10/19/17 - Eph 6:2-3,The 10 Commandments, Pt 17, The 5th Commandments, Pt 3 Lesson #17-112
Pastor/Teacher Jim Rickard
Grace Fellowship Church
Before we
begin, if you are a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ, (If You have - Trusted
in Him for Eternal Life), it is important to prepare yourself to: Take-in God’s
Word and/or Participate in a Communion Service, so take a moment to name, cite,
or acknowledge your sins privately, directly to God the Father. This will
assure that you are in fellowship with God the Father & the Holy Spirit’s
convicting ministry will then be able to teach you as the Holy Spirit is the
real teacher.
1 John 1:9 says— “If we confess [simply
name, cite, or acknowledge to God the Father] our sins [known sins], He
is faithful and just to forgive us our sins [known sins] and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness
[all unknown & forgotten sins].”
For those of you who have not yet accepted Jesus Christ as your Lord & Savior, please see: The Salvation Message @ the
end of this document.
2 Pet 3:9, “The Lord is
not slow about His promise, as some count slowness, but is patient toward
you, not wishing for any to perish but for all to come to repentance.”
~
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
The Doctrine of the Ten Commandments Related to the Church Age,
Part XVII.
The
5th Commandment.
New Testament Usage: (continued)
As a reminder, this Commandment is used six times in the NT, in
three events.
1. The first is found in, Mat
15:4; Mark 7:10.
2. The second is found in,
Mat 19:19; Mark 10:19; Luke 18:20.
3. The third is Paul’s usage in, Eph 6:2-3, which is the only time the attached promise is given to
the Church Age, Eph 6:3, “So that
it may be well with you, and that you may live long on the earth.”
1. The first utilization of this Commandment in the NT is found in
Mat 15:4; Mark 7:10, which is the
story of Jesus refuting the Pharisees for adhering to man-made traditions,
rather than having truth resident in their heart, (right lobe of the soul),
applied towards God.
Everything that God commands of us is for the means of entrance
into fellowship with Him, and is not a substitute for a personal walk with Him.
That is why in Mat 15:7-9, the Lord
calls them hypocrites.
“Hypocrite,”
is the Greek noun HUPOKRITES, ὑποκριτής, that means “hypocrite or
pretender; an actor, one who pretends, or one who wears a mask,” cf. Mat 6:2, 5, 16. Figuratively, it refers
to someone who appears to be different in character and identity from what he
really is; a phony, a pretender, a fraud.
In 536 B.C., it was used by Thespis who introduced an individual
who replied to the chorus, (a group of male dancers and singers), in the
festival of Dionysius held every spring in Athens, as Hupokrites. In addition,
to the Jews, it meant one who is “estranged from God, godless.” So, you can
imagine the impact this word had on the Pharisees.
This word is only found in use by Jesus in the synoptic Gospels,
and typically directed towards the Pharisees. It showed what spiritual “actors”
and “pretenders” these fakes were. The hypocrite often deceives himself, as
well as others. In addition, it carries the idea of the hardness of heart and
lack of compassion characteristic of a hypocrite, Luke 12:56; 13:15.
That is why Jesus applied the words of Isa 29:13, in Matthew and
Mark to them, showing that God does
not tolerate such pretense. Jesus’ attitude is similarly reflected in His
pronouncement of “Woe!” upon the hypocritical Pharisees and legal experts; they
not only perverted the Law but also prevented others from knowing God, Mat 23; cf. Luke 11.
Therefore, the external profession of the Pharisees was in marked
contrast to their inner heart condition. The hypocrite may honor God verbally,
but not with his heart. He is always far from God. These “wolves in sheep’s
clothing,” were pretending the truths they taught were of Divine origin, but in
reality, they were hairsplitting rules which mere men had passed down from
generation to generation.
In Mat 15:9 and Mark 7:7, “They worship me in vain,” is the Adverb MATEN, μάτην meaning, “in vain, fruitless.”
Some believe it meant, “groundless, pointless, or deceitful.” This was Jesus’
paraphrase of Isa 29:13, and it
closely resembles the Septuagint. He is saying, despite their words, worship is
pointless for those whose hearts are far from God; it is a futile attempt.
Therefore, these pious leaders of Israel were accused of having
void, empty results in their worship, because their worship was based on empty
rote, not conscious worship. Their religion had a fruitlessness about it.
Paul also wrote of such self-conceived religion, (the teachings of
men), in Col 2:22-23. He pointed out
that an outward show of tradition or rituals are of no value against fleshly
lusts.
In both Gospel accounts, Jesus followed this up by telling the
people that what proceeds out of the mouth is truly what is in man’s heart.
Therefore, you must have God’s Word cycling through the right lobe of your
soul, heart, so that you can in love apply it to all situations in life to the
service, worship, and glory of God.
2. The second
utilization of the 5th Commandment is found in Mat 19:19; Mark 10:19; Luke 18:20; The Rich Young Ruler.
Here we see a certain rich young man asking Jesus what good thing
he could do to obtain eternal life, Jesus answered, “Obey the commandments,” Mat 19:17. To clarify this, Jesus
specifically mentioned 5 of the last 6 of the Ten Commandments, because they all
related to the horizontal relationships of life, that is, related to behavior
toward others, Deut 5:16-20; Mat
19:18-19. He also added, “Love your
neighbor as yourself,” Mat 19:19; Lev 19:18, to make this point.
Paul declared that the commandments are summed up and fulfilled in
love toward one’s neighbor, Rom 13:9-10.
The young man said he fulfilled all these things. Yet, he had a sense that he
was still “lacking” what was necessary for eternal life, just as all
unbelievers are given this innate sense.
Therefore, we see a principle: One can obey the letter of
the Law, but still transgress spiritually if they do not operate in faith and
AGAPE love.
Here, the issue was salvation, eternal life. This man had kept the
Law but in a fashion that was a works for salvation program, (which he knew was
lacking), rather than having faith in God and Christ for salvation. This is
seen in the final challenge our Lord gave him; “to sell all that you have,” Mat
19:21.
You see, human works can only take you so far, and human works
will only let you go so far. They will never take you all the way to salvation
and eternal life.
Human works eminent from the flesh, (the sin nature), and at some
point there is a red flag that gets raised by the sin nature to stop you from having faith. The sin nature is fine
and comfortable when you are doing all sorts of human good works. But, it gets
very uncomfortable when you put them and it aside, and apply complete trust and
faith in God. That is the point when the sin nature says whoa!
Just as this rich young man’s sin nature said “whoa” to him, where
his countenance fell and depression set in, so does your sin nature try to say
to you, when God asks you to step out in faith.
This young man was all well and fine when his works were on
display. But as soon as faith was the issue, “sell everything and follow me,” that is when he hit the wall, and
could go no further. Even though Jesus gave him a promise, this man could go no
further. And even as a business man, when he was promised a great return on his
investment, he could not do it, because the investment was beyond his power. In
other words, he did not or could not control the situation, he had to step out
in faith and trust in another for his well-being. That was too much for him.
Both requests by Jesus represented a test of faith and his love
for the Lord, in regard to both the vertical and horizontal commandments. In
Jesus’ request of him, to follow Jesus would have been the fulfillment of the
first 4 Commandments. To give to the poor would have been the fulfillment of
the remaining 6, i.e., “loving one’s neighbor.” Both represented a test of
faith, and his love for the Lord.
This man had done well in his performance of the letter of the
Law, but there was failure in keeping the spirit of the Law. The challenge to “sell everything and follow me,” was
our Lord’s way of seeing if he could operate on faith in his walk and
relationship with Jesus and God the Father. In these passages, the Ten
Commandments were used to show this man’s hypocrisy, (like the Pharisees
demonstrated in the previous use of the 5th Commandment), and that
works cannot and do not save you. In fact, they can be abused to a hypocritical
religiosity.
Jesus’ challenge included:
1. Would he give up all he was trusting in and put his trust in
Jesus alone?
2. Would he turn his back on those things which contributed to his
self-esteem and made him think he could do something to merit eternal life?
3. Would he give up the wealth and position that gave him power
with men?
4. Would he sell all his possessions and give them to the poor and
be content with the assurance that he would have treasure in heaven?
Notice that Jesus did not mention the 1st Commandment
that deals with relationship to God. He repeated only commands from the second
part of the Decalogue that deal with human relationships and with human
responsibility toward one’s neighbor. He waited on that one until the end,
“follow Me!” Jesus knew this man’s heart was not in the right place, and gave
him grace.
By his own choice, this young man turned his back on God and Jesus
Christ and went back to his beautiful home, his pleasures, his acres of farm,
forest, and pasture, and the power and position his wealth gave him in the eyes
of men. But in so doing, he broke the 1st Commandment, as well as
the commandment Jesus said is greatest,
Mat 22:37; Deut 6:5, “love the Lord your God with all your …..”
Gold was his god. Self was his love. It was not that he had much
property; rather, the property had him. Possessions were his god. Therefore, he
broke the 1st Commandment, “You
shall have no other gods before Me,” which speaks of man’s relationship
with God. Mat 6:21, “For where your
treasure is, there will your heart be also.”
If the love of money fills a person’s heart, he can no longer come
under the rule of God, but will do all kinds of evil things, things that would
have horrified him if he had not become a slave of the love of money, 1 Tim 6:10.
Therefore, this example is for all to understand that faith alone
in Christ alone is the only way to salvation, Eph 2:8-9. You can keep all the commandments you like, but if you
do not have faith in God, you have nothing.
~
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
A
PERSONAL NOTE FOR YOU
John 6:47 says: “Most assuredly, I say to you, he who believes in Me [Jesus Christ] has everlasting life.”
Notice again
what John 6:47 says, “he who believes in Me [Jesus Christ] has everlasting life.” It doesn’t say, “will have;” it says,
“has.” Therefore, the very moment you believe Jesus Christ’s promise of
everlasting life, you have it, and it can never be lost or taken away from you [John 10:28-29]. Furthermore, the gift
of everlasting life [also called eternal life in Scripture] is available to
every human being; there are absolutely no exceptions.
John 3:14-18 says: “And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must
the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but
have eternal life. For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten
Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.
For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the
world through Him might be saved. He who believes in Him is not condemned; but
he who does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in
the name of the only begotten Son of God.”
Eph 2:8-9, “For by grace are ye saved through
faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: 9 Not of works, lest any
man should boast.”
If
you have never accepted Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior, I am here to tell
you that Jesus loves you. He loves you so much that He gave His life for you.
God the Father also loves you. He loves you so much that He gave His only Son
for you by sending Him to the Cross. At the Cross Jesus died in your place.
Taking upon Himself all of your sins and all of my sins. He was judged for our
sins and paid the price for our sins. Therefore, our sins will never be held
against us.
Right
where you are, you now have the opportunity to make the greatest decision in
your life. To accept the free gift of salvation and eternal life by truly
believing that Jesus Christ died for your sins and was raised on the third day
as the proof of the promise of eternal life. So right now, you can pause and
reflect on what Christ has done for you and say to the Father:
"Yes
Father, I believe that Your Son, Jesus Christ,
died on the cross for the forgiveness of my sins."
If you have done that, I Welcome You to the Eternal
Family of God !!!
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
~
Grace Fellowship Church
Pastor/Teacher: James H. Rickard
23 Messenger Street, Unit 3
Plainville, MA 02762
Copyright © 2001 - 2017.
Property of: James H Rickard Bible Ministries
All Rights Reserved.
No comments:
Post a Comment