Exodus 20:1-3

So we've been making our way through the book of Exodus the past couple of months.

And so if you haven't been with us, you're jumping into us by kind of midway through this journey.

And the Hebrew people, they have been freed from slavery in Egypt.

They've crossed the Red Sea.

They are now in the wilderness.

They're in this desert.

God is taking them from their slavery through this desert and eventually taking them into Canaan or their land.

And this is the place where they're going to build their cities and they're going to build their nation.

This is where they're going to have their life.

And this journey should only take a couple weeks, a few weeks, but instead it takes 40 years.

And it takes 40 years because along the way they just keep settling down.

And so along the way, and the story we get this morning is we get this story where God begins to give the people structure for life.

This is kind of the first time we see in the scriptures where God is beginning to give structure for life.

What does a healthy life look like?

And it's here we get the Ten Commandments.

So perhaps you're here and you're going, oh great.

You know, oh, I just I was so excited to come to church, you know, the first Sunday of a new year.

I was hoping for something like how to build a great resolution, and you're going to get a sermon on the Ten Commandments.

Terrific.

You're going to tell me everything I should do and I don't do it well, and I'm going to feel bad, and that's going to be the story.

Well, that's not it.

So hold on, just hold on for a second before you go there and you tune me out.

And I hope you're willing to think with me this morning.

It's going to be a bit of a thinking Sunday or a thinking Sunday, if you're me, that's how you say it.

So I hope you're okay with that.

And what could happen, if you're willing to stick with me, what could happen this morning, if you're willing to hang with me, is you might discover why perhaps you're so tired of the Christian life.

Or perhaps why you don't like the Christian faith at all.

Perhaps you've seen the Christian faith in a particular person, or perhaps you saw a particular church, or you read a certain book, and you didn't know why you didn't like that, but you knew you didn't like that, and you really didn't want anything to do with that.

You just know, for whatever reason, maybe you haven't had words for why you had such an averse reaction to it, but you just know you don't like that.

So what am I talking about?

Well, first off, uh, anybody remember f the free fall at Six Flags?

Anybody?

Anybody anybody kicking the season pass to Six Flags?

Just go ahead and admit it.

Just like you're there.

Teagues.

Okay, Sims, so great.

Okay, so is free fall still there?

Is the free fall.

Okay, same thing.

It's like the it's like the elevator, sort of you get in this metal box, and and it, do you remember this?

Some of you, the wimpier ones of us, went for the parachute ride, and you're like, I ain't going no parachute ride, I'm going the free fall.

I'm gonna take a nickel and put it on my knee, because that's what the cool kids did, because at the top, you know, some of you know what I'm talking about.

So you went up the elevator to the top and you got your nickel out, because that's what I did.

And and and the elevator kind of went out, and you were you're hanging out there, and you had like three seconds or so, and you didn't know when it was gonna drop, and you put the nickel on your knee because when you dropped, it would kind of float up, and it was real cool to have the nickel on the knee thing going on.

But you had three seconds of the top, and at the top, it was great.

I loved it because you got to see the whole park.

Like you got this big view, and you'd see all the walkways of where you had been walking and how the walkways connect and what rides over there, and what you're like, oh I was over there earlier.

I didn't realize that was so close to that right over there, but you you could see, you could see it all.

You got this kind of macro aerial view.

So uh here's how we're gonna handle Ten Commandments.

Well, that's that's exactly how we're gonna handle Ten Commandments.

Today is the macro aerial view.

So it's we're not gonna work our way verse by verse like we usually work our way through a passage.

So we're just gonna take one Sunday away from our normal rhythm, and we're gonna get this kind of macro aerial view of the Ten Commandments and the law and what the law is and is not and how it works.

And then in the coming weeks, we're gonna break down the Ten Commandments.

So that's how we're gonna do it.

So Exodus 20, verses 1 through 3, Katie read it, and God spoke all these words, saying, I'm the Lord your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery.

Exodus 20:1–3

It's like, hey, remember, remember I did that.

An act of grace towards you, remember I did that.

And then he begins in the law.

Verse 3, you shall have no other gods before me.

So a little bit of education here coming into this.

So the Ten Commandments comprise the core of the law of Moses, the Mosaic Law, the law of the Old Testament, and the rest of the law in the Old Testament, it begins out of here.

So we so we get ceremonial law, we get judicial law, we get a lot of different cultural laws, um, I mean, even weird laws, right?

Like you read stuff and you're like, what in the world does this have anything to do with anything?

It all begins here.

This is the core.

This is the core of the law.

And what's important to remember, just so important to remember, is that the Mosaic law came after the Lord saved them out of Egypt.

And we can't just run over that.

Just don't pass that by because what that means is that grace comes before law.

And now, law could be like um, you can think of it this way: any standard of righteousness.

Okay, so anything you should be or you should do.

Law doesn't stop in the New Testament.

There's there's law in the New Testament, like uh pray continually.

That that's law, that's rule, it's a standard, it's what we should do or we should be.

But grace comes before law.

So this is what it means.

It means our obedience, and perfect as it is, right?

And some of you, it's it's really bad.

I've seen I've seen some of you.

So our obedience, our obedience, imperfect as it is, to law, comes from gratitude from what God has already done.

I'm just gonna say it again.

It's just so important.

Like if we get this.

And not just hear it, but like actually rest in this, is that our obedience, and perfect as it is, our obedience to law comes from gratitude of what God has done for us.

Now, like I said at the beginning, perhaps you think about the Christian life, or you look at a particular church, or you read a book somebody gave you, and you had this averse reaction, like, I want nothing to do with that.

That's just it just feels like a bunch of demand on me.

Or maybe the Christian life just isn't working, and that's what you just keep thinking to yourself, and you haven't verbalized that because you'd be like kind of ashamed to say it.

But that's what you've been thinking, like, this just isn't working.

So, so this law stuff is really confusing, but I think it could be unbelievable and revolutionary for you.

And why it's confusing is because in some places in the scriptures, you open it up and you see this love for the law, like this adoration for the law.

And then other places you open up like the next day, you're on your quiet time again, you open up and you see this distaste for the law.

You're like, how does this fit together?

Here's what I'm talking about.

I just pulled a couple examples, a couple samples.

Psalm 119, verse 97, oh how I love your law.

Psalms 119:97

It is my meditation all day.

Like, like this is all I want to think about.

And then later in that chapter in verse 165, great peace have those who love your law.

Nothing can make them stumble.

So love the law and peace will come.

Just love the law, and I want to think about it all the time, and I love the law.

And then you open your up your Bible on a different day and you read 2 Corinthians 3, 4 through 8.

So this is in your handout, you had a handout, or most of you had a handout, a printed 100, there might be a little bit more than that in here.

2 Corinthians 3, 4 through 8.

Such is the confidence that we have through Christ toward God, not that we are sufficient in ourselves to claim anything as coming from us, but our sufficiency is from God.

I know that's all really good news, who has made us sufficient to be ministers of the new covenant.

So it's a little bit different than it used to be before Jesus.

What's he talking about?

Not of the letter, all right?

So hold on to that word, what's he talking about?

He's gonna explain himself, but of the spirit, for the letter kills.

But the spirit gives life.

What's he talking about, the letter?

Now, if the ministry of death, so something has a ministry of death, and what is it, carved in letters on stone?

He's talking about the Ten Commandments.

Came with such glory that the Israelites could not gaze at Moses' face because of its glory, which was being brought to an end.

Will not the ministry of the Spirit have even more glory?

So the psalmist is saying, I love your law, I want to think about it all the time.

And then Paul's saying, No, no, no, like it's a ministry of death.

So Paul views it as this horrible thing.

I mean, he views it as something that will kill you, it will drown you.

And I hope you grab hold of where we're gonna go with this because for me, seven years ago, this was revolutionary to all my perfectionism and performancism.

I don't even think that's a word, but it should be because we all do it.

But it was revolutionary for that.

Because here's Paul's point.

Paul doesn't hate the law because it's not good.

The law is good and holy and righteous.

Paul hates incorrect use of the law, and that's what he's seeing in his culture.

People are trying to be right with God by what they do, waking up to score their behavior and their improvement, and just being about what they do and their behavior.

And the law was being incorrectly used.

And what Paul knows is when that happens, it's a ministry of death to you.

It will drown you.

That's why you've had an averse reaction.

Or maybe that's why you're exhausted.

That's why you went to that church and you hated it and you didn't know why you hated it.

Or maybe, maybe you sort of liked it, but you just kept getting more and more exhausted the more the longer you were there.

And you never had words for it, and you didn't know why.

And it's because it was an incorrect use of the law.

So when I was 19 years old, I had really, really shaggy hair, much worse than this.

It was really bad.

And I did a lot of bench press because I was 19.

I thought I was gonna be big one day, and if I was if my 19-year-old self could see myself today, I'd be very depressed.

That never worked out.

And I was training to be a raft guide because when you're 19, these are the things you do.

You have shaggy hair and you do a lot of bench press, so you train to be a raft guide.

Um, so cliche at this point.

I see how cliche it was.

And so I'd probably been down, I'd probably be down the Okoe River 30 times.

I'm I'm guessing.

I mean, we would just go down like multiple trips in a day, just over and over and over again.

So I knew the drill.

I knew the drill of loading the rafts up on top of the bus and tying them down, and we'd ride up to the top of the Okoi.

And if you've been down the Okoe at the top, it's dammed, and and kind of to the right to get down is this this wide concrete sidewalk, and it's it goes kind of down beside the dam down to the beginning of the river.

And you had to lift the raft, you have to lift the raft up over your head and carry it down this uh decline, and you're in line behind all the other rafts and the rafts on top of your head with the other people, and and it's just it's heavy.

And you're in this line, you just want to get to the bottom.

I mean, the whole time you're in this line, I've done this so many times, and every time I'm on that decline, and I'm taller than everybody else, so I'm carrying more weight than like the short person.

They're just kind of hanging out, they're not even helping.

And I I I'm just I'm just under this raft and hating it and want to get out.

You just want I just want you just want to get to the bottom.

You want to get to the bottom, and because when you get to the bottom, you get to take the raft down and you get to sit on it.

You put it in the water and you wade into the water and you get on it, and and you get to sit on the raft and let the raft guide you down the river.

What you would never do is stay under the raft.

You you you would never get down, you would never get down to the base there and just go, can we can we hold it on top of our heads a little bit longer?

I would really like to just keep the raft on top of my head a little bit longer.

I want to see how long I can keep it on top of my head.

No, everybody gets down there like, oh, finally, I get to take this off.

I get I I can get out from under it.

Because it's crushing.

It's not fun, it's heavy.

And you just want to get out and you want to sit on it, and eventually you do.

You would never stay under it.

To stay under it would be insane.

It would be an exhausting life.

And you would drown.

See, some of you are drowning and you don't know why.

You are exhausted and you don't know why.

And this is why.

Is because incorrect use of the law.

Incorrect use of standards of what you should be.

And you're using law and standards to fuel your life.

And the reason why I can speak this is because I did it.

I know it.

Using law and standards to fuel your life, and in doing so, you're under law and you're being crushed by it, and it's like walking into a river with a heavy raft over your head when you're supposed to be sitting on top of the raft and let it guide you.

So, Guru of Wisdom and Pastoring and Books, Tim Keller, right?

I mean, the handout, you I got the reading for you because I have a couple long readings, and I just want you to stick with me.

So I'll print them out for you.

To be under the law refers not to law obeying, but law relying.

When we think we can win God's approval through our moral performance and obedience becomes a crushing burden.

Then we are under law.

But when we learn that Christ has fulfilled the law for us and that now we who believe in him are secure in God's love, then we naturally want to delight, resemble, and know the one who has done this.

How can we do this?

By turning to the law.

Paul puts it this way: Though he is not under the law, I am not free from God's law, but I am under Christ's law.

Though he is not under the law as a way to earn salvation, he now is freed to see the beauties of God's law as fulfilled in Christ and submits to it as a way of loving his Savior.

So maybe you've never understood this in the Bible.

Like when you read like all this demand, and then there's all this grace, and how does this work together?

And on one side you're like, oh, I should be doing all this, but on the other side I'm relieved of how I fall short.

How does this all work together?

So, two points to kind of organize this, to understand it a little bit.

And the first point is this that the law guides us, and then simultaneously it breaks us.

So the law guides us, and then simultaneously it breaks us.

So the law is good.

And when I say the law, you remember what I mean?

I mean any rule or standard of righteousness or of what you should be that we read in the scripture.

So all of that, of what you should be, that is good, it is righteous, it is right, is an expression of God Himself.

It is a guide for us, but we as imperfect, we are broken by it.

So it guides us and simultaneously it breaks us.

And here is the good news.

Jesus not only died the death we deserve and took our sin upon himself, but he lived the righteous life we should have lived.

That's why we always say around here, we say it constantly, that he takes our sin and is laid upon himself, and his righteousness is laid upon us.

Okay, so I know I'm getting very seminary class on you, but we're gonna go to that next reading.

And I didn't want to lose you, so I printed it out.

I really didn't want to lose you because it just might explain your exhaustion or your addiction to perfectionism or performancism, or maybe even disillusionment with faith in general.

So Martin Luther, 500 years ago, he wrote this about the book of Galatians.

The law of the Ten Commandments has no power to accuse and frighten the conscience in which Jesus Christ reigns by his grace, for he has abolished its power.

Not that the conscience does not feel the terrors of the law, but the commandments cannot condemn it or reduce it to despair.

So then, however much we may be terrified by the law when it shows us our sin, we still do not despair, for we believe in Jesus Christ.

And being baptized in him and cleansed by his blood, we have forgiveness of all of our sins.

When our sin is pardoned through Christ, who is the Lord of the law and gave himself for us, the law, which is a servant, has no more power to accuse and condemn us for our sin, since our sin is forgiven and we are now made free.

For the Son had delivered us from slavery.

Therefore, the law is completely abolished to those who believe in Christ.

So, second point.

The law drives us to the grace of God known in Jesus.

The hope is whole hearted, free living in gratitude with the aim of obedience.

That's the hope.

But the grace comes before law.

So we're free in it.

So we're so so we're we're free to live without the crushing despair.

We're free to be in the imperfect obedience.

We're free without being drowned, and when you fail, that is not the end.

So Christmas morning, my seven-year-old gets a Kindle fire.

This is a big deal in my house.

A really big deal.

And so I was like, hey, can we set this up immediately?

That was the quick.

Can we set it up, Dad?

Can we set it up?

And you know, in me, more on to technology, I'm not looking forward to this.

I mean, I'd rather put together some desk or something.

I'd rather like put together some piece of wood.

But the technology thing just overwhelms me.

So I'm like, okay, we're gonna go after this and so plug it in, and it's like a charge, it's gonna update, and it's gotta turn off, and then it turns back on, and it turns off, and then it's updates and back on and back off and plug it back in.

I mean, it was like four sessions of this.

I was like, I don't understand why all this was not already done to start with, why they didn't do it for us.

And then we so we register it, okay?

So it ties to my Amazon account.

Has anybody set up the Kindle Fire?

Have you been there through this process of patience?

So it ties to my Amazon account, um, and so we get that tied in to my Amazon account, and then she's a separate user.

So on the Kindle Fire, there's myself, I'm like the guardian of the fire, and then she is um she is a user, and I want to protect her.

So I'm going into all the settings and figuring this out how to protect her.

So um I'm in it, she has$50 of Amazon money that she got in her stocking.

So um, so I'm okay, we're gonna figure that out so she can buy some books and some apps and stuff like that.

And so we're trying to figure that out, and but then when I buy something, it's charging my American Express and my Amazon account, I'm like, oh, there's free money here, and now I'm getting charged.

And so I have to break the laptop out and put in the Amazon gift card money into the laptop, and then still when I buy it on the Kindle, the one says I'm back to the laptop and I'm buying a laptop and pointing it.

Anybody pointed something before?

Pointing it to the fire, but then when I point it to the fire, it just goes to my user on the fire, and I can't get it to show up in her user account on the fire, and I'm done.

I'm I'm furious.

I want to put it in a blender.

I just want to put it into my ninja blender and just let it mix up and just throw it away.

I'm so over this thing, I can't figure it out, I'm worn out, I'm sweating, I'm mad.

And I had I had to take a break, and eventually YouTube helped me out.

But the feeling was it's like I'm going in circles and getting nowhere.

Like it was breaking me.

Like the imperfect in me.

Like it was breaking me.

And that's my point, is we know the feeling.

We know the feeling of I'm going in circles and I'm getting nowhere, and this thing, which is right, is breaking me.

Just breaking me.

And maybe you're worn out and you're frustrated and you're so let down with yourself because you're not perfect.

And maybe you're reacting to how you grew up and what church you grew up in, or that friend, or your mom, or your dad, or the book you read, and you don't know why you had that averse reaction, but you just know you don't like that.

Or you know you're being exhausted by that.

You're seeing life under the law.

I mean, that's life under a raft when you're supposed to have gotten on top of it and let it guide you and break you and guide you to the grace of God and Jesus.

Listen, the the law gives us a guide to morality and righteousness, and we need it.

The law uh gives us boundaries for life, we need it.

But when it comes to where we place our hearts, we must allow the law to break us and send us on.

Or else the law is over you.

And the law can take the form of a taskmaster, it can take the form of a shame reminder.

Or it may just take take the task the role of like every morning when you wake up, just gonna keep that score again on all your behavior and all your failings, and just keep that score.

It may make you keep making sacrifices over and over again, like sacrifice yourself instead of like living in the sacrifice of Jesus, sacrifice yourself over and over again to feel accepted by God or to feel like finally you're serious for Jesus, and now all of a sudden this is enough.

And then you realize a couple days later, oh that's not enough, and I gotta like re-up or something, sacrifice yourself again.

See, the the law is the burden of everything you are not.

Brothers and sisters.

That's good news.

Because you're not under the law.

You are under the grace of God, known in Jesus, and that is a place of incredible rest and incredible freedom when we understand that grace comes before law, and we live out of great gratitude for the grace shown to us.

Let's pray together.

God, we thank you that you give us the law.

We thank you that in the law we see your righteousness and goodness and a healthy life.

We thank you that it also shows us ourselves.

We are so grateful that your grace comes before the law so that as the law shows us in all of our imperfections, that we can become honestly to you and say, here's who we are.

And then in the sacrifice of Jesus.

You completely accept us.

Always with open arms.

And that you don't even see us as imperfect.

That you see us into the blood of Jesus, sacrifice of your own.

Would you help us as we wake up, inevitably wake up tomorrow to live under the law?

Perfectionism and performance and work hard and just forgetting that you greatly comes before the law.

Would you help remind us?

Would you just surface it in our hearts and our minds?

That we might live in freedom.

In Jesus' name we pray.

Amen.