12/10/17 - Ephesians, Chapter 6:2-3
The
Ten Commandments, Pt. 35, Conclusion, Pt 1,
The Commandments Reflect the Love of
God.
Lesson # 17-132
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.”
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The Doctrine of the Ten Commandments Related to the Church Age,
Part XXXV.
Deut
5; Lev 19:18; 1 John 2:5; 3:1, 23; 4:10, 19, 21; 5:2-3; Heb 12:2;
Eph 4:15; 2 Peter 3:18
Conclusion: The 10 Commandments Reflect the
Love of God.
As we noted at the beginning of this doctrine, there are four
things to observe about the Decalogue.
1. The Ten Commandments were a direct revelation from God given to
Moses for the people.
2. They are all, with two exceptions, negatives, given in legal
format, because they were designed to expose sin.
3. They are based on the mental attitude, your thoughts, not overt
activity. This is explained in the 10th Commandment, “you shall not covet,” that is,
inordinately desire or lust. This is an inner mental attitude, which proves
that the entire complex of the Ten Commandments is for the thinking of a man.
That is, if you are tempted in the mentality of your soul to sin, you can stop
it from becoming sin mentally, verbally, or overtly, by applying these
commandments to your life in faith.
4. They are given in treaty format, because they are the basis for
our right relationship, right living with God, in Christ Jesus, through the
Holy Spirit. Therefore, the 10 Commandments are the core of what God asks of
people who are in right relationship with Him.
We also see in these 10 mandates the revelation of God’s nature
and the reality of right living inside a free and prosperous society. God asks
His people to commit themselves and their needs to Him, and in so doing, become
free to value others for who and what they are and rejoice in what they have,
just as God does. This is the expression of “loving your neighbor,” Lev 19:18; Mark 12:31; Gal 5:14; James 2:8.
Lev 19:18, “You
shall not take vengeance, nor bear any grudge against the sons of your people,
but you shall love your neighbor as yourself; I am the LORD.”
Gal 5:14, “For
the whole Law is fulfilled in one word, in the statement, ‘YOU SHALL
LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOR AS YOURSELF’.”
The person who treats God and others in this way, will truly be
part of a kingdom of priests, a holy nation unto God, Ex 19:6; 1 Peter 2:9.
Regarding Israel it is said in Ex
19:6, “And
you shall be to Me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.”
Regarding the Church it is said in 1
Peter 2:9, “But
you are A CHOSEN RACE, A royal PRIESTHOOD, A HOLY NATION, A PEOPLE FOR God's
OWN POSSESSION, so that you may proclaim the excellencies of Him who has called
you out of darkness into His marvelous light.”
James 2:8, “If,
however, you are fulfilling the royal law, according to the Scripture,
‘YOU SHALL LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOR AS YOURSELF,’ you are doing well.”
God has expressed in these commandments His concern for the rights
and the integrity of each individual.
1
John 4:21, “And this commandment we have from Him, that the one who loves God
should love his brother also.”
In addition, looking to these commandments, an Israelite could, as
you and I can today, come to know more about God and see in these commandments
the Divine heart of love.
1
John 4:19, “We love, because He first loved us.”
1
John 3:1a, “See how great a love the Father has bestowed upon us, that we
should be called children of God; and such we are.”
1
John 5:3, “For this is the love of God, that we keep His commandments; and His
commandments are not burdensome.”
In Deut 5, we see five
elements of relationship with God defined, which tell us about His love for us.
1. Love is Personal, Deut
5:1-3. The relationship is between “us,
who are . . . alive here,” and the Lord, YHWH, who is also here and living.
Often a person grows up in a home where the Lord is God of his
parents or even grandparents. His relationship with God is through Mom and Dad,
or Gramma, etc., and he goes to church because they do. This falls short of a
personal love relationship.
Someone who cares for you wants to reach out and touch you
personally, not through others. God wants to know and to love you personally,
warmly, intimately without anything and anyone in between.
2. Love is Urgent, Deut
5:4-14. The urgency of the relationship is emphasized in the first four of
the Ten Commandments, (the “vertical” commandments), all of which are repeated
here from Ex 20. This tells us that
God wants your eyes fixed on Him, as it is also stated in Heb 12:2.
Heb 12:2, “Fixing
our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith, who for the joy set
before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the
right hand of the throne of God.”
As any lover, God is unwilling to share your affection with
competitors. It is hard to imagine a husband who truly loves his wife
unaffected by her unfaithfulness, or encouraging her to date around.
Truly intimate love is to be exclusive. God wants and helps us to
love other people, just as a good husband/wife relationship enriches the
context of the home for their children. But God will not share us with other
gods, whether they are idols of the ancient world or the financial successes of
the modern.
3. Love is demonstrated, Deut 5:15. Love that lets you feel your belongingness must be
demonstrated. How clearly God had demonstrated to this generation His personal
and practical involvement with them: “The
Lord your God brought you out of there with a mighty hand and an outstretched
arm.”
Christ is the ultimate demonstration of God’s love for us.
1
John 4:10, “In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and
sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins.”
And each of us can find many other special ways in which God has
acted in our lives to show His love.
4. Love is expressive, Deut
5:16-20. It is hard to feel loved when you do not really know what is going
on inside a person who claims to love you. That is why God gave the 10
Commandments not just once but twice, as it is restated here in Deut 5, just as 9 of the 10 are
individually given to us today in the NT.
This shows us God’s willingness to communicate His expectations.
The people told Moses in vs. 27, “All
that the Lord our God will speak to you, we will hear and do.”
Love communicates and expresses; love desires a response. What is
even more significant for us in our relationship with God is this: God wants to
help us grow in our own capacity to love.
Eph 4:15, “But
speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in all aspects into Him
who is the head, even Christ.”
2 Peter 3:18, “But
grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To Him be
the glory, both now and to the day of eternity. Amen.”
1
John 3:23, “And this is His commandment, that we believe in the name of His Son
Jesus Christ, and love one another, just as He commanded us.”
1
John 5:2, “By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God
and observe His commandments.” That’s our response in love to God
for His love to us.
This is an important thing to see. A person who loves another,
desires to see him grow. As such, you can be utterly sure that God loves you, because
His every word to you is designed to help you grow to your fullest potentials.
5. Love is unselfish, Deut
5:21-33. This last element of real love is affirmed in these passages. God
enters into relationship with us, and speaks to us “that it might go well with” us, cf. vs. 29.
As Deut 5:33
summarizes, ”You shall walk in all the
way which the LORD your God has commanded you, that you may live, and that it
may be well with you, and that you may prolong your days in the land which
you shall possess.”
People who come into personal relationship with God are not pawns
in some cosmic game. We are not His playthings. No, God’s love for you is
unselfish. He honestly has your best interests at heart.
All this helped Israel realize that they had a personal
relationship with the Lord, and that God truly did care for them. This “people”
were loved. And so are we.
Perhaps your parents or your spouse have never let you know how
deeply you are loved. Perhaps they have not truly cared. But through Christ you
can have a personal relationship with God Himself, in which you are loved and
do belong, John 3:16. God Himself
says to you and to me today, “You are loved,” personally, urgently,
practically, expressively, and unselfishly,
1 John 2:5, “But
whoever keeps His Word, in him the love of God has truly been perfected. By
this we know that we are in Him.”
2 John 1:6, “And
this is love, that we walk according to His commandments. This is the
commandment, just as you have heard from the beginning, that you should walk in
it.”
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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 !!!
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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.
