I direct your attention this
morning to Exodus chapter 34 and two verses, 27 and 28. And
the Lord said unto Moses, Write thou these words, For after the tenor of these
words, I have made a covenant with thee and with Israel." And
he was there with the Lord forty days and forty nights. He did neither eat bread nor
drink water. And he wrote upon the tables
the words of the covenant the Ten Commandments. When Moses came down from the
mountain the first time, you will remember he was on that
occasion up in the mountain 40 days and 40 nights fasting. On that occasion he received
from God the laws that God gave to Israel. Indeed, the Ten Words,
the Ten Commandments written on tables of stone. And when
Moses came down from the mountain, he heard the dancing, he heard
the celebration, he saw all of Israel celebrating around a golden
calf, worshiping an idol. And the scripture says, his heart
waxed hot. And in wrath, he took those two
tables of stone, he threw them down on the ground and broke
them all to pieces because that's what they had done. You see,
indeed, back in Exodus chapter 20, and you'll recognize that
passage of Scripture when you read it, Thou shalt have no other
gods before me. And Moses was telling the people
what God had said to him. And then he goes back up on the
mountain, and the Lord, with His own finger, He writes that
law on those two tables of stone. At the very time that God was
writing his law on those tables of stone, Israel was down there
in the valley, at the base of the mountain, breaking the law. Breaking the law. And Moses came
down and so he cast them down on the ground and broke them.
That's what they had done. And then God takes Moses back
up in the mount, and it's another 40 days and 40 nights. Some say
He goes up a third time 40 days and 40 nights, and I'm not going
to argue with that, but I know of two specific times when He
stayed in the mount in 40 days and 40 nights. And here you receive
the law of God again in this passage that I have just read
to you. This law is most important. It is a declaration of God, the
severity of God's justice and of His laws. The Word of God
says, the soul that sinneth, it shall die. That's God's law. when he, back in Exodus 19, when
the Lord was saying to Israel, you come to the foot of the mountain,
and then God was going to give the law to Moses. God said, now,
you come to the foot of the mountain, but don't step foot on that mountain.
Nobody but Moses. In fact, God said, even if one
of your animals, if he steps on this mountain, God said, I'll
kill him. And He said, if any of you, you
decide you're going to step on that mountain, I'll kill you
too. Oh, what's the reason for such
severity? Well, because if they stepped
on that mountain, there would be an indication that they were
worthy in themselves to draw near to God. There was no worthiness
in them, just like there's no worthiness in you and me to draw
near to God. If we're going to come to God,
and I want to come to God, don't you? I know you do. I know you
want to draw near to God. We can only draw near to Him
through the Lord Jesus, our Savior. And I admonish those of you who
are yet outside the fold of God's salvation. I earnestly compel
you to come to Christ, the only Savior of sinners." The law of
God can't save you. It can't help you. It can't benefit
you in any way that is as far as life is concerned. Of the
law of God, we read it was the ministration of death and condemnation. What does the word ministration
mean? It had the ministry of death and condemnation. That's what God's law does. It
is aptly illustrated back in Genesis, the second chapter,
when God told Adam to keep this one law that He gave him. And
then He says, in the day ye eat thereof, you'll surely die. This
is what God's law says. Keep me perfectly and live. Disobey at any point and die. Now let me talk to you this morning
about God gives His law again. And I'm going to ask just three
vital questions to see if it will help us kind of follow a
track that will lead us to our Lord Jesus. Question number one,
what was the significance of the law of God written on tablets
of stone? Well, I think it teaches us two
things, number one, the hardness of man's heart, the stubbornness
of the inner man. We're all born that way. We're
all born rebels against God. We won't bend the knee. We won't
bow to Him. We won't worship Him. We're very
arrogant. And in our own steadfastness,
we're set against God. We will not bow because we have
hard hearts. And here's the thing about a
hard heart. It will never bend. It is not flexible. It can only
be broken. And the only one who can break
the heart is God Himself. And so He says in Jeremiah, He
is not My Word like a hammer. Here's what we need. We need
God to take the Word of the Gospel, the very hammer of His Word,
and break our hearts. That's the only hope we've got. The heart of man will not submit
to be saved by the goodness and the faithfulness and the merits
of somebody else. Here's what I'm preaching to
you and to you who are watching. There is no salvation in anything
you do. Don't even lift up so much as
a hand toward this Mount Sinai thinking you're going to assist
God in some way in your justification, in your righteousness, in your
salvation. Don't do that. God said, I'll
kill you for it. See, He's very zealous for His
glory. We've already, a couple of weeks
ago, we talked about the passage. God is jealous. He's jealous. He's not going to share His glory
with you. He said, I am the Lord, that
is My name. My glory will I not give to another. In this matter of salvation,
we are before God hard-hearted. And in addition to having a natural
hard-heartedness, once a person sits under the gospel a long
time, they may become, I didn't say they will, but they may become
judicially hardened. And then faith is an impossibility. Don't ever take anything for
granted when it comes to hearing the gospel of Christ. You have
got too much at stake here. I try to be honest with people
because I don't want you to perish. I want you to know that One who
is the way, the truth, and the life. And no man cometh unto
the Father but by Him. Your heart is hard and impenitent. Only God can help you. I do call
on you to believe the gospel. I call on you to exercise repentance
toward God in faith in the Lord Jesus. Those are your responsibilities. Those are your duties toward
God, but such things are absolutely impossible to the natural man. That's why those are gifts from
God. So I think this law written on
tables of stone indicates, number one, the hardness of the hearts
of people to whom the law was given. And secondly, it stands
for, indicates to us that this law of God, it is itself inflexible. It will not bend for you. God
will never lessen His requirements. You say, but God is merciful? God is gracious? Yes, He is. And Jim, doesn't the Bible say
God is love? Yes, it does. But it also says
God is holy. God is righteous. God is just. And as we've said so many times,
He will not show His grace and His mercy while compromising
His law and justice. His law is written in stone.
There it is. And so long as you endeavor to
do something to earn some favor with God, that law stands against
you. And it keeps on shouting out,
the soul that sinned shall die. The law of God's not going to
change. You think God will be more lenient to you in the judgment? He will be no more lenient to
you in the judgment than He's lenient to you now. He won't
lessen His requirements. What are God's requirements?
Be ye holy for I am holy. You better figure out a way and
ask God to show you the way that you can be holy before God. He's
not going to accept the best you can do. He will only accept
the best He can do. Now how can you be holy before
God? How can you be righteous before
God? Being holy before God, that doesn't have anything to do with
how you wear your hair, or how long your dress is, or anything. It doesn't have anything to do
with those things. Well, I don't drink, and I don't do this, and
I don't do that. That's not holiness. The only
way to describe holiness is to say, Behold our God. in his inflexible
justice. Perfection, that's what God demands. Which is really, that's a concept
we can't grasp. We can't possibly grasp perfection. But that's what you gotta have.
It's only found in Christ. So that's the significance, I
believe, of the law written on stone. Second question. Why then
did God give the law? Of what use is the law of God? Well, let me answer that two
ways. First of all, kind of in a negative
way, consider some reasons God's law was not given. It wasn't
given as a code for society to live by. It wasn't given to the
world. It wasn't given as a set of rules
to govern men so that men could get along with each other better.
That wasn't God's purpose in giving it. Secondly, it wasn't
given as a means of salvation. In Romans 3 we read, by the deeds
of the law, there shall no flesh be justified in God's sight. God's law demands perfect obedience
outwardly and inwardly. God's law demands perfection
in your speech, in your motives, in your thoughts, in your actions,
and all of us being the honest people that we are, we must say,
I can't live up to the law's demands. I break it all the time. Our hearts are wicked. Jeremiah
put it this way, the heart is deceitful above all things and
desperately wicked. Who can know it? And I've used
this illustration before. Permit me to use it again. That
we're desperately. The heart is deceitful above
all things and desperately wicked. Desperately means without a hope. Back in 1975, My dad had been sick, had a lot
of abdominal pain, stretched around to his back, and they
thought he had a hiatal hernia. I mean, they said he had several
things, several number of things it could be. And finally, he
went in the hospital and they said, we're going to do exploratory
surgery. And we'll forget the surgeon
was kind of a short, bald-headed man. And so they came to take
my dad, my brother, my sister, and myself were there, and our
mother. Said, we're going to take your dad down for surgery. And we told him goodbye. And
then we'd go get something to eat. And the cafeteria. And we weren't down there very
long until, and we had to leave our names with the person at
the, where you registered there. And they came and said, they're
bringing Mr. Byrd back to his room. Wow, he
hadn't been gone any time. And so we go back to the room,
and first of all, the surgeon comes in. He sits down on the
side of the bed. And he said, well, he said, I
opened Mr. Byrd up. He has a tumor in his pancreas
that has infiltrated his liver. It's larger than a grapefruit. And he said he is desperately
ill. I knew what that meant. Because
that's the exact word Jeremiah used with regards to us. There
is no hope. No hope. In fact, the surgeon
said to us, I'll give him 30 days. 30 days exactly, wasn't
it? That's how long he lived. He
was desperately ill. That's your situation. Oh my,
there isn't any hope for you and yourself. That's an impossibility. There
is no possibility of recovery. If this is left to you, if your
saving relationship with a holy God, if it's dependent upon you,
there is nothing you can do. You will perish in your sins
if it's up to you. Only God can help you. The law wasn't given as a means
of salvation. You know, in 2 Corinthians 3,
and I'll repeat this again, the law of God is said to be the
ministry of death and condemnation. You go run into God's law. And the law says, I'm going to
kill you and I'm going to condemn you. That's all it can do. It
is the ministry of death and condemnation. That's its ministry. It's interesting that word ministration
or ministry, it's the same word that's used of us, especially
the preachers of the gospel. We're ministers of the good covenant. We're ministers of the gospel.
We have a ministry. We serve in this capacity. I serve the cause of God. in this location and in doing
that I serve God and I serve you. Well, what does the law
of God do? It serves only to kill and condemn. That's all. And I'll say this, if you go
running to something you do, thinking that will put you in
good standing with God, my dear friend, you are a fool. Because
that law, it cannot save. It cannot show mercy. It doesn't understand extenuating
circumstances. It condemns and it kills. That's
all it can do. It can't save. Because you can't
measure up to its demands. So he wasn't given as a code
of conduct for the world. He wasn't given as a means of
salvation. And perhaps the biggest error
that men make, and it's an ongoing problem, and certainly the Apostle
Paul dealt with this through all of his epistles. There are
people who think that the law of God is now our rule of life. We've been to Mount Calvary.
We understand substitution. We understand Christ died for
sinners. He satisfied God's law. He saved
us by His grace, by His blood. When I see the blood, I'll pass
over you. We understand that from the Word
of God. And then there are some people
who foolishly go running back to Mount Sinai with this thought,
now God's law will teach me how to live. No. That's not why God
gave His law. Remember, it's the ministration
of death and condemnation. That's all. That's all. Beware of legalism. The idea that we're saved by
grace, but God's law keeps us in line and rewards us when we're
obedient, and it punishes us when we're disobedient. Beware
of that. It's self-righteousness. And
I tell you, the Apostle Paul, he's continually putting it down
because it's always an issue. It's always a problem. You can
look at the word law. And in the epistles from Romans
through 1 John, God's law is used 160 different times. It's referred to. But not once,
not one time, Is there even a hint that believers are to live under
the yoke of God's law? We're not motivated by the law.
We're not ruled by the law. We're not obligated to the law.
We're not under the dominion of the law. Paul says in Romans
6, we're dead to the law. We're dead to it. We read in
1 Timothy 1 in verses 8-10, and I can give you several references
as far as that goes. The law has no claim on us. Does that mean we're free to
break God's law? Doesn't mean that at all. No
man who's been saved by God's grace wants to keep on sinning. And if there is some foolish person in here who
thinks, you know, if I'm saved by grace, it doesn't matter how
I live afterwards. I'll say to you, you don't know
anything about the grace of God. Because here's what we read in
Titus chapter 2. The grace of God that brings
salvation teaches us. It teaches us to deny ungodliness. Do you deny ungodliness? I fight
against it all the time, don't you? and worldly lusts. We fight against worldly lusts.
The world allures us. The world is so attractive. Well,
what's going to keep me, as we would say, on the straight and
narrow? Grace! Grace saves and grace teaches
us. Grace doesn't save us and then
abandon us. Grace is our teacher. It isn't that we now hate the
law of God. No, not at all. We delight in
the law of God. It's fulfilled its mission in
us. Now listen, you who are the people
of God, you who look to Jesus Christ for all things, God's
law has fulfilled its purpose for you. Because it left you without a
hope. It backs you in the corner. It says you're guilty. Here's
what we read in Galatians. God's law was our schoolmaster to drive us to Christ. And after
we come to Christ, we're done with the schoolmaster. Why? He's done his job. The law has
done its job. Has the law of God done its job
on you? It leaves you with no way out. In fact, the law of God doesn't
even tell you about mercy. But the law of God, when it,
as I say, backs you in a corner, it's then that the gospel comes
to you. And the law of God which has
cut you to pieces because you begin to realize, I am such a
sinful person in my mind, in my thoughts, in my words, in
my dreams, in my motives. I'm such a sinful person. And
then the law of God Having done its work, the gospel then comes
in and says, this is a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptation
that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners of whom
I'm chief. And there's the good news. Jesus
did it all. He did it all. Well, why then
did God give the law? He gave the law because we've
got to come to an understanding that there's nothing we can do.
The law of God, you see, it just strips us. It takes the hide
off of us. It takes the brag out of us.
Somebody said it takes the pride out of us, but not all of it. Not all of it. But it makes us
to see We're nothing before God. I read an interesting sermon
this week, a preacher you've probably never heard of, but
anyway, he said, I preached morality until there was hardly a moral
person in my congregation. He said, and I preached goodness
until I couldn't find a decent, good person in our congregation. And then he said, then God saved
me. And I started preaching Jesus
Christ and Him crucified. People believed Him, fell in
love with Him, and they lived to honor Him and glorify His
name. That's what the gospel does.
That's what the gospel does. The law of God, it's not gonna
change your behavior. Oh, you may change your behavior
as a result of looking at the law of God, but it has no effect
on your bearing before God. You're still a sinner. Only the
gospel, only the gospel can soften the heart and then pour in the
oil and the wine that soothes the heart. Which brings me to my third question.
Has anyone ever been capable of keeping the law of God? God has issued his law again
here in this text. and he gives instructions to
Moses. In fact, I'm going to ask you
to turn to two passages of Scripture very quickly. Exodus 25, first
of all. Exodus chapter 25. This is the Ark of the Covenant. It's concerning, it's the first
piece of furniture that God gave instructions that was to be made
and the first one to go into the tabernacle. In fact, everything
else was to, I don't know, surround or be subservient to the Ark
of the Covenant because that's where God was. He says here in chapter 25, look
at verse 10. 25, 10. And thou shalt make an
ark of shedim wood, two cubits and a half shall be the length
thereof, and a cubit and a half the breadth thereof, and a cubit
and a half the height thereof. Thou shalt overlay it with pure...
teaches us of the deity of our Lord Jesus. This Ark of the Covenant
is made of Shittim wood. That was a wood that wouldn't
rot. It was incorruptible. It lasted
a long, long time. That's a picture of our Lord's
humanity. Overlaid with gold. He's always God. Now file that
away. He's always God. That's what
the gold indicates. And then, for the sake of a little
bit of time here, go down to verse 16. So here's this box, this rectangular
box, made of shidom wood, overlaid with gold. You got the picture. Now he says in verse 16, and
thou shalt put into the ark of the testimony which I shall give
thee. That is, two tables of law. You'll put it in this ark of
the covenant. that pictures it symbolizes our
Lord Jesus where the law of God is safe. It's safe in Him. Now go to Deuteronomy with me,
chapter 10. Deuteronomy chapter 10. At first, The first ten commandments
were broken. The two tables were broken. When
God engraved ten words, literally, ten commandments, the second
time, He gives specific instructions to Moses again. Chapter 10 of
Deuteronomy number verse 1. At that time, the Lord said unto
me, Hew thee two tables of stone, like unto the first. So it's
what we're talking about back there in chapter 34, that's what
this is right here. And come up unto me in the mount,
and make thee an ark of wood. And I will write on the tables
the words that were in the first tables, which thou breakest,
and thou shalt put them in the ark. Okay. And Moses said, So
I made an ark of shedim wood, and hewed two tables of stone,
like unto the first, and went up unto the mount, having the
two tables in mine hand. And he, God, wrote on the tables,
according to the first writing, the ten commandments which the
Lord spake unto you in the mount out of the midst of the fire,
and the Lord gave them unto me. and I turned myself and came
down from the mount, I put the tables in the ark which I had
made, and there they are, there they be, as the Lord commanded
me." Now what's the difference between this passage and the
one back in Exodus? There's an omission here. You know what's left out? Gold. The gold is left out. That doesn't
mean he didn't cover it with gold. But in the Word of God,
there are no accidental omissions. Because that which is in view
here is that this law of God is going to be put into this
ark of wood which signifies into the humanity of our Lord Jesus. And the law of God will be safe
there. In other words, it's what God
is teaching us from Deuteronomy chapter 10. God's law is going
to be honored by man. by a man. Now we know He's the
God-man. We know that from that passage
we read earlier in Exodus. But that which is emphasized
here is the wood. Here's the man Christ Jesus and
He honored God's law as a man. One man has fulfilled the law
of God. One man has kept the law of God.
One man has died under the curse of the law of God to save His
people. And that is the man Christ Jesus. You can't keep it. You can't keep it. You're a sinful
person, even as a believer. You can't keep it as a believer.
In fact, you're not even under the law of God. But the Scripture says, in the
fullness of time, God sent forth His Son, made of a woman, Listen
to this. Made under the law. Under God's law. And God's law
demanded from him exactly what it demanded of you. That which you can't produce
and I can't produce either. God's law demanded exact obedience. One man did that. One man did
that! And he was a real man, born in
a manger. Lived to 33 or 34 years of age. And the law of God thoroughly
examined him and Pilate speaks as though speaking for all who
inspected the life of Christ. I find no fault in this man. Well then, he's the fit sacrifice
then. Because you see, it's not enough
that he live under that law. He's got to die under its curse.
And that's what you read to us in Galatians chapter 3. He died
under the curse of the law. The law demands two things. Exact
obedience and death for disobedience. Behold the man, Christ Jesus.
He precisely, exactly, in every possible way, obeyed God's law. And then He died under its curse.
Why? Because He took our sins upon
Himself. All of our breakings of God's
law. There's no way And He did it for us. The law of God doesn't threaten
me. I have no fear of the law of God. Why? 1 Timothy 1 says
the law of God is not made for a righteous man. I'm righteous
in Christ. I'm dead to its threats. I'm dead to its penalty. I'm dead to its condemnation.
It has nothing to do... He honored it. He is that Ark
of the Covenant in which the Law of God...