Exodus 24:15-18

15“Then Moses climbed up the mountain, and the cloud covered it. ¹⁶ And the glory of the Lord settled down on Mount Sinai, and the cloud covered it for six days. On the seventh day the Lord called to Moses from inside the cloud. ¹⁷ To the Israelites at the foot of the mountain, the glory of the Lord appeared at the summit like a consuming fire. ¹⁸ Then Moses disappeared into the cloud as he climbed higher up the mountain. He remained on the mountain forty days and forty nights.”

On the heels of the revelation we see second the:

2. Reason

Exodus 24:15-18 reveals that Moses spend 40 days and nights on the mountain with the Lord. The reason was relationship. If it was about a list of rules it would have taken 5 minuets to receive them not 40 days and nights. So, let me ask you what’s your reason for coming to God, is it love based or list based? Why do you spend time with Him? When we make it about a list of rules our time is spent on doing not being, it’s the Mary Martha struggle, where we do things for Jesus instead of with Jesus. Martha was caught up in the dishes and the doing but Mary was caught up in devotion. It’s the difference between rule-based living that’s motivated by a list and relationship living that’s moved by a love for the Lord. List based living is exhausting and leads to burn out because we do it in our strength not through His strength. Have you fallen into the trap of making your quiet time in God’s Word just a check list? Many of us are checking of a list instead of checking in with the Lord. When we make it about a list of rules instead of a relationship, we make it about performance instead of His presence. We become defined by what we are against instead of who we are for. We talk about the problem of sin more than the provision of the Savior. It’s about His presence not our performance. But until you do life with the Lord on the mountain you are going to miss the meaning of life. We were created first to worship then to work. Today we have traded worship for work. We want to rush out and do things for God without first having spent time with God. Work for God should be an outflow of our worship of God. If you want to move mountains you have to spend time with the maker of the mountains. Work without worship leads to weariness but worship that fuels our work results in ministry not misery. Are you fueling your work with worship or trying to worship through your work? It’s the difference between performance based instead of presence-based living. Moses stayed on the mountain for 40 days and nights it wasn’t about getting a list of rules it was about relationship and doing life with God. How much time do you spend with God? Is it presence based, or performance based? When it comes to the 10 commandments most of us just see a list of rules, but it’s not a list its instructions for life. We have to look at the reason behind the rule? Because it effects our relationships. The first 4 commands revolve around our relationship with God this is the vertical dimension to relationship. Where the last 6 reveal your relationship with other people, this is the horizontal dimension to relationship. So many people see the 10 commandments as a list of rules instead of a response to relationship. But when you read through the list what you discover is that it’s not a list its about how to live and do life. Why does it start with our relationship to God, because how you respond to God will dictate how you relate to others. The Ten Commandments deal with our relationship with God and then our relationship with other people because one naturally flows out of the other. Without a right relationship with God, our relationships with others will not be right, either. The cause of the world’s problems is that people need to be reconciled to God. We will never love our neighbor as ourselves if we do not first love God with all our heart, mind, and soul. All of man’s best efforts toward world peace will fail as long as men are living in rebellion against God. If you disrespect God, you will disrespect others. Today we are trying to solve our people problems through political correctness, but our problem is not a lack of correctness it’s a lack of Jesus Christ. Why are we experiencing chaos in our schools because we refuse to respect God as the author of life. Why are our schools and society dying under the shadow of darkness because when the light leaves you are left with darkness. Darkness is the absence of light and when you remove the Lord of life you lose the light of life. Why are our kids bullying and killing each other at school? The media tells us it’s a gun problem. Yet 40 years ago kids showed up to schools with guns in the back windows of their pickup trucks and no one got shot? We don’t have a gun problem in this country we have a God problem. A lack of respect for the Author of life leads to a lack of respect for life. The media wants to make it about the objects instead of the Author. So, we make it about removing guns instead of repentance and a return to God. God’s commandments are not chains that limit our life but channels that point us to the Author of life so that we can live the abundant life. So, what did God’s people do with the 10 commandments they turned them into 613 rules. They took God’s list for living and turned it into legalism. Instead of letting it point them to Jesus they used it to puff up their pride and look down on others. We see this in Matthew 22:34-40 where the Pharisees try to trick Jesus by pretending to care about truth. “But when the Pharisees heard that he had silenced the Sadducees with his reply, they met together to question him again. ³⁵ One of them, an expert in religious law, tried to trap him with this question:³⁶ “Teacher, which is the most important commandment in the law of Moses?”³⁷ Jesus replied, “‘You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your mind.’ ³⁸ This is the first and greatest commandment. ³⁹ A second is equally important: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’⁴⁰ The entire law and all the demands of the prophets are based on these two commandments.”Jesus responded to their trick with truth as he summed up the 10 commandments into 2. Love God, Love people. The reason revolves around our relationships. The motivation is our love for the Master. What about you, have you reduced Christ’s commands to a list of rules instead of a relationship? Are you making it about rule based or relationship based living?

Exodus 19:1-7

“Exactly two months after the Israelites left Egypt,^[a] they arrived in the wilderness of Sinai. ² After breaking camp at Rephidim, they came to the wilderness of Sinai and set up camp there at the base of Mount Sinai. ³ Then Moses climbed the mountain to appear before God. The Lord called to him from the mountain and said, “Give these instructions to the family of Jacob; announce it to the descendants of Israel: ⁴ ‘You have seen what I did to the Egyptians. You know how I carried you on eagles’ wings and brought you to myself. ⁵ Now if you will obey me and keep my covenant, you will be my own special treasure from among all the peoples on earth; for all the earth belongs to me. ⁶ And you will be my kingdom of priests, my holy nation.’ This is the message you must give to the people of Israel.”⁷ So Moses returned from the mountain and called together the elders of the people and told them everything the Lord had commanded him.” 

As we start this new series looking at the 10 Commandments, we need to approach it with the understand that they are built around relationships not rules. It’s here in Exodus 19 that we see first the:

1. Revelation

The giving of the 10 commandments starts with God’s call for Moses to meet Him on the mountain. This was more than just a meeting to get a list of rules but a reminder of the importance to rest in a relationship with the Redeemer. For it is here that God reminds His people that He is the One who rescues and redeems us. It begins with the reminder that God is the One who does the work. For God reveals that He alone is the One who brought His people to Himself on eagle’s wings. It starts with God’s Work not ours. Many people view the 10 commandments as a list of rules to get to God. But the 10 commandments are our response to God’s redemption, not the road to redemption. The gift of grace that we are in danger of missing here is that God brings us to Himself. Verse 4 “You have seen what I did to the Egyptians. You know how I carried you on eagles’ wings and brought you to myself.” He wanted Moses to understand that He was bringing His people not to a land, but to a Person. God said, I brought you to myself.” He wants us to come to Him and know Him. That is why, after many years in the ministry, the apostle Paul wrote to the church in Philippi in Philippians 3:10 to remind them of what should be the deepest desire of every true disciple: “That I may know him, and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings, being made conformable unto his death”Paul came to know the Lord as his Savior when he met Him on the Damascus road. And after all those years of serving the Lord, he said, “My greatest goal in life is to know Jesus.” Today we have made it all about growing and very little about knowing God. But you can’t grow in the Lord without knowing the Lord. The goal is not growing its knowing God, growing is a byproduct of knowing. The more you know Him the more you will grow in Him. The meaning of life is to know the Lord. So, how well do you know Him? When was the last time you journey to Jesus and met Him on the mountain? It took time and effort for Moses to climb the mountain to meet with God. Why don’t we make time to meet with God on the mountain? Because we are lazy, because relationship takes time and we are in a hurry. Because we have made it more about getting that about God. So, we base our time with God more on our problems than His presence and as long as everything is fine, we don’t take the time. We are chasing the byproducts of the relationship, the provision and the peace more than His presence. So, His presence is not our priority. Yes, God’s plan involves His peace, His provision and His protection but without His presence we will never experience them. But we are reminded that the goal here is God, it’s not knowing about God but knowing God, Not an intellectual pursuit but an interconnected one. A heart knowing not a head growing. Sadly, many Christians are stuffing their heads and starving their hearts. Settling for a head knowledge instead of a heart knowing. Full heads and empty hearts. When God says that he carried the Israelites on the wings of an eagle to Himself He is referring to the work He did to ransomed them out of slavery by the blood of the Lamb. Because of the blood death is replaced by deliverance. God turns bondage to blessed as His people go from slaves to set free. In Exodus 20:3 God reminds Moses of His Redeeming power as He says, “I am the Lord your God, who rescued you from the land of Egypt, the place of your slavery.”The Israelites didn’t rescue themselves by following a list of rules but through responding to the work of the Redeemer. Being carried on the wings of an eagle speaks of flight. On our own we can’t reach God. God is much too high for man to come close to by His own works and ability. There is no way for man to get to God. So, God sent His Eagle to pick His people up and carry them to Himself. It’s through the work of the Savior not self that we are saved. So, let me ask you, have you come to God through Christ’s finished work on the cross? It’s through His finished work of redemption that we are not only raised up from the dead but raised to sit with Christ in heavenly realms [Eph. 2:6].When we forget that it’s all about God’s gift of grace, we start trying to fly by rules instead of resting in our relationship. It becomes about a list of rules instead of a relationship with the Lord. Religion relies on rules, but a relationship relies on the Redeemer. That’s why religion follows a list, but a relationship follows the Lord. Are you making it about a list or about the Lord? Some of you started with the Lord but then you traded the Lord for a list, that’s legalism. Why do legalistic Christians suck the life out of living and make ministry so miserable? Because they love the list instead of loving the Lord. So, their life revolves around the rules instead of the Redeemer along with everyone they can control. They end up pointing people to their constant and exhausting work instead of Christs finished and energizing work. But what did God say to Moses, “I brought you to myself.” It revolves around a relationship with the Lord not a list of rules. Are you living for the Lord or legalism? Lists lead to legalism and legalism leads back to the bondage and slavery Egypt. God didn’t rescue you from slavery to serve a list but to serve the Lord. Some of you are slaves to secrete sin but some of you are stuck in the prison of performance because your life revolves around the rules instead of the Redeemer. Legalistic list keeping causes us to trade meaningful lives for miserable ones.Have you gotten so wrapped up in the list that you are missing the Lord? We don’t just come to Christ through grace we continue running the race by grace. Moses was not called to maintain and live by a list he was called to the mountain to do life with the Lord. We come to God through Christ’s finished work on the cross. Receiving grace always bring us close to God. But the second you try to deserve God’s blessings by your own good works you will discover a deep distance between you and God. It’s not just about receiving what Jesus has done for us by placing our faith in the blood that blots out our sin but resting in that blood bought forgiveness and freedom. Are you making it about a list of rules or about a relationship with the Lord?