Let's pray. Father in heaven, thank you for this time together. We thank you for another Lord's Day, another day of rest. Thank you for inviting us into your presence and giving us the Holy Spirit so that we can worship you and praise you in spirit and truth. We pray that you would broaden our understanding now as we continue to study the vows that we take as church members and that we would appreciate Jesus Christ, our Savior, all the more as we consider him as not only our Savior, but also our Lord. In his name we pray. Amen. So we are in the seventh week of an eight-part series. And we spent three weeks working through church history. And then the last five weeks of the class have been on the various membership vows that we take congregation, the Communicate Church membership vows of the Orthodox Presbyterian Church. And you have on the handout a summary of the history and then a reminder of the process, which is to review all of the material and know what you're getting into, and then interview with the session, and then come in front of everybody, take the membership vows as your public profession of faith. And we've worked through the first three vows. And we're coming to the fourth one today. And as we do this, I think it's important to recognize a pattern that you really see throughout scripture. And it's certainly a pattern that's very emphasized within the Reformed faith, Reformed understanding of what the scripture teaches. And that is a movement from faith to works. And there's other ways you could put that, as we'll see in just a moment. But the first three vows are not so much focused on your response. I know vow number three has a little bit of a response, abhorring and humbling yourself before God, repenting of your sin. But the gist of it, even there in vow number three, is simply turning from yourself your proclivities, your desires, your lusts, and turning to God as Savior. But the bulk of vows 1, 2, and 3 are having to do with faith, or acknowledging, or believing, or trusting, however you say it. It is focused on getting your understanding straight, your belief straight, your faith in the Lord Jesus Christ straight. And I think that's just so important as we begin to get into what is a Christian response to the faith we profess at the end of vow number four, and then really all of vow number five. You've got to keep this idea in mind, moving from faith to works, this progression within the vows. So vow number four is, do you acknowledge Jesus Christ as your sovereign Lord? And you promise that in reliance on the grace of God, you will serve him with all that is in you, forsake the world, resist the devil, put to death your sinful deeds and desires, and lead a godly life. There's all of a sudden an explosion of verbs. Acknowledge Jesus Christ, rely on the grace of God, serve, forsake, resist, put to death, lead. All these things that you need to do in response to Christian faith. So I'm calling your attention to the fact that this isn't the first vow. It is after some progression within the vows and is getting to the works part that inevitably follows establishing the faith that we're talking about. And we'll get back into that in just a moment because it's within the vow itself. It begins with acknowledging Jesus Christ as Lord, which is another word of saying believe in him or confess him or profess him or understand. who he is, reason it out, acknowledge Jesus Christ as Lord, and then rely on the grace of God. And then it gets into serving, forsaking, resisting, putting to death, leading. Faith to works, and then there's other ways to think about that. Promises precede performance. So sure, we're interested in what you do, how you act, how you respond. But before that, there's all these promises, even in these vows, about who God is and what he's done for you. The Ten Commandments. We can rattle off the Ten Commandments, or maybe a summary of them, and we'll get to a summary of them at the end of this lesson. But before the Ten Commandments, anybody know what the preface to the Ten Commandments is? I am the Lord your God, which is one of our vows, right? That's vow number two, but what does he say after that? I am the Lord your God. Salvation. Salvation. I have brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. I've saved you. Now respond. So promises, salvation, who God is, all related to your faith, your trusting, your belief, your acknowledging, and then Let's talk about a response. Thou shalt do this, thou shalt not do that. So preface to the Ten Commandments, promises before performance, faith to works. The order of so many of Paul's books follows the same idea. Romans 1 through 11 have very few imperatives, very few verbs that say, do this, do this. Very, very few in Romans 1 through 11. And then Romans 12 through 16 gets into loving your neighbor and understanding where other people are coming from and all kinds of great advice and instruction and commands, imperatives for Christian living and church life. But after spending 11 chapters on the faith aspect, on building up what you believe, the promises of God, what he's done for you, the salvation we trust in, Ephesians 2, 1 through 10, same format, same pattern. You have nine verses that are discussing who you are as a sinner before God, what God has done by his grace. And you remember how that wraps up. It's by the grace of God. It's not of your own doing so that no one could boast. Even faith is a gift from God. But then after those nine verses, it does get into your life. It says that God intends for you a Christian life, that he has prepared beforehand that you should walk in this way. So Ephesians 2, 1 through 9 culminates with verse 10. I think another way to think about it is Jesus as priest coming as very substantial in order to listen to him as prophet and king. So he is the Savior who sacrificed himself For to satisfy divine justice, now you have access to the Father through him and can hear Jesus speak to you as prophet and as king. Another way to say that is as Lord. The Reformed faith, it's all about keeping justification and sanctification distinct. We don't even talk about sanctification until we establish justification. We are in right standing before God the Father through Jesus Christ. Now we can say, be holy for the Lord your God is holy. If we jump into sanctification, then we're going to have some salvation by our own works, by our own doing, by our own progress, by our own performance. And the reason we're acknowledging this progression within the vows is because even our vows direct us away from that and say, focus on faith in God, acknowledge, belief, trust. That's where it begins. You need to know who God is. You need to know how he speaks. You need to know what he's done for you. All of that is fundamental and critical to establish before you get into your performance and your response. And we'll come back to that at the end, because as sinners, one of our proclivities is to save ourselves, to rest in our own performance, to look at what we've done, And what's strange about that is when we're comfortable with that, we're self-righteous Pharisees. When we're uncomfortable with that, we're despairing. We have no hope. We realize that even our good works are no good when it comes to God's standard of perfection. So we always want to steer clear of that. And the vows help us to do that if we notice this progression within them. And when it comes to the vows, the really 1 through 4A have so much to do with that faith, believing, acknowledgement. And then when you get to the end of vow number 4 and all that vow number 5 next week entails, it has to do with response, service, responding to the faith that's been established in. Jesus Christ, God who has revealed himself in scripture and the good news. Do you acknowledge Jesus Christ as your sovereign Lord? And within that are the three most popular titles for the second person of the Trinity, Jesus Christ, the Son of God. And they're used very significantly throughout the New Testament, and they're not you know, a first, middle, and last name. They are theologically weighty and significant. The Lord Jesus Christ says it all. I mean, if you want, you could add sovereign Lord Jesus Christ, but I think it's actually implied. And when you read Lord Jesus Christ in the New Testament, that's a English translation of Greek words. But if you went all the way back to the Hebrew and the way a Hebrew would translate these Greek words that bring us the Lord Jesus Christ would be Adonai, Joshua, Messiah. And again, it's very weighty. It opens up a number of levels of meaning throughout the Old Testament. So Adonai is the word for Lord. And by the time of the New Testament, that word Yahweh was already being called Lord. ancient Jews of the Old Testament towards the New Testament period, approaching the advent of Jesus Christ, had this idea that you shouldn't even say Yahweh. You shouldn't say that Hebrew word out loud. Out of respect for Jehovah, you shouldn't say Yahweh. So our words, Yahweh and Jehovah, are an English attempt at saying what those ancient Jews wouldn't even say. And what they would say is Lord, so they would completely replace the word Yahweh, or Jehovah, with the word Lord out of respect for the covenant God. But the reason that's significant is because in the New Testament, when we read the Lord Jesus Christ, it's equating Jesus, the second person of the Trinity, with Yahweh of the Old Testament, the covenant name for God. So when Paul or any other New Testament writer says the Lord Jesus Christ, it's saying Yahweh. Jesus, Christ, Yahweh, Joshua, Messiah. And those levels of meaning are significant for us. So Lord of Lords, King of Kings, Sovereign Lord, Overlord, Master, Lord of Lords, all of that comes into play when we hear that word Adonai or Lord. Messiah, the appointed one, the anointed and appointed one, according to Psalm 2. And then Jesus is the, through all of the different translations, it traces back to the Hebrew word Joshua, which means Savior. And I think we should all appreciate that it's Joshua that Jesus is named after and not Moses. So Moses represents the law, and he dies by the law outside of the promised land. brings the people into the promised land. So Jesus brings us into the promised land. He is the savior, the deliverer, the one who brings about the fulfillment of the promise, doesn't die outside the promised land, not having finished the job, but finishes the job through saving us and bringing us into the promised land. That is highlighted in Matthew 121. which is a verse you might remember that Jesus came to save his people from their sins. And I always come back to that verse. And just understanding who Jesus is, he's not a superhero like the rest. He came with a specific purpose that is unique, not mimicked in fairy tales or comic books or mythologies. He came to save us from our sins. And that's why the gospel and the New Testament is so much different from a popcorn flick or a graphic novel. It is with the express purpose of removing our most fundamental evil, our most fundamental enemy, which often includes ourselves, sin, and then the death which follows it. So he's a savior of a completely different stripe than what the world comes up and offers through movies and shows and literature. He comes to save his people from their sins. In Matthew 121, call his name Jesus. Again, it looks back to Deuteronomy 31, 1 through 8, where Moses, so to speak, passes off the baton of leadership to Joshua. Moses dies outside the promised land, but Joshua leads his people in to the promised land. And somebody want to read John 4, 24 through 26? This is Jesus with the woman at the well. That's a great point. So why was Moses at the Transfiguration instead of Joshua? Why wasn't Joshua? I mean, I don't know all the reasons, but. I think you have Moses and Elijah. So you have the two greatest prophets of the Old Testament. So I think that's the significance. And then it's interesting, God says, this is my beloved son in whom I am well pleased. Listen to him. He's like, you know, when you put them against the two greatest prophets of the Old Testament, they're marginalized, quiet. You know, they speak to Jesus. You don't need to listen to Elijah and Moses, so to speak, anymore. Now you have Jesus. He's the prophet to replace all prophets. So, yeah, I just think it's highlighting his prophetic role instead of his savior. Yeah, it's awesome. No, no, it's great. Yeah, so the question was, why does Elijah and Moses, why do Elijah and Moses appear with Christ at the transfiguration? And I think that's to highlight his prophetic role. But yeah, I think it's significant that Joshua is the Hebrew word translated for us as Jesus, the savior that leads us into the promised land. John 4, 24 through 26. Does anybody have that? God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth. The woman said to him, I know that Messiah is coming. He who is called Christ. When that one comes, he will declare all things to us. And Jesus said to her, I who speak to you am he. All right. So a Samaritan woman at the well of Jacob, to some extent, versed in Old Testament theology and thinking, even though she's a Samaritan. And she says, I know the Messiah is coming. And Jesus says, yeah, that's me. I'm the Messiah. So again, you know, what do you do with the biblical Jesus? Either he's insane or he is who he says he is. How many people have you met that claim to be the Messiah? You know, if you have met them, you realize very quickly that there was a number of reasons not to believe that they were the Messiah. But Jesus is very forthright with that kind of thing. Yeah, I'm the Messiah. I'm the one that the whole Old Testament spoke about. Messiah is the Hebrew word translated Christ in Greek. And that's what gives us the word Christ today. So Jesus, Lord, Jesus, Christ. And when it comes to Christ, it does mean anointed one. Psalm 2, verse 2 comes to mind. Matthew 16, 16 is, I believe, where Peter confesses that Jesus isn't only the Son of God, but also the Christ, so the Messiah. And in view are his three different roles that we speak about regularly. He is the great priest, the great prophet, the great king, the great prophet, priest, and king. Would somebody read Hebrews 2, 17 and following? Great. Excellent. And then can you just flip over and read for Hebrews four verses 14 through 16? That's great. So yeah, Jesus Christ is a great high priest. The whole book of Hebrews draws that out in one way or another, especially in chapter 2, where it's mentioned there, verse 17, through chapter 10. But it comes up in the other places of the book as well. And so that's critical. The Anointed One, the Messiah, is the great high priest, not just in that he serves the people the way the Old Testament priests did, not just in that he offers up sacrifices, but he himself is the anointed sacrifice and the great high priest. So he's serving us in this way. He continues to serve through his intercession for us. And in all those ways, as priest, fulfills the role of the anointed one. But of course, there are other aspects to being Messiah. In the Old Testament, there's these ideas that he would be the great savior, that he would put an end to all that was wrong and evil, that he would wipe out the enemies of God. The Lord said to my Lord, sit at my right hand until I make your enemies a footstool. So there isn't just the priestly office of Jesus Christ. There's the prophetic office and the kingly office, which is most direct to the vow today, because a king is, of course, a lord, a sovereign. John 1, 1 through 3, verse 14, verse 18, the prologue that begins the Gospel of John, is really the theological exposition of Christ as prophet. The Word was made flesh and dwelt among us. This idea that God's Word took on flesh. We have the revelation of the Old Testament, the revelation of the New Testament, but we have Revelation in the flesh being Jesus Christ, a perfect fulfillment of God's word at every point, the living word himself. And you can't dilute that into being some metaphor. It's a theological truth. The word made flesh is Jesus Christ. So that's why he's the great prophet. He wasn't just giving instruction, but he was living it in the flesh. He is God's will in body form. for everybody to see and to learn from and profit from. And he continues to speak through God's word. As king, we have the Great Commission, probably the best place to turn. But Jesus Christ, after rising again from the dead, all authority and power has been given to me. And then he commissions his disciples, who would soon become apostles, to go and to teach and to baptize, spread the good news of his authority, of his kingship. And then another well-known passage, Philippians 2, 5 through 11, begins with seeing his humility and how he left heaven and lived among the earth and lived under the law and was obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross. But it doesn't stop there. It says he was exalted. He has ascended up to the right hand of God and has a name above every name at which every knee will bow on heaven and on earth and under the earth. Just this picture of absolute, total subjection, submission, service, acknowledgment of him as Lord, as King, as King of Kings and Lord of Lords, or as Sovereign King. So all of these words are so significant. Lord Jesus Christ, Sovereign Lord, Jehovah, Master, Christ, Messiah, Savior, King of kings. And this is emphasized in the epistles throughout the New Testament, not just where Paul writes, but really throughout the whole New Testament, as you can see from the Great Commission and the Gospel of Matthew. But can somebody read Romans 10, 9, and then While somebody is looking that up, Ephesians 119 through 23. This is we're on the back of the handout under the bullet point that says Sovereign Lord. And there's a bunch of references there. Romans 10, 9. Because if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord, Ephesians 4 says that God raised him from the dead and will be saved. All right. So confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord. Very interesting. It doesn't say Savior. It says Lord. So it's implied in that verse that Jesus is Savior, of course. But there is this need to call upon him as Lord. Ephesians 1, 19 through 23. What is the immeasurable greatness of his power towards us who believe? According to that, the working of the great man, that he worked in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly places. Far above all rule and authority and power and dominion and above everything that is there. Not only in this age, but in the one to come. And he put all things under his feet and headed him as head over all things to the church, which is his body. The fullness of him who builds the wall All right, Ephesians 1, 19 through 23. And I think really, again, something to keep in mind, the New Testament, if it's not the truth, is a conspiracy that outdoes every other conspiracy effort and is just impossible to really imagine how it came about that you have these different authors, Matthew and Paul and John and Peter, all saying, Jesus isn't here in the flesh. He's ascended up into the right hand of God, the Father Almighty, and he's the Lord over all. You owe everything to him. You need to listen to him. How did that all transpire unless it was through the resurrection of Jesus Christ in the flesh? They saw him and verified him with their own eyes, were living in communion with him through the Holy Spirit, and then inspired by that same Holy Spirit to write about his lordship in the Gospels, in the epistles of Paul, and in the letters of John. And I mean, we could look at Revelation 1, 9 through 20, chapter 5, 19, verse 16. But the whole book of Revelation is about Jesus Christ as Lord. That's what the book is about. And if you don't get anything else out of the book of Revelation, you do walk away with that. The King of Kings. He's the Lord of Lords. He's the Alpha and the Omega. He's the only one worthy of opening up the scroll of human history. He is the Word of God with the sword coming out of his mouth to judge the nations. He has the name above all names tattooed on his thigh. He rides with a white horse. There couldn't be more images given to us in the book of Revelation saying he's Lord, he's Lord, he's Lord. Lord God Almighty, Alpha and Omega. But the burden of the vow is not simply to call your attention to the fact that Jesus is the Lord, but says, do you acknowledge Jesus Christ as your sovereign Lord? And that is critical for this process of review that goes to an interview with the session, and then comes finally to a profession of faith before everybody, it's not just knowing your theology. It's saying he's not just the Lord, he's my Lord. And this is really so much of where the Christian life takes place. If you think about all of those things we talked about at the beginning of the lesson, and we'll come back to at the end of the lesson, you don't live your life throughout a process of justification. It all happens at once, all by God's divine will, by his sovereign salvation, by his grace alone through faith. You don't live out that process. It's not a process. It's an instant. And that's true of all of those vows that we looked at. There's no process in which God becomes more and more Trinity. It's something you accept by faith. You continue to learn the significance and the meaning of it, but it's not developing. progressing. It's an acknowledgement of something that is real and true reality, but it's not a progression. The same thing with God's Word, especially at this point. It's not changing, it's not developing. It's the 66 books of the Bible, it's a completed canon, not developing. But when it comes to sanctification, it's always developing, it's always progressing, even when it doesn't feel like it is. Even with all the hills and the valleys and the upsetting aspects, the not growing as much in holiness as we had hoped. The point is, that's where you live. That's your day-to-day. That's your Monday through Sunday. So it's important to realize when you say, He's my Sovereign Lord, He's your Sovereign Lord, you vow He's your Sovereign Lord, you're saying, Who Jesus is to me impacts every second of my life. Every second. There isn't a single decision I make without realizing that Jesus as Lord bears on that decision. And this isn't some goofy pietism where you're just looking up for a verse to go into the next moment of your life, or having Bible studies 24 hours a day, or anything like that. But what it is saying is, I live before the watching eye of God. When I want to know what I need to do in my life, the question I ask is, what would Jesus as Lord ask me to do? What does he say in his word? Wondering what the will of God is for my life, he's given me 66 books in which he's declared his will. And Jesus, my Lord, says, obey my commandments. He says, listen to me. What we talked about before, the transfiguration. You have Elijah and Moses on either side of Jesus, and God the Father over all of them saying, no, listen to Jesus. Listen to Jesus. He'll call on the Old Testament, Elijah and Moses, as necessary. But Jesus is the great priest. That's what I was saying before. It's, I think, helpful to start with Jesus as priest, the Savior, who reconciles you with God the Father, and then come to him and see him as prophet. He speaks into your life. He's lived the word of God in the flesh, and now he continues to act as prophet by speaking his word into your life and exercising lordship over you. It's involved with calling him the shepherd. Yeah, the shepherd goes and saves the sheep, when necessary, but the bulk of the time, he's leading the sheep. He's the lord of the sheep. He's the one we follow. So I think the shepherd idea has him as both savior and lord, as prophet and king, which is why it comes up so frequently in scripture. So not just sovereign lord, but your sovereign lord. Again, throughout the New Testament, not just with one author and these references given here could be multiplied, but Jesus under no uncertain terms says, I require your allegiance before your own family. You know what? When it comes to your own family, your father, your mother, your sister, your brother, your son, your daughter, if it's between Hating them or loving me, I require you to love me. And families know what this is. I mean, you get together during the holidays with families and they think you're absurd for being a Christian and worshiping a Jesus Christ who you can't see in the flesh and saying, he's the Lord of my life and he has the ultimate say in every last decision I ever make, not only for me, but also for my family. And there's some real hatred that could develop there. And many of you know that. And Jesus has said explicitly, yes, I require that of you. You love me before all else. I'm Lord. I'm number one. Over comfort, Matthew 10, where he speaks about if you give to the cause of the kingdom in allegiance to Jesus Christ, you'll gain so much more in this life, let alone in the life to come. But a demand that supersedes your comfort. is not the reason we live. It is not our chief end. Over society, Acts 5.29, where the disciples say it's better to obey God than man. You know, Christianity is the counter-cultural religion in every single age because it says Jesus is Lord and the president is not. Jesus is Lord and Caesar is not. Jesus is Lord and whatever king or magistrate is in place, he's not the king of kings. He's not the magistrate of all magistrates. Ultimately, I go to the top. My allegiance is to Jesus Christ. He's the Lord of my life. Everything is worth it if I do it for Jesus alone. And he's over everything and anything, always functioning through his word, commanding adherence to his word, reminding us of the commandments, telling us to follow them. So over family, over comfort, over society, over everything and anything, through his word, giving the Great Commission all authority and power has been given to me. So that brings us to serving Jesus. And I'm thankful for that reminder that it is in reliance on the grace of God. A number of places you could demonstrate that from scripture, but yet another reason to really love the Apostle Paul, who was a master at self-discipline, a master at keeping the law, at least in a pharisaical kind of way. You know, just above and beyond everybody else when it came to zeal and passion and self-discipline and service in his own strength. But he's the foremost apostle to say, it's only by the grace of God that I am what I am. I have no hope in myself. I look at my own record. I just think of it as refuse and dung. It's hopeless. But in Christ, by the grace of God, I am what I am. 1 Corinthians 15.10 is where we get that statement. But by the grace of God, there go I. It goes back to what Paul says in 1 Corinthians 15.10. By the grace of God, I am what I am. Serve him with all that is in you. We had four great sermons. Pastor Matthew Judd on the Psalm 103 that really works through that. But bless the Lord, O my soul, and all that is within me. Bless his holy name. And that comes up throughout the Gospels. It's in Jesus Christ's summary of the law. Love the Lord your God with all your heart, strength, soul, and mind. Love your neighbor as yourself. Romans 12.1, don't be transformed to this world, but be transformed by your new life in Jesus Christ, living as a living sacrifice, this ongoing effort to completely dedicate yourself to the Lordship of Christ, serving him with all that you've got, realizing all you have is him. That song, let's see, it's the one, it's a children's song. I always think it's trust and obey, but I don't think it's trust and obey, although that's a great hymn as well. It'll come to me. But it speaks about everything being consecrated only to the Lord. It's just a real helpful song, even though we think of it as a children's hymn. It's so helpful because it's going through your riches, your wealth, your ability, your intellect, your feet, your arms, every single thing that you have and saying, Lord, consecrate them all to you. Like, put everything I am, Every circumstance I'm in, every blessing I've received, every gift you've given me, employ them all to the service of your lordship. So as wonderful as it is for children to sing that song, Take My Life and Let It Be is the song. So that's the idea. Take my life, everything about it, and let it be consecrated, made holy to you in the effort of serving your lordship. Resist the devil. Very plain teaching, illustrated by Jesus Christ himself during his time of temptation. That's Matthew 4, 1 through 11. But yeah, we're always fighting back, fighting against the devil, forsaking the world. I skipped that one, sorry. But yeah, all of the world's allurements and enticements, realizing it's always a crooked and perverse generation. Not just serving the Lord, forsaking the world, resisting the devil, but looking in ourselves and saying, you know, the greatest enemy I come across on a daily basis is the one I see in the mirror every morning. I am my own worst enemy, right? That's what it means to acknowledge that you have sin within you, that you're not only guilty of original sin, but also guilty of all of the sins that proceed from it. So you need to be about the business of putting to death The sinful deeds and desires in you, Romans 6, Romans 7, Romans 8, Colossians 3, Galatians 5, which we'll come back to in a moment. So just over and over resounding theme, especially in the New Testament, of actively fighting the sin that's in you, forsaking the world, resisting the devil, because Christ is Lord. And then leading a godly life, Hebrews 8.10 refers explicitly to the commandments. But Galatians 5.22 to 24 is very well known to many of you, the fruits of the spirit, keeping in step with the spirit. And I want to just camp out there for a moment since we have the time. Maybe I'll go through G.I. Williamson's table there on the 10 commandments and then come back to Galatians 5.22 to 24 So I came across this from G.I. Williamson, where he just summarizes the Ten Commandments. The Ten Commandments is for you. Don't think that because we're in the New Testament era, under grace, not law, that the Ten Commandments have no significance. It is the moral law of God, which means it's personal and perpetual. It's enduring. It's as applicable today as it was when it was given at Sinai and even before. Mount Sinai with Moses, although not so public, not written in stone, literally, it was operative in the lives of the patriarchs. Abraham, Isaac, Jacob were living in a way that corresponded with God's law. And they had access to God's law, although not in the way we've had access to it since God gave it to Moses on Mount Sinai in Exodus 20. And anyway, in any case, all of that just to say it's perfectly helpful and appropriate to say, you know, what does God's law mean for my life? I'm not earning my salvation by God's law. I'm not thinking that I'm a Christian because of how well I keep the Ten Commandments. But to live as a sacrifice of praise, to live in response to all the great things God has done for me, live in response to who God is in my life, I'm interested in what he says, in the moral law. And in the first commandment, you have God saying, I'm the object of all true worship, very simply. In the second commandment, don't make any graven image. That's the manner in which you're supposed to worship him. He's a personal being. He's not just a force. He's not some pantheistic or deistic god, but he speaks. So, we're interested in what he says about how he should be worshipped, which is the second commandment. The third commandment, the attitude of worship, you know, you don't throw his name around. He made you, he upholds everything, so there's a reverence, a fear, right, the fear of the Lord, which is really just another way of saying faith in God, the Old Testament way. But there is a reverent attitude appropriate for worship. The fourth commandment is the time for true worship. So when it comes down to it, God has an awful lot to say about how he should be worshipped. He hasn't just left this up to our imaginations. And then there's that transition in the commandments going from how we love God with heart, strength, soul, and mind to how we love those around us. And we should do it by revering authority, the fifth commandment, Revering life, the sanctity of life, the Sixth Amendment, thou shalt not murder. Revering marriage, right? I mean, just think about how many problems you come across as a concerned Christian because marriage is not revered the way it should be. Broken marriages, no marriage, whatever the case might be. Adultery. Reverence for marriage, reverence for property, the Eighth Commandment, thou shalt not steal, reverence for truth, the Ninth Commandment, don't lie, don't bear false witness. And then the Tenth Commandment, unique in so many ways, reverence for God as our chief desire, thou shalt not covet. The first nine commandments you can keep in an outward way. You can respect your mom on Mother's Day and come across as a good child, a good, respectful child You know, we can say like, oh, you know, I never murdered anybody. I'm doing pretty good with the sixth commandment. There's outward ways to perform the first nine commandments. But when it comes to the tenth, we're all undone because it reaches right into your heart. Don't covet. Jesus is Lord. If he gave somebody else something nice, you shouldn't want it because it's by God's disposition that they got it and you didn't. He's given good things to you as well. Don't covet. So it reaches right into your heart. and is very helpful. It undoes us in appropriate ways so that we come back and realize our need for grace. So I want to read a kind of lengthy illustration at this point. So Galatians 5, 22 to 24. Would somebody look that up and just read that section of scripture? But the fruit of the spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. Against such things, there is no law. Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the sinful nature with its passions and devils. Great. Thank you, Hazel. So one thing about the Ten Commandments is they really do have a negative tone to them, don't they? Like, thou shalt not. Except for, what, the Fifth Commandment? Honor thy father and mother is put positively. But thou shalt not, thou shalt not. Oh, remember the Sabbath day. That's put positively. But I love Galatians, the fruit of the Spirit, because it's not putting it negatively. It's putting it positively. Do all of these things. Gentleness, self-control, love. kindness, joy. These are what you should do. And then there's just that wonderful, wonderful line, against such things, no law. The Ten Commandments are the fence around the yard, around the estate, saying, keep yourself out of danger. When you get too close, see that thou shalt not. But as long as you're inside the fence, as long as you're in the estate, Apply yourself to these things. You're completely free to engage each of these fruits of the Spirit. Love, joy, peace, patience, long-suffering, self-control, all of them. Go back to them over and over. Align your life with these things. There's no law against them. You're freed up to do it. So the reason I'm belaboring that point and going to use an illustration here is because we think of the lordship of Christ and the law of God as kind of constricting and very heavy-handed and rule-laden. And we don't look at the Bible as a list of rules, which is true. But I'm suggesting it's a completely wrong way to think about it. God is Lord of all. He is the creator of the world. He gets to say what the rules of the world are. Because he's the great father and has gone to such great lengths to save us. And now he's saying, yes, stay within the house. And here's the house rules. The Ten Commandments are a fence around it. Like, really steer clear of that stuff. But as long as you're inside the fence, here's all the things to apply yourself to. And you'll have joy and delight. And it'll be wonderful as long as you apply yourself to these fruits of the Spirit, which are your you're right as a Christian. But here's the illustration for it. There's a movie out there called Lion, based on this book, A Long Way Home, about an Indian boy who got terribly lost by falling asleep on a train in India and then waking up hundreds of miles away from where he was living with his family. And nobody knew who he was. Eventually, he was adopted and actually raised very well, even better than he would have been raised if he had never gotten lost. But I thought this was such a profound illustration of what it is to be completely apart from God's law, completely apart from his lordship, completely apart from him being the good shepherd. And so the two brothers, there's two brothers. This is about a boy named Saru in India who's five years old. And he's with his older brother, Gudu, so Saru and Gudu. And they had gone into town. They lived in this really, really poor neighborhood, just super, super poor. But they would go into town and figure out how to get candy or whatever else. And at one point, his older brother, Gudu, leaves Saru because Saru is tired. And this is how some of the account goes. He falls asleep on an empty train car. And he says, I must have slept properly. When I awoke, it was broad daylight and the full sun was glaring straight into my eyes. And I realized with a jolt, the train was moving, rattling steadily along its tracks. I jumped up and there was no one in the carriage. And the landscape outside the barred windows was passing quickly. My brother was nowhere to be seen. I had been left undisturbed, a small boy, asleep, alone, on a speeding train. I can still feel the icy chill of panic that hit me when I realized that I was trapped. I was frantic. My heart was beating triple time. I couldn't read any of the signs in the carriage. I ran up and down and looked beneath all the benches in case someone else was asleep somewhere. There was only me. But I kept running up and down, yelling out my brother's name, begging him to come and get me. I called for my mother. I called for my brother, Kalu, too, all in vain. No one answered. And the train didn't stop. When I think back now and relive the full horror of being trapped alone with no idea where I was or where I was heading, it's like a nightmare. I remember it in snapshots, awake at the windows, terrified, curled up and drifting in and out of sleep. Where did Kadu go? Why did he leave me? Why isn't he on this train? Where is it taking me? I want to be with my mother. Where is my sister? Where is my brother? Where is my home? I was lost. You don't read that and say, wasn't that great? He's free. Isn't that wonderful? He finally broke free from all the shackles of his life. from the authority that his mother provided, the structure that his mother provided, the help and aid that his brother. Nobody reads it like that. Completely free, and it's absolutely terrifying. What we have with Jesus Christ as Lord is the ability to say, we're never free like that. We're never let loose. We're never completely unchackled. We know why we're here. It's not aimless. It's not pointless. We have God. speaking into our lives at every point, saying, yes, there's a fence around you. Think of the Ten Commandments. Thou shalt not do this. Thou shalt not do that. But you have all these wonderful things. Against such, there is no law. You are unleashed to do all of the things that will bring you joy and happiness and delight and fulfillment. You engage in meaning and purpose by celebrating the Lordship of Christ. But the very last note on this handout is don't get stuck here. Keep going back to that acknowledging aspect that we began with and realize that your security in Jesus Christ, it's never to be pinned to your performance, to how well you serve the Lord Jesus Christ, but always be attached to who God is, what he has said, what he's promised, and what he's done. You have to keep going back to that. Otherwise, you'll always struggle with assurance. Was that just the first bell, or was that the second bell? Second. Oh, OK. Well, let's pray. Father in heaven, thank you for this time. Please prepare us now for worship and to delight in you as Lord throughout this week. In Jesus' name, we pray. Amen.