Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Hello everyone.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: This is Pastor Benjamin.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: You're listening to Sermon Audio from New City, Orlando.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: At New City, we long to see our Father answer the Lord's Prayer.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: For more resources, visit our website at Newcity Orlando.com.
Pastor Jason Dunn: Now let's stand for the reading of God's Word.
Pastor Jason Dunn: And before we do that, we're going to have our prayer of illumination to ask the Holy Spirit to illumine our minds, open our ears, and make ready our hearts for God's Word.
Pastor Jason Dunn: Pray with me.
Pastor Jason Dunn: Give us understanding that we may keep your law and observe it with our whole hearts.
Pastor Jason Dunn: In the path of your commandments, for we delight in it.
Pastor Jason Dunn: Turn our eyes from looking at worthless things, and give us life in your ways through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Pastor Jason Dunn: Amen.
Pastor Jason Dunn: Please remain standing if you're able for Deuteronomy chapter 5, verses 1 through 22.
Pastor Jason Dunn: And Moses summoned all Israel and said to them, Hear, O Israel, the statutes and the rules that I speak in your hearing today, and you shall learn them and be careful to do them.
Pastor Jason Dunn: The Lord our God made a covenant with us in Horeb.
Pastor Jason Dunn: Not with our fathers did the Lord make this covenant, but with us, who are all of us here alive today.
Pastor Jason Dunn: The Lord spoke with you face to face at the mountain, out of the midst of the fire, where I stood between the Lord and you at that time, to declare to you the word of the Lord.
Pastor Jason Dunn: For you were afraid because of the fire, and you did not go up into the mountain.
Pastor Jason Dunn: He said, I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery.
Pastor Jason Dunn: You shall have no other gods before me.
Pastor Jason Dunn: You shall not make for yourself a carved image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven or above, or any or that is on the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth.
Pastor Jason Dunn: You shall not bow down to them or serve them, for I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me, but showing steadfast love to those thousands of those who love me and keep my commandments.
Pastor Jason Dunn: You shall not take the Lord, you should not take the name of the Lord your God in vain, for the Lord will not hold him guiltless who takes his name in vain.
Pastor Jason Dunn: Observe the Sabbath day to keep it holy, as the Lord your God commanded you.
Pastor Jason Dunn: Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord your God.
Pastor Jason Dunn: On it you shall not do any work, you or your son, or your daughter, or your male servant, or your female servant, or your ox, or your donkey, or any of your livestock, or the sojourner who is within your gates, that your male servant and your female servant may rest as well as you.
Pastor Jason Dunn: You shall remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt, and the Lord your God brought you out from there with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm.
Pastor Jason Dunn: Therefore the Lord your God commanded you to keep the Sabbath day.
Pastor Jason Dunn: Honor your father and your mother as the Lord your God commanded you, that your days may be long, and that it may go well with you in the land that the Lord your God has given you.
Pastor Jason Dunn: You shall not murder, and you shall not commit adultery, and you shall not steal, and you shall not bear false witness against your neighbor, and you shall not covet your neighbor's wife, and you shall not desire your neighbor's house, his field, his male servant, or his female servant, his ox, or his donkey, or anything that is your neighbor's.
Pastor Jason Dunn: These words the Lord spoke to all your assembly at the mountain of the mist of fire, the cloud, and the dark thickness with a loud voice, and he added no more.
Pastor Jason Dunn: And when and he wrote them on two tablets of stone and gave them to me.
Pastor Jason Dunn: This is God's word.
Pastor Jason Dunn: Please be seated.
Thomas Todd: Good morning, New City.
Thomas Todd: You know, when you heard that we're preaching through the Ten Commandments, you hear Jason read that.
Thomas Todd: You may be thinking this morning, hey, I've heard this sermon hundreds of times.
Thomas Todd: I don't need to hear it again.
Thomas Todd: Don't murder, don't lie, don't steal.
Thomas Todd: You know, or maybe you're thinking, hey, does this really apply to me this morning?
Thomas Todd: I don't have idols in my house.
Thomas Todd: I don't kiss a little Buddha before I come to church on Sunday.
Thomas Todd: Uh I pay my taxes.
Thomas Todd: I'm a decent husband.
Thomas Todd: I'm a decent wife.
Thomas Todd: You know, I'm a pretty good kid most of the time, or I'm a good student majority of the time.
Thomas Todd: You know, I don't have other gods before God.
Thomas Todd: You know, what are you gonna share with me?
Thomas Todd: Or maybe you're thinking, hey, here we go again.
Thomas Todd: You're gonna start beating me up with all the things that I fail at.
Thomas Todd: Tell me everything I'm doing wrong, and then send me home and say, hey, go try harder.
Thomas Todd: But that's not what Deuteronomy 5 is doing.
Thomas Todd: This isn't that God restricts you.
Thomas Todd: The sermon is that God actually frees you.
Thomas Todd: Because the question isn't, will you serve a master?
Thomas Todd: The question is, which master will you serve?
Thomas Todd: Career, children, money, success, approval, comfort.
Thomas Todd: Whatever you look to for identity, security, maybe significance, or even satisfaction will eventually enslave you.
Thomas Todd: And Deuteronomy shows us why.
Thomas Todd: You know, Israel knows what it means to be enslaved, right?
Thomas Todd: They remember Egypt, they remember Pharaoh, they remember what it was like to live life belonging to someone who never let them stop.
Thomas Todd: But then God rescued them.
Thomas Todd: And in Deuteronomy 5, God is essentially saying, You are not Pharaoh's people anymore.
Thomas Todd: You have been redeemed, and that changes everything.
Thomas Todd: Here's the problem that we tend to bring into this passage.
Thomas Todd: We often see God's law as restrictive and burdensome rather than life-giving and freeing.
Thomas Todd: We think God's commands are keeping us from freedom when in reality God is teaching redeemed people how you actually live free.
Thomas Todd: That's why Deuteronomy 5 is so relevant for us today.
Thomas Todd: The Ten Commandments aren't simply a list of rules for us to keep, but they show us what life looks like when people have been rescued by God and now belong to Him.
Thomas Todd: So here's the message of Deuteronomy 5.
Thomas Todd: Redeemed people listen to their Redeemer and live like they are free.
Thomas Todd: And so the question I hope that you'll wrestle with today isn't simply, do I know the Ten Commandments?
Thomas Todd: Here's the better question: What has the gospel actually reordered in my life?
Thomas Todd: Because if the gospel is true, if Christ has actually redeemed us, then redemption should change the way that we listen, the way that we love, and the way that we live.
Thomas Todd: Deuteronomy 5 is taking us through the reordering of our lives.
Thomas Todd: And that happens when we understand what God has done for us.
Thomas Todd: So if you have your Bible or if you have your device, go ahead and turn with me to Deuteronomy 5, and we're gonna begin in verse 1.
Thomas Todd: And as we walk through this passage, we'll we'll be able to, we're not gonna be able to dive deep into each commandment, but what I hope you'll see are kind of three movements through this passage.
Thomas Todd: First, listen to the Redeemer.
Thomas Todd: Second, love the Redeemer, and finally, live like the Redeemed.
Thomas Todd: Deuteronomy 5 isn't primarily giving Israel information that they've never heard before, right?
Thomas Todd: Moses is showing a new generation what redeemed people look like when they actually live like they belong to God.
Thomas Todd: So let's begin with our first movement.
Thomas Todd: Listen to the Redeemer.
Thomas Todd: Look with me in verse 1.
Thomas Todd: Verse 1, and Moses summoned all of Israel and said to them, Hear, O Israel, the statutes and the rules that I speak in your hearing today, and you shall learn them and be careful to do them.
Thomas Todd: Now this is important.
Thomas Todd: Hear, O Israel, this isn't just a poetic way of speaking.
Thomas Todd: Moses isn't saying, hey, hey, come listen to an interesting sermon.
Thomas Todd: Moses is saying, listen in such a way that what you hear changes how you live.
Thomas Todd: You see, we see in the verse, hear, then learn and be careful to do them.
Thomas Todd: And that's our encouragement this morning.
Thomas Todd: Hey, let's come together and listen in a way that what we hear changes how we actually live our day-to-day lives.
Thomas Todd: Look down in verse 2.
Thomas Todd: The Lord our God made a covenant with us in Horeb.
Thomas Todd: Not with our fathers did the Lord make this covenant, but with us who are all of us here alive today.
Thomas Todd: Notice something remarkable here.
Thomas Todd: Moses says, the Lord made this covenant with us.
Thomas Todd: Now remember, the people standing before him, this was not the exact generation at Sinai.
Thomas Todd: Ben shared this a couple of weeks ago.
Thomas Todd: Moses, though, brings the covenant into the present.
Thomas Todd: He says, Hey, what God did for their fathers actually becomes their story.
Thomas Todd: Moses even goes further to say, hey, this was not with your fathers.
Thomas Todd: This is with you here, right now.
Thomas Todd: The redemptive work, God's redemptive work becomes their identity.
Thomas Todd: The covenant was made with them before some of them were even born.
Thomas Todd: And Moses is saying, hey, that was with you.
Thomas Todd: The gospel isn't God did something back then on the cross.
Thomas Todd: The gospel is God's redemptive work becomes your identity today, here and now.
Thomas Todd: Moses goes on into verse 4, and he says, The Lord spoke with you face to face at the mountain, out of the midst of the fire, while I stood between the Lord and you.
Thomas Todd: And I want you to notice the emphasis on a relationship there.
Thomas Todd: God speaks face to face with his people.
Thomas Todd: The law comes from a covenant Lord who entered into a relationship with his people through a mediator, pointing to someone we will land with today.
Thomas Todd: And look where our response comes from in verse 6.
Thomas Todd: This is the crucial theological foundation to what we're studying this morning.
Thomas Todd: I am the Lord your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery.
Thomas Todd: Notice what comes first there.
Thomas Todd: I am God.
Thomas Todd: I redeemed you, therefore live as my people.
Thomas Todd: Grace precedes obedience.
Thomas Todd: Grateful obedience is the response to being rescued.
Thomas Todd: The gospel pattern is God rescues, God speaks, God's people respond.
Thomas Todd: Israel's obedience doesn't create the relationship with God.
Thomas Todd: Redemption creates the relationship.
Thomas Todd: God doesn't say, hey, keep these commandments and I'll rescue you from Egypt.
Thomas Todd: He says, I rescued you from Egypt.
Thomas Todd: Now hear me.
Thomas Todd: This is for your good.
Thomas Todd: Let me teach you how redeemed people are to live.
Thomas Todd: Let me share a story with you about a man named Jed, a poor mountaineer, barely kept his family fed.
Thomas Todd: And then one day he was shooting at some food.
Thomas Todd: No, I'm just kidding.
Thomas Todd: But I'm going to use Jed as an example.
Thomas Todd: So if your name's Jed, I'm sorry.
Thomas Todd: But Jed, he's successful.
Thomas Todd: He has a good career.
Thomas Todd: He makes good money.
Thomas Todd: He provides well for his family.
Thomas Todd: He's respected.
Thomas Todd: But Jed checks his email before he gets out of bed.
Thomas Todd: He's answering messages at dinner.
Thomas Todd: He's thinking about work while playing with his kids.
Thomas Todd: He takes vacation, but he's never really on vacation.
Thomas Todd: He's not working nine to five, what a way to make a living.
Thomas Todd: But he is working eight to eight.
Thomas Todd: Thank you, somebody that got the Dolly reference.
Thomas Todd: Had to, sorry.
Thomas Todd: Each time he reaches his next goal, he's thinking, finally, I'm able to relax.
Thomas Todd: But he doesn't.
Thomas Todd: Eventually, someone says, Hey, hey, Jed, how much would be enough?
Thomas Todd: And Jed realizes, I don't know.
Thomas Todd: Because underneath all of his work is a belief or an internal script that says, hey, if I work hard enough, if I provide enough, if I accomplish enough, maybe one day I'll finally be okay.
Thomas Todd: His work isn't just something he does anymore.
Thomas Todd: His work is becoming something that owns him.
Thomas Todd: And the question for us is, what would happen, what would have to happen today for you to say, hey, now I'm enough?
Thomas Todd: Whose approval do you need?
Thomas Todd: See, because the answer to those questions will begin to expose our own Egypt.
Thomas Todd: Now listen, God doesn't just rescue Israel from Pharaoh, He rescues them for Himself.
Thomas Todd: He frees them from the master who enslaved them so that they can belong to the God who redeemed them.
Thomas Todd: And so God shows them what freedom really looks like through the Ten Commandments.
Thomas Todd: And Jesus, he helps us understand and see the heart of the commandments.
Thomas Todd: When Jesus summarizes the law, he doesn't begin with this long list of rules.
Thomas Todd: He begins with love.
Thomas Todd: Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength, and then love your neighbor as yourself.
Thomas Todd: And that's exactly the movement that we'll see here in Deuteronomy 5.
Thomas Todd: Because God has redeemed us.
Thomas Todd: We don't just stop serving our old masters, but we love our Redeemer.
Thomas Todd: And so look, our second point, love the Redeemer.
Thomas Todd: Verse 7.
Thomas Todd: You shall have no other gods before me.
Thomas Todd: You know, Jed doesn't have a little statue on his desk, but Jed does have a God.
Thomas Todd: His God is achievement.
Thomas Todd: Why?
Thomas Todd: Because achievement gives him something he wants from God.
Thomas Todd: Tell me I'm valuable.
Thomas Todd: Tell me I matter.
Thomas Todd: And that's what an idol does.
Thomas Todd: An idol isn't merely something that you worship.
Thomas Todd: An idol is something that you ask to give you what only God can give you.
Thomas Todd: Jed asks his career, tell me I'm significant.
Thomas Todd: Tell me I matter.
Thomas Todd: Someone else asks a relationship.
Thomas Todd: Hey, tell me I'm lovable.
Thomas Todd: Someone else asks money, hey, tell me I'm secure.
Thomas Todd: Someone else asks their children, hey, tell me I'm successful.
Thomas Todd: And God says, You shall have no other gods before me.
Thomas Todd: This is fundamentally about exclusive allegiance.
Thomas Todd: You know, the issue isn't merely believing that other gods exist.
Thomas Todd: The issue is that Israel must have one God, one allegiance, one Lord.
Thomas Todd: Then verse 8, you shall not make a carved image, make for yourself a carved image.
Thomas Todd: The second commandment moves from who we worship to how we worship.
Thomas Todd: Israel cannot domesticate God.
Thomas Todd: They cannot make God into something manageable, visible, controllable.
Thomas Todd: And then notice in verse 9, you shall not bow down to them or serve them, for I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God.
Thomas Todd: God says, hey, I'm jealous.
Thomas Todd: And we kind of think in human terms of jealousy, and we're kind of like, oh, wait a minute, we don't like that.
Thomas Todd: But God's jealousy isn't insecurity, it's covenant love.
Thomas Todd: See, God refuses to share his people with the very things that enslaved them.
Thomas Todd: That's his jealousy.
Thomas Todd: Then look at verse 11: You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain.
Thomas Todd: The third commandment is taking God's name in a way that is emptiness, worthlessness, or even falsehood.
Thomas Todd: It's not merely, hey, do you use God's name as a swear word?
Thomas Todd: Though don't do that.
Thomas Todd: But it is, does the way you live make God's name look empty?
Thomas Todd: The command concerns how God's people carry God's name into the world.
Thomas Todd: Right?
Thomas Todd: Last week Ben asked, what kind of God produces people like this?
Thomas Todd: And then he he gave us some things of how those people look.
Thomas Todd: They embody a wisdom that is attractive, they seem to know the way to the good life.
Thomas Todd: Or in the language of chapter 4, surely this is a wise and understanding people.
Thomas Todd: Those are people who do not make God's name look empty.
Thomas Todd: They live like the redeemed.
Thomas Todd: Now look at verse 12 quickly.
Thomas Todd: Observe the Sabbath day to keep it holy as the Lord your God commanded you.
Thomas Todd: Six days you shall work, seventh day you shall take a rest, right?
Thomas Todd: The Sabbath command here is particularly interesting because Deuteronomy changes the emphasis from Exodus 20.
Thomas Todd: Exodus 20 emphasizes creation for the reason that they take the Sabbath seriously.
Thomas Todd: Listen to the words from Exodus 20.
Thomas Todd: For in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth, the sea and all that is in them, and rested on the seventh day.
Thomas Todd: Therefore, the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy.
Thomas Todd: Deuteronomy changes the emphasis, though, to redemption.
Thomas Todd: Look down in verse 15.
Thomas Todd: You shall remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt, and the Lord your God brought you out from there with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm.
Thomas Todd: Therefore, the Lord your God commanded you to keep the Sabbath day.
Thomas Todd: Israel rests because they are no longer Pharaoh's people.
Thomas Todd: They are no longer slaves.
Thomas Todd: And this gives the Sabbath a deeply gospel-shaped theology.
Thomas Todd: Slaves don't get to stop.
Thomas Todd: Like when they were living in Egypt, they didn't get to stop.
Thomas Todd: Redeemed people, though, can rest.
Thomas Todd: And that's important for us to grasp today.
Thomas Todd: Jesus came to set us free from the very things that enslave us.
Thomas Todd: I wonder this morning where your heart is when you hear more bricks, less straw.
Thomas Todd: Pharaoh's command to Egypt, to Israel.
Thomas Todd: We get so focused on go, go, on more, more, more, more.
Thomas Todd: And God says, Hey, I rescued you.
Thomas Todd: Rest.
Thomas Todd: Like, slow down a little bit.
Thomas Todd: And this isn't simply, hey, go take a day off.
Thomas Todd: This is you are no longer Pharaoh's slaves, so don't live as though Pharaoh still owns you.
Thomas Todd: That leads to our final point.
Thomas Todd: Live like the redeemed.
Thomas Todd: If God has rescued you from Pharaoh, then don't live as though Pharaoh still owns you.
Thomas Todd: But there's another side to that freedom.
Thomas Todd: Don't treat others as though you are Pharaoh and they belong to you.
Thomas Todd: That's where Moses takes us now.
Thomas Todd: The first commandments teach us how to love God.
Thomas Todd: And now, verse 16 through 21, the law turns towards relationships with one another.
Thomas Todd: And so look at verse 16, and I'm gonna run through these fairly quickly.
Thomas Todd: Verse 16, honor your father and your mother.
Thomas Todd: Verse 17, you shall not murder.
Thomas Todd: Verse 18, you shall not commit adultery.
Thomas Todd: Verse 19, you should not steal.
Thomas Todd: Verse 20, you should not bear false witness.
Thomas Todd: And then notice where the commands kind of culminate in verse 21.
Thomas Todd: Coveting.
Thomas Todd: See, God doesn't stop with what you do, He addresses what you want.
Thomas Todd: The law moves from your hands to your heart.
Thomas Todd: And really that's the deeper problem.
Thomas Todd: We don't merely break God's rules.
Thomas Todd: Our hearts want the very wrong things.
Thomas Todd: The law exposes not merely bad behavior, but our disordered loves.
Thomas Todd: And this becomes enormously important when we get to Deuteronomy 6.
Thomas Todd: The commandments aren't ultimately about behavior modification, they're about loving God who redeemed us from slavery.
Thomas Todd: And maybe you're thinking, hey, listen, I know all this.
Thomas Todd: I know I shouldn't covet.
Thomas Todd: I know I shouldn't be controlled by approval.
Thomas Todd: I know I shouldn't make idols, but knowing doesn't change me.
Thomas Todd: Exactly.
Thomas Todd: See, Deuteronomy gives us God's standard.
Thomas Todd: The gospel gives us God's grace and God's spirit.
Thomas Todd: The law is firm and clear, unyielding to the human condition.
Thomas Todd: The gospel bursts forth with the burning love of God in Christ.
Thomas Todd: And so we've we've kind of heard these commands.
Thomas Todd: And if we're honest, when we hear these commands, they don't simply give us a list of things to do, but hopefully they begin to expose us.
Thomas Todd: They expose what is happening underneath our behavior in our hearts.
Thomas Todd: And that's where the gospel begins.
Thomas Todd: Because the problem with the law isn't that God's law is bad.
Thomas Todd: The problem is that we are bad at keeping it.
Thomas Todd: Right?
Thomas Todd: We have other gods.
Thomas Todd: We make idols, we misuse God's name, we refuse rest.
Thomas Todd: We dishonor those God has placed over us.
Thomas Todd: We lust, we harbor anger, we steal, we lie, we covet.
Thomas Todd: And here's the problem: knowing God's commands doesn't give us the power to become what God commands.
Thomas Todd: The law can tell me what righteousness looks like, but it cannot make me righteous.
Thomas Todd: It can show me my sin, but it cannot remove my sin.
Thomas Todd: It can tell me what a transformed heart looks like, but it cannot by itself give me a transformed heart.
Thomas Todd: So where does that leave us?
Thomas Todd: We need Jesus.
Thomas Todd: John Frame in his discussion on the Ten Commandments and how they lead us to Christ gives us some a different number of things that lead us there, and I'm just going to touch a few of those.
Thomas Todd: The Ten Commandments present the righteousness of Christ.
Thomas Todd: See, the first thing the law does is show us what righteousness looks like.
Thomas Todd: God says, have no other gods, don't worship idols, don't misuse my name, keep the Sabbath.
Thomas Todd: This is what perfect righteousness.
Thomas Todd: Love for God and neighbor looks like.
Thomas Todd: But here's the remarkable thing: there's one person who actually lived this way.
Thomas Todd: Right?
Thomas Todd: Jesus.
Thomas Todd: Israel received God's covenant and they repeatedly failed.
Thomas Todd: Jesus enters Israel's story as the true and faithful son.
Thomas Todd: Where Israel failed, Jesus succeeds.
Thomas Todd: Where Israel grumbled in the wilderness, Jesus trusted his father.
Thomas Todd: Where Israel tested God, Jesus obeyed God.
Thomas Todd: Where Israel worshipped other gods, Jesus worshiped the Father alone.
Thomas Todd: And when Satan tempted Jesus in the wilderness, where did Jesus go?
Thomas Todd: To Deuteronomy.
Thomas Todd: He answers Satan with the very word of God that Israel failed to obey.
Thomas Todd: Jesus is the obedient son.
Thomas Todd: He is the one who perfectly hears God's word and does it.
Thomas Todd: Jesus can say in John 8.29, I always do the things that are pleasing to him.
Thomas Todd: I can't say that.
Thomas Todd: I'm guessing you can't.
Thomas Todd: Israel couldn't, but Jesus could.
Thomas Todd: The Ten Commandments give us a picture of righteousness, and Jesus is that righteousness in the flesh.
Thomas Todd: And Christ is not merely someone the law points toward, Christ is the substance of the very law.
Thomas Todd: The Ten Commandments then show us our need for Christ.
Thomas Todd: Something happens when we look at the law, right?
Thomas Todd: It becomes a mirror.
Thomas Todd: And when we honestly look at the mirror, we don't see ourselves looking more like Jesus.
Thomas Todd: We begin to see our sin.
Thomas Todd: The commandment says you shall have no other gods, and we realize we put other things in God's place.
Thomas Todd: The commandment says you shall not covet, and we realize, hey, sometimes what we don't have controls us more than what we do have.
Thomas Todd: The law exposes us, and that's good news because the law isn't saying, hey, you're bad, try harder.
Thomas Todd: It is saying you're enslaved and you need a savior to rescue you.
Thomas Todd: That's what the law is supposed to do.
Thomas Todd: It reveals God's righteousness, but it also reveals our unrighteousness.
Thomas Todd: It shows us the standard, and then it shows us how we fall far, far short from that standard.
Thomas Todd: So if you're here today and you're thinking, hey, basically, I'm a good person.
Thomas Todd: Deuteronomy 5 says, hey, look again.
Thomas Todd: If you're thinking, I'm not as bad as those people, the law says, hey, look at God, not your neighbor.
Thomas Todd: Right?
Thomas Todd: August the 30th, 1991, Mike Powell, he set an all-time long jump record, 29 feet four and a quarter inches.
Thomas Todd: Like, wow.
Thomas Todd: That's impressive.
Thomas Todd: Mike Powell, if he compares himself to me, he wins every time.
Thomas Todd: If I get two feet, I'm going to be pretty happy, right?
Thomas Todd: But if Mike Powell and I are both lined up at the Grand Canyon and we're long jumping the Grand Canyon, we both fail.
Thomas Todd: Ross Edgeley, he swam 1,780 miles around Great Britain in 157 days.
Thomas Todd: If he compares himself to me, he's winning that swimming race every day.
Thomas Todd: Like I'm not even going to get in the water.
Thomas Todd: Have fun.
Thomas Todd: But if he and I both are going to swim across the Atlantic, guess what?
Thomas Todd: We both lose.
Thomas Todd: Listen, it doesn't matter how moral you are.
Thomas Todd: If you measure your moral life against the law, you lose.
Thomas Todd: And if you're thinking, hey, I'll just try harder.
Thomas Todd: The law says you don't need merely more effort, you need a savior.
Thomas Todd: The law diagnoses the disease.
Thomas Todd: Christ provides the cure.
Thomas Todd: The Ten Commandments show us the righteousness then of Christ imputed to us.
Thomas Todd: And this is where things start to get, as Ben would say, gospel, right?
Thomas Todd: Jesus doesn't simply show us what righteousness looks like, Jesus gives his righteousness to people who don't have it.
Thomas Todd: Paul said, Romans 10, 4, Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes.
Thomas Todd: Jesus didn't come because we'd gotten close enough.
Thomas Todd: He came because we had no chance of getting there.
Thomas Todd: So here's the beautiful exchange.
Thomas Todd: He gets our sin, we get his righteousness.
Thomas Todd: He gets our guilt, we get his obedience.
Thomas Todd: He gets our condemnation, we get his acceptance.
Thomas Todd: The law says, hey, this is the righteousness God requires.
Thomas Todd: And the gospel says, hey, Christ has accomplished it for you.
Thomas Todd: This means when God looks at you, Christian, he doesn't see someone who finally managed to do enough, to be enough, to be good enough.
Thomas Todd: He sees someone who is covered in the righteousness of Christ.
Thomas Todd: See your identity isn't something you have to manufacture.
Thomas Todd: Your righteousness isn't something you have to achieve.
Thomas Todd: Your acceptance isn't something you have to earn.
Thomas Todd: It's received by faith.
Thomas Todd: And listen, that's what changes how you live.
Thomas Todd: Because now you don't obey God to become his child, you obey God because you already are his child.
Thomas Todd: And the law is a great and good gift for you, the best way for us to live.
Thomas Todd: Towards the end of chapter 5, probably where we'll get to next week, verse 33 points directly to this.
Thomas Todd: See, God's law is for our good and for God's glory.
Thomas Todd: And some of you might hear all this and say, listen, if Christ has done everything for me, then why do I need to obey?
Thomas Todd: And that's really the right question.
Thomas Todd: Now, parents with your kids in here, you might say, Thomas, stop, don't do that.
Thomas Todd: The answer is, listen, because grace doesn't eliminate obedience.
Thomas Todd: Grace transforms obedience.
Thomas Todd: We don't obey to earn God's love, we obey because we have received God's love.
Thomas Todd: We don't obey to become free, we obey because Christ has made us free.
Thomas Todd: How is the gospel reordering our lives?
Thomas Todd: Remember the foundation to this.
Thomas Todd: I am the Lord, verse 6, I'm the Lord your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery.
Thomas Todd: God rescues, then says, Hey, live this way.
Thomas Todd: Grace precedes obedience.
Thomas Todd: So when God says, have no other gods, the Christian can say, Hey, God, you've rescued me.
Thomas Todd: I don't want to give my heart to things that used to enslave me.
Thomas Todd: When God says, hey, don't covet, the Christian can say, Hey, Christ is enough.
Thomas Todd: I don't need to possess everything that I've been programmed to believe that will make me happy.
Thomas Todd: God says, keep the Sabbath, the Christian says, I don't have to prove my worth through endless productivity.
Thomas Todd: Christ has already finished the work.
Thomas Todd: Obedience becomes gratitude, not payment, not performance, not self-salvation, but gratitude.
Thomas Todd: That's what redeemed people do.
Thomas Todd: They listen to their redeemer and they live like they are free.
Thomas Todd: Remember Jed, the man who couldn't stop working, the man who built his identity around achievement.
Thomas Todd: What does Jed need?
Thomas Todd: He doesn't merely need someone to tell him, hey, work less.
Thomas Todd: He needs something much deeper.
Thomas Todd: He needs to know I don't have to earn my worth.
Thomas Todd: Why?
Thomas Todd: Because Christ has given him a better righteousness.
Thomas Todd: He doesn't need his career to tell him he's significant.
Thomas Todd: Christ has already called him his own.
Thomas Todd: He doesn't need money to tell him he's secure.
Thomas Todd: Christ is his security.
Thomas Todd: He doesn't need people's approval to tell him he's valuable.
Thomas Todd: The Father has already declared his love for him in Christ.
Thomas Todd: And now Jed can work differently.
Thomas Todd: He can work hard without worshiping work.
Thomas Todd: Because his identity is no longer something he has to achieve, it's something he has received.
Thomas Todd: And maybe that's what Deuteronomy 5 is asking us this morning.
Thomas Todd: Not simply, are you keeping the commandments?
Thomas Todd: But what are you looking to to give you only what God can give you?
Thomas Todd: What are you trusting to tell you you are enough?
Thomas Todd: You are safe.
Thomas Todd: You are significant.
Thomas Todd: You can finally rest.
Thomas Todd: What are we hearing?
Thomas Todd: More bricks, less straw.
Thomas Todd: You know, you can get Israel out of Egypt, but it's really difficult to get Egypt out of Israel.
Thomas Todd: We might be physically free while still living like we are enslaved to something.
Thomas Todd: Still trying to prove ourselves, still trying to win or earn approval.
Thomas Todd: Jesus comes and says, listen, you don't have to do that anymore.
Thomas Todd: Christ has given you his spirit to begin creating in you the heart that you could never create in yourself.
Thomas Todd: And because the Son has set you free, you can finally stop trying to prove yourself.
Thomas Todd: You can rest, you can love, you can obey, you can finally live like you are free.
Thomas Todd: Pray with me.
Thomas Todd: Father, thank you that in Christ we are no longer slaves.
Thomas Todd: Thank you that Jesus lived the righteous life we could never live, died the death we deserved, and rose to give us new life.
Thomas Todd: Father, help us to stop looking to created things for what only you can give.
Thomas Todd: Give us hearts that love you, that trust you, that obey you.
Thomas Todd: Not to earn your love, but because we have already received your love in Christ.
Thomas Todd: By your spirit, help us to live like we are free this morning.
Thomas Todd: In Jesus' name, amen.
Thomas Todd: How is the gospel?