Trinity 13

Jesse Jacobsen

Typeset
Last Modified: "Sat Aug 20 10:51:10 2005"

Leviticus 18:1–5

Then the LORD spoke to Moses, saying, “Speak to the children of Israel, and say to them: `I am the LORD your God. According to the doings of the land of Egypt, where you dwelt, you shall not do; and according to the doings of the land of Canaan, where I am bringing you, you shall not do; nor shall you walk in their ordinances. You shall observe My judgments and keep My ordinances, to walk in them: I am the LORD your God. You shall therefore keep My statutes and My judgments, which if a man does, he shall live by them: I am the LORD.”

Real Truth is the Way of Life

To keep the First Commandment it is necessary to believe in Jesus as the Son of God. The First Commandment says, “You shall have no other gods.” So if anyone believes in a god who is not Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, then he breaks the First Commandment.

To know God rightly is to be a Christian. If anyone thinks he knows God, but does not believe that Jesus Christ is what He claimed, then that person is deceived. What I say sounds arrogant, doesn't it? It sounds like I'm saying that all religions not strictly Christian in the biblical sense are both wrong and sinful. In fact, that's exactly what I am saying, but Jesus said it before me. Yes, it seemed arrogant. Many were offended. They crucified Him. I can expect little better, because the world is still full of people who break the First Commandment.

God calls us, “You who were dead in trespasses and sins.” Do you think He's serious? Or do you think it was just a figure of speech? No, He means “dead.” Dead men don't do anything. The heart, the lungs, the brain all stop working. They give no response. The ears do not hear, and the eyes do not see. Spiritually speaking, that is exactly what fallen mankind is like. We have no spiritual powers. We cannot know God rightly. So how are there any Christians? Only through a miracle. God was in the middle of such a miracle in our text. He was showing the way of Life to the children of Israel. He was waking them from spiritual death and giving them Truth, and guarding them from the falsehood and lies of their neighboring peoples. Three times here, He said, “I am the LORD.”

Do you see the similarity to Jesus' message, 1500 years later? They are both equally demanding, arrogant, and intolerant of opposing viewpoints. They both claim the one-and-only Truth, the one-and-only way of Life. They are the same message. It may bother, inconvenience, or offend us at times. Sometimes we might want to change it. But this is real truth, and there is no other way of Life. So let's learn the lesson alongside the Israelites and the disciples of Jesus. Real truth is the way of life. The dead no not know it. The living live by it.

The dead no not know it.

Our first main part this morning is this: the dead do not know the real truth, the Way of Life. Let me illustrate just what I mean. We usually hope that Christian preaching will be well-received, but if it ever happens, that's a miracle. Imagine the best preacher in the world. He's dressed in a white alb, symbolizing the fact that he is washed clean of his own faults, and will speak the pure gospel that doesn't come from himself, but from Christ. He wears a stole, showing that he is in the office Jesus established to feed His lambs. He ascends the pulpit and turns to face the crowd. With a brief prayer, he reads the living words from the holy scriptures, and proceeds to convict the heart of every sinner in the world, but then points to the One who grants release, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. It's enough to humble the greatest emperor, and to lift the chin of the lowliest slave. If we could hear that sermon, we would weep for shame, and cry for joy. But the crowd before him is unmoved. Not a breath stirs among them, for you see, they are all dead. His sermon was preached in a graveyard, and those gathered before him are buried under the earth. Only their names are visible, engraved onto cold stone.

The dead do not know the truth, and neither can they receive it. Spiritually speaking, all of fallen mankind begins in death. Into death we are born, and in death we remain, powerless to help ourselves or to help each other. We may hear the Gospel of Christ, but we have as little power to respond as a dead body lying in a coffin.

This deplorable condition has spawned countless religions in the world, before Christ and after. Many — perhaps most of them have tiny shreds of truth that have been blended together with falsehood. But they are religions of death, and their disciples teach doctrines of death, no matter how attractive they may be.

The Israelites were attracted to the religion of the Egyptians, even after God delivered them with many signs of His power. Now, you might correct me by quoting our text, “According to the doings of the land of Egypt, where you dwelt, you shall not do.” You might think that “doings” are not the same thing as religion. Religion is a matter of the heart. God was warning them against practices, not doctrines; style, not substance. That's wrong. “Doings” includes the whole package: doctrine and practice. They always go together. The Israelites were warned. We do well to heed their warning.

Israel was also attracted to the religion of the Canaanites. Building altars to Baal, Asherah, Chemosh and Molech on the hilltops might have seemed a good way to for an Israelite to hedge his bets. But the real truth is that there is only one true God. The others are demons, and their worship is an abomination.

God had to warn the Israelites against these things because even they were born into spiritual death. Us too. The only hope for them and for us is in a miracle. The God who created living things in the Beginning can still take what is dead and bring it to life by the power of His Spirit. Without that, we would remain dead.

So what does God really want from us? It hasn't changed from the Beginning. He wants perfect obedience. He said, “You shall observe My judgments and keep My ordinances, to walk in them: I am the LORD your God.” Of course, all who are spiritually dead can't begin to do this. They can't even desire it properly. Yet God's commandments promise life. He said, “You shall therefore keep My statutes and My judgments, which if a man does, he shall live by them: I am the LORD.”

It's a catch-22. We can't keep the commandments by nature, because we are dead. But we can't become alive, because we don't keep the commandments. Real truth is the way of life, but the dead do not know it.

The living live by it.

So why did God bother to tell us these things? Why even try, since the dead would never listen? Some say that the answer He gives is too easy. It's the hidden treasure that God did not want mingled with the doings of the Egyptians or the Canaanites. The answer is that God provides life to Israel and to you and me, not on the basis of our obedience, but as a pure, free gift. You might call it the higher truth that God revealed to Israel, though it was hidden behind the mask of His Law. But now He has brought into the open with the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.

To be sure, the commandments of God are good, true, and right. They truly give life to all who keep them. But who keeps them? Nobody. At least, nobody except the one perfect Man, the Son of God born of the Virgin Mary. He kept them. And by His obedience, everyone in the world is called righteous through faith in Him. He kept the commandments, but died anyway. He died for the guilt of Israel, Egypt, Canaan, and for us. But the life He earned by His obedience, He now gives away to those who were dead. The answer is not really too easy. It only seems so because Jesus does everything, and we have it all as a gift.

This bothers some people, because they think it foolish that God would rather sacrifice His own Son than lower His standards of perfection. If He wanted to save us all that badly, then why not just change the rules and give us life without all the fuss? I'll tell you why. Because of who and what He really is. You heard it in our text. He said to Moses, “Speak to the children of Israel, and say to them: `I am the LORD your God.' ” He does not change. His rules do not change. If He did change, He would not be God, but an evil tyrant, a devil. If He could accept any less than perfection, then what kind of god would He be?.

But He accepts no less than perfection, and He has received no less. When God's Son shed His holy blood on the cross, the payment was made. When He rose from the dead, the exchange was complete. Through Jesus, God has received perfect obedience from us, and we have received eternal life. God remains God, and we are saved by His grace alone, through faith alone. You can see why those who think the Gospel is too easy are mistaken. It was not easy at all. It was horrible, worse than we can imagine, but all accomplished by God's Son. There is nothing left for us to do — nothing.

Real truth is the way of Life. The living live by it. You can see why God so sternly commanded Israel to guard and keep His Truth in their day. When the truth becomes mixed — even a little — with doctrines like those from Egypt or Canaan, then it is no longer the real truth. It no longer gives life.

If you are an unbeliever, dead in sin, and I tell you to prepare your heart for faith in Christ, I'm sending you on mission impossible. The dead can't prepare anything. If I tell you that Jesus has done everything for you, and all you must do is say “yes” to it, then I'm telling you to trust in your own natural strength for salvation, and it can only fail. The dead can't even say “yes.” Nothing depends upon you, nothing! That's why faith remains faith, and grace remains grace.

I tell you and the whole world that Jesus has died for your sins and that God has justified you for His sake. It's done. He remains a God that we can trust, and you have been received into His mercy. All your sins are gone. The guilt of your doubts is washed away. You now have the life of Christ Himself, and it can't be taken away from you. Heaven is open, and your true home there has been prepared. Remain in that truth. Don't compromise it or forget it. Don't do according to the doings of this world, but do according to the doings of heaven, where you now belong. This is real truth, and it's the way of life. Amen.

Soli Deo Gloria!

Listen online at www.grace-els.org.

This document was translated from LATEX by HEVEA.