You know, one of the key questions we ask ourselves is, how does true and lasting change happen in a person’s life. How can we consistently experience the life of God and live victoriously? We often think that the formation of new habits is what is key to changing who we are. But good habits are the fruit of changed people, not the other way around. It is sort of like saying, “If I can change the fruit in my life that I am producing, I can become a better tree.” Yet Jesus says something truly remarkable in Matth...
You know, one of the key questions we ask ourselves is, how does true and lasting change happen in a person’s life. How can we consistently experience the life of God and live victoriously? We often think that the formation of new habits is what is key to changing who we are. But good habits are the fruit of changed people, not the other way around. It is sort of like saying, “If I can change the fruit in my life that I am producing, I can become a better tree.” Yet Jesus says something truly remarkable in Matthew 12:33 when He says “Make a tree good and its fruit will be good, or make a tree bad and its fruit will be bad, for a tree is recognized by its fruit…”. In other words, the tree must be made good before the fruit can be good. Well, how then do we become good? What is the key to lasting change in our lives? The writer of the Psalms says that rather than conforming to our own picture of who we ought to be, we must seek to conform to the pattern that God has set for us in His Law.
A World-Changing Event-- You know, there are many turning points of history; moments that forever mark us not just individuals, but groups of people. And some are even large enough to mark the human race as a whole. The day man set foot on the moon was (as Neil Armstrong said) not just a small step for man, but a giant leap for all mankind. But I would argue that an even greater leap forward (in a spiritual sense) happened at Sinai in God’s giving mankind one of the greatest revelations of Himself; the Ten Commandments.
A Picture and Promise-- I had a professor in seminary named Matt Friedeman who wrote a number of books, one of which was a catechism for children to teach them the basics of Christianity. And he recounts a dialogue he had had with my uncle Dr. Bill Ury, who is a theologian, author, and minister. And Matt decided to run some of the answers in his catechism by him to make sure they were theologically accurate. And [One of the statements to be memorized defined a commandment as “a law of God.” Simple enough {(he thought)}. {But he says:} I submitted this question and answer to…Dr. Bill Ury, for critique. His edit? He scribbled out my answer and gave this one: “A commandment is a picture of who God is and a promise of what we can become!”
{Matt said} I’ve never looked at a biblical directive in the same way since.]
And that statement has been transformative for me as well. The Law of God was not just a list of rules, but rather was a picture who God is and also a promise of what we can become, not by our own strength but in and through the abiding presence of God’s Holy Spirit in our lives; a presence made possible by His Son Jesus Christ. The Law could not save us; nor could we keep it by our own strength. But in Romans 1:7 we find that …in the gospel the righteousness of God is revealed—a righteousness that is by faith from first to last, just as it is written: “The righteous will live by faith.” And so in and through Jesus came not the abolishing of the Law, but rather His writing that Law on our hearts and empowering us to keep it by faith. Why? Because it is a tree of life.
Now the giving of the Law was a very dramatic and visual thing. When Moses ascended Mount Sinai to receive the Ten Commandments, the Lord was like a burning fire on top of the mountain. And everyone down in the camp saw this fire (Exodus 24:16-18). And so Sinai was the place where God visibly connected with His people in a powerful way; and it amazing to think about how much of history has been shaped; how many codes of law have been written (including our own justice system) based upon these Ten Commandments, which have cut right to the heart of our spiritual problem and provided instruction for how to experience the righteous and true justice of God in our world. So this event was (in so many ways) earth-shattering.
A People Forever Marked-- Imagine being a Jew and witnessing all this visual manifestation of the presence of God; and then to carry with you a reminder of that encounter in the ark of the covenant, the Ten Commandments. By this experience you were forever marked by God as different from the other nations and were therefore committed to living a life that was different; by a code that was different; as you followed a God who was (in so many ways) different from the gods of any other people or nation. And these commandments encompass every area of human life.
Psalm 1:1 (ESV)-- 1 Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the wicked,
nor stands in the way of sinners, nor sits in the seat of scoffers;
Blessed-- And this word “blessed” refers to the joy and satisfaction that comes when we know that we are right with God. They are a delight to the person who walks in them. It says in verse 2…
Psalm 1:2-3 (ESV)-- 2 but his delight is in the law[b] of the Lord, and on his law he meditates day and night. 3 He is like a tree planted by streams of water that yields its fruit in its season, and its leaf does not wither. In all that he does, he prospers.
Absolute Truth-- You know, the concept of truth is very important to us as Christians. We cannot say that what is true for you may not be true for me because truth is not relative. It is absolute. And not only is it absolute, but it is personal. God Himself is Truth and the source of Truth. And the moment we turn from Him, we will find ourselves in the darkness of falsehood. There is a right way; and because of that there is also a wrong way. You know, I found out just recently where our word “true” comes from. I was reading a theologian who himself discovered it only later in life. He say: I was in my sixties before I ever wondered where the word true comes from. {He says} I pulled down my dictionary and found that the word true comes from an old Indo-European word for tree. I was intrigued by the idea that the word truth comes from the word for tree. The more I thought about it, the more it seemed to make perfect sense. Trees do not move. We can count on them to be there every morning when we wake up. Truth is the same way. We can count on it. It will not deceive us. It will not give us one face today and another tomorrow. The best news of all is that Jesus Christ is true. He is absolutely, totally reliable and faithful. And when our lives are ordered by him, we stay in reality, and we walk in truth.]
Psalm 1:3-5 (ESV)-- 3 He is like a tree planted by streams of water that yields its fruit in its season, and its leaf does not wither. In all that he does, he prospers. 4 The wicked are not so, but are like chaff that the wind drives away. 5 Therefore the wicked will not stand in the judgment, nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous;
The Chaff-- Now this was an image from ordinary everyday agricultural life. [Chaff, the dried husks surrounding the kernels, has to be separated from the grain by winnowing so it can blow away (35: 5; Is 17: 13; Mt 3: 12).] But it is light, flaky, and easily destroyed. It stands in stark contrast to the tree, which not only remains, but remains strong and healthy and even produces fruit. Chaff produces nothing. A tree rooted in the stream will. In fact, the person here described as righteous [(tsaddiq) refers to a member of the covenant who seeks to live righteously;] and because of that is known by God. As it says in…
Psalm 1:6 (ESV)-- 6 for the Lord knows the way of the righteous, but the way of the wicked will perish.
Who God Doesn’t Know-- Now if I were to tell you that there are things God doesn’t know, you would probably look at me kind of strange. Why? Because God is omniscient. He knows everything. But then what do we do with passages like this, where God seems to be saying He doesn’t know the way of the wicked person. Or (even more explicitly) passages like…
Matthew 7:21-23 (ESV)-- 21 “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. 22 On that day many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?’ 23 And then will I declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.’
Relational “Yada”-- Does this mean when the unsaved get to heaven, Jesus isn’t going to know who they are? No. You see in Hebrew, the word “know” (“yada”) is a relational word. It is the same word used to describe Adam and Eve’s knowing of one another; becoming one flesh. And so what the Psalmist (and Jesus) is saying is that if we don’t have a relationship with the One who is Truth and aren’t walking in the righteousness that relationship with God produces, we neither have a relationship with Christ on earth nor will we suddenly have one in heaven. For us to be known by Him there, we must know Him here and abide in Him. Because He is the fulfillment of the Law. He is that stream of Living Water.
Trees in Israel-- Some time ago a gentleman asked me why there seems to be so few trees in every picture of Israel he had look at and wanted to know if I had seen many trees during my time there. And certainly there are fewer trees in Israel than in most regions of the United States. Yet I was amazed during my travels to see just how quickly the landscape could change from one moment to the next. You could be going through barren territory one minute and suddenly happen across ground that is rich and fertile the next, with many trees and shrubs. And what was always the case when we happened upon one of these more fertile places was that we were approaching a water source. Because there is so little rain in Israel, plant life is much more dependent upon standing or moving (what is called in scripture “living”) water. They must have those sources of water if they are going to survive. And this is what the Psalmist has in mind when He describes God’s Law as a stream of water. It is not something that just adds a little bit of something to our lives, but rather is the very source of life itself. To think that we could have life without the Law of God is as foolish to think a tree can last without water. And therefore, if we are to have life, we must draw near that stream. And that is the greatest challenge that you and I face in our day to day culture. In the midst of all the noise and busyness, are we seeking out the quiet stream of His presence and spending time with Him in His Word? I find that our chief excuse is always that we don’t have time; that we have so many other important things to do. We don’t have time for that little trickle on the ground. Yet what we have to understand is that our success in those other areas in our lives is dependent upon that trickle. We must choose to anchor all of our lives on that quiet but steady stream. And we will (as the Psalmist says) yield fruit in season.
This morning, I want to encourage you to cast your roots deeply into Him, so that you might experience life, have it abundantly, and bear the fruit of righteousness for His glory.
