Law & Grace - A mountaintop experience - Part II (the ten commandments)

Good morning. This is the time of year that Courtney and I feel comfortable outside in just a shirt. The only problem is we find it makes everybody else uncomfortable. The one item in your bullet I'd like to draw attention to is we have some new dates for these parenting seminars we've been letting people know about. February 12th and February 19th. The idea is you can pick one or the other. Hopefully one of those works for you. Child care will be available and be from 9 to noon. Hope you can join us for that.

All right, in this passage that Wayne read for us, that passage was actually just a sampling. This entire event of Mount Sinai and Moses going up the mountain and the people, as we see in the picture here, keeping their distance from the mountain, that actually extends from about Exodus 19 on into about Exodus 34.

So for a number of chapters there, the days and days going by of Moses receiving the law from the Lord and then coming down and talking to the people and then going back up the mountain. This passage that he read for us here presents what's commonly called the Ten Commandments. Exodus 21-21 presents what has come to be called the Ten Commandments. It also includes some interactions between Moses and the people that follows, including this time where Moses goes down and talks to the people briefly and then heads back up the mountain. In the very first presentation, there are actually a few of the Ten Commandments, the words of the Ten are simply spoken by God directly to Moses there on Mount Sinai. It's not the tablets, God simply speaking to Moses in this first event. Then Moses goes down to speak with the people of Israel. And as we presented this picture of it last time, it was an awesome sight. Some of the passages described lightning and thunder and this immense noise.

And it was awesome. It was frightening. The people said, yeah, you go ahead and talk to God, but boy, don't let him talk to us. This is scary as it is. And so in this event, we have the Ten Commandments presented first verbally as Wayne read for us, and then presented, as we'll see, actually with two different sets of tablets. Now, this Ten Commandments, interestingly enough, and I'm curious as to how that got presented that way. Hmm. It looks like it clipped it off, did something strange with it.

It's interesting that among different groups, the Ten Commandments are organized differently. That is, the Jews after the time of the New Testament had one organization. Most other groups outside of the Orthodox and Catholic Church have another organization. The Orthodox Church organizes and counts the ten differently from the Catholic Church. So there's all this variation between the Jews and various groups within Christendom as to how they count the ten.

Which one they count as the first, etc. What's interesting in all that is regardless of how you count it, it all says the same thing. And there's no disagreement about it. Oh, there is one interesting curiosity, and that is that the Jews, where it says thou shalt not steal, they didn't see that as stealing something, they saw that as stealing somebody. They interpreted it as you shall not kidnap. Very interesting.

So a lot of people will look at the Ten Commandments and they'll call it God's Top Ten. It's happening less and less, but they used to have this out in front of courthouses and in court buildings and things of that sort. It's been put out there by Christians as, boy, these are the most important things.

You really got to pay attention to these. We're going to take a look at that idea here this morning. And I'm going to ask some questions and I'm just thinking you've got on your handout here and you'll have here several slides that have were you aware. You'll have to track which one carefully because though they are titled the same, they have different contents.

Were you aware that what we have come to call the Ten Commandments, as originally given, had additional spoken commandments? In other words, more than ten, as this chapter that Wayne just read a part of expresses. Yeah, that was the ten, but then there were additional ones after verse 21. essentially after that God repeated a part of the Ten Commandments and then from verse 24 through 26 started talking about altars and it just went on to how altars were constructed and how you're supposed to approach the altars. So additional commandments beyond the ten. Were you aware that what we have come to call the Ten Commandments was only later on called literally the Ten Words? The Ten Words. Isn't that interesting? We call it the Ten Commandments. That's been the custom. Even made movies with that title, right?

But it's actually literally the 10 words. Now, obviously it has more than 10 words. What does that mean? It's essentially 10 messages. 10 messages is how it's expressed. In Exodus 20 verse 1 that Wayne started off with reading for us, it says, then God spoke all these words. And it doesn't just mean the individual words that he spoke. It's the 10 messages.

That is, in the original language, the same as you'll find in in the places where it calls it the Ten Words, and it's been translated the Ten Commandments so that we'll know what it's talking about. So the Ten Words is actually what the Bible calls it. As God spoke them first, here in this part where we just read here, in Exodus 21 through 21, the Ten were not given any special name. It wasn't called the Ten Commandments or anything special. Only later on was it called the Ten Words. Were you aware that the words of the Ten Commandments were first spoken by God, as we saw here in this passage, then written down by Moses, which is why we can read it, then by God on tablets of stone, as the scripture puts it, by the finger of God.

We need to understand that's a figure of speech. God does not have fingers. Because you will find it talks about the arm of God or the hand of God in scripture. And it's not talking about body parts and anatomy any more than when in Psalms it says he has us under his wing. It does not mean God's a chicken. All right. So that's figure of speech. The tablet's written by the finger of God.

Then those tablets were broken by Moses. He didn't go, oops, and then break them. No, here's how it happened. In Exodus 32, 19, it says, it came about as soon as Moses came near the camp that he saw the calf, Aaron had made a golden calf, and the dancing. And Moses' anger burned and he threw the tablets from his hands and shattered them at the foot of the mountain. He shattered the stones. Then he went and burned the calf and had it ground up and he mixed it in the water and had the Israelites drink it.

How about that? But that was the end of the first set of tablets. Now, these were written again by God. Then Moses placed the tablets in the Ark, the Ark of the Covenant. And then the ten were spoken by Moses to the people of Israel before they crossed the Jordan River. The ten were likely spoken at other times, but these are the ones that are recorded and we know about. All of the Ten Commandments were also clarified with additional laws, so these ten was not all that was said about those. but they're clarified with additional laws in regards to how the ones who are presumed guilty were presented, how they were charged, how they were proven guilty, and how they were to be punished. All those things were also prescribed in addition to the 10.

For example, we have the instance where Jesus is presented in John chapter 8 with the woman caught in adultery. Well, it's very interesting. Leviticus 20 verse 10 says how the charge is to be made. The adulterer and the adulteress shall surely be put to death. What was wrong with what happened in John chapter 8? They brought the woman caught in adultery. What was the problem? They only brought the woman. Guess what? By only bringing the woman they were breaking the law. Right? because both the man and the woman were to come.

So all the different rules about, it's not just thou shalt not commit adultery, but all the rules about how they're to be presented, and how they're to be charged, and you're to have two or three witnesses in order to convict for murder, all those things were additional rules and laws that were put with the Ten Commandments. Now, for some people, they get the idea, well, the 10, those are the ones that count, right? That's the only ones that count.

No. All the rest of the laws in regard to the 10 were to be followed with equal attention to detail and weight, even in regards to the execution of the prescribed punishment. Everything had to be done exactly according to the law, not just according to what is written in those Ten Commandments. Everything. When Moses was given the Ten by God, he was at the very same time commanded by God to teach the people of Israel all 613 of the statutes and judgments of the law of Moses.

So it wasn't a matter of, boy, here's the 10. If you forget all the rest, that's okay. Just remember these 10. No. All 613 laws. If you want to make it easy, oh boy, if you want to make it easy, 365 days in a year, 365 of the 613 laws were don't do this. Okay? Isn't that easy? All right, so then you got to remember each one, right? All 365. 365 of them are don't do this. All the rest of the 613 were things that you must do. Moses was commanded to teach them the whole thing.

You guys have to get this down pat before you enter the promised land, which is why the book of Deuteronomy, it's the second giving of the law, right? is recorded is that remember all those laws that I told you about all out in the desert all this time?

Well, I'm giving it to you again. It's Deuteronomy. You're going to get the law again. The second writing of the law. All 613 laws are on this slide. Trust me. Last week we showed folks this and we said really that's all 613 laws on that slide. And just to point it out we said Number 144 is not to eat a worm found in fruit, even if it's a baby worm.

Now, the tablets that contained the Ten Commandments were written on stone by the finger of God so that, why did they come down with the tablets? To put them in the Ark of the Covenant. That's why. It's not because God said, boy, these are really special, and if you forget all the rest, that's okay. You got to remember these 10.

No. The 10 were put on tablets so that they could put the tablets in the Ark of the Covenant. That's why they were on tablets. They were to represent all of the law, but not to be all of the law. The Ark of the Covenant, Exodus 25, 10 through 22, gives its construction. It was to be made in certain dimensions. It was to have gold all around the outside. It was to have a cherubim on each end, and it was to be carried on poles, but not carried very much.

The contents had the two tablets of stone, And then, additionally, there was an omer, and who knows what an omer is, about 24 liters of manna. The manna wouldn't last except the manna that's in the Ark of the Covenant. And then Aaron's rod that budded. Those three things were placed in the Ark of the Covenant. The reason for having the tablets in stone was not so Moses could hit the people over the head with it. It wasn't so that he could break them on the first try. It was so that they could put them in the Ark of the Covenant.

That's why the ten are on stone. The ten were not the first ones given sequentially in the Law of Moses. You know, the first law is be fruitful and multiply. Yeah, that's the first one sequentially. Be fruitful and multiply. And that was repeated to Noah after the flood. That was the first law.

Genesis chapter 17, circumcision. That preceded all the giving of all these laws, including the Ten Commandments, by centuries. As a matter of fact, some of the rabbis said, great is circumcision above all laws. The rabbis put a great emphasis on circumcision, which isn't included in the Ten Commandments. And even as we saw earlier in our study of the Law and Grace, is observing Passover was another one that was given before to these very same people, days before.

The statutes in the Law of Moses that were not revealed by Moses by prior revelation, that is by, for example, the ones we saw about, here's Adam being told, and later Noah being told, be fruitful, multiply. That was not directly first revealed to Moses, but he got it and wrote it down. Or, what was not revealed as these ten were, on stone, first spoken, and then on stone, all the rest of the laws, by any indication we have, were revealed to Moses by angels. Most of the laws revealed to Moses by angels. They have that from three New Testament passages, as you have there in your handout, in Acts and Galatians and in Hebrews. So most of the law of Moses, 613 laws, was revealed to Moses by angels, not by God, through the Ten Commandments, and not through some other means.

But we, we in the church, we have died to and been released from the law. including the Ten. We have died to, I'll put it this way, we've died to the Ten Commandments. Let me expand that a little bit. We have died in relationship to the Ten Commandments. You are not under the Ten Commandments, and you may be glad of that. We're not going to be throwing stones at each other, right? We have died in relationship to the entire Law of Moses, Ten Commandments included.

Romans 7.4, Galatians 2.19. Both of those explicitly state that. As a matter of fact, when you put them together, the Bible spells out, the New Testament spells out, we have died to the sin nature, to the law, and to the world. So this is the second of those we have died in relationship to statements in the New Testament.

We have been released from the law of Moses in order to be joined to Christ. So you think about, why was I released from the law in order to be joined to Christ? So if someone says, oh no, we're still under the law, you still gotta follow those 10, or 9, or 11, or whatever ones they happen to pick. If someone says you still gotta follow those, then you can ask them. Oh, do you not want to be joined to Christ? That's what Romans 7 says.

You have been released from the law. You have died to the law in order to be joined to Christ. If someone wants to follow the law, then that tells me they don't want to be joined to Christ. we're not under the law but under grace which now in our time by that I mean the time of the church from Acts 2 when the Holy Spirit was given the church began there on the day of Pentecost until the rapture the time when the Lord comes for his bride the church grace is the one reigning principle what do we mean there grace would reign through righteousness to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord The Ten Commandments are holy and righteous and good. The very chapter that tells us we've been released from the law, that we've died to the law, says that the law is holy and righteous and good.

It's not that the law is bad. That's not the point. The law is righteous and holy and good. I mean, it says, you know, here's the right things to do, here's the wrong things to do. Problem, the real problem is we're not up to doing it. That's the problem. We're not saying the law is terrible. No, the law is righteous and holy and good. I could say this, but I don't mean it. Good luck trying to do it.

And so as a result, the law becomes fatal. Because you know what the penalty was for breaking any of the ten? Death. Yeah, you become a geologist. you start studying rocks up close. And people are helping you by making sure the rocks get really close really fast. And just to make sure that you can see them, they're big rocks. So you become a geologist.

In Exodus 35, 2 and 3, it says this, For six days work may be done, but on the seventh day you shall have a holy day. And that, by the way, the seventh day is not Sunday. And it's not starting Saturday morning. It's Friday sundown to Saturday sundown. A Sabbath of complete rest to the Lord. Whoever does any work on it shall be given A bad mark? Have brownie points taken away? No. Be put to death. You shall not kindle a fire in any of your dwellings on the Sabbath day.

One of the quandaries that modern Judaism has is what constitutes work in this era of electronics, in this era of technology and all the things that we have. Well, they already had developed a list of 39 things that were defined as work. Things like making a loop in thread, that was bad. You could not only not build a fire, you could also not put one out. That was also work. Today, in this era of electronics, pushing the buttons on an elevator is work. And I hate to tell you, tearing the pieces off on the toilet paper roll, work. That's work.

Don't you dare. at least not on the Sabbath. And so what you have to do is to pull out each piece and tear it off and have a stack of them ready, right? And hope you don't have some kind of a toilet problem. Okay. So here in Numbers 15, so there's Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, just a few books later.

Now while the sons of Israel were in the wilderness, they found a man gathering wood on the Sabbath day. He's working, okay? Working's a bad thing, right? It is on the Sabbath day, apparently. Those who found him gathering wood brought him to Moses and Aaron and to all the congregation, and they put him in custody because it had not been declared what should be done with him or to him.

Then the Lord said to Moses, The man shall surely be put to death. All the congregation shall stone him with stones outside the camp. So guess what they did? They made him a geologist. So all the congregation brought him outside the camp and stoned to death with stones, just as the Lord had commanded Moses. Yeah. Oops. Right? I mean, all he was doing was picking up some wood for a fire. Nope. Can't do that. That's work.

That's why even Paul called the Ten Commandments a ministry of death and condemnation. Here's the Ten Commandments, which in many parts of Christendom are looked upon as, boy, you've got to observe those, right? He calls it a ministry of death and a ministry of condemnation. Now, around here we have various ministries that people are involved with. And what's amazing, and I know Hasan observed it, was there's various people doing all sorts of things. And some of them get noticed and some of them don't, but they're all important things to be done, and those are ministries.

But if you're going to have a ministry that's based on the Ten Commandments, it'll be a ministry of death and condemnation. Do we have a deaconess in charge of bringing the stones? No. Right? That's what it would be under the Ten Commandments. Make sure you got your rocks with you. As a matter of fact, the passage even uses the word tablets and letters engraved in stone. It's referring to the Ten Commandments as a ministry of death and a ministry of condemnation. But that's not the ministry that we have, a ministry of righteousness and of the Spirit.

Later on in that very same chapter, 2 Corinthians 3, Paul writes this way, therefore having such a hope We use great boldness in our speech and are not like Moses who used to put a veil over his face, look at this, so that the sons of Israel would not look intently at the end of what was fading away.

You see, at first the idea was to put a veil on as he came down the mountain because the space was so bright it was hard to look at, painful. But after a while he put the veil on because the brightness began to fade. Don't let them see that the glory of the law is a fading glory. But their minds were hardened.

For until this very day at the reading of the Old Covenant, the same veil remains unlifted. Notice, where does the veil go? It starts on Moses' face. Now, there's a veil over the minds. because it is removed in Christ. But to this day, whenever Moses is read, a veil lies over the heart. Now it goes over the heart. A veil over their heart. But whenever a person turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away.

In verses 17 and 18, now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty. But we all with unveiled face, that is, those who are not having veiled hearts and minds because of the reading of the law and being under the law, there is not law but liberty. But we all with unveiled face beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord are being transformed into the same image, into the image of the Lord, from glory to glory. That's a growth. just as from the Lord the Spirit. It is a work of the Holy Spirit that He takes our reading of God's Word to change us, to transform us into the image of His Son.

So someone may ask, yeah, but Vern, you're speaking against the Ten Commandments. Why, that's terrible. That's even heretical. If what you say is true, why are nine of the Ten Commandments quoted in the New Testament? So there! Right? So some of the quotes of the Ten are quoted in the New Testament because Christ was speaking to the Jews in Israel when they were in fact under the law. And He even encouraged that they remain under the law and stick to it. But He quoted some of the Ten. as he spoke to them, and others quoted some of the ten to him. And he did not at all discourage their abiding by them.

Other quotes in the New Testament are to convey the moral and evidence principles of the law. The law said, for example, you must have two or three witnesses in order to convict someone of murder. So Paul used that principle of two or three witnesses in the rest of his ministry.

For example, we have a reference there, 1 Timothy 5.19. Don't listen to an accusation against an elder unless there are two or three witnesses. He uses that principle out of the law.

So there are principles. And what do we mean by principle? This is not in your handout, but it is on the slide. You can make note of it if you like. A principle is either a fundamental truth or two, the way things work or operate. That's what we mean by principle. There are moral principles, there are evidence principles, that is, principles about how evidence is to be presented. And those are brought from the law. As a matter of fact, when we studied 1 Corinthians chapter 10, we spent a couple of weeks on learning from the law. There are things to learn from the law.

It doesn't mean we're under it. Now we come to one that's a tough one. We've made reference to it a little bit earlier. How about one of the ten that is not quoted, is made reference to, not quoted, is about the Sabbath. That's not quoted in the New Testament. Here is a place where it's referenced.

And does this verse sound like you are to obey the Sabbath or not? Does it sound like you're under Sabbath law? It says, therefore no one is to act as your judge in regard to food or drink, food laws, right? Or in respect to a festival or a new moon, those are laws about observing this feast or that feast, or a Sabbath day.

Things which are, did you say, boy, that Sabbath is very important, you'd better observe it or you have to stone the person who doesn't. No, he says these things are a mere shadow of what is to come. The substance belongs to Christ. That's one of the things those who would point at the Ten Commandments and say, boy, we've got to be under them, they often have to tap dance around this one. Because it's not quoted in the New Testament, and I have yet to find a Christian that abides by it.

Do you from Friday sundown to Saturday sundown avoid all work, including don't you dare tear those pieces of toilet paper off the roll during that time? And by the way, if you have a gas stove and you turn the knob that makes the gas go, you know, pop and then the flame comes up, that's work. So don't do that from Friday sundown to Saturday sundown.

Got it? You see, if you're going to observe the Sabbath, boy, that's tough. You know that flipping a light switch is breaking the law? So that if you live in an observant Jewish home, And you want to turn the light on? You've got to hire a Gentile to do it. Because you can't.

No, the Sabbath is a shadow of what is to come. The substance belongs to Christ. See, because of God's love, we are under grace. Grace. Because of God's love for us, we are now under grace. Salvation certainly always was by faith, is now, always will be. From the Garden of Eden, from the time that Adam sinned, up until the very last people born on this present heavens and earth, salvation was, is, and will be by faith all the time. But grace is not just the means of our salvation by faith, as great as that is.

It's also the motive for living. Motivated by grace, not by guilt. Matter of fact, if you've come here and you feel guilty, shame on you. We're not to be motivated by guilt. Do you understand that? Being motivated by guilt is not at all what God wants. It does not please God if you're motivated by guilt.

How about that? Motivated by grace is the means for living. Matter of fact, the things that the detectives always work on is means, motive, and opportunity. And the prosecutors always want to, you know, go and lay down the means, motive, and opportunity. Guess what? The motive, grace. The means, graciously provided. You are energized. You are enabled. You are empowered all by grace to do what God wants you to do.

Guilt has nothing to do with it. Guilt has nothing to do with it. And grace is also the source of the opportunity in front of us. There is no good work that God wants you to do that he has not already prepared beforehand, Ephesians 2.10. So there's no need to feel guilty. It's not of any spiritual use. God does not have your being guilt-ridden in mind.

Grace is this important and it's this big, but God being rich in mercy, mercy too, we could put the word in there. God is wealthy in mercy because of his great love. Now notice that the mercy isn't just mercy, it's rich in mercy. And the love isn't just love, it's great love, with which He loved us. Even when we were dead in our transgressions, He made us alive together with Christ, by grace you have been saved, and raised us up with Him and seated us with Him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the ages to come, rolling ages on into eternity, in the ages to come, He might show that, now notice, it isn't, He might show His grace. It's the surpassing riches of His grace. Rich in mercy, great love, surpassing.

Surpassing is a word that means overthrown. It's like in baseball, you know, you hear about somebody, they'll hit, maybe take them to the third base, and then they'll hit one out of the park. This is when it hits it into orbit. This is surpassing riches of His grace. Way, way over the top. Overthrown. Way over the top. Riches of His grace. Immensely wealthy. God is immensely wealthy in grace.

Toward us in Christ Jesus. You wonder what you're going to be doing in eternity? Don't worry about that. It's what God is going to be doing in eternity. He is going to show, that is to demonstrate the thrown over the top riches of His grace in kindness towards us in Christ Jesus. You're not going to be twiddling your thumbs and waiting until the next coffee break when you're in heaven. You're not going to be saying, boy that clock ticks slow. I wonder when we're going to do something different. God is going to be showing his grace and it will be so over the top you'll be gasping.

That's the kind of grace we're talking about. With that kind of a grace, who wants to volunteer for the law? With grace that is so over top, the top that we're gasping. When we've been there 10,000 years, right? Bright shining as the sun. With grace that's that immense, with God wanting to show us His grace, a grace that's not boring.

You see, as you sit here, by every minute I go on, your tail end gets tired, and it's kind of like, OK, when's it going to get done? It won't be like that in heaven. The grace will be awesome. for rolling eons to come. Anybody like a little bit of law that you can die for? Oops, I gathered firewood. Oh, no. They heard me tear off the toilet paper sheet. I think I'll pick grace instead. Let's pray.

Lord, as we look at this passage, as we see the Ten Commandments, it would certainly reflect your moral character. And you did, in fact, deliberately present it to the Jews so that they could place the tablets in the Ark of the Covenant. When we see your grace, it is indeed astounding. And it's astounding on into eternity. It's of immense magnitude. You're rich in mercy. You're great in love. And you're way over the top with your grace. Thank you for that. What else could we do? We could never repay it. And you don't expect it. Thank you for that immense gift. In Jesus name, Amen.