The Ten Commandments and the Church

The Book of Ephesians and the Church’s Place Under the New Covenant

It's good to be back in the pulpit. I'm grateful for Pastor Jacob and his preaching the last two weeks. I'm grateful to be back this morning and ask you now to turn in your Bibles to Ephesians chapter 6, Ephesians 6.

We are in the book of Ephesians. We started this great book about three years ago, and we are on the final chapter. I told some guys this morning that I really think surely by the end of this year, we will be through this book.

It was a hot week. I think about this week, I don't remember what day it was. Maybe y 'all remember. Was it Thursday? Perhaps it was Wednesday. There was one of those days that the heat index, when I looked at my phone, the heat index was 119 degrees.

I was like, are you kidding me? 119, that's a little warm. I was talking with someone yesterday about this, but imagine it being 119 degrees and someone goes out, they're wearing a hoodie, they're wearing wool pants, long pants, they're wearing a toboggan on their head, they're wearing mittens.

That doesn't change the temperature, right? They can pretend it's not 119 degrees. They can act like it's not hot outside. They can dress as though it's cold. But it doesn't change the reality that the temperature is what it is.

Similarly, I want to tell you this morning that Christ is King. People can dress up like He's not. People can pretend that He's not. People can tell you that there is no God. People can live in such a way as though Christ is not King.

Nevertheless, it does not negate this grand truth, this grand reality, this very fact that Christ is King. And so, my friends, my brothers and sisters, it is our desire then as a church to understand what this King desires of us, to understand the truth that He gives us.

And what we're going to do today, we've already spent a few weeks in the text that we're in, talking about children, talking about fathers, talking about homes, but there's another truth that we need to glean from this text today.

And so the sermon title this morning is The Ten Commandments and the Church. And what I want you to think about this morning is what relationship do Christians have with the Ten Commandments? Are they obsolete?

Do they have some sort of salvific purpose? How do we need to think about the Ten Commandments? I think Paul helps us here in our text. And so this is where we turn. Ephesians chapter 6, and I'll read verse 2 and 3.

Would you stand with me as we honor the reading of God's Word? This is penned by the Apostle Paul, but to state unequivocally and unambiguously, this is the Holy Spirit's Word. This is God's Word to us.

Honor your father and mother. This is the first commandment with the promise that it may go well with you and that you may live long in the land. Father, would you help us to understand the truth today?

Would you help us to understand why and how Paul applies the Ten Commandments to a local church setting? Help us to understand how you would have us to understand these truths. Help us to understand that by works of the law, no one is justified.

Help us to understand the other truth that those who are in Christ have the law in their hearts. I pray today for any who are in this room that don't know Christ, I pray that they would come to know Him even today.

They would see the law and it would break them, and they would see the only healing they have is in Christ. We pray You'd bless the preaching of Your Word. Help the preacher. Father, You know I need Your grace.

May the Spirit come. May He descend upon this place and give us ears to hear and eyes to see and hearts that desire to obey. Thank You for what You're doing, and we pray You would continue for the glory of Christ.

He's worthy of a healthy church right here in Perryville. We pray it in Jesus' name, amen. You may be seated. So we need to understand this morning something that Paul does, and I think this is a very foundational truth.

It's very weighty how to understand the relationship. But Paul says here in verse 2, honor your father and mother. Like if I wasn't reading, if you didn't know where I was reading and I just said, honor your father and mother, this is the first commandment with a promise that it may go well with you and you may live long in the land, you may think that I was actually reading from the Old Testament.

You may have no idea that I was reading to a local church, a letter that was written to a local church in the context of the New Covenant. Paul uses there in verse 2 that word commandment. Of course, he's referencing here the Ten Commandments.

That is, Paul has an idea that the Ten Commandments come to bear. They have application on the life of the church. Let me also say this, he doesn't have to list all the commandments here for the principle of our point this morning to stand.

Meaning that the Ten Commandments have not been done away with when it comes to the church. So Paul uses here the Fifth Commandment as the foundation for his point. And he's quoting, you can note this later, I'll just read it for you.

He's quoting from Deuteronomy chapter 5. He's quoting from the Pentateuch. He's quoting from something that was given to Old Testament Israel. He says, Deuteronomy 5 .16 says, honor your father and your mother as the Lord, as Yahweh, your God commanded you, that your days may be long and that it may go well with you in the land that Yahweh, your God, is giving you.

Now, I want you to just think about this. This is one of those points that if you just gloss over, you don't think about its significance. It is fascinating, beloved, that Paul takes a specific command, not only a command, but a specific command attached with a specific promise given to Israel, and he feels the freedom to apply it to the church at Ephesus.

In other words, the Holy Spirit, who is the author of this text, who stands behind the human author, desires for us to know this morning that the law of God has relevant application in churches today.

You need to know this in your Bible reading that the church has not replaced Israel. That's not what we're saying. But she is the fulfillment of true Israel. This really helps in our understanding as we read the Old Testament and our application of the Scriptures, that the Scriptures are pointing forward to a greater reality, to a mystery that would not be revealed until the New Testament, namely what I'm referring to is the church.

Don't say that in the Old Testament the saints didn't know the Gospel. The New Testament says they knew the Gospel. Now, there were things that were hidden, but they understood they needed a Messiah. But there's a mystery there that this Messiah wasn't just for the physical Jews, but for Jews and Gentiles and all who call upon the name of the Lord.

Another thing I want to mention just to begin, we should be careful here, but we like to rail on false teachers, say like Joel Osteen or whatever, and that's important. Hey, I'm in line for that, you know that.

You've heard me do that. But we should not balk at the idea from the Scriptures that there actually is a connection between obedience and blessing. Look at the text there in verse two. Honor your father and mother.

This is the first commandment with the promise that it may go well with you and that you may live long in the land. Now listen, I'm not trying to say to you that if you obeyed your parents well, you honored them, that you're guaranteed to live 120 years or something like that.

I don't mean that. But just think about it. There are general principles here of wisdom that those who honor their godly parents are going to approach life rightly and God is willing to bless that even in our weak and paltry and insufficient obedience.

Ultimately, of course, the glory goes to God and not to us. So let me pause here and say this before moving on. So let me talk to the children. I'm seeing if I see your eyes. All right, I see you, kiddos.

I see you all the way in the back. All right, children, let me tell you something. Wouldn't it be foolish and unwise for you to ignore this text, right? Wouldn't it be silly for you to be disobedient and dishonoring to your parents when God gives us such a command, a holy and righteous God gives us such a command and also gives us such a promise attached to the command?

That would be foolish.

God, in essence, says, I set before you blessing and favor and promises and for you to ignore that would say, no, I'll just do it myself. That would be both unwise and wicked. But what we need to do now, church, is to consider in a broader sense the role of the Ten Commandments when it comes to the Christian.

The Law as a Covenant of Works and the Mirror of Condemnation

Cornelius Van Til wrote this, it is of great significance for a believer to understand his relationship to the law of God. God has made a covenant of works with man. This covenant signifies that those that fully satisfy the law of God and consequently are perfect as their father in heaven is perfect will have eternal life.

On the other hand, those who have not satisfied the law of God will have eternal death. So as we begin, you need to consider this question, have you measured up? Let me use a human analogy. Take, for example, the Navy SEALs.

Now, I don't mean to disparage my own physical ability, but the Navy SEALs would not allow me to walk in and be part of their elite team.

Why is that?

I don't measure up, right? The Navy SEALs have a quite rigorous set of demands and standards that you have to meet. They don't lower those standards in order to say, well, you know,.

We'll lower our standards.

So that we can let people like Quatro in, right? Because if you start letting people like Quatro in the Navy SEALs, eventually you no longer have an elite team. You have a bunch of people who are balding and like to eat pizza or whatever, right?

Okay, if the Navy SEALs won't lower its standards, then why would we expect our holy and righteous God to lower his standards? This is what we need to consider. So number one, the law and condemnation.

The first point I want to consider is the law and condemnation. Paul says, honor your father and mother. This is the first commandment with the promise. Well, truth be told, we're sunk right there because there's enough condemnation wrapped in our disobedience of just the fifth commandment to condemn us for all eternity.

There were times in your life growing up that you dishonored your parents, that you disobeyed them, that you told them lies, that you said that you were going to do one thing and you didn't, or they asked you where you'd been.

Or why are you out so late.

And you told them something else or they told you to do something and you rolled your eyes. There's enough condemnation here for us to be in trouble. And this is where we need to begin. Chapter 19 of the 1689, a beautiful chapter, rightly notes that God gave Adam a law in Genesis 2, right?

Remember, thou shall not eat of the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil. Adam was obligated to obey the law. There was implicit blessings attached to obedience and there was punishment revealed if he disobeyed.

This is what we call theologically the covenant of works with Adam. That is, God entered into a relationship with Adam whereby if he obeyed, then Adam, and by virtue of the fact that he's our federal head, Adam and his posterity is good.

If he disobeys, then Adam and his posterity are plunged into ruin and sin. And we know what has happened here. Adam transgressed the covenant. He disobeyed. He plunged humanity into sin, misery, and ruin.

But our plunging headlong into sin and rebellion does not take away from God's standard. Here's something else you should take away from this part of the message. God doesn't grade on a curve. So you had in college some of those professors who if everybody did bad on the test, that's why you got mad at the scholarly young lady who always was making A's.

You're like, you're hurting the curve, right? Because I can make a D and it's like I made a B because this professor is grading on the curve. God, because of His justice, does not, cannot grade on the curve.

And so, God on Mount Sinai revealed the Ten Commandments to Israel as a perfect rule of righteousness. These Ten Commandments, they reveal the character of God. They show forth His holiness, His goodness, His wisdom, His righteousness, His love.

They show that His rule is unwavering. His standard is just. They show that God cannot and will not budge. So, think about this. This means if you meet God's standard of righteousness, you will have eternal life.

If you fail to meet God's standard of righteousness, you will not have eternal life. Let's look at another passage. I want you to turn with me to Matthew 19. It's very interesting the way that Jesus puts this.

It's a subtle little thing that Jesus says to the rich young ruler in Matthew chapter 19. Now, keep your spot. We're gonna go right back to Ephesians. But Matthew chapter 19. Matthew 19, beginning in verse 16.

And behold, a man came up to him saying, teacher, what good deed must I do to have eternal life? And he said to him, why do you ask me about what is good? There is only one who is good. If you would enter life.

Now, listen to that. If you would enter life. What does Jesus say? If you would enter life, keep the commandments. Now, you need to think about this for just a moment. Jesus says, in essence, God is good.

So, if you keep the commandments, you will enter into life. John Bunyan rightly notes, the conditions of that on Sinai and of that in the garden are all one. The one saying, do this and live. The other saying the same.

That is, the law of God, the 10 commandments come to us and in essence, because they're righteous. The problem is not with the law. That's not the problem. So, the 10 commandments come to us and in essence, they say this.

Do this and live. This is serious stuff. Beloved, this is holy ground. This is something that we must not play around with. That we must seek to get right. If the speed limit says 75, I know you, I know you well enough to know this.

If the speed limit says 75, you don't mind driving 77. Why? No police officer, unless maybe they're just out of academy or whatever, but most police officers are, they're gonna, they're like, look, 77, not worth my time.

Go, just drive, right? You're not gonna get a ticket, you feel, for going two miles an hour over. But this is the same logic by which we approach the law of God. In other words, here's what you think.

Speed limit sign says 75, I'm gonna set the cruise at 77, I'll be okay.

No big deal.

This is how you think about the law of God. Or too many, I hope you don't think this way about the law of God. But you think, well, God says I should love Him with all my heart, so He'll be okay if I love Him with most of my heart.

And if God is okay that I love Him with most of my heart, He will be okay if I love Him with some of my heart. And if God is okay that I love Him with some of my heart, then surely He'll be okay as long as I just pretend to love Him and tell Him that I really want to love Him, even though by any definition of the word love, my actions demonstrate I don't actually love Him and my heart is far from Him.

And this is how too many approach the law of God. God is going to make a concession for me. He's going to allow me to drive 77 in a 75, which in reality, our breaking of the law is more like driving 700 in a 75, right?

So He is going to make, though, we think a concession for me because He understands my situation. In fact, entire false religions are based on this concept of God's law. Okay, I'm going to do something from the pulpit I don't think I've done in seven plus years of ministry here.

I am going to quote from the Book of Mormon. Now listen, there's an error here. False religion, but see if you can catch it. It's very, very subtle. See if you can catch it. 2 Nephi 25, 23 says this. You have to listen discernedly because a lot of it sounds right, but there's a fatal error.

It says, for we labor diligently to write, to persuade our children and also our brethren to believe in Christ and to be reconciled to God. For we know that it is by grace that we are saved. After all we can do.

We know that it is by grace that we are saved after all we can do. Now at first glance, you may say, well, that doesn't seem so bad. But that is a damning error. That error is the assumption that we are able to do anything toward God's holy and righteous standard.

If I say to you, do the very best that you can do and God will make up the rest, you are sunk. You have no hope in that because in and of yourself, there is not righteousness to bring before God and allow Him to make up the rest.

And this is what the law of God teaches us. Yeah, the law says to us, do this and live. But to all of us since the fall of Adam, we are left incapable and undesirous of this standard. The Jews in Paul's day and even Paul himself, before his conversion, claimed to have a righteousness under the law.

That is, as long as they tried their best, it was okay that they fell short of God's perfect standard. And then Paul was born again and then he understood that none is righteous, no, not one. There is no one who knows God, no one who understands in and of themselves.

That is, listen to me, there is no neutrality. You say, I know this person, I know they try hard, they try to be a good person. Listen, if a person rejects God and seeks to live a quote unquote righteous life, they're not neutral.

They're enemies of God. There's no such thing as neutrality. And Paul is speaking here of all humanity when he talks about no one understands. Now some may feign obedience, some may actually think that they're obedient to God's law, but what the majority of lost persons do, they don't understand, is that the law of God is not our friend.

It's not the lost person's friend. The law of God does not come to us as an ally or upon conciliatory conditions. Rather, the law of God, think of it this way, it's like a mirror. So picture a mirror in your mind.

And it's like a mirror that shows two images. So here's the law, and it's gonna show you two images. Image number one, it shows you, this is the standard. This is the standard of righteousness. Here's the law.

I see the standard of righteousness. Image two, it shows you, by virtue of showing you the standard, it shows you a picture of yourself. And it shows you, here's the standard, and here's where you're at, woefully inadequate, ugly, and broken.

You don't measure up. You can't measure up. You actually don't want to measure up. It shows you there is no neutrality. You prefer to go your own way. You sometimes employ Christian morals when it is convenient or advantageous, but then you're willing to abandon them at a whim.

Everyone will embrace some sort of standard of morality as long as it brings advantage to them. And so if your message, or your hope, or your thought process this morning is, I'm just gonna try my hardest and do my best, and God will do the rest, God will give me grace to make up the gap after all I do, then you have grossly misunderstood the role of the law and your failure in it.

This is why Paul says very seriously, Galatians 3 .10, for all who rely on the works of the law are under a curse.

This morning,.

If you are relying on the works of the law, this is what the Holy Spirit says to you. You are not under grace, you're under a curse. For it is written, cursed be everyone who does not abide by all things written in the book of the law and do them.

So when you hear the law of God, when you hear do this and live, the proper response ought to be a recognition that I can't do that. When Jesus says, keep the commandments and you'll enter life, you know what the rich young ruler should have done?

The rich young ruler should have done,.

Then I'm sunk,.

I'm lost,.

I'm undone,.

I can't do it.

Jesus says,.

Keep the commandments and you'll enter life. The rich young ruler has the audacity to be like,.

Okay, which ones?

And Jesus rattles off the second table of the law there.

To him and he's like,.

I've done that.

And then Jesus says,.

Okay, sell all you have and come follow me. To prove to the rich young ruler, he hadn't kept all the commandments, he hadn't even gotten past the first commandment, right? Which is you shall have no other gods before me.

And so, that's true of every person that approaches the law of God in this way. As though that they'll attempt to keep it, to find their way into God's favor. They don't even make it past commandment number one.

They worship the God of self or like the rich young ruler, the world and the flesh and possessions and notoriety and fame or whatever the case may be. You need to feel the weight of this this morning.

This is the righteous standard all mankind will be judged by. Listen closely. This is God's rule. Consider a moment how sad a condition a person is in apart from Christ. I'll just walk through these real quick.

Have you loved God perfectly? Now, just listen to this. You may have the audacity to say, oh, right now I love God perfectly. But consider, have you loved God perfectly every single moment of your life?

Has every decision that you have ever made always been about the glory of God? Is there anything in your life, at any point of your life that could be considered an idol? You're like, well, I don't have statues in my home or something.

Okay, but, well, some of you, sometimes we have statues, they just look different. Maybe it's a picture, maybe it's a trophy, maybe it's a television, right? And in essence, we worship those idols. Have you ever taken God's name in vain?

Whether that's, you know, I've never used it as a cuss word, well, maybe some of you have. But maybe you've used it flippantly. Or maybe you've not used it in calling upon His name when you should have.

Have you ever dishonored His Sabbath day? That is, did you honor the worship of God with the people of God and set aside perfectly one day in seven to refrain from everyday cares of life and rest in God?

How you doing? Hey, that's only four, we got six left. Did you perfectly obey your parents in every way and honor them in heart and thought and action? Okay, surely we'll make it through number six. Have you murdered anyone?

Well, Jesus says an application of that is not just physically, but have you had anger with anyone in your heart? Have you committed adultery? Again, not just physically, but have you lusted?

Have you stolen?

Number eight, have you cheated your employer? Maybe you told them you were at work at nine when really it was 9 .07. Or have you cheated your government maybe on your taxes? Or have you ever taken something that didn't belong to you?

Have you lied?

Have you told a half-truth? Have you fudged the numbers just a little? Have you twisted the events ever so slightly so that you come out looking a little better than how things actually happen? Have you coveted?

Have you ever in 119 degree weather complained about your situation? Your circumstance? Listen, what I'm telling us, friends, is that the law shows you that apart from Christ, you are far more wretched and deserving of hell than most people will admit.

But you say, no, no, no, preacher, no, no, listen to me. I don't have to worry about these commandments because Jesus says I'm just supposed to love God with all my heart, soul, mind, and strength and love my neighbor as myself.

Okay, is that true? Yes, that's true. Jesus says that. He says that these are the summation of the moral law of God. That is, so breaking any of the commandments of God is a failure to love God with everything and to love our neighbor as ourself.

Let me give you an illustration. Let me give you the illustration of marriage. This is a horrible illustration, but I wanted to set it in so you can wrap your mind around it. You say, oh, I'm unfaithful to my spouse.

Oh, yes, yes, yes, I'm unfaithful to my spouse, but I love my spouse with all my heart, soul, mind, and strength, I love them so, so much. But yeah, tomorrow I'll be out there with someone else. How absurd would you say a person is who lives that way?

How wicked would you say a person is who lives that way? You say, you don't understand law. You have no commitment or love for your spouse. You are self-centered, and you are wretched. Friends, then why do we believe that we can live outside of God's righteous rule while telling others, oh, but God knows my heart?

This is what you hear. We hear this in evangelism. We hear it right here. This isn't something you hear in New York or LA.

I mean, maybe it is.

This is something you hear in Central Arkansas. This is something you hear in Little Rock and Perryville and Conway and Russellville and Marlton and all these areas. Oh, oh, oh, leave me alone. God knows my heart.

Well, listen, friend, I'm gonna tell you, if your repeated actions are unfaithfulness to your spouse, I know that your heart in all honesty is far from him or her. Similarly, if your repeated actions are breaking the law of God, then I know that your heart is far from him.

And so then James reminds us in James 2 .10, for whoever keeps the whole law but fails in one point,.

How many points?

One point, has become guilty of all of it. That is, the law stands above all humanity and demands a perfect love for God with heart, soul, mind, and strength and love your neighbor like yourself. And he who fails this demand in the slightest is guilty of it all and worthy of an eternal existence in the lake of fire being punished righteously by God for all eternity.

God is holy and he's deserving of perfection. And one of the questions you have to ask yourself this morning is this, where do you stand? But the law of God cannot justify us. Outside of Christ, it only brings condemnation.

When you hear, do this in live, you must respond properly. You must, without hesitation, not take up the challenge. Like, oh, this is a challenge.

I'll just do these things.

No, no, no, you must flee to the Lord Jesus Christ.

As your refuge.

You must look in the mirror of the law and see your dreadfulness and your shortcomings. And then you must not look to self. You don't look to me. Don't look to anyone else or anything outside of yourself.

Don't look to any other way of escape. Look to Christ.

Look to Jesus.

Cornelius Van Til says it this way, the very content of the gospel is that Christ has fulfilled the law. Jesus has completed the covenant of works where Adam failed, where Israel failed,.

Where you and I have failed.

Jesus succeeded and all our hope is in Jesus. It's not in law keeping. It's in what Christ has done. He has fulfilled all righteousness and secured a righteousness ready to be imputed to those who lay hold of the gospel by faith.

He's completed the law. And he has died the penalty due to lawbreakers. And he has risen again. Again, someone writes you a big check, a $500 ,000 check. You take that check to the bank. It's not in your account until what?

Until it clears, right? I can write you a $500 ,000 check. Go cash it if you want. It ain't clearing, right? Jesus' resurrection clears the check. He wrote it on Calvary. He rose again to prove that what occurred on the cross was applicable and sufficient.

So what I'm saying to us in this point is to those who see their sin and their shame and their shortcomings, to those who understand they've fallen woefully short, who see their transgressions of the law, their iniquities, their rebellion, to those who know they're separated from God, Jesus stands, I'm saying, ready to forgive you.

You must repent and believe the gospel. Do not try your best and hope that God will do the rest because your best, the Bible says, is filthy rags. You must turn from your best and turn from your worst and turn from everything in between and repent from your sins and turn to Christ.

And see Him alone, Jesus alone,.

As your only suitable and all-sufficient Savior. You have no hope in the law for your salvation. It's only Christ.

Will you believe?

The Law Written on the Christian Heart

Now, we have to deal with the second part of the sermon. If you understand this, if you believe, then you need to understand how the law functions in the life of the Christian, and now we turn to that.

Number two, the law and the Christian. So the law and condemnation, now the law and the Christian. So back to our text, honor Paul. So Paul brings this to bear on the church. So now he says to the church, honor, specifically to the children in the church, honor your father and mother.

This is the first commandment with the promise that it may go well with you and that you may live long in the land. In Romans 6 .14, Paul says that we're not under law, but grace, but now in our text, he uses the law in order to understand and instruct the behavior of the church.

Okay, so what I'm saying is, which is it, Paul? Paul, are you just writing one thing to Romans and another thing to the Ephesians, right? So to the Romans, you say, we're not under law, we're under grace.

But now to the Ephesians, you command them in the law.

Which is it, Paul?

The answer, of course, is it's both. First, we're not under the law, that's true. We're not under the law. If we are born again, when we look into the mirror of God's law, we no longer see two pictures.

We no longer see what the standard is and what our failure is. Rather, in essence, we just see Christ now. The law does not stand over you any longer to condemn you if you're born again, if your faith is in Christ.

There is now no more condemnation.

Because why?

We are now in Christ because of the gospel. Sin still brings consequences. Sin still has effects on our life and the lives of those around us. But the power of the law to condemn us has been broken, not because God did away with it, but because Christ has fulfilled it.

And by grace through faith, we are credited, we are imputed, that's the big word, with the righteousness of Christ. But secondly, the law now functions for the believer in the words of Richard Phillips as a fitting guide for living our lives.

So in Ezekiel 36, we're promised that if you are regenerate, if you are born again by the power of the Holy Spirit, God does something with the law. He writes it on your heart. Under the old covenant, the law was written on these tablets of stone.

You could look at those tablets of stone, but there was nothing that you could do to get those tablets of stone into the core of your being. There was no way for you to desire those commandments. There was no way for you to truly obey them or truly live by them.

But in the new covenant, the law of God is not on tablets of stone. Rather, it's written on our hearts.