In Pastor Grant Brown's sermon titled 'The Law of God (Part 4)', he discusses the three uses of the law: as a tutor leading to Christ (Galatians 3:24), as a guide for living wisely (Psalm 19:7), and as a means of restraining evil in society. The sermon highlights the connection between the Ten Commandments, also known as the Ten Words, and their preamble, which emphasizes God's grace and covenant-keeping nature. Pastor Brown explores the significance of God's spoken words in Exodus and Genesis, drawing a parallel between the Ten Words of creation and the Ten Words of the law. He emphasizes that the law is not a burden but a delight, flowing from God's redeeming work and highlighting the relationship between redemption and obedience. The sermon uses the story of Edmund from 'The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe' to illustrate the concept of redemption, where Edmund is saved by Aslan's sacrifice, paralleling the Christian redemption through Jesus Christ. The sermon concludes with an invitation to those not trusting in Christ to repent and embrace the freedom and love offered through God's law.

You can find our passage this morning on page 77 in the Pew Bible. Page 77 will be in Exodus chapter 20 beginning in verse 1. We'll ask the congregation to now stand so we can hear from God. Hear now the word of our God. Then God spoke all these words, saying, I am the Lord your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery.

May God bless the reading and now the preaching of His word. Amen. Amen. You may be seated. What are the three uses of the law?

Use number one, Galatians 3.24. The law is a tutor that leads you to Christ. Use number two, Psalm 19 verse 7. The testimony of the Lord makes wise the simple. The law of God instructs the believer on how they are to live.

It's the rule of life for the believer. And use number three, the law of God restrains evil in society. By then your servant is warned. Those are the three uses of the law. But what is the law of God?

Well, the moral law of God is summed up in the Ten Commandments. Or you might call them the Ten Words. And we find these Ten Words, these Ten Commandments, in Exodus chapter 20 and in Deuteronomy chapter 5. Here is the summary of the moral law of the Ten Words. But before we get to the law itself in both Deuteronomy chapter 5 and Exodus 20 God gives you a preamble.

God gives you an introduction to his law. The foundation upon which his law is built is found within this preamble and it's namely the grace of God, the goodness of God. We could say God. The law flows from God. And so we've been examining last Lord's Day and now this Lord's Day this preamble and we've examined the first two of the three what I call foundation stones of the law of God found in the preamble.

And so last week we examined foundation stone number one which was the reality that God has spoken. God spoke. Then God spoke all these words. That was in verse one. So God's not silent.

You are hearing from God. When you open up this book of the law, God has spoken to you. You don't leave this morning going away, wishing that God had said something to you. He just did. And before the book of Exodus, what book comes before Exodus?

Genesis. And it was in Genesis that God spoke what? The ten words of creation. And now here in Exodus, God speaks the ten words of the law ten words of creation in Genesis ten words of the law In Exodus, what are you supposed to do with that? I think you're supposed to connect the two the giving of God's law Anticipates the coming of a new creation when this law is fulfilled when this law is kept there will be a new Creation And what day was that law given?

Exodus chapter 19, on the third day. And who was it? Who is it that comes and fulfills this law, is crucified dead and buried, and then is raised up from the dead on the third day. Jesus the Christ. Colossians 1, 18, he's the head of the body, the church, and he's the beginning, the firstborn from the dead.

So when you go into the earth, crucified dead and buried, and then you come up out of that earth, resurrected from the grave, and then you ascend to the right hand of God the Father Almighty, the Ancient of Days, that can only mean one thing, beloved. Whoever did that is the king over every inch of this world. And who did that? Jesus the Christ. It is Jesus Christ who was raised on the third day ascended as the son of man and with all authority Therefore this is his world and this is the law of his world in which he is making all things new.

So you best listen to him. If you could take one thing away from that line God spoke, you best listen to him. Then God spoke all these words. That's foundation stone number one. Foundation stone number two.

The one who was speaking these words is identified. The Lord your God. The one true living God. The covenant-keeping God. The Lord your God.

I am the Lord your God verse 2 begins with. This is God making it explicitly clear. This is no pagan deity. This is no false God that is giving you his law. This is the one true living God, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

And Yahweh marked out his covenant people through their baptism in the Red Sea in Exodus and he Christian he's marked you out too through your water baptism he fed his marked out covenant people manna bread in the wilderness He continued to mark his covenant people out in that way and he continues to mark you out Christian as his own, as you eat from his flesh, drink his blood, as you eat from his faith, his covenant faith. At your baptism and at communion, Yahweh has marked you out by grace through faith in His Son. So you're made a partaker of His covenant. You're made a citizen of his kingdom. You're made a child of his household.

And out of that covenant relationship, God says, here's the law of my household. You're mine, so here's the law of those who are mine. If you get that, The law of God, far from being a, well, I just got to do it. You know, it doesn't become a get to. It becomes a, it doesn't become a got to.

It becomes a, I get to. I just have to do it. No, I get to do it. Because I've been made new in Christ. I've been made a part of the covenant.

I've been marked out as a child of God. He is the God who is full of steadfast love and He made me His own. So I want to obey Him. That's foundation stone number two. Out of the covenant that God has made you a part of, out of that reality that you join with his covenant people all the way back, promise to Adam, out of that reality, you say, of course I love his love.

So I don't want you to miss this. God has marked you out of your baptism. And it's that same God who didn't mark you out as His child every Lord's day at this table. He is such a good and gracious Father to you. He has kept such covenant love and steadfast faithfulness to you.

That he gives you his law out of that abundance that's how you're supposed to think of his law so you do not have a Christian you do not have a father in heaven Christian who is derelict whose cares so little about you that he'll just leave you to your own devices, kind of let you figure things out by yourself. It's not the Father in heaven that you have. You have the covenant-keeping Father Who has so loved you that he gives you his law because you belong to him and he's your covenant head So hear this I just want to make this very very plain as we start this morning far from the law being something that communicates that God has some kind of displeasure with you some of us I think are tempted to believe the law communicates some kind of displeasure no The law of God for the Christian communicates his pleasure that you are a member of his covenant household. It's a pleasure because you have been bought through the finished work of his son Jesus. And so God, your father says to you, here is my law for you, my blood bought child, mark down his mind, here's my law.

That's foundation stone number two. I am the Lord, your God. And That brings us now to where we left off last Lord's Day our third and final foundation stone the Lord your God Has given you his law Because he has brought you out of the house of slavery. He has redeemed you want you to look again at verse 2 with me. I am the Lord your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery.

Now, the second half of this verse is very much tied to the first. Because God is the covenant-keeping God, he will save his covenant people just as he promised he would. This is very clear in the preceding chapters of Exodus where were the people of the covenant at the beginning of Exodus Where were they? Where was Israel at the beginning of this book? Do you remember?

Israel is in Egypt. And they were in bondage in Egypt. They were slaves to Pharaoh in Egypt. That's what's going on here. And yet in Exodus chapter 2, here's what we read in Exodus chapter 2, but God heard their groaning and God remembered his covenant with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

God's not going to leave his covenant people in bondage. He's a covenant-keeping God. And so what will he do? God will save his people. God will save his people.

He will redeem his covenant people. That's exactly what God does. Yahweh sends Moses. Yahweh sends the plagues. The hardness of Pharaoh's heart is very great, but the greatness of God is far greater and that even the hearts of kings are like water in his hands.

And so Pharaoh relents, Pharaoh lets the people go, and Yahweh leads them out of Egypt by fire and by cloud and he brings them to the foot of Mount Siam got that and it's there only then after he has redeemed his people only then after he's rescued his people that Yahweh then gives them the law. The order really matters in that. Before God writes the law down for his covenant people in Exodus 20 verses 3 through 17, which Lord willing we'll get to next time, Before he writes it down, what does God tell them? He tells them verses one and two. Before getting to the law, God reminds his people who he is and what he's done.

And that's what I've been striving to do this Lord's Day and last Lord's Day. Who he is and what he's done. So that you understand the law that he gives in far greater, better ways. This is the foundation of the law for you, Christian. The law flows from who God is and what God has done you receive the law because first you know who God is and what God has done verse 2 I am the Lord thy God I am the Lord your God I am the Lord God who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery.

What's God saying there? This is who I am, and this is what I've done. And now as a result of those things, here's my law. If you get those two things, the law becomes something delightful to you. If you don't get these two things, the law becomes nothing but bondage, more drudgery.

That's why I want you to get them. That's why I give you the preamble. The law flows from who God is and what God has done. If you get that, the law takes on a completely new shape to you. Redemption first and then the law.

So that's the first lesson. If we had sub points, which I do, but they're not up there. But That's the first lesson that we learned from this final segment of the Law's Preamble. Number one, for the Christian, God would have you understand His law and how it applies to you as a Christian as something that flows out of your redemption in Jesus Christ. The order of the biblical narrative really matters.

God does not give His law and then redeem His people if they will but keep His law. That's not what happens. No, God redeems his people, frees them up to obey his law. That's how that works, in that order. So Israel was in bondage, God delivered them, he gives them his law.

You see that in Exodus? If you don't know what I'm talking about, read through the book of Exodus. God delivers His people, redeems them. Israel was in bondage, God delivers them, and then He gives them the law. Christian, same thing happened to you.

You were in bondage in your sin, God delivered you from your sin, and then Christ brings you back to the law to show you how you are to live. Law reveals your sin, you're in bondage. God delivers you from that bondage, And then Christ brings you back to the law to show you how you are to live. Law reveals your sin, you're in bondage. God delivers you from that bondage.

And then Christ brings you back to the law to show you how you are to live. It's the same thing. Redemption comes first though. Your approach, your application of the law Christian must flow out from who God is and what God has done. He is the Lord and he has redeemed you, so here is how you are to live as one redeemed.

God's law. So keep your finger in Exodus 20, but turn with me to the book of Titus, just for a second. Turn with me to the book of Titus, right after 1st and 2nd Timothy. Titus chapter 3, verse Titus chapter 3 verse 3. And as we're reading this, I want you to think, do you see anything similar to the situation that was going on with Israel and Egypt in the book of Titus, Titus chapter three.

See if you see any similarities. Beginning in verse three of Titus three. For we also once were foolish ourselves, disobedient, deceived, enslaved to various lusts and pleasures, spending our life in malice and envy, hateful, hating one another. Verse 3 tells you, you are enslaved to sin. Verse 4, but when the kindness of God our Savior and His love for mankind appeared, verse five, He saved us.

Not on the basis of deeds which we have done in righteousness, but according to His mercy by the washing of regeneration and renewing by the Holy Spirit, whom He poured out upon us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior so that being justified by His grace we would be made heirs according to the hope of eternal life. I wonder if you see anything in Titus 3 that would make you think and compare it to Exodus chapter 20. Like Israel was in Exodus, you Christian were enslaved, verse 3. You were in bondage to your sin, verse 3. But God showed up and He saved you, verse 4.

God saved you not because of something you had done, not because of some way that you got His attention and flagged Him down. No, no, no. He saved you because of who He is, because of His mercy. According to who He is, He saved you. That's what Titus tells you.

Not on the basis of deeds what you've done, but according to who he is not who you are He took you Christian out of your house of bondage, and he put you into his house of freedom He made you heirs When you are an heir you know what you get you receive something right? You receive an inheritance You know what part of your inheritance is, Christian? When you were in bondage and then you're saved by His mercy alone, just like Israel was out of Egypt, God gives you an inheritance. You know what part of your inheritance is his law here's part of what you get you get the delight of his commands I'll get these two this for you gives you this book it Gives you his law because you're a member of his people. You're a member of his house.

You've been redeemed. What's going on in Titus 3 is the same thing going on when you read in Exodus 20, verse 2, I am the Lord your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery. God did that for you Christian. So theologian Mark Dunn, he sums up what we've been saying perfectly when he writes this and I quote Israel's bondage is a picture of your slavery to sin and until you come to God in faith you are living in the Egypt of your sin enslaved by its passions and desires But God was reaching down to bring his people out of Egypt. And here we see that the God who was awesome in glory and fearsome in holiness, stoops to save.

There was something God was saving them from. He was saving them from their slavery to Egypt, delivering them from the house of bondage. But there was also something that he was saving them to. He was saving them from their bondage and into the promised land. Here in Exodus 20 is the law of that promise." End quote.

I think that's really good. Now I wanna speak for just a moment to those who are not trusting Christ this morning. I know there are some in this room that may not know the Lord Jesus. And so I need you to hear this for just a moment. If you're in this room and you remain in your sin, you need to know that the wrath of God hangs over you.

That you are at enmity with God. He's not impressed with any self-righteousness. He's not impressed with you in the least from anything that you've done far from it. He is disgusted with your disobedience and your sin. You stand as his enemy, and the Lord God will crush his enemies.

You know this. You know this. But even now, by your refusal to bow the knee to King Jesus, you flirt with disaster. You will still flirt with an eternity in hell even now after I've said those things. Your slavery is sin, your bondage to the Egypt of your sin will leave you damned, but there is hope.

There is hope for you friend, It is the bedrock of every single thing that we do in this gathering from start to finish. It's the hope of the grace of God in Jesus Christ. So if you will but repent, if you will but humble yourself, and you'll turn away from your sin, and you reach out by faith to Christ Jesus, He will save you and He will forgive you your sins and He will cover you with His righteousness. He heard the cries of His people in Exodus, He heard the cries of Israel in Exodus, He will hear your cries this morning. So fly to Him, Fly to the Lord Jesus and He will make you His own.

His death will be your death. His life will be your life. His blood will cleanse you and you will be redeemed. You'll no longer belong to the Pharaoh of your sin. You'll belong to the King of Kings and Lord of Lords, your Redeemer.

Your Redeemer will give you His law so that you might know how to live as one redeemed. That's lesson number one from this third foundation stone. The law of God flows out from his redeeming work. Lesson number two. Because lesson number one is true, that from redemption comes a love for the law, you cannot view God's law as something that is like bondage.

So God's law that He gives you after He redeems you to live by. Like here's your, I've redeemed you. I'm giving you my law. You are not to think in your brain. You should be so far away from this.

I escaped bondage for more bondage. Yet people think that. I hear Christians talk about the law like it's just, well, he rescued me out of sin, and now he's got more bondage called the law. You don't get it. You don't get it.

God's law is not bondage for bondage. God doesn't release you from the bondage of your sin, then they give you into more bondage called his law. It's not what Exodus 20 says. Exodus chapter 20 verse 2 says, I am the Lord thy God who brought you out of the land of Egypt, who brought you out of the house of slavery. I redeemed you.

And when God redeems you, he does not exchange the bondage of your sin with more bondage. God's law is not bondage, it's freedom. Exodus 20 verses 1 and 2 is not God saying I took out a slavery here so you could have a rough time with me. It's not the narrative. James chapter one, James chapter two, both of them call God's law something.

You know what they call God's law? James 1 and James 2. We've been studying and family's studying the law of liberty. The law of liberty. And Peter Lightheart adds this, a community dominated by disrespect for parents, workaholism, violence, envy, theft, and lies, all of which you get apart from obedience to God's law, a community dominated by these things isn't free.

Besides, absolute freedom isn't possible. In the world God made, the world that actually exists, things aren't free to do or be anything they pleased to be. They're free when they become what they are. They are free when they become what they are. So an acorn is free to become an oak, not an elephant.

An acorn is free to become an oak, not an elephant. An acorn is free to become an oak, not an elephant. Ten words guide Israel to grow up to be what he is, the son who rules in his father's house, just as Galatians chapter 4 describes. I think that's a really powerful quote. I'm going to read this one part again.

Things aren't free to do or be anything they please. They're free when they become what they are. Did you hear that? God redeems you. He says to you, your mind!

And now that you're free, you are able to be the image bearer that God has set you to be. He set you free to be an image bearer and you're able to do that. You're actually able to have actual joy actual satisfaction actual delight because you've been set free given a new heart made into a new creation to enjoy the law of God to walk in his ways to be what God has made you to be. This is the law of liberty. This is not the law of bondage.

Bondage keeps you away from loving this. That's bondage. But when he sets you free, you're able to love what God loves, and you're finally able to hate what God hates. So God doesn't release you from the burden of your sin, Christian, and then give you a heavier burden called His law. What does the Savior say?

My burden is easy. My yoke is life. So I will sometimes have conversations with saints. And I think they mean well. But they will point to passages like Romans 6, 14.

They will say things like, well, Paul said, for sin shall not be master over you, for you are not under law, but under grace. And he'll say something like, well, see, that's Romans 6, 14. I'm not under the law anymore. Paul just says, I'm not under the law, I'm under grace. And to that I say, yes!

Praise God! The law is no law, as a Christian, as someone redeemed, the law is no longer something that is on your back crushing you because it condemns you. The law is no longer something that crushes you under its condemnation because you've not kept it. It's no longer this great burden, like Christian from the Pilgrim's Progress that's doubled over as he's making his way to the celestial city, right? He's crushing his life and soul.

No, you're no longer under the law in that way. Because you, with Christian Pilgrim, by grace, you've arrived at the hill called Calvary. You were brought there by the divine sovereign grace of God. You had this burden on your back. You were under great condemnation.

And that burden on your back has been severed. And that burden tumbled into an empty tomb. So that there is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus In Jesus Christ the law of God is no longer a great boulder that crushes you under its weight. No, it's now a delight to you That's what Romans 6 14 teaches not that the law is evil not that the law is in and of itself something that you wish You could just shrug off no Romans 6 14 is teaching you that in your unregenerate state It was a burden to you it crushed you under its weight for it condemned you to eternal damnation it shuts you up in sin it demanded your eternal damnation it cried out to you lawbreaker lawbreaker lawbreaker but Christ Jesus the one who hung on Calvary he fulfilled that law He bore the condemnation that that law cried out that you deserved. And in exchange, the moral law no longer crushes you, it comforts you, It guides you.

These are the ten words of the redeemed ones. And that changes everything about the way you read the law that God has given to those he's redeemed. It changes everything. You're no longer under the law, but grace. So keep going in Romans 6.

Romans 6-14, you're no longer under law but grace. What does the rest of Romans 6 tell you? What then, shall we sin? Because we're not under law but under grace? May it never be.

Do you not know that when you present yourselves to someone as slaves for obedience, you are slaves of the one whom you obey, either of sin resulting in death or of obedience resulting in righteousness. But thanks be to God that though you were slaves of sin, you became obedient from the heart to that form of teaching to which you were committed, and having been freed from sin, you became slaves of righteousness. You've got to serve somebody. You can serve the cruel, evil taskmaster of your Egypt, sin and Satan, or you can serve the one true living God who sets you free to be Who you were meant to be When God redeems you He takes you out from the bondage of your sin and he leads you into everlasting freedom. You got to realize that.

When you talk about being redeemed, it means you've been taken out of something. And then you're not just left in some neutral place. No, you're taken out of the house of bondage, and you're put into a house, a different house. You're a slave to Christ, which is the greatest possible freedom. And the reason that we have tranny craziness tranny madness because we don't get that we think true freedom is whatever you want to be.

That's how you get crazy things. But we we don't have it in there. I'm going to get off on a crazy tangent. When God redeems you, He takes you out from the bondage of your sin and leads you into everlasting freedom. Alright, so children, I want to talk to you because I've been using a word a lot and I'm not sure you know what it means.

You keep using that word, well, I think it means what you think it means. So I keep using the word redeem or the word redemption. Do you know what that word means, children? It's a hard word. It can be hard.

Children, what does it mean to be redeemed? Well, to be redeemed is to be bought back. It's to be purchased out of something and into something new. It's a lot, lot better. So have you ever read, have you ever heard the story, the Chronicles of Narnia, the lion, the witch, and the wardrobe?

Yes? I just saw one head shake. You've got to go home. You've got to read it. You've got to have your mom and dad read it.

If you have not read or listened to that story, today is the day. Go home and read it. That story shows you redemption. So there's a boy in that story named Edmund. Edmund.

And Edmund becomes a slave to the evil white witch. She calls herself the Queen of Narnia. She's a fake. She's a phony. She's got power.

Edmund becomes a slave to this evil queen of Narnia, the white witch who turns people into stone. Freezes them. It's what Edmund wants. Edmund meets the Queen. He gets hooked on this thing called Turkish delight.

Always wanted to try it, but I'm a little scared, too, because of the narrative. He becomes ensnared. He tastes this enchanted treat. He just falls head over heels into service of the Queen. He serves the White Witch, he cannot help himself, and you know what?

By the end of the narrative, by the end of the story, that white witch is going to kill him. She's going to kill the very little boy, Edmund, that's serving her. She's going to kill Edmund. Edmund is going to be killed by the one he serves, the evil white witch. But this is a good story.

Edmund gets rescued. Edmund gets rescued. There's a character named Aslan. Have you heard of that character? The great lion.

He comes and he takes Edmund back. He takes Edmund out of the custody of the witch. He takes Edmund out of the clutches of the evil queen. But it comes at a price. It comes at a great price.

You can't just take a slave away from the witch. Because when you serve the evil witch, you belong to the white witch. Price has to be paid. A purchase has to be made to set you free. A life for a life.

The price is bloodshed. A life has to be exchanged for Edmund's, so that Edmund can go free. So what happens? The price of Edmund's redemption, the price of Edmund being rescued from the evil white witches is a life in exchange for Edmund's life. Who dies for Edmund?

Aslan does. Aslan goes to the stone table and he gives his life in exchange for Edmund and Edmund is redeemed and he's purchased out of his chains to the witch and he becomes a Narnian. He becomes a Narnian. No longer in the clutches of perpetual winter. No, he's in the kingdom now of perpetual spring.

Narnia. That's redemption but it came at a price the lies of the great lion and children the reason that that's a good story because it's true story because that's exactly what Jesus Christ has done for you. When you name the name of Jesus Christ and you have believed upon Jesus Christ for salvation, when you turn to the Lord in faith, you were redeemed. And The price of your redemption was the life of the Lion of the tribe of Judah, Jesus the Christ. Your Redeemer gave His life in exchange for your children.

You used to belong to the witch named Satan, Ephesians 2, You were dead and you had trespassions and sins. And you belonged to the prince of the power of the air. You belonged to that great witch called Sin. But the great line of the tribe of Judah, Jesus the Christ, he came. He paid the blood price for your soul.

He hung on the cross. He suffered the wrath of God in your place. He cried out, children, for your sake. It is finished. And then he rose up from the grave triumphant.

Why? So that he might take you out of the dominion of darkness, out of your slavery to the Egypt of your sin, out of the bondage of Satan, he might take you out of that and bring you into his kingdom of light. You don't get to do that if you stay in the ground. He didn't stay in the grave. He came up out of that grave and he brings you with him out of the house of bondage and into his house out of the house of eternal winter and into the house of eternal spring his church his people no longer his enemy but his friend even more his child God did that for you he did that he made you forever a Christian an Arnie that's redemption and you know in the book in the story at the end of the book lying in which in the wardrobe you know that after Aslan did that for Edmund, nobody, nobody had to tell Edmund that he should listen to Aslan.

Of course I'm gonna listen to Aslan. Did you see what he did? That's the point of the story. Nobody has to convince Edmund that his words matter. No one has them rose up.

Edmund hung on every one of his words. Why? Because he was redeemed. Because he was redeemed. So nobody, nobody should need to tell you, Christian, why you need to listen to God's law after the God-man rose up from the grave.

You should be hanging on every one of his words, every one of these ten words, right? Right here. Why? Because you've been redeemed by the God man. And so you hang on every word, including these ten words that proceed from his mouth in verses three through 17.

Because you've been redeemed. Now Edmund in the story, he doesn't start complaining for Turkish delight anymore, does he? He might crave it. In fact, if I remember right, there is mention there of him desiring it for a moment. He does desire it.

Oh, maybe just a little more taste. No, no, no. He knows. Edmund knows. That's not freedom.

That's slavery. I'm a Narnian. And so I will live by the law of my king that's not freedom that's not that Turkish delight that's not freedom I'll live like a narnia because that's who I'm made to be. That's what's going on here in Exodus chapter 20. But in Exodus 20, if you keep reading, if you read through the narrative, did Israel start complaining?

Yeah. Do you remember what happens, brothers and sisters? God redeems Israel, sets them free from Egypt, and what do they do? Oh, if only we could go back to Egypt. Oh, if only we could go back to the House of Bondage, at least in the House of Bondage, we have food for our bellies.

So much better in Egypt. Can you believe it? It seems so foolish, doesn't it? It's not for some of you. Oh, to be in Egypt again!

You and I both know that is absolutely ridiculous. That's not true. The bondage in Egypt was horrible. They were going to die there in Egypt, and God rescued them. He redeemed them by His sovereign grace.

And He didn't rescue them so that those people that He rescued could enter into something equally as worse. No, he rescued them out of bondage so they could have something infinitely better. He was with them. His law was with them. He was with them.

His law was theirs. He provided for them. But they just complained. So is that you? Is that you?

Do you think if your redemption from the Egypt of your sin, and now you have God's law, and you think, man, Egypt was way better, I wish I had my Turkish delight again. If that is you this morning, get on your knees and ask that God would make you new. God hasn't redeemed you from bondage to lead you into greater bondage in Himself. He's done what Galatians 5.1 says. It was for freedom that Christ has set you free.

Therefore keep standing firm and do not be subject again to a yoke of slavery. So get this picture. There's a picture in the narrative. What was the bondage like in Egypt? If you had to like picture it, well he gives you actually something to picture it by.

If you want to remember what it was like in the house of bondage, ten plagues. That's what you have, ten plagues. It took ten plagues for that bondage to be released. You can have the bondage of the ten plagues or you can have the God who with ten words made the heavens and the earth and now has given ten words of his law. You see the contrast?

I think the number's 10, they are important. It should be a no-brainer to you. God is saying to you, all right, see what I give to the house of bondage, 10 plagues, 10 plagues of misery and death. That's what you get in the house of bondage. And then see what I give to the house of those that I've redeemed ten commandments that are sweeter than the honey on a honeycomb.

That's a no-brainer! The Ten Commandments far from being a burden are treasures from God. And by the way since we're talking about it what was the final plague that God sent to Egypt? What was the final plague that God brought upon the bondage of the house of bondage in Exodus? Exodus chapter 12.

It was the death of the firstborn. Do you remember that? The firstborn son. I think it's important Pharaoh had Taken Israel into bondage and if you were to read in Exodus chapter 4, do you know what God calls Israel? God calls Israel his firstborn son Exactly what God calls Israel his firstborn son.

Exactly what God calls Israel, his firstborn son. So what did Pharaoh do? Pharaoh had taken God's firstborn son. And so what would God do to Pharaoh? I will take yours.

You took my firstborn son, I will take yours. That's what happened in the Passover. And years and years and years later, this covenant-keeping God, this redeeming God, would send the Redeemer at Passover. And this Redeemer was the Son of God, the firstborn of all creation. He became the Passover Lamb.

This was the unblemished lamb who shed his blood. He was the son offered up as sacrifice so that we, so that you, might become sons of God. So that you might receive adoption into his household. So that you might be rescued out of your slavery and be full of gratitude and gladness. And that's the final lesson in this preamble.

Lesson number three, gladness and gratitude. God's redeeming work is to make you thankful. You understand the law of God rightly when you are rightly grateful for what God has done. So consider what David says in Psalm 103. Consider this word called redemption.

Psalm 103, bless the Lord, oh my soul, and forget none of his benefits, who pardons your iniquities, who heals all your diseases, who redeems your life from the pit. That's redemption, right? David continues in verse 6 of Psalm 103. The Lord performs righteousness and judgments for all who are oppressed. He made known His ways to Moses.

That's the law. He redeems your life from the pit and then he makes his ways known to you. Who among us, upon being redeemed from that pit, will then turn to our Redeemer and say, how dare you tell me what to do? How dare you take me out of there and give me your law? I had this mental picture in my mind of there's a little person, There's a child drowning in the pool.

And they're all the way at the bottom. It's a really deep pool. There's no way they're coming up. They're stuck. And they're dead.

And the lifeguard jumps in and grabs a hold of them and the child at the bottom of the pool can't even grab a hold of this lifeguard. They're just dead. And they raise this little child up from the water and they place him on the side of the pool. They administer CPR. This child is revived, is brought to life, resurrected in a sense.

This is a picture. And that child sputters and coughs and he opens his eyes. How dare you! It's so stupid. How could you save me?

What were you doing? What was that little child doing? Thank you. Oh, thank you. He cries, clutches, and is the way that children of God are with their Redeemer.

I can't believe you'd do that for me. With gratitude in your hearts, you cry out to God, Thank you, thank you, thank you. How can I show you how thankful I am? How can I show you how thankful I am how can I show you how much I love you? Oh?

Lord my God my Redeemer. How can I show how much I love you and Jesus Christ the Redeemer says to you obey my commandments if you want to know the answer how can I show I love you if you love me you obey my commandments It will be a delight to you? The apostle John wrote these words in John chapter 8. As he retold the words of Jesus, John 8 beginning in verse 34. Truly, truly, I say to you, everyone who commits sin is the slave of sin.

The slave does not remain in the house forever. The son does remain forever. So if the son makes you free, You will be free indeed. Free from condemnation, free from slavery to sin, and free to keep the law. Free to call the law what it is, the law of liberty.

Free to love it. Just think about that. You used to not be able to love God's law. It was impossible. And God has so freed you up that now you can't.

Now you can read Psalm 95 and Psalm 100 and you can say, God is my God. He is my God. And we are His sheep. I'm one of the sheep of His pasture. And that same God tells you, and my sheep know my voice.

And I know them. And they hear my voice and they listen to me. They obey me. That's what a sheep, that's what a new creation of Christ Jesus thinks about the law. This is the grass, this is the meal that they feast upon in burdened pastures that are green.

Let's pray. O Lord God, we praise and thank you that you are the great I Am, the Creator of heaven and earth. You have stooped down into the Egypt of our sin. You've rescued us. We thank you for that.

We thank you for the forgiveness of our sins, the imputed righteousness of Christ, and the indwelling of your Spirit within us. We thank you for making us your own, for setting us free, so that we might be exactly whom you've made us to be as new creations in Jesus Christ. We love you. We love your gospel. And we love your law.

But increase these affections. Increase these affections we ask for your son's sake and for our joy in him. In His name we pray. Amen.