55:33 Let's look at the answer in verse 18. 55:35 Here it is. Bring it up on the screen. 55:53 "You followed after Baal." 55:54 Here is the point that I want to make. 55:57 In the Christian world, when the commandments of God 56:00 are forsaken and ignored, it might look like 56:04 those who honor it are the troublemakers. 56:07 You get my point? 56:09 If somebody is honoring the Sabbath, 56:10 and the majority of the Christians are not, 56:12 they might say, "You're the one that's causing the trouble." 56:16 Like they did to Elijah. 56:18 Elijah said, "I am not the troublemaker, but you are." 56:21 Whenever the commandments of God are forsaken, 56:24 let's put the answer, what impact does disobedience 56:28 to the commandments of God reveal? 56:29 Trouble. 56:31 It causes trouble. 56:35 You get in trouble when you ignore the commandments of God. 56:38 So here's what's happening. 56:40 There's a direction I'm taking with this. 56:42 Because in Revelation we read that Satan is upset 56:44 with those who keep the commandments of God. 56:47 Well now, if Satan is upset with those who keep 56:50 the commandments of God, Revelation 12:17, 56:52 and he's going to war with them, he's going to point to those who 56:56 keep the commandments of God and say, 56:58 he's going to point to those who keep the commandments of God 57:00 and say, "They're the ones that are causing the trouble." 57:03 And those who are honoring the commandments of God 57:05 are going to say, "We are not the troublemakers. 57:08 But those who have forsaken the commandments of God 57:11 are the troublemakers." 57:12 So here's the point, as I wind up this lesson for today. 57:16 The obligation of the Christian is to honor 57:19 the commandments of God. 57:20 How many of them? Somebody tell me. 57:22 All ten. There are only ten. 57:24 Written by the finger of God. 57:28 And we'll find out that not only are they written by the 57:30 finger of God, and not only were they placed on tables of stone, 57:34 they are some place today that we cannot get rid of them. 57:37 We'll find out in our next study where they are 57:39 so we cannot get rid of them. 57:41 When you live in harmony with the commandments of God, 57:43 you're not the troublemaker. 57:45 Don't ever think that obedience to the commandments of God 57:48 causes trouble. 57:49 It causes trouble to those who don't honor it. 57:52 Don't ever think obedience is trouble in your life. 57:54 If you don't believe that, keep studying, my friends. 57:57 And one day it will come into a sharper focus. 58:00 God bless you. |
Revised 2017-10-23