Moses and the God of Perpetual Grace
- Date: Sunday, August 24, 2014
- Speaker: Thomas Dawsey
- Series: More Than Stories
- Category: Exodus
- Scripture: Exodus 19:1–34:10
- Tags: Jesus, baptist, church, sin, god, Southern Hills, grace, heart, Moses, covenant, law, commandments, 10 commandments, idols, idolatry, mosaic covenant
"Christianity is a bunch of rules! Do this. Don’t do that. Be here. Don’t go there. Read this. Don’t read that. Give this. Dress this way. Don’t dress that way. Talk this way. Don’t talk that way."
Have you ever heard someone characterize Christianity this way? It is hard to blame them with all the rules that are contained in this book. If you open up your Bible and to a random page there is a good chance you will find yourself reading commands on how you should live your life. There were 602 laws given in the Old Testament alone and that doesn’t even begin to enumerate all of the commands we can find when we look elsewhere in the Scriptures. So again, I say that to simply empathize with the many people who have characterized Christianity as a something that is all about rules and commandments. It is easy to come to a conclusion like this when all you see are the rules and commandments.
Tonight, however, we are going to study the story of where the law came from, where the 10 commandments came from, and what we find is that God is not a kill-joy dictator who is bent on taking away your fun and micromanaging your life. When we study God’s commandments in the greater context of God’s dealing with Israel what we discover is that the giving of the law and the 10 commandments is grounded firmly in the context of God’s immense and perpetual grace. We see God’s grace on display as He makes a covenant with the people of Israel. (Exodus 19-34)