Reasons for the Rules

Introduction

Good evening. Before I forget, I’d like to begin by thanking the elders for asking me to do this tonight, even though I know that I was there sixth or seventh choice. Is that right, Tom? Yeah, okay, somewhere around there, but I beat out the broom in the closet. So that’s that’s something. And the other thing I want to make sure to do is sometimes I message with brother Innossi over in Uganda, one of the men that we help support. that’s always neat getting messages from him, and he just wanted me to send his greetings to the brethren here and his appreciation for the continued support. And I told him I was gonna preach tonight in the absence of our regular preacher, just if he could say a prayer for me, I’d appreciate it, that it’d be beneficial, because that’s our prayer tonight, that this would be beneficial for you and glorify God, and he agreed to do so.

And that’s that’s a pretty cool thing to have someone halfway across the world praying for you to the same God that we worship. That’s that’s pretty cool. So anyway, so thank you for this opportunity. I hope it hope it’s beneficial.

Don’t touch the stove. Did you ever hear that growing up? Yeah, Owen’s raising his hand. Did you touch it anyway? I’m looking at Harley. No? He says no. Okay. I know. I mean, because you’re like, oh, it looks so amazing and miserable. I think I need to touch it. My life won’t be complete until I touch it. Why do you want me not to be happy and not let me touch it? Why don’t you touch it so pretty? You know, that’s that’s the way we think when we’re that age, right? but we were told that. Was it ever followed up by a consequence? Don’t touch the stove or you’ll get a spanking. I’ll keep you from hurting yourself with a permanent scar by hurting you temporarily.

Or was it sometimes followed with an explanation? Don’t touch the stove, or you’ll get burned. Oh, it’s pretty though. Dangerous. But so why do parents make up rules like this? Why do we do that for our kids? Why do our parents do that for us? Is that to keep us from experiencing an amazing thing, like touching the pretty blue flame on the stove? Or is it to protect us from getting hurt? Is it out of love? Is it for our instruction so that maybe one day we can actually use the stove without getting hurt? And why sometimes they would give us a rule without an explanation? Just to don’t touch the stove. And sometimes maybe they provided some explanation. Don’t touch the stove or you’ll get burned.

Well, I think we can understand that. I had three. I had one that would touch the stove anyway. But telling our two-year-old to not touch the stove is a little bit different from maybe from telling our eight-year-old not to touch to touch the stove. Telling the two-year-old that you might get burned who hasn’t been burned yet, doesn’t know what that means, doesn’t necessarily mean a lot. So just don’t touch the stove. Maybe, especially for some of mine, or you’ll get to spinky.

Well, the parent-child relationship can sometimes be helpful in appreciating our relationship with our Heavenly Father. And so if we ask the question, you know, why did God give certain commandments to us? You know, why did He make particular laws? Well, that’s kind of what I talked about tonight a little bit, but I had a little trouble with the title. First I came up with this, you know, because you have to use alliteration apparently if you have server titles, but the case for the commandments. But I decided I didn’t like that because, you know, well, God is the creator of everything, and so that sort of gives him the right to give us whatever commandments he wants. So, but that’s not really what I’m talking about tonight.

So I scratched that. So then I thought another cool one was the logic behind the laws. That’s alliteration, right? But the problem with that is sometimes we can recognize God’s logic in the commandments he gives us, but sometimes we don’t get it. Sometimes we’re speaking of things we don’t fully understand. Is knowledge too wonderful for us, as Job said when God spoke to him out of the world whirlwind. So, you know, what if the logic of God may not be within our understanding? So I didn’t really like that. That’s not what I want to talk about really tonight. So we said on this, and we’ll go with this if you’re taking notes, the reasons for the rules. So in cases where God does give us a commandment, gives us a rule, gives us a law.

In cases where he does give some explanation for it, we want to look at that. we can see some insight into why he does it. Sometimes he just comes out and tell us, sometimes he doesn’t. and so we don’t want to try to read in to those cases where he doesn’t and presume to know God’s mind, but in the cases where he does reveal the reasons, we want to look at that a little bit tonight. And so, just as an example, something that came up in our men’s class upstairs is we were looking at several weeks ago, we were looking at the Ten Commandments, or something completely different, and I just found it interesting. If you want to turn your Bibles, want to look at that in Exodus 20, when the Ten Commandments were given to the people of Israel.

1. Rules in the Ten Commandments

So here’s some rules that the people of Israel were under. This is the new covenant that they entered a covenant relationship with God to follow. And we were looking at some of these commandments and laws, and they sort of kind of fit in the categories I want to talk about tonight. You had some commandments, but they’re just given, and there’s really no additional explanation given. Like if you look at verse 13, you should not you shall not murder. 14, you shall not commit adultery, you shall not steal, you shall not bear false witness against your neighbor. You’ll shall not you shall not covet your neighbor’s stuff. There’s really no explanation given to those. Fairly self-explanatory, but there’s no motivation given to it, at least not in this passage.

We’ll talk about that in a second. So there that’s one type of command we see just in this brief passage. But we also see that there’s some laws that were given where there’s some consequences described, both good and bad. Like if we look at verse 7, you shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain, for the Lord will not leave him unpunished who takes his name in vain. He’ll get spanking. I mean, that’s that’s a serious offense. So there’s there’s a negative consequence to that. Then we have some like verse 12 honor your father and your mother, that your days may be prolonged in the land which the Lord your God gives you. So there’s a positive consequence for following that command.

Then we have some like verse 4 that have a little bit of both. You shall not make yourself an idol. Why? Because God is a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on his children, verse 5, but also verse 6 showing loving kindness to those who love him and keep his commandments. So we have one with some good and some bad consequences. And then some rules have a little more elaboration as far as the reasons behind them. verse 3 you shall have no gods before him, before the Lord your God. Why is that? Verse 2, he just says, Because he is the Lord, their God, who brought them out of Egyptian bondage. That’s why. These other so-called gods, they didn’t do that for you.

This is the Lord God who took you, who saved you from slavery. And then verse 8. Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy. So that’s explained. You know, six days you’ll have labor, and then one day you’ll have rest for your labor. Verse 9, verse 10, that’s elaborated some more, and the scope of that’s defined a little bit. That’s not just for you, that’s for your children. That’s for your servants, that’s for your livestock, that’s for the sojourner who stays with you. So that’s for everybody in your household that we’re going to honor that. And verse 11 gives some more reasons for that rule. You know, God created all things in six days, and then he rested on the Sabbath. That’s why you’re going to do that.

The Lord blessed the Sabbath day, the Lord set it apart, the Lord made it holy. So that’s what you’re going to do. And that’s described some more in Deuteronomy chapter 5, verse 15. It reads, You shall remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt, and the Lord your God brought you out of there by a mighty hand and by an outstretched arm. Therefore, the Lord your God commanded you to observe the Sabbath day. So yet another reason given in another passage about the same law. So that’s why they were supposed to keep the Sabbath day. So just some observations about that. These Ten Commandments. You know, as often in the case in Scripture, when one commandment or rule, whatever you want to call it, is given, and even though it may not be elaborated on in that particular passage, maybe it’s not explained, there might be other scriptures that talk about the same thing that do explain more detail.

We looked at a small example there, even though Exodus 20 gives some reasons behind the Sabbath, we saw some more detail given in Deuteronomy chapter 5. That’s another reason to keep the Sabbath, because of what God has done for you in delivering you from Egyptian bondage. So that’s one thing to remember. And also another observation is whether the commandments are given explanation or not, they’re all equally binding. They all of them had to be followed by the children of Israel, whether they were explained thoroughly or not. And in this case, some of the laws, some of the rules seem very self-explanatory. Don’t steal. Got it. Understand. But some of them, whether it’s in this case or another, you know, some rules are this there, they just might cause us to wonder why.

2. The Sabbath Was Made for Man

Why did God give us that rule? You know, what’s the purpose of that? Why does he have this restriction placed on us to keep us from doing something? And why does he have this instruction commanding us to do a certain other thing? You know, we must do this. So why does God do that? Well, sometimes he explains that. So I want to look a little bit more this evening about just one of those. And again, this is just a case study, and then we’ll go on to some things from the New Testament. But let’s look at keeping the Sabbath. again, picking this one, it’s from the Old Testament. This is the law of Moses. I’m not, first of all, make clear, we’re not trying to tell you that you need to keep the Sabbath in modern times or under the new covenant, but just using this as a as a case study.

You know, why might God have given this commandment to the children of Israel? And so again, he gives these explanations, but we can also kind of just see some benefits. What benefits would they get from observing this? So, you know, what would an Israelite do on the Sabbath day? They’d work for six days. So, what are they going to do on this one day that they’re not going to do any work? Well, obviously they’re going to be refreshed from the labors. That was one of the reasons given. God was refreshed when he rested on the seventh day. Hopefully, this will be a time of spending more time with your family. We’re not having to work the fields, we’re not having to spend time with the livestock or whatever your trade happened to be.

We’re going to spend some more time with the family. Sure, there’s a time of worship. This would be a time of worshiping God. That’s a definitely a good thing. This is a time to remember. I mean, one of the specific reasons they were given to remember the Sabbath day is to remember the creative power of God. It’s six days. He created everything. You know, when we read that, we’re so used to that, we’re just like, wow, that’s cool. But to actually think about that, could they hopefully think about that on that day of rest? The awesome creative power of God, to God be the glory. Great things he has done. You know, I don’t think we talk about that enough. And I appreciate Brad mentioning that in his prayer just this evening.

But that’s just something that’s if we can keep that in perspective, everything else God has done for us and everything God says he will do for us, it just keeps that in perspective for us. And hopefully there’s some teaching going on, teaching their children about the promises that God has made to his people. And this is something that God said to set aside, set aside this time. So we need to set it aside just as he’s asked. So that the child of Israel, the Israelite would make holy what God has made holy. They would set that apart too. It’s a special period to think about these things, to commemorate his work, and so they would honor and respect God by doing so. And then if you think about it, this is something you would have to prepare for, wouldn’t you?

You know, whatever your profession might be, you’re weren’t to work on that day. So Sabbath day was not a day for you to for commerce, for trading, for tilling the land, for you know keeping the flocks as you do on a daily basis, it’s something special. And so to account for that, there probably has to be some advanced preparations made just for daily living. In fact, later in Exodus, in Exodus 35, verses 2 and 3, Moses commands, for six days work may be done, but on the seventh day you shall have a holy day, a Sabbath of complete rest of the Lord. Whoever does any work on it shall be put out, shall be put to death. You shall not kindle a fire in any of your dwellings on the Sabbath day.

So, whoa, there’s a consequence spelled out that wasn’t spelled out necessarily in Exodus 20, but it’s elaborate on some more. So there’s a consequence to it, and so and we even see we’re not even supposed to be kindling a fire in our house. So if that’s the way we cook things at the time, and we don’t have the microwave, so you can see there’s going to have to be some advanced preparation. We’re gonna have to put some forethought into this. We’re gonna have to prepare some meals maybe for a family ahead of time and accommodate in our work schedule. This takes preparation. This isn’t just something we haphazardly do, and then if we forgot to do something, well, it’s not something we run down to Walmart and take care of.

It’s something that had to be purposely thought about ahead of time. Okay. So in Jesus’ day, there was a lot of controversy about Jesus and his work and on the Sabbath day. If you want to turn over to Matthew 12, we’ll look at some verses from one of the incidents where that came up, but we’ll talk about the motives there, but it’s interesting what some were making at the beginning of Matthew chapter 12, we see Jesus passing through the fields, and we see the disciples being hungry, and they were picking the heads of grain and eating some of it. And so people took issue with that. Well, that’s working on the Sabbath. Were they working on the Sabbath? Picking some grind. I mean, if eating is working, then we’re supposed to fast on the Sabbath, because technically I could call you know lifting something to your mouth work, right?

So, you know, what are we trying to do with that? What is the motivation there? Jesus was teaching the people on the Sabbath. His disciples were helping them in that work. So the Sabbath day was not a reason to stop doing God’s work for one thing. In fact, verse 5, Jesus brings that up. He says, Or have you not read in the law that on the Sabbath the priests of the temple break the Sabbath and are innocent? What are the priests doing on the Sabbath day in the temple? They’re doing their jobs. They’re offering sacrifices, they’re helping accommodate the worship in the temple. So they’re working. Sounds like a work day for a priest, but Jesus says they’re innocent of the Sabbath. No one says they’re breaking the Sabbath, they’re doing God’s work.

So what’s again, what’s the intent of the law? It’s not to stop doing God’s work. It’s, you know, think about what we’re doing in our day. It’s not a hindrance to doing good. In this same passage and in others, this was a big issue. Look at start at verse 9 there in Matthew chapter 12. Departing from there, he went into their synagogue, verse 10, and a man was there whose hand was withered. And they questioned Jesus, asking, Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath? So they might accuse him. And he said to them, What man is there among you who has a sheep? And if it falls into a pit on the Sabbath, will not take hold of it and lift it out. How much more valuable than then is a man than a sheep?

So then it is lawful to do good on the Sabbath. I mean, look at the question. Isn’t the question ridiculous? Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath? The only way Jesus could have healed this man on the Sabbath is if God was with him. The only way he could perform a miracle. So would God allow him to do that and break his law? Is that what’s going on? So, I mean, Jesus brings up kind of common sense. If you know some of your livestock falls into a debt, you’re going to help them out, right? So the Sabbath was not meant to be a hindrance for doing good, as Jesus was doing in healing these people. It was not a reason to break other commandments.

Matthew chapter 2 same chapter, verse 7. He asked them, because he knows their motivations, and this was asked as a test, but if you had known what this means, I desire compassion and not a sacrifice, you would have not condemned the innocent.

But in other instances when Jesus was challenged about the Sabbath for the same reason that he did healing on the Sabbath, which was just ridiculous on the surface. But look at, like, for example, John 7, verse 21, Jesus answered them, I did one deed and you all marvel. For this reason, Moses has given you circumcision, not because it is for Moses, but from the fathers. And on the Sabbath you circumcise a man. If a man receives circumcision on the Sabbath, so the law of Moses will not be broken, are you angry with me because I made an entire man well on the Sabbath? So just think about the situation Jesus is talking about. And their law, the males were supposed to be circumcised on the eighth day.

What if the eighth day happened to be a Sabbath day? So we don’t do that? So the guy performing the circumcision, that’s work. No. I mean, no one’s gonna think he’s he’s breaking the Sabbath. So we’re we’re keeping the law of Moses. We’re keeping the honoring circumcision by doing that. and Sabbath is not a reason to break other commandments. And then in another parallel account, Mark chapter 2, 27, Jesus says to them the Sabbath was not made for man, or Sabbath was made for man and not man for the Sabbath. So think about what he’s saying there. You know, the commandment for keeping the Sabbath was made for man’s good. There was a reason God gave it. It was a reason that was given for his instruction for him to think about these things.

Man wasn’t created just to keep commandments, the commandment was created to help man. That’s true for all commandments. All the commandments were given for man’s good, for our good. We weren’t just made to create commandments. Do you see the difference there? The commandments serve a purpose. And it’s not just the sake of keeping the commandments. So that principle will be true about any of the commandments we’re going to talk about in the New Testament. I want to spend the rest of our time this evening talking about that. But before I do, I just want to make no mistake, don’t you misunderstand? Keeping the law is important. I’m not trying to say that. Don’t misunderstand me. Scott was saying they could have broken the Sabbath. That’s not what Jesus was saying.

That’s not what I’m trying to say. Keeping the Sabbath is important. It’s kind of reminds me of when he gets on to his enemies that says, you know, you are so particular about you know tithing dill and mint and cumin, all these spices, and it’s down to tithing even those little things, but they were forgetting what Jesus called the way you’re matters of the law. They weren’t being, they weren’t thinking about their neighbor. They weren’t, they were taking advantage of the poor. But yet they’re worrying about you know, tithing this little spice. So it’s kind of that idea. And that’s the same idea I think we had in chapter 12, verse 7. If you had known what this means, I desire compassion and not sacrifice, you would not have condemned the innocent.

Again, God required sacrifice in the old law. He’s not saying I don’t I don’t want you to sacrifice, I don’t want you to sacrifice while you’re not showing compassion, while you’re not showing mercy. So the weightier matters of the law, so to speak. So just understand that keeping of the law is important, but what I’m trying to emphasize tonight is honoring the lawgiver who made it. Are we keeping the commandment or are we honoring the one who wrote the commandment, the one who gave the command? We had the law, but what about the lawgiver? So are we checking off we did the particulars of the law? Are we thinking about honoring God who made the law in the first place for our own good? And so if God revealed the reason for the rule he gave us, are we are we taking that into account?

Are we understanding that? So I think you’ll see what I’m talking about when we get some of the examples, but just in the incidents with the Sabbaths, you could see the people testing them. Were they really concerned about the Sabbath being kept? Or were they more concerned about wow, this guy Jesus is performing miracles and he’s got a very popular following, and I wish I had that following. You know, is was what was the motivation behind it? So, all right, so let’s look at some New Testament examples that we’re under, and just we could list a bunch, but you know, I won’t be asked to preach again if we talk about all of them. So let’s just look at a few. So let’s first of all, if you want to turn to Ephesians 5, verses 18 through 20.

3. Why Should We Be Sober?

So let’s talk about sobriety for a minute. Ephesians chapter 5, beginning at verse 18. Paul writes, And do not get drunk with wine, for that is dissipation, but be filled with the Spirit, speaking to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, and singing and making melody with your heart to the Lord, always giving thanks for all things in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ to God even the Father. Why does God tell us not to get drunk? Not to be filled with wine. Well, one of the reasons he gives here is like, nope, don’t do that. I want you to be filled with the Spirit, filled with psalms and hymns and spiritual songs. Why? So we can build one another up, and also so we can give thanks in all things.

You know, that’s kind of hard to do if we’re filled with wine, if we’re drunk. You know, you know a drunk person to be worried about building each other up or giving thanks. That’s not usually how it works. Or let’s turn over in a in a similar passage, 1 Peter chapter 4. First Peter chapter 4, I’ll begin on reading at verse 1 Peter 4. Therefore, since Christ has suffered in the flesh, arm yourselves also with the same purpose, because he who has suffered in the flesh has ceased from sin, so as to live the rest of the time in the flesh no longer for the lust of men, but for the will of God. For the time already passed is sufficient for you to have carried out the desire of the Gentiles, having pursued, of course, of sensuality, lusts, drunkenness, carousing, drinking parties, and abominable idolatries.

In all of this, they are surprised that you do not run with them into the same excesses of dissipation, and they will line you, but they will give an account to him who is ready to judge the living and the dead. Why did again? Why does God not want us to take part in that? Why does God not want us to drink? Maybe in 1 Peter 4, he wants us to not live any longer in the lust of the flesh. That’s not the way we walk anymore. We have a new life. Another reason is, you know what? We should be different from the Gentiles. They might if they don’t consider the way we’re walking strange, that might be a warning flag to us. Because here in Peter saying the Gentiles are going to think it’s strange that you don’t run with them in the same excesses of dissipation.

So if your behavior doesn’t make an unbeliever take notice, that should make us pause and think. That’s one of the reasons for the rule. We are supposed to be different. We’re supposed to be teaching even through our actions and abstaining from this. And then just on the next page, and at least in my Bible, one of the passages Jeff brought up this morning. Why should we be sober? Chapter 5, verse 8, we’re commanded, be of sober spirit, be on the alert, because your adversary, the devil, prowls about like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour. You know, if we’re going to be sober, we’re going to be alert, we’re going to be sober-minded. That’s going to be challenging any time we take of any substance, alcohol or otherwise, that’s going to dull our wits, that’s going to diminish our ability to think clearly about things.

4. Do All Things Without Grumbling or Disputing

How many times have we seen someone do something they would never normally do because they were drunk? They wouldn’t get engaged in behavior they wouldn’t otherwise do. And that’s exactly why we need to abstain from that. And then the next verse there, verse 9, resist him, resist the devil, firm in your faith, knowing that the same experiences of suffering are being accomplished by your brethren who are in the world. Again, it’s going to be difficult to resist him, to keep our guard up, as Jeff talked about this morning, if we’re not being sober minded, if we’re doing anything to affect that. Okay, how about another one? Let’s look at Philippians chapter 2. Philippians chapter 2, verses 14 through 16. Do all things without grumbling or disputing, so that you will prove yourselves to be blameless and innocent, children of God above reproach in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation, among whom you appear as lights in the world, holding fast the world of the word of life, so that in the day of Christ I will have reason to glory because I did not run in vain nor toil in vain.

If you get the focus online articles in your email, Tim Jennings wrote about this one this week. In fact, Mike kind of tweeted some of the thoughts from that in our Twitter feed. You know what we have a Twitter feed? We tweeted about Philippians 2.14. But you know, 2.14, do all things without grumbling or disputing. If you’re like me, you have to underline the word all in that passage. Do all things without grumbling or disputing. You know, and there’s some reasons given here, just in this passage and in the context of this chapter. So I’ll I’ll I’m gonna plagiarize Tim Jennings, but I’ll give him credit for it. some things he said in his article. You know, look back at verse 13. For it is God who is at work in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure.

You know, when we argue and complain, when we grumble and get involved in disputes, we are essentially denying God’s good goodness. You know, are we really has he really done anything in my life? You know, has he really given me anything? There’s nothing more thankless than complaining about what you already have. And it makes me think of you know the story of the Israelites getting fed manna from heaven, and what did they do? They got tired of it. I’m tired of this bread, this loaves from bread. I’m so sorry that I’m feeding you without you having to do anything in the desert. You know, and are we that way? Are we that way complaining about situations in our life? I would just imagine us trying to complain about something in our lives to an Israelite at the time, like, you know, my AC broke.

I had to I had to pay some money to fix that. Like air conditioning? Wow. You should try the desert. You know, so put things in perspective. so when we complain, we deny God’s goodness. You know, verse two, in the same chapter, look all the way back up to verse two, Paul says, Make my joy complete by being of the same mind, maintaining the same love, united in spirit, and ten on one purpose. You know, when we argue and complain, it’s really hard to do that. It’s awful hard to be united at the same spirit. And Tim’s article says, you know, when we do that, we disturb our relationship with others. It’s really hard to have that kind of unity when we have that argumentative attitude, or we’re not just complaining about everything.

Or how about what we read in verse 15 and 16? You know, we need to prove ourselves blameless amidst a crooked and perverse generation. And when we argue and complain all the time, we kind of discredit our testimony among unbelievers. Well, why do I want to listen to what this guy has to say when he just complains about everything in his life? So, what’s he got to offer me? So that it doesn’t help us share the gospel with anyone around us, if that’s our disposition. And then verse 16, Paul says, My hope is that you know you do this, so I will know I’ll have reason to glory because I did not run in vain nor toil in vain. You know, one other side effect of us doing that is it really is a discouragement for God’s workers.

5. Love One Another

You know, to the preachers, to the elders, to our Bible class teachers, whatever the case may be. if we’re grumbling and complaining, I’m sure you’ll have a lot of grumbling and complaining after tonight’s sermon. it is it is a discouragement to those who try to lead us and instruct us in God’s word. Okay, how about this? Love one another. That’s an easy commandment, right? Let’s turn over 1 John 4. And for reasons of time, we won’t read all of it. But if we that would be a great homework assignment is to go back and read verses 7 through 21, 7 to the end of the chapter, where John talks about love, but we’re going to look at some of these the reasons given in this passage.

We’re commanded, beloved, let us love one another. Why? For love is from God. There’s one reason why. Love is from God. verse 7 everyone who is loves is born of God and knows God. Why should we love our one another? Verse 10, because God sent his only begotten Son, that he might be a propitiation for our sins. Verse 11, beloved, if God so loved us, we ought to love one another. That’s why we should love one another, because God loved us. Verse 12, so God can abide in us. Verse 13, so we can know God abides in us. That’s how you know that. Is because we have love for our brothers. Verse 17, so we can have confidence in the day of judgment. Wouldn’t that be nice?

To be confident about our standing in the day of judgment. And if we don’t have love, we can’t have confidence in our standing. Verse 18, so we can have no fear. If we can be confident in our standing for the day of judgment, we can live without fear. And again, verse 19, hmm, I think he’s repeating himself. We love because he first loved us. And then verse 20 and 21, we read those. If someone says, I love God and hates his brother, he is a liar. For the one who does not love his brother, whom he has seen cannot love God whom he has not seen. And this commandment we have from him that the one who loves God should love his brother also. You know, the reason why we should love our brother is because when we have this perspective, we understand that our brother is yet another child of God.

Whether they’re believer or an unbeliever, they’re another child of God in a sense, right? And so as a parent, you know, I’m kind of hurt when someone does something mean to one of my children. So you imagine how the Heavenly Father feels when we are hateful, when we are unloving towards another one of his children. How does that make him feel? God loved us, we should love our brother. So how we treat one another matters. So, young people, let me say again how we treat each other matters. Everyone else, not young people anymore. How we treat one another matters. and Tony said that before. You know, we can be right in how we behave individually, we can write in the things we practice corporately and in all these doctrinal matters, we can be right.

6. The Reason for the Rule of Baptism

But if we get this wrong, John tells it says we hate God. And if we say we love God, we’re a liar because we’re treating our brother like we should. God loved us, so we should love our brother. Okay, another one. What’s the reason for the rule of baptism? Why baptism? Acts 2 38. Why? It’s because it’s for the give for the forgiveness of sins. That’s explained very plainly for us, but you know, this is just one of those maybe you could think, well, why baptism? That’s kind of why pick that. You know, couldn’t have God picked a different way to accomplish the forgiveness of sins? Sure. Sir, he could have done that. and you know, maybe we can speculate. Why did he pick that?

Well, maybe there was instruction to be to be had with that. Romans chapter six, the first part of Romans chapter six, Paul explains how you know verse four culminates in, you know, therefore we have been buried with him through baptism and death, so that as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so that we too might walk in newness of life. So, you know, baptism kind of goes with that whole activity. We’re putting away the old man, putting him to death, we’re burying him in the waters of waters of baptism, and we’re raising him up into a new life, a new creature. So baptism kind of helps us think of you know what Jesus went through. He was died, buried, and was resurrected.

Conclusion

We have to go through the same process. So maybe there’s that. Maybe there’s the idea of washing and cleansing that goes with it. But really, God could have picked anything. So why do you pick this? Maybe this is one of those that just I will not be able to answer your satisfaction. You know, there’s reasons for it, there’s instruction to get from it, there’s an instruction in the New Testament, but why does God want us to do it? So that we can have the forgiveness of sins. So I’m gonna wrap up for you tonight, and just think about we looked at the beginning at the law of Moses, or the Ten Commandments is kind of our case study. You know, when Jesus was asked in Matthew 22, you know, teacher, what is the great commandment in the law?

He answered, You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and foremost commandment. And the second like it is, you shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments depend the whole law and the prophets. You know, let’s look at those two commandments. What Jesus is saying, basically, the reason for the whole rest of the law and the prophets, including the Ten Commandments, is to do those two things. Is to help us to love the Lord our God with all our heart, our heart and all our mind, our soul. It helps us do that. And the other part was help us to love our neighbor as ourselves. All those laws were to help that accomplish that.

The laws were for man wasn’t for the laws, the laws were to help us do that. That’s the reason for the laws. And even though we’re talking about the old law in that case, isn’t that principle true now? We look at the just some of these laws we looked at tonight in the New Testament, some of the rules we’re given. That principle is still true. Is that we want to love the Lord our God with all our heart, all our soul, and all our minds, and to love our neighbor as ourselves. That is repeated in the New Testament message over and over. So, what are the reasons for the rules that God makes? Well, I think it’s very similar to this the reasons that we talked about at the beginning.

The rules that parents make for the children, reasons the rules that we make for our children, is that you know we love God loves his children, we love our children. He wants us to be safe. we read in 1 John 4 about God loving the world, and he it reiterates the same a very similar statement to John 3 16, God so loved the world, he sent His only begotten Son. He clearly loves us. And if we don’t ever forget that, we have this that we do every first day of the week to remind us of that. God loves us, he loves the whole world, and God wants to protect His children. He wants to protect us from harm. He wants what’s best for them.

2 Peter 3 9, Peter writes, The Lord is not slow about his promises, some count slowness, but is patient towards you, not wishing for any to perish, but for all to come to repentance. You know, some of the laws we just talked about, you think about them, there’s an immediate consequence to some of those. If we give up sobriety, there could be some immediate consequences in our lives. If we yield our sobriety, we can we can ruin relationships, we can accidentally take a life. There’s all sorts of terrible things that could happen here and now, but more important than that, there’s eternal consequences for it. And God doesn’t want that for any of us. He doesn’t want that for his children. He wants to protect us from that.

He also wants to instruct us, he wants to teach us. So again, every time God gives us law, it’s not mom and dad lying awake in bed at night plotting how they can make the lives of their children miserable by giving all of these rules and restrictions. It’s because they love them, because they want what’s best for them, and because they want them to learn to serve and love the Lord. And with God, it’s no different. He loves his children, he wants what’s best for us, he wants to instruct us. So whether we’re mature enough or knowledgeable enough to maybe understand the reasons that he gives, or just appreciate the fact that sometimes he doesn’t give a reason as far as we’re concerned. The question is, do we trust him enough to just obey him?

I think you might have heard your mom or dad say that once in your life when you said, Why? Why? And so you’re just gonna have to trust me on this. And maybe you might come to that. Maybe we just have to trust God on this one. But there’s so many laws that we’re things that he’s given us, he’s explained the why. This is why I want you to do that. It’s for your own good. So if there’s anyone who has any need tonight, please take advantage of this opportunity to put on Christ in baptism. Or if you have done that but you’ve fallen away from the laws that God has given us, we’re here to love one another, to support one another. We all want to be together in heaven, and we would like to help you do that.

We want to pray with you, pray for you. If you have any need, please come forward while you stand and see.