WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:06.120 Now, we're going to return to our theme for our morning service. 00:00:06.120 --> 00:00:07.960 We missed out last week. 00:00:07.960 --> 00:00:09.960 We skipped a week. 00:00:09.960 --> 00:00:14.040 And we're going back to the story of the Old Testament. 00:00:14.040 --> 00:00:20.280 And today we're looking at the Ten Words, or the Ten Commandments, as we know them more 00:00:20.280 --> 00:00:23.879 commonly from Exodus chapter 19. 00:00:23.879 --> 00:00:26.839 And we'll maybe look at them in a slightly different way, because we're looking at them 00:00:26.839 --> 00:00:32.880 in the theme, in light of the theme, which is the story of the Old Testament. 00:00:32.880 --> 00:00:37.480 And so we're looking at where they fit in to the Old Testament story, and how they point 00:00:37.480 --> 00:00:41.480 to Jesus, because that's really what we've been finding, and that's what we're looking 00:00:41.480 --> 00:00:45.679 to bring out of the series, is how the Bible comes together. 00:00:45.679 --> 00:00:50.120 It is one book, and the Old Testament points forward to Jesus Christ. 00:00:50.120 --> 00:00:55.039 But it's a huge topic, and it's a hugely significant chapter. 00:00:55.039 --> 00:01:05.000 And for me, it feels like I'm taking that theme, and it's like a 27-course meal, and 00:01:05.000 --> 00:01:08.400 I'm only giving you a toothpick to eat it with. 00:01:08.400 --> 00:01:17.879 So we're really only just beginning to touch on the significance of this chapter, and understand 00:01:17.879 --> 00:01:23.879 it because there's many things, generally about the Old Testament that are difficult, 00:01:23.879 --> 00:01:29.199 to fully understand, and to put it in the context of the Bible. 00:01:29.199 --> 00:01:34.599 But by way of introduction, can we be reminded that the Old Testament, and I'm doing this 00:01:34.599 --> 00:01:40.239 and leading up to looking at the Ten Commandments, the Old Testament is a shadow. 00:01:40.239 --> 00:01:44.759 We saw that a few weeks ago when we were looking at Hebrews chapter 10, and the first verse 00:01:44.759 --> 00:01:51.000 it tells us that the Old Testament and the Law is a shadow of what is to come. 00:01:51.000 --> 00:01:57.359 And we saw that for a shadow to exist, there must be something real to cast a shadow. 00:01:57.359 --> 00:02:02.879 If there's a shadow of this lectern, which is down there, it's because this lectern is 00:02:02.879 --> 00:02:08.800 real and because there's light from up here that's causing the shadow to be cast. 00:02:08.800 --> 00:02:14.599 And so we've seen and we know and we believe that the New Testament sheds light on the 00:02:14.599 --> 00:02:23.079 Old Testament with the light of revelation, and the Old Testament therefore is Christ-shaped 00:02:23.079 --> 00:02:29.919 because the light of the New Testament, it shines from behind as it were, the person 00:02:29.919 --> 00:02:32.439 of Jesus Christ. 00:02:32.439 --> 00:02:35.759 So it's a shadow of what is revealed in the New Testament. 00:02:35.759 --> 00:02:40.879 It is not the fullness of the revelation itself. 00:02:40.879 --> 00:02:49.799 The Old Testament is pointing forward as a shadow to the real thing, to what is causing 00:02:49.799 --> 00:02:52.759 the shadow to be cast. 00:02:52.759 --> 00:02:59.560 But it does teach us about God and it does teach us about ourselves very much so. 00:02:59.560 --> 00:03:07.879 But let's not be or let's be careful not to rip it from its context. 00:03:07.879 --> 00:03:15.879 Never to place it in its rightful place in the Bible where God was progressively revealing 00:03:15.879 --> 00:03:21.199 Himself to His people and place it in its culture and in its time. 00:03:21.199 --> 00:03:23.199 That's important. 00:03:23.199 --> 00:03:25.759 It has its place in God's economy. 00:03:25.759 --> 00:03:30.000 We can never ignore it or just write it off. 00:03:30.000 --> 00:03:37.019 But neither are we Old Testament believers because our experience of Christ and our understanding 00:03:37.020 --> 00:03:44.240 of Christ has taken us out of the shadows into the reality of a relationship with Jesus. 00:03:44.240 --> 00:03:49.879 So what realities do we share with Old Testament believers? 00:03:49.879 --> 00:03:52.640 And then we'll look at maybe what makes us different. 00:03:52.640 --> 00:03:55.360 And I promise I will come around to this chapter. 00:03:55.360 --> 00:03:58.680 What realities do we share with Old Testament believers? 00:03:58.680 --> 00:04:04.240 Well, you know, it seems that when we read much of the Old Testament and even the commandments, 00:04:04.240 --> 00:04:10.840 it seems so far from our understanding, from our lives, from our culture, from our experience. 00:04:10.840 --> 00:04:15.960 Yet there's threads that run all the way through the Old Testament that are vital to grasp 00:04:15.960 --> 00:04:19.680 because it's common to all humanity. 00:04:19.680 --> 00:04:23.480 So we recognize from our understanding and reading of the Old Testament that without 00:04:23.480 --> 00:04:25.840 God we are lost. 00:04:25.840 --> 00:04:30.960 We've seen that in the expulsion from the Garden, from the slavery in Egypt, and to the brokenness 00:04:30.959 --> 00:04:39.519 of loveless, hateful behavior that has been introduced into humanity since the breaking 00:04:39.519 --> 00:04:43.199 of the covenant, since the turn from God. 00:04:43.199 --> 00:04:48.919 So without God, every human being is lost eternally and spiritually. 00:04:48.919 --> 00:04:54.759 We've also seen and we recognize that God makes the first move in redeeming us as a 00:04:54.759 --> 00:04:56.199 humanity and bringing us back. 00:04:56.199 --> 00:05:02.240 We've seen that He's chosen Abraham to live by faith, and the New Testament goes on to 00:05:02.240 --> 00:05:04.399 say that we are children of Abraham. 00:05:04.399 --> 00:05:07.399 He rescues us. 00:05:07.399 --> 00:05:12.719 He rescues his people, as we've seen already from slavery, by his grace and power. 00:05:12.719 --> 00:05:19.800 We saw that in Exodus, chapter 14, that it was God who did this, you know, fear not, 00:05:19.800 --> 00:05:25.399 stand firm, said, all you need to do is be silent because it was God who was going to 00:05:25.399 --> 00:05:27.359 take them out of slavery. 00:05:27.359 --> 00:05:32.639 And the brilliant words in Exodus 19, you yourselves have seen what I did in Egypt, how 00:05:32.639 --> 00:05:37.319 I carried you on eagle's wings and brought you to myself. 00:05:37.319 --> 00:05:42.279 So there's that sense in which is God who makes the first move, it's God who rescues 00:05:42.279 --> 00:05:50.319 them and who rescues us, we as Christians have been carried on eagle's wings. 00:05:50.319 --> 00:05:56.560 We also see that God was with them and is with us. 00:05:56.560 --> 00:05:59.759 He is with his Old Testament people and his New Testament people. 00:05:59.759 --> 00:06:03.719 Then I will dwell among the Israelites and be their God. 00:06:03.719 --> 00:06:05.639 He tabernacled among them. 00:06:05.639 --> 00:06:14.639 He dwell with them, particularly in the holy of holies in the temple and the tabernacle. 00:06:14.639 --> 00:06:21.399 And we've recognized therefore that they are God's people and the commandments were 00:06:21.399 --> 00:06:26.639 given to a people who were already redeemed and saved by God. 00:06:26.639 --> 00:06:33.879 And they reveal more of himself and what it means to love him and to love like him in 00:06:33.879 --> 00:06:38.439 community, in the community of the Old Testament. 00:06:38.439 --> 00:06:44.120 The commandments were never given as a means to reach God, do these things and then I'll 00:06:44.120 --> 00:06:45.120 accept you. 00:06:45.120 --> 00:06:50.480 Remember the first verse he says, I am the Lord your God who brought you out of the land 00:06:50.480 --> 00:06:52.439 of Egypt out of the house of slavery. 00:06:52.439 --> 00:06:55.000 There was already a relationship with them. 00:06:55.000 --> 00:06:57.280 They were already God's people. 00:06:57.280 --> 00:07:03.840 And so the order, this is very important, the order in the Old Testament is grace, God's 00:07:03.840 --> 00:07:10.920 grace first, God's redemption first, then obedience, 10 commandments, then blessing, 00:07:10.920 --> 00:07:12.600 grace, obedience and blessing. 00:07:12.600 --> 00:07:14.760 And that order is the same for us. 00:07:14.760 --> 00:07:17.439 We're saved by God's grace. 00:07:17.439 --> 00:07:24.320 We have new hearts to follow him and obey him and when we do so there's blessing. 00:07:24.320 --> 00:07:29.040 And I think the other reality among many that we share with the Old Testament is the recognition 00:07:29.040 --> 00:07:36.960 that in the Old and the New Testament God is teaching that forgiveness is costly. 00:07:36.960 --> 00:07:41.480 Very much so in the Old Testament, not just with the sacrificial system but with this 00:07:41.480 --> 00:07:47.240 reality of His holiness and the rules they needed to keep to recognize His holiness and 00:07:47.240 --> 00:07:52.960 His hatred of sin and this life for life without shedding of blood and giving the best and 00:07:52.960 --> 00:07:58.240 not the worst from their offering and this recognition of the need to love Him in their 00:07:58.240 --> 00:07:59.879 hearts. 00:07:59.879 --> 00:08:08.280 Forgiveness is costly and that is something we share and not even far more in the New Testament 00:08:08.279 --> 00:08:14.439 where it isn't the blood of bulls and of goats but the blood of God, the Son Himself. 00:08:14.439 --> 00:08:16.119 So we do share realities. 00:08:16.119 --> 00:08:20.719 There is a common thread that runs through the Old Testament but there's also something 00:08:20.719 --> 00:08:25.399 that makes us different from them that leaves them in the shadows and reminds us that we 00:08:25.399 --> 00:08:32.439 are different from Old Testament believers and the way that they understood. 00:08:32.439 --> 00:08:37.120 It's a bit like, and this is difficult, I think this is difficult but what we have is 00:08:37.120 --> 00:08:39.480 shadows in the Old Testament. 00:08:39.480 --> 00:08:44.720 It's a little bit like, the Old Testament is in black and white, the New Testament is 00:08:44.720 --> 00:08:53.080 full technicolor or it's a bit like, I think this is a helpful illustration you might know, 00:08:53.080 --> 00:09:00.879 it's a bit like driving a car with the spare saver wheel that you get in a space saver 00:09:00.879 --> 00:09:01.879 wheel. 00:09:01.879 --> 00:09:06.639 You know, you used to be able to change a tyre and it would be fine that you could use 00:09:06.639 --> 00:09:12.439 a spare tyre for ages but now in cars you quite often get a space-saving spare tyre 00:09:12.439 --> 00:09:17.720 which is very thin and which you're only supposed to drive the car when you've changed 00:09:17.720 --> 00:09:24.199 the wheel at 40 miles an hour until you can get it back to the garage and get the proper 00:09:24.199 --> 00:09:27.840 wheel back on it that's the proper size. 00:09:27.840 --> 00:09:32.039 And it's a little bit sometimes like that, is that in the Old Testament you feel that 00:09:32.039 --> 00:09:41.120 it's not at full power and they're waiting for something better, something to be revealed. 00:09:41.120 --> 00:09:46.199 It's preparatory, it's not the real thing. 00:09:46.199 --> 00:09:49.319 Hope makes them different and we'll see this as we unfold. 00:09:49.319 --> 00:09:57.319 Well it's an ethnic family grouping that became a theocratic state that God was the 00:09:57.320 --> 00:10:03.160 leader of that state for at least part of that time without kings and the laws were 00:10:03.160 --> 00:10:10.560 given, the Ten Commandments and all the subsidiary laws around them were given in that context. 00:10:10.560 --> 00:10:15.920 So there was civil laws, there was ceremonial laws and there was this moral law as well. 00:10:15.920 --> 00:10:20.280 They had a geographical homeland, a physical homeland. 00:10:20.280 --> 00:10:25.680 Sometimes they were used as instruments of God's judgment in a very special way. 00:10:25.679 --> 00:10:31.239 The religion was different, it was very much a religion of the senses in the Old Testament. 00:10:31.239 --> 00:10:37.519 God had saved them, God was with them, but differently. 00:10:37.519 --> 00:10:39.959 He was with them in a physical temple. 00:10:39.959 --> 00:10:47.199 He lived in the Holy of Holies, but there was strict visual separators, there was that 00:10:47.199 --> 00:10:50.879 big heavy curtain between them. 00:10:50.879 --> 00:10:56.159 They only had the shadow of the Spirit, the Spirit didn't indwell all the believers in 00:10:56.159 --> 00:11:00.919 the Old Testament, there were exceptions, kings, people with special gifting, prophets. 00:11:00.919 --> 00:11:06.439 But it was an external, many ways an external religion, a smells and bells religion, something 00:11:06.439 --> 00:11:08.679 that appealed to their senses. 00:11:08.679 --> 00:11:14.519 It was limited at that level, even though they were saved by grace and clearly they 00:11:14.519 --> 00:11:15.879 were. 00:11:15.879 --> 00:11:22.559 We recognize that the core of their faith was grace, even though very often they didn't 00:11:22.559 --> 00:11:27.439 see it due to runomy 4, that verse that we began the service with, hero is real, the 00:11:27.439 --> 00:11:31.600 Lord your God is one, love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, 00:11:31.600 --> 00:11:33.159 with all your strength. 00:11:33.159 --> 00:11:36.879 These commandments that I give you today are to be in your hearts. 00:11:36.879 --> 00:11:43.639 So they did know grace and they had the foretaste and the hint of grace and they had grace 00:11:43.639 --> 00:11:50.360 example to them, but still they were waiting for something better. 00:11:50.360 --> 00:11:52.720 They were waiting for fulfillment themselves. 00:11:52.720 --> 00:11:57.919 We see that even with Simeon, that prophet, right, when Jesus was born, who was longing 00:11:57.919 --> 00:12:00.759 for the Messiah to come. 00:12:00.759 --> 00:12:07.080 But I doubt nearly any of them would have had a proper idea of what that reality would 00:12:07.080 --> 00:12:08.720 have been like. 00:12:08.720 --> 00:12:15.960 So there was a waiting, and sometimes it was a really desperately bad waiting. 00:12:15.960 --> 00:12:25.160 It's a mash the Old Testament of repetitive failure, legalism, pride, misunderstanding, 00:12:25.160 --> 00:12:31.160 sacrifice, ritual, sometimes expectation and also sometimes faith. 00:12:31.160 --> 00:12:34.800 So it is very different. 00:12:34.800 --> 00:12:38.680 Where do the ten words or the ten commandments, where do they fit into that? 00:12:38.679 --> 00:12:40.039 Old Testament story. 00:12:40.039 --> 00:12:46.159 Well, we said they're given as a framework for dependence. 00:12:46.159 --> 00:12:55.479 They were given by God to reveal Himself to them, both for them and for us. 00:12:55.479 --> 00:13:03.039 They were rescued by God His way, and now they were to obey Him and obey His commandments 00:13:03.039 --> 00:13:08.240 to offer sacrifices when they failed and to know blessing when they followed Him whole 00:13:08.240 --> 00:13:10.919 heartedly. 00:13:10.919 --> 00:13:13.639 So they were given for the people. 00:13:13.639 --> 00:13:20.639 And I think for them and for us, the ten commandments, ten words point back to Eden. 00:13:20.639 --> 00:13:28.320 They point back to God's ideal for how He wanted us in the beginning to live, but they're 00:13:28.320 --> 00:13:33.360 kind of expressed in the reality of a sinful and broken world. 00:13:33.360 --> 00:13:40.200 So they're framed negatively because of our sinful hearts and because we're prone to 00:13:40.200 --> 00:13:46.560 need the commands at that level, certainly in the Old Testament. 00:13:46.560 --> 00:13:54.200 They were to see the holiness of God and not to do things that were against His holiness. 00:13:54.200 --> 00:13:57.240 Point back to Eden in some way. 00:13:57.240 --> 00:14:03.039 They also point forward very much for us to Christ, who is the Word. 00:14:03.039 --> 00:14:12.279 The ten words here are fulfilled in the Word, Christ. 00:14:12.279 --> 00:14:17.879 Points forward to this Messiah who Himself, even if they didn't really understand what 00:14:17.879 --> 00:14:20.200 that meant, would fulfill these words. 00:14:20.200 --> 00:14:24.879 So Jesus in Matthew 5 says, Do not think I've come to abolish the law, and the prophets 00:14:24.879 --> 00:14:30.439 I have come not to abolish them, but to fulfill them. 00:14:30.439 --> 00:14:35.840 And so there's this pointing forward that as they saw the commands and their inability 00:14:35.840 --> 00:14:44.519 to fulfill them, they needed a Savior because the laws convicted them, drove them to sacrifice 00:14:44.519 --> 00:14:50.240 for their sins, and it was pointing forward to this hope of a Messiah who would somehow 00:14:50.240 --> 00:14:54.000 redeem them finally, whatever that looked like. 00:14:54.000 --> 00:15:01.240 And of course we see that, that these laws, that these revelations of God's will for us 00:15:01.240 --> 00:15:12.200 and revelation of His own character are fulfilled by Jesus, who was perfectly obedient. 00:15:12.200 --> 00:15:20.480 So how do we fulfill or apply these ten words, these ten commandments, as New Testament believers? 00:15:20.480 --> 00:15:30.120 Do we just ignore them because Paul in Romans 6 says we're not under law, we're under grace? 00:15:30.120 --> 00:15:32.879 I think that's very simplistic. 00:15:32.879 --> 00:15:35.519 It's true we're no longer under law. 00:15:35.519 --> 00:15:36.899 We are under grace. 00:15:36.899 --> 00:15:39.759 Does that mean that we just ignore the Old Testament? 00:15:39.759 --> 00:15:46.000 No, we need to be much more nuanced, and we need to think much more and use our minds much 00:15:46.000 --> 00:15:54.960 more as we try and fit the two together and understand their place in God's revelation. 00:15:54.960 --> 00:16:03.000 All of the Bible reveals Himself, and it's important to understand how it fits together. 00:16:03.000 --> 00:16:05.759 I do believe that takes a lifetime of learning. 00:16:05.759 --> 00:16:10.559 I don't think it's good enough just to read bits of the Old Testament and shrug our shoulders 00:16:10.559 --> 00:16:15.080 and say, well, I don't understand that, or it doesn't apply anymore, it can't be relevant. 00:16:15.080 --> 00:16:22.520 Because as we delve into it, we find why and where it's relevant, and why it's important 00:16:22.520 --> 00:16:25.800 and why God put it there. 00:16:25.800 --> 00:16:30.600 So how do the ten words apply to us as New Testament believers? 00:16:30.600 --> 00:16:39.680 Well, broadly, within the Old Testament, the Old Testament itself and the Ten Commandments 00:16:39.680 --> 00:16:44.840 in their rightful place, they serve as a warning, 1 Corinthians 10 says that, these things 00:16:44.840 --> 00:16:49.879 happen to them, Old Testament believers' stories from the Old Testament, as examples, and were 00:16:49.879 --> 00:16:56.280 written down as warnings for us on whom the culmination of the ages has come. 00:16:56.280 --> 00:17:02.960 So we recognize the Old Testament, and much of that is recorded for us is there, both 00:17:02.960 --> 00:17:09.720 as examples and warnings, we're to remember what they had, and we're to remember what 00:17:09.720 --> 00:17:15.160 we have and where to be warned by them, but we're not to live in the shadows. 00:17:15.160 --> 00:17:18.279 We're not to live as if Christ hasn't come. 00:17:18.279 --> 00:17:21.960 We're not to take the commandments and try, as some of the people in the Old Testament 00:17:21.960 --> 00:17:29.079 did, to try and obey them as a means of being accepted by God, to live by the commands in 00:17:29.079 --> 00:17:33.680 order to be accepted by God, as if Christ hasn't come. 00:17:33.680 --> 00:17:39.440 We're not to be content as some in the Old Testament were with a loose connection to 00:17:39.440 --> 00:17:43.519 God through our family or through our upbringing. 00:17:43.519 --> 00:17:48.240 We're not to be legalistic as some in the Old Testament were, saying like that rich man, 00:17:48.240 --> 00:17:52.799 all these I have kept since my youth. 00:17:52.799 --> 00:17:57.799 We're not to use them to compare ourselves with others and to be morally superior to 00:17:57.799 --> 00:18:01.600 others as often was the case in the Old Testament. 00:18:01.600 --> 00:18:06.880 And worst of all, we're not to live in the shadows. 00:18:06.880 --> 00:18:12.240 Live near the light of Jesus Christ as many of them did, but never really trusting by 00:18:12.240 --> 00:18:17.120 faith in the God of the Word. 00:18:17.120 --> 00:18:22.680 They had a warning to us, so many of them didn't believe, so many of them didn't trust, 00:18:22.680 --> 00:18:24.600 so many of them thought they could. 00:18:24.600 --> 00:18:31.080 They were so privileged that God chose them because they were good, because they were 00:18:31.079 --> 00:18:37.960 better than others and they didn't need to rely on God's grace, or they were content 00:18:37.960 --> 00:18:41.799 with the family they belonged to, the tribe they belonged to. 00:18:41.799 --> 00:18:48.279 Never be content with these things, because they are a warning to us that we need to be 00:18:48.279 --> 00:18:52.879 redeemed and saved and rescued from the inside out. 00:18:52.879 --> 00:18:57.679 So we learn from the Old Testament and from the way they responded to the commands. 00:18:57.680 --> 00:19:05.279 But also to learn from the Ten Commandments as believers that part of their value to us 00:19:05.279 --> 00:19:07.279 is to lead us to Christ. 00:19:07.279 --> 00:19:14.519 Galatians 4 speaks about the law being our guardian schoolteacher in some other versions. 00:19:14.519 --> 00:19:19.039 Until Christ came, sometimes the verses say that they'll lead us to Christ so that we 00:19:19.039 --> 00:19:21.360 might be justified by faith. 00:19:21.360 --> 00:19:26.799 Now that this faith has come, we are no longer under a guardian. 00:19:26.799 --> 00:19:34.639 So there's a sense in which the Ten Commandments point us to our need. 00:19:34.639 --> 00:19:36.319 They convict us. 00:19:36.319 --> 00:19:38.200 They convict us of our need. 00:19:38.200 --> 00:19:41.599 They show us how much we fall short of God's standards. 00:19:41.599 --> 00:19:48.319 They show us that His way is perfect love, and both for Him and for one another. 00:19:48.319 --> 00:19:53.799 And we can't do that, but they point us to the one who can, to Jesus Christ Himself, 00:19:53.799 --> 00:20:01.720 the God-man, the Word made flesh who fulfilled the Ten Commandments perfectly as a person. 00:20:01.720 --> 00:20:08.319 So we look at the Ten Commandments and we see their principal truth, and we see them 00:20:08.319 --> 00:20:14.720 fulfill Jesus as the only one who has never broken any of the commands, who is perfect 00:20:14.720 --> 00:20:15.839 in every way. 00:20:15.839 --> 00:20:22.680 So they both convict us about our failure and they lead us to Christ. 00:20:22.680 --> 00:20:28.240 So we see then, as we've seen in Matthew 5, 17, the Ten Commandments are fulfilled in 00:20:28.240 --> 00:20:36.519 Christ, the moral of God is fulfilled, as indeed is the sacrificial law, fulfilled in 00:20:36.519 --> 00:20:38.240 Jesus Christ. 00:20:38.240 --> 00:20:45.000 He lives in perfect love for God and for one another, for others. 00:20:45.000 --> 00:20:49.360 And that's not sentimental and it's not soft. 00:20:49.359 --> 00:20:55.599 So He fulfills the commands and He fulfills the need for sacrifice. 00:20:55.599 --> 00:21:03.719 Now, I don't believe for a moment that was ever in the psyche of the average Old Testament 00:21:03.719 --> 00:21:14.319 believer that God, the Son, God would come in the flesh and God would both fulfill the 00:21:14.319 --> 00:21:21.399 law and would be the Lamb of God without the shedding of blood. 00:21:21.399 --> 00:21:22.879 He's the perfect sacrifice. 00:21:22.879 --> 00:21:28.879 He's the best sacrifice and He comes, He Himself, as He rescued them from Egypt. 00:21:28.879 --> 00:21:34.399 He rescues us by being the one who dies in our place. 00:21:34.399 --> 00:21:41.559 And if they were beginning to understand the cost of God's love, the cost of being God's 00:21:41.559 --> 00:21:48.119 people, the cost that was involved, how much more do we, how much more, if we think they 00:21:48.119 --> 00:21:55.319 understand the seriousness of sin, how much more should we recognize that the relentless 00:21:55.319 --> 00:22:03.799 justice and holiness of God to get rid of sin in humanity because it's a dangerous and 00:22:03.799 --> 00:22:11.519 brutal cancer and knowing they can't do anything themselves to make that right. 00:22:11.519 --> 00:22:19.400 He takes Himself on Himself our sin and becomes the Lamb of God, the sacrifice on the cross 00:22:19.400 --> 00:22:20.400 for our sins. 00:22:20.400 --> 00:22:23.639 It's fulfilled in Christ, marvelously. 00:22:23.639 --> 00:22:28.480 All of the Old Testament pointing forward sacrifices and commandments pointing forward 00:22:28.480 --> 00:22:29.980 to Jesus. 00:22:29.980 --> 00:22:37.599 And therefore, as New Testament believers, we become, when we trust in God, new creations. 00:22:37.599 --> 00:22:39.519 We are new creations. 00:22:39.519 --> 00:22:41.639 So we're not living in shadows anymore. 00:22:41.639 --> 00:22:47.440 We're living in the presence of a risen and ascended Christ. 00:22:47.440 --> 00:22:52.680 We have, remember what happened when Jesus went across that great, thick, heavy curtain 00:22:52.680 --> 00:22:57.759 was ripped, 70 foot curtain was ripped from top to bottom so that the holy of holies, 00:22:57.759 --> 00:22:59.639 the access was made open. 00:22:59.639 --> 00:23:05.879 The shadows were broken by Christ, a light of the world who comes in and gives us access 00:23:05.880 --> 00:23:15.120 fully and freely to God, not just in prayer, but in a more remarkable way with the indwelling 00:23:15.120 --> 00:23:16.920 of the Holy Spirit. 00:23:16.920 --> 00:23:22.280 So instead of God living in a temple made by human hands, God's Spirit comes and lives 00:23:22.280 --> 00:23:26.520 in our hearts and we become the temple of the Holy Spirit. 00:23:26.520 --> 00:23:30.880 So it's not just like in the Old Testament where God was with His people, He was with 00:23:30.880 --> 00:23:37.280 them and He was with them in the tabernacle and the tent and in the temple. 00:23:37.280 --> 00:23:42.920 But it is God in us, in the person of His Holy Spirit, every that we will know Christ 00:23:42.920 --> 00:23:43.920 in our hearts. 00:23:43.920 --> 00:23:49.420 That is something that the average Old Testament believer did not know and did not have. 00:23:49.420 --> 00:23:56.280 We have Christ in reality, the finished work that risen, ascended Savior who sends out 00:23:56.279 --> 00:24:00.839 the Holy Spirit on the day of Pentecost to New Testament believers. 00:24:00.839 --> 00:24:04.319 They only had Christ in shadow in the Old Testament. 00:24:04.319 --> 00:24:13.440 We have new hearts, new love, new power, and therefore we have a new obedience. 00:24:13.440 --> 00:24:15.599 The pattern is the same. 00:24:15.599 --> 00:24:20.639 God's grace rescues us, therefore we obey, then there's blessings. 00:24:20.640 --> 00:24:28.880 The same pattern but the emphasis has changed and we see that when Christ restates the law 00:24:28.880 --> 00:24:34.880 and summarizes it and adds a different perspective. 00:24:34.880 --> 00:24:42.080 So it's the ten words of the Old Testament and God, Jesus shrinks it down in summary 00:24:42.080 --> 00:24:43.640 to two and then adds one. 00:24:43.640 --> 00:24:51.880 So it shrinks it to three and it's all the same principle but it's restated like it was 00:24:51.880 --> 00:24:59.520 stated in the Shema in the prayer that we read from Deuteronomy that was there in the 00:24:59.520 --> 00:25:00.520 Old Testament. 00:25:00.520 --> 00:25:03.960 So we have that in Matthew 22. 00:25:03.960 --> 00:25:08.759 And Jesus replied when he was asked the question about the commandments, I love the Lord your 00:25:08.759 --> 00:25:11.360 God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind. 00:25:11.359 --> 00:25:16.799 This is the first and greatest commandment, the second is love your neighbor as yourself. 00:25:16.799 --> 00:25:20.979 All the law and the prophets hang on these two commandments. 00:25:20.979 --> 00:25:27.240 So there we have the whole of the Old Testament commandments summarized in these two. 00:25:27.240 --> 00:25:33.039 And then of course he adds another one, a new commandment he says, I give to you. 00:25:33.039 --> 00:25:40.519 Love one another which is already stated but as I have loved you so you must love one 00:25:40.519 --> 00:25:41.519 another. 00:25:41.519 --> 00:25:47.920 By this everyone will know that you are my Old Testament believers, no disciples if you 00:25:47.920 --> 00:25:49.400 love one another. 00:25:49.400 --> 00:25:55.519 So we have in the New Testament a different perspective on these commands that is stated 00:25:55.519 --> 00:26:02.039 positively, it's no different and we need both but the reality is there and it's an important 00:26:02.039 --> 00:26:08.039 change of perspective because we are no longer Old Testament believers. 00:26:08.039 --> 00:26:14.920 So we recognize that both, what we call both tables of the law, both elements, the first 00:26:14.920 --> 00:26:22.159 four and the last six, the first four relating to God, the last ones relating to each other 00:26:22.159 --> 00:26:24.920 are stated positively by Jesus. 00:26:24.920 --> 00:26:28.240 So as Christians we are new creations. 00:26:28.240 --> 00:26:34.319 We have the Holy Spirit in us and we have a new heart, a heart that can love the Lord 00:26:34.319 --> 00:26:35.839 our God. 00:26:35.839 --> 00:26:40.079 And we recognize Him as we go back to the commands as the only God. 00:26:40.079 --> 00:26:45.639 We're not to replace Him with anyone or anything else and make them idols. 00:26:45.639 --> 00:26:50.399 We're not to use His name cheaply, not just in blasphemy, not just as a swear word but 00:26:50.399 --> 00:26:55.959 just generally not to use His word cheaply to get our own way or whatever. 00:26:55.959 --> 00:27:02.839 And we have entered His rest, His Sabbath rest and we recognize that every day, every 00:27:02.839 --> 00:27:07.959 moment, every second is holy to Him but that He's still giving us a day that we can worship 00:27:07.959 --> 00:27:14.919 the Lord's day, a day of rest and blessing which we miss so much being together in these 00:27:14.919 --> 00:27:16.000 days. 00:27:16.000 --> 00:27:21.519 So we love the Lord our God and we recognize the commandments help to express that but 00:27:21.519 --> 00:27:26.480 we also love our neighbor. 00:27:26.480 --> 00:27:28.359 We love our neighbor. 00:27:28.359 --> 00:27:35.479 We recognize as it's unfolded in the Ten Commandments that the family unit is sacred, that we value 00:27:35.479 --> 00:27:42.399 the sanctity of life, that it's absolutely precious, that we are image bearers and we 00:27:42.399 --> 00:27:44.639 will respect others because of that. 00:27:44.639 --> 00:27:50.559 So we're not to lie about them and steal from them or be envious of them or of their 00:27:50.559 --> 00:27:53.359 partner or of their possessions. 00:27:53.359 --> 00:27:58.679 We're to recognize the sanctity of sex within the relationship of committed marriage and 00:27:58.679 --> 00:28:05.319 we're to see our need for God's wisdom to carry out His commandments among our neighbors 00:28:05.319 --> 00:28:11.319 and in society which is a pluralistic secular society. 00:28:11.319 --> 00:28:16.679 But we recognize that the commands as new creations for us are to love the Lord our 00:28:16.679 --> 00:28:19.479 God and to love our neighbor. 00:28:19.480 --> 00:28:26.759 And this new emphasis to love one another as Christ's love does. 00:28:26.759 --> 00:28:31.759 So let's remember that new society, the unique mark of the church, that's the unique mark 00:28:31.759 --> 00:28:32.759 of the church. 00:28:32.759 --> 00:28:38.599 It's the ultimate orthodoxy is Christ-flavored love. 00:28:38.599 --> 00:28:43.440 Love because we love as Christ's love does. 00:28:43.440 --> 00:28:48.240 We've tasted that love, we haven't deserved it, we didn't earn it. 00:28:48.240 --> 00:28:50.880 It's not a love of equals. 00:28:50.880 --> 00:28:56.880 And we are to love others the same way with the love that Christ has put in our hearts. 00:28:56.880 --> 00:29:07.120 And that, the way we love one another as a church is a window into our corporate heart 00:29:07.120 --> 00:29:11.680 and is a window into our understanding of grace. 00:29:11.680 --> 00:29:16.400 And what you think and what I think of other Christians and how we love them and react 00:29:16.400 --> 00:29:23.040 to them will be the way that probably more than any other way will make disciples. 00:29:23.040 --> 00:29:31.320 It's the greatest evangelistic tool we have is making known the love of Christ in the way 00:29:31.320 --> 00:29:34.519 we respond to one another. 00:29:34.519 --> 00:29:39.040 So I wonder what your view is of God. 00:29:39.040 --> 00:29:43.440 And I wonder if you're still consciously or unconsciously or I am still living in the 00:29:43.440 --> 00:29:44.440 shadows. 00:29:44.440 --> 00:29:47.600 Is everything black and white? 00:29:47.600 --> 00:29:55.440 Is it like you're running on a narrow wheel that secretly we're trying to be, to fulfill 00:29:55.440 --> 00:30:00.720 and please God by obeying His commands rather than trusting in His grace and in the Holy 00:30:00.720 --> 00:30:03.080 Spirit to enable us to change? 00:30:03.080 --> 00:30:08.960 Are you holding on to that incomplete Old Testament revelation? 00:30:08.960 --> 00:30:12.080 Or are you trying to misrepresent it because it suits you? 00:30:12.079 --> 00:30:16.480 You know, say, oh, I can't really understand it, I'm just going to ignore it. 00:30:16.480 --> 00:30:23.519 That's very harsh and God is a very harsh God there and it's all very legalistic. 00:30:23.519 --> 00:30:28.079 Or sometimes we like the legalism that makes us think we're better than others that we 00:30:28.079 --> 00:30:29.679 can earn our favor. 00:30:29.679 --> 00:30:31.679 Let's come out of that. 00:30:31.679 --> 00:30:37.079 And let's see is that we are more wicked and deprived than we could ever imagine but more 00:30:37.079 --> 00:30:39.960 loved than we could ever dream or hope of in Christ. 00:30:39.960 --> 00:30:42.039 It's all about Him. 00:30:42.039 --> 00:30:43.359 It's all about Him. 00:30:43.359 --> 00:30:52.200 He is the one from which the light of the Father shines and casts a shadow that is Christ-shaped 00:30:52.200 --> 00:31:00.079 into the Old Testament and is revealed in the gospels and made known in the epistles. 00:31:00.079 --> 00:31:05.519 Can I ask you if you're not a Christian, you're watching today, to examine Jesus and put your 00:31:05.519 --> 00:31:10.240 trust in Christ and know that He has fulfilled God's law. 00:31:10.240 --> 00:31:15.480 He has taken away your guilt for not being able to fulfill God's law and He has been 00:31:15.480 --> 00:31:21.839 punished for it on the cross so that you can know freedom and hope and light and forgiveness 00:31:21.839 --> 00:31:22.839 and joy. 00:31:22.839 --> 00:31:24.799 May that be your truth. 00:31:24.799 --> 00:31:30.599 I mean, just finish with one verse which kind of, I think, puts the contrast well. 00:31:30.599 --> 00:31:34.880 From Hebrews 12, you have not come when you talk about coming to Christ, you've not come 00:31:34.880 --> 00:31:40.800 to a mountain that can be touched and that is burning with fire, to darkness, gloom and 00:31:40.800 --> 00:31:45.240 storm, to a trumpet blast or to such a voice speaking words that those who heard it begged 00:31:45.240 --> 00:31:49.600 that no further word be spoken to them because they could not bear what was commanded. 00:31:49.600 --> 00:31:53.240 If even an animal touches the mountain, it must be stoned to death. 00:31:53.240 --> 00:31:56.880 The sight was so terrifying that Moses said, I'm trembling with fear. 00:31:56.880 --> 00:32:02.760 But you've come to Mount Zion, to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem. 00:32:02.759 --> 00:32:07.559 You've come to thousands upon thousands of angels in joyful assembly to the church of 00:32:07.559 --> 00:32:10.000 the firstborn whose names are written in heaven. 00:32:10.000 --> 00:32:14.400 You have come to God, the judge of all, to the spirits of the righteous made perfect 00:32:14.400 --> 00:32:21.839 to Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant and to the sprinkled blood that speaks a better 00:32:21.839 --> 00:32:25.599 word than the blood of Abel. 00:32:25.599 --> 00:32:27.119 Amen. 00:32:27.119 --> 00:32:33.519 Lord God, we thank You for Your Word, and we thank You that You are the Word, and we 00:32:33.519 --> 00:32:39.759 thank You for grace, and we ask that we would just luxuriate in that grace. 00:32:39.759 --> 00:32:46.639 Obey Your commandments by the new heart of love and desire that we've been given, and 00:32:46.639 --> 00:32:53.479 still come to You for forgiveness when we fail, and that we would know blessing of being 00:32:53.480 --> 00:33:00.759 wholehearted, and we pray for people who don't know You, that they would not have a wrong 00:33:00.759 --> 00:33:06.960 idea of You, or of themselves, but would come to know Jesus. 00:33:06.960 --> 00:33:24.720 Amen.