How to Be a Human Being - Delight

One summer we were visiting my brother and his family up in Illinois. We thought it would be fun to play a little wiffle ball. So we split our families and our young children into teams. We started with the rules of baseball but then had the idea that every time someone got a hit, they could make up a new rule. We called it Silly Ball. Like, if you got a hit you could tell the pitcher they had to throw left handed. Or the outfielders had to dance like monkeys. Or everybody had to spin three times in a circle. How do you think that game ended up? At first it was fun. But we have some pretty competitive people in our family—it didn’t take long before no one could remember all the stupid rules and nobody had any idea what was going on. Eventually it just became a bizarre nightmare. How do you win a game when the rules keep changing? Sometimes someone wouldn’t want to do some silly thing and feelings would get hurt or someone would get mad. “Hey, I stood on my head when you said so. The least you can do is three somersaults in the gravel for me!” It started out with laughter but the whole thing ended in tears. It started as Silly Ball but ended up being one of Dante’s levels of hell. 

Playing a game but ignoring the rules is no fun for anyone. Making up the rules as you go is chaos. 

In this series we’ve been talking about how to be a human being. We’ve been looking at the Ten Commandments—God’s absolute standard for how to live a life that makes sense. 

I think a lot of people approach life like Silly Ball. They make up the rules as they go. They do whatever seems right to them. If they get a “hit”—when things go well for them—they think they can do whatever they want. Life becomes chaotic and meaningless. 

But God gave us the rules of the game. The instructions for life. In the Bible, when you see the word “Law” it’s usually the word “Torah.” Torah means instruction.

There are a bunch of Psalms that talk about these instructions. Psalm 1, Psalm 19, and Psalm 119 are called “Torah Psalms” because they teach us how to praise God for the clear instructions He gives us in the commandments.

Psalm 1, which we read earlier, talks about how if we live according to God’s commands, we’re like a tree planted by water. We’ll grow strong, have deep roots and bear fruit. It also says that to ignore God’s commands, and listen to the worldly advice of the wicked, will lead to drying up, dying and blowing away in the wind.

Psalm 19:7-11 talks about delighting in God’s commands, it says: 

“The law of the Lord is perfect,

    refreshing the soul.

The statutes of the Lord are trustworthy,

    making wise the simple.

The precepts of the Lord are right,

    giving joy to the heart.

The commands of the Lord are radiant,

    giving light to the eyes.

The fear of the Lord is pure,

    enduring forever.

The decrees of the Lord are firm,

    and all of them are righteous.

They are more precious than gold,

    than much pure gold;

they are sweeter than honey,

    than honey from the honeycomb.”

Basically, God’s Torah is perfect, it’s sure, it’s upright, it’s pure, clean, true. It restores the soul, makes us wise, makes our heart glad.

Is this how we usually think of the rules God gave us? What He’s told us to do and not to do—We think of them as sweeter than honey? More precious than gold?

Not really. These are the things that God says are sin. You shall have no other gods. Worship Him alone. Go to church every week. Honor your parents. Don’t steal, cheat, lie, murder, have sex outside of marriage, don’t envy and covet things that don’t belong to you. Most people think of these as a drag. Burdens. Drudgeries. Something imposed on them. Right?

But God says the wise will delight in them. Not fools. Fools will argue with God and try to get away with as much as they can. And the wicked, they’ll turn them all around—reverse them, and call the wrong way the better way. Have as many gods as you want, it doesn’t matter what you believe in as long as you believe in something. You don’t need to go to church or worship God. There’s not one truth, there’s your truth and my truth. What is truth, anyway? You don’t have to honor your parents. You don’t have to honor anyone. Not parents, not teachers, not pastors, or presidents—no one. Have sex with anyone, anytime you feel like it. If it feels good, do it. This is the way of the world. They invent new ways of sinning. They make up their own rules. It’s not cheating if there aren’t any rules. Everyone’s playing Silly Ball but no one’s having any fun. That’s why the world’s full of divorce, depression, anger. No one is satisfied. People live as if nothing matters. It’s the way of the wicked. 

It doesn’t start that way. Sin always starts off as fun and exciting. But it always goes bad. Eventually it gets boring and tiresome. You need more and more shocking things to keep it interesting. Do increasingly worse things to get the same effect. It eventually kills all joy, destroys all your relationships, ruins your health, and robs you of any peace. 

The whole point of today’s message is this: Obeying God is not a drag. Delighting in God’s commands is the only path to a happy life.

One time I went to IKEA and bought Angel a bed. You know how their instructions don’t have any words? Just numbered illustrations for how to put it together? Well, I didn’t need no stinking instructions. I know what a bed is! I just started putting it together, and it was going just fine. I’m my own man! I’m one of the smart ones! 

I was almost finished when I saw the problem. The brackets that held the mattress should have been slid into place before I put the frame together. I was going to have to take the whole thing apart and start over.

There is a way that seems right to a man but in the end is death. Or at least the humiliation of taking IKEA furniture back apart and learning a lesson the hard way.

Psalm 119 is the longest chapter in the whole Bible. 176 verses. It takes about 20 minutes to read it—here, let me show you, I’ll read it for you…

I should. It’s very powerful. Quite beautiful, too. You’d recognize at least one verse because we sang it this morning: “Thy Word is a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my path.” 

Verse 93 says,

“If your law had not been my delight,

   I would have perished in my affliction.”

That’s not an exaggeration. If we don’t delight in God’s Law, then we’ll be destroyed by the problems and sin in our life. 

Psalm 119 uses a bunch of words that are pretty much synonyms for how we’re to think of God’s commands. Sayings, words, statutes, commandments, judgements, testimonies, precepts, and instruction. These are all Torah. We are to delight in these things. Listen to God’s instructions and delight in them.

If you’re not going to listen to God, then who are you going to listen to? Who are you going to believe? Who are you going to trust?

Most people would say they’re going to listen to their heart. Really? You going to trust yourself? Go ahead, see how that works out for you. God says your heart is wicked above all things. I wouldn’t trust my heart to tell me which way my nose is pointing. 

The truth is, you’re either going to listen to what God has told you, or you’re going to listen to the wickedness of the world. The twisted backwards lies and deception of the spirit of the age. You can call it “your heart” if you want. Same thing. The lies of the world and your heart will lead to darkness and death. It’s only the goodness of God’s Commandments that lead to life.

You already know this. How many of the terrible things that have happened in your life or the life of people you know happened because God’s commandments were broken? How many people have gone into debt because they bought things they couldn’t afford based on envy and coveting? How many relationships have been ruined because of lies? How many people have lost jobs or gone to jail because they stole or cheated? How many marriages have been destroyed because of unfaithfulness? How much hatred is in the world because of slander and violence and murder? Daddy issues, mommy issues, problems with authority—all because people don’t honor their parents. People lose their faith and their sanity because they don’t remember to keep a day holy unto the Lord—the church has to actually gather to be the church. How many people despise Jesus because His people have not kept His name holy. All the terrible things in the world happen for one basic reason: people worship something else rather than God. 

That list—it was just walking through the Ten Commandments in reverse. They’re commandments, not suggestions. When we break those absolute moral standards of reality, given to us by the same God who created us and every aspect of how life works—when we break them, we break everything.

This is all common sense. Too bad common sense isn’t common practice.

You don’t get points for knowing God’s word and not keeping it. You don’t get points for having a Bible setting prominently on a shelf in your home. 

God’s Word tells us what He expects from us. What a human life is supposed to look like. How we’re supposed to order our lives. How we’re supposed to see reality. How to govern society. How to worship. How to conduct war. How to parent our children. How to handle disputes. How to deal with disease. Marriages. Sexuality. Friendships. Relationships at work, and school, and anywhere else. Every aspect of our lives. Nothing is too small. Nothing is too big.

It’s all because He loves us—these things are good for us. Obeying God is not a drag. Delighting in God’s commands is the only path to a life that makes sense.

God wants a glad hearted, thankful response to His instructions for us. Not a slavish, reluctant obedience. 

The only way to do this is by remembering that first of all, above everything else, He is the God who loves us and saves us. He wants good things for us.

Delighting in God’s law doesn’t mean perfectly keeping it. We’re not going to do that. The standard of the law is too high. 

That’s why when God gave the Ten Commandments, He also gave the sacrificial system for the forgiveness of sins and instructions for worship and being thankful and praying—He gave these things at the same time. It’s not a coincidence. He knew the people were going to need to be cleansed from their sin constantly. Reminded of His love. That’s the heart of God. That’s mercy.

He basically said, “This is how you shall live your life. Walk in this direction. But every week, if not every day, you’re going to need to turn away from sin and failure, turn around, repent, and come back to me. Turn back to the Lord who loves you and wants to forgive you and put you back on the right path.”

That was the plan. Walk toward holiness. Be a certain kind of people, and when they blew it, they were supposed to turn around, come back to grace and mercy and forgiveness.

But they didn’t. They wandered off into sin. Full speed ahead. Did whatever they wanted to do. Shipwrecked their lives, and couldn’t be bothered to come back to the Lord and repent. This happened over and over and over. Generation after generation.

God told them what He wanted. They failed to do it. He offered them forgiveness, they refused to take Him up on it.

This is where Jesus comes into the picture. Jesus is the fulfillment of the Old Testament promise of an obedient and faithful Israel. You might not have thought about it this way before, but Jesus is Israel condensed to one faithful man. The Gospel of Matthew retells the story of Israel through the life of Jesus. The Messiah is the Son of God who was called out of Egypt, wandered in the wilderness, and lived a life of perfect obedience to God the Father. It’s on the basis of Jesus’ perfect obedience to the Torah, the commands of God, that Christians are baptized into Christ and connected to Him—we get His righteousness. The church, the ones who are called out of the world and gathered in the name of Jesus, are considered to be obedient Israel. 

That’s why you want to be in the church. The body of Christ. The chosen holy people of God. 

You don’t have to keep God’s commandments perfectly to be considered holy in God’s sight. You are saved by grace through faith, not by works—at least not by your works. You’re saved by the works of Jesus Christ.

We call that being justified. You are saved from the consequences of your sins. Justified: just as if I had never sinned. Your sins aren’t going to be hung around your neck as you’re thrown into death, hell and the grave. Because you believe in Jesus, because you’re connected to Him, by His grace and mercy you get eternal life and peace—instead of death, hell and the grave. That’s the promised blessing that comes by faith in Jesus.

But there’s another blessing, and it’s for the here and now. The New Way of Life is A Blessing It’s the new way of life for everyone who follows Jesus. It’s a gift to all Christians and a gift to everyone in their life.

You’re not only forgiven and adopted into God’s family, brought into His kingdom based on faith—saved, justified—you are also given direction and instruction on how to live as a faithful son or daughter or citizen of the kingdom of heaven. 

What’s the summary of the law of God? It’s love.

How do we know what love looks like? Study the law of God.

The two tablets of stone, hand written by God and given to Moses. The first tablet tells us how to love and worship God. The second tablet tells us how to love and serve our neighbor.

This is why Obeying God is not a drag. Delighting in God’s commands is the only path to a life filled with love.

I’m not talking about some kind of legalistic bondage to earn brownie points with God.

I’m talking about the joy of obedience. The goodness and blessing of the law.

God’s commandments are His will for you. They are good for you and they’re good for the world. Real joy, real peace comes from the daily adventure of thankful obedience and service to Jesus.

I’ll wrap up with this. 

Ephesian 2:1-10 says this about the new joyful life that God has given you:

“Once you were dead because of your disobedience and your many sins. You used to live in sin, just like the rest of the world, obeying the devil—the commander of the powers in the unseen world. He is the spirit at work in the hearts of those who refuse to obey God. All of us used to live that way, following the passionate desires and inclinations of our sinful nature. (our heart) By our very nature we were subject to God’s anger, just like everyone else.

But God is so rich in mercy, and he loved us so much, that even though we were dead because of our sins, he gave us life when he raised Christ from the dead. (It is only by God’s grace that you have been saved!) For he raised us from the dead along with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms because we are united with Christ Jesus. ...

God saved you by his grace when you believed. And you can’t take credit for this; it is a gift from God. Salvation is not a reward for the good things we have done, so none of us can boast about it. For we are God’s masterpiece. (He’s the one at work in us and through us). He has created us anew in Christ Jesus, so we can do the good things he planned for us long ago.”

Stop playing Silly Ball. Pick up those instructions and study them closely or you’ll just have to take everything apart and start over. 

Like it says in Psalm 1: 

Do not follow the advice of the wicked,

    or stand with sinners,

    or join in with mockers.

But delight in the law of the Lord,

    meditate on it day and night.

Be like trees planted along the riverbank,

    bearing fruit each season.

Your leaves will never wither,

    and you will prosper in all you do.

Delighting in God’s commands is the only path to a happy life. AMEN