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| 2013 Lenten Sermon Series |
Today I’m going to talk to you
about “Legalitis.” This is another
spiritually transmitted disease that is rampant in our world today--and even in
our churches today. It’s easy because
religions love to find ways to make you look better, feel better, act better,
and be better, because a lot of false religions out there put an emphasis on
good behavior. Now, Pharisees were great
legalists. A legalist puts value on life
and conduct that’s regulated by laws; and Pharisees did a great job with
that. When Moses gave the Ten
Commandments and other civil and ceremonial laws, the Pharisees went crazy with
laws. They thought, “Wow, what a great
idea. We can regulate everything in our
lives. We can make laws about how we do
things in our synagogues, in our homes, in our communities in such a way that
we can really be good at following the laws.”
Last week I mentioned that they had some six hundred and thirty-one laws
in addition to the ones that God gave in the Bible. That’s crazy.
But legalists do put value on someone who can stand up and obey all of
the laws and rules that they’ve got.
Now there are some strange laws
in the Bible, I’ll have to admit. There
are some strange ones. For instance,
Leviticus 19 says this: “You shall not
let your cattle breed with a different kind.
You shall not sow your field with two kinds of seed. Nor shall you wear a garment of cloth made of
two kinds of material.” How many of us
in this room are guilty right now? Look
at the tag. You see that you are
probably in violation of one of God’s laws.
This is actually one that God gave the Israelites. And you say, “Wait a minute. We don’t follow that law anymore. We don’t look at our tags before we buy our
clothes.” Why is it that we obey some
laws and not others? We do this a lot in
our lives.
I want to share with you
something I think will help you. There
are basically three types of Biblical Law.
Based on what types they are this is how we deal with law in our
lives. First of all there’s the moral law. These are the Ten Commandments. This is a universal law that is actually
true, good and right all the time. Even
people who don’t have any Christian faith, who don’t have any reference or
knowledge to God, people know. There’s a
certain morality to being human and living in this world that’s very
important. They don’t get all the Ten
Commandments quite right, but we all generally know it’s not right to kill, it’s
not right to steal, it’s not right to lie.
Even people who don’t know God know that those are good moral laws to
obey. Jesus told us and showed us that
moral law is best expressed in love. A
loving God and by loving one another, we will keep the moral law—even without
trying so hard. It kind of fits us well
as God’s people.
Then in the Bible there were civil-political laws. Civil-political laws were laws that pertained
to the nation of Israel. And as long as
the nation of Israel remained a sovereign nation, with its rules and
regulations, those laws applied. We have
local laws. We have speed limit
laws. We have traffic regulations. We have city ordinances. We even have neighborhood covenants and
agreements with how we want to live in our locality. Now, some of those civil-political laws in
the Old Testament were kind of strange.
Some of them were really goofy.
But, they were nonetheless local laws.
We have some strange local laws.
Did you know that it is still to this day illegal to provide alcoholic
beverages in Alaska to the moose population?
Go figure! You don’t want to have
a bunch of drunken moose out there. So
they actually have a law that you can’t let moose drink in Alaska. In Atlanta it is illegal to give monkeys
cigarettes. I suppose at the zoo people were
getting a kick out of the monkey that smokes.
But they passed a law that you can’t do this with our monkeys in Atlanta. And in those localities those laws can and
should be enforced, even if they’re goofy.
They make sense maybe for that local area.
Then there’s a third kind of law
and that is a ceremonial law. Ceremonial laws are laws and customs that
pointed to the Messiah—that pointed to a spiritual truth that was taught or
acted out in fulfilling the requirements of ceremonial law. Now, we’re told in the Bible that the moral
law is a good law to obey—to show our love for one another, and our love for
God. Jesus spoke very highly of keeping
the law by way of loving one another. He
was real clear about that. So moral law
is something we can’t just discard. It’s
very important that we have the moral law to live in a good relationship with
one another. We still have
civil-political laws. If you go ninety
miles an hour down I-94 you are in jeopardy of getting a ticket. That’s against the law. Sure your car can go that fast, but we all
agree you can’t go ninety miles an hour on I-94. So we still follow those laws and do so
unwillingly, because we want to be good citizens. We even still have some ceremonial laws. Jesus said, “Do this in remembrance of me,”
and so we do celebrate the Lord’s Supper.
The problem that legalists have
and the problem with legalitis is when we add to these laws more and more--kind
of like the Pharisees did. Legalists
say, “We have rules here! Even if they’re unbearable or way beyond crazy,
keeping them outwardly gives a sense of moral superiority. A legalist doesn’t
mind adding laws to our rule book. Many
ceremonies and rituals have no clear cut command or bases in Scripture. That’s why it’s important in this Lenten
season that we look deep within us and ask the Lord, “Is there any little bit
of Pharisee in me? Any bit in me that
needs correction, please help me Lord Jesus.”
Laws are good and all three of
these types of laws are around today. We
don’t just throw them out. But here’s
what the danger is: False religions teach salvation through life and conduct that
follows the rules. False
religions actually attach salvation to it.
False teachers teach that following the Commandments will gain you
greater love from God. That’s not
possible. God loves us and he’s loved us
with a perfect, holy love. Well, laws
and rules being what they are a legalist or someone with legalitis reacts
differently to laws then someone who is grace-based, who understands that our
freedom and salvation comes only by the gift of God’s grace. I’d like to look at these two sides of the
coin. Someone with legalitis sees the
law as something to strive for, and so there’s lots of striving for good behavior.
There’s real discouragement when there’s a moral failure or mistake
that’s made, and the striving has to be increased. I remember one time I was talking to a friend
and we were talking about the difficulties of living a straight, godly,
wonderful life with no hint of disobedience.
He said, “Mark, the problem is that we have to quit striving and start
repenting.” I thought, “Yes, there it
is. That’s the truth.” But it’s so hard for someone who has a little
legalistic bent in them to say, “All right, I’ll stop striving, and start
repenting.”
On the grace side we thrive on grace and peace to
follow the Lord and to say, “Thank you Lord, for forgiving my sins. Thank you for helping me in my striving to
draw closer to you and to find real and abundant life. Legalitis
brings with it a curse. It
seems like a curse. Who would want to
join a church that seems to just put a heavy curse on you—a difficult way of
living? Instead, on the grace side
we have a connection instead of a curse. We have a relationship with God through the
Lord Jesus Christ. The Pharisees were known for the heavy yoke. It was place upon their adherence. Jesus
said, “I have an easy yoke that fits well. It’s right for you.” When people emphasize the law, when they have
legalitis, they tend to avoid
God. They tend to run and hide when
their deeds are exposed. But people who
understand the love and grace of God know that they desire him, and they want to be close to him. They want to draw near.
Legalists and people with legalitis are often fruitless. They don’t have those things that we call the
“fruit of the spirit”—love, joy, peace, patience, goodness, kindness, faithful,
humility, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. But
those whose lives are marked by grace are fruitful. Romans 3 says this: “We know that whatever the law says it says
to those who are under the law. So that
every mouth be silenced in the whole world and held accountable to God. Therefore, no one will be declared righteous
in his sight by observing the law, rather through the law we’ve become
conscious of sin. But now righteousness
from God, apart from the law has been made known to which the law and prophets
testified. This righteousness from God
comes through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe. There is no difference for all have sinned
and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified freely by his grace
through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus.”
Ephesians 2:8 says, “It is by
grace you have been saved through faith; and this is not of yourselves it is the
gift of God, not by works, so that no one can boast.” We tend to struggle toward wanting to fulfill
the requirements of the law when God is calling us to trust in Jesus.
I have some shoes to show
you. They are actually shoes that you
have time to purchase right now if you go to e-bay. You can buy these shoes, (and they are used,)
but you can buy it now for $999.99! They
were once owned and worn by Liberace himself.
You still have time so you don’t need to leave the service to get to
your computer. Unbelievable! Here’s a clump of hair from the barber
shop. It sold from $115,000.00 a few
years back because it came off of Elvis Presley’s head. This jar of air sold for over $500.00,
because this jar of air has the breath, the breath of Brad Pitt. Here’s a Kleenex that sold for around
$4,000.00, used Kleenex. That’s right,
Scarlet Johansson blew her nose in it!
This one really gets me going here.
Used chewing gum! But it was
chewed by Britney Spears and sold for $14,000.00. Don’t you love a celebrity auction? This door knob sold for $1140.00. The wooden hanger sold for $780.00 simply
because they came from the home and the estate of Marilyn Monroe.
A legalist places value on how
well you behave and follow the rules. They see the quality someone’s virtue. God values us because we’ve been touched by
Jesus. The celebrity auction stuff is
just plain and ordinary. The quality is
Christ. While we are still sinners,
though we deserve his condemnation and wrath, God sees us in light of the fact
that Jesus has touched us with his healing grace. He’s bled and died on the cross to take away
our sins. We are not saved by works of
the law. In fact, in Christ faith is our only obligation. That’s it.
Faith is the only obligation we have to God. To trust him, to believe what he says is very
true. The rest of God’s law is
celebration. It’s wonderful to love our
neighbors. It’s wonderful to love God
and to let that love drive the way we behave toward others. We all need a pharisectomy from time to
time. We all need to let Jesus touch us,
and put the value in our lives not because we’re so holy but because he’s so
holy. It’s that righteousness that comes
from God apart from works of the law.
Here at Berea we want to teach grace over and over and over again so
that we know God’s freedom, so that we have hope and joy.
Let’s pray: Gracious God, thank you so much for giving us
your Word. Thank you for setting us free
from strict obedience to the law. Instead
Lord, you’ve given us grace through Jesus.
You’ve made us righteous apart from the law, and now Lord you bid us to
love you and to love one another in such a way that the law is not a heavy
burden but a light one. Not a curse but
a connection. We thank you Gracious Lord
for rooting out that inner Pharisee in us.
We confess that we have been legalistic far too often in our lives. Thank you for setting us free in Jesus. Help us to fulfill that only obligation to
trust in him with the fullness of our hearts.
In his Holy name we pray, Amen.
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