It is a good day! Today we come back to our sermon series working through the book of Exodus. So, I invite you to turn in your Bibles to Exodus 20, where we find one of the most famous and influential passages in the whole Bible, the Ten Commandments.
Lord willing, we'll spend the next three months on these twenty-one verses. Before we get there, there are two introductory matters to mention.
The Law is Foundational
I don't know of anything more foundational to our society and more reviled in our society than the Ten Commandments. On one hand the Ten Commandments are foundational to our society because they have given meaning and shape and form to most of the laws in western civilization, and wherever the moral absolutes in the commandments has been respected much evil has been curbed and much order has been maintained.
But on the other hand, the Ten Commandments are reviled in our society because most people now living in western civilization right now say they’re out of date and that they should have no real practical meaning for us any longer. We disagree. These Ten Commandments reflect the very character of God, it’s His standard, what He values. Insofar as God’s Law is neglected or pushed aside, to that degree, a culture descends into wickedness and immorality.
As Christians, it's right for us to see the Ten Commandments in three ways: a mirror to reveal our sin, a muzzle to curb wickedness in the world, and a map for how to live, all of life, to the glory of God.
We'll see this more as we move through them, especially as we interpret each commandment in light of Jesus’ words in the Sermon on the Mount.
The Law is Delightful
Too many people view the Ten Commandments as a list of do's and don'ts. I think that's every non-Christian's view of the commandments, and if we're honest, it's probably what many Christians think too. Such a view of the Law is too low. Listen to how David views the Law. Psalm 1:1-2, “Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the wicked, nor stands in the way of sinners, nor sits in the seat of scoffers; but his delight is in the law of the Lord and on His law he meditates day and night.” Psalm 119:72, “The law of Your mouth is better to me than thousands of gold and silver pieces.” Many more verses could be quoted here to show the same…but see the right view of God’s Law. The law of God is to the Christian a delight, not a killjoy. It is more precious than gold or silver. On this law we’re to meditate day and night, and for this law we’re to be very thankful, for it is God’s fatherly, loving, and wise instruction on how life works best.
Over the next three months, two introductory matters will become clear in every commandment as we see what God requires of us, how far we fall short, how Christ fulfilled it, and how we by the Spirit can truly live in line with it.
This was the Apostle Paul's experience too. In Romans 7:7-12 we read the following, “What then shall we say? That the law is sin? By no means! Yet if it had not been for the law, I would not have known sin. For I would not have known what it is to covet if the law had not said, “You shall not covet.” But sin, seizing an opportunity through the commandment, produced in me all kinds of covetousness. For apart from the law, sin lies dead. I was once alive apart from the law, but when the commandment came, sin came alive and I died. The very commandment that promised life proved to be death to me. For sin, seizing an opportunity through the commandment, deceived me and through it killed me. So the law is holy, and the commandment is holy and righteous and good.”
So Paul’s experience with the 10 commandments was one of death first, then life. He once was alive apart from the law, but when the commandment came sin came alive and he died. How? The Law exposed his own sin and rather than finding him righteous, the law found him wanting. The same is true with each of us. Every commandment we dive into sin will be exposed, you will be found wanting, and what you see in your own heart might unsettle you.
Galatians 3:24 tells us the law is our tutor, to lead us to Christ, that we might be justified by faith. The biggest reason God gave us the Ten Commandments was to point us to Jesus, the One and only Law-Keeper, who obeyed perfectly on our behalf and gifts us His righteousness the moment we believe.
The Church has always understood this connection between law and gospel. Charles Spurgeon put it memorably, “The Law is the needle that prepares the way for the thread of the gospel.” John Wycliffe said the highest service a man may render on earth is to preach the law of God. Martin Luther said the preacher's first duty is to declare God's law and expose the nature of sin.
So you see, through the preaching of the Ten Commandments prepare to be exposed. The law will leave you guilty, but it will leave you precisely where you need to be, at the foot of the cross looking up to Christ, the One who perfectly obeyed the law in our behalf.
Now let's turn to the text.
Exodus 20:1-2, “And God spoke all these words, saying, ‘I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery.’”
Two headings will guide us through these verses.
God Announces Himself
Long ago, Moses told Pharaoh, “God says, ‘Let My people go, that they may worship Me.’” What Moses proclaimed in Egypt we now see happening at the foot of Mount Sinai. As the people drew near the mountain in Exodus 19, the scene is set for us. There God told His people, “You yourselves have seen what I did to the Egyptians, and how I bore you on eagles’ wings and brought you to Myself. Now therefore, if you will indeed obey My voice and keep My covenant, you shall be My treasured possession among all peoples... a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.” And Israel responded, “All that the Lord has spoken we will do.” God answered, “Behold, I am coming to you... be ready.”
Then He came. “On the morning of the third day there were thunders and lightnings and a thick cloud on the mountain and a very loud trumpet blast, so that all the people in the camp trembled.” The people who had been rescued by God are about to meet God, and fear fills the camp. Moses climbs the mountain; God warns him to keep the people back, lest they die from His holiness. A border is set around the mountain to protect the people from the God who is a consuming fire. Moses returns, joins the people once again, and then they all hear it.
“I am the LORD your God.”
Remember what God told Moses back at the burning bush, when Moses asked, “What if they ask me, ‘Who sent you? What is His name?’” God answered, “I AM WHO I AM. Tell them, I AM has sent me to you.” Now, for the first time as a nation, the people hear God declare who He is to them directly. Because God is the LORD (all-caps, Yahweh) we need to be reminded that He is self-existent, independent, eternal, the fountain of all being and power. He alone is God and He alone has an incontestable right to rule over and command His people.
From this moment on, Israel would always remember this declaration. Out of all the nations and their false gods, the true God chose to reveal Himself to them by giving them His name, “I AM.” Centuries later Jesus applies this exact name to Himself. In John 8:58, when pressed about His relationship to Abraham, Jesus says, “Before Abraham was, I AM.” The response in that setting is telling, as the crowd picks up stones to kill Jesus. Why such fury over two small words? Because they knew Jesus wasn’t making a small statement, they knew He was saying more than ‘I AM the fulfillment of the law.’ They knew He was saying ‘I AM who gave them the law.’
Those who had ears to hear Jesus utter this declaration were in a vastly different setting than Israel was here before Sinai, but how similar were they too? God had come to them, and they knew and understood that Jesus was claiming to be the God who thundered from the mountain and gave the law. What a moment to behold, Christ (!), the Law-Giver and Law-Keeper, come to save and rescue His people once again.
God Announces Himself as Redeemer
God doesn't stop at “I am the LORD your God…” See the rest of v1-2. “I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery.”
God brought them out of grievous slavery into glorious freedom. The people themselves had witnessed the mighty acts God performed to secure their redemption. Now, after redeeming them, God announces Himself not only as who He is, but as their Redeemer.
Long before, God had bound Himself by covenant to Abraham, promising his descendants will be as numerous as the stars in the sky and the sand on the seashore. He wasn't deaf to the cries of Abraham's suffering descendants in Egypt. He heard them, and He acted, to show Pharaoh, Egypt, Israel, and the watching world that He is not only the God who hears the cries of His people, but He is the God strong enough to save His people.
How should Israel respond to this? How should we? There's really one way. Israel back then and we here today, are meant to read this prologue in v1-2 and be stunned by grace.
Let’s pause on that. Imagine a man who has lost everything. Every debt he owed has come due at once, and he cannot pay a single one of them. The court has ruled against him. His house is emptied, his belongings sold at auction, his name posted publicly as a man who could not meet his obligations. He stands in the street with nothing left…ashamed. He is, in every sense that matters, ruined.
And then, at the exact moment of his ruin, someone steps forward. Not a relative. Not someone who owes him a favor. Someone under no obligation at all, who simply chooses to act. This person walks into the court, pays every debt in full, down to the last coin, and does it in the ruined man's name. The debt is erased, and the man receives back the keys to his own house.
The man doesn't ask what he should do next. He doesn't immediately start planning how he'll manage his finances better this time, or how he’ll resolve to work harder so this never happens again. He just stands there, holding keys to a house he thought he'd lost forever, turning them over and over in his hand, unable to fully take in what just happened to him.
That’s the posture v1-2 presents. Before a single command is given, God wants His people stunned. Not planning. Not resolving, just stunned. Stunned at His mighty work in saving them from Egypt. Church, let me ask you. God has saved you. The very God you were once far from has brought you near and redeemed you in Christ. Are you stunned at this, or have you gotten over it, has it become ho-hum to you? Or let me put it another way. Does v1-2 shine to you, or do you rush past v1-2 to get to the commandments, eager to know what's expected of us, eager to know how you can prove yourself, impatient with the reminder of what's been done for you?
Church, don’t miss it. We've begun a series on the Ten Commandments, we're reading Exodus 20, and in v1-2 God still hasn't told His people to do anything. Nope. He begins not with what they must do, but with what He has done! This is worth sitting with.
What does it teach us? Grace.
What do I mean? Before God commands any activity from His people, He gives them a sure identity in Himself.
Yes, He's redeemed them out of Egypt, and brought them out to Sinai to worship Him…and the first thing He says? It’s not ‘shape up.’ It’s not ‘stop grumbling.’ It’s not even the first commandment. The first thing God tells His redeemed people is who He is, and who they are. Who is God? He is the LORD, the great I AM, who has redeemed them. Who are they? They are His. They are the redeemed.
God gives His people identity before activity, to make one thing clear: their standing with Him isn't based on what they do, but on what He has already done for them.
That changes everything. But it runs against the natural bent of the human heart, which is always trying to reverse the order, always trying to secure its standing with God through performance rather than grace already given.
This isn’t just a problem out there, it’s a problem with you, and with me. We tend to picture the Christian life as if its symbolized by a great ladder that we're working hard to climb so we can get close to God. But, Israel's relationship with God wasn't defined by a ladder; it was defined by the Exodus, v1-2 show that. Church, the Christian life is the same. The symbol of the Christian life isn’t a ladder but the cross, where justice and mercy meet in the death of the Son of God for sinners like you and me. So over the whole of the Christian life hangs one finished banner. Not ‘work harder’, or ‘do better’ but, “It is finished.”
Before God commanded anything, He made sure His people knew He was their Redeemer and that they were His redeemed. Out of gratitude, then, Israel was to obey these commandments, not to earn God’s favor, but from favor already given.
Some of you need to be confronted by this. Nothing you do can save you. Until you come to the end of your own effort, you'll never begin anew in Christ. Your activity will never be good enough to earn you a right identity before God. He can give you one, truly (!), but only if you trust His activity for you, and let go of your own.
Others of you need to be comforted by this. Nothing you do can take away your standing with God, because of the cross. Sinner you are, but God does not regret redeeming you. You cannot sin away His grace. If He has saved you, redeemed you from the slavery of sin, you are His and He is yours, forever. Out of that secure identity a Christian lives their whole life.
So don't set law against grace here, as if their opposites. Notice from its very first syllable the law is set within grace. Or just see it. Nineteen chapters of rescue come before the first of ten commands.
Hear the prologue over your own life: Christ is our Redeemer; we are His redeemed. This guides how we view all Ten of the Commandments. A sure identity given, then a right activity commanded.
We began today by saying nothing is more foundational, and more reviled, than the Ten Commandments. For all those who know God and have truly embraced the God of v1-2, “I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the house of slavery” they will hear the laws that follow, not as chains to restrict us, but as the shape of freedom itself.
Let this prologue settle down, deep and firm, into your soul. It changes everything about how we view and interpret the Law. May it change everything for you as well.
