Covenant Faithfulness - 2

Good morning to each of you and may the Lord bless you for being out here today the Lord desires us to come together and Worship him and so it's always a blessing to worship the Lord together with you if you have your bulletin.

It's been a blessing to be in the adult or Bible School or Sunday school each Sunday morning at 930. We went through Psalm 30 this morning a real blessing and next Sunday will be Psalm 31 Lord willing and We also remember tonight at 6 we have our prayer time together.

It's always a blessed time to come together and this coming Saturday ladies women's Bible study is at 10 in the morning and You'll be going through First Kings 11 and Barb gave you only 40 questions to answer, right?

She was gonna split it up and so she had two lessons then she says I'm gonna do them on one Sunday well, so first Kings 11 if you have those questions to go over. I know the ladies say it's a blessing to them and men's Bible study is Next Saturday at 330 and we went through Genesis chapter 9 and So we'll be going through Genesis chapter 10 Lord willing this coming Saturday.

So you got a chance to read it through and maybe pastor says, okay you teach it, right? So it's always good to be prepared right and It's a blessing to come together with you and also remember the in your bulletin put on your calendar that we have a family get together at the Huffman's home on just following the morning service at May 22nd, so make sure you put that on your calendar.

It's always a blessed time when we get together. Christians don't know how to get along unless we're eating together, right? So we need to get to eating together and learning and Getting acquainted with each other and it's a real we've been at their home before and it's a blessed time and so put that on your calendar and Remember that the address is there in the bulletin so Write that on your calendar so you don't forget it following this service On May the 22nd and unless there's any other announcements, we'll open with a word of prayer.

Thank you. Heavenly Father for your many blessings that you shower on us daily. We thank you heavenly father that you have provided a way of salvation that we might have fellowship with you and Fellowship with one another we thank you that you've placed us in Christ and that we can have righteousness Placed upon us because we have your righteousness on us.

You clothe us Lord with your righteousness and we thank you for that we would pray if there's any here today that are Have a need or have our troubled we pray the Lord that your Holy Spirit might speak to them Through your word through the songs that we sing.

We would pray that today might be a blessing to each one of us. Draw us closer to yourself. We know that even as we've studied in Sunday school There are times that we just feel that our prayers are bouncing off the roof and we don't have the relationship with you that we ought and yet you're there all the time and We would pray heavenly father that you would speak to us that each one of us might know that you love us dearly Lord and We thank you for that.

Pray that you would be with pastor Ilgen as he brings your word today. We pray that your Holy Spirit would speak through him and give him liberty to deliver the things you've laid on his heart. Speak to each one of our hearts Lord through your word and we'll thank you and pray in Jesus name.

Amen.

And happiness is to know the Lord.

Christ Fulfills the Law and Exceeds the Righteousness of the Pharisees

Today's scripture reading is going to be in Matthew chapter 5 verses 17 through 20. Do not think that I have come to abolish the law or the prophets. I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them.

For truly I say to you until heaven and earth pass away not and Ida Not a dot will pass from the law until all is accomplished. Therefore whoever relaxes one of these Least of these commandments and teaches others to do the same will be called least in the kingdom of heaven.

But whoever does them and teaches them will be called great in the kingdom of heaven. For I tell you unless you your righteousness exceeds that of the Scribes and the Pharisees You will never enter the kingdom of heaven.

This is the word of the Lord.

Jesus is the way the truth and the life. And let's stand and sing.

Please be seated at this time. Children are dismissed. The children's church as pastor Iljin comes.

The Fifth Commandment and Covenant Care for Parents

Please turn with me to Exodus chapter 20. Exodus chapter 20 verses 12 through 17. Honor your father and your mother that your days may be long upon the land which the Lord your God is giving you. You shall not murder.

You shall not commit adultery. You shall not steal. You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor. You shall not covet your neighbor's house. You shall not covet your neighbor's wife nor his male servant nor his female servant nor his ox nor his donkey.

Nor anything that is your neighbors. This is the word of the Lord. Let us pray. Father we are Thankful that we can gather as your people. And Father we're thankful that you have Clarified and revealed to us what it means for your people to live.

What it looks like for us to obey you. And thank you that we can only obey you because you have purchased us From our sin. That we're no longer enslaved to sin, but we're enslaved to Christ. That we're free in Christ.

Thank you so much that you are so good to us. Thank you for the freedom that we have in Christ and father. We pray that you would use your spirit to speak to our hearts to learn your law to delight in it to treasure it.

Jesus name this is the second part of the Ten Commandments. The Ten Commandments is divided into two sections the first four commandments deal with our relationship with the Lord and. The last six deal with our relationship with each other.

However, it is important to know that both are heavily intertwined and we will see that when we break. Any of the commandments that we read today? Six through the tenth. We the fifth through the tenth we are effectively sinning against the Lord and.

When we.

Idolize.

Another God another person. Or our successes by breaking the first first section of the Ten Commandments.

Our.

Relationship with our other people will be negatively impacted now as Christians. We have a different relationship with the Ten Commandments and as Hezekiah read this morning It's not that in Christ that the Ten Commandments are irrelevant to us, but rather We have a different relationship with the Ten Commandments.

First and foremost the Ten Commandments. For the Jews they were written on the tablets. They were on the outside. There they could be viewed they could be touched however under the new covenant which Christ Inaugurates for us through his death on the cross.

The laws are actually written inside us. That's why when we read the Sermon on the Mount Jesus actually goes through various commandments from the Ten Commandments and he starts with this you have heard it said and He will list the Ten Commandments one of the Ten Commandments and then he says but I say to you This is because in Christ as Christians as his disciples.

We obey the Ten Commandments. That is fulfilled in Christ. It's more than what the words on the tablets say. But it actually works in our hearts, too. And that makes sense with the reality of the new covenant.

The new covenant is when the law of God is written in our hearts. It starts from inside. It's when the desire to obey is put in us when we're made new creation in Christ. So we're not going to read the Ten Commandments just strictly on what you're not doing but rather we're gonna go deeply into the Ten Commandments of What does that mean?

Starting from our heart. We're going to obey the Ten Commandments as Jesus fulfilled it as he accomplished the Ten Commandments as It was anticipated from long ago after all the laws and the prophets point to Christ and We have to be really careful to not be fixated on what the law said without Christ.

But we have to read the law in Christ with the reality of being sons and daughters bought by Christ's blood. Right. We have to actually read the law as how it points to Christ. And our failure to do that would be to stop Ten miles away from Disneyland at the sign that says Disneyland ten miles away and be just fixated on the sign.

We're missing out on the entering the real place that the sign points to so the main point of This text today is that God's covenant people reflect who he is. God's covenant people reflect who he is first point.

Honoring Parents as a Reflection of God's Care for the Vulnerable

God's covenant people must take care of their parents as the Lord will take care of them. God's covenant people must take care of their parents as the Lord will take care of them. While the first four commandments dealt with Israel's relationship with the Lord, the fifth commandment introduces Israel's relationship with each other.

The first four dealt with the vertical relationship with God. The last six deal with the horizontal relationship with each other. And it starts with our relationship with our family. Honor your father and your mother that your days may be long upon the land which the Lord your God is giving you.

Honoring your father and mother would mean to treat them with respect that they deserve as they are parents. In the ancient world, the government did not take care of the elderly. The aging population were some of the most vulnerable and defenseless population.

After all, when you grow older, you're not able to work as you used to. Some, you might not be able to work at all. Not only that, you're weaker than you used to be, so you can't defend yourself. The Lord, however, in His mercy and grace, makes it a covenant commitment for the young to take care of their parents.

Now, how serious was this commandment? If you break this, you would be breaking the covenant relationship with the Lord. Breaking the covenant led to death. For Israel, family was the bedrock of society.

And that is how God intended His people to live. Family first. Now, even though this commandment directly speaks of their relationship with their parents, this commandment has an impact on Israel's relationship with the Lord.

This commandment is the first commandment with a promise. A promise of providence. If Israel honors their parents, their days may be long in the land which the Lord your God is giving them. The Lord's providence and protection of His people are tied up in the land.

For the Israelites, the land represented God's providence. The land represented God's promise. The land represented God's protection. What it's saying is, the Lord's providence and protection of His people depended upon their respect and honor toward their aging parents.

As the youngsters took care of their aging parents, the Lord would take care of His people in the promised land. Now, what does that tell us about the Lord? Well, it tells us the Lord protects the most vulnerable of society.

The Lord finds value in the aging population despite their inability to work. Their value is not found in how much they harvest, but who they are. The Lord found the aging population worthy because they reflected His image.

The Lord found them valuable not because of what they contributed to society, but because they were made in His very image. Their worth had nothing to do with how fruitful they were or are, or how useful they are to society.

Their worth was tied to only one thing, their relationship to their Creator as people made in the image of God. And this is an important lesson for us today. Because as society is becoming more secular, they detach one's worth from their identity, but they attach one's worth with their function.

What I do, my job, what my accomplishments are, what I'm capable of. And that's why horrible sins like euthanasia and abortion are common. Because for the people who are most defenseless and most vulnerable cannot fight for their rights.

And when a secular society views their worthiness and their functions and their ability to defend themselves, that's a big trouble. But this God found the aging population of Israel worthy of protection and providence.

And anything less than that would have been breaking the covenant. That's what kind of God we serve. And that's why when Jerusalem, later on, as they have become an established nation, when they commit a national apostasy, a national breaking away from the Lord, the breaking of this covenant would be specifically pronounced against them by the prophet Ezekiel in Ezekiel 22 .7.

In Jerusalem, they have treated father and mother with contempt. In you, they have oppressed the foreigner and mistreated the fatherless and the widow. Before the Lord, oppressing society's most vulnerable is a covenant-breaking atrocity.

The cries of the defenseless will not go unnoticed by the Lord. He is the defender of the weak and the protector of the forgotten. And when God's people take care of the weak and defenseless, they are reflecting what kind of deity they worship.

The fifth commandment is relevant to us this morning because the structure of family is constantly under attack. First, our culture seeks to reverse the family order. It is no longer children honoring the parents, but children disobeying their parents to follow their hearts.

Consider some of the cartoon heroes. They justify disobeying their parents in order to pursue some other quote-unquote greater cause. And this is why it is important for the children to be careful what they are putting in their minds.

It is not just the overly inappropriate materials that the children need to avoid, but also the subtly subversive suggestions that your parents are not trustworthy. Those things in the minds will create poor behavior, dishonoring of their parents, or any shows or entertainment that portray parents as fools, as ones that cannot be honored, cannot be respected, any media that show that the parents are incapable of parenting.

And be on guard as to what goes in your mind. Whether song lyrics, movies, or shows, do not assume their innocence. Think critically about what you are mentally consuming. Your mental diet produces real tangible fruit, and that's not a good sign for the family.

And parents, protect your children from these things. Do not be driven by the fear of the negative opinion of your children. Their goal is not to worship you. Their goal is to worship God. And the moment they fail to honor you as their parents, they fail to worship God as the Lord.

And this is why you have to put the rails up. I know the children will say, but these parents let them. These parents let them watch this movie. These parents let them play this game. These parents let them have social media.

Fight the urge to be accepted and approved by your own children. You have to set up the boundaries. You cannot let the kids do anything they want. And that also means you have to fight for them spiritually.

You have to not only pray for your children and their spiritual health, but also pray with them. Raise them up as men and women of God. After all, their primary identity is children of God, if they're saved.

Or people made in the image of God. Their identity is first and foremost connected to who they are in the Lord. Their first identity is not your daughter, not your son. Hopefully their identity will be future disciples of Jesus Christ.

And that's what you're stewarded to raise up. How will I answer Jesus on the last day when they ask of my daughter and son? How have you taken care of my children? They're his children first. And what that means is discipleship is crucial in the family setting.

Discipleship starts in the family. For all the children, mothers and fathers are the first disciple makers. And that is a noble calling. No one else has that much influence on your kids. And this means have family devotional, not out of obligation, but out of delight.

After all, they will not be living under your roof forever. They will be gone. Cherish those moments. They're not the obstacles to your favorite hobby. The devotional is the goal of the family. That's what you long for after your job.

That's what you long for after your dinner. And your children must see their mom pursuing her time with the Lord, protecting it in prayer and scripture. And your children must see their dad praying for the family and fighting against any false teaching that are rampant in the media, social media, movies, shows, not laughing with it.

And for the rest of you who are not parents, you have a role too. We must continue to pray for the children because we understand that there's a constant spiritual battle for the minds of our children in the church.

The church is absolutely crucial in raising up the next generation. The church's job is not only to keep the family unit, but to protect it, to nurture it, to produce godly men and women that the world is not used to.

If you see children, teenagers, treat them to lunch. Ask them how they're doing with Jesus. Offer to disciple them. The church matters in discipleship. It's both hand. Parents and church come together as partners.

The Sixth through Ninth Commandments and Love of Neighbor

Second, God's covenant people must consider others more significant than themselves. God's covenant people must consider others as more significant than themselves. The next four commandments follow the same format.

They are all prohibitions. Not only that, they are all prohibitions to protect the other people from you. This means the following four commandments cannot be broken if we actually view other people more significant than ourselves.

It would not be possible to murder someone if you view them more significant than your desires, your needs, your reputation, your goals. It would be impossible to steal from someone if you viewed them more significant than yourselves.

It's their stuff.

The reason why we steal comes from the idea that I deserve that. That's what I want. So first, the sixth commandment shows that we must not take another person's life. You shall not murder. Now what does murder mean?

In the Bible, the word for murder is never used for God or His angels taking away lives of human beings in judgment. When God or His angels punish a wicked nation or a person, it is not murder. It is judgment carried out justly.

And that works for with the government figures as well. If they punish evildoers, that's not murder. They're doing what they're called to do. They're keeping justice and peace. In fact, for God to never punish the unjust would be the most horrendous injustice of all.

The world would be inhabitable and unbearable for the wicked to never die. That would be crazy if Hitler kept doing what he was doing. That God did not stop him. And that would be crazy if God did not stop more people like Hitler from gaining more power.

The world just wouldn't exist. Next, the Old Testament also makes a distinction between a murder, an intentional killing, and manslaughter. An accidental killing or self-defense killing. Also, this term is also not used in battles or wars.

When people die in battles and wars, it's different from intentional killing of another human being. The term murder is used for an individual intentionally taking away another person's life. Another person who's made in the image of God.

It's to defile the image of God. To defile an image that is not yours to defile. It is to become God yourself. It is to make yourself the judge over this person and carry out the punishment. And that is God's job, not an individual's job.

To phrase it positively, God's people must value another human being as God does. No exception. God's people must honor the life of his neighbor, both born and unborn. This means if we view another human with honor that he or she is due because they're made in the image of God, no one would ever commit murder.

No one would ever be murdered. In fact, that is how Jesus taught his disciples to follow the sixth commandment as it is fulfilled in him. Matthew 5 .21, You have heard that it was said to those of old, You shall not murder, and whoever murders will be liable to judgment.

But I say to you that everyone who is angry with his brother will be liable to judgment. Whoever insults his brother will be liable to the council. And whoever says you fool will be liable to the hell of fire.

For Christians, we must follow the sixth commandment starting with our hearts. Because the law is written in our hearts under the new covenant. Every murder happens because the murderer views the victim too lowly and views himself too highly.

And this is why Jesus tells his disciples that even insulting another human being is a precursor to committing murder. In the end, it starts from the heart. Before any murder case, the victim has to be dehumanized.

The victim has to be seen as not worthy to live. That's how it happens every time. And then the murderer views himself or herself greater than the victim. That they have the innate right to take away another being's life.

And consider all the murder cases that occurred. The murderers can justify why they killed people. Why do they always, not always, but many times, say they're not guilty? Because they can justify it. They've become the judge.

In my mind, that seemed right. The Nazis, they dehumanized the Jews, homosexuals, disabled, and other ethnic minorities before killing them in droves. They had to dehumanize them first or it would not have been possible.

Our nation had to redefine human being and personhood in order to murder innocent babies inside the womb. This is because murder cannot happen if you view every human being with honor of reflecting God's image.

Not evaluating their worth by what they cannot do or missing biological functions. But by seeing them for who they are. Every human is worthy to live because he or she is made in the image of God. That's how we obey the sixth commandment.

Second, the seventh commandment protects the marriage covenant. You shall not commit adultery. Adultery is any sexual immorality committed with someone other than one's spouse. Adultery betrays the spouse and severs the covenant bond of marriage.

And adultery is a direct offense against God. Because our marriage covenant is supposed to reflect God's covenant with His people. God's covenant relationship with His people is selfless, other-focused, and self-giving.

He rescues His people when He does not have to. He makes a lasting relationship with His people when they did not earn it. He gives Himself to us when we did not deserve Him. That's what marriage is supposed to look like.

Consequently, when God's people commit adultery, they misrepresent God and His relationship with us. God's name is defiled when Christians commit adultery. This is why many prophets describe Israel's idolatry as adultery.

God's people slept around with other deities. Committing adultery is to put one's self-entitled desire before the other person's need, before the other person's being. It is to nourish that sinful heart that cries out, I deserve better than this.

It is self-focused, self-entitled. It is a betrayal of the highest degree. It has no regard for the relationship nor the spouse. It has no regard for the covenantal vow made on the wedding day to stay together until death do us apart.

And it has no regard for God. And this is why adultery hurts more than loss of a spouse. It's a covenant-breaking sin. And just like any covenant-breaking, death was the appropriate response. And that's what Israel's law did.

They did not let adulterers live. And that's why adultery's hurt that much, sometimes more than death itself. For Christians, it is not just about abstaining from physical adultery, but also adultery that starts in the mind as well.

And Jesus proclaims this in Matthew 5, 27 through 28. You have heard that it was said in those of old, you shall not commit adultery. But I say to you, whoever looks at a woman to lust for her has already committed adultery with her in his heart.

Adultery must be stopped at its root. The mind must not even linger on the desire for another person. Adultery must be stopped before you click on the inappropriate website. Adultery must be rooted out inside the heart.

Adultery must be stopped before you hurt the one whom you have been stewarded to take care of. And it's a high calling, a purity for Christians. It's not just a physical inaction, it's the heart decision.

Third, you shall not steal. This is a commandment to honor the other person's private property. In ancient Israel, stealing was even more detrimental because they did not own as much as we do. If an outer garment got stolen, it means a person could freeze to death that night.

After all, they did not have an advanced heating system or multiple winter coats. If livestock was stolen, it meant a person lost his main source of income. Basically, his job got taken away. And if a child got kidnapped, this could ruin a family lineage for good.

Unlike our times, it was much harder to replace the stolen goods. There weren't credit card companies that would freeze all your assets within minutes. It was detrimental. The commandment here established the fact that God's people must not only respect the other person, but also respect their property.

Respecting the other person also means to respect what they own, what they live off of. Again, if we regard our neighbor's well-being more significant than ours, we would not take away anything that would jeopardize that.

Thieves steal because they get hungry. But what if they considered the other person's well-being more significant than themselves? Then they would not steal. They put the other person ahead of themselves.

They consider the other person's need above their needs. That's what this commandment teaches us. Then the ninth commandment emphasizes that the truth about our neighbor must be also honored. You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.

It is not just the well-being physically. It is not just the material good, but it is also the truth that needs to be honored. And in ancient Israel, a person's reputation was much more important than now.

If a person was seen as an adulterer, he would face death. If a person was seen as unfaithful to the Lord, he would face death. Hence, correct witness about a person could mean life or death. Not only that, among God's people, it showed that truth mattered.

This is because Israel worshiped the God of truth. God who does not operate in lies. God who only tells and does what is true. And God who is trustworthy in all that He does and in all that He is. These commandments show what kind of people Israel must be.

They focus on the other person. They view other human beings as worthy and valuable. And God's law protects and honors the lives and the reputation of all the people who live among the land. Israel was meant to be just and compassionate nation that shined brightly.

So that the surrounding pagan nations would come and learn from them. Second, these commandments show what kind of deity Israel worships. Unlike the pagan gods who delighted in baby sacrifices, the Lord would have none of it.

Because He values the sanctity of life. To the Lord, life of a human being mattered. From womb to the tomb. In Christ, we see how much He valued human life when we consider what He gave to redeem it. He died to save humans.

He did not die for the angels. He died to save human beings. Because they're worthy image bearers of God. Unlike the pagan gods, the Lord is faithful. He will not betray His people because they're weak.

He remained faithful to His people despite their faithlessness. He is the faithful bridegroom who pursued His adulterous bride to the uttermost. He is the covenantal bridegroom who died for the sin of His wandering wife so that she may be washed clean in His blood.

That's what kind of deity Israel worshipped. And unlike the pagan gods, the Lord cares about the truth. It was not the influence, power, or favor that impacted the court's decision, but the truth of the matter.

In Israel, a poor, powerless man could find justice, although he may not be able to afford it elsewhere. That is what kind of God Israel worshipped. And this is the same God we worship because Christ redeemed us for Himself.

Contentment, Covetousness, and the Heart of the Tenth Commandment

Third, God's covenant people must be content with what the Lord has provided. God's covenant people must be content with what the Lord has provided. Unlike the previous commandments, the last commandment directly deals with the matter of the heart, the internal.

You shall not covet your neighbor's house, you shall not covet your neighbor's wife, nor his male servant, nor his female servant, nor his ox, nor his donkey, nor anything that is your neighbor's. This shows that ultimately God's intention for His people was not that they would look squeaky clean on the outside, but disgusting inside like hypocrites.

Rather, God wanted His people to reflect His holiness and goodness from inside and out. And the 10th commandment provides a way for just that. We are not to covet what does not belong to us. We are not to passionately desire what God has not given us.

At the core of covetousness is self-entitlement. There is a strong sense that you deserve what you don't have. And what must we not covet? The list here is comprehensive. House, wife, servants, livestock, anything else that your neighbor owns.

It spans from everything you own, any material goods, to any relational goods. Everything. Positively, God's people ought to be satisfied in what God has already provided for them. God's people ought to be completely content in God.

And ultimately, to covet something or someone who does not belong to you is to believe that God made a mistake. It is to tell God that you could have done better. You deserve something, yet God failed to realize it.

Covetousness, in the end, is self-idolatry. It devalues God and His providence, and it deifies your desires and your will above God. The Ten Commandments ultimately are intertwined. The Tenth Commandment echoes the First Commandment.

You shall have no other God beside me. And this is why the Apostle Paul labeled covetousness as idolatry in Colossians 3, 5. To be fueled by covetousness is to believe in another god than the Lord. The Ten Commandments start with the prohibition of idolatry at the vertical level and ends with prohibition of idolatry using the horizontal level.

And as mentioned before, these commandments are heavily interlinked. They're connected. How do we fight against covetousness? When your heart starts to covet, you must cut it off at the root with Scripture, the sword of God.

For example, that is the house that I deserve. This is the woman I should have married. This is the job I should have right now. But when these wicked thoughts, these idolatrous thoughts pop into your mind, you must saturate on Scripture that speaks against self-entitlement and pride.

Read it out loud multiple times until the covetous desire is gone. I give you one example, James 4, 6. This means God marshals His armies against the proud. It's you against the army of the heavens. Yet, He graciously gives to the humble.

Which side would you rather be in? That's what's happening when you're coveting. You're going to go against the Lord. Good luck. Second, we must think about the true image of humility. We must actually seek the true God.

Jesus, who is equal to God, yet did not count equality with God something to be grasped, something to hold on to, something to use. But He humbled Himself on the cross. He was humiliated on the cross for your sake.

When we consider the humility of Christ, our covetousness, our self-entitlement looks rather foolish. How can a people who worship such God remain self-entitled? How can a people who have been purchased by His precious blood, such a high cost, desire anything else, covet anything else?

What more can God give you to satisfy that hungering heart if not Christ alone? Let us pray. Father, we are thankful that the law shows what kind of God we worship. We thank You that we obey the law from the inside and out because Christ has purchased us with His blood from our sin.

So that we're made new, not just on the outside, but inside as well. Father, we pray that You would give us the ability and desire to continue to live in obedience of You because You have been so gracious to us.

In Jesus' name, Amen.

Let's stand for our closing song. We are now dismissed.