Love and Good Deeds

When JPC was founded 145 years ago, the architect was instructed to ensure that the Ten Commandments were inscribed on the wall at the East End of the church by the communion table. 145 years ago, every Anglican, and not just people at Jesmond Parish Church who were committed to "sound scriptural and evangelical truth", were reminded of the Ten Commandments at every service of Holy Communion. How different things are today! A recent opinion poll found that of those aged 15-24 nearly half could not cite a single one of the Ten Commandments, with nearly 1 in 10 never having heard of them. Today for many the Ten Commandments are felt to be entirely irrelevant.

But our founders were clear - the Ten Commandments were not just for the old, or the Old Testament, but everyone. Let me remind you of that Article I read out earlier (in the modern language version) - Article VII:

The Old Testament does not contradict the New: for in both eternal life is offered to mankind by Christ, who is the only Mediator between God and man, being himself both God and man.

Then it went on:

The law given from God by Moses is not binding on Christians as far as ceremonial is concerned, nor are its provisions for the nation necessarily binding on modern governments; but all Christians must obey the commands which refer to right and wrong doing [or as the original version put it, "the Commandments which are called moral.]

And you have a summary of those "Commandments ... called moral" in the Ten Commandments in Exodus chapter 20.

To make sure we remind ourselves and think about these Commandments, we are planning to look at them, one by one, in the mornings of this session, and then again, God willing, in the mornings this time next year. So what I am wanting to say this morning is something by way of introduction.

To help us I want us to look at verse 24 of Hebrews chapter 10 - from our New Testament reading. That verse - (Hebrews 10 verse 24) - says:

let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds.

And my headings for this morning are in the form of two questions: first, WHY SHOULD WE SPUR ONE ANOTHER ON TOWARD LOVE AND GOOD DEEDS? and, secondly, HOW CAN WE SPUR ONE ANOTHER ON TOWARD LOVE AND GOOD DEEDS?


First, then, WHY SHOULD WE SPUR ONE ANOTHER ON TOWARD LOVE AND GOOD DEEDS?

Let me give you three answers (there are, of course, more).

First, because there is great confusion today over what love and good deeds are. Yes, today many still say, as the Beatles once sang, "all you need is love". And, yes, according to the Bible that is true. Paul in Romans 13 verse 10 was wanting to summarize God's law and the Ten Commandments. After listing some of them, he followed Jesus and quoted from the Old Testament and Leviticus 19 verse 18. He said that all the commandments ...

... are summed up in this one rule: 'Love your neighbour as yourself.' Love does no harm to its neighbour. Therefore love is the fulfilment of the law."

So fulfilling the commandments in their literal sense, and in all they imply, is what love means in practice. But many today want love while ignoring the commandments. And there is confusion over "what is good?" as well as over what is "love".

In the "post-modern" world people say that nothing is absolutely good or absolutely bad - morally speaking. It may be good or bad for you, but that doesn't mean it is good or bad for anyone else. So there is confusion. At the end of December we witnessed in this Parish, at the Civic Centre, and around the country elsewhere, not only the allowing but the celebrating of what God forbids (and so what is bad) - namely the registering of Civil Partnerships of same sex couples in de facto marriages. The Bible outlaws these relationships. Yet they are now legal and entwined with marriage law in this country. That is why in the Banns and in the Marriage registers we now have to call people "single" and not "bachelor" or "spinster". Such is the confusion you can now be a bachelor or a spinster yet prohibited from marriage - that is because you are in a "civil partnership".

But it is possible to overturn new legislation. This year is the 150th anniversary of the death, in 1856, of Richard Clayton - that great evangelical leader in Newcastle in the first half of the 19th century and in whose memory this church was founded. How we should thank God for his life!

Also this year is the 100th anniversary of the death, in 1906, of Josephine Butler, another great North East Christian - this time from the second half of the 19th century. She died in Wooler after making it her life-time work to overturn another iniquitous piece of legislation, the Contagious Diseases Act of 1864 plus the Acts of 1866 and 1869. These legalized prostitution and so demeaned women, but did not reduce sexually transmitted diseases as had been hoped. However, seventeen years later, after huge effort and even physical attacks, in 1886, she saw the repeal of these Acts and is now a hero. Pray, therefore, for the overturning or radical emendment of the Civil Partnerships Act - and work to that end, as and when you can.

That then is one reason why we need to spur one another on - because there is confusion about what is loving and good; and Christians can be caught up in the confusion, if they are not careful.

Secondly, we need to spur one another on toward love and good deeds because there is a moral law. You see, we do have consciences and the moral law lies behind the universal phenomenon of the human conscience. Yes, the Bible says consciences can be weak or even corrupted as well as good. Nevertheless people are aware of this moral law. And the good news is that you can be cleansed "from a guilty conscience." So says Hebrews 10 verse 22 and as we can see inscribed on our galleries.

C.S.Lewis is now famous from the film the Chronicles of Narnia - the Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. Until now he has been more famous for his book Mere Christianity. The book is a collection of four small booklets, with the first one entitled, Right and Wrong as a Clue to the Meaning of the Universe with its first chapter, The Law of Human Nature. Near the beginning Lewis says this:

"If anyone will take the trouble to compare the moral teachings of, say, the ancient Egyptians, Babylonians, Hindus, Chinese, Greeks and Romans, what will really strike them will be how very like they are to each other and to our own ... I need only ask the reader to think what a totally different morality would mean. Think of a country where people were admired for running away in battle, or where a man felt proud of double-crossing all the people who had been kindest to him ... Men have differed as regards what people you ought to be unselfish to - whether it was only your own family, or your fellow countrymen or every one. But ... selfishness has never been admired."

So however faded, there is an awareness of a fundamental moral law or a moral structure to the universe. This seems to be what Paul teaches in Romans 1 and certainly in Romans 2 verses 14 and 15. He is there talking of pagan people - the Gentiles - who have never heard God's word preached or taught. And he says this:

when Gentiles, who do not have the law, do by nature things required by the law, they are a law for themselves, even though they do not have the law, since they show that the requirements of the law are written on their hearts, their consciences also bearing witness.

What then does all this mean? It means that if there is a moral law, of course, you are free to break it - and people do break. Indeed, we all break God's law. But it means that you break God's law to your peril. It's like breaking a physical law. Someone could say: "I don't believe in the law of gravity so I am going to ignore it." That is just foolish and the way to disaster.

So because there is a moral law we need to spur one another on toward love and good deeds - that is the second reason.

Thirdly, we must spur one another on towards love and good deeds because they are reflections of God's holiness, love and goodness. What makes something loving or good? Is it simply human beings agreeing and then God, so to speak, blessing what they choose? Of course not. But that is what millions think today.

So if enough people think that Civil Partnerships are loving and good, that determines it - certainly once it has been ratified by Parliament and enshrined in human law. How wrong can you get! State laws are subject to a higher law - that was the reason for the Nuremberg trials at the end of the Nazi period. There was then a world-wide conviction that some things are absolutely good and right while others are absolutely bad and wrong - irrespective of legal enactments. Today that is often forgotten. But if consensus doesn't make something good, what does? That was something Jesus raised with the Rich Young Man in Mark 10 verses 18-19:

Why do you call me good?' Jesus answered. 'No one is good - except God alone." You know the commandments: "Do not murder, do not commit adultery, do not steal, do not give false testimony, do not defraud, honour your father and mother."

Jesus is defining goodness in terms of God himself and then in terms of the Ten Commandments - for those commandments all reflect, in some way, God and his nature. The fundamental answer, therefore, to the question what makes something loving and good is being like our God himself who is love and is good. And because we are told in Genesis 1.27 that we are created in the image of God, that is why, to be fulfilled as a human being, you need to be loving and good yourself. So we are to spur one another on toward love and good deeds because they reflect the will and the nature of our God.

But you say, "How can we be sure what God is really like? There are so many ideas about spirituality and the divine in today's world?" Hebrews is crystal clear. The opening words of this letter are these - chapter 1 verses 1-3:

In the past God spoke to our forefathers through the prophets at many times and in various ways, but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son ... The Son is the radiance of God's glory and the exact representation of his being.

God has revealed to us what he is like. On the one hand, he has spoken through the prophets of the Old Testament; and Moses, who gave us the Ten Commandments, was one of these prophets. On the other hand, supremely he has spoken through, and revealed himself in, Jesus Christ. Do you want to know what God is like? Then look to Jesus who is "the radiance of God's glory and the exact representation of his being." Jesus is our great example of what it is to be loving and good. So let me recap.

Why, then, should we spur one another on toward love and good deeds? One, because there is confusion about love and good deeds today. Two, because there is a moral law and something that is loving and is good - not all is relative. And, three, because that moral law and those loving and good deeds reflect God's holiness and goodness. So much for "why"?


Secondly, and more briefly, HOW CAN WE SPUR ONE ANOTHER ON TOWARD LOVE AND GOOD DEEDS?

How did those early believers who first received the Ten Commandments in Old Testament times spur one another on? How did they manage to live according to God's moral law? Answer: not very well.

The Old Testament is a book, in one sense, of failures. That is why you need the New Testament and the good news that Jesus brought. You see, Jesus told us that he came to fulfil the law - listen to Matthew 5.17:

Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfil them.

He fulfilled the ceremonial law by his death on the Cross. That is why Article VII says that today the ceremonial law is not binding. That is one of the key messages of this epistle. Hebrews 10 verse 18 says, "there is no longer any sacrifice for sin." And Jesus fulfilled the political law in showing the fullness of God's kingdom. It was no longer limited to the nation of Israel but it was to spread throughout all the nations of the world where men and women believed in Jesus Christ. But how did Jesus fulfil the moral law? Well, first, he lived a sinless and morally perfect life. Secondly, by his death, being sinless, he bore the punishment you and I deserve. Then, thirdly, by his resurrection to new life and his ascension to heaven to rule and reign, and to send the Holy Spirit, he has helped us to grow in godliness and holiness. And that is good news.

The trouble with the Old Testament era was that the law was able to show you what was wrong. But it could not do much more. In that sense it was a bit like a torch.

Last week I was away for a few days in the country. The snow was still lying around and it was icy. After dark I was walking with my son down a dark lane, fortunately with a torch. The torch showed me how icy it was. It was essential. But I still slipped at one point, and would have fallen, unless I had been grabbed and remained upright. That torch, like the law, was necessary and helpful in showing me the facts. But it had no power to stop me from slipping. A torch can show you the ice. But it is not a hand to steady you.

The good news is that there is now more than the law. There is a new power that has come with Christ and the giving of the Holy Spirit. This, too, is one of the key messages of Hebrews. Look at chapter 10 verses 16-18 - a quotation from the prophet Jeremiah:

This is the covenant I will make with them after that time, says the Lord. I will put my laws in their hearts, and I will write them on their minds." Then he adds: "Their sins and lawless acts I will remember no more."

And where these have been forgiven, there is no longer any sacrifice for sin.
With Christ there is a new power through the Holy Spirit and a new forgiveness through the cross. But notice that there is no rewriting of the laws - the spiritual and moral laws of God. What you have in the New Covenant (or the "New Testament") is not a rewriting but a relocating of those laws - from outside to inside. Ezekiel - another Old Testament prophet - had said something similar. He put it like this in Ezekiel chapter 36.27:

I will put my Spirit in you and move you to follow my decrees and be careful to keep my laws.

God is now, with the coming of Christ and the giving of the Holy Spirit, taking the initiative to help you obey and to empower you for those loving and good deeds. Paul puts it in Philippians 2.13 like this:

for it is God who works in you to will and to act according to his good purpose.

True, sometimes (or often) you still don't act as you should. So you still need to seek forgiveness. But there is now a new will to act and you are genuinely repentant when you fail. (Read Romans 7 and then Romans 8 later for how that works out.)

So those Ten Commandments and all they mean - and Jesus teaches you what they mean - are still vital for today. They give you guidance on what is right and wrong and, in practical terms, what reflects the character of God. By themselves they are depressing, when you fail. But the good news or "gospel" is that there is now not only forgiveness but new power and so hope.


I must conclude.

Who needs to experience the forgiveness of God and the power of the Holy Spirit this morning?

Well, by faith, trust Christ. And thank him that (as Hebrews says and is written on the galleries) "the blood of Jesus" means that "a new and living way [is] opened up" and by faith you can "draw near to God". You can then "receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need" (Heb 4.16). And then as you receive strength and power from him, by his Holy Spirit, you can grow in "love and good deeds" and also spur others on to "love and good deeds".