Participants: Dale Leamon
Series Code: FC
Program Code: FC000010
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00:29 Thank you for joining us today.
00:31 We're gonna have a good time again 00:33 looking at God's word together. 00:36 I 'm Dale Leamon, a pastor from Battle Creek, Michigan. 00:41 And happy to be working with 3ABN today. 00:45 But before we start studying together, 00:47 let's have a word of prayer. 00:49 Father in heaven, we rejoice in your word, 00:52 thank you for giving us the truth 00:54 by which we may be set free. 00:56 We pray that as we study, 00:57 your Spirit will be our guide, our teacher. 01:00 Father, please use me and let me be an instrument 01:04 to lead others to know you and love you, in Jesus name, amen. 01:10 The commandments have been our study, 01:14 but we're looking at them as promises not thou shalt not, 01:18 but thou shalt not any longer because I have set you free. 01:24 What a tremendous difference it makes? 01:26 Actually God never intended that 01:28 his commandments would condemn people. 01:31 No, commandments condemn sin, 01:35 but it wasn't God's intention to condemn the sinner. 01:38 Because God understands that 01:40 we didn't choose to be born sinners. 01:44 The sinner is given the privilege of seeing the law 01:48 as a promise of the life that God will give him 01:53 as he has restored to the image of God. 01:58 Of course the law points are our shortcomings 02:00 by the very fact that it shows us what God will 02:04 and give us and has given us in Christ. 02:07 It also points out what we haven't yet appropriated. 02:11 What we don't yet have in moral perfection. 02:14 So we feel like the law is condemning us, 02:17 although in fact that's not God's purpose in it because 02:21 Christ himself has already born all the condemnation of the law. 02:28 If there was any condemnation even aimed at us at all, 02:33 it's been taken by Jesus. 02:36 He came to relieve us of that whole burden, 02:39 a burden we could not bear. 02:42 And we have in several scriptures to show with you, 02:45 to show how Jesus literally received upon his innocent back 02:53 the weight of the judgment that the law pronounced against us. 02:59 I am sharing this with you because I want to give you 03:01 one more reason not to dread the law, not to fear the law, 03:04 not to be driven away from the love of God 03:09 by any negative interpretation of God's law. 03:14 It's no longer has any condemning power over us 03:19 because Christ has borne all the condemnation. 03:23 Let's look at Romans 5 and Verse 20, 03:28 "Moreover the law entered that the offense might abound. 03:33 But where sin abounded, grace abounded much more." 03:39 So we see that the law is given in order to make our offense 03:47 or our disease, our sin, affliction more apparent. 03:51 It does do that, shows us what we lack 03:54 but where our sin abounds, grace much more abounds. 03:57 So God's intention also to encourage us through the law 04:02 that He had the power even in the phase 04:04 of our tremendous failing, He has the power of victory 04:10 through Christ and His grace much more abounds 04:14 since His forgiveness much more abounds. 04:16 John, Chapter 5 and Verse 24, let's read that together. 04:24 "Most assuredly, I say to you, he who hears My word 04:27 and believes in Him who sent Me has everlasting life, 04:31 and shall not come into," in the old King James it says 04:36 "condemnation, but has passed from death into life," 04:41 has not come into judgment. 04:43 In other words, again the condemnation of the law 04:49 has already been removed from those 04:52 who have faith in Jesus Christ. 04:53 What faith? Well, obviously, 04:55 that Jesus himself has borne in the condemnation. 04:58 So all the condemnation and judgment 05:00 of the law has been removed from us. 05:04 If we just put our faith in Jesus, 05:05 imagine that, what a trade, the whole weight of guilt 05:09 has taken off of me and the law then becomes my friend, my ally. 05:17 Romans 5:18, and all just because I put faith in Jesus, 05:25 Jesus did all the hard work. 05:27 Let's read Verse 18, "Therefore, as through one man's 05:32 offense judgment came to all men, 05:35 resulting in condemnation, even so through 05:38 one Man's righteous act the free gift came to all men, 05:43 resulting in justification of life." 05:45 That's another great theological statement, 05:47 you see as through Adam, he is the first one man 05:52 in this world, as through Adam 05:53 all of us were brought into disobedience 05:56 and all of us were brought into a carnal situation 05:59 where sin was, you know, our basic nature. 06:03 So through Christ, we're all brought into justification. 06:10 We're justified. We're made straight. 06:12 We're straight in God. Of course, we're forgiven first. 06:15 So condemnation came without any choice of yours, 06:19 automatically just by being brought into this race 06:21 through Adam, but through Christ, 06:23 just as automatically without any choice on your part, 06:26 just because you are a human being, 06:28 justification has come upon you. 06:31 Ah, it sounds like everybody should be saved and doesn't it? 06:34 I wish everybody were. 06:36 Of course, some people refuse to believe Jesus, 06:38 refuse to believe that He has actually come as a savior 06:42 and son of God and borne their sins. 06:44 So for them, even though the justification is there, 06:47 it's there for every man it says, 06:50 it doesn't do them any good, does it? 06:52 As they don't believe. 06:54 Oh, what a privilege we have of believing today 06:56 and I hope you'll just put your trust 06:57 in Jesus and say, I do believe. 06:59 I'm a sinner, I'm filthy, 07:01 I've just broken every commandment there is, 07:04 but yet I believe that I'm justified in Christ. 07:08 What a fantastic privilege that is, 07:09 don't turn away from that, that's not cheap grace, 07:12 that's the real gospel. 07:14 It's not the end of the gospel, but it's the real gospel. 07:17 We're all justified through Jesus Christ. 07:20 Romans 8:1, "There is therefore now no condemnation 07:27 to those who are in Christ Jesus, 07:30 who do not walk according to the flesh, 07:31 but according to the Spirit." 07:33 The condemnation that we felt before 07:35 is removed because we are in Christ. 07:41 In other words, we've put our faith in Christ, 07:43 we've chosen to give our lives to Christ, 07:44 and so all the condemnation has been taken away. 07:48 You know, Jesus has actually borne the condemnation 07:51 for all the sins of the past and the present 07:53 and even of the future. 07:55 So we do not fear though we're so happy 07:58 that the Lord is leading us into obedience. 08:01 We do not tremble and fear about salvation 08:04 because the condemnation has all been removed already. 08:07 We don't have to convince Jesus. 08:09 Oh, please take away my sins, He's already done it. 08:13 We don't have to fear anymore. 08:16 No condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus. 08:19 Jesus took all the condemnation. 08:21 Why did he take all the condemnation? 08:23 What a terrible price? 08:26 Jesus felt the burden of the sins of the whole world. 08:31 We can say those words so easily, 08:33 but how can we possibly understand them. 08:37 There have been days when I wasn't justified. 08:39 Oh, not because Jesus failed me, but because my faith failed me 08:44 and I was carrying all my own sins. 08:46 I felt the burden of them, believe me. 08:48 So discouraging I didn't even want to go on living, 08:50 but I was only carrying my own sins. 08:54 And Jesus carried the condemnation 08:58 of the whole planet. 09:02 Cannot fathom what that means, but little wonder He dreaded 09:06 drinking that cup and said, 09:09 oh, father isn't there some other way? 09:12 Let this cup pass from me. 09:16 Well, he took it, he drank it and it was so bitter. 09:21 Notice Jesus condemnation, He took the condemnation. 09:25 Matthew, Chapter 20 and Verse 18. 09:29 Jesus predicts something will happen in the next few days. 09:33 "Behold, we are going up to Jerusalem, 09:36 and the Son of Man will be betrayed to the chief priests 09:40 and to the scribes, and they will condemn Him to death." 09:48 So Jesus felt that condemnation coming. 09:52 Condemnation from the scribes and the priests. 09:54 These were the leaders of Israel. 09:55 These were the people who transferred the sin 09:59 of the penitent over to their innocent lamb 10:03 and the words would be prophetic as they would condemn Jesus. 10:07 Because He is the lamb and now the sins of all 10:10 the penitents are transferred to Him by the very priests 10:16 who have been ordained to do that work, 10:20 but they little understood what they were doing, 10:23 as they laid the sins of the world at His feet. 10:27 Mark 14, a similar passage, now the priests are talking 10:35 to Him and they say in verse 64, 10:40 "You have heard the blasphemy! What do you think? 10:44 And they all condemned Him to be deserving of death." 10:49 And so Jesus words of prophecy became fact and He experienced 10:56 the bitter condemnation of the priests, 10:59 as they accused Him of blasphemy. 11:03 Well, the iniquity of our soul was to be laid on Him. 11:07 The prophet Isaiah said, what a relief it is 11:11 just to have that taken off our backs. 11:14 Everybody knows, John 3:16, 11:17 but many fewer people can quote John 3:17. 11:22 However, it's equally important. Let's read it. 11:27 "For God did not send His Son into the world 11:30 to condemn the world, but that the world 11:34 through Him might be saved." 11:37 It was not Jesus mission to condemn the world. 11:41 It was Jesus mission to save the world. 11:45 So when Jesus came, he was a friend of sinners. 11:49 He ate dinner with publicans. 11:51 He had adulteress persons in his retinue. 11:57 He had tax collectors for disciples. 12:02 He did not condemn sinners, he loved sinners. 12:08 He only condemned sin. 12:12 See Jesus attitude towards sin 12:15 was the attitude of a doctor toward disease. 12:21 A doctor if he has any bedside manner at all 12:25 does not criticize the patient for being sick. 12:30 He doesn't say shame on you for being ill, 12:34 but he does of course hate the disease and he puts 12:36 all of his energy and effort into healing the disease 12:39 and saving the person, so was Jesus. 12:43 He put all of His efforts into healing the disease 12:49 and had no condemnation for the sinner whatever. 12:52 You know the wonderful story, John, the 8 Chapter, 12:57 where the woman has been brought to Him in condemnation. 13:01 They say that she was caught in the very act of adultery. 13:06 Moses said we should stone people who do that. 13:08 What do you say? 13:10 And Jesus begins writing in the dust of the stones 13:13 at the temple courtyard. 13:16 Even then He doesn't even condemn her accuses, 13:18 He could say well you hypocrites 13:20 what right you have to bring her here. 13:21 You're worse than she is, but He doesn't do that. 13:24 He writes secretly on the ground, 13:27 their sins and then erases them so that only the man 13:31 who is guilty sees his own record 13:34 and then as he leaves the next and the next. 13:36 Finally there's no one left standing 13:38 there to condemn the woman. 13:41 And Jesus asked her, is anybody condemning you 13:45 and we have her answer in John 8 and Verse 11. 13:49 "She said, No one, Lord.' And Jesus said to her, 13:57 'Neither do I condemn you, go and sin no more.'" 14:04 Don't you love those words? 14:07 Caught in the very act and yet not condemned. 14:13 The sin was condemned. 14:15 Jesus called sin by its name and he didn't condemn the world. 14:20 In fact, he liberated her because He has gained 14:24 the victory in the seventh commandment 14:28 and He gave her that promise, go and sin no more. 14:30 It was a promise, it sounds like a command, doesn't it? 14:33 Well, it was a command, but in the command 14:34 there is a promise because all His biddings are enablings 14:37 and His word has greater power in it 14:40 and she went forth from that place victorious. 14:46 She felt his transforming love. How fantastic. 14:51 Then to look at the commandments as promises, 14:55 not as something that has intended to condemn us, 14:58 but something that has intended to help us, 15:02 to make us look forward to all that 15:05 is available to us by the grace of God. 15:08 Even though Jesus doesn't condemn us for being sinners, 15:13 he does very accurately diagnose 15:17 the depth of our sin disease. 15:19 He looks right into our hearts and he sees 15:22 every inroad that the cancer has made. 15:27 He sees every cell that has been deformed 15:32 and that's probably very true folks because it seems the sin 15:36 is very much a cellular thing within our minds and our bodies 15:40 and has corrupted the way every organ of our body functions 15:44 and also especially our minds so that our thoughts 15:48 are not pure and not under control of reason 15:53 as they should be, so He sees the evil inclinations 15:58 of our selfishness and He sees that this has 16:01 permeated the depths of our mind and taken control 16:04 of our thoughts so that every thought 16:06 we have is more or less perverted. 16:11 So that even our righteousness is as filthy rags. 16:16 He sees that and still doesn't condemn us, 16:19 but He sees that great truth and He knows that 16:22 in order to be saved, we must have a brain surgery. 16:30 We must have the terrible perversion 16:34 of our thoughts weeded out. 16:38 By His grace He's received our condemnation on Himself. 16:42 By His grace He's forgiven us. 16:43 By His grace He's reconciled us to our Heavenly Father. 16:46 And by His grace He's justified us. 16:51 And so we will all experience those of us 16:54 who continue to hold on to Jesus by faith. 16:56 We will all experience this time when last the perversion 17:01 of the disease that has grasped our minds would be relieved. 17:07 Did you know that even the promise of brain surgery 17:10 is found in the Ten Commandments? 17:11 That is right. All these beautiful promises 17:14 we find in the Ten Commandments and the one that we need 17:19 and the most elementary need, we've seen that, 17:22 we can have victory through Christ in all these areas 17:24 and all these commandments are promises of victory, 17:26 but the tenth commandment promises brain surgery 17:32 or mind transformation. That's right. 17:37 We need to go back and look at the tenth commandment 17:43 and see exactly what the promise is. 17:49 Shall we read it? Exodus 20 and verse 17, 17:54 "You shall not covet your neighbor's house, 17:57 you shall not covet your neighbor's wife, 17:59 nor his male servant, nor his female servant, 18:02 nor his ox, nor his donkey, 18:05 nor anything that is your neighbor's." 18:10 Wait a minute, you may say I didn't hear anything 18:12 about brain transplant there, mind overhaul, 18:17 I hear about not coveting somebody's donkey. 18:20 Ah, but you see, when you really look at this commandment, 18:24 this commandment is about thoughts, 18:28 it's about sin that takes place in the head, 18:30 is not what coveting is, coveting isn't doing anything, 18:34 coveting is thinking something. 18:37 It's thinking the wrong thing. 18:38 It's thinking I want something that God doesn't want for me. 18:45 I want something that isn't mine. 18:47 I want something that God has not given me. 18:50 Eve coveted the fruit on the tree before she took it. 18:54 Every sin starts with coveting. 18:57 It starts in the brain, it starts with a thought. 19:01 Yes, I know I'm married. 19:02 Yes, I know this is a commandment 19:03 about adultery, but I want. 19:07 That's the covetous thought that leads to the transgression, 19:11 but you see the covetous thought is already sin, it is. 19:16 It's given in the Ten Commandments 19:17 as the tenth because God knew that 19:21 before we could really be free from sin, 19:23 we would have to have our heads changed, in other words, 19:25 we would have to have all the wrong thoughts, 19:29 the wrong desires, the wrong yearnings, 19:32 the wrong attitudes that have to be taken out of our minds. 19:35 And so He included that in His commandments too, 19:37 because He knew we couldn't change our thoughts. 19:40 Isn't that evidence right there 19:41 that the commandments are promises? 19:44 Can a man change the desires of his heart? 19:47 Oh, he can stubbornly say, 19:49 well, I'm just not gonna do it, no matter what. 19:52 He might do that if he's got a strong will, 19:56 but actually change the thought of itself by his own will. 20:02 No, we can't do that, but God can do it. 20:07 You know, Christ never even sinned by a thought. 20:09 Imagine that. Not even by a thought, 20:11 not once from childhood, through teenage, 20:13 through young adulthood, through middle age, 20:15 He never sinned even by a thought and so He is going 20:19 to give us the tenth commandment as a promise. 20:23 Our desires will all be changed, everything we think 20:27 and want will be brought into harmony with the mind of God. 20:33 So that we will both will 20:36 as Paul says and do His goodwill. 20:42 Well, there was a time when the apostle Paul 20:44 believed himself to be perfect. 20:46 He states that in his own testimony about his life, 20:50 he said that he was a Pharisee of the Pharisees. 20:52 He was the most successful Pharisee alive at that time 20:56 and he really regarded himself as perfect. 20:57 He was keeping all the commandments 21:00 and then he discovered one he had overlooked. 21:06 Romans Chapter 7, Verse 7, "What shall we say then? 21:13 Is the law sin? Certainly not! 21:16 On the contrary I would not have known 21:18 sin except through the law. 21:22 For I would not have known covetousness 21:25 unless the law had said, you shall not covet.'" 21:31 Oh Paul, he didn't even know he was a sinner until he saw 21:36 the law and what law in particular 21:39 that was that convicted him. 21:41 Oh, not the law about stealing, he never stole anything. 21:43 Killing, he never killed anybody. 21:45 Breaking the Sabbath, he never broke a Sabbath in his life. 21:47 Now there was a law that said don't covet and as he pondered 21:53 that he realized that he did have desires. 22:00 Oh, he was strong willed, he could say no to them, 22:02 but he did have desires that were not in harmony 22:07 with the expressed will of God and he suddenly discovered 22:12 to his own amazement that he was a sinner. 22:16 Paul, the Pharisee discovered that he was a sinner 22:21 because his mind hadn't been transformed. 22:25 No wonder Jesus looked at the Pharisee named 22:27 Nicodemus and said, you've got to be born again. 22:30 You're great man, you do everything right, 22:31 but your head needs to be changed. 22:35 You need a new heart. You've got to be made pure from the inside. 22:42 Well, thank God, that's exactly what 22:44 we're promised through the new covenant. 22:48 Let's look at this great promise, 22:51 Hebrews 8 and Verse 10, "For this is the covenant 22:58 that I will make with the house of Israel 23:00 after those days, says the Lord. 23:04 I will put My laws in their mind and write them on their hearts, 23:10 and I will be their God, and they shall be My people." 23:14 There it is friends, the new covenant. 23:17 You see, it's the same law, 23:20 but where it was written on stones, 23:24 now it is written in our mind and in our heart 23:30 and so the law is still a good thing. 23:36 It's a promise of the way we will live 23:39 when the Lord transforms our mind in our heart. 23:44 He's doing it. He's doing it piece by piece. 23:46 Sanctification is a growth process, but oh, 23:49 how we longed for the conclusion of the whole matter, don't we? 23:52 the time when we're just like Jesus 23:55 and His promise is absolute sure, He will do it. 23:59 He will have a people who are no longer children, 24:02 tossed to and fro by every wind of doctrine, 24:04 but who speak the truth and love and who have grown up 24:08 into the fullness of the stature of Christ, 24:11 His promises are absolute. He'll do it. 24:14 It's not our work, it's His work. 24:17 Well, how can Jesus give us 24:18 this experience of the tenth commandment? 24:22 It's very clear because Jesus Himself 24:27 has won the victory, not by a thought. 24:32 Did he contemplate moving aside from 24:38 God's Holy will for Himself and for His future? 24:43 Jesus was tempted, believe me. 24:48 He was tempted to wrong thoughts. 24:51 The devil attacked him with every possible wrong thought, 24:53 thoughts of jealousy, thoughts of vengeance, 24:56 thoughts of anger, thoughts of lust, 24:59 thoughts of appetite, they all assailed Him. 25:05 Jesus could have had anything 25:09 because He had the power to take it, didn't he? 25:12 And so that made His temptations even stronger. 25:16 But even though Satan planted these thoughts 25:18 in his brain momentarily, he never entertained them. 25:27 Jesus could have made gold from rocks. 25:32 He proved that He could make wine from water. 25:35 He could draw fish out of the sea just by calling them. 25:40 Women flocked to him and He could have abused them, 25:46 but He never even considered it for a moment 25:51 because He loved them too much. 25:53 He love them with a real love 25:55 that puts other people first and oneself last. 25:59 Oh, Jesus had such a perfect mind, 26:01 such a perfect heart, isn't that what we want? 26:04 The devil came to Him and the wilderness 26:06 and said make these stones into bread 26:12 and Jesus didn't delay a moment. 26:14 He said it's written, He didn't have to think about it 26:18 and ponder how good they might taste 26:20 if he would do that miracle. 26:23 When Satan came and said jump off this pinnacle, 26:26 He didn't have to consider it. 26:29 He said it is written. The will of God is this. 26:34 I'll covet anything you have to offer. 26:37 When Satan said, if you wish at me 26:40 all the nations of the earth will be yours, 26:43 not for a moment did Jesus falter, 26:46 there was no pondering the pros and cons. 26:50 He knew the father's will. 26:52 He said, get thee behind me, Satan. 26:56 Jesus did not ever covet anything that the father 27:02 had not given him and that's the way we want to be. 27:05 Oh, friends, we need to have our minds changed, 27:08 unless they're changed we are not even gonna like heaven, 27:10 we've got to be redone from the inside out so that 27:14 we like being holy, so that we like being pure 27:17 all the time so we won't miss anything evils of this world, 27:19 so our hearts will never be jealous. 27:21 We won't look at the other saints in heaven 27:25 and wish we had as many stars in our crown as they have. 27:28 We need that new un-covetous heart, 27:32 the promise of the tenth commandment 27:34 has been fulfilled by Jesus Christ 27:37 and it's impossible that any word should 27:39 go out of his mouth and we turn to him void. 27:41 Jesus has completed it. It's all done in Him. 27:46 If you feel that your thoughts, if you sense, 27:50 if you know the truth that your thoughts are still impure, 27:54 claim the victory that Jesus has won in the tenth commandment. |
Revised 2014-12-17