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Voddie Baucham - The First Table of the Ten Commandments_ Introduction · Voddie Baucham Sermons

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Speaker 1: Please open again to Exodus chapter twenty, Exodus chapter twenty,
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Speaker 1: and as we've come to this place and the Exodus,
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Speaker 1: and as we now examine the Decalogue, as we examine
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Speaker 1: these ten words, these ten commandments.
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Speaker 2: There are going to be several.
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Speaker 1: Weeks of introduction and overview because it is critical that
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Speaker 1: we understand what the Ten Commandments are, that we understand
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Speaker 1: where the Ten Commandments fit, not just within the context
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Speaker 1: of Exodus, but within the context of redemptive history as
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Speaker 1: a whole. Where do they fit for us? What do
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Speaker 1: they mean to us and to all men? On last week,
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Speaker 1: Stephen gave us that broad overview of.
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Speaker 2: The Ten Commandments and how they fit.
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Speaker 1: What I want to do this week is to give
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Speaker 1: us a kind of overde overview of the structure of
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Speaker 1: the Ten Commandments and what we're looking at here. It's
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Speaker 1: easy for us to look at the tin Commandments as
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Speaker 1: just these ten words, these ten rules, and here's a circumstance,
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Speaker 1: here's a rule, here's another circumstance, here's a rule. This
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Speaker 1: one violates this commandment, and this one violates that commandment.
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Speaker 1: But there is a structure here that is informative. There
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Speaker 1: is a structure here that is helpful. There is a
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Speaker 1: pattern here that helps us bring together the Decalogue as
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Speaker 1: one whole, and that's what we want to see today.
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Speaker 1: Understand this also, Stephen alluded to this, and over the
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Speaker 1: next several weeks, you'll hear some things again and again
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Speaker 1: and again. And that's okay, because there are some of
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Speaker 1: these things that if we repeat them for the next
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Speaker 1: six weeks, three weeks after that, somebody who's been here
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Speaker 1: will ask us a question that we've covered five times
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Speaker 1: in those six weeks. It just happens that there are
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Speaker 1: some of these things that we just know so well.
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Speaker 1: As Stephen said on last week, there's some of these
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Speaker 1: things that we just know so well that it takes
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Speaker 1: more than once or twice or three or four or
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Speaker 1: five or six times for us to hear these truths
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Speaker 1: for it to kind of jar us away from what
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Speaker 1: we're assuming, because oftentimes we hear what we assume. One
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Speaker 1: of the things that we need to be reminded of
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Speaker 1: is that one of the great distinctions between between Reformed
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Speaker 1: Christians and other evangelicals is the fact that we believe
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Speaker 1: in and hold to the perpetuity of the moral law.
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Speaker 1: That's one of the distinctions. The word reformed is around
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Speaker 1: so loosely today, where anybody who believes in, for example,
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Speaker 1: with a tulip, anybody who, as it relates to soulteriology
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Speaker 1: or salvation, who could be characterized as a Calvinist, is
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Speaker 1: called reformed. And this is not true. There are some
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Speaker 1: characteristics of reformed Christians that go beyond being five point Calvinists. Okay,
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Speaker 1: refurther the tulip, you know, total depravity, unconditional election, limited
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Speaker 1: atonement or particular redemption, irresistible grace, and then perseverance of
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Speaker 1: the elect. Okay, But we talk about that usually we say, okay,
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Speaker 1: that person is reformed. We even talk about four point
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Speaker 1: Calvinists who are really not Calvinists at all. Of four pointers.
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Speaker 1: Not is not Calvinists, they're Amoraldian. Okay, but we even
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Speaker 1: talk about four pointers as being reformed, and nothing could
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Speaker 1: be further from the truth. Not only only must you
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Speaker 1: be calvinistic, but also covenantal in your theology not dispensational.
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Speaker 1: A person who hosts the dispensational theology is not reformed.
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Speaker 2: Let me say that again.
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Speaker 1: A person who hosts the dispensational theology is not reformed,
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Speaker 1: even if they fall into that unusual category of being
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Speaker 1: a dispensationalist and a five point Calvinist. They're not reformed
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Speaker 1: because they do not hold to a covenantal view of theology.
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Speaker 1: And then finally, if they're not confessional, they're not reformed.
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Speaker 1: And these reformed confessions all have in common the upholding
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Speaker 1: of the perpetuity of the moral law. For people who
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Speaker 1: are not reformed, the only significance that the Ten Commandments
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Speaker 1: have for them is to the degree that they are
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Speaker 1: mentioned in the New Testament. That they're mentioned in the
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Speaker 1: New Covenant. This is why, for the most part, people
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Speaker 1: who are not reform, one of the dead giveaways is
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Speaker 1: that they don't believe. And I'm getting a little bit
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Speaker 1: ahead of myself, but this is an important point. They
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Speaker 1: don't believe that the Fourth Commandment is binding in any
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Speaker 1: significant way on us today. Because they argue that the
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Speaker 1: Fourth Commandment is something that is not repeated in the
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Speaker 1: New Testament expressly and explicitly. Well, we would disagree with
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Speaker 1: that on both points. We would disagree with that because
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Speaker 1: we don't believe that the commandments have to be repeated
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Speaker 1: in the New Testament for them to be binding. And secondly,
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Speaker 1: we do believe that the fourth Commandment is absolutely repeated
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Speaker 1: in the New Testament. Okay, So on both accounts, we
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Speaker 1: would disagree more on that when we get to the
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Speaker 1: fourth Commandment. We'll spend a few weeks on each of
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Speaker 1: the commandments. So we'll spend a few weeks at least
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Speaker 1: on the Fourth Commandment talking about that for now. Just
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Speaker 1: understand that structurally this is important.
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Speaker 2: Okay.
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Speaker 1: So we believe in the perpetuity of the Tin Commandments,
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Speaker 1: the perpetuity of the Decalogue. And again it was alluded
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Speaker 1: to on last week, but one of the reasons that
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Speaker 1: we believe in the perpetuity of the Decalogue is because
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Speaker 1: we don't believe that the Ten Commandments are limited to
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Speaker 1: the Mosaic Covenant. We don't believe that they're limited to
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Speaker 1: the Mosaic Covenant. Why, because every one of the Commandments
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Speaker 1: transcends the Mosaic Covenant. All of these commandments have been
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Speaker 1: seen as part of God's moral law before the Ten Commandments.
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Speaker 1: None of the things that we read in the Decalogue
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Speaker 1: were okay, before the Decalogue. This is codifying those things
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Speaker 1: and giving them to us in a particular form that
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Speaker 1: it's easy for us to grasp and underst stand. And codify,
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Speaker 1: and to use as a tool for our understanding of
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Speaker 1: the rest of our ethics. Beyond that, we'll see that
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Speaker 1: it's significant because even in the New Covenant the Decalogue
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Speaker 1: is referred to as a whole and as binding. A
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Speaker 1: great example of this is Jesus in Matthew twenty two,
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Speaker 1: when he's asked what is the greatest commandment? Again a
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Speaker 1: number of different schools of thought at that time. Some
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Speaker 1: would have argued that the first Commandment was the greatest commandment,
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Speaker 1: you know, nor the gods before me. Others would have
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Speaker 1: argued that the tenth Commandment was the greatest commandment because
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Speaker 1: really all of our other sins would come as a
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Speaker 1: result of our covetousness. And others would argue that the
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Speaker 1: fifth commandment was the greatest commandment because it is the link,
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Speaker 1: if you will, or the bridge between the first and
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Speaker 1: second tables.
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Speaker 2: Of the Law.
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Speaker 1: So Jesus is asking Matthew twenty two, it's the greatest commandment,
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Speaker 1: and his response is, the greatest commandment is you should
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Speaker 1: love the Lord your God with all your heart, with
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Speaker 1: all your mind, and with all your strength.
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Speaker 2: Huh.
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Speaker 1: Interesting, because that's a summary of the first table of
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Speaker 1: the law. The first table of the law is those
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Speaker 1: first four commandments. They are the vertical commandments. They have
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Speaker 1: to do with our duty toward God. And then he
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Speaker 1: says quickly the second is like it, you shall love
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Speaker 1: your neighbor as yourself. Well, that is a summary of
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Speaker 1: the second table of the law, or the last six commandments,
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Speaker 1: which have to do with our horizontal duty or our
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Speaker 1: duty to our fellow man. So the question comes Jesus,
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Speaker 1: what's the greatest commandment? His response essentially is I'm gonna
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Speaker 1: have to say one through four, followed closely by five
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Speaker 1: through ten. That's his answer in the New Covenant. That's
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Speaker 1: his answer. Okay, why because we see in the Decalogue
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Speaker 1: a picture, a summary of God's forever binding moral law,
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Speaker 1: a picture of God's moral character, and a picture of
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Speaker 1: what God is forming in his people. It is also
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Speaker 1: a picture of what his son personifies and keeps on
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Speaker 1: behalf of his people. This is the law that Christ keeps,
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Speaker 1: This is the law to which he's bound, this moral law.
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Speaker 1: And what we'll also see is that this moral law
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Speaker 1: becomes foundational, so that even in the judicial law and
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Speaker 1: the ceremonial law. What happens is that the moral law
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Speaker 1: becomes the sort of umbrella and becomes categories for these
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Speaker 1: other laws. So when you see in the judicial laws,
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Speaker 1: for example, here's what happens when when your ox goes
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Speaker 1: and kills someone. This this is how you're held accountable
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Speaker 1: for that. Well, what is that, Well, that is an application.
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Speaker 1: It's a civil application of the sixth Commandment against murder.
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Speaker 1: So negligent homicide is wrong because of the sixth Commandment.
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Speaker 1: So even when you have the civil law, the way
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Speaker 1: that you understand the civil law and why the civil
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Speaker 1: law is what it is for Israel, is by understanding
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Speaker 1: that it's actually an application of the decalogue. Because this
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Speaker 1: is a picture of God's morality, then this is an
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Speaker 1: explanation of how that would manifest itself in the way
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Speaker 1: you live your life. So with that in mind, let's
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Speaker 1: look at the first table and the second table of
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Speaker 1: the law. Let's look at the way these things work
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Speaker 1: together as a whole, and let's look at their implications
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Speaker 1: for us. First, let's look at the first table and
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Speaker 1: our duty to God. That's those first four commandments, and
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Speaker 1: these first four commandments really lay a foundation for our worship.
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Speaker 1: When you talk about our duty to God. Ultimately, you're
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Speaker 1: talking about our worship of God. Okay, look at the
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Speaker 1: first commandment, the first commandment, verse three, you shall have
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Speaker 1: no other gods before me. The first commandment very short
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Speaker 1: and sweet, but this clarifies the object of our worship.
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Speaker 1: We worship God and we worship God alone. If you
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Speaker 1: look at those first couple of verses leading up to it,
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Speaker 1: look at chapter twenty, verse one. And God spoke all
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Speaker 1: these words saying, I am the Lord your God, who
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Speaker 1: brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of
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Speaker 1: the house of slavery. You shall have no other gods
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Speaker 1: before me. So the foundation, the moral foundation for the
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Speaker 1: moral law is God himself. This is why God is
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Speaker 1: able to give the Decalogue, because he's God, and that's
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Speaker 1: why he starts there. He says, God spoke these words
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Speaker 1: with his own mouth, saying I am the Lord your God.
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Speaker 1: There you have it. Here is why God gets to
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Speaker 1: give us the Decalogue. Here is why God gets to
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Speaker 1: give us the Ten Commandments because he is God. Period
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Speaker 1: end of discussion. This is why they're forever binding and unchangeable.
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Speaker 1: God is God, and the first commandment is you should
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Speaker 1: have no other gods before me. This means that God
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Speaker 1: alone is God. That God is our God. Therefore, because
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Speaker 1: of this, we must worship God alone. This means a
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Speaker 1: couple of things or several things. First, obviously monotheism. Obviously
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Speaker 1: it means monotheism. This is extremely important for Israel coming
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Speaker 1: out of Egypt.
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Speaker 2: We've alluded to this before, but let me put a
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Speaker 2: finer point on it.
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Speaker 1: When Israel comes out of Egypt and when the plagues come.
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Speaker 2: God did not.
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Speaker 1: Need the first nine plagues to get Pharaoh ready for
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Speaker 1: Plague number ten.
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Speaker 2: Amen. God made Pharaoh. God is sovereign over Pharaoh. God
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Speaker 2: did not need.
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Speaker 1: The first nine plagues in order to soften him up.
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Speaker 1: He could have just done it all in one shot.
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Speaker 1: Could have done it all without a word, could have
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Speaker 1: done it without Moses, could have done it.
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Speaker 2: I mean, it could have just been done.
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Speaker 1: Pharaoh could have just woken up one day and said, hey.
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Speaker 2: You guys, go. But God did not operate that way.
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Speaker 1: Why the first nine plagues, Well, there are several reasons,
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Speaker 1: not the least of which is that God obliterates every
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Speaker 1: possibility of the gods of Egypt being actual gods. He
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Speaker 1: obliterates that he stands in direct opposition to everything that
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Speaker 1: the Egyptians worship, which in turn would have been everything
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Speaker 1: that Israel was tempted to worship. That's why you see
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Speaker 1: those nine plagues. They weren't just for the Egyptians. That
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Speaker 1: was for the Israelites. Because remember, he's not just getting
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Speaker 1: Israel out of Egypt. He's getting Egypt out of Israel.
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Speaker 2: Amen.
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Speaker 1: And so this point is important. Listen to this from Walton,
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Speaker 1: Matthews and Shavalas. When the text says that there should
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Speaker 1: be no other gods before me, it does not refer
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Speaker 1: to others having a higher position than Yahweh. And that's
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Speaker 1: important because you could you could sort of read it
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Speaker 1: like that, you shall not have any other gods before me.
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Speaker 1: You can have something after me, but you can't have
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Speaker 1: anything no, not at all. The introduction in verse two
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Speaker 1: has already indicated as a pre existing assumption that Yahweh
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Speaker 1: is their god. The phrase before me means in my
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Speaker 1: presence and therefore prohibits other gods from being considered to
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Speaker 1: be in the presence of Yahweh. In other words, it's like,
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Speaker 1: you know, don't bring that before me. Don't bring that
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Speaker 1: in front of me, is what God is saying here.
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Speaker 1: Not ranking in order of importance. But you shall have
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Speaker 1: know other gods. I will not tolerate that, so monotheism. Secondly, worship,
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Speaker 1: Calvin states in his commandment, God enjoins that he alone
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Speaker 1: should be worshiped and requires a worship free from all superstition.
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Speaker 1: God requires that He be worshiped in essence when you
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Speaker 1: boil it down. Worship is our acknowledgment that God is
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Speaker 1: our God, that he is the one true God.
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Speaker 2: We give our worship to God and to God alone.
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Speaker 1: Thirdly, obedience. Obedience is assumed here. After all, what does
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Speaker 1: it mean for God to be our God if it
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Speaker 1: doesn't mean that.
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Speaker 2: He rules and reigns? Amen? So God is to be obeyed.
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Speaker 1: This is important as God is giving these commandments, because
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Speaker 1: this first commandment becomes sort of an umbrella over the
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Speaker 1: rest of the commandments. Because I'm God, I am the
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Speaker 1: one who determines what is true, what is right, what
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Speaker 1: is holy? So truth, beauty, and goodness come to us
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Speaker 1: from God himself.
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Speaker 2: We are not a law unto ourselves.
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Speaker 1: We do not get to determine what is true, what
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Speaker 1: is right, or even what is beautiful. God is the
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Speaker 1: one who determines this. Because God is God. If anyone
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Speaker 1: else gets to determine truth, beauty or goodness. If anyone
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Speaker 1: else gets to say authoritatively, this is what is right,
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Speaker 1: this is what is wrong, then suddenly they have usurped
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Speaker 1: God's authority, violated not only the first Commandment, but inevitably
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Speaker 1: every other commandment as well, because the moment you put
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Speaker 1: yourself in the place of God, the moment you put
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Speaker 1: yourself as God's equal. Now, even if you uphold any
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Speaker 1: other commandment, you're basically saying, yeah, this one is okay
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Speaker 1: because I agree with it. This one's not okay because
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Speaker 1: I don't agree with it. By the way, this is
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Speaker 1: exactly what postmodern man has done. It's the essence of postmodernism.
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Speaker 1: What's true is true for me. It's true here, it's
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Speaker 1: true now, it's true based on my experience. In other words,
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Speaker 1: I become the fountain head of all ethics. And if
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Speaker 1: it's not me, then we believe that communally, that we
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Speaker 1: become the fountain head of all ethics. We know this,
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Speaker 1: for example, as values clarification. This was very big in
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Speaker 1: education in recent generations. The idea of values clarification, this
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Speaker 1: idea that teachers, you know, teachers used to just sort
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Speaker 1: of put the rules up on the wall. Well that's
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Speaker 1: too reminiscent of the Ten Commandments, right, that's too reminiscent
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Speaker 1: of There is an authority in this class, students, and
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Speaker 1: it's not you. And here's what the authority in this
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Speaker 1: class says, are the rules of the class. Boom boom, boom,
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Speaker 1: boom boom. That's too reminiscent of the Ten Commandments. Okay,
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Speaker 1: and we don't like that. Postmodern man doesn't like that.
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Speaker 1: Authority doesn't come from outside of me. Authority comes from me,
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Speaker 1: and maybe authority comes from the community. So in values clarification,
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Speaker 1: what the teachers were taught is you come to the
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Speaker 1: students and you say, what are we going to have
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Speaker 1: as our rules class? And then the students say, well,
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Speaker 1: I think we ought to have this as a rule,
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Speaker 1: and I think we ought to have that as a rule.
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Speaker 2: Now here's the purpose of it.
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Speaker 1: The purpose of it is so that when Johnny violates
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Speaker 1: a rule, you don't come down on Johnny with authority
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Speaker 1: saying I am the authority. I told you what the
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Speaker 1: rules were and you have not obeyed. No, no, no, no.
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Speaker 1: What you do is you come to Johnny as God
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Speaker 1: and you say, God, you established the rules. Remember, so
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Speaker 1: in essence, you violated your own rules. So I'm punishing
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Speaker 1: you here, but only because I'm responding to your authority.
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Speaker 1: Do you see the difference this say is I'm God.
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Speaker 1: I determine what's true. I determine what's right. It's very
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Speaker 1: important that we understand what's being said here that ultimately
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Speaker 1: God says, here's the object of our worship and the
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Speaker 1: source of our ethics. So the first commandment gives us
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Speaker 1: the object of our worship. The second commandment gives us
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Speaker 1: the limits of our worship. It would be one thing
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Speaker 1: for God to say, I'm God, you must worship me,
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Speaker 1: and then for us to say, excellent, here's how we've
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Speaker 1: determined that we're going to worship you. But God doesn't
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Speaker 1: even leave that up to us. God doesn't even allow
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Speaker 1: us to determine how we're going to worship him. Look
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Speaker 1: at the second commandment. You shall not make for yourselves
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Speaker 1: a carved image or any likeness of anything that is
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Speaker 1: in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath,
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Speaker 1: or that is in the water under the earth. You
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Speaker 1: shall not bow down to them or serve them. For I,
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Speaker 1: the Lord your God, am a jealous God visiting the
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Speaker 1: iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third
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Speaker 1: and fourth generation of those who hate me, but showing
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Speaker 1: steadfast love to thousands of those who love.
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Speaker 2: Me and keep my commandments.
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Speaker 1: In other words, we worship God the way God says
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Speaker 1: he is to be worshiped. First of all, this obviously
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Speaker 1: prohibits idolatry. Obviously explicitly, this prohibits idolatry. You don't get
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Speaker 1: to make something and offer it worship, even on my behalf.
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Speaker 1: God says, you don't get to do that. Okay, when
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Speaker 1: we get to this commandment and spend a few weeks
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Speaker 1: on this commandment, we'll talk about some of the implications
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Speaker 1: of this and the way that this has been interpreted
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Speaker 1: in reform circles, because there's not there's not complete agreement
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Speaker 1: on this. For example, there's disagreement even among Reformed Christians
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Speaker 1: as to whether or not images of Jesus would violate
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Speaker 1: the Second Commandment. Okay, there are those who would argue
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Speaker 1: no images of Jesus at all because of violations of
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Speaker 1: the Second Commandment. All right, if you want to understand
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Speaker 1: this culturally, then you would see. Let me, let me
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Speaker 1: put two things before you one would be the Jesus film, right,
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Speaker 1: which is shown all over the place, and here's a
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Speaker 1: man playing Jesus. Or if not the Jesus film, then
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Speaker 1: the one where Jim cavizl the passion in Christ. Okay,
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Speaker 1: you look at those films, right, and you have Jesus
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Speaker 1: being portrayed on film. But there's another you remember, being her.
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Speaker 1: Jesus is in ben Her, but you don't see him.
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Speaker 1: You get to see his cloak or his robe or whatever,
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Speaker 1: but intentionally in ben Her, Jesus is not personified. He's
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Speaker 1: not shown. Okay, So that there would be a difference
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Speaker 1: between those who believe that images of Jesus would be
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Speaker 1: a violation of the Second Commandment and those who believe
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Speaker 1: that because God manifested himself in flesh, that images of
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Speaker 1: Jesus would not necessarily be a violation of the Second Commandment.
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Speaker 1: But that's sort of inside baseball. What everybody agrees upon
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Speaker 1: is that you don't make objects and worship them. So
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Speaker 1: if Jim Covizil is dressed up as Jesus, you don't
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Speaker 1: bow down at his feet and offer him worship, even
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Speaker 1: if you believe it was appropriate to make the passion
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Speaker 1: of the Christ and have an image of Jesus in
24:28
Speaker 1: that film. Even those people who would take that position
24:32
Speaker 1: would also agree that you would not. Therefore, when he's
24:36
Speaker 1: in his costume and in his makeup playing the role,
24:40
Speaker 1: you would not bow down before him and offer him worship.
24:44
Speaker 1: That would clearly be idolatry. Fair enough, okay, But regardless
24:55
Speaker 1: of how you split that hair, the fact of the
24:59
Speaker 1: matter is we do not offer our worship to anything
25:05
Speaker 1: or anyone but God. This always leads, also leads us, though,
25:10
Speaker 1: into the regulative principle. We've talked about the regulative principle
25:14
Speaker 1: on a number of occasions. There are basically three approaches
25:19
Speaker 1: to worship. There are two of them that really came
25:22
Speaker 1: out of the Reformation. One was the regulative principle, and
25:28
Speaker 1: this is the Reformed understanding of worship. The regulative principle
25:33
Speaker 1: basically argues that God is to be worshiped only in
25:38
Speaker 1: those ways that God has prescribed in scripture, and we
25:44
Speaker 1: do not worship God in any way other than what
25:46
Speaker 1: He has prescribed in scripture. Okay, So regulative principle, here's
25:51
Speaker 1: a circle all the things that God has said specifically,
25:54
Speaker 1: this is what you do to worship me. That's the
25:56
Speaker 1: stuff that we do in worship. Nothing outside of that
26:00
Speaker 1: regulative principle, the Reformed approach. There is another approach, which
26:05
Speaker 1: was called the normative principle of worship. The normative principle
26:10
Speaker 1: of worship argued that, yes, we got to worship God
26:13
Speaker 1: in those ways that he spoke clearly, but we can
26:17
Speaker 1: also worship God in other ways as long as He
26:20
Speaker 1: hasn't expressly forbidden it and it's not necessarily inconsistent with
26:27
Speaker 1: what we find in the regular principle. So if he
26:30
Speaker 1: hasn't said no to it, and it's not too far
26:33
Speaker 1: out of bounds, then we can do that as well. Okay,
26:37
Speaker 1: there is a third principle. The third principle doesn't come
26:40
Speaker 1: from the Reformation. This is just a phrase that I've
26:44
Speaker 1: coined over the years. I call it the affective principle
26:48
Speaker 1: of worship. And this is what the overwhelming majority of
26:52
Speaker 1: modern worship, especially in the Western world, especially in America,
26:56
Speaker 1: is based on. The affective principle. And the affective principle
26:59
Speaker 1: is if it makes anyone feel closer to God, then
27:05
Speaker 1: it's acceptable worship. As long as it makes people feel
27:11
Speaker 1: closer to God, it's acceptable worship. So worship is not
27:16
Speaker 1: determined by God. Worship is determined by us. And and
27:22
Speaker 1: and if it's something that makes people feel.
27:24
Speaker 2: Worship, whatever it is, that thing is worship. Okay, whatever
27:32
Speaker 2: it is.
27:33
Speaker 1: And so you know, an example is the people who
27:36
Speaker 1: have the drawings, you oh, during during worship. This was
27:40
Speaker 1: you know, a big craze in the emerging church. The
27:44
Speaker 1: worship service would be going on and then there would
27:47
Speaker 1: be people who would be over drawing whatever the Holy
27:50
Speaker 1: Spirit was bringing to their minds at that moment, and
27:53
Speaker 1: that was their act of worship. Okay, that there were
27:58
Speaker 1: other I mean, other ex Russians like this, and as
28:02
Speaker 1: long as someone was brought closer to God and felt
28:07
Speaker 1: like it helped them encounter and experience God, that it
28:10
Speaker 1: was deemed to be acceptable worship, and anybody who had
28:14
Speaker 1: anything to say against it was deemed to be quenching
28:17
Speaker 1: the Holy Spirit. Okay, this is the affective principle of worship.
28:25
Speaker 1: We hold to the regulative principle of worship largely because
28:28
Speaker 1: of the Second Commandment. God makes it very clear in
28:33
Speaker 1: the first Commandment that He's to be worshiped, but in
28:35
Speaker 1: the second Commandment that he used to be worshiped. The way,
28:39
Speaker 1: he says. So this talks about the elements of our worship.
28:45
Speaker 1: And this is why you see those elements of the
28:47
Speaker 1: reading of the scriptures and praying and preaching, and the
28:52
Speaker 1: elements like the Lord's Supper and baptism and things of
28:56
Speaker 1: this nature. We do these singing. We do these things
29:00
Speaker 1: because we find them expressly in scripture. And this is
29:05
Speaker 1: why we don't do things like, for example, drama, because
29:09
Speaker 1: you don't find those things expressly in scripture as biblical worship.
29:16
Speaker 1: Okay again, okay, all right. Thirdly, the reverence of our worship.
29:25
Speaker 1: The reverence of our worship. This is what the third
29:27
Speaker 1: Commandment give us. You shall not take the name of
29:30
Speaker 1: the Lord your God in vain, for the Lord will
29:32
Speaker 1: not hold him guiltless who takes his name in vain.
29:41
Speaker 1: I want to back up and connect this to the
29:44
Speaker 1: Second Commandment because this goes back to that principle of
29:49
Speaker 1: God's jealousy. In the Second Commandment, God makes it clay.
29:54
Speaker 1: That's where I am a jealous God. We've talked about
29:56
Speaker 1: this before, but it bears mentioning again. This makes some
30:01
Speaker 1: people very uncomfortable because jealousy is sinful, and you know,
30:09
Speaker 1: jealousy and envy. By the way, jealousy and envy are
30:12
Speaker 1: two different things, but jealousy is sinful, so it seems
30:17
Speaker 1: like God is.
30:18
Speaker 2: Here upholding sin for himself. Let me.
30:25
Speaker 1: Be very careful and very clear. Jealousy is sinful because
30:33
Speaker 1: in jealousy you are essentially violating the tenth Commandment, and
30:38
Speaker 1: in the tenth commandment coveting you see the possessions, position,
30:44
Speaker 1: or praise received by another as being more desirable for yourself.
30:52
Speaker 1: You want their possessions, their position, or their praise to
30:56
Speaker 1: be yours, or at least you want it not to
30:58
Speaker 1: be theirs. In other words, you believe that God has
31:03
Speaker 1: wrongly or erroneously passed out position, possession, or praise to
31:11
Speaker 1: someone who doesn't deserve it, but you deserve it more.
31:13
Speaker 1: God didn't know what he was doing. That's why jealousy
31:17
Speaker 1: is wrong for you, folks. Jealousy is not wrong for
31:20
Speaker 1: God because God is God. If God allows position, possessions,
31:26
Speaker 1: or praise that belong to him to be the possession
31:31
Speaker 1: of another, then he would be guilty of idolatry. God
31:37
Speaker 1: has to be jealous for his own glory because God
31:41
Speaker 1: is God. If God stops being jealous for his own glory.
31:45
Speaker 1: That means he is sharing his glory with another, and
31:48
Speaker 1: there is no other who is worthy of God's glory.
31:51
Speaker 1: That's a violation of the first commandment. If God's not
31:53
Speaker 1: a jealous God, he's violating the first commandment.
31:56
Speaker 2: Okay.
31:58
Speaker 1: The reason that jealousy is a sin for you and
32:00
Speaker 1: not for God is because God is the one who
32:04
Speaker 1: owns all glory, all praise, all possessions, all positions are
32:10
Speaker 1: God's amen. And so here we see the reverence of
32:15
Speaker 1: our worship. Do not take the name of the Lord
32:18
Speaker 1: your God in vain. God will not hold him guiltless
32:22
Speaker 1: who takes his name in vain. We'll discover when we
32:25
Speaker 1: get to this commandment and spend again a few weeks
32:27
Speaker 1: on this commandment, that we're not just talking about God's name,
32:30
Speaker 1: but even those things that would that would bear his
32:34
Speaker 1: name or communicate his name, or represent his name like
32:38
Speaker 1: his word. You don't blasphem God's word because it's the
32:46
Speaker 1: word of God. You don't do that. You don't do that.
32:55
Speaker 1: By the way, you also don't blaspheme. The image of
33:00
Speaker 1: God in humanity, ultimately, murder in some ways is rooted
33:07
Speaker 1: and grounded in this because man is made in the
33:10
Speaker 1: image of God. He's an image bearer of God. When
33:14
Speaker 1: you destroy a man made in God's image, it is
33:18
Speaker 1: as though you were murdering God in effigy and thereby
33:22
Speaker 1: taking his name in vain. This is about the holiness
33:33
Speaker 1: of God, the righteousness of God. This is why the
33:39
Speaker 1: Psalmist repeatedly says, we come before Him clothed in righteousness. Fourthly,
33:47
Speaker 1: the regularity of our worship we see in the fourth commandment.
33:50
Speaker 1: Remember the sabbath day to keep it holy. Six days
33:53
Speaker 1: you shall labor and do all your work. But the
33:55
Speaker 1: seventh day is a sabbath to the Lord your God.
33:57
Speaker 1: On it you shall not do any work, you or
34:00
Speaker 1: your son, or your daughter, your male servant, your female servant,
34:03
Speaker 1: your livestock, or the sojourner who is within your gates.
34:07
Speaker 1: For in six days the Lord God made the heavens
34:09
Speaker 1: and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them,
34:12
Speaker 1: and rested on the seventh day. Therefore, the Lord has
34:14
Speaker 1: blessed the sabbath day and made it holy one day
34:20
Speaker 1: in seven. One day in seven belongs to God. This
34:25
Speaker 1: has to do with the balance of our work and
34:28
Speaker 1: our worship. Folks, why do we go to church every
34:31
Speaker 1: seven days as opposed to every forty. And this is
34:37
Speaker 1: especially my question to those people who abandon the Reformed
34:42
Speaker 1: position and abandoned the Ten Commandments as the ten Commandments
34:47
Speaker 1: and abandon the Fourth Commandment, because they would argue that
34:50
Speaker 1: you don't see it explicitly in the New Testament, in
34:53
Speaker 1: the New Covenant. Then my question to them is, why
34:57
Speaker 1: do we have church one day in seven and not
35:01
Speaker 1: one day in forty? And would you discipline someone in
35:05
Speaker 1: your church who just showed up once a year?
35:09
Speaker 2: Would you allow them to still be members in your church?
35:12
Speaker 1: And if you discipline that person, you're basically saying they're
35:16
Speaker 1: committing a sin. Sin has to be tied to a
35:19
Speaker 1: moral obligation. How do you have a moral obligation without
35:24
Speaker 1: an ought, without a command?
35:29
Speaker 2: How do you do this well? Will you get it
35:35
Speaker 2: from the law of Christ?
35:37
Speaker 1: Really tell me how the Law of Christ gives you
35:40
Speaker 1: one day in seven worship.
35:42
Speaker 2: How does it do it well? You ought to want
35:44
Speaker 2: to go? Uh uh?
35:45
Speaker 1: Why ought you to want it? If it's not a
35:48
Speaker 1: moral imperative? Why ought you to want it? Why would
35:51
Speaker 1: it be morally wrong for a Christian to say I'm
35:54
Speaker 1: only going to show up one day a year, why
35:57
Speaker 1: would it be morally wrong unless us this is the
36:02
Speaker 1: moral law of God binding on all people for all times,
36:10
Speaker 1: one day in seven, one day in seven. Why would
36:14
Speaker 1: it be morally wrong for me to have servants or
36:17
Speaker 1: employees and to force my employees to work seven days
36:20
Speaker 1: a week.
36:22
Speaker 2: Or would it be morally wrong?
36:24
Speaker 1: Because, by the way, if you throw out the Fourth Commandment,
36:27
Speaker 1: because the Fourth Commandment is not expressly repeated in the
36:31
Speaker 1: New Testament, by the way it is, we'll talk about
36:34
Speaker 1: that when we get there, okay, But if you throw
36:36
Speaker 1: it out and become a non commandment person and you
36:38
Speaker 1: don't have the Fourth Commandment, then.
36:40
Speaker 2: How do you justify.
36:43
Speaker 1: Having a moral obligation to treat your employees a certain way?
36:49
Speaker 1: Because whenever Paul or Peter talk about the treatment of servants,
36:55
Speaker 1: it is rooted and grounded in the morality of the
36:58
Speaker 1: Fourth Commandment, which is another reason that I would argue
37:03
Speaker 1: that you do see it there in the New Govenant.
37:06
Speaker 2: But again, we're getting ahead of ourselves.
37:09
Speaker 1: But if you don't have this as a moral commandment,
37:14
Speaker 1: then you again, it is not just that we worship
37:18
Speaker 1: one day and seven. It is not just that there's
37:21
Speaker 1: a day set apart as the Lord's.
37:23
Speaker 2: Day and not our own.
37:25
Speaker 1: It is also the idea that this affects and impacts
37:30
Speaker 1: the way we treat those people who work for.
37:33
Speaker 2: Us, if we are employers.
37:42
Speaker 1: So we see the object of our worship, the limitations
37:46
Speaker 1: of our worship. We see the reverence of our worship,
37:53
Speaker 1: and the regularity of our worship in the first four commandments.
37:57
Speaker 1: And I want you to notice how that first commandment,
38:00
Speaker 1: it's sort of an umbrella.
38:02
Speaker 2: God is God and God alone.
38:06
Speaker 1: Therefore we worship God and only God, and we worship
38:09
Speaker 1: him the way that he tells us to worship him.
38:11
Speaker 1: Because God is God, we have reverence for his name.
38:15
Speaker 1: Because God is God, we have reverence for his day.
38:17
Speaker 1: You see how that's an umbrella. Now in the second
38:21
Speaker 1: table of the law, we see our duty toward our
38:24
Speaker 1: fellow men. First, let me show you the bridge. The
38:27
Speaker 1: fifth commandment is a bridge between the first and the
38:30
Speaker 1: second tables of the law.
38:32
Speaker 2: Look at verse twelve.
38:35
Speaker 1: Honor your father and your mother, that your days may
38:38
Speaker 1: be long in the land that the Lord your God
38:41
Speaker 1: is giving you. The honoring of father and mother is
38:46
Speaker 1: the honoring of God given authority. It's the honoring of
38:52
Speaker 1: God given authority, and we honor God by honoring the
38:57
Speaker 1: authority under which God has place us. This is how
39:01
Speaker 1: we honor God. This has made clear in the Old
39:04
Speaker 1: Covenant and in the New Covenant. But for us as Christians,
39:08
Speaker 1: we see this, for example in Romans thirteen. We see
39:12
Speaker 1: this in Second Peter two. We also see this in
39:16
Speaker 1: the household commands of children obearing their parents in the Lord.
39:21
Speaker 1: Why do you do this Hebrews thirteen seventeen. Why do
39:24
Speaker 1: you submit to the authority in the church? Why do
39:27
Speaker 1: you submit to the elders and the rulers in the church?
39:29
Speaker 1: According to Hebrews thirteen seventeen, because in every institution God
39:34
Speaker 1: has given those who represent his authority. In Romans thirteen,
39:38
Speaker 1: those who represent Him in governmental authority are ministers of God,
39:42
Speaker 1: and we submit to them because of our submission to God.
39:45
Speaker 1: The submission of a wife to her husband is a
39:47
Speaker 1: submission as unto the Lord. The submission of children to
39:51
Speaker 1: parents is submission as unto the Lord. So the fifth commandment,
39:55
Speaker 1: which covers all of our submission to the authority that
39:59
Speaker 1: God has placed over us, is ultimately a two table commandment.
40:06
Speaker 1: It is our duty to our fellow man. But in
40:10
Speaker 1: this duty to our fellow man, we are actually showing
40:13
Speaker 1: our submission to God. There are some who argue that
40:16
Speaker 1: the fifth commandment belongs to the first table. I wouldn't
40:22
Speaker 1: split hairs with them over that, but I argue, at
40:27
Speaker 1: least it's a bridge between the first and second table
40:30
Speaker 1: of the law. And then watch what happens in the
40:33
Speaker 1: second table of the law. Look at this don't murder,
40:39
Speaker 1: which means don't deprive your neighbor of his life. And
40:44
Speaker 1: we'll talk about the difference between murder and killing. Okay,
40:48
Speaker 1: the commandment is don't murder. It's not don't kill. Pacifism
40:51
Speaker 1: is not supported by the Ten Commandments. Pacifism is not
40:55
Speaker 1: supported by the Bible in any way, shape, form, or fashion.
41:00
Speaker 2: Okay.
41:02
Speaker 1: God calls upon his people to defend themselves, to defend
41:05
Speaker 1: their families, Okay, to defend their nations, to defend.
41:11
Speaker 2: Those who are under their charge.
41:13
Speaker 1: So pacifism, pacifism is not here, all right, anti capital punishment,
41:21
Speaker 1: folks like to go to the sixth commandment, and you
41:24
Speaker 1: know you shall not murder, and listen, before this commandment
41:27
Speaker 1: is even given back in Genesis chapter nine, you take
41:32
Speaker 1: a person's life, your life will be taken right. This
41:36
Speaker 1: is back in Genesis because of the dignity inherent in
41:41
Speaker 1: human beings, people forfeit their very lives by killing human beings.
41:48
Speaker 1: So don't deprive your neighbor illegitimately of his life. Secondly, adultery,
41:55
Speaker 1: don't deprive your neighbor of his family. Thirdly, theft, don't
41:59
Speaker 1: deprive your neighbor neighbor of his goods. Fourthly, false witnesses,
42:03
Speaker 1: don't deprive neighbor of his reputation. And then fifthly, covening,
42:10
Speaker 1: don't despise what God has given you. I would argue
42:15
Speaker 1: that the second table really almost goes backwards, like the
42:19
Speaker 1: first commandment becomes this umbrella over the first table of
42:23
Speaker 1: the law and explains the first.
42:25
Speaker 2: Table of the law.
42:27
Speaker 1: I would say that the tenth commandment becomes an umbrella
42:30
Speaker 1: and explains the second table of the law, And so
42:34
Speaker 1: you have this sort of increasing severity.
42:38
Speaker 2: Let's look at it backwards.
42:39
Speaker 1: You have the tenth commandment, don't covet And ultimately, covening
42:42
Speaker 1: is about you not being satisfied with what God gave
42:45
Speaker 1: you and instead wanting what He gave you plus what
42:48
Speaker 1: He gave your neighbor. Okay, be satisfied with what God
42:54
Speaker 1: has given you. Then it becomes more intense and more personal.
43:02
Speaker 1: Protect your neighbor's reputation. Then, don't deprive your neighbor of
43:09
Speaker 1: his goods. Don't deprive him of his reputation. Next, don't
43:13
Speaker 1: deprive him of his goods. Thirdly, don't deprive him of
43:16
Speaker 1: his family, because ultimately, this is what adultery is doing.
43:19
Speaker 1: It's depriving him of his family. And then don't deprive
43:23
Speaker 1: him of his life. Do you see how they're sort
43:25
Speaker 1: of increasing degrees there, coming from the tenth commandment and
43:31
Speaker 1: going backwards. So ultimately, what God is doing here in
43:36
Speaker 1: the second table of the law is he's talking about
43:38
Speaker 1: our duty horizontally to our fellow man, and he goes
43:42
Speaker 1: from the most severe down to the root. Cause, don't
43:50
Speaker 1: deprive him of his life. If you'll deprive him of
43:54
Speaker 1: his life, it'll be easy for you to deprive him
43:56
Speaker 1: of his family. If you'll deprive him of his family,
43:59
Speaker 1: it'll be easy for you to deprive him of his goods.
44:01
Speaker 1: If you're willing to deprive him of his goods, it's
44:03
Speaker 1: easy for you to deprive him of his reputation. And ultimately,
44:08
Speaker 1: you're willing to do all of that because you're not
44:10
Speaker 1: satisfied with what you have, and instead you want what
44:15
Speaker 1: your neighbor has. See the connection. This is absolutely a whole,
44:23
Speaker 1: especially when you understand that you're not being satisfied with
44:27
Speaker 1: what you have is ultimately you not being satisfied with God,
44:31
Speaker 1: which takes us right back to the first table of
44:34
Speaker 1: the law. And so it's summarized as loving your neighbor
44:41
Speaker 1: as yourself. But I don't want to just say that.
44:44
Speaker 1: I want you to see it. Let's go to a
44:46
Speaker 1: couple of places here, and then we'll close go to
44:50
Speaker 1: Luke eighteen. Why do we call the commandments commandments? Well,
45:03
Speaker 1: because Jesus does. Look eighteen, and then let's start in
45:07
Speaker 1: verse eighteen the rich young ruler, and a ruler asked him,
45:14
Speaker 1: good teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?
45:18
Speaker 1: And Jesus said to him, why do you call me good?
45:20
Speaker 1: No one is good except God alone. You know the commandments,
45:25
Speaker 1: Jesus calls him commandments. You know the commandments. Do not
45:30
Speaker 1: commit adultery, do not murder, do not steal, do not
45:34
Speaker 1: bear false witness, Honor your father and your mother. By
45:39
Speaker 1: the way, there they are right, second table of the Law.
45:45
Speaker 1: Right there. Boom boom boom boom boom there it is. Okay,
45:50
Speaker 1: you know the commandments. Okay, of course he says he's
45:55
Speaker 1: kept these from his youth. He absolutely has not. Jesus,
45:59
Speaker 1: in the Sermon on the Mount, helps us to interpret
46:02
Speaker 1: the commandments. I won't spend time there today because as
46:05
Speaker 1: we get into the individual commandments, we'll spend a lot
46:07
Speaker 1: more time in the way Jesus treats them in the
46:10
Speaker 1: Sermon on the Mount. Because in the Sermon on the Mount,
46:12
Speaker 1: he gets to the heart of the matter. You've heard
46:15
Speaker 1: it said, don't murder, I say, don't even hate your brother.
46:19
Speaker 1: You've heard it said, don't commit adultery. I say, if
46:22
Speaker 1: you lusted after a woman, you've committed adultery with her
46:25
Speaker 1: in your heart. He gets to the heart of the matter.
46:27
Speaker 1: He ups the stakes on these commandments. Turn to the
46:31
Speaker 1: right and look at Romans Romans, because oftentimes people will
46:41
Speaker 1: say that, you know, it's not so much the commandments anymore,
46:44
Speaker 1: but it's.
46:44
Speaker 2: The law of love, the law of love.
46:51
Speaker 1: So look at Romans thirteen. Romans thirteen, beginning of verse eight,
47:01
Speaker 1: owe no one anything except to love each other.
47:04
Speaker 2: There it is. It's the law of love. Man.
47:06
Speaker 1: We're not under the law anymore. Now we have the
47:10
Speaker 1: law of love. Not those old commandments. They're done away with.
47:15
Speaker 1: We got the law of love.
47:18
Speaker 2: Okay.
47:21
Speaker 1: Four, The one who loves another has fulfilled the law.
47:25
Speaker 1: For the commandments you shall not commit adultery, you shall
47:30
Speaker 1: not murder, you shall not steal, you shall not covet
47:35
Speaker 1: and any other commandment are summed up in this word.
47:40
Speaker 1: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. How about that.
47:47
Speaker 1: We're not under those commandments anymore. We're under the law
47:49
Speaker 1: of love. What does that even mean? What does it mean?
47:56
Speaker 1: What is your ethical standard? If it's not the more
48:00
Speaker 1: law of God. I love my neighbor, but I murder
48:04
Speaker 1: him because I'm not under it. I mean, that's old Testament, man,
48:08
Speaker 1: that's the old Covenant. Now, as long as I do
48:11
Speaker 1: it in love, it's okay. I can deprive him of
48:15
Speaker 1: his life. But if I do it in love, it's okay. Right,
48:20
Speaker 1: I can deprive him of his family. I can commit adultery,
48:22
Speaker 1: but as long as I love my neighbor while I'm
48:25
Speaker 1: depriving my neighbor of the fact. Come on, now, I
48:29
Speaker 1: can deprive him of his property. I can steal from
48:32
Speaker 1: him as long as I'm doing it in love. Do
48:34
Speaker 1: you see how foolish this is when you examine it.
48:37
Speaker 1: Number one, it's foolish because it denies clear biblical teaching.
48:45
Speaker 1: This idea that the law of love is set over
48:48
Speaker 1: against God's moral law is obliterated here in Romans thirteen,
48:54
Speaker 1: and in other passages. I would say in One Timothy
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Speaker 1: one as well, it's a blitter. In One Timothy one,
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Speaker 1: Paul talks to Timothy about things that are in keeping
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Speaker 1: with sound doctrine, and he enumerates the decalogue all ten commandments.
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Speaker 1: He enumerates them as being in keeping with sound doctrine
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Speaker 1: in the New Covenant. Okay, just keeping these things look
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Speaker 1: differently today than it did then. Absolutely, And this is
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Speaker 1: what Jesus does for us in the Sermon on the Mountain.
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Speaker 1: Keeping these things looks differently today. That's why we're here today.
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Speaker 1: And we don't have tassels on our clothing. This is
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Speaker 1: why we're here on the first day of the week
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Speaker 1: instead of the last day of the week. Right, these
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Speaker 1: things don't look the same as they did, but they're
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Speaker 1: based in the same moral reality. Jesus has just upped
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Speaker 1: the stakes. He's transformed the way we look at the decalogue.
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Speaker 1: So when you see these, I want you to see
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Speaker 1: them as a whole. View these two tables of the law,
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Speaker 1: these two sides of the coin. View this as God
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Speaker 1: giving us a picture of what it looks like when
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Speaker 1: his ethic is formed in us, when his ethic is
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Speaker 1: formed in us, and we worship him rightly in accordance
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Speaker 1: with his word, when his ethic is formed in us,
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Speaker 1: and that worship of God and our vertical commandment then
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Speaker 1: spills over into the horizontal commandments and into the way
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Speaker 1: that we treat our neighbor, our fellow man. Understand these
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Speaker 1: things as a whole. Also understand them as two great holes.
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Speaker 1: Understand them as this first table love the Lord, your
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Speaker 1: God with all your heart, soul, mind, strength, and the
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Speaker 1: second table love your neighbor as yourself, and as explicit
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Speaker 1: expressions of what it means and what it looks like
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Speaker 1: for us to do that.
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Speaker 2: These are of great benefit to us.
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Speaker 1: Those benefits were outlined for us on last week, But
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Speaker 1: for now let me just say they're of great benefit
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Speaker 1: to us because as we are conformed to the image
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Speaker 1: of Christ, we now have a picture of what that
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Speaker 1: righteousness looks like as it is formed in us. The
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Speaker 1: righteousness of Christ being formed in me will absolutely look
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Speaker 1: like the right object of my worship, the right limitations
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Speaker 1: of my worship, the right reverence in my worship, and
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Speaker 1: the right regularity of my worship.
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Speaker 2: Christ being formed in me.
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Speaker 1: Will absolutely look look like that Christ being formed in
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Speaker 1: me will absolutely look like obedience and submission to the
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Speaker 1: authority that God has placed in my life. It will
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Speaker 1: absolutely look look like me not depriving my neighbor of
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Speaker 1: his life, of his family, of his possessions, of his reputation.
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Speaker 1: And it will absolutely look like me being satisfied with
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Speaker 1: what God has given me, knowing that God is God,
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Speaker 1: he is sovereign, and He is in control. So again,
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Speaker 1: we don't look at these as just sporadic, random rules,
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Speaker 1: but as one beautiful whole that gives us a picture
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Speaker 1: of God's holiness, God's righteousness, and what that holiness and
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Speaker 1: righteousness looks like when it is formed in God's people.
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Speaker 1: But how does this happen? Remember, it happens as we
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Speaker 1: are conformed to the image of Christ. And being conformed
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Speaker 1: to the image of Christ doesn't come as we heard
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Speaker 1: on last week by us merely striving to keep this law,
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Speaker 1: and as we've heard these things, and especially as we
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Speaker 1: hear them through the lens of Christ's teaching in the
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Speaker 1: Sermon on the Mount, what we're reminded of again and
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Speaker 1: again and again is that we can't.
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Speaker 2: Keep these things. We don't keep these things.
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Speaker 1: In my heart, I am constantly violating the first table
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Speaker 1: of the law. I want myself to be put into
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Speaker 1: that position. I want myself to be the source of
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Speaker 1: all ethics. In my heart, I'm constantly violating that second
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Speaker 1: table of the law. As anger and lust and greed
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Speaker 1: and covetousness and dissatisfaction continue to grow in me and
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Speaker 1: fight against who I am in Christ, who shall deliver
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Speaker 1: me from this body of death? God has given us
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Speaker 1: an answer in the person and work of Jesus Christ,
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Speaker 1: who kept these things perfectly, without stumbling, without fault. He
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Speaker 1: kept them perfectly in every way, and was actually righteous,
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Speaker 1: so that He might impute that righteousness to us, so
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Speaker 1: that by the imputed righteousness of Christ, through me coming
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Speaker 1: to Him in faith in repentance, God views me as
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Speaker 1: having kept all of these things perfectly. In Christ, I
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Speaker 1: am as righteous as if I had never faltered at
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Speaker 1: any point, because I'm clothed in the righteousness of Christ
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Speaker 1: when I come to him through repentance and faith, and
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Speaker 1: then through his passive obedience, he lays down his life
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Speaker 1: as a vicarious substitutionary atonement on my behalf, so that God,
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Speaker 1: who looks at me as righteous, can still be righteous
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Speaker 1: himself because He has not committed the.
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Speaker 2: Sin of not dealing with my unrighteousness.
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Speaker 1: If God calls me righteous when I'm not, if God,
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Speaker 1: who is just, has not punished my righteousness, that's not okay.
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Speaker 1: So through Christ's passive obedience, my sinfulness is imputed to him,
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Speaker 1: so that on the Cross, God righteously pours out his
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Speaker 1: wrath on my sin, which is viewed in Christ just
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Speaker 1: as real as his righteousness is viewed in me. So
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Speaker 1: that through this double imputation, God can be just because
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Speaker 1: He's punished sin, and the justifier because he sees me
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Speaker 1: as righteous in Christ. This is the message of the Gospel.
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Speaker 1: This is my only hope. So that when I look
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Speaker 1: at the decalogue and I see the beauty of the decalogue,
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Speaker 1: I don't turn around and say, oh, this is beautiful,
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Speaker 1: and I will work harder to get there. No, all
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Speaker 1: this is beautiful, and woe is me, because it shows
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Speaker 1: me very clearly that I do not possess the righteousness
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Speaker 1: that God demands and commands.
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Speaker 2: I am undone.
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Speaker 1: I am a man of unclean lips, and I live
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Speaker 1: among the people of people of unclean lips. And my
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Speaker 1: eyes have seen the king. But that's okay. God has
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Speaker 1: something better than a burning cold. He has the burning,
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Speaker 1: unquenchable righteousness of Jesus Christ that was laid down for
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Speaker 1: the sinfulness of those who come to Him in repentance
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Speaker 1: and faith, and that is offered to all of those
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Speaker 1: who do the same. So what we are called to
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Speaker 1: here is to see the beauty and the glory of
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Speaker 1: God's holiness and righteousness, and to see the emptiness of
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Speaker 1: our vain attempts to get there in our own selves,
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Speaker 1: and then to see the mercy of God, and to
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Speaker 1: come to Him in repentance and faith, throwing ourselves on
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Speaker 1: the mercy of Almighty God, believing by faith that we
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Speaker 1: have the righteousness of Christ, and that our sinfulness is
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Speaker 1: int it to Him, so that we thereby stand perfect
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Speaker 1: and righteous before God because of Christ, Oh sinner, do
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Speaker 1: not leave this room today believing that you've unlocked the
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Speaker 1: door to holiness by knowing what to do in the commandments.
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Speaker 1: But leave here today knowing that Christ is the key
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Speaker 1: and the door and the lock, and has used the
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Speaker 1: key to open the door of the lock, so that
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Speaker 1: you might indeed be found righteous and made righteous, both
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Speaker 1: positionally and actually through the person and work of Jesus Christ.
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Speaker 1: Run from your sin and run to Jesus. He is
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Speaker 1: indeed your only hope.
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Speaker 2: Let's play