Nothing Without You (Exodus 33:1-18)
Use this guide to help your group discussion as you meet this week.
The Golden Calf (Exodus 32)
Use this guide to help your group discussion as you meet this week.
Transcript
Well good morning my name is Chet I'm one of the pastors here grab a Bible and go to Exodus chapter 32. if you don't have a Bible with you there should be a blue one in the under the seat in front of you if you don't own a Bible take this one with you we want you to own a Bible we are working our way through the book of Exodus and we have gotten through where God has had a covenant ceremony.
And then Moses goes up into the cloud on the mountain and God has been giving him instructions and we're told that he's been there for about 40 days and so what we've been looking at the past several weeks are the instructions that God gave him for the Tabernacle for the Altar for the Priestly garments and the whole point of all the things that God has been giving the people of Israel and these instructions that he's been given to Moses is that Moses would go back down the mountain they would create these things build them together.
So that God can dwell among them so that he can have a place among them and that he can be their God and they can be his people that they're going to be set apart over and against all the peoples of the world to belong to him and they're going to have a tabernacle where his presence dwells now we said a while back that he's remaking some of what was lost in the Garden of Eden it's not perfect he's not going to just dwell with them the way that.
God dwelled with Adam and Eve but he's working back to he's going to have a people in his place that he dwells among that his presence is there and it's it's not the same but he's restoring some of this and so that's where we are I'm going to pray and we're going to get into the text together Lord we pray that you would help us to see your glory in this passage we pray that you would help us to see our sin and the.
Lord through your spirit we would run to Christ and we ask this in Jesus name amen so we're going to read Exodus 32 together today and so I want you to start in Exodus 31 you're welcome Exodus 31 verse 18. this is how Exodus 31 is ending and it says and he that's God gave to Moses when he had finished speaking with him on Mount Sinai the two tablets of the testimony tablets of stone written with the Finger of God.
God has finished speaking with Moses and he gives him the tablets of the testimony and he's saying okay now go go do all that I've commanded you go down the mountain and let's get this thing started that's where we are chapter 32. when the people saw that Moses delayed to come down from the mountain oh no no no no no he's not delayed he's coming that's that's the tension we should immediately feel when we read this no he's got the tablets and he's coming he's not he's you're wrong he's on his way it's a big mountain he's been up there he had a lot to get.
But he's coming it says but when the people saw that Moses delayed to come down from the mountain the people gathered themselves together to Aaron now Aaron is Moses his brother and Aaron has been left in charge Aaron and her we don't see her in the story but we do see Aaron gathered to Aaron Aaron's going to be the high priest Aaron doesn't know that but Moses is going to come down and say hey we're about to make you some beautiful glorious garments and you're going to be high priest they gather themselves to Aaron and said to him up make us gods who shall go before us as.
For this Moses the man who brought us up out of the land of Egypt we do not know what has become of him that's about as bad as it gets they're like hey Moses walked up into that cloud but he ain't come back we don't know what happened to him and so here's our suggestion now hear us out because it's going to be the dumbest suggestion you've ever heard up make us Gods who can go before us now if you'll remember back not 40 days ago.
For them or just that 40 days ago for them they had a covenant ceremony where Moses read The Ten Commandments and they practiced it they said everything you say everything you command us we will do and then the next day they had a government Covenant ceremony that is sacrifice he read it again and they say everything you command us we will do okay first commandment you will have no other gods before me second commandment do not make any Idols up make us some gods Moses has delayed we would like to aggressively break the.
First two Commandments this is a rejection of God a rejection of his Commandments is this is baffling so Aaron said to them take off the rings of gold that are in the ears of your wives your sons and your daughters and bring them to me what we wanted Aaron to say was no shut up you're not allowed to talk for like three weeks go back into the camp but that's not what he says he says I'm gonna need some gold now these were slaves do you know how they all have gold.
God blessed them with it when he brought them out of Egypt he helped them plunder the Egyptians so they take what God has blessed them with they give it to Aaron verse 3. so all the people took off the rings of gold that were in their ears and brought them to Aaron and he received the gold from their hand and fashioned it with a graving tool and made a golden calf okay so that word calf when we hear it we think baby.
But it really means in the first one to three years so it in its prime it doesn't make it much better but it's some sort of a ox and that's what it's going to be called later in the in the Book of Psalms it's an ox and it's a healthy one the young healthy one that's what he makes and they said these are your Gods o Israel who brought you up out of the land of Egypt when Aaron saw this he built an altar before it and Aaron made a proclamation and said tomorrow shall be a feast to the.
Lord now you need to notice something interesting happen in this passage verse 4 these are your Gods o Israel now that God's there is the word Elohim and it's a plural word for God gods it is at times used to talk about God the one true God they call him Elohim which is a plural word and so it can be translated God or Gods but 90 something percent of the time and primarily in the book of Exodus in Genesis when they refer to.
God as Elohim all the verbs and sentence structure around it are singular so it's singular verbs singular singular singular and then God's plural Elohim which can be taken as God's but it's used to refer to God here they use the word Elohim which doesn't give us much Clarity but the Senate structure around it is plural so this is a pretty good Fair translation some of your Bible translations might translate it differently but this is a fair translation that what they are saying is here are your Gods this is representative of your God's plural.
And so it then Aaron though tomorrow shall be a feast to the Lord capital L O R D we've already talked about this that's the Divine name for God Yahweh or Jehovah depending on how you you insert vowels and so he says you know it's the Lord so it seems as if they're saying let's break Commandments one and two and Aaron's trying to sue him down to just breaking the second one so he's calling it the Lord but he's made a calf What's Happening Here is that they've said this is who we're going to worship this is what's going to go before us Calvin says this is John Calvin who's one of the reformers he.
Says this is monstrous Madness mixed with stupidity and he points out the Cloud's still there like God's presence is still what are y'all what are y'all doing this is this is insanity this is the nation of Israel's fall if Adam and Eve fell in the garden and brought sin into the world as God's restoring this the nation of Israel collectively comes together to do the same thing that they reject the primary thing that God has taught them and so where we.
See Adam and Eve in the garden and then they fall into sin and everything falls apart we see God renewing restoring this relationship building it back fixing it rescuing them he's going to dwell among the people and they immediately undo it and if you are not a Christian and I know that even some Christians struggle with this concept but if you're not a Christian what you can often think is God has rules I'm supposed to follow the rules and he's mad at me.
For not following the rules and you can think that it seems wildly unfair and we'll say things like how could God send good people to hell how can I know somebody who they're just nice they're a good person and I just don't see how God could send them to hell but what you've got to wrap your head around is this is the primary sin is a rejection of God and a worship of something else this rejection of God and a worship of something else that.
God has designed the world that he might relate to us as creatures that we might love him and know him and and he might endear himself to us and that we might belong to him and that we might be his people and there would be joy and Delight in that that he is the greatest above all things and what we do is we pick something else to worship and love it says verse 6. and they rose up early the next day and offered burnt offerings and brought peace offerings this is the same thing they did in the Covenant ceremony with him 40 days ago and the people sat down to eat and drink and Rose.
Up to play that word carries um debaucherous sexual connotations and that Paul even refers to don't commit sexual immoral immorality like they did so this becomes a wild party they are off the rails this is what Psalm 106 says about this is we're to understand this idea of worshiping something else Psalm says this they made a calf in Horeb and worshiped a metal image they exchanged the glory of God for the image of an ox that eats grass but that's that's the primary sin is that we exchange the glory of.
God for some created thing some lesser thing that we swap him out for something else that's what Paul says in Romans that we exchange the glory of the Eternal God for images resembling beasts and calling things that we exchange the glory of God for a creature rather than the Creator and so this is idolatry this is the worship of something else this is the placing your hope in something else and so I want to trace out a few of the things that go into this.
First they say to him up make us Gods who will go before us if we're going to worship something else we usually we're going to pick something that we're going to base our whole life around this is going to go before us this is going to give us purpose this is going to give us Direction so that if you are worshiping something other than God you've picked a thing that wakes you up in the morning that gives you a reason to live that gives you guidance.
For how you're going to spend your days it goes before you it's the thing that helps you know Who You Are it's the thing that you look at and you say if I just have this then I'll be happy then I'll be fulfilled and then everything will be right that's idolatry that's the thing we picked that we're going to spend our time and devote ourselves to the other thing that if you'll look at this if you'll notice is that we often take something that.
God has given us so they took the gold that God had given them we have to take a good thing that God gave us and make it an ultimate thing y'all know the cake is delicious right but if you only eat cake you die I'm pretty sure it's not good for you I don't know if anybody's ever tested it it's meant to be in the spot that cake is supposed to be in a delicious good gift but not an ultimate thing and that's how everything works where.
God gives you health or he gives you physical ability or he makes you attractive or he makes you intelligent or he gives you a good job or whatever He blesses you with a thing and it's meant to stay in the spot for that in the food pyramid of your life it's meant to be there where it takes up that amount of space and it's a good gift it's a blessing but it's not meant to shift into an ultimate thing but the problem is we take good gifts that.
God gives us and we make them ultimate things most of the time when we pick an idolatrous something it's not a bad thing it's usually a blessing that we just make into an ultimate thing a God-level thing like children they become what you worship and serve and build your life around they become what makes you say I know I'm okay if or Romance becomes what you worship and serve and build your life around I know I'm okay if this goes before me this sets my day this helps me know who I am or work or attractiveness or physical health or whatever we pick something that's usually a good thing that.
God has given us and we place it in an ultimate spot and therefore it gets out of order and it's wrong the other thing I think we should notice from this passage about Idols is that they take work they don't move themselves they don't build themselves they take our effort our work to accomplish that he had to craft this into a calf and so whatever your idol is it's usually something that you're saying I'm building my life around this this helps me know who I am it's usually a good thing and it's usually something that you're putting in a lot of work.
For takes a lot of energy and time so if you want to try to discern where is that in my life look for those three things and you'll find most likely something that you have built an idol out of and this is the fundamental sin this is the sin and so they commit the sin which is a rejection of God a worship of something else they undo his whole plan which is he's they're going to belong to him and he's going to be among them and they're just like we're going to move on.
Now Christians we're in danger of doing this too we're in danger of taking a good thing and making it an ultimate thing but we're also in danger of doing what Aaron seems to be doing remaking God where he says it's the Lord we're remaking Jesus into something else I want to point something out to you about that I love about this Psalm Passage they exchange the glory of God for the image of an ox that eats grass foreign I love how much shade is thrown in those three words an ox like a like an ox like one that eats grass and you immediately go yes.
So dumb and it is but you know why they picked an ox because everyone around them picked an ox that's why they picked an ox because an ox to them represented cultivation you need an ox to get crops so represented strength it represented uh being fertile both in uh cultivation and in your Fields but also in your house and everybody had an ox and so what we're in danger of is going that's so dumb but I don't think we can say that's.
So dumb I would never do that I think what we have to say is that's so dumb I'd pick something that more suits my taste I would pick something way better than a calf and we see this you'll talk to people who have just rebranded Jesus and the more you talk to them more you understand what they're talking about it's like hi that Jesus just sounds a lot like a capitalist he doesn't have a lot to say about loving the poor he doesn't have a lot to say about how the love of money is dangerous he just he's kind of you've twisted this up like.
If you've ever seen a picture of Jesus holding an AR-15 it's like you've rebranded him to something that you like so that you'll talk to somebody and they'll have like you're like that Jesus just sounds a lot like a Republican or you talk to somebody and you'll be a part of a Church and you're just like that Jesus man he sounds a whole lot like he's bought into the idea that God just wants me to be happy and that doesn't mean the rejection of sin and the embracing of him is our ultimate Delight it means the pursuit of whatever I want or you talk to him and talk to someone and it's like ah you.
Really think Jesus won't tell you who you're allowed to love you don't think he's going to come in and say this is bad for you this is wrong for you that he's going to just co-sign anything you have to say because you sound a lot more like the sexual Revolution you sound a lot more like things I'm reading on the internet you sound a lot more like what's popular right now than you then you line up with this and this happens where he gets re-branded.
And so we've changed it we've crafted him into something that fits with us better that actually we change him so that we don't have to change and then we say it's a feast to the Lord and it's wrong that he's been reshaped and sometimes we do this intentionally and sometimes we do it unintentionally due to our sin but this is what it says here I want you to understand that it's not just the times that we're doing that but it's every time we sin that we're practicing some form of idolatry.
Because it says they forgot God their savior who had done great things in Egypt and you know that every time we sin in some small form we're practicing that we're forgetting our God is doing great things for us we're forgetting that Jesus is our ultimate Delight I'll give you an example I know I'm not trying to brag I am a pastor but I know I'm not supposed to lie I know that I learned it in seminary I didn't get an mdiv.
But I did learn this don't lie but I know I'm not supposed to lie but you all know there are times where I catch myself lying sometimes I don't even catch myself I just think about it later and in that moment I didn't want to please Jesus I wanted something else I wanted to please another person I wanted them to think highly of me I wanted them to not think lowly of me I won't even fight him for highly I was just fighting.
For neutral I wanted to not have to leave my house and help them there's a lot of things we might lie for and what you might lie about and what I might lie about might be different but the reality is in that moment we want something more than we want Jesus we forgotten how good he is and we do this with all of our sin we do this when we gossip we want something more than we want Jesus we do this.
When we should help someone we make excuses we do this when we should be generous and we aren't we do this when we commit sexual sin we just want something more than we want Jesus in that moment and that's idolatry we're telling ourselves this will make me happy this will fill me up this will give me joy this will give me the light and it'll do it better than Jesus Does I know I'm not supposed to have sex but I really want a boyfriend.
And so whatever you're willing to sin to have is ultimately something that you value more than God and so I don't think we can read this passage and go what fools without acknowledging I think I'm at the base of the mountain I'm not up there with Moses I don't think I'm the one up there doing what's right I think I'm the one down there pulling my earrings out verse 7. and the Lord said to Moses go down for your people whom you brought up out of the land of Egypt have corrupted themselves they have turned aside quickly out of the way that I commanded them they have made.
For themselves a golden calf and have worshiped it and sacrificed to it and said these are your Gods o Israel who brought you up out of the land of Egypt this would be like on your honeymoon watching your wedding video and seeing your spouse kissing someone in the wedding party in the video I mean just as as cataclysmically awful as you can possibly imagine the the derailing heartbreaking nature of this he's got him he's rescued them they're going to be his people he's going to dwell among them and they say we don't know where Moses went it's been too long and it's an utter rejection of all of that and the.
Lord said to Moses I have seen this people and behold it is a stiff-necked people now therefore let me alone that my wrath may burn hot against them and I may consume them in order that I may make a great nation of you he says leave me alone I'm going to destroy them and we'll restart with you 11. but Moses implored the Lord his God and said O Lord why does your wrath burn hot against your your people whom you have brought up out of the land of Egypt with great power and with a mighty hand did you.
Notice that God said you were people who you brought out of Egypt and then Moses says no you're people who you brought out of Egypt God says they're not mine anymore Moses says no they are they're your people why should the Egyptians say with the evil intent did he bring them out to kill them in the mountains and to consume them from the face of the Earth turn from your burning anger and relent from This Disaster against your people remember Abraham Isaac and Israel your servants to whom you swore by your own self and said to them I will multiply your Offspring as the stars of heaven and all this land that I have promised.
I will give to your offspring and they shall inherit it forever Moses says no remember your promises remember who you are remember that they belong to you remember be you that's what he's saying and the Lord relented from the disaster that he had spoken of bringing on his people now you can tie yourself in a theological knot in this passage trying to understand how does a sovereign God who's planned all of this have a moment where he relents but he relents of something he spoke about doing and in the way he spoke about this in some ways he invited Moses to be an intermediary.
But this text is written so that we would see how much the people of Israel need an intermediary they don't know it but they needed Moses on the mountain pleading on their behalf they needed someone to stand in between them and God because they they need someone to stand in between them and God because of their sin and we're supposed to see God relenting out of his own goodness and out of his own choice and will to include Moses and how this works.
But we're also meant to see Moses who whined and came up with weird excuses about why he should not have to go in the first place who now stands with God and says please remember your promises and be good to them and God relents from what he had spoken about doing verse 15 then Moses turned and went down from the mountain with the two tablets of the testimony in his hand tablets that were written on both sides on the front and on the back they were written the tablets were the work of.
God and the writing was the writing of God engraved on the tablets now the text just zoomed us beautifully in on how wonderful these tablets are and it did that on purpose verse 17. when Joshua heard the noise of the people as they shouted so Joshua was midway Moses went up been talking to God Joshua's just been hanging out in the middle because he's waiting for Moses he's been camping out above the camp but below the cloud and Moses comes down to him he sees Moses he hears the noise down there and Joshua who leads in military things says this there is a noise of war in the camp.
Verse 18 but he said it is not the sound of shouting for victory or the sound of Cry of defeat but the sound of singing that I hear how bad do you sing that it sounds like War but it also means that we're not supposed to picture them holding hands and chanting in unison but a debaucherous chaotic celebration he says no that's a party and as soon as they came near the camp and saw the calf and the dancing Moses anger burned hot and he threw the tablets out of his hand and broke them at the foot of the mountain that's why I zoomed in and told us how wonderful they were and it's this.
Picture of how wonderful everything was about to be and how shattered everything is now he was about to be exactly his God wants with them he's restoring it he's building them back into his people he's going to dwell among them and it's ruined I know a story of a lady who's felt like her husband was not holding up his marriage covenant and when he came home she had her China out and she was just breaking their wedding China while she was talking to him he said what are you doing she said I'm caring about our covenant as much as you do that's what this is he took the calf they had made.
So he just marches in 80 something year old Moses he's hot took the calf they have made and burned it with fire grounded to powder scattered it on the water and made the people of Israel drink it all this stuff's still going on snatches it down Burns it I don't know how long he has the weight before burning it to grind it but he turns it not into a calf but he's not done it's not like he melted it was like next step no he grinds that into powder.
And then he stands there throwing it in the water it's like here you go y'all gonna drink that gold lip fools it doesn't say that part but I'll just he made the people of Israel drink it verse 21 Moses said to Aaron what did this people do to you that you have brought such a great sin upon them and Aaron said let not the anger of my Lord burn hot you know the people that they are set on evil which to be fair they haven't been the greatest they followed them around complaining and whining and surrounding them multiple times and tried to fight like they haven't been this isn't been the easiest group of people.
To lead but it's not because these people are worse than other people it's because these people are people and if we wandered around the desert together we'd also do some of this mess he says you know the people that they're set on evil in verse 23 4 they said to me make us Gods who shall go before us as for this Moses the man who brought us up out of the land of Egypt we do not know what has become of him.
So I said to them let any who have gold take it off so they gave it to me and I threw it into the fire and out came this calf I feel like that's kind of how his story had to go it had to start breaking down to the end y'all know he was quoting word for word what they said to him like he Nails it they said to me make us Gods who shall go before us ask for this Moses though they brought you up they said the man who brought us out of Egypt we don't know what happened to him.
So I said to them let me have your gold and then I took the gold and then there was I know remember there was a fire through I threw the gold in the fire I don't think I did anything else I think then it was a magic calf you ever talked to a kid in the middle of them being called in something that's what this sounds like to me what happened well he pushed me and then I don't like what comes after end.
Then give me a second how do I say I punched him in the face that's that's what that's where we're at this is pitiful out came this calf no response from Moses I think we're to assume he stares at Aaron like you've got to be kidding me 25 and when Moses saw that the people had broken loose for Aaron had let them break loose the division of their enemies if you were tempted to think Aaron didn't have a choice this passage says no Aaron could have led no Aaron could have had a backbone and I want to take just a.
Second there are a lot of people in this this room that lead things but I want to take just a second to speak to men culturally right now you're told a lot that you're the problem and that men are bad that's not true bad men are bad passive men are bad and you need to be real careful the times that you say it's them when it was really ah you should have led verse 26 then Moses stood in the gate of the camp and said who is on the Lord's Side come to me and I think he has to say this a bunch he's calling people to himself all the sons of Levi gathered around.
Him that's his tribe Moses and Aaron of the Trap of Levi Levi shows up he said to them thus says the Lord God of Israel put your sword on your side each of you and go to and fro from gate to gate throughout the camp and each of you kill his brother and his companion and his neighbor stop this find the people who are doing it and stop it and so they do verse 28 the sons of Levi did according to the word of Moses and that day about 3 000 men of the people fell and Moses said.
Today you have been ordained for the service of the Lord each one at the cost of his son and of his brother so that he might bestow a blessing upon you this day faithfulness to God is often costly but it's worth it prior to this it does seem like it was in God's intent that the tribe of Levi would be as a tribe levitical priests but it's not mentioned and it seems like in this moment is where God seals it that it's not just going to be the sons of Aaron.
But it's going to be the whole tribe of Levi that's going to get to carry the being ordained set apart for his service seems like it we're slurdy so it settles down it goes from off the rails to a lot of death the amount of excitement this is a quiet and awkward and sad and the next day Moses said to the people you have sinned a great sin and now I will go up to the Lord perhaps I can make atonement.
For your sin so Moses returned to the Lord he walks up this mountain takes a while and he said alas this people has sinned a great sin they have made for themselves gods of gold but now if you will forgive them but if not Please block me out of your book that you have written and if you don't love Moses yet you should love him now because when he said maybe I can make atonement he meant maybe he'll take me instead maybe I can swap places with y'all you have sinned a great sin it's not that they've killed all the Sinners it's no collectively we've still.
So catechism cataclysmically failed and broken this Covenant judgment is on us but maybe maybe he'll let me swap out so he says if you'll forgive them forgive him but if you won't that can't happen can you take me instead 33. but the Lord said to Moses Whoever has sinned against me I will blot out of my book God says no but now go lead the people to the place about which I have spoken to you behold my angel shall go before you nevertheless in the day.
When I visit I will visit their sin upon them we're going to come back to 33 and 34. I want to finish the chapter 3 35. then the Lord sent a plague on the people because they made the calf the one that Aaron made because they made the calf the one that Aaron made so if we were unsure earlier as to whether or not Moses believed Aaron's story he does not but look at 33 and 34. the Lord said to Moses whoever sinned against me I will blot out of my book.
So who's that that's all of them but now go lead the people to the place about which I have spoken to you behold my angel shall go before you nevertheless and the day when I visit I will visit their sin upon them now 32-34 are meant to be read together and this gets clearer because at first you read this and go oh okay good good right like crisis averted but no this isn't good at all because what he says is go I'll send my angel the day I show up everyone pays.
For their sin and in 33 he's going to say I'm not coming because there's no way for me to come and not kill everybody safest thing not the best thing but the safest thing for them is that I'm not a part of this anymore I'll get you to the promised land but the whole plan of me belonging to you and you belonging to me is done and this is where I think we've got a wrap our head around idolatry and sin sometimes we say things like.
Well it's just not that big a deal I don't know why he cares that much I don't know why he can't just get over it and I want you to know that the Covenant he made with them and the Covenant that he desires for us is that we would belong to him and he would belong to us this is why the Bible talks about it as adultery and it's like you saying I don't know what she's so been out of shape about I know that they're married.
But why can't he just have a girlfriend it's like that it's because that's the whole point of marriage is that you won't have a girlfriend that was what you committed to and that's the whole design here is that we would belong solely to him and they would belong solely to him and he would belong to them and there would be delight and joy in this and he says I can't come because your sin stands in the way and I want you to know this the thing you want most in the world is that.
God would visit you and that you would belong to him the thing you crave and desire is that you would be able to Delight in him because he is wonderful that's the thing you want most but the thing you can't have and that you should fear is that God would show up and you would be in your sin what he's wanting is for him to belong to them but if he was up and their sin is there so the thing I most want is to get to belong to.
God and the thing I most fear is that he'd show up and I'd be in my sin and what we needed and what they needed was for God to say yes to Moses can you take me and forgive their sin and God says no because Moses is a sinner he doesn't even get to go into the Promised Land but what we needed was God to say yes so that we can have him visit us we can belong to him but not be in our sin we need somebody to go up the mountain.
God to say yes you can atone for their sin and that's what Jesus Does Jesus does what Moses can't do because Jesus is God who becomes a man and he's a man so he can stand on our side and he can stand in our place and he can live a perfect life but he's God so that he can live sinlessly and he can actually atone and so where Moses fails Jesus succeeds Moses walks up the mountain and says can you take me instead.
God says no and mo Jesus walks up the mountain and says can you take me and said instead and God says yes and that's what Peter comes and he proclaims in Acts 3 says this repent therefore and turn back that your sins may be blotted out that if we run to Jesus and ask for forgiveness he forgives because he's able to and those are your options be in your sin and be blotted out or have Jesus blot your sin out because there is a day.
When God visits and when he does he will visit the sin upon the people they'll pay for it but if you've trusted in Jesus your sin has been paid for there is no sin to visit upon you y'all this is the tension throughout the whole Bible that's what's going to be carried out throughout the rest of Exodus and moving forward is how is God going to have a people that belong to him how is he going to fix this problem because they're all sinful how will he ever bridge this Gap and the answer is.
Jesus Jesus is the one who unties this so that we can have God and not have our sin because Jesus can blot our sin out and if you don't love Jesus you should love him now you should see that he walks up the mountain and says can you take me instead and God says yes and Jesus dies so that you won't be in your sin so that you can have what you ultimately desire which is God and all the delight and all the life that comes with them let's pray.
Lord we're we're sinners and we're so thankful for Jesus that he blots out our sin that we have hope in you and you alone and so Lord may we trust in you may we worship you may we Delight in you may we run from our idolatry to you in Jesus name amen the band's going to come back up and I want you to know your hope is not that you will not be an idolater your hope is that Jesus walks up the mountain and pays.
For idolaters that's what Moses walked up there to do can I pay the debt of their idolatry and Jesus walks up and doesn't say they're all perfectly worshiping they're all perfectly loving they're all perfectly their hearts set on me he he goes up and says can I pay the debt of idolaters that's our hope and that's what we're going to sing about and rejoicing right now is that our hope is Jesus and only Jesus and nothing else.
Good Work and Good Rest (Exodus 31)
Use this guide to help your group discussion as you meet this week.
Transcript
Good morning my name is Chet I'm one of the pastors here we are working our way through the book of Exodus if you will turn to Exodus chapter 31. we looked at Exodus chapter 28 and 29 last week the week prior we looked at 26 and on up and we looked at some of the sections in chapter 31. in chapter 31 there is a section on a census that is to be taken and we won't spend time studying that together but we are moving to chapter 31.
Today and we're going to study through this entire chapter together I um a couple years ago was on vacation and I ran into a store to buy some milk I think that's pretty much all I needed I might have needed one other thing but mostly milk and if you had stopped me on my way into the store and said hey how much should milk cost I would have said I don't know and I don't have any opinions about milk I just need some and I would have been thinking I told you the truth I walked to the back of the store and I get to the gallons of milk and milk was six dollars in.
Something and I said to myself six dollars what on Earth like I'm just standing there staring at this like if his milk lost its mind did this come from a magical cow what what on and apparently I had a lot of opinions about milk that were very deep inside of me that I cared deeply about because I was enraged in this grocery store and I wouldn't have been able to tell you that um two minutes ago and the reason I tell you that story is that this morning we are going to.
Look at a passage that is going to I think shine some light on how we view work how we view work and how we View Rest and how we view our labor and I think it's possible that you might think I don't really have like a philosophy of work I don't have a Theology of work I don't have something that I've I haven't given this much thought I don't really have opinions on it and what I'd like to say is you do actually have some opinions on work maybe you have thought it through.
But if you haven't I'd like to offer that you actually do have some sort of a viewpoint on work you're like me with milk you might not realize it but you have some thought process and I want to tell you the two primary ones that our culture gives us these are the ones that you're handed as like hey pick an option these are the two ways to think about work and I would argue that you probably have you lean in one of these directions option number one work gives you your identity it helps you know who you are and it helps everybody else know who you are and by having good work you are better.
And by having worse work you are worse this is identity this is one of the reasons not the only reason but one of the reasons why we ask people pretty quickly what do you do what kind of work do you do it's not just a good topic of conversation when you first meet somebody it also helps you know what kind of person are you who are you but people don't know how to answer that question so you say what kind of work do you do and it helps us to find that.
So work as identity is one of the cultural options we're given the other one is that work is a necessary evil that is useful for providing the type of life that you want work is a necessary evil that is useful for providing the type of life that you want so if you want a lavish life you need work that will provide that if you want to live in the woods and eat Roots you don't have to work at all you did it.
But whatever lifestyle you want the amount of rest that you want the amount of pleasantness that you want the amount of stability that you want work is there to provide that and you need to work the exact amount that gives that to you and one of the reasons I think I can help you see that this is how we think about this is we ask little kids what do you want to be when you grow up and B is a is an identity word what do you want to be.
When you grow up and we're interested in this answer and I my wife showed me one where this little kid was like going first day of kindergarten and said how they were and it said What class they were going into and then it said I want to be when I grow up and they put chicken nugget and I guess they thought what's the most amazing thing ever I want to set up my sights High I'm going to be a chicken nugget.
But we don't want chicken nugget as an answer you want to hear Dr lawyer scientist astronaut Batman like we want something good to pour yourself into and usually if you're talking to a kid and you say they say they want to be a doctor and you say that's great you are saying that's great either because what a good identity what a good person to be what a good honorable thing to make yourself into or that's great Doctors live at the lake.
And if a kid says something and you say you don't want to do that usually it's because it won't provide the type of life I want for you or it's not the type of person I want you to be because those are our primary things that we're given culturally now as a Christian we add a third thing into this because I talk to people they'll say things like I'm really trying to follow Jesus I want my life to matter is it.
Okay for me to just repair HVAC units my entire life is that okay is it okay if all I ever do is teach kindergarten is that okay like am I okay to do that or have I missed something have I rejected the mission of God somehow and so this passage I think shines some light and gives us some clarity on all of that and will help us have a better approach to how we ought to view work and how we ought to view living lives of a lot of normal work under the leadership of.
God and in worship and glory to him so let's pray and we're going to read Exodus chapter 31 together God we ask for your grace we ask for your help we pray that you would give us clarity as we study your word today that we might be Spirit-filled laborers that we might love you and love our neighbors well through them in Jesus name amen now I do not think that this passage is primarily here to teach us the things that we're going to talk about this morning.
So we're going to read through it and I'm going to try to help you see it in context with Exodus before we're going to walk through and point out some of the things that help kind of say hey this this gives us some handles here on how we ought to think about work so Exodus chapter 31 the Lord said to Moses Moses up on the mountain God's been telling him over and over again all the things he's going to have to do the.
Lord said to Moses see I have called by name bezalel the son of Yuri son of her of the tribe of Judah and I have filled him with the spirit of God with ability and intelligence with knowledge and all craftsmanship to devise artistic designs to work in gold silver and bronze in cutting stones for setting and in carving wood to work in every craft and behold I have appointed with him a holy AB the son of ahissamak of the tribe of Dan and I have given to all able men ability that they may make all that I have commanded you and this is a recap of what we've been studying the past few weeks starting.
In verse 7. the tent of meeting and the Ark of the testimony and The Mercy Seat that is on it and all the Furnishings of the tent the table and its utensils and the pure lamp stand with all its utensils and the altar of incense and the altar of burnt offerings with all its utensils and the Basin and its stand and the finely worked garments the holy garments for Aaron the priests and the garments of his sons for their service as priests and the anointing oil and The Fragrant incense.
For the holy Place according to all that I have commanded you they shall do so God's been telling him you're going to do this you're going to build this you're going to build this this is how you're going to build it this is how long it's going to be this is how wide this is what a span is all those things and then he says and I've set aside specifically these men to help they're going to build it and then he says this in.
Verse 12. and the Lord said to Moses you are to speak to the people of Israel and say above all you shall keep my sabbaths the Sabbath is the day of rest that one day in seven they would work six days and then they would rest and worship in the rest of the Lord and do no work you shall keep my sabbaths for this is a sign between me and you throughout your Generations that you may know that I the Lord sanctify you.
So he says the Sabbath stands here to show you that I'm the one who sets you apart who makes you holy who makes you good I'm the one who rescues you I'm the one who gives you your worth that's what's built into that word sanctify and it's important because of what he's about to say verse 14 you shall keep the Sabbath because it is Holy for you everyone who profanes it shall be put to death whoever does any work on it that Soul shall be cut off from among his people.
Now as we study the Ten Commandments one of the things we talked about is that we don't have a good radar As Americans for the sanctity of God the Holiness of God and so when he says things like you're going to keep the Sabbath and if you don't you're going to be put to death we immediately think that's an overreaction but it's because we have an under reaction to the Holiness of God to the weight of obedience and do you see what a rejection of the Sabbath is it's a rejection of knowing.
God is the one who sets them apart God has invited them into this sanctifying relationship and a rejection of the Sabbath is a rejection of God being the one who makes them holy who does the work and so they're in this in some ways a rejection of Sabbath for them is like a rejection of salvation for us to say that we don't want Jesus I'll be the one who makes myself good I'll be the one who makes myself holy and it does what to us what it does to them which it cuts them off from the people.
Because he said they if if they're to remember consistently that he's the one who redeems and then to to work on that day is to reject that it's a problem and he will not put up with that being rampant in them in among his people and you will be put to death verse 15. six days shall work be done but the seventh day is the Sabbath of solemn rest holy to the Lord whoever does any work on the Sabbath today shall be put to death.
Therefore the people of Israel shall keep the Sabbath observing the Sabbath throughout all their Generations as a covenant forever it is a sign forever between me and the people of Israel that in six days the Lord made Heaven and Earth and on the seventh day he rested and was refreshed if you have more questions about the Sabbath we taught about it when we looked at the fourth Commandment in the Ten Commandments we won't spend as much time on it today Verse 18 and he gave to Moses.
When he had finished speaking with him on Mount Sinai the two tablets of the testimony tablets of stone written with the Finger of God so he's handing off to him all that they've talked about Moses is about to go down the mountain and get to work all we've read so far is stuff that he's supposed to do he's leaving with a to-do list in so many ways he's got a bunch of things he's got to do God's given it to him and sitting down the mountain.
Okay so one of the first things though that I think is helpful for us as we try to understand how we ought to approach work because what's happening in this moment is God is giving Moses all these instructions and he's telling him who's going to accomplish it and he's reminding him of the Sabbath and sending him down and that's kind of where this fits in the context of Exodus but I think for us it's helpful for us to notice a few things that clarify how we ought to view work the.
First one is this look at verse two see I have called by name bezalel and then in verse 3 it says and I have filled him with the spirit of God now Moses is hearing this what for he's calling this guy specifically and he's filled him with the spirit of God what for and when we think of being filled with the spirit of God we think prophecy he's gonna he's gonna be like in the Priestly service there's something going to be something something really spiritual is going to happen.
And then he says filled him with the spirit of God he's filled him with ability and intelligence with knowledge and all craftsmanship to devise artistic designs to work in gold silver and bronze in cutting stones for setting and in carving wood to make every craft I filled him with my spirit for work for craftsmanship for competency that he's poured in him ability and intelligence knowledge and all craftsmanship that this is a gift from God and this is really interesting to me it's really encouraging and I also think that.
If we're to consider bezalel I don't think that he was sitting in his tent and had spent his entire life being incompetent and God Zapped him and suddenly he was like I must make artistic designs I don't think that's what happened I think that what happened is what happens in all of life for us where God is at work in this man and he grows in competency I don't think when he made artistic designs for the Tabernacle it was the first time he had ever done it one of the things he had to do was filigree that they were going to do this I want to show you all filigree this is filigree he had.
To engrave precious stones wrap them in that and put them on the shoulders of the Priestly garments I don't think it was the first time he'd ever made filigree I think this was something that he had been good at been competent been growing in that God had poured this ability in him and then God says I've specifically designed him for this purpose so go back look what he gives him his ability and intelligence so and then knowledge and all craftsmanship and these are gifts from.
God which if you think about this if God's the one who gives these things then it glorifies God for bezalel to be good at them that if Moses comes down and he says I'm looking for bezalel a son of Yuri son of her tribe of Judah like he goes to the tribe of Judah y'all got a bezel yeah we got seven okay son of Yuri son of her oh okay we got two that are under her but only one under Yuri that's the one I'm looking.
For and when he says okay show me what you can do how does bezelo glorify God by being excellent and Moses would be watching him and go and then look at God like wow you poured intelligence and ability and knowledge and craftsmanship into him this is amazing to bezel would glorify God well by being good at this and have y'all ever in life seen someone who had ability and it just you kind of marveled at it physical ability they could dance or play a sport they they could play an instrument.
For a moment you just kind of swept up in the actual beauty of it the glory of it because there's God-given ability that's in the world that points us to him it doesn't terminate on itself but it rolls us up y'all ever seen intelligence and just been blown away by it like someone who figured something out came out with something new fixed the problem designed something you ever just your car's not working so you pop the hood and you're sad but impressed.
Because it's like this thing is magical I don't know how to work it but somebody made up something really good here there's intelligence that's done these things but it also says intelligence and knowledge and I love that that's separated because intelligence and knowledge are not exactly the same thing we put them together a lot but someone can have knowledge without being the most intelligent person there have been times where you've interacted with somebody and they just know they know what they're doing they know how to fix the problem they know how to sort a thing out there are people.
If you ever watch anybody who works in food service or fast food that loves their job and does a good job and knows what they're doing have you ever seen like I'll get stuck watching videos sometimes of people who just know what they're doing and some kind of building a craft or working on a thing or who can just flip Burgers real quick or the people who do that little ice cream thing where they take the ice cream from you and they give it back to you or whatever have you ever seen this like you can go to Marble Slab and be blessed by someone being really good at doing what they're doing and enjoying.
It they have the knowledge the competence to do this and craftsmanship He blesses them with these things and he specifically calls him to these things that it's a God-given ability and a God-given calling for this but then he says this verse 6. and behold I have appointed with him a holy AB the son of a hissim a hyssamek of the tribe of Dan and I have given to all able men ability that they may make all that I have commanded you I have given to all able men ability I want you to.
Look at that for a second ability is a blessing can you highlight that for us that ability is a blessing y'all work is not a curse it's cursed by sin so there's aspects of it that are more difficult but work was in the garden God designed us to be competent and to work and that we bring him glory in good work so if God's the one who gives ability if God's the one who gives skill and craftsmanship and knowledge then we can glorify.
God by doing that well therefore all good work can be worship if there's a way in work to glorify God through ability and skill and knowledge and craftsmanship which I would argue that all jobs take something of one of those four take ability or they take intelligence or they take knowledge or they take some craftsmanship that all work takes some sort of then if that's a way to glorify God by doing it well therefore work can be worshipful now there are some occupations that you're not allowed to do like.
If you said God's gifted me with the ability and one of the things that I'm great at is hurting people who owe the mafia money we would just say he's given you other abilities find one of those you might excel at this but this is not an okay thing for you to do but most occupations most work is going to be something that you get to do in a way that glorifies God that's worshipful so there's a way for bezalel to be tied up where he thinks that work is just about himself.
Therefore the only way he could be humble in work is to be bad at it because if he's good at it it terminates on himself it makes him prideful there's a way for him to try to steal the glory from God and make it about himself wrap his identity up and that wrap his worth up and make it about himself but if good work is meant to glorify God then the way to be humble in work is not to be bad at it.
But to worshipfully be very very good at it the way to be humble in work is not to be bad at it but to worshipfully be very very good at it and do y'all see how if work can be worshiped that that undermines our two primary cultural options given to us that in this option work is about you it's about your identity it's about your worth and so that all of your work ultimately just turns around and is about you you don't become a doctor.
Because you want to care for sick people and it's a blessing to the world you don't become a lawyer because we need Justice you become that because those are good things to be and ultimately your work is about you but if my work is worshipful and it rolls up and prays to God then that kills that approach it undermines it you think that work is just unnecessary evil so that you can enjoy the actual good stuff of life when you understand that God's blessed you to be worshipful in your work it can't be evil it's part of the good stuff of life it has purpose in it.
And so this approach this understanding undercuts our approaches to work but I want you to see something else it's not just that work can be worshipful but work the use of skills the exercise of these abilities that God has given us can be done in worship but it's also one of the primary ways that we love our neighbors look at verse six behold I have appointed with him a holy AB the son of a hissamak of the tribe of Dan and I have given to all able men ability that they may make all that I have commanded you Moses has been up on a mountain.
God has been repeatedly telling him he's been repeatedly telling him that he's going to have to do this he's going to have to make this you're going to make this you're going to make this you're going to make this you're going to make this you're going to make this you're going to make a table you're going to make a tent you're going to make a an effort you're going to make a breast piece you're going to have bells and pomegranates it's all going to be.
Finally done it's going to be done really well it's going to be engraved really well you're going to make filigree you're going to make all these things I don't think that Moses was thinking oh no I can't do that I'm a shepherd Moses was a Shepherd he's not about to walk down the mountain and weave a tent I think Moses was thinking what we would think which is we're going to make this because that's how it works and then God specifically says I've blessed all of them with ability to accomplish all these things and all that they're going to accomplish isn't just about worship it's not just about themselves.
But it also blesses everybody around them that it's a blessing to have this kind of ability that I want to I missed a quote that I want to read to y'all and we'll point out to y'all as we understand that work is an act of worship and then work as a way to love our neighbors this is a quote from Dorothy Sayers she's an author and she says this the Church's approach to an intelligent Carpenter is usually confined to exhorting him to not be drunk and disorderly in his leisure hours and to come to Church on Sundays.
For the record It's a Good Counsel but then she says this what the Church should be telling him is this the very first demand that his religion makes upon his time is that he should make good tables and in doing that who worship and he'll love God and he'll love his neighbor there's a in his book Tim Keller wrote a book called every good Endeavor and in that book he quotes another book work the meaning of Life by Lester decoster and I want to read this quote to you it's a longer quote.
But I think it's a helpful thing to Think Through he says this work is the form in which we make ourselves useful to others and which others make themselves useful to us we plant with our work and God gives the increase to unify the human race so he says that in work I make myself useful to others others make themselves useful to us and God blesses this this is the concept that Martin Luther has of The Masks of God that God works through work we're told in the Bible that.
God strengthens strengthens the bars of the city we're told that God watches over the city we're told that God feeds everybody we all he does but one of the ways he does that is that someone builds the walls in the bars of the city and someone watches there's night Watchmen that watch over the city and there's someone who milks the cow and someone who delivers the milk like God feeds me but one of the ways he does that is there's a Food Lion a mile from my house and every day someone goes over there and unlocks the doors.
For me and puts the lion back in the back where he's been doing night Watchman stuff at night so that he won't attack me like there's there's things that someone does so that I can enter in there and be able to get the food out and it's a blessing and so this is what Lester decoster says he says look at the chair you are lounging in could you have made it for yourself how would you get say the wood would you go and fell a tree I said sure.
But only after first making the tools for that and putting together some kind of vehicle to haul the wood and constructing a mill to do the lumber and making roads to drive on from place to place in short a lifetime or two to make one chair you're gonna go cut down a tree okay make the tools to cut the tree down all right you did it you got your tree down now what you're going to do and it's just a helpful thought process of being like.
Okay another take forever he says if we worked not 40 but 140 hours per week we couldn't make for ourselves from scratch even a fraction of all the goods and services that we call our own our paycheck turns out to buy us the use of far more than we could possibly make for ourselves in the time it takes for us to earn the check work yields far more in return upon our efforts than our particular jobs put in why because of everybody else that we could not in the amount of time have the things that we have live the lives that we live.
But we can together because of everybody else Tim Keller then says in response to this quote the guy ends this quote by saying the difference between a Wilderness and a culture is simply work without if everybody quit work we would just be in a wilderness and Tim Keller says there may be no better way to love your neighbor whether you are riding parking tickets software or books than to Simply do your work and he calls this the ministry of competency you get to work in the ministry of Competency which means being competent being good at the work that you've been given is a way to love your neighbor my granddad grew up in the Swansea.
Area and he said he he joined the Marines he went and signed up he said he walked out of the office got on the bus with a bunch of other guys and they rode to Paris Island he said they get off the bus when they get off this man comes out in a uniform and yells I'm your mama now boys my granddad said he thought I may have made a mistake one of the first things they did was they issued him a uniform and they issued him boots.
And so they went in and they all got measured for all of these things and they you know measure you can give you your stuff he said they measured somebody's foot gave him a boot gave him a pair of boots sent them out measure their gas foot and gave him a pair of boots send them out eventually they measured his foot and apparently he has more of like a Clydesdale hoof than a foot he said his foot is almost as wide as it is long it just is like.
And so they measured his foot and then when looked for boots and the guy who's in charge of this is just looking they're trying on boots looking trying on boots looking trying on boots it's like his first day in the Marines and he's just sitting there trying on chew after two after shoe he said his drill sergeant comes back in and starts yelling at him while the the guy was in the back looking for shoes and then he said one of the most magical things that's ever happened in the Marines happen.
For his his time in the Marines the guy who fits you for Boots outranked the guy who was yelling at him so he said he walked back in and said let me tell you something this Marine's gonna have shoes that fit his feet he's got to be on his feet all the time and he said he just chewed him out he said he just sat there after being chewed out watch this guy get chewed out and then got to sit there until he had boots and he looked at me and said that man found me boots that fit my feet and it was the.
First pair of comfortable shoes I've owned in my entire life that's the ministry of competence that man loved my granddad well do you know how easy it would have been to say I don't think we have the size put these on and how much more difficult life would have been for my granddad as a marine with shoes that didn't fit that's what had happened to him his entire life he had shoes that didn't fit but this man did his job well in this room we have people who work in construction we have people who work in the medical field we have teachers we have people who sell things people who prepare food people who prepare.
Taxes people who help with people's books and finances we have people who sell products fix products cut hair which of those are we willing to give up competency on I know you don't want an incompetent mechanic or an incompetent doctor you don't want them quickly Googling things while you're talking to them you'd like for them to kind of know what they're doing and if they're going to Google at least know where to go but I can WebMD at the house I want you to know what you're doing.
But y'all do we want an incompetent person to cut our hair no have you ever had a really good haircut I really good one and you just walk around like because you just know this person knew what they were doing and they figured out my my head shape and they were able to dodge all the bumps or whatever have you ever had a really bad haircut like a bad haircut that that messes your life up for a short period of time.
But everybody's got to get haircuts yeah you go into a place like when I go into the Verizon store I've gone in before and I felt like I know more about my phone than this person which is bad I've also gone in and after about five minutes of talking I've just relaxed I'm like this person's like my wizard they know what they're talking about the ministry of competence blesses your life and you work one of the primary ways that we love our neighbors is that we're good at our jobs there may be a way.
For you to get another certification there might be some YouTube videos that you can watch there might be some ways that you can grow in knowledge or craftsmanship there might be ways that you can get better at your job that you can learn how to use this type of equipment there's something that you can do that you can be competent that you can help and love and serve people well so that when you go to work you are worshiping the Lord and loving your neighbor and you get to do that day in and day out that completely changes that's counter-cultural to our cultural approaches to work that.
If work is worship and it's not about me and it's not about giving me the good life but it's about me honoring God with the abilities the skills the knowledge the intelligence the talents he's given me and if work is a way for me to love my neighbor then I get to go to work every day just knowing that if I competently prepare this food I've blessed people if I get their order right I've blessed them if I have a good attitude.
If I'm honest when they ask me questions I've blessed people the ministry of confidence is competence is a way to love your neighbor go to Lowe's when you have a problem your day will then be decided by how competent the help at Lowe's is and it makes a difference so what kind of work do you do and how can you get better at it so I believe that begins to answer our question the third question that we have which is is it.
Okay for me to just fix hvacs my whole life can I do pool repair is that okay I think one of the things we've done well as a Church if we told you that one of the ways you can have purpose in your work is by being a missionary that God has already placed you somewhere and that you have co-workers and you have an overseer and you have all these people that God intentionally puts you there that you might reach them with the Gospel and that nobody else is there you've already been commissioned and as a missionary and that's true and I don't want you to lose that.
But I think we've also failed to tell you that one of the ways that you can live a good life is to make really good tables one of the ways do you know how much of life is meant to be normal how much of your life is meant to be go to work eat some food go to sleep it's a continual thing and that one of the blessings we're told is for us to be able to find joy and enjoyment and purpose in our labor our toil that this is a blessing from.
God that's one of the things Ecclesiastes tells us and you actually get to go to work and worship and love your neighbors day in and day out doing whatever good work you find to do and so can you do HVAC repair your whole life yeah if you Worship in it and you love your neighbors well in it I'll tell you one thing when somebody when I need my HVAC repaired I want a competent honest person to show up at my house you ever just like I'm not a hugger.
But sometimes if somebody does something I think I want to hug you I'm not going to but like it's weird for me to hug the plumber but like I want to hug this plumber because they have just they've blessed me and there's a way for you to do that in whatever work you find yourself doing and for someone who says I just stare at a computer I don't have co-workers I don't have anybody that I get to to try to be a missionary with.
Okay well do you know that some people in our Church would die if they had to stay at a computer every day they would physically wither up and fall over dead they do not they have not been blessed with the ability or the skill or the craftsmanship to handle what you are handling and you get to bless people well by doing your job well and you get to love people and you get to Worship the Lord in the skill that he gave you that other people don't have.
So yes you can do that but one of the things that I think is very interesting In this passage that I don't want us to miss because it's a part of this whole thing for us it's part of this whole cultural thing for us is that good God glorifying Rest is an appropriate counterpart to good God glorifying work because go to verse 12. and the Lord said to Moses you are to speak to the people of Israel and say above all you shall keep my sabbaths.
For this is a sign between me and you throughout your Generations that you may know that I the Lord sanctify you why does he say this right here before he sends them down the mountain because he's about to put a tablet of a to-do list in his hands y'all Moses's to-do list is longer than yours do you know how many things he's got to go skillfully make do you know how many animals he's about to have to kill so that they can have priests like do you know this list is long and guess what not going to be done in six days.
And so there'd be a real Temptation for them to go we got work to do this is what we have to do to be the people of God but what's he say above all you're going to keep my Sabbath because I the Lord and the one who sanctifies you that's not what you have to do to be the people of God that's what you get to do because you're part of the people of God but it's not what you have to do to be the people of.
God because I'm the one who sets you apart good rest real rest do y'all realize that in either one of our cultural options you don't rest well this option you don't rest can't rest I'll rest when I'm dead okay because I my worth is here and if I stop working who am I I've got to achieve I've got to make a name for myself I got to get enough money I've got to do it I've got to prove I've got to show back up to my high school reunion and be like whatever and over here rest is the point of life Recreation and pleasure.
And so it gets over inflated here it Withers and dies and here it becomes some monstrosity that it was never meant to be and it's not enjoyable it doesn't work that way it's never enough but if we have worshipful work we get to have worshipful rest and they're a beautiful counterbalance to one another that the people who were worshiping in their work are also the people who can just stop because work isn't about them and it's not about providing the good life they just get to stop and say the Lord's good they get to rest genuinely rest be free I think I think we need to know that rest is a gift and it's a.
Necessary practice to remind us of the place of work rest isn't the goal and it isn't the achievement but it's also not a punishment or a hindrance to finding our significance but it's a blessing and I think that this information is good and helpful but I think it's insufficient I don't think this information will help you actually straighten out your problem not on its own I just don't think it can I think you can leave going I'm supposed to worship and work I'm supposed to.
But here's the problem all of this hinges on God being the one who sanctifies them and so for us all of this hinges on Jesus if Jesus isn't at work in this it doesn't work if Jesus doesn't come in and rescue you because I want you to see something if we say things like my job just isn't good enough usually what we mean if someone said why why why if you had if you were trying to you know if your counselor was like a four-year-old and you just said a statement.
And then they said why why why why you would eventually get to I think it doesn't make me into enough I don't feel like something with this job or it doesn't give me the good life do you have y'all know that wanting identity and value and worth and wanting pleasantness and rest and stability is a longing for Jesus that I want someone to show up and tell me I'm okay I want something that fixes me and lets me sleep at night I want delight and rest and satisfaction I want to be stable I want to know that I'm all right I want to know that I'm loved I want to know that I'm enough do.
You know that's a cry for Jesus so unless Jesus shows up we won't ever be free to approach these the way we're meant to approach them because it's Jesus who comes and rescues and forgives Sinners and gives them an identity it's Jesus who gives us a purpose who gives us a reality who sets us free it's Jesus who gives us freedom and stability and delight and if that's true for you if Jesus has shown up and you've surrendered to him trusted in him and he's at work in you through his Spirit.
Then guess what you can worship and work because you don't need it you don't need it to satisfy you don't need it to fix you you don't need it to make you into something you have that in Christ and therefore you get to just return it back to the Lord and you get to genuinely enjoy your work and if Jesus is the good life then you just you can rest if he's where your Delight comes from and your fulfillment comes from do y'all realize that it's never enough that.
If you're over here in this Camp you've had moments where you're like I did it how long did that last if you're lucky six months before you had to keep achieving you had to keep earning and you had to keep proving and you had to get more and it just you ever had that moment where you think finally and then a mosquito bites your neck I guess it's not enough there's never enough rest there's never enough relaxation there's never it never satisfies you always want more there was never a good enough party or a good enough celebration or a good enough stability It's never enough.
Because they were only meant to point us to our ultimate rest and our ultimate Worth to be found in Christ but if we have Jesus then we get to people who work who worship and work and love our neighbors well who work hard and rest well in the freedom that he's the one who sanctifies us that he's the one who's accomplished all of this for us so that we're free to operate in this way let's pray oh Lord so much of our life is going to be taken up with work and I think it's easy.
For us to to think it's meaningless I think it's easy for us to only care about what it provides for us I think it's easy for us to wrap our entire identity in it and so Lord we ask that by your spirit you would begin to untangle our hearts that you begin to see that we're Sanctified by you that our hope is in you our stability our freedom our rest our Delight is in you Lord for the person in the room who doesn't have you who hasn't trusted in your salvation.
Lord we pray that you would help them to see the emptiness the exhaustion found in placing their worth and value in their work we pray that you would help them to see The Emptiness found in thinking that life is just about what Pleasures they can hoard here we ask that by your spirit you withdraw them to yourself so that they might find what they're actually looking for and for all of us who have found you Lord may you continue to work in us to sanctify us to set us apart to draw Us near to you.
So that we might worship you in our work and we might love our neighbor as well in Jesus name amen Matt and Natalie are going to come back up and and then the minute the band will join them and we'll sing together and we're going to take communion and communion is a rather a regularly practiced reminder that we need Jesus that we needed his body broken for us and his blood shed for us that without him we have no hope and that with him he is the one who sanctifies us who sets us apart.
And so that when you come in to communion that you were proclaiming his death until he returns that we are blood-bought people of God rescued by his work and that our hope is that one day he sets everything right that in the midst of this labor and this desire this Pursuit what we're saying is we want salvation and we want heaven and we stand between those moments as Christians where we have been made right with God by Jesus and we look forward to the moment.
When he rescues and redeems us and that's what communion is if you are not a Christian do not partake in communion it is not for you if you have not yet placed your faith in Jesus we would invite you to do that and Christians in the room take a moment to consider yourselves to consider your approach to work to consider whatever the Holy Spirit's putting on your heart that you might need to repent of that you might need to change in your attitude before you come and celebrate that.
Jesus Christ died to save Sinners and that your hope is in him and that is he that sanctifies so take a moment when you're ready.
Priests (Exodus 28-29)
Use this guide to help your group discussion as you meet this week.
Transcript
Good morning grab your Baubles and head to Exodus chapter 28. we're going to be looking at Exodus 28 and 29 together today so we're going to go through two chapters we're going to be looking at God as he's giving the instructions to Moses about the garments for the priests and the consecration ceremony for the priest so they're going to do this later but they're going to give the instructions now we're going to study this now as we look at this and I know that as we start going through Exodus and we say hey we're going to work through a book of the Bible that some of y'all were like I'm really looking forward to kind.
Of hearing the the ten plagues and some of you were like I I'm kind of interested to see how we talk through what happens with the golden calf and I know that some of y'all are like I want to talk about those Priestly garments well today is your day we're talking about Priestly garments today so I hope that you are ready as we go through this one of the things that we see in the Bible is that God is preparing since eternity passed.
For what he's going to accomplish in Christ and he's working this out in the story of human history and he's got all of these things that he's putting in place that ultimately get fulfilled in Jesus and there are some movies that have been very popular where there's this kind of twist ending this surprise ending so um Planet of the Apes the original Planet of the Apes was like this it had a surprise ending that was startling for people or maybe the The Usual Suspects to the to the best ones that I've seen that I really appreciated were the sixth sense and Shutter Island had this twist ending and the twist in those what made it.
Particularly good was that you were like oh it made a lot of things make sense some things you were like I should I should have seen that coming I should have kind of known that was and when they went back and showed it and so if you watch the movie the second time it's a completely different movie you're seeing all this stuff that you didn't see the first time and that is a lot of how the New Testament treats the Old Testament the Old Testament informs the New Testament.
But the New Testament looks back at the Old Testament and says see it's like you're watching a friend who's just super geeked out about the sixth sense and they pause it every 30 seconds and go see did you see the way his eyes went that's because that's what the the New Testament does with the Old Testament they're constantly going do you see how God was doing this you see how he's accomplishing this and one of the main things that they point out is that.
Jesus is the Fulfillment of the priesthood that he is the high priest that's what Hebrews goes out of its way to clearly articulate repeatedly Jesus is our high priest he fulfills this so as we read this this morning we're going to pause it and we're going to stop and we're going to say do you see Jesus here do you see how this is ultimately fulfilled in Jesus because there's some interesting things that go into the Garment the clothing that the priests are going to wear.
So as we start this morning I want to read from Hebrews 3 before we get into Exodus 28 here's Hebrews 3 verse 1. therefore holy brothers that's Church family you who share in a Heavenly calling consider Jesus the Apostle and high priest of our confession and so we're going to do that this morning we're going to consider Jesus the high priest of our confession that as Christians he's our high priest so as we learn about the inauguration of the priesthood we're going to consider.
Jesus so let's pray and then we'll do that together father we thank you for your fulfillment of your promises and that what we have in Christ is infinitely eternally better than what you gifted to your people of Israel that you have accomplished what we're going to read today you've accomplished in Christ for us so may we Delight in the Fulfillment of these things and may we worship you as we study them together in Jesus name amen Exodus chapter 28. God's talking to Moses and he says.
Then bring near to you air in your brother and his sons with him from among the people of Israel to serve me as priests Aaron and Aaron's sons naidab by who eliasar and ithamar a priest is someone who stands in God and the people so to be a priest in this role at times the priests would stand representing God to the people and then at times the priest would stand representing the people to God but as a mediator is an intermediary.
And so that's what this role of a priest is is someone who's in between God and the people and so he says this is going to be given to Aaron and his sons ultimately it's going to be given to the whole tribe of Levi to be levitical priesthood which is where they're the tribe they're from but Aaron and his sons are going to be the line of high priests and it's given to them so we're going to talk first about as we.
Look at these garments we're going to see the representation of the priest representing God to the people as he stands in the middle and faces the people on behalf of God we're going to look at some of the indications of that in the way that the garments are made so verse 2. and you shall make holy garments for you air in your brother for Glory and for beauty now this is interesting because that word glory is used throughout the Book of Exodus and it is used to describe.
God and His glory and the glory that he's going to get from what he does and the glory that he has in his person and himself the glory that's displayed on the mountain and then it's used in two places to describe the clothing that will be given to the priests and so in a way God is sharing some of his glory with the priesthood that there to have a bit of Glory as they represent God to the people that the priesthood is going to stand in in a way to represent him and he's going to make them garments specifically.
For their Glory now if they had done this on their own it would have been bad if they were like you know what I want some glorious garments I'm going to elevate myself I'm going to be the fanciest person that would be bad that would be frowned upon but when God says no I'm intentionally doing this they're going to have special garments for Glory and for beauty as they stand in to represent him and it says this you shall verse 3 you shall speak to all the skillful whom I have filled with a spirit of skill that they may make Aaron's garments to consecrate him.
For my priesthood consecrate means to set aside to place him in this role these are the garments that they shall make a breast piece an ephed a robe a coat of Checker work a turban and a sash they shall make holy garments for Aaron your brother and his sons to serve me as priests now an effort is translating the word ephed much like our word taco means Taco ifad means if it it's this special garment given to the priesthood so if you were like I kind of understand some of these things I got an idea of what a turbine is what's an aphid an iFit is going to be explained to us.
Because it's a special garment that goes here with the high priest so it says verse five they shall receive gold blue and purple and Scarlet Yarns and fine-twined linens here are the Glorious garments they're going to make it's going to look something like that huh that thing in the middle there is the breast piece the iFit is the thing that is uh woven multi-colored around it um or that hangs underneath it but they're going to make this and it's intentionally designed with a bunch of imagery that I think.
Because because God knows what he's doing and ultimately Jesus is going to fulfill this there's a bunch of images that go into this that ultimately point to the finished work of Christ now he is dressed like a walking Tabernacle that phrase that we just read received gold blue and purple and Scarlet Yarns and find twindling and we're going to read that over and over again but we already read it over and over again when they were making the Tabernacle that this is how they made the covering of the Tabernacle and the inside veil in between the holy place and the most holy place.
And so he's dressed up to look like the Tabernacle and I don't think that's on accident that if the Tabernacle is the place where God meets Earth where he's going to put his footstool where he's going to be present in his particular specific way then the priesthood is also going to represent him so if the Tabernacle is the representation of him meeting with the Earth then the priesthood the high priest is a walking representation of that and those are some of the things that help us understand that he's intentionally set up to be leading and standing in between.
God and the people that's it's used in Exodus 21 verse 6 Exodus 26 verse 31 so he's dressed for Glory and for beauty in a way that looks like the Tabernacle but he's also giving a breast piece of judgment and so we're going to read about that look at verse 6. and they shall make the ephot of gold of blue and purple and Scarlet Yarns and find twine Linens skillfully worked and she'll have two shoulder pieces attached to its two edges.
So that it may be joined together and the skillfully woven band on it shall be made like it and be of one piece with it of gold and blue and purple and Scarlet Yarns and fine twined Linens you shall take two Onyx stones and engrave on them the names of the sons of Israel six of their names on the one stone and the names of the remaining six on the other Stone in order of their birth as a jeweler engraves Signet.
So you shall engrave the two stones with the names of the sons of Israel you shall enclose them in settings of gold filigree and this is gold filigree well yeah there it is so they're going to have two stones with the names of the sons of Israel encased in that on his shoulders pretty verse 12 and you shall set the two stones on the shoulder pieces of the ephod as stones of remembrance for the sons of Israel and Aaron shall bear their names before the.
Lord on his two shoulders for remembrance verse 13 and 14 will talk about how to attach it let's move to verse 15. you shall make a breast piece of judgment so he's going to have this breast piece of judgment that's that square thing you saw in skilled work in the style of the ephid you shall make it of gold and blue and purple and Scarlet Yarns and fine twine linen shall you make it it shall be square and doubled a span its length and a span its breath this is a span tip your thumb pinky a span cubits tip your fingy thingy finger that's a thingy twice that's awesome this is a finger elbow nailed.
It all right I didn't hear it till the second time I might have just moved on with my life and not knowing I did that all right all right shouldn't have told you what a span is okay verse 17 you shall set it in four rows of stones then it's going to talk about how the stones are what stones to use in verse 21 it says there shall be 12 Stones with their names according to the names of the sons of Israel they shall be like signets each engraved with its name.
For the Twelve Tribes so there's two stones six names on each shoulder and then there's a breast piece that has 12 Stones with engraved names of each tribe then it's going to take some time to tell you how to attach it so it doesn't fall off and then go down to verse 29. so Aaron shall bear the names of the sons of Israel in the breast piece of judgment on his heart when he goes into the holy place to bring them to regular remembrance before the.
Lord and we're going to talk about this bringing them to Remembrance in a minute and in the breast piece of judgment you shall put the urum and the thumbem and they shall be on Aaron's heart when he goes in before the Lord thus Aaron shall bear the Judgment of the people of Israel on his heart before the Lord regularly and we'll talk about that again in a second that he's bearing their judgment but the urum and the thumbum are specifically given to the high priest to discern the will of.
God they consult urum and thumbem to understand God's will so this breast piece of judgment is not just bearing judgment but it's also making judgment that you would bring someone to the high priest so in Exodus 22 it says that if someone borrows some property and then it ends up gone that you then would bring them before God bring them near to God and whatever God decided would tell you whether or not they had stolen and there's just some questions there as to like how did they do that.
Well most likely they did that with yerman where the high priest would use yerman to understand God's will now we don't know worked we can outline we can trace out a few things and we'll walk through that but anything that tells you this is exactly how they worked is some speculation because we really don't know but what we do know is enough to know how they worked and we have enough to know what we need to know so they would use this to make judgments Ezra 2 we.
See this says the governor told them that they were not to partake of the most holy food until they should be a priest to consult urem and thumbem that they would go before God and ask questions and the yerman thumb and would help them know a judgment from God as Moses is handing over the Reigns of leadership to Joshua in numbers 27 it says and he that's Joshua shall stand before Elias are the priest who shall inquire for him by the Judgment of urum before the.
Lord so even though Joshua is going to lead the nation he would still go to the priest to understand what they were supposed to do to answer questions about God's Will and God's desire for them this is still going when Saul's King in first Samuel 14. says therefore Saul said there's a dispute between him and his army and he says oh Lord God of Israel why have you not answered your servant this day if this guilt is in me that was answered in they lost the battle as.
If this guilt is in me or in Jonathan my son O Lord God of Israel give urum but if this guilt is in your People Israel give thumbem and Jonathan and Saul were taken but the people escaped so it's some way of casting lots of discerning truth of finding reality empowered by God it's not as simple as like flipping a coin because in first Samuel 26 it says when Saul inquired of the Lord the Lord did not answer him either by dreams or by urum or by prophets which means there's a way.
For you to use urum and thumbem and get no answer for God to not respond so it can't be flipping a coin just right or left yes or no because that always would give an answer so that's about all we have we know they used it we know that God specified it and that God empowered this for judgment now some of you as we were talking through that might have thought that's crazy they made decisions by like rolling some dice and some of you might have thought that sounds wonderful can we do that can I just get some dice and be like all right.
If it's a seven I take the job and the answer to the first person is that's not crazy because it was God's specific given way to discern his will that he empowered so he gave this as a gift to his people of Israel and specifically to the priesthood to make judgments on behalf of the People by God that God would make these judgments for them so it was an empowered gift given to them for them to be able to discern God's will and to the.
Second person no we can't make decisions like that first of all because this was only given to the high priest not as just the way that everybody got too many decisions and secondly that's not the means by which we are given to make decisions we are we have something so much better we have been empowered by the Holy Spirit and been given the Church that the Church collectively for Jesus says where two or more of you are gathered in my name there I am in the midst of you and whatever you bind on Earth is bound and whatever you lose is loose this this gift given to the Church that we might collectively make decisions.
So that you're empowered by the spirit and that you can walk under the guidance of the spirit but you also get your Church family to help make decisions to help discern the will of God and so that is how we are designed to make these decisions but we see in him having this judgment that God was empowering the high priest to stand in his stead and to render judgments based off of God's will and so the high priest stood representing God to the people.
Now pause Jesus fulfills this beautifully infinitely more because it's not a walking representation of the Tabernacle he's not just a representation of God he is God himself this is what Hebrews 1 says he is the radiance of the glory of God he's not just shared a little bit in the clothing he wears he's the display of God's glory is seen in Christ he's the radiance of the glory of God the exact imprint of his nature so that where he the uh the high priest would wear clothes made of the same stuff as the Tabernacle that.
Jesus is made of the same stuff he's the same exact imprint he is God not just a representation of God he is God who has come to redeem and to work on our behalf and so that our high priest is not a person who's a stand-in and we hope he does his best but he is God who has come to redeem and to work on our behalf it says he upholds the universe by the word of his power and so our high priest Christ is.
God he's not some sort of representation but he is fully and completely accomplished this but the high priest didn't just represent God to the people but he also represented the people to God and you'll see this we already read some of this but look back at verse 12. it says you shall set the two stones on the shoulder pieces of the epha the stones of remembrance for the sons of Israel and Aaron shall bear their names before the Lord on his two shoulders.
For remembrance and then in verse 29 it says so Aaron shall bear the names of the sons of Israel in the breast piece of judgment on his heart when he goes into the holy place to bring them to regular remembrance before the Lord so the high priest wears the names of the tribes of Israel before God to bring them to remembrance and to Bear their judgment so that if you were in the tribe of Reuben or if you were in the tribe of Simeon or.
If you were in The Tribe of Benjamin that you knew that knew the high priest when he went in before God took you with him that he represented you before God in his sacrifices and in his offerings that you were covered too and it doesn't tell us why the names are on him twice says he's going to have their names on their shoulders for remembrance and he's going to have the names on his heart for remembrance and for judgment but when I consider.
Jesus I think it's beautiful that he carries Us in the same way he carries Us in his heart that he loves us that he cares for us that he carries judgment for us but he also carries our weight he Bears our guilt that he carries the cross on his shoulders to Calvary that he takes with us takes our sin with him and takes us with him when he represents us before God so that we have a high priest who carries you.
If you belong to Jesus your name is written and it is carried before the Lord and you are atoned for and cared for as John says in first John that he wrote these things that we might not sin but if anyone does sin we have an advocate with a father we have someone who's standing before the father right now that bears our names before him to forgive us to be our propitiation for our sins so that our high priest does this as.
Well verse 31 you shall make the robe of the ephid olive blue it shall have an opening for the head in the middle of it with a woven binding around the opening like the opening in a garment so that it may not tear on its hymn you shall make pomegranates of blue and purple and Scarlet Yarns around a Tim with bells of gold between them a golden Bell and a pomegranate a golden Bell and a pomegranate around the Hem of the robe and it shall be on Aaron.
When he ministers and its sound shall be heard when he goes into the holy place before the Lord and when he comes out so that he does not die now I think if I was Aaron and Moses was walking me through this and he was like Oh and around to him was going to be a pomegranate and then a bell and then a pomegranate and then a bell I'd be like all right cool and then he'd say and the bells are going to make noise.
When you walk right yeah yeah so that you don't die and now let me tell you about the turban I think I'd have been like wait go back to the bells part but you see Aaron and Moses understood that Aaron and all the high priests are doing dangerous holy work because they're sinners and sinners don't just get to be in the presence of God this would be a very real thing to consider that that you don't get to just uh presume to be in the presence of.
God but I think it's really interesting that woven into him of this garment is pomegranates and bells I want to show you all this is a pomegranate I had to look it up I didn't know what pomegranates look like that's the pomegranate it's red I think it's about the size of like an orange it's uh that's not to scale that's way bigger than they are in real life it is full of seeds just full of them and so a pomegranate is a promise of life and blessing and fruitfulness that it holds This Promise of.
God fulfilling his promises that he's going to bless them he's going to multiply them he's going to provide for them that there's something good to come it's got seeds it's all these promises that are held inside of it and so in His Garment he has promise of blessing and life and fruitfulness right next to a bell that clings reminding him of his sinfulness and the danger that he has when he approaches God and I think that's beautiful he walks around with the Garden of Eden a place of promise and beauty and God's desire to love humans and to bless them and also the place of our greatest failure where sin enters the world and we're.
Up for Destruction and y'all Jesus has that woven into his person blessing and life and fruitfulness and the Fulfillment of promises and he carries our sin and our guilt and our death in him when we get into eternity we will be unmarked by sin but Jesus won't Jesus carries in his resurrected body the scars on his hands and on his side that when John sees him in the Book of Revelation and they declare look it's the line of the tribe of Judah and John says I looked.
But what I saw was a lamb that looked like he'd been slain that our high priest carries life and death in himself as well blessing and fruitfulness and promise and Hope but also a reminder of the sinfulness that would separate us from God verse 36 you shall make a plate of pure gold and engrave on it like the engraving of a Signet holy to the Lord and you shall fasten it on the turban by a cord of blue it shall be on the front of the turban it should be on Aaron's forehead and Aaron shall bear any guilt from the holy things that the people of Israel consecrate as their holy gifts it shall regularly.
Be on his forehead that he may be accepted before the Lord so the high priest is going to carry the people on his shoulders and on his heart he's going to carry the Judgment of God on his heart he's going to carry their guilt on his forehead and he's going to have pomegranates and bells around the Hem of His clothing and so when the author of Hebrews says he's our high priest we get to look and go yeah he's done that he Bears our guilt before the.
Lord that he carries Us in remembrance before the Lord that he carries in himself life and our death as he has conquered death so that we might be able to conquer death in him that he carries promise and hope and fulfillment and resurrection and that he brings us before the Lord in Hope just as the people of Israel would be able to look to their high priest and see the work that he was doing and trust that God was allowing it to work we get to.
Look to our heart our high priest and know that God has blessed and worked as well in verses 39 through 43 is going to talk about the clothes that will be made for Aaron's sons and the undergarments that they will have to wear all taking into consideration the unholiness of the priests which leads us to okay but how does this priest get to go be in the presence of God and that's where chapter 29 comes in he's going to be consecrated he's going to be set apart.
For it there's going to be sacrifices made on behalf of the priests and so God's going to tell Moses how to go about that so we're going to read the first part of Exodus 29 we're going to read the first part in the last part and I'll explain the middle chapter chapter 29 verse 1. now this is what you shall do to them to consecrate them that they may serve me as priests take one Bull of the herd and two Rams without blemish.
If you're reading the Old Testament and animals are introduced do not get emotionally attached to them this is a pro tip and unleavened bread unleavened cakes mixed with oil and unleavened Wafers smeared with oil and you shall make them a fine wheat flour you shall put them in one basket and bring them in the basket and bring the bull and the two Rams you shall bring Aaron and his sons to the entrance of the tent of meeting and wash them with water.
So the first thing they're going to do is be washed with water then you shall take the garments and put on air in the coat and the robe of the effort and the e-fit and the breast paste breast peace and gird him with the holy crown on the turban you shall take the anointing oil and pour it on his head and anoint him and then they're going to bring the sons and do the same thing and it says the priesthood shall be theirs by a statute forever sorry they're going to dress them in their clothes they're not going to point anointing poor anointing oil on the on the sons.
So they don't do exactly the same thing but it says there the priesthood should be there is by a statute forever thus you shall ordain Aaron and his sons they're going to set them apart and then they're going to lay their hands on the head of the bull and sacrifice the bull and they're going to place the blood of the bull on the corners of the altar the horns of the Altar and then they're going to put the blood against the altar to atone.
For the altar then they're going to burn up parts of the bull and burn up the rest of the bull outside the camp as a sin offering they're going to take the sin out and they're going to burn it up to help a tone for them and to Mark the altar is Holy then they're going to take the first Ram lay their hands on its head which is signifying that they're passing their sin over to it that this land is lamb this Ram is representing them.
And then that Ram will be sacrificed and burned as a burnt offering to the Lord and they'll see the smoke Ascend up to the Lord just as Jesus ascends up to the Lord the smoker sends up to the Lord in a pleasing fashion to him and then they're going to take the third Ram Place their hands on its head and it will atone for their sin as well some parts of it they will burn some parts of it they will cook and they will partake in a meal and it says they will eat of the ram that atoned from them and I'm reminded of something that we do quite often as we read through that.
That Jesus Christ dies for our sins and then he says if you don't partake in me then you have no part with me and he says that you will this is my body broken for you this is my bloodshed for you and one of the things that we do is we partake in Jesus our sacrificial lamb who atoned for us and we remind ourselves that we are welcome in by what he has done and that's what they do they kill this Ram.
Then they partake they eat a meal before the Lord then they go through a ceremony the last seven days with evening and morning sacrifices and then God says that these evening and morning sacrifices are going to continue forever that that's what they're going to do they're going to have an evening and morning sacrifice the evening and morning sacrifice go to verse 42. oh sorry the ram that they eat they put blood on their ears blood on their thumbs and blood on their uh big toe on their right side and they sprinkle blood all over them.
So they are covered in the blood of this Ram that has atoned for their sin and this is a picture of the fact that their sin deserves death they are covered in the blood this is why we sing songs about blood that were washed in the blood we're covered in the blood because this is what Jesus has done for us that he has washed us clean set us apart and paid for and atone for our sins by his blood and they did this with a ramp.
So they're covered in blood and then they eat a meal um together verse 42. it shall be a regular burnt offering throughout your Generations at the entrance of the tent of meeting before the Lord where I will meet with you to speak to you there there I will meet with the people of Israel and it shall be Sanctified by my glory I will consecrate the tent of meeting in the altar Arrow Aaron also and his sons I will consecrate to serve me as priests I will dwell among the people of Israel and will be their.
God and they shall know that I am the Lord their God who brought them out of the land of Egypt that I might dwell among them I am the Lord their God if you were an Israelite at this time you could look to the Tabernacle you could look to the Smoke rising in the morning and the smoke rising in the evening and you could trust that there was a high priest there representing you before God and that your sins were being atoned.
For that you could see this and Trust but the sacrifice had to happen again the next day it had to continue to happen that he had to continue to to go before the Lord and receive this sacrifice and this hope that had to happen over and over and over again through all their Generations this had to happen but you could trust that the high priest was placed there by God that God was accepting the sacrifice that he was representing you before.
God bearing your guilt carrying your judgment bringing your name in remembrance and you could watch as this happened over and over and over and over again and Christians we get to look to Christ the Fulfillment of all these things who has perfectly accomplished our forgiveness I want you to see this this is Hebrews 10 and this is where we're going to end we're going to end in Hebrews 10 and we're going to take some of the conclusions that the author of the Hebrews draws from us having.
Jesus as our high priest and we're going to consider them as we finish up this morning Hebrews 10. 11 verse 11. and every priest stands daily at his service offering repeatedly the same sacrifices which can never take away sins so they can help pay for sin short term but they have to happen against tomorrow again tomorrow and they can never take it away they can't fix the problem so while this was a blessing to the people of Israel and a reminder of God's love and presence that he was doing all this.
So that he might dwell with them they never fix the problem when Christ had offered for all time a single sacrifice for sins he sat down at the right hand of God waiting from that time until his enemies should be made a footstool for his feet for buy a single offering he has perfected for all time those who are being sanctified this is we talked about this earlier this year when we talked about the Ascension but that Jesus Christ dies on the cross he's buried on the.
Third day he rises and then he ascends into heaven and he takes a seat because he has perfected once for all time those who are being Sanctified he has fixed the problem of sin he has does not have a need to do this repeatedly and this is wonderful this is why Protestants when you look at a cross Jesus isn't on it because he's not there he's seated at the right hand of God the work is finished when you see an empty cross you get to be reminded that this isn't a work that has to be renewed.
For you but that it has been accomplished there is no smoke rising up daily it's been accomplished that we get to trust in the finished work of Jesus who has seated at the right hand of God who has perfected for all time those who are being sanctified we have a wonderful glorious high priest move down to verse 18. it says where there is forgiveness of these there is no longer any offering for sin verse 19 therefore brothers so because of this since we have a since we have.
First thing confidence to enter into the holy places by the blood of Jesus now the only person in the Old Testament who had confidence to enter into the holy places was the high priest the priest could go with him into the holy place but never could go into the most holy Place only the priest could do that but he says in the book of Hebrews the author of Hebrews says that we now because of the work of Jesus are welcomed in it's the.
First thing it says since we have confidence to enter into the holy places by the blood of Jesus by the New and Living Way that he opened for us through the curtain that is through his flesh and since we have a great high priest over the house of God then he's going to tell us because of those two things because we get to walk in like a high priest and since we have a great high priest then he's going to give us some conclusions.
So I want to to try to help us what do we do with this other than see how glorious Jesus is and how much better he is as a high priest what do we do with this how do we respond and since the author of Hebrews says since we have a great high priest let's do these things I thought hey let's do those things so you're welcome we're going to read those three things quickly to see what we're supposed to do with the fact that.
Jesus is our high priest and that he's made a way for us to enter verse 22 let us draw near with a True Heart in full Assurance of faith with our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water the consecration ceremony of the priests was that they would be washed and then they would be sprinkled with blood in our faith in Christ we've been covered by his blood and we walk that out in baptism and what he says is you've been consecrated to enter into the presence of.
God you've been set apart so that you might enter into the presence of God and so he says with confidence and full Assurance do that pray with confidence and full assurance not Pride because it's not based in you it's confidence because it's based in Christ so with confidence and full Assurance go walk in speak to the Lord relate to him love him that's the first thing that we should do we should have full Assurance because it's worked out in Christ and that we've been consecrated and set apart by the Gospel the.
Second thing he says is let us hold fast the confession of Our Hope without wavering for he who promised is faithful let us hold fast the confession of Our Hope what's the confession of Our Hope it's that Jesus has accomplished this Jesus has worked this out on our behalf our hope is in him and it says the reason we can hold fast to this is that he who promised is faithful I grew up in the Aitkin North Augusta Edgefield area of South Carolina and there's a drag strip in Jackson where buddies of mine would go drag race.
And if you went to the drag race and sat in the car and let's say I don't know if they let you have passengers but this is imaginary so imagine that you could be a passenger let's say I'm the passenger in one of my buddies cars and we're about to race somebody and the guy next to us is Rev in his car because he's cool and you're supposed to do that so he's doing that and I look at my friend he's about to drive and I say I just don't know I just don't know.
If I can do this he says we got this and I said I just don't know if I'm fast enough my friend would look at me like I was stupid because that has nothing to do with what we're doing I don't have to run I'm pretty sure we're disqualified if I get out of the car I don't even know if I'm allowed to be in the passenger seat we've already established that this isn't a foot race and I'm not driving it's based off the car and this person driving.
And when we as Christians at times say things like I just don't know as I'm in sin I just don't know because I'm struggling I just don't know I have these doubts what does that have to do with it he who promised is faithful we just get to sit in the passenger seat it's based off of our confession of Hope which is Christ and what he has accomplished if we were in the tribe of Reuben and I looked at you and just said I just don't know.
If I'm going to be a good high priest you'd say bro I don't think you have to worry about that you're you're not you're not gonna so we're good and so when we at times go I just don't know I just yo we have a great high priest who has opened the way we get to hold fast to our confession and we get to do this with full Assurance because it's not based off of us and when we walk with confidence.
And when we hold fast Our Hope and when we do it with full Assurance we give great glory to Christ because we magnify his work not ours and our trust and our hope is in him not us so because we have a great high priest sleep well at night repent of sin with delight that he forgives and walk in confidence that you're okay not because you're great that's not the point you don't walk in confidence because you're well behaved you're welcome confidence.
Because Jesus forgives Sinners and you have a great high priest who has perfected once for all those who are being sanctified the third thing he says and let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works I find it so interesting he says because we have a great high priest and because we get to enter in let us consider how to stir one another out to love and good works it's not about our love and good works it's not accomplished by us.
But let us consider this and y'all do we do that do you give intentional thought and effort to how to stir up your brothers and sisters in Christ towards love and good works with your community group before you're going over there to spend time with them before your group meeting time before y'all going to go get dinner together do you think how can I stir them up to love Jesus more to to go about accomplishing good works If we're honest I think more often we give consideration not about what they're getting from us.
But what we're getting from them that we might more often think I just don't I mean I just don't know what I'm getting out of that I know we're to consider what they're getting from us we're to consider how we might encourage and build up and drive them on it says this not neglecting to meet together as is the habit of some but encouraging one another and all the more as you see the day Drawing Near not neglecting to be together.
If we're going to consider and be give effort towards stirring one another up to love and good works you know what you have to do to stir one another up be around one another and so if you've gotten in the habit of being around on Sundays once a month or hanging out with your group every third time or every other time or when it's you've had a long day and it's tiring and you're frustrated you're just thinking I just don't know.
If I want to do that right now I don't think you're considering how to stir them up I think you're considering how it applies to you and I think we're forgetting and neglecting to make this a regular habit that we're around God's people because we have a great high priest who works on our behalf so that we might walk in love and good works behind him and he says all the more as you see the day Drawing Near we ought to outpace the New Testament Believers in stirring one another up and an encouragement.
Because the day is nearer to us than it was to them and there is a day there is a day when we stand before the king washed of our sins covered by his blood and welcomed eternally because we have a great high priest who's entered in before us and may we praise His name let's pray Lord Jesus thank you thank you for surprisingly shockingly fulfilling what you had intended to do since eternity passed to wreck to Res to rescue and to redeem sinners.
Lord may we walk with confidence because of your sacrifice and your glory and may we draw near in hope to the praise of your name amen
The Tabernacle (Exodus 25-27)
Use this guide to help your group discussion as you meet this week.
The Mosaic Covenant (Exodus 24)
Use this guide to help your group discussion as you meet this week.
Transcript
Good morning my name is Spencer I am one of the pastors here we are continuing to walk through the book of Exodus and we are in Exodus chapter 24 uh today which in your blue Bibles is page 37 if you want to follow along there the text will also be on the screen one of the things that I get to do as a pastor that's very fun is about once or twice a year I get to perform wedding ceremonies and they're a lot of fun it's a it's a big powerful moment to be a part of and one of the things that I do in weddings is I use traditional wedding vows I try to.
Find more traditional language for the vows that uh that the husband and wife can are going to commit to do in with one another so here's a few of the lines from what I use I promise to love and support you in times of Plenty and in want in sickness and in health till death do us part and what's powerful about that moment is that as the husband and the wife are saying those words there's no way they have absorbed how weighty and how hard and how wonderful and how difficult it is going to be to live out those vows there's nothing that can prepare you.
For being able to live that out like I promise to love and support you through all kinds of things what if he gets really into like weird Niche Hobbies like puppetry Sports which is a thing what what if she decides to be a mom fluencer and goes hard after that like what through all of that like how do you love and support someone through things that you may not care about at all in times of Plenty and a want we all think about the plentiful times where things are going to be great where he gets a raise.
When she gets a raise and he gets six figures and all of a sudden we can buy a boat like that you have in mind is everyone as they're projecting out their marriage and say over time we're going to keep growing in income but what about the times when you were in want what about the times where he loses his job he can't find work for four or five months what happens when the bills are mounting up and a kid sticks a bean in his ear and has to be taken to the ER in the middle of the night.
And then all of a sudden you've got a thousand dollar medical bill that just gets put on the stack what about times of sickness and in health one of the moments at the end of life where five six seven years she's fading away from dementia she's not even remembering who you are what about till death do his part when you're holding his hand as he breathed his last breath no you're not ready for all of that when you take those vows you're taking a leap of faith to.
When the time comes you're going to be ready those are powerful in weighty words that you commit to as you enter into the Covenant of marriage today where in Exodus 24 and we're going to watch the nation of Israel enter into the Covenant relationship with their God and it's going to be like a bit of a like like a wedding where they're going to commit to following God and there's a lot that's built into that that they can't even begin to.
See yet so we're going to look at the details of this Covenant ceremony that we're going to see in Exodus 24 and then we're going to look at it as Christians looking back at that and what that means for us in our Christian faith now so let me pray and then we'll walk through this together Heavenly Father we thank you for the good news of the Gospel that we just got to sing for the truth of the Scriptures that opens our hearts.
God I pray that you help us be present I pray that you'd help us here and receive so that we can walk out your word and faith and in Repentance and in worship and delighting in you we answer this in Jesus name amen all right so the back end of Exodus we've said we're taking a little bit differently we've moved around a little bit we've taken mostly topically so let me just kind of reorient where we are in the Book of Exodus uh as we step into 24.
So in Exodus 19 God calls the people to Mount Sinai the Israelites are out Mount Sinai and then they receive the Ten Commandments which is really the header of the law we walk through those Ten Commandments one by one now what follows that for that is some laws pertaining to a few different things we looked at the laws pertaining to servitude we look at some of the laws last week that pertained to the feasts and then at the end of chapter 23.
God previews what's going to happen when they enter the promised land when God pronounces his judgment on the people of the land and creates a a promised land and a space for his people to be in his presence he's previewing that this is what's coming and then we get to chapter 24. we pick up in verse 1. then he said to Moses come up to the Lord you and Aaron nadab and abihu which neighbor and by who are the sons two of the sons of Aaron in 70 Elder seventy of the elders and worship from afar Moses alone shall come near to the.
Lord but the others shall not come near and the people shall not come up with him all right so again it's hard to remember where we are but Exodus 19 all the way up until really verse 4 of chapter 24 is actually all one day we've been in this for months but this is all one day and there's a lot that's happening in this one day and he's calling them as they're going to ratify this Covenant that he makes with his people a covenant is an agreement the treaty that he's making with his people.
But this Covenant that he's about to ratify the people are about to finalize that started in Exodus 19 earlier in the day which for us was months ago but if you can remember back when Exodus 19 this is when it all begins in verse 5 and 6. now therefore if you will indeed obey my voice and keep my Covenant you shall be my treasured possession among all peoples for all the Earth is mine and you shall be to me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.
So this is when the Covenant began earlier in the day saying you are going to be my treasured possession my kingdom of priests my holy nation that's what they're going to be to the lord they're going to be a kingdom of priests so that means that the surrounding Nations that will be around the promised land they do not know God they do not honor God you get to be a kingdom of priests that declares the glory of God to the surrounding Nations he did not know him as my holy people in keeping this Covenant keeping the Ten Commandments and the law.
And then when we get here to chapter 24 this Covenant is being ratified it's being finalized and what we're about to witness and the ceremonial events that are included in this are a little bit foreign to us it's it may seem even weird if you've never encountered this in the Scriptures before but we have to remember we're very far removed from the context of the people three thousand years plus removed from an ancient nearest in context where this would have been more familiar ceremonial aspects.
For them it's foreign to us in the same way that if you took the Israelites and put them in a time machine and brought them to today and if they're out in front of a building and then there were people in front of this building and then all of a sudden they stretched out this long red ribbon and then somebody came in with giant swords that had handles and then cut that ribbon and then all the people clapped and they walked inside that would be pretty foreign to them.
Because they're not they don't know what that is but we know what that is it's a ribbon cutting ceremony it's a business opening up that's so we're removed from the context here and some of these details are going to be difficult to wrap our minds around what's happening but I just want to give you the highlights of what we're about to see we're about to see God come together with his people his kingdom of priests they're going to come together both parties will be represented there will be sacrifices that are made the terms of their agreement are going to be read The Ten Commandments.
And then they're going to come together and celebrate and a big Feast that follows and that's the gist of what we're going to see the details we're a little bit removed from so let's walk through this together verse 3. Moses came and Moses came and I told the people all the words of the Lord in all the rules and all the people answered with one voice and said all the words of the Lord has spoken we will do and Moses wrote down all the words of the.
Lord so this is what we're seeing right here is the rehearsal before the ceremony which is going to be the next day so he he reads the words and says all right are y'all in are we doing this and the people like at a rehearsal or saying yes all the words the Lord has spoken we will do it's all right come back tomorrow next morning and we're going to finalize this he rose early in the morning and built an altar at the foot of the mountain and 12 pillars according to the 12 tribes of Israel.
So he builds an altar and this altar represents the presence of God this represents God's presence as a part of this Covenant agreement that he's making with the people then he builds in Rex 12 Stones 12 pillars and these 12 pillars represent the 12 tribes of Israel now both parties are present for this agreement verse 5. and he sent young men of the people of Israel who offered burnt offerings and sacrificed peace offerings of oxen II the Lord so then he sends out young men and they gather sacrifices animals to be slaughtered.
Now and if you keep reading you're going to learn more about what these sacrifices are later in the Book of Leviticus but they offer burn offerings and peace offerings burnt offerings which you we can learn about later if you keep reading these are are for atonement the idea of this animal's death and its its death is covering your sin and Rebellion so this is atonement and also peace offerings which is meant to celebrate the fellowship that they have with God so they have burnt offerings and peace offerings which is foreign to us.
But that's what it represents that you all have sinned and you need covering for that sin and also fellowship with God those are offered together and then Moses does something very specific with the blood of the sacrifices for six and Moses took half of the blood and put it in basins and half of the blood he threw against the altar so he takes some of the blood of the sacrifices puts in the basins represents the people and then on the altar which represents.
God in this transaction and this Covenant ceremony blood goes on both bringing them and tying them together now super smart nerdy commentators theologians debate what's the significance of the blood and what's happening here and bringing them together and you can read some commentaries they're going to make compelling arguments about what's actually happening here is the inauguration the beginning of the kingdom of priests that some of the language here similar similar to later in Exodus 29 when the levitical priesthood the actual Priests of the people are consecrated.
When they are really inaugurated as the priests will represent the people and carry out the sacrificial system and all the responsibilities but actually What's Happening Here is that the whole nation is the kingdom of priests they're going to be a kingdom of priests to the surrounding Nations so a lot of the rituals here that this this Blood that's being spilled here it's meant to signify that and that's fairly compelling and then you see other commentators that go no what's actually happening here is that this is very very ancient near Eastern Covenant uh marital type ceremony stuff this is the coming together of two parties together as one.
And then the feast that follows after this which we'll read about in a moment this is actually this is more of a wedding and they'll make compelling arguments on both sides but guess what both are true because it is a little bit shades of the kingdom of priests who are going to represent God people and it is also to come together of two parties God and His People Israel together in holy Union that's what's happening in this ceremony and the ceremony continues in.
Verse 7. then he took the book of the Covenant and read it in the hearing of the people and they said all the Lord has spoken we will do and we will be obedient so no longer rehearsal we're in it now they are giving their vows all that the Lord has spoken we will do and we will be obedient we're talking about The Ten Commandments and What flows out of the Ten Commandments the rest of the law they're saying we're in I do we're doing this we're going to be obedient.
God we're going to follow your laws and your words and your statutes I do so it's red they commence their vows and Moses took the blood and threw it on the people and said behold the blood of the Covenant that the Lord has made with you in accordance with all these words and that becomes a very tangible reminder of what is at stake in this Covenant part of what's Happening Here is is that in this Covenant you need covering so some of this is atonement type being poured out on the people.
But also this is a sign of what's going to happen if you break this Covenant it's a sign of judgment that you've committed to follow the law you've committed to be obedient but if you aren't obedient this is what's going to happen judgment is going to come so shades of atonement and shades of judgment are found in the pouring of the blood on the people and then we pick it up and verse 9. that Moses and Aaron nadab and abihu in the 70 and 70 of the Elders of Israel went up.
So we're going to see them actually go up and they're going to now leave this part of the way of the ceremony and they're going to have a reception they're going to have a feast to commemorate this ratification this I do this commitment in this Covenant relationship with God and his people verse 10. and they saw the God of Israel there was under his feet as it were a pavement of sapphire stone like the very heaven for clearness and he did not lay his hand on the chief men of the people of Israel they beheld.
God and ate and drank and boy oh boy when you read verse 10 11 there's a lot of what what's happening at this this reception this and there's a lot going on here and there's a lot of debate over what's happening here because the Hebrew kind of gives some flexibility on interpreting how this is I don't want to get caught in the weeds of this section I just want to give you a general idea of what's Happening Here the people of.
God represented by the seventy Elders the priesthood which is Aaron and his two sons the beginning of the priesthood and Moses they go further to have reception before God and they behold the glory of God they behold his wondrous Glory we sang that Revelation Song earlier holy holy holy and all the imagery that went with that from The Book of Revelation they're catching a glimpse of that they're they're getting to eat a meal before the glory of God it says before his feet not his face which we.
See later on in Exodus 32 that if you see the face of God sinner is in the presence of a holy and perfect God in the face of God cannot stand and live but they are before the feet of God in ways that kind of break our brains and they have this meal before the glory of God and I can't the the imagery here and how spectacular and wondering how all filled this is that after this holy ceremony and commitment they have this wonderful glorious all-inspiring reception it's powerful.
And then once that's done it continues in verse 12. the Lord said to Moses come up to me on the mountain and wait there that I may give you the tablets of stone with the law and the Commandment which I have written for their instruction this will be the tablets The Ten Commandments are written upon so Moses rose with his assistant Joshua and Moses went up into the Mountain of God and he said to the elders wait here for us until we return to you.
Behold Aaron and her are with you whoever has a dispute let him go to them so the Elders of the people Moses Aaron Aaron's two sons they moved up the mountain to have this feast this reception and then they Moses and Joshua continue to ascend up the mountain further and we're going to see in a moment that Moses is going to be the one that keeps going and this is symbolic here because Moses is the one who's leading them in the wilderness and later on Joshua is the one who is leading them and to the conquest into the promised land.
So both of them enter up the mountain further verse 15 then Moses went up on the mountain and the cloud covered the mountain and this is where I think Moses keeps going Joshua doesn't go the full distance verse 16 the glory of the Lord dwelt on Mount Sinai and the cloud covered it six days and on the seventh day he called out to Moses out of the midst of the cloud now the appearance of the glory of the Lord was like a devouring fire on the top of the mountain and the sight of the people of Israel which just imagine being an Israelite deep at the base of the mount looking up and seeing the.
Glory of God like a like a devouring fire encircling the mountain maybe you can see in the distance there's a tiny little person that's Moses and he he's going to enter into the presence of the glory of God and that's how this chapter ends in verse 18 Moses entered the cloud and went up on the mountain and Moses was on the mountain 40 days and 40 nights and this is the finalizing of the Covenant that began in Exodus 19. the Covenant that.
God is making with his people that's called the mosaic Covenant the Covenant through his servant Moses to the people and the two parties coming together and it's an awesome event it's a Monumental event the people of Israel would remember for years would tell of for Generations that they committed to following God they committed to being obedient to God to display the Holiness of God unlike any other people and it began back in Exodus 19 but there's something very significant there's something very significant back in Exodus 19 that gets brought into what we read in.
Verse 24 and we can't miss it he says now if you will obey my voice and keep my Covenant you will be my treasure possession now if now therefore if you obey my voice if if is a conditional statement which shows this Covenant is what is called a bilateral Covenant the Covenant that they're making here is a by lateral Covenant it is a two-sided Covenant it means that disagreement to be held in place it's responsible upon both parties which is familiar to us almost every contract you can think of that we would sign and this world both parties have to fulfill the obligations in that contract that's what's happening here this is a bilateral Covenant.
If you obey my voice if you keep my Commandments if you do this then God will find favor upon them will protect them will provide for them that's the exchange here obedience favor if this is very different than the Covenant of Abraham which is back in Genesis 15. that if you are reading through the Bible and you get the first really or the second Covenant that you see in the Bible in the Book of Genesis chapter 15. God makes a covenant with Abraham and that one is not a bilateral Covenant that is what's called a unilateral Covenant one that.
God chooses Abraham in order that he might bring he might bless the Nations through Abraham by building a great nation through him and in that Covenant that God makes only God is responsible it is not incumbent upon Abraham to keep that Covenant God is going to keep that Covenant promise I am going to bless the Nations through you that is only the work of God but in this Covenant it is different in the Mosaic Covenant that we just read that we just saw celebrated and ratified that is a two-party Covenant the Covenant of Moses clarifies the people must live in right relationship with.
God and if if they break their marital vows if they don't abide by the law if they don't obey the voice of God the marriage is over if they become an adulterous people and chase after foreign Gods this Covenant will be shattered one of my favorite I always actually say my favorite rom-com is the breakup the breakup throwback to the 2000s just show a fans raise your hand if you've seen the breakup so I know what I'm working with all right generally half.
Okay I love that movie my family we love that movie if you haven't seen it just go to YouTube and type in the breakup dinner scene that's all you need the rest of it's good but I could literally look at my parents and go tap tap tappy tap tap tappy and they're gonna go Gary on the kick drum it's wonderful it's hilarious we love that movie but when I saw that movie in theaters and then other people saw other people did not like it and it's not.
Because they were dumb it's because it's because they were disappointed they're like they they break up why do you want to watch a rom-com or about a breakup they break up and it's like did you not see the title yeah did you not it's literally in the title it's called the breakup I mean goodness if if Old Yeller was called he shot the dog you would not be disappointed at the end when he shoots the dog you see it coming it's in the title The Breakup.
But it makes the rest of the movie difficult to watch at times because you're watching a couple just break up and that's what it feels like if you know the rest of the Old Testament and when you read Exodus 24 in light of the rest of the Old Testament man it can be a painful read because you're seeing them take this vow I'm gonna we're gonna be obedient God we're going to do it and you know they're going to do everything they're going to do exactly what.
God told them not to do but they're going to forsake God they're going to chase after foreign gods and you also know that ultimately God's going to bring judgment upon them the Assyrians the Babylonians and judgment is going to be poured out on the people all the Lord has spoken we will do and we will be obedient this Earnest desire we will be obedient and then the looming word that's attached to that in Exodus 19 is if if and when you.
See that for what it is it's like how could the people commit to this all the how how did they know what they were getting into and there's a little bit of when you read it it's like what is God doing calling this people into this Covenant knowing good and well that they are such a wayward people knowing that they're so driven to chase after other idols they're going to so deeply struggle to fulfill this what is God doing and even calling these people into this Covenant there are a few reasons I'm going to give you three quick ones.
First God is Creator he is the God The Sovereign God over all things he gets to dictate the terms of the relationship so when the people say we'll be obedient they should God is Holy and we should be holy as God as holy so when he says that he absolutely is with they should want that they should agree to do that but there are unable due to their sin they're unable this Covenant will be shattered and that's the second thing is they just the Mosaic Covenant reveals that the people of.
God couldn't do this in the first place they could not obey the law which means that which doesn't mean that this Covenant has no purpose if they cannot obey the law But ultimately what that does reveal is is that there is someone who is going to have to obey the law there is someone who's going to have to say all the Lord has spoken I will do and be obedient and it's going to have to come through Abraham because that Covenant is a promise that will come true and ultimately it's going to come from the tribe of Judah ultimately he's going to come from the household of David in the Covenant that is made there.
Later on and of course the descendant who comes to fulfill this Mosaic Covenant in a way that the people could not fulfill it is Christ that ultimately this Covenant was made so that Christ could come and fulfill it for the people so that Christ could obey the law perfectly and at the right time Jesus is born and for the next 33 years he lives under the Mosaic Covenant and obeys it perfectly every single law every single marking he spotlessly righteously.
Then instead of having another oxen slaughtered and blood spilled to cover the sins of the people Jesus Takes that perfect record and he goes to the cross goes to the Cross where his blood is poured out to cover the sins of the people there's a reason we as Christians sing songs like there's a fountain-filled blood there's a reason that we're seeing as Sinners plunged beneath that flood lose all their guilty stains for those who do not know the Gospel that sounds weird.
But the hope that we have in Christ is is that that's our only hope we could not obey the law we could not fulfill the Mosaic Covenant we are sinners in need of mercy and the blood of Jesus is poured out on us on the cross and that's our hope and then when Jesus is buried and Rises on the third day and conquers the power of death and its grip that is held upon us he ultimately is fulfilling Exodus 24 he's fulfilling this Covenant which means we as Christians get to.
Look back at Exodus 19-24 we get to look back at this Mosaic Covenant differently and the key to understanding it and our relationship with the law is in a few places but one of them is Romans 7. so go to Romans 7. start again verse one this is how we as Christians get to approach the law or do you not know Brothers for I am speaking to those who know the law and specifically context here in Romans this is he's really talking to Jewish Christians right.
Now Jewish Christians who had spent their lives trying to fulfill the Mosaic Covenant on their own he says I'm speaking to those who know the law that the law is binding on a person as long as he lives four verse 2. a married woman is bound by the law Bound by law to her husband while he lives but if her husband dies she's released from the law of marriage highlighting that the Covenant that you make in marriage is binding until death do you part.
But when he or she dies it's no longer binding verse 3 accordingly she will be called an adulteress if she lives with another man while her husband is alive but if her husband dies she is free from that law and if she marries another man she's not an adulteress meaning that if her husband dies and then she remarries she's not adulterous because that Covenant of marriage is over and a new covenant begins in its place and this Paul takes that understanding.
And then explains the law likewise verse 4 my brothers you also have died to the law through the body of Christ so that you may belong to another to him Jesus who has been raised from the dead in order that we might bear fruit for God he's saying your relationship with the law is over it's over that marriage is done you have died when you place your faith in Jesus death to life happens and you were born again into something and someone knew a new creation in Christ.
Therefore because of the death of Jesus is because this new established Covenant of Faith you aren't married to the law anymore you're wedded to Christ you belong to Jesus and not the law of verse 5 4. while we were living in the flesh our sinful passions aroused by the law we're at work and our members to to bear fruit for death verse six but now we are released from the law having died to that which held us captive so that we serve in the new way of the spirit not in the old way of the written code.
So Christians we have a new covenant in Christ we have a new relationship in Christ the Israelites served under a bi-lateral covenant that required both sides there is no if in Jesus there is no if in Christ there is no two-sided agreement in Christ Jesus unilaterally unconditionally saves us he redeems us and then sets us apart to be a people for his own possession and then he puts his Holy Spirit in US and then God carries us and Carries us and Carries us and Carries us all the way and to our future Promised Land which is eternity with.
God that is a unilateral Act of God that is not a two-sided Affair God unilaterally saves us the bilateral Mosaic Covenant ultimately was meant for Christ to come and fulfill it so that we would not be a people that worked for our salvation but trust only in the finished work of Christ which means brothers and sisters some of you need to stop treating your faith like it's a bilateral Covenant some of you need to stop treating your faith like it's a two-party transaction some of you need to stop treating your faith like it's a conditional faith it's not and some of you some of you have this misunderstanding that being a Christian means being a.
Good person that you bring your good works and you maybe even see yourself as a good person that I'm a Christian because I go to worship on Sunday or I'm a part of a community group I read my Bible or I pray or I serve others or I give or I do all these things which are good things to do and you say I'm a Christian because of all these things that I do and your misunderstanding that's that's not the Gospel you're a Christian.
Because God and His Rich kind Mercy saved you in spite of your sin he redeemed you and some of you may not see yourself I'm okay now I'm not I'm not like that I don't I don't see myself as I actually see my sin but like I just I I feel this need like I've got to do I gotta prove I gotta I gotta grind I gotta I gotta I gotta keep earn like I'm gonna lose the favor of God because of the sin of my life I just got I gotta and it's this endless toil and this endless striving where your soul is never at peace and it's never in rest and you keep.
Thinking that your side of the agreement you've got to fill and the works that you do I've got I've got to keep filling it up as if it's some type of scale that's going to balance out and there's not enough good works in the world that could ever outdo this in our lives and then there's some of you that have you know I have some of you like I have this I understand this by Grace have been saved through faith it's not of works I'm not saved by works I'm not saved by works.
But all you can see in this relationship with Jesus is your sin that all you can see is is the sin beneath you this indwelling sin that's in all and it leads you to a place of no longer actually seeing Christ in in overshadowing your sin you you all you can see is your sin and therefore it leads to this pattern of self-loathing of self-hatred that in this relationship with Jesus all you see is your sin and you don't like yourself at all and that's all you can.
See and you might protest but you don't you don't know me if you knew the thoughts there in my head if you knew what I did in the quiet of the night if you saw my sin if you knew there's no reason that God should want me and all you see is your sin and I want you to hear the words written by a pastor named Dane ortlin that describes the unilateral love and mercy of Christ that you so desperately need to hear.
So I just want you if that's you this morning I want you to hear this so very clearly he says that God is rich in Mercy means that your regions of deepest shame and regret are not hotels through which Divine Mercy passes but homes in which Divine Mercy abides that the parts of you where you feel the most shame and regret that your life is not a hotel where God's mercy comes from a moment that Fades away it is a home where it abides it means that it means the things about you which make you cringe the most make him hug hardest it means his Mercy is not calculating and cautious like ours it is.
Unrestrained flood-like sweeping magnanimous it means our haunting shame is not a problem for him but the very thing he loves most to work with hear that again The Haunting Parts the parts that make you cringe the most are the parts of you that Jesus Delights in working with the most it means our sins do not cause his love to take a hit our sins cause his love to search forward all the more it means on that day when we stand before him quietly unheardly we will weep with relief shot at how impoverished a view of his Mercy Rich heart we had that is the unconditional unilateral Mercy of.
God this is not a two-party agreement it's a one-sided affair with a deep Abiding Love of God that we sang about earlier where his Mercy is so much more than we could ever possibly imagine that's the God who loves you that's the God that loves you so much that He sent Jesus to die for you and to rise for you so that you might not stare at your sin so that you might not put your works in your hope and works.
So that we might be a people that when we see our sin we see our glorious savior that's the Savior that fulfills Exodus 24 that's the Savior who died for us and that's the Savior we get to sing about let me pray for us Heavenly Father I pray that you would help us see how wonderful it is that we don't live under the law that we don't have to fulfill the obligation the requirements of the law that we get to when we.
See our sin look to you as our only hope and I pray that for the Christian in here that is so deeply troubled by their sin in a way that they cannot seek you clearly that today you would absolutely open their eyes to the mercies of God that they so desperately need to see and I pray that you would go to work in the hearts of anyone that have not that has not experienced this yet who asks in Jesus name amen we're going to sing one more song and the reality is that some of you have never actually tasted and seen that the.
Lord is good some of you have never actually seen the good news of the Gospel and made that your only hope that maybe you've thought all along that being a Christian means I got to clean myself up or being a Christian means I've got to bring I gotta get back into Church I got to do good things I gotta be a good Christian and I want you to hear so clearly this morning that's not the Gospel the Gospel is you seeing your sin and seeing Christ as your only hope we're about to sing a song called all I have is Christ in it and it says you looked upon my helpless State that's our confession.
God you looked upon my helpless state because I could not fulfill the law because I could not be obedient enough you looked upon my helpless state it led me to the Cross some of you have never made that decision some of you have never actually made that commitment to say I need Christ I'm a helpless State I am a sinner and this morning the invitation is there our God is before you sang Come experience my mercy and my goodness and my love and my grace it is offered.
But you have to take it you have to take a step of faith and place your hope and the life and the death and the resurrection of Jesus and my hope is this morning so as we sing this song some of you need to sing this as a confession of what you believe but something you need to confess it for the first time foreign.
Feasts! (Exodus 23:14-17)
Use this guide to help your group discussion as you meet this week.
Transcript
Good morning my name is Chet I'm one of the pastors here grab your Bibles go to Exodus chapter 23. we're working our way through the book of Exodus and we're studying Exodus and we're trying to as we go through ask what does this mean for Christians how do we learn from this how does this point us to Jesus what how can we grow as God's people as we study this and we're going to look at a section in Exodus today that I think would be pretty easy to read.
If you were reading through the book of Exodus on your own I think it'd be pretty easy to read and not give it much thought and just keep right on moving but I think that it's very interesting that while God is giving the law and training this nation is what it looks like to follow him that he gives them what we're going to look at today this past week I was assaulted there's a person in my community group named Parker Bramlett and after our group met he was talking to us a handful of people had left and there's only a few of us left and he was talking to us about he's got a fight.
Coming up he's been practicing Brazilian Jiu Jitsu and so I said you want to show me what you got which he he agreed to so quickly uh it seemed as if he had been wanting to beat me up for some time and so he went into my backyard and uh you know scoped out the spot and then he told me a few things about how we were supposed to start and then we rolled which is what it's called it's not called wrestling it's Brazilian Jiu Jitsu you roll.
And so we rolled and there were a couple of times where it was very evident if you were watching us that one of us had been practicing Brazilian Jiu Jitsu and one of us had been watching TV on his couch at one point I did something I kind of shot in to grab him and he he leapt on to me and I had two thoughts pretty quickly one was oh no he was very prepared for me to do that the second thought was I cannot breathe.
And so uh it was it was over pretty quickly that evening I was sitting on the couch holding my neck going back and forth like this after he had left I was like I hope I'm gonna be able to move my head tomorrow and my sweet wife I was sitting you know over there and she's looking at me and she said something and this is a paraphrase I don't remember exact words but it was something along the lines of you're dumb and this was your fault um the things that we practice the things that we rehearse the things that we repeat become the things that are ingrained in us that become the things that are.
A part of us become the things that stick with us the things in your life that you're best at are the things that you've rehearsed they're the things that you've practiced they're the things that you've repeated the things that you've done over and over again and some things are mundane tasks that you've repeated over and over again some of these are bigger things but I mean I I'm willing to bet there are some of you that still remember a poem that you learned in middle school.
But it was because you had to say it in front of everybody some of you still know lines from plays that you were in in high school some of you still know plays from sports that you were in that you practice you repeated them over and over and over again and we're going to see that God on a very zoomed out level for the nation of Israel gives them things that they're going to repeat he gives them things that they're going to rehearse.
So that they'll remember and so that they'll become a part of who they are he builds in practices for them commands practices of them to build into them who they are as a people and that's we're going to look at this morning so let's pray and then we'll we'll jump into the text together God we're thankful that you rescued a people out of slavery or that you taught them what it meant to belong to you and we're thankful that as we study that we get to.
See that you've done that all over again gloriously through Christ that you've rescued a people for yourself out of slavery and that you're at work and teaching us what it means to belong to you so may we grow in that together this morning in humility and worship to your glory amen Exodus chapter 23 we're going to start in verse 14. now we're going to look at verse 14 it's starting at about verse 10 as he's finishing up some of the regulations of the law where he's telling them this is how you'll act this is how you'll handle things this is what you do.
If someone steals this is what you do someone murders he reiterates the Sabbath which is a weekly practice of rest and in it he talks about you're going to rest so you might be refreshed and so he builds in this pattern of rest for them every week which is significant when you consider that these were slaves that God is adopting them and teaching them what life is going to look like as they belong to him and as slaves they used to belong to Pharaoh they used to belong to the Egyptians and their value came from their productivity.
But God says no you belong to me now and you're going to rest you're going to have normal patterns of healthiness it's almost as if you considered someone who was adopted out of a very difficult situation into a home where there was peace where there was Joy where there was going to be food today and food tomorrow and the parents are teaching them no that's you don't have to stick that in your pocket you don't have to hide these things from us you don't have to act this way anymore this situation is different and that's some of what God's doing with the people of Israel he's saying no no this is how we're going to.
Act because you're in a better situation because you belong to me now and so as he's doing that he says this verse 14. three times in the year you shall keep a feast to me now in the Old Testament there's two Hebrew words that are translated feast and the best way I could think to think of it is is there's like a lowercase f feast and a capital letter F Feast so there's Feast which means eat a lot have a feast.
So this is the Book of Esther uh aha Suarez has a feast then Esther holds a feast it just means we're going to eat a lot then there's the capital F Feast which is these the man did holidays and so these include the idea lowercase f feasting but they're bigger in this word here when it's used as always referring to these specific ones that God has commanded so three times in the year you shall keep a feast to me you shall keep the Feast of unleavened bread as I commanded you you shall eat unleavened bread.
For seven days at the appointed time in the month of a bib for in it in that month you came out of Egypt None Shall appear before me empty-handed you shall keep the Feast of harvest of the first fruits of your labor of what you sow in the field you shall keep the Feast of in gathering at the end of the year when you gather in from the field the fruit of your labor three times in the year shall all your males appear before the.
Lord God okay a couple of things on this as a whole and then we're going to walk back through what each one of these was about three times the entire nation of Israel stops and holds feasts but these were feasts where they had to gather these are the pilgrim feasts they had to go from wherever they were to where the Tabernacle was or eventually where the temple was so all productivity stopped and all the males had to show up now there's a couple reasons why it's all the males one is the males LED In Worship in their civil society and in the household.
So he's saying y'all are going to lead in this as well which is a part of all of those things you're going to lead your family well you're going to lead the nation well you're going to lead in worship well you're going to lead well in all of you are going to present yourselves before me this did not exclude females they were invited but there was an invitation for females and an obligation for males just some practical things men don't get pregnant or nurse children.
And so there would have been times where it would have been very difficult for women to be able to travel and do this but we do see that all families at times would Worship in this way we see that throughout the Old Testament we see it with Jesus's family his family was there so it's an invitation to females but an obligation for males the other thing that goes along with this all males will appear is that they will have no defense of their Nation.
If you read through the Old Testament they were consistently losing land losing cities reclaiming land reclaiming cities and there's a promise in Exodus 34 where he says you're going to appear before me and no Nation will covet your land during this time because it would make a lot of sense if you were someone who hated the Israelites and you knew three times out of the Year all the men are going to be gone for about three weeks they've all got to travel into Jerusalem they've got to hold a feast.
For a week they're going to be there then they're going to have to come on back that would be the time to attack them and God says I want you to trust me that I'll protect you that ultimately you're going to live out you're going to embody that your protection comes from me anyway I need you to trust me that your protection comes from me not from you you're all going to appear and so three times they had week-long Feasts now most of us have jobs where we might get two weeks of vacation three weeks of vacation maybe over time you build it up this was built into the nation of Israel that they were.
Not just going to have vacation they were going to have Feasts worshipful celebrations for weeks at a time and this is just the three Pilgrim ones they had other ones that they would have to celebrate throughout the year these are the ones that had to all show up together that God built into them this pattern of worship and celebration so let's look at what each one of these was doing as they were rehearsing and remembering what God had done for them and who he was.
So go back to verse 15. you shall keep the Feast of unleavened bread as I commanded you you shall eat unleavened bread for seven days at the appointed time in the months of abib for in it you came out of Egypt None Shall appear before me empty-handed okay so this is the Feast of unleavened bread or it's also called Passover and this is a remembrance Feast the reason that's their first month of the year is because it's the month that he rescued them out of Egypt.
So they're going to hold a feast that's going to celebrate what God has done for them at the Passover judgment was coming on Egypt and the people of Israel were told you're going to take a lamb had to meet certain specifications had to be without blemish had to be a certain age and you're going to sacrifice this lamb and you're going to paint your door with the blood of the Lamb and you're going to stay in your house and when judgment comes by it's going to pass over you.
Because the blood will stand between you and judgment and it'll keep you safe but if you don't do this if there's no blood between you and judgment you will receive judgment and it was at this time that very night that when this happened that God rescued them out of slavery and he says you're going to gather as a nation forever and celebrate you've been rescued out of slavery and that judgment passed over you and they had certain parts that went along with that they ate unleavened bread.
Because they didn't have time for it to rise they made the bread but they didn't have time for it to rise so they had to go ahead and cook it they had to eat it quickly so when they would eat this some of the practices they had meant that if anyone asked why are we doing this which if you have children they ask why are we doing this why are we sacrificing a lamb why are we eating unleavened bread why are we having to go how long are we going to be there are we there yet all of these kind of questions and they had answers the reason we eat unleavened bread the reason we.
Sacrifice a lamb which might be different from some of our holidays why are we bringing a tree inside of our house because it's Christmas okay but why are we putting lights on it I already told you it's Christmas yeah but why hey eat some candy and shut up like we might need to grow a little bit and some of the practices we have but they had reasons behind all of the things they were reenacting and that was that feast and we're told that they celebrated it in.
Second chronicles and a couple of the things that they said was that they celebrated it with great gladness and that the priests and the Levites were daily singing with all their might which I don't know if you've ever done that sung with all your might but it's actually one of the most wonderful things about being a human and if you're ever singing with all your might in the light of the Lord it's excellent and that's what they were doing verse 16 the.
Second one they had you shall keep the Feast of harvest of the first fruits of your labor of what you sow in the field all right so this Feast of harvest is kind of a two-part Feast they had the Feast of first fruits that would actually take place during the Passover feast and what they did was with their barley and grain Harvest you were not allowed to to eat any of the barley or grain Harvest any of the new barley or grain until you had.
First brought together as a nation the first bit of barley and grain and presented it to the Lord they actually would take the first Sheaf of grain and wave it to the Lord and then they would sacrifice his food offerings to the Lord before they were able to eat any of it now if you've been waiting a long time for your barley and your grain to show up and the first bit of it shows up you're going to be tempted to eat that or to save that you're probably not going to be super tempted to devote all of that to the.
Lord but the reason they did was because they were saying this is a down payment this is a promise that God's the one who provides for us that he's the one who's in charge of the Harvest that the rest of this stuff will grow won't get blighted won't get eaten won't get locusts won't get stormed won't get knocked down that the rest of this will actually will have a harvest and so they would bring this and it was a down payment in faith that.
God was going to provide for them and so they did that and then seven weeks or 50 days later they had what was called the Feast of Weeks because it was seven weeks or Pentecost because it was 50 days same thing so the Feast of Weeks the Feast of the first fruit and the Feast of Pentecost is all the same thing then they would get together and celebrate and eat and worship together for a week and they would have all these sacrifices that were going on that were sin sacrifices and sin offerings and food offerings and they would celebrate that the wheat and the barley that they.
First waived that God had fulfilled his promise and they would celebrate together at Pentecost it's actually also Pentecost is the same time when the law is given that was actually seven weeks after the first Passover God gives the law and then every year they're going to celebrate that God provides for them both at the Feast of the Harvest which would be Feast of first fruits to Feast of Weeks or Pentecost in Deuteronomy for the Feast of Weeks and for the Feast of the end Gathering they're commanded to Rejoice which I think is very helpful.
Because if you're reading some of these you might would ask what's the tone how are we supposed to approach God and he says Hey in this house that you've been adopted into we're going to celebrate and the things that you would celebrate anyway like our Harvest has come in I'm going to celebrate with you we're going to celebrate together and Delight together in provision and protection and guidance back half of verse 16 you shall keep the Feast of in gathering at the end of the year you shall keep the Feast of in-gathering at the end of the year.
When you gather in from the field the fruit of your labor so this was olives and grapes and it was the end of the harvest season so it's not the end of their calendar year but it's the end of the Harvest year and so at the very end of the Harvest year they're going to have another week-long feast and this became it's the Feast of end Gathering but also because they rebel against God I don't want to ruin the rest of Exodus.
For you but they rebel against God and then they have to wander in the wilderness for 40 years it also becomes the Feast of booths or Tabernacles which would be like the Feast of tents they they go stay in tents they camp out for a week together to remember that in the in gathering and in their wandering in the wilderness that God provides for them so they rehearse and reenact as a nation for a week that God is the one who provides.
God is the one who protects and so they as a whole people yearly weeks at a time had to rehearse over and over again had to remember over and over again our God rescued Us From Slavery Our God pays for our sin our God is the one who provides for us so we can trust him that he'll take care of us our God is the one who protects us and gives us all good things we celebrate and rejoice with our God and they did this over and over and over and over again.
God specifically commands to them this is what it's going to look like as you all belong to me now we're Christians so what do we do with that first we don't have to practice the Feast of Passover or in gathering or first fruits or booths we don't practice those things we don't have to do that as a people who belong to Jesus there's specifically that kind of question what do Christians do with the law is asked repeatedly in the New Testament.
Because it was a bunch of Jewish people who the Christ came out of the Jewish people and it was a bunch of Jewish people who were then seeing that Gentiles to non-jewish peoples were becoming Christians and so they were asking hey what do we do with the law because the Holy Spirit's rescuing people they're believing in Jesus what do we do with the law in Acts 15 they get together and they have a whole big meeting that says what do we do with the law do these people have to submit to circumcision do they have to submit to the law of Moses Peter at one point stands up and says why would we put on.
Them first of all the Holy Spirit has already redeemed them and already given them Faith why would we put on them something that we and our fathers could not stand under the weight of we believe that they'll be saved by the grace of Christ just as we are and so the law is fulfilled by Christ but does not come to us in full force and we talked about that two weeks ago we talked about it some in part last week we'll probably keep saying it as we go through the book of Exodus.
So it's fulfilled for us so what do we do with this Paul actually says this in Colossians is he's talking to people he's talking to a Church that had Gentile Believers and Jewish Believers and they're dealing with some of how do we work this out what does it mean to follow Christ who is the Messiah he's the Jewish Messiah but are we supposed to still follow the law Paul says this in verse 16. 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 a Sabbath.
Now that therefore is coming after it's coming in conclusion you can go read Colossians 2 it's coming in conclusion to a big argument he's making which is the mystery has been revealed the mystery is Christ that all of it is in Christ and so as we try to follow him he's what it's about and so he says with regard to a festival or a new moon or a Sabbath basically with regard to the Jewish calendar no one passes judgment on you with regard to this these these practices that.
God put in place are a shadow of the things to come but the substance belongs to Christ they were ultimately meant to be markers that prepared and pointed to Jesus that's what they are so let's talk for a second about the substance of these belonging to Christ and then we'll just talk about how do we get to as Christians respond to what it looks like for us to remember and to rehearse what it looks like for us to belong to Jesus.
So Jesus is crucified on the Passover Corinthians tells us he is our Passover Lamb he's the blood that covers Us covers our household stands in between us and death stands in between us in judgment he is the sacrifice for the people of God there is no other one to come it is Christ he's the high priest he's the sacrifice he's the one who has rescued us he is our Passover we're also told that he is the first fruits that this idea of.
First fruits is used three times in the New Testament where they're just taking you know that concept of first fruits here's how this applies to us we're told that Jesus is the first fruits of the Resurrection meaning that we can look at him and know because he rose will rise we're also told that the Holy Spirit at work in you now as a Christian is the first fruits of what's going to ultimately happen that he's going to rescue and redeem and make you whole completely we're also told that the new Believers in the Church at the.
First century were the first fruits of us that they were a promise of what was to come that more people were going to be rescued by Jesus so they just take this idea of first fruits and keep saying that's fulfilled that's applied that's at work and Spirit comes at Pentecost 50 days after Passover so where the law came and was written on tablets of stone and ultimately I don't want to give too much away three thousand people are going to die in Rebellion the spirit Falls written on hearts and three thousand people are Made Alive.
God is fulfilling his work through the cross through the calendar through Pentecost and he is fulfilling and being the substance of these in Christ and then in the Feast of booths we get to trust God where we are right now that he's going to get us home that he's going to provide for us that he's going to make it we're going to make it to the promised land and then the in gathering we we believe that he's the one who ultimately provides all good things.
For us that the substance belongs to Jesus that our story is a bigger story a better story and that we belong under that so what are you rehearsing Christians aren't given a calendar we're not even given in the Old Testament a full Jewish calendar so we're not meant to follow this we're not told we have to follow these festivals we aren't given any holidays whenever anybody's like people have before said to me you know Jesus probably wasn't even born on the 25th it's like good you have just proven nothing according to the Bible.
Because it doesn't tell us so the odds are if you I mean probably good there's 364 other days you know so good you did it like we don't we're not told that we have to practice any of these we're not told that we we can we're not commanded to we're commanded to practice what we practice in faith we're commanded to practice what we practice and joy and Delight we're commanded to be people who are under this story and rehearse this story.
So let's just take a second and consider what are you practicing what are you rehearsing let's think about your day I want to tell y'all something about my day every single day I'm a full-grown man yes sometimes I get beat up in my backyard but I'm a full-grown man and every day I get all tuckered out and I need to eat and I need to sleep or I'm going to be pretty grumpy every day I stayed up one time for 24 hours straight and I hated it is the worst we had a son at the end of the day and that was fine.
But it was a long day every time in college people are like we're going to pull an all-nighter I'm like I'm not if I'm dumb at 10 o'clock at night I'm just going to be dumb at nine in the morning I'm not staying up for this you have to sleep you have to eat and you rehearse this over and over again and in those moments do you remember your strength isn't found in you your hope isn't found in you your provision is brought to you by.
God your protection is brought to you by God and that you get to live under a bigger story and a better family every day you think things every day and all of us are mentally rehearsing things and some of you are mentally rehearsing things that are contrary to the Gospel you are over and over again in your head you would tell me if I asked you do you belong to Jesus you would say yes and I would say are you sure and you would say yes.
And then you would leave and in your head you would say things to yourself like I'm a failure I'm the worst no one loves me I'm going to ruin everything I mess everything up I'm unloved I shouldn't show up they don't want me there that's not the Gospel what are you rehearsing are you speaking and acting as if you belong to Jesus as if you have a better story as if you've been brought into a better family let's think about week to week what's your life.
Look like what are the things that you're practicing over a given month do you have rhythms of rest or you remind yourself I'm not a slave and my value doesn't come from my production and in that some of you really need to be challenged in that you need to realize I'm supposed to stop I'm supposed to sit and be refreshed before the Lord in worship also he says six days shall you labor and on the seventh you will rest so in a given week do you work are you productive do you spend most of your time just trying to rest trying to be lazy or do you use the talents and the abilities that.
God has given you to bless and to care for those around you in honor to God and then worshiped him are you consistently daily or weekly praying reading your Bible rehearsing those things in how you follow the Lord You've gathered here for worship is this a part of you delighting in Jesus and him rescuing you so that we stand up and say Jesus is better than everything else you actually are participating in that do you sing with all your might do you get swept up in Delight of the.
Lord do you come here to rejoice in him to be refreshed among your Church family are you a part of a community group is that a weekly thing for you do you participate walk in life with them this is one of the reasons why we talk about we believe that we want to give good news before we give good advice it's easy for Christians to hang out with each other for you to say you have something going on and then we all become like blog posts or Tick Tock videos about five steps to being a better whatever here's here's 10 steps to dealing with a with a dumb boss and we just give each other.
A bunch of information but what can happen while that may be helpful and while your Tick Tock video might have been excellent we can inadvertently communicate to someone that their hope is them but that's not the story that's not the hope that's not what we've gotten swept up in because of the glory of Christ so we want to give good news not we give good news not good advice we give good news before good advice so that we can Frame Up why we would walk in wisdom why we would do these things and how we actually get to live in in relationship to Christ.
But do you contribute do you participate do you love your community group is your community group just there for you or are you actually walking in life with them what's your weekly stuff look like what's your look we don't have most of us don't have a harvest maybe of tomatoes but most of us don't live Harvest to harvest we live paycheck to paycheck do you practice first fruits do you remind yourself that God is the one who provides ultimately for you do you take the time to surrender things to him in delight and in worship and in promise that he's going to keep this coming that he's going to ultimately provide everything you need that's.
One of the things that he means when he says let nobody appear before me empty-handed we're told later that people are supposed to do it based off of their means but everybody's supposed to show up with something so do you walk in generosity and submission to the Lord rehearsing for yourself that he's ultimately who provides for you not the job you have not the health you have but your king who's good what is your week to week month to month look like one of the week to week month to month things that we practice as a Church family and these are two of the practices given to the Church.
For us to rehearse baptism and communion where we remind ourselves of our real story that Jesus Christ rescues us we got to celebrate baptism a couple of times over the past few weeks and one of my favorite things is to get to talk to them and say there's a reason why you don't baptize yourself there's a reason why you go backwards you're being buried in death and then you get to rise again with Christ and we're standing for that as a Church to help represent that you didn't do this.
But that Jesus does this we practice this together and celebrate this together and delight and rejoice in this together when we take communion it's a tangible reminder that Jesus was real and he really died for you and you really needed him to there are times when you're taking communion and we we dip it quite often it's running on your fingers I want you to remember his blood really ran his body was really broken and it was really what was needed for you and it really happened and you are covered by the work of Christ one of the reasons we practice that regularly is.
Because you will not outgrow your need for the Gospel you will not level up so that you can Delight in not needing Jesus but we will walk as people humbly consistently reminding ourselves Christ paid for me I needed him to and he did I'm covered by him just as they practice at Passover that we remember our Passover Lamb what are the things you do yearly what are the rhythms built into your calendar and what are they celebrating I think we need to think about what holidays do we celebrate how do I approach vacation how do we celebrate them how do we reenact.
For ourselves and for our co-workers and our neighbors and our children what this is really about what does this look like I I got a couple ideas for you when you look forward to vacation is there a way for you to remember that this is a worshipful Delight that you have that your value doesn't come from your production and your provision doesn't come from your job but that you get to stop and rest and Delight in the Lord when we celebrate Good Friday and Easter do you actually worship in that do you actually consider in that what that is do you pause during that to think and to Rejoice.
Well and to celebrate well and to be solemn well as we Delight in the Lord we celebrate things like Thanksgiving which Christians ought to be the best at if we're going to celebrate it because we have way more to be thankful for we have a way better story than the edited one that we've learned in elementary school we got a way better one we have a better country I love this country but I've got a better one the most excited our Church should be shouldn't be Fourth of July yes we should all buy fireworks yeah.
But that shouldn't be all the things about we should get to worship and Delight in the Lord in ways that we get to celebrate if you're going to celebrate a thing celebrate as a Christian and remind yourself and remind your family this is what this gets to look like and this is why this matters so I've tried to think through that some for Christmas um one of the things I do with my boys is which I tried to Think Through how can I help them.
Remember this how can we reenact some things and so one of the things we do on Christmas Eve is I'll tell them that God made the world and they made it wonderful and he made Adam and Eve and we sinned and when we send death and destruction entered the world and I cut off all the lights and I say it was terrible it was dark it was scary and for a moment everything was lost but God made a promise and all light a match or a grill lighter or whatever and I'll light a candle and I'll say.
For the longest time there was just a promise a promise the death won't win that sin won't win that one day there's going to be a son who crushes the enemy's head but that's all they have it's a promise and there were prophets who reminded them of the promise and then Jesus was born and light into the world and I'll tell a little bit of the story I have a really bright light that I'll shine and I'll say the glory of the angels are there and everybody freaked out and they said hosanna in the highest we'll talk through some of that.
Jesus was born and then I'll say and because of Jesus he have that bright flashlight I say he brought light into the world and then ultimately everything gets undone and we turn all the lights on and then I say because he did this life is sweet so we're about to eat some candy he his coming was a down payment on the better things to come the ultimate fulfillment of all God's promises so we're going to open one gift and we're going to celebrate.
So we dance usually to The Strife is over by citizens I'm sure it'll change at some point but that's a really good worshipful song it's got some good dancing Vibes to it but that's to help my sons remember what this is about we try to rehearse this and so all I would say is what are you celebrating and how are you celebrating what are you rehearsing how are you practicing we don't have an in gathering we do have tax season are you just annoyed do you ever take the time to.
Look and see how much God's provided for you that year what if Christians started taking some of their tax return to have a big meal and celebrate and Delight in the Lord and provided for them all year long and to worship that he's going to do it again what if we took some of our tax return and walked it out in generosity to those around us so that we could remember what this ultimately mattered why we're here what God's doing what.
If we were the best at celebrating because we have the most to celebrate what if we consistently rehearsed for ourselves the Gospel so that it was what was in our mind and how we acted and how we lived so that we would be people who delighted in the Lord there aren't a bunch of rules on how we're supposed to practice baptism we're supposed to practice communion you can celebrate Christmas or not with or without a tree or not I think you should we should Delight in the fact that.
Jesus came you should celebrate the Incarnation but I you can have gifts no gifts you can be Holly Jolly or not there's no rules on that but this is the command that I think should govern for all of us how this works first Corinthians 10 31. so Paul's talking about this practices what do we do and how do we live out this together whether you eat or drink or whatever you do do all to the glory of God so may we be people who sing loud who celebrate and rejoice.
Well who rehearse and remember the glory of God in Christ all the days of our lives let's pray oh God we thank you that we have something to celebrate that you redeem Sinners that you are our Passover Lamb that you are the first fruit of the Resurrection that we have a hope that lasts Beyond this life and as we follow you in our daily normal simple grind may we remember that you're the one who provides you're the one who protects you're the one who redeems you're the one who's given us a Promised Land you're the one who gives us hope.
For a future you're the one who's washed us clean that we are not covered by our sin or our shame or what has been done to us but we are marked by what has been done for us in Jesus and may we worship and may we celebrate and may we sing and may we delight and may we when we mourn may we mourn as those who have hope to the glory of God in Christ for your blessed name and your glory amen the band's going to come back up we're going to sing we have a few more songs than normal.
So that we might sing and celebrate we're going to take communion together and in that we're going to rehearse and remember that I am a sinner in need of a sacrifice but praise be to God that Christ came and covered me and this isn't about my work or my labor or my Worth or my value or my morals but it's about what Jesus has done so I want you to take a moment I want you to consider what are you rehearsing some of us maybe need to repent.
Because we've been living and practicing in so many ways like Jesus isn't King and our story isn't good I want you to take a moment and then when you're ready I want you to take communion and rehearse and reenact what has happened for you in Christ if you are not a Christian communion is not for you we're delighted that you're here and we want you to know Jesus we don't want you to rehearse and practice something that isn't true for you yet.
But you are welcome to come to him and say I need salvation I need hope I need forgiveness and he freely gives it because he came to rescue a broken people to himself so we would invite you to come to Christ and to trust him with your life so in a moment when you're ready we'll take communion there's a gluten-free communion back there and then we're going to sing together as a people who have something to celebrate.
Slavery (Exodus 21-23)
Use this guide to help your group discussion as you meet this week.
Transcript
Foreign good morning so my name is Spencer I'm one of the pastors here so we made a shift last week in the book of Exodus where we left the Ten Commandments and entered into what most people think of as the law this is the teachings and the Commandments of God of how we're called to live and love and honor and worship Our God and live in harmony with one another so for the rest of Exodus into Leviticus numbers and Deuteronomy you're going to.
See these these commands that are helping the people understand how to worship God how to live in harmony with one another last week Chet kind of introduced the law as a whole that he kind of gave us Calvin's framework for how to view it that some law is civil that deals with kind of the societal structuring of Israel as a nation that some of it is ceremonial that deals with uh some of the the priesthood and the sacrificial system and then some of it is moral these are morals that.
God has always wanted his people to follow and then with that frame where we get to approach the rest of the law coming out of the Ten Commandments in the into Exodus 21 and then we get to the first two verses of Exodus 21 which says now these are the rules that you shall set before them when you buy a Hebrew slave He Shall Serve six years and in the seventh he shall go out free for nothing so that is our.
First entrance into the law when you hear that you might go wait what that I haven't encountered that in the Scriptures before God sets them free from slavery in Egypt gives them the Ten Commandments and the very first thing that shows up is slavery isn't slavery bad isn't God good when you read this is it 2023 or 18 23 there's this feeling in this as we approach the text here and Exodus 21 has a lot to say about slavery and in his passages like these that Skeptics have taken and latched on to attempt to delegitimize Christian faith there's one uh atheist thinker as a podcast his name is Sam Harris and Sam Harris once said.
The entire civilized world now agrees that slavery is an Abomination what moral instruction do we get from the God of Abraham on this subject consult the Bible and you will discover that the creator of the universe clearly expects us to keep slaves and that's kind of an argument that you will hear is that no your Bible justifies slavery and a lot of Christians will just kind of respond saying uh-uh no like I disagree that's not true but if you believe that.
Then what do you do with Exodus 21 what do you do with the parts of the Bible that speak about slavery from the Old Testament into the New Testament that is what we're going to be doing today we said that we'd be approaching the back end of Exodus differently than we did the front we went verse by verse all the way up to this point now we're approaching the last part of Exodus topically and we're going to look at the topic of slavery starting in Exodus 21 and through the rest of the Bible.
God willing when we are done I'm going to show you how the Bible dismantles any attempt to uphold slavery and that ultimately how God brings about individual Christian change in our hearts on issues like this that ultimately snowballs into societal change away from a system of servitude that has dominated Humanity for thousands of years so that's a big task let me pray and we'll walk this together Heavenly Father I pray that you would help us be present this morning that we would.
Listen that we would not be quick to make judgments on the text but we would sit in this and think through it and we would see what your ultimate desire is concerning slavery in Jesus name amen all right so back to verse one and two it says now these are the rules that you shall set before then when you buy a Hebrew slave He Shall Serve six years into the seventh he shall Go free for nothing now we run to a problem immediately.
When we read this text and it has to do with the word slave there are words in the Bible that we're not familiar with that we may not be familiar with like cistern or threshing floor and if you don't know those terms you go and you look them up you learn what that is and then we come back to the text and we try to understand it but no one in the room is unfamiliar with the word slave in fact I would argue that everyone in the room has a pre-loaded understanding of what slave means and what slavery is that.
When we hear the word slave we think of the horrible practices of American slavery we think of African men and women who were stolen and put in Chains and put on ships were 1.8 million black men and women died on the way to Europe on the way to America we think of the horrors of them Beyond the seller's block and going into a brutal system that's what we think of I would argue whether consciously or unconsciously that's how we approach the text.
Because we're so familiar with this word and this concept is a part of our nation's history so when we read when you buy a Hebrew slave He Shall Serve six years and seventh he shall Go free for nothing what we need to do is to strip the context that we know for that word and put it aside and try to understand this word in its context and that's we're going to look at first it's context in the Old Testament so slavery was a widespread practice at the time that Exodus was written it was all over the ancient near East and we there are all types of cultures that was very much a part of the.
Fabric of their economy the slavery and servitude class built many empires we saw this early on in the book of Exodus we saw in the book of Exodus how the Hebrews were enslaved how they were forced into labor we saw the brutality of that that Pharaoh at the at a whim could just decide I'm going to kill all the firstborn males amongst my slaves we saw a Taskmaster beating a Hebrew we saw that they could not leave we saw the brutality that as a picture of slavery in the ancient near East that one that of one of conquering enemies making them subject to you and building your Empire with their labor.
Now we saw how God violently rescued them out of Egypt now they're in the wilderness they're receiving the law before they enter into the Promised Land and when they enter into the Promised Land they're going to run into situations where people fall on Hard Times where they lose everything and there was no social safety net in the ancient near East if you lost everything if you'd had no money you could not buy food and you starved and if you could bag it to get enough you might make it.
But you most likely would die there was no social safety net so a lot of people would sell themselves into slavery because that's better than death at least you're not starving to death that was a widespread practice at the time as well now God takes that practice modifies it for the people of God and to A system that we would most likely understand as indentured servitude which if you can remember American history classes and entered servitude was there are a lot of Europeans that that could not afford the ship ride over to America to start a new life.
So they would sell themselves into indentured servitude they get to the states they'd work as an injured servant to pay off the debt for a few years and they would be free and that's more of what we see with the system that God has modified for the people of God in the book of Exodus 21 and onward we see this again in Leviticus 25 verses 39 41 it's as if your brother becomes poor beside you and sells himself to you you shall not make him serve as a slave he shall be with you as a hired worker and as a Sojourner He Shall Serve with you until the Year of Jubilee that's the seventh year.
That we saw in Exodus 21 you'd work six years then you're set free on the seventh then he shall go out for you from you he and his children with you and go back to his own Clan and return to the possession of his fathers now notice the qualifications that is put on that he's not going to be like a slave treat him like a hired worker take care of him or her and when he gets back on his feet and he has worked.
For six years release him and not just empty-handed he will retain The Inheritance that God has given to the people he will go back to the land of his forefathers he will retain that inheritance and not go out empty so God takes the system that was common in economies across the ancient near East and he modifies it basically to a system of indentured servitude that is more worker employee style relationships but they're working with that word slave and that is the word that they get that they're using to show someone who is working and not getting paid.
For their work that when you go back to Exodus 21 you see some other qualifications that are put on this system Exodus 21 verse 16 says whoever steals a man and sells him and anyone found in possession of him he shall be put to death so this has to be something that someone volunteers into you cannot force someone to do this you cannot steal them into slavery and if you're caught selling or you're caught with someone who's a stolen person forced into slavery you will die you will get the death penalty.
So that if the American South lived under the Mosaic law there would not be a lot of people left that's just the reality of how God treats people who are forced into slavery you sell or you buy you die that's the law then these other qualifications We're not gonna go through them all because we're not the time they cannot be killed verse 20 when a man strikes his slave male or female with Iran and the slave dies under his hand he shall be Avenged not going to mistreat you're not going to kill.
So the qualifications once they had worked six years that they didn't like the prospects of being free that they could permanently enter into servitude we see that in Exodus 21 verse 6. and then there are other laws in Exodus 21 related to slavery that were so far removed from the context that are hard to understand but the gist of the majority of them is to help them see that this is different than the ancient near East it's different than the surrounding Nations they're meant to protect the people within the system itself and that's how God's people are to treat one another.
Now it's a little bit different Leviticus 25 there's there's if there's a Sojourner or a foreigner who is in your land who decides to sell them itself into slavery they need to understand upfront that it's permanent they don't get that seventh year Redemption at the Year of Jubilee so if there are foreigners in the land they sell themselves into slavery it will be permanent so that's a bit of a system that was very different than the surrounding Nations and very different than how we understand American slavery that was built off of stolen people and brutality.
God was doing something different and it stood out among nations as different but if we're honest as Christians living in the New Covenant of Christ as Christians we look at all of this still and go yeah but why take something that was common and reduce that down why modify that why not just end it all together why why what's this what what's this about someone being going in a permanent servitude like I don't there's part of us that looks at this and says yeah they're treated like hard hands yeah they're different.
But what's why didn't God just end it all together this is certainly better than we have in our heads when we hear the word slave but this still feels like it's not enough we what we as Christians need to understand when we read about slavery and the law is that God was doing something that was uniquely different that was counter-cultural to the cultures of that time and that thread of doing something different than the Nations different that was counter-cultural that threat is going to be pulled into the New Testament.
Because when Jesus comes along he's going to flip the law on its head that's what chap was getting out last week that Christ come and fulfills the law and that means that there's certain civil aspects to servitude that are fulfilled in Christ that no longer remain so Christ fulfills the law so we don't we're not under the Mosaic law anymore but there's even something more unique that's happening in Jesus approach to the Mosaic law the law of Moses that if you.
Look closer you'll begin to see that God goes a step further with the law to show that the law did not capture God's ultimate desires for his people the law was not the finished product it did not capture the heart of God and how he expects his people to live in community with one another and that happens in a few different teachings multiple times Jesus quotes the law by saying you've heard that it was said but I say to you you've heard that it was said which is ironic.
Because that's Jesus who is God who gave them the law you've heard that it was said but I say to you and he's doing something different he's flipping the law on its head I'll give you one clear example of how he does this he does it with a divorce in Matthew 19. in Matthew 19 he's teaching on divorce he says as they're asking him questions about divorce he says they said to him why then did Moses command one to give a certificate of divorce and to send her away they're quoting Deuteronomy 24 as they're asking.
Jesus about marriage and it says he said to them because of your Hardness of Heart Moses allowed you to divorce your wives but from the beginning it was not so and I say to you whoever divorces his wife except for sexual immorality and marries another commits adultery he says this because of the hardness of the people of God's hearts they weren't ready for this because of the hardness of their heart they weren't ready for the ultimate desire of marriage and because of that they were not able to live under the law as relates to marriage and let out the desires of what.
God had always wanted for marriage so he says but I tell you now here's the real desire you stay married that's the desire for marriage this happens also in Matthew 5 verse 38-39 since you have heard that it was said an eye for an eye a tooth for a tooth that's out of our main chapter today which is Exodus 21. he says you've heard that it said eye for an eye tooth for tooth but I say to you do not resist the one who is evil.
But if anyone slaps you on the right cheek turn to him the other also he says but I say to you and then gives them what God ultimately wants for his people Jesus is helping them see that the Israelites were too hard-hearted they were too Wicked to receive God's ultimate desires for his people and how they should live and treat one another so Jesus is doing that in his teachings pressing on this then he fulfills the law perfectly with his life.
And then he goes to the Cross where he has his his blood is poured out to make atonement for the people of God for all of our sins and then he rises from the grave defeating death and making a way for his new covenant people to be born again to have a new life in Christ Jesus ascends into heaven and the Holy Spirit descends upon the Church and empowers the Church to finally start to live out the ultimate desires for what.
God has for his people in this new covenant faith so what I'm going to argue is that God has a more subtle but I say to you throughout the New Testament a more subtle but I say to you that is going to change the way his people approach slavery in servitude but in order for me to do that from the New Testament we've got to go back to redefining slavery again because when you get to the New Testament there's a Roman system that is different than Israel's there's a Roman system that we need to understand that we we can't just read that and think of what we commonly know as slavery we've got to understand.
The Roman system itself so in the New Testament which was written in Greek there's one word for slave it's doulas now do loss and if you have an ESV Bible around you there's this blue Bibles around you that's the English Standard Version the way they translate doulas and it tells you this in a lot of the prefaces of the ESV the way they translate do loss is one of three different ways one of them is Bond servant if you've read that in the New Testament that's the Greek word dulos bond servant we're going to get to that in a moment.
But that was a branch of the servitude system of Rome that was more like indentured servitude you'd work for six years then you'd be free work for seven years then you'd be free it's also translated as slave which is a different part of the Roman system that's permanent slavery and then every now and then it's translated servant and what the ESB is doing with uh the word when it translates its servant is it's it's telling us that it doesn't give us it the the text has enough context where it can be translated either Bond servant or slave.
So that's the ESV just punting and saying you need to figure out from the context whether the spawn servant or whether this is slave so that means we also need to understand the difference between a bond servant and a permanent slave enroman Society so up to a third of the Roman Empire was in the servitude class think about that up to a third of the entire Roman Empire was in the servitude class and many of them were what were called Bond servants let's deal with that word.
First Bond servitude was very much like indentured servant servitude that if you fell on Hard Times just like an engineer East there was no social safety net there was no one coming to bail you out if you didn't have the money you couldn't buy food if you couldn't buy food you died so a lot of people that would get into debt and not be able to pay it off would enter voluntarily into Bond servitude you'll become a bond servant and your debt would be paid and you'll be able to work that off over a seven year period and there's a lot of people that were free that would do this that would sell themselves into.
This I mean a lot of bond servants were doctors a lot of bond servants were teachers they just fell on Hard Times and they had uh to sell themselves into Bond servitude in order to survive because there was no social safety net so it's similar to how Israel did it but very different because there weren't a protections built in if you sold yourself in a bond servitude to a free Roman you were property there there's you are you were property they can do with you what they want.
So if you're going to intervoluntarily into Bond servitude you better choose someone who is nice because they absolutely could do whatever they wanted to you so that's one aspect of servitude in the Roman Empire's Bond servitude the second as a class of permanent slaves and that's when the New Testament is going to translate that slave slaves in Roman society were permanent unless they could a buy their freedom so make enough money on the side to be able to purchase their freedom or be unless their Master freed them.
But you did not volunteer for permanent servitude in the Roman Empire much of the Roman slaves were people that were stolen and sold into it so that's that was a big I mean this the stolen uh man's ceiling and and enforcing people into slavery uh to make money was very much a part of the Roman Empire this was also uh enemies who roam conquered and said we're not going to kill you but we're going to make you slaves and permanent servitude was harsh there are a lot of people that ended up with really brutal jobs working in the mines until they died it was a brutal system some criminals were forced into this as.
Well and they were treated horribly permanent slaves were treated horribly it was very common to sexually exploit slaves in Rome very common practice now this happened also a little bit in American slavery we see that even with Thomas Jefferson but sexual exploitation in American slavery was still stigmatized because of racism with white slave owners it was not stigmatized at all in the Roman Empire you could rape your slave no one it was commonplace you did whatever you want with them they're your property they belong to you and that was a brutal part of Roman slavery was the sexual exploitation that was widespread and not stigmatized at all you could physically beat even kill your slave.
In the Roman Empire was not uncommon so you did not want to be a slave in the Roman Empire at all I've seen some Christians attempt to try to clean up a little bit historically you just can't the Roman system was brutal so that's the context for the Greek word doulas says it shows up in the New Testament that Jesus steps into so what does God expect of as New Covenant people they're Skeptics that will still go but your new testament still justifies it your New Testament says things like Ephesians 6 5 Bond servants obey your Earthly masters with fear and trembling and the other passage is just like that one Colossians 3.
First Peter 2. and they'll say see your Bible justifies slavery it justifies servitude but I argue if you're willing to do the work you're going to see that God is doing something counter-cultural and different with his new covenant people for the rest of our time the New Testament I want to show you what God is doing so be very upfront about this the New Testament does not make its aim to overthrow governments or overthrow oppressive systems that is not the aim of the New Testament on a whole bunch of different subjects whether it's slavery or poverty whatever the the New Testament does not have the approach of overthrowing governments in oppressive systems that's not what.
The New Testament is doing so the Gospel is doing the Gospel brings about radical individual change that calls people into a new covenant of Faith where they look differently with the Holy Spirit changes them and molds them into the image of Christ in a way that looks different from the world and that individual change ultimately snowballs into societal change and we see that historically because when Christianity started to spread across the Roman Empire when it became the dominant religion in the Roman Empire you saw servitude start a decrease.
So why why is that the case where's the New Testament argument for that where's the but I say to you that ultimately dismantles the idea that you can own people as property so much so that it changed the Roman Empire let's start with how the Scripture firsts uh dismantles the purchase of New Slaves then we'll move to uh those who already have slaves we're going to look at the seed Bedford abolition for the freedom of people from the system that shows up in the New Testament we're going to start with how the New Testament dismantles the purchase of New Slaves.
First Timothy 1 10. in first Timothy 1 10 Paul is like he does in a lot of his letters he's giving a list of sins that he's ultimately going to address with the Gospel but in first Timothy 1 10 he says the sexual immoral men who practice homosexuality enslavers and then he goes on to say Liars perjurers and whatever else this contrary to sound Doctrine so that word enslavers that is the term used for man stealing that's forcing people into slavery that follows the Old Testament law and Exodus 21 16 that would give people the death penalty.
For being caught with stolen people so we see that that part of the law isn't civil it's actually moral and that from the Old Testament end to the new forcing people into slavery is not the heart of God so enslavers no that's sin forcing people into slave trading throughout the Scriptures is either out either explicitly condemned or it's very much looked down upon and I'll have time to get to the Book of Joshua because if you may be familiar with the Old Testament.
But even the Book of Joshua when they don't obey the Lord and bringing his judgment upon the Canaanites and they make slaves instead there's judgment for that God never not once commands his people not once does he command his people to ever Force anyone into slavery the Bible roundly condemns this the Old Testament roundly condemns forcing anyone into oppression I mean over and over again the prophets are are attacking oppression in the land then you get to the New Testament.
Jesus starts to teach something even different he starts to teach things like love your enemies which when you follow the threat on that realizing that no we're not going to force people into slave we're not going to conquer enemies and force them into this system love your enemies so when you look at how the Bible approaches how people are made permanent slaves through Force you start to realize there's no biblical justification for that at all and without New Slaves you don't have a system of servitude at all that you're not able to make New Slaves.
So without forcing anyone into permanent slavery you don't have a system and that's what first Timothy flow of the Old Testament in the New Testament is planting the seed for Don't force people into this which begs the question but what if they volunteer what if an individual Christian decides what if a person's decides they want to they want to sell themselves in to this you can't take first Timothy 1 10 you can't take some of the arguments against forcing people into slavery and apply that to someone who would sell themselves into Bond servitude that you can't do that the Bible does not go there.
So that begs the question is some form of indentured servitude okay is some form of bond servitude still okay is it okay for a Christian to look at his brother who is in need and say yes I'm going to help you I'm going to pay your debt off come and work for me for six years and then I will release you what does the Bible have to say about them well then you've got to look at some other passages to see the right Christian ethical approach to helping those who are in need.
When the early Church began and began to explode in the book of Acts in Acts 2 verses 4 44-45 it says and all who believe were together and had all things in common that some of the first Acts of Christians had all things in common and they were selling their possessions and belongings and distributing the proceeds to all as any had need that you see very early on they had all things in common that they helped each other that they obeyed the teachings of.
Jesus that showed up over and over and over again when Jesus in Luke 12 33 amongst other places says sell your possessions and give to the Navy these aren't conditional statements you get read into this that there's some type of back-end service that's going to be required First John 3 17 says but if anyone has the world's goods and sees his brother in need yet closes his heart against him how does God's love abide in him how do you see from the New Testament this radical change that you're called to love and help and serve others that somewhere in that embedded is some type of exchange to where they become property.
For a period of time and more to the point the New Testament explicitly forbids a Christian from selling themselves into servitude First Corinthians 7 23 you were bought with a price do not become Bond Servants of men do not become Bond Servants of men that if they were to sell themselves into Bond servitude they would be sinning against God which means that if a brother came to you to do that and you allowed them to enter into Bond servitude you are facilitating sin and rebelling against the will of.
God so the New Testament gives us the prescription to those who are in need over and over again you help them you don't make them do you value themselves as image bears to become property as a condition of help so If There Are No New Slaves can't force people into this and it's a sin to actually have them sell themselves into this then eventually you don't have a system of servitude then eventually as we see in the Roman Empire servitude starts to decrease.
But let's dive a little deeper here let's live in a hypothetical if you're a new Christian and 55 A.D and you're convinced of the arguments that I just made from the Scriptures you're convinced that I can't make New Slaves of anyone what do you do with your current slaves or more practically what could happen in this day and age you take the Gospel to a culture that still has servitude built into their economic fabric what do you do when you take the Gospel there and they say you've convinced me I'm not going to join in slavers I'm not I'm not I'm not going to cause anyone else to sin what do you say to that.
Brother who's a Christian master especially when they go but yeah the New Testament Ephesians 6 5 Bon servants obey your Earthly masters of fear and trembling I'm not going to make new ones but what can he not just can where's the justification that I need to release the ones I currently have and that's the second thing I want to look at not just the purchase of New Slaves what do you do with current slaves so if they were forced into slavery in the.
First place that's an easier thing to address it's easier to point to First Timothy 1 and Exodus 21 that shows you're participating in a system that's morally repugnant and Evil that you need to repent and release someone who was forced into slavery that's an easier argument to make so it's all right you've convinced me the permanent slaves that I have I'm releasing them they're now free but what about the current Bond servants that I have I paid off their debts I got three years left to serve out their sentence just let them serve it out I I paid a lot of money.
For this so what do you say to the current master that has Bond servants I'd start by going to Ephesians 6 9. so after Paul makes the argument about Bond servants obeying he gets to verse 9. and he says this Masters do the same to them and stop your threatening knowing that he who is both their master and yours is in heaven that there is no partiality with him so I would say to them and say okay they want to continue to serve out their sentence fine you cannot threaten them anymore zero force zero threat to which they might reply.
Well if I can't threaten them if I can't use Force what if they decide to leave what if they decide they don't want to be Bond servant anymore threat and force is what keeps the system in place in the first place and I'd say you can't threaten them anymore but if I can't threaten them you understand they're going to walk free and I would say exactly exactly that is the ultimate desire of God anyways is that he wants them to be free.
But I have fields that need to be worked I have things that need to be done the only way I'm going to keep them here is if I pay them exactly now you're tracking yes you're going to pay them what they're worth you are no longer going to force them into this and in fact not only am I going to tell you that you can't use the threat of force to keep them in place I'm going to tell them they should seek their freedom from you which is what Paul does in.
First Corinthians 7 First Corinthians 7 starting in verse 20. it says each one should remain the condition in which he was called were you a bond servant when called do not be concerned about it but if you can gain your freedom Avail yourself of the opportunity which is a convoluted way of saying do it if you can Free Yourself do it four verse 22 he who was called in the Lord as a bond servant is a free man of the Lord likewise he who was free.
When he when called is a bond servant of Christ you were bought with a price do not become Bond Servants of men so I would show that Christian master the ultimate desire is that we would only have one master and his name is Jesus that we only have one master that we serve so yeah you cannot use force and I am going to tell them to go free and if they want to go free you let them go otherwise start paying them.
And then finally I would take them to what I think is the death nail that begins The Snowball Effect that ultimately unravels the system and that is the book of Philemon the book of Philemon is the shortest letter that Paul wrote Paul is writing to a Christian slave owner a Christian Bond servitude or Bond servant owner a master named Philemon and the whole subject of the letter of Philemon is that he is telling him and convincing him you need to free your runaway slave anissimus.
So anisimus is with Paul and he's writing back to Philemon and this is what he argues with Philemon in verse 8 he says accordingly though I am bold enough in Christ to command you to do what is required I'm bold live in Christ to tell you what you should do verse 9 yet for Love's sake I prefer to appeal to you I Paul an old man and now a prisoner also for Christ Jesus have Love's sake the sake of love I'm appealing to you I appeal to you.
For my child onesimus whose father I became an imprisonment and then he goes on to argue in verses 15 16 4 this perhaps is why he was parted from you for a while that you might have him back forever no longer as a bond servant but more than a bond servant as a beloved brother I'm writing to you and appealing to you out of love that you should take onisimus back no longer as a bond servant no longer as property taken back as a brother he is arguing free him.
And then it goes on to say and if you have more verses he basically just says and you owe me anyways because I led you to Christ which is like the ultimate Flex so you're going to do this can you imagine the New Testament churches that were getting these letters that were circulating around and someone brings the letter of Philemon it brings it to this Church and they read the Scripture aloud can you imagine the Holy Spirit softening the heart of Christian Masters realizing that's it that's what I'm supposed to do can you imagine.
God working in their hearts to bring about radical individual change that ultimately helped them see what the heart of God was all along that we are not supposed to make people property if you don't make image Bears property brothers and sisters there are certain subject matters in the Scriptures that take a lot of legwork to understand and slavery is one of them it is one of the most complicated subjects in the Bible and with a few passages ripped from the overall text of the Scripture Skeptics may make you believe that your faith condones making people property don't let them there were certainly a lot of Christians in this very City in the 1800s that made.
Bad biblical arguments to continue the evils of American slavery but they were wrong they were wrong but also don't miss for a moment that the argument against slavery it did not originate from Skeptics it didn't originate from atheists in fact that argue if there is no God and we're all fighting this out together that's kind of the way you'd want to do it to gain power no the argument against slavery never came from anywhere else other than the Scriptures the fight.
For abolition came directly from Christians who were looking at the Scriptures and realizing what it truly said are the seeds for abolition were planted in a I love what the historian Thomas Kidd says he says Christian thought was never uniformly anti-slavery of course until long after legalized slavery vanished in the 1800s and he's dead on because there were Christians in this very City that were not uniformly anti-slavery in the slightest but the sources of anti-slavery thought were always powerfully Chris Christian and you can't study the history of the abolition movement from the UK into America and not.
See that the threat of the Scriptures was always heading towards abolition for there's only one person that is supposed to be our master and his name is Jesus First Corinthians 4 1 this is how we should regard us as Servants of Christ stewards of the mystery of God let's pray Heavenly Father we thank you that we get the whole counsel of your word that we get to see your heart that teaches us and molds us into a people that sees one another as image bearers that sees one another with love I'm thankful.
For the work that took place to bring about the societal change that was planted in individual Hearts 2000 years ago in Jesus name amen the man's going to come up and as we worship I want you to see how good it is that we have a master in Christ and that we get to be his servants he is very good and he is worthy of our worship the one we serve says come to me all who labor and are heavy later and I will give you rest that is the master we get to serve and that is the.
God we get to worship so y'all stand and sing.
The Law (Exodus 21-23)
Use this guide to help your group discussion as you meet this week.
The Tenth Commandment (Exodus 20:17)
Use this guide to help your group discussion as you meet this week.
Transcript
Good morning my name is Chet I'm one of the pastors excited to get to study the word with y'all this morning go to grab a Bible and go to Exodus chapter 20. if you don't have a Bible with you there should be one stuck under the chair in front of you if you don't own a Bible take one of these blue ones home with you that's our gift to you we want you to own a Bible but we are working our way as a Church through the book of Exodus and we have slowed down over the past 10 weeks to walk through the Ten Commandments and we are on the 10th commandment.
And so we are studying the Ten Commandments together and learning one of the things that we've discussed throughout is that we are predisposed As Americans to have a certain type of morality that makes sense to us primarily we think of things as being wrong or right based off of does it hurt someone so even say things like do whatever you want as long as it doesn't hurt someone we also consider things right or wrong based off of fairness but there are other categories that we disregard.
But we need to God's approach to morality is broader than ours it's greater than ours and that we need to adjust and learn and one of the things we've seen is we've studied the Ten Commandments is that God uh promotes human flourishing through these Ten Commandments that if we learned to practice these and follow these life would be better our culture would be better society would be better and that in the Ten Commandments we see God's General design and we'll see the rest of the law kind of grows out of these.
First ten but we're on the tenth one and it's Exodus chapters 20 verse 17. and so it says this 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 now in order for this to be understandable at all we need to know what the word covet means because if you have no definition for that it's like what what did I do to my neighbor's donkey what is coveting coveting is desire wanting.
But it's a specific type of desire a specific type of want craving that is by its very nature sinful there are some desires that are not sinful and so we're going to take our time this morning to try to understand where does desire where does this want become sinful so we're going to pray for our time and then we'll pick right back up there Louie asks that as we study your word together that your Holy Spirit would be at work as we study covetousness which is primarily something that happens inside of us that your Holy Spirit would help us to.
See it so that we might turn from it and turn to you and we ask for your grace and your presence and we ask that all this will be done for your glory in Jesus name amen so there are some desires that are not by their very nature sinful Jesus got hungry Jesus in the garden prays that this cup would pass from him that he wouldn't have to go through with what was about to go through but he submits himself to the Lord's will.
So just wanting a thing isn't necessarily bad there are certain things that we're told in the Bible that are good to want like it's good to want to be a pastor it's good to want a spouse it's fine to want children like there's things that are good things that we should work towards but coveting is a desire that is in its own on its own sinful and and we're going to give a definition to it but let's read this you shall not desire your neighbor's house you shall not want your neighbor's wife or his male servant or his female servant or his ox or his donkey or anything that is your neighbors it's this desire.
Of this wanting that is sinful and I think there's two ways that we'll see that it's sinful one is is a desire for something or someone that is not yours to desire your neighbor's spouse is not yours to desire so by having any desire for your neighbor's spouse you are Desiring something that is not yours to desire and therefore it's out of bounds but I think also as we study this together see that it is Desiring something that is good or.
Okay to desire but Desiring it inordinately Desiring it too much and that is where we suddenly have a lot of questions because this commandment is distinct from the other ten the other or the other nine this is the tenth one there's not another ten you can watch someone commit the other ones you can testify to it you can see it happen you can if you practice one of the other ones no yes I stole that you might have some questions about whether or not this was slander or gossip or whatever.
But you you there's something that's physically taking place you're speaking you're there's words being exchanged when you lie about somebody when you steal something when there's a murder the tenth commandment happens inside of you and it changes our understanding of the Ten Commandments drastically God is giving the law to the people of Israel and he's telling them things like You're Going To Worship me you're not going to have Idols there's going to be a day of worship set aside you're going to be you're going to honor your mother.
Father just helping you all out since the kids are in here this morning they're going to honor your mother and father you don't murder don't steal don't commit adultery he's given all these commands we're going right right right and then he says and don't covet and suddenly it's like wait that hmm that happens just in here that's something I do here and here like if we were talking about laws for South Carolina and we were like and this is a law about property and this is all about driving oh and you're not allowed to sink this you'd immediately be like not allowed to think a thing.
First thought might be how they going to catch me I think whatever I want problem when God gives a law like this is that he knows what's going on inside of you this is some ways terrifying he's talking about what's happening in your heart what's happening in your mind and he cares about it and he's prohibiting things that can't take place inside of us not just things that happen outside of us and so this one's different and suddenly I think rightfully we should have a lot of questions how do I know.
If I've done this how do I see this in myself one of the things I said when we were introducing the Ten Commandments was that much of American consumerism is based off of covetousness we see something we want it we go get it and immediately we had a lot of questions and I think good questions I'm going to give you some examples of the type of questions that I was Fielding after that week and I know some of you all have been looking forward to this week to try to.
See how do I discern this someone said Okay I want shoes I need shoes and I just want them I need them mine have worn out I have a certain type of shoe that I want so I do a little research I then see a person I know wearing the kind of shoe I'm looking for I asked them where they got that shoe I go buy that shoe was that covetousness I think that's a good question I'm at my friend's house and he has an air fryer and I learned new information to me that air fryers can reheat fried chicken which is a problem I've had my entire life on the off chance that Fried.
Chicken escapes the first plate I'd like for it to show up on a second but for anyone who's ever microwaved Fried Chicken you know how utterly disappointing that is so I go buy an air fryer I don't wait till my friend's not looking hit him over the head with a vase and take his air fryer I just go get my own have I coveted I think we have questions like nobody asked me this one I've added this one just to try to help us continue to think.
But I think we have questions like okay leaving consumerism leaving how we approach that and how we know about things if I see an advertisement or whatever we're going to talk more about that but I don't want my neighbor's wife I don't want my neighbor's husband I just want my husband to be more like that is that covetousness so what we're going to do is I have eight tests eight questions for us to ask ourselves to try to identify covetousness in our hearts some of them are similar to other ones some of them are different it's just trying to come at this from different angles to try to say hey.
If this matters to God and if it's something that happens internally and I won't always have external evidence of it how do I know if I'm coveting first test are you Desiring something that is not yours to desire this one's pretty straightforward but wherever there is scarcity meaning some limited resources you could actually say no I don't just want my husband to be like that I want Carl I want Tina that's coveting it's clear straightforward I actually don't just want a house like that I want that house and I'm longing.
For that house and I'm trying to work my situation such that I could eventually have that house I want that job so I want to get this person out of the job so I can have that job that's coveting that's specifically what he is talking about very clearly here this happens when on a small scale when one of my children is holding a popsicle and the other kid immediately wants a popsicle as you do and then the one with the popsicle says oh this is the last popsicle.
And so now I I went from new watch a child go from wanting a popsicle to wanting that popsicle and so when that is happening that's covetousness and so it's one of the first questions to ask do I want that specific one that I would take it that I would get it from that person that I'm going to Crave it desire it second test are you willing to sin to obtain your desire I think if you would consider this for a moment you'll.
See that covetousness is actually behind much of the Ten Commandments then it happens first when you commit adultery you have first desired your neighbor's spouse we see in Joshua 7 21 and Micah 2 2 and in the story of Adam and Eve that they first desired a thing and then took it so they coveted something that was not theirs to covet they belonged to someone else and then they took it so that covetousness is behind theft and other types of Disobedience to.
God James 4 2 says you desire and do not have so you murder you covet and cannot obtain so you fight and quarrel so that covetousness shows up in our actions so let's say if we spent this past week realizing that there are things that you lie about you slander people and you need to work on this one of the things you need to do is not just go I shouldn't lie I shouldn't lie about people but actually go why am I doing that in the.
First place and go a level deeper and begin to repent of your covetousness that you wanted this thing so bad you were willing to sin to have it one of the things they look for in a lot of crimes is motive and I honestly think if you're watching those kind of shows one of the things you could replace that with is just what type of covetousness was present prior to this crime being committed was it Financial was it relational was there adultery.
And then murder that sort of thing so are you willing to sin to obtain it and I think it's worth understanding that even in the small ways that we sin maybe you haven't committed murder but in the ways that you walk around angry at your neighbor that you might understand there's something underneath that third do you believe stuff equals The Good Life if you don't welcome to the United States we'll catch you up Luke 12 15. Jesus teaching and someone in Middle from the crowd says.
Jesus tell my brother to share the inheritance with me Jesus responds to the whole crowd he responds to that guy but then he responds to the whole crowd and he said to them take care and be on your guard against all covetousness four which when you're studying your Bible pay attention to words like four and therefore or because it helps you understand four lot one's life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions I think this one is very helpful.
For our air fryer question is it wrong to own an air fryer I hope not I own one is it wrong for me to buy into the LIE that life is made better by stuff and that life is made up of stuff yes and I should be on guard against that but if we're honest that's what we're trained in if you could just have this new Gadget if you could just have this type of clothes if you could just have this thing life would be better life would be more full.
If you consider how we think about things when we hear that someone wins the lottery we're like ah take it to the good life you hear that someone got a a big promotion they're going to make a lot more money that's the life when you dream about your future is it just you with more stuff what are you what are you working towards it's like well in 10 years I'm on a boat well there's a good chance that you've believed a lie that stuff equals The Good Life that life consists in the abundance of possessions this is what advertising does what it tries to convince you of a lot of products.
If you'll pay attention to the advertising it's not just saying some some of it does some of them says here's the problem and here's how our product fixes that problem but a lot of times the product just sells you on being a type of person or living a type of life this type of man wears this watch if you like skateboards you'll like Mountain Dew or whatever or if you like Mountain Dew you'll be cool enough to like skateboards their professionals are kind of confusing.
But they're selling you on some sort of like car commercials where it's just cool people riding around in the car I don't tell you anything about the car you just know cool people drive that car one of my favorite examples of this that has stuck with me forever I used to work at Sears selling appliances and so I'd be in the mall a good bed and I would take my lunch breaks he had like 20 minutes to walk down get some food go back and I would.
See people carrying Abercrombie and Fitch shopping bags like they went there and they bought stuff now I don't know if Abercrombie and Fitch is still cool but it was when I worked at Sears it's a clothing company that sold expensive cool clothing on their bag was a guy with no clothes on the top half of a naked guy and this is a clothing company if you buy their clothes you will be cool enough to not wear clothes I don't but it proves the point that what we're being sold on is this is a piece of the good life this is a piece of identity this is a piece of who you want to be this.
Is a piece of fulfillment and Jesus says be on guard against that and for us that means 24 7 being on guard against that because we are bombarded with that message so Maybe when you buy an air fryer it was absolutely covetousness maybe when you buy those shoes it was absolutely Covetous maybe when you hear the words come out of your mouth hey where'd you get that shirt it's a hundred percent covetousness and it's worth investigating and trying to figure out what's going on in your heart and what's happening in your belief system as far as where is life found four the next three come from Kevin Dion's book on the Ten Commandments I thought.
He worded them well I thought they were helpful tests and so the next three are from from Kevin to Young and the way he approached us in his book on the Ten Commandments number four are you preoccupied with accumulating more how do you spend your time how do you spend your downtime how do you spend the majority of your time what do you daydream about I think we'll find that there are times when we say I'd love to help I'd love to be able to hang out with our community group I'd love to be there on Sundays.
But too busy I think it's always worth asking too busy with what what does your life look like what are you preoccupied with in the parable of the sower Jesus says there's a sower that goes out and sows the word and there's one where it believes the word and it begins to grow and then it says the cares of this life and the deceitfulness of richers choke the word out so that it is unfruitful and some of you maybe are Christians and you've believed in.
Jesus but you've bought into the lie you're preoccupied with accumulating more and that's what your time goes to it's what your energy goes to what do you what do you spend your time doing what gets the bulk of your energy I understand Bible says that work is good and that we're to pay our own way and that we're to be busy all those things are fine but is that all you care about is that all you work on I think asking the question what do you daydream about is a good question is it just you and the future with more stuff sometimes it gets real specific you just daydream about how cool it would be.
To own a motorcycle and yeah we daydream about some stupid stuff sometimes I have sat around thinking about how great it would be to own a shed and you're like that's a sad little wife yeah that sounds pretty sad just to be like pumped about owning a shed but there are certain things that we'll sit and think man it wouldn't be great if I had this one if I did this if I could and so are we preoccupied with um accumulating more can you not rest can't Sabbath can't take a day off you got.
So much to do because your whole life is built around getting more fifth test do you lack generosity are you unwilling to give up what you already have this is an indication that you may be struggling with covetousness that you believe that life is made up in the abundance of possessions and so therefore anything that takes anything away from you robs you of the point of life robs you of life and therefore any amount of generosity is hard hurtful frustrating you guard your money.
Because your money equates to fullness life Delight Joy I think sometimes we say things like I would I would I'd love to give to that I'd love to get in a place where I could be generous but my budget's just too tight and so I think if that's you take a look at your budget because it'll tell you what you care about we make room for stuff I in general we're taught to make this much money and make your budget here often we make our budget here.
Therefore we actually spend up here but as Christians we should make this much money and make our budget here and if we start making more money our budget can go up some maybe but maybe what we give also grows exponentially that we get to be generous and so if you can't be generous there's a good chance that you believe and I'm not saying if you make very little money and you're fine but I everybody can find ways to be generous in some form or fashion.
And so if that doesn't ever happen for you and you've said this for years if I could just get to there but you've actually gotten a promotion you've actually begun to make a little more money you've actually both of y'all are working now or whatever and it still hasn't happened there's a good chance you struggle with covetousness number six do you Grumble and complain about life do you say must be nice a lot I must be nice this is where I think I don't actually want to marry that guy I just want my guy to be more like that guy I think that shows up here I just wish that my wife cooked like that.
Or would go get a job like that I wish that my husband would treat the kids like that or would fix things instead of breaking things or whatever what we often do when we're doing that is we compare somebody else's best qualities with somebody else's worst qualities but do you find that you complain a lot you Grumble a lot I wish I had that car everybody else gets to have this kind of thing everybody else gets to do one of these like you spend time on Facebook.
And then you're just frustrated everybody else gets to go on vacation everybody else gets to smile in pictures everybody else smile looks good in pictures I wish I had those parents I wish I had that hair as if life not lamenting sin not lamenting the Brokenness in the world but lamenting your lot in life as if you're owed more and that everybody else is succeeding around you and you're the only one as if if you had those things that would fix what what's going on in your heart.
So do you Grumble and complain I think this is where the TV show HGTV comes in or the channel I think you can watch that you can learn things it can be just whatever so I'm but I also think that you can watch HGTV and then hate your own house go to someone else's house ever been to someone else's house and it's nice and you walk around and go this is nice wow and then you go back to your house and you go what a dump have you ever been mad at the amount of bathrooms your house had like more people need to go to the bathroom in my house at one time or your.
Functional perfectly functional bathroom now doesn't have the things that it should have to make it feel like a special fancy like this that's this is this I I now have created a desire a want a frustration and I'm grumbling and complaining and no longer content this next one goes with it number seven does the joy of others make you discontent you ever been just having like a normal day and then someone else comes and has a happy day next to you.
So your day is now worse you ever been enjoying a meal eating with some people but there's that table that won't stop laughing and having more fun than you and so now your meal is worse I my sons showed me this stuff periodically and I can see it clearly in them but it helps me see it more in myself but I know there have been times where one of my sons has to go to school wakes up normal day rocking along going to school.
Then suddenly discovers that his brother does not have to go to school whoa whoa his day is now worse he's going to do the exact same stuff but somewhere out there his brother is not suffering also and now things are worse but we do that something that actually has no effect on our life whatsoever but they have a new car they got to go on a vacation they got a promotion you're hanging out with your community group someone announces something you're like oh that's.
So good you but then you get in your car and you're like why God why is it always them never me and so someone else's Joy rather than you getting to be included in the joy makes life worse that's covetousness that someone else is getting married someone else is having kids someone else got a job someone else gets a vacation and therefore your life is worse but that's not actually how it works and the truth is if we can learn to do what Paul says which is to Rejoice with those who Rejoice you can actually increase your joy by getting to share in the joy of others.
So to tell my sons if you'll learn how to have all your own victories and then share in your brothers you'll get double the victories if you learn how to rejoice when he rejoices in your community group if you learn how to genuinely rejoice when other people rejoice but so often it happens the other way because of covetousness number eight test does what you desire make God-sized promises to you okay there are certain claims promises that only God can deliver on hope true Delight satisfaction salvation fixing what's wrong with you.
But then there are things that promise to do that for us this is idolatry this is this is Paul talking about this he does it in Ephesians 5 and Colossians 3 Ephesians 5 for you may be sure of this that everyone who is sexually immoral or impure or who is Covetous that is an idolater has no inheritance in the Kingdom of Christ and God for Colossians 3 5 put to death therefore what is Earthly in you sexual immorality impurity passion evil desire and covetousness which is idolatry.
So in the Ten Commandments the first one was you will have no other gods before me and the second was you will make no Idols you have no graven images you'll have nothing that you look to and worship and long for and then Paul is saying that's exactly what covetousness is and that makes a lot of sense that's why we'd sin to get it if I if you're willing to sin to get something it's actually because you believe that it will satisfy you in a way that Christ can't.
So it's worth disobeying him it's worth running from him it's worth doing something that you know he says is out of bounds because you really want this thing that's idolatry it'll bring me more joy it'll bring me more hope it will fill me up I'll be satisfied so what in your life do you say if I could just have blank everything would be fixed if I could just get this job I could just make this much money one of the scariest ones.
If I could just get married oh Lord help your future spouse because you need them to be Jesus and they are not if I could just have kids oh Lord help your kids you need them to fix what's wrong with you you need them to satisfy bring you hope and this isn't just struggling in life and saying Lord help provide I'd love to get another job and trusting in Him in the midst of it that's what Jesus prays in the garden he says.
If if this can happen but I trust you but idolatry is I just need this I don't need you and if you won't let me have this then I'll get rid of you so I can have it I'll sin to get it I'll chase after it no matter what you're you're the one who's disposable if you'll serve my real God I'll follow you but if you won't serve my real God I'm out this is why you'll sleep with your boyfriend it's where your real.
God is this is why you'll embezzle or steal or lie or whatever is because this is the real thing I want and as long as God's lined up and helping me have the kids I want to have then great but if God won't give them to me then I'm over here this is why often when we get the thing we don't need God anymore we've got the thing we wanted it's idolatry and it can be seen easily at times sometimes we have little ones actually I love this tweet.
Because it just resonates with me so well this is a tweet in 1998 I begged my mom to buy Me jinko jeans she agreed but only on the condition we do a photo shoot to prove to My Future Self how stupid I looked Look Who's laughing now Mom I love this I'm gonna move out of y'all's way so y'all can appreciate jinkos now some of you are like what on Earth is a jinko gene it could be bell bottoms it could be a perm it could be a type of car it could be a type of jacket we've all done this.
If I could have this thing y'all when I was in Middle School I died just the top of my head White why not your whole head you ask I don't know I was in Middle School and it was awesome for like a week I was like nailed it and then I had to keep looking at myself and I was like this is stupid but your hair doesn't grow that fast you just have to deal with it you know eventually I had those little frosted tips you know this is a clear example of.
If I could have this thing be all we hadn't stopped since middle school some of us have just picked a bigger one if you'd actually think back through your life there's 10 things you've already gotten and they just didn't do it so you quit daydreaming about them you quit putting your hope in them and you just picked a new thing to put your hope in and that's covetousness and that's idolatry those are our eight tests and I think if you take the time to consider them they will help you figure out what is going on what it is that you truly are chasing after and whether or not you were walking in covetousness.
But here's the wonderful thing this commandment I said at the beginning it's kind of terrifying because God's looking inside of you and saying this is a problem too but y'all that's wonderful if the Ten Commandments were all only things that we did rules about things that you're not supposed to do that mess up society that would be good and helpful but when he puts this one in here he does something in the tenth and in the first that tie together and the.
First he says you'll have no other gods before me and when he talks about idolatry in the second one he says he's a jealous God meaning that he desires our affection and when he gets to this one he says I care about your heart you should look at the Ten Commandments tenth commandment and no that Jesus loves you that God loves you you that he cares about what is happening inside of you you know I care about my children's Behavior that they don't make my house a terrible place to live.
But yeah I care about what's going on inside of them I care about their heart I care about their relating to me to their mom to each other and when God puts this in here the Ten Commandments go from don't mess up the nation I'm building to oh no no no no no it's so much more than that because we would look at this as Americans and go okay I understand why covetousness is bad down the line I understand how it can tear things up later.
If I steal or I murder or whatever but just what's going on inside of me is my own business this is a victimless crime and God says no you're the victim of your own sin and your own Brokenness and you're robbing yourself of joy and delight and you're robbing yourself of me and I won't have it and we know he won't have it we know he cares this much about our hearts not just because he gives us the tenth commandment.
Because Jesus comes to Earth to die to claim us pay for our sins certainly but because he loves us and wants us to belong to him forever he doesn't just come and say I'm going to pay for your sin so that you won't be sinful and you'll quit annoying me and you'll quit messing things up he comes and says I'm going to pay for your sins so that you can belong to me forever so you can be adopted in so you can be my cherished possession.
So that as Paul says who loved me and gave himself up for me this is wonderful and in Christ we have hope that he redeems sinful broken Wicked Ten Commandment breaking Rebels and he does it because he loves us and cherishes us and is unwilling that we would love something else but that we would know fully who he is and how wonderful he is so the hope of finding out are we Covetous is not so that we'll quit being bad.
So that we might Delight in Jesus who is the only one in whom we will ever find satisfaction salvation and Delight that we might clear out the Clutter so we can have more of Christ it's worth it because he's worth it and because he loves us enough to take our hearts and claim them let's pray Lord we pray that we would not covet they would help us to see it in ourselves that we would repent of it that we would cherish you above all else that you would be our highest affection.
Because only in you what we find satisfaction and Delight we ask that your Holy Spirit would be at work in us right now to help us to begin to see this that you'd help us to grow and fight against be on guard against all covetousness so that we might know that life is found in you in Jesus name amen the band's going to come back up in a moment we're going to sing and we're going to take communion communion is a celebration a practice of the Church to.
Remember physically remind ourselves and physically Proclaim that Jesus died to save Sinners to Proclaim his death until he comes and so if you are a Christian communion is for you to partake in in Repentance and faith so that you would take a moment to consider what Christ has done for you the cost of your faith and that you might repent that you might come to him once again saying I need you I need you to work in my heart I need you to claim my heart I need you to keep me you.
But I have you but I get to par take in your salvation so we partake and it's a physical thing that reminds you that you feel the reality of what he's accomplished for us if you are not a Christian communion is not for you but Christ is Christians to celebrate what Christ has done just as baptism is and we would invite you to come to him and say I need you to save me I need you to change my heart because I'm on I want you could follow all the Ten Commandments to the best of your ability you would still fall short and you would still not fix what is going on in you.
You would still miss the point which is that Christ is good and he redeems sinners so may you come to him and ask for forgiveness and ask for Grace and trust in him today so take a moment where you are to consider ask the Lord to help you see where you are Covetous repent and then Delight in the sacrifice made on your behalf.
The Ninth Commandment (Exodus 20:16)
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The Eighth Commandment (Exodus 20:15)
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The Seventh Commandment (Exodus 20:14)
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Unfortunately, we had technical difficulties with this week’s sermon and none of the audio was recorded. If you questions about the content of the seventh commandment as you prepare for group meeting time this week, email spencer@millcitycayce.com.
The Sixth Commandment (Exodus 20:13)
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The Fifth Commandment (Exodus 20:12)
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Transcript
My name is Chet I'm one of the pastors here grab a bobble and go to Exodus chapter 20. if you have one of these blue baubles in the seat in front of you it'll be page 35 we are back in the book of Exodus we took a few weeks off around Easter but we are working our way through Exodus and we've slowed down some as we've hit the lawn we've been working our way through the Ten Commandments and we have covered the.
First four and the first four Commandments to deal with our relationship to God who he is who we are how we're to relate to him how we're to worship him and that the last six Commandments deal with our relationship with each other so it's there's a vertical aspect of the Ten Commandments and there's this horizontal relational aspect of the Ten Commandments and we are in the fifth commandment today when Jesus is asked what is the greatest commandment he says love the.
Lord your God with all your heart with all your soul with all your mind with all your strength and he says in the second is like it that you would love your neighbor as yourself on these two hang all the law and the law grows out of the Ten Commandments and the Ten Commandments is structured in that way the first four to love the Lord our God and the last six are to love our neighbor and how to do that so let's read it's the Exodus chapter 20.
Verse 12. honor your father and your mother that your days may be long in the land that the Lord your God is giving you I'm gonna read that one more time honor your father and your mother that your days may be long in the land that the Lord your God is giving you uh Lord uh let's pray together um Lord we we're thankful for the way you designed the world to work we're thankful for the way you designed families to work I know as we read this that there's much difficulty um in how did we apply this how do we live this out there's much pain in these relationships there's a lot of joy in.
These relationships and so Lord we just pray that you would help us to listen well to your word this morning grow together as we seek to submit to you and to have the blessing that comes with honoring our fathers and mothers in Jesus name amen um so we said when we first started off looking at the Ten Commandments that there are different moral foundations for uh how are we to understand what is right and what is wrong and we said that there was a book called The Righteous Mind whereas a guy who's doing clinical psychologist who was just studying this he was studying the psychology of morality and he came up with categories and we.
Said that those categories were helpful and that you see them in the Bible although they're not listed out that way in the Bible and that in general God has all the categories and then cultures focus on highlight different ones and so we showed you this chart this is Western cultures the cultures that we're in right now the categories are at the bottom care and harm fairness loyalty Authority and sanctity but we're primarily versed in trained in we know all the lyrics to care and harm and fairness we we are concerned with Justice with Equity we're concerned with does everybody get a fair shake these are things that we discuss does everybody have an equal opportunity.
These are things that we are worried about and we are worried about harming someone we know that that's immoral to harm someone we say do whatever you want as long as it doesn't hurt someone like we we're practiced in this but this commandment rests in authority which in general we're pretty low in if I was actually to to ask you or ask the average American to list off what are the dangers that come along with authority what are the things that are immoral and wrong that go along with authority most of us would turn this direction and talk about the abuse of authority that those who are in authority lorded over others those who are.
In Authority abuse their Authority that people are oppressed because of authority you would not have many people who would turn this direction and go the rejection of good authority is harmful we need more Authority and we need more submission to Authority imagine for a moment that you are at a child's birthday party for some of you this is not difficult to imagine you've been to four this month you raise your children and then you hang out with their friends on the weekend.
But imagine you're at a child's birthday party and you see a mother and she's wearing a shirt that says raise them kind yeah that's good that's a good way to raise your children uh uh no problem with that that's a general good concept like raise some kind you might think that's a little bold to think you need to wear that like you got to coach up all the other parents let's see how kind your kid's being but then that's just because you're a little aggressive and have some problems that's fine.
But in general it's a good statement nothing wrong with that t-shirt it's a good idea we should raise your children kind but imagine you're at the party and and that's not what her shirt says her shirt says raise them obedient now immediately we're like hmm I know that's not a mass-produced shirt so you went out of your way to make it um obedient how obedient to whom obedient why obedient all the time like we have honestly the shirt could say overthrow the government and we would give that less thought than raise them obedient and that tells you something about our culture and about our approach to understanding respecting and valuing good authority.
Because the Bible is not anti-authority it's anti-bat Authority but it's pro-good Authority it just bad things are bad and good things are good which isn't super insightful so we need to understand what what is good authority and why has God designed it this way so as we study this I think the first thing we need to see it says honor your father and your mother I think the first thing we have to ask is what does the word honor mean what is that word.
Well the word is coved and it means heavy or weighty there are a few times where it's used that way like in Genesis somebody's eyes are conveyed with age which means heavy with age they can't see well there's in Sodom gomor their sin is described as conveyed and it's translated Grievous but mostly this word is used to mean Glory honor it's mostly used the way we're supposed to treat God that we're supposed to honor God we're supposed to respect God we're supposed to approach him that he holds the weight I don't know.
If you've ever been in situations where you could tell that the room tilted to one person they were the weighty person at the table they were the weighty person in decision making people would discuss things but then they would all look to one person to like you're the person who's actually going to decide this and that's what's meant to happen with parents that they're to have weight that they're to have Glory and if that's the word that's primarily used for how we're to treat.
God you have to understand that this is learned in your relationship with your parents that they're the they set the framework they're the first people you know they're your primary relationship they set the framework for how is this ultimately going to translate into the rest of life and how's this ultimately going to translate into worshiping the Lord the second part of this that's what honor means that weightiness would shift to them I think we do need to acknowledge that in much of our culture and much of our relationships we flip this and that our children hold a lot of weight a lot of families are built around what did the kids want what do they.
Want to watch what do they want to eat what do they want to do with their time what are the kids doing our whole culture has shifted towards youth culture we are not a culture that reveres elderly people when we ought to and the Bible calls us to that but we're not a culture that does that we argue that they you know got to move out of the way make room for the next big thing we in our consumeristic culture we aim everything at like 15 to 25 year olds.
And so we have some work to do to try to learn how to apply this but the second part of this is that there's a promise it says honor your father and your mother that the days that your days may be long in the land that the Lord your God is giving you and that's not just the I brought you into this world I'll snatch you out of it God's saying something more here Ephesians 6 when Paul was writing about this he says children obey your parents in the.
Lord meaning this is a Godly thing to do even as Christians we anchor it in Christ for this is right honor your father and your mother this is the first commandment with a promise that it may go well with you and that you may live long in the land there's a promise attached to this commandment and it's not simply a one-to-one promise it is generally true for each child if they learn how to do this it blesses them it helps them live long in the land it helps life go.
Well with them but it's not a specific one-to-one promise it's not like if you meet someone who's a hundred that means definitively they were excellent at obeying or if someone's life Is tragically cut short that we can be like well I guess you didn't eat all your peas at home when you're it's not how that works it's not a direct one-to-one thing it's a promise to the nation that's why he says in the land that the Lord your God is giving you that this is a blessing to the people and that makes a lot of sense your initial primary relationship is to your parents it is where you learn what relationships are like.
And so it's a Proving Ground a practice ground for what this should look like and it's bad for society when children do not learn how to respect the authority of their parents Augustine is an African Church father says if anyone fails to honor his parents is there anyone he will spare this is why it has a capital offense execution is applied in cases of rejection of authority of parents in Exodus in Leviticus and in Deuteronomy for cursing your parents striking your parents and long lifetime rejection and Rebellion against your parents all of those are capital offenses one of them actually says bring them together Stone them and let the community.
See and fear but it's not a far jump to understand that if we raise Sons who don't learn to respect authority if we raise sons who don't learn how to understand where boundaries are specifically mothers if you raise sons that don't have to listen to you and they never learn to follow a boundary set by another lady it's not a far jump to understand how that translates into society and so this is the place where we are to learn to live in relationships and there's a promise of blessing.
When we do this well that the the nation is blessed Kevin De Young Who out quite a few times because he wrote he's a pastor and wrote a book on the Ten Commandments and I thought some of his Insight was helpful he said is it not too much to say that loving your neighbor begins with Mom and Dad I think that's helpful to understand why this matters so we're going to ask three questions today we're gonna try to answer three questions.
Today how do we honor our parents how do we raise children to honor us and what do we do when our parents are dishonorable how do we honor our parents how do we raise our children to honor us and what do we do when our parents are dishonorable okay first question how do we honor our parents John Calvin says that this word honor includes three things and I think they're helpful for trying to break it out a little bit reverence obedience and gratitude.
So good handles on what should honor look like reverence obedience and gratitude reverence you show them respect you show them deference he treats them the way you would treat think of someone that like if you met the president how would you act that's the weight that's supposed to shift towards your parents some some sincere genuine honor glory weightiness reverence it means that we should watch how you speak to your parents there should be yes sirs and yes ma'ams there should be uh you shouldn't cut them off.
When they're talking you shouldn't disregard what they say you shouldn't roll your eyes you should stop and let them speak you should hear them out it should be genuine respect in how we speak to and interact with our parents you should watch how you speak not only to your parents but about your parents some of us are in a habit of dissecting our parents belittling our parents speaking ill of our parents and it's dishonoring and we need to be careful that we honor our parents there to be treated with reverence my granddad was a missionary in Nigeria and he I was at his house.
For Christmas and somebody came by and he said when did they get here I was like I think they've been here as one of my cousins and he said I miss Nigeria and I was like why he said you didn't go to a house without first presenting yourself to the Baba and you didn't leave a house without presenting yourself to the Baba and he's like I don't like people just being in my house they need to come present themselves to me and culturally we don't have a lot of that.
But we need to figure out as Christians how to how to build in respect and deference to our parents so reverence obedience do what they tell you to do this is specifically most clear for the children that live at home with your parents right now when they ask you questions like will you sweep it's not really a question you just say yes not no thank you when they say go do this you go do it it shouldn't be a labored discussion you should obey and you should obey.
When you're asked to do something yes ma'am yes sir you should um no huffing no stomping no eye rolling no groaning it shouldn't be hey I need you to go do this and you go foreign that's irreverent dishonoring you are to obey now immediate American question is what are the limits on obedience what if I'm getting older what are the like how much do I obey that's great for I'm glad you said that to my kids but me obey I'm older how do I do that in relation to my parents I will say I think Kevin young has a helpful Point here.
So I'm going to read his quote he said parents should not expect the same obedience from grown children as they did when their children were young so for those of you who have grown children you can't call them up and say hey my pastor said obey your parents clean your room quit that job I hate break up with that person I dislike and come back here like you can't it's not going to be exactly that he says we see a Divine Design in Genesis that.
Jesus later reiterates in Matthew 19. a man will leave his father and mother and cleave to his wife and the two will become one flesh there is a making of your own household that loosens the obedience but you still have to operate in the honor category and I will submit to you that because that is often our first question it is not something we are in drastic danger of what I mean is I don't think there's many people in this room who have become adults and think I just got to learn how to not immediately directly obey everything my parents tell me to do that's the thing I have a problem with I would submit.
To you that you actually need to begin heading in the other direction and start showing more honor and obedience to your adult parents in a gracious way because we don't celebrate that culturally but there is a need for some of that even as you are older in a way to show deference and honor to your parents it's difficult should be carried out with wisdom but it is a way to honor our parents even as we grow older and as they grow older.
Third one gratitude be thankful y'all I have two sons and I'm not exaggerating that I have literally not figuratively saved their lives thousands of times sometimes multiple times in the same day should I wear a cape probably but this is parenting you are here because your parents literally not figuratively saved your lives thousands of times mostly what your parents did we're going to talk about some mistakes and some sins we'll talk about that in a little while but for most of us mostly what your parents did just try their best feed you clothe you help you go to school sought to help you succeed in life gave you counsel that you disliked.
Because they like you told you things you did not want to hear because they love you mostly what your parents did was lose their hair give up their waistline give up their money give up their time so that you could exist as a real person in the world and they need to be told thank you they need to be treated with some appreciation and gratitude and for those of you who live at home with your parents everybody can make a phone call.
Today everybody can set up a meal everybody can just say how I want to talk a little bit I want to check in and see how things are going everybody can do that potentially but for those of you who live at home with your parents you will have multiple opportunities this very day to say thank you because I'm willing to bet that your parents go out of their way quite often to help your life be better it's quite possible when you get home there will be food there will be some clothes there will be parents they're genuinely trying to help you enjoy life and succeed in life and there will be many opportunities.
For you to just say thank you they fix a meal that you don't like well guess what they still fed you so you don't have to say I don't like this meal you can say thank you for cooking yeah you can show gratitude for the care that has offered you and we ought to so how do we honor our parents reverence obedience and gratitude next question how do we raise our children to honor us if your children are going to obey their parents.
If they're going to honor their parents they're going to be taught to do this by their parents because you teach them everything you do this all the time and so you have to understand that this is a thing that you ought to be teaching them for their good the reason you do this is not because they will annoy you if you don't that's just a perk it's not the reason the reason you do this is because you want them to to live.
Well and long in the land you want them to have joy you want them to have life that's the whole thing that you're doing all the time with your children is you're working for their good and so this has to be added as a category of a thing that you're going to help them do and we're not set up well as Americans to do this because the wielding of authority makes you feel uncomfortable potentially there's a potential for you to feel like I just feel.
So bossy I feel so demanding I feel like I'm just in my child's way we've been trained by our culture that what your job as a parent to do is to help your child blossom into the person they're going to be help them find themselves almost in some ways they're perfect on their own you just kind of get out of their way we're taught that your parents mess you up they don't help you y'all we're Christians we know that's nonsense if your child figures out who they are on their own we know what that is a sinner.
Look at little Timmy he's blossomed into a real jerk well I'm glad God gave him some parents somebody needs to help him out because on their own they're not just going to find every good and perfect way that God has designed for them to be some good authority in their life and so you need to understand that this is one of the roles that you occupy and you do this naturally with other things you're you're doing this all the time with your children you're helping them know what is right and what is wrong what is good and what is not and you need to understand that part of that is that they would honor.
Respect you and that's not prideful it's good for them so this is how we oh I want there's four C's we're gonna talk about I'm going to say them to you quickly and then we'll get into running through them fairly quickly as well you need consistency this is four keys to helpfully trying to train your children to honor and to respect to obey consistency correction consequences and celebration the last one could be reward but then it wouldn't be four C's so you're welcome four C's all right here's what we often do in parenting this is what parenting should.
Look like sorry Freedom should increase with age when your children are little when they're first born they have no choices whatsoever the older they get they should have more choices but two and three and four-year-olds should have very limited choices do you want to go to bed now or do you want to read a book first and then go to bed do you want to eat green beans or corn these are do you want this haircut or this haircut you want me to tighten it up or shave it all off those are the choices I give my sons like what you got some limited choices sometimes they have no choices at all eat this I.
Don't like this no that's incorrect you're supposed to say thank you sometimes they have no choices I give this choice to my children quite a lot when we went out to restaurants I would say you can calm down and eat your food with a good attitude or we can go outside I will spank you and then we will come back inside and you will calm down and eat your food with a good attitude which would you like to do and I had someone tell me one time we left and they said that was really manipulative and I said no it was not those were his actual choices he had no.
Third option and I'm trying to help him learn how to choose well but over time we increase the freedom The Hope being that when it's time to leave our house they're ready they know how to make choices we've helped get them there we've helped them think through that but here's what happens quite often is this chart we start off no rules let them just figure it out because a defiant three-year-old is cute they're a rascal a defiant little mischievous four-year-old in some way.
So many ways is precious because they can't they can't really harm you they can't really harm the people around them they can be aggravating and frustrating but you love them and so often as a parent you're just like oh well you know but the problem is at 10 11 12 13 14 those cute behaviors of rebellion and Defiance and disrespect are not cute they are dangerous and you freak out and you clamp down well then no phone no no you bring the hammer down and it doesn't go.
Well and your problem is not a new problem you say what is going on with them it's like this has been going on for 12 years so we don't want this chart if you're there by God's grace you can labor well but the Hope being that we would have the other chart so let's go through really quickly consistency all that means is do the same thing all the time all the time all the time isn't that tiring yes it is exhausting that you have to have the same rules all the time whether you are tired or they are tired whether you have eaten and whether they have eaten like these are these have to be.
The same all the time otherwise they don't know where the boundaries are it's a good way to make somebody psychotic you've got to have some good structure on this is what this looks like all the all the all the time I uh my when my oldest son was three and four I'd wake up in the morning stretch lace my shoes up because I was about to fight a three-year-old for 12 hours he was not easy there's a there's a quote from Jurassic Park.
When they're talking to the game warden and they ask are the Velociraptors smart and he goes oh they're smart and he looks at him and he says they were testing the fences for weaknesses systematically and they remember that was my four-year-old so the fence had to be there every day all the time and I would just look at him and go it hadn't moved like we're gonna you want to keep running into it it's the same thing but it has to stay.
So you need consistent correction you correct your children all the time you say things like no that's not green that's blue no that no that's not a cat that's a dog you you already all the time correcting your children one of the things you have to put in there is that you correct them on disrespect you say to them I have my oldest son at times will just come in hot with a question he'll start off with okay but why did I say stop I'll say try again I'm your daddy you want to talk to Ellis like that go.
For it or I'll say oh boy who are you talking to he'll say mama and I'll go okay no you ain't not like that sometimes I say who are you talking to and he'll go Ellis I'm gonna carry on but you're just correct you just said that's not no no that's not how you respond like I'm telling you I give my boys food and they'll say I don't like this and I'll say no that's incorrect that's not how you respond when someone gives you food.
Because you want people to feed you and you're dependent on other people to feed you what do you say when people give you food thank you there you go you nailed it and it's just correction because you expect that they're going to have to operate in a way because you're working towards their joy that you're going to train them up to understand how to live a life where there's Authority because I y'all your world is a fake little world where you have to mimic some of the real world things.
Because you're going to send them out into the real world if you don't train your children how to interact with people all the people in their life who do not love them will teach them and they will teach them by not being their friend they will teach them by being really mean to them every teacher they have will stare at them with this angry look every face they meet people won't want to watch I've explained to my boys before if you don't learn how to.
Listen to me your granddad won't take you fishing and he won't tell you he's not taking you fishing but he'll think Hmm should I take them fishing and then he'll think no because they're the most aggravating children in the world and he won't call you up and say this to you you just won't get invited and he loves you and I love you and I want you to get to go fishing so do what I'm telling you to you coach them up that's the whole point.
Okay consequences should be consistent consequences and celebration this is very simple good behavior should get good results and bad behavior should get bad results that's it and you just need to think through was this a good behavior how does it get a good result was this a bad behavior has a bad result and you have to do that all the time so the thing that I said about the restaurants that's true I've done that with both of my sons because I want us to be able to go eat at restaurants it's one of my wife and I favorite things.
If we get more disposable income we just eat more y'all but that's it and so I want to be able to eat at the restaurant and they'll terrorize me so if they throw a fit at a restaurant and I pick him up and take him outside and let him play in the grass guess who's going to throw a fit at the restaurant again because he got a reward if you've ever watched me taking a child out of a restaurant who was screaming they're already screaming I'm pinching their leg.
So that you can't see you just think he's throwing a fit on his own he is not enjoying the walk outside because I don't want him to think that this is a good thing to have happen I'll pinch his leg real hard but just enough to like us uncomfortable I'm not trying to harm him it's just got to be a negative consequence we get outside we talk often they get popped we bring them back I've done this I've ruined whole meals like this.
Because I don't want every meal ruined and I want them to learn this isn't a good behavior there's a there's a better one so there should be consequences and you should have them and know what they are you should have set ones your children should know what they are I was hanging out uh was one of the first times I ever met this guy who ends up he ended up joining our community group and his daughters were there and they were doing something he told them to stop and they said they kept on he looked at him and said do you want a consequence and they both went like this one no sir I didn't.
Know what the consequence was but they knew what the consequence was I asked him later he said sometimes he just uses the word consequence so it gives him time to make up what it's going to be which I thought was brilliant he doesn't like signing himself up for something he's going to have to stick to in the moment so he just says consequence and he'll figure it out later but they knew there was going to be one and that's all I'm saying is you've got to figure out real consequences that actually translate help them understand that's the whole point.
Because there are real life consequences to all the things they're going to do for example if I tell you to sit down and you don't sit down or if I tell you to come to me and you don't come to me there's going to be a consequence and I try to explain to my sons one day we're going to be in a parking lot and I'm going to say stop and if we haven't practiced this a thousand times in our house you're going to get hit by a truck and I don't want you to get hit by a truck.
So you're going to get hit a little bit at my house with my hand popped just a little so that there's a deterrent so that we don't ever get there and that's that's what I'm talking about and for you it may be time out for you it's just got to be real to them that's all right greater consequences for defiance and Rebellion if you saw your son I came in the other day I saw my younger son holding some of the sharpest tweezers I've ever seen in my entire life and he was near his brother's face I have no clue what they were doing.
But on the off chance it was eye surgery I walked in I saw that I went hey no you know sometimes you just make noises at your children because you don't have words or the words you have aren't good ones to shout foreign hands up put the tweezers down and to do that because the risk levels through the roof well I at one point had to explain to my wife I said hey I've realized something I'm going to have to crank up the intensity on some of the things with our children it's not.
Because I've lost my cool or I'm enraged it's because what they're doing needs to be met in their mind with the same amount of intensity because it's got the same amount of problems coming down the line one of my sons turns and yells at his mother no I am up out of my chair boy if you lost your mind because I want him to understand this same level of this is not okay I need them to do like this for just a.
Second and then we get to the next part which is celebration your house if it's going to have consistent correction and consequences it needs consistent celebration it needs to be a place of Joy that's what you want so good things need good results you need to celebrate I often after disciplining my children well then I'll hold them I say look I love you I want good things for you I'm not out to get you I want our home to be a happy place I'll tell them all the time after they get disciplined I say.
Look we're going back out there and we're reset this isn't going to hang over our head all day this is a fun place this is Joy here y'all if I I learned I used to look at my little babies and I'd be like you're gonna eat that food because they fight you over every little thing and then they would eat it and I would just stare at them like you turn right you're gonna eat the food and I realized that was.
So messed up it just did what I asked so they eat it and then I go good yeah yeah multiple occasions with my son I've said do you want to leave the restaurant go get spanked you want to calm down and eat your own food and they go calm down and eat my own food and I go that's how would it be I'm proud of you that's brilliant do that because it's the truth there ought to be times where you brag on your children make it a rule don't speak negatively about your children in front of your children speak positively about your children in front of your children brag on them to your spouse do.
You know what he did do you know how good he is you can watch them swell up when you're going to rehearse something with them rehearse what they're going to do that's good I'll put them in bed at night instead of just saying if you get out of bed again and run down the hall you're going to get popped what I'll say is hey you're going to do a really good job tonight you're going to lay in bed you're gonna calm down you're going to go to sleep we're gonna have an enjoyable night this is the moment that's going to end our night this hug you're not going to have to get bopped we're going.
To build in that direction but there should be celebration sometimes it's a high five sometimes it's a smile sometimes it's ice cream you pick sometimes it's an extra book at night or whatever sometimes it's uh they get to go on a trip if they're older kids you get to do I know most of my illustrations are I got all illustrations up to eight I'll get them more as I go over time but you think about it what's a real celebration what's a real way to honor this what's a real way.
Because y'all it's not bribery it's how the world works bad behavior gets bad results good behavior gets good results and you want to train that one last one I know we got a lot of parents with smaller children one of the rules at my house is if you pout or cry or throw a fit you don't get whatever you were pouting crying or throwing a fit for that's just simply that I don't want to train you that in order to be happy you have to be miserable it's a weird psychological thing.
So we just learned you can be okay without getting the thing you want and if you throw a fit for it you won't get it but those sort of rules you design your own they're your children they just should have consistent things because we love them and God has designed for them to have a family we have Isaac and Spencer worked really hard to get a road map for parenting that is designed off of the age of your children things you should be talking to them about things they should know about.
Jesus it's on our website you should use that you need all the help you can get we all do and you should help train your children to love you to respect and honor you both mother and father specifically to dads don't get in a situation where you may get a point of Pride that your children listen to you and they don't listen to their mother don't do that you help design a household where they listen to their mother as well because they're supposed to honor both their.
Father and mother and their needs training in them okay yeah what do we do when our parents are dishonorable God by Design on purpose made it to where your parents have great weight in your life and parents that's a that's a heavy weight you need to understand for your children he by design made it to where what you do and say matters and that's good when it's good and that's bad when it's bad it's like when you go to take a test and this one's 50 of your grade.
For the whole semester that's kind of how parenting works it's parents have a lot of impact on their children and so for some of us that means that there were things that our parents did for most of us there are things that our parents did that were hurtful stuck with us changed how we thought about ourselves changed how we understood our place in the world some in this room had truly genuinely horrific parents then when I was saying earlier that mostly what they did was care.
For you that that wasn't even true and I'm sorry because that was not God's good design but we live in a fallen world if that's on this end even as you come back this way all of us have things that our parents did that they said that they did and they responded our parents are sinners who made mistakes who had lapses of judgment for for many of you your parents might have had you when they were quite young and just figuring it out some of you might have had parents that weren't Christians or became Christians later in life some of us had parents who had addiction issues anxiety issues problems with how they treated.
Spoke to people like did we grew up in difficult situations so what do we do for those who are currently at home with parents like this or for when you're thinking through how you to understand obedience in those sort of situations I want to read as we first start looking at this I want to read a quote from Kevin De Young he says are there limits to honoring parents in a word yes Authority can be abused in Acts chapter 5 we.
See a principle that has to do with governments but also parents Church leadership and any other authority over us if the choice is between obeying God or obeying Men We obey God if you're com if your parents command you to do what God forbids or forbid what God commands you cannot and must not obey your parents I'm going to read that again if your parents command you to do what God forbids or forbid what God commands you cannot and must not obey your parents.
But even in those hopefully rare cases there's still a way to be respectful and honor your parents even if they are asking something of you that they don't have the authority to ask yes there is a limit to obedience but as we follow this command we are all called to honor to show respect which is extremely painful to consider in some cases and what I would like to submit to you is that you cannot do this outside of Christ but in Christ we can do something that is radically counter-cultural we can honor parents who do not deserve it which does not translate it is not a conclusion you will come to in our culture.
But it is a conclusion that we can come to and something that we can operate in as Christians in a way that is counter-culturally brings great glory to Christ displays the love of the father and the empowerment of the Holy Spirit you see often we are trained culturally to dissect our parents to play up their weaknesses and the things they did to harm us and to understand that those have changed us in an immutable way that we are forever marked by what they did.
But as Christians we understand that Christ changes us that he renews us that he covers not only the things that we've done but the things that have been done to us and that we get to be made new in light of his goodness and we do not have to be forever marked forever stained forever held captive to what has happened to us and that is a glorious reality in Christ and from that position of being renewed from the position of being adopted with a good.
Father who loves us the way a father ought to we get to do something that only can be done in Christ we get to prayerfully by the empowerment of the spirit extend forgiveness and Grace and honor and the reason that can only be done in Christ is because it can't be done in you can say all the time I just don't have the ability to do this and that's right I can't forgive them that's right not on your own not in your power and it can't be done in them.
Because they don't deserve it so if it's about you or if it's about them it won't work there's no way to do it but if it gets to be anchored in Christ the love of the Father the empowerment of the spirit then there gets to be Grace and forgiveness and by God's grace Lord willing some of us will get to lead our parents who deserve great condemnation we'll get to lead them to Christ Who Bore great condemnation so that Sinners could be justified and the only way to do that is in his goodness and in his grace.
And so by God's will and by his empowerment we can be people who honor our parents and raise children to honor us through the Gospel let's pray God we thank you for our parents we thank you for the role that you designed for them to play we thank you for all the moms and the dads in this room who have so often failed and so often succeeded we thank you for the role that you've given them we pray that they would take it seriously that they would walk in the grace that you provide we pray specifically.
Lord for those this morning who do not have a good relationship with their parents that you would help them to First have a good relationship with you that they would know the grace provided them in Christ that they would know the love of the father that they would know the comfort of the spirit and that they then then by the empowerment of the spirit might begin to work to learn how to walk this out in a difficult situation we love you and we praise you in.
Jesus name amen the band's going to come back up and we are going to sing together I know that some of you are in a difficult spot with your parents I know that some of you are in a difficult spot with your children and we would be happy as your pastors to help you think and help you pray and help you process so I would invite you to go on to our website to the care forum and fill it out and we can get something set up with you love y'all.
Ascension (Acts 1:6-11)
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Easter (1 Peter 1:3-5)
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Holy Week (John 12:20-26)
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Transcript
Happy Palm Sunday we are taking a break from Exodus feels like we're in the thick of the Ten Commandments it's been a lot it's been a lot to digest and we said you know what let's take three weeks to just celebrate this Holy Week to celebrate Palm Sunday today and the Triumph and entry into the City and we're going to be in the Gospel of John chapter 12 verses 20-26 we're going to look at a story that directly follows the triumphant entry and celebrate Palm Sunday.
Today and then we'll have good Friday which we would love to see you here for Good Friday for our worship night and then Easter Sunday and then we're even going to spend one extra week celebrating the season we're going to have we're going to look at the Ascension the week after uh Easter so three weeks to give us a little bit of a break from Exodus and celebrate uh this season's we'll be in John chapter 12 verses 20-26 the text will be on the screen in the Gospel of John there is this building anticipation.
For when Christ is going to complete his work there's this phrasing that Jesus says my hour has not yet come the hour has not yet come my hour has not yet come there's this building anticipation for the hour to come as you read the Gospel of John and then he rides into the city on Palm Sunday and he is celebrated like a king the people chant Hosanna Hosanna this is shades of of the of of a Messianic King who is coming in to save us and they were expecting this uh this political revolution that.
Jesus was going to breathe not bring not realizing that he was actually coming to save them from their sins and there's this joyous time as Jesus triumphly enters into the city treating him like a king and then directly after that story we get this story right here which only shows up in in the Gospel of John and we're going to see as we walk through this how this uh is a celebration of the ultimate work of Christ and really a celebration of the Gospel and we get to really.
Look at this and celebrate what Jesus has done for us and then following that there's kind of two two costs that Jesus gives to his people that if he's giving up his life this is what he expects in return so we're just gonna take a moment and celebrate that and celebrate the good news of the Gospel in our lives as we walk through this we're going to be starting in verse 20. I'll read it I'll pray and then we'll walk this together in.
Verse 20 it says now among those who went up to worship at the feast were some Greeks so these came to Philip who was from bethsaida and Galilee and asked him sir we wish to see Jesus Philip went and told Andrew and Philip went and told Jesus and Jesus answered them the hour has come for the son of man to be glorified truly truly I say to you unless a grain of wheat falls into the Earth and dies it remains alone.
But if it dies it Bears much fruit whoever loves his life loses it whoever hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life if anyone serves me he must follow me and where I am there will my servant be also if anyone serves me the father will honor him let's pray thank you Jesus that you came and thank you for your work and I pray that you would help us receive your word this morning that you'd open our ears and our hearts to receive it and that we would celebrate and worship who you are with glad and generous hearts and we would respond in faith and In Worship and repentance and delighting.
In who you are as the God who saves thank you Jesus amen all right so this story follows right after okay Jesus rides into the city like a king verse 19 into verse 20. okay I know exactly when this story happens after the triumphant entry but this is the next story and it's significant verse 20 it says now among those who went up to worship at the feast were some Greeks now the word for Greeks there and the original Greek text is helenace.
So Greeks is what the ESV chooses because we're not really familiar with that term hellenists but the hellenists were not just Greeks they were just Greco-Roman background they were non-jewish Gentiles who were very much in Greco-Roman culture and it says that they're in town for the feast to worship at the feast which means from the context is that they seem to be as the biblical New Testament category would call them God fears these are non-jewish Gentiles that have abandoned Greco-Roman religion and the gods of greco-rominism and have seen.
God is the God of the Jews is the one true God but they're not Jewish they're Outsiders but if they're here to worship at the feast like they're they absolutely seem like God fears it's something the people that actually have abandoned their former ways and trust this is the one true God and they no doubt have heard of Jesus Jesus is a celebrity in the land at this point by the time he goes to the Cross everyone knows who Jesus is in the land of Israel and he came in like a king people chanting Hosanna Hosanna these Greeks probably either would have been there to.
See that they certainly would have heard about it because the whole city is abuzz the Rival of Jesus expecting what is this great prophet going to do and like many others they want to see Jesus in verse 21 it says so these came to Philip who was from bethsaida and Galilee and asked him sir we wish to see Jesus Philip went and told Andrew Andrew and Philip went and told Jesus so they they want to see Jesus but you can tell from the text they they can't there's some type of barrier that keeps them that they're going to fill up one of his followers to.
See if they can have access to Jesus now it's very possible the reason they can't is because at this moment Jesus might be teaching in one of the inner Temple courts so you have the temple and you have these Courtyards the three inner Temple courts are only for Jews and those who have been circumcised and then there's an outer court it's called the court of the Gentiles and that's where they could be as close they could get to the temple so it's very possible that we don't know.
If it's clear from the text that they are in the outer Temple courts Jesus was doing some teaching in the temple courts but they can't get to him and they wish to see him whatever the case we we don't know for sure they can't get to Jesus they go to Philip and I said we wish to see Jesus and here's what's peculiar about this story we don't know if they actually see Jesus that's the text doesn't tell us like it doesn't say that he met with them it's possible that he did it's possible that he didn't.
But in John's Gospel that's not what he's trying to focus on here he's not focusing on their meeting he is focusing on their request right next to how Jesus responds to this request and that's what's significant here 23 and Jesus answered them the hour has come for the son of man to be glorified Now's the Time this anticipation has been building my hour has not yet come the hour has not yet come the hour has not yet come John 2 4 John 7 30 John 8 20.
There's this theme of the hour has not yet come then Jesus triumphantly enters into the city as they chant Hosanna Hosanna what is he going to do next these hellenists want to see Jesus and in response to that he says the hour has come the son of mans be glorified what does he mean by that well he means Glory by Death the arrows come to be glorified by death it says in verse 24 truly truly Jesus says truly truly I say to you unless a grain of wheat falls into the Earth and dies it remains alone.
But if it dies it Bears much fruit the hour has come for Jesus to die and in just a few days on Good Friday he is going to the Cross now most of us aren't from the Midwest so that grain reference may be lost on our ears because we don't grow grain down here but it would not be lost on them what he is teaching there that a seed from the grain is growing and it's alive and is a part of the grain stalk the sheep.
And then it when it falls off it's lost its life source and it dies but when it goes into the ground and the rains come it will be reborn to something brand new and Jesus is referring to that as a way of speaking about his death and answering Gentile Outsiders like that you cannot miss the significance because what he is pointing to is the Pinnacle work of redemption that all of redemption history has been moving to this point where his hours come the Scriptures have been awaiting.
For the hour to come all the way back in Genesis when Adam and Eve sinned against God and broke Fellowship by trusting the word of the serpent in that moment when the curse of sin is being told by God that sin is going to corrupt every aspect of creation we get what theologians call the proto-evangelion that's a fancy Latin way of saying the first Declaration of the Gospel where he says one day one day the seed of Eve is going to come and he is going to crush the head of the serpent the one day someone is coming in the line of eve and he's going to crush the work of evil.
And then later on in Genesis in chapter 22 as Abraham is being called we see that God has chosen of specific people a specific tribe and he says in your Offspring shall all the all the nations of the earth be blessed that one day the seed of Eve is going to come through you Abraham and through you this seed of redemption is going to bless the Nations and then we've been in Exodus we've been walking through the law and we see that Israel was called to follow the law.
But we know that they cannot follow the law we know they break Commandments over and over and over again and then even Moses prophesies in Deuteronomy 18 he says I will raise up for them a prophet like you from among their brothers there is this growing expectation that someone is going to come from amongst our people the hour is going to come where this is going to get fixed and at the right time Jesus comes and he fulfills the Old Testament law by about banging it perfectly.
And then he heals the sick and he feeds the hungry he performs Miracles he raises the dead as we saw last week in the fourth Commandment he challenges the religious establishment and they're misrepresenting the heart of God he's going to establish a new people and then the time has come for him to die and after this statement in just a few days is going to be arrested it's going to be arrested and then I'll be ashamed and he'll be beaten and I'll be flogged he'll be mocked and his flesh will be torn apart and they will force a crown of thorns on his head and they will put a wooden cross on his mangled back.
And they will send him up the hill of Golgotha or they will nail him to a cross and they will raise him in shame most likely naked and exposed and he will slowly suffocate to death to atone for the sins of man and to purchase a people for himself and then like a grain of wheat he'll be placed in the earth in a borrowed man's tomb and the seed of our Redemption will be placed in the earth as we wait as we wait.
For death to meet its conqueror and then on the first Easter morning he rises and he defeats the power of death so that Hellenist so that Outsiders so that outcasts can finally have access to Christ so that there might not be any bear they won't have to go to Philip they won't have to go to anyone they have access to Jesus because through his death and his resurrection they now have access to Christ the hour has come and you will get to experience life with.
God forever you will get access to God the Father through Christ the son by the power of the Holy Spirit that ultimately what we see here is when the text tells us when Jesus says it remains alone but if it dies it Bears much fruit that ultimately the fruit of his Redemption is us that's every Outsider that did not know Christ who finally trusted in Christ and that now that we bear the fruit of righteousness that he provides within us like that that is the fruit of redemption.
So that response to a bunch of Greek hellst who want to see Jesus it previews the whole mission of God and Jesus answered them the hour has come for the son of man to be glorified truly truly I say to you unless a grain of wheat falls into the Earth and dies it remains alone but if it dies it Bears much fruit our hero is tipping his hand to where this is going but in just a few days he's going to die on the cross.
So that every tribe and every nation every tongue can experience God forever now the cost of redemption is his life is believing and what he has done for us following that Jesus gives a cost a cost that we bring to the table and the next two verses these two costs that he's going to outline are unbelievably important the first is your life and the second is your service so let's look at that first one in verse 25 he says whoever loves his life loses it and whoever hates his life in this world will keep it.
For eternal life what a provocative thing to say what a powerful thing the challenge us in I mean a lot of times people think of Jesus and he's they have this picture that he's just this wise Sage you as children tugging at him and he's picking them up and Swinging them around and that is our God that is Jesus but that's not the only picture of our Jesus he's a prophet and he drops prophetic truth bombs like this that mess us up he is absolutely attacking our approach to this life here on Earth.
And when he says lose in the original language in the Greek lose often means also destroy or ruin the idea here it's not just losing your life but destroying your life ruining your life if you want to ruin your life love it be about maximizing pleasure having your best life now cling to this life and you're ultimately going to lose what is truly important life with God if you love your life you will lose it you cannot have both you cannot have.
Jesus and this life is a one of the best scenes and what I would argue is the best Indiana Jones movie the Last Crusade Jenna some of you might think that's controversial we can have the argument about Raiders The Last Arc and all that stuff as long as you don't say the Crystal Skull movie which was nowhere in the stratosphere of the Last Crusade but in the Last Crusade the very end when they've been seeking the Holy Grail this treasure and in the end.
When they finally have it and the whole tomb begins to shake and this earthquake happens and it falls out of the hands of that lady and the chasm divides the the Holy Grail this treasure and her and she falls and then Indiana Jones grabs her and she's off the she's off hanging off the cliff about to fall into the abyss but she sees that treasure she sees that Holy Grail that means eternity it means life all the things that in this story it means and she sees it and she begins to reach.
For it and he's like no take my hand I can't hold you can't hold you in you grab this take my hand and she can't help herself she wants the treasure so bad and then she slips through his hands and falls into the abyss and dies and then the whole earthquake shakes it again shakes and then Indiana Jones Falls and he falls in the exact same situation but this time Sean Connery is there his dad it grabs him by the hands and Indiana Jones has the exact same Temptation he sees the Holy Grail he's it's with an Arms Reach he's just he just tries to reach he wants it and Sean Connery looks at Harrison.
Ford and he says Indiana Let It Go Let It Go you you're gonna die if you do this don't do this take my hand and he's the hero and he makes the right choice but that's us y'all that we see this life and what it has to offer and we think if we that if I cling to this life I can get pleasure and joy but we got one hand on Jesus and one hand on this life and thinking we can have both.
Jesus is saying you can't have both that if you try to cling to this life you're going to lose it you're going to ruin it don't do this ultimately Jesus wants us for himself and clinging to him is our only hope you cannot have this life and everything that it offers in comparison to Christ who offers so much more Jesus says if you love this life you're going to lose it but if you want to save your life he says you need to hate your life in this world try selling that on a t-shirt in the Etsy Marketplace Bedazzled as a provocative thing to say you need to hate this life hate is a very.
Strong word and it's also a nuanced word my my children when they were my oldest when they were three and four they would use the word hate that hear us use it and they would use it we would say don't say hate because three and four years old they weren't ready for that word they want them going in the preschool saying I hate you to a kid that took their toys like this is not no you're not ready for that word.
But that put in their mind that this was a naughty word like it was a bad word so now they're a little bit older and we've said hate and they'll say don't say hey it's a bad word and I said well it's not I've had to explain to them we've told you early on this is a word that wasn't for you but now you're getting older and you're getting a little bit of wisdom and learning the English language and now we're teaching them the hate actually is a Biblical word we're supposed to hate sin we're supposed to hate evil we're supposed to hate Injustice and I'm trying to teach that.
But it's a nuanced word and Jesus is clearly nuancing his use of the word hate here and really hate is an opposition to love here and he's doing something with that word Jesus is not literally saying you need to hate this life in the same way like he's not saying you should hate your job and hate your wife and your husband or your friends you should hate your kids you should hate your family you should hate everything you've got he's not saying it literally like that.
But while he's not using that word literally he certainly means it very seriously and how he's using hate here and the way that it's being used on opposite in the opposite of love is that you should so love Christ that you should so love the things of God love Jesus love his people love what is good that your love in comparison to the world that your approach would look like hatred of the world indifference to the world I love how one commentator puts it he says people whose priorities are right have such an attitude of love.
For the things of God that all interest in the Affairs of this life appear by comparison as hatred let me read that again people whose priorities are right have such an attitude of love for the things of God that all interest in the Affairs of this life appear by comparison as hatred that you would so love God and the things of God by comparison look like hatred you know a lot of folks don't know this the restaurant that sells the most T-bone steaks in the world is Waffle House it's Waffle House Awful Waffle Wahoo they sell the most T-bone steaks and you might think by that logic.
If you've never had a steak well if they sell the most they must be the best and you go to Waffle House the first time and you need to stay and you'd be like oh this is what it means to have a steak and you'd be so wrong you'd be so utterly mistaken you'll know a wonderful place to get a steak Raz Bradley's house as Bradley is one of our pastors and he makes wonderful steaks he makes the steak called pecania it's the steak you get at a Brazilian steakhouse that's just.
So good he makes even what uh it's called wagyu steaks okay it's fancy Japanese beef and he makes these steaks and they're so good and y'all it's one thing I love about Raz he's so hospitable he would love for every one of you to come to his house and have Wagyu steak in fact I think you should today he's out there doing security for us or whatever it's called safety for us I would love for you to go and ask him I want to come to your house and have wagyu beef make me this glorious steak.
Because once you put that in your mouth you will experience what true steak is supposed to be and you would look at Waffle House and go I hate that I don't want that I'm never eating that again because you've actually experienced what ultimately is good God wants to ruin your taste for this world by his great love he wants to ruin your taste for this world he wants you to taste and see but the Lord is good blessed is the man who takes refuge in him Psalm 34 he wants you to taste of him.
See that he's ultimately as we say all the time so much better than everything else because he is what a prayer what a prayer to pray Lord ruin my love for the ruin it because I want you and I want you alone because what he offers it is so much greater we should invite God to ruin our love for this world Jesus wants that for us that we'd so deeply love God the thanks of God that our approach to this world would be no it's not even close.
So that's the first thing it costs your life and your approach this life and the second cost is your service your service in verse 26 he says if anyone serves me he must follow me and where I am there will my servant be also if anyone serves me the father will honor him one of the problems of American Christianity is that faith in Christian faith is treated like a mere function of your life that it's a social aspect of your life as.
If that you could put on this Christian faith like a uniform on Sundays only a few times throughout the week and exchange it for whatever setting you're in that Faith Becomes of your function in our social aspect of your life and not what it's supposed to be the guiding Compass of our life that we're meant to be servants and that service is displayed through following him that we be followers of Christ who serve him like that one of the when I'm talking with people in the South about faith and I'm doing evangelism most Christians in the South are going to answer the question are you a Christian they're going to say yes most people are.
Going to claim to be Christians in the south but what I'm asking what I'm looking for what I'm seeking for and someone is not just identifying with Christ not not talking about him as he's just like a part of their life or who they identify with I'm looking for the language of the follower I'm looking for the language of a servant that Jesus they've so loved him and so believe that he is good that it changes the way they live their life they seek to serve Christ do you merely identify with Christ is it merely someone you can put on or put off given the social setting that you're in or are you a servant.
Of Christ because don't miss this he's saying this on the way to the Cross when he says where I am there will my servant be also he's on his way to the Cross as he says that so this service for for some is even unto death which we we at America are so insulated from them we have brothers and sisters across the world who are being persecuted and they take that literally that it may cost their life and serve in Christ there will my servant be also.
But I fear that many Christians in America would not be willing to serve Christ if it meant even having an uncomfortable conversation with a co-worker let alone unto death and he's calling to a deeper service and I feel this that the American part of me wants Comfort it wants it doesn't want suffering for the sake of the Gospel it doesn't want to serve in a way that would make me uncomfortable but a prayer to grow in would be Lord Where You Are there your servant will be also what a prayer to pray where you are.
God is where I want to be are you willing to serve Christ and do whatever he tells you to do that language of servant for us is difficult because we're so far removed from the New Testament world in the context of a servant class where the closest parallel I can think of is military service if you're in the military you belong to the military and your commanding officer says do something you do it you serve wherever he wants you to go or he will are we willing to have that approach to.
God that we'd serve him at a minimum that's going to be the things he tells us to do in the Scriptures at a minimum that's going to be everything from work and prayer and the disciplines all the way down to where is the Holy Spirit leading you what is he leading you to serve where is God at that you need to be at in your service to him I'm growing in as a Christian not sidestepping the Holy Spirit and it's nudging it is leading in my life.
Because there are times where God says I want you to do something and I just go well but I what kind of qualifications do we have for that as opposed to just being someone say okay no God where you are is where I want to be where you want to surf where do you want me to be are you willing to pray boldly and ask the Lord where do you want me to be Lord what do you want me to serve what do you want me to be doing.
For some of you that may be as simple as serving in Kid City or serving as a leader in training or a group leader for some of you that may be stepping in to pastoral Ministry or being a missionary and going to the ends of the Earth but here the costs that he has for us that he costs our life and it cost your service and then don't mess what he says to follow it up with he says if you do this the.
Father will honor him father will honor you which means that if you look at this in the context of the rest of the New Testament that speaks like this that it is good to be motivated to receive honor from God but that's actually a Godly motivation which is weird for for many of us I know it's weird for me it throws me off because it shouldn't I have the I don't know the internal intrinsic value of just serving Christ is it wrong to seek honor from him as.
If in some way we're robbing God of Glory it messes with because we're so we in our Church we so preach and live that we're saved by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone to the glory of God Alone there's so much of Who We Are and you hear very clearly this isn't for your salvation he's not you're not doing these things unto me to be saved safe being saved by Jesus is by believing in what he has done alone.
But once you are a Christian this is for you and what's being held out for you is in your service to Christ that you'll be honored and you should desire that and C.S Lewis's weight of Glory essay he talks about this he talks about uses the phrase I love it he says the undisguised pleasure in being praised that we should have undisguised pleasure in being praised by God and he Compares us to a dog I don't know somebody like I'm not a dog in comparison to.
God you're much worse but C.S Lewis he talks about us like we're a dog I have a dog her name is Piper she's a big Labradoodle which some of you want to know yes we did name her after John Piper it's a pastoral nerd that's what happened but her name is Piper and when I drive home and I pull up in the driveway and she hears my car pulling up which is impressive because I draw the Prius and it's real quiet and she she hears it she runs to the front of the house she gets on the couch she looks out the out the window she waits.
For me and then when I open the door she's standing in front of it and she's so excited she's got a full body waggle just just going for it just prancing her feet are prancing she just wants to be praised she has she has this uh undisguised pleasure and being praised she seeks that she wants it she wants that type of praise and love and affirmation we we should have that approach to God that in eternity we should have this undisguised pleasure in being praised it does not Rob.
God of Glory for him to honor you I mean think about the language of the parable of the talents and the parable of talents what's the language that Jesus uses the phrase that we long to hear well done good and faithful servant boy oh boy we should long for that type of Honor we should live our Christian lives longing for the day when Jesus says well done good and faithful servant where he bestows that type of on or upon us and we don't know all we don't have great vivid pictures of what that is in the New Testament of what type of Honor that is of the storing up riches in heaven that he speaks.
About we don't have the most vivid pictures of that but if Jesus says it's honor we certainly should believe that and that we shall live our lives in light of them cost your life and it costs your service but boy oh boy you will be honored I so appreciate this brief story in John's Gospel that on his way to Good Friday and on his way to Calvary colonists they just they wish to see Jesus and then we get this response that shows exactly what his work is.
For we see what it's all about that the hour has come where he will go to the cross for us because of his great love for us so that we might have our love for this life ruined by his great love and serve them into eternity and at the end of the week he takes all of our sin to the cross and he walks out of the grave and he makes a way for Outsiders like you and me to experience Our.
God forever many of you have said and expressed the same desires as these Outsiders I wish to see Jesus I wish to see Jesus I want to know him I want to be with him I longed to see him this is how let God ruin your love for this world let him ruin your love for this world serve him with all of your heart so that you might be honored that is the path that he's forging at Calvary as we head into Good Friday and we sing songs about the death of.
Jesus this is what it is for a people that he has purchased for himself that do not love the world but love him deeply and serve him and to Eternity Matt's going to come up and we get to worship and we get to take the Lord's Supper as we remember the good news of the Gospel but on the night that he was betrayed he took he took bread and he took one he took the cup of the New Covenant he took the bread he said this is my body that was broken.
For you he says often as you eat this you remember Jesus death on the cross that we take the cup the cup the New Covenant this is my blood that was shed for you he says that as often as you eat and drink this we get to proclaim the death of Jesus until he returns Christians as you come to the table you'd remember what happened on Good Friday and what Jesus did for us and that the seed of redemption was placed in the Earth and that on Easter mourn he burst forth into life making a way.
For us to experience Jesus into eternity when he says Proclaim my death until I return when he returns all things are made new and that day for those of us that have trusted in Jesus as our only hope and have laid down our lives to follow him and have served him there's an honor that is coming that we can't quite understand but it's very good and we should aim our Christian lives for that day but there are some of you there are some of you that have not actually had your love.
For this world ruined by God you have not tasted and seen that the Lord is good you have not believed in him you have not given up your life to him your life is not in service to him and it's because you don't know him and I so deeply we don't want you to come to this table I wish for you to see Jesus I want you to meet him I want you to know him I want you for the first time to lay down your life friend I want you to pray a prayer that says.
God ruin my love for this world I want you to experience the love that he poured out for us on the cross and say I want you Christ pray a prayer that says ruined for this world so that I might live for you so that you might one day experience the unmerited grace of his honor that he bestows on his people so don't come to the table right now come to Jesus heavenly father I pray that you would help us be.
So captivated by your sacrifice of the crossed it would be so overwhelmed by how you were placed like a seed in the Tomb the Obesity overjoyed by the resurrection we get to celebrate one week from now that we respond in faith that there's anyone here that does not know you I pray that they'd wish to see you and they would give their life to you God ruined their love for this world so that they might love you God there are so many of us who trust you who follow you they want one hand on this life and everything it has to offer and one hand on you.
God I pray that we cling to you ruin our love for this world over and over and over again help us die to ourselves so that we might live to you and service of you and worshiping you For Your Glory.
The Fourth Commandment (Exodus 20:8-11)
Use this guide to help your group discussion as you meet this week.
Due to a technical error the last minute of the sermon was not recorded. What was recorded is posted below.
Transcript
My name is Spencer I'm one of the pastors here so we are in Exodus chapter 20 verses 8 through 11. uh we are in the fourth Commandment as we continue to walk through Exodus and we're walking week by week through the Ten Commandments so you can go ahead and follow along the text we'll also be on the screen uh have you ever approached something that should have been fairly simple but the more you got into it it was incredibly complicated like you got the mechanics and the details of it it was just super super complex and complicated I read this story from back in the fall that the city of San Francisco as a homeless.
Crisis and they one of the problems with the homeless crisis in downtown San Francisco is that there are a lot of homeless people that are using the bathroom and the streets this kind of created an unsanitary situation so someone had a very good idea they said let's build a bathroom specifically let's build one toilet all right this this can it's not going to solve the problem but let's it'll it'll help we're gonna build one toilet so the reason this became national news is.
Because the cost came back on building the one toilet 1.7 million dollars for one toilet and people went what what why how does it cost 1.7 million dollars to build one toilet and it's because there's a crazy amount of red tape and regulations that made something that was so good and so simple so complex there's like a 300 000 architectural uh and Engineering fee there was a hundred and fifty thousand dollar construction management fee for someone to oversee the building of one toilet and you add up all these fees and it's 1.7 million dollars and more to the point that was in 2022 the fall the construction completion date would be 2025.
Because of all of the Committees it would have to go through to build one toilet because of all of the red tape something such a good thing and yet became so complicated and that is how it feels when I approached the fourth Commandment that's how it feels when you get into the fourth Commandment and the call to Sabbath rest out of all of The Commandments this is by far the most difficult to understand as a Christian I just want to read it and say do it the band's going to come up that's just that's just.
But you can't it's not it's not that simple and we're going to see some of the complexities that is built into this and it gets added on to this that makes this not as simple and straightforward as just reading the fourth command and doing it and it's not going to be as practical today we we're not going to give a lot of practical application on how to rest we did that in a series called the hammer and the hammock I would encourage you to go back.
Listen to that but we're also Sabbath is going to come back up and Exodus 31. so we're going to spend some more time on the Practical uh parts of rest but today we need to get into the why so I want to walk through this and some of the complicated parts of this and then at the end as much as possible I want to simplify why and help us see why the Sabbath was made why it is good and why we should engage in Sabbath rest.
So why this sabbath was made why it's good and why we should engage in Sabbath rest so let me read it we'll pray and we'll want this together 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 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 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 let me pray heavenly father I pray that you would help us understand your word that we would be able to listen that we'll be able to work through this and see something that is so good that you have given us and then live out your word in faith and live it out in Repentance and live it out and delighting in you through the rest that you provide we ask this in.
Jesus name amen all right so if I tasked you to take the Bible let's just say you've never read the Bible before start in Genesis read all the way through okay and I gave you the task of I want you to take note of when the word Sabbath is mentioned this idea of Sabbath rest I want you to take note of it I'm going to give you the quick kind of run through the Bible of what you would see you would.
See in Genesis 1 and 2 out right out the gate that God made the world in six days and he rested on the seventh the seventh and he gave us the Sabbath now that's not because God needed to rest God was not tired he didn't work make the universe in six days and went oh man I need this like our God is inexhaustible he is all powerful he did not need rest but he gave us the gift of Sabbath he modeled it and he invites us into it as you can.
See throughout the rest of the Scriptures so that's when Sabbath was made that you get two the fourth Commandment that's the next time that you see it and you see remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy Sabbath day is literally just day of rest a day of rest and keep it holy means don't work on the Sabbath not just you but the whole nation not you not your son not your daughter not your male servant not your female servant now your livestock not the Sojourner who is within your Gates the whole nation is going to cease from work and rest.
And then you keep reading and you get to Exodus 31 when this shows back up again in the book of Exodus and then you'd hear this you shall keep the Sabbath because it is Holy for you everyone who profanes it shall be put to death whoever does any work on it that Soul shall be cut off from among his people and then you see how serious the Sabbath is that that if you don't do this the command is you put to death that shows up again in Exodus 35.
This capital punishment linked to the Sabbath and then you read The Book of Leviticus and Leviticus is going to have more things to say about the Sabbath and some of the nuances of different Sabbath days and that you get to the book of numbers and the Book of Numbers you hear a story about a man who went out on the Sabbath to gather sticks he's working by gathering sticks he is caught they take counsel together and then they obey Exodus 31 and 35 and they put him to death.
Then you read and the Book of Deuteronomy where this is taught and reinforced yet again and then you watch the nation of Israel as they throughout the rest of their history in Seasons where they are uh not loving the Lord their God with all their heart with other Souls other might when they're chasing after other Idols they one of the key markers of disobedience is they give up the Sabbath and they work and you'd see in the book of Nehemiah a call to repentance to Sabbath you'd.
See a celebration of Sabbath keeping in the book of Isaiah you'd see a call to repentance in the book of Jeremiah for Sabbath profaning you'd see a call of condemnation for Sabbath profaning and Sabbath breaking in the Book of Ezekiel and you see throughout the Old Testament a consistent call to honor the Sabbath and keep it holy do not profane this this is bad it's clear when you read the Old Testament the people of God were not practicing the Sabbath they didn't know how once they learned they strayed and they did not practice the Sabbath it's very clear.
When you're in the Old Testament that is what happens and then you'd read through the Old Testament and you'd get to the New Testament and the first time you'd see the Sabbath is in the Gospel of Matthew and you would start to notice a tone change in the Gospel of Matthew and everything that follows in Matthew 12 Jesus and his disciples are walking through a grain field and the disciples begin to pluck the heads of grain and the Pharisees who are watching these are the religious leaders they say you're breaking the Sabbath you're profaning the Sabbath I mean in The Book of Numbers the man was stoned.
For collecting sticks you're breaking the Sabbath by collecting grain and Jesus says wrong and then he starts to combat them from the Scriptures and then he says this in verse six I tell you something greater than the temple is here and if you had known what this means I desire mercy and not sacrifice you would not have condemned the Guiltless for the son of man is Lord of the Sabbath and if you just read that the Old Testament and you read that story you might think uh was that.
Okay I mean the Sunday School answer is Jesus did it yes but is that okay like it I I don't know I just read a lot of things in the Old Testament like this is a really big deal but all of a sudden it's and then he doubles down on this and he starts healing people on the Sabbath intentionally in Luke 4 Luke 13 Luke 14 John 5 John 9 he starts intentionally healing people on the Sabbath to make a point about the Sabbath.
And then he fulfills the law perfectly and he dies on the cross for our sins and then he rises on Resurrection Sunday and ascends into heaven and the Church is left with okay what do we do with the fourth Commandment we just saw Jesus we we saw these teachings that he's done what do we do and if you read the rest of the New Testament there's only three really places that deal with this and the Book of Romans The Book of Romans is a letter that was written to a Church in Rome where there is clear Gentile and Jewish division and it shows up in a lot of different ways.
But one of them when you get to chapter 14 is you can see it's the Sabbath because Gentile Christians this would be Romans and Greeks and whomevers in the city who's not Jewish but they have no background in practicing the Sabbath that's the one thing that made Israel unique amongst all the nations everyone else worked every day that was that was normative the Sabbath was way different wait they take a whole day off and they don't work and then there's Jewish Christians in the Church of Rome who have Sabbath background and this is what Paul writes in Romans 14.
Verse 5 he says one person esteems one day and day there is Sabbath as better than another or another esteems all days alike each one should be fully convinced in his own mind the one who observes the day observes it in honor of the Lord and he says it's you should be convinced in your own mind is that a matter of conscience and then verse 10 you see some of the context here why do you pass judgment on your brother or you why do you despise your brother and it's clear from there that he's pushing on don't make this a matter of judgment or division amongst you don't do that.
And then in Colossians 2 he's writing to the Church Paul is writing a letter to the Church at colossae and he says therefore let no one pass judgment on you and questions of food and drink or with regard to a festival or a new moon those are all Old Testament practices or a Sabbath huh and then he says these are a shadow of the things to come but the substance belongs to Christ and everything in the front end of that list makes a lot of sense we don't practice festivals anymore like these things that we don't those are part of the Old Testament law that was fulfilled.
But Sabbath too it's part of the Ten Commandments but is that that's a shadow of Christ who is to come and a shadow of the future rest that he offers and then you get what we read uh in our liturgy earlier you get Hebrews 3 and 4. and in Hebrews three and four the author of Hebrews is commenting and Expo and expositing psalm 95. and then as he's doing that he's pointing back to the nation of Israel of how they wandered in the wilderness.
For those 40 years after Exodus and that they are ultimately seeking to have rest in the promised land and that is a picture of the people of God that that are sojourners in this land waiting for the future rest that Jesus provides and that's it and if you look at the holy New Testament it's like if you're honest it feels a bit like whiplash that real seriously the Old Testament about this in the New Testament is a bit of a curve both and the question is why why does it feel like that that is the million dollar question in approaching the fourth Commandment as a new testament Christian why and are we still supposed to.
Do this as Christians I know we're not supposed to murder that's clear but are we still supposed to do this now there is a missing puzzle piece that we need and that missing puzzle piece is the period of time between when the Old Testament was written and when the New Testament is written and that is an essential puzzle piece that will help help us see why it feels a bit like Whiplash and it's during that period there are a lot of abuses that happened to the fourth Commandment.
So if you're going to understand why a single toilet took 1.7 million dollars to build like if you're going to understand and figure that out you got to go back through all everything that led to that all the red tape and regulations and everything that went into that that made such a good thing a headache and in the same way if you understand the fourth Commandment you got to see during this period of time between the old and the New Testament all of the red tape and regulations that got added on to the fourth Commandment that abused the fourth Commandment.
So that's what we need to see all right so where did all this red tape come from in this period this period is often called the inter-testamental period between the Old and New Testament it's also called second temple Judaism okay so the last of the Old Testament was written in the 6th Century BC and then you've got centuries that lead up to the coming of Christ and then uh when they receive when they in the sixth century as the temple is being rebuilt the people of.
God are realizing we we have made so many mistakes that led to the Judgment that God brought on the nation of Israel where the temple was destroyed and their centuries removed from when the law was given which when this when when Exodus is being written somewhere around 14th 13th BC Century BC so there's centuries that have passed and now they're looking at the law and they're they're seeing the the Old Testament now it says remember the Sabbath day and to keep it holy six days you shall work.
But in the seventh you shall rest they look at Exodus 31 and it says you shall keep the Sabbath everyone who profanes it shall be put to death and they react and listen I little bit understand their reaction I want to be a little bit cheered about the reaction like what we we uh my wife and I we've LED groups for years we've been in uh groups for years and the past seven years our groups have had lots of children like upwards of 22 children at one point.
If everyone came that's a lot of children and you try to lead discussion with a lot of children like we in our in our uh downstairs is where we'd have discussion right above us was the playroom where all the kids were and you'd hear I mean just think this uh every now and then I just have to go up there guys open the door just about y'all are being too loud you need to quiet down and shut the door now imagine.
If I opened the door back up and said you are being too loud and that this continues you're gonna die and then close the door I went back downstairs I just if I was a seven-year-old I'd have some questions I'm sorry what Define loud what activities are considered too loud like what is quiet can you can we have a hall monitor outside that can determine like what the the level of loudness were being too loud also they'll serve as the sacrifice.
When you come up to kill someone like I just I'd have some questions and I understand a little bit when they open up the law again and they see how serious it is to where they want to go Define rest Define work what activities are considered work can we have a whole monitor to determine what is work and what is rest I understand that reaction of what the religious leaders were doing but man oh man they took that and ran with it and the most legalistic and burdensome Direction they developed an entire set of extra laws called the melacon laws 39 different categories of work that would profane the Sabbath and those categories had subcategories.
Like you'd have the category of planting and then within that category you'd have planting and harvesting and all the things that went into that and those subcategories you'd have all these different rules so much so that like during that time period climbing a tree was considered profaning the Sabbath why because if you accidentally broke a branch off and that Branch had fruit on that Branch you just harvested and you profane the Sabbath and they had hundreds of those extra laws I mean someone said that this the the melkat laws that were established during this period of time between the sixth century and the coming of.
Jesus like that it's still God's Orthodox Jews today I mean you cannot in Orthodox Judaism you cannot open an umbrella you cannot tear off a piece of toilet paper apply lotion blow up a balloon on the Sabbath when I went to Jerusalem years ago we were staying at a hotel we were up on one of the higher floors you could not push a button on the elevator because that was considered preventing the Sabbath which meant that you got on the elevator and every floor opened and it closed opened and closed open and closed which was super annoying.
If you had to be somewhere and any like that still exists that right there is the context of the coming of Christ all these different rules and red tape that you had to follow you had to make sure that you had to do everything perfectly and the Pharisees and the Sadducees these religious leaders were the hall monitors and they're looking and they're saying are you are you preventing the Sabbath are you preventing the Sabbath and made everyone paranoid about the fourth Commandment to where it was not restful it was a burden.
Now here's where they went wrong when they opened up the law and they started taking the Sabbath seriously again they misunderstood the context of how the Sabbath was given they misunderstood it misunderstood the fact that God created the Sabbath as a gift Genesis 1 2 makes that so clear this sabbath is good it is a gift for the people of God so that we might not just continue to work and work and work and then the people of God for centuries were slaves and they did not Sabbath.
For hundreds of years they worked and they worked and they worked and they worked and they worked for Pharaoh and they did not rest all they did was work and then God redeems them as we saw earlier in Exodus and he is aggressively trying to get their attention you are not a Slave you are not the sum of your production you matter more than that you will not work anymore you will not endlessly work anymore this will not be the pattern you will work six days and on the seventh you will rest.
Because you are not a slave and you belong to me and you will rest in me they miss them they missed the the aggressiveness and the severity was help it was it was meant to call them back into not being slaves but being the people of God but unfortunately the religious leaders took that out of context and ran with it and added all types of red tape and burdensome regulations and centuries leading out to the coming of Christ the people were burdened by the Sabbath they were burdened by it.
So it's clear when you look at the Old Testament the Old Testament is written to a people that do not practice the Sabbath the New Testament is written to a people they were forced to practice the Sabbath and do it in very Unholy ways and for centuries leading up to Jesus the people were feeling the weight of this burden and then Jesus does the most punk rock thing ever I mean he just Kicks Down the door and says I am the.
Lord of the Sabbath I'm the captain now I am the Lord of this you know why because I wrote the Sabbath loss that's Jesus wrote the Sabbath laws he gave them to Moses because he is God he knows what they what the intended meaning was is some people call authorial intent the intent of the author because he wrote it like right now we in the Southern Baptist convention we're Southern Baptist uh and then the Southern Baptist convention there's a bit of a controversy right.
Now which I know will shock you um based on our history but there is and I'm not going to get the details of it but what's happening a little bit right now is we have something called the Baptist faith and message Baptist Faith Message in the 2000 version it's kind of a guiding bit of a confession for us a binding set of beliefs that we have as Baptist and there are some Churches and some pastors who are looking at one part of that bad mistake the message they're saying ah just I don't I don't know about that I don't think that's what that I don't think that was what was intended.
When it was written and they're starting to stray from the Baptist Faith the message you know what's great the man who wrote the Baptist Faith Message is still alive that's my former president my Seminary Al Mohler he wrote it on behalf of Baptist and he's saying y'all I wrote this for y'all like I I I'm the author I know what was intended when I wrote it because I wrote it for you like at the last year's annual meeting he walked up the mic and went hey guys I'm here and he started to say I know what I meant like he started to explain you're taking this in the wrong direction.
Jesus walks up to the mic and the New Testament and goes I'm the lord of the Sabbath I wrote all of this I know the heart of the Sabbath and what you are practicing is not the heart of the Sabbath at all and that is the missing puzzle piece that we need to understand why the Old Testament feels very different than the New Testament Jesus was reclaiming the Sabbath from the religious Hall monitors and also he's taking a spear and just like right at the heart of the Pharisees and their self-righteous religiosity like they just the Sabbath was their way of being holy and holier than thou and he's just destroying it with every teaching.
And when you understand that you understand what the Old Testament New Testament feel different but still The Logical question that follows is okay but are we still supposed to obey the fourth Commandment that's helpful I can understand now while the old New Testament feel a little bit different but are we still called to obey the fourth Commandment and boy oh boy is that not is that not the question I mean I I have wrestled with this for years and then Monday I got reacquainted with all the arguments again and I just I Monday was not fun I just was like oh my goodness I forgot how unbelievably difficult this is to understand.
Because y'all and listen there are different approaches to the fourth Commandment now and we're shaped by different traditions and those approaches like some of y'all some of you all love the fact that Chick-fil-A is closed on Sunday God's chicken they honor the Lord they do not work on Sunday because Sunday is the Sabbath it's the Lord's Day and it is the new Sabbath whereas the Jews had Friday to Saturday night we now have Sunday and that is the Sabbath where we don't work some of y'all have that background that understanding of the Sabbath and you understand that's shaped by a tradition called sabbatarianism lots of different donations to practice that bad this Presbyterians Methodist.
But the idea is is that Sunday is the new Sabbath and one day a week the people of God worship and we rest and we obey the fourth Commandment still because the fourth Commandment still has moral Force just as the other non have moral Force so does this one and then there are others that go well I'm actually a little annoyed that Chick-fil-A is closed on Sunday because I really love Chick-fil-A and I miss some Chick-fil-A sauce I I like for it to be open on Sunday and the reason why is.
Because I think sabbatarians are wrong I think that God calls us to rest one day of week but that I mean the New Testament kind of pushes on the legalism of this like we don't have to have it on Sunday you just need to rest obey the Sabbath principle still there's some moral Force there but we don't have to be so dogmatic or legalistic about which day it is you just need to make sure that you're resting sure Sunday is a good day to do it.
But any day will work and therefore Chick-fil-A could be open and then there are others to go no no Jesus fulfilled the law and and Romans and Colossians 2 in Hebrews and Jesus is teaching on the Sabbath show that the Sabbath has been fulfilled in Christ it was a shadow of Christ that is to come in the future rest that he offers and I mean we need to rest still that's still something we need to do but it is not bound by a calendar at all and you do not have to do it one day a week and how you practice a Sabbath is a matter of conscience all three of those views all three.
Of them have scriptural support all three of them you can make arguments from the Bible it is incredibly complicated to understand the fourth Commandment so I'm not going to resolve a theological dispute where thousands millions of brothers and sisters who deeply love Jesus and know their Bibles well have disagreed on this for centuries I'm not going to resolve that for us and to be honest with you even within our eldership there's differing opinion on this but I do believe that we can arrive at the same set of functional beliefs I do believe we need sun guard rails I do believe that on one side you need guardrails to keep you from the pitfall of legalism.
Pharisaisms of being a Pharisee and all the problems that they were bringing into the Sabbath I think you need guard rails to keep you from that Pitfall and I think you also need guard rails to keep you from the pitfall of never resting at all so I have a statement that I think will be a helpful kind of guardrails that keep us on the center line together and that is this the Sabbath is a good gift that God has given us it is not meant to be a measuring stick.
For righteousness nor a wedge for division amongst his people a lifestyle that dismisses this gift is a faithless and sinful rejection of God's good design for human flourishing let me read that again the Sabbath is a good gift that God has given us it is not meant to be a measuring stick for righteousness nor a wedge for division amongst his people a lifestyle that dismisses this gift is a faithless and sinful rejection of God's good design for human flourishing so let me work through that in some in a few different chunks the Sabbath is a good gift that.
God has given us I think we can all can agree on that it is so clear from Genesis 1 and 2 that the Sabbath is a gift it is good to rest with the Lord and to rest in him it is a good gift that God has given us I mean Jesus in his rebuke of the Pharisees in mark 2. as he said to them the Sabbath was made for man not man for the Sabbath and that not man for the Sabbath is what we focus a lot on.
Because he's taken a shot at the Pharisees and the religious leadership and he said Don't You Realize by all of your regulations by all of your red tape by all of everything that you've added on to this that we're serving the Sabbath you misunderstand this but don't miss the part where he says the Sabbath was made for men the Sabbath was made for man it is a good gift that God has given us and that is why Jesus rests over and over and over again.
Jesus is fully God and fully man and in his Humanity he needs rest you see this all over we have a few examples but you see it all over the gospels in Mark 1 verse 35 isn't Rising very early in the morning while it was still dark he Jesus departed and went out to a desolate place and there he prayed that Jesus regularly rests and gets away from the crowds in the midst of his ministry and praise you see in Mark 6 it says the apostles.
Verse 30 the apostles returned to Jesus and told him all that they had done and taught this is after their missionary journey their side I want to tell Jesus everything that we've done then Jesus pause and says hey verse 31 and he said to them come away by yourselves to a desolate place and rest a while I want to hear all about it but y'all are tired and you need to rest he's teaching them to rest in Mark 6 46 he says and after uh it says and after he had taken leave of them he went on the mountain to pray this happens over and over and over and over and over again.
Jesus gets away to rest the God man gets away to rest so whether you believe that the Sabbath still has moral force and it should be on Sunday every Sunday or you believe that it has some moral Force but you kind of there's some some freedom in choosing wind to rest or whether you think it's a more matter of conscience it has been fulfilled it lacks moral Force but we still should rest in general we can all get in the same page it is a good gift that.
God has given us and we should take it we forget that sometimes like last Saturday we we had a baseball son had a baseball game and it got canceled because of the rain and my wife and I like we just had the whole morning and afternoon off we just we're just we're so happy we needed it it's like oh man we need this rest is a good gift that God has given us next part of the statement says it's not meant to be a measuring stick.
For righteousness it is abundantly clear when you look at the New Testament that it is not a measuring stick for righteousness and that the Pharisees the religious leaders they were doing that they were using it as a measuring stick and they were dogmatic that it had to be down like this you had to perfectly make sure you check all the boxes and make sure that it's done exactly right and some of you may be the kind of person that is dogmatic about your Sabbath rest and wants to make sure that you check all the boxes got to make sure that everything got to make sure that that obey this fourth Commandment.
Well and that I rest well and if that's you you're in danger of being just like the Pharisees you're like a like you're like a bride who was planned every single part of her wedding every single detail has to be just like this and then the wedding day comes and she doesn't enjoy it at all because everything had to be so perfect that she misses the most important part of the wedding the person the man that she is marrying and the moment that she has with him.
And if you get dogmatic and legalistic about your Sabbath you'll miss the moment that you have with Christ don't do that don't do that the Sabbath was made for man do not make it a measuring stick for your own righteousness nor the next part of the statement a wedge for division amongst his people it is not meant to be a wedge of division at all but it's so clear from the New Testament go back to Romans 14 it says one person that seems one day as better than the other.
While another esteems all days alike each one should be convinced in his own mind that it goes on to say why do you pass judgment on your brother it was clearly not meant to be a wedge a division and the people of God they were clearly of different approaches and they don't don't do that do not make this a wedge of division amongst the people of God so all of us should look at that on whatever wherever you land on your understanding of the fourth Commandment and you should come to that conclusion I will not make this a wedge of division I will not be a hall monitor to make sure that people are doing.
This right there will be differences of opinions in our own Church and we will not make that an issue of disunity lastly a lifestyle that dismisses this gift is a faithless and sinful rejection of God's good design for human flourishing you may be a sabbatarian and didn't know it and then you think no every every Sunday is the Lord's day and that is the day in which we will rest and you may see the moral Force the fourth Commandment still so I don't need to convince you of that statement right there the group I need to convince of that statement right there are those that view it more as a matter of conscience that the.
Sabbath has been fulfilled by Christ you're the one that's more in danger of never resting so let me talk directly to you if that is where you land if that's you I've got some questions do you believe that the design of God was for you to endlessly work it never rests so much so that in a calendar month you could work every single day of the month do you believe that was the design of God for you does your body show that how's your body holding up over working and working and working and working and working are you getting sick are you getting muscle pains and spasms stomach aches headaches how's your body holding up.
If you're rarely resting and always always always working like you've got a career that you are working so hard for that you work every single day what makes you any different than the the Israelite slaves who served Pharaoh and never rested that you are serving and living for a career and working and working and never resting and if Jesus needed rest if Jesus the God-man needed rest why don't you at a minimum the idea that you can work and work and work and work and work and never rest is a prideful view of self and a rejection of.
God to think that you can endlessly strive without resting it is a it is a prideful view of self and a rejection of God I've seen people physically burn out because they they work and they work and they work and they work and their body is breaking down and they're getting sick and then I've seen spiritual sickness arise to where they just get numb to God they don't spend time with him they don't rest in him and a lifestyle that works too much and does not rest is a sinful rejection of God's good design.
Listen I don't need the fourth Commandment to prove that I'll I need the first two I can point out the different Idols that you are serving and working the shows you need to rest in God you have elevated yourself too highly if that is you and you believe to yourself to be adequate and I want to say very clearly you are not you are not unexhaustible but I also want to tell you who is and that is the Lord the God is inexhaustible.
God is all-powerful God never sleeps and he never slumbers God is the only one who can do all things uphold all things God is the only one who is strong enough to Bear it all and that same.
The Third Commandment (Exodus 20:7)
Use this guide to help your group discussion as you meet this week.
Transcript
Is here we are in Exodus chapter 20. we are working our way through the book of Exodus if you don't have a Bible there should be a blue one in the little Rack in front of you it'll be on page 35 if you don't own a Bible take that one home with you we want you to have a Bible and so that's our gift to you we are working our way through the book of Exodus and we've made it to the Ten Commandments and we are slowing down and going through the Ten Commandments looking at each one in turn and trying to wrap our heads around as.
God has rescued this people out of Egypt he's making them into his people and he's saying this is what it's going to look like to follow me we're trying to understand what that is and what he commands them to do and how that applies to us so Exodus chapter 20 verse 7 the third commandment you shall not in vain that is the verse we're looking at today that is the Commandment we're looking at today I'm going to read it one more time you shall not take the name of the.
Lord your God in vain Lord we pray that you would help us this morning to understand what is being taught to understand what you are calling us to and calling us away from and then we ask Lord by the empowerment of your spirit for us to to walk in Repentance and obedience to this command and to um enjoy praise and glorify Christ as we do them in Jesus name amen now as we started the Ten Commandments one of the things we said was that it was we thought it was helpful I'd been reading some books on morality and how cultures think about morality and we had we mentioned two books The Righteous Mind.
For our good always and we said that the psychologist Jonathan height had come up with uh some Concepts as he studied morality in different cultures he had come up with some Concepts that we thought were helpful he's not a Christian and so he's not talking about God's version of morality but he is looking at culture and talking about morality and he gave us five categories that we mentioned a few weeks ago when we started he called these moral foundations Authority loyalty sanctity fairness and care that these are moral foundations.
For how people understand what is right and what is wrong and that different cultures value or appreciate different versions of these different ones of these with to a greater or lesser degree and so the first two Commandments deal primarily with authority and loyalty you shall have no other gods before me and you will make no graven images you'll have no carved Idols with which to worship me or to worship other gods that's mostly in the Loyalty Authority category of Jonathan Heights categories not a Bible category as far as like a moral Foundation.
But it's trying to help us understand how we approach this culturally to what we're looking at today is sanctity and so we showed this chart a couple of weeks ago which is this is in general how Americans westerners decide whether or not something is right or wrong and we're going to talk more about this at our upcoming training weekend so if this is interesting to you we're going to spend a little more time diving into that but basically care and harm is our highest one does it hurt somebody.
Then we know it's wrong if it doesn't hurt somebody it's probably not wrong but then we have fairness some sort of of Liberty justice for all those kind of ideas we also care about and so we ask questions about is it fair is it just and if it doesn't break one of those zones if it's not sideways with one of those then it's probably not bad we don't really care and you'll notice that sanctity is way down on the list we aren't a people culturally that holds much as sacred.
Therefore not to be tread upon as I was looking at this and thinking about this I was reminded of there's a a little science experiment you can do where you have three bowls of water the bowl in the middle is just regular room temperature water you put one ball on one side that you put ice in you put one bow on the other side that you put hot water in and you place your hands in the ice water and the hot water.
And when you do this this feels very hot this feels very cold I mean you just stand there I feel like a minute and what happens is this hand gets used to the Heat and this hand starts getting used to the cold water and then after a minute two minutes something like that you take your hands out you place both hands in the room temperature water and then a very weird things happens to you one is your brain knows this is room temperature water.
But your right hand thinks it's cold and your left hand thinks it's hot and you can see both hands sitting next to each other in what you know to be room temperature water doesn't mess with your head if you're bored this afternoon go for it and what what I want us to understand is we approach God's law is assume God's law is the room temperature it's the right temperature let's just assume that that's the right temperature that God says this is how the world ought to work.
But our cultures are like the hot water or the cold water that as Americans we've been soaking in the icy cold water of secularism and so as Christians when we move our hand over here when we show up on Sundays and we open our Bibles and we're going I'm going to learn this I'm going to follow this and we read a command like this that God cares about the use of his name we can mentally say that matters that's important but it's like telling this hand you're in room temperature water there's no way to change how it feels not easily not quickly we actually have to soak here.
For a while before it'll change on us and so I want us to understand as we approach this that we are not culturally well set up to understand or appreciate sanctity because we don't hold much sacred and we think if you do you're wrong and you should just deal with it as I was reading through Jonathan Height's book he has this quote and I want to read through the quotes and talk to you how I was processing it as I read.
Because I think it's helpful he says when an artist submerges a crucifix in a jar of his own urine or smears elephant dung on an image of the Virgin Mary do these Works belong in art museums can the artist simply tell religious Christians if you don't want to see it don't go to the museum now as I was reading this um I don't know if you picked up on this so far but I'm not Catholic and so I'm not especially attached to crucifixes or the Virgin Mary.
But not the same way that a Catholic would be but still this is a representation of Christ a representation of Mary and they're being Dishonored but as I'm reading this I'm kind of used to it I don't think my heart rate went up and when it says if you don't like it don't show up I feel like I've heard that a lot that's a general if you don't go to the museum you don't have to like all art and then he says this or does the mere existence of such Works make the world dirtier more profane and more degraded he's pressing on this idea of where is your line.
For what is sacred where's your sanctity line that's what he's trying to do in the book he's not a Christian he's just trying to press on this and so then he says this it's the next paragraph if you can't see anything wrong here try reversing the politics imagine that a conservative artist had created these Works using images of Martin Luther King Jr and Nelson Mandela instead of Jesus and Mary could such Works be displayed in museums in New York and Paris without triggering angry demonstrations and might some on the left feel that the museum itself had been polluted by racism even after the paintings were removed I read that paragraph and I felt that I.
Thought oh don't don't do that now I'm a Christian and I'm supposed to respond that way specifically to the name of Christ to the representation of Christ to how he's treated but I read this one and I thought okay yeah no that would be a problem and I was really stuck on the line where he says might some feel that the museum itself had been polluted by racism even after the paintings were removed and I thought yeah there would be a call.
For a cleansing a removal of certain people that worked there would be call for some sort of something some sort of a sacrifice some sort of a a a ceremony where you redid and re-made this a place where people could be I could feel that now maybe that's still for you politically you're like which I think we should care that people are represented well and treated well but maybe for you it would be if uh in London and Paris that there are museums they submerged an American flag in urine and put dung on George Washington maybe that's the thing that would make you think this is unacceptable.
But the reality is we do have some things that we hold sacred we do have some lines of sanctity we do have some understanding of pollution and what God is saying is that his name his glory matters and the way we speak of him matters and the way we think of him matters and that we are not to Sully or dishonor his name so as we look at this 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 I think there's three things three things three words that we need to Define and we're going to spend our time doing that this morning we're going to Define name vain and take and we're going to Define name and vain quickly and then we're going to spend the rest of our time looking at the word take but in order to understand make this coherent we need to know what he means by name we need to know what he means by Vain and we need to know what he means about take.
And then we can apply this name when he says name what is he talking about do you not take the name of the Lord your God in vain what is the name of the Lord God well in Exodus chapter 3 Moses asks what is your name and God said to Moses this is Exodus chapter 3 verses 14 and 15. I am who I am and he said say this to the people of Israel I am has sent me to you now that I am who I am and that I am is four letters in Hebrew no vowels yhwh or j h v h depending on how you translate it into English this is where we.
Get the name Yahweh or Jehovah because they go in later and add how you would pronounce it but it means I am I exist I'm the ever existing all sufficient one that's what he's saying I am what I am I will be what I will be that he is he stands on his own and he is the only being that stands on his own that is not derived from something else that is not in need of something else pre-existent ever existing sufficient that's what he's saying.
But then he says this and we need to look at this real quick says the Lord so he says go tell them say this to the people of Israel the Lord the God she lured there where it's all caps that's the way that that yhwh is going to be treated in most Bibles English Bibles from then on so if you see all caps Lord It's the Divine name of the Lord there but it's keeping in a tradition where the Jewish people would not pronounce the Divine name as they try to keep the.
Third commandment and so they actually at times wouldn't even write the Divine name they would write out some sort of shorthand version of it and our English translations instead of putting the Divine name put this in keeping with the same idea of how do we keep the third commandment but it's not just that Divine name there that if as long as I don't say Jehovah or Yahweh I'm okay then I can say whatever I want because when he describes himself he says things like the.
Lord the God of your father is the God of Abraham the God of Isaac the God of Jacob has sent me to you this is my name forever and thus I am to be remembered throughout all generations when he shows back up in Exodus 34 as he's declaring his name he does the same thing he says the Lord the Lord but then he gives descriptions of him and so his name is whatever we invoke to bring him to mind call him to our mind or the minds of others.
So that you can't say well as long as I don't say this or do this about this one particular name but I can refer to the God of Abraham however I want it's not how it works it's whatever would bring him to mind whatever would invoke him whatever would call him to our minds to the minds of others and so it's any version of speaking about him you've got him wonderful counselor if you called him Mighty God if you called him.
Jesus if you called him Christ all of these would be under the umbrella of his name so that's defining name it's anything you would use to bring God to mind to invoke God as you prayed or as you spoke about him or that other people don't understand what you're talking about that's name what does vain mean nothing nailed it that's it vain means empty it means nothing means wasted he tried in vain to get a date and then hung out at the house by himself like that's that's the idea it means nothing it means it was wasted.
And so what he's saying is you won't do anything that takes my name and treats it like it's nothing you won't take my name and treat it like it's nothing like it's empty like it's worthless like it has no value like it is not precious like I am not precious and valuable and holy and Worthy you won't speak about me treat me take me so this that's what vain means and it matters to him Ezekiel 20 verse 9 and he says this repeatedly in Ezekiel I just took one to try to help us.
See this he says I acted for the sake of my name that it should not be profaned in the sight of the Nations among whom they lived in whose sight I made myself known to them in bringing them out of the land of Egypt he's talking about this The Exodus where he brings his people out and he says that he worked for the sake of his name that God cares how his name is perceived because it is through that that we perceive who he is it's his name that calls him to mind that invokes him.
So is he powerful is he good is he just is he righteous so he cares about his name he cares about his glory it matters because he matters in humans caring too much about your name can be Petty or sinful but God is Worthy is Holy and that to belittle his name is to not just get sideways with God but it's to get sideways with reality and it's ultimately very bad for us and you need to hear that because the thing that we care most about as Americans is care and harm and you need to know that it is harmful to disregard the name of.
God because it puts us sideways with reality and it puts us sideways with a glorious God who is very good but that will not be mocked so what does take mean if he says you shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain the Lord will not hold him Guiltless who takes his name in vain what does take mean and I think after studying and looking at this and looking how the Scripture is treated take means to there's two primary ways to take his name one is to speak it we can take his name in vain with words we can also take his name in vain with actions and again.
If you'll think about invoke or this idea of bear or carry the name that we can do this with words or with actions we're talking about words first within in general this is how we often think about taking the lord's name in vain that's what Jesus says when he says as he's teaching his disciples how to pray to pray Hallowed be thy name or may your name be honored as holy that we would treat your name with honor and respect so certainly it means we don't use God's name as a swear word we ought not to say oh my.
God if you would pray if you would come in here and sing my God my God and you would mean my God and you would be calling that God and you would be talking to that God you shouldn't say oh my God when you hear that Justin Bieber has released a new album you shouldn't say oh my God when your favorite pizza place runs out of a topping or is closed on Mondays now because they can't get people to work we shouldn't say.
Jesus in some sort of a way like it's an expletive like we're calling him in because we stubbed our toe we we should certainly not do that but it's beyond just that we should speak in a way that honors him that glorifies him that treats him with respect and dignity as if he's precious to us as if he's glorious because he is Psalm 139 verse 20. it says they speak against you with malicious intent your enemies take your name in vain they the enemies of.
God speak about him as if he isn't holy as if he isn't good as if he isn't glorious but the people of God shouldn't they speak about him in a way that's flippant so this means we should consider how we joke I was talking to um Jamie Kern who's currently she's doing Mission work in uh Lebanon and she's learning Arabic she said one of the first things she did in Arabic she was hanging out with the people in the Kurdish Church and they were talking and they talked about Pastor Ben which is Ben Johnson who she works.
For and they were talking about Pastor Ben Pastor Ben and she said in Arabic one of her first phrases she'd learned she said oh Ben Ben's crazy which if you know Ben but that's a normal thing we'd say he's crazy she said the whole room it was like someone just sucked the air out of the room everybody went and then the lady went we don't say that about pastors and she told me I was talking on the phone she said they've drawn a line and anything that has to do with the.
Lord anything that has to do with Scripture anything that has to do with the Church anything that has to do with anything in that zone they treat with a lot of reverence to try to honor the Lord and not dishonor the things that matter to him now if you hang out with us long enough you will know that we don't take our pastors too seriously and we have said before that we don't want to take ourselves too seriously we want to take the.
Lord seriously but one of the things that is a danger for us we're most of us are not in danger of of honoring our pastors too much or taking this all too seriously but we can be in danger of dishonoring the Lord with the way that we speak I'm not talking about how you talk about me or Spencer especially Spencer we will joke about things that that aren't funny that aren't light that aren't jokes we will read cartoons about people meeting at the Pearly Gates and Peter's talking to them we'll we'll have little cartoons or little jokes about how.
God created the world we'll tell jokes about Jesus playing golf we'll joke about things that are precious and worthy and dear and we'll hold them like they're a joke we ought not to joke about the spirit we ought not let familiar familiarity with something wonderful and holy make it less valuable to us and we ought to be very mindful and this isn't just how we joke but it seeps into how we think y'all we just gathered in here as the people of.
God those Redeemed by Christ and we sang about Jesus and how about how beautiful this name is but were we paying attention were we really worshiping yeah I'm back there I know I'm gonna say this my phone buzzed in my pocket and I had it in my hand before I have his reflex and I'm still singing the words but I'm not worshiping we come in here and we sing there are times where you're singing to the Lord about how glorious his name is and you're thinking I wish the bass guitar was louder you're singing to the.
Lord and you're thinking I don't really like this song you're singing to the Lord and then you stop and just whisper to someone about what you want to eat for lunch and then you go right back into it you don't even notice that we so devalue his name and his glory when we treat him with no respect so it matters it matters how we think about the Lord and how we approach the Lord I was trying to think about how to help us wrap our mind around this.
Because we we just don't have this things are sacred Things Are Holy so let's talk about babies for a second we all agree babies are precious and it's a nice thing to say if you see an ugly baby say what a precious baby because not all babies are cute but they are all precious they're all valuable they are all love they are all dear and one of the reasons they're precious is that they're delicate God is Not delicate but he is Holy.
So don't put delicate in there but but keep the word precious valuable deer if someone says you want to hold my baby and you're doing something you don't keep doing something with one hand and go yeah toss it here you prepare yourself to hold a baby you clean your hands you get ready I because of the preciousness of baby babies have both rejected holding a baby or letting someone else hold my baby I've had people be like you want to hold my baby and I've said no no I do not and it's not.
Because I don't like your baby I'm sure he's fine it's that he's precious and I don't know you that well I don't need to hold you like just and I've also had people go can I hold him and I've gone no but you can look at him back up a few feet because he's precious we prepare our minds for it we think about it we we hold in a specific way you've never been like oh can I hold your baby and grabbed its foot and just picked it up like it was a catfish good one we're mindful and y'all our culture doesn't care about.
Jesus but we ought to we ought to be mindful of how he's spoken about and how he's treated and how he's how we speak and treat we ought to be mindful of that I was at my grandmother's house and she had a doormat and I was talking to her I like the design on and she said well you can have it as you're sitting in a garage this was when I was in high school I took it home stuck it in my room I had it I think at the door to my room my dad came he opened the door and he just stopped he looked at the doormat and he said that belonged to.
My sister Cindy and she had passed away when he was 18 in a car accident and he said I want that because I don't want anything to happen to it and he took it now last time I was at his house I was in one of his his like work rooms and he had a doormat high up on the wall well cared for he was afraid I was going to treat it like a doormat it's not a doormat to him it was precious and how how dare we not care about the preciousness of Christ and the glory of our.
God who not only is he really Worthy but he is personally good to us that he would rescue and redeem us and make us his we ought to watch how we speak we ought to care about how other people treat the name of our Lord we can do that in a gracious way we can do that in a way that exempts us from certain movies and shows and interactions with people but we ought to care way that we can do this that we can take his name is through actions that we carry his name we read this a.
Second ago it's Ezekiel chapter 20 verse 9 but I want you to see something there's something assumed here that we need to wrap our head around God says but I acted for the sake of my name that it should not be profaned in the sight of the Nations among whom they lift they being the people of Israel in whose sight I made myself known to them that's being the Nations and bringing them out of the land of Egypt what he's saying is I put my name on the people of Israel.
When I rescued him out of Egypt they carry my name they bear my name that's what we read in chapter 19 where he says you're going to be a kingdom of priests you're a holy nation that you're going to carry my name that in some ways it's like they have a banner that has the Lord on it and they March under his Banner so that there is a way to carry the name to take the name of the Lord that has nothing to do with how we speak.
But has everything to do with how we behave and Daniel that we're going to read through a handful of passages because they understood this Daniel says and and Daniel chapter 9 he says oh Lord hear O Lord forgive oh Lord pay attention and act delay not for your own sake oh my God because your city and your people are called by your name so he says work on our behalf for your own sake because we're marked by your name Isaiah 43 6-7.
Because I will say to the north this is God speaking give up and to the South do not withhold bring my sons from afar and my daughter's from the end of the Earth everyone who is called by my name whom I created for my glory whom I formed and made that God marks people with his name and they represent his name and they're called by his name and somehow his name is attached to him this is what the writer in proverbs 30 understands he says remove far from me falsehood and lying give me neither poverty nor riches feed me with the food that is needful.
For me lest I be full and deny you and say who is the Lord or lest I be poor and steal and profane the name of the Lord the name of my God sorry as he's speaking when he profanes the name of the Lord no he's stealing when he profanes the name because he's marked by the name he's waving that flag but then acting that's what Jeremiah 34 God speaking to the people of Israel he says but then you turned around and profaned my name.
When each of you took back his male and female slaves whom you had set free according to their desire and you brought them into subjection to be your slaves so he told them to set him free they'd set him free and then they changed their mind and took him back and he says you've Dishonored my name y'all carry my name but you don't care Leviticus 22. so you shall keep my Commandments and do them I am the Lord and you shall not profane my Holy Name that I may be Sanctified among the people of Israel I'm the.
Lord who sanctifies you who brought you out of the land of Egypt to be your God I am the Lord she says you'll obey me and he says you won't profane my name and certainly that has to do with how they speak and how they worship but it also has to do with how they obey that they won't dishonor His Name by being his people and running after sin and acting in ways that dishonor him the same way that you might have had a parent.
Look at you and use your last name to remind you how to act you might have had a friend over and he said my friend does that and the parent looked and said yeah there are Williams Phillips says don't act like that you belong to a different name you belong to a different people and that's what he's saying and this applies to the Church second Corinthians 5. all this is from God who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation that is in Christ.
God was reconciling the world to himself reconciling means making things good again bringing us back into relationship not counting their trespasses against them and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation therefore we are ambassadors for Christ God making his appeal through us and we implore you on behalf of Christ to be reconciled for God so Paul's writing and says we're ambassadors for Christ and as Christians I think that it generally applies to us as well we've been given the name of Christ we are ambassadors meaning we represent Christ to the world.
And so it matters that we don't carry his name in vain we don't take his name in vain so this is you getting a job and saying hey I can't work on Sundays and I can't work on Tuesday nights because that's when my community group meets and I can't work on Sundays because I'm a host team or I serve in Kid City um and then being the laziest person at the job having other people clock you in or out lying to get sales you're bearing the name in vain it's showing up to work and looking like all your other co-workers and caring nothing about whether they know Christ it's carrying the name in vain is.
Being a boss and making a big deal about how you're a Christian and being unfair unkind unhelpful it's a dating somebody and it's not going well so you sit them down you say I think the Lord's leading me into a season of singleness you make God co-sign the fact that you don't want to deal with the uncomfortableness of breaking up with somebody and you've prayed how much about this it's not the lord it's just easier to have them be mad at the.
Lord or for you to sound holy as you walk through this process it's getting into a relationship and I'm so thankful for God he's finally answered all my prayers as you and your new boyfriend or your new girlfriend are actively involved in sexual sin when the people in your community group point that out say I don't think this is a good relationship for you you say things like well I prayed about it and I don't feel bad and God wants me to be happy you made.
God cosign things that he doesn't co-sign and you carry his name in vain this is Instagram posts of being blessed and highly favored but really you just want to brag about your shoes or your job or your car and you don't want to say looking at my great shoes job in car without you just say you make it look like you're praising the Lord but you actually aren't really all that thankful and you've never actually submitted your finances to him so you're just carrying your name in his name in vain we can do this all the time in.
So many ways this is actually the other half of the Church discipline process Church discipline when we think about it so often we think of it as just the last step in the process which is the the one that I think maybe most sticks out in our mind but when we talk about Church discipline it's actually just the Church caring about the Church and so it happens all the time if you've ever had someone in your group say you probably shouldn't talk to your wife like that hey you need to repent here hey I'm going to hold you accountable here hey that's Church discipline and it's good and we.
So often because culturally how we think about things we so often think about it in relation to it's good for you to have people care about you because sin is harmful but also we care about Church discipline because we don't want to solely the name of Christ by co-signing unrepentant sin that we care about the name of Christ we care about our witness as Christians who say we belong to Jesus and if someone's an unrepentant sin it matters this is what Paul says in.
First Corinthians 5 11 now I'm writing to you not to associate with anyone who Bears the name of brother if he's guilty of guilty of sexual immorality or greed or as an idolater reviler drunkard or swindler not to even eat with such a one that someone who would carry the name but walk in sin and not care unrepentant Paul says that's a problem because carrying the name matters um I like documentaries and I especially like Ken Burns documentaries because they are better than all other documentaries and I don't want I'm not trying to make you think that my wife and I are cool.
But we did specifically pay for a PBS subscription just so we could watch Ken Burns documentaries but in Ken Burns the war is this this quote this this interview that really stood out to me there's a Japanese American his name was Daniel inoue he ended up becoming a he ended up getting a medal of honor and becoming a Congressman this is World War II and at the beginning of World War II when Pearl Harbor happens they rounded up the Japanese Americans and they put them in basically concentration camps and would not let him join the military would not let him they took away their freedoms.
Because they were just like on the east on the west coast it was like we don't know how this is about to play out and Japanese have attacked us and they reverse course on this and this is a Japanese American whose dad worked now for the government and who was signing up to go be in the military and he says that his dad took leave from work I had to get permission from the government to take three hours off to to take his son.
So that he could enlist so he could leave he was he's leaving and he said his dad they get on the streetcar and they're going he said his dad's quiet he's not on a man who talks much he's just riding with him until they get close to where he's going to be dropping him off he said my dad cleared his throat and I knew something was coming and he said I know he's not a man of words so this was hard.
For him but he said his dad looked at him is he was taking him to drop him off for him to go be in the military in World War II he said my dad looked at me and said this country has been good to us and it's given me two jobs it has given you and your brothers and your sister education we owe a lot to this country do not dishonor this country he looked at his son and said you're about to put on a uniform that carries the name and don't dishonor it how much more should we care.
If we've been purchased by the blood of Christ that we carry his name in a way that honors him how much more should we care and how we sing and how we speak and what we watch and how we treat him and how we teach others to treat him how much more precious and valuable and good is he that if we would look at someone and say you've Dishonored the badge you've Dishonored the uniform and think that means something which it does how much more should we carry care about dishonoring the name of Christ the band's going to come back up in a moment we're going to sing in a moment we're going to take.
Communion and I want us to reckon with something for a second Exodus 20 verse 7. the third commandment 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're guilty we're guilty of disregarding the glory and worth and preciousness of God so what do we do well second Corinthians 5 we got right to it and we stopped he says therefore we are ambassadors for Christ.
God making his appeal through us we implore you on behalf of Christ be reconciled to God now here's the message for our sake he made him that's God made Jesus to be sin who knew no sin so that in him we might become the righteousness of God Jesus saves us up from our sin and he saves us from the law which holds us accountable for our sin that's what he says it was for our sake that Jesus did this the message that we Proclaim is not I'm really good.
Because I'm a Christian yes we care about honoring the name but the message we Proclaim is that he's really good that he who knew no sin became sin so that I might be made righteous that my hope is in him so in the midst of us realizing that we ought to love and care about the glory of God Way Beyond the bounds of where we are right now yes we repent and we praise God that he became sin so that we could be made righteous.
Because our hope is not in our good actions but in his his work on our behalf and the cross and that's what we celebrate at Communion so if you are a Christian in the room we would invite you to repent to spend some time with the Lord and then take communion which is where we celebrate that his body was broken for us that his blood was shed for us and there's a new covenant for us for Covenant of forgiveness of sins.
If you are not a Christian communion is not for you to not partake but we would invite you to trust in Jesus because he became sins and we could be made righteous the message of the Gospel is not come be good the message of the Gospel is that you are in sin and you need forgiveness and there is hope in Christ and that's offered to you today by faith Jesus let's pray Lord forgive us forgive us for valuing you so little forgive us.
For being the people who should worship and glorify with focus and energy in our hearts who should care about how we treat your name and carry your name who should represent you well in the world and we fail and the Lord we ask you to save us for the sake of your name for the sake of the name of Jesus who will not fail to rescue any who trust in you we ask you to forgive us for the sake of the glory of Christ who has come to redeem Sinners and will not fail we pray these things in.
Jesus name all around the room right now take a moment to sit with the Lord ask him to help you see your own heart here to repent and to confess and then to celebrate by taking communion.