"Blessed is the man"--Psalm 1:1

There are at least 50 places in the Bible that use the word, “Blessed.” Or “Blessed be…” Psalm 128:1—Blessed is the man who fears the LORD. Matthew 11:6—“Blessed is he who is not offended because of Me.” And of course, all the Beatitudes begin with the phrase, “Blessed are…” Matthew 5:3-8—“Blessed are the poor in spirit…they that mourn…the meek…those who hunger and thirst for righteousness.” 2^nd Corinthians 11:31—Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. Revelation 20:6—Blessed and holy is he who has a part in the first resurrection.

When referring to God, the word “blessed” means “glorified, revered.” When referring to a person, that word “blessed” can also be defined as one who is “happy,” or “to be congratulated.” Today, we’re going to look at what type of person is truly “blessed,” and is deserving of “congratulations.” We’re going to read the first two verses of the first Psalm, and look a little deeper at what the psalmist is saying here.

If we want to be blessed in this life—and especially in the life to come—there are some things we need to avoid. Some people just don’t get that. They think that true joy and happiness come from the things we do and the things we get right now, here in this life. But we’ll talk more about Joel Osteen some other time. And when things don’t quite work out the way they expected them to, and their lives start crumbling around them, and they wonder how it happened, and how they can fix it. And how many times, when we tell them that if they would just stop doing things the way they're doing them, and trust God, and follow His ways that they will be better able to deal with their situation. It doesn't mean that their lives will suddenly turn to sunshine and unicorns, but they’ll have a more lasting and true peace about those things.

But, they usually want to hear about how they can keep doing the same thing they’ve been doing, the same way they’ve been doing it—even if it’s the wrong thing to do, and the wrong way to do it—they want to keep doing the same thing, but get a different result. And that is the definition of what? Insanity. Instead of turning to the LORD. When we turn to God for answers—He may not FIX our problems, but He will give us the strength and the patience we need to endure until those storms pass. So, how does one find true blessedness?

Psalm 1:1—Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor stands in the path of sinners, nor sits in the seat of the scornful. We are blessed when we avoid the ways of the world. What we see here in verse 1 is a progression. When we get caught up in sin, is it because we charge right into it? Do we wake up one day and say, “It looks so nice outside. I think I'll get hooked on meth today!” I can't imagine that sentence has ever passed through anybody’s lips. But how many times—especially for believers—is it very gradual, and very subtle? How many times have we wound up somewhere doing something that we were so absolutely sure “that would NEEEVVVER happen.” And then you look up one day and you think, “What the heck am I doing here!!”

It's a slow fade when you give yourself away
It's a slow fade when black and white have turned to gray
Thoughts invade, choices are made, a price will be paid
When you give yourself away
People never crumble in a day
It’s a slow fade
--Casting Crowns, “Slow Fade”

Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the ungodly. We need to be really careful about who we look to for advice. There are many psychologists and psychiatrists, and therapists, that—they have all these years of school, and college, and you walk in and they have these fancy diplomas on their wall—and they don’t know a thing about how to help you get through your problems. Other than, “Here, take this pill! It will make you happy!” Many times, our problems—whether they are physical, or emotional, or psychological—most of the time, the root of that problem is spiritual. We may be looking at our problem through our own eyes, and the problem looks impossible—to us. But is anything impossible with God?

Another example: when somebody does something to us, what does the world say we’re supposed to do? Get even with them. What did Jesus say to do? Yeah, you know, that whole “Turn the other cheek” thing.

--“You don’t know what Naomi said about me!” They blasphemed Christ.
--“But Joseph’s been cheating with my girlfriend!” His people committed harlotry with other gods.
--“That drunk driver killed my baby daughter!” And your sins nailed Jesus to the cross.

And I guarantee you one thing: what you're fixin’ to do to that person is a whole lot worse than what they did to you. It’s never about “getting even”, now, is it? Isn't it always “get even—and then some”? Somebody does something to you, you have to do worse to them, right? No. Walk away. Don’t walk in the counsel of someone who says you need to “get even” with the one who offended you and hurt your delicate little feelings.

Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor stands in the path of sinners. How many of y’all remember what high school was like? Not every school is the same, but in most, you’ve got your jocks over here, your cheerleaders over here, your science geeks over here, then you’ve got a group made up of kids who aren’t in ANY group. They’ve made their own group. “We are the ‘not-in-any-group’ group!” You could tell what type of person somebody was by the group they hung out with. The same when it comes to us, and which group we belong to—do we stand with saints or do we stand with sinners. There’s no neutral territory. Hebrews 3:12—Beware, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief in departing from the living God. Unbelief is evil. I'm sure we've all heard someone say they know a friend who is “walking with one foot in the world, and one foot in the kingdom.” That is an absolute impossibility. One cannot walk with one foot in the world and one foot in the kingdom. They will either have both feet in the world or both feet in the kingdom. Matthew 6:24—“No man can serve two masters…” James 4:4—The friendship of the world is hostility with God. So which path do we stand in? Do we take sides with the world, or with God?

Now, does that mean we can't have friends who aren’t Christians? No, it does not. We are, in fact, encouraged to have non-Christian friends rather than friends who claim to be Christians, but are living an immoral lifestyle. 1^st Corinthians 5:9-11—I wrote to you in my epistle not to keep company with sexually immoral people. Yet I certainly did not mean with the sexually immoral people of this world, or with the covetous, or extortioners, or idolaters, since then you would need to go out of the world. But now I have written to you not to keep company with anyone named a brother, who is sexually immoral, or covetous, or an idolater, or a reviler, or a drunkard, or an extortioner—not even to eat with such a person. Let me give you one example of this. I found a video while back from a ministry in Los Angeles. A woman from this ministry was talking to a couple of young men outside the BET awards. They wanted to see all the big-name rappers. These men said, “Yeah, we’re Christians.” And during the course of this interview, these men said (I kid you not) that these rappers were—quote—“God-fearing men.” Apparently, in some people’s eyes God-fearing men rap about going to clubs, having multiple sexual partners, drugs. And these men who claimed to be Christians were standing in the same path with them! Psalm 101:3—I will set nothing wicked before my eyes; I hate the work of those who fall away; it shall not cling to me. Philippians 4:8—Whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest…just… pure…lovely…of good report…any virtue…any praise, think on these things. We can have non-Christian friends—we should, so we can let our light shine before them, they can glorify our Father in Heaven—that doesn’t mean we should be imitating them.

Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor stands in the path of sinners, nor sits in the seat of the scornful. This is the most dangerous of all. Because if you are walking or standing, you can look around and eventually you'll say, “What am I doing? I'm outta here!!!” But when you sit at someone’s table, you are making yourself comfortable with what they are offering you. When you see a friend—especially one who claims to be a brother—you see them doing something you know is sinful, and not only do you say nothing to him, but you take part in it, you are “sitting in the seat of the scornful.” Proverbs 23:6-8—Do not eat the bread of [the greedy], nor desire his delicacies; for as he thinks in his heart, so is he. "Eat and drink!" he says to you, but his heart is not with you. The morsel you have eaten, you will vomit up, and waste your pleasant words. In other words, don’t partake of another’s evil, because they may act like they're your friend, but when it’s all said and done they don’t care about you, and you're going to be in worse shape than you were before.

Another thing to consider: think about how Jehovah’s Witnesses and Mormons go about their work. Do they just stand outside the Wal-Mart and hand out tracts? No. They knock on your door. They want to come into your house. And what do they want to do? They want to sit down with you. And they want you to be comfortable. And if you know what Jehovah's Witnesses and Mormons believe, then you know Satan is coming through that door too, right? 2^nd John 9-11—He who abides in the doctrine of Christ has both the Father and the Son. If anyone comes to you and does not bring this doctrine, do not receive him into your house nor greet him; for he who greets him shares in his evil deeds. When we lived in our last house, we lived about 3 blocks away from a Mormon church. And on 3 separate occasions we had some Mormon missionaries come to our door. And it was cold outside. And we stood at the door. And they tried to tell me all about their polygamous prophet. And I want you to know, they did not step one foot in our house. And they probably about froze. But I was not about to let them in the house. Why? Because I was not a good neighbor? No. Because God tells us not to! You want to preach your false god, you can do it from outside my door. But you ain't stepping foot inside.

Now, Psalm 1:2 kinda gives us the other side of the coin. It shows us what we can do to find true blessedness. Psalm 1:2—But his delight is in the law of the LORD, and in His law he meditates day and night. What is the Law? It’s all those 613 commandments in Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy. Which is the great commandment? Matthew 22:37-38—“‘You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ This is the first and great commandment.” This is what we meditate on day and night. Love the LORD our God with everything in us, and our neighbor as ourselves. Where does it teach us to do that? The Law. You can watch talk shows, read all kinds of books written by people who don’t know the LORD—and don’t want to know Him. You can get all kinds of advice from the newest, trendiest pop psychologist. But you will never know how to please the LORD if you don’t read His word.

Charles Spurgeon said,

“‘His delight is in the law of the Lord.’ He is not under the law as a curse and condemnation, but he is in it, and he delights to be in it as his rule of life; he delights, moreover, to meditate in it, to read it by day, and think upon it by night. He takes a text and carries it with him all day long; and in the night-watches, when sleep forsakes his eyelids; he [reflects] upon the Word of God. In the day of his prosperity he sings psalms out of the Word of God, and in the night of his affliction he comforts himself with promises out of the same book.”

He’s saying that “day and night” doesn’t just mean the sun coming up and going down. But the day can also refer to when things are going good, and the night when things aren’t so good. And in it all, we know that God is sovereign over it all, that nothing happens in our lives that He does not allow, and if He does allow it to happen it is so we can glorify Him in the midst of our trouble. Psalm 30:5—Weeping may endure for a night, but joy cometh in the morning.

Blessed be Your name
In the land that is plentiful
Where your streams of abundance flow
Blessed be Your name

Blessed be Your name
When I'm found in the desert place
Though I walk through the wilderness
Blessed be Your name

Blessed be Your name
When the sun's shining down on me
When the world's 'all as it should be'
Blessed be Your name

Blessed be Your name
On the road marked with suffering
Though there's pain in the offering
Blessed be Your name
--Matt Redman, “Blessed Be Your Name”

When things look bleak, we have promises from God that He will see us through it. When we have joy, we can find countless ways to praise Him for His goodness! No other religion on earth gives any assurance that you are pleasing that particular deity. Not the Buddhist god, nor the Hindu god, nor the god of the Jehovah's Witnesses or the god of the Mormons. And especially not the god if the Muslims. But if we know Christ then we can know, without a doubt, that we are indeed children of the One, True, Living God. Let me finish up this quote from Spurgeon.

“‘The law of the Lord’ is the daily bread of the true believer. And yet, in David's day, how small was the volume of inspiration, for they had scarcely anything save the first five books of Moses! How much more, then, should we prize the whole written Word which it is our privilege to have in all our houses!”

Think about that for a second. When these Psalms were written, all they had was the Torah. They didn’t have the book of Romans. Or Matthew, Mark, Luke, or John. They did not know about the cross. They did not know that the sinless Son of God would be made sin for us, so that we could be the righteousness of God in Christ. All they knew was “LAW”. Consider this also: there are some parts of the world where if you get caught with a Bible, you're dead! There are still other places that have never seen one! Yet how casually do we treat it, we who can go into any Wal-Mart or Target, without fear of prosecution—or persecution—and pick one up, and it’ll cost you 5 bucks. Some countries, it’ll cost you your life! But blessed are we when we take this book, and read it, and study it, and believe in the promises contained inside and understand that this is the perfect word of God, not just a bunch of stories. “Bunch of stories from old Jewish guys.” No, they are not. This beloved book is no less than a collection of 66 love letters from God to His people.

I'll close with an example of a man who did not walk in the counsel of the ungodly. In Luke chapter 23, after Jesus has given up the ghost it says in Luke 23:50-53—

• Now behold, there was a man named Joseph, a council member, and a good and just man—a good and just man, in the middle of that Sanhedrin that wanted Jesus dead.
• He had not consented to their decision and action—a good and just man in the middle of a bunch of blasphemers—but he voiced his opposition, and did not walk in the counsel of the ungodly.
• And he was looking for the kingdom of God—His delight was in the Law of the LORD and on that Law he meditated day and night.
• This man went to Pilate and asked for the body of Jesus. Then he took it down and wrapped it in a linen shroud and laid him in a tomb cut in stone, where no one had ever been laid—When it was all said and done, he took the Word of God, went to great lengths to care for it, and laid it in his own tomb—knowing that Christ’s body wasn’t going to be there forever. And three days later, it wasn’t.

We don’t need advice from the ungodly. We don’t need to imitate sinners and we certainly do not need to partake of and feel comfortable conforming to the ways of those who mock and scorn God. Let us meditate on the Law of the LORD, let it be our guide to living lives that please Him, knowing that our God and Savior Jesus Christ fulfilled all 613 commands contained therein, freeing us from its yoke and giving us life and life more abundantly! Praise Him for His indescribable Gift! (2^nd Corinthians 9:15).

A Survey of the Old Testament Law--Beginning Leviticus (1:1-1:2)

So now that we have finished our look at the beginnings of the Law in Exodus, we move on to a verse-by-verse survey of the book of Leviticus. This is not exactly everybody’s favorite book in the Bible. Most people would rather read Ephesians or one of the gospels or Romans. But Leviticus is, in my opinion anyway, one of the most important books in the Bible. For many reasons. First, it is God’s Law. And as it is written many times throughout Scripture, God’s Law is a good thing. Many people, when they think of the Old Testament Law, compared with the grace that God gave through the Lord Jesus Christ, they think “grace good—Law bad.” When that is simply not true. Not by any stretch of the imagination. In fact, the Psalmist wrote in Psalm 19:7-8—7 The law of the LORD is perfect, converting the soul; The testimony of the LORD is sure, making wise the simple; 8 the statutes of the LORD are right, rejoicing the heart; The commandment of the LORD is pure, enlightening the eyes. Psalm 119:72—The law of Your mouth is better to me than thousands of coins of gold and silver.

Second, this is still part of the first covenant. By this covenant, God promised the people that if they obeyed His Law, and held to His word, that even if they stumbled and sinned He still provided them a way to have their sin covered over. Even though this was, as it has been called, a “Covenant of Works,” this was still, indeed, a covenant of grace. Was it necessary for God to give the people a way for an innocent animal to die for their sins? Well, to the people it was necessary. But there was nothing that bound God to do so. He didn’t have to call Abram from Ur of the Chaldees, and promise him and his posterity long life and a land flowing with milk and honey. God didn’t—and still doesn't—owe anything to anybody.  If He had decided to let the whole of humanity slide down the pipe and into eternal condemnation, that would have been well within His rights. But He didn’t. He provided a way that a substitute could take their penalty and make atonement for them. In short, He provided a “substitutionary penal atonement” for His people some 1500 years before Golgotha.  Psalm 103:7-11—7 He made known His ways to Moses, His acts to the children of Israel. 8 The LORD is merciful and gracious, Slow to anger, and abounding in mercy. 9 He will not always strive with us, nor will He keep His anger forever. 10 He has not dealt with us according to our sins, nor punished us according to our iniquities. 11 For as the heavens are high above the earth, so great is His mercy toward those who fear Him.

In his most famous sermon, Jonathan Edwards shows us that man’s feet are walking in slippery places all our days, and that at any time our feet may fall. One of his opening paragraphs reads,

“The reason why they are not fallen already and do not fall now is only that God's appointed time is not come. For it is said, that when that due time, or appointed time comes, their foot shall slide. Then they shall be left to fall, as they are inclined by their own weight. God will not hold them up in these slippery places any longer, but will let them go; and then, at that very instant, they shall fall into destruction; as he that stands on such slippery declining ground, on the edge of a pit, he cannot stand alone, when he is let go he immediately falls and is lost.”

Many people read that and think “What kind of a God would let people fall into an eternal Hell?” But there is another question that begs answering: Why would God be so patient with us humans, who have rebelled against Him all the day long; who are stubborn and stiff-necked against His authority; who boast of ourselves all of our days; whose lives are full of hatred toward God and love toward self (Note: contrary to the writer of the song, the greatest love of all is NOT “learning to love ourselves.” We already do that from the time we are born). There is a question one should ask, much better than “What kind of a God would let people fall into an eternal Hell?” The better question is “What kind of God would save even a few of those who hated Him so?” So this Law, while requiring much work on the part of those under its protection, showed them infinitely more mercy than they truly deserved.

Third, Leviticus contains the details of the sacrifices that were meant to cover over their sins. While their sins would not be completely taken away and forgiven by these sacrifices, they would preserve the soul until the time when Christ would come and be the Mediator of the new covenant, by means of death, for the redemption of the transgressions under the first covenant, that those who are called may receive the promise of the eternal inheritance (Hebrews 9:15).  And it was these sacrifices and offerings which would give the people a picture, a shadow of the Christ who would come and remove their sins as far as the east is from the west (Psalm 103:12). It was these sacrifices that served, for nearly 1500 years, as the reminder, year after year, of the promises of God that He would send one to deliver them from their enemy—although when Christ came, the people rejected this One who was so clearly set forth. When He concluded His parable of the wicked vinedressers (Luke 20:9-19), Christ warned the Pharisees that He was the cornerstone the Psalmist spoke of in Psalm 118:22—The stone the builders rejected has become the cornerstone. The people did not realize—or, rather, did not want to realize—that their real enemy was neither the Roman nor the Greek nor any Gentile person or nation. Their real enemy was Satan, sin, and death. But they were so wrapped up in their self-righteousness that they could not see that the one they really needed to be delivered from was themselves.

All that being said, let’s look at the historical and theological context of this book we call “Leviticus.” That was not the original name for this scroll. That title comes from the Latin Vulgate translation of the Septuagint (LXX), which gave the title of this Scripture as Λευίτικόν (Leuitikon), or “Of the Levites.” However, the original title was ךיּקרא (Qawraw), meaning “And He called,” from the first word in the first verse of the book. The same can be said of Genesis, which was originally titled, in the Hebrew, ראשׁית (Reshiyt), “The beginning,” the first words in Genesis being “In the beginning.” God spoke all these words to Moses while the people were still camped at Mt. Sinai in the second year after the Israelites left Egypt, about 1443 B.C. (the Exodus from Egypt occurring and 1445 BC), and about one year after they got to Sinai.

Even with all the many and varied subjects dealt with in Leviticus, there are three common themes:

• Israel as a nation was to be holy, sanctified to God. It was to Israel and Israel alone that God gave His Law.
• Not only was the entire nation to be holy to YHVH, but the individual was to be holy also. Each person was accountable for their own sins, although at times the entire people was punished for the actions of one (see Joshua 7:1-26).
• Finally, the substitutionary penal atonement of Christ was foreshadowed through the offerings, and especially Yom Kippur (the Day of Atonement), when one goat was killed for the sins of the high priest, while the sins of the people who gathered at the tent were placed on the head of the other goat which was led out into the wilderness—Christ being typified in both goats.

Of this system of sacrifice, Albert Barnes wrote,

“The whole sacrificial system of the Hebrew law was intended for a people already brought into covenant with the living God, and every sacrifice was assumed to have a vital connection with the spirit of the worshipper. A Hebrew sacrifice, like a Christian sacrament, possessed the inward and spiritual grace, as well as the outward and visible sign; and may have borne to each man a very different amount of meaning, according to the religious conditions of the mind. One may have come in devout obedience to the voice of the Law, with little more than a vague sense that his offering in some way expressed his own spiritual wants, and that the fact that he was permitted to offer it was a sacramental pledge of God’s good will and favor toward him. But to another, with clearer spiritual insight, the lessons conveyed in the symbols of the altar must have all converged with more or less distinctness toward the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world, Who was to come in the fullness of times that He might fulfill all righteousness, and realize in the eyes of men the true sin-offering, burnt-offering, and peace-offering.”

So, let’s begin to take a look at the text. Leviticus 1:1-2—1 Now the LORD called to Moses, and spoke to him from the tabernacle of meeting, saying, “2 Speak to the children of Israel, and say to them: ‘When any one of you brings an offering to the LORD, you shall bring your offering of the livestock—of the herd and of the flock.’” This is the “Burnt Offering.” This was brought by the person of their own free will (and, by the way, Leviticus and the various offerings are the only place in the Bible where you will find the phrase “free will”—thank you Jim McClarty!) This was completely voluntary, and was meant as a way of expressing the person’s thanks for God’s provision. The person said, “LORD, I thank You for providing for me and my family. Now, here is the choicest of my animals—I hereby burn it for You.” Doesn't make sense to us, does it? What I have is mine, I earned it by the sweat of my brow, it’s mine-mine-mine. Or is it? Psalm 24:1-2—1 The earth is the LORD's, and all its fullness, The world and those who dwell therein. 2 For He has founded it upon the seas, and established it upon the waters. It all belongs to God. Why? Because He made it. It belongs to Him because He created it and He can do with it what He pleases. And if you have something, it is only because God, by His grace and mercy, allows you to have it. “That’s not true! I own my own house!” No, you don’t. First, the bank owes it until you pay off the mortgage. And even after you pay off that big note, that house was constructed of things that were created by God. And until you pay God for using His materials—He still owns it. And He can take it away any time He wants to. That was what the person confesses who brings a “burnt offering.” The person is saying “Everything came from God; and everything shall return to God. I would have nothing were it not for the grace of the LORD our God.” Or, as Job put it, Job 1:21—“The LORD gave, and the LORD has taken away; Blessed be the name of the LORD.”

Next week, we will look at the specifics of how that offering from the herd or the flock was to be prepared.

A Survey of the Old Testament Law--Introduction (part 2)

Whenever I get ready to plan a lesson, I always try to look back on the previous week and ask myself “Is there anything I didn’t explain as well as I should have?” And I really think that last week I didn’t do a good job of explaining just what it means that “Christ fulfilled the Law.” Well, as we saw last week the Law was simply part of a bigger picture of the One who would deliver the world from the power of sin. Think of the OT like this—Pastor Phil gave this illustration once. Suppose I ran into someone I had not seen in years. They ask me if I'm married, and I'm going to pull out this picture and say, “This is my wife Laurie.” Thing is, will they be looking at my wife? Not really. After all, am I married to a picture? No. That piece of paper with ink on it is not my wife—but it is a picture of my wife. And by looking at that little piece of paper, you will see what my wife looks like.

We can apply that same principle to Christ and The Law. If one were to study the Law—and the Psalms and prophets—one would see a picture of the perfect righteousness of God. So that when the perfect righteousness of God were to stand before you—you would know it. Christ was that perfect righteousness of God that the Law and the Psalms and the prophets showed in a picture. Christ “fulfilled the Law” by being the One that the Law—and the Psalms and prophets—were only a picture of. Make sense?

Another thing I want to go over is Romans 7:7—I would not have known sin except through the law. For I would not have known covetousness unless the law had said, "You shall not covet." I mentioned how we all know, without anyone telling us, that killing is wrong and that stealing is wrong. So how could Paul say that he did not it was wrong to covet? Well, covetousness is an inward sin. We know it’s wrong to harm other people—but we don’t always realize that even our thoughts can bring judgment upon us. Which is why Jesus tells us in the Sermon on the Mount, Matthew 5:21-28—“You have heard that it was said to those of old, 'You shall not murder…' But I say to you that whoever is angry with his brother without a cause shall be in danger of the judgment…You have heard that it was said to those of old, 'You shall not commit adultery.' But I say to you that whoever looks at a woman to lust for her has already committed adultery with her in his heart.” It’s not simply the outward actions that bring judgment—but even the secret thoughts of the heart. Do we know, are we aware of, every single sin we have ever committed? In fact, we see this in Psalm 103:3—If You, LORD, should mark iniquities, O Lord, who could stand?

The Pharisees—including Paul, who was a Pharisee before he met Christ—the Pharisees were teaching that keeping the Law was simply about rituals and cleansings and burnt offerings. But Jesus rebuked even their thought life in Matthew 23:23—“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you pay tithe of mint and anise and cummin, and have neglected the weightier matters of the law: justice and mercy and faith. These you ought to have done, without leaving the others undone.” So the purpose of the Law was not simply for people to go on sinning and then bring a bull or a goat for a burnt offering. It was meant to address the outside—but also the inside as well. This, oddly enough, brings us to today’s text.

Let’s look at the effectiveness of the Law. Psalm 19:7-12—The law of the LORD is perfect, converting the soul; the testimony of the LORD is sure, making wise the simple; the statutes of the LORD are right, rejoicing the heart; the commandment of the LORD is pure, enlightening the eyes; the fear of the LORD is clean, enduring forever; the judgments of the LORD are true and righteous altogether. More to be desired are they than gold, yea, than much fine gold; sweeter also than honey and the honeycomb. Moreover by them Your servant is warned, and in keeping them there is great reward. Who can understand his errors? Cleanse me from secret faults. This is not simply an OT idea. Listen to what the apostle Paul says in Romans 7:12—The law is holy, and the commandment holy and just and good. 1st Timothy 1:8-9—The law is good if one uses it lawfully, knowing this: that the law is not made for a righteous person, but for the lawless and insubordinate, for the ungodly and for sinners. There are many false converts in the American church today. And when I say that, I don’t mean to sit in a seat of judgment and banging the gavel on any individuals. The even bigger problem is, many of those people don’t know they have not been converted. Because many of those who witness to people to bring them to Christ begin their message like this: “God loves you just the way you are and has a wonderful plan for your life.” And many of them end their encounter by telling the person to “Pray this prayer and ask Jesus into your heart.” The person prays the prayer, and the witness declares them saved. The problem is, they get the person saved before they ever get the person lost. Not only that, many times they don’t go on and teach the person about what that means to them now. Can they go on living like they used to, and at the end of the day throw up a prayer, “Please forgive me God!” Because, after all, that preacher said I'm saved, and if I'm saved I can't be lost again!

Well, this was the pattern that the nation of Israel fell into many times in the OT. In Isaiah 1:10-15—Hear the word of the LORD, you rulers of Sodom; give ear to the law of our God, you people of Gomorrah: “To what purpose is the multitude of your sacrifices to Me?” says the LORD. “I have had enough of burnt offerings of rams and the fat of fed cattle. I do not delight in the blood of bulls, or of lambs or goats. When you come to appear before Me, who has required this from your hand, to trample My courts? Bring no more futile sacrifices; incense is an abomination to Me. The New Moons, the Sabbaths, and the calling of assemblies—I cannot endure iniquity and the sacred meeting. Your New Moons and your appointed feasts My soul hates; they are a trouble to Me, I am weary of bearing them. When you spread out your hands, I will hide My eyes from you; even though you make many prayers, I will not hear. Your hands are full of blood.” These people are doing what was commanded in the Law—all the festivals and Sabbaths and burnt offerings which God said would be a “sweet aroma unto the LORD”—and now He’s saying “These things make Me sick.”

What happened?

What happened was these people are bringing sacrifices and keeping feasts—rather than turning away from their sins. They're thinking “We can go on sinning, just so long as we keep the feasts.” Look at verse 10. “Rulers of Sodom… people of Gomorrah.” The same thing could almost be said of people who swear up and down they're saved—yet if you look at their lives…huh? They're going to Cotton Eyed Joe’s every Saturday and getting drunk; listening to music that glorifies drugs and alcohol and all other sorts of ungodly things—but they're “saved.” I'm not going to say they're not—but…ya know?

Well, when a person—or a nation for that matter—wants to go on living in sin, thinking that if they give enough lip service to God He’ll just give them a wink and a pass, be sure that He will more than likely take away the very symbols of their outward religion to bring about an inward change. Joel 1:9-10—The grain offering and the drink offering have been cut off from the house of the LORD; the priests mourn, who minister to the LORD. The field is wasted, the land mourns; for the grain is ruined, the new wine is dried up, the oil fails. God had sent a swarm of locusts—as it says, one which had never been seen before nor will be see ever again—and these locusts chewed up the grapevines and the fig trees and the barley and the wheat. Not only did all the vegetation die—the animals that ate it died, too. And if all your bulls and goats are dead, what can y9ou bring for an offering? Well, you can bring yourself. This was God’s way of telling the people “I don’t want your burnt offerings and your goats and your barley cakes—I want your hearts.” In fact, He goes on to say Joel 2:12-13—“Now, therefore,” says the LORD, “Turn to Me with all your heart, with fasting, with weeping, and with mourning. So rend your heart, and not your garments; return to the LORD your God, for He is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and of great kindness; and He relents from doing harm.”

So, what does all this mean for us today? After all, we don’t go to the temple with bulls and goats and barley cakes. Well, if we belong to Christ, we will have a heart that wants to obey the Law of God. In fact, God will write that Law upon our hearts. Psalm 37:30-31—The mouth of the righteous speaks wisdom, and his tongue talks of justice. The law of his God is in his heart; none of his steps shall slide. Jeremiah 31:33-34—“But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days,” says the LORD: “I will put My law in their minds, and write it on their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people. No more shall every man teach his neighbor, and every man his brother, saying, 'Know the LORD,' for they all shall know Me, from the least of them to the greatest of them,” says the LORD. “For I will forgive their iniquity, and their sin I will remember no more.” Those of us that God has saved—He has written His Law on our hearts, and we delight in keeping that Law. Because it is not about a list of commandments and rituals and bulls and goats and barley cakes. It’s about loving God. And if we love God, will we want to do anything that may even have a hint that it is displeasing to God? No; we will want to live our lives according to His Law—but not because we are trying to be saved by keeping the Law, but because we have been saved, we show Him we love Him by living our lives by that Law.

And we do so, knowing that we cannot possibly live that Law perfectly. But we don’t use that as an excuse, either. And this is why we love Him—Christ lived a perfectly sinless life because we can't! We try to, but we know we will fall short, and because we will fall short we have been given the full righteousness of Christ—not sort of “Christ fill in the gaps” but we are made perfectly righteous in God’s eyes. 2nd Corinthians 5:21 (NET)—God made the one who did not know sin to be sin for us, so that in him we would become the righteousness of God. If we are saved, we don’t simply have the righteousness of God—we become the righteousness of God. Keil and Delitzsch—

"The demands of the law…cannot be fulfilled by sinful man. Even when he strives most earnestly to keep the commands of the law, he cannot satisfy its requirements. The law, with its rigid demands, can only humble the sinner, and make him plead for God to blot out his sin and create in him a clean heart; it can only awaken him to the perception of sin, but cannot blot it out…the forgiveness of sins is a work of grace which cancels the demand of the law against men. In the old covenant, the law with its requirements is the impelling force; in the new covenant, the grace shown in the forgiveness of sins is the aiding power by which man attains that common life with God which the law sets before him as the great problem of life."

Before Christ, the force of the Law compelled the people to keep it. After Christ, the grace of God in the person of the Holy Spirit dwelling in us gives us a heart that wants to obey His Law. Those who do not accept Christ’s blood as payment for their sins and who do not turn from their sins will need to keep every jot and tittle of that Law to be righteous in God’s eyes. BUT—Christ has completed the Law for those who believe in Him, and if our righteousness is from Christ living in us, He will give us the Holy Spirit we need to love God’s Law and do His will. John 14:15-17—“If you love Me, keep My commandments. And I will pray the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may abide with you forever—the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees Him nor knows Him; but you know Him, for He dwells with you and will be in you.” 1st Corinthians 6:19—Your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God. And if the Holy Spirit is dwelling in us, our lives will be evidence of this fact. Galatians 5:22-23—But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. Against such there is no law. Notice again—fruit of the Spirit (singular), not fruits (plural). This is collectively what the new life looks like.

And if we are walking according to the ways of God, then we are the most blessed people on earth. Psalm 1:1-3 (NASB)—How blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked, nor stand in the path of sinners, nor sit in the seat of scoffers! But his delight is in the law of the LORD, and in His law he meditates day and night. He will be like a tree firmly planted by streams of water, which yields its fruit in its season and its leaf does not wither; and in whatever he does, he prospers. If we do not use the commandments of God as our standard for morality, we will, individually and as a nation, wind up following every philosophy of man and every new teaching that comes along. And we see this happening today. People trying to explain away the things contained in the Law of God, concerning things like homosexuality and abortion and adultery and so on. Isaiah 5:20-24—Woe to those who call evil good, and good evil; who put darkness for light, and light for darkness; who put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter! Woe to those who are wise in their own eyes, and prudent in their own sight…as the fire devours the stubble, and the flame consumes the chaff, so their root will be as rottenness, and their blossom will ascend like dust; because they have rejected the law of the LORD of hosts, and despised the word of the Holy One of Israel. Try telling someone today that homosexuality is a sin and that abortion is murder—and I use those two because they are two of the more visible and more widely tolerated sins that we as a nation are guilty of—try telling these things to someone and see if you don’t have to wash out your ears after they're done telling you what a blankety-blank blanking-blanker you are, and how they don’t need your God and they don’t need no Jesus and who are you to judge and so on and so forth. We live in a nation that calls evil good and that calls good evil.

But let me finish with this passage that contrasts this mindset with a picture of the heart of a man who dearly loves the Lord God and who delights in His Law and who has the Law of God written on his heart. Psalm 119:33-40—Teach me, O LORD, the way of Your statutes, and I shall observe it to the end. Give me understanding, that I may observe Your law and keep it with all my heart. Make me walk in the path of Your commandments, for I delight in it. Incline my heart to Your testimonies and not to dishonest gain. Turn away my eyes from looking at vanity, and revive me in Your ways. Establish Your word to Your servant, as that which produces reverence for You. Turn away my reproach which I dread, for Your ordinances are good. Behold, I long for Your precepts; revive me through Your righteousness. So now that we have a good background concerning the Law, next week we will begin our journey starting with the Ten Commandments.

Jesus Christ is Lord.
Amen.