In Exodus chapter 20, we're continuing
on the subject of Christ, the end of the law. And of course,
that title is taken from the book of Romans chapter 10 and
verse four, where Paul wrote that Christ is the end of the
law for righteousness to everyone that believeth. And you know
that word end means the fulfilling, the completion, the perfection,
or the finishing of the law for righteousness. And the law given
reflects or shows the standard of righteousness that God requires,
and basically it is the perfection of righteousness that can only
be found in the person and work of Christ. The law was given
to Israel on Mount Sinai, the old covenant law, which we're
studying the very basis of that law was the Ten Commandments,
given in Exodus 20. Last week we looked at the first
four, that's the first table of the law that has to do with
man's relationship to God. And here in the last six has
to do with, that's the second table, has to do with man's relationship
to one another. And we see in that the details
of the summation of the law of love. Love God perfectly. Love God with all your heart,
soul, and strength. And love your neighbor as yourself.
and that's the perfection of love. The law of God does not
command us to try to do that. Now, understand what I'm saying. Should we attempt in our lives,
in our struggles, as we go through our life, looking to and resting
in Christ, should we make a strong, diligent, concerted effort to
love God perfectly and to love our neighbor as ourself? The
answer is yes. There's no question about that.
We're to be obedient people in every way. Not in order to be
saved, because salvation is not by our obedience. Not in order
to make ourselves righteous in order to be accepted with God,
because we can't do that. But we're to be obedient in gratitude
to God who has given us so much that we don't deserve. And we're
to thank him, and we're to, out of love and grace and gratitude.
But what is it that God requires to save a sinner, to accept a
sinner, to receive a sinner, to fellowship with a sinner?
It's perfection. And that can only be found in
the righteousness of Christ, freely imputed, and which we
receive by God-given faith. Well in verse 12 he starts off,
here's the fifth commandment, honor thy father and thy mother
that thy days may be long upon the land which the Lord thy God
giveth thee. And so this is a very, these
things are pretty much self-explanatory that a child is to honor and
obey their mothers and their fathers in every way. And this, you know, Paul made
the statement, I think it was over in Ephesians chapter six,
that this is the first commandment with a promise, and the promise
is that their days may be long. Well, that had a real practical
application under the old covenant, because back then, under the
old covenant, a rebellious child, now I'm not just talking about
a child who needs a spanking, or a child who needs to sit in
the corner for a while, but I'm talking about an out and out
rebel child, they were to be killed. The crime, the punishment, fit
the crime was capital punishment. And so that your days may be
long. In the New Testament, we don't
have any promise that an obedient child is going to live into an
old age. That's not what Paul was saying
in Ephesians six. But the days will be long in
quality. I mean, as you all know, we had
a child who died at 38, and he was a very obedient child. He
very rarely gave Debbie and I any trouble. Not to say Nathan has,
he hasn't either. But the thing about it is there's
no promise to say if you do this, you're gonna live 20 more years. That's not what this is about.
This is a very, very practical situation for the Israelites.
So honor your father. But now one of the things we
need to understand about rebellious children, rebellion against fathers
and mothers reflects a rebellion against God. Did you know that? It's just like when we'll talk
about here the adultery later on here. The marriage union between
a man and a woman is to reflect the marriage union between Christ
and the church. And those who don't respect that
and regard it, see, it's always a reflection. And that's why
you remember when the rich young man, when he came to Christ,
he said, what good thing must I do that I may have eternal
life? And Christ told him, he said, well, there's none good
but God. In other words, he was making a point that for you to
call this man, Jesus of Nazareth, good is to make him equal with
God. And if you don't believe he's
God, then don't say good because we're all sinners. And so he's
measuring goodness by the measure who is God alone. Just like we're
to measure righteousness by Christ, not as we compare to one another.
Say, we need a righteousness we cannot produce. How do I know
that? Well, because I'm better than Randy or I'm better than
Brother David. No, because Randy and Brother
David, Brother Randy and Brother David are not the standard of
right, Christ is. And so as long as I keep my eyes
focused on Christ, then I know I've got no hope in this world.
But that righteousness, which is by faith, his faith to do
it, and God-given faith to receive it. And God has already imputed
it to me. And that's the only way. So whenever
we see these laws, we have to keep these things in mind. We're
not gonna be compared to one another. But what I want us to
understand is basically this, this law was not given so that
New Testament believers could look back at the old covenant
Jews and say, well now we just have to do better. Or we're gonna
do better. Folks, we've broken every one
of these laws. Now we have. And that's why Christ,
in Matthew chapter five, at the beginning of the Sermon on the
Mount, he set the law straight in their minds. And you know,
he first told them, he said, now I didn't come to destroy
this law, I came to keep the law. I came to keep it, Christ
did. And then he said, now, except
your righteousness exceed the righteousness of the scribes
and the Pharisees, you shall in no wise enter the kingdom
of heaven. You've got to have a righteousness that's better
than what they can muster up. Well, how righteous do we have
to be? We'll go to verse 13 here. Thou shalt not kill. What's he
talking about? He's talking about killing another
person. He's talking about murder. That's
a sin. The sin didn't begin when God
gave the law. That sin was already well into
the world. It started out with a man named
Cain who murdered his brother named Abel. And Cain broke this
law of the sixth commandment right there. And somebody says,
well, what if they deserve it? Well, we all deserve death. That's
the wages of sin. But only God. The creator and
giver of life has the right to kill, and when he does, that's
not murder, that's justice. The Lord giveth, the Lord taketh
away. Blessed be the name of the Lord.
Now, the Lord does give the right of punishment under the law to
civil authorities, that's called capital punishment, and that's
not murder, because that's God acting through the civil authorities.
So when people say, well, capital punishment is murder, it's not.
That's the work of God through the civil authorities. Now can
that be abused? Well, of course, anything man
gets his hand on can be abused and has been. But when God takes
a life, it's justice. When man takes it upon himself
to take a life, it's murder and it's sin. So can I say that I'm
not killed, that I'm not murdered? Look at now, let's go on to the
seventh commandment, verse 14. Thou shalt not commit adultery.
Well, what is adultery? Well, that's a wife or a husband
going with another man's wife or another wife's husband. You
know what adultery is. I don't need to explain it all
to you. But it's giving yourself to one that doesn't, that's not
in that marriage relationship. And that's what it is. And you
husbands and wives may have never done that physically. But look
over at Matthew 5, because this is where Christ said it in line
to show us that the law was given, to show us our sinfulness, our
depravity, the fact that we need God's grace
for salvation. and for righteousness, and that's
what Christ was doing here. Verse 21 of Matthew 5, you've
heard that it was said by them of old, thou shalt not kill,
and whoever shall kill shall be in danger of the judgment.
That's what the law said. Verse 22, but now here's the
reality of the law. I say unto you that whosoever
is angry with his brother without a cause shall be, and what that
means in a just way. You know, somebody would say
something, well, I killed that guy, but I had a cause to do
it, you know? No, I guarantee you it wasn't
strict justice, see? It might have been vengeance,
which belongs to the Lord. But he says, without a cause
shall be in danger of the judgment. Whosoever shall say to his brother
Rekha, which is a thought of, it's not saying go to hell. That's
what that's like, Rekha. You just, I hope you burn in
hell, something like that. Why is that so bad? Because what
do we deserve? And he says, shall be in danger
of the council, but whosoever shall say thou fool shall be
in danger of hellfire. What's he saying here? He said,
it's murder to think it, thinking in your heart. You ever wish
somebody dead? Don't lie to yourself, you don't
have to answer me. And then look at verse 23, well,
verse 25. No, I'm sorry, verse 27, we'll
get it. You have heard that it was said
by them of old, thou shalt not commit adultery, but I say unto
you that whosoever looketh on a woman, and for a woman, whosoever
looketh on a man, to lust after her hath committed adultery already
with her in his heart. So what we're understanding here
is this law reaches to the heart, the mind. the affections. And so we understand we all need
righteousness we can't produce. Should we do our best to obey
these moral laws? Well, of course we should. There's
no argument there. The freeness of God's mercy and
grace never gives us a license to break the law or to sin. But
the freeness of God's mercy and grace shows us that we are all
lawbreakers. You're listening to a lawbreaker
this morning. Because I'm just a sinner saved
by grace preaching to other sinners saved by grace. And if that disappoints
you, I'm sorry. But that's what I am. Only a
sinner saved by grace. This church is what? It's a hospital
for sinners. If you're righteous by your works,
you do not need to be here because I don't have a message for you.
Christ said, I didn't come to call the righteous. I came to
call sinners to repent. This is a hospital for sinners.
And anybody who knows they're a sinner is welcome. And that's
the way we should feel. We should not begrudge anybody
that opportunity to come and hear the gospel, no matter how
bad of a sinner you think they are. Because however bad you
think they are, you're worse. I'm telling you, in a lot of
ways. Now it may not be the same way,
but we are. This is a hospital for sinners.
So we're all, in essence, murderers and adulterers. Does that mean
that it's okay for us to go out and commit actual murder and
commit actual physical adultery? No. And if you do, you're going
to accept the consequences of it. If you go out and murder
somebody, you'll be in jail and you may be punished in a capital
way. If you go out and commit adultery,
you're going to bring shame and remorse and trouble on your house.
But listen to me. The fact that we haven't done
these things physically doesn't make us righteous in God's sight.
That's what this law is about. I'm still just as much, if I
had killed somebody or if I had committed adultery against my
wife physically, I haven't and I'm still just as in need of
a righteousness that I can't produce in light of that. That's the whole point. Look
at verse 15, here's the eighth commandment. Thou shalt not steal. Well, he's talking about robbery.
Don't go out robbing banks, things like that. But I was listening
to Brother Jim Byrd on this and he brought up something, he said,
this would include armed robbery and more subtle sins such as
taking payment for work we haven't done. You take a person who's capable
of working, but who refuses to do so and receives money that
he hasn't earned, she hasn't earned, that's robbery. You know
that? We got a lot of robbers in this
country these days, don't we? But I want you to think about
something even worse. When sinners attribute things
to themselves that belong only to God, they're trying to steal
God's glory, that's robbery. And this is why it's stated in
the Bible that Christ claiming to be God was not robbery. You
remember that in Philippians 2? I've got that marked in your
Bible. Who thought it not robbery to be equal with God. Now why
is it not robbery for Jesus of Nazareth to claim to be equal
with God? Because he is God. But now for me to attribute any
attribute that belongs only to God to myself, that's stealing. That's robbery. When the people of Israel held
back their tithes and offerings because they were dedicated to
the priesthood, God asked this question through the prophet
Malachi, will a man rob God? You have robbed me. It's robbery,
listen, it's robbery when a sinner seeks salvation or any part of
it based upon their works. because they're robbing God of
his glory, trying to rob God of his glory, and claiming to
be something that they are not, in spite of God's revelation.
You know what God's highest glory is, don't you? The salvation
of a sinner based upon the righteousness of his son. A just God and a
savior. Now if I claim salvation based
on anything else, what am I doing? I'm trying to rob God of his
glory. That's stealing. It's stealing for one to take
credit for something that he or she did not do. And so when
a sinner claims they're saved because of their works or their
decisions, they're taking credit for something they didn't do.
That's right. Salvation's of the Lord. It's
His to give. It's not mine to take. That sound
weird to you? It's His to give, and if He gives
it, I'll take it. But it's not my choice. He makes
his people willing in the day of his power. And so if I claim
it based upon the fact that I stood up and made the right choice,
who's getting the glory there? Me. In the eyes of men. But not in the eyes of God. Understand
that? This is serious business, isn't
it? You see how these commandments It's not just something you put
up on the wall or outside a government building and go by and smile. One old preacher said, if you
want to put, instead of putting the Ten Commandments up on your
wall, just write one word. It'll save you money and it's
easier to pronounce, condemned. Because that's what the law does
for a sinner. who is not washed in the blood
of Christ, who's not clothed in his righteousness. Look at
the next one, verse 16. Here's the ninth commandment.
Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbor. Well, mainly
what he's talking about is accusing your neighbor falsely, especially
in a court of law, especially accusing them in the way of slander
or libel, murdering their reputation. I've had people accuse me of
things. I wasn't guilty of. I'm a sinner now. But don't bear
false witness. And that's right. But we should
never, and you say, well, I haven't done that. I hope you haven't.
But let me say this. We should never overlook the
sin of bearing false witness against the Lord. If we've ever, false preachers,
when they stand in pulpits, and preach salvation conditioned
on the works and wills of sinners, they're bearing false witness.
That's right. In a court of law. Because salvation
is a matter of law and justice, tempered with mercy that can
only be found in Christ and his righteousness alone. So that's
bearing false witness. And then look at verse 17. Here's
the 10th commandment. Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's
house, thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's wife, nor his manservant,
nor his maidservant, nor his ox, nor his ass, nor anything
that is thy neighbor. Anything that belongs to your
neighbor. And there's covetousness. Covetousness is a sin of the
mind and the heart. And that shows you where the
law goes to. Covetousness is an excessive desire to possess
something that belongs to someone else. It's a failure to recognize
that all good things are ultimately gifts from God. And God dispenses
those as he sees fit. And it's not because any of us
deserve it. So when you see someone who's
successful in a lot of ways, health-wise, financially and
everything, and you say, well, I wish that were me, well, You're
coming against God. Understand that. We see covetousness
in ourselves, even in believers. I use this one. Sometime go back
and read Psalm 73. And here's what the psalmist
said. That's the Psalm of Asaph, I
believe. We as believers, I'm gonna be
talking about suffering today. for Christ. We're partakers of
Christ's suffering. And I'm not going to preach on
this today, but Lord willing, next week when I get back, we're
going to deal with that verse where he says, if the righteous
scarcely be saved, Now that's not saying that if the righteous,
and you know who the righteous are, that's sinners saved by
grace. And he's not saying there that if the righteous get in
by the skin of their teeth. That's not what that means. When
it says if the righteous scarcely be saved, it means with difficulty. And you who are saved by the
grace of God, you know how difficult life is in a lot of ways. Now, you may have it easy some
ways. But think about it. Think about
your families. How difficult that is. That's
not easy, is it, when you have unbelieving members of your family?
Think about the world and religion. I know y'all have family members
and friends all over town who worship an idol. And you may
have talked to some of them, and you may have not gotten a
good answer. That's difficult. Identifying with the people of
God, that's difficult. And you may, like the psalmist
in Psalm 73, you may say, but as for me, my feet were almost
gone. What he meant by that is I couldn't
hardly even stand. My steps had well nigh slipped,
for I was envious at the foolish when I saw the prosperity of
the wicked. You ever felt that way? I have. That's covetousness. It really is. Why do the heathen
prosper? Lord, why do I have heart disease
and why do I have an arthritic back? I'm only here trying to
preach your gospel. Tell the truth. Why are those
false preachers living in the lap of luxury and thousands of
people listening to them and follow them? Why do the heathen
prosper? And you know what that is. That's the same as boasting
that we deserve better. Claiming that God's treating
me unjustly and unfairly. That's not so. As believers in Christ, we know
that God is good and just and righteous and merciful towards
us at all times. Problem is, is when we get to
trying to figure these things out on our human level, we always
go wrong. And here's what the psalmist
said in Psalm 73, verse 17. He said, when I thought to know
this, it was too painful for me. When I thought, here's what
he said, when I sought to figure this out, it just blows my mind. I can't figure it out. God has
a purpose. Here's what I know, that God
is going to glorify himself and it's going to work for the good
of his people. I know that because the Bible says that. But I can't
figure it out. We can only find the answer in
God's word and this is what the psalmist said. Listen to it,
this is verse 16, 17, Psalm 73. When I thought to know this,
it was too painful for me until I went into the sanctuary of
God. Then understood I their end. They may prosper today, folks,
but I'll tell you what, if God doesn't have mercy upon them,
what's their end? And the end of all things is
the glory of God in Christ and the good of his people. The wicked
shall be destroyed. So bottom line, it's clear here
that the law requires a perfection of righteousness that we don't
have and cannot earn and cannot work. So let me just go quickly
over the last part of this chapter. Verse 18, now look at it. And
all the people saw the thunderings and the lightnings and the noise
of the trumpet and the mountain smoking. And when the people
saw it, they removed and stood afar off. They were afraid. What's
happening here, God, the glory of God is descending on Mount
Sinai and he's gonna call Moses back up. He already called him
up once, he's gonna call him back up. And they were afraid
and they stood afar off. Verse 19, they said unto Moses,
speak thou with us and we will hear, but let not God speak with
us lest we die. They knew at that point. Now
what they knew they forgot later on. In verse 20, Moses said unto
the people, fear not for God is come to prove or to test you,
and that his fear may be before you, your faces, and you sin
not. And the people stood afar off,
and Moses drew near unto the thick darkness where God was.
Moses here is a type of Christ. Christ went into the thick darkness
of God's wrath as our substitute, as our surety, as our redeemer. Having obeyed the law perfectly
and then satisfying the justice of God perfectly, Moses went
to God for us. And it says in verse 22, and
the Lord said unto Moses, thus thou shalt say unto the children
of Israel, you have seen that I have talked with you from heaven.
You shall not make with me gods of silver, neither shall you
make unto you gods of gold. He'd already expressed that.
But look at verse 24. An altar of earth thou shalt
make unto me and shalt sacrifice thereon thy burnt offerings,
thy peace offerings, thy sheep and thy oxen, in all places where
I record my name, I will come unto thee and I will bless thee.
Now what's the basis upon which a sinner can approach God? The
burnt offering on the altar of earth. Why an altar of earth? That's a picture of Christ's
humanity. Christ's humanity as he came out of the earth in his
humanity. He's God manifest in the flesh.
And the altar was the altar upon which the burnt sacrifice and
the peace offering, that which makes peace between God and sinners.
And what does that show us? It show us that salvation is
all of the Lord. That God requires perfection
of righteousness, satisfaction, his justice. This is the things
of propitiation. Only Christ is our propitiation.
Look at verse 25. And if thou wilt make me an altar
of stone. Now God allowed them to make not only an altar of
earth, but also an altar of stone. But look what he says. This is
interesting. Thou shalt not build it of hewn stone. Stone that
you've carved and chiseled on and all that. In other words,
the stone has to be in its natural way. And he says, for if thou
lift up thy tool upon it, thou hast polluted it. What does that
tell you? Well, our altar is Christ. And
he was not made with human hands. He did not come from the seed
of man. He was the seed of woman. And this is the idea. Salvation
is in no way, to no degree, at no stage conditioned on what
we do, our works, our efforts, or our decisions. It's all of
God. We have no part in producing
the righteousness which God imputes to us and which we receive by
faith. And if we did have any part in
it, we'd pollute it. That's right, isn't it? We'd
pollute it. It must be perfect to be accepted. And then the last verse, verse
26, neither shalt thou go up by steps unto mine altar that
thy nakedness be not discovered thereon. Isn't that interesting?
Salvation is not some step-by-step process where we progressively
get holier and more righteous and less sinful till finally
we make it up to the top. The justification of sinners
is not something achieved in degrees that we move as we think
we're getting better. No, justification is a legal
declaration of God through Christ. And salvation is complete when
God gives it to us. You are complete in Him. Now, are you complete in yourself?
No. We're not yet perfect in ourselves,
but we're complete, finished, perfect in Christ, and our salvation
is already accomplished and already sure because of him whom to know
is life eternal. He is our righteousness. All
right.