Rules as Love Language

Transcript

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[0:00] Well, it is time for the sermon, and our sermon text is Exodus 21 through 17. You may know this by heart, perhaps, as the place where we find the Ten Commandments. In the Old Testament, it's the place where Moses goes up on the mountain, and God gives him all these words. And it's interesting, we call them the Ten Commandments, but actually the word for that is the words, the ten words. And in fact, some of the commandments really are just one word or two words. For example, the ones sort of towards the end, thou shalt not kill, which is a lot of words in English, that shall not steal. Those are just one word, kind of two. There's like a sort of a particle at the beginning, which is a negation. No kill, no steal. Like it really is just one word commands. Very simple, right? But these are the words. And so we're going to look at the Ten Commandments, not just today, but over the next three sermons, all right? And this one's going to be a little shorter. I made a bet with the guys here in the room that we might be, I'll be saying the benediction by 1130. Now you can hold me to that, because we're trying to shorten up the sermons too, and we all have a little bit of Zoom fatigue. So let's see if we can pull that

[1:13] off, if the benediction can be said at 1130 sharp. We'll see what happens. But I want to say a few words about this. Again, as I've been saying, we're in the season of Lent. It's a time where we're going to be saying the benediction by 1130. So let's see what happens. But I want to say a few words about this. Again, as I've been saying, we're in the season of Lent. It's a time where we return to God. It's a time where we reflect, and we build up towards the cross. We make ourselves aware of what Christ did on the cross, and we turn our hearts toward that. Today, we're going to look at the law, the Ten Words, the Ten Commandments. And like I said, we're going to look at this over three weeks. Today is an overview. Next week will be sort of the first half of the Ten Words, and the following will be the second half of the Ten Words. We'll divide it up.

[1:53] A word of just sort of background is that we don't always talk about the law. We're Protestants. We don't live by the law. You know, the law doesn't save us. We have a lot of sort of baggage in our theological heritage that tells us not to emphasize the law too much. And sometimes I think that's an error. It's possible to talk about the law way too much and kind of be a legalist. It's possible to talk about the law not enough and thus become sort of what we would call a libertine, somebody who kind of does what they want and doesn't worry about the consequences.

[2:30] If a pastor talks about the law too much, that pastor risks becoming extremely popular. You heard me right. The pastor who preaches the law a lot becomes extremely popular. People love to hear the law. They say, preach it. They say, pastor, I can think of five people who really need to hear what you just said about not stealing or not committing adultery. They never say, I really needed to hear. I mean, this has happened to me many times. People said, my cousin really needs to hear that message. And I think, great. How about you? Did you need to hear it? And I'll be honest. I find myself that it's extremely dangerous to preach because when you listen to yourself preach, you go, oh my goodness.

[3:19] I'm not, I'm not even living up to the standard that I'm talking to people about. And so I find myself convicting myself all the time when I'm preaching. And I think God, it's one of those chuckle moments for God. I think he enjoys that greatly and then heaven will laugh about it even more. So, but if a pastor talks about the law, they can become very popular because we love to tell other people what they are doing wrong. We love to hear somebody else getting their comeuppance. We love to hear somebody else get their comeuppance. We love to hear somebody else get their comeuppance. We love that. That's like catnip for us, right? And the other thing is that when I talk about the law too much, it gives somebody else something to do. And we want things to do. We want things that we can earn. We want some sort of barometer that tells us that we're getting closer to heaven. And that's not a promise in scripture, right? Not in the New Testament, at least. And so always this desire to justify ourselves, to earn our way to heaven, and the law becomes kind of seductive in that way. So the Christian needs to have the correct view of the law, the proper view of the law. The law is good. It's a gift, but it doesn't save you. Only Jesus Christ saves you. Only his

[4:30] work on the cross saves you. Your faith in that work enables God to shower you with that gift of grace. But keeping the law doesn't do it. We have to be clear about that. And like I said, the other side is to neglect. The law. Well, we don't want to talk about the law because that's negative. All the shoulds and should nots and shouts and shout nots, that's kind of negative. It's kind of, it feels like, you know, we get that enough of that everywhere else. Can't the church just be a place where I can express myself and live into what my heart tells me to do? Don't get hung up on do's and don'ts and stay true to what's inside of me, you know? But my biggest problem comes when I say I should stay true to who I am inside. This is what Jeremiah 17, 9 says, The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it? Jeremiah had it right. If we just live by our own barometer, I mean our own compass inside of us, we will go off course in no time at all. Because what we think is right is always just what's right for us. And it's hardly ever what's right for everybody else. And it hardly ever contemplates that God, the maker of the world, is the one who can understand it. And that's what we're

[5:46] talking about. The creator of the universe stands in this place asking for our obedience and for our hearts. So you can go too far in saying law, law, law all the time. And you can go too far saying, I don't, I'm just going to ignore the law. The law is binding on us. But also as Christians, we understand that it's impossible for us to keep the law without the help of the Spirit. And ultimately, it's not keeping the law that saves us, but it's Jesus Christ that saves us. That's the framework that we kind of need to work into.

[6:17] The law is important to us. We can't neglect it. And so we're going to spend this time teaching on the law for three weeks. The reformers, and I'm talking about Martin Luther, John Calvin, Ulrich Zwingli, some of these people, they taught, and they disagreed a little bit about this. Some said two, some said three. But the reformers taught that there were two uses of the law, two main uses of the law. And the first use is the civil use. It guides our interactions with each other, and it gives us safety and order. So don't steal, don't kill, don't kill, don't kill, don't bear false witness. All this makes society work together. It protects the weak. And even further, in the law, you'll find sort of more detail. You have to take care of the widow and the orphan and the stranger in the land. You look out, you with power look out for those who are vulnerable. This is the law that God has. This governs your society, and it makes you flourish as a society in a civil order. So there's the first use of the law is the civil use. But the second use is the civil use. And so the first use of the law is the civil use. The second use of the law, and this is important for Christians as well, is the spiritual use of

[7:21] the law. And it teaches us that we are sinners. The law is our schoolmaster, the apostle Paul says. It teaches us that we sin, it teaches us that we fall, and it teaches us that we need God's grace. It teaches us that we have to fall on our knees at the foot of the cross and beg for mercy. But God is merciful and just, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love. This is all from the apostle Paul in his letter to the Romans and the Galatians. That's always a good sort of double whammy there to read again. Look at how Paul deals with the law. It's such a big topic for him. He spends a lot of time and energy on it, but it's well spent because it opens up to us so much about who Jesus is and what he has done. So that's sort of some of the background on our interaction with the law as Protestants. It's important. Today we're going to look at the context. Now this is important. We're just shifting gears. I want you to have your brain maybe shift gears with me right now. We're going to look at the context in which the law was given. When was it given? Why was it given at this particular point in time? The law was given in the wilderness. And the wilderness is a very interesting place. We could talk about that some other time. But the law was given to the people

[8:34] in the wilderness after God's people were delivered from slavery. So there's this historical component to it, and there's this geographical component to it. And this was, the other part of the historical component is that God had been displaying his power by bringing 10 plagues. Isn't it interesting? There were 10 plagues, and then there's 10 commandments. There's a little bit of parallel there perhaps. And by parting the Red Sea, which is a great miracle, and by providing food miraculously in the desert, in the wilderness. So you see this backdrop of God pulling his people out of slavery, out of bondage, God providing for them and showing this great and mighty power.

[9:17] And so I want you to be thinking about this as we read about the law, that the law follows deliverance from slavery. And just hold on to that idea as we read. The law is given following the deliverance from slavery by God. So let's go to our reading. This reading is Exodus 21 through 17.

[9:37] It goes like this, Then God spoke all these words, I am the Lord your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery. There we go. Even God is setting the tone for this. You shall have no other gods before me. You shall not make for yourself an idol, whether in the form of anything that is in heaven above, or that is on the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth. You shall not bow down to them or worship them. Now listen to this part. For I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God. A jealous God. Jealous God. Punishing children for the iniquity of parents, to the third and the fourth generation of those who reject me, but showing steadfast love to the thousandth generation of those who love me and keep my commandments. You shall not make wrongful use of the name of the Lord your God, for the Lord will not acquit anyone who misuses his name. Remember the Sabbath day and keep it holy.

[10:46] Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord your God. You shall not do any work, you, your son or your daughter, your male or female slave, your livestock or the alien resident in your towns. For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea and all that is in them, but rested on the seventh day.

[11:10] Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and consecrated it. Verse 12. You shall honor, honor your father and your mother so that your days may be long in the land that the Lord your God is giving you. Now the next three, almost four, are simply one word commands with a negative, negative particle at the beginning. But we can, we can translate these into four or five words. You shall not murder. You shall not commit adultery. You shall not steal. You shall not bear false witness. You shall not commit adultery. You shall not commit adultery. You shall not commit adultery. You shall not against your neighbor. You shall not covet your neighbor's house. You shall not covet your neighbor's wife or male or female slave or ox or donkey or anything that belongs to your neighbor. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, thank you for your word. And we ask that you would add your blessing to it in Jesus name. Amen. Well, again, I wanted you to be thinking about the context where and when and why this happened in this moment in scripture. Why did God choose this moment to give the commandments from up on high? It could have happened somewhere else. And you think about it. It was given in Exodus to Moses and Moses to the people, but why not somewhere else?

[12:33] Right? Why not to Noah? Why not to Abraham or Isaac or Jacob? But instead, God gives it at this moment in Exodus after his people's salvation from slavery and their trial. Some of their trials in the desert. And God has a right time for doing things. I'm not going to be able to explain it to you in every particular way because I don't actually know myself, but there's this strong linkage even in the passage here between the deliverance from slavery and a covenantal demand or deal that God makes for keeping the law. It was the right time to send the law. Okay? So God has a right time for doing things. God has a right time for doing things. We know this about the timing of Jesus at just the right time. God sent his son, right? We read that in the scriptures. And we know this about Moses too, because God kind of has this way of doing things with people who really aren't, they're not the most stellar people in terms of who you would expect to get something done well. Think about Moses. It's a good reminder, right? Think about Moses. Was he the right person to go and help God bring his people out of Egypt? So the people were suffering under slavery. They were being made to work harder and harder. They

[13:51] were crying out to God in their anguish. And God sent Moses, but remember, Moses never experienced slavery. He grew up in a palace. He grew up in luxury. He really couldn't identify with these people that he was there to help. That's interesting. He wasn't really well suited sort of to take on their problems because he didn't have them himself. Now, he was related to them, but he wasn't really well suited to take on their problems because he didn't have them himself. Now, he was related to them, but he wasn't really well suited to take on their problems because he didn't have them no doubt, but he grew up in a palace. Moses also killed a man. Do you remember that? He killed somebody in anger. He hit the body, but the word got out. So then he ran away. He ran away, right?

[14:33] And he also didn't think he could speak well or do what God asked. He didn't have much confidence, it turns out, right? But at the right time, and this is at the right time, God spoke to him and chose him. And he chose him. And he chose him for the task. He appeared to him in this burning bush. The flame kept going, but the bush wasn't burning up. He was on holy ground. He sent Moses back to Egypt, back to danger, back to where he was really a wanted man for murder to do this impossible task. But God brought it about with these miracles, these miraculous plagues that persuaded eventually Pharaoh to let the people go. The goal of it all was not just that Moses would help God free the people, but that God would make a covenant with them. And this is important, this word covenant. And it's not just the name of our denomination, which is great. I think it's a good name for our denomination. But God makes covenants all throughout the Bible. It's kind of his thing. He's a deal maker, you know. He's better than a used car salesman by far, right? He makes deals. He makes covenants with people. He makes agreements with his people. In some ways, he limits himself in those agreements because he promises to do a thing

[15:50] for them. So he limits some of his own freedom. He limits some of his own sort of volition, you could say, saying, if you do these things, I am bound to do these things for you. And this is the deal that we'll make. It'll give you security. It'll be for your flourishing. It'll be so that you can bring glory to me. So he makes a covenant with Noah. You may remember that. He makes a covenant with Abram. He makes a covenant with many other people throughout history. And here, he makes a covenant in the New Testament. Remember? With Jesus. He makes a covenant with his people. And also, I should say, when I say here, I also mean he makes a covenant at Sinai with the Ten Commandments, with his people. It goes like this. He says, I heard your cry in your oppression. And injustice. I saved you from Egypt. I brought you out with mighty acts of power. I provided for you in the wilderness. And now, you are my chosen people. This is the deal I'm making. But that's my side of the deal. I saved you. I'm going to continue to save you. I'm going to protect you. I'm going to feed you. I'm going to give you what you need so that you can flourish in this world. But here's your side of the deal, is that you have to commit to holiness.

[17:15] That's really, really it. You have to commit to holiness. It's not just about keeping the rules. It's about being set apart. It's about being chosen and special. And even sometimes you could say a peculiar people that are different. They act differently. They conduct themselves differently. They see things differently. You are committing to being holy for me. So you commit to the law, and that law governs your relationship with me, and that law governs your relationship with each other. And in the next two weeks, we'll look at what those laws mean and what they mean for us now. And they're incredibly important. So that's sort of the introduction, even just to the Ten Commandments here and how they were received and why God did this at this time. He gave the commandments so that they could be a covenant between him. A deal that he makes that says, I will do for you and you will do for me. And this is an arrangement that will keep you safe. And it'll keep you special. It'll keep you safe. And it'll keep you special. And it'll keep you set apart and holy. I want to leave you with one idea. And I made allusion to it earlier when I was reading, maybe special emphasis of it. And look at verse five. Can you bring up verse five again

[18:26] real quick, Yanni? It'd be the first one. Yep. There it is. Verse five. It says this, I am a jealous God. Now you can make it go away if you want, Yanni. Thanks. I am a jealous God. And that, when I read that again, you know, it pulled me up short because that's normally a bad word, isn't it? Jealousy is kind of like this green-eyed envy, you know, Shakespeare writes about it. It's kind of bad. I'm a, but he says, I'm a jealous God. I want you all to myself. But we think of jealousy as having like this irrational attachment or possessiveness about somebody else, this movement towards anger. If there is a hint that their affections are directed to somebody else or something else, but you know what? That does describe God. It really does. He loves us so much. He is jealous for us as a people. He does not want our affections to go somewhere else. And these 10 commandments are sort of these boundaries around our affections, around our priorities, around the way we act. And he says, I am jealous. I don't want you wandering off. You are mine. You are my beloved.

[19:44] I can't stand. I can't stand to see you get hurt again. And so I'm going to keep on rescuing you from the bondage, this time from the bondage of a life with no boundaries. I'm going to keep you from being seduced away to other gods and their perverse worship. And that was a true thing back then. To follow other gods was to follow some really perverted, and I mean that in every possible way, very perverted and dysfunctional, toxic and distasteful. And you could make a whole other list of adjectives about it. The forms of worship of these other gods was terrible. God did not want his people to engage in that worship. He didn't want them to be pulled into that. Only worship me, he says. So I'm going to make a deal with you, a covenant. And it's interesting because here's the creator of the universe. He's going to make a deal with you, a small band of people in the wilderness. And he says, I'm going to do things for you. I will bend history and I will display my power for you over and over so that you flourish. And in return, you will be mine because I am jealous for you. You will be set apart and you will be holy. And the way you conduct yourself will be different from other people's and the world will see you and how you live and it will give glory to me. That's the deal. That's the

[21:04] covenant. That's what God is offering here at Mount Sinai. So we're done with that, but I want to bring it to today for just a little bit. And I want you to hear this. He is jealous for you. He is jealous for me. He's jealous for all of us. We are his. He calls us into a place where we belong to him because he has delivered us from the bondage and the injustice of this world. And he has made a deal with us, a new covenant. And we're going to look at it more in the coming weeks. But the spoiler alert is that the new covenant is going to have to do with Jesus. There's a parallel between Jesus and the story of the Exodus. This idea of the sacrificial Passover lamb that protects the people from the angel of death. And that new Passover lamb is Jesus. It's amazing. It delivers us from sin and death and the devil. And Jesus is jealous for us. Jesus is like that too. Think about this. He leaves the world. He leaves the 99 to go looking for the one. He's jealous for that one. That's how Jesus is. He calls his own and his own know me. That's what he says about his sheep. My sheep know me and they are my own. And he asked us, this is what Jesus asked us too. This is the covenant that also Jesus makes with us

[22:36] through the spirit. He asks us to live lives that are set apart and holy so that the father is glorified. Let your light so shine before the Lord. Let your light so shine before others that they glorify your father in heaven.

[22:51] So listen to this. We have a good savior and we have a good father and we have a good gift in the law, a gift that is for our flourishing in this world and a gift that makes us his own. And we'll see a little bit more about all that in the weeks to come. Let's pray. Heavenly father, thank you for this joy of being back in the pulpit today. And thank you for your word which informs us. Thank you for your law for our flourishing. Thank you for your covenant to give us boundaries. And thank you for your son, Jesus Christ, the new covenant that he may give us new life.