Check one, check one. Respond thankfully, saying thanks. The king of heaven and earth, the sovereign one, the Lord, the ruler, the one who fills the vast expanse of the universe, the one who is the eternal God, who is and who was and who is to come. We bow before you because you're worthy of our reverence and our awe. You are the one who made us and all things. You were there, Lord, forming us in our mother's womb. You are the one who gave us our very first breath. You are the one who has given us everything we've ever owned or ever had, every meal Every drink of water. Every stitch of clothing. Has been a gift from you. You are the one who is so ordered our days. That you brought us to this place today. You are the sovereign Lord. You are the one who also has numbered our days from beginning to end. You know the exact number of them and they cannot be lengthened. There will be a day when we will leave this world and our spirits will go away from our body until the great day of resurrection and we will be into the presence of the King of Kings. Oh, how we need a Savior for that great and awesome day. We know that in our conscience. We know we're guilty. We know we need a Savior. We know we cannot save ourselves, though we often have tried. O Lord, come today and speak to your people, even as you have spoken in the past. You would come by your written word and by your Holy Spirit. Use these words today, the living and abiding word of God, as they are explained and proclaimed and heralded here, we pray that Christ would be magnified. Oh, Lord, I need your help. I'm a man of unclean lips and with feet of clay. Oh, Lord, help me, your servant, to rightly divide your word and to preach it in the power of the Spirit, faithfully and with love and with clarity and with heavenly power. Break down walls of unbelief today, Lord, and draw us all into the presence of the living God. May Christ be here as we have sung of the Good Shepherd. May he shepherd our souls today and bring us to green pastures and still waters and revive our hearts. Lord, we need every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God, even what we've read today. So fill us, Lord. May your blessing be upon the preaching now of the word of God. In Jesus name. Amen. So we are just about to start a new chapter in Exodus, beginning a study of the Ten Commandments. The Ten Commandments. I remember talking to a woman one time out in California who was taking the engagement pictures for me and my wife, and she found out I was a seminary student, and you could feel the hair on the back of her neck rise and her claws come out. And she said, well, I've never broken any of the Ten Commandments. I wanted to go for the jugular, right? I said, oh, how about that? We had an interesting discussion following that about missions and missionaries and how we should just let people decide for themselves. And I said, but everybody needs a savior. Really the bottom line with the Ten Commandments is how should we live? How should we behave? What should be our attitude before God as we live life in this world? What exactly is truth? What is right and what is wrong? Why is a series like this important? Well, two reasons. One, because the Lord Jesus says, this is to be our ultimate priority in life. Remember, one of his adversaries publicly quizzed him. What is the greatest commandment of all, rabbi? Remember what Jesus said? Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength. This is the first and greatest commandment. That summarizes the Ten Commandments, and particularly the first portion of the Ten Commandments. And he said, and love your neighbor as yourself. All the law and the prophets hang on these two commandments. Love God and love your neighbor. Every commandment in the rest of the scriptures can be found under one of those two headings. How we live before God and how we treat our neighbor. Love the Lord your God and love your neighbor as yourself. It all boils down to these two things. It's all explained in the Ten Commandments and then further explained in all the rest of the commandments found in the Bible. So why is a series like this important? Well, because the one who is the Savior of your soul says so. And why is a series like this important? Well, because we live in a land and in a day and in an age where people have no idea what to do and how to live. People today call good evil and evil good. People live today not knowing their right hand from their left hand, just as in the Word of God, as we find ancient peoples not knowing the truth. About 45 years ago, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in November of 1980 that school children in American schools, public schools, had a right not to see the Ten Commandments posted in schools. They had a right to not see them. It came out of a situation in Kentucky, a lawsuit that was appealed and appealed and went to the Supreme Court. So why? What was the reason? What was the reason given that the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that little children in the United States have a right not to even see the Ten Commandments? This is part of their ruling. because it might, quote, induce the schoolchildren to read them, meditate upon them, perhaps venerate them, and obey them. Imagine. What had been used as a pillar of Western civilization for law and morality, what had been used in elementary school readers to teach English, was suddenly seen as wrong. Suddenly the compass for morality was whisked away. There was no more compass. So what's the golden rule now? Well, what seems the most important commandment of all today in our day and age is that everyone has a right to do whatever they want. Everyone, without interference, live as you please. Tolerate and encourage and promote every lifestyle. Affirm even every behavior. And if you don't, you're canceled. Right? If you don't, you're an extremist. You're a bigot. You're uneducated. You're unenlightened. You're prejudiced. You're uncaring. You're evil. You see, Darwin's dream has come true. Remove the creator and indoctrinate the people, even a whole generation, to think it's all one big accident and obedience is owed to no one. Marx, Karl Marx's ideal has come in the back door. Wipe out personal guilt and then the state, the government will tell you what's right and wrong. So today there is, by and large, no basis for ethics, no sense of right and wrong. Even in many churches which have the name church outside, even in the church, anything goes. Somebody sent me an article not long ago about a female pastor in the Lutheran Church in Minnesota who had her congregation recite the Sparkle Creed. The Sparkle, ever heard of the Sparkle Creed? You can go online and watch her direct the congregation. The Sparkle Creed goes like this. I believe in the non-binary God whose pronouns are plural. I believe in Jesus Christ, their child, who wore a fabulous tunic and had two dads and saw everyone as a sibling child of God. I believe in the rainbow spirit who shatters our image of one white light and refracts it into a rainbow of gorgeous diversity. I believe in the church of everyday saints as numerous, creative, and resilient as patches on the AIDS quilt, whose feet are grounded in mud and whose eyes gaze at the stars above. I believe in the call to each of us that love is love is love, so beloved let us love. The sparkle creed. Anything goes. Believe whatever you want. Believe whatever you want. Nevertheless, God is still calling a people to Himself, to be a holy nation, to be a treasured possession, to be the new Israel, without physical boundaries, without particular race, with God as their King, His Word as their Constitution, the Ten Commandments as the backbone. So with humility and thanksgiving and with reverence for God, we turn our attention back to the giving of the law of God, that which God gave us and the whole world to reveal what pleases God and to show us our need for a savior and then to direct us how to live. I have three points this morning. They're found in your bulletin on page nine. First of all, remember the setting. Remember the setting of the giving of the law of God. Over two million people were gathered in the desert at the base of Mount Sinai, the very same mountain where Moses met the Lord in the burning bush and God said, go down to Egypt and let my people go. Tell Pharaoh to let my people go. And this will be a sign to you that it is I who sent you because I'll bring you back here with the whole nation at this mountain. So here they are. Over two million people gathered in the desert at the base of Mount Sinai to witness one of the most incredible interventions of God's glory ever witnessed by the human eye. Until, of course, the glory of the cross and the resurrection of Christ. This was an amazing scene. We've read through it the last few weeks. Can you imagine being there with your family? Standing at the base of the mountain as it shakes and smoke and fire come up from it. A lot has happened to the children of Israel since they left Egypt. They left in the middle of the first month and now it's the beginning of the third month. It's been nearly 50 days since the Israelites came out of Egypt. Nearly 50 days, one and a half months since the plagues. So think back to Thanksgiving time. That's about how long it's been. Since the blood of the lamb was shed and spread on the door frames of the homes, by faith these families represented here had obeyed the promise and spread the door posts with the lamb's blood. Surely they had vivid memories still of that terrifying night of that last plague. There was loud wailing, the word of God says, in Egypt, for there was not a house without someone dead. They had left Egypt. They had crossed the Red Sea. They had seen the mighty Egyptian army swallowed up by the sea. They had seen scores of dead soldiers and horses on the shore. They had grumbled at Mara. Moses took wood and threw it in the water, and the bitter water became sweet. They grumbled again. God provided manna and quail. They grumbled again. They were thirsty, and God provided water from the rock. They were attacked by the Amalekites, and Aaron and Hur held up Moses' arms and hands. Now they arrive at Mount Sinai. A barren, desolate desert covered with thorny bushes. God begins by telling Moses to remind the people of all that has happened. This is what you're to say to Israel. Tell them what has happened to them. Chapter 19 verses three and four. You yourselves have seen what I did to Egypt. How I carried you on eagle's wings. I rescued you. I brought you to myself. And all of that proved that God was a God of faithfulness. He keeps his promises. He could be relied upon. His power was displayed in a very personal way that every single one of those people could relate to. He would make a way where it seemed to be no way. He would open up the seas and let them go through. He would provide for them where there seemed to be no food. He would provide water when there was no water. He could do anything. No one of them could dispute it. You have seen with your own eyes And he doesn't say here, but isn't it amazing how quickly every single time they resorted to grumbling when things got rough again? So God draws these liberated people together whom he has graciously cared for, who he rescued like an eagle, and he displays himself in a most amazing display of glory. Thunder and lightning and fire and a thick cloud and a loud trumpet's blast, louder and louder, and smoke billowing up from fire like a furnace, and the whole mountain trembled and shook beneath them. Why is God doing that? Children, why is the Lord doing all this? What's the purpose? What's going on here? Well, the Lord is about to establish for all time, in the clearest of terms, his law, his plan, his ways, and all of these visual effects, and all of their senses, their nose, their ears, their bodies feeling all this, gave evidence of God's distinction. of the vast gulf between us and the Lord, that he is the one who is the living and true God. Everything displayed gave the impression of awe and majesty with a purpose. The purpose was to humble the people, to awaken them to the seriousness, to terrify anybody who there might be proud, to instill a fear of violating his commandments, to cause them to reverently approach God and to reveal that he's telling the truth. I am the Lord. I am Yahweh. I am the God who is. I am the king and judge of all. How needful that is for us today in our flippant society, our sassy society. How needful it is to peer back into history to that awesome day when God spoke thundering in an audible voice, such that the people said, don't let him speak to us anymore. You speak to us. How needful it is for us to see the Lord say, this is how my people are to live. So remember the setting and secondly, remember the delivery Remember the delivery, the law came from God to a prepared people in the form of a covenant, a pact, an agreement through a mediator, that is through Moses. If you read through chapter 19, you see Moses going back and forth. Up to the mountain, God speaks to him. He comes down to the elders, and they respond saying, we'll do everything. And so Moses goes back up the mountain, and God says, get them prepared. So Moses goes down, and he instructs the people on how to get prepared. The sovereign king. operates through a mediator and he lays down, you might say, a treaty. He speaks then directly to the people face to face. He is the author, the originator. You see, the law of God wasn't thought up or dreamt up by the people. They didn't formulate the rules. They didn't approach God and said, Lord, thank you for rescuing us. We've all come up with some ideas about what we should do now. We made a list, you want to see? Here's our ideas. No, this comes from God himself, who says, chapter 19, verse 5, the whole earth is mine. Comes from God. And it was received by a prepared people. Remember back in chapter 19, as we talked about a few weeks ago, God says, go to the people and consecrate them. Consecrate them. Today and tomorrow. Get them ready. They had to be ready. God was calling them away from their own imaginations. They're to be ready by the third day. See, God wanted their hearts to be ready to meet with him. We need the same thing. We need to be ready. We need to be ready to come into the presence of the king. You know that yourself when you stay up too late on a Saturday night and you don't sleep so well and you've been really busy and you're exhausted and you get up and you barely get here and you're just not ready to worship God or hear his word. God says consecrate them. They need to be ready. Wash your clothes. It's a picture of purifying themselves. Wash your clothes. You need to be ready to come into the presence of the king with clean hearts and dress to meet the king. and set limits around the mountain, he says. Now, we don't know how that was done. Maybe there was a ditch, maybe there was a trench, maybe there was a line, maybe there was yellow plastic police tape, but they didn't have that in those days. We don't know how. It was not explained here in the word of God. Moses knew what to do and the people saw it. It was to show that God's people and the Lord are not the same. that he must be approached through a mediator, that he is God and we are not. It was to show the creator-creature distinction. He even told the people to set aside their lawful pleasures, their earthly pleasures, so that your hearts might be solely directed towards God. Remember. Remember the delivery. And lastly, as we begin a series looking at the Ten Commandments, remember the source. Remember the source of the law of God. What do these commandments come from? Who do they come from? What's the basis of the 10 commandments? From what do all these laws spring? Is he punishing his people by giving them laws? Is God just a gloomy spoiler of the party? Now listen, here's what he says, I am the Lord, your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage, out of slavery. You see, it all comes from love. That's the very beginning, the head of the Ten Commandments. It's all from love. The law is founded in grace. God had, by grace, brought them there. By grace, he had set them free. That's the source. That's the basis for the way they were to live. They were weak. They were helpless. They were unarmed. They were disorganized. They were oppressed. They were slaves. They could not save themselves. They were unable to rescue themselves. So God says, remember, I am the Lord. I am the Lord. The one who speaks is describing himself to his people. I am the sovereign one. I am Yahweh. And again, we've looked at this before. I am who I am. I am the one who's described in a verb. The source of life. I am the one who is. the eternal one, the one who is the same yesterday, today, and forever, the unchangeable one, the being of all beings, the one who designed you, the one who gave you life and breath, the one who gives life and breath to all creatures, to all creation. He has a right to give them the law of God because he is their creator. Before he prescribes how his people ought to live, before they sinfully object, before anybody can say, but I claim autonomy, I have a right to decide for myself, Oh, God says, I am. I am the Lord. I am the self-existent one. I am the one who is everywhere. Like Paul would later say to the philosophers in Athens, he is the one in whom we live and move and have our being. He is everywhere. Like the psalmist says, if I go to the top of the mountain, God is there. If I go to the depths of the sea, he is there. The apostle Paul proclaimed in Acts 17, to the philosophers in Athens, he said, the God who made the world and everything in it, being Lord of heaven and earth, does not live in temples made by man, nor is he served by human hands as though he needed anything, since he himself gives to all mankind life and breath and everything. He made man from one man every nation of mankind to live on the face of the earth, having determined allotted periods and boundaries of their dwelling place that they should seek God and perhaps find their way toward him and find him. Yet, he's actually not far from each one of us. For in him, we live and move and have our being. I am. I am the Lord. John Calvin says, God neither forbids nor commands anything right here, but rather claims his authority and devotes himself to his people. He says, I am the Lord, your God. I belong to you. I devote myself to you. I am yours and you are mine. Imagine. The sovereign, all-powerful, all-knowing, all-loving, all-providing, most holy, most faithful, most wise, most merciful, most patient God of the universe, abundant in goodness and truth, forgiving iniquity, transgression, and sin, the God of the universe belongs to us. while hundreds and thousands of souls all around you every day have false gods and empty gods and idols of gold and silver and wealth and pleasure and people who are without hope on the day of their death and without a rock or foundation in the midst of the sorrows of this present world. God says to his people, I am the Lord, your God. I belong to you, I pledge myself to you. I am yours and you are mine and nothing, nor anyone, nor any power can ever separate me from you. I am the Lord, your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery. This is a statement of love, this is the proof. He reminds them of their former condition, their misery, their affliction, their oppressive condition, their cries for help. They were in a far off place in slavery, unable to free themselves, and now they were completely free. The whips of Pharaoh and his henchmen were far in the past. Now they were completely free. Now they were to be willing to follow the law and obey God's commands, not just because of who God is, the majesty and power and glory of God, but because of his particular love for them. I rescued you. It was all of grace. No one else, no one else on the planet can claim this kind of love, but those who've experienced it. I read somewhere this week that the children of royalty are known by their costly lifestyle. Well, we're the children of the king of kings, and we're known by the riches of his grace. We are children of the King of Heaven because of our position in life, bought by the blood of the Son, rescued from sin, and having God as our God. This is a statement of God's covenant promise of his faithfulness to the descendants of Abraham and Isaac and Jacob. He did not leave them in slavery. He was faithful to his promise to them, and he's faithful to the descendants. He's fulfilled all of his promises. He did what the children of Israel couldn't do for themselves. You yourselves have seen what I did to Egypt. Again, he points them to their own experience, that he came like an eagle with speed and strength and great ease, and with love, I brought you here, I set you free. You see, the law of God springs from love. That's why Paul says in the New Testament, the law is good. It is good. It is good for us. It is right. It is pure. It is sweeter than honey, as the psalmist says. The law is good. And so thousands of years later, we hold in our hands the account of that great and awesome day. transcribed for us so we can see ourselves hidden in God's word. And the Lord brings us actually, in a sense, to Mount Sinai too. We have to start there. We have to start at the mountain of doom and fire. Because only in coming to Mount Sinai first, as we looked last week, can we ever go to another mountain, to Mount Zion, the spiritual Mount Zion described in Hebrews 12. Only first going to the law, to Mount Sinai, can we find the grace of God in Christ. Only by coming to the law first can we find heaven through the grace of God. But we actually have to go by way of a mountain in between, don't we? We have to go to Mount Moriah on the way. We have to go to Calvary, to the cross. where God provides the one who perfectly obeys the law and provides the penalty paid for our disobedience to the law. The one who completely, from his heart, obeyed every commandment, fulfilled all the law of God, and the one who offered a perfect, eternal sacrifice for our sins. You see, first we draw near to the same mountain as the Israelites because their story is our story. We were slaves in our own Egypt. We were bought with a price, the lamb. We were brought on eagle's wings. We have become a treasured possession. God calls us now to follow him. The same call goes out to you today. God calls through his word, I am the Lord, your God. I am the God of all grace. Come and follow me. Come and follow me. Walk in my ways. I will bless you and keep you. You will be my treasured possession. You will be a holy nation. As we close today, I want to say there's only two kinds of people here today. Only two kinds of people, those who are still at Mount Sinai, that is those who still need Christ's shed blood, who have a guilty conscience. Oh, your clothes may be clean this morning, but your heart needs cleansing. And you have as your God something other than the living God. There are those who still need a savior, who are mixed and mingled with God's people, but you've never cried out to God for mercy. And then there are those who have believed, who've received Christ, who've looked to the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world, who have heard through the Spirit of God They've heard the Lord Jesus say, come to me all you who are weary and heavy laden and I will give you rest. They've heard the voice of the Lord Jesus who said, for God so loved the world that he gave his only son that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. I call you today, if you've not yet ever cried out to God for mercy, as we look at the law of God and the demand for perfect obedience, You can't fulfill that yourself. There's only one who is perfectly obeyed, who gives you his life as a substitute, who puts his name at the top of your report card before God. The one who's dying as a substitute for our sins to take the wrath of God. Marvelous grace of our loving Lord, grace that exceeds our sin and our guilt. We're just about to sing yonder on Calvary's mount or mountain outpoured there where the blood of the lamb was spilled. Grace, grace, God's grace, grace that will pardon and cleanse within. Grace that is greater than all our sin. Praise God. He offers that freely today. His promise is eternal. It never ends. Oh, may that be the case today for you. You would cry out to him for mercy from your heart, right where you are. Praise be to God. Let us pray. Heavenly Father, we do bow before you and cry out to you and call on the name of the Lord and pray that you would come and visit us with refreshing grace. Remind us again of the greatness of our need, how we need a savior every day. Remind us again that you are the Lord, that you have spoken, that you are not silent, that you call us to yourself, that you remind us of the greatness of your blessings. Come and visit your people here today. Oh Lord, stir in the hearts of those who have yet to cry out to you. Lord, I desire to know you, to know you personally. I desire to be rescued from themselves and from their sins. Thank you for the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, grace greater than all of our sin. May we live for you today, and may we offer now your tithes and our offerings as a token of our love and appreciation for you, Lord. Use these gifts to bring others to know the grace of God in Christ. May your blessing be upon our offering now, we pray in Jesus' name, amen. In just a moment, we'll sing our closing hymn,