Keep your Bibles handy, I want
you to use them this afternoon. I'm going, I've got stuck up
in chapter four. There's no sense in me apologizing
for it, but I'm sort of stuck here. It's probably two years
ago or so, I quit rushing through things. I just thought, well,
I'm just, I'm just gonna hang out here as long as I want to
and not try to rush and cover too much. And we'll look at just
verses 12 and 13 tonight, but we are going to cover quite a
few scriptures, so I want you to turn quickly with me. Look
in Deuteronomy chapter 4 and verses 12 through 13. This is where Moses is rehearsing
what happened to them the past 40 years in the wilderness. And
the Lord spake unto you out of the midst of the fire, ye heard
the voice of the words, But Saul saw no similitude, saw no likeness,
only you heard a voice. And he declared unto you his
covenant, which he commanded you to perform, even ten commandments. And he wrote them upon two tables
of stone." Now, all I want to look at this evening, basically,
is verse 13, the giving of the Ten Commandments. I want to look
at it this way. I want to first turn back over
where they were first given. You and I probably have looked
at this before, but I want us to go back tonight and read in
the nineteenth chapter of Exodus and the twentieth chapter of
Exodus, because Moses is reminding the Jews here, Israel, of when
the Lord gave them the commandment and the conditions that were
surrounding the giving of these ten commandments. Now, we still
have them around today, don't we? It's amazing, ain't it, that
we can read them in the Bible. You can go in a lot of people's
homes. They've got them on the walls or whatever little plaque.
The Ten Commandments. And here is the first time these
commandments were given as they are here. In Exodus chapter 19,
and let's begin reading in about
verse 16. This is where the Lord told Moses to set bounds around
the Mount Sinai. They are camped around this mountain.
And here in chapter 19 of Exodus in verse 16, look at these conditions. It first tells us the conditions
and then in chapter 20 it tells us what the Lord said. And it
came to pass on the third day in the morning that there was
thunders and lightnings and a thick cloud upon the mount and the
voice of the trumpet exceeding loud. so that all the people
that were in the camp trembled. Now you can get a picture of
that, can't you? That mountain was smoking, trembling, that
trumpet loud, and all the people camped around in front of that
mountain. And all of them were trembling. They were scared to
death. Verse 17, And Moses brought forth
the people out of the camp to meet with God. And they stood
at the nether part of the mountain. And Mount Sinai was altogether
on a smoke. Because the Lord descended upon
it in fire, and the smoke thereof ascended as the smoke of a furnace,
and the whole mount quaked greatly. And when the voice of the trumpet
sounded long and waxed louder and louder, Moses spake, and
God answered him by a voice. And the Lord came down upon Mount
Sinai, on the top of the mount, and the Lord called Moses up
to the mount, to the top of the mount, and Moses went up. And
verse 1 of chapter 20, this is the Ten Commandments. This is
the commandments the Lord spoke. Now you can imagine this. You
can imagine all of this shaking of this mountain, this trumpet
loud, smoke like coming out of a big furnace, big billows of
smoke, and fire rolling up through that smoke. lightning flashing,
a thunder shaking your chest. It was an awesome, awesome sight,
if you'd have been there and saw that. And then, while they
were sitting there watching all this, they heard this voice. Now, this is not the voice of
Moses. This is the voice of God, the Lord God, and He's speaking
out of the midst of that smoke and that fire. In verse 1 of
chapter 20, And God spake all these words saying, I am the
Lord thy God, which brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out
of the house of bondage. Thou shalt have no other gods
before me. You shall not make unto you any
graven image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven
above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the waters
under the earth. Thou shalt not bow down thyself
to them, nor serve them. For I, the Lord thy God, am a
jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children
unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me, and showing
mercy unto thousands of them that love me and keep my commandments. Thou shalt not take the name
of the Lord thy God in vain. For the Lord will not hold him
guiltless that takes his name in vain. Remember the Sabbath
day to keep it holy. Six days shalt thou labor and
do all your work. But the seventh day is the Sabbath
of the Lord thy God. In it thou shalt not do any work,
thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, nor thy manservant, nor thy maidservant,
nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gate. For
in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that
in them is, and rested the seventh day. Wherefore the Lord blessed
the seventh day, and hallowed it. Honor thy father and thy
mother, that your days may be long upon the land which the
Lord thy God giveth thee. Thou shalt not kill, that is,
shalt not do any murder. Thou shalt not commit adultery.
Thou shalt not steal. You shall not bear false witness
against your neighbor. You shall not covet your neighbor's
house, nor your neighbor's wife, nor his manservant, nor his maidservant,
nor his ox, nor his ass, nor anything that is your neighbor's.
And all the people saw the thunderings, and the lightnings, and the noise
of the trumpet, and the mountains smoking. And when the people
saw it, they removed and stood afar off. And they said unto
Moses, Speak thou with us. And we will hear. But let not
God speak with us, lest we die. And Moses said unto the people,
Fear not, for God is come to prove you, and that his fear
may be before your faces, that you sin not. And the people stood
afar off, and Moses drew near unto the thick darkness where
God was. Now that's a count for the giving
of a Ten Commandments. I wanted to read that because
in the book of Deuteronomy, Moses refers to this account time and
time again. So I wanted us to read this.
And two things I wanted us to see in the text that I just read
to you, and it's found there in verse 19, verse 20, the latter
part of verse 20. I want us to see these two things. Here's the desired effect of
all of this. Here's what all this was about.
All this lightning, fire, and the mountains shaking, God speaking.
Two things. Two things the Lord is seeking
to teach these people. And we're told here in verse
20, that His fear may be before your faces. That's the first
thing. And secondly, that you sin not. These two things. That's the purpose of the giving
of the law. That your fear, his fear, the
fear of God, may be before your faces. Now this is something
you and I know. I've preached this to you so
many times. You've read this in the Word
of God. Man by nature does not fear God in his heart. There
is no fear of God before their eyes. That's Romans chapter 3
and verse 18. This is why man won't listen.
This is why this room tonight is not so full that we have to
move out into the auditorium. This is why men are so full of
self-opinions about God. This is why men talk about all
the different gods and all the different ways of salvation.
It's because they do not fear God. And you know something? Until God makes His self known
to a man's heart, that man will not fear God. That is what the
Ten Commandments, that is what the giving of this law is about. Until God reveals Himself in
His holiness, in His justice, in His power, in His glory, nobody
will fear God. Now I want you to turn back over
to Deuteronomy. Look over Deuteronomy chapter
5 in verse 22. Moses is referring again to this
very scene that I just read to you. And look what they said
in chapter 5 in verse 22. These words the Lord
spake unto all your assembly. I just read them to you, the
Ten Commandments. In the mount out of the mist of the fire,
of the cloud and of the thick darkness, with a great voice,
and he added no more. And he wrote them in two tablets
of stones and delivered them unto me. And it came to pass,
when you heard the voice out of the midst of the darkness,
for the mountain did burn with fire, that you came near unto
me, even all the heads of your tribes and your elders, and you
said, Behold, the Lord our God hath showed us his glory and
His greatness, and we heard His voice out of the midst of the
fire, we have seen this day that God doth talk with man, and He
loveth." What did they say God had showed them? His glory and
His greatness. What does a man have to experience
to begin to fear God? He has to see His glory. He has
to see something of His greatness. We cannot fear God. Nobody fears
God until he sees something of God's glory, His holiness, His
justice. Look back over here and he tells
us that in chapter 4 in verse 35. He refers to this same scene. Look here in verse 35, chapter
4. that thou mightest know that
the Lord, He is God, there is none else beside Him. Unto thee
it was shown," that word means revealed, come into sight, "'out
of heaven He made thee to hear His voice, that He might instruct
thee, and upon earth He showed thee this great fire, and thou
heardest His words out of the midst of When do we begin to
fear God? When He shows us His glory. And
you know something He has to show us? He has to make it known
to our hearts. Now, I could tell you, if you
want to see the glory of God, I could say, go out here tonight,
if the night's clear, and look up at the sky and notice the
vast creation, the stars and the moon, Go out tomorrow and
look at the sun, it shining in its strength, because God is
revealed in creation. The creation declares the glory
of God. But you know something? You might
go out there and stand all night tonight, and you may stand looking
up and gazing up in this universe tomorrow, and you may do that
the rest of your life and never see the glory of God. Why is that, Bruce? Because He
has to show us. This, to know God in any sense,
to know anything of His holiness, the glory of His person, His
power, He has to make it known to us. So He said here, He showed
you His glory. He's made you to know. And what
did He make them to know? Well, He tells us there in verse
35, He made you to know, He showed you that the Lord, He is God. If anybody before had never seen
this truth that the Lord, He's God, that's what He revealed
to them back at Mount Sinai. And He added something to this.
There's none else. There's none else. Now, when
the Lord shows us that, When He shows respect, then you know
something? We begin to fear Him. But you know something? I can't
show you that. I've had people ask me questions about, how can
I know God? How can I know His Word is true?
Can you tell me that? No, I can't. Can somebody tell
me how I know this is the Word of God? No, nobody can make you
know that. Only God can make you know that.
How can I know that God is real? He has to show you. And that's
what this is about. This whole scene is about that
His fear may be before your faces. Well, why did they come to fury?
He revealed Himself. And He revealed Himself like
this, I am the Lord and nobody else. And when God begins to
deal with our hearts and make His self known, You know what
we'll know about him? He's God. He's God. We're trying to convince people
of the sovereignty of God by reading all these scriptures
as well we should. We teach people. People need
to be taught. But you know something? Nobody
will know God is sovereign, that God is God, until God makes Hisself
known to their hearts. Now, that's the truth, ain't
it? And that's what Mount Sinai was about. That's what all that
was about. the fire and the smoke and everything. The Apostle Paul went out on
his first missionary journey and he stood up to preach. And
here's what he made this statement. He said, Men and brethren, and
whosoever among you that feareth God. Boy, he qualified that,
didn't he? Men and brethren and whoever
there is in this congregation that fears God Has God stirred
up your heart? Has He made known to you that
He is God? Then to you is the word of this
salvation sent. Now, this is just a fact, that
we do not seek the Lord until He makes Himself known unto us.
We do not fear Him until He makes Himself known unto us. And that's why men will seek
Christ When we preach Christ so lovingly and plain, we preach
hell so hot and full of torment, we preach forgiveness of sin
so sweet, we preach heaven full of joy, but people won't listen. Why? They don't fear. They don't
fear God. Well, when, Bruce, will they
come to fear when He makes this heaven on earth? We're helpless
to affect that. We're absolutely helpless to
affect that. We go on in our lives. We live our lives. We're
concerned with our family. We're concerned with our jobs
and the cares of this life and what not. And we'll never fear God. We'll
never seek the salvation of our soul. We'll never desire saving
interest in Jesus Christ until God begins a work in our heart. And what's the first work He
began? Make His self known unto us. He makes His self known unto
us. And that's a revelation, brothers
and sisters. That's a revelation. And that's what all this was
about. He said, God has did this. All this sin and Him speaking.
This is the purpose in it. That you may fear Him. The fear
of the Lord may be before your faces. And secondly, this second
thing, that you sin not. This is the second desired effect.
That you sin Not. Let me say it like this. Until
God shows His glory, the greatness of His might, His holiness, until
He makes Himself known. I don't know how He does that.
I'll be honest with you, I don't know how He does that. I've experienced
it and I can't explain it. But He makes Himself known to
us. He has to do that. And when He
does that, We have this heart knowledge of our sin, and it's
working in us. You know, until God makes Himself
known to us. Until He makes Himself known
to us that He is God, until He does that, you know, we have
no real knowledge of our sin. Men talk about they have a notion
of sin. Even atheists talk about they
have a notion of sin. They'll even confess that they're
sinners. I've seen atheists confess themselves to be sinners. But
they know nothing about heart sin. They don't know nothing
about the working of sin down in their heart. This comes, the
knowledge of this heart sin, comes when God has made His self
real to us. That's when it comes. We find
different examples of that. Let me give you two that are
very familiar. I saw the Lord high and lifted up. Remember
that? And His glory is trained. Fill the temple. And the angels
were saying, Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts. And what
effect did that have upon that prophet? I'm a man of unclean
lips. His whole opinion about sin,
his sin were stirred up within him. He came to the knowledge
of it like he never had before. And Job, remember Job? I've heard
of you. They told me about you. But now
my eyes see you. How does our eyes see Him? He
has to reveal Himself. My eyes see Him. Job, how does
this affect you? I abhor myself. I repent in dust
and ashes. It's my sin. It's my sin. When God shows Himself, our whole
attitude towards Him will begin to change. When God makes Himself
known to our conscience, Our whole attitude towards God will
change. This is God. He's not who I thought
He was. He's nothing like I thought He
was. He's God, and there's nobody like Him. When God makes Himself
known to us, our whole attitude towards sin will change. We cannot
go on in sin like we used to when God makes Himself known.
We can sin as freely as a thirsty dog lapping up water until God
makes Hisself known. Then our attitude towards sin
changes. In the light of His holiness, sin makes us guilty,
doesn't it? Oh, we see what it's doing to
us and to others. The guilt that it brings. The
damnation if it's not forgiven and us saved from it. Our whole
attitude towards sin will change. You see somebody that says they
know God, that God has made himself known to them, and their attitude
towards sin never changes, I doubt that God has made himself known.
Because it says here on Mount Sinai, God has appeared to you
for this reason, that you sin not. What's the law about? I
would contend the law is for this, and this only. to bring us to the knowledge
of our sins. And I'm talking about you that
are here tonight that are saved and the unsaved. That's what
the law is about. That's all it does is bring to
us the knowledge of our sins. It proves our guilt over and
over and over and over and over again. It stirs it up, doesn't
it? It makes us guilty before God. And you can't think about your
sin like you used to. You can't love it. You can't
go on in it like you used to. Listen to this. As troubling
as this situation is in our conscience, I want you to turn to chapter
5. Let me read this verse first. Look in verse 25. Chapter 5 and
verse 25. They said there in verse 24,
God's taught with us. He's made Hisself known. We know
that He lives. That He's God. Now, therefore,
why should we die? Why should we die? For this great
fire will consume us if we hear the voice of the Lord our God
any more, then we shall die. Now, listen. Listen. This knowledge of God, when He
makes Himself known in the sense that we're talking about here
in the giving of the law, you just can't go on like you used
to. You just can't do it. You're staring your sins in the
face. You're staring death in the face. Your whole attitude
towards God and sin has changed. We are going to die. Listen now. As troubling as this
situation is in the conscience, it's a good place to be. It's a good place to be. It's
a good place for the lost to be, if God's pleased to bring
them there. And I tell you, sometimes it's
a good place for you and me as saints of God to be. You know
why? It brings us to the end of ourselves. It causes us again and again
and again to look outside of ourselves to the blessed Savior,
Jesus Christ, for salvation, for deliverance from our oppression,
from our guilt and our sin. That's why I said the law is
a good rule of life for everybody, because it shows us our sin.
Do we need to know our sin? Yes, we do. Because when we know
our sins rightly, we look to the Savior. The law is good,
isn't it, when we use it lawfully? When it's used to keep us from
sin, the law never brags on you when you do good. The law's never
bragged on anybody else. It just condemns you when you
fail. And how often do you fail? You just let God come close and
search you. Let Him make Himself known. That's
when we see our sin, ain't it? That's when we look to Jesus
Christ, our Lord, and find deliverance and salvation and strength in
Him. And here's what we've got to
always be careful of. Where do we look to for rest?
Where do we look to for salvation? Where do we look to for righteousness?
I mean us as well as the laws of God. Look here in Deuteronomy
chapter 4 and verse 13. Back in our text. Look at it. And He declared unto you His
covenant, which He commanded you to perform even the Ten Commandments,
and he wrote them up on two tables of stone. He gave you Ten Commandments,
and he said here that he commanded you to perform them. Where do
we look to when we're guilty? Where do we look to when God
does make Hisself known? When the law does shut us up
to our sin? Do we look to the Ten Commandments? Now listen to what he said here.
Look what he said. He commanded you to perform. He commanded you to perform them. Some man said if God commanded
them to perform them, then they must have had the ability to
perform. That's a good question. That's
a good statement. I'm for looking at every side.
Will God command people to do something they cannot do? Can
He do anything else but command? He can't command us to go on
in our sins, can He? He commanded them to perform
these commandments. Look in chapter 5 and verse 29
again. Does man have the ability to
perform them? What does God say? It seems like a mystery, doesn't
it? And it would be a mystery if we didn't have the Word of
God to explain it. Look in verse 29. Oh, that there were such
a heart in them, that they would fear Me, and keep all My commandments
always, that it might be well with them and with their children
forever. Oh, that there was such a heart
in them. They just got through a saying,
all that He's told us to do, we'll do it. Moses, I wish I
said that. Moses, he said, Moses, you, what
was it? Here's what he said. They said,
Moses, you go ask the Lord what we should do. And everything
he tells us to do, we'll do it. They got so twisted and confused.
Everything he tells us to do, we'll do it. And the Lord turned
right around here in verse 29 and said, Oh, that there was
a heartache. But there's not. But there's not. Here's what
the great Apostle Paul said. Holy Paul in Romans chapter 7
says this, When I would do good, evil is present with me. Oh, that I had a being that was
valiant and full of strength to do everything that God commands
me to do and do it perfectly. If anybody could have did that,
it would have been this great apostle. But here's what he said,
I delight in the law of God after the inward man, but I see another
law in my members warring against the law of my mind and bringing
me into captivity to the law of sin that's in my members. It's just not in us, is it? It's
just not in us. This is why we go praying for
grace to believe. This is why we go praying for
strength to obey, strength to follow. This is why we don't
get up and brag how strong we are, what we do, how we try. We've been humbled, have we not?
And we've learned that just because God commands us to do it is no
indication that we can. He commands all men everywhere
to repent. Could you have done it without
grace? He said, except you believe that I am He, you'll die in your
sins. Would you not have died in your sins if He had to give
you grace to believe? If He pulls His grace from you
today, will you cease to believe? You sure will, won't you? You don't jump up and run bragging
about how you keep the commandments and everything else. You just
don't do it. Because you see this sin warring
against you. You agree with the Lord when
He says, Oh, I wish you had a heart to love Me. I wish you had a
heart to fear Me. If you've got a heart to love
Him, He gave you that heart. If you've got a heart to fear
Him, He's made you fear Him. You're not bragging about it.
You're rejoicing. You're rejoicing. Listen to Romans 8 and 1. What
the law could not do. Romans 8 and 2. What the law
could not do. What can't the law do? It can't
save you. It can't justify you. Why? The law's good. The law's holy. The law's just. Why can't it
save us? Why can't it justify us? It's
weak through the flesh. The problem's with us. We might
as well admit it, hadn't we? And I'll tell you when we'll
admit it, when He'll begin to make His self known to us. And
we find ourselves shut up under this law with no ability to keep
it. And then we say, is there a way
I can be saved? Is there a way that poor and
wretched as I am, I can be justified and accepted before God? Look in chapter 6 and verse 24
and 25. Moses just keeps talking about this law. Look what else
he says about it here. Oh, he said, I wish you had a
heart to keep it, but you don't. In verse 25 of chapter 6, look
at this. Look what's dependent upon their
keeping the law. Verse 25 of chapter 6, And it
shall be our righteousness, if we observe to do all those commandments,
before the Lord our God, as He hath commanded us." This is our
righteousness. If we observe to do everything
that He's commanded us and do it before Him, in His sight,
while He's watching us, this is our righteousness. Boy, that
ought to tell us what kind of righteousness a man has, shouldn't
it? If you had to establish the righteousness for your keeping
the law, what kind of righteousness would that look like? It's filthy,
isn't it? Why? Because we can't keep it. We can't keep it. One more place. Look in Viticus
chapter 18, verse 4 and 5. The Viticus chapter 18. Look in verse four and five.
You shall do my judgments and keep my ordinances to walk therein. I am the Lord your God. You shall
therefore keep my statutes and my judgments, which if a man
do, he shall live in them. I am the Lord. They said, Bruce, you're surely
not for not doing these things. You know, here's the mystery
of all these things. Lots of people don't understand
because they won't compare Scripture with Scripture. You have people
that look at these things and say, man, I'm going to do it.
I'm going to do it. I'm going to find out everything
He tells me to do and I'm going to do it. This is His judgment.
This is His ordinance. I'm going to do it. Remember
the young man that came to the Lord Jesus one day and said,
Lord, what do I need to do to have eternal life? And the Lord
says, you know the law, don't you? He said, yeah, I know it. He said, keep it. Keep it. He said, which one should I keep?
Well, try these two. Love the Lord with all your heart,
with all your mind, all your soul, and all your strength.
And love your neighbor as yourself. You'll have life. You'll have
life. If you do that, you'll live.
If you'll do that, Now that's what the Ten Commandments is
all about. Doing, doing, doing, doing. And if you'll keep them perfectly,
from your heart, from the cradle to the grave, you'll live. But
there's another way too. There's another way to live.
And it's a sure way. Look over in Romans chapter 10
right there. It's not based upon our doing it, but it's based
upon somebody else's doing it. Look in Romans chapter 10. Moses
quotes, or Paul quotes from Moses here in the 10th chapter of Romans. Look at it in verse 4. Romans
chapter 10 verse 4. He just got through a telling
us up there that Israel is lost. I pray for them, he says, they
may be saved. They're ignorant of God's righteousness.
They're going about to establish their own righteousness. And
he says in verse 4, For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness
to everyone that believes. For Moses describes the righteousness
which is of the law, that the man which doeth those things
shall live by them. Now that's the righteousness
of the law. We sometimes call it self-righteousness. And that's
what it is. Self-righteousness is the righteousness
that you seek to justify yourself before God. Verse 6, But, but,
the righteousness which is of faith speaks on this life. There's another righteousness,
and it's not the righteousness of words or the law, but the
righteousness of faith. Say not in your heart, who shall
ascend up into heaven, that is, to bring Christ down from heaven.
He already came down, didn't He? Don't need to bring Him down
again. Or who shall ascend unto the deep? That is to bring Christ
up again from the dead. He already rose from the dead.
In other words, the work is done. He came down and he died, he
rose, he went back to heaven. The work is done. But what sayeth
it? Here is this word of righteousness.
The word is near you, even in your mouth and in your heart.
That is the word of faith which we preach. That if you will confess
with your mouth the Lord Jesus, and shall believe in your heart
that God hath raised him from the dead, you shall be saved."
Ain't that wonderful? And it's so simple, isn't it?
So simple. Look in verse 10, "...for with
a heart man believeth unto righteousness." There's a way to try to establish
your righteousness by keeping the Ten Commandments. But you
can't do it. Even the best saint can't do
it. The best saint said he couldn't do it. But there's the way to
have a perfect righteousness, and that's by heart, faith, and
Christ. With the heart, man believeth unto righteousness, and with
the mouth, confession is made unto salvation. For the Scripture
says, Whosoever believes on him, shall not be ashamed. Ain't that wonderful? Ain't that
wonderful? You say, Bruce, what do we do
with the law then? We don't do anything with the law. I'll tell
you what it does with us. You know what the law does with us?
Proves our guilt all the time. You know what the law's business
is doing? Condemns the ungodly, judges them. It's going to damn
them someday if they're not safe from it. But you know what it
does to us? It keeps driving us to Christ.
It keeps driving us to Christ. And that's what it's supposed
to do. The law is our schoolmaster to bring us to Christ. And to
be honest with you, it just keeps doing that. The minute you look
to it, the minute you look to it for anything, it'll condemn you. Because when
you look to it, you're going to say, I can keep that. I'm
going to try to keep that. And it'll condemn you. It'll
condemn you. And what you'll have to do then is turn right
back to Christ, who kept the law on your behalf. That's where
holiness of life comes from. This is where obedience comes
from. Not looking to the law, but looking to Christ. Looking
unto Jesus. You want to lay aside the weights
and sins that hinders you? Looking unto Jesus. The art and
the finish of our lives. What? Lord bless His word.