Good morning again, everyone. It is great to see all of you here today. Welcome, Smyrna Campus. We love you guys. Glad you're connected there. Everyone that's connected with us online, we're happy to have that connection with you online as well.
I'm happy to be back this week. Mike Scherer did a great job bringing the lesson last Sunday. I'm thankful for his giftedness in teaching and leading us in the music time as well. He does a great job with all of that, but it's good to be back.
I had a good time with a church that is down in Georgia, down in the kind of middle Georgia. It's where, when I was in Bible college, I went there to become a preacher. The first year I was working another job and going to school, and then I wanted to get preaching experience. So there was this church a little ways away from the school that had Bible college kids come and preach for them on the weekends. And I knew they were looking for somebody. Somebody told me about it. So I went down and started preaching for them on the weekends and had a great time of learning and growing as a preacher.
And that church was very gracious. I told them I was very thankful they didn't have any recordings of the sermons. I hope I've gotten a little bit better at it over the years, but I was just starting out. And I would take the Bible class that I had at school and just teach that lesson that Sunday down there at the church. And they were very gracious and encouraging to a lot of young pastors.
And I reminded them, and I want all of us to remember too, it's a small church in a more rural area, but it has impacted the kingdom in a powerful, powerful way with these young preachers that have come through and gotten training and experience there. And also for the raising up of generations within their own families. I saw people there at the church this week, this past week, that were teenagers and little kids when I was there. And now they're adults with their own kids, and they've raised them up in the church, and their kids are raising their families in that same church now.
We're celebrating 50 years at Lakeshore this year. They're over 160 years old as a church. It's been around a long, long time and had great impact in the kingdom. So Buckeye Christian Church, thank you so much for all that you guys have done and are doing as a church there. But it's good to be back here with a church family here that we love so much as well.
We are continuing this series we're doing through the book of Exodus. And in the Exodus narrative, we're picking up at a point now, and Mike introduced some of it last week, where God has to work on His people and transform them into being the set-apart people that He wants them to be. He's leading them to go to this land of promise, a land that He swore in covenant with Abraham that He was going to give them. And He's getting them ready to go to this land that He promised to take them to.
For over 300 years, they've been slaves in a pagan culture. And the first generation that went there would have been appalled at all of the pagan practices of that culture. But then the next kids were raised up in that culture. And then the next kids were raised up in that culture. And for 300 years, the next generation and the next generation had been raised in the middle of that culture. And what happens is, when that's all you know, when that's all you've been around, it becomes part of who you are. It influences you.
The culture you live in, and participate in, and are around all the time, and it's being promoted and pushed on you, it has an effect on you. So He's brought them out of Egypt, but the rest of the book of Exodus leading into the land that He was taking them to, the rest of this narrative is about getting Egypt out of them. It's about getting, working the paganism of Egypt out of them.
And so He begins to teach them, and establish them, and call them to a standard that was totally unlike what they knew in Egypt. It was totally different than anything they had experienced in their whole time there. He's calling them to standards of life and living that are foreign to them at first. Like so many even in our culture today that have been raised with no connection to the church and no exposure to the Bible or Christianity, they are raised without any of that. So it's new to them. It's something they don't know and understand at first.
And so there has to be this process of learning and growing and calling them to that standard that God wants for their lives. In fact, we're all always in that process, aren't we, of being called to that standard that God has for us in our lives.
And one of the things that God is doing, and what we're going to be looking at today, is a passage that is in Exodus chapter 20, if you want to be turning there. In Exodus 20, beginning on verse 1, we have the introduction to what God was giving them, giving through Moses, we know as the Ten Commandments. And actually in the Hebrew, it's the Ten Words. And what that means is, it's the Ten Words of foundational instruction for life.
The Ten Commandments are actually what God is telling them, this is the path to life as I intended life to be. These commands, following these commands, are the path to the life that I want for you. The good life, the blessed life, the life that brings peace and joy into your existence. This is the path that can get you to that life that I designed you to have.
And there are a lot of different versions you may see of the Ten Commandments that are out there. I wanted to share one with you. I'm going to try to do it in my best hillbilly accent. This is the Hillbilly Ten Commandments, alright? The Hillbilly Ten Commandments, so bear with me. I don't think of myself as a hillbilly. But I can probably pull it off. Here we go.
Ain't but one God. Honor your ma and your pa. No telling tales or gossiping. Get your hide to Sunday meeting. Ain't nothing come before the Lord. No fooling with another feller's gal. No killing except for critters. Crit your foul mouthing. No swiping your kinfolk stuff. Don't be hankering for it neither.
The Ten Commandments or the Ten Words are repeated in the New Testament except for one. The one that says remember the Sabbath day and keep it holy is not repeated in the New Testament. But all the other nine are. Now there's a good reason for that and we'll talk about it because under the New Covenant the first day of the week began to be the day of worship and honoring God on Sunday. The Sabbath day was Saturday. It was the seventh day of the week under the Jewish law. So it was a different thing. It was transitioned and transformed into something newer that God had planned for us, something different.
But the other commandments are all repeated. In fact, they're strengthened in some ways in the teachings of Jesus in the New Testament. When it comes to our understanding of the Ten Commandments, what I want us to see is that these commands, and I'm going to read through them here in just a moment, but these commands form the baseline, the foundation, for life. Life is to be built on these Ten Commandments that God gives to them. That's what He's saying to them through Moses in the bringing of these commandments to them.
Any deviation from this standard is sin. Any deviation from the standard that was set in the Ten Commandments, that's what sin is. Anything other than what He clearly says, this is what I want for your life, to get outside of that is to commit sin. And so this is the foundational purpose.
Now when it comes to the law, there are really multiple uses of the law, but there are two primary uses for the law and God reveals these to us in Scripture. One is that it's like a spiritual MRI. Any of you have an MRI done medically where they do that test on you to discover something, right, that might be wrong? Well that's what the Ten Commandments are for His people. It exposes what might be wrong in your life. Because you hold up your life to these commandments and you see what matches up, that's a good thing, that's a healthy thing, but you also see what doesn't match up and that reveals a problem in our lives where there needs to be correction and healing and restoration in that area where we've gotten away from that standard that God wants for us.
But the second use of the law that I want us to focus on today mainly, is this, it lets us know the path of life, how to walk in a way that is pleasing to God. A lot of people are really struggling, I think, with knowing what's God's will, what would be pleasing to Him, what does He want for me in my life? Well this is the foundational standard right here for what God wants and what God's pleased with in our lives. If we can nail these ten, we'll be into the will of God with a firm foundation of how He wants us to be living our lives today.
So, in the law is the fullness of life that God has brought to us. And we're going to see how it looks ahead, remember everything in Exodus is pointing ahead, it's looking ahead and pointing to the ultimate fulfillment in Jesus Christ and keeping the law perfectly in Christ and how Christ provides for us when we have not been able to perfectly keep the law.
So let's read Exodus 20, read along with me here in your Bibles, beginning with verse 1.
And God spoke all these words:
"I am the Lord your God who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery. You shall have no other gods before me. You shall not make for yourself an image in the form of anything in heaven above or the earth beneath or in the waters below. You shall not bow down to them or worship them, for I am the Lord your God. I am a jealous God, punishing the children for the sin of the parents to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me, but showing love to a thousand generations of those who love me and keep my commandments.
You shall not misuse the name of the Lord your God, for the Lord will not hold anyone guiltless who misuses his name. Remember the Sabbath day by keeping 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, neither you nor your son or daughter, nor your male or female servant, nor your animals, nor any foreigner residing in your towns. For in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth, the sea and all that is in them, but He rested on the Sabbath day. Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy.
Honor your father and mother, so that you may live long in the land the Lord your God is giving you. You shall not murder, you shall not commit adultery, you shall not steal, you shall not give false testimony against your neighbor, you shall not covet your neighbor's house, you shall not covet your neighbor's wife, or his male or female servant, his ox or donkey, or anything that belongs to your neighbor.
When the people saw the thunder and lightning, and heard the trumpet, and saw the mountain in smoke, they trembled with fear. They stayed at a distance and said to Moses, "Speak to us yourself, and we will listen. But do not have God speak to us, or we will die."
Moses said to the people, "Do not be afraid. God has come to test you. So that the fear of God will be with you to keep you from sinning." The people remained at a distance while Moses approached the thick darkness where God was.
Now it might help us to use an analogy here to understand what God has just done here through Moses in bringing these commandments. All analogies break down at a certain point because they're not the actual thing. But this is kind of an example of what the Ten Commandments were for Israel.
In the United States, we have a Constitution, right? Our founding fathers wrote a Constitution for us. And the Constitution is the basis upon which all other laws and decisions are made. In fact, if a law is being challenged, it would go all the way up to the Supreme Court. And the Supreme Court's job, you know, you can argue if they do it well or not. But their job is to hold that law up against the Constitution because if it doesn't match up with the Constitution, then that law is not good. It's not going to be what the founding fathers wanted our country to be like.
And so, the Ten Commandments for Israel is like their Constitution. It's the standard for everything else. Now, they're going to have many other laws. And we're going to be learning about those over the next several weeks that God's going to bring for them. For specific things that they're dealing with, specific circumstances that they're living in, and challenges that they're facing, there are going to be specific laws to address those things. But all of them come under what? The Ten Commandments. It's the foundation. It's the standard. It's the baseline. It's the Constitution for everything else to match up with.
And so, we are looking in the Ten Commandments at that bedrock of their civilization as God wanted it to be, like the Constitution serves as that bedrock for our civilization here in the United States. And all the laws that flow out of that come from the heart of the Constitution, or for Israel, the Ten Commandments.
So, you'll hear more about those various sections of law in the next couple of weeks. But for now, I want us to focus on the Constitution, right? Let's focus on the baseline. I'm going to go through these ten and kind of a condensed version of them for your outline, for the sake of space, and talk about each one for just a moment.
Remember, as you hear these commandments, these are God saying, this is what I'm pleased with. This is the life I designed you for. This is how life would be best if you do these things and don't do these things that it says not to do.
So, God doesn't give us these Ten Commandments to restrict us. Don't ever think that. He gave these Ten Commandments to bless them with the best life possible.
So, let's look at these. And I think you'll see that if we human beings would just do these ten things, life on this planet would be much better.
Alright, the first one is, you shall have no other gods before me. Now, remember, they're coming out of Egypt. They're coming out of a land that had lots of gods. They've been raised and taught about all the different gods that were in Egypt. They had seen and heard about all of these gods and how they were raised in that land. Even though they were slaves, they were exposed to all of this. They were around all of this on a regular basis.
And so, when God says, you shall have no other gods before me, that's radically different than everything they've been raised with. It's radically different than Egypt and how Egypt did life, how they as a nation did life. Now, remember, Egypt was powerful. It was strong, and yet they did life differently. So, it's going to be hard for them to think. Maybe there's a better way even than that, that there only needs to be one God above everything else and everyone else. That's the God of the Bible, the God of Israel, the God of Abraham. That's the God that we need to give ourselves to and have no other gods.
Now, when it says before me, it doesn't mean in order of importance. What it means is, nothing, nothing should take the place that I hold in your life. No God, no thing, no love interest, nothing should take the place of God's position of being first in your life.
And when we think about that, part of the problem we have is we do get attached to other things. Now, in America today, in the American church, we don't have this concept that we're actually tempted to worship other gods, right? We're kind of, we're more advanced than that, aren't we? We don't have other gods. You don't go around and hear about other gods in church when you attend church. And when you're going through your Christian life, you're not thinking about worshiping other gods.
But a god is whatever you give your heart to and allegiance to. And there's nothing wrong with giving your heart to your spouse or to your family. Your heart should be invested in those relationships that God has blessed you with. But here's what He means by I have no other gods before me. Not even your wife and family, not even your kids should come before who? God. God's first.
So if we want the life that God wants for us, we believe He's got a plan, and it's a good plan, it's for His glory, if we believe His plan is really for our good, then we have to start there. God's going to be number one above everything else. He's going to be the one who receives the loyalty of our heart above all others.
The second thing is connected to that. He says you shall not make any idols, any graven images or idols. And usually, when we think of graven images, they had plenty of them there in Egypt where they made statues or images. They made them usually out of gold or silver or precious metals. Sometimes they'd be made out of wood and then coated with gold or silver or something like that because it was a little easier to carve it out of wood first and then just coat it with that.
But they would have these statues and these images, and they were all over Egypt in particular places around the country there, around the nation there. And usually, most of them were around where Pharaoh's throne was, where his palace was, because he was wanting to appease all the gods. And they made these idols and these images to appease the gods of those things that they thought they were the gods of.
And so they would have these images that were idols that they worshipped. And we think, well, we don't have idols today, do we? Well, of course we do. We just don't put them on a statue usually. We don't put them on a town square usually. Sometimes we put them on our wrist, or sometimes we carry them around in our pockets, or sometimes we drive them down the road, right? Sometimes it's the house that we go into. They're the things that we put way too much value on. And they come for our loyalty and love for God.
See, an idol is anything that challenges your love for and loyalty to God. That's an idol. And we do struggle with idols. And sometimes the idol is a person. Sometimes it is a lifestyle. Sometimes it is a particular kind of material thing that we think we just have to have.
And so what happens is, here's how you know it's an idol, is if you have to neglect God and worshipping God and honoring God in any way to do that or have that, then that has become an idol for you. That could be sports. For many people, sports are an idol. I love the Olympics. I've been watching some of it. And I love the competition. And I love hearing the back stories in the Olympics of the sacrifices that people have made, men and women have made, to be at the top of their game and compete on that scale. It's amazing.
By the way, there have been many Christians from all over the world, athletes competing in the Olympics, who have given God praise and glory and honor as they competed. And I'm so thankful for that. And I'm glad if you've been lifting them up in prayer, that's a good thing to do. Keep lifting them up, because they've got a platform where they can be a great witness for Jesus Christ. And many of them are taking advantage of that platform while they're there.
But here's the thing. You've seen it and I've seen it. Some people, that's all their life has been about. Some of those athletes, their whole lives were just given to training and preparing and competing. And then once the Olympic lifetime they have, which is very short by the way, it only happens every four years, you only get to do that so many times. And once you're too old to do that anymore, if that's all your life has been about, what happens to you then?
Many of those amazing athletes have lived miserable lives after their sporting life was over. Because that was their idol. Winning, excelling in that sport was the most important thing to them in their whole lives. And for some of them, they're crushed if they have an injury or they just can't win the gold and they can't be satisfied without doing that. But they still are good and they're competing but they can't meet their goals. And it crushes them when they can't do that. Because that's all their lives have been about.
For some, it's other kinds of fame like an entertainer or a musician. And when the fans aren't there anymore, when you can't get to big deals anymore and the contracts anymore, what's your life about then, right? If that's what you've given yourself to completely.
So let's be careful that we don't make idols out of anyone or anything. Even in our culture today, there are plenty of idols to choose from. Sometimes the idol is self, where you're just wanting to be seen as great and wonderful and that drives you more than anything else.
Well, the third one. You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain. I think we need to plaster this one around the community a little bit. When it says take the name of the Lord your God in vain, it does mean cursing using the name of God, but it's not just limited to that. Taking the name of the Lord your God in vain is showing any kind of disrespect to God and the name of God. You can do that in a lot of ways.
But some of it is verbally when you're using the name of God, saying things using the name of God that are not pleasing to God. God said He'll hold us accountable for that because He wants His name to be revered and to be honored among His people. So that those who don't know God will understand the respect we have for Him as the people of God. So we need to be careful how we throw around the name of God in our words and our actions. How we honor Him and respect Him.
The fourth one. Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy. I already touched on this for just a minute, but the Sabbath day would have been Saturday for them. I mean Saturday for them because it was the last day of the week. If you go back to the story of creation, God connected it with that. Where in six days He created all that He created and then on the seventh day what did He do? He rested.
And the old joke you probably have heard is that He went up to one of the angels and He says, "Hey, I made all the animals and all the people and everything in six days. But I've added another day to the schedule." And he said, "What do you think you're going to do with that day?" He says, "I think we'll just give it a rest. We're just going to rest on that day. We're not going to do work on that day."
Now it was more than that. And so many people misunderstood the Sabbath day. Even back in the days of Jesus, they misunderstood the Sabbath day. Jesus made it clear that the Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath. It was to be a blessing to mankind. It was not to hurt us in any way. It was not to be a punishment to us. It was to be a time of recuperation and rest from the normal everyday life activities and work that you have to do to live life.
And He wanted it to be something that was set apart to focus on God and the blessings of God and the provision of God. And so that principle is carried into the New Testament, but that commandment specifically for it to be the Sabbath day is not in the New Testament because Jesus rose from the dead on which day of the week? The first day of the week.
And so the early church then began to meet and set aside a day to honor God and it was the first day of the week honoring the resurrection of Jesus. That would be Sunday and Sunday became their day of focusing on in a special way what God had done for them in Jesus Christ. So in a way it's there, but it's not the same as it was under the Old Covenant.
And so we have to remember the Sabbath day and keep it holy. The fifth one was honor your father and your mother. In fact, in the New Testament it refers to this and says it's the only command with a promise connected to it as it was given. If you honor your father and mother, He says, because there's a connection here that you will be able to have a long life and a good life and a blessed life. It says honor your father and mother that you may live long in the land the Lord your God is giving you.
So it had a promise connected to it. Now honoring your father and mother, that's a principle, right? It's not specifically in detail. Here's how you do that. Now later on there's some laws that do give more details about that, but this is the Constitution. This is the principle. This is the foundation.
And a foundation for living life the way God wants us to live it is to live it with honoring our mom and our dad. You say, "Well, my mom and dad weren't good people" or "they didn't live like they should" or "it's not conditional." It still says honor your mother and your father. It doesn't say if you think they've been good parents. It doesn't say if you think they did everything the way they were supposed to do it. If they took care of you the way you thought they should take care of you.
But the word honor there is important because it simply means to show respect and treat with dignity. Now we can do that to people that we disagree with. We can do that to people that we think aren't living like they should. We can still treat everybody with dignity and respect. And that's what God expects us to do for our mother and our father. Even if they're not what we think they ought to be.
You see this command He says the promise is for you if you do it. Right? So the choice is if you want God to bless your life then you do this because God says that's where you get blessed when you do it. So honor your father and mother. Regardless of the situations of their lives, you still can show dignity and respect to them. If they're already dead, you can honor their memory. You can honor their memory and being the person God has called you to be and not disrespecting even their memory along the way.
Then He says you shall not murder. And I like this translation in NIV because some translations say thou shalt not kill. You've probably heard it that way. The Hebrew word is not just the word for kill; it was actually the word for murder. And there's a difference in those two words. There's a difference in the meaning of those two words in the Hebrew.
In the Hebrew, the word used here is the word that means to murder someone, not just to kill. Because there's a word for kill that included killing animals. That included killing for self-defense. You know if someone was attacking you and those things. He's not saying that in this commandment. He's saying don't murder someone. Don't take their life if they're not a threat to you. They're not an army attacking your country or something like that. Then you shouldn't go murder anyone.
Now again that plays into a lot of people are talking about that like with the abortion issue. And that would really apply if you consider that the life inside the mother, inside the woman is a human life. And they're trying to redefine that as not actually being a human life. Because if it is a human life, then to abort it is to commit murder according to the scriptures.
And we consider we have to consider that when we're looking at an issue as difficult as hard as that issue is we need to understand that if that is human life, I believe that it is, then it's wrong to take that innocent human life. But everybody's got to decide for themselves if they believe that to be a human life growing inside the woman there.
You shall not commit adultery, he says. Adultery is not a hard word to understand in the Hebrew. It means that you're having sexual relations with someone who is not your spouse. Someone other than your spouse. That's adultery. And he says you shall not commit adultery. Think how much better families would be, how much better off they would be if we could stick to that and honor our marriage vows the way we should.
Then he says you shall not steal. And again steal is a specific word. It means to take something that doesn't belong to you. That's not hard for us to understand, is it? It's wrong to take things from other people when they don't belong to you. You don't go steal things. One of the things that has become really a problem in our culture today in America is retail stores having people come in smashing and grabbing and running out of the stores. Just going and taking stuff.
We've got a brand new nice outlet mall just a mile from the Antioch campus here, the Tanger Outlet Mall. They've already had instances where a group of usually young people will go into the store, usually they're wearing hoodies and things like that where you can't see them so well, and they go in and just smash the counters and take and grab up the products and run out with it. They're just so driven by having that stuff or the money they can make off of that stuff they don't care that it hurts everybody when they do that.
That's what stealing does. It hurts people. We all pay a price for it when people steal things. Everybody pays some of the cost for that. You say it doesn't hurt anybody. We didn't hurt anybody when we did it. Yeah, you did. You hurt the company. You hurt the store. You hurt consumers like us who have to pay higher prices because people are stealing stuff all the time. It hurts everybody when that happens.
See, God's saying I want you to have a good life. Don't do this stuff that hurts your good life. Don't go around stealing stuff. It does hurt other people. You say, "Well, I don't do that so I don't steal." Well wait a minute. Do you steal time at work? When you're supposed to be working? You shouldn't be stealing. You're stealing from your employer when you do that. The company that gives you your paycheck when you do that.
By the way, this is one of my pet peeves, but if you really are so miserable where you're working, stop taking the paycheck from them instead of complaining about it all the time. That will show them. What about those office supplies you took home? Oh, it's just a pen, a pad, you know a few things like that. Yeah, but that wasn't yours. You took it. That's stealing. Ah, now I'm going to meddle again.
You shall not steal. You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor. That was used in a couple of ways in the Hebrew culture. One was of course testifying in court where they would bring people in to testify and what happened a lot of times, it may happen a little bit today too, is witnesses can get bribed a little bit to go in and tell it the way the lawyers, the prosecuting attorney wants you to tell it to try to convict the person that they're trying to convict. So for some kickback or some bribe, they might convince you to say something that's not totally true about what that person did or did not do.
And the problem is it's hard to defend yourself against a lie, isn't it? Even just a rumor that somebody throws out there. And today's culture with social media the way it is, the way a rumor can spread so quickly, even if there's no truth to it at all, it can destroy somebody's reputation quickly for you to say something false about that person that's negative in the eyes of the people that are hearing it or seeing it. It can really tear their lives down quickly the way social media works today.
You heard of getting canceled in our culture today? That happens to a lot of people. Whether it was true or not, they get canceled. Somebody said something that wasn't true about them. And by the way, in this political environment that we're in right now, both sides are guilty of this big time, big time. They put twist on everything they put out there to make it look worse for the other person and better for themselves. Both sides are doing it all the time.
And so he says if you want a good life, you gotta stop bearing false witness against other people. It's not what God wants for your life. You don't need to have any part of that. By the way, there's another word for some of that that's going on. It may be happening, I'm sure you're not doing it, but maybe some other people at work or at school are doing this. Have you heard the word gossip?
Yeah, well it's not gossip and if it's true, well you probably don't know the whole story when you retell that story. You probably don't know both sides of that story when you spread that information that you're spreading that we call gossip today. Maybe it's partially true, but maybe it's not totally true and that's a lie. If it's not totally true, it's a lie. And so he's saying don't bear false witness against your neighbor.
And then the tenth one, it's pretty simple. You shall not covet. Again, it's hard in our culture not to covet. It's been hard throughout all of history not to covet because if you don't have a wheel and your neighbor has a wheel, now I wish I had a wheel. They got a wheel. They may not know how to use it yet, but they got something I don't have. I should have one because they have one and I'm just as good a person as they are. I'm a better person. I work harder than they do. Why do they have stuff I don't have?
And then you add to that the advertising and the social media. Everybody on social media posts, usually there are exceptions to this, but most people post on social media a post set thing that looks good. That's the one they're going to post. And a lot of times they put a filter on it on top of that. So not only was it posed and set up, but now they've added a filter to it that makes it look even better than it really did.
And so what it does for a lot of people is if your life is about that and you see, "Oh, they're having a good time all the time. They seem to have friends that do things with them. I don't have that." And you begin to covet what they have. Well first of all, you don't really know what they have or don't have. So much of it is fake and polished up and filtered over. But the second thing is, is God's called you to your life to live it the way He wants you to live it. He's given you resources He wants you to have to use for His purposes.
It's not meant for us to covet what somebody else has. Now we've just briefly gone through and these are just abbreviated versions of the Ten Commandments, but this is the foundation, a basis upon which we're supposed to build our lives. Now He was doing this for the nation of Israel with a purpose. And the purpose was I want this nation that wears my name to live differently than the nations around them. I want them to have standards that are different than the nations around them, than the standards of the culture around them.
I want them to treat people with greater dignity and respect than the people around them. I want them to be able to have people say about them, "What is it about them that makes them different and set apart and distinct in a good way?" Now they may be jealous of it and they may not all say it's a good thing, but He wanted His people to live by different standards than the culture around them.
And remember, everything in the old covenant is pointing to what? It's pointing to the new. It's pointing toward the plan that He had. The good plan wasn't just for Israel; it was for all of His people that would be called by His name. He wants us, and the New Testament makes it clear that He wants us to be a set apart, distinct people in our culture today.
And the sad thing is even within the church community, so many are embracing standards way different than what God says He wants for our lives. So many are welcoming in standards that are totally opposed to the standards that God gave us for life and acting like it's okay. That's bad for two reasons primarily.
The first one is this: we can never be the witnesses God's called us to be when we embrace standards that are not God's standards. We can't. We make excuses of why it's okay for us to do this even though God says don't do it. When God says you should do this and we don't do that, we make excuses and we're not living according to the standards that God wants His people to live by.
In the New Testament, it says live a life worthy of the calling you've received. We've been called to be a set apart people for God. That's a standard of way of living that's different than the people around us are adopting in their lives. He wants us to stand out and be different.
But there's another problem that you miss sometimes because we look at the standards the wrong way. We look at the standards as restrictions and sometimes punishment, you know, and things like that. Don't you as a kid growing up when your parents set standards and hold you to it, don't you regret it? Don't you fight against it? You rebel against it. They say don't stay out past midnight. Nothing good ever happens after midnight.
Well, that may not be strictly true every time, every single instance, but generally speaking, is that true? Yes, it is. Why would they hold you to that standard? Not trying to punish you. Why are they holding you to that standard? Because they want what's best for you. They want you to have a good life, a blessed life, a life that brings health and joy and peace to your hearts. A good parent will want that for you.
So that's the other thing we miss sometimes about the standard that God sets for us. He's not doing it to punish us. He wants to bless us with the best life we could possibly have. And so He says if you really want to have life I design life to be good, He says I design life for you to be blessed with the life that I gave you. I design my creation for you to enjoy it, but I've given you these standards and these boundaries because it is within those boundaries that you get the most out of the life that I've given you, where you get the best that life has to offer when you stay within these boundaries that I've set for you.
It all goes back to understanding the character of God. When you know the character of God, His love for you, His willingness to sacrifice for you, to desire only what is best for you, here's what happens: you stop resenting the standard. You start welcoming it, embracing it. I can look back now and the things I fought back against my parents on, a lot of it now I can look back on and say I wish I had listened more, right? I wish I had understood why they were doing that, why they were putting those boundaries there, that they were trying to put in my life.
And I can look back on my life as a Christ follower and I can see where I've struggled with some of the boundaries, right? Like all of us have, we've all sinned. I can look back and say I have a better understanding today than I ever did of why God put that boundary there because when you get outside of it, it causes pain, it causes suffering, it causes hurt, not just to me but to the people that I love and care about. If I get outside those boundaries, that's true for all of us and the people in our lives.
The more we stay in the boundaries, the more it blesses the people around us. But the more we get outside those boundaries, the more it hurts the people that we care about the most. God's love, His character of loving you and sacrificing for you and wanting what's best for you is what produced the boundaries, the standards that He set.
I want to close with a passage in the New Testament in Hebrews chapter 10. And there's so many references in the New Testament going back to the law, including the Ten Commandments, but we'll talk about more of the law too over the next few weeks.
And in Hebrews 10 beginning with verse 1, he talks about the law and it reminds us of what we've been saying today, and that's this: the law was only a shadow of something that was coming, was a foreshadowing of something, and not just anything that was coming but something better that was coming.
Now when I went through the Ten Commandments, how many of you have perfectly kept all ten all the time your whole life? Not a one of us have. Not a single person has. So if that's the standard, what does that mean? We've come short, right? That's what that passage means. We've all sinned and come short of the glory of God, the standard of the glory of a perfect holy God. We've all come short of that standard, every single one of us.
So where does that leave us? Well, look at Hebrews 10 beginning with verse 1. The law is only a shadow of the good things that are coming, not the realities themselves. For this reason, it can never by the same sacrifices repeatedly, repeated endlessly year after year, make perfect those who draw near to worship. Otherwise, they would not have stopped being offered, for the worshipers would have been cleansed once for all and would no longer have felt guilty for their sins.
But those sacrifices are an annual reminder of sins. Just the Ten Commandments, just when I read them again today, were a reminder of my sin. They should have been for you too. That's one of the reasons they're there. It was to teach us our need for a Savior. That doesn't mean we should ignore them. They're good. That's the standard. That's what God wants.
But we've come short and we need a Savior because of that. He says that they are a reminder of our sins, right? He said otherwise they would have stopped. These sacrifices would have stopped being offered. The worshipers would have been cleansed once for all, would no longer have felt guilty for their sins. But those sacrifices are an annual reminder of sins. It's impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins.
Now over the next several weeks, you're going to see a big part of the law was offering animal sacrifices for the sins of the people. But he's telling us those sacrifices did not actually take away the sin. They only kind of rolled them back until the coming of something better.
Okay, he says therefore when Christ came into the world, he said, "Sacrifice and offering you did not desire, but a body you prepared for me. With burnt offerings and sin offerings you were not pleased." Then he said, "Here I am, it's written about me in the scroll. I have come to do your will, my God."
First, he said, "Sacrifices and offerings, burnt offerings and sin offerings you did not desire, nor were you pleased with them, though they were offered in accordance with the law." Then he said, "Here I am, I have come to do your will." He sets aside the first to establish the second. And by that will, we've been made holy through the sacrifice of the body of Jesus Christ once and for all.
You see, the law was just preparing us for something better. It was revealing our need for a Savior. It was showing us the standard that God was calling us to. But it was also when we're honest about how our inability to keep the standard perfectly is exposed, how much we need a Savior.
But God had a plan. It wasn't just to give the law and show us our sin. It was indeed to show us that we needed a Savior and His plan included that for our lives. His plan included from before the foundation of the world that He would send us a lamb that would be slain for our sins, a lamb of God, Jesus Christ. He's the one we must call on.
We should not throw the standard out. The Bible says we should never go on sinning as if it's okay. But we all know we've sinned. That means we need a Savior. Maybe there's somebody here today who's ready to take that step of coming before the Lord and saying, "God, I'm so thankful that you and your love for me have shown me a standard that's better for me, but I know I have already come short. I know I have already sinned. I need your grace. I need your mercy. I need a payment made that I don't want to have to make myself."
And Jesus, He says, "I made that payment for you. Come to me and I can give you the rest that you're looking for."
Let's pray together.
Father, we thank You. We thank You that You have provided for us and that good plan that You have for Your people, the Savior, the one who came who was without sin but who became sin for us so that we could become the righteousness that You designed for us to have. Thank You that in Christ You see us as holy and righteous and pure and clean, washed clean by the blood of Jesus who died on that cross for us.
I pray, Father, that if Your Spirit is prompting someone to come to Him, surrender to Him as Lord and Savior of their lives, that even today they would take that step. For others who may have wandered away, gotten disconnected, I pray that You would help them to know they could even turn today and come back to You because the blood of Jesus is still there for them if they would only come back under it.
Father, I pray that if they need a church home to connect with, they might consider Lakeshore to be that church home. Whatever their need is, Father, we pray they would come in Jesus' name. Amen.
Let's stand together and sing today. If you have a decision you need to make, just come right up front while we sing.
Everybody have a seat, please. We are so thankful that you are here today. If you would like to continue your worship, we have offerings today. We have offering boxes available, one in the back of the auditorium, one in the hallway as you exit there. You can give your offerings that way or online.
We are also, each Sunday here at Lakeshore, we come around the Lord's table. That may not be the pattern you came from, from your background in church, but that is something we believe the early church did according to Scripture. And we follow that pattern because we need that reminder of what God has done for us through Jesus on the cross.
So at this time, I hope you have got your communion kits. If you don't, go ahead and go to the back there. You can grab one back there, and he is going to lead us in our time of communion together.
We want to thank you again for being here with us today. It is a joy to have this time of celebration together. If this is your first time here, we have got a gift we would love to give you. Stop by the information counter as you leave today. We would be glad to give that to you.
We also want you to know that each week here at Lakeshore when we assemble together, it is to honor God absolutely, but part of the way we honor God is when we come here and encourage others. And I am thankful we have got some encouragers here in the church family. But here is the thing: can you use more encouragers all the time?
Yeah, why don't you see that as part of why you are here today? You are here to encourage and build up others in their walk with Christ. So let's all serve together in encouraging one another and even more as we see the day approaching, as it says in Hebrews 10.
This time Jeremy is going to come up and lead us in some announcements and then close us out with prayer. Thanks, Jeremy.
on Aug 11, 2024
