Legal Matters: The Law of God Program No SPEAKER: JOHN BRADSHAW

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1 It Is Written Script: 1207 The Law of God Page 1 Legal Matters: The Law of God Program No SPEAKER: JOHN BRADSHAW One of the strangest characters you re ever likely to hear about is the Englishman Jeremy Bentham, who was born in 1748 and died in Now just to give you an idea of how different Mr. Bentham was, he willed that his body be stuffed and preserved in his everyday clothing and then put on public display for posterity. And that s what happened! You can see him to this day in a wooden cabinet at University College in London. His head, however, is wax and that s because someone messed up in the preservation process and left his face too unattractive for viewing. The wax head was therefore substituted for his real one, and for years the real head, with two glass eyes he used to carry around in his pockets, sat on the floor between his legs. You ve heard it said that nothing s sacred, and time and again the college students made off with Bentham s head. One time, students stole the head and demanded a ransom of 100 pounds to be paid to a local homeless shelter. The college agreed to pay 10 pounds and the head was returned. On another occasion, the head was again stolen by students, and was found in a locker at a train station in Scotland. But the last straw came when it was discovered being used by students for soccer practice! After that, the head was safely secured and is no longer on display. The rest of Mr. Bentham, including his wax head, still is. However, Bentham is most famous not for his corpse but for his social philosophy. He was a leading advocate of utilitarianism: the greatest happiness of the greatest number. The idea is this: You try to make laws that will bring the greatest amount of happiness to the greatest number of people. If law x makes 5 million people a little happy, but law y makes 20 million people very happy, then the government should make law y as opposed to law x. Mr. Bentham even created a mathematical scheme, a calculus, that could supposedly determine happiness he figured it would be great to know what makes people happy, because then you could create laws that would bring this happiness.

2 It Is Written Script: 1207 The Law of God Page 2 At 57 years of age, and still a bachelor, he wrote to a woman he hadn t seen in 16 years and he explained to her why based on the laws and rules that applied to them they should be married. Well, surprise of surprises, she wasn t that impressed with his laws and mathematics and she turned him down cold. He waited 22 years and then gave it another shot, but wouldn t you know? She turned him down again. You can imagine, can t you... Well, darling, I ve worked out the numbers and the laws and the figures, and it seems that, according to my mathematical calculations, we should be in love and get married. I m glad I didn t propose to my wife Melissa that way. I reckon I d still be single! Bentham lived in a time when humanity truly believed in the ability of logic, law and reason to answer all human needs. For many people, law, logic and reason were the sacred keys to unlock all truth. All through the gospels in the Bible, there are stories of folks who were also sticklers for the law at least the law as they understood it. One account in particular shows what I mean. We are going to rewind about 2,000 years. When you realize that it was only in the past 250 years that doctors figured it would be a good idea to wash their hands before surgery, you can only imagine what the medicine must have been like in ancient Israel at the time of Jesus. In that context we come to this story: Jesus and His disciples were walking along and they came across a man who had been blind from birth. So what did Jesus do? The Bible says this (John 9:6, 7): He spat on the ground and made clay with the saliva; and He anointed the eyes of the blind man with the clay. And He said to him, Go, wash in the pool of Siloam...so he went and washed, and came back seeing. Incredible. A man, blind from birth, is instantly healed. As you can imagine, this caused quite the stir. In fact, some people had a hard time believing that this was the same man who used to sit around begging. After all, how could someone blind from birth now suddenly see? Eventually, they brought him to the religious leaders, who had to acknowledge the incredible miracle. But there was one problem. Jesus had performed this amazing miracle on the Sabbath day, and according to their understanding of the law, you weren t supposed to do healing of any kind on the Sabbath. Thus they were arguing

3 It Is Written Script: 1207 The Law of God Page 3 that Jesus couldn t have been from God because He, at least in their thinking, had violated the law (John 9:24): So they again called the man who was blind, and said to him, Give God the glory! We know that this Man is a sinner. Can you imagine? A man blind all his life is healed instantly, and all that the leaders can think about is the fact that it was done in violation of a law, or at least the law as they understood it. Talk about taking the idea of law to an extreme! Now don t get me wrong. I am not talking against law. On the contrary I would uplift law, especially God s law. Laws are supposed to be good things, but sometimes they can be terrible, with disastrous effect. I ll give you an example of that in just a moment. BIBLE QUESTION: It s time for today s Bible question, and here it is. As a kid, I remember going to church about once or twice a year with my parents. I m not really into religion, but I don t want to go to hell when I die. A friend of mine died in a car accident last month and I don t know if he is in heaven or hell. If I don t want to end up in hell, what do I need to do? That s a serious question. I tell you what, I don t want to go to hell either! So what do we do to make sure we don t go there? There s a great verse in the Bible. It s in the book of first John, chapter 5 and verse 12 (1 John 5:12): He who has the Son has life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have life. Everlasting life is the gift God wants to give you. And the way to receive everlasting life is to possess Jesus to have faith in Him. Simply not going to hell isn t going to get a person too terribly far, but faith in Jesus will take care of you in the world to come, and will bless you in this life. If you don t have a lot of background with the Bible or with faith in God, let me recommend something to you. Get a Bible, and start reading in the book of John or the book of Matthew. As you read, look for Jesus. And when you come to Jesus, ask yourself, What is Jesus like? When you get an idea of what Jesus is like, ask yourself, Is this the kind of Person I d like to know? Do I want to have this Person involved in my life?

4 It Is Written Script: 1207 The Law of God Page 4 And if your answer to that question is Yes, then tell God that. Say something like: God, I want Jesus, and I want You in my life. And go from there. Your focus is going to be on Jesus, and you won t be worrying too much about going to hell. RETURN TO PROGRAM: Laws ought to be for the benefit of everyone. But that s not always the case. Here s a painfully familiar example of that. At one time in many American states, slavery was legal. America s own beloved Constitution made a legal provision for it. Even closer to our time, many people can remember the Jim Crow laws the segregation laws in the American South. Let me read you a few: Nurses: No person or corporation shall require any white female nurse to nurse in wards or rooms in hospitals, either public or private, in which negro men are placed. Buses: All passenger stations in this state operated by any motor transportation company shall have separate waiting rooms or space and separate ticket windows for the white and colored races. Restaurants: It shall be unlawful to conduct a restaurant or other place for the serving of food in the city, at which white and colored people are served in the same room, unless such white and colored persons are effectually separated by a solid partition extending from the floor upward to a distance of seven feet or higher, and unless a separate entrance from the street is provided for each compartment. These laws tell us about the character of the lawgiver, don t they? The laws reflect the attitude and thinking of the entity that has created them, don t they? And in these cases, the laws reveal a deep-seated racism and bias. Now think about this in relation to God s law. Just as the laws of a land reveal something about the lawmakers of that land, God s law reveals something about Him as well. His law tells us what God is like. His law, the Ten Commandments, is a reflection of His character. Think for a moment about the Ten Commandments and what they tell us about God. But before we begin, I d like to dismiss right off the bat the idea, sometimes expressed by well-meaning people, that God s moral law has been abolished, and that Jesus death on the cross wiped out our obligation and our need to keep the Ten Commandments. Look at this text. It s 1 John 3:4, and the Bible says (1 John 3:4): Whosoever committeth sin transgresseth also the law: for sin is the transgression of the law.

5 It Is Written Script: 1207 The Law of God Page 5 Sin is the transgression of the law. Now what law could that be? Jim Crow laws? The law of the scribes and the Pharisees? No, it is talking about God s law, the Ten Commandments. How do I know? Well, it s pretty easy, isn t it? If I steal, which is a violation of one of the Commandments, have I sinned? If I commit adultery, which is a violation of one of the Ten Commandments, have I sinned then? What about if I lie? I think in all cases, we know pretty well that the answer is Yes. Yes, if I do any of these things, I have violated God s law and I have sinned. So it s clear to me that sin is a violation of God s law. The Apostle James certainly thought so. Read what he wrote in the Book of James (James 2:10, 11): For whoever shall keep the whole law, and yet stumble in one point, he is guilty of all. For He who said, Do not commit adultery, also said, Do not murder. Now if you do not commit adultery, but you do murder, you have become a transgressor of the law. That text doesn t make sense if the Ten Commandments had been abolished, does it? Didn t Jesus say the two greatest commandments were to love God and to love others? Isn t that the essence of the law? Yes, Jesus did say that, and yes, that is the essence of the law. This gets precisely to my point, which is that God s law is an expression of His character, and that love is at the center of God s character. That s why love love for God and love for others forms the foundation of God s law. When asked about the greatest of the commandments, Jesus answered this way in Matthew, Chapter 22. Jesus said (Matthew 22:37-39): Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. Notice this: love God, love your neighbor. Love is the foundation of God s law, and that s because God Himself is love. This doesn t negate the Ten Commandments. The Ten Commandments are the way in which we show our love for God and our love for our neighbor. The first four commandments no false gods, no idols, not taking the Lord s name in vain, and keeping the Sabbath these all deal with a person s relationship with God. Can you imagine someone saying that he loves Jesus, and yet every time he mentions the name Jesus, it s used as a curse? That s not love.

6 It Is Written Script: 1207 The Law of God Page 6 And the last six commandments, about honoring your parents, not committing adultery, not stealing, not murdering, not lying, and not coveting these all have to do with how we reveal our love to others. Can you imagine someone telling his neighbor, Oh, yes, I love you! and then stealing from him? No, of course not. God s moral law was given to us as a means of guiding us in how we live in how we can express love to Him and to others. You don t usually think of the law and love together, but don t tell that to the Apostle John. Here s what John wrote (1 John 5:2, 3): By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God, and keep his commandments. For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments: and his commandments are not grievous. Anyone can say that they love God, but according to John, by keeping His commandments we reveal the reality of that love. This is from 2 John (2 John 6): And this is love, that we walk after his commandments. Again, love is manifested by obedience to the commandments. Here s Jesus Himself (John 14:15): If you love me, keep my commandments. How much simpler could it be? I ve heard people say, Well, the Ten Commandments don t matter. What matters is that you love others. Well, on the surface that sounds nice, but if you think about it, it makes about as much sense as saying, Murdering your neighbor doesn t matter, just so long as you love him. Just as you give your children rules to follow because you love them and want what s best for them, God does the same for us, and those basic rules are found in the law of God. It s that simple. In just a moment, I ll talk about something that almost became a military crisis, and how it shows us our need for the guidance that God s law gives us. EVERY WORD DEVOTIONAL: Integrity is very important to God. In Proverbs 16:8 we read, Better is little with righteousness than great revenues without right. The devil tempts people to cheat, cut corners, and rip other people off, just to get a little MORE. A friend of mine was featured in an article in an international magazine for the simple fact that he was an honest mechanic. When one shop wanted to charge

7 It Is Written Script: 1207 The Law of God Page 7 the writer hundreds of dollars for a job, my friend told him he could do it for $25. Now, he could have charged more, but his integrity meant something to him. I once pointed out to a cashier that she hadn t charged me for something. She said, Oh, I d never have known. And I said to her, Yes, but I d have known. It s better to have less and retain your honor, than to reach for more...and lose your integrity. RETURN TO PROGRAM: For decades, the United States government kept a secret under wraps: at the same time that the United States and the former Soviet Union almost went to war over the Cuban Missile Crisis, an America U2 spy plane accidentally blundered into Soviet airspace, bringing the world dangerously close to nuclear war. On the night of Oct. 27, 1962, a very seasoned American pilot named Captain Charles Maultsby was flying on a secret mission to the North Pole, where he was to collect radioactive samples from Soviet Nuclear tests. On his long, seven-hour flight, Maultsby was going to rely on an ancient navigation technique he would follow the stars, because at 70,000 feet in the air, he didn t need to worry about clouds. After a few hours, though, the sky suddenly filled with beautiful bright lights. It was the aurora borealis, the northern lights, and the air outside his cockpit exploded with awesome flashes of orange, violet and crimson colors. He might have enjoyed the show except for one problem: those lights blocked his view of the stars, and by the time the light show was over, Maultsby knew that something was wrong. He wasn t where he should have been. What he didn t realize, at least at first, was that he had veered into Soviet airspace. He was more than a thousand miles off course. Now, under any circumstances, this would have been dangerous enough, but with the Russians and the Americans already in each other s hair over events in Cuba, the situation was on a knife edge. The Russians had already sent fighters in the air to try and intercept the plane because for all they knew, this was a bomber coming to attack them! Fortunately, in just the nick of time, Maultsby was able to get the plane back safely, and the tensions settled down, though later the Soviets warned the United States that something like this could have pushed them over the edge. Charles Maultsby needed something to guide him, and that was the stars, and when he lost sight of his guide, he veered off track. It s the same with God s law. It s a guide for us. It sets parameters for us. It tells us not to veer this way or that way, because if you get too far off course, bad consequences can occur. And that s what the law is there for. It s not there to save us. Keep in mind: trying to be saved by the law is like staring in a mirror hoping that the mirror will remove your

8 It Is Written Script: 1207 The Law of God Page 8 wrinkles. God s law was never meant to bring salvation. If we could be saved by keeping the law, Jesus wouldn t have come and died for us. How it works is if you, like me, have compared your life with God s law, you have seen just how short you have fallen. Before God s law, we all stand condemned. The law is what shows us that we are sinners! The good news is Jesus. He died because we have not kept God s law. He paid the penalty for our transgression of the law. And by faith in Him, we are forgiven that transgression, and we can stand perfect before God under no condemnation for our violation of the law. Yes, God s law is still in effect. It shows us our sin, and that leads us to Jesus, who will forgive us for our sin when we give ourselves to Him and claim that forgiveness for ourselves. Have you done that? Have you given yourself to Jesus? And have you claimed His forgiveness for you? To not do that leaves you under the condemnation that comes from having broken God s law, something we ve all done. But today you can say, Lord Jesus, I know I am a sinner. I know, therefore, that I am condemned because of my sin, but I don t want to be condemned. Jesus died for me. I want to accept that. I want to get out from under the death sentence of having committed sins and having broken God s law. I want to be free. I want to be clean. I want to be forgiven. Are you ready to say that to Jesus today? Let s say that together. PRAYER: Our Father in Heaven, we thank you today for your goodness to us. I know there are times, perhaps, when some of us might feel as though your will, your way, and your law are restrictive. But what we know by reading the Bible that what you want to do is to keep us from harm, to keep us from sin and to keep us close to you and safe under the shadow of your wings. So please, forgive us for our sins and thank you that through Jesus, through accepting him to live in our lives, we can have not the penalty that comes from having sinned but forgiveness and grace and cleanness and purity. Today we thank you for the gift of eternal life in Jesus, and we pray gratefully in Jesus name, Amen. It Is Written Box O Thousand Oaks, CA USA Tel: (805) Fax: (805)