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Okay. Well, what I wanted to start with this morning was just saying that it's often easy for us to see foolishness in other people but not see it in ourselves. I don't know if you guys agree with that statement, but as I get older, I feel like that's becoming more and more true to me. It's easy for me to look at somebody and say, that's that's silly, and not realize that I'm I'm being I'm the silly one myself. Does that make sense? Those one of those moments where you're like, uh-huh, and then you're like, oh, the joke's actually on me. Okay? I was thinking about this whole thought and how often that's the perspective we have, and I was taken to the Princess Bride. Has everybody here seen The Princess Bride? Yes, okay, good, good, good, good. I want to just remind you of a scene from that movie that I think this depicts this problem beautifully. There's the uh one of the villains in the movie, his name's Bissini, and he's meant to have this brilliant mind, okay? That's his that's his talent. He's got this brilliant mind, and he challenges the hero of the story to a battle of wits. And here's the guy, if you if you're struggling to remember, he's the short guy who says, inconceivable. You know, you know the guy I'm talking about? That's the guy. Anyway, okay. So they're having, was that a good impersonation? That was my best attempt, okay. So they're having this battle of the wits over who what they're gonna drink. There's poison in one of the cups, and they're battling to figure out who, you know, where the poison is. He makes a last-minute switch, and they both drink their cups, and then you guys, if you've seen them, maybe remember the scene because he's like, ha ha ha, and then it's laughing, laughing, laughing, and then he falls over dead. Okay? And I feel like that's a beautiful picture of the way that we often approach the text, especially with the people of Israel, because we look at them as foolish, not realizing that the folly is also in our heart that they have. Does that make sense? I want you guys to hear this this morning before we jump into the story of Exodus. I want to challenge you and challenge myself to approach the text in an attitude of humility this morning, because oftentimes we read the story of the people of Israel and we're like, these people are ridiculous. Like, we have the we have the gift of perspective. We can see the history and what happened before and afterwards. They didn't have that, and they made decisions that would represent humanity. And I feel like as humans, we need to look at them as equals and not be in a place of judgment. Does that make sense? So, what I want you guys to do is as we talk through this story and as we look at the people of Israel, I really challenge you to look at them as people like us. People who struggle in believing God's promises, people who struggle in believing that God's real, people who want to worship other things. Because that's much like us. And let's not judge them as we read through the text. Okay, so let's pick up the story where Nick left it off last week. If you haven't got your Bibles, I'd encourage you to grab one in front of you. Um, there should be one near you that looks sort of like this. If you don't own a Bible, you can take this one home as a gift if you promise to read it, okay? So uh that's our gift to you. Grab a Bible, Exodus chapter 1 is where we're starting. That would be a good place to start, right? And that's on page 35, if that helps you if you have this Bible. Okay? So page 35, Exodus chapter 1, verse 6 is where we're starting from. And I just encourage you to keep a thumb in the Bible today, because we'll be kind of jumping around the book of Exodus this morning. So Exodus 1, verse 6 says this. Then Joseph, that was the last person we talked about, and all his brothers, and all that generation died. But the Israelites were fruitful, increasing rapidly, multiplied, and became extremely numerous, so that the land was filled with them. A new king who had not known Joseph came to power in Egypt. He said to the people, Look, the Israelite people are more numerous and more powerful than we are. Let us deal shrewdly with them, otherwise they will multiply further, and if war breaks out, they will join our enemies, fight against us, and leave the country. So the Egyptians assigned taskmasters over the Israelites to oppress them with forced labor. Okay, so you see what's happening here. Time goes by, the Israelite people grow very quickly, God blesses them, and the Egyptians get scared of them and decide to make them into manual labor, forced labor, they they force them into slavery. And so this is where the story picks up. From the time of Joseph to the time of Moses, who's the character we're about to talk about, is about 400 years, if that helps you in thinking, okay? So 400-year gap, all this is taking place. And if you were to read on in the text, you'd discover that not only does Pharaoh start to make them slaves, he gets even more scared of them and starts a genocide against them. He basically starts killing all the first, all the males that are born to the Israelite ladies. Okay? So it's pretty extreme circumstances that we come into the story. And because of this decree that Pharaoh's instigated, where all these babies are being killed, Moses' parents, they have him as a baby, see that he's a beautiful little boy, and decide, we're gonna try and keep this little life alive. And so what they do is they get together and they make a little basket out of reeds and put it in the bank of the Nile, and his little sister, or his older sister, is gonna look over the basket and watch him during the day, and that way they can keep him hidden from the Egyptians. So Moses is our key figure. I'm just gonna put up a slide here, and we're going to see, there's a fill-in-in-blank in your notes if you're taking notes. Would encourage that, helps you remember things. Through Moses, God is what what we're gonna see is that through Moses, God delivers the Hebrew people from slavery in Egypt and gives them the law. So again, through Moses, God delivers the Hebrew people from slavery in Egypt, then gives them the law. And this story goes on through Exodus. So about Exodus 1 through 18, you're gonna see this story taking place, okay? So what happens is he's in the bank of the Nile there, in the reed basket, and Pharaoh's daughter comes down to bathe with her maidservants. She hears a baby crying, goes to investigate, and sees baby Moses, falls in love with him, decides she wants to keep him. And so what happens next is Miriam, the little sister, sees what's happening and says, Would you like me to find a Hebrew lady to nurse this baby? And brings his mother into the scene. So Moses is nursed by his mother, and then at a certain age is given over to Pharaoh's daughter to be raised as an Egyptian, as a prince of Egypt. That's where the movie title comes from, okay? So Moses is raised in Egyptian royalty, living in the lap of luxury, while his people are in slavery. And I think there was probably some tension there because the next thing we find out is many years later, Moses is out as an adult watching what's going on with the Israelites, and he sees an Egyptian beating an Israelite, and he steps in to help out and ends up killing the Egyptian. He figures out what he's done is pretty bad, and that Pharaoh's angry with him, and he takes off. He runs, he flees the country as a fugitive, as a murderer, and leaves that country and heads out across the desert, across the wilderness, to a place called Midian, where he runs into a family, a family of shepherds, and ends up marrying into the family. And as he marries into the family, he starts his own family there. He has a couple of sons and he becomes a shepherd. So it's like uh it's like he's off on witness protection or something in this in this separate land, is uh Moses living this life. So the first 40 years of his life, he lives in Egypt as a prince, and then the next 40 years, what what we're hearing about now, he lives as a shepherd out in the desert. Okay? So meanwhile, back at the ranch, I want to read to you what I think is very interesting that's going on for the people of Israel. I think this text is very significant. It's in Exodus 2, I'm just gonna pull it up here for you. Exodus 2, verse 23. Let me read it for you. It says this. After a long time, so Moses is off doing the shepherd thing, after a long time, the king of Egypt died. The Israelites groaned because of their difficult labor, and they cried out, and their cry for help ascended to God because of their difficult labor. So God heard their groaning and he remembered his covenant with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. That's their forefathers, okay? God saw the Israelites and he took notice. The reason I want us to pause here at this part of the text because I think it's a significant part of the story. I think it's really significant for us to see that right here at the start of the Bible, God is already reminding us that he is a God who is near. He is not a God who is distant. There are people out there who believe that God may have created the world, but he kind of set it in motion and then left it to be. But that's not who the Bible tells us God is. The text is telling us, I'll read it for you again, God saw the Israelites just like he sees you, and he took notice. And so I just want to encourage you today, if you're in a spot where you're going through a hard time, or if you're in a spot where you're there's things that you don't understand why God would allow those to happen, I just want to encourage you that God takes notice, that he hears you, he understands where you're at this morning. And I think it would be wrong for us to just cruise over that verse without noticing that God is a God who is active, living, and a part of our lives. The Bible tells us that he knows the very hairs on our head. He knows more about us than we do. Which I find great comfort in that, and I hope that you do today as well. So God notices what's going on with the people, and he decides that it's time that he intervenes. And so he comes to Moses as Moses is out being a shepherd, and he comes to him in a burning bush. Okay? There's this supernatural act that happens. There is Moses comes upon this bush that is on fire, but it isn't being consumed by the fire. And he knows that isn't right. He steps closer to figure out what's going on, and he has a divine encounter with God. He has this interaction with God where God tells him who he is, and he tells him, hey, I'm calling you out to lead my people out of slavery. It's a great interaction, great dialogue. I'd encourage you to read it sometime this week. Exodus 3 is where that's found. So they have this interaction back and forth, and what happens is Moses says, You know, I'm not a very good speaker, I don't know if I want to do this, and God says, No, no, I've chosen you, I've called you. But I'll send your brother with you who will help speak with you. And here are some miracles that you can use to prove that I'm the one sending you, that I am the true God, and that I'm sending you to set my people free. So Moses agrees, he takes his family and heads back to Egypt. And on his way back to Egypt, he runs into his brother, his long-lost brother Aaron, and they get together and start to make a plan as to what's going to happen. They get back to Israel and they get the people together and say, God has told us that he's going to lead us out of this slavery. And they say, Okay, yep, sounds good. He goes to Pharaoh and says, Hey, would you let the people go with me out into the desert so we can worship our God together? And Moses, uh, sorry, Pharaoh says, uh, no. And because you're just even thinking about it, obviously you're not working hard enough. So I'm going to increase your workload. So he oppresses them even further. And the people come to Moses and say, Moses, why did you do that? Our workload's even harder. We cannot bear what the f what the Pharaoh and the Egyptians are pushing down on us. This is too much for us to bear. And so Moses cries out to God and says, God, what do you want to do? And what ensues next is very interesting. There are ten plagues that come on the people that lived in the land there in Egypt. And you can see the ten plagues here on the screen represented. I'm not going to go in detail through all of them, but I'll just give you the pattern of what happens. What happens is a plague would come. God would say, go send Moses to Pharaoh and say, hey, I'm going to do this plague. For example, he said, I'm going to turn the Nile into blood. And so the Nile was a god that they worshiped, the Egyptians worshiped. And he said, I'm going to prove that I'm God, and that this God that they worship is not God. And in fact, each of these ten things are gods that the Egyptians worship. They were polytheists, meaning that they worship many different gods. So each of these represent a god that they worship. And so he would go, and like, like I said, the the river, he said, I'm going to turn the river into blood. God's going to turn the river into blood. Pharaoh says, Okay, whatever. Let's see it. And uh God does the miracle, and it really impacts their culture and their society. Their society kind of shuts down with each of these, which with each of these plagues. And Pharaoh comes to Moses and says, Okay, okay, ask God to take it away, and we can talk about you guys going out into the wilderness. And uh then God takes the plague away, and Pharaoh says, No, I've decided that you're gonna stay here. You're gonna stay put. And so this happens ten times, over and over and over again. But what I want to talk to you guys about specifically is the tenth plague today. The last God that God wanted to assert his authority over and show that he was supreme over was Pharaoh himself. Egyptians in their culture worshiped Pharaoh himself. He was one of their many gods that they worshiped. And as God was gonna assert his authority over them, what he wanted to do was to um to he was gonna send an angel of darkness over the land, and that angel was gonna take the lives of every firstborn male, whether it was livestock or families, okay? So Moses knows that this is about to happen. He gets the people of Israel together to tell them what's about to happen. By the way, up to this point, none of these plagues affected the Israelite people. It miraculously separated them off where they lived from all of the things, the gnats, the flies, um, the livestock that got killed, all these things. But God tells Moses, okay, what's going to happen is this angel of darkness, this angel of death is going to come over the land, and what you need to do is you as households, the Israelites' households, need to get together and they need to slay, they need to kill a young, innocent animal like a sheep, and take its blood and put it over the doorposts of your home. And when the angel of darkness, the angel of death, passes over your home, that's where the word Passover comes from. They still celebrate the Passover in the Jewish faith. This angel of death will pass over you and see the blood and move on and leave your family alone. Does that make sense? It's uh I know it's kind of a weird and crazy story, but this really happened, okay? So they, the Israelite people took this blood and put it over the post of their hearts. Now, what I want you guys to see, I think is quite incredible. Look with me. We're like only a few pages into the Bible, right? In the scheme of things, we're just a few pages in and this story's happening. This is a beautiful illustration already of the gospel. It's amazing because what it's showing us already is that blood had to be shed for us to be passed over for the death that we deserve. Does that make sense? And so this is symbolic. This is hugely symbolic. I some of you, most of you may have already heard that Jesus is often referred to as the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. And just like they had to put the blood of these innocent animals over the doorpost of their house, we have to put the blood of Jesus over our hearts symbolically. I mean, I'm obviously not talking literally, but it symbolizes what happens in our hearts. When we ask Jesus to forgive us of our sins, we're asking him to put his blood, his righteousness, so that when death comes to us, it passes over us, and we can have eternal life with him. John 3.16 says, God so loved the world that he gave his only son that whoever believes in him should not perish, but have eternal life. Does that make sense? You guys see the symbolism here today? Okay, good. So what happens is the Israelites follow the instructions, obviously the Egyptians do not, and as this angel of death comes over the land, there's a great moaning, there's a great cry out as all these people perish. It's a really sad moment. And Pharaoh's son himself dies, the heir to the throne dies. And Pharaoh comes to Moses and says, Go, just get out of here. So the people of Israel are finally freed to leave the land. And so they're freed to head out, and as they're heading out, actually, uh the Egyptians bless them by giving them gifts and say, Go, go, go, get out of here. Here's some of our gold, here's some of our possessions for you guys to take with you. Just get out of here so that we'll be free from these plagues. I want to read to you what happens next in the text. Exodus 13. Flip over a few pages with me. Exodus 13. I think it's verse 17. Let me just look here. Exodus 13, verse 17. I want to read to you how God leads them out of the land. Okay. You guys sticking with me? I know we're going through a lot of stuff quickly. Okay. Exodus 13, 17 says this. When Pharaoh let the people go, God did not lead them along the road to the land of the Philistines, even though it was nearby. For God said the people will change their minds and return to Egypt if they face war. So he led the people around towards the Red Seed along the road of the wilderness, and the Israelites left the land of Egypt in battle formation. Okay, so this is kind of an interesting text. I'm going to get Aaron to, I mean, I'm going to get Shane, not Aaron, to put up the uh slide here for us on the screen to show you. The quickest route from Egypt up to the Promised Land would have been just straight up the side there. Have you got the next map slide up there, Shane? Sorry. Okay, yeah, so that would have been the quickest route, would have been just straight up the side there. They could have gone straight to the promised land. But God says the people aren't ready for that. They're not ready for war. They're not ready to face this. So he leads them down towards the Red Sea instead, which is kind of strange. The other strange thing you want to see in the text here is that they were led out in battle formation, but God's saying they're not ready for war. And I think that's just a great indicator, again, that often we feel like, you know, we got it all together. But God knows our true hearts, what's going on on the inside. Does that make sense? Okay. So he leads them down towards the Red Sea. When they get to the Red Sea, they're camped there in the Red Sea. Well, not in the Red Sea, beside the Red Sea. And there's a couple of mountains on either side. So they've got the Red Sea behind them, mountains on either side, and the desert back out towards Egypt. In this moment, Pharaoh realizes, hey, all my slaves are gone. What am I going to do to rebuild my land? And he changes his heart and heads out after them with the army to bring them back to slavery. And they see Pharaoh's army headed towards them and they freak out. The people of Israel freak out and they say, Moses, why did you bring us out here? Were there not enough graves in Egypt to hold us all? We're going to die here in the desert. Would have been better if we stayed in Egypt. And Moses says, Hush. Watch and see what God does. And as God instructs him, he turns around and lifts up his hands, and the sea parts miraculously. You guys have probably heard this story. It's interesting to me that the text says that they walked through, not on like sloppy wet ground, but on dry ground. I mean, this is a crazy miracle. The walls of the oceans are pulled back either side, and they walk through on dry ground. They come out the other side, and as they come out the other side of the sea, the Egyptians follow them down into the sea, and God tells Moses to drop his hands. He drops his hands, and the waters rush in back over the Egyptian army and destroy all of them. And again, we're going to look at our Bibles. I want you to see Exodus chapter 14 and see the response of the Israelites. Exodus 14, 31 gives us their response. When Israel saw the great power that the Lord used against the Egyptians, the people feared the Lord and believed in him and his servant Moses. The Red Sea was a conversion moment for the people of Israel. It was like the aha moment, the moment when they finally said, Yes, we believe in God. Yes, we believe that he is true. They'd seen all the plagues, they'd seen all the miracles, but it was here at the Red Sea that they finally said, Yes, we believe that this is our God and that Moses is his chosen leader. So with that decision made, they head down south back towards Mount Sinai. So that he takes them down to Mount Sinai to receive the law. Okay? So as they head down there, they are going to meet with God there. And this is kind of an interesting moment because they're supposed to have this interaction with God where God's going to give them the law and he's going to teach them all these things. And as God comes to them, it's crazy. Like if you read about it in the story, there's smoke, there's fire, there's like the earth is shaking. And as he comes to give them the law, they get freaked out. And they say to Moses, hey, Moses, why don't you talk to God for us? Why don't you mediate for us so that we don't have to interact with God face to face with us? Because we don't know if we can withstand all this craziness. Like it's pretty intense meeting with God. And so Moses says, okay, I'll do that. He agrees to that. God agrees to that. Moses goes up the mountain to continue to receive the law from God. And as he's up there, he's up there quite a long time, a number of days, and the Israelites get freaked out and start to wonder, okay, well, maybe Moses is dead. Do you think Moses is dead? Maybe he's dead. And so they're there trying to figure out what to do. They decide they're going to make their own God. And you guys have probably heard the story, but there's the story here where they build a golden calf and they start to worship it in a totally pagan and wild style. Like, I mean, crazy. We won't go into details here, but it was like pagan worship, okay? And God's up on the mountain with Moses and says, hey, Moses, you've got to go down and deal with what's going on down there. So Moses heads back down the mountain early with the ten commandments written on stone that God's given him, that God's written on these commandments himself. And he has these with him. He comes down to the camp and sees what's going on. And in his anger, in his frustration, he breaks, he throws them down, and they shatter there at the base of the mountain. And again, this is super symbolic. I believe it's super symbolic because it shows us that even though these people had just received the law, they'd already broken the law. The breaking of the Ten Commandments was symbolic of what was going on. They'd broken the commandments. They already had another God. The first commandment to have no other gods before me, they'd already made another God. And so right there at the start, they'd already broken the Ten Commandments. Do you see that in the text? Kind of interesting. Okay. I'm going to put a pause on our story here. By the way, there were consequences for their actions there, and God dealt with them in that moment. I'm going to put a pause on story mode and talk about the law for a second. Can we do that? It's not super exciting, I know, but the law is what covers the next parts of the Bible. There's many, many chapters that talk about the law, especially in Leviticus and then Deuteronomy. The word Deuteronomy simply means the second law. So they received all this law in Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and then God gives it to them again. He reminds them of it again in Deuteronomy, okay? So let's talk about the law for a second, because I think it's important for us to understand. Okay, what is this law? Why is it in the Bible? Sometimes you talk to people about the Bible and they believe it's just this book full of rules. And a lot of that comes from this law that's written in the Bible. And the reason they believe that is because we've got the Ten Commandments, most of you know that. But I didn't know. As I was doing some research this week, I found out that in the Bible, there are in this Old Testament law, there are 613 laws. That's a lot of laws, right? A lot of things that the people were instructed to keep. And so I think it's important for us to ask the question of ourselves today, as people who believe in Jesus, as New Testament believers, as Christians, how do we approach the law? Because if I was to ask this question today, I think some of you would say, Well, we don't have to keep the law anymore because we've got Jesus. And I'd say, yeah, but what about laws like love the Lord your God and worship nobody else? Or what about the law, do not murder? You know, that's a pretty good law to keep anyway, right? Right? Yes, good law? Okay. So that doesn't really make sense to say we abolish the law because there are certain laws that continue to be good to keep. Yes? Well, then some of you would maybe say, hey, well, maybe we need to keep the whole law. Well, if we were to try and do that, some of you are already laughing because you know some of the laws that are in there, okay? What about the laws about shellfish? You're not allowed to eat lobster anymore, you're not allowed to eat bacon anymore, you're not allowed to wear uh shirts that have mixtures of fabrics in them. Polyester and cotton. None of those, you know. So do we go through and and and keep all of those? Well, that's interesting too, because then you're kind of like, okay, we're keeping some and we're leaving others. One, two, pick a few, keep that one, ditch that one, you know, going through the law. We can't do that with the Bible, right? We can't approach the Bible and be scattered in what we believe and what we don't believe. I mean, the Bible is true or it's not. I believe the Bible is true. And that everything written in here is true. Okay? So how do we resolve this tension? And that's what I want to talk about. And I just need you to stick with me here for the next few few minutes as we talk about this. First thing I want you to see is that Matthew chapter 5, verse 17, Jesus says about himself that he didn't come to abolish the law or to take away the law, but to fulfill the law, okay? So Jesus himself is saying, I didn't come to cross off certain laws or all of the law. I came to fulfill the law. Then Romans 10, verse 4, it says that Christ is the end of the law. So by fulfilling the law, Christ ends the law. Now, again, I I this may be confusing to you, but I think there's a beautiful illustration that's kind of given in the book of Galatians. And it uses the illustration as the law being a teacher or being school, okay? So let's stick with that illustration for a few minutes here, and I'll try and explain what I believe the law is called to be. If the law is like a teacher, if the law is like school, school is an interesting thing. School is good, school is helpful. Now, some of you in college may not agree with this, but school is good, school is helpful, but thankfully, praise Jesus, school is not forever, right? Amen. Okay. So school is not forever. And I believe that the law is very similar in that, in some regards that. Let me explain. When I was in high school, there were certain laws, if we keep the illustration going, there were certain laws that I had to adhere to, that I had to follow. There was things like classes that I had to take to be able to graduate. There were ways I had to behave. I wasn't allowed to talk back to teachers, wasn't allowed to park in the teacher's parking lot, I wasn't allowed to murder on campus, um, I wasn't allowed to steal things, I wasn't allowed to smoke, especially indoors, I wasn't allowed to smoke on campus. Um, you know, there was all these laws that I had to fulfill while I was in school. Everybody agree with that? Understand that? Okay. So, but there came a time, thankfully, when I met all of the requirements, I'd done all of the requirements where I was able to say, here's my report card, here's my transcript, I'm ready to graduate. And when I graduated from school, I was free, that's the key word, I was free from the rules and the laws that had held me in school. I didn't have to take those classes anymore. I didn't have to get certain grades, I didn't have to worry about talking back to teachers anymore. Now there were certain rules that I that applied there that still applied. I wasn't allowed to steal all of a sudden. I wasn't allowed to murder or smoke inside. You know, those rules still applied. So there were certain rules that still transferred over, but there were certain rules that I was free from. Does that make sense? Okay? So, what I want you guys to see in this illustration is that Jesus is the guy, the key to this whole illustration. And it works like this. As a Christian, I believe that Jesus was God's Son. He came and lived a perfect life and then died like the innocent animals. He died for my sin as an innocent person and covered my sin. And how it works is like this. It's like I come to the law, and there's certain requirements of me to fulfill the law that I can never, ever, ever meet. Even if I tried. If I was a very good person, I could never meet all of those requirements of the law. But what he does, what Jesus does, it's like he comes and he gives me his transcript. He gives me his report card, and I hand that in to God, and I am free from that law. Does that make sense? It's like uh I take his, I still, not still, but I take his righteousness as my own. And that's what gives me freedom from the law, to graduate from the law. But there's certain things that still apply. I still still need to remember to love God and love him first and foremost. No other gods. I need to continue to not murder, I need to not commit adultery, I need to not steal. Those are things, good things that I need to continue to do. But some of these ceremonial things I don't need to worry about anymore. I don't need to keep these festivals to keep clean. I don't need to keep uh I don't need to worry about the fabrics that I wear or the foods that I eat, because I have freedom in Jesus. Does that make sense? I know that took a minute, but I just want you guys to see that the law is still important, it's still truth, but it's fulfilled for me as a Christian, somebody who believes in Jesus, through Jesus. Does that make sense? Okay, I think we can move on. So, a couple of things to note here too. When we read the law, if you were to read through the book of Leviticus, there are three categories that you can put the law into if this is helpful. The first is moral law, second is civil law, third is ceremonial law. Moral law is simply things like do not murder, steal, commit adultery, those sort of things. The civil law is about property and marriage, those sort of things. The ceremonial laws are like the sacrificial laws, the dietary laws, the festivals that the Jews would keep. And so as you read through, it may be helpful for you to kind of categorize these things into these categories. Okay, so ultimate, I want to talk about the ultimate purpose of the law for New Testament believers, just to kind of wrap up our conversation of the law. The first thing is for us to be aware of is that the law serves a purpose in that it gives us a knowledge of sin. Romans 3 verse 20 says that no one is justified by the law, it gives knowledge of sin. So all the law does is create the need. It doesn't answer the need, sadly. Does that make sense? It creates the need and then kind of leaves you in this tension of needing Jesus. Secondly, it reveals God's righteousness. Romans 7 verse 12 tells us that the law is holy, just, and good, just like God is holy, just, and good. Okay? So somebody has to pay for your sin. Somebody has to deal with your sin. And both those things, the knowledge of sin and the revelation of God's righteousness, lead us to the third thing, the most important thing, is that it leads us to Jesus. Galatians 3 is huge on this. Let me read for you, verse 24 through 26. The law then was our guardian or teacher until Christ, so that we could be justified by faith. But since that faith has come, we are no longer under a guardian, but you are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus. Amen, right? We're free from the law because of Jesus' sacrifice. Well, I want to tell you the rest of the story out from here to take us up to where we're going next week. So stick with me for just another minute. Back in on the story, the people of Israel set up camp at Mount Sinai. They received the law, they set up a tabernacle and a sacrificing system, and they get all set up as a nation, okay? After a little while, God takes them up north towards the promised land. You'll see the map here. It takes them back up north towards the promised land, and they get to the border of the promised land to a place called Kadesh Baniah, which simply means the place of rebellion against God, okay? So they get up to this place, and the reason this place is called the place of rebellion is because of what happens next. They get up to the border, Moses gets twelve of the leaders of the people to go in and spy out the land. And they come back with this report. The 12 guys come back and say, Man, this place is lush. It's beautiful, much better than the desert where we've been hanging out. There were these amazing grapes. It tells us in the text that there was a bunch of grapes that took two men to carry bait back. I can't really even picture that, but it sounds incredible to me. Must have been like oranges on this grapevine. Anyway, so they come back with this report. They say also, though, that the people there are like giants. They're very vigorous, and that they're gonna crush us like grasshoppers. That's the words they use. They'll crush us like grasshoppers. So they're totally freaked out, except for two of the spies, Joshua and Caleb. And Joshua and Caleb say, no, no, no, no, no, wait. God's done all these miracles. He can take us into the promised land. If that's what he wants, he's gonna do it. And the people listen to the ten spies rather than the two spies. And a big cry goes out from the people. They say, Moses, Moses, Aaron, why did you bring us out into the desert? They decide they're gonna kill Moses and Aaron in this moment. They say it would have been better for us to be slaves in Egypt again. And God intervenes and he says, I'm gonna have to do something about your sin, your lack of faith. This is what's gonna happen. None of you men are gonna get to live, walk into the promised land. All of you are gonna die out here in the desert. So what happens after the rebellion is they wander in the desert for the next 40 years. It's a really sad story. They go around in circles, around and around, for 40 years until every male over 20, except for Caleb and Joshua, die. God gives them supernatural life. They all die off. And what happens is as they die off, eventually Moses leads them after the 40 years back up to the border again and gets them ready to enter into the promised land. But God says, Moses, you're not gonna get to lead the people into the promised land. You yourself have struggled with some some sin and disobedience towards me, and because of that, I'm not gonna let you take the people into the promised land. And he takes Moses aside, and Moses died. And I think it's really great for us to see here at this point. I know it's kind of a sad ending to the story today, but I think it's good for us to see at this point that as much as Moses was a shadow of what was to come in Jesus, the perfect leader, he wasn't able to lead the people into the promised land. And that just shows us that there's no human, there's nobody who is able to take you into the promised land in that you were not able to get freedom through anybody except Jesus. He is the ultimate and perfect leader. Does that make sense? Okay. So a couple of things in wrapping up that I want you guys to see today. I just want to summarize the significance of this part of the Bible. Because I know we've talked about a lot of different things. I know we've covered a lot of ground today, but the question for you is, what does this mean? What is God saying to you today? And I want you to ask that question, especially as we sing these next few songs here in a minute. I want you to ask the question, hey, what is God saying to me today out of this crazy story found in Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy? The first thing that I think is significant for us to notice is that we need God's deliverance. We all need God's deliverance. In case you didn't realize it, all of us at some point are or have been in bondage and slavery to sin. All of us. I believe that that's true of everybody who walks the face of the earth. The Bible tells us that nobody is righteous, not even one. And that's why we need Jesus. The second thing that I want you to see today is that our good deeds always fall short. The law shows us that we can never measure up to the law. And so if you think by being a good person or living a good life, or some of you maybe even think, I'm going to believe in Jesus plus I'm going to do these things, your righteousness is never going to meet up to the standard that it's meant to, okay? So hear that today. Third thing I want you to see is that blessed people, this is the one that's really hitting me hard. Blessed people still rebel. That's really impacting me as I've prepared this this week because it reminds me that I feel like God's really blessed my life. I really do. But it reminds me that I have a simple heart, just like the people of Israel, and my heart can quickly turn. And it reminds me that I need to continue to preach the gospel to myself. That's a phrase we use around here from time to time. I need to preach the gospel to myself and remind myself that it's only through Jesus that I have anything that is good. It's only through him. And so maybe some of you today need to remind yourself that it's through Jesus, not through X, Y, or Z, whatever you're putting your hope, your faith, and your trust in. And finally, I want to just remind you that we all have consequences of our sin this side of the promised land. Just like the people of Israel, just like Moses, he had consequences for his sin. Now God is ready and able to forgive any sin. Let me make sure you hear me say that, that God is able to forgive any sin. But there are consequences for our actions. And we have to oftentimes live and deal with those things. But God is able to help us with those things. So I don't know what it is that you need to kind of focus in on today and just say, you know, God's really saying this to me, or I I want to research this more, or I want to talk about this more. But I just want to encourage you guys to to be real with God today and say, God, what is it that you're saying to me today?