Goals of this Study for the Unconverted

Pleading for Extraordinary Grace in Ordinary Means

0:03 The following sermon was delivered on Sunday morning, February 11th, 1996, at the Trinity Baptist Church of Montville, New Jersey. Now, as we were reminded in the previous hour, those who were gathered for the adult class, that when God has visited His people in special seasons of awakening and revival, it has been His sovereign will to bless His ordinary means with extraordinary measures of His grace and presence.

0:44 And as we sit this morning on an ordinary Lord's Day, in an ordinary service of worship, with the ordinary means of the singing of psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, seeking the face of God, in the ordinary manner of corporate prayer, let us plead with God again that in the ordinary teaching and preaching of the Word, God may be pleased to grant extraordinary measures of His grace and power to the salvation of sinners and to the blessing and reviving of His own people. Let us pray together.

1:32 Our Father, we come with... Thankfulness and praise that You are the God whose ear is open to the cry of the righteous.

1:42 We thank You for the reminders in the previous hour of Your mighty works in days gone by. And with the psalmist we exclaim, Our fathers have told us what work You did in their days. But with the psalmist we would also plead, Command deliverances for Jacob now. And, O Lord, as we come to the teaching and preaching and application of Your holy word, we ask that the Holy Spirit would be sent down upon this assembly of men and women and boys and girls in copious measures of His gracious work,

2:26 taking His own word and applying it with power to every heart. May He give utterance to the preacher, and may He give...

2:35 May He give hearing ears to every listener. We plead through Jesus Christ, our Lord. Amen. Our study in the Word of God this morning is the thirteenth message in which we have been seeking to lay a solid biblical foundation for a responsible, in-depth study of what we commonly know as the Ten Commandments, the Deca-Log,

Review of the Foundational Studies on the Moral Law

3:11 or the moral law of God as embodied in the ten words spoken by the voice of God from Sinai and written by the very finger of God in tables of stone. And in these previous twelve sermons I have sought to accomplish basically three things. I hope those who have been with us have captured what those three things are. First of all, I sought to establish from the Scriptures the fact that man,

3:47 as created by God, is under an inescapable obligation to render perfect obedience to God. And we established that fact on three solid, biblical pillars of evidence. The ground of this obligation is the creation. creator-creature relationship. God the Creator made man and made him a morally accountable

4:22 creature to himself. We saw that the standard of this obligation is the revealed will of God. Whatever God revealed of His will to man, it was man's responsibility to obey. And the ultimate manifestation of this obligation is the work of Jesus Christ on behalf of sinners and the climactic day of judgment. For there in the day of judgment, God will judge every

4:59 man according to his works. The final validation that man as created by God was indeed under judgment. It was under an escapable obligation to render perfect obedience to God. And then the second thing I sought to accomplish in these introductory studies was to establish the fact that the obedience which God requires of man is comprehensively summarized in the

5:41 Ten Commandments. And again, we looked at three categories of biblical evidence. First of all, the unquestionable evidence of the influence of the Ten Commandments upon all men by nature, particularly examining Romans 1.32 and Romans 2.14 and 15. Secondly, the unusual circumstances surrounding and following the giving

6:10 of man to God. And the second thing I sought to accomplish in these introductory studies was to establish the unquestionable evidence of the Ten Commandments. At a time when God was giving profuse revelations of His will to man, God made it very plain that this dimension of the revelation of His will was in a category all its own. And then thirdly, we considered the obvious presence of the Ten Commandments in the New Testament as an unchangeable and binding standard.

6:41 And I sought to expound in your hearing nine pivotal passages in the New Testament, looking at each one of them in its context, that is, its universe of discourse, its setting, examining its language and the meaning of its statements, and then seeking to understand the intention of the human author as guided by the Spirit.

7:11 And I sought to expound in your hearing nine pivotal passages in the New Testament, looking at each one of them in its context, that is, its universe of discourse, its setting, examining its language and the meaning of its statements, and then seeking to understand the intention of the human author as guided by the Spirit. in the language of certain phrases of Scripture. And so we examine the objections of such language as Romans 6.14b.

7:53 For you are not under the law, but under grace. Galatians 5.18 If you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law. And John 1.17

8:07 For the law was given through Moses, but grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. And as we examine those three passages in particular, looking again at the context, in some instances, the entire thrust of the letter in which they come to us, the strain of the argument, and then the language of the text itself, we came to the conclusion, that far from overturning what we established in all of the previous exposition, these passages establish all the more firmly the truth

Introducing the Goals for Studying the Ten Commandments

8:51 that the Ten Commandments are indeed a changeless and binding standard of righteousness. Now, having, I trust, carried your judgment on these three things, what I propose to do today in the morning and evening ministry of the Word is to further set the stage for our studies in the Ten Commandments by addressing this question, what are my specific goals in the study of the Ten Commandments? Or perhaps better stated,

9:32 what biblical goals should frame any serious, serious examination of the Ten Commandments? In other words, what scriptural ends should a preacher have in mind in preparing and preaching and applying a series of messages on the Ten Commandments? What ought your desires to be sitting there as you receive the ministry of such a preacher? Well, it is that concern that is our focus, God willing, both this morning and this evening.

10:13 And I want to divide the materials into two very natural categories. The goals of preaching the Ten Commandments as they relate to those who are outside of Christ, that is, those who are not converted, those who know nothing of the new birth and of repentance and faith and union with Christ, the spirit of adoption, we want to consider from the Scriptures the goals of preaching the Ten Commandments as they relate to those who are outside of Christ, that will be our focus this morning, and then, God willing, this evening,

10:56 the goals of preaching the Ten Commandments as they relate to those who are in Christ, that is, those who are united to Christ by faith, those who have been regenerated by the Holy Spirit, who have been brought to biblical repentance and faith and union with Christ, who are adopted, accepted in the Beloved, indwelt by the Holy Spirit, all of these things bound up in the terminology of those who are in Christ. Well, we address then that first category in our ministry of the Word this morning.

Defining the Unconverted Audience

11:37 What are the biblical goals that ought to be before my mind, in my preparation, in my preaching of the Ten Commandments, to those of you sitting here this morning who are not in Christ? Some of you who are not in Christ are very conscious that you are not in Christ. You make no profession of being in Christ, and you may not even be alarmed that you are not in Christ. If anyone were to ask you which category do you fit in, you would readily say, I am not in Christ.

12:16 You make no profession. There is no evidence that your assessment of yourself is inaccurate. You are one who is an indifferent stranger to the grace of God that is found only in Christ. There may be others of you who are not in Christ that are concerned, concerned about the fact that you are not in Christ.

12:40 You may be deeply agitated about this very question, how can I get into Christ? I know I ought to be. I am neither proud nor prepared to stand and state with indifference that I am not in Christ. It is my deepest burden that I am not in Christ.

13:00 There may be others of you who think you are in Christ. You've made a profession of faith. You've gone through some religious ritual. And you have conned yourself into believing that you are in Christ, though everything the Bible says about people who are in Christ bears little resemblance to you.

13:19 For the Bible says if any man be in Christ, he is a new creation. The old is past. The new has come. The Scripture says that all who are in Christ will manifest that they share the virtue of the power of Christ.

13:35 The power of Christ's death. And in Christ they too have died to the dominion of sin. And they have risen to walk in newness of life, in the strength of Christ and His resurrection, as we saw in our study of Romans 6. But you are nonetheless in the category of outside of Christ.

13:55 Though you may profess to be in Christ, and you may have even conned yourself into a good degree of persuasion you are in Christ, by their fruits you shall know them. And there is little fruit to evidence that you are indeed in Christ. And then there are varying categories in between those that I've described. But when I say, what ought the function of a preachment of the Ten Commandments be?

14:25 What ought the goal of such preaching be to those who are not in Christ? I'm including all of you, who are not in Christ, wherever you may fall along the line of that spectrum that I have described. And my answer to the question comes in two very simple affirmations. My goal in explaining, expounding, and applying to the conscience the Ten Commandments in coming weeks and months with reference to you who are not in Christ, is a two-fold goal.

Goal 1: Understanding and Feeling Guilt and Need for Christ's Righteousness

15:07 Number one, that each one of you who is not in Christ may be brought to understand and feel what you really are as a guilty sinner in need of the righteousness of Christ. All of my studies, all of my prayer, all of my labor in composing the sermons should God spare us together in coming months will have as one of the distinct ends in view for you who are not in Christ,

15:49 whether you are two, four, six, eight, ten, or ninety years of age, is that each of you who is not in Christ may be brought to understand and feel and I've chosen both words deliberately, carefully, purposefully, and in that order that you may be brought to understand that some light will break into your intellectual faculties and feel that there may be a disruption of your affections, of your emotions, of your self-judgment,

16:33 that you may be brought to understand and feel what you really are. Not to bring you to see something that goes beyond reality and to feel something for which there is no warrant for felt experience, but that you may be brought to understand and feel what you really are as a guilty sinner in need of the righteousness of Christ. Now, why is that my goal for you? Well, if you will turn to Romans chapter 1, the answer I think will become quite simple

17:17 and I trust by the Spirit of God quite clear. Romans chapter 1, and I read in your hearing verses 16 and 17. Paul having expressed his frequent plans to go to Rome, and the frustration of those plans, purposing again to come to them in the will of God, indicates why he is so anxious to go to Rome. And it is that he might preach the gospel to them.

17:51 Verse 15, So as much as in me is, I am ready to preach the gospel to you that are in Rome. And why does he have such an anxious, stretching as it were, at the reins desire to herald the gospel in that very citadel of the Roman Empire, as well as a bastion of spiritual ignorance and of horrible moral degradation? Well, he says, I am anxious to preach the gospel because I am not ashamed of the gospel. I have no just cause ever to blush in the presence of my gospel, for it is the power of God

18:35 unto salvation to everyone that believes, to the Jew first, and also to the Greek, for it is this power of God unto salvation to everyone that believes, for therein, that is within this gospel, is revealed, manifested, made openly known a righteousness of God. From faith unto faith, as it is written, but the righteous shall live by faith. Paul is passionately consumed with the desire to proclaim the gospel at Rome, because he knows

19:18 when he proclaims that gospel, he had no cause to be ashamed of what that gospel will do wherever and whenever and by whomever it is truly believed, whether Jew or Greek. And he is confident that the gospel will never leave him embarrassed or ashamed, because in that gospel there is revealed a righteousness of God. In other words, at the heart of the biblical gospel is the revelation of how sinful man can be right with God. How guilty, hell-deserving, sinful men and women,

20:03 boys and girls, Jews and Greeks, can have a righteousness that God Himself provides, a righteousness of which God Himself approves, a right standing with God that God has conceived, that God has provided, that God extends to men in the gospel, that God confers upon every believing sinner. Now, in the light of this, do you see the tremendously tragic aberrations of the so-called gospel in our day? He does not say, I'm not ashamed of the gospel,

20:46 for it's the power of God unto salvation to everyone that believes, for therein is revealed a formula by which you can feel good about yourself. Now, that's the way many would have written the passage. And they say the gospel is essentially a message which helps us to know how to feel good about ourselves. Not according to Paul.

21:12 He says therein is revealed a righteousness of God. He doesn't say it's a gospel which holds forth a promise, for therein is a promise of health, wealth, and prosperity. Nor does he say, for therein is a formula in order to be insulated from the trials of life, no, the great, the grand, the central blessing held out in the gospel is the revelation of the only, a sinner can have a right standing with God. That is the central blessing of the gospel.

21:50 Do you see that with your own eyes in your own Bibles? For therein is revealed a righteousness of God. However, the great problem is that most people are utterly indifferent to this glorious revelation of how we can have a right standing with God. And why are they indifferent to it?

22:17 Because being right with God is a matter of no concern to them. If I were to go out today with a bullhorn and with a badge indicating I had the permission of the Montville Police Department and so to disrupt a quiet Sunday in Montville and go up and down the streets of Montville starting with the condominiums behind our parking lot and moving through the various areas of streets and lanes and with my bullhorn I was to announce that I have good news for all the inhabitants of Montville. I'm ready to reveal a way

23:01 by which every one of you can be a winner in this. You can be a winner in the lottery next week and come away with at least $10,000 if you'll play the lottery my way. Now a lot of people would say ah, here's somebody who's got his scam, etc. But you'd be amazed how many people would be willing to give me a hearing.

23:23 If I were to go through with the bullhorn and say I've come to reveal and announce something that is yet to even be widely known through the news media that an amazing miracle drug has been found that will not only cure all kinds of illnesses that hitherto have resisted medical attention but immunize you against every serious life-threatening disease and I were to announce such good news and to demonstrate upon proof that I wasn't a nut or a quack why people would be interested by the hundreds and by the thousands. But if with that same bullhorn and with the same permission I were to go up and down the streets saying all inhabitants of Montville

24:07 hear and listen I have marvelous news I can tell you to be right the majority would stuff their ears and say oh, one of those religious fanatics God help us. Why? Because the issue of being right with God is of no concern. Or if it is of any concern they believe they've already resolved it totally.

24:44 They're totally apart from the Gospel. Now you see it's precisely at this point that the Ten Commandments come in to do their work. Because in the purpose of God according to the very teaching of the Apostle Paul in this very epistle God's ordinary means of shaking people up from their indifference to the central blessing held out in the Gospel a righteousness of God is to use His law to show them to cause them to understand and to feel

25:28 what they really are as guilty sinners in desperate need of that very righteousness. So it should not surprise us that immediately following such a statement Paul begins in verse 18 with the words For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness notice and unrighteousness of men. You have a choice get concerned to come into possession

26:11 of the righteousness of God or bear the wrath of God for your unrighteousness. And there's no middle ground. Now you see once people begin to understand that and begin to feel that reality then the announcement I have a gospel I have good news the heart of which is the revelation of the righteousness of God a way that sinners who are full of unrighteousness and under wrath can have a righteousness which makes them righteously exempt

26:53 from the righteous wrath of God and makes them righteously possessors of a righteousness that makes it right for God to take them to heaven. Then it's good news. It's blessed news. It's the most wonderful news that men can ever hear.

27:13 And so this same apostle starting in verse 18 all the way through chapter 1 chapter 2 chapter 3 summarizing his whole argument comes to verses 19 and 20 of chapter 3 with these words Now we know that what things soever the law says and he pictures the law as speaking it's a present tense verb whatsoever things the law is saying it is speaking not it's spoken it is to them that are under the law that are that every mouth

27:57 may be stopped and all the world may be brought under the judgment of God because by the works of the law shall no flesh be justified in his sight for through the law comes the knowledge the epignosis for you Greek students as you know there are settings in which the use of epignosis as opposed to mere gnosis points to an intensified felt perception and knowledge through the law comes the knowledge of sin now why did he spend all of that time from 1.18

28:41 to 3.20 before he says a word about this thing that is the heart of the gospel the revelation of a righteousness of God he doesn't pick up that subject until verse 21 of chapter 3 but now apart from the law a righteousness of God has been manifested Paul gave us your theme and then it's though you forgot it and all the way through chapter 1 and all through chapter 2 and almost all the way through chapter 3 you spoke of sin and of judgment and of law and of responsibility why did you do this Paul because I know I know I'd be barking up a tree with nothing else

29:25 on the other end until you there at Rome and wherever I preach the gospel until men come to understand and feel what they really are as guilty sinners in need of the righteousness of Christ all the preaching of the gospel will be nothing but interesting information it will never be welcomed as good news and therefore it is my clear unashamed and I believe biblical goal in this study of the ten commandments to you who are not in Christ young or old whether blatantly

30:10 shamelessly not in Christ whether with a sense of grief and shame and tentativeness you acknowledge you're not in Christ or whether hypocritically you claim to be in him but your life gives no living proof that you are wherever you fit in the spectrum my goal is that each of you who is not in Christ may be brought to understand and feel what you really are as a guilty sinner in need of the righteousness of Christ and you see God has ordained according to Romans 3 and verse 20 that through the law

30:55 the knowledge of sin may be brought to you and may be brought to you and may be brought to you and may be brought to you and may be brought to you and may be brought to you and may be brought to you and may be brought home to the human heart the truth emphasized in chapter 7 verses 12 and 13 that we studied in its context in its flow of thought and therefore now I simply quote it by way of reminder Romans 7, 12 that the law is holy and the commandment holy and righteous and good did then that which is good become death to me God forbid but sin that it might be shown to be good sin by working death to me through that which is good that through the commandment sin might become

31:38 exceedingly sinful is he saying that the commandment makes it exceedingly sinful no it's already that but it wasn't that in his own eyes in his own understanding and in his own felt religious experience his sin was indeed exceedingly sinful later on he describes it I was before injurious a blasphemer a persecutor he describes himself along with the other Ephesians as walking according to the course of this world according to the prince of the power of the air the spirit who works in the sons of disobedience among whom we all had our manner of life fulfilling the desires

32:23 of the flesh and of the mind and were by nature children of wrath even as the rest Titus said in Titus chapter 3 he says we ourselves were one times foolish disobedient serving all kinds of lust and pleasures what is he saying he is not saying that the commandment makes sin exceedingly sinful but it makes it thus in our own understanding and felt experience and that's my goal because some of you have sat through some of the most clear earnest loving and loving tender and at times terrifying preaching of your need to flee to Christ

33:07 and you've withstood and one of the fundamental reasons is you have never never never truly understood and felt what you are as a guilty sinner in need of the righteousness of Christ and in my passion you take into heaven and rather than go to hell I'm going to be expounding the ten commandments with the prayer that God the Holy Spirit will take this divinely ordained instrument of accurate self-knowledge and use it to show you

33:52 what you really are in the sight of the God before whom you will stand in the day of judgment not to overstate your case to do you good but under God to see you brought to own the true state of your case that you might flee out of yourself and into Christ you remember in Pilgrim's Progress kids how does Bunyan picture Christian in the beginning of his journey when he understands from the book in his hand that judgment is to

34:36 overtake him unless he finds relief from the burden of the burden on his back only one thing mattered he stuck his fingers in his ears and he ran from the city of destruction crying life life eternal life and all the pleas of his dearest loved ones wife and children and all of the attempts of others along the way to turn him aside nothing would deter him why here was a man convinced from the book in his hands that he needed a righteousness that only Christ could give that he was a guilty sinner

35:20 whose guilt made him liable to the wrath of God and whose guilt could only be resolved by the work of another and I would urge everyone in Christ to plead with God that it would please him in this exposition of the ten commandments to use his law for one of the major purposes for which he gave it that it would lay an instrument in the hands of the spirit it will never be this in the letter of itself but in the hands of the spirit an instrument to bring many who are not in Christ to understand and to feel what they really are

Goal 2: Understanding and Feeling Impotence and Need for Christ's Spirit

36:05 as guilty sinners in need of the righteousness of the of Christ but then I have a second purpose with respect to you who are not in Christ and it is this and listen carefully because at first you may think you're repeating yourself pastor no there's a fundamental distinction listen carefully my purpose is that each one of you who is not in Christ may be brought to understand and feel what you really are as an impotent sinner and a sinner in need of the spirit of Christ you see the subtle difference

36:49 I am preaching the ten commandments to you who are not in Christ not only that you may be brought to understand and to feel that you are really a guilty sinner in need of the righteousness of Christ but that you are an impotent sinner in need of the spirit of Christ now why do I say this for this simple reason a second great blessing held out in the gospel is that it not only offers a way of right standing with God but also the way of

37:33 deliverance from our native bondage and slavery to sin for you see sin is not only brought us into the courtroom of God where we are but also where we are declared guilty devoid of a righteousness that can elicit the favor of God but sin has brought us into a personal moral state of bondage to sin there is the bad record in heaven and the bad heart here on earth remember the words of our Lord Jesus in John 8 and I ask you to turn there with me please John chapter 8 our Lord is

38:18 speaking to a group of people who professed to believe upon him and to such Jesus says in verse 31 Jesus therefore said to those Jews that had believed on him if you abide if you remain if you continue in my word then are you truly my disciples he doesn't say continuing will make you my disciples he says continuing will manifest that you are really my disciples if you continue in my word you now profess faith in me and in my word but the evidence that that faith is real is persevering in that faith continuing in that word and you shall know the truth and the truth

39:03 shall make you free as you adhere to me and to my truth the result will be a life of liberty they answered him we are Abraham's seed never been in bondage to any man how do you say you shall be made free the assumption is Jesus that we're in bondage how can that be a blessing to us we're not in bondage that's like telling a millionaire do what I tell you and I'll give you five bucks I'm a millionaire what do I need five bucks for the Lord holds out this marvelous promise adhere to me in persevering faith and liberty will be your ultimate experience they say big deal

39:46 no big deal to us we've never been in bondage to any man Jesus answered them verily verily I say unto you every one that commits sin every one who practices sin as a way of life is the bond slave of sin and the bond slave does not abide in the house forever the son abides forever if therefore the son shall make you free you shall be free indeed you see what our Lord is saying that in his person and in his work he has come not only to effect and procure for sinners

40:31 a righteousness that will give them a legal standing in the court of heaven that they may be acquitted and received with the righteousness that stands the scrutiny of God because it's a God righteousness he has also come to do something to those of us who are natively the slaves of sin we are in bondage to sin the truth again taught so clearly in Romans 6 17 God be thanked that whereas you were the slaves of sin you have obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine unto which you were delivered and being made free from sin you became servants to righteousness you remember

41:15 that marvelous messianic prophecy in Isaiah 61 concerning the coming of Messiah the very prophecy that Jesus read and commented upon in the synagogue at Nazareth the spirit of the Lord God is upon me because the Lord has anointed me to preach good tidings unto the meek he has sent me to bind up the broken hearted now notice to proclaim liberty to the captives and the opening of the prison to them that are bound the spirit is upon Messiah that he might proclaim liberty

42:00 to captives and the throwing open of prison doors to those who are bound a second great blessing held out in the gospel is not only that in it is revealed a way of right standing with God but in the gospel is revealed the way of liberation from the bondage to sin but you see in the case of these Jews that announcement of Jesus whom the son sets free is free indeed if the son shall make you free you shall be free that was not received as good news it was insulting to them

42:43 and why was it not received as good news because they did neither understand nor feel that they were in bondage to sin and they were impotent to break their own chains so what should have been good news was irritating religious overstatement now that's the problem with most of us by nature oh yes we may admit in a cavalier way we've done some things we shouldn't and there are some things we should do we haven't done oh yes nobody's perfect as old rabbi duncan said the phrase nobody's perfect

43:28 it is the hypocrite's couch it is the true believer's bed of thorns you'll admit nobody's perfect that's right haven't done some things I should have done and did some things I should not have done but you see we really don't believe our condition is what it is as described in a passage such as Romans 8 verses 7 and 8 we really don't believe that of ourselves we really don't believe this of ourselves the mind of the flesh the discontent disposition of heart and affection and will the whole inner complexion of our moral state the mind of the flesh is enmity

44:13 against God in its very essence it is in opposition to God for it is not subject to the law of God listen neither indeed can it be it is so incorrigible it is so determined in its stubbornness it is so given over to its bondage to sin it cannot be subject to God with the result that they that are in the flesh cannot please God and what takes a man out of that state verse 9 but you are not in the flesh but in the spirit if so be that the spirit of God dwell in you if any man have not

44:57 the spirit of Christ he is none of his you see what the passage is teaching us until the spirit of Christ has come to indwell us and by the presence and operations of his indwelling has radically transformed us from the enemies of God and the slaves of sin into those who are the friends of God and the liberated delivered captives who are now the servants of righteousness it is impossible to please God now that is our true condition but the problem is we neither understand it nor feel it and this is where God's law

45:42 comes into play the preaching of the ten commandments is very often the instrument God uses to bring people to see to understand and to feel in their own consciousness that when the Bible says whosoever commits sin is the slave of sin that is the slave of sin that is not rhetorical overstatement that is reality that is me until as that blind man who was convinced he was blind and that he nor no other fellow human being could ever cause his optic nerves to function again so that he could see he had both understanding and felt conviction of the reality

46:26 of his blindness so that when he heard that Jesus of Nazareth was passing by he cried out suddenly son of David have mercy upon me and when they sought to silence him and give him reasons why he should back off from interrupting Jesus in his present occupation and concern it says he cried the louder saying son of David have mercy upon me the scripture says in Jesus stood still that which froze the son of God in his tracks was not someone saying oh Jesus I think I'm getting along alright and eventually things will be better but if you'll only

47:11 come along and hasten the process all will be well sooner no it was the cry of a man utterly that he could do anything for his own condition and that the whole answer lay in the activity of Christ and you see dear people that's our problem oh yes we may feel yeah I've got a little kink here I've got this predisposition to be a hothead and I know I've got an ungovernable temper and it makes me say some things I shouldn't and even cuss at times and I know it's wrong and I've got this predisposition to lust and this interest in the unclean or I've got this tendency to be a gossip and I've got this inclination to be this

47:55 or do that that I know is not right but if you are honest you're not ready to admit you are as much the slave of sin as though you were an old Roman slave so you're not someone who had been captured in the conquest of the Roman armies stripped of every single right of possession and name and title and made the property of another and held in chains to your conqueror's charity you really don't believe you're that bad but you are and until you're brought to understand and to feel the chains the chains

48:40 that will hold you to your sins forever lest you be as the son of God comes and opens the prison house and breaks the chains you'll never go to Christ and my goal in preaching the ten commandments I say without shame or embarrassment is that God by the Holy Spirit in the power of the truth of his own holy law will bring you to the place where you are not only convinced that you have no righteousness to make you acceptable before God you desperately need the righteousness of God held forth in the gospel

The Law as a Mirror Driving Sinners to Christ

49:24 but that you desperately need the liberating power of the spirit of Christ held forth in the gospel a man of God living and ministering in the mid 1600s by the name of Bishop Leighton later Archbishop Leighton not in the Roman Church but in the Anglican Church in his introduction to a series of sermons and the ten commandments very accurately stated what I've been trying to say in the following words as this discovery of what we are humbles us to ourselves so it drives us out

50:08 of ourselves this glass that is the law of God showing us our pollution sends us to the fountain opened for sin and uncleanness when we perceive that by the sentence of the law there's nothing for us but death this makes us hearken diligently to the good news of redemption proclaimed in the gospel and drives us to the mediator of the new covenant the spouse was singularly and then he referred to

50:52 an incident in the song of Solomon was indifferent was desirous of her beloved when she had been beaten and hardly used by the reproaching ones and he quotes song of Solomon 5-7 but coming back now to the thrust of his quote he says in like manner when the soul is hardest buffeted with the terrors and threatenings of the law then it is gladdest to meet with Christ his promise of ease and refreshment sounds sweet after the thunderings and lightnings of Mount Sinai a man will never go to Christ

51:35 so long as he is not convinced of misery without him of impotency in himself and in all others to help him a man a boy a girl will never go to Christ so long as he is not convinced of misery without him of impotency in himself and therefore I say without any sense of embarrassment without any tongue in cheek my goal and I believe it is a goal framed by scripture in the preaching of the ten commandments

52:20 is that you who are out of Christ might come to understand and feel that you are the guilty sinner who needs the righteousness of Christ you may come to understand and feel that you are the impotent sinner who needs the spirit of Christ you may ask the question well is such a goal in the preaching of the ten commandments novel since we hear such little measure of this kind of preaching in our day I simply quote

53:05 from the larger catechism the old Westminster standards the question is what particular use is there of the moral law to the unregenerate man that is to those out of Christ the answer the moral laws of use to unregenerate men to awaken their consciences to flee from the wrath to come and to drive them to Christ or upon their continuance in the estate in way of sin to leave them inexcusable and under the curse thereof my friend out of Christ you're going to be looking in the mirror God willing

53:50 in coming weeks and months what I called in one of the previous messages a ten sided mirror and when that mirror reveals the measure to which you've broken the law of God and are guilty and when it reveals the state to which your heart is enslaved to sin don't be so foolish having seen from the mirror your stains and all of your filth to try to rub it off on the mirror the mirror has no power to wash away your stains and your filth when you see

54:34 the chains as you look in the mirror and this mirror has as it were the power of a CAT scan and an MRI piece of equipment to show you that inwardly your heart and your affections and desires and thoughts are all chained to sin don't go rub against the mirror to get the chains broken the function of the mirror is to show you what you really are you go to the fountain open for sin and uncleanness to be washed you go to the robe of righteousness that was made upon the loom of the perfect life and the substitutionary death of Jesus Christ

55:18 totally apart from anything you ever have will or can do it is the righteousness of God fabricated in the stuff of the life history of the Lord Jesus Christ it doesn't have a thread that you contribute to it and the mirror is intended to show you no matter where you no matter what angle of that ten-sided mirror you have no righteousness you must go out of yourself and into Christ alone for acceptance with God and when by the mirror you see the chains and you see how fast bound every faculty of the soul is

56:03 that you are indeed a slave of sin you don't go to the mirror and hope that by rubbing against it you can somehow wear away the chains no you go to him who's been anointed with the spirit to open the prison to them that are bound to set at liberty the captive and you go out of yourself and into Christ that he might cleanse you and wash you and clothe you that he might break your chains and set you free to be his loving obedient follower dear fellow believers who are in Christ will you not pray that as this

A Call to Prayer for Revival and a Final Word to the Unconverted

56:48 is the conscious goal in my preparation and will be in my preaching as God spares me to preach it that God by the spirit will make it a time of awakening could we not in the providence of God having been reminded of those seasons when God has taken the ordinary means of grace and come with extraordinary power what would be more wonderful than to remember not 1996 as the year of the great blizzard but the year of God's visitation to Trinity Church when many of our precious children and loved ones and spilling out into a neighborhood and into a society

57:32 utterly indifferent to the bullhorn of gospel proclamation would find itself smitten by God's holy law crying out with the Philippian jailer sirs what must I do to be saved pray that God by the Holy Spirit will so bless the preaching to that end and my final word is to someone who may take the very teaching today and say well if that's so I don't know that I've really seen all my stains in the mirror I don't know that I've really seen all my chains maybe I've not seen enough of my sin yet

58:16 to come to Christ hear me very carefully as I make this final word of distinction the warrant of faith is God's command and Christ promise what warrant do you have here and now this morning though you may say well I only see that much of my chains and that much of my unrighteousness and have I seen enough to go to Christ the warrant to go to Christ is not in you it's outside of you God's command is believe on his son God commands you to repent Christ says him that comes to me I'll in no

59:00 wise cast out the warrant of faith is God's command and Christ's promise but the ordinary way of faith is first of all to bring people to an accurate knowledge of what they are as sinners you see the distinction I've been speaking about the way of faith of faith and that I am committed to preaching the Ten Commandments in the persuasion that the ordinary way that God brings people to faith is by first of all in the language of Guthrie doing a prior law work using the law to give them a sight of their guilt

59:44 before God in their need of righteousness giving them a felt awareness of their bondage and their need of the grace and spirit and liberating power of Christ but I would be less than true to the scriptures if I set up any condition to any sinner at any time in any place and said anything other than this here and now if you know enough of your sin and your bondage to know that the answer does not lie in you and you must go completely out of yourself into Christ you have all the knowledge and conviction you need to respond to the gospel call

60:28 may God grant that none shall delay saying well I must wait then for deeper self-disclosure know my friend all the fitness he requireth is to feel your need of him and if you feel and know that there is need that can only be met in Christ he stands ready and willing to receive you here now , today our Father we have trafficked in the very sobering

Concluding Prayer

61:13 matters of your holy law and its application to those who are not in Christ and we would be bold to plead that as we soon embark upon a careful consideration of those solemn ten words uttered by your very voice from Sinai written by your very finger in stone and stored there in the ark of the covenant in your immediate glorious visible presence oh how we pray that you would use your law for the very end to which you gave it that it may be the instrument that will bring many

61:57 to an accurate knowledge and felt awareness of their need of the righteousness of Christ that it may also bring them to a knowledge and felt awareness of their need of the spirit of Christ and that they may run to Christ to find in him a perfect righteousness and to find by his mighty power the dominion of sin broken and oh God we ask if you would spare us and bring us together tonight as we consider the functions and purposes of the preaching of your law for those of us who are in Christ oh help your servant and help your people

62:42 that we may be led into your truth hear our prayers dismiss us with your blessing we plead in Jesus name Amen