Participants: Ty Gibson
Series Code: AOT
Program Code: AOT000146
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00:13 Welcome to Anchors Of Truth,
00:15 live from the 3ABN Worship Center. 00:23 And we take this opportunity to welcome you to the opening night 00:26 of this particular Anchors Of Truth series, 00:29 The Law Before the Law, with our speaker Ty Gibson. 00:33 And we are so very, very happy and pleased 00:36 that we can have him here with us during this 00:41 last Anchors for 2014. 00:45 It is cold outside, but it is warm inside. 00:48 And our hearts are warm. 00:50 And I am quite sure that we will be warmed by the messages 00:53 that we will receive over the next five sittings together. 00:57 Ty Gibson, of course, a co-founder of 01:00 Light Bearers Ministry. 01:01 And that ministry is growing by leaps and bounds. 01:04 He just showed me a brand new set of Bible lessons 01:08 that he has authored that are, and we use this term, 01:11 taking the country by storm. 01:13 But really something that conferences and individuals 01:16 are really falling in love with. 01:17 And perhaps he'll tell us a little bit more about that. 01:20 When we think of Light Bearers, we think of James Rafferty, 01:22 Jeffrey Rosario, Ty Gibson, and David Asscherick. 01:26 Light Bearers has spread all around the world. 01:28 They have a teaching branch now in Australia, 01:31 as David has relocated there. 01:34 So this is a ministry that is really doing a great job 01:37 helping to finish the work of God 01:39 and to lighten the world with His glory. 01:42 So we are very, very pleased to have Ty 01:45 come and be with us again. 01:46 These subjects are rather intriguing. 01:49 "The Law Before the Law" is our subject tonight. 01:53 The Law Before the Law. 01:56 Kind of tickles your ear just a little bit. 01:58 And I'm quite sure that he will have much to say. 02:01 We have to thank Sue Gibson, Ty's wife, because she has to 02:05 share him with the world. 02:06 And He spends so much time on the world that her ministry 02:10 to him is also a ministry to us, because she allows him to 02:14 travel and preach for our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. 02:18 And so we are quite pleased to have him here. 02:20 And we know that we're going to be blessed 02:22 during our next five sittings together. 02:26 Our special music is coming from Pastor John Lomacang, 02:29 our pastor and friend. 02:30 And he is going to be singing, Turn Your Heart Towards Home. 02:34 But before he does so, join me if you will in a word of prayer. 02:39 Gracious heavenly Father, we praise You so very much 02:42 for this another opportunity to assemble here 02:45 at the house of praise and prayer. 02:48 We thank Thee, Lord, for another opportunity to 02:50 hear the Word of God preached with power. 02:52 We ask that You would be with he who has been called to 02:57 speak for You tonight. 02:58 We know that he has studied and You have given him 03:01 something for us. 03:03 And so prepare him to be but a channel of blessing 03:07 and a spokesman for You. 03:09 And then prepare those who sit in this house 03:12 and those who sit and consume from around the world. 03:16 May our hearts be blessed. 03:18 May we be encouraged and inspired. 03:23 May we take one more step along that road that leads to glory. 03:29 Bless the music that shall be sung, 03:31 the words that shall be preached. 03:34 May Christ be seen and glorified and felt. 03:38 And we thank You. 03:40 In Jesus' name, amen. 03:43 And now Pastor John Lomacang. 04:07 Late in the evening when everyone was sleeping, 04:13 the father of a wayward son stepped out in the night. 04:19 Looked towards the city, wiped away his tears, 04:26 praying his son would hear him cry. 04:34 Turn your heart toward home, 04:40 turn your heart toward home. 04:46 You've been gone so long, 04:52 turn your heart toward home. 05:00 But not only the sons are the wayward ones; 05:07 there are mothers and fathers who have said their goodbyes. 05:13 And the sad eyes of children looking through their tears 05:20 praying mom and dad would hear them cry. 05:28 Turn your heart toward home, 05:34 turn your heart toward home. 05:41 You've been gone so long, 05:47 turn your heart toward home. 05:54 There are many who have never walked away from home, 06:00 but in their hearts they're many miles away. 06:07 But their Father in heaven is the only one who knows. 06:14 If they'd listen, they would hear Him say: 06:22 Turn your heart toward home, 06:28 turn your heart toward home. 06:35 You've been gone so long, 06:41 turn your heart toward home. 06:47 You've been gone so long, please don't wait too long 06:57 to turn your heart toward home. 07:06 Turn your heart toward home. 07:21 Thank you, John. 07:22 What a blessing. 07:23 Good evening, everybody. 07:25 We are embarking upon an exciting study 07:29 in this five part series, focusing our attention 07:33 on the law of God. 07:35 Now on my way out here somebody called me and asked, 07:38 "Hey, what are you doing right now? 07:40 Can we talk?" 07:41 I said, "Well, I'm about to catch a plane because I'm 07:42 headed to 3ABN to do a series of presentations." 07:47 And they said, "Well, what's the subject?" 07:48 And I said, "We're going to be exploring the law of God." 07:51 And this guy, without missing a beat, he said, 07:54 "We've already got that down. 07:55 Why are we talking about that? 07:58 We know the law of God. 07:59 It's very simple, it's very easy to understand. 08:03 There's just Ten Commandments. 08:05 'Thou shalt...' 'Thou shalt not...' 08:07 What is there to explore and study?" 08:11 And I shared with him a verse that I would like to be 08:15 a kind of prayer that we keep in mind 08:18 through this five part series. 08:20 And it's in Psalm 119 and verse 18. 08:24 And you'll hear right away that this is, in fact, a prayer. 08:28 And King David says, "Open my eyes that I may behold 08:36 wondrous things in your law." 08:40 Now the word, "wondrous," here is a wonderful word. 08:45 It indicates that there's depth, that there's dimension, 08:48 that there's beauty in the law of God. 08:52 The law of God is not simple, in the sense of simplistic. 08:59 It is complex and beautiful and deep. 09:04 Not hard to understand, not that kind of complexity. 09:07 But the kind of complexity in which that law touches 09:13 every aspect of our lives as human beings, 09:18 whether we're in harmony with it or out of harmony with it. 09:21 The law of God is multi-dimensional. 09:24 That would be a good word to apply to it. 09:26 David says it's wondrous. 09:29 And he prays that God would open his eyes. 09:33 I want to suggest that we pray that God will open our eyes 09:37 to see things in the law of God that perhaps 09:42 we have never seen before. 09:45 I'm going to give you a little bit of a hint, 09:47 as we go through this series beginning in this opening 09:50 presentation, a little bit of a hint, we're going to discover 09:54 the gospel in the law of God. 10:00 The gospel of grace is not at odds with the law, 10:03 it's not contrary to the law, and it's not something 10:07 other than the law of God. 10:10 In fact, we're going to discover that the gospel itself, 10:14 the good news of eternal salvation and the grace of God, 10:18 is deliberately, intentionally embedded within 10:24 the Ten Commandments. 10:26 That's just a little hint of what we're going to be 10:29 discovering in this five part series. 10:31 Now as we begin with this opening presentation, 10:36 I think the best way to access the concept that we want to 10:39 wrap our minds around tonight is by sharing with you 10:43 a pretty exciting, exhilarating, and a little bit scary 10:48 experience that I had. 10:49 Now how many of you, when I say these words, 10:51 you know exactly what I'm talking about: 10:53 "Bugatti Veyron." 10:55 Anybody? Raise your hand if you... 10:57 Not a single... One cameraman. 11:00 That's it. 11:02 A Bugatti Veyron is a very interesting, a very amazing 11:10 piece of engineering. 11:11 A Bugatti Veyron is the fastest street legal car on earth. 11:19 How fast is this car? 11:21 Now by the way, when you look it up 11:22 you'll find that's debatable. 11:24 Because since I had the opportunity to encounter 11:28 in a first hand kind of way the Bugatti Veyron, 11:31 there have been other automobiles developed by 11:34 engineers trying to beat the street speed 11:38 of the Bugatti Veyron. 11:40 But, by many measures in the debate, the Bugatti Veyron 11:46 is the fastest street legal car on earth, reaching a top speed 11:50 of 267 miles an hour. 11:53 Now think this through for a moment. 11:55 The Bugatti Veyron is engineered in such a way 12:00 that it is so fast that at its top speed, it only gets 12:04 three miles to the gallon. 12:05 Three miles to the gallon. 12:07 You're out of gas at top speed in 15 minutes, 15 minutes. 12:14 Not only are you out of gas in 15 minutes at top speed, 12:19 but get this, at top speed after 15 minutes, 12:23 you need new tires. 12:26 And new tires, new tires for the Bugatti Veyron are $42,000. 12:32 Not each. All four. It's a deal. 12:37 Now you might imagine that an automobile that has tires 12:42 that cost $42,000 for the set, right, 12:46 is a pretty expensive car. 12:48 That car, the Bugatti Veyron, well the price ranges 12:52 according to the amenities that you choose to have with 12:56 your Bugatti Veyron, but about two million dollars 12:59 for this car. 13:01 And I just happened to have been scheduled for a series 13:05 of presentation in a foreign country. 13:09 And a friend of mine knew that I was going there, and he said, 13:12 "Hey, are you aware of the fact that we have a brother," 13:15 that is, a fellow Seventh-day Adventist Christian, 13:17 "that we have a brother over there who actually owns 13:21 a Bugatti Veyron?" 13:22 I said, "No, I didn't realize that." 13:25 And I said to my friend, I said, "And I'm going there? 13:28 I'm going to get in close proximity to this 13:30 brother and his Bugatti?" 13:31 He said, "Yeah, you're going to the very city 13:34 in which this brother lives." 13:37 And I said with confidence to my friend, 13:39 "I will drive that Bugatti." 13:43 And my friend said, "You will not drive that Bugatti. 13:47 That's a two million dollar car. 13:50 And I have heard rumor that nobody is allowed 13:54 to drive the Bugatti except for the brother 13:57 that owns the Bugatti." 14:00 That makes sense when you have a car that costs 14:02 two million dollars. 14:04 But I said to him again, with emphasis this time, 14:06 "I guarantee you, I will... 14:09 If a fellow Seventh-day Adventist owns a Bugatti Veyron, 14:11 I'm driving that car." 14:16 And so I went to do my meetings. 14:19 My wife Sue and I arrived at the home of the brother 14:23 that owns this Bugatti. 14:25 And I was tactfully trying to figure out how to 14:28 bring the subject up. 14:31 And after we shared a meal together, I said, 14:34 "Hey, is it true that you have Bugatti?" 14:37 And he looked at me and he said, "Yeah, I do have a Bugatti." 14:40 And I said, "Can we see the Bugatti?" 14:42 He said, "Absolutely." 14:44 We went outside, went over to his garage, 14:47 the door opened, and there sat the Bugatti Veyron. 14:53 I said to him, leaning in with kind of a solemn whispered tone, 14:59 "Could I drive the Bugatti?" 15:03 And he looked at me, and without any hesitation he said, 15:06 "Absolutely not." 15:09 I said, "Could I please drive the Bugatti?" 15:16 He said, "No, it's a very expensive car, 15:19 and I haven't let anyone drive it." 15:23 My wife standing beside me knows that I'm going to be persistent. 15:28 And I ask one more time. 15:29 And she's doing hand motions behind this brother, saying, 15:32 "No, don't let him drive it." 15:35 And I said something I never say, I said, "Woman, silence. 15:40 This is between the brother and myself." 15:44 Well not exactly like that. 15:45 But I said, "Sue, please, let me negotiate 15:49 with this brother." 15:53 I said, "Listen, if you let me drive the Bugatti, 15:58 I will use it in a sermon illustration." 16:02 He said, "You will?" And I said, "Yeah." 16:04 He said, "Okay, you can drive it." 16:05 It was that simple. 16:07 It was that simple. 16:09 And so he pulled it out of the garage. 16:12 And he said, "I'll drive it first and you'll 16:14 be in the passenger seat." 16:15 I said, "That's fine with me. Show me how it's done." 16:18 So he got in the driver's seat and I got in the passenger side. 16:22 I said to my wife, "Hey, you want to go with us?" 16:24 And she said, "Absolutely not." 16:28 She knows me and adventure, me and speed. 16:32 And she said, "Nope, I'm not going. 16:35 I'll wait right here." 16:37 And we very, very slowly drove out of the parking lot, 16:41 out of the driveway. 16:43 And we just began moving down a country road. 16:45 And we came to a straight away and he looked over at me, 16:47 he said, "Are you ready?" 16:49 And I said, "I was born ready. 16:52 Bring it on." 16:53 And he dropped it to the floor, and we picked up top speed. 16:58 In a matter of seconds we were flying, 17:01 it felt like, down the road. 17:02 I felt the g-force all around me just sucking me into 17:06 that beautiful leather seat. 17:10 And then he slowed down. 17:12 We went a few more miles and he said, 17:14 "Are you ready to drive it?" 17:15 I said, "Sure." 17:17 He pulled over, we switched seats. 17:20 I'm now in the driver's seat. 17:22 Oh man, this is going to be great. 17:25 But I'm nervous. 17:26 I'm thinking, "Do I really want to floor this? 17:28 I wonder if he has insurance on this thing? 17:30 Of course he has insurance on this thing. 17:32 A lot of insurance on this thing. 17:34 It's perfectly fine," I say to myself in my mind. 17:37 And then I have another thought that enters my mind. 17:40 "He should put his seatbelt on." 17:41 Because he didn't have it on. 17:43 So I suggested it. He said, "Oh yeah." 17:45 And he put it on. 17:46 And we begin going down that country road. 17:49 Just slow at first. 17:50 I wasn't going to floor it without his permission. 17:53 And I just kept going along 40, 50, 60 miles an hour. 17:58 And he said, "Okay, this is a good spot. 18:01 Do it." 18:02 And I floored it. 18:04 And it was so exhilarating and so frightening and terrifying 18:08 at the same time that I couldn't even look down 18:11 at the speedometer to find out how fast I was going. 18:14 But I'm telling you, it was really fast. 18:16 And this guy, who had never been in the passenger seat before, 18:19 was grabbing for the dashboard and the mirrors and... 18:25 I was going to tell you he began to scream like a little girl, 18:27 but that wouldn't be nice and it wouldn't be true. 18:29 But it was something like that. 18:31 This guy had never been in the passenger seat before. 18:34 Now I tell you this whole experience 18:36 to point something out. 18:38 The Bugatti Veyron is something specific. 18:44 How would you define it? 18:45 What is a Bugatti Veyron? 18:48 A Bugatti Veyron is a very finely tuned highly engineered 18:56 driving machine. 18:59 That's what it is. 19:00 It is made, it is designed for driving 19:07 and for a driving experience. 19:09 That's what it is by design. 19:11 And the Bugatti Veyron, because of its design, 19:16 is made to operate and function on a very high 19:20 octane fuel source. 19:23 A very special gasoline. 19:25 The kind that they use in airplanes. 19:30 Very pure fuel source. 19:33 And that fuel source is what gives the Bugatti Veyron 19:38 its power to function at the optimal level 19:42 according to its design. 19:44 Now what I'm here to share with you this evening 19:47 is that we, as human beings, are a particular kind of thing. 19:53 A particular type of apparatus, if you will. 19:57 We're a particular kind of creature, 20:00 you and I, human beings are. 20:02 We are finely tuned, highly engineered, 20:07 psychological, emotional, and biological machines 20:11 of a particular specific sort. 20:14 And we were made by our Maker to operate on a very specific 20:21 pure energy source. 20:26 And that energy source, that fuel source, that power 20:30 that causes the human being to operate at the optimal level, 20:35 to really be human as we were intended to be... 20:41 Because there's a whole lot of subhuman, 20:44 subhuman activity going on in our world. 20:47 A whole lot of actions and deeds and pursuits 20:51 that are not worthy of our humanity, 20:55 that are actually pursuits and actions that are contrary 21:00 to the design protocols that the Creator of the universe 21:05 and our Creator has designed us for. 21:08 Designed protocols built in to our minds and our emotions 21:13 and our bodies. 21:15 Now the pure fuel source, the energy source, 21:18 that you and I were designed and created to operate on 21:22 is none other than the love of God. 21:26 We're going to see this in Scripture 21:28 as we begin our study tonight. 21:30 Look with me first of all, we're going to look at a number of 21:33 Scriptures tonight, but we're going to build our case 21:36 by first taking a look at Matthew chapter 22. 21:40 If you have a Bible, open it up and take a look 21:43 at this incredible interaction between Jesus 21:48 and a particular individual. 21:51 Starting with verse 36, this person, this lawyer, 21:56 says to Jesus, "Teacher, which is the great commandment 22:02 in the law?" 22:03 Now notice the language, "the law." 22:05 Because this five part series is on what? 22:09 It's on the law. 22:10 That's what we're exploring. 22:11 We are asking God, "Lord, open our eyes that we may see 22:17 wondrous things in your law." 22:21 That's our topic. 22:22 Five part series on the law of God. 22:25 Our topic this evening is, The Law Before the Law. 22:31 And the significance of that provocative title is going to 22:34 unfold before us as we continue our study. 22:38 So the question here is regarding the law of God. 22:42 And specifically, this guy wants some kind of hierarchical 22:47 statement to be made. 22:48 "Which," he says, "is the great commandment in the law?" 22:53 He's anticipating that there is some point, some command, 22:58 of the law that is head and shoulders above all the others, 23:02 and that everything else falls under that one great command. 23:07 And Jesus gives a fascinating answer. 23:10 He says, watch this, verse 37, "Jesus said to him, 23:15 'You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, 23:21 and with all your soul, and with all your mind.'" 23:25 This is interesting. 23:26 Your heart is to be involved. 23:28 That's your emotional makeup. 23:31 The way you feel. 23:33 Your soul is to be involved in this love. 23:38 The word, "soul," there in the Greek is, "psyche." 23:42 The center of the operations of the human being. 23:47 It refers to the seat of decision making. 23:50 The will, the power of choice. 23:52 Freedom that is built into the human being. 23:56 The capacity for freewill action. 24:00 "...and with all your mind." 24:01 That is your intellect. 24:03 All of the total person of the human being is to be brought in 24:10 to this experience. 24:12 "You shall love the Lord your God with," 24:15 shall we say it this way, "the totality of your being." 24:20 From the inside out. 24:22 The whole thing. 24:24 Everything that you are is to be brought 24:28 into this experience of the love of God. 24:32 And then Jesus goes on. 24:34 And He says in verse 38, "This is the first and 24:38 great commandment. 24:39 And the second is like it." 24:42 It's the same in basic essence in nature. 24:46 It's just focused in another direction. 24:48 "You shall love your neighbor as your..." What? 24:53 "...as yourself." 24:55 So here Jesus makes, first of all, a statement 24:59 regarding what we might refer to as our vertical relationship 25:05 with God. 25:07 From my mind, my heart, my soul upward and outward toward God. 25:13 And then Jesus tells us that this love is to impact 25:19 our horizontal relationships with our fellow human beings. 25:25 Jesus then summarizes and He says, "On these two 25:30 commandments hang," notice the language, 25:33 "all the Law and the Prophets." 25:37 All the Law and the Prophets. 25:40 It's important to realize that when this lawyer 25:43 asked the question, "What is the great commandment in the law?" 25:47 and when Jesus says, "All the Law and the Prophets 25:50 hangs upon," is enveloped in these two; 25:56 love to God and love to our fellow human being. 25:58 The word, "law," here is referring not merely to 26:03 the Ten Commandments, but it is inclusive of 26:07 the Ten Commandments. 26:08 The Jews commonly referred to the first five books 26:11 of the Bible written by Moses as the Law. 26:15 And then the Prophets. 26:18 They would refer to the Law and the Prophets. 26:21 And the Law and the Prophets basically meant the entire 26:26 Old Testament scriptures. 26:27 Now they didn't call it, the Old Testament. 26:29 It was the only testament they had. 26:31 That was the Bible, that was the Scriptures for them. 26:34 And Jesus is telling us here that from Genesis to Malachi, 26:41 the entirety of the Law, everything that you read 26:46 in Genesis straight through to Malachi, it's all about 26:51 one thing, if you distill it down. 26:54 It's all about love. 26:57 It is about the love of God as the designed protocol 27:05 for human existence. 27:07 When the Bible says in Genesis that God man, or mankind, 27:12 in His own image, that simply means that God made 27:15 human beings to think and to feel and to behave like 27:20 God thinks and feels and behaves. 27:22 In other words, to love like God loves. 27:26 The whole Bible, Genesis to Malachi, and now we have 27:30 the New Testament straight on through to Revelation, 27:34 the whole Bible, Genesis to Revelation, 27:37 is encompassed in the vertical love relationship 27:41 and horizontal love relationships. 27:44 That's what the whole Bible is actually about. 27:48 Now this poses a problem immediately. 27:51 And here's the problem. 27:53 Because if we think of the Ten Commandments 27:57 specifically, we run up against the problem that 28:03 a lot of human history unfolded before we come 28:07 to the giving of the Ten Commandments, 28:09 the writing of the law of God, the Ten Commandments 28:11 on tables of stone. 28:12 A lot of human history is unfolded 28:15 by the time we get to Exodus chapter 20. 28:19 And we have no mention specifically of the 28:23 Ten Commandments before that point in the narrative, 28:28 the story of human history. 28:30 But here's the fascinating thing. 28:32 Jesus, in this text, says that the whole Law, 28:36 going all the way back to Genesis, the whole Law 28:40 and the Prophets is encompassed in the vertical principle of 28:45 love and the horizontal principle of love. 28:49 I think you'll find it interesting that the law of God 28:53 as we have it on tables of stone, what we commonly 28:58 refer to as the Ten Commandments... 29:01 Alright, follow this. 29:03 ...are, well by Exodus 20, are a rather new thing 29:11 for human beings and angels to contemplate 29:14 the law in that form, in the form of Ten Commandments. 29:18 If you were to talk to angels before Mount Sinai, for example, 29:25 and the giving of the law on tables of stone, 29:28 the angels would not be familiar with the law in that form. 29:32 Fascinating. 29:33 Do you have the book, the commentary, on 29:37 the sermon on the mount by the author Ellen White 29:41 called, Thoughts From the Mount of Blessing? 29:43 Anybody have that book? 29:45 I want to encourage you to check out page 109. 29:49 And you'll read these fascinating words, 29:52 this incredible insight on that page. 30:26 Can you picture this? 30:29 When Satan rebelled against God, and the word went out that Satan 30:36 had rebelled, and God began to speak of the fact that 30:39 Satan has now broken God's law, the angels found the idea... 30:47 What does it say here? 30:48 ...the idea that there was a law as something unthought of. 30:54 They didn't know anything about a law 30:57 in the form of Ten Commandments; 31:00 "Thou shalt..." "Thou shalt not..." 31:02 Why not? Well the statement goes on. 31:04 And it says this. 31:34 Now what we need to understand here 31:38 is that when the law was given in the form of Ten Commandments 31:43 on tables of stone, listen now, that was not when 31:48 the law began to exist. 31:52 The law had existence before we find it showing up 31:58 in history, in universal history. 32:01 Before the law shows up at Mount Sinai on tables of stone, 32:05 the law already existed. 32:08 Where did the law exist? 32:10 The law existed, listen carefully now, 32:12 in the very essence and fabric of God's heart and identity. 32:18 That's why we say sometimes that the law is a transcript 32:21 of God's character. 32:23 Before we find it showing up on tables of stone, 32:27 the law of God was, simply and profoundly, 32:31 the essence of God's character. 32:34 God had always been a God of infinite other-centered 32:40 self-giving love. 32:42 That's who God is. 32:44 That's how He thinks, how He feels, 32:46 how He behaves. 32:49 Then sin entered the universe. 32:52 Beginning with the rebellion of Lucifer 32:54 and the fall of approximately one-third of the angels. 32:57 And then taking in humanity, sin entered the universe. 33:03 And when sin entered the universe, now it became 33:06 necessary to articulate the law in the form that we find it 33:11 with the Ten Commandments. 33:13 Remember what the statement said that we just read. 33:16 When the law finally comes forth in a written codified form; 33:23 number one, number two, number three, number four, 33:25 straight through ten, ten commandments, 33:27 when the law comes forth in that form, how do the angels respond? 33:34 "Well that's strange," they say to themselves. 33:36 "There's a law? What law? 33:38 Gabriel, you've heard of any law?" 33:39 "No, I haven't heard of any law?" 33:40 What's this law? 33:42 What's this law idea? 33:43 Why was it that the angels were unfamiliar with the law 33:51 in the form of ten commandments? 33:54 Because the law was written in to the fabric and the essence 34:01 of their very natures as angels. 34:03 God created them to love like God loves. 34:08 And so, psychologically and emotionally, 34:11 the angels were made, or designed, or engineered 34:15 to operate optimally on the fuel, the power source, 34:20 the energy of God's love. 34:23 It's intrinsic to the angelic nature to love. 34:28 So they were simply loving one another. 34:31 Living, each angel, for all the other angels. 34:35 And all of them collectively and individually, 34:37 all living for God. 34:40 And God, being the God of infinite love that He is, 34:44 God living for them. 34:47 And that's what the universe was made to look like 34:50 and to operate like. 34:53 So the angels are surprised, they're blown away. 34:56 "Law? What law? 34:57 I've never heard of any law," the angels say to themselves 35:00 and among themselves. 35:02 "I've never heard of any law." 35:04 Oh, and yet there is a law. 35:06 And now it's brought forth in this form. 35:08 What about human beings? 35:10 The law of God didn't merely begin to exist at Sinai. 35:14 When Adam and Eve sinned originally in Eden, 35:20 when they became sinners, they had broken 35:24 the law of God. 35:27 But they had broken the law of God 35:29 at its most fundamental level. 35:32 There were no ten commandments enshrined 35:35 in the Garden of Eden somewhere? 35:37 There was one basic command. 35:39 And what was it? 35:41 "You're totally free to eat, to partake of, 35:45 to just enjoy yourself and partake of all the 35:50 trees of the garden, but not this one. 35:54 And in that simple command, God had put in place 35:59 a mechanism by which they could be free to choose 36:04 to live for Him above themselves 36:07 or choose to live for themselves. 36:09 The tree of the knowledge of good and evil, 36:11 we might think of it like this: 36:12 It's a kind of voting booth. 36:16 It's God saying, "I'm not going to lock you 36:19 in a room with Myself. 36:21 I'm not going to imprison you in a room with Me. 36:26 I'm going to create you with all the capacities 36:31 for love and other-centeredness, and then I'm going to give you 36:37 a door, if you so choose, to walk out of the room, 36:41 to walk out of this relationship." 36:45 God set up the system in such a way that human beings 36:52 were designed to operate on the premise of other-centered love. 36:57 That's what we are, my friends. 36:59 Just as a Bugatti Veyron is a highly engineered 37:04 driving machine, you and I, each one of us, 37:07 we are highly engineered love machines; 37:11 psychologically, emotionally, even biologically. 37:14 Every one of us operate at the optimal level 37:19 when we are in the process of giving. 37:23 Living for others above and before ourselves. 37:28 And when we choose not to live for others 37:31 above and before ourselves, that's what the Bible calls sin. 37:36 Now look at it in the big picture of the 37:40 biblical storyline. 37:43 The ministry that I represent is called, Light Bearers. 37:46 And we conduct an annual school, a discipleship training course 37:50 called, ARISE. 37:52 And that course that we run, once each year in the 37:56 United States and once each year in Australia, 37:59 that school, that discipleship course, 38:01 the entire curriculum moves through the Bible, 38:04 Genesis to Revelation. 38:06 And it is built on the grid, if you will, of the narrative 38:12 of Scripture, the storyline of Scripture. 38:15 And the storyline looks something like this: 38:19 First of all, as we bring up the first visual, 38:23 the first graphic... 38:24 And I don't know how you're going to see it. 38:26 Oh there it is. Alright. 38:27 The first graphic gives the whole story of Scripture, 38:30 Genesis to Revelation. 38:33 And there are seven chapters to the story, if you will, 38:36 or seven modules to our discipleship training course. 38:41 The first one, give me the next slide, the first one 38:44 we call, Pre-Creation. 38:47 Pre-Creation. 38:48 Go ahead and change the slide. 38:50 Pre-Creation. 38:52 And pre-creation refers to that period of time 38:57 before human beings and angels were made. 39:00 If God is eternal, right, and we're created beings, 39:05 along with the angels, that means we're driven 39:09 logically to the conclusion that God, who alone is eternal, 39:13 existed in all eternity past before we were made, 39:17 before we were created. 39:19 And what's going on there with God; 39:22 Father, Son and Holy Spirit, prior to our creation 39:25 in this pre-creation period? 39:29 Well it's very simply, and beautiful, and profound. 39:34 The Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit are living 39:37 in other-centered self-giving love. 39:40 Or you could say it this way, 39:41 they're living according to "their law." 39:46 What is the law of God? 39:48 The law of God, according to Jesus, is summarized 39:51 in a single word. 39:52 What is that word? 39:53 Love. 39:55 And then as the story unfolds, next slide, pre-creation 39:59 gives way to creation in the storyline of Scripture. 40:04 God brings into existence others to love like God loves. 40:10 To experience the joy and the beauty 40:14 of other-centered existence. 40:17 In other words, in creation God is simply reproducing 40:24 the capacity in others for loving like He loves. 40:29 It's an amazing thing. 40:30 This is what it means when it says God created man 40:33 in His own image. 40:35 And then the story unfolds forward 40:37 and it begins to get ugly. 40:39 The third module or the third chapter in the biblical 40:44 narrative is the fall of mankind. 40:48 Next slide. 40:49 The fall of mankind. 40:52 This is where something horrible takes place. 40:56 What is the fall of mankind? 40:59 The fall of mankind is simply love violated. 41:05 Love in reverse. 41:06 It's human beings that were created to live for others, 41:12 for God and our fellow human beings, 41:14 above and before ourselves. 41:16 The fall is basically selfishness 41:19 entering into the system. 41:21 It's like putting a corrupted fuel source in the Bugatti. 41:27 It's like putting a fuel source in the Bugatti that will 41:32 cause it to malfunction. 41:34 It won't operate the way it's suppose to operate. 41:37 The moment Adam and Eve begin living each one 41:41 for self, the relationship between themselves 41:45 and God breaks down, and the relationship 41:48 between themselves as husband and wife breaks down. 41:50 We see in Genesis the relationship between 41:53 parents and children breaking down, 41:55 brother and brother breaking down. 41:58 Each one living for him or herself. 42:04 And so the law of God is broken, it's violated. 42:07 And at this point in the story, still there's no 42:09 ten commandments on tables of stone. 42:11 That's still future. 42:13 And yet, we're encountering the law before the law. 42:16 What is the law before the law is given in the 42:21 form of ten commandments? 42:23 It is the love of God. 42:25 Jesus made that clear. 42:27 And the fall is simply the violation of God's love. 42:32 It is the breakdown of relational integrity. 42:36 It's when I begin to think of and live for myself, 42:40 and you do the same, 42:41 and relationships begin to disintegrate. 42:44 And there's violation and abuse of every kind. 42:48 But the story unfolds forward. 42:51 After pre-creation and creation and the fall, 42:56 then we see as the story unfolds this incredible idea, 43:01 next slide, this incredible idea that is pervasive 43:06 through the story of Scripture; the idea of covenant. 43:09 God Himself is a God of covenantal relationships. 43:16 Father, Son, and Holy Spirit in pre-creation 43:19 lived in covenantal relationship one with another. 43:23 According to Scripture, even before humanity was created, 43:27 Father, Son, and Holy Spirit entered into a covenant of peace 43:31 to save you and me if we were to fall, to save the human race. 43:36 To embark upon a salvation venture if necessary. 43:44 And covenant is the central biblical idea. 43:47 When you read the word, "covenant," in the 43:49 biblical story, it simply means relational faithfulness. 43:54 When God says, "I am entering into a covenant with you," 44:00 essentially what God means is, "I will be faithful to you. 44:04 I will continue to be good. 44:06 I will continue to love you even though you violate the covenant. 44:11 Even though you sin and rebel against Me, 44:14 I will continue to make and keep My promises to you." 44:18 That's the essence of the idea of covenant. 44:21 And it is the hinge idea in the biblical story. 44:26 God promising faithfulness and following through 44:32 to the point of death at Calvary finally. 44:34 Which brings us to the next module in the story, 44:36 the next chapter; and that's Messiah. 44:39 We read in Scripture that when Messiah comes 44:45 to our world as the Savior, according to Daniel chapter 9, 44:49 He will confirm the covenant. 44:54 He's going to ratify, He's going to fulfill, 44:59 covenantal faithfulness. 45:02 He's going to keep covenant as God toward man. 45:07 But He's going to do something else remarkable. 45:09 Through, by virtue of the incarnation, Jesus is going to 45:13 fulfill covenant faithfulness from the human side as well. 45:17 In Jesus, the divine human person, 45:23 where we see that the Savior of mankind 45:27 has retained His divinity... 45:28 He's one hundred percent divine; He is God. 45:32 And now He is become one hundred percent human. 45:35 It's not 50/50. 45:37 It's 100/100. 45:39 Jesus comes to our world, and according to Daniel's prophecy, 45:43 He's come for a reason. 45:45 And that is to confirm the covenant. 45:49 To keep faithfulness in covenantal integrity 45:54 as God toward man. 45:57 But now, by virtue of the incarnation, Jesus lives a 46:00 perfect life of covenantal faithfulness toward God. 46:04 So He is our Savior in the fullest sense 46:08 that we could possibly comprehend. 46:10 And how does He do it? 46:11 How does Jesus save the human race? 46:14 By maintaining covenantal faithfulness in the relationship 46:20 between God and humanity from both sides of the relationship. 46:26 That's how He becomes our substitute and surety. 46:31 That's how He becomes the Redeemer and Savior 46:35 of the human race. 46:37 We might say it from another angle. 46:40 Jesus saves the human race by keeping the law of God. 46:46 Because what have we discovered? 46:48 That the law of God, before we see it on tables of stone, 46:53 Ten Commandments, that law had eternal existence 46:56 in the heart of God. 46:57 You could no more abolish or do away with 47:00 the law of God than you could do away with God Himself. 47:03 God is love. 47:08 He doesn't simply love, as one aspect of His identity. 47:12 God is love, in the totality of His identity. 47:16 And everything else that is true of God is true of God because 47:20 God is love. 47:22 God is love, therefore God is just. 47:25 Justice is a manifestation of love. 47:28 It's not contrary to love. 47:30 It's a manifestation of love. 47:31 God is merciful, because God is love. 47:35 God is generous and kind and patient and long suffering. 47:39 In other words, everything that is true of God 47:43 is true of God because God is love. 47:46 And that love comes to us in the Messiah, 47:51 in the person of Jesus Christ. 47:53 Jesus keeps the law with utter and absolute 47:58 covenantal perfection. 48:00 And that's how He becomes the Savior of the human race. 48:05 But that's not the end of the story. 48:07 Because after pre-creation, and creation, and fall, 48:11 and after covenant promises made through all the prophets, 48:16 and after Messiah comes to fulfill covenantal faithfulness 48:20 from both sides of the relationship, 48:23 the next part of the story that we find unfolding 48:25 in the New Testament is the church. 48:28 The church of God that we see coming to formation 48:34 in the New Testament, first with Jesus calling the twelve, 48:38 and then surrounding them with the seventy, 48:40 and this expansive circle of witness and evangelism 48:45 to the world, takes on a very active aggressive form 48:51 in the book of Acts. 48:52 And in the book of Acts, we find the development of 48:56 the New Testament church. 48:58 What is the church? 48:59 The church is now the body of Christ, the Messiah. 49:04 The church is now covenantal faithfulness 49:09 coming to development and perfection 49:12 within the body of Christ. 49:15 The same life that Jesus lived of covenantal faithfulness 49:20 with God is now to take on life in the body of Christ. 49:25 Why do we exist as the church of God? 49:28 We exist to live God's love toward one another 49:33 and to expand the witness of that love to the world. 49:37 Jesus very clearly said, "They," speaking of the world at large, 49:41 "will know that you're My disciples because of the love 49:45 that you have for one another." 49:47 Which is just another way of saying, "The world will know 49:51 that you're My disciples by the fact that you will keep My law." 49:58 Because to keep the law of God is... 50:01 What did we discover a moment ago? 50:04 To love God with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength; 50:06 and to love our neighbor as ourselves. 50:10 It is one and the same thing to say the church exists to love 50:15 and the church exists to live in harmony with God's law, 50:21 vertically and horizontally. 50:22 The whole world looks on. 50:24 And what they're looking for, what in fact the whole universe 50:27 is looking for, is that in the church would be manifested 50:33 the love of God in all its beauty. 50:37 And the story then comes to a conclusion 50:39 with the final chapter. 50:41 And that final chapter is re-creation. 50:46 The story begins with pre-creation, 50:52 move straight through to re-creation 50:55 where finally we see in many passages in Isaiah, 51:00 many passages in the prophets of the Old Testament, 51:03 as well as in the New Testament, and finally reaching its climax 51:08 in the book of Revelation, we see that God is aiming 51:14 through Christ to re-create human beings in His image 51:20 and to re-establish a world, and in fact a universe, 51:25 in which only one principle, only one principle, 51:29 rules and reigns. 51:31 And that principle, that law is the law of love, 51:36 the law of life. 51:40 I want you to notice a couple of quotations here 51:43 that wrap language around the law of God 51:46 that I think you'll find interesting. 51:47 The first is in, Desire Of Ages, page 19. 51:50 In the book, Desire Of Ages, by Ellen White, it is a commentary 51:53 on the life of Christ. 51:56 So as we bring up that slide, notice... 52:38 What a fascinating way of articulating 52:41 the law of God. 52:43 The law of God is here described as the 52:47 law of self-renouncing love. 52:50 And where do we see, according to what we just read here in, 52:53 Desire Of Ages, page 19, where do we see 52:56 the law of self-renouncing love manifested with perfection? 53:01 What did it say? At Calvary. 53:04 Because what do you see taking place at Calvary? 53:06 Jesus dying on the cross is Jesus living for all others 53:14 above and before Himself. 53:16 In other words, Calvary is the law of God enacted. 53:22 Jesus personified the law of God throughout His life, 53:28 and reaching its climax at Calvary itself. 53:34 Jesus perfected in human nature the love of God. 53:41 Which is simply to say that Jesus lived in 53:44 perfect harmony with the law of God; 53:46 which is the law of self-renouncing love. 53:48 The next statement from, Desire Of Ages, page 21, 53:51 just a couple of pages over, interestingly speaking of 53:55 this love, it says... 54:41 Notice the language again. 54:42 This is the third time we've encountered this language. 54:49 And that's the title of our series here, 54:52 The Law of Life. 54:55 What we're realizing, as we embark upon this study of 54:59 the law of God, is what the law of God is not, 55:04 and by contrast, what the law of God is. 55:07 The law of God is not, listen carefully, 55:12 the law of God is not an arbitrary list 55:17 of externally imposed rules for conduct. 55:22 The way an emperor or a king in ancient times 55:26 might create laws for his subjects. 55:32 Diabolical and tyrannical rulers manufacturing rules 55:38 for their subjects. 55:40 The law of God is not arbitrary, by which we mean 55:43 the law of God is not contrary to the operations 55:49 of reality itself. 55:51 God created the world and human beings 55:55 to intrinsically operate by love. 55:59 So it's not as if, think about it this way, 56:01 it's not as if God could have just come up with 56:04 a different ten. 56:08 No, the Ten Commandments perfectly express exactly 56:11 what love looks like toward God 56:13 and toward our fellow human beings. 56:15 The law of God is not an arbitrary list of rules imposed 56:19 to control conduct. 56:21 No. So what is the law? 56:22 The law of God is the law of life. 56:28 The law of God is the principle of self-giving love 56:36 explained in the Ten Commandments, 56:39 and in the whole of Scripture from Genesis to Revelation. 56:43 The law of God is in fact the means by which 56:48 human beings, as individuals and as family units and as a church 56:53 and as a world, the law of God is the means by which 56:57 God's law, God's love, is incorporated 57:01 into every aspect of our living. 57:05 So that's what we're going to be exploring 57:06 in our five part series, The Law of Life. 57:09 Tonight, The Law Before the Law. 57:12 That is, the love of God manifested in the way 57:18 we live toward God and the way we live toward one another. 57:21 It's a very practical law. 57:23 It's a beautiful law. 57:24 God, open our eyes that we may behold 57:28 wondrous things in Your law. |
Revised 2015-07-07