Tag: God’s Law

You Have Heard It Said — Gospel of Matthew Sermon 27

Old Covenant Reading (read first):  Genesis 4:1-12

New Covenant Reading: Matthew 5:21-26

Sermon – You Have Heard It Said

Jesus says:

“You have heard that it was said to those of old, ‘You shall not murder, and whoever murders will be in danger of the judgment.’”

He finally begins to preach upon the Moral Law itself. This is the section of the Law that most people are vaguely familiar with (Yes, contradictory terms).

As Jesus teaches on the Moral Law, please notice what He doesn’t do. He doesn’t turn this into a morality lecture. He is indeed speaking on the Moral Law, but not in such a way that we come away with the reductionistic trope of “be good, do be angry.”

There are far more complexities to honoring this law than we like to think about. What Jesus says here, requires much more that a simple statement of moralism. He is requiring us to use wisdom in our lives, in order to keep the commandments.

Peter Leithart writes about this portion of Christ’s sermon:

“These instructions are not just membership qualifications. They are redemptive commandments, and Jesus is laying out the specifics of the redemptive righteousness that surpasses the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees.”

 

Wednesday Word: The Fault of Utopians

We must realize that the current trend in politics and culture is to bring about a Utopian world, often called the one-world government, or the great reset. A Utopia is essentially man’s desire to bring about heaven on earth without God. The Utopians want to believe that they are the gods of the world, and if everyone would just listen to them, fall into line, they would bring about peace and harmony in the world.

It’s been tried. Hitler tried it. Stalin tried it. The Chinese are trying their version of it. The Democrats, elites of our country, and the useful idiots in Christendom are also trying it now. But it will fail for two reasons. The first is that utopian dreams are fostered on us by sinful, fallen mankind.

Joseph Boot points this out in his monumental book, The Mission of God: A Manifesto of Hope for Society.

Men’s Utopias, the man-created and man-planned societies of the future, are always a dystopian nightmare because man is a fallen sinner in rebellion against God (Romans 5:10-21). Fallen man is in constant denial of this reality, and hates to accept that he is a creature, and a broken one at that… His demonic urge and evil desire is transparently the one seen in Genesis 3:5 ‘to be as God’ and his motive is to force the usurpation of the divine attributes, which being falsified in the hands of sinful man, produces not a paradise, but a hell on earth (p. 185).

Dystopian nightmares are the reality of Utopian dreams. Fallen sinful nature works against those who have “good intentions,” but fail to take into account that they are attempting to accomplish something well out of reach.

Even within the education system, which they are always attempting to control, they fail to produce the automatons that will make their society perfect, because of the sin nature that works in the students. The students may be in full agreement with their Utopian overlords. But they rebel against the Utopian authority, since this is really all they have been trained to do since birth. The society implodes upon itself because of sin nature.

For years, the culture has been trying to throw off God’s law, seeking to become autonomous (without law), or a law unto themselves. But under the Utopian scheme, there is a law, man’s law. The goal is to make all those in the Utopia the same, conforming to the image of the leaders of the Utopia. For Hitler that meant the quest for the perfect race of humans, white, blond hair, blue eyes, Aryan. Never mind that Hitler didn’t fit the description. First commandment of the Utopian laws is: laws for thee, not for ME.

The second reason that Utopian dreams fail is because there is a God in heaven who laughs at their rebellion.

Why do the nations rage,
And the people plot a vain thing?

The kings of the earth set themselves,
And the rulers take counsel together,
Against the LORD and against His Anointed, saying,

“Let us break Their bonds in pieces

And cast away Their cords from us.”

He who sits in the heavens shall laugh;

The Lord shall hold them in derision.

Then He shall speak to them in His wrath,

And distress them in His deep displeasure.

The Utopian fails to see that his own sinfulness gets in the way of the his Utopian dreams, and also fails to see that there is a God in heaven who stands in the way of the Utopian outcomes.

God stands in the way of the Utopians dreams because He has another plan and Kingdom that will come about. That centers on Christ. He is the risen Savior, and ascended King. In the account of His ascension to the throne in Acts 1, He was placed on the throne over all creation to rule (see Daniel 9>>>). And He will continue to rule until all His enemies have been made His footstool. We see this is Psalm 110:

The Lord said to my Lord,
“Sit at My right hand,
Till I make Your enemies Your footstool.”
2 The Lord shall send the rod of Your strength out of Zion.
Rule in the midst of Your enemies!

This shows that Christ’s enemies will be defeated and that He will not return until they are defeated, as confirmed in 1 Corinthians 15:25.

But Psalm 110 also shows what the King who rules will do to His enemies.

The Lord is at Your right hand;
He shall [a]execute kings in the day of His wrath.
6 He shall judge among the nations,
He shall fill the places with dead bodies,
He shall [b]execute the heads of many countries.
7 He shall drink of the brook by the wayside;
Therefore He shall lift up the head.

 

There is no place in our understanding for Christ to be a meek, mild, feeble King. He is reigning over the leaders of the latest Utopian plans with a rod of judgment as they try to throw off His rule, which they do in so many way. How?

Through the destruction of the building blocks of society, such as the family, what it means to be male and female, what our education should be like, what our government should be like, and trying to exercise dominion over every aspect of our lives. This is actually domination, not exercising dominion. To take dominion over the earth, which is commanded by the LORD and to be carried out under the guidance of His word, is commanded for mankind. Domination is trying to carry out the command apart from God and over our fellow man.

I share this to show that the Utopians are truly the enemies of God. They have thrown off His commandments, His peace, His unity, His love, His wisdom, and all the other benefits we have in turning to our LORD to learn how we should live. Therefore God give them over to their depraved minds, which brings about more depravity to the point that the Utopians will turn against themselves and destroy one another.

OUR RESPONSE

How then should the Christian respond to those trying to bring forth Utopian disorders?

By being faithful where we have been place. We are to continue with the dominion mandate by seeking to bring order to all the spheres of control we have been given. We are also to continue with the Great Commission, seeking to make disciples for Christ and letting His word work in their lives.

This is the most effective way to combat those who throw off God’s Law for our lives and the life and health of the country. We are to trust in Him to do what He has said He would do.

We are not to give up and believe as the Dispys* believe that the world is beyond saving. It is not. It is part of the New Heavens and the New Earth, and we are to be faithful to counter the Utopians, through preaching and standing for the truth, and fulfilling our marching orders. This is not an easy task. In fact, apart from God’s Spirit, it is impossible. But we are to be faithful.

They are His enemies and He will deal with them.

*As for my comment on the Dispys, or Dispensationalist, they are part of the problem of the advance of the Utopian order, for they see the world as too far gone to be saved. Joseph Boot refers to John Stott who points this out:

… Stott notes the popular spread of dispensationalism and pre-millennial eschatology schemes (over against the historic Puritan post-millennial view), through J.N. Darby and the Scofield Bible, which presented this world as beyond redemption, sinking into darkness until the coming of Christ and his literal millennial reign on earth. This led in many cases to an evangelical withdrawal from social and cultural engagement.

Dispys are also at the center of the autonomous movement. Just bring up the use of the Ten Commandments in the life of the believer, and they will scream “we are not under the law!” For justification purposes, yes. But not for sanctification purposes and for knowing then how we should live. Jesus came to fulfill the Law, not destroy it (Matthew 5:17-19).

We cannot withdraw. The Great Commission and Dominion Mandate have not been withdrawn. The Kingdom of Christ still expands and still grows. I know for now, it seems that the Utopians are winning the day. But Christ told us that the Father would prune the vine, casting the worthless branches into the fire, and causing the faithful branches to produce more fruit. He does so through the evils of those advancing Utopian dreams.