So Great a Deliverance Part 2

All right, good evening, guys, back in Exodus. So let's turn to Exodus will be in chapter 19, and we will be skipping around several places as usual. Went ahead and put the message title and the points. Major truths up there tonight, so you can go ahead and take a look at that as you are finding your place in scripture at Exodus, chapter 19. We are in part two. Of our series Exodus, redemption, deliverance and worship, so we're talking about deliverance. The message title tonight is from Pharaoh to Covenant. As we look at the Lord's deliverance of his people out of Egypt and into.

The Covenant, they became a covenant people, and we'll look at what that means tonight. I'll start in verses one, chapter 19, and I'll go all the way through verses nine. So a good portion of scripture and we'll be reading some more, but this is important to set us up. So in the third month, on the same day of the month that the Israelites had left the land of Egypt, they entered the wilderness of Sinai after they departed from Rephidim, they entered the wilderness of Sinai and camped in the wilderness and Israel camped there in front of the mountain. Moses went up the mountain to God. The Lord called to him from the mountain.

This is what you must say to the house of Jacob and explain to the Israelites. You have seen what I did to the Egyptians and how I carried you on eagles wings. And brought you to me. Now, if you will listen to me and carefully keep my covenant, you will be my own possession out of all the people's. Although all the earth is mine, you will be my kingdom of priests and my holy nation. These are the words that you are to say to the Israelites. So after after Moses came back, he summoned the elders, the people and set before them all the words that the Lord had commanded him. Then all the people responded together.

We will do all that the Lord has spoken. So Moses brought the people's words back to the Lord. The Lord said to Moses, I am going to come to you in a dense cloud so that the people will hear when I speak with you and will always believe you. Amen. Let me say a prayer as we begin. Father, tonight, as we look at. This awesome picture of God descending on a mountain to give the Ten Commandments to his covenant people. Father, we humbly come before you in desperate need. Or we as a people come before you. Having nothing but the blood of Christ. Nothing but your spirit leading us to the wilderness of our Christian faith. Resting on.

The covenant that you delivered us into God, we thank we thankfully come before you to worship and to receive your word, we ask for grace and mercy and ask for your presence with us in this time. We need you, we love you. It's in your holy name, we pray. Amen. So we see deliverance tonight from a tyranny, a tyrannous slave master, a cruel task master in Pharaoh to a loving master. Exodus 1513 is our theme verse, and I won't read it because we've read it several times. But this tells us that the Lord has led his people. To redemption through his steadfast love. Israel was purchased to God by the blood of the lamb.

We see this as representative of their purchase being purchased by Christ on the cross. And they were delivered in power. God in his mighty hand delivered his people. So God delivered them into the desert. We learned last week that the wilderness will teach us many lessons and our Christian journey can be compared to this wilderness time where although we may find trial and tragedy and difficulty, we can never grumble. And here God is also delivering Israel to Mount Sinai to give them his holy law. Now, he's not only giving his law to the Israelites. It's important to know that Mount Sinai is not located in the promised land.

So many scholars suggest that this is actually God giving the Ten Commandments to all people. Scripture tells us that the law of God has been written on the heart of every man. So this was the law specifically through Israel and not only to Israel. Now Mount Sinai is about 150 miles from Egypt. It's taken them two months to get here. But they would remain at Sinai for about 11 years. So the first point of truth I want you to see is that there was a duty of this deliverance. There was a duty of deliverance. So God redeemed the people of Israel from a cruel slave master. But make no mistake about it, he still intended to be Lord of them.

He did not deliver them from Pharaoh to allow them to rule themselves because mankind needs to be led. So this duty of deliverance, I want you to see that the Lord, as Jesus said, so appropriately that my yoke is easy. My burden is light. I think we'll see tonight as we look at the Ten Commandments, this is actually for our good as we begin to follow the Lord's leadership. This is a blessing to us, and I think we'll see. I want you to see that they were delivered to serve. Israelite people in this duty of deliverance. The first point, I think it's important for us to see they were delivered to serve. They were at Mount Sinai for a reason.

When they arrived at the wilderness of Sinai, God calls Moses up as we've just read. And this is a very monumental time for Moses because God has brought him full circle. If you've been reading and studying this great book this summer, you'll note that in Exodus chapter three, Mount Sinai was the place where Moses was tending his sheep when he saw the burning bush. He's actually on Mount Sinai. Let me read Exodus three verses 10 through 11. If you if you want to go back and read that study this some more, we have the sermons available.

I can give you notes, but God says Moses says Exodus chapter three verse 10 come at this point, God is speaking to him. Come, I will send you to Pharaoh that you may bring my people, the children of Israel out of Egypt. But Moses said to God, who am I that I should go to Pharaoh and bring the children of Israel out of Egypt? He said, but I will be with you and this shall be the sign for you that I have sent you when you have brought the people out of Egypt. You shall serve God on this mountain. Moses expressed doubt that he was not up to the task and to remove this fear, God tells him I'm going to give you a sign.

I'm going to successfully use you to deliver my people out of Egyptian bondage, and we're going to bring them right back to where you are right now. So this is about a year and two months from the time that Moses was called. Clearly under 18 months and Moses is exactly in the same spot in his life has been. Remarkably changed from this time. But if you go back and you look at what God tells Moses in Exodus three, what does he say? He says. This is a sign for you in verse 12, I will be with you. This is the sign that I have sent you when you have brought the people out of Egypt, you will serve God on this mountain.

It's important for you to know that that was not just a word of encouragement from Moses, but it was a word to tell him that this was a to be a covenant people who were here delivered to serve God. If you've been delivered out of the bondage of your sin, if you've been born again, you are delivered to serve God and you can learn a lot about service of God through this passage. I also love how God undoubtedly would have reminded Moses of this time. He probably would have been ascending the mountain to get the law of God. And on his journey up the mountain, he remembered the voice of God.

Have you had that moment where after your conversion, you have this moment where God just reminds you of a time where he clearly spoke to you from his word was a point at which you changed? He changed your life. There's a point at which he created faith in your heart and you could go back to that moment. This was that monumental time for him. They were delivered to serve, but they were also delivered for gratitude. Let's look in chapter 19 of Exodus in verse three.

While Moses went up to God, the Lord called him out of the mountain, saying, thus you shall say to the house of Jacob and tell the people of Israel, you yourselves have seen what I did to the Egyptians and how I bore you on eagle's wings and brought you to myself. So God instructs Moses to tell them God is going to give you the law. Remember what he did for you. I love that imagery. I bore you on eagles wings. When we are in the desert wilderness of our Christian journey, the Lord will always press upon us his law and the motivation for obeying God has to be thankfulness and gratitude. Obedience to the Lord is not a have to.

Obedience to the Lord is not begrudging. It is not laborious. And if we're always anchored in what he has done for us personally in our conversion, then we will have the motivation to obey him. This is also gratitude because God's love is unmerited. We love God because he first loved us. So the Israelites were delivered to serve. They were delivered for gratitude and they were delivered for faithfulness. The entire nation of Israel stands prepared to receive the law at Mount Sinai. They officially become a theocracy. If you've never heard of this term, you probably understand our government is a democracy in theory.

Our government is also we're familiar with monarchy being ruled by a king. But Israel was a theocracy, meaning they were to be led by God. And on Mount Sinai, you can think of this as their their constitution. This would have been the ratification of their governmental legislative documents. In fact, every covenant in the Old Testament was always solidified with a meal. And after the Lord gives this covenant, he takes Moses and Joshua and the elders along with Aaron, the priest, and they had a meal in the presence of the Lord. And so they were delivered to faithfully execute this covenant. The purpose of this covenant.

They were delivered to be set apart. Let's read Exodus chapter 19, verse eight. Exodus chapter 19, verse eight. Now, therefore, if you will obey my voice indeed and keep my covenant, then you shall be a peculiar treasure unto me above all people. From among all people on the earth and you shall be a kingdom of priests and a holy nation. So they were delivered not just to save them out of bondage. God saves you not just to save you from hell. He saves you to serve and to be grateful and to work faithfully and to be set apart. God desired them to be a peculiar nation. Now, what does that mean?

Now, Peter uses the same sentiment in first Peter chapter two, verses nine, when he calls the church a chosen generation or an elect race. There's also this phrase, a peculiar treasure. It's the idea of the Lord saying, Israel, you are my jewel. You are my jewelry. You are my expensive, ornamented, priceless jewelry. And all the people answered together. And they that all the Lord hath spoken, we will do. They responded through Moses and they said, we will obey God. This is their covenant. This is their agreement. But I think it becomes apparent that they so little understood their own human nature.

This is similar to a person who makes a commitment to Christ without counting the cost. The Israelite people believe that they could keep this command. And as we're going to learn the commandments of God, no man has kept them except for Christ. So I want us to turn to our second major truth tonight as we begin to unpack the Ten Commandments. We see this duty of deliverance. They were delivered for something, right? They were delivered to serve and for gratitude and for for faithfulness and to be set apart. But the Ten Commandments can be divided into two different segments, if you will. The first four comprise of our duty to God.

You could say the commandments one through four represent our duty to God. The six that follow represent our duty to man. So our second major truth tonight or duty to God, we're going to unpack the first four commandments. And it becomes evident as we study all of scripture. That the first four commandments have to be practiced if we're going to faithfully obey the last six. Let's read what Jesus said, because Jesus was the master teacher. Some Pharisees were attempting to trap him. Matthew, twenty two verses thirty four to forty, I would invite you to turn there your copy of God's word.

Jesus will actually show us how to study the Ten Commandments and how to benefit from them. Matthew, chapter twenty two verses thirty four to forty. But when the Pharisees heard that he had silenced the Sadducees, they came together and one of them, a lawyer, asked him a question to test him. Verse thirty six teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the law? And he said to him, you shall love the Lord God with all your heart and with all your soul, with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it. You shall love your neighbor as yourself on these two commandments depend all the law and the prophets.

Now notice Jesus puts the first four commandments ahead of the other six in saying you shall love the Lord God with all your heart, your soul and your mind. The first four commandments deal with our love for God. You think of the first four commandments as showing us how well we love God. We can't treat our fellow man correctly if we don't have the first four commandments down. Jesus is not saying that the last six commandments are less important, but it's really it's a matter of. Precedent, we have to have the precedent that God is first and foremost in our life.

So I want us simply to take each of these four commandments as we look at at our duty to God, the first commandment. Now, remember, at this point, the Israelites want to leave this for you to study. If you're reading in Exodus, 19 and 20 at this point, they come to the very foot of the mountain. God tells them. The elders to set up barrier stones, they are not to cross this barrier. Moses ascends the mountain and God descends in a cloud of smoke and it is terrifying. It is the very manifest presence of God. He is writing these commandments on stone tablets with his finger.

And the Israelites had made this comment, we're going to obey anything you say, and then God shows up. They're terrified. And the very first commandment, God says, thou shall have no other gods before me. We are also commanded here to have no other gods beside him. Now, as we we step away from that for a second, I want you to think of Satan's greatest strategy. If he can't get the people of God. To abandon him completely at first, what he will do is he will simply have the people of God set up something equal to God.

In fact, if you go through the Israelites history, they almost rarely abandon God totally, and they usually added God along with something else. So it was the worship of Jehovah and then Molech. Followed oftentimes, Molech worship would follow intermarriage with pagan wives. And if it wasn't Molech, it was Astaroth. If it wasn't Astaroth, it was Balaam. It was Baal. I'm afraid Satan is attempting to do the same thing in the church of God today, as we can see that other things in addition to Christ. Can compete for the glory of Christ. The second commandment. Thou shall not make any graven image.

I shall not bow down thyself to them nor serve them. The heart of God is is pained when the honor do him is given to objects created by man. When his glory is given to another. Now, Isaiah forty two eight. Talks about how God is deeply hurt when the glory that is due him is exchanged. We give the glory to him to something else. Reading this commandment this week brings to mind Jeremiah, chapter two, verse 13. For my people have committed to evils. They have forsaken me the fountain of living water. And they have hewed out cisterns for themselves, broken cisterns that can hold no water.

If you think of this picture, the Israelites are in the desert wilderness. Frequently, they would know thirst. We studied last week how they grumbled upon upon the presence of being thirsty. If they came to a stream that was bitter like Mara or Maribah, they would grumble. But Jesus has the sentiment in the New Testament as what Jeremiah is saying in the Old Testament, that it's not only did they forsake the most precious of living waters, God himself. But they dog wells that can't give anything. It's this picture of Israelites in the desert.

Abandoning this wonderful well of life satisfying water and then building a well that's nothing but dirt and the whole nation running after wells and cisterns. That give no satisfaction. In our day, we can forsake the living water by fashioning idols that give us nothing. This could be worldliness, but it could also be religious idols. Anything and everything can form substitutes as we simply give our hearts affections to things other than Christ. This week, I would challenge you to simply pray and ask the Lord to examine and evaluate your Christianity. Is anything of your Christianity grabbing more of your heart's passion than Christ?

It is a sad thing to find a Christianity where Christ is not our supreme joy and our supreme passion. The third commandment. Thou shalt not thou shalt not take the name of the Lord by God in vain. Scholars say this is not just a prohibition against profanity. You know, I think all of us would agree. Not using the name of the Lord's the Lord's name as a cuss word that is clearly using his name in vain, but this also was a prohibition against perjury. So just as today, people may lay their hand on the Bible as swearing an oath in court.

This would they would perjure themselves, a, by lying in court, but B, more importantly, they would violate this commandment. Leviticus, 1912 specifically says that calling upon the names, the Lord's name for an oath and swearing upon him falsely and taking his name in vain was a grievous sin. The name of the Lord is not just the title. The name represents the totality of God's character. The Hebrews would actually revere God's name so much that they would never spell his name completely. So Jehovah, if you take Jehovah without the vowel sounds, they would, it would be a Yahweh.

Most commonly, they would refer to God simply his name as the name. In essence, they were saying we worship the name. We worship the totality of God's character. So time when a person's character meant everything to them and the reputation mattered. Wondering if those days are are long gone. This takes us to our fourth commandment. Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy. This is the formal enactment of a commandment that already existed. You might remember last week we learned that they they tested God because God had told them when he gave them manna after their grumbling not to collect it on the Sabbath.

Men did collect or attempt to collect on the Sabbath and it grieved the Lord. So this commandment had been in Israel for several months. But the fact that the Lord says it again, it's an official ratification. It's an official document. It's an official covenant. And the Sabbath was a sign of the covenant. If you go to places like Exodus 31, 13, Ezekiel 20, 12 and 20. Scripture tells us that they would be known as a people who had a holy day. So they would be known by a sign of the Abrahamic covenant, which was circumcision. But they also would have been known by the sign of this covenant, the cyanatic covenant.

That's just a fancy way to talk about the covenant at Mount Sinai, cyanatic. And so the sign of the cyanatic covenant would have been the observance of the Sabbath day. And so it is. That Jesus was Lord of the Sabbath, Mark, chapter two, verses twenty three and all the way through Mark three, verse six. The Pharisees totally missed the boat. Brother Chris preaching through the Sermon on the Mount has addressed this more than thoroughly, but they were totally missing the point because they were observance. In fact, they had the Talmud, which was a huge book, which gave instructions on how to keep the Sabbath.

And Jesus, the Lord of the Sabbath was manifested to them and they totally missed him. We can do the same if we come to church and observe. The Lord's day, the Sabbath for them was the last day of the week, Saturday at Jesus Christ resurrection. The Christian church adopted Sunday, the first day of the week, because we commemorate his resurrection. We could celebrate the Lord's day. We may have certain convictions about how to honor this and we could still totally not honor this commandment because the scripture says, remember the Sabbath day. And keep it holy.

This is a challenge for us that our Sunday and our worship on the Lord's day ought to be the highest day of the week. We have taught about this. We have actually recommended honoring the Lord's day in such a way that you start changing things on Saturday. Brother Chris preached on this, he said, you know, maybe to honor the Lord's day for you, maybe you'd you go see relative Saturday and not Sunday. Or maybe you cut off the television after a certain time on Saturday so you can get rest so that you can be prepared. Maybe for you, honoring the Lord's day is ironing your clothes so you're not so stressed out early Sunday morning.

And this may be different, but the bottom line is we can honor the Lord not just in our actions, but in our heart. And we'll do this if we devote ourselves to the obeying of the word that's preached. Not just coming to church. So this leads us to our duty to man. Our third major truth, we see our duty of deliverance, we see our duty to God and thirdly, we will see our duty to man. So in the last six commandments that were given. The first you will know is honor thy father and thy mother. Right on the right off the bat, the sixth commandment is one of authority.

You can tell a lot about a Christian by how they submit to authority, and this really begins in childhood. Scripture says this is the first commandment with a promise. And again, Jesus in dealing with this commandment specifically in the Sermon on the Mount had to rebuke the Pharisees sharply. You're familiar with this passage. They basically created law to allow them to neglect their parents. So say you have a Pharisee who didn't want to spend his money to take care of his parents. He could say, well, this money is devoted to the Lord. It's Corbin. That word Corbin means it is devoted to the Lord. They basically were saying this.

We're so spiritual that we can neglect our parents and be right with God. And Jesus rebuked them sharply. And we read the whole witness of God, the whole counsel of God's word. Scripture tells us that he who neglects the needs of his family. It's worse than an infidel. A person who neglects the needs of his parents. In their latter years or a person who does not give them the honor and the respect due to them, Scripture tells us specifically if they're in need. That they're worse than an infidel. Sadly, I've known ministers like this. I've known wolves like this who would neglect the needs of their family.

Under the God, the the guys of being religious. And Jesus is the best picture of this, of honoring his mother. And he looks to John the Baptist and says, son, behold your mother and looks at his mother and says, behold, mother, your son. You know, Jesus had other brothers. James eventually would become a leader of the Jerusalem church. But we believe that at the time of his crucifixion, James had not yet come to faith. In Christ, his half brother, his earthly brother. And you would think, why did Jesus not look at James and say, brother, take care of mom, Jesus being the first born logically, it would have been to someone like James.

And I think it's important that we see that Jesus gives. Honor to his mother so much that he gives his mother to the church. I would hope that each of us in our last days. To make sure our relatives are cared for, that we we could look to our church members as people who are going to set a godly example. Do you have such a relationship with people in this church that you would entrust your family with them? I think that's the picture that we see with John the Baptist and Jesus. This was his best friend. This was the person, the disciple that whom he loved. It was his only disciple to stay with him.

John the Baptist, excuse me, John the Apostle clearly would have had a relationship with Mary. I think it's a beautiful picture. We can best honor our mother and our father if we are connected with our local church. Moving on to the sixth commandment, thou shalt not kill. I think we all get it that we're not supposed to act violently on people. But actually, Jesus always was raising the standard with the Pharisees and brother Chris has been preaching on this. For about 18 months, but when he preached on this, he he wonderfully outlined this idea that when we have ought in our hearts towards people, Scripture says we are murderous.

When we have anger or hatred, even resentment, even bitterness towards a person that we're murdering them. And by that standard, Christ's standard, we are all murderers in need of his grace. And you can see how the commandments lay on top of each other. They serve as as a foundation for each other. As we move to the seventh commandment, thou shall not commit adultery. Again, Jesus, the Sermon of the Mount, raises the standard at looking lustfully upon a woman. But I also think of adultery oftentimes beginning not in an adulterous relationship, it usually begins a lot earlier than that. I think it usually begins with covetousness.

So I will get to you in a minute, but I want us to sort of springboard on what we learned last week about grumbling in the desert. If we fail to learn our lessons from the desert, all of our relationships will be in jeopardy, but especially our marriages. I have a pastor friend who preaches a message and he talks about the sin of unmet expectations. And our marriages, especially if we have expectations that others did not meet. At that point, many times people will begin grumbling in their spirit, people will begin to hold bitterness.

Spiritually, you could say they begin to murder their spouse in their in their spirit because their unmet expectations. Are perceived to be as rights. If we do not learn from the schoolmaster of the desert wilderness, we can be blinded by this type of grumbling in our marriage relationships, especially. I do think the principle, though, applies to any relationship. You ever feel like you're not given what is owed to you in a relationship? You ever feel like you're not listened to or validated or appreciated? I use this illustration a lot, but at our youth camp, I counsel the young man. His complaint against his youth group was.

I have a problem with my youth group. They don't appreciate what I bring to the table. This is a sin of unmet expectations, is it not? It's a person who's mad because nobody sees how awesome they are. And this could be a cancer in marriage primarily, but in secondary sense, it could be a cancer in our relationships. So the law speaks to our Christianity very well. Leads us to the eighth commandment thou shall not steal. You know, this defends the right to private property. We are in a day where we're talking about wealth redistribution. We're talking about illegitimate wealth. But you notice that God says, do not steal.

This is an implicit understanding that people will have private property. This also means others may have more property than you and you don't have the right to take it, not to God. I was reading a commentary that I've been reading quite frequently in studying of this. It's been very useful and very refreshing to me. It was written decades ago. His name was Erdmann. And listen to what he says. So I want to preface that with it's totally outside of the context of what we're talking about in our news today. But it was written decades ago and it's timeless.

But he says this Marxist ideologies would have us to believe that private property is itself evil. And I add to that that liberal Christian theologians would also agree. But why would God command his children not to steal if it's a sin to own property? He says it's not a sin to own property. If you look at the New Testament in Acts chapter two, it says that everyone considered his own goods not to belong to himself. That really should be taken as a spirit of generosity. That if someone had a need that people were willingly giving their things, but it was not a top down approach saying give us your stuff and we will redistribute it.

The ninth commandment thou shall not bear false witness against thy neighbor. This communicates that God values your reputation. Why would God in the ninth commandment forbid you from speaking evil of people? He cares about reputation. God values your reputation so much. In fact, deacons and elders in the book of Timothy must be a man of good reputation among outsiders. Do you realize a person could work their whole life to create a solid reputation only to have you destroy it in a matter of seconds? It is a noble thing for people to strive to have a good reputation among outsiders and with one faulty statement, you could tear it all down.

And all you would have to do really is to create some doubt in the minds as to whether or not this person is trustworthy. Now, the commandment itself speaks to bearing witness to someone in court. You would think of someone being called as a witness in a court, perhaps a character witness. If that person bears false witness, you could see how grievous of a sin this would be. Now, this takes us to the tenth commandment thou shall not covet. This sin lies at the heart of many, many evils.

You can think of it as the most searching of all commandments commentators might say, because it deals with thought and motive and it leads to basically all other sins. What did the mixed multitude going out with Egypt, with Israel? What did they say? Oh, would we be back in Egypt where we had pots of meat? They started coveting the things that other people had in the region, specifically things they used to enjoy before they were delivered by the Lord. And it is a spirit of covetousness, this idea of entitlement, wanting what other people have. Also, wanting what you feel you are owed.

Paul, in Romans seven seven, is in a moment of transparency, he actually speaks to covetousness and he actually gives us a hint that maybe he struggled with this. Romans seven seven. I want to read this. What then shall we say that the law is sin by no means? Yet if it had not been for the law, I would not have known sin. Now, here's his example. I would not have known what it is to covet if the law had not said you shall not covet. And listen to verse eight. But sin seizing an opportunity through the commandment produced in me all kinds of covetousness. What is what is he saying?

He's saying I wouldn't know that I was coveting if the law didn't tell me not to. But when the law tells me not to, I realize it's all in my life. That sounds like a man who knows that sin. And if we're honest, we all know that sin. And in my fourth major truth, this will be something of a conclusion. I do want to wrap up this. This section of the Ten Commandments, the Israelites were delivered. With a duty to serve. And after the Ten Commandments, the Lord. Basically ascended and he but he ceased talking to the people. And at that moment, they actually ran to Moses and they begged Moses to tell God never to speak to them like that again.

It was so terrifying, the voice of God. They said, tell God to tell you what we need to hear and we'll just listen to you. It's a shame that we can only receive so much of God. In many cases, I heard a pastor say one time you get as much as God as you want. But in many cases. They couldn't handle it. This is a picture for us of Christ. Christ ever liveth to make intercession for us. But we are given a duty to serve. We are delivered with a duty to serve. If you look in Chapter 20, verses 18 to 23 following the Ten Commandments. The people were filled with such fear. I think it's important to note that we should serve God with a holy fear.

But they also were to serve him with diligence. So in addition to the. What we call the moral law, the Ten Commandments, there's also the Mosaic law. Now, the Mosaic law was given Chapter 20, verses 23 to 26. This gave us everything from how we should worship. Right, we should worship with reverence and propriety, said there were certain places where you shouldn't worship certain places. It was OK to worship. In the Mosaic law, there's also. Prohibitions against man stealing. This is what we would call today human trafficking. This was always sinful. Now, various forms of slavery were allowed.

You can think and I tell my sociology classes that there was no such thing as the IRS, so if you didn't pay your debts, you could become a slave. There was no such thing as. Federal penitentiary, so if you stole something, you could become a slave. Most cases, if you stole something, you'd have to pay back one to four times the amount, depending on how much you stole the Zacchaeus. When he comes to faith in Christ, he says, if I've stolen anything, I'll give it back four times. He was saying I'm the worst kind of thief. And this is based on the Mosaic law.

There were three offenses punishable by death, murder, kidnapping and cursing one's parents. If you struck or cursed your parents, you could be stoned to death. There are cities of refuge. If you unintentionally hurt someone, killed them. There were laws of compensation, eye for an eye, tooth for tooth. That's all in the Mosaic law. You hear scripture talking about the law of Moses. So we had a duty to serve with fear and to serve with diligence, but also to serve with justice. If we stay anchored in this loving God above all and loving people. Above ourselves. Then we will satisfy these. Commandments. There were laws concerning.

Witchcraft oppression of foreigners and widows. And also circulating false reports. If you went to someone in court and you knew they were bearing a false witness and you joined with them, you were guilty as well. Again, this was ratified with a covenant meal. So as we conclude, I want to go back to what Paul said. And I simply want to conclude with his words in Romans, chapter seven. Listen to what he says. There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, for the law of the spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death.

For God has done with a law weakened by the flesh could not do by sending his own son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin. He condemned sin in the flesh in order that the righteous requirement of a law might be fulfilled in us who walk not according to the flesh, but according to the spirit. This is what Paul says. You've blown it. You have been murderous in your heart. You have coveted the Bible says if you've broken one commandment, you've broken them all. And we stand before God is bankrupt. And the law was given as a schoolmaster to show us that we needed a mediator.

We needed a mediator who would not shrink in the fear of God's holiness because he's God and he's man. And Jesus stands as your mediator. He stands in between the father and he would intercede for you even now. My challenge for you is that you go back and study this and study the commandments. You would ask the Lord to show you sins of the heart. Whether this be a grumbling spirit or covetous spirit. There are any spirits in your any sins in your heart that would hinder relationships among those that you love. Let's pray in this time and ask the Lord to be with us through this week. Ask the Lord to do this great work in us.