By Peter Kaye |

Sermon preached by Rev'd Chris Murphy, Vicar of Holy Trinity, Devonport, New Zealand on 9th June 2024

Listen to the recording on the church website.

An excellent sermon explaining why faultless obedience to the Ten Commandments is not possible. And certainly is not a pre-condtion of our acceptance to God. Nor, going forward, is God's love and forgiveness dependent on our obedience. 

What Chris says contradicts a belief which a lot of people hold and which in consequence is a barrier to belief in Jesus. 

How often have you heard people say they want nothing to do with God because they are not good enough?

Here is my transcript:

We're going to be looking a little bit at the ten commandments and also little bit at Exodus 24. 

Let me pray for us. Dear heavenly father we humble ourselves before you. May your word be our rule, you spirit our guide and your greater glory our greatest desire and we do pray this in Jesus name. Amen 

Well, I want you to imagine this morning that you're really into sailing and that may not be that hard to do given that we live in Auckland. Coming over from the UK, I was told that Auckland has the highest number of boats per capita compared to any city in the world. So it might be that there's quite a few sailors with us this morning.

You're helpless without wind in your sails!

Anyway, let's imagine you just bought a new boat and the boat is fitted with all the latest satellite navigation technology and you're desperate to get it on the water and give it a go. So you wait for a fine day with a stiff breeze. You get your boat onto the water and you sail out from the harbour into the open water. The sun is shining, the wind is blowing in your hair and it's just a glorious experience. You know where you're going and then you hit some weather. A storm comes in and knocks you off course, blows you out of the way. You don't quite know where you are and then, worse, the weather stops and it's just completely still. So you're in the middle of nowhere, you're not where you want to be and you've got no means of getting back on track. You’re just you just stuck. so you get on the radio and sailors from all over the world start giving you their advice about how you can get out of the situation that you're in. And you try some of it, but it doesn't work so you're beginning to feel a little bit despondent, a little bit useless. And since this is your first trip as a sailor in your new boat, you're thinking it's all me. What have I done wrong? And I'm never going to come sailing ever again.

But the issue of course is not that the technologies have failed you. It's not that you need more good advice or better techniques. I think even the advice of Sir Ben Ainslie himself couldn't help you at this moment in time, because the reason you can't get to where you're going is not because you haven't got all the equipment. Or that we need more advice or better techniques. The issue is you've got no wind.

Spiritual doldrums

And theologian Michael Horton says this little story is an allegory of the Christian life. He says when we become Christians we're often filled with joy and excitement. We can't wait to get going, we can't wait to get on the open seas. We know about the grace of God, we know about the forgiveness of sins. We want to get going on our journey, equipped with the word of God to help us.

And then we hit some weather. Maybe bereavement or unemployment or illness and we get blown off course. Then the wind dies down and then we're stuck. We're in the spiritual doldrums so to speak. So we get on the radio we call some friends. Friends give us advice and they say “Oh in order to get going again as a Christian you need to do this or you need to read this book or go on that conference or you need the four step technique. And what we find actually is although we know the advice is well meaning, I think in the end we find it suffocating. Because we've tried to put the advice into practise and it doesn't really work. There's nothing we can do to get us going again and then we begin to feel a bit deflated. Because if we were good Christian, if we put the advice into practise it would probably have worked. But it doesn't.  I'm not very good Christian. I might as well give up.Maybe that's how some of us feel. But of course the problem is not that we need more advice. We don't need better techniques -  we just need some wind! And that is to say, I think, in this allegory the wind is:

  • Who am I before God?  Or maybe,
  •  who is God?  and,
  •  what has God done for me in Jesus Christ? And,
  •  what is the destination that awaits me as a Christian.

The Christian life is not about doing anything.

Now this is where a number of Christians, well I think a lot of us, may struggle with the ten commandments from time to time because I'd like to suggest that the Christian life is not about doing anything. We can't do stuff, we can't in a sense self-propel the sailing boat. We we rely upon God to move us. But we do think I think some of us we think, “OK, great, we’re saved by grace, we’re in by forgiveness. I've got this relationship with God but now that I'm in, there must be something that I've got to do to be a Christian and I guess the ten commandments are pretty good starting point. You know I'm a good Christian, I tried to live my life by Christian values and at least according to the ten commandments."

Saved by Grace - but when then?

But is that right? Is it right to say that we're in by grace and we go on by works? Is that the right way to think about the Christian life?

Some church services, like the early service we had here this morning, we use the old prayer book and every week we recite the 10 commandments. And I take it that the 10 commands are pretty important to us as Christians. 

Why do we care so much about the Ten Commandments?

But have you ever stopped to think why? Why do we care so much about the 10 commandments? Why do we recite them? Why do we try to live by them because if we're saved by grace, what is the relationship between being saved by grace and then doing stuff?

Now this is complicated and I don't want to make it more complicated than it is but I will say as a headline -  if we think that the Christian life in any way depends upon our performance as Christians we're gonna find that crushing at least long term.  I mean let's just ask some diagnostic questions to see how we're getting on. How how's your prayer life for the moment? Would you say that you're good at praying? And even if you would say that, could you pray any more than you currently do? Are you are you a generous person? Do you give your tithes to the church? Could you give any more to the church? Could you be more generous than you are? What about your time? Are you on the coffee rota? On the welcoming rota? Or the ;iturgical assistance rota?  And if so, even if you are, could you do any more than you currently do? Could you give anything extra to God?

Judging ourselves by our Christian performance leads to depression

And the problem is if we begin to pull at that thread, it unravels pretty quickly. And we never feel better about ourselves when we start to judge ourselves by our performance and all the stuff that we do as Christians. And the apostle Paul says in the New Testament “Did you receive the spirit by works or by hearing with faith? Are you so foolish, having begun by the spirit are you now being perfected by the flesh?”

Saved by Grace, go on by Grace!

And the apostle Paul's argument seems to be that as Christians we are saved by grace and that was so exciting and thrilling but as we go on in the Christian life we go on by grace.

That's the really encouraging thing. We’re saved by grace, we go on by grace. And the way that we entered the Christian life that's the same way that we go on. But then we have the problem. OK well if that's true, saved by grace go on by grace. what place does the ten commandments and doing stuff have in the Christian life? 

The Old Testament: Saved by Grace, go on by Works 

And I’ve got two points for us this morning. 

First point -  the Mosaic covenant is about grace and then works. 

Now a little bit of context to help us because we are in a Bible overview but last week we saw that God rescued his people from the land of Egypt. We call that redemption. And he redeemed them specifically by the blood of the Passover lamb. So he pulled them out of slavery in Egypt and he said to them you are my people and I'm going to bless you with the promised land and you're going to live in this land of blessing and you would be a blessing. And that really is it fulfilment of the promises that God made to Abraham. You'll be my people and I'll give you a land and you will be a blessing. 

So, these are fulfilment of the promises that God made to Abraham but I suppose now that the people have been saved by grace there are stipulations. God makes a covenant with them, and it is a conditional covenant.  The covenant with Abraham was unconditional but the covenant with Moses is conditional.  So you're in by grace but now you got to do stuff to stay in the land. And the stuff you got to do basically is the ten commandments. You’ve got to keep the 10 commandments. 

[ Mosaic means a covenant with Moses ]

And for this reason I’ve talked about two different types of covenant but the Mosaic covenant is a Suzerain Vassal covenant. You've got the big king and the little king. You might call the big king the king of kings and the little king. And it's really just like an ancient protection racket because the little king comes the big king says “I'm not very big, I need some help. Can you protect me?” And the big king says “Yes, of course I can as long as you give me some men and some tribute and, by the way, if you don't keep the stipulations I'll kill you.”

So that's basically the way it works. And the covenant that God makes with Moses or with the Israelites more generally, is this type of covenant. It’s a Suzerain Vassal covenant. God is the big king. Moses needs some protection. God says “No worries, I'll look after you. You’re in by grace but now here are some stipulations. You need to keep some rules in order to stay in. And in this sense the covenant is basically the same as the covenant God made with Adam. If you remember Adam, God planted a garden in a great land for their blessing and he put Adam in the land. And he said to Adam “You've got to keep my word and obey my word and if you don't I'll kick you out and you'll die.”

And it's exactly the same with the Israelite people.  God says, incidentally they’re both called God's son. So Adam is God’s son and Israel is God’s son. And God says to Israel, “There's this great land of blessing, I'm going to put you in it. You've got to obey my word and if you don't you'll be exiled and you'll die.”

Now if the quest of the Bible, or one of the quests of the Bible,  is to discover what we might call the serpent crusher. In Genesis 3:15 we're told that there will be a serpent crusher (see sidebar).

And I will put enmity
    between you and the woman,
    and between your offspring and hers;
he will crush your head,
    and you will strike his heel.” [Genesis 3:15]

  A man descended from the line of Eve who will rise up and defeat Satan. And we're on the lookout for that person. Now it's not Noah and it's not Abraham and it's not Moses. 

And we discover as we look at the ten commandments that it's not any of us. Actually. None of us are the true son of God. 

None of us have the ability to obey God's word. None of us can live in obedience to God's commands. We can't do it. It takes us until the New Testament to find the true son of God. That is Jesus, who perfectly obeys all of the commands of God.

We cannot obey God in our own strength

And the point is I think, well, one of the points of the Mosaic covenant is, to disabuse us of the idea that we can obey God in our own strength. That we can generate wind in our sails on our own. 

So I think a constant temptation for us as human beings is to say “I'm one of the good guys. Now I'm a nice person.”

And I say this a little bit flippantly but you'll be amazed by the number of people I go round to visit them and they say “I'm a really good person.  I live my life by Christian values. I've never murdered anyone.”

“OK,” I say, “I'm really pleased that that's true but do you not think God wants a little bit more of us than just you know to not murder people?”

And Adam failed to obey God. And Israel failed to obey God. But you know what, I'm maybe a bit better than Adam. I'm a bit better than Israel and I can do it you know.  I just need to try a bit harder. I just need to resolve myself to obey God's commands and I can do it. And the mosaic covenant is saying you can't. If a covenant or a relationship with God which depends upon us doing anything in any way, that covenant will fail immediately.

And it’s interesting in Exodus 24. They’ve got the ten commandments but when Moses went and told the people the Lord's words and laws they responded with one voice. “Everything the Lord has said we will do.” They're pretty confident, aren’t they, and in fact they're so confident they say it again in verse 7. ‘Then he took the book of the covenant, read it to the people, and they responded “We will do everything the Lord said. We will obey.”

And what's really interesting is if we were to carry on reading the story what we discover is that Moses goes up on the mountain to get the tablets of stone with the 10 commandments written on them and while he's away - I mean this is almost the very next story - while he's away they say “Oh Moses been gone a long time. I wonder if God still loves us?” And then they do a quick whip around. They say can you just hand in your rings and necklaces and stuff and let’s fashion a golden calf. And they make a golden calf and they say “Oh the Lord who brought us up out of the land of Egypt.” 

So no sooner have they emphatically said we will obey the word of the Lord. they break it. Almost immediately.

No human being can obey the word of God

And the point is that none of us as human beings are able to obey the word of God. We just cannot keep the law and that's why, well you may think this is bad news, but it's really good news because Jesus is the true son of God and Jesus keeps the law on our behalf. 

You know knw reading Matthew says “Unless your righteousness surpasses that of the Pharisees and teachers the law there's no hope for you.” And we might say that's rubbish. But in Jesus our righteousness does surpass the righteousness of the the Pharisees and the teachers of the law.

You see Jesus succeeds where Adam failed. He succeeds where Israel failed. He succeeds where I fail and all the righteous requirements of the law are fully met in him on my behalf.

So that's the good news. We just we trust Jesus. Now the mosaic covenant is conditional, that is to say Israel got in by grace but they are to go on by works in order to hold on to God's promises. Now we as Christians are in a different position. 

So secondly, the Christian life is about grace upon grace.

So the mosaic covenant can't save us. In fact, it was never meant to save anyone. It wasn't designed for that purpose. You here some people say, “Oh well, of course we believe in Jesus. That's the new covenant but in the Old Testament if people did keep the law then they would have been saved by keeping the law.” But that's not true. The covenant was never designed for people to obey the law and to be saved by it. That was never the purpose so then we ask, “OK, well if that wasn't the purpose, what was the purpose? Why did God go to all this trouble with giving ten commandments and this very extensive law if they weren't to be saved by keeping it?

Well I think, that's not me but theologians who much cleverer than I, have said that there are three or maybe four good reasons why God has given us the law. 

The Law reveals what GOD is like

And the first is that the law reveals what God is like. I don't know if you've ever thought about this but have you ever wondered why these ten commandments? Have you ever thought that do they not seem a little bit arbitrary. You know God says don't murder, don't steal, don't commit adultery, don't lie etc. Why didn't he say “Wear pink socks on the Thursday?”

Have you ever thought about that? Why these 10 commandments? Now, I think as we as we consider the ten commandments, they tell us something about who God is. Why does God say ‘Don't commit adultery?’ Well,  I take it because God is faithful, and he wants his people to reflect what he's like. Why does God say do not lie? My take is because God is truth and if we are to reflect him. Well, he wants his people to reflect what he's like. So we could go through each of the 10 commandments and say - actually this isn't just a commandment. That it reveals something that's very important to God and the character of God and who God is. So, the law reveals what God is like.

The Law reveals what WE are like

Secondly the law reveals what we are like. And in this sense The Law is a mirror.  I don't know if you've ever found the mirrors are really useful things but they're also painfully honest. We look in a mirror and that's helpful and then we think, “Ah, I’ve got a bald patch there or I've got hair growing in places that it should be growing or I've got a new wrinkle or something like that.  

So we look in a mirror and it's honest. But it's painfully honest and it makes us very aware of what we're like, maybe self-conscious. And that's one of the purposes of the law.  You see we come into church each week and in the old service we would recite the 10 commandments and why did we recite the 10 commandments? Was it so we could say ‘Well done Chris, you didn’t murder anyone this week. Keep going, you’re doing well. Or is it to say, actually you know, you're not doing that well.

You see, what does Jesus do with the ten commandments in the New Testament? He doesn't say “Oh well done, you haven't murdered anyone.” He says, “If you are angry with anyone then you've committed murder in your heart. Oh, you think you're not an adulterer but if you've ever looked at a woman lustfully you're an adulterer in your heart.”

So Jesus takes the 10 commandments and he he just plunges them right down to new depths that make us feel very awkward and self-conscious. Because we realise as we apply the 10 commandments to our lives we all fail to keep it and all of them every week. You know, it's not a case of saying “I'm not murderer”, because we murdered people in our hearts

So the law reveals what we are like and what is that the apostle Paul says in the New Testament. “That I didn't know what coveting was until I was told do not covet.”  And then it raised this kind of beast inside me.

And we've all had this experience. I went to university in a town called Durham in the United Kingdom and it's just kind of a classic university town because you've got this 12th century cathedral opposite 14th or 15th century castle. And in the middle is this very posh and well-manicured lawn called palace green.  And you walk around it and it's very nice and plush because it's got signs everywhere saying “Do not walk on the grass.” And I was very happy walking on the pavement until I saw the sign that says “Do not walk on the grass.”

Now one of the good things about the UK is that we have these very long balmy evenings in the summer and particularly in Durham which is very Norh, it's really far up and it doesn't go dark into that 11:30 in the evening and then maybe it goes light again about 3:30 in the morning. So on some summer evenings after exams were finished then we didn't have too much to do with wait until the porters had gone home and then we’d get a football out and we’d play football on palace green lawn!

And t happens all the time doesn't it? Have you ever seen a sign that says “Wet paint do not touch” What do you want to do? That’s what the law does,  it reveals our hearts and shows the sin that is within it.

The Law is a Guard

Thirdlly and I won’t spend too long on this one but the law is a guard. And by this I mean the law prevents us from being quite as bad as we otherwise would be.

The Law is a Guide

Fourthly and finally the law is a guide. Now this is the law is a guide but only if we're a Christian already. Because remember we're saved by grace and we go on by grace but I take it if we're Christians we want to please God. I take it that's true. We want to please God. Now the theologian Michael Horton writes this and some of you may be able to relate to it. “I have not been married long enough to overcome my penchant for buying presents for my wife that she doesn't actually want. Instead I often will buy her what I want her to have or think she wants. When I don't get the response I'd like, my responses frequently something like this. ‘Look if you tell me what you want every time Christmas or your birthday rolls around I'll never be able to be spontaneous and creative in expressing my love for you.’ But it is not at the end of the day a sign of love but of selfishness if I do not consider her likes and dislikes when it comes to presents. And I think the point that Michael Horton is making is God has revealed what he likes and dislikes and it is very selfish of us to say, “Oh no, I'll just love God in my own creative and spontaneous way.”

He has revealed in the ten commandments what he likes and doesn't like and if we want to please him then we will follow the law as a guide. The Lord guides us into ways which please the Lord. 

We don't have to obey the law but...

Now we don't have to keep the law. Of course, we don’t because we’re saved by grace but if we are saved by grace I take it that our desire is to want to please the Lord and the law guides us in how to do that.

Now the law has no power that's why we come back to our sailing boat. The sailing boat is there is in the spiritual doldrums. We know where we want to go, we've got the guide, we've got the satnav, but we just have no power to get there, and the law cannot motivate us. I don't know when the last time the law motivated you to do anything, but the law cannot motivate. It’s got no power to do that.

So what is it that motivates us as a Christian to want to please God? Well, I haven’t got time to really develop my argument but it’s the Holy Spirit. And we received the Holy Spirit when we become Christians. We are saved by grace, we receive forgiveness of our sins, we receive the gift of the spirit and then the spirit motivates us to live the Christian life. 

The solution to spiritual doldrums

So when we're in the spiritual doldrums, what's the answer?

Well it's not a better technique. It's not more advice from friends. It's not beating ourselves up and self-flagellating until we get going. I think the key is to:

  • Remind ourselves of who God is and what he's done for us in the Lord Jesus Christ. 
  • To remind us of the destination we're heading to, and,
  • Tto know that we have the gift of the spirit who empowers us to go in the direction that God would like us to go in.

Living to please God because we want to

And I hope as we meditate upon these truths,we do begin to feel the same joy and excitement and freedom that we first felt when we became a Christian. And that now as we live by the power of the spirit, we eagerly desire to live a life that is pleasing to God. Not because we have to, but because we want to.

Let me pray. Dear Heavenly Father, we do thank you for the Mosaic Covenant and for the gift of the ten commandments. We pray that we would realise that we cannot keep the ten commandments and be saved but we thank you that they do reveal what you are like. They reveal what we are like and drive us to our saviour. And they do act as a guard and a guide for us as well. 

We do pray that we would know the ten commandments for the great blessing to us. Not to make us feel guilty but to point us to you and to point us to the power of your spirit who puts wind in our sails. We do pray this in Jesus name.