CONCLUSION
TO THE COMMANDMENTS
August
13-15, 2016
Pastor
Timothy J. Spaude
Text:
Exodus 20:1-6
“AN EXCITING CONCLUSION”
1.
God
is serious about punishing sin.
2.
God
is (even more!) serious about saving us!
Exodus
20:1-6 (NIV 1984) “And God spoke all these words: 2“I
am the Lord your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery.
3“You shall have no other gods before Me. 4You shall not
make for yourself an idol in the form of anything in heaven above or on the
earth beneath or in the waters below. 5You shall not bow down to
them or worship them; for I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God, punishing the
children for the sin of the fathers to the third and fourth generation of those
who hate Me, 6but showing love to a thousand generations of those
who love Me and keep My commandments.”
Some of you may remember that a while
ago I had to make the painful revelation that my wife, Chris, is a cheater. No,
not in anything important or a bad way. She cheats at the endings. If we DVR a
Packer game so we can skip the commercials and halftime and just watch the game
she cheats. She finds out from another TV or her phone the ending of the game.
She just can’t let it play out. Or if she is reading a book, she starts it and
then just can’t wait to find out how it ends so she reads the last chapter.
Maybe you can tell that bothers me a little bit. On the other hand I have to admit
that I understand why she does it. The ending, the conclusion, is important. A game
has to have a final score, a good book, an exciting conclusion. We’ve all felt
cheated when the TV show ends “to be continued.” Today we get to the exciting
conclusion to the Commandments we’ve been studying all summer. It is very
important. So let’s say it together with its meaning on page 6 in the bulletin.
THE CONCLUSION
What does God say about all these commandments?
He says, “I, the
Lord your God, am a jealous God, punishing the children for the sin of the
fathers to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me, but showing
love to a thousand generations of those who love me and keep my commandments.”
What does this mean?
God threatens to
punish all who transgress these commandments. Therefore we should fear his
anger and not disobey what he commands.
But he promises
grace and every blessing to all who keep these commandments. Therefore we should love and trust in him and
gladly obey what he commands.
Now the first thing that probably
caught your attention is that God says He is a jealous God. What? Normally we
think of being jealous as wrong and
sinful. Green with envy is not good. But God is just and holy. What gives? Well
it has to do with how we use that word today. Now it means feeling resentment
at the blessings or good things that happen to another. Originally it simply
means to want what belongs to you. And so a wife can be righteously jealous if
her husband is taking the affection and attention and love that belongs to her
as his wife and is giving it to another. He is wrong, not she. A farmer can
jealously guard his sweet corn crop from joyriding teenagers who sneak into his
field to grab a few ears. They are wrong, not he. God is righteously jealous in
that He simply wants what belongs to Him.
That takes us to the second thing that
may have caught your eye. Those of you who have had the privilege of studying
the Bible for a long time noticed that what we use as the Conclusion to the
Commandments is actually part of the extended version of the 1st
Commandment. “And God spoke all these words: 2“I am the Lord your
God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery. 3“You
shall have no other gods before Me. 4You shall not make for yourself
an idol in the form of anything in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in
the waters below. 5You shall not bow down to them or worship them;
for I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God.” The First Commandment tells us
to only treat God as God. Give Him what belongs to Him. That part of it is used
as the Conclusion is to remind us that perfect obedience to His commands is
what God deserves and is owed. And He is serious about that.
So serious He must and will punish
sin. “I,
the Lord your God, am a jealous God, punishing the children for the sin of the
fathers to the third and fourth generation of those who hate Me.” There you
have it. God is serious about His commandments. He means what He says. He will
punish sin. Not fair! We might cry. Why do the children get punished for the
sins of the fathers? God is simply reminding us of the truth that children see
and do. Those who hate God tend to have children who hate God. And there will
be punishment. In a sense that’s good news. The militant Muslim terrorists may
escape international or American justice. They will not escape God. Those who
murder and rape, gang members and drug pushers who don’t get caught have
already been caught by God and will get punished. God is serious about
punishing sin. And it does feel good to know God cannot be mocked and the evil
will get their due.
But then there’s that part of us that
remembers there are other people who sin. Our look at the 10 Commandments this
summer reminded us that God doesn’t just count blatant sins. He counts them
all, all the times we have not put Him first or have said “Oh my… and used God’s
name, our habits of putting others things ahead of God’s word and worship, our
disrespect to our authorities, the times we have thought badly of another, been
selfish with money and things, reveled in the bit of juicy gossip and wanted
what belonged to another. If God is serious about sin we are going to get
punished too.
Well God is serious sin but we will
not be punished. We will not because God is, can we say, even more serious
about saving us sinners. “…but showing
love to a thousand generations of those who love Me and keep My commandments.”
Did you notice the difference? 3rd and 4th generation of
those that hate Him but a thousand generations of those that love Him? Now for
the big question. Why? Why would someone love God so much that they would
willingly keep His commandments? You know. Jesus! Have you ever been stopped
for speeding and the police officer let you go with a warning? How did you
feel? Did you ever break something really important or big, like a family heirloom,
a car, the machine at work and the owner was kind and gracious to you? How did
you feel? Have you ever really hurt another person, sinned against them and
they forgave you and accepted you back? How did feel toward that person? We have
sinned against God in more ways than we are aware of. We are commandment
breakers. Even though we don’t want to, we still fall into sin. We ought to be
punished to the 3rd and 4th generation. God is serious
about punishing sin. So serious that He punished Jesus. There was no warning.
No that’s OK. Jesus took for us the full punishment that we deserved. Yes, God is
serious about sin but He is even more serious about saving sinners. So He gave
us His Son to keep every commandment perfectly in our place and to pay the full
price for all of our sins. That’s why we are people who love Him and want to
obey His commandments. God graciously blesses that obedience and motivates us
to more to show love for Jesus.
And that’s also why we have come
together as a church. A thousand generations. Think of all the “greats” you
have to add. What if God allowed us, gave us the privilege of making a
difference for a thousand generations to come. I don’t know what’s going to happen
in the good old USA. God doesn’t let us peek at the last chapter. But if the
Lord keeps this world going what if the reason the Gospel message, the good
News of the God who saves through Jesus was preserved in our country because of
what you and I do today? He trusts us! He trusts us, brothers and sisters, and
He has entrusted us with His word, the Gospel message of Jesus. Even though
angels could, to our thinking, do a much better job, God trusts you. He trusts
me. That’s why we have gathered together as St. Jacobi Lutheran Church to work
together to proclaim the true Gospel.
And that’s why we called you, Heather,
Wade and Alex. St. Jacobi owns the Gospel ministry that God has entrusted to.
We have called you to serve as teachers in the public ministry of the Gospel.
That means that you will serve on behalf of the congregation. You will carry
out Gospel work on behalf of these people who will pray for you and support
you. We don’t have a school because no one else in the Milwaukee area knows how
to teach the three R’s and everything else that now is taught at the elementary
level. We have it to teach children to love Jesus. It’s not good enough for your
classrooms to be filled with law and order. They need to be filled with law and
Gospel. It’s not enough for you to excel at teaching the subjects and grade
levels assigned to you. You need to excel at teaching children to love Jesus.
Wade, you helped us out last minute last year on an emergency basis and did a
bang up job. I thank you for that. I know what you will continue to bring.
Heather and Alex you have already blessed our campus with your kind and smiling
faces and will bring your best for Jesus. When you get tired or have a hard day
I want you to think of a thousand generations. You have the chance to affect a
thousand generations for Jesus.
It’s all about Jesus. That’s what the
Conclusion to the Commandments teaches us. God is serious about punishing sin
and even more serious about saving sinners. I guess there we are all kind of
like my wife Chris. We’ve peeked at the ending even though we are not done yet.
It’s a good one. At the conclusion of this world Jesus wins. And because He
wins, we win too! Amen.
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