January 8 Sermon: God Spoke

In the midst of all of the other things that we have going on this morning, here we are starting off to look at the 10 Commandments. This is a perfect opportunity for us to be looking at the introduction to the 10 Commandments because we do have so much else going on. Now, the sermon is going to be a little bit shorter. Here's the deal. You got to promise not to be extra grumpy this afternoon because your nap was shorter. But we do have work to do. We do have to proclaim the word of God. We have to look at what holy scripture has to tell us here. Now, as we come to the Ten Commandments, we are going to be taking a look at what it is that these commands are. What is it that we have as an expectation in the commands of Holy scripture and in the commands of the Ten Commandments? Well, we have decided, or I have decided, that what we're going to be looking at today is this theme that God spoke.

That is what we have. What we see here is that God is the one who is speaking these things. We understand this not only for these 10 Commandments. We understand that God spoke as we think about all of scripture. This is not a book that is simply the book of collected opinions of people like any other book. This is not a book of philosophy. This is a book in which God spoke to his people, and it's the book in which God speaks to us that we might hear and believe the gospel, that we might be brought to life by the power of the Holy Spirit. As we come to these first two verses, this is the focus that we're going to have as we start. Because what we see as we consider this is that if God is speaking, then perhaps we should pay attention. If God is speaking, then it is important for us. Now, we live in a time where as we look around the world, as we look everywhere that we turn, you could say that there are moments of or there are places of crisis everywhere. We see, as we look here, that this is now God speaking.

If there is a crisis, well, God is going to speak to it. Now, what is some of the things that are a crisis for us? I would argue our struggle is that we don't know who God is, and so therefore we don't know who we are. We don't know how we are to relate to the world because we don't know how we are to relate to God, and we don't know how we are to relate to our neighbor. It's a crisis of anthropology. I never would have thought I'd ever have to say the sentence, but it is in a world that is filled with technology and distance. For me to say this, it's very true, and you'll know what I mean, but I didn't think I'd ever have to say this. We don't really know how to define what it means to be human anymore. We really don't. Even if we were to define it, we would say that it's arbitrary, that I have autonomy, that no one is over me. I make the laws, I make the rules. We struggle to define things in the world. We struggle to have anything because how we define all of this stuff is arbitrary.

It is random, and what ensues from that can be rather chaotic. That's the crisis in which we live. We don't understand what it means to be human because we don't understand how to relate to God and how to relate to our neighbor. As we look through the 10 commandments, we're going to be talking about what the commandments not only are individually, but how they're grouped collectively. Now, we have what's called the two tables of the law, or the two tablets of the law. Now, I asked one of the students to come up and explain this because when the elders interviewed this student, she very well explained what the two tablet... I gave away that it's a girl, so I shortened it a little bit, but I was going to try and just use gender neutral language there so nobody would feel like it was singled out. But they're sitting right up close, they very easily could have come and explain the two tablets. But because it's my job, I'm not going to put that burden on any of these wonderful students. But there's two tables of the law. The first one, the first table of the law shows our duty to God.

What we have is we have the first four commandments. We have, you shall have no other gods before me. You shall not make an idol. You should not take the Lord's name in vain. You shall remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy. All of those show our duty to God, how we relate to God. We're going to look at this. We're going to see that with the first commandment, we come to understand who we worship. In the second commandment, we come to understand how we should worship. In the third commandment, we see how we are to revere the name of God, how we are to speak about God, how we are not to speak falsely about God. Then in the fourth commandment, we see how and when, not how, but when we are to worship God. That is the first table of the law, our duty to God. Then we come to the second table. This shows our duty to man. Again, I feel that this helps us greatly understanding who we are, where we're going, what our purpose is. If we understand our duty to God, we can then understand our duty to other humans.

Well, in the sixth commandment or in the fifth commandment, we see how we are to respect each other when we're told to honor our father and our mother. With the sixth commandment, you shall not murder. We come to understand how we are to respect life. When we come to the seventh commandment, you shall not commit adultery. We understand faithfulfulness and purity in that command. We understand not only how we relate to each other, but also this idea of purity towards God and respecting what He gives us. We also see how we're to respect people's property. With the eighth commandment, you shall not steal, and the importance of truth when we are not to lie, we're not to bear false witness. We also see in the 10th commandment, with you shall not covet, we also see how we are to respect and honor what God has blessed us with. We see in the Ten Commandments not only the duty that we have to God, but we also see how we are to relate to each other. We understand who God is and what He has given us and how we are to respond then. That's an important part of this is the response.

We're going to get to that at the end. But the other thing that we're going to be looking at week in and week out is something that is known as the three uses of the law. Now, I'm sure a lot of my catechism students are probably like, We have heard this so many times. Between the two tables of the law and the three uses of the law, again, I won't ask them to come give the sermon because I know that they don't want to, but I'm sure their memories are perfect on this. But we're going to review it anyway. Is that okay, guys? Okay, good. All right. We have the three uses of the law. Now, this is not unique to me. In fact, here I'm going to be referencing specifically from Martin Luther's shorter catechism or small catechism, and talking about that. What I like about the way Luther breaks these down in the small catechism is that he not only gives us what these are, but he gives us an image. Now, I don't know about you, but images help me remember stuff. The reason I am able to tell you what the Ten Commandments are without looking at what they are is 'cause I have my fingers that I haven't memorized.

You guys probably most of you remember that too. I use the fingers as I was going through what's the eighth commandment? I was doing actions with my hand. Images help me a lot to remember things. We're going to have some images here to go along tous to remember the three uses as we go through the Ten Commandments. The first use of the law is to keep the world from being overwhelmed with chaos. In other words, it's a curb. God's law shows us how to live. It shows us how to interact with culture. It shows us how to interact with our neighbor. It shows us this. Now, Luther, or the Luther small catechism, would have used the word of curb. Now, I'm guessing in the 16th century, they didn't have the nice curbs like we have now on the side of the road, concrete. I'm sure they didn't have that. But I want you to picture that when you remember the first use of the law, because what does a curb do? It helps keep us on the road, doesn't it? It defines where the road is. If we run into the curb, what do we do?

Do we go, Oh, I'm going to go over that bad boy and create chaos? No. We bump into it and we know we got to get back into the middle of the road. The first use of the law is a curb. It helps us know what culture should look like, where we should go, how we interact with each other. That is important because if we go outside of what God has prescribed and in how humans are to interact with each other, we do end up with chaos. We don't know how to define things, and we see a lot of that in the world as we look at it today. The second use of the law then is to accuse us and show us our sin. Or, as I like to say it, Luther said it someplace else in the... I can't remember where, but he said to shut our mouths. The law shuts our mouths. It accuses us. We look at the law of God and we go, Yeah, I'm guilty. I am not perfect. I am not holy before a righteous God. He has called me to do these things, but I violate every one of these commands every day, whether it's in my actions or whether it's in my thoughts.

We see that we are guilty before God, and so it's a mirror. That's the image we're going to use. It's a mirror. If you've ever been really dirty, you can wipe yourself off a little bit, and you think, Yeah, I'm clean. But once you step in front of a mirror, what do you usually see when you're really dirty? You didn't get none of it. Maybe your glasses are cleaned up a few spots on your face, but when you stand in front of a mirror, you truly understand that you need to be cleaned. That's the image that we have here. The second use of the law, we're going to see that in when we look at the different laws, especially when we come to discuss how Jesus talked about the law in the sermon on the mount. It really truly is a mirror for us. Then the final use of the law, the third use of the law, the image that we are going to be using there is the small catechism from Luther calls it a guide, but I want us to have in our minds a map. We have a curb, we have a mirror, and we have a map.

The map is to help us understand, as those who have been saved by the grace of God that we now have a guide on how we are to live a life before God that is holy, that is set apart. That's an important thing with the law of God. This is showing us how we are to respond to the grace that God has shown us. As we look at verse three or verse two here, we see this third use in this. Notice what it says. It says, I am the Lord your God. God identifies Himself in who He is. He is the Lord. He is the preeminent. He is the one who in and of Himself has all being and self-exists, and I am your God. But He also tells them what He did before He gives the law. He brought them out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery. He has taken them and He has set them free. Then what does He do? He gives them the law. He did not give the law in Egypt. He did not say, You know, you people are messed up, but if you can do these 10 things, I'll get you out of Egypt.

That's not what happened. The people that are receiving this law, this good law from God, are a people who've already been redeemed, have already been brought out of slavery. They've been bought back and freed from slavery. You and I are just like that because you and I have been bought. We have been redeemed by the blood of Jesus, and we have been set free. We have been brought out of Egypt. We've been brought out of slavery. We come to the law of God and we understand that it is good and that it shows us how we should live in gratitude for what God has done to save us in Christ. Now, as reformed folk, we get this or we should get this better than anybody because we have the Hidalberg Catechism. We know the three categories of the Hidalberg Catechism. We are miserable, our misery, our guilt before God. We understand that. That's the first part of the Catechism. The second part, we have our deliverance or the salvation, the grace that we've been shown by God. Then in the third part, we have gratitude. We respond in gratitude for what God has done to save us in Christ.

Now, I'm going to put one more image in your head to drive this point home. You'll notice we had a curb, we had a mirror, we had a map. You'll notice there is not a ladder in there. There is not a ladder because the 10 commandments are not a means by which you climb to God. The 10 commandments are not a means by which you merit righteousness before God. They are not the way in which you bring salvation to yourself. There is not a ladder in my images because God is the one who comes to us. In his mercy and in his grace, he comes down to us and he rescues us. He comes to us and brings us out of Egypt, out of slavery, out of bondage. He sets you and I free. He comes to us. As we come to the 10 commandments, as we go to them to consider them going forward, it is so important to remember this truth that we're not going to understand these laws. We're not going to get them if we think that they merit righteousness for us. We're just not going to get it. We're going to think that this is something that we can get up on and we can move higher to God instead of understanding that we have been set free to do these things, to love God and love our neighbor.

Because we are Christians, because we have been saved by His grace, we are now free to keep the law. We don't do it to merit anything for ourselves or to get points. Instead, we are free to love God and to love our neighbor. We are truly, truly free to worship Him, as He has called us to worship Him, and to love our neighbor as He has called us to do because the grace that has been shown to us. As we are gathered here today and as we are considering what these commands are, we see a beautiful reminder of the grace of what I've just said, set before us. Because the meal that we participate in today is a reminder that my body was not broken, that my blood was not shed. But this is a covenant meal, a covenant meal for the covenant people of God who have been rescued. As we come to the commandments, may we always remember what is set before us here, that God, in His mercy, has set us free to love Him and to love our neighbor. It's my prayer for you. It's my prayer for us that as we take this meal today, that as we remember the grace of God, we would desire to leave here showing others the love of God by loving our neighbors, that Christ might be glorified in all that we do because of who He is and what He has done to rescue His covenant people.

This message was delivered on January 8, 2023 by Pastor Mark Groen at First Reformed Church in Edgerton, MN. First Reformed is a congregation in the Evangelical Presbyterian Church.