Special Event – Summer Series: The Ten Commandments; Pastor Brent Johnson, 09/06/26

SE 069_The Ten Command_PODCAST_Johnson_090626
===

[00:00:00] Hey, good morning Thank you for being here, uh, on a holiday weekend. All the friends that you see are not here, they're all traveling. Make you jealous? You're the, you're the non-travelers. We're gonna travel down some spiritual journeys. Let's pray and ask the Lord's blessing. Heavenly Father, we wanna say thank you for the time together, that we can be together, that we can hear from your Word.

And I pray that you would bless us by the hearing and studying of your Word. We pray it in Jesus' name. Amen. Uh, now back to where we were, back to the lesson I'd started a few, a few weeks ago. I s- I taught on this idea of familiar ground, new light, God revealing new things on something that's very familiar, and I couldn't think of anything more familiar than the Ten Commandments.

And most of the things that I've learned came from Mark Lanier in regard to the Ten Commandments and some [00:01:00] things that he has shed light on for me, and probably for you, so some of you might have already heard this. But, uh, not everything I'm saying is from Mark, but I'm just saying he's a catalyst. You know how he is.

He's really smart and, uh, great at cross-references. And so we are thankful to be here. So today's just a continuation of his message. He is in Istanbul, Turkey right now, and um, at a wedding, and so I'm sure they're watching right now, s- got up early on Sunday morning. Last week, uh, we started with, uh, the law, the Torah, in the hands of Moses and Jesus.

So I'm gonna review that slightly, and then today we're gonna look at something extra. These are examples from the Genesis and from the Gospels. And I found this very interesting. You probably will. And then we're going to finally get to my conclusion, which is Paul, the law as a tutor. Uh, we barely were able to touch that when I taught a few weeks ago, 'cause I just ran outta time, and so we are getting that going.

Okay. Um, we're [00:02:00] gonna start with just a quick review. We talked about the law in the hands of Moses, and if you're following Mark Lanier's thought for the day, you know that he has gone through five of the Ten Commandments this pre- this previous week. Uh, so he's explaining things about, so now I don't have to.

Uh, he's saved me a ton of time. And you can go back and watch, listen to those, and then this week he's gonna do the other five, the last five of the Ten Commandments. So that is coming. Mark is already just talking about the specifics of the Ten Commandments, and you can get those from his thought for the day.

They're in my emails that I send out every day. If you're not getting that, well, send me an email and I'll send you one back. Um, so the review is that, uh, you know, God created a nation, the Israelites. He created them from basically nothing. He took someone from Ur, Abram, and, uh, created this nation. He said, "With this nation, I'm going to show the world, including this nation, but the whole world, how to relate to me as God, and how I as God will relate to them.

They'll be my special [00:03:00] nation." Uh, they... God didn't just go and find a nation and say, "I'm gonna use y'all." He created a nation from scratch. And if it were me, I would've been like, "Let's sequester," like you would a jury, "Let's sequester this nation so that I can teach them all the great things before I let them out into the world."

But that's not what God did. God sent them to Egypt to prosper and to grow up from like 70 to 2 mil- and he did it in a place that is filled with false gods. And I'm thinking, "Why in the world would you do that?" They were in a place where they probably could have learned without all this extracurricular false teachings, but God sent them to Egypt in order to do that.

That's, that's amazing. And I think the reason is the same reason about the Ten Commandments that we're, that we're pointing to, is that through contrast, God can really get our attention and teach us more. So he sent them off to a place that he could do this major contrast when he finally would deliver the law to them.

And, uh, Moses, he was schooled in the ancient Egyptian [00:04:00] things, and they were smart. They had things going on. They could build those pyramids and whatnot. So, um, a maybe a great place to, to be and learn, but also a lot of false teachings. Um, Moses had a rebellion. He got out of town. He left the covenant. He didn't even circumcise his kids.

I only mention that because it shows that he was out of the covenant. He was moved on from God's special nation, probably just didn't care anymore, and left him wan- wandering in the wilderness, which he would do again with the Israelites, uh, coming up. But Moses was called back to service with the burning bush experience.

This is another contrast where Moses, again, he had checked out of the covenant. He was doing his own thing his own way. There was no other god that was, you know, telling him what to do or how to do it. He didn't have to... I mean, he might have worshiped something or someone. His father-in-law was of Midian, uh, so they could have been in that area, focused on those things.

I don't really know. I wasn't there. But, um, Moses, when [00:05:00] God's ready to call him back, God gives Moses another chance and brings him to the, the burning bush, the bush that's con- being burned but not consumed, so it's a, an amazing thing. It is a contrast of his life to where God's calling him to. And isn't that always true?

When God's calling us to do His will, it's usually in a contrast of how we've been living and our focus has been heretofore. So this is the second contrast that God uses to get our attention and to move us on to what He wants us to do. So that is not an unusual way of doing things when you find it happening in your own life.

So Moses is called back to mission, and then we see that by contrast, now Moses meets with God more than anyone. He has special access to God on Mount Sinai, and then again in the tabernacle. He can go to the Holy of Holies, the tent of meeting, where you would meet with God. That's quite a contrast from the other wilderness that he was in to the new wilderness that he was going to.

Special access to God. Now, last week I asked you this question, [00:06:00] and maybe you remember. What is the most important word in the English language? I heard someone say it over here. Someone else, anybody else know? Lord. You're the, you're the get a, you get a prize. You the- yeah, thank you for remembering. But that's right, relationship.

So I don't even know why I'm teaching if y'all aren't gonna remember this stuff, okay? Make a note Just kidding. So relationship, that's the most important word. And so I ask this question, why does God give us rules or commands to follow? And it's, it's so that we can better relate to him. Relate is the, uh, the key word to relationship.

It's the root word of relationship. It's how we relate to one another. I'm saying my new light to the familiar scripture of the Ten Commandments, it is not a list of rules to help us to live life better, even though it can accomplish that. The point of the Ten Commandments is revealing who God is and how to relate to him and how he will relate to us.

Those rules inform us of that more than here's [00:07:00] what you need to do and don't do, go do and don't do that. Again, that's still helpful. So in the preamble of the Ten Commandments, it starts off in Exodus 20, it says that, "God spoke these words, saying, 'I am the Lord your God.'" So he introduces himself. I'm the one.

He tells something that he did. I brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery. This is a very typical suzerain, vassal, covenant, or treaty, or relationship. So this is very common in the pagan time of this time that they were familiar with. So this idea and the way God presented the Ten Commandments is not at all unusual.

There's no contrast there. He says, um, "You shall have no other gods before me," which is very interesting because they lived in a place that had plenty of other gods. This is a huge contrast, huge contrast to the normalcy of the culture that they were in, their society. Uh, he goes on, he says, "You should not make any carved images."

Again, carved images were a commonplace in this society that [00:08:00] God is contrasting to, saying, "I am not just different, I am completely 180 degrees different from all of these things." And he tells why. He says, "I'm a jealous God," which is more revelation about who God is. God is revealing himself so that we can relate to him.

He can rel- He-- we know how he will relate to us. And you see the hate and the love contrast. Uh, this is what Mark is in the middle of talking about in Romans, where he says, "I love Jacob, I hate Esau." Mark is explaining that. The love-hate relationship is a common contrast in scripture, and it's a way that God gets our attention, because when you see the word hate, most of Americans who are like, "We're all about love," especially Christians, are like, "Wait a minute, what's going on here?"

That's exactly what God wants you to do. Then he wants you to dive down into it, not form your own opinions on your own. So we're thankful that, uh, s- Mark is continuing to teach about this idea of the love and hate. But here we see it very plainly for those who, uh, go to other gods and, [00:09:00] and, and love other gods.

God hates that. Uh, he considers that a hatred toward him when you do that. But he shows steadfast, or as Mark explains in the Hebrew, the Chesed Very special love, uh, and care for thousands of those who love me and who keep my commandments. And the keep my commandments isn't as much as you're doing them and not doing what you're not supposed to do.

That's not what that means as much as we see that relationship of how to relate to God, that understanding of how to relate to God. The commandments are speaking to that. That's how you keep God's commandments. You have an understanding of how they relate to you and your life as you relate to God, and it is an important part of a spiritual walk that you need to understand, though.

So fortunately, Mark is going through the d- details of those 10 Commandments. You should pay attention to that. I don't have to 'cause he's doing it, so I'm moving on. Okay, you shall not take the Lord your God's name in vain. This is something else that Mark has talked a lot about, the CV of God, [00:10:00] uh, who God is, that's what his name is, and you shouldn't take advantage of that.

So I wanna take some opportunity to look back in the Old Testament and the New Testament to see where some of these things have happened and why this commandments are necessary at the very least to understand who God is and why he says, "Don't use my name incorrectly. Don't presume upon me incorrectly.

Presume upon me and say, tell other people about who I really am, not who you want me to be." So those are the three. We get to the fourth about the Sabbath day to keep it holy, this idea of rest, God's... And, and so God, uh, brings in his, the whole creation. He says, "I created for six days, and on the seventh day, I rested.

I want you to be like me." Again, the Ten Commandments expressing who God is. Here we see we need to take a day of rest that God has blessed, and he calls it holy, holy being hagios from the Hebrew, uh, set apart, [00:11:00] separate. Um, actually, let's see. Hagios is Greek. Um, the Hebrew word... Help, somebody help me. Kadosh, kadosh, kadosh is the Hebrew for holy.

Thank you. Uh, it is the idea of being set apart from the mundane and just usual. So there should be a special day, and God says, "If you do that, you can learn more about who I am." It's a way to grow in your spiritual relationship, and yet we don't do that very well. So I guess that's on us. Uh, honor your father and mother.

That's the one that Mark just talked about on Friday. I think this really speaks to marriage and family, because I think marriage is a picture of the Gospel, and when it's done right, even in the difficult times, we are expressing our love for God and how to have a relationship with Him through the good news of Jesus Christ.

Your marriage is speaking to that. Again, unfortunately, when we mess that up, we are saying bad things about [00:12:00] God, His power, His desire, our expectations, and about His ability to bring about good things, because that is the good news. So be careful with your marriages, among other things, because we are expressing, teaching.

We're teaching others about who God is, especially if they know you call yourself a Christian. The six through 10, uh, the, the don't murders, the don't commit adulteries, don't steal, don't lie, don't covet, and all the things you should not covet. This is the rest. Mark will cover these in the thoughts for the day coming up.

But again, these are not just how to relate to one another, which is important. These also tell us how to relate to God. Again, everything boils down to who God is and what He is wanting to express, reveal to us, so that we can know who He is, and then we can be like Him. We can't be God, but God wants us to be like Him.

So last week I said that, uh, that was in the, the law in the hand of Moses. Now, here's the law in the hands of Jesus as a review. [00:13:00] Uh, Jesus said, "I didn't come to abolish the law. It's still good." So everyone who says, "The Old Testament, that's out. We're in the New Covenant," Jesus in the New Covenant says, "I am continuing it.

In fact, I'm going to fill it full," which is something that Matthew loved to do in his Gospel. So Matthew, anytime there's something that Jesus said or did, if there's any Old Testament reference to it, m- uh, Isaiah, like, would be some of the examples, Matthew would bring that up and say, "If you, if you look back over in this, you can see where what Jesus did is a fulfillment of that prophecy."

Um, he's, he, he wants you to see the connection. And Jesus is saying, "I am the connection. There is a connection. Let's not ignore it." He says in Isaiah 55, "The law will not return to me empty, but it shall accomplish that which I pur- purpose and shall succeed in the thing which I sent it." So God said, "I sent the commandments, the law, the Torah, for a reason."

Jesus confirms that no matter how you feel about it, it [00:14:00] will come to the purpose that God wants it to. It will accomplish the thing that God wants it to. The question is, what does God want to accomplish? Most of us think we just need our rules of dos and don'ts so that we can be better people. We want it in the school so our kids can see it, which is a good thing.

But the purpose of the law is not to follow the dos and don'ts, and we'll see that later. There is a purpose, and it will succeed in what God wanted it to, the reason that He sent it, and we're going to see that. Um Couple of other things about, uh, Jesus talking about it. He says that nothing will pass from the law until it's all accomplished.

So God has a high view of this law and its purpose. What is its purpose? He also says, uh, in Isaiah 40, we know that the glory of the Lord shall be revealed. He will tell us what He is He wants us to know. All flesh shall see it together, for the mouth of the Lord [00:15:00] has spoken. Here's the word of the Lord. He has spoken the word.

Not only Jesus as the Logos, which is the logo of God. He is the word of God. The grass withers, the flower fades, we get this from Isaiah 40, but the word of God will stand forever. You cannot put it out. You can't get around it. Even if you ignore it, God will still accomplish His purpose that He desired.

So it's important that we know the purpose, and we know the law, we know who God is, uh, because He says it's not gonna get messed up. You should know. This is something to pay attention to. So, but Jesus goes and He says, "I'm gonna fill the law full." The Bib- the w- the, the law that you remember says, "Don't murder," but if you think bad about someone, you're guilty of that law.

Thank you, Jesus. You just made it more difficult. Uh, He does that several times. "You've heard it said, but I say, and I've come here to fill it full." You thought you had an idea. God had begun the revelation. I am the finish of the revelation. I am the completion of that revelation. [00:16:00] I am the end, and I'm gonna tell you what it really means, what we're really trying to get out of it, and you're just mind blown because there's...

Y- I thought I could possibly do it. The rich, young ruler thought he could possibly do it, but we are set to fail because we cannot follow the law. There must be another reason for it to be accomplished, and there is. So this is just for fun. I wanted to go back and look at some examples from the Old Testament, since I have more time 'cause I get to teach the second part of my lesson.

Thank you, Mark, for going to a wedding. In fact, I had him invited to that wedding so he would be out of town today. Um, Adam and Eve is the first place that we see the law broken. Are you tracking with me? You know the story. God created the heavens and the Earth. He created that one tree. He said, "Don't touch the tree."

In fact, in chapter two, verse 16 of Genesis, "The tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it, you shall surely die." So there's consequences to the rules and the laws of God. Again, [00:17:00] here God is revealing Himself to Adam and Eve. In chapter three, verse six, "So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food and that it was a delight to her eyes," or to the eyes, "and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate."

So we see the law being broken The reason that we need the law, so at least we know who God is and what He expects. Another great example is this one. Has anyone been to Kentucky and seen the ark? You know, they found the ark, you know, the... And they put it in Kentucky. You can go and check it out. Maybe it's just a replica, but it's really cool.

I've not been myself, but I'm gonna try to get a, a trip going that we can all go together. That'd be fun. Um, but this particular ark has a lot to say about God revealing Himself and God doing His purpose. So in, uh, Genesis, we're still in Genesis. These are examples from Genesis 6:11. [00:18:00] He says, "Now the earth was corrupt in God's sight."

The earth was corrupt as the way God saw it, "and was full of violence." That's one of the Ten Commandments, thou shall not kill. Violent way of ending a life. "God saw how corrupt the earth had become, for all the people had corrupted their ways." If left unchecked, that's the direction that we're always going, uh, with very few exceptions, and those are really not even exceptions.

Um, so we see that. Then we go to verse seven. "And those that entered the ark," by contrast, "male and female of all flesh, went in as God had commanded." So here they're following God. The contrast to doing the right thing is salvation. Noah, uh, everything that God had commanded Noah, he was responsible. "And the Lord shut him in."

How many doors are on the ark? There's only one door. There's only one way in the ark. If you didn't go in the door, you're not getting in. [00:19:00] And what did Jesus say? "I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me." The ark is a picture of salvation that Jesus would complete.

He would completely fill it full. This is a picture of that, a, a, an ark, a- an ark of storyline moving toward the conclusion. Uh, and who shuts the door once they all get into the ark? The, the scripture says, "And the Lord shut the door." He is the one that sealed them in. He is the one that seals us. It has nothing to do with us.

God provides the opportunity. We're, we're corrupt, and we're moving toward corruption. God sees the one he's-- will save. He lets them go in the door. If they chose not to go in the door, they would not be saved. And then if God didn't shut the door, guess what? They would not be saved. God is in charge of all of that.

He is revealing who he is, not just a God of expectations, of guidance, and commands, but of [00:20:00] salvation, saving for those who are not good enough. Another example is Jacob. Remember Jacob and Isaac. There are several great examples of why we need the law, uh, that, uh, Jacob broke on so many different areas. Uh, I wanna look at a couple of them.

Esau said to Jacob... That's Jacob's brother, his twin brother, the one who's firstborn. And, uh, Esau says, "I'm starved. Give me some of that stew." "All right," Jacob replied, "but trade me your rights." It was right for the firstborn to have it. Jacob wanted what his brother had, uh, the rights of the firstborn. What law would that be breaking of the Ten Commandments?

Yes, covet. How'd y'all know? Y'all are really quick. Good. Anything I can do to help as well, I'm happy to. Okay, so let's move on. So we see Esau said to Jacob, um, "I'm starved." And, okay, we already read that. Thanks for the bringing it up again, Brent. Um, [00:21:00] Jacob then, later on we know that Jacob had two wives, uh, two children with each of those wives' maidservants.

That sounds like a lot of adultery going on in the life of Jacob. Now, if you know where we're going with Jacob, he is the progenitor of the 12 tribes of Judah. He is the father of the 12 that would be the 12, which is a really big deal, and we know the number 12 is a really big deal. Mark's talked about that.

But here, they get the 12 from all of this adultery going on. That is the salvation and hope of God in spite of a very terrible situation. Uh, Leah is the wife that he loves the most. I'm sorry, Rachel is. But Leah is the one that steals her father's idol, so that just reminded me that, uh, one of the commands is, is going to be, once it's given, you should not have idols.

Uh, they were still, even though they knew they weren't supposed to, they were still involved in other gods. They get to Egypt, and it just continues. No graven images, [00:22:00] all of those things all wrapped up in there. Okay, so here we see in, uh, Genesis 27, we're still looking at Jacob and the examples of why the law is so important and how he breaks so many of them.

Uh, his father Isaac says, "I will pronounce the blessing that belongs to you, my firstborn son," which is Esau. But Jacob took the food to his father first, and, um, "My father," he said. "Yes, my son?" Isaac said. "Who are you?" Isaac the dad asks the son, "Who are you?" Because he can't see. He's blind. And Jacob replied, "It's Esau, your firstborn."

So here we see lying, dishonoring of the parents, as well as stealing all wrapped up there. So, so many issues we see before we get to Mount Sinai where Jesu- or God gives the law. So this, these are all setups, and sometimes we miss that when we're reading this. But I thought it was very interesting to bring this out, that God is setting up that we're, when we see the law, we think, [00:23:00] "Oh, this is good.

This is good stuff," even though we still can't follow it, we still can't accomplish it. So then Isaac asked, "How..." That's the dad. "How so quickly, my son, were you able to get this food and bring it here? I mean, you're a quick hunter. You're better than I thought." And Jacob replied, "The Lord put it in my path."

What did he do? Took God's name in vain. He said God allowed this to happen, and God was not a part of that. It just really cuts you to the quick, and I think it's great to see all of these examples. By contrast now, we see Jacob's salvation. This is extremely interesting to me as well. Um, so Jacob, later on in his life, he went to Bethel, which is Hebrew for the house of God.

Beth-el, Elohim. El is God, beth is house of. He is at the house of God. Uh, in fact, he, he names it that while he wrestles with an angel or Jesus, a pre-incarnate Jesus, [00:24:00] at this time in Genesis 32. It's a great account if you would want to read that later in Genesis 32. Uh, so we've got Jacob wrestling with God.

Now, Jacob is a man... Jacob's name even means the supplanter, the trickster. Um, I want things my way, and I'll do whatever I can to get it, and you see the examples of it all through his life. Mom is helping, uh, which is also a dishonoring of the, the parent figures. Um, we, we see all this in Jacob's life. He lives up to his name.

So when, when Isaac asked him, "What is your name?" He was probably happy to say somebody else's name. He's used to being a liar and a trickster, and he says, "Esau. Don't call me who I am because I don't want you to know who I really am. I wanna do my own thing." Um, so here, he's wrestling with God all night, and when the man, God, touched Jacob's hip, it went out of joint.

So Jacob was clearly the loser. You can't wrestle with a broken or displaced hip. Anybody, broken hips anyone? [00:25:00] Okay, good for you. You're just being quiet. Okay. He says, um, God says now to Jacob after he loses the fight, Jacob loses the fight, and God says, "What is your name?" What does Jacob say? He said, "Jacob He owned up to who he really was.

He told the truth. And this was a transformation in the life of Jacob. Earlier, the last time he was asked his name, he lied about it. He didn't wanna live up to his name. Now he's admitting, "I'm Jacob." And with that, with that revelation, Jacob is confessing all of the sins. I am the trickster. I have done all these things to get my own way.

And apparently he is sorry for it. And we see the salvation of Jacob as God, uh, uh, takes Jacob and says, "I'm going to change your name from Jacob, the trickster, to Israel." Fights with God and man. Is- Is- ra- [00:26:00] el. El is God, is is man, and ra struggles with, contends with. Israel, the name of the nation. God gave his nation the name Struggles with Man and God.

That's Hebrew for that. That's what he named them, and they live- they're still living up to that, unfortunately. But God changes his name from Jacob. He gets rid of that, showing the salvation of Jacob. And then from that point on, Jacob goes and reconciles with his brother, and he begins, uh, leading the nation of Israel through the 12 tribes with his, uh, children.

Uh, so now I wanna jump to the New Testament. A couple of examples. Well, just one example. We only have time for one. Uh, the special verse in John 10:10. Are y'all familiar with it? "The thief comes to steal, kill and destroy, but I have come that they may have life and have it abundantly." Um, that's where we are here.

The problem is, most of the time people teach that the thief here is Satan. The thief comes [00:27:00] to steal, kill and destroy. The Satan, the evil one. That is not the case. By context, it is Jesus talking about false teachers. The false teachers were coming in telling, uh, different ways to follow God, different things that God wants that are not what God wants.

They're using God's name in vain, and as a result, um, they are stealing from God, his people. They're being led astray. And this is where Jesus talks about he is the good shepherd, and only his sheep go in through the one gate, which is a picture of the ark that we saw earlier. Jesus is showing the salvation by contrast from the false teachers to the new teachers.

The false teachers are doing things like stealing, killing, and using God's name in vain. Jesus is the contrast to that. "I am the good shepherd. My sheep hear my voice. I will take care of them. I will only give them truth." Uh, all of these great contrasts that this is after the law that confirms what God is, who God is, and what he is doing.[00:28:00]

Uh, Jesus, the true teacher, keeps and fulfills the law. He did it perfectly. And he restores the broken. And that's what we are all extremely interested in. Because we see these examples, we know that all of these people failed. We are just like them. We cannot live up good enough To get in or get with God.

So now we get to our exciting conclusion, uh, of Paul having the law as a tutor, the Torah as a tutor, and this is the purpose of the law. And if you don't believe me, ask Paul. He is writing it out for us so that we can have an understanding. Romans 3, he says that all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.

What does that say about the law? We cannot live up to the law. So that's very obvious. It's no surprise. Romans 3 moves on, uh, and this is an interesting verse, and I showed this last time, where I'm gonna point out several of the commandments broken in this as Paul explains how things are really going.

He gives [00:29:00] us a look at reality. None is righteous. No, not one. That means nobody does right. No one understands. No one seeks for God. They use their tongue to deceive. Their mouth is full of curses and bitterness. They f- uh, their feet are swift to shed blood. In their paths are ruin and misery, and the way of peace they have not known.

There is no fear of God before their eyes. And so I just wanna point out several of these, of, uh, how they're breaking all of these laws, how we break all of these laws. Um, there's no understanding. No one seeks for God. Uh, that's the first one. Don't have any other gods. We're not looking for the one true God.

We're founding... We are finding other things. Uh, we lie. We deceive. We're using God's name in vain. Their mouth is full of curses and bitterness. They're quick to shed blood, and there's no fear of God before [00:30:00] their eyes. They're not worshiping God. There's no day of rest. Uh, they're not keeping the Sabbath holy.

Um- In verse 19 it says that, this is just exam- uh, examples of how Paul is talking about the law has a different purpose than what we think. "Now, we know that whatever the law says, it speaks to those who are under the law so that every mouth may be stopped and the whole world may be held accountable to God."

That's not good news. If you know what you're accountable to and you're not, then judgment will come, condemnation. Um, "For by works of the law no human being will be justified in His sight." There's no person that's able to do everything enough to be justified in God's sight. The law is a killer. "Since through the law comes knowledge of sin," Paul explains.

So that accountability is there. Now that we know the law, we are accountable to it. If you're accountable, [00:31:00] that is the ability to be taken into account. That's what accountability means, the ability to take into account. If you're responsible for something, the first thing they ask for whenever something goes wrong is what?

"Who's responsible for this?" Because they want an accounting. And if you have the ability to be accounted for, then you have accountability. And by knowing the law, you immediately have accountability. That's not good news for us. Romans 7, "What then shall we say," Paul asks, "That the law is sin? By no means.

Yet if it had been, if it hadn't been for the law, I would not known s- I would not have known sin." Sorry, I can't read right. "For I would not have known what it is to covet if the law had not said, 'You shall not covet.'" That's accountability. Now you're accountable. You know what is right and what is wrong.

"For sin, seizing an opportunity through the commandment, deceived me," [00:32:00] Paul says, "and through it killed me. Since I cannot now keep the law that I am accountable to, I will die because the wages of sin is death." That is the Gospel story. And for the people that say, "Well, I don't believe in the Bible so it doesn't ac- uh, apply to me," yeah, you're already lost.

Those who are saying, "I'm a Christian and I desire the things of God," now you are accountable. And the bad news is the law, the accountability, is killing you because you and I, we cannot keep the law. So this familiar scripture in new light for me is I thought the law was just to help us live a better life, and even though we won't necessarily attain to every bit of it, if we follow some of it we're gonna be better and we're at least trying and striving.

And even though that might be true, the truth is the law was not given for that reason. The law was given to show that you are doomed to death. And the reason I think that is because Paul specifically said it. [00:33:00] Now we're gonna get to what Mark Lanier talked about a couple of years ago, uh, maybe it was just one year ago, uh, from Galatians 3.

He says, "Now before faith, we were held captive under the law." So these were those who were saved. If you, once you are saved by faith, you're no longer captive under the law. But before faith, you were held captive under the law, imprisoned until the coming of faith would be revealed. So then the law was our guardian until Christ came in order that we might be justified by faith.

And so Mark went well into detail of this Greek word, papagada... Hmm. I had it wrong last time. Let me just say it a couple times. I can read the Greek. I'm covering up the, the English transliteration 'cause that does not help me. Uh Paidegogos. Paidegogos is the word, and it means a, a guardian or a tutor. And again, Mark talked about that.

I should've had the reference that we could bring up. You can go back and listen to what he says about it. I'm just gonna do a quick mention because Paul [00:34:00] explains the law was not meant to save us. It was meant to show us how bad we are, and as a result, it is our tutor that is showing us that since it is...

we're not good enough to follow it, we are driven to another way to get salvation, and that is Jesus Christ. It shows us that we need to be on the road to Jesus, not to the law. Remember the rich, young ruler, he comes to Jesus. "What must I do to be saved?" Jesus starts off, he says, "Keep the commandments." He even lists a few of the latter commandments, and the guy's like, "Yeah, I've, I've been doing that since I was young."

He's probably a good Jew. A good, young Jew before bar mitzvah had memorized the first five books of the Bible, which is the Torah, the law. He had memorized all of that. He knew it forwards, backwards, sideways. The rabbi says, "Give me line 58, uh, sentence three." Boom, he's able to, to say it. They knew it well.

I've been doing that. I've, I've been striving toward that, not [00:35:00] realizing that was what was killing him because he's not able to accomplish it. Jesus goes on and points to the bigger picture. He says, "Well, then sell all your possessions and give to the poor." A huge contrast in his life. In this case, it did not drive him to Jesus, but drove him away, didn't it?

He left sad, the scripture said. Fortunately, Jesus ran after him and said, "Oh, wait, wait, wait. We can make some, uh, compromises, and we can fix this. You can still be in my kingdom. We can work it out. You don't have to do, you don't have to do everything right. You don't necessarily need all of my saviorship."

Remember when Jesus said that? Y'all remember that? You don't remember? Because he never followed after him. He walked away sad, end of story. That's a parable of con- uh, uh, an account of contrast for all of us. But the paidegog- gogos, paidegogos, is the tutor. The law is for us. We can't do it, so we need a savior.

And Jesus Christ, of course, is that savior. So in summary, as we're doing great on time, [00:36:00] closing out. Thank you, Mark, for going to a wedding. We can finish out this lesson on the Ten Commandments. Uh, God ga-- He didn't even know the people he's going to the wedding. He didn't even know those people. He just wanted to go to...

No, I'm kidding. He did know. They're part of his family. I'm just kidding. Why do I interrupt my own lesson? God, God gave the law to reveal Himself and to establish covenant. That's a covenant relationship. He wanted to reveal Himself more than anything, more than to give you the do's and don'ts. "I don't wanna be in Christianity, it's just a bunch of do's and don'ts."

Yeah, you don't understand. The do's and don'ts are just showing you that you cannot and will not, and you need Jesus. It will drive you, it'll tutor you to be, uh, saved by Jesus's account, unless you're the rich, young ruler and you go off and do your own thing. S- second, in summary, Jesus filled the law full.

He came in and He made it more difficult. You thought it was bad enough, you thought you were failing as it was. Uh, you are really in trouble. He demonstrated also how to live it. It can be lived out. Jesus did a really good job doing that as our [00:37:00] model. The last part of the summary is, but the law only produced death, which guides us to abundant life.

It leads us to abundant life if you are willing to accept it. It's still a big deal and a really big decision to come out of the contrast of how I'm failing to how I can be successful. It's just we don't always wanna be successful in God's eyes in doing it God's way. Um, God's not, uh, finding other ways for us to get saved.

Other gods in order to, to get us to heaven. You know, there's just 100 ways to get to God. Jesus is one of them. You can find it all. Nope, there's only one way. We saw that with the ark. We saw that with the Word of God. Jesus is the answer to the problem the law has specified. You will never be good enough So Jesus concludes our lesson today, uh, with a little lesson.

He said, "Don't let your hearts be troubled." This could be troubling. You're gonna die. This could be troubling. "Don't let your hearts be troubled. Believe or trust in God. [00:38:00] Believe also in me." That's that Greek word pistis, uh, which can be translated believe, faith. H- put your faith in God. No one knows what faith is.

That's just a weird word. But trust is another translation of that word, and we get that. So he says, "Trust me. Trust God. We know what we're doing. We gave you the A so that you would be driven to the C. I am the B, the middle of the ground to get you to... The law will drive you to where you need to be. Trust me on this, and if you trust me," Jesus says, "I go to prepare a place for you.

And if I go to prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, 'cause where I am, you may be also." And when he said, "I go to prepare a place for you," he was talking about the cross. The idea is that just in a few hours from this Monday-Thursday explanation, Jesus would go to the cross, and he would die for our sins.

The only reason is because the wages of sin is death. Somebody had to die, unless they messed with [00:39:00] the chess set. So in, in, in justification, somebody had to die. Jesus said, "I'm gonna go prepare a place for you. I'm gonna go die on the cross. I'm not up in heaven now, you know, waxing off your, uh, mansion in glory.

I've already paid the price. Everything is done. There's nothing left except for me to take you to where I am." But you have to make that decision. Jesus died on the cross, and he said, "I am the way. I am the truth. I'm not kidding. I'm not lying. I'm not crossing my own, uh, Ten Commandments. I am the life, the zoe, abundant life.

No one comes to the Father except through me." Which again, the, the contrast between zoe, which is life, and bio, which is life. Bio is just biology, the study of life. Bio means you live life. Zoe is abundant life. It's a contrast to just regular life. It is abundant, fulfilling life, life that you don't wanna go back from.

It's everything that you want it to be and more, and it's within the grasp [00:40:00] of God and his relationship with you. So here we see the Torah in the hands of Moses, of Jesus, and Paul, and this is what gave me new light to a very familiar scripture, the Ten Commandments. It's not at all what we thought or what I thought it is.

So for you, points for home as we wrap up today. To put some conclusion to, or maybe a, a lunch discussion as you head out, and I'm thankful again for the opportunity to finish this lesson. Um, the law was never the destination. Relationship is always where you wanna go. The law was given for relationship.

Relationship, even though it has a negative consequence at the beginning, it drives us to Jesus, and if you so accept, you can be in a relationship with him, and it is the most fulfilling. Jesus called it abundant life. The law reveals sin. Let it. Let it reveal sin in you. Let you be convinced that there's no way you can be good enough to keep it at 100%.

Know God [00:41:00] and let it show sin, which is showing the need. It does not show how to resolve it. It's only showing that you are in need of a savior. The Ten Commandments doesn't drive you to do all these things or to keep from doing these things. It drives you to a savior. And I hope the Ten Commandments in schools all over Texas and wherever else they see it, I hope that is driving kids to Jesus, because that's the point.

Otherwise, they're doomed to die. They will never be able to measure up. Jesus seeks the sinner through relationship. That's the other thing that the law shows, the relationship that, um, between the, the lower aspect and the higher aspect. God makes the first step in order to bring us into a relationship with him.

The law says do, but the cross says done. The law tries to get you to just keep doing, keep trying. God says, "Stop trying. You'll never be able to do it. Let me do it in you." And now that you're saved, you don't do things to get saved, but once you're saved, you love God [00:42:00] so much, you wanna get closer to him.

You're gonna just start doing things his way. If you love him, you're gonna come to class even on a holiday weekend if you're in town And you're going to expose your mind to the truth of God. Praise the Lord for that. That must show that you're either wanting to impress other people or you really do love God and you want to, just give me something else.

That Brent Johnson guy's probably got something to say in an hour that could be helpful to us. And now that we hear that, we're moved on mentally in our relationship to God. Hopefully it, it, it prospers you. It gives you that opportunity to understand a little bit better, not only about the Ten Commandments, but on who God is and what he wants.

And if you spend more time with him like you've done today, if you didn't nod off, then you are, you're better at doing the things of God. God's giving you a little extra blessing. Uh, not because of me, it's because of him. Because what does it say his word does? It never falls away. It will stand. It will not return void.

[00:43:00] You are in a good place, and we are thankful not only to these who have brought the word to us, the law to us, and demonstrated it. In the end, Paul gives the final thought on the, on the, on the word that the Ten Commandments, the law, leads to death and sin, but it should drive us to a savior. If you've really accepted him as your Lord and Savior, you're going to want to do all the things that he wants, even the things he doesn't even mention in Scripture, as he reveals himself to you by his Spirit.

Amen? Amen.