Participants: Dale Leamon
Series Code: FC
Program Code: FC000008
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00:28 Good to be with you.
00:30 We are going to be studying God's word 00:32 together in a minute. 00:34 I am Dale Leamon, a pastor in Battle Creek, Michigan. 00:37 And we'd like to have a word of prayer before we begin. 00:42 Dear Father in Heaven, thank You so much 00:45 that You love us today, that You are 00:47 our great instructor, and that through 00:49 Your Holy Spirit, You are ready to teach us 00:51 wonderful things from Your word. 00:53 Please use me as an instrument to share 00:57 the precious gospel with those who are viewing 00:59 and thank You, in Jesus name, amen. 01:06 Imagine the problem that God has, a problem of scale. 01:11 He is so big. He is so powerful. 01:16 His knowledge and his power extend to 01:21 to the entire universe and, you know, 01:25 the smarter we get with Hubble telescope 01:27 and other things to look out into space, 01:31 the more we realize how big the universe is 01:33 and the bigger it gets, the bigger God becomes 01:35 until it begins to seem that there 01:38 is absolutely no limit to God. 01:40 Well, that's what we've always been told, isn't it? 01:42 That he was unlimited power and unlimited authority. 01:47 By comparison with him, we feel very puny 01:53 and this gives God a public relations problem. 01:58 People naturally are afraid of power, 02:01 so great and authority so magnificent 02:05 and knowledge so overwhelming. 02:09 We naturally are timid and lose our self confidence 02:13 when we think about God in that way. 02:15 I am so glad He garbed himself in flesh and became 02:18 a man so that we could actually get to know Him. 02:21 Get to know His personality. 02:22 See Him in a human sense in a less intimidating sense. 02:27 But God has had this problem for a long time 02:29 and still does have to some extent that people feel 02:34 as if He must be a tyrant 02:37 simply because He has absolute power. 02:40 And it seems inevitable that, that much power 02:43 would cause Him to abuse the freedom of His subjects. 02:50 In fact, many have argued theologically, well, 02:53 how do we know we are free, maybe we are programmed 02:55 and maybe everything in the entire world 02:57 is programmed and everything just happens 02:58 according to a preprogrammed outline 03:00 that God has given to it. 03:02 Well, that's not true. 03:04 The Bible tells us over and over and over again 03:06 that God is calling us. He's inviting us. 03:09 He urges us to repent. He urges us to listen. 03:13 He says He that has an ear, let him hear. 03:15 This clearly indicates that we have the alternative 03:17 of not hearing if we so choose. 03:20 He in other words shows that 03:23 He is not in fact an absolute tyrant. 03:27 Nevertheless, the Ten Commandments 03:31 have also seemed to play into this tyrant concept, 03:35 partly because the Ten Commandments 03:38 are related to every aspect of our life. 03:42 They hedge us in, so to speak, with some kind of 03:45 behavioral requirement that relates 03:48 to every part of our human being. 03:51 Everything from our spiritual nature and our 03:53 connection to God, to our relationships 03:56 in our birth family with our parents, 04:00 and our relationship with our spouse and of course 04:06 our relationships with our neighbors 04:09 all are dealt within this law. 04:10 And so it seems to all encompassing that 04:12 it makes people -- some people afraid that 04:15 they are actually entering a box when 04:18 they try to do God's will. 04:21 It seems limiting and restrictive. 04:23 And God seems to be an absolute authority. 04:27 And another thing that gives God a PR problem is that 04:30 He makes it plain in the Bible that if we decidedly 04:35 and rebelliously disobey His Will, that we will die. 04:40 And so that seems certainly like a limitation 04:42 on our freedom, how can a person be truly free, 04:45 when he is threatened and when his life will be 04:48 taken away if he violates the Will 04:51 or the conditions of the authority figure? 04:56 Well, we need to answer some of those questions 04:58 because I think those questions play into our 05:01 fear of the Commandments. 05:02 And I am trying to help you see today 05:05 and have been in the last programs that 05:09 we don't need to be afraid of the law. 05:12 Instead, we need to look at it as God's promise 05:15 and His -- our friend, His covenant to us, 05:19 to make us like himself again. 05:23 But that fearfulness does come in and to some extent 05:26 due to the death penalty, 05:28 which goes along with disobedience. 05:30 Is it really God saying, if you don't obey me, 05:34 I'm gonna kill you. Is that it? 05:37 Well, if you look carefully at the character of God 05:39 as seen in Christ, you see that 05:40 that's not what it is at all. 05:43 Jesus has already died for every human being. 05:45 The death penalty has already been 05:46 removed from every human being. 05:48 The only reason some will perish is because 05:50 they absolutely reject his transforming grace. 05:56 Notice, I emphasized the word transforming. 05:58 You see those who refuse to be transformed cannot live 06:03 forever because selfishness is self destructive. 06:07 At first, it seems like selfishness would be 06:09 to act in our most, in our own self interest 06:12 and therefore we would promote our own lives. 06:14 But it's not true because when I am selfish, 06:17 I naturally steal a life from you. 06:20 And so we each find ourselves killing each other. 06:23 And the more selfish we become and the farther away 06:25 we get from God, the more we self destruct 06:28 and the more we destroy others. 06:31 You see those who refused the beautiful 06:33 and sensitive character that God wants to give them. 06:37 World would never really enjoy the harmonious 06:42 new world that He is making. 06:45 So even if God somehow kept them alive 06:50 in spite of their self destructive selfishness, 06:53 they would not enjoy any place which was so lovely 06:58 and unselfish and pure and holy 07:01 as the world God is planning. 07:03 In other words, they'd have to live in a place 07:05 sort of like earth is now and they would just go on 07:08 getting worse as it has been for these 1000s of years 07:11 until finally they destroyed itself. 07:14 So it is not God's arbitrariness 07:17 to say that sinners must perish. 07:19 It is just the truth. 07:21 Sinners must and always will, perish. 07:24 They will kill each other. 07:25 And they would kill themselves. 07:28 In fact, think about the misery of 07:32 an untransformed person going to the new world. 07:41 Such a person would be jealous because 07:45 untransformed people always are jealous. 07:49 You know, we're plainly told that there'll be 07:51 a reward system in heaven, 07:54 and the rewards will not be identical. 07:57 Some will be given one position 07:59 and some another position. 08:01 And I just envision in my mind the, 08:05 the untransformed person who is welcome to heaven 08:08 and he's so happy for a while as he just 08:10 getting acquainted with the place and seeing 08:12 all the beauties and glories of it. 08:13 And he sees his mansion and he moves in and he just, 08:16 wow, this is just the greatest and it's so much 08:18 better than anything that he had envisioned, 08:20 even in his most selfish moments. 08:23 But then, one day, he is looking out of the window 08:27 of his mansion and he looks across the way to his 08:29 neighbor's mansion and he counts, just idly, 08:33 counts the turrets on his neighbor's mansion. 08:36 And he says, hmmm, it seems to me 08:39 there are five turrets on his mansion. 08:41 And I don't seem to remember more than four on mine. 08:44 And he goes outside and just looks just in case 08:47 he's missed one and he counts them again 08:49 and sure enough only four on his. 08:52 And then because his heart hasn't been transformed, 08:55 he begins to become quite jealous. 08:59 Well, what did he do that was so much better than 09:01 what I did and why should he get rewarded and so forth? 09:05 You see untransformed people 09:07 could never enjoy the new world. 09:11 They would be sensitive of 09:12 oppositions too, wouldn't they? 09:15 One would be jealous of another's God given position 09:20 or task in the new order that He is creating. 09:24 So happiness would be impossible for such a person 09:29 in God's kingdom, but thank God for His 10 promises. 09:32 You see in the Ten Commandments, 09:34 He shows exactly what kind of loving nature He is going 09:38 to give us so that we can be happy in His kingdom. 09:43 In fact, it is His work to do it. 09:46 The Commandments are not something He tells us 09:48 to do in order to be saved but rather something 09:51 He promises to work out in our lives. 09:53 Let's see where this is made explicit 09:56 in the prophet Ezekiel Chapter 36 and verse 26. 10:06 "I will give you a new heart and put a 10:09 new spirit within you, I will take the heart of 10:12 stone out of your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. 10:17 I will put my spirit within you, and cause you 10:21 to walk in My statutes, and you will keep 10:24 My judgments, and do them." 10:27 I really like the I's in that passage, don't you? 10:30 Because God is the speaker, so he says, 10:33 "I will give you a new heart and a new spirit. 10:36 I will take the stony heart out 10:39 and give you a heart of flesh. 10:41 I will put my spirit within you and cause you to walk," 10:44 in other words, I will cause you to walk in My statutes. 10:48 Statutes, Commandments. 10:50 God is saying that He will do that. 10:52 He will do that by giving us a new heart, 10:54 by taking out the stone heart. 10:56 He will cause us to walk in His statutes. 11:00 So God himself is giving us the strength, 11:02 the courage, the faith, the will 11:05 to walk in harmony with Him. 11:09 This is a promise, we need to just claim 11:11 earnestly everyday, every moment. 11:14 This is one of the best scriptures in the Bible 11:17 because it says so much about 11:19 how we can be ready to live with the angels. 11:25 In other words, the change that 11:28 takes place must be an inner change. 11:31 We can't just do the things God says to do. 11:34 We need to be changed in such a way 11:36 that we are this new person. 11:39 We have this new character. 11:42 Sometimes we jokingly talk about needing a transplant 11:46 and, you know, someone will say, well, you know, 11:48 I'm getting a pretty bad shoulder now 11:49 and with the miracle of modern medicine, 11:53 I think I'm going to need a new shoulder. 11:55 And someone else thinks they're going to 11:56 need a new knee and a new elbow. 12:00 And I've friends who've had all of those 12:02 and some of them-- several of them. 12:03 And then, of course, we laugh, 12:07 I think what I really need is a new head, 12:10 but as strange as that sounds and as much as 12:12 it seems humorous, it's true. 12:14 We do. It's our brain. 12:16 It's our mind that needs to be transformed. 12:19 And the Bible says, by the renewing of your mind-- 12:21 and so this is what God actually does. 12:25 He actually comes in and changes the way we think. 12:29 He changes attitudes, he changes even 12:34 parts of our personality so that they are-- 12:36 so it's a sanctified personality. 12:39 He changes habitual thought patterns. 12:43 He can do this. It's wonderful. 12:45 It's like brain surgery with no blood and no hospital. 12:50 And that's exactly what we need to ask Him to do 12:53 since He's already promised to do it 12:55 and since in Jesus, He has already done it. 12:58 And now we just ask to be the recipients of that blessing. 13:03 Well, there are 10 of those promises. 13:08 We've enjoyed looking at some of them. 13:09 And today, we want to consider some more 13:14 of them or one more at least. 13:16 But I want you to see from Romans 13: 9 and 10 13:20 that all of these promises are pertaining to 13:25 a love change that takes place in our lives. 13:28 Romans 13: 9 and 10. 13:31 For the Commandments, you shall not commit adultery, 13:33 you shall not murder, you shall not steal etc., etc., 13:37 Are all summed up in this saying, namely, 13:41 you shall love your neighbor as yourself. 13:46 Love does no harm to a neighbor, 13:47 therefore love is the fulfillment of the law. 13:50 So that is why God brings us into harmony 13:52 with his Commandments by taking out our hearts, 13:56 the hard heart and putting in a soft heart. 13:59 In other words, taking out our hardened, 14:02 distrustful, bitter, rebellious way of thinking 14:07 and replacing it with a gentle, trusting, 14:11 courteous, kindly, unselfish way of thinking. 14:15 What a tremendous thing that is 14:17 when it happens to someone. 14:18 You meet somebody like that, you say, 14:19 now there's the salt of the earth person. 14:21 That's the kind of person I like to be with and yet 14:24 what are we doing in terms of our prayer life 14:26 to make sure we are such a person. 14:29 Only Jesus can do that for us. 14:33 Let's look now at another commandment. 14:35 We are going to look at the Eighth Commandment, 14:40 which is found in Exodus Chapter 20, 14:44 of course, and verse 15. "You shall not steal." 14:51 Only four words and as we see these verses 14:56 as promises, this is transformed from 14:58 don't steal to in my grace, you won't steal, 15:03 you won't even want to. 15:05 See I'm going to give you a soft heart 15:06 and your heart wouldn't even think about 15:07 taking what doesn't belong to you. 15:10 You wouldn't even have a desire 15:13 to take someone else's property. 15:16 You would feel very bad if you took away 15:18 someone else's reputation. 15:21 You certainly wouldn't want to steal 15:22 anyone else's health and you wouldn't want 15:25 to damage or rob them off their relationships. 15:30 No, you would be unwilling to in anyway, 15:33 take from another person, what is his. 15:37 And, on the contrary, under the promise 15:39 of you of these precious verses, we see that 15:42 the positive side we will want to give. 15:45 Jesus said that it's more blessed 15:47 to give than to receive. 15:48 And those who found that truth in their own hearts, 15:51 love giving and would far rather give than receive, 15:55 let alone take, which would never be 15:58 a part of their thinking. 16:00 You see, taking is not something that is -- 16:03 fits the character of God or of Jesus. 16:07 You look at nature. 16:08 Everything that God has put together is a giving thing. 16:14 The trees that produce way more fruit 16:17 than they need to reproduce themselves. 16:20 The flowers which are so abundant, the rain, 16:23 everything in nature reveals this givingness of God 16:27 until you see some of the animals and man himself 16:30 that have been distorted by the selfishness of sin 16:33 and then you see take, take. 16:36 What a blessing it will be to be made so much 16:40 in Jesus image that we are truly givers. 16:44 I had a man come to me one time. 16:48 Let's say that his name was Steven. 16:52 Steve wanted help. He said that he was -- 16:55 had been stealing things since he was a child. 17:01 And at first, he just did it for the thrill of it 17:03 or because he wanted the thing that he could steal. 17:06 He had been trained better. 17:07 He wasn't raised in a very religious home, 17:10 but he did know that stealing was wrong 17:12 and he knew that if he got caught, he'd be in trouble. 17:14 But for some reason, he never -- 17:15 he never got caught. He became quite good at it. 17:18 He could go into a store and he could 17:21 virtually always walk away with something. 17:23 Well, somehow that excitement 17:25 became part of his nature. 17:26 Perhaps, it was just a psychological tendency 17:30 that he had, so that as he grew, 17:33 he found himself doing this. 17:35 In fact, he told me at the time that he couldn't 17:37 even go into a store to shop for something 17:41 without walking out with something 17:44 that he hadn't paid for. 17:46 It just became an absolute urge with him 17:50 and he couldn't seem to resist it, it frightened him. 17:53 He wondered if he was demon possessed 17:56 or he understood the word kleptomania 17:59 and decided that he must be a kleptomaniac. 18:02 I asked him what did he feel motivated him 18:05 and he said, he didn't know 18:06 but there was just some kind of a thrill 18:09 associated with it and he would pick up things 18:12 that he didn't need or even want. 18:15 Things he had no intention of keeping. 18:17 Just because of the thrill of walking out of the store 18:20 with something that he didn't pay for. 18:24 Well, obviously this was a real problem. 18:25 As he became a Christian, this problem 18:28 did not go away immediately. 18:29 And that's true with some 18:30 of our engrained difficulties. 18:32 Even when we are born again, 18:34 we have the victory in Christ, 18:36 but we don't feel or experience 18:38 all the victory behaviorally all at once. 18:40 And so he came to me deeply concerned. 18:42 He said do you think I am converted. 18:44 And I said, well obviously given your life to Jesus, 18:46 you've made -- he has made some major changes. 18:48 You've experienced the spirit in your life. 18:50 I think you're converted, 18:51 but you're just not fully converted. 18:52 Most Christians aren't fully converted. 18:54 I am not sure any of us are. 18:57 But he said this is an especially bad problem. 18:59 He says, I will get caught eventually. 19:00 The fact that I've gone now for 27 years 19:02 without ever being caught, he says, 19:04 it just makes it all the more likely that 19:05 I'm going to get caught sometime. 19:06 And I'm going to embarrass my family. 19:07 I'm going to embarrass the church. 19:09 And I'm going to be ruined. 19:11 He says, I've got to have victory over this. 19:13 And I said, yes. It looks like you really do. 19:15 And the Lord is ready to give it to you, 19:18 because Jesus has won the victory over stealing. 19:23 You see in every one of his Commandments, 19:24 He says, He didn't come to do away with it, 19:27 but He came to fulfill it. 19:30 And so Jesus has fulfilled that and He can give 19:33 that victory to anyone who trusts Him for it. 19:36 Well, we shared that together. 19:39 I remember that interview very well 19:41 because it happened actually in a car 19:45 and we were just sitting, parked in the driveway, 19:48 and talked for several hours that night. 19:51 And as we shared some scriptures together, 19:53 and as we prayed, a great peace came over him, 19:57 instead of the terrible fear that he was under 19:59 this compulsion that he couldn't get free from, 20:01 a great peace came over him. 20:03 And he said, you know, I do believe, 20:06 I believe that I have the victory. 20:08 And not all victories come all at once like that 20:11 one did but after that experience, 20:14 he never was compelled to take anything 20:17 that he hadn't paid for again. 20:19 And he felt so good knowing that he didn't have 20:24 to look over his shoulder every time he left a store. 20:28 Well, Jesus has won the victory. 20:30 And, you know, he won it. 20:31 I -- we don't really think about this very much. 20:33 We are told that he was tempted in all points 20:35 like we are, but we don't really imagine 20:38 that he was tempted not in all points -- 20:39 only in all points like I am but also in all points 20:42 like you are and also in all points like your neighbor 20:45 and also in all points like the guy 20:46 who's been in prison for 30 years. 20:48 In other words, Jesus was tempted in the worst 20:52 level of temptation in every type of temptation 20:56 and we can't quite explain all of that, 21:01 but there are some things we can see 21:02 if we think about it for instance. 21:03 Who is most tempted to steal? 21:07 Well, it would be the poor, wouldn't it? 21:09 And Jesus came as a poor man 21:12 with a tremendous temptation to take things. 21:15 You know, thieves always justify it by saying, 21:19 well, somehow this is more fair. 21:21 I am just equally -- leveling out 21:24 the playing fields so to speak, 21:25 they justify what they've done. 21:27 So Jesus might have justified because 21:30 of his poverty taking something that wasn't His, 21:32 but He already knew that God provides for 21:35 His children and He never needed to steal anything. 21:39 He even showed how to save the thief 21:44 from the guilt of stealing by willingly giving 21:47 what He would take and even more. 21:50 Jesus said, "if anyone wants to take away 21:54 your tunic, let him have your cloak also." 21:59 So Jesus clearly shows that not only are we 22:02 to be not be takers but we are to be givers 22:07 and even on the unjust situation when a thief 22:09 comes to us and tries to take what is ours, 22:12 we are to say take it, and is there anything else 22:15 I can help you with? Well, that's a high standard. 22:18 I have had hard time with that one. 22:19 But I believe it and I see that Jesus practiced it 22:22 because He not only -- He let people take from Him 22:25 and then He gave him more-- He gave them more. 22:28 Jesus was urged to take the crown of Israel. 22:31 The crowds were ready to crown Him. 22:33 He had power equal to the task no army 22:36 could possibly have stood against the one 22:37 who could command 10,000 angels. 22:39 He was the rightful king but it wasn't time. 22:45 You see, His kingdom was to come in the future 22:50 and so He would not take the kingdom. 22:55 He had another reason too, which I find 22:57 very interesting in Romans 13, 22:59 Chapter 13 and verse 1. We see these words. 23:06 Let every soul be subject to the governing authorities. 23:10 For there is no authority except from God, 23:13 and the authorities that exist are appointed by God. 23:18 Therefore whoever resists the authority 23:21 resists the ordinance of God. 23:24 So the rulers of our world today, 23:27 as corrupt and miserable as they maybe, 23:29 are put in place by God. 23:31 I know that's hard to believe at times, 23:33 but that is just exactly what 23:34 the Bible says and Jesus accepted that. 23:37 That wicked Pilate and of course the terrible Caesar 23:41 in Rome that He represented. 23:43 Jesus would not take their authority. 23:45 Their authority was God ordained. 23:47 So when Pilate said, are you a King? 23:49 Jesus admitted that He was, but then He said, 23:51 "My kingdom is not of this world. 23:54 I am no threat to you, I will not take what is yours. 23:58 This is your time. My time will come later." 24:03 So Jesus would never take away 24:05 even the power that belonged to another. 24:08 He had been anointed already to be the King, 24:10 just as David had been anointed to be the next King, 24:13 but David too because he was so Christ like 24:15 would not take the kingdom 24:17 until it was relinquished by Saul. 24:20 Oh, he was tempted too. 24:22 There were those who thought he should push the matter 24:24 but David fled, moved aside, humbly waited 24:29 for the time to come, because 24:30 the kingdom rightfully belonged to Saul. 24:34 And in that, we see so much of Jesus' own character, 24:37 never take anything even if it's yours. 24:41 Let God give it to you, Jesus would not take 24:45 Judas' reputation away from him. 24:48 Imagine that. Judas was a wicked man. 24:52 And yet Jesus allowed everyone to think 24:55 Judas was a good man. 24:56 And He would not even point out 24:58 Judas' thieving tendencies. 25:01 Jesus lived with a thief for three years or more. 25:08 And yet He himself would never take anything. 25:11 He did not expose Judas, it was much later that 25:15 Judas was exposed, though He probably deserved it. 25:19 Jesus would not take his reputation away from him. 25:22 Jesus would not take even the privileged 25:25 position of being tax exempt. 25:27 No, He paid his taxes because He 25:32 did not want to seem to be grasping for anything. 25:36 And He taught His disciples. 25:38 He said, when you go to a feast, 25:41 don't take the highest seat. 25:46 That seat might belong to somebody else. 25:47 Don't take the position of honor. 25:52 That might belong to somebody else. 25:53 Take the lowest seat and wait for someone 25:55 to bring you up to the highest seat. 25:58 So again, we see Jesus continually being a victor 26:04 over any tendency to take 26:07 what was not given to Him by God. 26:08 In spite of that, He was accused of being a thief 26:13 and they put a sign over Him that said 'King of the Jews' 26:18 and he was crucified between two thieves. 26:24 Oh, Jesus, always treated unfairly 26:29 and yet always so victorious. 26:32 No, He wouldn't even take life 26:35 and He was the life giver. 26:36 They said, jump off this cross if you have 26:38 the power but He would not do it. 26:40 The only thing He would do is take 26:43 what His Father gave Him. 26:44 And friends we have that privilege of taking 26:48 only what our Heavenly Father would give us. 26:51 I want to be like Jesus. I know that you do too. 26:56 I want to be a person who is satisfied with 27:00 what the Father gives me legitimately. 27:01 I don't want to be jealous and try to harm 27:04 someone else's reputation. 27:05 I do not want to take away from another one 27:08 even their unhappiness, even by going around 27:11 frowning or gossiping. 27:12 I want to be a giver of life. 27:14 I want to be a giver of love. 27:16 I want to be a person who's known as generous. 27:19 I certainly don't want to take 27:21 God's tithes and offerings as my own. 27:24 I want Jesus victory to come fully into my life 27:27 that I can be won who loves to give. 27:30 We need transformed in this folks because we 27:33 in this modern age are so materialistic 27:36 and we think that receiving, and taking, 27:38 and getting are the best possible way 27:40 to live but they are not. 27:43 We need a new heart. Thank God, 27:46 He has promised us that wonderful new heart. 27:48 Jesus has kept the Eighth Commandment for us. 27:52 Let's claim His victory. |
Revised 2014-12-17