All right. Good morning, church. Thank you so much for being here today. We are continuing our series called the Story. But I want to begin with a word of prayer.

I know most of you probably saw over the weekend some dramatic events. Our world is always rising and falling, and there's always a bit of chaos. But it was a pretty wild weekend if you were following the news at all or probably had people, you know, blowing up your social media, perhaps. I had a lot of people asking me how I was, what I thought, and things like that. But I think the best thing we could do as the church is to pray and to spend time asking God to be what he has always been.

And that is, he's the Prince of peace, and he is the God above, and he is ruler of heaven and earth. And so we trust him even in these times that are very uncertain and dark at times. So let's say a word of prayer together. Heavenly Father, we ask that you would provide comfort to your people today that as we watch the world unfold, that sometimes it can cause us to be anxious and cause us to not know what's coming. And to be fair, Lord, we don't have a clue what's happening and what's coming next.

And even those in charge don't know where you're navigating your world. And I just. I'm reminded today, Lord, that you are a good God who loves us, and that this story is your story, and that no matter what the nations do, and as they wage war, Lord, you're in charge. So, Lord, we boldly ask that you would protect us, protect your people, that you would limit the bloodshed, that you would continue to provide. But more than anything, Lord, that you would help us, your church, be a voice of peace wherever we go.

We offer this, Lord, in Jesus name, amen. Easter is coming up in just a few weeks. Church. I know most of you are probably not thinking about this yet. I'm a pastor, so I've been thinking about it, and Easter is one of those really big Sundays in the year.

There's only a few of these, really all year long where people will consider church. Church can be kind of an intimidating place for a lot of people. It can be difficult, but on Easter, you can kind of blend in. Christmas can be like that. Mother's Day for some people kind of works out.

And so the reason I bring this up today is I want you to begin praying about this. I want you to go ahead and begin considering how you might be invitational this time of year. Some of your Friends, family, co workers, they might actually give church a shot at a time like this. So this will be a great chance for you to really minister to them. We've given you a little card.

We're not going to take this back up. This is for you to think about and consider. Because sometimes I say, hey, be praying for your one. Who's your one. And in fact, there's really kind of more than one.

At least in my life. I've found that there's kind of different spheres of people. And this might help you to think about who's my one. And so vocationally, this is about work. Who at my workplace could really hear the gospel this year?

Because here's what I can promise you. We try to be very obvious and very upfront about the gospel every week. The Gospel of Jesus here. But on Easter, it's going to be abundantly clear. And so I'm just inviting you, bring your friends.

Sometimes people tell me after service, hey, why did it have to be such a weird sermon when I brought my buddy? And I'm like, well, I tried. I mean, we're just going through the Bible sometimes there's interesting passages. But what I know is on Easter Sunday, we're going to be preaching resurrection. It's going to be very clear.

And so invite your friends, invite your co workers, invite family, brothers, sisters, cousins. Geographical. Could be a neighbor. Who do I live near? Who am I getting to know in my neighborhood that might be interesting.

Commercial would be, where do I shop? Are there places I frequent a lot where I'm starting to get to know people? I go to certain restaurants, some of the same restaurants every week with people. And I get to know the waiters, I get to know the waitresses. I do very, very simple things with them.

This stuff isn't rocket science. I will simply, if I'm praying with me and Rich, go to Barley and Burger every week for discipleship. If we're about to pray, I'll ask the waiter or waitress, hey, is there anything we can pray for you about? I've never had anybody say no, never. They always have something and they'll tell you some stuff.

You'll be surprised by somebody's sick, there's illness, there's something hard going on in their life. As soon as you ask somebody, how can I pray? They'll be pretty open about some things. And so where do you already shop? Coffee shops.

And then where do you play? Do you do pickleball? Do you work out the Y? Are you interacting with people in a recreational way? So this is kind of a cheat sheet for you to think about who can I pray about?

Who can I begin inviting? Because we believe and we're trusting that God is going to give us a great opportunity for the gospel at Easter, that there'll be a bunch of baptisms and a bunch of great opportunities that Sunday. Now we're also introducing something that is a first time for us. And for some of you, this might feel real cheesy. To be honest with you.

I don't really care because I like cheese. All right, here's another thing I know we're about to out in the lobby as you leave today. On your way out, you'll see yard signs for your yard. And I know for some of you it's going to be good because the rest of your neighbors have been uncertain if you're even a believer yet. So this is like for you to put that out there and you're going to have to start behaving, you're going to have to start actually acting like the church.

But for many of us, this is a great opportunity. It doesn't seem like much, but trust me, people notice some of this stuff. And so as they're driving around the neighborhoods, they go, oh, such and such goes to Eastgate. I didn't know that. It's an opportunity for you, friend.

And so take a sign when you leave, put it out in your front yard. Very simple step and let's be praying, be praying for. We're praying for you. Our staff is praying for you, for your family, for your co workers. So be in prayer.

All right, let's dig in. Today we're in the story. We're in part five in a 12 part series. And we are moving very swiftly through the Bible. And I want to be honest with you, we can't cover every little story.

There's a lot of, there's some really big ones too that we're kind of having to move past. And things are about to speed way up because we've got the Joshua, Judges, we've got the Kings, there's a ton of Bible there. And we're going to begin really hitting the accelerator this week. We're in what we call, we've called the Commandments. And I bet this is probably very well known.

This is a scripture you've probably been through before, heard as a child and you've thought about the Ten Commandments. And so I want you to hear something today. I want the clear messaging today to be this, that God's grace came before the commandments, that the commandments were never meant to be a way of earning. And so some of us, when we think about these, when we look at these, we think, well, I've got a list of do's and don'ts. And a lot of people in our circles view Christianity as a list of rules, and that is simply not the case.

What Christianity truly is is a relationship with a holy God that begins to cause you to have obedience and submission. But it doesn't start there. And so as we dig into this text today, that might be really familiar to you, I bet the way that we're going to look at it is going to feel fresh that the way in which God interacts with you in his law is not about rule keeping. It is about love. And the whole story is about love.

The reason we've entitled this whole series the Story is it's one big story from creation all the way to the end. It is about a risen savior whose grace has been on display from day one. And it is on display here. So let's dig in. We're going to be in Exodus, chapter 20, 21 verses.

Let's read together. Verse one of chapter 20. It says, and God spoke all these words saying, I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery. You shall have no other gods before me. You shall not make for yourself a carved image or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in earth beneath, or that is in the water underneath the earth.

You shall not bow down to them or serve them. For I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and the fourth generation of those who hate me, but showing steadfast love to thousands of those who love me and keep my commandments. You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain, for the Lord will not hold him guiltless who takes his name in vain. Remember the Sabbath day and keep it holy. Six days you shall labor and do all of your work.

But the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord your God on it. You shall not do any work. You, your son, your daughter, your male servant, your female servant, or your livestock, or the sojourner who is within your gates. For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth and the sea and all that is in them, and rested on the seventh day. Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy.

Honor your father and your mother that your days may be long in the land, that the Lord, your God is giving you. You shall not murder. You shall not commit adultery, you shall not steal. You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor. You shall not covet your neighbor's house.

You shall not covet your neighbor's wife, his male servant, his female servant, his ox or his donkey, or anything that is your neighbor's. Now, when the people saw the thunder and flashes of lightning and the sound of the trumpet and, and the mountain smoking, the people were afraid and trembled and they stood far off and said to Moses, you speak to us and we will listen, but don't let God speak to us, lest we die. Moses said to the people, do not fear, for God has come to test you that the fear of him may be before you, that you may not sin. The people stood far off while Moses drew near to the thick darkness where God was. This is God's word.

Amen. This is really great news. And I pray today you'll be encouraged and challenged to see why. There are three purposes here for God giving His law, and perhaps these are things you've never considered. The number one reason that God gives His law is this to remind us of his saving grace.

I bet many times you studied these laws and never thought this is about grace, but it absolutely is. It's about his saving grace. Now, if we removed verse two from this story, this would be a problematic scripture. But verse two tells us something very important. He says God says that he spoke these words.

And here's what he said. I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of Egypt out of the house of slavery. This is the first time in scripture that God uses a possessive about himself. He says, I am the Lord your God. He has said before, you're my people, the people of my covenant.

But this time he says, I'm your God, you're my people.

This is covenantal kind of language. This is to be thought, if you want to understand the Ten Commandments, rightly picture a marriage, that this is more like vows being given. And God says, I'm your man, I'm your husband, I am the Lord. This is why in Ephesians it's really painted this way that we are the bride of Christ, we have made a covenant with him, not a contract, and one that's in love. And so he says that God spoke these words.

Now, the Jews, I want you to understand this. The Hebrew here is actually the word dabarim, which simply means words, doesn't mean commandments. So anytime that you would hear them talk about this, they would say the Ten Words of God. And I think that's actually kind of important because he never intended these to be commandments, but words to them of covenant, like, take this man to be your lawfully wedded husband. Those kinds of words.

And Moses repeats this later in Deuteronomy 5, he says these words, the Lord spoke to all your assembly at the mountain out of the midst of fire and cloud and the thick darkness with a loud voice. And he added, no more. And he wrote them on two tablets of stone and gave them to me. And so the Lord spoke words. And the first words are, you guys better follow this or you're in big trouble.

No, the first words are, I am your God and I have all already rescued you. This is a voice to the redeemed. There's a huge difference here. He's not saying, do these things and you will be redeemed. He's saying, you are redeemed, so do these things.

And that's huge. He's already shown them grace and favor. I am the Lord your God, you are my holy and chosen people, and I am your deliverer. God really likes to say this. Verse two, I would encourage you do a deep dive on this at some point and find out how many times God says, I brought you out.

He loves to say this, I brought you up out of Egypt, I brought you out of the land of Canaan. I brought you up. He loves to say this. Why? Because God is constantly reminding us of the gospel.

Now we're terrible at it. We like to constantly remind ourselves of our brokenness, of our sin. When we look in the mirror, we see problems. We just see all the mess ups, But God looks and he says, I am your God and I love you and I've saved you. I brought you up, I've redeemed and it's always been a promise to you.

It started and we talked about this just a few weeks ago when we talked about the covenant with Abraham, that God made a promise to them and now he's inviting them into a relationship of faithfulness. Remember what it said in Galatians, chapter three. Paul writes, the promises were spoken to Abraham and to his seed. Scripture does not say and to seeds meaning many people, but to your seed meaning one person who is Christ. What I mean is this.

The law introduced 430 years later does not set aside the covenant previously established by God and thus do away with the promise. For if the inheritance depends on the law, then it no longer depends on the promise. But God in his grace gave it to Abraham through a promise so God has made a promise to us that he will be faithful to us. He is inviting us into that faithfulness, but not as a way of earning. The redeemed will walk with him because we love Him.

We do it for a different reason. And this is going to be a very important element to this whole sermon is this idea that salvation is not about law keeping. It's about and has never been about law keeping. Some people when they read the Old Testament, they see a different God. They see a God of rules and things.

This is not the case. This God is unchanging. He has been the same. What we see in Christ Jesus is really all of that on display in a perfect way. But prior even to the coming of Christ, he has put his grace and his mercy on display for those who would receive it.

Salvation has never been about law keeping. This is why Paul writes, and this is one of my favorite scriptures. He says, for by grace you've been saved through faith and this is not your own doing. It is a gift of God, not a result of works so that no one may boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.

He paints in just a few verses the the whole picture of what it means to follow Christ, that He loved us, he saved us, and the way we receive. That is not works, it is faith. We say, I believe, I confess, I receive. But then what that produces is good works. Don't get it twisted, believer, church, don't get this twisted.

You don't come to faith. You don't come to Christ by your works and then build your faith. Now you're building your faith all along the way. But you come to Christ by faith and then produce works. It comes then out of submission and obedience.

I'm not at all saying, hey, just live however you want to live. Live completely like today we worship Jesus and then you live for Satan the rest of the week. That is not at all what I'm saying and Paul would never argue that either. Instead, what I'm saying is this. You don't earn God's favor by what you do.

You earn it by your faith. And then what that does is produce good works in you. This is a very important description. William Barclay, when writing on this, puts it very well. He says, the law does not come to a people who are seeking to find God, but to a people whom God has already found.

This whole chapter then is about a covenant keeping God, a faithful God, who says, I'm yours and I've rescued you from now can you be mine? It sounds more like a marriage. Sounds like a covenant. Let me remind you of a couple things in the wedding vows, because this is, I think, what God is essentially saying, hey, do you take this woman to be your wedded wife, this man to be your wedded husband, for richer, for poorer, for better, for worse, in sickness and in health? You've heard this before.

Till death do you part. No one ever looks at the marriage vows and says, okay, those seem like rules we need to follow. All right, let's make sure we follow all the rules. I don't think there's a successful husband in the room that says, I'm going to make sure to follow all the rules, and then she'll love me. There's never been a man that got this right by saying, okay, I know that a couple times a year I'm supposed to say, I love you, like Valentine's Day.

And on her birthday, I'm probably supposed to, like, take her out and maybe we. I probably should take her on a date sometimes. And somehow you've navigated this in your head as a list of, if I do these things, she'll love me. Some women do this, too. I mean, he'll treat me well.

If I do these, if I cook, if I do whatever it is. You fill in your blanks. If I work hard, if I. Here's the problem, and you know this already instinctively with marriage, that love does not look like rule keeping. It doesn't.

It's not what love is at all. No, instead of, hey, I know I probably should be nice to you. I know I probably should take you out because it's your birthday. Instead of that, it's, I want to. I do these things.

Why? Because I want to. This is what God has invited us into. Not a, hey, keep these things so that we can be, you know. Right.

No. Do you love me? This is what he says to Peter. Do you love me? Feed my sheep.

Do you love me? This is the call of Christ to you, friend. Not, hey, do these things and you'll earn my favor. No, do these things because you want to. Because we have a covenant in love.

Guess what? God has always been faithful in this. Here's what I can guarantee to you right now. He will, 100% of the time perfectly be faithful. He will never leave you.

He will never forsake you. He has never been unfaithful. When he saved you, he cast your sin from the east as far as the east is from the west. This is what God has done. So now when we read the first one, we shouldn't, like, shirk and go, wow, why the list of rules?

No, we should say, well, of course, a God who loves me and calls me to be faithful because he's faithful. Of course he's going to say, hey, can you not be unfaithful and have other gods? Can you not make idols? Now suddenly it feels like, well, duh. I mean, none of us are surprised when our husband or our wife says, hey, can you stop cheating on me?

Nobody's surprised by that. Like, duh, I'm surprised she's even still with you. That's what God's inviting us to. He says, I'm always going to be faithful. Will you be because you love me?

Understand this. The purpose of the law was always to show off God's grace. It wasn't like a plan B. It wasn't like God is starting to work with these people and they're like, man, these people are tremendously terrible. I better give them some rules.

That was not the case, friends. Plan A. Waste. I'm going to show them grace through the promise of Abraham. That's shown off in Jesus.

That's plan A. And he doesn't change that plan. The law is meant as a guardrail to point us to Jesus, not a plan B. So that's the first shows us his saving grace. The second purpose is this, that it restrains us by his covenantal love.

His covenant love. To us, the law is meant to be guardrails. There's two tablets in view here. The first tablet seems to direct our relationship towards God, our vertical relationship. You'll see this in the first few commandments.

And then the second tablet is about our relationship with others. And all of this was meant to help us from flying off the cliff. It wasn't meant to be like some kind of surprising news. He put fences up so that we might not just step off and die. And so this isn't rocket science kind of stuff.

It's actually very, very, very sensible. And nine out of these 10 are what we call moral law. So just in case you're wondering, the Levitical law is generally divided into three types of law. The moral law, the ceremonial law, and the civic or civil law. And most of this, nine out of the 10.

And I'm going to make an argument for why the Sabbath is more ceremonial, but we'll deal with that in a moment. The moral law, though, are laws that are eternal, universal, still binding. And so he gives these laws right away, hey, have no other gods before me. Hey, guess what? I love you.

I've made covenant to you. I am the Lord your God. And can we agree I'm the God and there's nobody else? Because in actuality, there are no other gods but God. But we are incredibly good at making false gods.

We're really good at it. And you might be thinking today, hey, don't be saying that about me, buddy. I don't worship Zeus or whatever pantheon you're thinking of. Hey, friend, none of us do. We have other gods.

We just don't name them. We have lots of gods that we favor over God. When we look at our day and we look back at it and go, we. Why is it I didn't have time for the Lord in prayer, in his word, just in conversation and intimate relationship with him, why didn't I have time? It's because of the many gods that we are distracted by.

Hey, I don't make any carved images. I don't make any idols in my house. Nor do I. But we all have them. Some of you've got one in your pocket right now.

That little thing. That little thing. You will waste hours on that idol. Hours. Days.

I play video games from time to time. And Xbox does something really mischievous to people. It records how long you've played a game. And you can go in and look at how long you've played, and you go, I'm a loser. I cannot believe I have games.

I will admit I have games. When I look at them, it doesn't say 1H. I have games that say something D, which is days. Okay? Now, some of them I've been playing a while, but this is pretty sad stuff, right?

But some of you are like, oh, you're so silly. If only we knew. And some of you know because you've got the app, so it shows you how long. I can't believe I spent three hours left. Why am I still awake?

It's midnight and I'm still awake. It's because of our idolatry friends. Now, I'm not saying this to. To bring you shame or guilt because I struggle here. I'm saying this to reveal to you that we are not somehow on the other side of this Bible principle, these false gods and false idols.

We struggle. We make idols out of all kinds of things. Some of it's relational. Sometimes we make an idol of the success we're trying to achieve in life. I find this a lot in young people that I've got to find.

If I don't go to this College, if I don't get this mate, if I don't work this profession, if I don't make this amount of money and they begin to make these things into God's so that when one of them falls apart, their life falls apart. They have identified with this stuff. Sometimes I think God straight up allows misfortune so that people will go, oh, I guess that wasn't it. God, I thought you were with me. I thought you were on my side.

I thought you called me to this. No, I called you in relationship and love with me and you decided to fall in love with everything else.

This is who we are, friends. So don't overlook the commands. This is a covenantal love. God says, hey, I love you. Will you be faithful to me?

And it says in verse five, I am a jealous God. It's a very fascinating thing for God to say about himself. We don't normally think of jealousy as, as even remotely a good thing. So is God saying something about him's character that's not good? I want you to know something.

The word jealous here in the Hebrew is a word that's only ever used to describe God six times. It appears in the Hebrew Bible and it only ever describes him. There is a unique word for God's kind of jealousy and it's not like ours. Human jealousy is almost, I would say probably never good. It's always insecure, it's always self centered and defensive.

This is not who God's jealousy is. His jealousy is more like this marriage covenant, that there is a holiness, that we are his people. And so when we are unfaithful to him, he is upset and righteously so. He has purchased us by the blood of Jesus. So when we are unfaithful to him with our many idols, he's jealous, but in a holy and righteous kind of way.

He says, my steadfast love for you will be to a thousand generations for those who love me and keep my commands. Then he goes on into the third commandment. And I do want to spend just a moment on that one because I feel like that one's one we totally miss. Don't use my name in vain. Growing up, whether it was my grandparents or things I would hear, I thought this was primarily simply about curse words.

Now I'll say this to you Christian, I think there's good reason for you to clean up your language. James would speak a whole lot more to this. He says the ship is like a rudder and the things that you say and do will guide the vessel. And guess what? People in your social media feed.

People that hear you in public are really surprised when you sound like a sailor and you also claim Christ. They're very surprised by this. Oh, but I'm free to speak? No. Well, you're also free to not sound very intelligent.

They say this is a low IQ thing to do, but it's bigger than that, friend. There are things we do constantly that sometimes I'm even catch myself doing at times. This is about false speech that invokes God. So when you, friend, when you say I swear to God, that's more true to what's in view here. I would have had to wash my mouth out with soap if I said something like that at my grandma's house.

I wouldn't even imagine saying that. But I do find myself sometimes wanting to swear oaths on things that I have no control over. Some of you have a bad habit of saying Jesus Christ.

If I ever hear you say that, just know I'm going to follow it up by savior of the world. I'm going to do that every time. That one really bugs me. Because this is the name at which every knee will bow. And you're doing it when you hit your hand funny with a nail or with a hammer.

Not a nail. Probably didn't do that. But this is the kind of things we do. We use God's name in vain. Here's another one that this one really hits home for me, that some of us, we take his name in vain by calling ourselves Christians and then living completely different.

That we claim the name of Christ on our life and our life looks nothing like it. That's empty. That's vanity. Now promise number four. Law number four.

Remember the Sabbath. Now, I want to offer to you church, and I want you to wrestle with this on your own. Some of you really are deep divers in the scriptures. I want to offer to you that this one's unique among the 10. That the Sabbath is the one that sits outside when it's expressed in the New Testament.

The New Testament talks explicitly about the other nine and reinforces them when it approaches the the Sabbath. It changes it slightly that something has changed in Christ Jesus. I want to remind you of one thing. There's this ceremonial expression about the Sabbath as being a sign between God and the people of Israel. Exodus 31, it says, the people of Israel shall keep the Sabbath, observing the Sabbath throughout their generations as a covenant forever.

It is a sign forever between me and the people of Israel. So it's a sign between God and them. Okay, Is it a sign between God and us as the church, the Christian faith. Well, there seems to have been a shift in this, that Christ several times says, I am the Lord of the Sabbath, that those in Christ will find their rest in me. And that in fact the Sabbath seems to have shifted away from a particular day to a particular person.

And so now when we want to rest in Sabbat, Shabbat, Sabbath, we find it in Jesus. In fact, we won't be able to do it apart from him, because otherwise it's just a rule keeping law that has no real power. And so here's what Paul writes about this. And I think this is reason to believe. It sits a little different than the other nine.

In chapter two, he says, therefore let no one pass judgment on you in questions of food and drink, or with regard to a festival or a new moon or, or a Sabbath. So he puts it in the food laws and the feast laws. These are a shadow of things to come, but the substance belongs to Christ. So in Christ we have rest. Now let me just say this to you, friends, I think there's a principle here that we should honor.

Not as a rule keeping law, but if you're working seven days a week, week in and week out, I promise you this is not good for you, that there's a principle given here that the Lord of hosts, the God of creation, worked six days and rested on the seventh, that we're certainly not more powerful than him. And I can almost guarantee if that's you and you have a family, you are robbing them of time. There is more to this life than time spent at work. A lot more. Now should you work?

Yes, and the Bible's very clear about that. But there's a principle here of rest. Rest one day out of the week. You should make an effort to do that. Build a little more margin in your life, friend.

Now to the fifth. And some of the parents in the room are excited that I've gotten here. Honor your father and your mother. Some of you in the room are very unhappy that I've arrived here. This means show them weight, give them honor.

This is the command with a promise that the days may be long for you in the land, that there's a promise given here for honor. Now, friends, I've spoken on this many times. I want you to know there's nothing in this that says that you have to continue to obey them long after you've left their home. Honor and father and mother, in a way of submission to them is only for those who still live in their household. So honor starts to look different once you've moved out.

It looks more like respect. It looks more like showing them favor, not belittling them. Showing them. In fact, it means to lift them up as if they're weighty, like this is something, and here's what's hard for some. And I want you to hear this, friend.

This isn't meant to hurt you, but to help you. The word here is not based on their character, but yours. So whether they're worthy of honor and respect is kind of irrelevant to them. This covenantal law, it's about who you are in Christ. So guess what you have the power to do.

And I know you have it, because in Christ Jesus, you can do all things through him who gives you strength. You have the power to show them honor and respect in spite of them. Now, some of you have wonderful people, wonderful father and mother, who have made this very easy for you. But that's kind of rare is what I'm observing. But show them honor, show them favor.

And what does it mean about life expectancy? Well, I don't know. Does he literally mean you will live longer? Perhaps. But I think it's bigger than that, actually.

It's about the manner in which that your life would be fuller. I've noticed something. Those who dishonor their parents have children who dishonor them. It seems to pass on. So be careful.

Parent, honor, your father and mother. And then we have the final five, which are kind of like, oh, wow, thanks for finally telling me this. I didn't know I shouldn't kill people. It's like these ones just kind of jump out of nowhere like, duh, God, I know I shouldn't murder. I know I shouldn't steal.

I know I shouldn't probably envy and be jealous for my neighbor's wife. Don't commit adultery. What's interesting about this back tablet, the second tablet, is that these seem to have almost been ingrained on us from our very birth. In fact, most scholars that are kind of in the apologetic field, they will use this as the moral argument for God, that people from all times, all generations, every civilization will generally say, hey, don't murder. So when you're using a moral argument, why is it that generally, almost every time people agree we shouldn't kill each other, we shouldn't murder.

Why is that generally agreed upon? Because there's something about the Creator written on our hearts. So this is part of the apologetic argument from Morrills, but he reminds his people of this because I want you to know something, friends. The Canaanites, the people that they're about to go and take the promised land from, they aren't honoring some of this. There's a big mess going on there.

And so he's setting his people apart. Hey, don't murder. Don't commit adultery. Covet the COVID One's kind of funny, too, especially in the King James. I encourage you to read the COVID your neighbor stuff in the King James.

You'll see when you read it, but it's a lot of fun. You've got an ox, you've got a donkey. And these things don't make a lot of sense now, but what do we do with that? Well, what does it look like to have jealousy for your neighbor's house, for his stuff? We kind of.

It's like the keeping up with the Joneses kind of stuff. And yeah, your neighbors probably don't have oxen or donkeys, but I bet they've got a brand new pickup truck. I bet they've got some things that you're like, I kind of like that, too. We all struggle with some aspect of that. He says, don't covet those things.

But Jesus, I love this. He summarizes all of this so well. Both tablets. Your vertical relationship with God, your horizontal relationship with others. Jesus summarizes it really in 4 love God, love neighbor.

So well put. Look what he says in Matthew 22. He said to them, you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And the second is, like it, you shall love your neighbor as yourself.

On these two commandments depend all the law and the prophets. You want to know what it means to honor God? To be in covenantal love, to be in relationship with Him. Love him first. Love others as he loves, and as.

As he loves through you.

The apostle Paul says then, that now in Christ, the love of Christ begins to compel us. Some versions say, this one says, control us for the love of Christ. Second Corinthians controls us because we have concluded this, that one has died for all. Therefore all have died. And he died for all that those who live might no longer live for themselves, but for him, who for their sake died and was raised so.

Believers in the room, church in the room. The more time you spend with the Savior, the more you spend in His Word and in prayer with Him. The more you walk, guided, your steps guided by Christ, the more love begins to be your model. So then rule keeping isn't even something on your Mind you just know, hey, me and you, Lord, we're doing this day together. We.

What is it going to look like for me to put you first today? Okay. And because of that, what is it going to look like for me to love others? How can I love my wife better? My kids better?

How do I deal with this, boss? That can be difficult at times. But God let your love control. So now the power of God is impressed upon my life, so that the love of Christ compels me, controls me.

Here's the nature of what we're dealing with. God has put up a fence line. Some people don't like it. It bothers some people. Why would God make rules?

Why can't he let us be free? Well, it's because he made a really great world. And we read about this in the early part in the very first lesson. God made a great world. He made man and woman in his image.

He loves us. He's got a great plan for us. But there's sinfulness, there's brokenness in this life. And so now, because of this, we're on the edge of a cliff. That there's a constant state of temptation in our life.

And so when God puts up a guardrail, when he puts up a fence, he's simply saying, hey, there's a cliff there. I don't want you to step off. I don't want you to fall in. Because the world is supremely full of temptation. You know this.

Surely you don't even have to leave your seat right now. There is something in your pocket probably right now that is a world of temptation. You can go there to scroll and find out just how poor your life is in comparison to everyone else. And everybody's putting their best version of themselves online. And like, man, I wish I could go somewhere.

I wish I could go overseas. I wish I could see cool stuff. I wish I had money.

Or there's other much more mischievous things to find there. You can find anything you want there and believe anything you want to believe. There's so much. You are on the edge of a cliff, and it's so true. Now you don't even have to leave your seat.

And God says, hey, there's a cliff. Can we stop lying about it? Can you? And I agree there's a cliff, and I don't want you to fall in. So here's a little fence.

Here's a little fence for you. Can we just start by acknowledging I'm God and you're not? I hate that first one. Ugh. I want to Be God.

That's where some of us, we just. We come to the throne room of God and we see the fence. We're like, but I want to be God. You're not God. Your life.

We can see those of us looking in at your life. You're not God. And you're making a wonderful thing, a wonderful mess of things. God says, here's a fence. Can we just start with a basic principle?

I'm God and there are no others. And I love you. Did you know that? I love you. As crazy as it sounds, I love you.

I don't want you to make idols and I don't want you to use my name in all your flippant little ways. I don't want you to make a mockery of the glory of my name. I want you to spend time loving each other. That what makes it's so evident that you love God as your love for each other. Jesus puts it very plainly.

They will know that you are mine by the love you have for one another. They will know you're my disciples by your love for each other. There's a fence, and it's good.

I'm thankful it's there because I'm just like you. I would straight up find. Fall in the cliff. Fall in the hole. Thank you, God.

He doesn't make this to limit our freedom. He makes this to keep us alive that we can walk in him and know his love. That's the second. And the third one is extremely important, and I want to finish here. The third purpose of the law is maybe the most important one, is that it reveals our need for a holy advocate.

I love how this Ten Commandments section of Scripture ends. It's really important God doesn't just leave them hanging there. That these last few verses really show off something so important. The people see the events unfold. There's thunder.

The mountain is smoking. The sound of a trumpet. I'm guessing it's deafening. It's loud. It's surprising.

And not to mention, just before this, Moses warned them, hey, don't come too close or touch the mountain or you're going to die. Like, okay, we're already a little wigged out. We're already a little bit scared. And so now you've got this event where God is speaking. There's a sound of a trumpet, and it's.

And the people react the way you and I would react. I said this last week. I will keep saying it. We're not Moses in this story, friends. We're not Abraham.

We're not Isaac, we're not Jacob, we're not King David, certainly not Jesus. We're not the.

We're not the lead actor. We're the sporting cast. I want to be the lead. Sorry, it's not your story, it's his. And it's about Christ Jesus.

And be thankful you get to be in the supporting cast. We're the people who see God, do these things and go, ah, Moses, will you go talk to him? Because we can't do it. We don't want to hear his voice anymore. We're going to die.

Moses is meant to be a foreshadowing here of the advocate we have in Christ Jesus. Notice how it ends. I love this. In verse 21, I want to remind you, it says the people stood far off, but Moses drew near into the thick darkness where God was. This is a picture of something so great that's going to happen later that Jesus, in fact, takes on the very thing that we couldn't.

He takes on this immense darkness. Our sinfulness, our brokenness, our death. He takes it on. We had to stay far away. We couldn't even get near this.

But Jesus does it. He steps into that darkness for us. Look, this is meant to be viewed as this. God loves us. He's shown us grace.

He has built a boundary for his covenantal love. And he has provided an advocate. A mediator can help us walk it out. He not only gave it, but he shows up to help us walk it. It's wild.

In Christ, we are called to be holy as he is, but we have a holy advocate when we fail. I love this verse out of First John, Chapter 2 Men in the room. Just so you know, we're going to be doing a Bible study this Thursday. Starting this Thursday, starting in First John. What I love about First John is it's about God's assurance.

And John at this point is an old man. And the way he talks to these people. As little children, my dear kids, I want you to know God. I want you to know that you know, that you know God. And listen to what he says here in First John, chapter two.

My little children, I'm writing these things to you so that you may not sin. But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ, the righteous. When the people looked on that mountain, they felt what you and I feel. I can't do this. These laws, this covenant that God's making with me, I can't keep it perfectly.

I'm a mess. Moses, will you go and talk to him now? Believers here's what we do. Hey, Christ Jesus, I'm sorry, I repent again that I haven't, I haven't perfectly walked with you today. Notice what John says.

We have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ, the righteous. This walk isn't about being mistake free. It's about quickly coming back to the feet of Jesus, that our temptation often is run. God must be mad. I've messed up, I better give him some time.

That's our temptation. But instead of that, he says, hey, you've got an advocate here, come and see me. I'll give you the power to overcome. The law was once our guardian, but now in Christ he is. Galatians, chapter three.

It says this. The law was our guardian until Christ came in order that we might be justified by faith. So friends, don't let failures, guilt, shame your past. Don't let this kind of stuff drive you from God. There's this thunder of a guilty conscience.

They're seeing the mountain and going, I can't perfectly follow this. That's not why God gives the law. So let me conclude with this thought. He gives the law because he's gracious and he always has been. God has not changed.

God gives the law because he loves us and gives us a boundary to stay within, that we would stay faithful like we would in a marriage. And then lastly, he himself becomes our advocate. So then this story, then this Exodus story, it's just a little blip in the big narrative of what God's saying, that something in Christ Jesus is even better at Sinai. Hey, it's walk these things out because you love me. In Christ Jesus.

It's even better. Listen to what Hebrews 10 says. This is the covenant that I will make with them after those days, declares the Lord. I will put my laws on their hearts and write them on their minds in Christ Jesus. Now we come with a heartfelt desire to walk with Jesus.

And the power for doing so is in the Holy Spirit of God. So now we love God. We follow his commandments not because we have to, but because we want to. And that's a big improvement. Let's pray now together.

Church Heavenly Father, we thank you so much that you are a good God who loves us and that you have always been that that you showed grace to Adam and Eve, you showed grace to Abram, to Noah, to Moses, to the kings of old, to the saints of old. You have always been faithful. This is who you are. God. I'm thankful that you are a covenant keeping, promise keeping God.

And nothing's changed in Christ Jesus, in fact, things have gotten way more clear and defined that you love us, you bled for us, you took our brokenness, our sin upon yourself. You dealt with it. Now you're inviting us into relationship. Now the commandments become something we desire and not something we avoid. Lord, I want to make you first believe you're in the room.

Pray this with me, Lord, I want you to be first. Let me not put anything above you, even good things. Yes, I'm thankful to have a family or kids or a good job, but Lord, help me to never put those things above you. You are first. Help my calendar to show that that I spend my time with you.

I devote my time to you.

Lord, help me to not make idols of things. There are good things in this life, sure, but I'm so tempted to make them idols. Help me to not use youe name flippantly, but with care and to praise youe name and show it with grace to others that when they hear your name, they would know there's a power in that name. Help us to live with others with love. Help us to show honor where it's hard to show honor.

Lord, I'm praying for that person who's come in today. I pray they hear something very clearly for the first time. Maybe they've been thinking about Christianity as a list of do's and don'ts, and this whole thing has been just seemed like a rule book. I pray they hear clearly today it's not the case. This is an invitation into our relationship with a holy God who loves you, who has built a system of covenantal love for you that is for your good and not for your ill will.

Lord, if that's a person today, I pray you're just moving their heart towards you. If that's you friend today and you're ready to make a confession of faith, you're ready to say yes to Christ, that the good news of the gospel is clear to you today. Say simply with me this prayer. Jesus, I believe you are Lord of my life. I believe you died on the cross for my sin.

You did this because you love me. You did this because your grace and your mercy have always been present towards me and God. I believe you raised Christ Jesus from the dead. This gives me great hope. Not only that you've conquered sin in my life, but that there's an eternal future for me.

And I'm asking now, Lord, would you guide me to follow you out of desire and not out of a list of rules that I would want to be in your fellowship, that I would want to follow you obediently because I love you, God. Would you build my faith and grow my love for you and for others, dear friend, if you prayed that prayer with me. We're thankful for you today. I do pray for all of our church that you would help us to grow in our faith and in our love first for you and for one another. Help us to model so well the great commandment.

Love God with all of our hearts and souls and minds and love our neighbor as ourselves. Help us to be such a picture of that in our community. I pray all these things in Jesus name, Amen.