Alright brethren, let's turn
in our Bibles to Exodus chapter 21. Exodus 21. I'm always amazed
at the Lord's timing and today is another example. I started
going through Romans because I knew we would come to the Law
in Exodus and I wanted us to to see what Paul had to say about
the law in Romans as we went through the law in Exodus. And
so, this will be good today. We'll learn how to use the law
lawfully looking here at Exodus and then we'll go to Romans 7
in the second message and we'll hear what Paul says about a regenerated
believer concerning the law. Exodus 21 verse 15 It says, And he that smiteth
his father or his mother shall be surely put to death. Verse
17, And he that curseth his father or his mother shall surely be
put to death. God has very strict laws concerning
parents. Very strict. The only other relationship
that God puts this kind of honor on is the relationship of a husband
and a wife. The marriage between a husband
and a wife pictures our Lord Jesus Christ better than any
other. But this relationship between
a father and a son pictures the relationship between God the
Father and all of His children. And the mother in scripture is
called the church. So the mother is a picture of
the church. And it's through the church that
God the Father begets His children. And so scripture refers to the
church as the mother. Galatians 4.26, Paul speaking
of the church, says Jerusalem, that's the church, Jerusalem.
which is above, is free, which is the mother of us all. In Isaiah
66, Paul spoke of the church prevailing and bringing forth. And it says, God tells us, Rejoice
ye with Jerusalem, be glad with her, all ye that love her, rejoice
for joy with her, all ye that mourn for her, that you may suck
and be satisfied with the breaths of her consolations, that you
may milk out and be delighted with the abundance of her glory.
For thus saith the Lord, I extend peace to her like a river, and
the glory of the Gentiles like a flowing stream. Then shall
you suck, you shall be born upon her sides, dandled upon her knees
as one whom his mother comforteth. So will I comfort you. The church
is pictured as a mother bouncing her little child on her knees
and breastfeeding her little child. The gospel is called the
sincere milk of the word. So the church is the mother.
God is our Father. He is the Father. A few weeks
ago I preached and or a few months ago, I guess, I preached from
Proverbs 1.8 and I wrote an article on it where Solomon said, My
son, hear the instruction of thy father and forsake not the
law of thy mother. And the real picture there is,
forsake not the gospel of God your father which has been delivered
to you through your mother, the church. And that's the real application
there. So the true church is not like,
there's another mother too called the mother of harlots. That's
the false church preaching a lie. And the true mother is not like
that church. But we don't deny that the church
is a mother just because there is a mother of harlots. The scriptures
teaches us the church is the mother. So that's why this law
is important. Another reason this law is important
is because It applies to everybody in power that God has put in
authority. It doesn't apply just to father
and mother. It applies to civil rulers and civil leaders and police officers
and everybody God has put in authority. And we're told in
Romans 13, let every soul be subject to the higher powers.
There's no power but of God. The powers that be are ordained
of God. And whosoever therefore resisteth
the power, resisteth the ordinance of God. If we dishonor anyone
in authority that God's put in power, we're dishonoring God,
the Father. So, the law of father and mother
is the first law that we have in the scripture that has a promise
connected with it. Look at Exodus 20 and verse 12. It says, Honor thy father and
thy mother that thy days may be long upon the land which the
Lord thy God giveth thee. So it's called the first law
with promise. Now that land of Canaan that
God gave Israel, we know that picture's heaven. It's a picture
of God giving us His children, His elect, heaven. The true promised
land. But then we also see in our text
there's a penalty for breaking this law. And that's back in
Exodus 21 and verse 15 it says, He that smiteth his father or
his mother shall be surely put to death. Verse 17, he that curseth
his father or his mother shall surely be put to death. Now you
know that this means that even if a child has thought about
dishonoring father or mother, just a thought entered into our
heart, or just a thought entered into our heart of dishonoring
somebody in authority, then we've broken this law and we've broken
the whole law of God. the whole law of God. God looks
on the heart, remember. It's not just the outward, it's
the heart, it's the nature God's looking on. That's what the law
applies to. So let's look at this now and
use it as we should use the law and see what we learn from it. Now first of all, when God gave
this law, when He gave the law here, we're at Horeb right here
and He's giving the law at Mount Sinai. When God gave this law,
all men and women had already broken it when God gave it. We were already guilty of it
when God gave it. And I go back to the garden and
in the garden there was God the Father and there was Adam. There was God the Father and
His Son, Adam. And He gave Adam one law in that
garden. He said of all the trees in the
garden you can freely eat But there's one tree in the midst
of the knowledge of good and evil, and thou shalt not eat
of that tree. And God said, and the day you
do eat of that tree, you shall surely die. And what God was
saying to Adam was, honor thy father. Honor thy father that
thy days may be long upon the land that I've given you. That's
what He was telling him. But if you disobey Me, you shall
surely die. That was a covenant of works.
That was a legal covenant. If you obey Me, you'll live.
If you disobey Me, you'll die. And Adam disobeyed. He dishonored
the Father. And he broke this law of parents.
He dishonored his father when he broke that law. And when he
broke that law, all Adam's sons and daughters broke that law.
And so we all became guilty in Adam. So when God gave this law
at Horeb, we were already guilty of it. Men like to say, well
God wouldn't have given a law we couldn't obey. Yes He would,
and He did. He gave us a law we were already
guilty of. Why? Romans 5 says the law entered
that the offense might abound. That offense in the garden. God
is showing us just how I just applied this law of parrots to
that sin in the garden. You can apply all ten commandments
to that sin in the garden. Because all ten commandments
were broken. That was covetousness. That was
Adam coveting to have His way and coveting to have His honor
and His glory apart from God. That was Him stealing from God.
That was Him committing spiritual adultery. That was Him making
Himself an idol God. He broke the whole law of God
in the garden. He dishonored His Father. And we all broke
it in Adam. Every one of us did. Now, when
He gave this law, He told mothers and fathers to teach our children
this law, and to teach what we had learned, or what they had
learned at Horeb. And this is what He said in Deuteronomy
4.9, He said, You teach your sons, and you teach your sons'
sons, the day that you stood before the Lord God in Horeb. Teach them about what happened
the day you stood before the Lord God in Horeb. He said, the
mountain burned with fire unto the midst of heaven with darkness
and clouds and thick darkness. And do you remember what we saw?
They ran back. They had washed themselves and
tried to sanctify themselves and prepare themselves to meet
God. And when they heard God speak and they saw the mountain
on fire and they saw God's holy character, They went back and
they begged Moses, mediate for us. You speak to God for us on
our behalf. Picture Christ. And what did
God do? He told them, I've given you
an altar now. And you're going to come to me
now in the blood of a lamb. That's the only way you can come
to me. And so he showed them a picture of Christ when he gave
the law. And there you have a mini version
of what Paul said in Galatians. The law is our schoolmaster until
we're given faith in Christ. And there you have a picture
of it. They beheld the law. They beheld God's holiness. And
they beheld their sinfulness. And it caused them to go backwards
and know that they could not meet God on their own. They had
to have a mediator. And God then revealed Christ
to them by revealing Christ in that altar and in that lamb. And he said, this is how you
come to me, through the blood of a lamb. And so the Lord said,
now you teach this to your sons and daughters. You teach this. And what he's telling them is
when he's telling them to teach them these commandments, he's
saying, teach them that the only way these commandments are going
to be fulfilled in perfection is in the blood of a lamb. It's
coming to me in Christ the Lord. Teach this to your sons and daughters.
But it's important to teach sons and daughters to honor their
parents from their youth up because this is how you're going to hear
the gospel. You're going to hear the gospel
through the church. You're going to hear it through
your mother, the church. Moses talked to the people picture
of the church, and then the parents went home and talked to their
children and taught their children this gospel. And so, it's important
that children learn to listen and pay attention to their parents
so that they can hear what this word is saying. But at the same
time, we tell our children, don't think that you're fulfilling
this law, because you're not. In the heart, you've broken it.
In Adam, we're guilty. And in our heart, we're dead
in sin. And so, we cannot keep this law. We cannot keep it. If we have just thoughts of disobeying
it, we've disobeyed it. And we have. All of us have.
Now, God has another Son. He has another Son, the Lord
Jesus Christ. And this Son came forth to honor
the Father, to honor His Father. The Son of God took flesh, He
was made under the law, and the reason He came forth was to honor
His Father and His Mother, that His days might be long upon the
land the Father gave to Him. That was why He came. He came
forth and He said, Your law is in My heart, and I came to do
Your will, O God. And He came to do it that we
might receive the adoption of sons, that His people might have
the Spirit of God imparted to us, that we might be born of
God and see that we're adopted of God through the blood of Christ.
That's why He came. And He obeyed this law not only
outwardly as He walked this earth. He obeyed this law even unto
the death of the cross. You can imagine what a good child
our Lord Jesus was to Mary and Joseph. He was a perfect, you
talk about a perfect child. We talk about our sons and daughters
and we say, well, he's a good boy. Not as good as that boy
was. That one was perfect. He was
perfect. Our children are full of sin.
That one was perfect. And that's just an example of
him honoring God his Father in everything. He was honorable
to all civil rulers that were in authority. But he was honorable
and honored the Father even unto the death of the cross. He came to save his guilty people
and not only had he honored this law in precept, But then He put
Himself in the place of His guilty people, so that the law would
look at Him and hold Him accountable rather than His people. That
was the will of His Father, and that's how He honored His Father,
by doing His Father's will. The Scripture says, He that smiteth
his father or his mother shall surely be put to death. He that
curseth his father, his mother, shall surely be put to death.
Christ put Himself in that place. And He paid the wages we owed. He died the death that we would
have died. And He didn't pay for one sin,
He paid for many. Adam just died. One sin caused
him to die. It was by one offense that sin
entered. The judgment was by one sin,
the condemnation. The free gift is of many offenses
unto justification. He bore all the sins of all His
people throughout all time. And brethren, He carried them
all away. He carried them all away so that before God, we don't
have any sin. Before God, we're dead to the
law. Before God, He does not see sin
at all, having ever been committed by His people. Not in our past,
and not in our future. There is none whatsoever. That's
how He honored the Father. Now remember, the promise of
God to the child that honored His Father is this. Exodus 20
verse 12, He says, that thy days may be long upon the land which
the Lord thy God giveth thee. We're told in Philippians 2 that
after our Lord Jesus honored His Father, even unto the death
of the cross, He was highly exalting His Father by doing that. And
the Scripture says, Wherefore God also hath highly exalted
him, and given him a name, which is above every name, so that
every knee is going to bow, and every tongue is going to confess
that he is Lord of lords and King of kings. God gave him that
land. He gave him a new heaven and
a new earth because Christ purchased it. He paid for it. He paid the
wages that were owed to purchase that land. The Father gave it
to him. He honored the Father to the
highest. He said, I've set my King upon
my holy hill of Zion. And that's where Christ sits
today. Now how do we perfectly establish this law? How are you
and I going to establish this law perfectly? How do sinners
like us honor the Father in perfection? Go to John 5. We're going to have to honor
God the Father. We are going to have to honor
Him. How are we going to do that? Look at John chapter 5. Verse
22. The Father judgeth no man, but
hath committed all judgment unto the Son. Watch this next phrase. That all should honor the Son
even as they honor the Father. He that honoreth not the Son,
honoreth not the Father which hath sent him. Verily, verily,
I say unto you, he that heareth my word, and believeth on him
that sent me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into
condemnation, but is passed from death unto life. That's how you
honor the Father and the Son, believing on Christ. Trusting
all the works into His hand. Trusting that He alone fulfilled
the law and righteousness and put away our sin. Trusting it
all to Christ alone. Look at John chapter 6 and verse
28. Then said they unto Him, What
shall we do that we might work the works of God? Jesus answered
and said unto them, This is the work of God, that you believe
on Him whom He hath sent. Our text tells us that we must
honor the Father. We must honor the Father. And
all who honor the Son by believing on Him have honored the Father
in perfection. Because Christ honored the Father
in perfection. And you can go down the law and
look at every single commandment and we fulfilled every commandment
in perfection because Christ fulfilled them for us in perfection. Every single one of them. And
when we're given faith to believe, we're no longer under the law
anymore. We're not under that legal system
that Adam was under anymore. Now we're under the covenant
of grace. And we're under Christ. And we're
in union with Christ. Did you read the article I put
in the Bulletin last week about what it is to be in law to Christ? When you are under the law, that's
a different Greek word. When it says you're under law
to Christ. Remember Paul said, I'm not without
law, but I'm under law to Christ. That word is a different law.
It means in law. E-N is a Greek word. It means
in law to Christ. And the picture is of the head
and the body being connected. And my hand is in law to my head. My hand doesn't have an external
set of rules that it needs to follow in order to stay connected
to my head. My hand does what it does because
my head tells it what to do. And we're in law to Christ our
head. so that we're in union with Him
and we do what Christ our Head commands us to do. You don't
even have to think about it. It just comes natural in that
new heart to do what Christ tells you to do. And He puts down the
old man. That's what we're going to see
in the second hour. He puts down the old man so that we can do
what He commands us to do. Now listen, knowing Christ did
all this for us, The Lord said that your days may be long upon
the land that your Heavenly Father gives to you. That's why Paul
said we're seated with Him now. He's given us that land. It's
ours. It's a salvation ready to be
revealed. It's ready made. It's already
accomplished. Ready to be revealed to His people.
And God's going to see to it that all His people experience
that salvation. We're going to come into that
land and experience that land together. God's covenanted to
do it. He cannot lie. He's promised
it. And Christ's blood is the new covenant. It's in His blood. It's written in His blood. We're
going to enter that new land. Now, when you have... Here's
the last thing. When you have been brought to
see all your sin, and see that you can't keep the law, And then
God has revealed Christ in you and shown you how Christ came
and He fulfilled the whole law for us. Now, because we are constrained
by the love of Christ, now because we have an inward man that truly
delights in the law of God, now we want to honor our earthly
mother and father. Now you have a desire to honor
those in authority in the world that you didn't have before.
Because you see now, we owe everything to Christ. And so I don't want
to bring reproach on Christ. So I want to be honorable to
my mother and father. I want to obey them. I don't
want them to have to tell me two or three times and snatch
me to the side and have to get on to me. I want to obey Him
because I want to honor Christ. And so it makes you want to do
what they tell you to do. And that's the whole law, brethren.
The whole law, the old covenant law now, we're not under it.
We're not under it in any shape, form or fashion. But we're in
law to Christ and we're constrained by Christ. And that makes us
want to walk in an honorable way. Which the law never could
do. All the law created because of
our sin. We saw this last week with Paul.
All the law ever created because of our sin, it made us desire
everything the law forbid. one that was to appear outwardly
righteous before men and put on a fake, phony show, while
at the same time we desired all the sinful things that the law
forbid inwardly. But now, having been delivered
from it, now we want to walk in an honorable way. And that's
what Christ works. Now that's the lawful use of
the law. And I try to tell Folks that
say, how do you preach the law? First, you tell sinners they
hadn't kept it. And you shut them up to Christ. You show them
that they cannot keep that law. Not before conversion, not after
conversion. Then you show them Christ fulfilled
it all. And we're seated with Him at
God's right hand. And we're not under that law in any shape,
form or fashion. And then thirdly, by that message,
Christ constrains His people in our hearts to want to walk
honorably before Him. You preach works, you preach
law and tell sinners they can do it and urge them to do it,
you'll create a bunch of self-righteous phonies. You preach Christ, shut
sinners up to Christ, and He will create true, godly believers. And that's the difference between
grace and works. I pray God will bless it. Let's
stand together. Our Heavenly Father, we thank
You for this Word. Thank You for teaching us the
true use of the Law and for showing us our guilt, our sin, shutting
us up to Christ and making us follow Him, look to Him, trust
Him. Lord, we pray You'd make us truly
honor You in our lives Constrain us by Your love to always have
the thought of You come into our minds anytime we are faced
with our sin and faced with the thought of dishonoring You that
You would make us think on You and what You've done for us and
cause us to want to honor You. Lord, we pray You meet with us
today and that You would truly Bless your people wherever they
are, wherever they're gathered. Pray you'll meet with them and
bless the Word. Lord, we pray for our brethren
who are suffering trials and that You'd comfort them and keep
them. Cause them to look to Christ
and always be led of Him and trust Him alone. Lord, save us
from the enemy. Save us from those that would
try to create division and create trouble. Keep us always looking
to Christ. We ask these things, Lord, in
Christ's name. Amen.