Exodus 20 (pt 5) - 2011.10.29

The COMMANDMENTS (5)

“Thou shalt not take the name of the LORD thy God in vain; for the LORD will not hold him guiltless that taketh his name in vain.”—Exodus 20:7

As a child growing up, guided by a mother who had great respect for the word of God, this was one of the warnings I remember. For many years I regarded the commandment as referring to the use of profanity, and still cringe when I hear the words “oh my God,” or “Jesus” or “Jesus Christ” used in profane punctuation of ordinary or vulgar conversation. This is akin to the view of many of the rabbis in bible times. The view is certainly legitimate, but woefully inadequate to plumb the depths of the commandment.

The word vain means, among other things, empty or frivolous. An official dictionary definition is, “[to] take someone’s name in vain [is to] use someone’s name in a way that shows a lack of respect.” 

There are those, of course, who deliberately choose to blaspheme God in blatant unbelief: “For they speak against thee wickedly, and thine enemies take thy name in vain [Psalm 139:20 my italics].”

It is my judgment that His name is also taken in vain when it is attached to advertising for the purpose of soliciting funds for man made, man centered projects more mischievous than spiritual. Recall the case of the seven sons of Sceva:

“…certain of the vagabond Jews, exorcists, took upon them to call over them which had evil spirits the name of the Lord Jesus, saying, We adjure you by Jesus whom Paul preacheth. And there were seven sons of one Sceva, a Jew, and chief of the priests, which did so. And the evil spirit answered and said, Jesus I know, and Paul I know; but who are ye? And the man in whom the evil spirit was leaped on them, and overcame them, and prevailed against them, so that they fled out of that house naked and wounded. And this was known to all the Jews and Greeks also dwelling at Ephesus; and fear fell on them all, and the name of the Lord Jesus was magnified [Acts 19:13-17].”

Employing the name of the Lord for personal advantage, these were certainly taking His name in vain—and paid the price!

An empty profession is taking the name of the Lord in vain: “Unto the pure all things are pure: but unto them that are defiled and unbelieving is nothing pure; but even their mind and conscience is defiled. They profess that they know God; but in works they deny him, being abominable, and disobedient, and unto every good work reprobate [Titus 1:15-16].” When the lifestyle contradicts the will of God, His name is taken in vain.

My view now is that we take God’s name in vain when we say it or sing it without a proper regard for Who He is. It can happen in church. Jesus said, “Ye hypocrites, well did Esaias prophesy of you, saying, This people draweth nigh unto me with their mouth, and honoureth me with their lips; but their heart is far from me. But in vain they do worship me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men [Mt. 15:7-9].” 

Christianity pursued as a religion without a redemptive relationship to the true and living God regularly takes His name in vain. Jesus warned of this when he declared “Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven. Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name have cast out devils? and in thy name done many wonderful works? And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity [Mat. 7:21-23].”

Man, it may be, is influenced by outward profession, but “the Lord looketh on the heart.” And the heart of any man who senses the scope and depth of this commandment must be indicted before God as guilty of transgression and in need of mercy. That kind of insight will move one to fear God, revere Him and hope in His salvation through the blood of Jesus Christ that can cleanse us from all unrighteousness. It can also motivate us to a moderate and reverent lifestyle, to say nothing of the careful use of the tongue, even as Solomon declared before God, “Two things have I required of thee; deny me them not before I die: Remove far from me vanity and lies: give me neither poverty nor riches; feed me with food convenient for me: Lest I be full, and deny thee, and say, Who is the LORD? or lest I be poor, and steal, and take the name of my God in vain [Prov. 30:7-9].”

O magnify the LORD with me, and let us exalt his name together. —Ps. 30:4

For His glory, 

"Pastor" Frasier

Exodus 20 (pt 4) - 2011.10.22

The COMMANDMENTS (4)

“Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth: Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them: for I the LORD thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me; And showing mercy unto thousands of them that love me, and keep my commandments.”—Exodus 20:4-6

When visiting China two years ago, I had the dubious privilege of seeing idol worship for the first time. In the city of Shanghai we visited a Buddhist temple and there in the square before it many were burning incense and obviously praying to the idols representative of the founder of that religion. Imported to China out of India, Buddhism was founded by a real person, a kind of “religious philosopher,” who after his death was revered and eventually idolized in the literal sense. Many and varied are the figures that represent the man, but the images and the figure behind them are regarded as gods by many who follow him and the moral system he devised.

Man has an inclination to worship, but it is not generally an inclination to worship the true God. The first and second commandments are closely related. Together they forbid our bestowing our love and devotion on any god but the true God, the self-revealing God of the bible, or any representation of god in any thing in the height, breadth or depth of the natural realm. No element of creation is to be exalted as the Creator. Any such is an insult to the infinite and eternal God. Of all creation, man alone was made in the image of God (Gen. 1:26), and that image was marred beyond recognition in mankind since Adam bestowed his worship and allegiance upon the Serpent.

When men pray to “saints” and “the blessed mother,” when they idolize “the cross,” and/or put man made representations of Christ upon it, for example, the commandment is violated, however solemn and sincere the practice may appear. Sincerity is no substitute for obedience, and transgression can be wonderfully subtle.

Through the apostle Paul the Holy Spirit defines God as “…the King eternal, immortal, invisible, the only wise God,” to Whom alone belongs “honour and glory for ever and ever [I Tim. 1:17].” He is made visible only in and through the incarnation of the Lord Jesus Christ “Who is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of every creature [Col 1:15].” It is of far more than passing significance that He left behind no statues, sketches, or other representations of Himself when He returned to the right hand of the Majesty on high. There have been many such representations created and published since, but in light of the second commandment, all of them are false and not one of them carries the endorsement of God. We may not be idolators in the formal sense, but I fear many are by default. In many a church more love and devotion is poured out on the building and/or the program, the ritual and the routine than upon the living God himself.

And, there are other ways in which idolatry manifests itself. Should you think we are going a bit overboard, we need only turn again to the authority of the word of God and read His indictment of “covetousness, which is idolatry,” in Col.3:5. Here is an idol with a shape all its own. When “things” or what an acquaintance of mine used to call “the desire to acquire” becomes our goal in life, God is belittled and outraged.

You may recall that we said in an earlier meditation that the underlying goal of the commandments is not law, but love. When we love things, and their acquisition becomes the driving force in our lives, God is marginalized, and as the “giver of every good and perfect gift,” Who has promised to supply all our need, He is justifiably heartbroken as well as outraged.

Two things at least should emerge from this, as from each of the commandments. First, you don’t have to have a statue or icon in your home or church in order to be guilty of Idolatry. You have only to shift your focus, your priority in life, your devotion from the living God to anything or anyone else in all creation, great or small. Second, rightly understood, if this were the only commandment, we would all be convicted of having “sinned and come short of the glory of God,” standing in danger of eternal damnation and desperate need of a Savior.

Meditating on this passage of scripture should move us to humble admission of guilt, a passionate trust in the Lord Jesus Christ and a growing love for “the God of all grace.” What—or who—is the primary object of your affection?

For His glory,

"Pastor" Frasier

Exodus 20 (pt 3) - 2011.10.15

The COMMANDMENTS (3)

“And God spake all these words, saying, I am the LORD thy God, which have brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. Thou shalt have no other gods before me.”—Exodus 20:3

God reveals Himself by His Word through His Spirit. It is my contention that all divine revelation is of the Father through the Son by the agency of the Holy Spirit. Here, then, God reveals Himself through His Word in a miraculous way to His people; “God spake all these words, saying…” And what He says is a disclosure of —

(1) His person: “I am.” Recall that this is the title He authorized Moses to use when he went to Pharaoh to plead for the release of the Israelites from Egypt. It is also of no little value to remember that the Lord Jesus Christ laid claim to the title when He declared to the “the Jews,” “Before Abraham was, I am,” and so outraged them that “they took up stones to cast at Him [John 8:58 and context].” The significance of the title, with respect to deity, is afforded in Revelation 1:8, “I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the ending, saith the Lord, which is, and which was, and which is to come, the Almighty.” Simply put, the Eternal One.”

(2) His position: “the LORD thy God.” It is the position of priority and authority. The significance of the word LORD is disclosed in Psalm 83:18: “…thou, whose name alone is JEHOVAH, art the most high over all the earth.”

(3) His compassion: “I… have brought thee out of Egypt, out of the land of bondage.” This signifying that what is being said is directed to the redeemed, not to the world at large. The New Testament confirms this; “…the Gentiles, … have not the law [See Romans 2:14].” As we noted previously, the commandments were not given in order that men might be saved, but that by them those who are His people might reveal themselves as such by loving submission to His revealed will. Obedience to the commandments is simply “thanks-living.”

It is important to recognize that this principle is paralleled in the New Testament “under grace.” It is to believers, not to the unregenerate that the call to obedience is issued. It is to “His own” that the Savior says, “If ye love me, keep my commandments.”

First and foremost, then is this commandment, “Thou shalt have no other gods before Me.” The obvious implication is that God, because He is God, should have no competitors in our lives. No person or thing is to be the primary object of our love, to say nothing of our worship, other than He. He is to be our “first love.”

The threat of competition is illustrated variously in the New Testament. “Seek ye first the kingdom of God…[Mt. 6:33].” “Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him [I John 2:15].” “He that loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of me: and he that loveth son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me… [Mt. 10:10].” People, position, possessions, even personal welfare—all is to be subordinated to the will of God out of love and respect for Him.

When the rich young ruler had revealed that his love for the material world was competing with love for God, “he went away sorrowful,” and the Savior turned to the disciples and said, “It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God,” to which the disciples responded with amazement, “Who then can be saved?” Jesus replied, “with men this is impossible; but with God all things are possible.” Impetuous Peter reacted saying, “Behold, we have forsaken all, and followed thee; what shall we have therefore?” Jesus responded, “every one that hath forsaken houses, or brethren, or sisters, or father, or mother, or wife, or children, or lands, for my name's sake, shall receive an hundredfold, and shall inherit everlasting life.” (See the whole account, Mt. 19:16-30) God is a benevolent Master!

The first commandment, understood and taken seriously, introduces us to our spiritual bankruptcy. Paul said, “When the commandment came, sin revived, and I died.” That is the necessary reaction of everyone, saved or unconverted, who understands even this first precept of “the law.” If this is what God requires, we have come short; woefully short. If we are to make it to heaven, it must be on some other ground. Happily, that ground is at Calvary. “Therefore by the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified in his sight: for by the law is the knowledge of sin. But now the righteousness of God without the law is manifested, being witnessed by the law and the prophets; Even the righteousness of God which is by faith of Jesus Christ unto all and upon all them that believe [Rom. 3:20-22].”

“On Christ the solid rock I stand; all other ground is sinking sand.”

Saved by His grace alone,

"Pastor" Frasier

Exodus 20 (pt 2) - 2011.10.08

The COMMANDMENTS (2)

“And God spake all these words, saying, I am the LORD thy God…” —Exodus 20:3a

                                                  

It is most interesting to note that the commandments were not laid down from “the beginning.” They come much, much later in history. Clearly, then, they are not the basis of a relationship with God. That foundation is revealed to us in a significant, but little noticed passage in the epistle to the Hebrews. “Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen…But without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him [Heb. 11:1, 6].” Two things are posited here as necessary to a relationship with God: (1) Faith that God IS - His being; (2) Faith in His benevolence - that He is good to those who trust Him.

Adam had no problem with the first. He did not have to take God’s existence by faith; he knew God. In the garden, in the beginning, they (Adam and Eve) communed with God. (See Gen. 3:8-10) His problem was believing the God he knew! It was not an issue of trusting in God’s existence, but of believing that the God he knew was trustworthy. Giving heed to the Liar rather than to the One who is the Truth, he fell victim to the original sin, “I will be like the Most High.” That is the problem many a Christian has today. 

We see the issue as one of trust. heartily singing, “Trust and Obey.” The Savior declares it as one of love. “If ye love Me keep my commandments [John 14:15].” “Love and obey!” Again, “He that hath my commandments, and keepeth them, he it is that loveth me: and he that loveth me shall be loved of my Father, and I will love him, and will manifest myself to him [John 14:21].” And, “If ye keep my commandments, ye shall abide in my love; even as I have kept my Father's commandments, and abide in his love [John 15:10].” This is really quite remarkable, since it shifts the fundamental ground of our relationship with God from faith to love. And, this is reflected in the Savior’s reduction of “the Ten” to “the Two,” wherein the “first and great commandment” is, “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment [Matt. 22:37-38].”

Love generates trust. “And now abideth faith, hope, love, these three; but the greatest of these is love [I Cor. 13:13 my italics].” Adam simply loved himself more than he loved God. This astonishing principle is illustrated again in the Savior’s encounter with the ‘rich young ruler.’ He appeared to score 100 on Jesus’ test with the “second” commandment, but failed miserably, for all his temporal morality, when it became evident that he loved money more than he loved God, this present world more than “the world to come.”

The commandments, many or few, were never given to cultivate our relationship with God, but to test it. The overarching question is never “will you obey Me,” but “Do you love me?” (See John 21:15-17) We think we need redemption because we have failed in obedience to God’s rules. In fact the “ground zero” of our failure is a failure in love. A slave can be made to obey, but no one can be forced to love.

Most men (even professing Christians) think of God as a taskmaster. That is not the case. He gave to Adam only one commandment. It was the only prohibition in his world. Everything else was at his disposal, and he ruled over all—under God. The one prohibition was, clearly and undeniably, for Adam’s good. It was an expression of love on God’s part, not Self interest. And, it became the test of Adam’s love for God. Adam failed the test. So do you and I. That is why Calvary was necessary!

When you think of the commandments, remember that they were not given for the salvation of His people, but to those who were already redeemed:

“Thou in thy mercy hast led forth the people which thou hast redeemed: thou hast guided them in thy strength unto thy holy habitation.” (Ex. 15:13)

For “by the law there shall be no flesh be justified in His sight [Rom. 3:20].” The commandments are simply given to “crowd us to Christ.” If we love Him, the commandments will not be hard to take, though impossible to perfectly  fulfill.  

Remember:

“And hereby we do know that we know him, if we keep his commandments. He that saith, I know him, and keepeth not his commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him. But whoso keepeth his word, in him verily is the love of God perfected: hereby know we that we are in him. He that saith he abideth in him ought himself also so to walk, even as he walked [I John 2:3-6 my italics].” Salvation, in all its aspects, is a love story!

 For the praise of the glory of His grace, 

"Pastor" Frasier

Matthew 22 (pt 1) - 2011.10.01

THE COMMANDMENTS (1)

“And when the multitude heard this, they were astonished at his doctrine.” —Matt. 22:33

                               

“They were astonished at His doctrine.” Three of the four evangelists use this same phrase to describe the popular reaction to the teaching of the Savior. Well they might. The Lord Jesus Christ could take men deeper into truth with a short sentence than most preachers can with an hour long sermon. 

We have lost our concept of sin, both in our culture and in the “established” church. The tragic result is at least two fold. First, we have an inadequate concept of the holiness of God. Second, we lack a real appreciation of the glory of the gospel. The apostle Paul said of ‘the law,’ “When the commandment came, sin revived, and I died.” Subsequently he affirmed the law as “holy, and just, and good.” (See Rom. 7:9, 12) In the interest of sharpening our appreciation of  God’s grace and quickening our sense of His holiness, we will spend the next several weeks (D.V.) meditating on that distillation of ‘the law of the Lord’ popularly referred to as “The Ten Commandments.” I am well aware that we are neither saved nor sanctified by ‘keeping the commandments.’ But the New Testament makes it abundantly clear that the gospel does not destroy the law, and that redeemed men should aspire to live no less than to its standard.

Worthy of particular note is Paul’s reference to ‘the commandment’ in the singular, rather than plural. He sees the law, in spite of its apparent diversity, as one. Then recall that the Savior reduced the Ten to two: 

“When the Pharisees had heard that he had put the Sadducees to silence, they were gathered together. Then one of them, which was a lawyer, asked him a question, tempting him, and saying, Master, which is the great commandment in the law? Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets. [Mt. 22:34-40].”

Then, through the apostle James we are taken even deeper. “For whosoever shall keep the whole law, and yet offend in one point, he is guilty of all [Jas. 2:10].” The obvious lesson is, no part of the law can be singled out as more important than another. The law, “the commandment,” is an entity. It is a revelation of the character of God, and when we violate it, He is violated. When we offend, He is offended! If it were merely a matter of keeping rules, we might be more or less successful. But given this perception of the divine law, we are at best miserable failures. Hence the need, the desperate need of the gospel of the grace of God if we are to have any “hope of glory.”

The question then becomes, “What must I do to inherit eternal life?” There is a more or less familiar hymn that declares, “A ruler once came to Jesus by night, to ask him the way of salvation and light; The Master made answer in words clear and plain, ‘Ye must be born again.’” The reference, of course, is to Nicodemus, as recorded in John 3 where the Savior says “clear and plain,” “Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.” But, earlier and with specific reference to “eternal life,” another ‘ruler’ came to Jesus and said “Good Master, what good thing shall I do, that I may have eternal life [Mt. 19:16, cf. Luke 10:25]?” The Son of God directed him to the commandments, saying, “If thou wilt enter into life, keep the commandments. And he saith unto Him, Which?” Remarkably, He who reduced the ten to two by-passed what He had referred to as “the first and great commandment,” and declared the second: “Jesus said, Thou shalt do no murder, Thou shalt not commit adultery, Thou shalt not steal, Thou shalt not bear false witness, Honor thy father and thy mother: and, Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself.” (See Mt. 19:16-19ff) Without hesitation the young man replied, “All these things have I kept from my youth up,” but added, What lack I yet?” revealing his uneasiness that, as good as he (thought) he was, he might not be good enough. 

Without challenging his candid response, the Savior replied, “If thou wilt be perfect, go and sell what you have and give to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven: and come and follow Me.” (v.21) “But when the young man heard that saying, he went away sorrowful: for he had great possessions.” He fared well with respect to the “second commandment,” but failed miserably with respect to the first. God had a competitor in his life. And, ‘half a loaf will not do.’ 

“Therefore by the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified in His sight: for by the law is the knowledge of sin.” —Rom. 3:20

For our eternal good, 

"Pastor" Frasier