All right, good morning, church. Today we'll be reading from Numbers chapter 15, and if you're reading with us with the church Bible, it'll be on page 115.
Here then, God's word to us today. Numbers chapter 15, verse 1.
The Lord spoke to Moses, saying, Speak to the people of Israel and say to them, When you come into the land you are to inhabit, which I am giving you.
And you offer to the Lord from the herd or from the flock a food offering or a burnt offering or a sacrifice to fulfill a vow or as a freewill offering or at your appointed feast to make a pleasing aroma to the Lord.
Then he who brings his offering shall offer to the Lord a grain offering of a tenth of an ephah of fine flour mixed with a quarter of heen of oil.
And you shall offer with a burnt offering or for the sacrifice a quarter of a heen of wine for the drink offering for each lamb.
Or for a ram you shall offer for a grain offering two tenths of an ephah of a fine flour mixed with a third of a heen of oil.
And for the drink offering you shall offer a third of a heen of wine, a pleasing aroma to the Lord.
And when you offer a bowl as a burnt offering or sacrifice to fulfill a vow or for peace offerings to the Lord,
then one shall offer with the bowl a grain offering of three tenths of an ephah of a fine flour mixed with half a heen of oil.
And you shall offer for the drink offering half a heen of wine as a food offering, a pleasing aroma to the Lord.
Thus it shall be done for each bowl or ram or for each lamb or young goat as many as you offer.
So you shall do one do with each one as many as there are.
Every native Israelite shall do these things in this way in offering a food, a food offering with a pleasing aroma to the Lord.
And if a stranger is sojourning with you or anyone is living permanently among you and he wishes to offer a food offering with a pleasing aroma to the Lord,
he shall do as you do.
For the assembly there shall be one statue for you and one for the stranger who sojourns with you,
a statue forever throughout your generations.
You and the sojourner shall be a light before the Lord.
One law and one rule shall be for you and for the stranger who sojourns with you.
The Lord spoke to Moses saying, speak to the people of Israel and say to them,
when you come into the land to which I bring you and when you eat of the bread of the land,
you shall present a contribution to the Lord.
Of the first of your dough, you shall present a loaf as a contribution,
like a contribution from the threshing floor.
So shall you present it?
So of the first of your dough,
you shall give to the Lord as a contribution throughout your generations.
But if you sin unintentionally and do not observe all these commandments that the Lord has spoken to Moses,
all that the Lord has commanded you by Moses from the day that the Lord gave commandment and onward throughout your generations,
then if it was done unintentionally without the knowledge of the congregation,
all the congregation shall offer one bowl from the herd for a burnt offering,
a pleasing aroma to the Lord with its grain offering and its drink offering according to the rule,
and one male goat for a sin offering.
And the priest shall make atonement for all the congregation of the people of Israel,
and they shall be forgiven because it was a mistake.
And they have brought their offering,
a food offering to the Lord,
and their sin offering before the Lord for their mistake.
And all the congregation of the people of Israel shall be forgiven,
and the stranger who sojourns among them because the whole population was involved in the mistake.
If one person sins unintentionally,
he shall offer a female goat,
a year old for a sin offering,
and the priest shall make atonement before the Lord for the person who makes a mistake,
when he sins unintentionally to make atonement for him,
and he shall be forgiven.
You shall have one law for him who does anything unintentionally,
for him who is native among the people of Israel,
and for the stranger who sojourns among them.
But the person who does anything with a high lamb,
whether he is a native or a sojourner,
reviles the Lord,
and that person shall be cut off from among his people,
because he has despised the word of the Lord,
and he has broken his commandment.
That person shall be utterly cut off,
his iniquity shall be on him.
While the people of Israel were in the wilderness,
they found a man gathering sticks on the Sabbath day.
And those who found him gathering sticks brought him to Moses and Aaron and to all the congregation.
They put him in custody,
because it had not been made clear what should be done to him.
And the Lord said to Moses,
The man shall be put to death.
All the congregation shall stone him with stones outside the camp.
And all the congregation brought him outside the camp and stoned him to death with stones,
as the Lord commanded Moses.
The Lord said to Moses,
Speak to the people of Israel,
and tell them to make tassels on the corners of their garments throughout their generations,
and to put a cord of blue on the tassel of each corner.
And it shall be a tassel for you to look at and remember all the commandments of the Lord,
to do them not to follow after your own heart and your own eyes,
which you are inclined to whore over.
So you shall remember and do all my commandments and be holy to your God.
I am the Lord your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt to be your God.
I am the Lord your God.
Let us believe and respond to God's true and living word.
Thanks.
Great.
Thank you, Lydia.
Let me pray for us.
Difficult reading,
but thank you, Lydia,
for reading that for us.
Lord Jesus,
we come to your word.
We want to not just know or analyze the words and phrases and sentences,
the details.
We want to see the big picture.
We want to see what you have to say to us.
And so speak to us,
God,
from this challenging passage.
Come and draw us to yourself.
In your great name,
I pray.
Amen.
Let's see if you know these words.
Grace.
She takes the blame.
She covers the shame.
Removes the stain.
It could be her name.
Grace.
It's the name for a girl.
It's also a thought that changed the world.
And when she walks on the streets,
you can hear the strings.
Grace finds goodness in everything.
Grace.
She's got the walk,
not on a ramp or on chalk.
She's got the time to talk.
She travels outside of karma.
Grace.
She carries the world on her hips.
No champagne flute for her lips.
No twirls or skips between her fingertips.
What once was hurt.
What once was friction.
What left a mark no longer stings.
Because grace makes beauty out of ugly things.
Grace finds beauty in everything.
Grace finds goodness in everything.
So sang the Irish rock band U2 once upon a time.
Friends, ours is a world which is starved of grace,
and we are poorer for it.
In a world which has increasingly become digital and moved online,
social scientists have warned us that one of the consequences of social isolation
is that not only this increased polarization and political polarization and division within families,
but within society, we have much less empathy than any generation before us.
We are far less trusting.
We know how to handle differences less graciously than any other generation before us.
Friends, how many of us have grown up at homes where sharp comments,
cutting remarks, always being put down or made to feel small was the norm?
How many of us saw our fathers ridiculing our mothers,
siblings getting preferential treatment,
or parents' love and affection being earned through good grades and filial piety?
Friends, how many of us walk into the office each day
feeling that we're walking into a gladiator ring of office politics,
where every mistake is turned into a weapon against you,
where any error is made, you made to feel,
I was publicly exposed and you made to feel silly?
And what about the lack of grace towards ourselves?
How many of us are our own worst enemies,
always accusing ourselves,
the negative self-talk in our own voice,
telling ourselves that we're stupid?
In a world in which everyone keeps the score,
where mistakes are seldom forgotten,
where any prospect of future depends on current success,
success, we live in a world in which relationships are transactional,
calculated, cultivated for what they can give us,
rather than how they can serve us,
we live in a world that is starved of grace.
Paul Hewson writes this,
It's clear to me that karma is at the very heart of the universe.
And yet, along comes this idea of grace to upend all of that.
Grace defies reason, it defies logic.
Love interrupts, if you like,
the natural consequences of our actions.
Grace makes beauty out of ugly things.
The passage of scripture we're looking at today,
Numbers 15, is not an easy passage,
but it's a passage that is all about grace.
It is all about grace.
It's about the unfathomable grace of God towards undeserving sinners.
It's about the way that God does not give us what we deserve.
If you're new to Watermark,
we're working through the book of Numbers,
the fourth book of the Old Testament.
And it's the story of how God's people leave Egypt,
and He takes them through the wilderness towards the promised land.
The promised land is a land of flourishing and thriving life.
But as they go from Egypt to the promised land,
they've got to go through the wilderness,
and they've got to live by faith.
They've got to trust God in the wilderness.
And we've been saying this is an apt analogy for the Christian life.
Those of us that are Christians know that we too have been saved
from a terrible, terrible past,
a slavery from which we could not save ourselves.
We were under God's wrath and judgment in hell.
And God has saved us,
and He's bringing us through to the new creation,
the new heavens and earth.
Heaven, you could say.
But on the journey between our salvation and heaven,
we've got to travel through this wilderness,
this life, this wilderness of faith.
And on this journey of faith, we must trust Him.
And so the book of Numbers is about how God's people are called to trust Him
and hold on to Him and live by faith on the journey through the wilderness.
But if living by faith and trusting the sovereign God is the one thing they call to do,
it's the one thing that they do not do.
And so remember how chapter 14 ends.
Neil spoke to us last week.
In chapter 13 and 14, God sends our 12 spies to go into the promised land and to check it out
and to say, tell us which way we should go.
What is the land like?
Should we go this way or that way?
How should we enter the promised land?
And the spies come back and they say,
it's a good land, but we should not go.
It's dangerous.
God will not be with us.
The people are unkind.
We should not go.
Let's not listen to God.
Let's rather go back to Egypt.
And they treat God's promises and His presence with doubt, disdain, and disobedience.
And so how does the chapter end?
Well, chapter 14, verse 22.
God says,
None of the men that have seen my glory, what I did in Egypt,
and have put me to the test these ten times,
none of them shall see the land that I swore to give to their fathers.
Verse 28.
As I live, declares the Lord,
what you have said in my hearing I will do to you.
Your dead bodies will fall in the wilderness,
and all of your number listed in the census from 20 years old and upward,
who have grumbled against me,
not one shall come into the land that I swore to make you dwell in,
except Caleb and Joshua.
And so the book of Numbers starts so hopeful.
God is with these people.
He's bringing them through.
Just hold on to me.
Just trust me.
I will bring you to glory.
And they're full of doubt and disdain and disobedience,
and judgment comes upon them.
And the story at this point is a flood of casualties.
Friends, in the midst of all the darkness and the doubt of Numbers 11 to 14,
and all the mess of Numbers 16 onwards,
a rich vein of gold is Numbers 15 that we're going to look at today.
It's like this beautiful rich vein of gold in a dark, dank mine.
And we're going to see something of God's grace.
So let's dive in and look at it.
Firstly, encountering God's grace.
Encountering grace.
I don't know if you've ever done anything really stupid in your life.
I'm sure you've never done anything like that.
I've done that many, many times.
And you've done something silly or stupid,
and it's going to make you look really bad.
And you know the other person knows,
but they haven't said anything yet.
Could be a couple of seconds where you're waiting,
what are they going to say?
Or it could be a couple of days.
I remember many times like that with my dad, right?
I'd done something dumb,
and he knew, or I knew that he knew,
and I was just waiting.
What is he going to say?
What are the first words that are going to come out of his mouth?
I could tell you many stories, but we'll move on, right?
How are they going to react?
In light of Israel's ongoing unbelief, mistrust, incessant rebellion,
look at what comes out of God's mouth here.
15 verse 1.
The Lord spoke to Moses, saying,
Speak to the people of Israel and say to them,
When you come into the land that you are to inhabit,
the land which I am giving you,
then this is how you shall worship me.
God does not say,
If you guys can get your act together,
and if you guys can sort yourselves out,
and by some miracle that's unfathomable,
you manage to get yourselves into the promised land,
well, then we can talk about things.
That's not what he says.
He says,
I, I am going to bring you into the land.
I am going to go before you.
I'm going to drive out your enemies.
I'm going to bring you to the land of milk and honey and favor and goodness,
the land which you don't deserve,
but I am going to do it for you.
I am still going to bring you through.
God is looking at these people now,
and he's saying,
I am not done with you.
I'm not finished with you.
You and I still have a future together.
And when you come in,
this is how you shall worship.
Friends, you see God's amazing grace here?
After all their complaining,
and their moaning,
and their accusing,
and their shaking their fists at God,
God says,
I am not done with you.
I'm still going to bring you in.
A couple of years ago,
friends of ours in K-Town,
a very, very good friend of mine,
he was one of the pastors at the church that I served at,
one night,
they've got,
he and his wife have two kids,
one years old and four years old.
One night,
his wife puts the kids to bed,
and comes through and says to him,
we need to talk about something.
I've got something to tell you.
And the room suddenly goes very,
very ice cold,
and very quiet.
And over the next couple of hours,
she says to him,
honey,
I need to tell you something.
I've been keeping a secret from you for the last seven or eight years,
and I swore that I would never tell you.
I would go to my grave with a secret,
but I've been convicted by God,
and I need to tell you this.
I need to come clean.
And so,
over the next few hours,
through a waterfall of tears,
she tells him that seven or eight years ago,
she had a two-year affair
with someone that she'd met at the sports club.
He wasn't a pastor at that stage.
He was working and traveling a lot for work,
and while he was traveling,
she engaged in a two-year affair with this person.
And it had ended long ago,
but she had swore she was never going to tell him
it was a secret that she was going to take to her grave.
But,
over a couple of weeks before,
God had been speaking to her,
and she felt like she needed to come clean.
And so,
she tells him,
and my friend,
her husband,
goes into complete state of shock and meltdown
as he tries to process what he's just heard.
That not only has his wife betrayed him
in the most unbelievable way,
but also that the last five or six years of their marriage
has not been what he thought it was.
He thought they'd had a great marriage,
but actually there's this whole dark secret
that has been going on.
And in some ways,
their marriage is not what he thought it was.
And so,
my friend just collapses,
and he breaks down
as he's trying to process wave after wave of grief
and anger and questions and doubts
and all sorts of things.
And then after a couple of hours,
he says,
listen,
I need to go for a walk.
And so,
he gets up,
and he goes to the front door,
and as he does that,
he turns around,
and he looks at her,
and he says,
Laura,
I need to tell you two things.
One,
I still love you.
Two,
we are going to get through this together.
And then he goes outside
into a long walk into the night.
And today,
if you ask them,
their marriage is better than it's ever been.
He says,
the trust in their marriage
is greater than it's ever been.
They're doing really well.
He's back in ministry and pastoring again.
We will get through this together.
We still have a future together.
Friends,
that's what God is saying to his people here.
Despite their betrayal,
and their unfaithfulness,
and their rejection of him,
God looks them in the eye,
and says,
we have a future together.
I know it looks dark and messy now.
I know your life is a mess,
but as Ray Orton says,
you're my mess,
and I'm going to deal with it,
and I'm not giving up on you.
We are going to get through.
When I bring you into the land
that I am giving you,
when I've driven out the enemies before you,
when I've gone before you,
and parted the Red Sea,
and provided food for you,
and done everything that you can't do,
you will worship me,
and we will be one again together.
And so look at what God says here
about their worship.
Lydia read it,
all these details about bulls,
and goats,
and wine,
and olive oil,
and all sorts of things.
But look at what God is saying here.
Two things I want you to notice
about their worship.
First,
notice the abundance of their possessions.
All these animals,
and this produce,
these are things that belong
to a prosperous society.
At the moment,
these guys are no bandits
in the wilderness.
They don't have any food.
They don't have any produce.
God's got to bring meat to them.
God's got to bring manna from heaven.
They are as poor as anything.
And God says,
when you go into the land,
you're going to have so many flocks,
and goats,
and bulls,
and so much food,
you're not going to know
what to do with it.
And come and bring it to me
and offer it as an offering.
The abundance of their possessions.
God is promising that
he will give them
what they don't deserve.
What they deserve
is to bear the guilt
for their sin.
But God is going to
lavishly bless them.
Though their sins,
they are many.
His mercy is more.
But look at what else here.
In the Old Testament,
look at what kinds of offerings
they're going to offer here.
It's a bit hard to see,
but in the Old Testament,
there's typically
three main kinds of offerings.
There's more,
but three kind of main categories.
There's the sin offering,
burnt offering,
fellowship offering.
A sin offering
is you bring an offering to God
when you've done something
tragically wrong.
You've sinned,
and you need to pay
the penalty for your sin.
And so you bring an animal,
and the animal dies,
and it's burnt,
and it's offered to God,
and it's kind of like saying,
my sin is put on the animal,
they will bear the sin for me.
I deserve to die,
but they will die in my place.
But that's not the kind of offering
that God is talking about here.
There's different procedures for that.
The second offering
is a burnt offering.
It's when someone brings an animal,
and the whole animal is burnt up
as an offering to God.
And it's a way of saying,
God, all that I am,
I'm not keeping anything from me,
I give my entire life to you.
It's the picture of a subject
to the overlord.
There's an overlord,
and the subject says,
I belong to you,
everything that I have is yours.
And so you bring a burnt offering
as a kind of part of your worship,
your devotion.
You say, God,
everything I have belongs to you.
But that also has other things.
That's not what they're talking about here.
Here what they're talking about
is a fellowship offering.
And a fellowship offering
is when you bring an animal to the priest,
and some of it is burnt
and offered to God,
some of it is given to the priest to eat,
but some of it you eat
with the priest and with God.
And the picture here
is you are hosting a meal.
And there's meat,
and there's carbohydrates,
and there's oil,
and there's wine,
and the picture is
here is a banquet table,
and we are sitting down together.
God and the priest and me,
I am hosting a meal,
and we're having fellowship together.
You know how in the Bible,
a meal is always a picture
of relationship, right?
When you host someone for a meal,
you're not just opening your home,
you're opening your heart.
You're saying you are welcome here.
God says when you go
into the promised land,
despite all your sin,
I am going to sit down
and have a meal with you.
I'm going to open up my home.
I'm not just wiping away your sin.
I'm giving you a seat at the table.
I'm including you.
Though,
he says,
though,
all this mess,
we will get through this together.
We still have a future together.
Friends,
grace,
it takes the blame,
covers the shame,
removes the stain.
It travels outside of karma.
Karma says,
you get what you deserve.
Grace says,
you get what you don't deserve,
and you do get what you,
you don't get what you do deserve,
and you do get what you don't deserve.
If God,
grace makes beauty out of ugly things.
Now,
what does this tell us?
It tells us that the heart of Christianity
is relationship.
The heart of Christianity is relationship.
God,
grace is not just an idea,
or a concept,
or a free pass to skip cosmic detention.
It's not just a crutch to get through life.
Christian faith is profoundly personal,
intimate relationship.
It's why,
when someone says,
well,
if God is so gracious,
why can't I just sin,
and do what I want,
and then at the end of my life,
I'll just ask for forgiveness?
And Jesus says,
you don't understand the first thing about grace.
Because grace is not just wiping the slate clean,
so you can carry on,
and do whatever you wanted.
Grace is the seat at the table.
It's saying,
come into my family.
It's saying,
we're going to do life together.
It's saying,
I will be your father,
you will be my child.
But,
grace is God not giving us what we do deserve,
eternal separation from him,
so that we can get what we don't deserve,
which is intimacy,
personal enjoyment of the living God forever.
So friends,
what does this grace look like?
What does it look like?
Well,
it looks like Jesus coming to Zacchaeus.
You remember Zacchaeus?
He's a tax collector.
He's an outcast.
He is a pariah of society.
He is rejected,
unloved,
and Jesus says,
Zacchaeus,
open up your home.
I want to come and have lunch with you today.
Grace looks like Jesus coming to the woman at the well,
social outcast,
morally despised,
unloved,
and rejected,
and Jesus comes to her and says,
I know everything about you.
I know all the skeletons in your closet.
There is nothing that I don't know,
and I love you still.
Friends,
grace is Jesus coming to the lady who is trafficked into sex work,
and everyone despises her and says,
what is she doing in here?
And Jesus is welcome.
I love you.
Friends,
grace is Psalm 103.
That says,
as far as the east is from the west,
so far will God remove our sins from us.
As a father has compassion on his children,
so has the Lord had compassion on us.
Friends,
grace looks like the father of the prodigal son,
saying,
sacrifice the fattened calf.
My son is home.
My son was lost,
but now is found.
My son was dead,
but is now alive.
Friends,
grace,
this is what God does.
And God says,
yes,
Israel is a mess,
but I am not done with you.
We will get through this together.
Two things I need you to know.
I love you,
and we will get through this together.
Isn't that amazing?
This is the God that we've come to worship this morning,
friends.
This is the God of grace.
So now,
how do we find this grace?
How do we access this grace?
How do we come into this gracious relationship?
Well,
it's not automatic,
and it's not found by just simply attending church.
Grace isn't just something that,
by osmosis,
it just happens by attending a church service.
Grace is something that you've got to pursue,
or you've got to find.
Friends,
some of us here today,
will leave this place,
having never encountered the God of grace,
and we will die in our sins.
But God does not want that.
But the God of the Bible longs for us to encounter His grace,
and so be transformed.
And so look at what happens here.
If you've got your Bible,
look at verse 22 to 31.
In this passage here,
Moses talks about the sins of the people,
and he talks about two different kinds of sin.
He kind of contrasts and compares two kinds of sin.
Look at verse 22.
He says,
Verse 27.
If one sins unintentionally,
he shall offer a female God,
a year old for a sin offering.
But then look at verse 30.
Here's a different scenario.
But,
the person who does anything with a high hand,
whether he is a native or sojourner,
reviles the Lord.
That person shall be cut off from amongst his people.
Because he has despised the word of the Lord,
broken his commandments,
that person shall be cut off,
and his sin shall remain upon him.
Such a great picture, right?
If anyone does anything with a high hand,
it's like a picture of somebody
who's shaking their fists in defiance, right?
I love this picture.
Go ahead.
Call the cops.
See if I care.
It's a picture of somebody saying,
Stuff you, God.
I'm going to do things my way,
and see if you care.
See if I care what you think about it.
Do you remember last week,
we asked the question in the catechism,
What is sin?
Sin is rejecting or ignoring God
and the world that he's created,
not doing or being what he's commanded in his law.
But scripture tells us
that sin is far more nuanced
than just saying,
Do this, don't do this.
The condition of our hearts,
the motives of our hearts,
the mixed motivations,
the self-awareness,
the lack of self-awareness,
all these things make it a complex
and multifaceted issue.
And so scripture here
differentiates between unintentional sins
and intentional sins.
Okay?
Or our actions,
our motives,
our thoughts,
our attitudes
that do not honor God,
but the unintentional ones are
ones that we're either not aware of
or we kind of like,
we're suddenly made aware of it
without realizing that we're going into it.
But on the other hand
is what they call
the sin of intentionality
or high-handed
or deliberate sin.
This is kind of a willful rejection
where you know what you're doing
and you pursue it nonetheless.
And the Bible says
that both of these things are sin.
Both of them are deadly serious.
Both of them,
there's a problem,
but the consequences
are maybe slightly different.
Okay?
So think about it this way.
In marriage,
if you married,
you probably sin most days,
right?
There's the bickering.
There's the little comment.
There's the lack of thoughtfulness.
There's the lack of appreciation.
The lack of care
or graciousness towards one another.
And there's kind of like
just these things that you say,
friends,
this is a sin.
We should not do that.
We should love our wives
like Christ has loved the church.
Okay?
But that's very different
from somebody that says,
I'm going to go and have an affair.
I'm going to go and look for pornography.
I'm going to go and flirt
with that person at the office.
There's one that is,
they both sin,
they both wrong,
but one is kind of,
you don't really realize it
or suddenly you awaken to it
and it looks terrible.
The other one looks appealing.
You think,
I'm going to pursue this.
Or maybe another way
of thinking about it
is like this.
Think about how we handle money.
It's one thing to be very careful,
maybe overly careful,
overly planning,
maybe not very generous
because we are so particular.
Actually,
if we're honest,
that's probably greed.
It's a form of greed.
That's not good.
We should run from that.
But that's very different
from saying,
hey,
let me go to Macau
and gamble away
everything I have
or I'm going to go to the races
after church this afternoon
or I'm going to go
and hand in an expense receipt
at my office
that was from a personal expense.
That's a very different thing,
right?
And so the problem here
is that both involve
rejecting and ignoring God.
Both are not doing
what he's asked in his word.
But the problem is
that the second one
by its very nature
is cutting ourselves off
from the grace that we need.
This one says,
oh,
I'm a sinner.
I need grace.
God,
forgive me.
This one says,
God,
take your grace somewhere else.
I'm doing what I want
and no one's going to stop me.
It's not that one is wrong
and the other is fine.
They're both wrong.
They both need mercy.
But this one is shaking
its fist at God
and saying,
God,
I will do things my way
and you're not going to tell me
what to do.
And so the issue here
is not is sin serious.
They're both serious.
The issue is upon realizing
and seeing our sin
and recognizing it
for what it is.
What is our attitude?
Do we hate it
or do we persist in it?
Do we fight it
or do we defend it?
Mark Devers says this,
the Christian stands
with God
against his sin.
The secular person
stands with their sin
against God.
And that's the difference here.
And Moses says
that we're going to sin.
We are people of sin.
None of us are perfect.
But what do we do
with our sin?
Do we stand with our sin
against God
or do we stand with God
against our sin?
And that's what the story
is about
in the story of the Sabbath,
right?
Verse 32,
there's the story
of this guy
and he goes out
into the field
on the Sabbath day
and he's picking up sticks
and he's going to go
and make a meal
and everything
and he gets in deep trouble.
And we may think,
what?
This guy's just picking up sticks.
What's wrong with that?
Just give him a break, right?
But actually,
what is he doing here?
Just a few weeks before,
God has given them
the Ten Commandments
and he knows the commandments.
On the Sabbath day,
set your day aside for God.
Devote yourself to him.
He is the Lord
that brought you out of Egypt.
He saved you
and rescued you.
You belong to him
one day a week.
Devote yourself to him.
Don't work.
Let,
trust God to provide for you.
And this guy says,
take that rule somewhere else.
I'm going to go do my thing.
And he goes out
in the open defiance of God,
shaking his fist at God,
saying,
no one's going to tell me
what to do.
And how does it end?
It ends terribly.
A terrible death.
Friends,
you may be familiar
with Jesus' teaching
about the unforgivable sin.
It's kind of somewhat similar,
right?
It's a little bit different,
but it's similar.
Some people say,
what's the unforgivable sin?
Is it like,
if I do this,
or if I do this?
Actually,
what Jesus says,
there's any sin
in the whole world
that is able to be covered
by his grace,
except there's one that can't.
The one that you refuse
to bring to him.
The one that you refuse
to come to his only means
of grace and say,
God,
I need you.
It's the one where
our hearts are hard
and callous and say,
God,
I'll judge you.
Who are you to judge me?
That's the only sin
that they cannot be graced from
because you're not
bringing yourself
towards him.
If you're familiar
with Jesus' parable,
the two prodigal sons,
we see something similar here,
don't we,
right?
The younger brother,
he's clearly
the more immoral one.
He takes his dad's money,
he goes off
into wild country,
living it up on drinking
and prostitutes
and living however he wants.
And he's far more
immoral than his brother,
but he comes to his senses
and he says,
what am I doing?
And he realizes
what he's done
and he goes home
and he says,
Father,
I've sinned before heaven
and against you.
Father,
I'm so sorry,
I'm not worthy
to be called your son.
And the father says,
slaughter the fattened calf.
My son is home.
He's welcome.
Bring the ring,
bring the robe.
Let's celebrate.
But the other son,
the older brother,
he's sinister,
he's brooding,
he's angry,
he's jealous.
And the father says,
come,
come inside,
you brother's home.
He says,
get lost.
Why should I come inside?
That son of yours
wasted all my inheritance.
And he's brooding
and he's angry
and he will not reconcile.
And Jesus leaves
the parable open
and he's asking us
the question,
which one are you?
Which one are you?
Are you going to receive grace
or are you going to stay far away?
Friends,
how do we find grace?
How do we come
into this amazing relationship
with the amazing God
of the Bible?
We come to him
in our hands
and say,
Jesus,
I need you.
God,
I need you.
I don't have what it takes.
We come to the one
who stands with arms wide open,
ready to welcome
and forgive
with healing grace
and say,
Jesus,
I need you.
Well,
friends,
as we come to the last section here,
look at verse 37
and onwards,
remembering grace,
remembering grace.
As we come to a close,
how should we,
what should we do?
What does this mean for our lives?
Well,
in scripture,
the way to grow
in spiritual maturity
and therefore the way
to attain the spiritual blessings
that God promises,
grace and peace
and all these things,
is not by telling yourself,
I'm a Christian now.
I better do what good Christians do.
Okay?
That's not the way
to grow in grace.
The way to grow in grace,
that's the worst thing you can do.
The way to grow as a Christian
is to remember
what Christ has done,
is to remember
the depths
from where he saved us.
Remember the grace of God
to never,
ever forget
what God has done.
Remember the grace
in which you stand.
Remember how you're saved
by grace alone.
Remember that you were dead
in your sins,
but God in his great love
raised you up
and saved you.
Remember the grace of God
and run to it
and let it infiltrate
every aspect of your life.
Friends, as Christians,
the way that Christians
change deeply
is when the grace of God
intersects
with a very real problem
in our lives.
When the real everyday
stuff of life
intersects
with the grace of God,
that's how our hearts
change deeply.
And in this final section,
God wants his people
to remember the grace of God
every single day
and so be changed by it.
And so what does he do?
He tells them to
make some tassels,
some kind of like
long threads
to put blue material
or thread in them
and to tie them
to the hems
of their cloaks.
Now why should they do that?
Well, two reasons.
The one,
the hem of the cloak
in the ancient world
is kind of an extension
of your identity.
It is who you are.
Remember when
David is in the cave
and Saul comes
and he cuts off
the hem of Saul's cloak.
Why is that so offensive?
It's not just that he ruined
his designer jacket.
It's that it's a way
of saying you're dead to me.
Right?
He's cutting off his identity.
So the hems of your cloak
there's this analogy
there's this kind of extension
of who you are.
Many people in the ancient world
had their initials
or signature
kind of sewed
into the hem
of their cloak.
But the other thing
is there's this blue thread.
The blue thread
is the veil
between the holy place
and the most holy place
is made of blue material.
And God wants them
to every single day
with the clothing
up there
as they're walking
the streets
as these tussles
are shaking
and maybe shining
in the sun
every day to remember
we stand by God's grace alone.
Who am I?
Who is my identity?
My identity
is not my work
or my job
or whether I have
a boyfriend
or a girlfriend
or my kids
or my parenting.
My identity
is the fact
that I'm saved by grace.
That I was dead in hell
destined for an eternity
without God.
But God
in his rich mercy
Jesus went to the cross
for me
and saved me
and brought me
into the family
and given me
a seat at the table.
Friends,
many, many years later
Jesus Christ
was sitting
at the
celebrating
the Passover meal
with his friends
his disciples.
The Passover meal
was a covenant meal
and they're remembering
the way that God
had rescued his people
from Egypt
by the blood of the Lamb.
And at that table
Jesus takes some bread
and he breaks it
and he says
tomorrow
my body
the real
the Passover lamb
is going to be broken
for you.
And then he says
whenever you gather
break bread
in remembrance of me.
In remembrance of me.
Jesus takes a glass
of wine
and he says
tomorrow
my blood
is going to be shed
for you
for the forgiveness
of sins.
Whenever you gather
do so
and drink
in remembrance
of me.
Remember my grace.
I think you've got
communion elements
with you
don't you?
Friends,
if you follow Jesus
we're going to take
communion together now.
Why don't you open
that up?
If you're not a follower
of Jesus
this is us remembering.
This is us having a meal.
I'm sorry
this is a pretty pathetic meal
compared to a bull
and goats
and lambs
and oil
and everything else.
But this is meant
to be a meal.
Every week we gather
every second week
we gather
we have a meal
and God is with us
and he looks us
in the eye
and he says two things
I love you
I'm not done with you
my grace is sufficient.
Friends,
are you a follower
of Jesus?
Christ's body
broken for you.
Remember what he's done.
Friends,
this week
when you go to the office
there are going to be
a thousand reasons
why you think
that your identity
is built on meritocracy
and how good you are
how well you perform.
Friends,
in the journey of life
through the wilderness
there are a thousand voices
Justin reminded us
this morning
there are a thousand voices
in our lives
and the voices
are all saying
you're not good enough
you suck
if only you were better
or they say
look how good you are
you must be amazing
you're better
than everybody else.
Friends,
your identity
is built on shaky ground
but if you want to
make it through
the wilderness
if you want to get
to the promised land
if you want to get
out of Egypt
and make it all the way
to glory
remember
remember the grace
of Christ.
Friends,
Christ's body
broken for you
on the cross
your sins
covered
your shame
done away with
Jesus died for you
let's eat
and remember
what Jesus did for us.
at the end of the meal
Jesus takes a glass of wine
he says
my blood
shed for you
for the forgiveness
of sins
grace
covers the shame
takes the stain
travels outside of karma
it swallows karma
grace
Christ's blood
shed for us
drink and remember
what Jesus did for us.
Jesus today
we drink of your grace
remember what you did
for us
thank you Christ
for dying on the cross
thank you God
the ultimate
lamb of God
thank you Jesus
for rising again
you didn't just die
as an example
you didn't just die
to show us
how to be sacrificial
and selfless
and loving
you died for our sins
and you rose again
and now you
sit in the throne
of heaven
and you
intercede for us
and you welcome us
and you pray for us
and you apply the blood
of your death
for us
and you welcome us
home
God we love you
we need you
we thank you
remind us
day by day
God I pray
that Lord I pray
for anybody here
today that feels
unworthy
pray God for anybody
here that
the voice of their
mind is telling
them you're not
good enough
I pray God
for those that
have grown up
with parents
that
maybe life
worked on the
basis of
meritocracy
that love was
given to us
on the basis
of good grades
or filial piety
oh God
by your power
break that over
our hearts
and our lives
remind us
that God
you are a
different kind
of parent
that your
kingdom operates
on a different
ethic completely
by your spirit
God set us
free
Jesus
I pray that
the grace
of the living
God
will intersect
with the very
real issues
of our lives
in such a way
that changes
us
oh spirit
of God
do that
in our midst
do that
even now
help us
to walk
out of here
differently
because we've
encountered
the God
of grace
we're going to
sing a song
that we've been
singing the last
few weeks
faithful he has
been
faithful he will
be
gracious he has
been
gracious he will
be
worthy he has
been
worthy he will
be
why don't you
stand and let's
sing this together
and if you would
like prayer for
anything there are
going to be
prayer stewards
around the
room
that can be
related to
sermon or
anything else
once you come
to a prayer
student we'd
love to pray
with you
let's for the
rest of us
let's worship
and sing
now
let's pray