The God Who Is There | Part 4 | The God Who Legislates

hello I'm Don Carson this is the fourth in a series of 14 talks surveying a lot of what the Bible is about when people have lived under a decaying political regime characterized by increasing anarchy and its accompanying violence unpredictability and injustice what they begin to long for is structure law and order accountability and the reliability of institutions made possible by wise legislation many centuries after Abraham died his heirs called Israelites were constituted a small nation at the eastern end of the Mediterranean Sea how God brought about this result according to the Bible is full of interest and surprise but one huge part of these developments was the law that God laid down in other words God has presented not only as the Creator not only is the God who in Mercy did not wipe out his rebels but as the God who legislates to be frank many people today are repulsed by this depiction of God surely they say this exposes any religion based on the Bible as a wretched straightjacket God is in the miserable business of thundering no and thou shalt not and spoiling all our fun but for the next few minutes I'm asking you to think hard about law in the Bible you may begin to look at what God has commanded with new eyes last night session one the God who made everything session to the God who did not wipe out rebels session three the God who writes his own agreements with an introduction to what the Bible means by covenants and this morning the God who legislates I suspected one of the most common objections against Christians and against Christianity in the West today is that Christians are intrinsically narrow and bigoted they hold that certain things are true and certain things are not true they distinguish between heresy and orthodoxy they have their own rules of conduct of morality some things they approve and some things they disapprove this is arrogant it is divisive instead of building up Civic community and establishing a genuinely tolerant society it has the inevitable result of proving divisive and for those who are brought up in some of the most of the strongest postmodern trends under the influence let's say of Michel Foucault then all claims to speak the truth are really claims to power their forms of manipulation instead of fostering freedom they merely engender constraint and yet when you look at the claims on the surface they are problematic no community is completely inclusive Tim Keller in New York likes to give this example supposing you have a gay lesbian transgender committee working in some big city working at inclusiveness they get along pretty well together and they're trying to strengthen their hand and then let us suppose that one of their number comes to one of the committee meetings one day and says you know this has been embarrassing but I've had this this strange religious experience I met this odd bunch of people late they're Christians and and my whole life has been changed I just don't view things the same way I'm I'm not convinced anymore that that homosexuality is merely an alternative lifestyle and the others say to him well we think that you're dead wrong on that but but you're welcome to your views we still want to cherish you and then as the week's go by the tensions build up because they're heading in different directions there that they have different values that they're espousing until eventually the people on the committee say to this committee member you know you you really don't espouse our views anymore you're heading in another direction your your perceptions of right and wrong are different from our perceptions of right and wrong we're not sure that you belong in this committee anymore we think there would be a good thing for you to resign they have just engaged in excommunication do you see it is impossible to be completely endlessly open because even that very endless openness is predicated on the assumption that that endless openness is a good thing such that if somebody then begins to say it's not a good thing to be endlessly open they feel they have to reject that person precisely because they cannot be endlessly open to the person who does not have their view of being endlessly open in other words in a finite world in any community there are inevitably boundaries there are inevitably inclusions and exclusions moreover even appeal to truth is inevitable in an earlier generation often truth was analyzed to death under the rubric of psychiatry and psychology that's changing again now a generation ago the popular lyricist and a Russell took the mickey out of this me generation with its forms of explaining away all strange behavior I went to a psychiatrist to be psychoanalyzed to find out why I killed the cat and blacked my husband's eyes he laid me on a downy coach to see what he could find and here is what he dredged up from my subconscious mind when I was one my mummy hid my dolly in a trunk and so it follows naturally that I am always drunk when I was two I saw my father kissed the maid one day and that is why I suffer now from kleptomania at 3:00 I had the feeling of ambivalence toward my brothers and so it follows naturally I poison all my lovers but I am happy now I've learned the lesson this is taught that everything I do that's wrong is someone else's fault that was a generation ago now we handle things just a wee bit differently now we say that truth is shaped by community the truth at the end of the day is is merely what some particular group or individual perceives what is true for you may not be true for me but of course if you hold that view then you're holding that that perspective is true at the end of the day you simply cannot escape the notion of truth moreover freedom cannot itself be endlessly open-ended would you like to be free to play the piano extremely well then inevitably you must learn a lot of discipline that certain chords sound right and certain chords do not sound right there are principles of the way music works do you want to be free to have a really really excellent trusting joyous marriage if you do then you are not free to do certain things in other words an endless openness towards freedom becomes a kind of slavery all of these things have to be borne in mind when we come to the Bible and discover that God here in the passages we're going to look at in this first session legislates he prescribes rules and unless we're willing to think outside of our own cultural Western box we may find that somewhat offensive yet within the Bible's storyline we discover that it's actually part of joyous freedom under the God who made us let me pick up on the Bible's storyline from where we left off last night last night we ended up with the patriarchs Abraham Isaac Jacob having been called by God to constitute a kind of new humanity that would enter into a covenant relationship with him they continued in the land of Israel as it would later be called in the land of Canaan as nomads looking after their vast herds until the time came when because of famine they moved down in a block to Egypt and as the century slipped by and their numbers multiplied eventually they became serfs and slaves to the Egyptians there was still a heritage of this religion fostered by the God who had disclosed himself to Abraham the patriarch this band of Hebrews multiply this band of people who ultimately became Jews of Israelites flourished and and yet they flourished under slavery they flourished under captivity and in due course God raised up a man called Moses Moses himself was a Hebrew but through strange circumstances he had been brought up in the royal court and he thought that he would side as a young man with his own people and ended up killing somebody and fleeing for his life he spent most of his life as a shepherd on the backside of a desert but at the age of 80 he hears the voice of God to go back and lead the people out of slavery out of Egypt in Exodus chapter 3 Exodus being the second book of the Bible Exodus chapter 3 Moses gives all the reasons why he really shouldn't go he's too old he he doesn't speak very well somebody else should go he he is still a wanted man surely if he goes back there in chapter 3 verse 13 Moses said to God suppose I go to the Israelites and say to them the god of your father's has sent me and they asked me what is his name then what shall I tell them God said to Moses I am Who I am that is what you are to say to the Israelites I am has sent you in other words God does give himself a name I am who I am I am has sent you but it's not a name that puts him in a box he is what he is I am Who I am and he defines himself as it were for people like Moses for people like us as he progressively discloses himself across the centuries he's the eternal subject he's not somebody else's object that can be categorized and delimited he is what he says he is he is what he discloses of himself he is tell him I am has sent you and eventually then Moses does lead the people out of slavery you may have heard of the ten plagues and the crossing of the Red Sea and so forth he does lead them out and eventually they come to a mountain Mount Sinai in the desert they still have not got to the promised land and on Mount Sinai God constructs a covenant he writes another agreement with them there was we saw last night an agreement with Abraham a covenant with Abraham that was grounded in promise of what God would do what God would do conditional merely on God being God God Himself if you recall putting himself symbolically through the parts of those animals to say this is what I will do it is unthinkable that anything else could be done I will bless you I will secure you and I I will raise up your seed make you a great nation and ultimately through your seed all the nations of the earth will be blessed and now God enters into a covenant with the entire nation we sometimes call it the Mosaic Covenant in the New Testament it's once or twice referred to as the Old Covenant because it's the Covenant built that belongs to the people of God in the Old Testament the Covenant the Jesus introduces is then called the new covenant this old covenant specifies forms of religion how the nation is to organize itself who the priests are and so forth we'll come to some of those structures in a few minutes right at the heart of this covenant is a group of verses that provide us with the Ten Commandments they are described in two places in the Old Testament the place we'll look at is Exodus 20 still the second book of the Bible Exodus 20 and I'm going to read the opening verses verses 1 to 17 and God spoke all these words I am the Lord your God who brought you out of Egypt out of the land of slavery you shall have no other gods before me you shall not make for yourself an image in the form of anything in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the waters below you shall not bow down to them or worship them for I the Lord your God am a jealous God punishing the children for the sin of the parents to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me but showing love to a thousand generations of those who love me and keep my Commandments you shall not misuse the name of the Lord your God for the Lord will not hold anyone guiltless who misuses his name remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy six days you shall labor and do all your work but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord your God on it you shall not do any work neither you nor your son or daughter nor your male or female servant nor your animals nor any foreigner residing in your towns for in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth the sea and all that is in them but he rested on the seventh day therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy honor your father and your mother so that you may live long in the land the Lord your God is giving you you shall not murder you shall not commit adultery you shall not steal you shall not give false testimony against your neighbor you shall not covet your neighbor's house you shall not covet your neighbor's wife or is male or female servant his ox or donkey or anything that belongs to your neighbor when the people saw the thunder and lightning and heard the trumpet and saw the mountain and smoke they trembled with fear they stayed at a distance and said to Moses speak to us yourself and we will listen but do not have God speak to us or we will die these are the 10 commandments they are often said to be divided into two tables the first four have to do with the people's relationship with God and the second table covering six have to do with relationships among each other not committing adultery telling the truth and so forth it's worth going through them quickly at least the first four the first of the Ten Commandments and joins us to recognize the exclusiveness of God you shall have no other gods before me now notice the context in which that's given I'm the God who brought you out of the land of Egypt out of the land of slavery in the broader account so far he's the God who's made everybody he's the God to whom we give an account who gives us life and breath and health and strength and everything else that's true for all human beings but these particular human beings have actually been brought out of slavery and in that context God says you shall have no other gods before me this is a fairly constantly reiterated theme in the Bible two chapters farther on whoever sacrifices to any God other than the Lord must be destroyed a chapter after that do not VOC the names of the gods do not let them be heard on your lips the chapter after that do not worship any other God for the Lord whose name is jealous is a jealous God or again in the Psalm Psalm 45 6 I am the Lord and there is no other again surely God is with you and there is no other there is no other God now amongst ourselves we're worried a little bit about the notion of a jealous God do you want your mate to be constantly jealous and yet even within the context of marriage surely you want some kind of jealousy don't you or is it going to be the kind of open marriage where both parties are allowed to sleep around with no repercussions everybody's happy with that isn't there a sense in which if you really are committed to each other a certain kind of jealousy to preserve the relationship is seen to be a good thing a healthy thing a wise reaction and that's amongst pairs that's between peers but now you have God the one God who made everything we're back to the situation we discovered in Genesis 3 the very nature of the first rebellion was idolatry what is God supposed to say Oh make it up as you go along choose your own God I don't really care it denies who he is it denies his role as creator he sustains all of life we are all dependent upon him and now what shall he say this is really cute you can make your own gods the Lord whose name is jealous but the fact of the matter this is also for their good this is for their good if if he were to say you can do what you want they will simply slide into endless self exonerations self-love self focus that they will be indistinguishable from the pagans all around them pretty soon they will be offering their children to Moloch the god that we described last night why not the neighbors are doing it this God centeredness that God insists upon is for their good it is in fact an act of love of great generosity I am the Lord your God who brought you out of Egypt out of the land of slavery you shall have no other gods before me the first of the ten commandments and joins us to recognize the exclusiveness of God the second and joins us to recognize the transcendence of God verses four to six you shall not make for yourself an image in the form of anything in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the waters below the prohibition preserves the distinction between creator and created thing as soon as you start saying God looks like this whether a fish or a mountain or a human being somehow God gets reduced he becomes something that we can encapsulate domesticate and thus in some measure control but we saw that from the beginning that's not the way it should be there is but one creator and he is to be distinguished from all of the created order God must not be domesticated the third of the Ten Commandments and joins us to recognize the importance of God verse 7 you shall not misuse the name of the Lord your God for the Lord will not hold anyone guiltless who misuses his name in the ancient world the name of a person was tightly tied to the identity and character of the person before a person to misuse God's name wasn't some sense to to slur him and thus when the Bible and joins us to give glory to his glorious name as in Psalm 72 19 it is to give glory to God it is to praise God himself in other words the reason why we are not to say Oh God or hit our thumb with a hammer and say Jesus it's precisely because it diminishes God if you turn to the person who has just used Jesus name because he's hit his thumb with a hammer and say I wish I wish you wouldn't use my saviors name like that if you were to say that he would probably reply I don't mean anything by it but that's the point it's not profaned because you have spoken a magic word that you're not really allowed to use only priests can say the right abracadabra that's not the point it's using the name in a common way profanity simply is the commoning of something but we're dealing with God and to make him common is to diminish him and cheapen him the fourth of the Ten Commandments and joins us to recognize God's right of reign over every domain of life including time in which we live and move and have our being remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy six days you shall labor and do all your work but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord your God indeed we're told this pattern was established in creation we saw this last night God in creation did his creative work in the creation week and then stopped on the seventh day and it establishes a kind of time cycle in the human order there is a place for rest now we could work through the rest of the ten commandments but let me make some observations now just from the ones that we've been through let me run through several things quickly number one the chapter begins God spoke all these words he's still a talking God not only with a kind of speech that calls the universe into existence but with a kind of speech that interacts with his image-bearers later on we're told in the book of Deuteronomy the fifth book of the Bible these are the commandments the Lord God proclaimed in a loud voice to the whole Assembly there on the mountain from out of the fire the cloud and the deep darkness and he added nothing more he spoke moreover these ten commandments have a central place in the Old Covenant they're cited by later prophets Hosea in the fourth century Jeremiah at the end of the seventh into the sixth century in the Psalms they're actually referred to in the New Testament moreover these first four commandments lead to the next six that is because God is who he is because he is to be honored and revered therefore we are to behave in a certain kind of way amongst ourselves and above all the ten commandments are related to God's self disclosure in a gracious redemptive act right at the very beginning he is the God who called the people out of slavery and then he says and therefore you shall act in this way now these are the ten commandments but they are not the only kinds of laws that God gives in addition to these laws God sets up an entire structure of ritual he ordains that a tabernacle be built big tent a kind of proto temple and it was to be built a certain way he he provides exactly the dimensions and the design and they go ahead and build it it's basically a room three times as long as it is wide two-thirds of it are set off from the last third which is thus a perfect square in fact it's a perfect cube it's as long and high and wide as the other dimensions they are all exactly the same the first larger room is called the holy place the second room hidden from the first room by a veil is called the most holy place and outside of the tent there is a place for sacrificing animals inside this tent inside this tabernacle there is a variety of accoutrements a lampstand for example a place where bread is set a week-by-week and other matters that we won't go into and then outside of all of this there are various courtyards where people gather it's a very simple sort of construction in many ways not exactly the kind of cathedral you get an Ely or in Canterbury some massive structure it's a tent and inside the most holy place is a box it's called the Ark of the Covenant the Ark of the agreement and it holds certain elements including a copy of the Ten Commandments on top of this on top of this box this Ark of the Covenant in the most holy place something takes place once a year what God does is ordained a special class of people namely some priests all of these priests are drawn from one of the tribes of the ancient Hebrews and one of these priests once a year is supposed to take the blood of a goat a slaughtered goat and the blood of a bull a slaughtered bull and take it behind the veil and sprinkle it on the top of that arc that happens on the day that is called the day of atonement and meanwhile outside there's another animal another goat that has been taken out into the desert to wander away and you think what sort of religion is this with bloodied animals and goats but these two are parts of the things that God ordains in this case the description is found in the next book of the Bible Leviticus chapter 16 Leviticus is a book that describes many of the priestly sacrifices and what they signify and so forth but it's worth taking a moment to read what is to happen on the day of atonement this too is prescribed by God the God who legislates the Lord spoke to Moses after the death of the two sons of Aaron Aaron was Moses brother the Lord said to Moses tell your brother Aaron that he is not to come whenever he chooses into the most holy place behind the curtain the veil in front of the atonement cover on the ark or else he will die for I will appear in the cloud over the atonement cover this is how Aaron who's the high priest is to enter the most holy place he must first bring a young bull for a sin offering and a ram for a burnt offering he is to put it put on the sacred linen tunic with linen undergarments next to his body he used to tie the linen sash around him and put on the linen turban these are the sacred garments so he must bathe himself with water before he puts them on from the Israelite community is to take two male goats for a sin offering and a ram for a burnt offering and then the entire ritual is described one goat the one that is not to be killed he puts his hand on the goats head it's a way of signifying that the sins of himself and his family the sins of the people are being transferred as it were to this goat who then takes the sins away he goes out of the desert and the sin of the other goat the RAM and this the other animal rather the RAM coupled with not only the RAM goat but a bull are both tslot slaughtered and their blood is captured in a little pan and taken in and sprinkled on top of the Ark of the Covenant which is a way of saying that someone has died someone has paid the price of death for the sins of the priests and his family and for the sins of the people and that is to happen once a year every year and that's the only time that the priests are allowed into the most holy place into that perfect cube of a room now I'm I'm mentioning these details because you will see by the end of this series that all of these details are picked up later in the Bible the fact that the room is a cube it's picked up in the Bible the Ark of the Covenant picked up a little later that this blood of bull and goat picked up a little later but do you see where we are in the developing storyline God has displayed himself as as a God who holds his people to account he has already sent Adam and Eve away from his presence how do you get back into his presence how do you get reconciled to his God to this God in fact what you discover is is that all of these sacrifices are needed in some sense to indicate that death is still going to prevail because there is still so much sin even among the Covenant people Abraham was a sinner Isaac and Jacob were sinners the patriarchs were sinners and now the people of God this covenant community this this people with whom God establishes his covenant they're terrible sinners too which brings us to another passage in this collection of books one of the most shocking Exodus 32 33 and 34 Exodus 32 33 and 34 this is the second book of the Bible three chapters what is depicted here is the descent of Moses from Mount Sinai when he's first bringing down the Ten Commandments chiseled onto tables of stone he's accompanied by a young man at this juncture a young man called Joshua who will ultimately become a successor and as they approached the camp they they hear a lot of noise and Joshua doesn't know what it is is this a happy sound is this a good sound Moses discerns what it is in chapter 32 18 it is not the sound of victory it is not the sound of defeat it is the sound of singing that I hear and they discover that while Moses was away for a period of time some weeks this people that had just been saved from slavery and that had been exposed to God's gracious self-disclosure this people that that were on the edge of moving into a promised land and being constituted as a nation somehow they reduced this God who had done this to an image of a calf we don't know where this Moses is he's been away for several weeks now what we're not convinced that this God is so transcended another week we would like some image that portrays can we have a God that we can look at and touch like the neighbors all around us and Aaron's Aaron Moses brother who has been left in charge is frightened by what's going on and he says well give me your gold earrings and gold rings and we'll see what we can do and eventually produces a lovely little gold calf and the people are having a wild party around this God a kind of pagan worship that becomes more and more enthusiastic it's the sound of singing that Moses hears as he comes down from the mountain but not singing of adoration and worship of the God who was there but now if a domesticated God that can be touched and kissed and fondo ver this is the God that brought you out of the land of Egypt they sing and then the horrible scenes that follow God threatens to wipe out the entire nation and start over again perhaps with Moses Moses intercedes with God in prayer you find this in chapter 33 Moses feels terribly alone let down by his own brother in chapter 33 verse 12 he prays you've been telling me lead these people but you have not let me know whom you will send with me that is God had sent his brother with him and now Aaron's not there you have said I know you by name and you have found favor with me if you are pleased with me teach me your way so that I may know you and continue to find favor with you remember that this nation is your people that is he saying I didn't choose them I didn't take them out of the land of Egypt I'm just your spokesperson you have to do that what needs to be done with him I can't change their hearts I can't finally save them I can't redeem them they're your people they're not mine and meanwhile who will you send with me in fact God had promised that he wouldn't go with him anymore if he went with them anymore then their sin in proximity to his transcendence and holiness would simply mean that he would end up destroying them but instead the Lord replies my presence will go with you and I will give you rest rest where do we hear that loud language before do you remember at the end of creation week God rests going into the promised land is often depicted as going into the land of rest now God promises despite the sin that he will go with the people he will be forbearing he will lead them into rest Moses said to him if your presence does not go with us do not send us up from here do you see what any people must have is the presence of the Living God it's not enough in Bethlehem Baptist Church or any other place simply to have the right ritual and the right sermons and the right kind of music if God does not manifest himself in some way if he is not present then what's the point of the whole exercise is religion merely something that is structured into a kind of ritual heritage or is it bound up with being reconciled to the God who made us who holds us to account if your presence does go with us what does not go with us what's the point in the exercise how will anyone know that you are pleased with me and your people unless you go with us what else will distinguish me and your people from all the other people on the face of the earth it's there's no point merely being different because we have rules we must have God and the Lord said to Moses I will do the very thing you have asked because I am pleased with you and I know you by name then Moses said now show me your glory it's one thing to walk by faith to know that God has spoken but please Moses says can't I see something of the manifestation of your transcendence how spectacular you are can't I see that Caqueta have more of that and the Lord said I will cause all my goodness to pass in front of you now pay attention to those two lines before this morning is over we'll come back to them again at the time of Jesus now show me your glory I will cause all my goodness to pass in front of you God's glory manifested somehow in His goodness and I will proclaim my name the Lord the Lord and CAPITAL LETTERS have you noticed that that's because in Hebrew there is a set of four letters Yahweh that is related to the name that God has disclosed himself by I am Who I am I will proclaim my name I am Who I am Yahweh I will proclaim my name in front of you God naming himself amidst all the plural gods in the neighborhood God saying this is who I am this is the God who is there I will proclaim my name the Lord Yahweh in your presence I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion isn't that what we saw last night how do you deal with the God with whom you cannot barter who has no needs it must be work of Sovereign Grace so also here I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion but if what you are really asking for is that you may see me up close and personal face-to-face then God says you cannot see my face for no one may see me and live note this passage well we're coming back to it at the end of the morning then the Lord said there is a place near me where you may stand on a rock when my glory passes by I will put you in a cleft in the rock and to cover you with my hand until I have passed by then I will remove my hand and you will see my back but my face but must not be seen and then you get this on believably spectacular account in chapter 34 Moses hides himself the Lord goes by somehow and intones certain words and after the Lord has gone by Moses is permitted to peek out and see something of the trailing edge of the afterglow of the glory of the Lord that's what he's allowed to see and as the Lord goes by not seen as it were face to face the words that he in tones are these verse 6 the Lord that is Yahweh the I am Who I am the Lord the Lord the compassionate and gracious God slow to anger abounding in love and faithfulness maintaining love to thousands and forgiving wickedness rebellion and sin yet he does not leave the guilty unpunished he punishes the children and their children for the sin of the parents to the third and fourth generation that's what he enjoys we could easily spend the rest of our 14 hours together merely unpacking all the things that God says of himself I am Who I am and now he begins to flesh in what he is God as he presents himself in the very first part of the Bible he already exists he is not defined in advance and then proved in a mathematical theorem he is and who he is and what he is becomes progressively disclosed with time he's the I am he is what he is and on the one hand he is compassionate and gracious why if he had not been compassionate and gracious at the end of Genesis 3 the human race would have ended right there there would have been only judgment death was the promise of God instead is is forbearing he abounds in love and faithfulness we'll come across that before this morning is over - maintaining love to thousands of forgiving wickedness and rebellion and sin yet although he's a God of forgiveness he does not fit into that model that we saw last night that's that first level where where God is really like a super granddaddy with a long white beard whose whole business is merely forgiving and being nice he's also the God who does not leave the guilty unpunished others tension built right into that isn't there we've just been told that he does forgive sin and we're also told that he can't pretend it's not there he does not leave the guilty unpunished he punishes the children and their children for the sin of their parents to the third and fourth generation this is because sin is social sin is never merely individualistic sin is social you cannot commit any sin no matter how private without it having repercussions not only in your own life but in the community where you live maybe it's a very private secret focusing on porn and you think he's not doing any damage to anybody but you have it's doing any damage there at all but of course you focus in secret on porn and it changes how you view the opposite sex which changes your family dynamics which changes what effects there are on children your modeling your conduct your sin has social implications to the second and third and fourth generation God transcends at all and on the one hand he's said to be the God who forgives and on the other hand he's this he said to be the God who cannot leave who does not leave the guilty unpunished the closest you get to resolving it in the Old Covenant in the Mosaic Covenant is that once a year this priest places his hands on the head of a goat and sends it off to sort of symbolize sin being removed then he takes the blood of another goat and of a Boleyn and takes it into the very presence of God in this most holy room over the Ark of the Covenant and sprinkles it their God manifesting himself in some sense of glory saying we deserve to die these animals die in our place will this do it's what you've prescribed will this do would you not have mercy on us in our sin our defection for the truth is that although law is extraordinarily important the law finally cannot save you see the people were idolaters before the law was given when the law comes along and says yeah but you're not supposed to do that you're not supposed to make images of me there is no other God besides me and you're not supposed to commit murder and you're not supposed to do in fact the people have already been drowned in forms of idolatry for countless years now what the law does is formalize it it multiplies the transgression it makes us see that it's defying God some people no doubt try to Hue the line a little bit better and then when there is sin the law provides these animals to somehow cover sin expiate sin cancels sin is that any long-term solution do you know what the most remarkable demonstration that you find in the Bible to show that the law cannot finally say cannot finally reconcile us to God what are the first five books Genesis Exodus Leviticus numbers Deuteronomy they're often called the books of Moses at the very end of the last of them Deuteronomy the last chapter Moses himself does not get into the promised land Moses who was called the meekest man who ever lived Moses who is the one who mediates this covenant Moses who is a hero in his old age organizing the nation setting up a system of priests setting up a system of judicial structures setting up justice and integrity leading the people again and again but he blows it here and there he sends - gets violent with God and in consequence even he doesn't get into the promised land the law cannot finally save but what it has provided is the vehicle in which God has disclosed himself again as the one who pursues his own people provides a sacrificial structure a vehicle in which God and his nature his his desire to forgive his insistence that sin be punished all be brought together until a millennium and a half later this side of the death of Jesus another writer writes a book in the New Testament the last part of the Bible we call it the letter to the Hebrews and he invites his readers in chapters 9 and 10 of that book to look back on the old sacrificial system and say don't you understand that sacrifice of a bull and of a goat can't ever deal finally with sin how can a deal finally with sin when they have to do it again and again year after year year after year year after year how can the blood of a bull and a goat actually pay for sin in any case in what sense does the bull itself offer a sacrifice does the bull come up and say alright I'll die for you slit my throat where precisely is the moral value in this sacrifice the author points out listen intrinsically the blood of a bull and goat can't take away sin no the old day of atonement held every year his past because we have the ultimate sacrifice for sin Jesus himself who did shed his blood on our behalf a perfectly moral sacrifice he offers up his life and he takes our death and bears our sin away in a way that no animal ever could the law pointing forward to that sole means of reconciling rebels to himself here is the God who legislates and even in his legislation he points us to Jesus you

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Length: 53min 36sec (3216 seconds)

Published: Mon Mar 24 2014