Why Does Grace Still Require the Ten Commandments?

Les Feldick's Lecture Series on the Life and Work of Jesus Christ Welcome to Through the Bible with Les Feldick—a 30-minute walk through the Scriptures, teaching in-depth Bible truths that change people's lives. Now, here's your host, Les Feldick. Okay, good to have everybody in again today, and we're just going to pick right up where we left off in our last program. But first, we always like to remind our listening audience that all the past programs are available on videotape. They've now been transcribed also into the print and on the audio. So whatever your preferences are, whether it's video or audio or the little printed books, if you're interested in any of that material for your own pleasure or for a home Bible study or for Sunday school, whatever, you just call us or write us a note, and we'll get the information to you. And again, we always like to thank our listening audience for your kind letters. My goodness, our mail time is a thrill, and I don't know whether I should even put this on the air or not, but in the eight years we've been on television, we've only had one or two letters that were not real kind. And I think that's something to just praise the Lord for, but we do. We appreciate your letters so much, and of course your financial help, because we cannot do it without that either. Okay, I think that's all we have for announcements, and we're going to get right back into where we left off. And Jerry's got it on the board again. We're going to start in Ephesians chapter 6, verse 1. And for just a little bit of review, remember coming out of chapter 5, we've been dealing with the husband and wife relationship, which goes all the way back, of course, to the Garden of Eden, when God created man first, and then the woman. And from that very time on, God has always mandated, of course, that the man is to be the head of the woman, not as a tyrant, not as a malefactor, but as a benevolent, loving head of the woman, and consequently there's no opposition to that kind of a state of affairs. And the comparison that Paul makes in Ephesians is, as Christ loved the Church and gave Himself for it, the husband or the man of the home should love his wife. And so the whole theme of these previous verses has been centered on love. Well, you take that same concept right on in, because you want to remember there were no chapter headings when Paul wrote. He didn't put chapter 6 and then break it down into verses, but as he was now writing, and the Holy Spirit, of course, is guiding his thinking, no doubt about that, he now moves on into another area, but it's still involved in the home. We move from the husband and the wife relationship right on down into now the family relationship, and that is between parents and children. Now, of course, we're hearing a lot lately from our politicians about family, and however they want to look at it, but we're going to look at it from the scriptural point of view, and that is the very bedrock of society has to be the home and the family. And so after coming out of the teaching concerning the husband and wife relationship, the very first word of chapter 6, verse 1 is what? Children. Now you say, well, so what? Well, I couldn't help but think as I was getting ready for this, that I had read an article a long time ago, probably last spring, and I had to go find it and dig it up again, and it was a description of the Jewish Passover, even as Jewish people practice it today, and the Seder feast. And the author of that particular article said that one of the major participants in the Seder feast, or the Passover meal, is children. You know, I'd never really thought of that before. But you see, as you go through the Seder meal, and they break that one piece of bread, and the largest half is wrapped and hidden someplace in the home, and then just toward the end of the feast, the children are sent out to find that hidden piece of bread. And it just almost becomes a game for the kids. Well, the whole purpose, of course, and I think a good place to go would be right back to Exodus. And the whole purpose of the Passover, I do believe, was to not only keep the Jewish people mindful of the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, but it was the glue that literally held the Jewish people together throughout all these centuries of oppression, and persecution, and dispersion. And I think I've made mention of it before, if not in this program, at least in one of my classes here in Oklahoma, that as I look at the big picture, in my own mind, I have to feel that the Passover has probably done more than anything else to keep the Jewish people what they are. Their heritage, their Jewishness, or whatever you want to call it. Now if you go back to Exodus chapter 12, and you drop on down to... Oh, let's start at verse 23, because most of you know the account of the night of the death angel passing over Egypt, and how they were to put the blood on the door. And so if we can step into the narrative in Exodus chapter 12, verse 23. "...for the Lord will pass through to smite the Egyptians, and when He sees the blood upon the lintel, and on the two side posts, the Lord will pass over the door, and will not suffer or permit the destroyer to come in under your houses to smite you." Now here comes verse 24. "...and you shall observe this thing for an ordinance to thee, and to thy sons forever. And it shall come to pass, when you be come to the land which the Lord will give you, according as He hath promised, that you shall keep this service. And it shall come to pass, that when your children shall say unto you, What mean you by this, or this service, or this Passover feast? Then you shall say, It is the sacrifice of the Lord's Passover, who passed over the houses of the children of Israel in Egypt, he smote the Egyptians, and delivered our houses, and the people bowed their head in worship." Now the main criteria then of the Passover supper, even to this very day, whether it's even in non-practicing Jewish people, I think a lot of them still have the Passover celebration, everything, much like unbelieving Gentiles celebrate Christmas. And as they go through that Passover meal, the children are given opportunity to ask, Well why do we do this? And the answer is, because of what happened in Egypt. And then they go to the next stage, Well why do we do this? And then the answer is, because this is how God brought us out of Egypt. And so the whole idea of the thing is to get these children to think and ask questions. And as the author of another article I read, his kids asked the same question for almost years on end, even as they were getting up into the teen years, they would still ask these same questions. Well that's as it should be. And so it became then the very bedrock of the Jewish family, the Passover. Now as you come back then to Ephesians for just a moment, I probably won't read it. Ephesians 2.5 Now in order to make us think, and that's the only reason I teach, is to get people to think. What one basic attribute of the human makeup causes children to obey their parents? Love. Love, see? But it has to be a two-way street. And so we have to look at this whole concept again of love, as Paul's been talking about it in chapter 5, between the husband and wife. And that same love carries on into the relationship between parents and children. Now I was going to put it on the board before we opened the program, so I wouldn't have to take time on TV time. But I didn't do it, so I'll have to do it anyway. And that is the definition of love that I've put on the program several years ago. Love is, or love equals, seeking, some of you should remember, seeking the other person's highest good. Now that's the best definition of true biblical love that I can ever think of. Now when we speak of love, scripturally of course, we're not talking about erotic love, we're not talking about sexual love, we're not talking about Hollywood's view of love. We're talking about that God-given ability to love your neighbor as yourself, which Jesus called the greatest commandment. Now when you love your neighbor as yourself, what are you really doing? You're seeking his highest good. Now think about that. There has nothing to do with physical contact, this has nothing to do with the hugging and the kissing and so forth that we normally associate with love anymore. But true love is just simply doing that which will bring about the highest good of whether it's a neighbor, or whether it's a wife, or a husband, or children. All right, so now then let's come back to the great love chapter, I Corinthians chapter 13. You all know the chapter, we're not going to read it all, but I do want to read a good portion of it, because it says it so aptly. I Corinthians chapter 13, and I'm just going to start with verse 1, because I'm finding out that the television audience actually gets more out of the Scripture than I read, than what I say. And that's as it should be. I want people to literally let the Word of God itself speak to them, and not necessarily myself. All right, now look what it says, verse 1. Paul writes, "...though I speak with the tongues of men and angels, and have not love, I am become as sounding brass or a tinkling cymbal." It's sort of like rattling a rock in a tin can. That's all we are if love does not promote it. Verse 2. "...though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries, and have knowledge, and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, and if I don't have love, what have I got? Nothing." Now as I read, I can't help but remember the letter to the church of Ephesus back there in the book of Revelation. And what was the admonition? Oh, they had everything up to snuff, their doctrine was right, their works were right, but what was the church at Ephesus lacking? Their first love. And it's the same way today. I don't care how skilled we are in the Scriptures, I don't care how faithful we are in attending our particular church and all these things. If there's no love behind it, they forget it. It's like nothing. Okay, read on. Verse 3. "...and though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, and I have not love, it profiteth nothing." Now that's strong language, and a lot of times we don't think about it in this light. But unless we have this ability to seek the other person's highest good, and out of that motive that is God given, hey, it's for nothing. Totally for nothing. Alright, read on. Verse 4. "...love suffereth long, and it's kind. Love envieth not. Love vonneth not itself, is not puffed up, doth not behave itself unseemly. Love doesn't seek her own. Love is not easily provoked. Love thinketh no evil." Now I'm "...but rejoiceth in the truth." And then you come all the way down for sake of time now to the last verse of the chapter, the capstone of it all. "...but now abideth faith, hope, and love." But the greatest is what? Love. Now I've tried to emphasize to people over the years as I've taught, not just from this chapter, but from all over the New Testament, that as you go through Paul's letters, you find almost no reference anymore after Corinthians. In fact after Corinthians, I can say no reference to tongues and prophecies. But throughout his whole segment of our New Testament, these three words just keep popping up. Faith, hope, and love. They never stop. They're still just as valid today as they were at the very beginning. And the greatest of them is what? Love. Alright, now let's come back then to Ephesians chapter 6. And so in that spirit of true, agape, God-given love, seeking that other person's highest good, in this case the children loving their parents, Paul goes right back again to the Old Testament, Exodus 20, the Ten Commandments. And he says, "...honor thy father and mother, which is the first commandment with promise." Now I don't know how many of you remember the Ten Commandments. I read a little poll the other day that even amongst pastors, oh a great percentage of them could not list more than five or six of the Ten Commandments. And amongst the general population they could only list maybe two or three. I can believe that, but I hope you're not that far gone that you can't remember the Ten Commandments. But you see, as I've mentioned so often before, in fact I'm thinking, where can I go? Let's go back to Romans first, and then we'll probably run back to Exodus when we have time. But come back to Romans chapter 13, and drop in at verse 8. Romans 13, verse 8. You know I have to listen to my TV audience when they call and they write and take your time, and don't go so fast. I can't keep up with you. So I'll wait until you find it, and then they should out there. Romans 13, verse 8. Romans 13, verse 8. Romans 13, verse 8. "...owe no man, or defraud no one of anything, but to love one another. For he that loveth another," based on this on the board of course, "...he that seeks another man's highest good has fulfilled the law." The Ten Commandments. Now the next verse. "...for this, thou shalt not commit adultery, thou shalt not kill, thou shalt not steal, thou shalt not bear false witness, thou shalt not covet." And if there be any other commandment, it's comprehended in this saying, namely, "...thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself," almost verbatim from the lips of the Lord Jesus Himself. Now verse 10. "...so love worketh no ill to his neighbor, therefore love seeking that other person's highest good does what? Fulfills the law." Now the point I'm trying to make here in Romans, back up a few pages to chapter 6. Romans chapter 6, and drop down to verse 14. Romans chapter 6, verse 14. "...for sin," and of course I always have to stop there, you know, and qualify that word in Romans as the old Adam, the old sin nature that we're born with. All right, so the old sin nature, sin, "...shall not have dominion over you." It doesn't have to rule like a king on his throne. Why? Because you're not under the Law, but you're under grace. All right, now here's the dilemma. If we're under grace, and we're not under Law, why does Paul repeat the commandments? And he repeats all nine of them, all but one. There's one he never mentions, and that is keeping the Sabbath. But he repeats all the others. Why? If we're under grace. Because even under grace, the Constitution of the Almighty God Himself is still valid. Just because we're under grace does not give us license to steal, or license to commit adultery. They are still God's guideline for holy, righteous living. And that's why for one, I for one, am not against posting the Ten Commandments in public places, because it is non-intrusive. It does not scorn any other religion, because it is a world-wide set for social activity, that I don't care whether they're Buddhist, Hindu, Shindu, or nothing. There's nothing in those Ten Commandments that should embarrass anybody. Now that's the way I look at it. Maybe not everyone will agree with me, but I always have to come back and say, now remember there's one of those commandments though, that Paul does not repeat, and that is the one concerning the Sabbath. Because we are not under the seventh day Sabbath today, because we're under grace, and that was Law. But the major point I want to make in this half hour, is that the relationship between the husband and the wife, and the parents and the children, is love. It is the key. I think we've got time. Let's go back to Exodus chapter 20, and we'll just quickly review the Ten Commandments for just that sake. To just remind us once again, that which so many people have forgotten totally, and that is these Ten Commandments that God gave to Moses, and Moses in turn took down and gave to the children of Israel. Exodus chapter 20, and oh let's see, we can start with verse 3. Exodus 20 verse 3. Thou shalt have no other gods before me. Now that knocks idolatry right out of the picture, doesn't it? Thou shalt not make unto thee a graven image, which is of course all part and parcel of idolatry, or any likeness. And verse 5. Thou shalt not bow down to them. And then you come on up to verse 7. Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain, for the Lord will not hold him guiltless that takes his name in vain. Then verse 8. Remember the Sabbath day, now remember for Israel that was the seventh day, the Saturday Sabbath. Remember to keep it holy. And the purpose primarily of course is that man was made to work six days, and have one day of rest. And then you come down to verse 12, which picks up again. With the honor of thy father and thy mother, that the days may be long upon the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee. This is why Paul refers to it in Ephesians as the only commandment with a promise, and that was the promise. That if children would be obedient to their parents, they could have a long life on this earth. And then of course the next one is. Thou shalt not kill. And then the next one. Thou shalt not commit adultery. Thou shalt not steal. Thou shalt not bear false witness. And I always put that. Thou shalt not lie. And then verse 17. Thou shalt not covet. And that more or less wraps it up. Now those are the Ten Commandments that God gave to Moses, and which Paul still adheres to, even for us under grace. Now that's why I'm always making the statement that grace is not license. Grace never gives us license to go contrary to God's basic law for humanity, which of course is the Ten Commandments. Now let's come back for just a moment or so we have left to Ephesians chapter 6. Now not only are the children to obey their parents, and we're not going to finish this thought at all, but now you see there is a responsibility of parents to their children, and particularly which parent? The father. And here again is where we as a society have gone 180 degrees against the basic premises of the Word of God. Today I imagine in most homes it's the mother who has to mete out discipline and so forth. But the Scripture never gives that to the mother, except when it says that mothers are to teach their daughters how to love their husbands. But the whole concept of Scripture is that the father was to be the disciplinarian. It was the father's prerogative to discipline the child. And again reading now in verse 4. Ephesians 6. Now one word comes to mind whenever I read this verse. When it comes to fathers disciplining their children, one word always comes to my mind. Do you know what it is? Temperance. In fact I think it's in Corinthians where Paul is describing the Olympic runners as they are training and preparing their body for the race. And what does he admonish that we're to be? Temperate in everything. In other words, you can't go clear off to the right, you can't go clear off to the left. Now it's the same way with disciplining children. You all know families at both ends of the spectrum. Some are so strict those poor kids are in a straitjacket, and they cannot wait until they can get out from under dad's roof and do whatever they want to do. That's not being temperate in disciplining. That's doing the extreme. Then on the other hand we've got parents that don't discipline at all, and they just let their kids run wild. So what do we have to do? We become temperate, and we bring it into the middle. You have to discipline children. They do want discipline. They want rules to live by. And so you can't just give them total license. But on the other hand you have to respect the fact that they are a person. They have their certain demands for a bit of freedom. And all the time as we discipline children, it has to be prompted with what again? Love. I can't overemphasize it. We discipline our children because we love them. And when parents refuse to discipline their children, they show no love, and they're going to see those kids invariably end up in the penitentiary. And then after they get in the penitentiary, then they sometimes begin to have remorse, and a lot of times they don't. But what Paul is making so plain here is that parents, fathers in particular, are to discipline on a balanced operation between himself and his kids. Have I got time to go to Hebrews? Let's go to Hebrews just a second. Hebrews chapter 12, and we only have a minute or so left, so let's drop all the way down to verse 6. And see the Scripture says it all if you look for it. Hebrews chapter 12, verse 6. And it's the same thing, God is always seeking our highest good. And so that person that God loves, He's going to chasten, and He's going to scourge, He's going to spank every son whom He receiveth. Hebrews 12. And if ye endure chastening, God dealeth with you as with sons. For what son is he whom the Father chasteneth not? That's part and parcel of our living. We have to be chastened. Now then he comes down to verse 9, and I'll do this quickly. Hebrews 12. Furthermore, we have had fathers of the flesh, that is in this worldly experience, who corrected us, and we gave them reverence. Shall we not much rather be in subjection to the spirits of our fathers? And then verse 10. No chastening for the present is joyous, but grievous. Nevertheless, afterward, and I don't care what the child psychologists say, the Scripture is more true than they ever hope to be. Nevertheless, afterward, discipline will yield the peaceable fruit of righteousness to them who are exercised thereby. Can you make it any plainer? I don't see how you can. Less Feldick Ministries, Route 1, Box 760, Kinta, OK 74552, or call 1-800-369-7856. Remember, all programs are available in printed form, audio cassette, and videotape. Be sure to tune in next time to Through the Bible with Les Feldick.