Living Under God's Authority

When the Lord gave the Ten Commandments, He was giving us instructions about how to live in this world as He made it. These simple commands are powerful directions for us. What God is saying is, here's the way my people will live in this world that I've made for them. And each of these have a direction as to what God expects out of us. He begins with the fundamental principle of all this Bible. I want you to recognize that I alone made the universe. Everything in it belongs to me. Every person in it is subject to me. I am the Lord, the ruler of heaven and earth. Acknowledge that. That's the beginning of all this. If you don't accept that idea, all the rest of the Bible is nonsense to you. Because this fundamental concept is what everything is built on. So He says, if this is true, I want you to make sure that you never find a place or time in which anyone tells you to do something contrary to what I do and you do it. Always judge everything by what I've told you are the right things to do. I don't want you to ever make fun of me or bring shame to my name. And I want you to spend some time every day remembering who I am until it's ingrained in you that He is the ruler, the Lord, the guard of your life, the guide of your life. So we start every day saying, Lord, you're the ruler of the world. I give praise and thanks to you. We say, Lord, help me today to live in obedience to what you've asked me to do. We read the Bible to find out those things we want. We bring to Him the concerns that we have. Every day we remember God is the Lord. He is the ruler. He's given us instructions. We're living those in obedience to Him. This guides our day. Then He said, since I'm in authority, all authority, I'm not physical like the rest of the people on earth. So here's what I'm going to do. I'm going to give authority that I have to others. So He gives authority to parents. You parents have the authority over your children as I have authority over the world. Children, you obey your parents just as everyone in the world obeys me. Then He says, I give authority to the church. I give people with spiritual gifts, preachers, prophets, teachers, people who work in the church. And each one of them has authority because I've given them a gift that I want them to use for my kingdom. So you trust them and you give them authority. Listen to them so that their guide, my guide through them is to your life. And then He said, I give you a country. Every governor, every leader, every king is subject to me. So I want you to submit to their authority. They're my agents in the world. So we live under authority, God's, parents, church, nation, just as God made it to be. When He finishes this, He says, now I want to teach you the important ingredients. Real life belongs to me. And here's the way I want your lives to operate. You're not to murder each other. That's the commandment in Deuteronomy chapter 5. You shall not murder. Now you'll find sometimes it's translated, thou shalt not kill. But there's a different word for kill in the Hebrew language and a word for murder. In fact, the Hebrew language has very fewer vocabulary words than we do. And so in the English language, we have a lot of words by which we can express things. And this word, the word that translated murder here is also the word for someone who commits manslaughter. Manslaughter is whenever you do something in an unintended way, someone's killed. You didn't plan it. Now you can't stop something you didn't plan. So we know that this word really is about murder rather than manslaughter. So He's saying, I do not want you to deliberately choose to kill somebody. Now John started in saying he's looked all the songbook to find songs that would go along with that. But it's much deeper than simply the act of murder. For what God is concerned about is the relationship we have with each other. He takes the most extreme action, one person killing another, to begin with. And then He works back from that to be able to show us what the root of murder really is. So we know how He's trying to change us so that murder is not a part of our lifestyle. If you turn to Leviticus chapter 19, when Moses is describing what the Ten Commandments really are about and telling us all the various regulations that He wants us to live consistent with, He starts chapter 19 with one of the great concerns that God has. I want you, as my people, to be different than the rest of the world. And this difference was expressed in a lot of ways. The clothes they wore, the food that they eat, all kinds of different patterns of lifestyle that would set them apart so everybody who saw a Jew knew that they were different than the rest of the world. What God was concerned about was that people would know there's a difference between those who follow Him and those who don't. So He starts this chapter, Moses does, giving us the words of God. I want you to be holy as I am holy. Now that's God's purpose for your life. I want you to be holy as I am holy. And what the Bible means by the word holy is to be set apart, to be different than the rest of the world. I want everyone who comes in touch with my people to know that they're different than the rest of the world around them. Now it's true that God doesn't want anyone to murder another person, but He's concerned about things that are far more important than that. It's the way we think that creates an attitude and an action of murder. So He's not simply interested in the act of murder, but He's interested in the way we deal with people around us that would lead us to the place where we wanted to kill someone. So in chapter 19, Moses goes over a number of kind of explanations about what the Ten Commandments give. And I think beginning with verse 15, he describes some of these things behind this commandment that leads to this commandment. Do not pervert justice or show partiality to the poor or favoritism to the great, but judge your neighbor fairly. So when you're on the council in which someone brings a case before you, the rest of the world would look at the person on trial and they might say, well this guy has a lot of money and I'm doing business with him somewhere down the road and I want to make sure that everything works the way it ought to, so I'm going to make sure I vote for him when the verdict is to be given. Or you might say a poor person is on the trial jury and whenever the case is presented, this is a poor person like himself and he says, well I can see that he did the wrong thing, but we've got to stand together against the rest of the world. So you shade your justice based on this person's wealth, either he has it or he doesn't. God says, I don't want you to do that. I want you to look at every person in the world like I look at them. You could use this to describe a family, for example. You might have a family where you have some of your children are pretty wealthy and others that are not so wealthy. You don't take the one that's a little bit more wealthy and say, we're going to treat that one better. You don't take the one that's not quite so wealthy and you're going to say, I'm going to treat that one better. You see all of them as your children with the same value to you as the other because they are your children. Here's what God is trying to get across to us. Every human being I make, in my eyes, that person is valuable to me. And if I control your mind and your actions and your behavior, then every human being you will see as my creation. And I want you to treat every one of them as if they were valuable, regardless of their money, regardless of their looks, regardless of their circumstances. They are a treasure to me. And if you respect me, you will respect those that I've made. So the rest of the world will choose. They'll say, well this one has more talent, this one's a great basketball player, this one's real rich, this one's real beautiful, and we evaluate people differently on the outside. You are not to do this. For it is that attitude that builds inside of you the kind of anger that would cause murder. So I want you to see every one as valuable to me and in that way valuable to you. So he said, do not go about spreading slander among your people. Now, slander is when you tell stories about somebody that ruins their reputation or makes them look bad. Every one of these people belongs to me. I don't want you making them look bad. Everything happens in our homes. We know we keep it to ourselves. We don't want everybody else around to know the things that have gone on because we don't want them to look at us in a negative way. I don't want you to look at a person, even though you know something about them that would make them look bad and say that about them. These are my creation. I don't want you to slander them and make them look bad in the eyes of other people. When we have something that happens and we know it, the great temptation is to say something about them that would cause other people to think less of them. They are my creation. Do not denigrate them. Do not lower them in the eyes of other people because they are indeed mine. Now, the rest of the world is not going to do that. If they know something wonderful to tell about you, a story to tell about you, something you've done wrong, they can't wait to get to the crowd to tell it. You are to be holy, like I am holy. I never run you down, and I don't want you to run anyone else down. It creates in you an attitude of anger and resentment and bitterness on the part of the person who's been run down, who's had this thing said about them. Do not do anything that endangers your neighbor's life. I am the Lord. I am Yahweh, the creator of heaven and earth. Take consideration for the people around you to never do anything that would hurt them. You look at them as if you would look at yourself. Would I want to be put in a position where my life was in danger or I might be injured? No, I don't. So I don't do that to other people. You begin to see kind of a principle that we see in the Bible as the way we think of other people is important to God. How we see them, how we act toward them comes from what we see and how we respond to them. Do not hate your brother in your heart. Rebuke your neighbor frankly so that you will not share in his guilt. Do not hate your brother. Murder comes from anger, and anger is generated by some kind of hatred. So what God is doing is saying the root of murder is your anger toward others. So if the world looks on the outside and says this person has never murdered anybody in their life, they have thumbs up, God looks at your heart and says, I see the anger, resentment, and bitterness. Already they have created the root that results in murder. Murder may not come, but the anger, resentment, and bitterness toward others is what God hates. God does not have that attitude toward you or me, and he wants his followers to adopt his attitude toward other people. I want you to treat people the way I do. Do you have reason to have anger with other people? You sure do. Do you have reason to have resentment and bitterness toward other people? Everyone does at some time in your life have that. But I want you to be different than all the rest of the world. Be holy as I am holy, and don't let the feelings of anger, bitterness, control your behavior. Do not hate your brother in your heart. You don't have to express it, but just the thoughts inside of you are a violation of God's command. So you may say when we start, well, this is going to be a good one. I never murdered anybody, so I can sit through this one without any shame or guilt. What God is talking about is what causes murder to occur, and it is in our own heart that we have resentment and bitterness toward other people. It's a powerful, powerful force in our lives. And there's not one of us that don't have occasion to have it inside of us. Because people in this world will treat you in ways that they deserve to be hated, and they deserve to be treated badly. God doesn't say he's going to erase that. He says, I know what it's like to be treated that way. Every day I hear my name taken in vain. Every day people know what the right thing is and just consciously, openly do what I tell them not to do, or refuse to do what I tell them. I know what it's like to be rejected, but I never look down on a person. I judge them, but I don't hate them. What God is asking in this passage, do not murder anyone, is a change in our thinking. A change in the way we see people. Changes in the way we view people and what they've done to us. Rebuke your neighbor frankly, so you will not share in his guilt. So if someone comes to you and talks about how angry they are with what somebody did, and how upset they are about it, and they just pull on and go on and go on about what's happened, it's up to us to step in and say, that's not the way God wants you to think. If we don't do it, we contribute to murder. Not the act of murder, but the motivation for murder. Anger and hatred and resentment and bitterness. Do not seek revenge or bear grudge against one of your people, but love your neighbor as yourself. I am Yahweh, God. So finally he gets down to the point in which he's talking about the very opposite of murder, which is loving your neighbor as yourself. And what the Bible means by love is not emotions. We love people that love us back, our families, the people that are around us. And we love them emotionally, they love us emotionally. But when the Bible talks about this word, it's talking about something entirely different. We equate love and liking as being in the same category. The Bible does not equate love and liking. In fact, you can love someone that you really don't like. You can love someone that you don't want to be around. You can love someone that you really think is a terrible person, in the biblical sense of this word. For love in the Bible is self-denying, sacrificial service to another person. That's what it is. You can have somebody that's done the worst things in the world to you. You could be driving down the road and see them pulled over the side of the road with a flat tire, and your first human nature thought is it couldn't happen to a more deserving person. But if you say to God, what should I do? He will say to you, you help them. You could pull over behind their car, get out, and even though you don't like them, you don't like what they've done, you don't like what they stand for, you could get out of the car and say, I want to do something to help this person through this difficult situation. So you take them to get a tire, help them put the tire on, whatever it is you need to do. You get in the car and you leave and you still don't like them. You still may not want to be around them. You still may not want to be their friends. But you have sacrificed your own feelings. I don't like them. You've sacrificed your own time. I'm going to stop and I'm going to help them. And you've done something that benefits them. And in the eyes of God, you have loved them. And though you may not like them, or even want to be around them, that's what God's talking about. For everyone around you, I want you to constantly live with the attitude, I want to be of help to everyone around me, regardless of who it is. They are all made by God. And He loves every single one of them. And if I get mad and try to hurt someone that belongs to God, I'm offending God. What do I want to do for God? I want to do exactly what He wants. So as He has loved me, even when I'm mean, and even when I'm nasty, and even when I'm the kind of person He doesn't want to be around, He does good things for me, I must take that same nature of myself. The rest of the world will say there's something wrong with you. Why would you help that person who's constantly been a source of trouble for you? Every time you turn around, they say something nasty about you. Every time you turn around, they're criticizing you. Why do you help them? You're to be holy as I am holy, so that every person in the world whose life is filled with the blackness of sin stops at any moment and says, Lord, I need your help. And God responds. He doesn't always do exactly what they want Him to do, but He does what's best for them. This is to be the nature and character of the life of the follower of God. Now, when you get through this passage in Leviticus, you understand when Jesus was talking to His disciples where He got all these things that He said. Some people read the Sermon on the Mount and they think, well, this is really different than the Old Testament. Some people even think Jesus is not like the God of the Old Testament. He's a different kind of God, a loving God. And they read the New Testament to find it, but everything that's found in the New Testament has roots in the Old Testament. And so when Jesus is talking about this, He said in chapter 5 of the book of Matthew, verse 21, You have heard it said to people long ago, Do not murder. And anyone who murders is subject to judgment. You have heard it said that when you take the life of another person on purpose, there will be a judgment day for people. Now, Jesus picks up, but I tell you that anyone who is angry with his brother will be subject to judgment. Wow. He equates the anger that we have with murder. So when we see the command that we're not to murder, the command to not be angry is attached to that. Why is it that we get angry with people? They do something that we don't like. They do something that hurts us. And the human reaction to that is to get angry and strike back. Now, I'll tell you that's an animal instinct. You can have a wonderful dog in your house, friendly, nice, but when you accidentally walk through the room and step on his tail, he might bite you instinctively. It's just an animal reaction. My people do not live their lives in this world with animal reactions. I am the Lord of their life. They live their lives reacting to circumstances as I want them to react. So every time you get angry with someone, God wants you to stop and recognize that your dog-life nature has suddenly flared itself. And you're to stop and say, God, I have this angry thought and feeling. I know you've told me that this is the root of murder. I don't want it in my life. Show me how to think about the person who's injured me so grievously. What do you think then? This other person that's hurt me is precious to God. He made that person. So you stop and think, God, this is someone you made, someone you love, someone you care about. Show me the qualities in their life that are important to you. Their life may be black with a lot of things, it may be wicked with a lot of things, but underneath all that there's someone who's made in the image of God. Someone made in the image of God. And no matter how bad our lives get, our parents look at our lives and they see a child that's theirs. That's what God wants us to see in everyone. So you start by saying, God, help me to see that this person is really yours. Help me to see that you're working in their life every minute of the day to change their life. Help me to see that you have made a promise to me to guide me and provide for me and protect me. And they have attacked me, so I put in your hands getting even. I'm not going to do that. I erase that from all of this. Now what I ask is you help me know how to pray for them that you might transform their lives from being the kind of person who would do that to me to be the kind of person you are. That's how we change our thinking. If you believe that God is really the ruler of the world, that he has the power to change people's lives, that he made all the people in the world, that he wants us to get rid of the anger and bitterness in our life, then you can pray that prayer and have the Holy Spirit change your attitude toward people. Will you like them? May not. Will you want to be around them? Maybe not. Will you want to get even or hurt them? No, you won't. If you can't change your anger and resentment and bitterness to another person, it's not what they've done that's the problem, it's who you are that's the problem. Because God loves everyone. And if his love lives in us, we will be able to also love everyone around us. The fundamental issue that God is getting to is how do we think of the people around us. He gives us an idea that the human nature way of doing this is not exactly the same as his. Again, anyone who says to his brother, Rekha is answerable to the Sanhedrin, you say something that's insulting to someone, they can sue you. But anyone who says you fool, we endanger the fires of hell. The word you fool is saying you're worthless. If someone says you're worthless to another person, they're saying about someone made in the image of God that they're not worth anything. And this is insulting the creative work of God. So you're never to see anyone as worthless or as a person who has no value. You're always to see them as a person made by God. Jesus later on in the Sermon on the Mount said, you've heard that it said love your neighbor and hate your enemy, but I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you. You live in a world where people hate those that they don't like. I'm telling you to live differently. You are holy as I am holy. So I want you, instead of hating your enemy, I want you to love your enemy. I want you to set out to say, how can I do for this person who's hurt me so badly, something that would be good for them, so they would see how God loves them through my life. That's what our goal is. You are to be holy as I am holy. If I were in your place and someone said the things about you that they've said to me, how would I react? Well, we can see in Jesus' life how he did it. Hanging on the cross, nails in his hand, people making fun of him. He said, Father, forgive them. They don't understand what they're doing. What he was seeing was not his pain, not his difficulty, but he was looking at them saying, they're doing something that will condemn their lives. And when the judgment of God falls on them, it will be so terrible. I feel sorry for them. Now, if we believe that God's promised us that he's going to take care of us, then anybody who attacks us, we know they're in deep trouble. Like you have a child who someone is mistreating, abusing. They have you to deal with. We are the children of God. Whatever people do to us impacts God, and he stands between us and them. The only time he can't stand between us and them is when we try to settle it ourselves. And whenever you get mad at someone who's done something to you, and you know they deserve to be punished, and you decide to take that punishment on yourself, it could be the silent treatment at home or with your friends, it could be you avoid them, it could be that you tell stories on them, all kinds of ways we can get even. But when you do that, you stand between that person and God's judgment. So if you really want them to get judgment for what they've done, forgive them, get out of the way, and let God take care of it. It's not our business to settle scores. It's God's business to take care of his children. And the anger and resentment that grows in us grows and grows and grows and grows until it results in actions such as murder. The very root of this lives in every single one of us. This is the truth and the tragedy. You probably have in your own mind somebody that you know that you don't like, that you've told bad things about, that you've reacted to them in a way that lets them know that they're off limits to you. This is not the way God wants his people to live. He says, I want you to understand that you're to be different than me. Love your neighbor and hate your enemy, people say. But I tell you, love your enemy and pray for those who persecute you that you may be sons of your Father in heaven. That's a really powerful thing. If I don't do that, am I not a son of the Father in heaven? You're certainly not acting like it. Because if God controls your reaction to people, you will not act that way. Take a clue from God. You can have a guy who's a wonderful, faithful follower of Christ and he has a farm. You have a guy right next to him who's a renegade of the worst order. When the rain comes, it doesn't come to the fence and stop on the good guy's land. It goes right over even the wicked guy's land. I make the rain, he says, to fall on the righteous and the unrighteous. If you love those who love you, what reward will you get for that? So if you love your family and you think God is clapping his hands because you do, forget it. Everybody does that. Even the mafia people do it. He said it a different way. He said not even tax collectors are not even tax collectors doing that. That's the worst person they could think of. So the worst gang members in the world, in our community, mafia people, gang people, they love their buddies and they love their families. So you don't get any star in your crown for loving your family. Where you get the star in your crown is when you love the people that you don't like. This means that you're now acting like God acts. If you greet only your brothers, what are you doing more than others? Do not even pagans do that? What does God expect of us? Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect. God is not saying you're earning your salvation by doing this. He's saying if God is in control of your life, the standard you hold yourself to is his nature and character. See, our temptation is to hold ourselves to the standard of others around us. I'm not as bad as some people with the stories I tell. I'm not as bad as some people running folks down. I just hint so they'll get the picture. I don't have to say anything. But God goes deeper than that. What is it in your mind? How do you think? That's what he's looking at. And he says if you think in terms of hatred and anger and resentment, someday it will show up. You're going to do something that lets people know exactly what's inside of you. And if you're my children, I want you to reflect my nature and character. So what God wants is controlling the way we think about things around us. Our human nature will give us one set of thoughts, but he wants us to stop and say is that the way God wants me to think? And if it's not helpful to the other person, if it's not kind to the other person, if it's not beneficial to the other person, it's wrong. So God wants to transform our way of thinking about the world around him. How do we do it? Everyone around us that God has made is made in his image. And any insult you give to that person is an insult to a creation of God. Think of that. You're insulting what God has made. Every person around you who does the things contrary to what God wants that makes you angry enough to reject them, to cuss them out, to hit them, to be upset about them, is contrary to what God wants for you who are his followers. He says, forgive them. Turn the other cheek. Let me take care of it. So when you're injured, you step back and say, God, here's what I'd like to do. Confess it. Here's what I wish I'd do. Here's what I wish someone else would do so I won't get any blame for it. I'd sure like to see them really get in trouble because of what they did to me. That's my feeling and thought, God, but I don't want it. What I really want to admit to you is I want to be able to turn loose of this. Forgive. When the Bible says, forgive and forget, it doesn't mean that we forget that it ever happened. It means that we forget to punish people for what they've said and done. That's what forgiveness really is. God doesn't forget the fact that we did all these sins. You read in the Bible, He wrote them down so we would remember all the things that the Israelites did that were wrong. What He wants us to remember is that He forgives us. He doesn't hold it against us when we confess and ask for forgiveness. So He wants us to say, I forgive people. Sometimes people say, well, I'd be glad to forgive them if they asked for it. No, that's not what God asked us to do. No one at the cross of Jesus said, forgive me for what I'm doing to you. If they would have, it would have been easier for us to say, okay, I can do that. But what He says is, I want you to forgive them because they are in My hands. I will take care of this. That's your trust in God. To react yourself in anger, resentment, or bitterness, whether it's physically, emotionally, or verbal, is to say, God, I don't trust you. That's what a pagan says. A follower of Christ doesn't do that. He says, God, I don't know how You're going to do this, but I trust You to take care of it. The commandment given in the Old Testament and in the New that you're not to murder is true. But what God wants to do is stamp out the cause of murder, resentment, anger, and bitterness by forgiveness. Not just forgiveness, but by loving others so that you do for them what they need to have done for them even though they don't deserve it. It is this promise that you make to God that will shape your life and all of your human relationships. All violence will be gone, domestic, public, any other kind, because suddenly we are holy as God is holy. And we're living in the same way God lives that we treasure so much. He forgave my sins, we say. But we don't want to forgive their sins. It will never work. God must have our lives. This is a powerful commandment. Treat others, even though you want to kill them, with love. Then you will be known as my children because all human life belongs to God and He expects us to revere people. Would you bow your heads please for a moment of prayer? I want you to be honest with God. Do you have trouble with anger? It's a sin. The same as murder in God's eyes. Do you have trouble with resentment and bitterness? It's a sin just as murder is a sin in the eyes of God. Can you change yourself? No. But what God has promised is if you will give me your life and let me fill you with my Holy Spirit, I will teach you to forgive and I will teach you to love. And then you will be free from the resentment and bitterness that controls your behavior. So if you have these problems with anger, resentment and bitterness, it could be that you've never really surrendered your life to God. You just have to ask God that question. He can tell you the truth. But you start there. If you know that you really have surrendered your life to Him, you ask yourself, why is it still living inside of me? Why am I not willing to forgive? Why am I not willing to stop punishing? It's a failure to trust God. How can I learn to love those who hurt me? Jesus is our model. And if you know how to think, then He can change you to be like Christ. So I ask you today, if you've ever given your life to Christ, even your anger, resentment and bitterness getting even, if you ever said to God, I give everything in my life to You, I'll be willing to do whatever You tell me to do. If not, today you do that by saying, God, I believe what You say. From this moment on in my life, I give You control of my thoughts, my behavior, my actions. Maybe in this time God has told you something He needs to do. Maybe it's a relationship with someone to forgive them. Maybe it's to make that promise to God. Maybe it's to be a part of the church. Whatever comes to your mind, you know it's from God, because it's good. In this time in our service, we give you a few minutes to say to God, OK, I hear you. I'll do what you ask. If you want to come and tell us the promise you're making to God, you come and share it with me or Carl. We'll pray with you. As the piano plays, I want you to reflect on what God wants and what He's asking you to do.