WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:07.000 We're starting a series tonight that'll last us pretty much the whole semester on the Ten Commandments. 00:00:07.000 --> 00:00:14.000 And we will not come close to covering all that we just read about in Exodus chapter 19. 00:00:14.000 --> 00:00:17.000 We could probably do a series on just this chapter. 00:00:17.000 --> 00:00:26.000 But the Ten Commandments is important because this is the most famous law code that the world has ever known. 00:00:26.000 --> 00:00:31.000 And a lot of times when people come and read it, we read it earlier in Exodus 20, 00:00:31.000 --> 00:00:35.000 one of the questions that comes up for people whether they're Christians or not is, 00:00:35.000 --> 00:00:38.000 what is this law for? What are these Ten Commandments for? 00:00:38.000 --> 00:00:42.000 And Christians will often ask, are these Ten Commandments for me? 00:00:42.000 --> 00:00:46.000 Do they apply to me today? Should I obey these commandments today? 00:00:46.000 --> 00:00:51.000 Now, the modern mind comes and looks at the Ten Commandments if they have read them and says, 00:00:51.000 --> 00:00:58.000 this is religious regressive law from a long, long time ago. 00:00:58.000 --> 00:01:06.000 And as soon as God brings Israel out of Silivarian Egypt, He enslaves them again by giving them all these rules. 00:01:06.000 --> 00:01:13.000 This is the first Ten. There's going to be 42 in the next three chapters and then 613 total by the time you read through numbers. 00:01:13.000 --> 00:01:17.000 And so He enslaves them just like they were enslaved under Pharaoh. 00:01:17.000 --> 00:01:24.000 And the reason people say that is because to the modern mind, religious law is the restriction of freedom. 00:01:24.000 --> 00:01:31.000 And that's because we live in an age, we live in a time where the law is there is no one right way to live. 00:01:31.000 --> 00:01:34.000 Everybody should be an individual and live freely. Do what they want to do. 00:01:34.000 --> 00:01:37.000 There's no one right way to live. We can live as we want to live. 00:01:37.000 --> 00:01:40.000 I heard one preacher talking about the Ten Commandments and he said, 00:01:40.000 --> 00:01:47.000 the modern view of the Ten Commandments is that the Ten Commandments are a fence around an amusement park. 00:01:47.000 --> 00:01:50.000 They are there so that you never have fun. 00:01:50.000 --> 00:01:53.000 And that's exactly the modern mindset of the Ten Commandments. 00:01:53.000 --> 00:01:59.000 Now, even if you grew up in the church community, even if you've been a part of this church community for a long time, 00:01:59.000 --> 00:02:06.000 it is possible to also approach the Ten Commandments with this mindset, a very modern mindset. 00:02:06.000 --> 00:02:10.000 And that may happen because of two possibilities. 00:02:10.000 --> 00:02:21.000 One, you may have grown up in a church where the law of God, the Ten Commandments and other laws were used as a bully pulpit, 00:02:21.000 --> 00:02:29.000 an agenda where the culture was rules, rules, rules, law, law, law. 00:02:29.000 --> 00:02:32.000 And although grace was talked about, it was never lived. 00:02:32.000 --> 00:02:38.000 And so law, the Ten Commandments, became for you a word of judgment. 00:02:38.000 --> 00:02:43.000 And that's not dissimilar at all to the modern mindset that looks at something like the Ten Commandments and says, 00:02:43.000 --> 00:02:48.000 this feels like most religious law, like I'm being judged. 00:02:48.000 --> 00:02:55.000 The other reason maybe you come to this with a skeptical mind is because Jesus Christ has come into the world 00:02:55.000 --> 00:02:57.000 and the New Testament has been written. 00:02:57.000 --> 00:03:03.000 And we say, we know now that Jesus brings a religion of grace, not law. 00:03:03.000 --> 00:03:06.000 And so can we really say the Ten Commandments are for us today? 00:03:06.000 --> 00:03:15.000 And that's very similar also to the modern mindset, which says, I thought Christianity was a religion of grace, not law, not judgment. 00:03:15.000 --> 00:03:20.000 I like the ethical teachings of Christ. I like His talk about love, but I don't like it when Christians talk about law. 00:03:20.000 --> 00:03:24.000 And so what are the Ten Commandments for? What are we supposed to do with them? 00:03:24.000 --> 00:03:32.000 Now, let me say that Exodus 19, the context, the preamble to Exodus 20, the Ten Commandments, 00:03:32.000 --> 00:03:39.000 gives us a different and better vision for what the law is for, for what the Ten Commandments are for. 00:03:39.000 --> 00:03:48.000 And let's see it like this. The Ten Commandments, we're going to learn tonight, help us see what we could have, 00:03:48.000 --> 00:03:54.000 help us see what we really are, and then help us see what we do have. 00:03:54.000 --> 00:04:00.000 So what we could have, what we really are, and then what we do have, and then finally, in just two sentences, 00:04:00.000 --> 00:04:04.000 a fourth point, help us to see that the law really is for us. 00:04:04.000 --> 00:04:09.000 Now, this is a three-point sermon, not a four-point sermon, but there are four points. 00:04:09.000 --> 00:04:14.000 But the last point is just a couple sentences, and the last point will last us ten whole weeks. 00:04:14.000 --> 00:04:20.000 The fourth point will be ten weeks long. Okay, so we'll just do three tonight and four the next ten weeks. 00:04:20.000 --> 00:04:27.000 All right, so don't worry. First, the Ten Commandments shows us what we could have. 00:04:27.000 --> 00:04:33.000 All right, in chapter 20 verse one, we read that God spoke all these words. 00:04:33.000 --> 00:04:35.000 So the Ten Commandments aren't actually called the Ten Commandments. 00:04:35.000 --> 00:04:38.000 Nowhere in the Bible do we have the phrase, the Ten Commandments. 00:04:38.000 --> 00:04:44.000 It's actually that they are the ten words that God spoke, and he wrote them on a tablet of stone. 00:04:44.000 --> 00:04:47.000 We don't know how many commandments made it on one side or the other. 00:04:47.000 --> 00:04:50.000 We have no idea they could have all been on one side. We're never told that either. 00:04:50.000 --> 00:04:57.000 So it's ten words written into stone, but the context for how that happens actually comes all in chapter 19. 00:04:57.000 --> 00:05:00.000 And so it's important to look back at the context. 00:05:00.000 --> 00:05:07.000 And in chapter 19, at the very beginning, maybe you notice this awkward phrasing in verses one and two, 00:05:07.000 --> 00:05:13.000 it says that after they've come out of slavery, they came into the wilderness of Sinai. 00:05:13.000 --> 00:05:20.000 Verse two, they came into the wilderness of Sinai, verse two, be they encamped in the wilderness. 00:05:20.000 --> 00:05:26.000 So it says they came to the wilderness of Sinai, they came to the wilderness of Sinai and they encamped in the wilderness in three clauses, 00:05:26.000 --> 00:05:28.000 back to back to back. 00:05:28.000 --> 00:05:33.000 So there's a lot of use of the word wilderness right there at the very beginning. 00:05:33.000 --> 00:05:37.079 beginning. And then right there, as soon as you read the word wilderness, wilderness, wilderness, 00:05:37.079 --> 00:05:42.360 all of a sudden, and the mountain of God. And it's almost like the mountain of God rises up. 00:05:43.240 --> 00:05:48.199 God comes down and there all of a sudden in the midst of wilderness, wilderness, wilderness, 00:05:48.199 --> 00:05:55.160 is the mountain of God. Now this is important because it reminds us of Genesis 2 and 3. 00:05:56.279 --> 00:06:00.680 It, Moses, the writer here is trying to make you think about this in relationship to what's already 00:06:00.680 --> 00:06:07.720 taking place all the way back in Genesis 2 and 3. And there in Genesis 2, the Bible says, Ezekiel 28, 00:06:07.720 --> 00:06:15.160 as well, that Eden is on the top of a mountain and it's called the mountain of God. And Eden is a 00:06:15.160 --> 00:06:21.879 garden and the mountain of God simultaneously. And you have this image in Genesis 2, even before sin, 00:06:21.879 --> 00:06:29.800 that everything outside the mountain of God, Eden is wilderness. It's a place of chaos. Now chaos 00:06:29.800 --> 00:06:35.000 is not necessarily bad before sin enters the world, but in the garden you have cultivated land. 00:06:35.000 --> 00:06:39.400 You have a place for humans to live. Outside the garden you have uncultivated land, the land of the 00:06:39.400 --> 00:06:43.720 beast. It's wilderness, wilderness, wilderness. And in the midst of wilderness, wilderness, 00:06:43.720 --> 00:06:49.400 wilderness, there is the mountain of God. That's Genesis 2. And then when sin enters the world, 00:06:49.400 --> 00:06:55.319 the wilderness becomes known throughout the whole rest of the Old Testament as the domain of symbolic 00:06:55.319 --> 00:07:02.439 sin. So remember the day of atonement. You put your sin on that one lamb and that lamb goes 00:07:02.439 --> 00:07:08.279 out where? To the wilderness, the place where sin belongs. Wilderness is where sin belongs. It's 00:07:08.279 --> 00:07:15.079 symbolized throughout the Old Testament constantly. In Genesis 4, Cain murders his brother after his 00:07:15.079 --> 00:07:19.719 mom and dad got kicked out of the Garden of Eden into the wilderness east of Eden. But when he 00:07:19.720 --> 00:07:26.520 murders his brother, God sends him further away from the mountain into exile. And what does Cain say? 00:07:26.520 --> 00:07:33.080 That is too much for me to bear being sent further and deeper into the wilderness territories. 00:07:33.640 --> 00:07:37.960 And so you have this image constantly throughout the Bible. And here it is again, Exodus 19. 00:07:37.960 --> 00:07:44.680 And that means that the context of the Ten Commandments is that Israel has come out of slavery, 00:07:44.680 --> 00:07:50.920 but they are still in the wilderness. And there in the heart of the wilderness rises up the mountain 00:07:50.920 --> 00:07:58.759 of God. And that means that the context of the Ten Commandments is that coming to the mountain of God 00:07:59.639 --> 00:08:04.680 is like coming home again. And when you're wandering through the wilderness, you're wandering 00:08:04.680 --> 00:08:10.360 through the land of sin, and the mountain of God comes to you. God condescends and builds a new home 00:08:10.360 --> 00:08:17.000 right there in front of your face. It's like coming home again. It's the place you were always meant 00:08:17.000 --> 00:08:24.280 to live. It's the place that you were made for. The Garden top, the Mountain Top Garden City of God 00:08:24.280 --> 00:08:30.840 is the place that you were made for. And that is the place where God gives the Ten Commandments. 00:08:31.480 --> 00:08:36.600 And so you have to think about where we are when the Ten Commandments are given to really have a 00:08:36.600 --> 00:08:43.159 new and better vision for what the Ten Commandments are trying to do. James calls the Ten Commandments 00:08:43.159 --> 00:08:48.840 the Law of Perfect Freedom. The modern person looks at the Ten Commandments and says, 00:08:48.840 --> 00:08:54.360 this is a fence around an amusement park. Not at all a law of perfect freedom, but a law of 00:08:54.360 --> 00:08:59.639 enslavement. Taking away my freedom, how could it be a law of perfect freedom? And the answer is, 00:08:59.639 --> 00:09:06.919 you have to think about the where, the mountain of God, the home you were made to live in. Now think 00:09:06.919 --> 00:09:13.879 about it like this. Imagine stepping through the door of the greatest home you've ever been in. 00:09:13.879 --> 00:09:19.319 So maybe you can actually name the family home, the best home that you've ever been in. Maybe it's 00:09:19.319 --> 00:09:24.200 your own home, but maybe you've visited somebody else's house at some point in your life. And you've 00:09:24.200 --> 00:09:31.720 said, wow, that was the most comfortable, easy, warm household I've ever set in. So some of you 00:09:31.720 --> 00:09:35.960 have had that great experience, some of you haven't. But imagine the warmest home you've ever set in. 00:09:36.520 --> 00:09:41.080 You know, you come in, it's comfortable. It's comfortable and it's great, not because the 00:09:41.080 --> 00:09:47.160 furniture is clean. Probably if the furniture is clean, it's probably not the warmest home you've 00:09:47.160 --> 00:09:53.480 ever been in. Right? It's not great because the decor is amazing and expensive and the art on the 00:09:53.480 --> 00:09:59.159 wall is fantastic. That's not at all what makes it great. That's not at all what makes it freeing. 00:09:59.159 --> 00:10:03.960 You know, you come into this kind of a house and you say, you know, I really felt safe. I really 00:10:03.960 --> 00:10:10.039 felt free. I felt like I never had to leave. They could have kept me here. They would have adopted 00:10:10.039 --> 00:10:16.759 me. And it's the kind of household that a child grows up in and feels safe. They feel comfortable. 00:10:17.480 --> 00:10:22.120 They feel able to go to sleep at night and everything is good. Mom and dad have it. They're 00:10:22.120 --> 00:10:28.039 there. They're for me. And when visitors come, it's warm. It's inviting. It's hospitable. Now, 00:10:28.039 --> 00:10:33.159 imagine you've probably had many experiences of households like that. What is it that makes it 00:10:33.159 --> 00:10:40.279 like that? And what makes it like that is not the claim that, you know, everybody can live their own 00:10:40.279 --> 00:10:45.159 way. Everybody can, you know, everybody's an individual here and they can live any way they want. 00:10:45.159 --> 00:10:49.799 That's true freedom. That's how we're meant to be. That's real freedom. It's find your own path. 00:10:49.799 --> 00:10:55.079 And instead, a household that is truly great is one where the parents have cultivated a lifestyle 00:10:55.079 --> 00:11:01.639 in order of existence where nobody steals from each other, where nobody cheats each other, 00:11:02.759 --> 00:11:09.559 where nobody is envious of what the other person has, where nobody is constantly coveting, 00:11:09.559 --> 00:11:15.240 where nobody is lying about their neighbor, about their brother, about their sister, about their 00:11:15.240 --> 00:11:21.960 sister, about their friend. That's the reason that that house is so warm and so freeing and so 00:11:21.960 --> 00:11:28.840 comfortable. And you constantly want to go back. You see, when you are at home and there is a law 00:11:28.840 --> 00:11:37.720 that is truly good and it's obeyed, you are most free. You're safe. You've actually discovered a 00:11:37.720 --> 00:11:44.440 space of real safety in your life. Freedom is not the ability to do anything that you want to do. 00:11:44.440 --> 00:11:51.640 Freedom is the ability to live in the way you should live. That's what really makes you free. 00:11:51.640 --> 00:11:55.960 That's what really makes you safe. That's what really makes you feel like you've come home again. 00:11:55.960 --> 00:12:03.160 And here we are in the midst of the wilderness and God brings home the garden, mountain, top, city of 00:12:03.160 --> 00:12:09.880 God to the people of Israel. And he's saying, this is the context in which the perfect law works. 00:12:09.879 --> 00:12:15.000 You know, when you enter into the true home, the home that God made for you, and you live in that 00:12:15.000 --> 00:12:21.639 order, that order of goodness, you will know, I'm truly free. I'm safe. I'm exactly where I should 00:12:21.639 --> 00:12:26.840 be. Now, let me point this out to you in two ways and we'll move on. There's a new vision here, 00:12:27.799 --> 00:12:33.960 a household vision, a parental vision, a vision that you've come home when you obey the Ten Commandments. 00:12:33.960 --> 00:12:37.559 And here's how it works. You can see it in verse five. In verse five, he says, 00:12:37.559 --> 00:12:42.279 Now, you say, well, that does not sound freeing. It sounds like God is saying, 00:12:43.559 --> 00:12:49.799 if you obey the Ten Commandments perfectly, if you keep my law, then you will be a possession to me. 00:12:49.799 --> 00:12:55.000 You will be a treasure to me, but only then. Now, the word that gets used here for treasure 00:12:55.639 --> 00:13:00.279 is the word that we would also often translate delight. And it has the word, 00:13:00.279 --> 00:13:08.279 now the word that gets used here for treasure is the word that we would also often translate delight. 00:13:08.279 --> 00:13:14.199 And it has the connotation of parental delight. So he's talking here about the way apparent 00:13:14.199 --> 00:13:19.639 delights or treasures or grows and warmth towards their child. That's the kind of word that he 00:13:19.639 --> 00:13:25.159 uses here. You see, he's already saved them out of the house of slavery while they were grumbling. 00:13:25.159 --> 00:13:30.120 They didn't deserve it. And he's brought them across the Red Sea and they were grumbling the whole way. 00:13:30.120 --> 00:13:34.600 They didn't deserve it. And he's brought them home to the mountain of God and they didn't deserve it. 00:13:34.600 --> 00:13:40.839 And he cannot possibly be saying, I will only love you if you keep the Ten Commandments. 00:13:40.839 --> 00:13:45.639 That can't be it at all. He's loved them every step of the way when they were grumbling already. 00:13:45.639 --> 00:13:50.279 And instead, he's saying, if you keep the Ten Commandments, the order of life, you will be my 00:13:50.279 --> 00:13:55.879 treasure. What does that mean? It's the same thing as this. If you're a parent, you've had this 00:13:55.879 --> 00:14:00.360 experience with your child, or if you don't have children, you've had this experience as a child, 00:14:01.480 --> 00:14:05.240 where you were out and about, out and about in the city, wherever you might live, 00:14:05.799 --> 00:14:14.199 and you, your child, was unexpectedly polite to a stranger. They said, please, they said, thank you. 00:14:14.199 --> 00:14:17.559 They said everything you wanted them to say, and you thought, where did this come from? 00:14:17.559 --> 00:14:25.479 And what happens in that moment? You could take the same Hebrew phrase and say, you are my treasure. 00:14:25.479 --> 00:14:33.159 I delight in you in this moment. In other words, it makes your heart warmer to your child in that moment. 00:14:33.159 --> 00:14:37.639 Right? You delight more and more in them. Now, if they go out and they are 00:14:37.639 --> 00:14:48.279 expectedly rude to somebody in the city, you don't turn around and say, you are not my treasure anymore. 00:14:48.279 --> 00:14:54.519 You don't say, I'm casting you away. I'm kicking you out of the household. Not at all. Instead, 00:14:54.519 --> 00:15:00.919 you might offer discipline, encouragement in some way. You try to educate. You try to help them along 00:15:00.919 --> 00:15:06.519 to obey in the future so that they warm your heart more in the future with that moment. 00:15:06.519 --> 00:15:11.559 That's exactly what God is saying here. He's speaking as a father. He's not saying, if you obey the 00:15:11.559 --> 00:15:16.439 Ten Commandments perfectly, then I might treasure you. He's saying, I've already loved you to the end. 00:15:16.439 --> 00:15:24.439 Now, allow me to grow and warmth and delight over you as a father over his children as you live in 00:15:24.439 --> 00:15:29.079 this order of existence of goodness more and more and more and more and more. You see, it's a household 00:15:29.079 --> 00:15:33.319 idea. One more, and we got to move on. This is half the sermon, by the way, the first point. 00:15:33.320 --> 00:15:39.480 Secondly, verse six. This in verse six, he says this, and not only will I treasure you and delight 00:15:39.480 --> 00:15:45.240 in you, but verse six, and you will be to me when you obey, you shall be to me a kingdom of priest 00:15:45.240 --> 00:15:53.160 and a holy nation. Now, he's saying here that this order of life around the garden city of God, 00:15:53.160 --> 00:15:59.560 obeying the Ten Commandments as God's people, he's saying this signifies you publicly in the world 00:15:59.559 --> 00:16:06.439 as a kingdom of priest, a new community, a community that shows forth the possibility 00:16:06.439 --> 00:16:11.719 of a transformed society for the rest of the world to see, a transformed family for the rest of the 00:16:11.719 --> 00:16:16.519 world to see. He's talking about the possibility here of showing forth a beautiful community. 00:16:17.159 --> 00:16:21.319 And he's saying, when you come home to God and you live according to this order of life, you can 00:16:21.319 --> 00:16:27.319 display the beauty of the possibility of a society that the world has never seen. You see, the Ten 00:16:27.320 --> 00:16:35.320 Commandment shows us what we could have, what we could be, what we could become a beautiful community. 00:16:35.320 --> 00:16:41.320 And the world looks at this, the modern mind looks at this idea, a beautiful community on display, 00:16:41.320 --> 00:16:46.280 a new community through the obedience of the Ten Commandments and says, you know, what is a beautiful 00:16:46.280 --> 00:16:52.920 community? The modern mind says its first tolerance, its ability to let everyone think and do what 00:16:52.919 --> 00:16:58.519 they want to think and do without bothering them. And secondly, it's to say individuals can choose 00:16:58.519 --> 00:17:03.319 for themselves. You're an individual, you can choose what you want to do, there is no right path. 00:17:04.119 --> 00:17:08.920 Now, if you say tonight, if deep down in your heart, you've been moved by that idea and you say, 00:17:08.920 --> 00:17:13.480 you know, I'm not convinced that there's a single right way to live. Let me just suggest that no 00:17:13.480 --> 00:17:18.680 one believes that when they're choosing a flatmate. You know, nobody thinks that when they're looking 00:17:18.680 --> 00:17:23.720 for their flatmate. Nobody thinks that when they're looking for a spouse or a girlfriend or a 00:17:23.720 --> 00:17:28.279 boyfriend that there's only one right way to live. You know, do you want to live in a household with 00:17:28.279 --> 00:17:36.279 a bunch of flatmates that lie, that steal from you, that covet your possessions, that are only 00:17:36.279 --> 00:17:42.440 friends with you because they want something, that are so angry at you that they're tempted 00:17:43.480 --> 00:17:48.279 towards even murder by hand or by heart? You say, no, of course I don't want to live in a house 00:17:48.279 --> 00:17:52.519 like that with flatmates like that. You see, nobody believes that there's not one right way to live 00:17:52.519 --> 00:17:56.920 when it comes to choosing a flatmate. And let me suggest that there is nobody in the world that 00:17:56.920 --> 00:18:04.039 truly believes there is no one right way to live. Nobody. It's a living contradiction. And the Bible 00:18:04.039 --> 00:18:10.119 comes here and says there is a right way to live. And it's the revelation of God's own character 00:18:10.119 --> 00:18:16.680 into the world through these 10 words. It's the right way to live. And it teaches us the possibility 00:18:16.680 --> 00:18:25.000 of what we could have in a beautiful community. Now, we're halfway. Second, the 10 commandments 00:18:25.000 --> 00:18:31.799 shows us secondly, the 10 commandments shows us secondly who we really are as well. It exposes us. 00:18:32.680 --> 00:18:39.000 Now, there's a real tension. We can't plumb the depths tonight of this passage in full. But there's 00:18:39.000 --> 00:18:46.440 a real tension here. I hope you called it. Did you catch it? He says, I bore you out of Egypt 00:18:46.440 --> 00:18:53.400 on eagles wings. I loved you. I saved you from the house of slavery. I loved you because I loved 00:18:53.400 --> 00:18:58.600 you. Nothing that you did. I will delight in treasure and you more and more and more as you obey. 00:18:59.400 --> 00:19:05.240 I want to bring you home to the garden city of God on the mountain of God. And then you get 00:19:06.039 --> 00:19:12.120 texts like verse nine and 10 and 12 and 13 and so on that say things like this. God is coming down 00:19:12.119 --> 00:19:19.079 in a thick cloud in darkness and lightning and in thunder on this mountain. And verse 10, now go 00:19:19.079 --> 00:19:25.159 and consecrate yourselves, bathe yourselves, wash your clothes, tell the people, do not get close. 00:19:27.000 --> 00:19:33.000 At verse 12, Moses create a police barrier around the mountain so that nobody gets so close as to 00:19:33.000 --> 00:19:41.399 even touch it in the smallest of ways or they will die. And he says in verse 13, you shall come 00:19:41.400 --> 00:19:49.560 near but do not get closer. You shall come close but do not touch. Tell even the priests they are 00:19:49.560 --> 00:19:57.720 not fit. And Moses was the only one allowed to come but even he had to veil his face. He could not 00:19:57.720 --> 00:20:03.640 see the holiness of the living God. You see the tension in the passage is I've come to bring you 00:20:03.640 --> 00:20:07.080 home and I've come to give you an order of life that you've never seen before and create a beautiful 00:20:07.079 --> 00:20:13.639 community but do not get close to me. And you begin to realize that this place is dangerous. 00:20:16.679 --> 00:20:22.439 The law is good, the mountain is good, God is good and it is not safe and the way is not open. 00:20:23.960 --> 00:20:31.079 Now here's the real tension underneath that tension. God bore them on eagles wings out of the 00:20:31.079 --> 00:20:41.639 house of slavery and saved them and yet the way is not fully open. The mountain of God is still 00:20:41.639 --> 00:20:49.000 closed. The people cannot fully approach. They cannot have what they were really made for. 00:20:50.119 --> 00:20:57.079 There is something that's been left undone that keeps it this way and the subtle idea here and 00:20:57.079 --> 00:21:02.439 throughout the book of Exodus is that these people still have a justice problem. The problem of 00:21:02.439 --> 00:21:07.799 personal injustice and corporate injustice as they try to approach the holy mountain of God. 00:21:09.000 --> 00:21:14.119 There's a theological biblical question underneath that that I want to pose give you 00:21:14.119 --> 00:21:18.599 that's very important to even understand most of the Old Testament. And it's something like this. 00:21:19.480 --> 00:21:25.799 There's this idea. It's not explicit, it's implicit. But it's something like this. If Israel 00:21:25.799 --> 00:21:35.879 here were to really obey these 10 commandments perfectly, could they do what Adam and Eve failed 00:21:35.879 --> 00:21:42.680 to do? Could they obey to such a degree that they bring about the full kingdom of God one day? 00:21:43.399 --> 00:21:48.119 Could they stand in the place for all of humanity and open the way to the mountain? 00:21:48.759 --> 00:21:53.960 Could they be the Adam and Eve that Adam and Eve never were? That's the question. That's the 00:21:53.960 --> 00:22:00.920 tension here. Will they obey perfectly and bring humanity to the full presence of God, 00:22:00.920 --> 00:22:05.880 to the Garden City, to the holy mountain under this beautiful order with a new community? Will 00:22:05.880 --> 00:22:11.880 they do it? Can they do it? That's the question underlying this passage. Now they say, did you 00:22:11.880 --> 00:22:18.519 catch it in verse 8? All the people answered together and said, all that the Lord has spoken, 00:22:18.519 --> 00:22:25.400 we will do. Now that is sad and humorous at the same time, if you've ever read the rest of the 00:22:25.400 --> 00:22:31.400 Old Testament. And you can flip over to Exodus chapter 24 where this scene ends. It comes to a 00:22:31.400 --> 00:22:38.200 conclusion. And in verse 8 in Exodus 24, they complete that pronouncement that we will do this. 00:22:38.200 --> 00:22:44.680 We will obey by saying, yes we can. We will obey, we promise. And they take an oath before the Lord. 00:22:44.680 --> 00:22:51.400 They make the covenant oath before the Lord. And Moses then turns and throws blood upon them. 00:22:51.960 --> 00:22:58.680 And the text calls it the blood of the covenant. Now the scholars call this an oath of malifaction. 00:22:59.400 --> 00:23:05.080 It's a simple idea, a complicated word. And the simple idea is just this, that when Moses throws 00:23:05.080 --> 00:23:10.920 the blood upon them, it is a public statement saying something like this, if I break the 00:23:10.920 --> 00:23:17.800 conditions of the promise I've just made, may my blood be poured like the blood that's been poured 00:23:17.800 --> 00:23:22.360 upon me. So they would have had blood on their shirts. They didn't have a lot of clothing. 00:23:22.360 --> 00:23:27.480 They're in the wilderness. And that blood would have stayed on their garments. And they would have 00:23:27.480 --> 00:23:33.720 remembered that bloodstained garment, I made a promise, if I break any one of these 10 words, 00:23:33.720 --> 00:23:42.680 may my blood be poured like this blood that was shed and thrown upon me. Now Israel, know thyself. 00:23:43.559 --> 00:23:49.960 Human being, know thyself. You say, how could you make a promise like that? And you see the law, 00:23:51.480 --> 00:23:57.880 the law exposes us. On the one hand, God says, you cannot come close to me. You have a justice 00:23:57.880 --> 00:24:01.480 problem. On the other hand, it says, even if you try to make an oath that says you're going to obey 00:24:01.480 --> 00:24:05.319 the 10 words perfectly, you will not make it. You won't make it a fortnight. You will make it a week. 00:24:06.200 --> 00:24:09.240 You could place bets over and under. Will they make it seven minutes 00:24:11.000 --> 00:24:15.480 before the oath has been broken? Obedience to these 10 words. You see, the law shows you the 00:24:15.480 --> 00:24:20.839 possibility of the beautiful community of home, of true home, but it also then immediately cuts you 00:24:21.720 --> 00:24:27.720 and says you are exposed. Injustice in the past, injustice in the future, you have to be honest 00:24:27.720 --> 00:24:32.200 with yourself and you have to face who you really are when you read it. The 21st century, 00:24:33.240 --> 00:24:40.519 Western mind looks at this and says, this is the part of Christianity I don't like. I like 00:24:41.960 --> 00:24:47.640 the religion of love. I like the ethical teachings of Jesus to a degree, but I don't like it when 00:24:47.640 --> 00:24:54.920 we come and we talk about being exposed in judgment and injustice before the living God, 00:24:54.920 --> 00:24:59.960 that I don't have access to God because of who I am and because of what I've done. But look, 00:25:02.279 --> 00:25:08.759 think about it when you relate to other people in your relationships. You say, I don't like 00:25:08.759 --> 00:25:14.440 reading the 10 words and saying, God telling me I've broken every single one of these, but look, 00:25:15.480 --> 00:25:20.600 what kind of a flatmate do you want to have? How do you want your spouse to live around you? 00:25:20.600 --> 00:25:24.440 Your girlfriend, your boyfriend, your best friend, how do you want these people to live? Do you want 00:25:24.440 --> 00:25:31.320 them to cheat? Do you want them to steal? Do you want them to be envious and covetous and only 00:25:31.320 --> 00:25:35.240 have a relationship with you because they're treating you in that way to get something from you? 00:25:36.680 --> 00:25:43.559 And what if God is real and he really is the father of humanity? The creator and he comes and he 00:25:43.559 --> 00:25:49.559 says in command number one, don't have any other gods before me. He says, if you put anything else 00:25:49.559 --> 00:25:55.159 in your life functionally above me, if you love something in the world more than you love the 00:25:55.159 --> 00:26:02.119 living God, then you have cheated him. You have stolen from him. You have stolen his glory. 00:26:03.240 --> 00:26:07.319 You have committed adultery against him, the Bible tells us, over and over and over again. 00:26:07.319 --> 00:26:13.079 You see, when you break that very first law, you have committed a cosmic injustice by which you 00:26:13.079 --> 00:26:18.200 have broken every one of the other laws. If you've ever in any moment right now, 00:26:18.200 --> 00:26:23.880 if you're loving anything in your life more than the living God, you've committed a cosmic injustice. 00:26:25.720 --> 00:26:31.400 And we, how can that be true? Well, we know this in our relationships that we don't want to be 00:26:31.400 --> 00:26:38.279 cheated on or stolen from or envied or where does this come from? Can there be justice without 00:26:38.279 --> 00:26:43.640 this God at all? Can we speak of injustice without speaking of the living God? And he comes to us 00:26:43.640 --> 00:26:48.759 and says, we've all committed a cosmic injustice. We've broken every single one of these laws and do 00:26:48.759 --> 00:26:54.040 all the time before the living God. The law exposes us. Are you willing to say so? 00:26:56.040 --> 00:27:01.880 Are you willing tonight to say that's me? I know that that's me. You look at the commands 00:27:01.880 --> 00:27:08.200 and you have to say with Israel as they carried on through the Old Testament, my blood is required 00:27:08.200 --> 00:27:15.640 of me. I know who I am. I know what I deserve. Lastly, the clothes, but wait. 00:27:18.039 --> 00:27:24.600 The law also shows you what you do have or perhaps can have tonight if you don't have it yet. 00:27:25.880 --> 00:27:32.920 Here's the subplot. Let me rehearse it. Israel, could they be like Adam and Eve all over again? 00:27:32.920 --> 00:27:38.120 Could they obey these laws and usher in the new creation, bring humanity back to the Holy 00:27:38.120 --> 00:27:46.200 Mountain of God? Can they obey? It's an emphatic no. Humanity, no human, no nation, no person can do 00:27:46.200 --> 00:27:51.400 this. And so the tension here is that there's something yet to be accomplished, something yet 00:27:51.400 --> 00:27:58.120 to be fulfilled in justice looms still. The mountain is not open. You read the law. You say, 00:27:58.119 --> 00:28:06.519 I am undone. I know who I am. The law exposes my heart. But when you read the gospels, the law 00:28:06.519 --> 00:28:17.079 reveals another heart. So when you read the gospels, Matthew and Mark, Luke in particular, Jesus 00:28:17.079 --> 00:28:24.839 Christ from the very earliest moments of his life goes down to Egypt. And then he comes up from 00:28:24.839 --> 00:28:31.240 Egypt. He goes through the river, the waters part for him. He goes into the wilderness and he's 00:28:31.240 --> 00:28:36.359 tempted by Satan. And you start to realize that the gospel writers are telling me something, 00:28:37.319 --> 00:28:44.439 that Jesus Christ has come to be the Israel that Israel never was. Jesus Christ has come to be the 00:28:44.439 --> 00:28:50.439 Adam that Adam never could be. Jesus Christ has come to be the human being that I could never be. 00:28:50.440 --> 00:28:57.400 He's reliving the life of the Old Testament, yet doing it perfectly, doing it obeying the 00:28:57.400 --> 00:29:01.720 10 words entirely. Now don't pass over this. We're closing here. Don't pass over this. 00:29:03.720 --> 00:29:08.360 Don't pass over this theological truth that you know if you've been here for any amount of time, 00:29:09.320 --> 00:29:17.000 but that you cannot understand. And it's this, Jesus Christ is perfect. Jesus Christ is a human 00:29:17.000 --> 00:29:27.000 being who never broke any of the 10 commandments. Jesus Christ never lusted. Jesus Christ never 00:29:27.000 --> 00:29:37.720 lied. Jesus Christ never stole anything. Jesus Christ never ever committed idolatry, loved 00:29:37.720 --> 00:29:45.640 anything in this world more than he loved his father. Jesus Christ never coveted. He was never 00:29:45.640 --> 00:29:52.840 envious. He never got so angry that he committed murder in his heart. He never woke up a single day 00:29:52.840 --> 00:30:00.120 with an ounce of discontentment. Can you imagine? Do you understand what it means to be perfect? 00:30:02.120 --> 00:30:11.880 No. That's the only answer. No, he was. He obeyed the 10 words fully, and the gospel says he did it 00:30:11.880 --> 00:30:18.920 in your stead. Now here's the other side of the equation and the last thing. Jesus Christ on the 00:30:18.920 --> 00:30:25.000 night he was betrayed sat in the upper room and he picked up the cup and he said, this blood, 00:30:25.000 --> 00:30:33.400 this wine is the blood of the covenant. You remember Exodus 24? When Moses sprinkled the blood 00:30:33.400 --> 00:30:39.640 upon the people, he called it the blood of the covenant. If we break the 10 commandments, may our 00:30:39.640 --> 00:30:43.640 blood be shed. That's the blood of the covenant. Jesus Christ on the night he was betrayed lifted 00:30:43.640 --> 00:30:47.240 the cup and said, here's the blood of the covenant. You're going to see it tomorrow morning. 00:30:48.840 --> 00:30:56.520 You see, on the one hand, he kept the law fully. On the other hand, his blood became the blood of 00:30:56.520 --> 00:31:02.520 the covenant. That's a contradiction. It shouldn't be. And you see how Jesus Christ works for you 00:31:02.520 --> 00:31:08.200 in both directions? He obeyed the law in your stead, and then he gave his blood in your stead. 00:31:08.200 --> 00:31:14.360 When you didn't obey the law, it works in both directions. He substituted for you in every way. 00:31:15.400 --> 00:31:21.240 He obeyed for you and he died for you. He obeyed the 10 commandments for you in a way you could 00:31:21.240 --> 00:31:27.880 never imagine and he lost his life because you didn't. And he did it all because he wanted to 00:31:27.880 --> 00:31:34.920 meet your justice problem. The mountain of God is closed in this passage. When Jesus Christ walked 00:31:34.920 --> 00:31:41.480 out of the grave, the barricades were gone. When the tomb was open, the curtain ripped into. 00:31:42.759 --> 00:31:46.440 When Jesus Christ opened the way, they sent the cherubs home. 00:31:47.080 --> 00:31:51.080 Eden, you didn't need a cherub anymore guarding the way. He had opened the way again. 00:31:51.080 --> 00:31:57.000 Jesus Christ came to be for you. He came. The law tells you what you can have. You see, you look at 00:31:57.000 --> 00:32:01.640 the 10 commandments and you look at Jesus and you say, this is what I can have. I can have complete 00:32:01.640 --> 00:32:07.560 forgiveness and acceptance in him. I can get to God. Do you want to be reconciled to God? 00:32:08.280 --> 00:32:14.280 Are you? Are you reconciled to God tonight? Believe this and accept this and follow him. 00:32:14.280 --> 00:32:18.440 And you are reconciled to the living God tonight. You have access to the mountain, 00:32:19.240 --> 00:32:25.320 the mountain of the living God. Now, our fourth point, we're going to take 10 weeks to explain. 00:32:25.319 --> 00:32:31.799 And it's this, Jesus, when you look at the law and you look at Jesus, Jesus shows us that the law 00:32:31.799 --> 00:32:41.559 is for us, really is. 10 commandments still are for us. Why? Because the law of God, the 10 commandments, 00:32:42.439 --> 00:32:49.639 is the revelation of the character of Jesus Christ. When you read the 10 commandments, 00:32:49.640 --> 00:32:57.000 you are reading the character of Christ. And Jesus, just before he was betrayed, 00:32:57.000 --> 00:33:01.480 got down and he washed the disciples feet and he says, I've loved you all the way to the end. 00:33:01.480 --> 00:33:09.800 Now go and love like I love. Take upon yourself my character. And his character is the 10 commandments. 00:33:10.600 --> 00:33:16.360 Obedience to the 10 words. Peter Lightheart says it like this. He says, if you're asking 00:33:16.359 --> 00:33:23.479 if the 10 commandments are for me, it's like asking is Jesus for me. Am I to obey the 10 00:33:23.479 --> 00:33:27.639 commandments is like asking, did Jesus come for me? Did Jesus tell me to be like him? 00:33:29.399 --> 00:33:35.240 Here's the order. God says in Jesus Christ, I bore you on eagle's wings out of your slavery to your 00:33:35.240 --> 00:33:41.079 son. You have been brought out of slavery. The 10 commandments is not the way to heaven. 00:33:41.079 --> 00:33:49.720 It's the way to live freely and happily after you've been daringly rescued. 00:33:52.679 --> 00:34:00.359 Let's pray. Father, we ask that you would teach us the way to live, the way to live by looking 00:34:00.359 --> 00:34:05.240 at the character of Christ. But tonight, before the next 10 weeks of doing that, I pray that you 00:34:05.240 --> 00:34:12.920 would show us who we really are and that you would expose us and that you would then remake us 00:34:13.559 --> 00:34:19.159 by teaching us and showing us the grace of our Lord whose blood was poured. 00:34:20.440 --> 00:34:25.400 So I pray tonight for all of us that we would believe that more, that we would lean into it, 00:34:26.039 --> 00:34:29.880 and maybe for some tonight that that would be discovered for the first time. 00:34:29.880 --> 00:34:35.240 Perhaps, Lord, you would help us all tonight and somebody specifically tonight to see it makes 00:34:35.240 --> 00:34:40.280 absolutely no sense in this life to say you can live any way you want to live. That none of us 00:34:40.280 --> 00:34:46.920 believe that. We don't believe that. Teach us that, Lord, and show us that these 10 words actually 00:34:46.920 --> 00:34:53.800 reveal that there is a cosmic creator, a law giver, one who is just and holy, and that the only way 00:34:53.800 --> 00:35:01.480 to you is through Christ. So Lord, move now by the Holy Spirit as we sing about your holy mountain 00:35:01.480 --> 00:35:07.480 from Psalm 15, your holy hill, and show us the grace of Jesus and the way of Jesus. We pray this 00:35:07.480 --> 00:35:25.159 in Christ's name. Amen.