Hello and welcome to this week's service at Westminster Reformed Presbyterian Church. We are located out of Prairie View, Illinois, a northwest suburb of Chicago. We are so glad you decided to join us today. This is our first sermon in the series on the Ten Commandments by Pastor Brett Malin. Our scripture reading will be Jeremiah 31, 31-34, and Matthew 22, 37-40. Our sermon text will be Exodus 20, 1-2. Thank you. We move now to the 10 Commandments, just to catch up some of those who have not been with us in previous weeks. I was not sure the amount of time I would be able to be with the people of Westminster, obviously, when we began way back in September. So where have we been? It's always a very important thing to ask, especially when we begin a time of preaching regularly, where shall we begin? Oftentimes when new pastors, new young men coming out of seminaries ask when they go into a church, where should I begin to preach? Should I start at Genesis and Matthew? Or should I start somewhere in Zen? All sorts of opinions can often be given. But I thought it best for us to go back to basics. Previous months I preached through the Nicene Creed, obviously not ultimately executing the Nicene Creed, but focusing upon biblical passages to demonstrate that the Nicene Creed is biblical. Then we moved to the Lord's Prayer. And now we move to the Ten Commandments. What do these three groups of texts and passages Ultimately, they show us, first of all, what we ought to believe. And then second, how we ought to pray. And now we'll move into that portion, or to that section, how we ought to live. We want to be balanced as Christians. in certain things. We all have strengths and we all have weaknesses. Some of us, I'll confess my own, I might sometimes be a little imbalanced, being a little bit of a theological egghead, being a theological nerd. I love to dig into those things and be so focused on what we ought to believe. You might not be wired that way. You might be one who focuses on prayer. And if so, I praise God for that. Some people, the prevalency in their life is their prayer life. And I say, well, praise God for that. Others, it's about practical living. How do I live as a believer? We all might have strengths and weaknesses in these things. We ought to seek balance. We want to have balance. What I mean by that is we need to know what we believe and why we believe it. We need Bible doctrine. We need Biblical teaching. We need the defense of the faith. How can we defend it if we don't actually know it? But of course we need prayer. We can't be so full of our head knowledge that we neglect prayer. We can't be so full of other things that we neglect. How to live. How to live unto God, which is really what the first four commandments teach us. And how to live in a way that is loving and proper when it concerns our neighbors. So that has been my hope for balance. You may not believe that, but it's my hope. It may not have been my execution for often failing in my execution. It has been my intent to teach you what you ought to believe by way of remembrance, or maybe for the first time, what you ought to believe, how you ought to pray, and now how you ought to live And we come to this portion of the Word of God Exodus chapter 20, which I will not spend too much time. I plan to just probably preach one sermon per commandment, which if you understand the depth and penetrating brilliance of each one of God's words, and even each and every commandment, you understand that that's not really ultimately doing justice to it. to do three, four, five, six sermons on each commandment, really. But in a sense, we're flying 30,000 feet, just getting a glimpse of things. We hope in the future to spend a little more time mingling among the natives, we could say, or the people on the ground. But for now, we're 30,000 feet above. Here's what happens. God has redeemed the people. He has rescued them from Egypt. A literal Israel, a literal sons and daughters of Jacob. He has rescued them from slavery in Egypt. He has humbled Egypt with ten plagues. And he has brought them across the Red Sea or the Sea of Breeze, God has brought them to a mountain and he is going to proclaim his glory to them. And he is going to tell his word and give them the 10 words or the 10 commandments in future weeks, Lord willing, two or three weeks from now plan to deal with the first commandment, but now we just deal with the preface to that. God spake all these words, saying, I am the Lord thy God, which hath brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. That is the preface to the Ten Commandments. What I want you to take away from this sermon is simply this, that the law of God is useful. Okay? Very, very short thesis today. The law of God is useful. And I want to emphasize three ways in which it is useful. Three ways that it is useful. If you've done any reading or listened to some Reformed sermons, you may have heard what I'm going to tell you. We talk about, to Reformed Christians, the three uses of the law. The three uses of the law. In other words, it's kind of a Puritan way of talking about the three applications of the law. That's another way to think of this. When I say the three uses of the law, I'm saying the three applications of it. In other words, when we come to any portion of the Word of God, we must understand that ordinarily the Word of God has one meaning. It has one meaning. given to a particular people, in a particular circumstance, with a particular situation in life. We ask them, is that where it stays? Does it stay in history, in the past? And we just let it be. Now what we would understand is, even though it took place in history, in redemptive history, we would say that it has a use for me, or it has application for me. I use those synonymously. The three uses of the law or the three applications of the law. Oftentimes, let me just say this, oftentimes Christians will get into a discussion and sometimes things can get a little bit heated. And if you're able to stand back from the conversation, sometimes they're talking past one another. Sometimes it's because one is particularly focused upon the original meaning, the meaning of the passage, and the other might be focusing more upon an application of that passage. Understand that any passage has one meaning, but it may have a hundred applications. for us to draw out those applications for us. Sometimes two Christians might be disagreeing about an application of a portion of the Word of God. Sometimes things can be defeated, obviously, by doing it in such a way as we need to remember the fulfilling of the laws to love our God and our neighbor. Historically speaking, though, what is the first use of the law? The first use of the law, we could say, is that the law is useful dot dot dot in showing us our sin. The law is useful in showing us our sin. We could also say that this is the evangelistic use of the law. Primarily, but in a sense every single person needs to have his or her sin shown to him or her. The law of God. The law of God shows us our sin. What are your thoughts when you read the Ten Commandments? What are your thoughts when you see them? What were your thoughts when you first heard them? the law's proper use, if we see it right, and we look at it and we say, I have not kept that. And then we go to the next commandment, and we say, oh, I have not kept that commandment either. Oh, I have not kept that commandment. Here's what the law does. Here's what it was intended to show us our sin. Why? Because the law of God is given to us as that which reveals the character of our God. The law of God is spiritual, but the law of God is perfect, and it is righteous, and it is holy, and it shows us that we are not righteous and that we are not holy and that we are not pure. It shows us that we are sinners. How are we to know that we are sinners if the law of God does not show us that we are sinners? The Apostle Paul in Romans chapter seven speaks autobiographically. Maybe you've thoughts autobiographically when you've read it too. I would not have known what coveting was. If I had not had the law tell me, do not covet. There are many things that I thought were okay, especially as a young man. I remember being in high school. Didn't know, really, truly, what was right and what was wrong. Had a sense, certainly, certain things. And someone comes along and explains to you, no, you can't do that. You're sinning against God. You're never going to realize how sinful I was. And you can't escape it. You're reminded of it whenever you think of these things. Habakkuk 113 says, Thou art, speaks to God, Thou art purer eyes than to behold evil, and canst not look on iniquity. That ought to terrorize us, in one sense. God is of purer eyes than to look upon evil. Some people think, well, when I die, I hope to go to heaven. I hope I've done enough good things. I hope I've done enough good works. That's one who hasn't understood this. his sinfulness. He hasn't understood the purity of God and the purity of his perfect law. What would happen if someone were to, in effect, go to heaven in his present state? If someone were to go to heaven in his present state, they would be undone. and come apart at the seams. Why? Because heaven is a place which where it dwells righteousness and holiness and purity and in a sense you or I would be almost like going there and polluting the place. It would be like We would be like dog people matter in a new house with new carpet. We would pollute it. That's what the law does. It shows us our sin. And this is especially useful to a vandalist as they go out into the city or as they talk one-on-one with their neighbors and tell people You realize that you're a lawbreaker. You've broken the law. And just as it is with a police officer, you cannot say, Officer, I didn't know that the speed limit had changed. You see, ignorance of the law is no excuse for it. So it is the case with God. You cannot say it, because it will not hold up in court. If you do not know the Lord Jesus Christ as your Savior, then let me tell you, let me encourage you, let me beg, let me declare to you how much you need the law of God. And if you do not know Jesus Christ as your Savior, I pray that you would open up the law of God. Open up the Ten Commandments. and meditate upon it, and see the many ways that you have broken God's law, and then you will see that you would never even consider standing before God and say, I tried to keep them, I did the best I could, and I was better than that guy. That's not going to be good enough. You see, the law of God predicts us. The Epistle of James in the New Testament tells us If you have broken one of God's laws, you have broken all of them. There's a system here. May the law of God drive you to your knees. May it drive you to repentance. May it drive you to the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ, which will be your only hope. a man comes to the Lord Jesus. And he asks Jesus, how can I have eternal life? And Jesus says to this man, keep the laws of God. And this man says, well, I've kept all the laws of God my whole life. And nobody laughed. That's what really astonished him. Nobody laughed at that man. We should all laugh when someone says, I've kept the laws. This man had not kept the laws of God in the last 20 minutes. If he had truly understood, or if he had truly used or applied the law, he would have said, well, I guess eternal life is a lost cause. because I have not kept the law of God. That would have been the right answer. That's why Jesus really threw a curveball his way and said, well, just give away everything you have. Well, and then he walks away disheveled and frustrated because he understood that he had many things and he didn't want to give his things away. That exposed him and he exposed the fact that He hadn't kept the first commandment because he was a worshipper of his things. He was a worshipper of his wealth. He hadn't kept them all. He hadn't kept the first one. May the law of God drive you to your knees. Romans 3.20 says, therefore by the deeds of the law, there shall no flesh be justified in God's sight. For by the law is the knowledge of sin. The law brings knowledge of sin. It shows us that we are sinners and that we have no hope in our own goodness, our own righteousness, or our own law keeping. But let us move to what is often called the second use of the law, the second application of the law. The law of God is useful in restraining sin. In restraining sin. Now this is not having to do with evangelism, or bringing us to Christ, as the first use is. And it's not like the third one, which we'll get to. It is really, in a sense, especially directed at unbelievers. It is directed to unbelievers. You see, oftentimes there are crimes committed. People commit crimes because of their own selfishness, their sinfulness, their desire for things that are not theirs. And sometimes Christians refrain from sinning because they love their dog. They do not want to bring dishonor to him. That's not the second use of the law. The second use of the law, we could say, is a civil use. The second use of the law restrains people's sin in a civic way. What we mean is this. Sometimes someone will contemplate stealing. They'll think, I'd really like that. And then he says, I think I should steal that. And then there's something that constrains him. There's something that holds him back. And he says, you know what? I don't want to get caught. And I could get caught. I could end up in jail, or I could end up in court, or I would have to have all sorts of consequences. So we would say that the second use of the law is that use which, apart from salvation, apart from the way of life of a Christian, the second use of the law restrains, even in unbelievers, causes them to say, I won't do that, because I don't like policemen. I don't like handcuffs. I don't like prison. I don't like court. I don't like community service. I don't like fines and that sort of thing. Of course, we understand that anyone with a conscience has God's law testifying to him or her. You ought not to do this. Of course, peer pressure groupthink can have so much power over people. Some of the opening portions of Proverbs, the opening chapter, run the tune. Solomon recommends to his son, Leoboam, that's the meaning. The application is to all of us, of course. He recommends that he not get together with friends who come together and decide, hey, let's go do this certain scene, or let's wait for a man's blood. In other words, let's set a trap for someone so we can do something that someone would not do alone because of the restraining use of the law, but in a group. No peer pressure if someone's alone. Maybe if we do it together, not all of us could be caught, and maybe we can come together and get out of it. But we do what we want to. In a sense we could say that the second use of the law, the civic or civil use of the law is being lost in our day. It is being lost. And it's tragic. And so soon to forget, and I know that some people have forgotten. I watched with astonishment this Last summer, because of certain rage, justified or not, look what happened. People burned down buildings, tore up cities, stole from many companies, and people were killed in the streets. Why is that? It seems that the second use of the law has been lost in our nation. Why? because people do not fear the authorities anymore. They do not fear the consequences anymore. And so they take the liberty to destroy and pollute, and even in some cases to kill someone. Killing someone else over a TV during the looting times. Romans 13.3 talks about or backs up, we could say, the restraining use of the law. For rulers are not a terror to good works, but to the evil. Wilt thou then not be afraid of the power? Do thou which is good, and thou shalt have praise of the same. In other words, here's where the problem's still. Why do you not speak? Maybe you don't speed because you don't like flashing lights. And ask yourself, how much can I get away with? With five over, I won't get stopped. With six over. Seven, seven might be the limit, right? Policeman is thinking to himself, do I want to fill out a ticket and have to go to court over three miles? Why are we restrained in our driving? Because we fear, in a sense, we revere the policemen and the ability to fine us and to have points with our driver's license. And we don't like to have insurance that is rising. This is a restraining use of the law. But we're losing that. We're losing that in our time and in our nation. And we're seeing consequences of this. In a sense, it may be the case that God will just abandon us as a nation to our sins. Maybe by then, I speak heterologically, we'll only have three uses of the word. Because it seems to restrain less and less. God have mercy that such a thing could happen. But of course, there is the third use of the law. This is the use or the application which is to us as believers, to you as Christians. The law of God is useful in showing us how we should live. The law of God is useful in showing us our sin It is useful in restraining sin, and it is useful in showing us how we should live. You might be thinking, well, here's the thing. I'm a believer. I believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. I have heard the gospel. Whether you heard the gospel as a little child who grew up in that blessed thing that God has given to us when we're a family, where discipleship happens, where fathers and mothers teach the word of God to their children, or whether you were in an unbelieving family. We're going about your life and at a certain point someone gave you a book, or someone preached the gospel, or you heard someone on a street corner, or you heard even someone on TV, talking about the righteousness of God, and talking about our sinfulness, you would say, that's not me anymore, I've been a believer for five years, ten years, maybe, maybe far more, maybe for decades. Maybe that's usefulness here for you. You see, we could say, in a sense, It's kind of ironic that the third use of the law is primary. It's primary as the meaning. Look at Exodus 20, 1 and 2, God's take all these words, saying, I am the Lord thy God, which hath brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. This is what God is saying to them originally. Since you have been rescued from bondage, rescued from slavery, and because I am your God, because we are in a relationship one with another now, God and a set of people, therefore, this is how you ought to live. You might say, well, I was not a slave, and I did not witness those sorts of things, those 3,500 or so years ago. I was not there. You would say, well, absolutely we're not. But you have been rescued from something far greater, far greater than a nation being slaves, you know, slaves to the Egyptian This has even more relevance to you. Why? Because you have been rescued from the law of God as a condemning force. We can say that you have been rescued from the slavery and the bondage of your sin. You have been rescued from the consequences of your sin. Therefore sin has no ultimate dominion over you. We would say that the Lord is our God and he has brought you out of a bondage to sin of which Egypt under Pharaoh was just a picture, just a type. Slavery of the Israelites to the Egyptians had consequences, consequences of hard life, consequences of shame, but your bondage to sin and the consequences of that far greater and far worse. He would say, though, now that you have been redeemed, now that God has shown himself to be your savior, now that you have been united to Jesus Christ, and now that you have been baptized into his den, and buried with Him in baptism. And now that you have been raised to newness of life, we say, He is your God, and you are His people. And now we say that the law of God is a rule of love for you, and it is a rule of love for me. It teaches us how we must live as Christians. And so we as Christians must embrace the third use of the law and say, Lord, show me how to live. And God is not going to show you how to live in some magical, mystical way. He is not going to show you how to live through a horoscope or through a palm reader or a Ouija board or anything like that. He gives you such wonderful yet simple things. He says, these are the 10 words. These are the 10 laws. first pertaining to how you would love God, and the second portion, the latter six, how you would serve and love your neighbor. In a sense, God has simplified things for us. How shall I live? Love the Lord your God, and love your neighbor as yourself. How do I do that? There it is. have no other gods, create no idols, reverence God's name, keep the Sabbath day, the Lord's day, and your parents. Seek to preserve life. Seek to preserve purity. Seek not to steal. Seek not to covet, et cetera. How shall we live? We live according to the word of God. God, as a father, has lovingly given to you, his people, the way for you to live. He has laid down the rules. And he has not done so for you as a taskmaster and you a slave. He has done so with him as a father and you as a son. You as a daughter, a father, lays down ground rules in the home. Lays down rules about what time to be home. Lays down ground rules about any number of things. Not because he is a past master. He lays them down because he wants to see his children prosper. He wants to see them kept safe. He wants to see them do well, rather than fall into ruin. That is exactly the reason that God, your Heavenly Father, has given to you the Ten Commandments. Because they teach you how to live, they teach you how to love, they teach you how to serve, and they teach you how to avoid the consequences of your sin. And therefore, let us embrace the Ten Commandments. Understand that there are many believers, Christian believers, as there have been for centuries. There have been many who have said, the law of God has no, has no part in the Christian life. They would say, oh, they're under grace, not under law. Oh, that's a misunderstanding to her. They are under grace. Not a new law, that's true. But we're still under the law as a way of life. But we say, I have received Jesus, now I may dishonor my parents. Uncommitted adultery, that would be absurd. The word of God teaches us how we ought to live. Ephesians 2.10 says, for we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works. what works to do and how to do good work, well, it's going to come from God's word and primarily from the Ten Commandments, which God has before ordained that we should walk in them. God has foreordained good works, we must walk in them. The guide to that is the Ten Commandments. The Lord Jesus, when he gives the Great Commission in Matthew chapter 28, 19 through 20, he says, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. And then here's the key. Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you, and though I am with you always, even unto the end of the world, amen. The Lord Jesus teaches the disciples that they must go into the world, into the nations, baptizing them in the Holy Name, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, teaching the nations everything that the Lord Jesus has taught. And Jesus did not come into the world to contradict the law. He did not come into the world to say, once you are Christians, it has no use to you. He says, no, no, it has great use to you. And you must use it and understand it rightly. And if you think, oh, I kept that one, then you have not come to the depths of that law. You have not seen the way that it brings you to your knees, brings you to the cross. So we could say that the law of God is useful, showing us our sin, restraining sin, and showing us how we should live. Or we could say that it is useful or applicatory in evangelistic ways, in civil ways, and also in way of life ways. When you look at the Word of God, you look at the law. If you are outside of Christ, then you should, in a sense, share the funding, power, and the Word of God, and the voice of God on Mount Sinai. it should instill fear in you, because you have not kept the law. You ought to be like Adam and Eve, who hid themselves once they heard the sound or the voice of God looking for them, saying, where are you? But if you have trusted in Christ, and you are not walking according to the law of God, let me encourage you that you must do so, and you must begin this day begin to perform your life according to the word of God. Not that you're trying to earn his favor, but because you have been given his favor, because you have been united to Jesus, now therefore, as a result, love the law of God and serve the Lord Jesus and look to the Lord. of Jesus and see His love for sinners and His grace for sinners. See that His love is not simply a feeling. It is not a sentiment that He has because love is ultimately not a feeling. Feelings have and grow. Feelings come and go. The commitment works of love, those show love and manifest love. Jesus manifests his love in this, that he laid down his life for his sheep, that he might take it up again, that he might raise them off at the last day. Jesus manifests his love in that. He leaves the 99, that's the good shepherd, and he goes and He rescues the one lost sheep. That is the love of Jesus Christ, the Savior. And we see the Lord Jesus manifesting His love in His incarnation. The humiliation that He brings on Himself, in His humiliation, the one who is eternal, the one who dwells in light, and glory inexpressible comes into this world in humbleness and humility, taking upon himself the likeness of sinful mankind, not actual sinfulness, but the likeness of sinful mankind he takes on. Jesus coming into poverty, Indeed, we can say that the Apostle Paul, who was rich, became poor so that he might give us riches. Of course, he's not talking about earthly riches. He's talking about heavenly riches. Those are ours because of the Lord Jesus Christ, who incarnates himself, who comes into this world, born of a virgin, born under law to redeem us. and to redeem a people for himself, and of course, the culmination of his love. The high point of it. His atonement upon the cross, his suffering upon the cross, and taking your punishment, which you have incurred as a result of your sin, he places that upon you. So we can say the Father places your sin and the consequences of your sin upon the cross so that you do not suffer. You do not suffer for your sins, ultimately. And when in exchange, your sins placed upon the Savior, upon the cross, and His righteousness, His holiness, and His redemption given to you this perfect blood, atoning for your life, for time and for eternity. I see the Lord Jesus throwing his amen to this world. Not to get rid of the law, but to fulfill the law for you and for me. Let us pray. Thank you for tuning in. Please review our Facebook and YouTube pages for further teachings. We pray you will join us next week. If you are interested in or have questions about visiting us in person, please contact us at secretary at wrpc at gmail.com. Thank you.