The Ten Commandments Intro (Exodus 20:1-17)
Use this guide to help your group discussion as you meet this week.
Transcript
Grab a bomb and go to Exodus chapter 20. that'll be on page 35 if you grab one of the blue baubles that's in the chair on the seat in front of you in that little rack we have been working our way through the book of Exodus and we've made it to the giving of the law at Mount Sinai and the Ten Commandments and we're going to spend the next several weeks in the Ten Commandments um some years ago there was a an Indian food buffet over in West Columbia in the shopping center where Hobby Lobby is and I had never really had Indian food and I thought Buffet is a good place to start.
Because you can see it you can try different things you're not just locked into um and so we went this is the type of stuff this is like street food you get this you dip this and that she'd be like for for you know probably what this is she's like all right don't eat that and she'd be like the filled up plate went and sat down and she's excitedly like watching us about to eat and then I had one of the weirdest experiences of my life I took a bite of the food stuck it in my mouth and my brain knew that it was food.
But my body did not recognize flavor a texture a smell the weird I put it in my mouth and might have ever come to just sticking to my mouth immediately just spitting it back out on the table but she's excitedly like watching so I was like but it was weird because I did not recognize any of it it was so foreign to me that I just wanted to immediately reject it I ended up enjoying my meal we went back a couple of times I did grow my palate a little bit and trying to eat some Indian food um still not my favorite though.
But the reason I tell that illustration the reason I'm telling that story is that we're looking at the law that God gives the people of Israel and what happens to us when we receive the law so often there are parts of this that taste good to us that you read this and you go yes amen thank you Lord praise God you're so wise you're so wonderful and there's other parts of it that are foreign to us odd to us confusing to us as you work through Not Just the Ten Commandments you.
If you will consider them today and you're probably used to them so I'm going to have to press on a little bit of how we kind of Nod along but then disagree but as you read through the books of the Bible as you read the rest of the laws you read how God interacts with man there are times where you're reading stuff and you're just confused as to why he cares about that why does that matter and there are other times where you're probably reading the Bible and it's not just confusion it's disdain being.
For several weeks and we're going to zoom in each one and kind of walk through and take them in turn today we're doing a bigger picture overview and we're really proculture what are the ones that we kind of shy away from or dislike and then what do we do with that that's where we're going to start as we study the Ten Commandments because if we think if we don't do this there's a chance that we'll all nod along boldly important to.
God and and therefore to us through the Ten Commandments this morning God we ask for your help we ask for the work of the Holy Spirit to help us see ourselves one so helpful and so much for our good and Jesus and God spoke all these it calls them the words a lot and it'll even say at times that they're we're to follow his words and his statutes and these are the work and if you haven't sometimes they're called the decalogue God's ten commandments and in some ways.
If you want to try to think about it it's the 10 most important things if God is giving you these are the 10 most important foundational things for following him it's these and the rest of the law is extrapolation from this it's further explanation of these when he says you will have no other God before me the rest of the law is explaining what that looks like when it says you won't steal it's not just how you define stealing he explains it he explains what you're like all right.
Well I didn't really steal but I borrowed something and I broke it does that count it's like yeah he's going to explain some of those things and try to help us understand I didn't steal an item I stole a person yeah that's a problem he's going to explain those things further on but this is where we get kind of the 10 foundational items God's top ten these are wildly important and I think it's helpful for us to understand that because there are things in this list that would not make your top ten there are things in this list that we may be used to hearing.
But they wouldn't if you were setting a code of laws I'm guessing there's some things here that you would think well okay maybe but probably not in your top ten so that's where we need to grow in understanding what is God saying and why does this matter and why are we wrong not him verse 2. I am the Lord your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt out of the house of slavery y'all verse 2 is so wonderful.
Because I think sometimes we think that our approach to God is okay what does he want from me all right God what are your rules what are the things I need to do to be one of the good ones what are the things I need to do to make you love me to make you uh you know to to be saved what are the things I need to do to be a good Christian some of you might even be here this morning and that's why you're here you're you you realize that you got your life sideways and you're like I just got to get back in Church I'm gonna get straightened back out I'm gonna.
Go get it together and no you're not but we're glad you're here that's not how it works the the hope for the Israelites is not he didn't come to them in their slavery and say hey I got 10 rules and if y'all can start following these I'm gonna Circle back around and rescue you what happens first is redemption then Commandments and it's the same way for us in in the cross we need forgiveness then we follow in obedience we follow in obedience.
Because he is gracious and good and he redeems and he rescues we read that together a moment ago that we're by Grace we are saved and then later it says it's nothing that we've done it's not by works but he's prepared good works for us so that we are redeemed and rescued by his good work on our behalf and then we follow in obedience but it's we've got to get that in the right order because if you think I'm going to get it together I'm going to work really hard.
Then God will save me that's not how it works Redemption comes first and that's really good news so that we get to come to Jesus and ask for forgiveness and Rescue and he does through his work not ours and then calls us to follow him in obedience and humility okay rescue before command salvation before obedience but now let's look at the Ten Commandments we're gonna like I said we're gonna move through these fairly quickly and then we're going to discuss some stuff we're going to come back through.
But we're taking all of them together today and we'll spend more time on in the coming weeks you shall have no other gods before me God says I'm it it's not a Pantheon it's not like I'm the top one and you can have some other ones it's me and you worship me and me alone you shall not make for yourself a carved image or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above or that is in the earth beneath or that is in the water under 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 fourth generation of those who hate me but showing steadfast love to the thousands of those who love me and keep my Commandments first ones you'll have no other gods before me the second one is you will not make a Graven image you won't make an idol you won't have other things that you worship and bow down to you won't approach me that way or worship other gods in that way.
Third one 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 we will not speak blasphemously or flippantly about the name of God and we will not use his name to co-sign our lies that he will be treated with respect and honor verse 8. remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy six days you shall labor and do all your work but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the.
Lord your God on it you shall not do any work you or your son or your daughter or your male servant or your female servant or your livestock or the Sojourner who is within your gates for in six days the Lord made Heaven and Earth the sea and all that is in them and rested on the seventh day therefore the Lord blessed this sabbath day and made it holy so he sets us out a day and says this is a holy day and you will rest and worship and no one will work on this day.
Verse 12 honor your father and your mother that your days may be long in the land that the Lord your God has given you and some of y'all didn't realize that your parents quoted that to you in shorthand periodically you better do what I say or I'm going to snatch you up I brought you in I can take you out you will not live long in the land that God gave you but we will honor and show respect to our parents and our elders 13 you shall not murder you shall not commit adultery you shall not steal you shall not bear false witness against your neighbor you're not lie to harm others you will not.
Lie at all and the last one you shall not covet your neighbor's house you shall not covet your neighbor's wife or his male servant or his female servant or his ox or his donkey or anything that is your neighbors that we are not to sit and look at those around us and desire what they have to long for it to daydream about it to think must be nice not to do that that's God's Ten Commandments that's the ten words that he gives to the people of Israel and everything else like I said is going to fall out of that is going to be explaining that it's going to help us understand it's almost like these.
Are the laws and the rest of it is like case law it's saying in this situation this in this situation this two of those are positive commands things that you will do eight of them are prohibitions negative commands you will not the word shall is a mixture of Will and should not only will you but you should not only should you but you will shall that's kind of a way to understand we don't use that word that much anymore you're not like actually I'll go to the bank.
Today but that's what he's saying is this is what you will do and it's what you should do and this is what you will not do and what you should not do now some of those we read and they make sense to us we think they're good some of them it's like okay I don't know I I don't I know as Christians if you're in here and you're a Christian you're you're trying to bend your will to the will of God I understand that like I read these and I go I want to obey all of these I understand these I want to follow them as the Holy Spirit is at work in me I.
Want to be submissive to this but I'm just saying that culturally some of them track with us very clearly in other ones we have a little bit harder time with so I want to take a moment to try to help us understand that get a better vantage point on that as we walk through there are two books that I have found helpful one of them is the Righteous Mind by Jonathan height and I said I was going to look up how to pronounce his name and I didn't.
So height is how you pronounce it and uh the other one is for our good Always by Brandon Clements Jonathan height is a PhD and he does studies in moral psychology he is not a Christian but he was looking into how do people make decisions and how specifically do people make moral decisions and decisions where they're saying this is a moral issue meaning that it is right and wrong whether you think so or not that's morality this is right or wrong whether you think.
So or not but he's approaching it from a psychological standpoint he does a lot of research and it's interesting research that he does Brandon Clements is a Christian he's a pastor at Midtown Lexington I when I did my residency at Midtown um I worked with him a lot he's he's a very wise helpful guy and this is a very good book but he takes a lot of what Jonathan height says and says yeah the Bible talks about that and he pairs it up with the Ten Commandments and helps us.
See kind of how that applies but Jonathan height outlines as he's done studies around the world he realized that uh most of the studies done on how people make moral decisions are done with middle class Americans so he was like well let's go do some studies in other parts of the world and see how they think about things and he outlined what he calls five moral foundations places where you anchor morality he also calls them moral taste buds I was on a plane one time we were headed to New York and I heard someone loudly saying from across the plane and she was.
So excited to go back to New York because biscuits are awful and she missed Bagels and I thought well no wonder she's loud she's from New York and she's wildly wrong she complained that biscuits are crumbly that's wonderful that's part of what makes him good you have to gnaw on a bagel could you imagine eating a bacon egg and cheese bagel that sounds awful it's like if you gave me one of those I'd be like I'm just gonna fast and pray this morning.
For the people for the people in the northern U.S who have to eat this all the time that's a matter of taste there may be some of you in here who are like bagels are awesome and good for you you're wrong but that's okay it's a matter of taste and when Jonathan height talks about morality he's talking about it like it's a matter of taste but it's not a matter of taste it's a matter of divine decree but this is the way he's talking about it what he says is that culturally we have some that we like we have certain moral foundations that make sense to us culture that have been infused into our culture.
And so he lists out five and this is what he says care and harm as a moral Foundation fairness and cheating is a moral Foundation loyalty and betrayal is a moral Foundation Authority and subversion is a moral foundation and sanctity and degradation is a moral Foundation so I'm gonna try to explain these and I'm gonna try to help us understand why this is integral to our approach and understanding of the Ten Commandments Karen harm it's bad to hurt people it's good to care.
For people virtues or gentleness and kindness sins it's anything that hurts somebody this will make sense to us fairness and cheating the virtues are honesty Equity Justice that oppression is sinful and bad that lying and cheating are bad that we ought to be fair and equal and that this is a moral foundation for whether or not you can judge if something is right or wrong loyalty and betrayal it is good for people to be able to join groups and trust one another it's good.
For you to enter into relationships and be able to trust others that together we can make things better so from this we get things like the way you care for your family or your friends or patriotism this is where I can tell one of my brothers he's being an idiot but you better keep that to yourself I'll handle my own Idiot Brother you shut your mouth that's where that comes from this idea that it's wrong to be disloyal it's wrong to betray the trust of others or to commit treason whether you think.
So or not Authority and subversion that we need as humans to flourish to form beneficial relationships inside of hierarchies and that sentence hurts Americans feelings but it's true how much do y'all like the idea of authority and submission you're a big fan of it think about it a lot this insists that not all hierarchies are evil or exploitive we should have respect for legitimate Authority whether that's God the government a parent a teacher a boss if these things are actually integral to human flourishing and that it is good to exist with some respect deference and submission in these hierarchies.
Therefore disrespect disobedience is wrong the fifth one that he outlines is sanctity and degradation that some things are right and wrong simply because God says they are he says there's this understanding that there's a vertical axis and at the top there are things that are holy Sanctified and at the bottom there are things that are degraded defiling and profane so if you think about the idea that humans are made in the image of God and then how can we treat dead bodies.
And if you just base things off of harm it's like well you can't hurt them but no there's there's definitely a way to defile and degrade and to be profane and it's wrong just because it's wrong and because God says it's wrong versus things that are holy and set apart now culturally and Brandon Clements helps outline this we uh we have differing viewpoints depending on where you come from culturally so Asian cultures values loyalty and Authority followed by sanctity and then care harm fairness all that care and harm and fairness show up in every culture in some ways.
But loyalty and Authority matter more this is why Disney can't make good movies about Asian cultures this is why in Moana and Mulan they start off by singing a song about how you're supposed to fit into your role in society and you're supposed to be submissive to your elders and that it ends with the Disney character going but not really do what you want listen to your parents unless you hear a voice inside tell you something else and then do that mulan's like I should submit and figure out how to be a wife and fit into culture and that's a very Asian thought process.
And then she turns American is like but not really give me a sword I'm about to stick it to the Huns and that's the stuff we celebrate but culturally loyalty to your parents to your ancestors submission to Authority this is why when there was a giant I believe it was an earthquake in Japan I just remember seeing the picture of the lines for people to get water it was like a two mile long single foul line and I thought you're not getting Americans to line up like that.
For water but the order and authority and submission to Authority that's how they handled it Middle Eastern cultures sanctity is the highest God says some things are wrong so they're wrong then you have authority and loyalty and then care harm and fairness are lower down this is why a lot of Middle Eastern cultures hate Western cultures because they think that we're promoting a free sexuality a rejection of authority an inverted sense of autonomy and that the world would be better off.
If we weren't running around defiling it and they say that some things are wrong because God says they're wrong and we disagree with some of those things as Christians but they're not wrong about all of that all right let's talk about us Western cultures we have a very inflamed sense of care and harm and fairness this is how we think about it this is why we'll say things like do whatever you want as long as it doesn't hurt somebody that's care Harmony this is why.
When they were trying to convince people to quit illegally downloading music and movies you remember back in the day some of y'all when you would use Napster or LimeWire like you had like let's say you had an older brother and his name was hypothetically like Logan and he was like hey I was downloading this song but our dad took a phone call so now it's not going to download even though we were seven hours in so we're gonna get it downloading tonight before we go to bed.
And when we wake up we'll probably have this song by Incubus or Third Eye Blind or whatever y'all remember that but when they were trying to convince people not to do that they ran in ad campaigns and what did they say piracy is not a victimless crime because in order to talk to us they needed to convince us that you were hurting somebody what they didn't say is piracy is stealing and stealing is a sin piracy is disloyal to your fellow citizens who have copyrights on this music how much would we care.
But what they said is you have a secret victim and every time you piracy something you've stabbed them and robbed them of a meal and it's like oh wow that matters a little more that we have a victim here this is how we have to communicate to us because that's all we care about now this matters because when we approach The Ten Commandments or we approach the law of God when we're reading how God deals with humans what happens is so often we go why would.
God act like that or we approach in some sort of hubris some sort of Pride that we have a beautiful view on what morality ought to be when actually we have a stunted and disfigured view of morality that has things out of place Karen harm matter fairness matters but they're not the only things that matter and when we read The Ten Commandments there are things that are wildly massively important to God that don't register with our culture at all and there are times that you're reading your Bible and you might be thinking.
Well that's a bit of an overreaction wow God's being really harsh there why would that be such a big thing I don't understand why he would treat those people that way most often it's in a sense it's in a case where someone seems to be harmed by God for a thing that we deem not that important so let's look at our Ten Commandments you see for us to say that we have the best view on morality is like me asking you to paint a sunset or a rainbow.
And then giving you two green crayons you're going to immediately respond with I'm gonna need some more things here to fill this out and that's actually what we need when it comes to morality we need a little bit more of God's understanding of how to approach right and wrong because there's things that we are missing and therefore rather than disagreeing with God and thinking we're right we ought to see every disagreement with God a place that we need to grow be submissive walk in obedience and Trust his wisdom over ours I have a I know how to build some things I've built built some things I'm not the best at it.
But I'm not terrible but there have been times where I've gotten to do a construction project with Brad arneson and Chris Rocky um Brad arneson oversees a steel plant and Chris Rocky's finishing building his own house with his own bare hands and so when I'm in construction projects with them what I don't do is walk over and gosh yeah I got this I don't know if you know this I've built a porch before like I don't do that what I do is I come over like this and I go what do you want me to do boss.
And then I say things like and when they tell me to stop doing a thing I say okay and I stop and then I sometimes I'll ask why was what was I doing that was dumb and they'll explain it to me and if you hung out with us on a job site you would think that was the right way to behave how dare we approach our Bibles with with less respect and deference than we would give to a human who knows some more than us how how dare we approach our Bibles.
Look and go well I don't really like that or I don't know you're going to need to explain yourself a little more to me God foolishness so let's look at our Ten Commandments let's try to grow a little bit I want to show you the ones you like care and fairness ones these are the ones if I said hey pick your favorite Ten Commandments pick the ones that if you were going to choose for your neighbors to follow if I said hey you're going to live in a neighborhood and you get to pick four Commandments that everyone in that City or that neighborhood is going to follow I can guess with great accuracy which ones.
We'd be picking you shall not murder you should not commit adultery you shall not steal you should not bear false witness I want to live in a place like that those are the ones that were like yeah I mean it's a big deal like if you had a child and they started showing homicidal Tendencies you would care you'd be like I don't know he keeps just hurting things this is terrible he's going to grow up to be a murderer but some of us have wildly disrespectful children and we're like.
Well maybe he'll be a cowboy and it's like that's not good for him he shouldn't be acting like that some of us continually teach our children that treating the name the name of the Lord in vain doesn't matter as much these are the ones that we care about these are the ones that make sense to us there are some that are kind of in the middle we understand a little bit we're we're tracking somewhat with you shall have no other gods before me that's primarily loyalty and Authority you should have no other guys before me go to the the here we go that's primarily loyalty and Authority we at least understand this logically that.
If God's going to be the one who rescues then God can tell you he's the only God and you're going to submit to him the problem is culturally and for a lot of us it just is like well okay I mean it makes sense it's like a house rule for God but it's not that important but it's actually massively important for Humanity to know the one true God submit to the one true God and not follow any other God and this command carries the death penalty with it in the law.
So God takes it seriously the next one that we take halfway honor your father and mother that your days may be long in the land the Lord your God is giving you we yeah that makes sense to be respectful to your parents that's something in general is a good thing like I came in the other day and I asked my younger son he's five I said something about dinner and I was asking him basically what type of bean did he want do you want green beans you want something like that I said you want green beans and he stood up and went nowhere do what he said that's how I say no.
Now and I said not to me it didn't not to your mama not to your teachers you can say it to your brother which is very funny to watch him say that to his older brother you want to play this game but we understand in some sense that respecting your parents is this is important that this matters but again we can only go so far the beginning of the new one of the new Disney movies called turning red starts off like this it's like you know somebody doing narration over the top of some stuff and it says this the number one oh it's about an Asian family.
So you're going to get watch again how how we treat this the number one rule in my family honor your parents they're the Supreme Beings who gave you life who sweated and sacrificed so much to put a roof over your head food on your plate an epic amount of food the least you can do in return is every single thing they ask of course some people are like be careful honoring your parents sounds great but if you take it too far.
Well you might forget to honor yourself the opening of a Disney movie quotes The Ten Commandments and says follow me children and part of us as good Americans thinks she's not wrong can't have your parents telling you what to do all the time but this also carries a capital punishment in Exodus 21 and in Deuteronomy disregard for your parents striking your father or mother or living wildly licentious rebellious lives ends in execution but we have an inflamed sense of harm and we say.
Well that sounds ridiculous that God would act like that but maybe we're wrong and not him there are several that don't make much sense to us at all you shall not make yourself a carved image or any likeness of anything that is heaven above or Earth beneath okay so no idols I guess God can set that rule I guess God can make that but as far as like I mean shouldn't we just let cultures kind of do what they want should we let people do what they want does it really matter that much what we worship or how we worship I mean I don't really want to live in a society that dictates that.
But again as far as the people of Israel goes and how God relates to them this also in Deuteronomy 13 and 17 carries the death penalty to reject God as your one true God and to pursue and worship idols is something that he takes wildly aggressively seriously because it is against human flourishing that it harms us ultimately and eternally when we reject the authority and Leadership and worship of God 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 there's a man who blasphemes and curses the Lord in Leviticus 24 and he is put to death now we might be understanding that if someone commits murder they received the death penalty but not that we would have to treat God's name this way but that's because we don't have any understanding of Holiness and sanctity the way that we ought to it's not because our vantage point on morality is better it's.
Because it is stunted and disfigured and that we ought to take the things that God says to take seriously seriously and some of us need to begin to pay attention to how we speak about God and his name remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy six days you shall labor and do all of your work but the seventh day is the Sabbath to the Lord your God that certain days will be set apart as holy for worship and rest and that that wasn't just something that was nice that.
God blessed us with rest but that it was something that was commanded as a thing that needed to be practiced in order to love and Worship the Lord is foreign to us we're likely to want to just spit it out of our mouth because it doesn't taste right now Jesus comes in and Spencer's going to talk us through some of this but Jesus comes in and he adjusts how they were viewing this sabbath and how we get to view this sabbath as a blessing.
But I want us to see that it's one of the ones that we read and just think optional this last one I think is a very good example you shall not covet your neighbor's house you shall not covet your neighbor's wife or his male servant or his female servant or his ox or his donkey or anything that is your neighbors if I pressed you on this I think you might would be able to say that you could see how coveting a lot could make you unhappy like.
If I spend all my time on Instagram and Facebook I could see how that would like lead to depression if I was just looking at everything that everybody was happy about and always wishing that my life was better and all you'd really be able to articulate is that if you did this to the point of harming yourself then it might be bad but the idea that I'm not supposed to look at something someone else has and want it just doesn't make a whole lot of sense to us you ever seen someone's shoes and thought those are nice shoes and asked them a question like where'd you get those ever seen someone's jacket and thought that's.
A nice jacket where'd you get that jacket ever seen someone's truck and thought wow what a nice truck where'd you get that bullet antenna you ever seen you ever seen some bodies things and just thought like I like to get that I'd like to figure out where you have that I'd like to be able to to be able to have something like that that's our whole system that's not covetousness that's marketing that's capitalism this is what we operate off of you ever been watching a show and thought oh wow I need to check into seeing about that you've been scrolling through Facebook and thought I'd like to vacation there where is that and you've desired.
Something that someone else had and then you needed it in order for you to be happy that's covetousness you ever had something you were enjoying seeing someone else enjoying something else more and now you weren't enjoying what you were enjoying anymore you ever had a house you liked until you visited someone else's house and now your house is stupid I only have two bathrooms I want to let three or four people go to the bathroom at once this is normal for us we have whole TV shows dedicated to this we don't care and we read this and we nod and we go you're right.
But we walk off and we don't care because he hasn't convinced us that it harms someone he hasn't convinced us that it fits into our approach to morality and we are wrong and we don't need God to convince us we need to repent and submit and see that we have fallen wildly short of God's ideal for what we ought to be and rather than in Pride judging him we need to in submission and humility fall on our face and ask for help this is why Americans have no ability to articulate why you cannot participate in all the sexual activity you want to as long as it doesn't hurt someone this is why we have no.
Words to articulate to someone that you can't do that even though it's your own personal autonomy and even though you aren't actively hurting someone you're not allowed to do that because we don't have any words for sanctity we don't have any words for being able to say to someone that's wrong just because God says it's wrong that's degrading to being a human but that doesn't mean that God's wrong it means that we are I want to read a quote from Brandon Clement's book he says many Americans tend to think God's Wrath isn't fair showing our heightened moral category.
For that concern but part of that reasoning is because we don't think sin is that big of a deal and certainly not sins that don't seem to harm someone we don't care as much that people violently rebel against God's Authority betray his loyalty or degrade and debase the holy so we don't think of those things as deserving of Wrath and God's Vision all those things are serious offenses and sometimes deserving of Swift wrath death and even Eternal separation from him all of which makes the sacrifice of.
Jesus that enables us to approach God's throne with confidence all the more astounding do you know why so often we'll say things like I just don't understand how God could judge people who are good I don't understand why God would send good people to hell it's because we've trimmed the Ten Commandments down to about three or four things and we say it's not because they're murdering people they don't really steal maybe once when they were little they're pretty honest they seem to you know they might have had some sexual sin.
But they're pretty faithful to their spouse seems like they've had a good relationship he's a nice man he's a gentle man she's a good woman and all we mean is by our stunted reduced view of what God would want from us in an Americanized sense and we have cut out all the ways that we have heinously offended God by rejecting his authority by rejecting worship of him by honoring and loving and serving other things by treating his name like dirt and by walking around wildly coveting.
And then even the ones that we agree with still failing at and then excusing because Rebellion against God just isn't that big a deal and it's not that God's wrong it's that we are and what we need is forgiveness and obedience what we need is repentance we need Jesus to save us it makes his sacrifice all the more astounding that he would rescue people who have utterly rejected the authority of God and then walked around strutting in their pride I read a quote the other day that says whenever you feel like you've sinned just.
Remember that God sins far outweigh yours and then a bunch of people saying what a great quote and it's just because we've redone what we think morality is and then we can sit and judge God based off of it rather than in humility submitting to him and saying thank you Lord for correcting me where I am so wildly wrong every place that you disagree with him is not a place where he is wrong it's a place where you are and it's an opportunity.
For trust and obedience Romans 3 23 24 and 24 says for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God and are justified by his grace as a gift through the Redemption that is in Christ Jesus we need to turn to Jesus and ask for forgiveness because we have failed and we are deserving of Wrath but he offers forgiveness and grace through taking the penalty of our sin on the cross and then after rescue and Redemption comes obedience this is why.
Jesus says things like uh whoever believes in the son has eternal life whoever does not obey the son shall not see life but the wrath of God remains on him this is why first John says by this we know that we love the children of God when we love God and obey his Commandments for this is love of God that we keep his Commandments and his Commandments are not burdensome that we are rescued first but then we walk in humility and obedience grow our understanding of what.
God will have from us as the band comes back up this morning foreign seriously I want you to look at your Bible at Exodus 20 and I want you to consider the places where you run afoul of God's law or the places where you just kind of think that one doesn't matter I want us to consider before the Lord where we need his grace and then we get to ask him for it we get to say Lord I'm sorry help me change me forgive me.
Because of the work of Christ he will and then we get to say through your Holy Spirit Empower me to walk forward in obedience that I would not walk forward in Pride judging your law but that I would sit under the authority of your law knowing that I am judged by you but that ultimately because of Christ I get to escape that judgment because he was judged in my place for my sin but help me to obey let's bow our heads.
Lord I ask that by your grace that you would help us to see goodness and the wisdom of your law but I pray that by your grace and by your spirit that you would help us to see our sin so that we would not stand condemned or that we would not judge you in our arrogance the Lord May there be repentance this morning in the days to come we thank you for the rescue provided by the work of Christ for without it we are lost.