We just wrapped up our summer series on “The Ten Commandments: Set Free to Live Free”. You can listen to the sermon series by going to our website or downloading the podcast via the iTunes Store.
We started off with an introduction to the Ten Commandments and then we walked through each commandment. I hope the series was beneficial, heart opening, and filled with grace.
Here are 3 things I want us to take away from our Ten Commandments Series.
1. We know the Holy nature and will of God.
For thus says the One who is high and lifted up, who inhabits eternity, whose name is Holy: “I dwell in the high and holy place, and also with him who is of a contrite and lowly spirit, to revive the spirit of the lowly, and to revive the heart of the contrite. – Isaiah 57:15
The holiness of God, says R.C. Sproul in his classic book, is “one of the most important ideas that a Christian can ever grapple with. It is basic to our whole understanding of God and of Christianity”
I really wonder if we understand how disgusting our sin is. I include myself in that category. Do we see that it is an absolutely grotesque act against God’s holiness? Do we see the wickedness of our hearts? Do we see that the evilness of our sin was the reason Christ died. He died for the ungodly, or people completely opposite of God (Romans 5:6). And if God is holy, then the opposite of holiness is wickedness.
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. For I would not have known what it is to covet if the law had not said, “You shall not covet.” – Romans 7:7
What God is trying to teach us through the his word, is that sin is disgusting! In fact, Paul says in Romans that our sin is like filthy rags! The rags he was referring to were the rags that a leper would use to cover their spots. They’re covered in puss and blood. Nobody wants to touch them! This is the disgusting nature of our sin!
If it wasn’t for the Law, we would never see our depravity. But inn the midst of our sinfulness, in the midst of our inability to overcome our sin, Christ died for us. The Ten Commandments not only reveals to us the depravity of our hearts, but it reveals to us our need for someone who can overcome sin. It reveals our need for Jesus.
For one will scarcely die for a righteous person—though perhaps for a good person one would dare even to die—but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. – Romans 5:7-8
Do we then overthrow the law by this faith? By no means! On the contrary, we uphold the law. – Romans 3:31
So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus. Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, to make you obey its passions. Do not present your members to sin as instruments for unrighteousness, but present yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life, and your members to God as instruments for righteousness. For sin will have no dominion over you, since you are not under law but under grace. What then? Are we to sin because we are not under law but under grace? By no means! – Romans 6:11-15
but as he who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct, since it is written, “You shall be holy, for I am holy.” – 1 Peter 1:15-16
One of our Essentials (core values) at Grace Life Church is to Pursue Jesus. Pursuing Jesus is done through obedience to His commands, putting to death our old man, and learning to stand in the Gospel.
Because we have been set free from the burden of the Law, we can now live free to obey God’s commands, to pursue holiness, and to revel in the grace of God.
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What did you take away from the Ten Commandments? Comment below or comment on Facebook with your take aways.
Matt MacNaughton 