Doug Batchelor - The Law of the Lamb - Part 2

One of the more bizarre laws in Minnesota forbids any game where participants chase a greased pig in order catch it. It's also illegal to throw knives at men wearing striped suits in Natoma, Kansas. In West Virginia, using your ferret for hunting can land you in jail for up to 100 days. And, you better not transport ice cream in your pocket in Kentucky. It's against the law to gather seaweed at night in New Hampshire. And, in Vermont, a woman needs written permission from her husband before she can lawfully wear false teeth.

Doesn't it seem like humans excel at making things unnecessarily complex? On the other hand, God's moral code is streamlined, simple, and totally practical. The Ten Commandments are also a perfect reflection of the loving character of God to help us to see sin in our lives and to point us in the right direction. So join me today as we look deeper into this essential law of love.

You know, I thought I'd give you a little amazing fact at the beginning. For years, as these ancient ships would make their way across the ocean, one of the only things that kept those ships from sinking was rocks. Now you might be surprised, 'How do rocks keep a ship from sinking?' But many of the ancient sailboats, they understood that when they had a tall mast and that leverage when they were in the wind and the waves, to give them the ballast and the center of gravity, they needed to prevent them from capsizing. They would take very carefully chosen stones that wouldn't crack and turn into gravel, they'd place them, strategically, across the bottom keel of the ship. And they were called ballast stones - and it gave the ship a center of gravity - kept it from capsizing in the wind and in the waves.

And it's been interesting to geologists. As they've gone to different ports around the world, they will find - in the Caribbean, for instance, and probably on the coast of Florida, all of these interesting granite stones. Now, if you're a Floridian, do you have any granite in Florida? No, even the roads are made of coral here, right? Everything's coral. But they found, in the ports, they - matter of fact, the highest mountain in Florida, I think, is an overpass, right? the freeway - they found, in the ports, these granite stones and they said, 'How'd they get here? And they were identified with rocks that you'd find in Italy or Spain or Portugal or France or England. It's because, when many of the ships came over they took some of their ballast stones, they'd dump them out and they'd add cargo that they put lower in the hold and it gave them stability. It kept them from capsizing. It kept them from blowing over and sinking - a stone. And, you know, you need a ballast stone in your life.

So, tonight we have a very important program and it's dealing with the subject of the law of God. Now the title of the series is The Law of the Lamb, because Jesus is God the Son. Amen? God put His word - the Ten Commandments - on two tables of stone. This is the Law of the Lamb. It is written by the Lord, by His own finger. Now, James uses an illustration where he says, 'The law of God is like a mirror; whoso looks into the perfect law of liberty and continues therein, not being a forgetful hearer, but a doer of the work, the same man will be blessed in what he does.' and you can see the reference there for James 1:23. And then, if you're wondering what law of liberty is James talking about, he then goes on to quote from two of the Ten Commandments.

So, let me see if I can illustrate why this would be important using the principle that James was talking about there. Alright, now, do you see anything different?

Let's suppose that this is dirt. I don't see it. Now you see that I’ve got a problem. I went up to a guy in the airport - never met him before - but he went through security - you know, you have to take off your jacket and put your jacket back on - and his collar was all flipped around - he didn't know it. And, you know, your IQ looks lower when you walk around like that. And no guy - no guy wants that to happen and so, I said, 'Hey, pardon me, brother,' - I said - 'Let me help you with this.' You know, and I fixed his collar. And he looked at me really strange. I thought, 'I’m sorry, I didn't mean to meddle,' - I said - 'Your collar was flipped around backwards.' I walked away, I went in the restroom, my collar was flipped around backwards. I'd gone through security too. He's looking at me and thinks, 'Boy, remove the mote from your own eye before you - you've got a beam in your own eye, you're fixin' mine.'

So, I don't see anything wrong with me. I didn't see my jacket was messed up that day. If I’m going to see it - when did I notice that my collar was all callywamp - when I looked in what? I wish I had a mirror. It just so happens I’ve got a friend in high places. Alright, so, I feel okay now. I feel just like I did ten minutes ago, but you say something's changed. I’ve got something wrong. It's dirt. It's sin, right? So, I go like this and I look and I think, 'Oh, wow. That's embarrassing. That looks really silly. I don't feel so good anymore. I feel like something's wrong.' Obviously I felt good before I looked in the mirror, so what's wrong is the mirror. If I just get rid of the mirror, everything's okay. Right?

But, you know, you ever heard the expression 'Ignorance is bliss'? There's a lot Christians who are going by 'Ignorance is bliss'. They say, 'Get rid of the law. I don't want to look at the law. Law makes me feel bad.' But, you know, it's looking in the law that gives you conviction - that makes you say, 'Wow, something needs to be done.' And then there's some who think, 'Well, I felt okay until I looked in the mirror so, since this showed it to me, this should probably be what takes it away. And so, how am I going to do trying to, you know, take it off with the mirror?' is that what the function of this is?

This is - it shows it to me but it doesn't take it away. So it's useless. Just get rid of it. I’ll feel better. The function of the mirror is not to take it away, it is simply to show me that I’ve got something wrong. So let's suppose this is dirt - this is a sin. This doesn't take it away, it's simply supposed to show me. So what do I do to take away my sin? What can wash away my sin?

Nothing but the blood of Jesus. The blood - boy, I wish I had an illustration for that. Thank you, Mrs. Batchelor. So, this is the law; this is the blood of Christ. I need this to say, 'Oh, I’ve got a problem. I’m convicted.' And then, I did this once with permanent marker and it didn't work very well. I said - then I look in the mirror and I say, 'Oh, everything's okay. I feel better.' And so, I have no problem with this now, where I had a problem with it before. Some people hate the law because it's convicting them that there's something they're doing wrong. And then they say, 'I hate the law.' The problem's not the law. The problem is you need the blood of Jesus to take away the sin. You'll have no problem with the law then. The law is simply supposed to point you to Jesus. Now, if you get rid of the mirror, you will not see your sin and the devil will have you living under the illusion that everything's fine and you'll be doing what I just did, preaching with a big mark on your face - and everyone sees it but you and you're living in a dream.

Are there people, when Christ comes, they're going to say, 'Lord, Lord,' - and He's going to say, 'I don't know you.' Why does He say, 'I don't know you'? He says, 'Depart from Me you workers of iniquity.' You know what that word 'iniquity' is? You read it in the Greek - 'lawlessness'. A lot of people, they know Jesus' name and they say, 'Oh, I taught in Your streets, I did many wonderful works.' He'll say, 'I don't know you. Depart from Me, workers of iniquity. Why do you call Me 'Lord, Lord' and do not the things that I say?'

Where's the will of God? It's in the law of God. So what is the old covenant? Because, obviously, we're living under the new covenant now, right? You can read in Deuteronomy 4:13, "And He declared unto you His covenant, which He commanded you to perform, even Ten Commandments, and He wrote them upon two tables of stone." So the old covenant is the Ten Commandments that were written on stone. And you know what a covenant is? A covenant is an agreement between two people. God first spoke the Ten Commandments in the hearing of the nation of Israel and the people said, 'All that the Lord has said we will do.' You know, when you make an agreement with somebody - you say, 'Look, I’ll sell you my house. I want 300,000 dollars.' And they say, 'Oh, how about 280,000?' And you say, 'Okay, we'll do it for 290,000. We'll settle.' 'Alright.' You made a verbal agreement, let's write it down. You codify it. Then you get a copy of the sales agreement - purchase agreement - I get a copy - isn't that how it works? That's a covenant.

That's all a covenant is - it's an agreement. God spoke it, they said, 'All the Lord says we will do.' God said, 'I’ll go make the copies.' Moses went up the mountain, God gave him the agreement - the covenant - He said, 'Here's My law.' And you read Deuteronomy 28, He says, 'If you love Me and you keep My commandments'. You know, right in the Ten Commandments it says, 'Love God' - in the commandment about idolatry it says, 'Showing mercy unto thousands of them that love M and keep My commandments.' So the key is loving God. But did they keep His law?

Before Moses even came down the mountain they made a golden calf. They did it in the context of worship - and they had a wild party and before the day was over, it says, they made themselves naked - it got way out of hand and they broke all the law. They worshiped idols and God said, 'Look, you didn't keep our covenant.' Now that was the old covenant where the law of God was written in stone. Upon what is the new covenant based? It tells that the new covenant - He says, "I will put My law in their mind, and I’ll write them in their hearts." That's Hebrews 8:10.

Now, if you have your Bibles, if you turn in your Bibles to Jeremiah 31:31, where do you first find the new covenant? Not in the New Testament. When Paul quotes there, in Hebrews, the new covenant, he's quoting Jeremiah. You look in Jeremiah 31:31, "'Behold, the days are coming,' says the Lord, 'I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel, with the house of Judah, not according to the covenant I made with their fathers in the day I took them by the hand to lead them out of Egypt, My covenant that they broke.'"

They broke it way back before Jeremiah - "though I was a husband to them. But this is the new covenant that I will make with the house of Israel, after those days,' says the Lord." - 'I’ll give them a different law. I’ll change the law. I’ll do away with the law.' No. It doesn't say that. I’m just wondering if you're following. He says, 'I’ll put My law' - same law - 'in a different place. I’ll put My law in their minds and I’ll write it in their hearts, and I’ll be their God and they'll be My people.'

So the new covenant is not a change in the law, the new covenant is a change in the place the law is written. God writes His law in your heart through love. Doesn't living under God's grace make keeping God's law non-essential? You've heard that? 'I’m not under the law anymore. I’m now under grace.' And the Bible talks about not being under law. What does Paul mean when he says, 'not being under law'? He does not mean you're no longer under an obligation to keep the law - because just follow that through. Does that mean you're not obligated to be honest? You're not obligated to not steal? You don't want to turn to your spouse and say, 'You're not obligated to keep the seventh commandment.' Does anyone believe that? That's outrageous.

So Paul, certainly, doesn't mean that. He means, because of the sacrifice of Jesus we are no longer under the penalty of the law. The wages are death. He's not saying you're not under an obligation to obey it.

I’m driving down the road one day - this is a true story - and I was deep in thought - going too fast - and I must have been really deep in thought because I actually passed - speeding - a highway patrolman that was next to me. And he pulled me over - he was pretty nice - and he said, 'Look, you weren't going that fast, but I was following someone else and you passed me and you were speeding and I thought, 'Well, I can't pull them over if you're just' - I said, 'Oh, officer, I am so sorry.' - I said - 'I just was on one of these roads that was 70 miles an hour and then I came on - I switched off onto this highway and I just - I really' - I said - I said, 'Can you please have mercy?'

Now I’ve been - I’m not proud of my driving record and I could probably teach traffic school. You know, I know the Lord's coming soon so we need to make haste and so I’ve gotten more than a couple of speeding tickets. And I said, 'please have mercy. You know, my insurance just finally went down. I’m trying to keep it that way and I can't go home and tell my wife that I just got another ticket.' And I just confessed, I said, 'I’m guilty. I repent. Have mercy. All I can ask for is mercy. I don't want justice, I want mercy.' And he said, 'Alright.' He said, 'I’m going to write you a warning.' And so he writes me a warning. He said, 'Alright, slow down.' And I said, 'Praise the Lord.'

Now, I didn't want to pull over when he pulled me over because I was in a hurry. Don't you hate it when you're in a hurry and then the policeman pulls you over and then you're really late and you have to say, 'Officer, can you please hurry up with this ticket because I’ve got to get going?' And I’m going to have to drive twice as fast because you pulled me over.' That's what you're thinking. And so, I had to pull over because I broke the law. And so, when I see those blue and red lights - you ever notice when you see a policeman - how many of you automatically take your foot off the accelerator? You may be stopped at a light and you see a policeman, you and so I had to pull over. And finally, when he gave me back the warning he said, 'Look, I’m going to let you go. I’m not going to give you a ticket.'

I’m no longer under the law, I’m now under grace. He's forgiven me. Boy, it'd be really great if he said, 'Look, there's a penalty. I’m going to pay your ticket for you.' That doesn't happen very often, but that would be really a great illustration if that happened. But he said, 'I’m going to let you go.' So now I said, 'Praise the Lord, I’m no longer under the law. He said I’m free.' I believe his word that I’m free, which means now I get to drive 90 miles an hour. So I rev my engine and I peel out away from the policeman, spray gravel over the hood of his car and say, 'Praise God I’m no longer under the law, I’m under grace now.' Is that how you do it?

No, no, you know what I did? I said, 'Thank you very much, officer.' I took out something, I cleaned off my rearview mirror, I looked out the window, I put my blinker on, I put it in gear. I pulled out very slow - I waited 'til there were no cars for six miles in any direction, I pulled out very carefully and I went like 45 ½ miles an hour looking both ways because, praise the Lord, I’ve just been forgiven. I am now under grace. I am going to be the most careful person on the road, right?

Christians, when they realize what their forgiveness has cost, when Christians realize what their lawbreaking has cost, should be the ones who are the most careful not to do the thing that crucified Jesus, amen?

And be obedient. So, no, we are not under the law, we are under grace. But what does Paul say in Romans 6:15? "What then? Shall we sin because we are not under the law, but under grace? God forbid." He said, 'Don't even think that.' And yet, that's what some churches are teaching. Romans 3:31, "Do we then make void the law through faith? God forbid: yea, we establish the law." When you've got faith you don't make void the law, you seal it; you endorse it, you affirm it. Indeed, Jesus said, "And it is easier for heaven and earth to pass, than one tittle of the law to fail." Is heaven still there? Is earth still there? Then God's Ten Commandments are still there.

And I already quoted you, 'Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever.' So, are people saved by keeping the law? This is a point I need to make very clear. Is anyone saved by keeping the law? I’ve heard folks say, 'Well, in the Old Testament they were saved by the law. Now we're saved by grace.' That is nonsense. Abraham believed God and God counted it unto him for righteousness. Abraham was saved by faith. Read Hebrews 11, it talks about all the Old Testament characters who were saved by faith. They were saved by faith looking forward to the Messiah. We are saved by faith looking back to Christ. Everybody is saved by Jesus. Nobody is saved by works. We're all saved by faith. We do not keep the law to be saved, we keep the law because we are saved.

Jesus said, 'You'll know them by their fruits.' And if we've got the fruit of the Spirit, which is love - and Jesus said, 'If you love Me, keep My commandments' - Ephesians 2:8. He goes on to say, "For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: not of works, lest any man should boast."

I like what D.L. Moody said - he was a great preacher - he said, "The commandments of God given to Moses in the Mount at Horeb are as binding today as ever they have been since the time when they were proclaimed in the hearing of the people." And someone asked Billy Graham a question. He used to have a question and answer thing in the Dallas News where they'd mail in questions - and the question was, 'Does God still expect us to keep the Ten Commandments?' Here's the answer from Dr. Graham, "The Ten Commandments are just as valid today as when God gave them to Moses over 3,000 years ago. Jesus said, 'I tell you the truth, until heaven and earth disappear, not the smallest letter, not the least stroke of the pen, will by any means disappear from the law.'"

What law is it then that was nailed to the cross? And this is where some people get confused. You can read in Colossians 2:14 - now you need to - you might want to take a few notes - and this will be in the supplemental material, if you're following along. We've got a lesson that talks about written in stone and it explains the difference between what laws are nailed to the cross, the Ten Commandments, and the ceremonial laws - Colossians 2:14, "Blotting out the" - now I underlined that - what's it say? - "handwriting...that was against us, which was contrary to us, and took it out of the way, nailing it to His cross."

Now, if you go to Exodus 32 - let's find out what was nailed to the cross - Exodus 32:16, "Now the tablets were the work of God, and the writing was the writing of God engraved on the tablets." - God wrote an engraving of the Ten Commandments - it is God-written, it is not the handwriting of man.

But, what Moses wrote, as far as the ceremonial law and ordinances you can read in 2 Chronicles 33:8. I want you to notice there - he says, "They will take heed to do all that I have commanded them," - so God is speaking - "all that I have commanded them, according to the whole law and" - so after He says, 'whole law' and then He says, 'and' - what does that mean? “And” means what? You're adding something to it. "and the statutes and the ordinances by the hand of Moses." ordinances, handwriting - the ceremonial laws contained in ordinances. Now where did they put the Ten Commandments? Was it - in the Ark of the Covenant - where were the ceremonial laws placed?

Read in Deuteronomy 31:26, "And take this book of the law," - written on paper - "and put it in the side of the ark of the covenant of the Lord your God. That it may be there for a witness against thee." You remember what Paul said in Colossians? Handwriting, ordinances, against us. It is so clear, when you are a Jew, like Paul, and he understood the Old Testament and he's talking about the handwriting of Moses that was in the ceremonial laws, placed outside the ark, to witness against us. Not talking about the Ten Commandments. Big difference between the two laws. Ephesians 2:15, "having abolished...the law of commandments contained in ordinances."

So, are there some laws that are nailed to the cross? Can you nail stone to anything? Not very easily, huh? It was the ceremonial laws that were nailed to the cross. This is the laws that contained the annual Sabbaths, the meat offerings, the drink offerings - so many things that revolved around the sanctuary and its services. The Ten Commandment law is eternal in nature. Was it a sin for Joseph to commit adultery with Potiphar's wife?

It would have been. Yeah, he said 'How can I do this terrible thing and sin?' The Ten Commandments hadn't been written yet - it was still a sin before that happened. Was - did God tell Cain - He said, 'Sin is at your door,' When he was thinking of murdering his brother. You mean way back in the Garden of Eden, before Moses wrote 'Thou shalt not murder.' murder was a sin.

Ten Commandments go all the way back. They're eternal in nature. The ceremonial laws did not appear until the exodus and they ended with the cross - they're temporary - they were to help us recognize Jesus, friends. This is really one of the most important subjects because it's so strange that we're living in time where Christians are fuzzy about something as basic as the Ten Commandments.

I would think we'd notice that when God gathers a nation together and He speaks to them audibly in His own voice, on a mountain, thunder and smoke. Then He takes stone - not paper - and He writes it with His own finger, and He says, 'Put it in the most sacred location in your nation' - the golden box in the middle of the Holy of Holies - the inner sanctum of the sanctuary - he says, 'This is My Word. I spoke to you My will.' And for Christians to say they love Jesus, who have the audacity to say, 'He doesn't care about that.' Or 'That's no longer important.' Where in the world do we get that idea?

I’ll be telling you where that idea comes from, later. But friends, the bottom line is 'Do you love Me?' if you know how much Jesus loves you - because He died to save you.

I remember hearing a story about a man, he was driving too fast through this suburban neighborhood and he saw the red and blue lights and he pulled over and the policeman came up and he said, 'Look officer, I wasn't going that fast. I know I didn't stop completely at the stop sign; I kind of rolled through it, but I looked around before I did and - and can you give me a break? And after all, I’m almost sure you go to the same church I go to.' And the officer didn't say anything. He walked behind the guy's car and he started writing. He got really mad - the driver - he said, 'Man, he could have given me a break, you know?' And just started slamming on his steering wheel and thought, 'Oh, my insurance is going to go up.'

And he was all upset and he was fuming and finally the policeman came over, he tapped on his window and he just rolled the window down that far. The policeman popped the piece of paper through the crack in the window - the guy was being very rude now - and the policeman got in his car and drove off. The guy picked up the paper - it wasn't a ticket, it was a note. And the policeman said, 'I know you, Bob.' - and he said, 'I’m going to let you go today.' - he said, 'I just want to let you know that a speeding driver killed my daughter four years ago and I’m really struggling to forgive, and I’m hoping that one more act of forgiveness is going to help me today. Please slow down.'

So here's a question: when that guy pulled away, do you think he drove different? He was forgiven. Even though that officer had lost a child to a speeder. When you look at the cross, Jesus is hanging there, not just for the sins of the world, He's hanging there for your sin.

He's hanging there for your lawlessness. And He says, 'If you love Me, please don't keep doing the things that hurt you and they hurt Me and they hurt others.' Your disobedience not only hurts God, it not only hurts you, it hurts your neighbor. And because you love God, and because you love your neighbor, and because you love yourself, you want to be obeying God's law. You will be blessed. You will have peace. Would you like to have that peace, friends? Would you like to ask Him tonight? How much can we do without God's help? Nothing. Are we saved by obeying the law or are we saved by grace? But if we're saved by grace and if we love Jesus, will we want to obey His law?