Introduction

We have been seeing thus far that because God created us, He knows how we should live. As I mentioned in the last sermon, the ten commandments were not prison bars to keep us away from liberty, but were guardrails on a dangerous road to protect us. Or to use the other illustration I gave last week, they are railroad tracks to enable us (as a metaphorical train) to have maximum liberty, power, speed, and functionality. God loves His people and cares about their safety and welfare. There are a lot of dangers in the world out there, and the exposition of God's commandments (that will start in chapter 6) will show how God's laws were designed to protect us from disease, accidents, broken relationships, attacks from demons, temptations from the world and our flesh, death, and to protect us from many other dangers.

God's glory shows the vast gulf between God and man (vv. 23-25)

And the first danger that we need to be protected from is God Himself. That may seem like a strange thing to bring up, but these leaders who came to Moses totally understood that fact. They sensed danger in God's presence. They knew that there was a vast gulf between God and man, and God's law illustrates how far short we fall. Romans 3:23 says, "for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God." Why does he say that we fall short of the glory of God rather than the holiness of God. Well, the two are involved in each other.

The infinite glory and holiness of God (vv. 23-24a)

But look first at the glory of God displayed in verses 23-24.

Deut. 5:23 “So it was, when you heard the voice from the midst of the darkness, while the mountain was burning with fire, that you came near to me, all the heads of your tribes and your elders. 24 And you said: “Surely the LORD our God has shown us His glory and His greatness...

And I'll stop reading there. I want you to notice two things from the short portion that I have just read. First, they recognized that they saw God's glory and greatness. Second, they recognized that God's glory and greatness were mostly hidden by the darkness, cloud, and smoke. This is such an important point to understand. God was protecting His people from seeing the full splendor of His holy glory and light because God's full glory is more than any person can see without instantly dying. Even Moses could not see God's full glory. In Exodus 33 Moses had asked God, “Please, show me Your glory” (v. 18). There is a sense in which he was rightly attracted to God's glory. There is something magnetically attractive about God's glory. It makes us want to worship, praise, and adore Him. But God's answer to Moses in Exodus 33:19-22 is interesting. God answered Moses by saying,

Ex. 33:19 ...“I will make all My goodness pass before you [so notice that God's goodness is a part of His glory], and I will proclaim the name of the LORD before you [God's name is a part of His glory]. I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion.” [So God's sovereignty is part of His glory.] 20 But He said, “You cannot see My face; for no man shall see Me, and live.” 21 And the LORD said, “Here is a place by Me, and you shall stand on the rock. 22 So it shall be, while My glory passes by, that I will put you in the cleft of the rock, and will cover you with My hand while I pass by.

God loved Moses, so He had to protect Moses from His full glory by hiding him in the cleft of the rock (a type of Christ) and covering Moses with His hand. But, interestingly, even though Moses was completely covered by God's hand when His glory passed by, so much of God's glory still passed into Moses that Moses' face shone brightly, and when he came down from the mountain, the people were afraid to even look at the face of Moses. He had to put a veil on his face. But the point is that even Moses had to be protected from seeing fully into the glory of God's holiness. The very word "holiness" speaks to God's separateness. It doesn't just mean sinless. Yes, God is perfectly pure and sinless. But when the Scripture says that God is holy, it especially refers to Him being set apart, transcendent, and above everything that He has created. And I want to spend a bit of time thinking about the incredible glory of God and why it brought fear not only to Israel, but to Moses Himself. Let me read Hebrews 12:18-21, which gives a nice summary. It says,

18 For you have not come to the mountain that may be touched and that burned with fire, and to blackness and darkness and tempest, 19 and the sound of a trumpet and the voice of words, so that those who heard it begged that the word should not be spoken to them anymore. 20 (For they could not endure what was commanded: “And if so much as a beast touches the mountain, it shall be stoned or shot with an arrow.” 21 And so terrifying was the sight that Moses said, “I am exceedingly afraid and trembling.”)

What was it about God that induced such fear? It was His holy glory. Paul Washer once preached on the holiness of God, and he said,

I'm going to give you two creatures to think about, and I want you to tell me which one of those creatures is more like God. The great seraphim standing in the presence of God, crying out, holy, holy, holy. Or the tiny single celled creature floating around in your bathtub. Which one is more like God?

The answer is neither. That glorious archangel in heaven, whose glory is so great that it would explode our minds and our hearts if we caught just a glimpse of Him, is no closer to being like God than the smallest microbe on the face of the earth. No one is like the God of Scripture. And this is something that we must understand. It is not... a quantitative difference. God is not like us - just [being] bigger and better. It is a qualitative difference. He is not like us at all.¹

God is so transcendent and filled with glory, that without Jesus as our Mediator, we could not hope to face Him. God clearly said, "no man shall see Me, and live." Exodus 15:11 exclaims in absolute wonder, "Who is like You, O LORD, among the gods? Who is like You, glorious in holiness, fearful in praises, doing wonders?" And the implied answer in the Hebrew is, "No one." When Job caught a small glimpse of God's glory, he felt undone and said, "I abhor myself and repent in dust and ashes." Once he caught a tiny glimpse of God's glory, he could no longer feel sorry for himself about all of his sufferings he had been through. However hidden God's glory was, it still almost undid Job. Seeing the holy glory of God made him realize that he deserved nothing and made him willing to receive anything from God's hand and still be willing to praise Him. There is something so "other" about God's majestic glory that it draws adoration and praise from the human heart. Yes, God is a strong tower to whom we can run for safety, but only because of Jesus. I think of Susan in the children's book, The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe. The fictional dialogue by C. S. Lewis goes as follows:

“Aslan is a lion — the Lion, the great Lion.” “Ooh,” said Susan. “I thought he was a man. Is he — quite safe? I shall feel rather nervous about meeting a lion.” “That you will, dearie, and no mistake,” said Mrs. Beaver; “if there’s anyone who can appear before Aslan without their knees knocking, they’re either braver than most or else just silly.” “Then he isn’t safe?” said Lucy. “Safe?” said Mr. Beaver; “don’t you hear what Mrs. Beaver tells you? Who said anything about safe? ’Course he isn’t safe. But he’s good. He’s the King, I tell you.”

When preachers begin to meditate upon the glory of God, they can't preach "Ten Ways to Feel Better about Ourselves." They can't. Instead, they want to turn the eyes of people away from themselves and toward God, in the hopes that others will catch a glimpse of how glorious God is and also want to bow down and worship. When God manifests any degree of His glory to us, it instills fear, but still makes us want to be more and drawn to God's glory. Yes, God's glory makes us feel small, but it also makes us realize how condescending, kind, and good God is to save us and allow us to pray to Him. Let me read what happened to Isaiah when he saw a vision of God's glory. It's Isaiah 6.

Is. 6:1 In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord sitting on a throne, high and lifted up, and the train of His robe filled the temple. 2 Above it stood seraphim; each one had six wings: with two he covered his face, with two he covered his feet, and with two he flew. 3 And one cried to another and said: “Holy, holy, holy is the LORD of hosts; The whole earth is full of His glory!” 4 And the posts of the door were shaken by the voice of him who cried out, and the house was filled with smoke.

Is. 6:5 So I said: “Woe is me, for I am undone! Because I am a man of unclean lips, And I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips; For my eyes have seen the King, The LORD of hosts.”

Is. 6:6 Then one of the seraphim flew to me, having in his hand a live coal which he had taken with the tongs from the altar. 7 And he touched my mouth with it, and said: “Behold, this has touched your lips; Your iniquity is taken away, And your sin purged.”

Isaiah felt undone because God's holy glory made him realize how sinful he was and how in need of atonement he was. And it should do the same for us. People act as if God has somehow changed in the New Testament, but He has not. Hebrews 13:8 says that He "the same yesterday, today, and forever." 1 Timothy 6:16 says of God, "who alone has immortality, dwelling in unapproachable light, whom no man has seen or can see, to whom be honor and everlasting power." Notice that God is still so transcendant that He dwells in unapproachable light and no man can see Him and live. He is a fearful God, not the feel-good God of the modern evangelical church.

We've already seen that this is a very important and practical doctrine. But let me outline a few additional applications of God's glory. First, when you see the greatness of God, it builds your faith and makes you realize that no Congress is a match for God and His plans to exalt Jesus. No empire can hold back His hand or stop the forward march of His kingdom. If God wills to do something, it will be done. So to those of you who are discouraged over the giant of abortion in our state, I say, "Take heart. When we have faith in the glory and greatness of God, giants can topple." He loves to honor such faith. And meditating on His glory increases our faith.

Second, the fear of God that comes from meditating on His glory also removes the fear of man. In fact, the more you fear God, the more the fear of man seems downright silly.

Third, God's holy glory also gives us humility. It makes you realize that God is not here to serve my purposes. No, I am here to serve God's purposes. And our minds should be blown that the same God who shakes the earth is the God who assures us, "You are my people." It makes us stand in humble awe of His grace - that He would be willing to put a coal to my lips and cleanse me of sin and make me acceptable in His sight through Jesus. Meditating on His glory produces humility in us.

But it also makes us want to tell others about His glory. Those who have tasted even a tiny bit of the glory of God want to obey the command in Deuteronomy 32:3 that says, "Ascribe greatness to our God." We don't see ourselves as great when we are faced with His glory. We see ourselves as puny. But once God grants us the grace of humility, we also realize that "I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me" (Phil. 4:13). And we want others to know that too.

Sixth, a glimpse of God's glory makes us totally unwilling to question His wisdom or His Words. I've been reading Radical Two Kingdom books that throw out God's Old Testament laws as if they were somehow inherently unjust. But when you have seen God's glory as Isaiah did, you don't question any of the death penalties that will be listed later in this book. You automatically realize that God is the very definition of justice, holiness, fairness, and truth, and if God says that a person deserves the death penalty, we will stand in whole-hearted agreement. Who are we to question God anyway?!

But more importantly, a glimpse of God's glory makes us want to worship Him with our whole hearts and cry out like the angels do, saying, "Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts. The whole earth is full of His glory." Those who have tasted a glimpse of God's glory are not preoccupied with themselves, with the creation, or with anything other than God being all in all. It produces intense worship in His people.

Eighth, it makes us want to be more and more like Him. To worship His glory and holiness is to want to be holy ourselves.

One of my favorite sermons on the holiness of God is by R. C. Sproul. Interestingly, it is called "The Trauma of Holiness." He points out that an encounter with the holiness of God is always a traumatic experience because it is impossible to see God's holiness without seeing how dreadfully sinful we are and how in need of a mediator we are. Anyone who has a works-based view of salvation has never seen God's glory. If the holiest of men in the Bible were undone by God's holiness and said, "Woe is me, for I am undone! Because I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips," then we realize that focusing on our worthiness or even on our unworthiness means we have not even remotely begun to see what a holy God our God is. Our God protects us by hiding some of His glory in thick darkness. Yet even then, the fire of His glory is still overwhelming.

Yet it is also ironically comforting at the same time because if this God is for us, who can be against us? I would urge you to meditate upon the holy glory of our awesome God.

The real danger of death if they are not protected from God's glory (vv. 24b-25)

Verses 24-25 go on to show the real danger of death that God's holy glory produces if we are not somehow protected. It says,

Surely the LORD our God has shown us His glory and His greatness, and we have heard His voice from the midst of the fire. We have seen this day that God speaks with man; yet he still lives. 25 Now therefore, why should we die? For this great fire will consume us; if we hear the voice of the LORD our God anymore, then we shall die.

Is that exaggeration? Is that hyperbole? Was that just cowardliness on their part? No. Let me read you just a sampling of verses that spell out the same idea for all time.

Psalm 97:3 says, "A fire goes before Him, and burns up His enemies round about." Well, that makes you not want to be on God's wrong side.

In Deuteronomy 4:33 Moses said, "Did any people ever hear the voice of God speaking out of the midst of the fire, as you have heard, and live?" The implied answer is, "No." Yet God privileged them with seeing His glory.

When Gideon saw the Angel of the Lord, he said, “Alas, O Lord GOD! For I have seen the Angel of the LORD face to face” (Judg. 6:22).

Isaiah 33:14 asks, “Who among us shall dwell with the devouring fire? Who among us shall dwell with everlasting burnings?”

And lest we think that God is different in the New Testament, Hebrews 12:29 reminds us, "For our God is a consuming fire." You don't mess with God. He is the God who still can slay an Ananias and Saphira within the church as He did in the book of Acts.

2 Corinthians 3:7-9 says that God's glory has not diminished at all. And as we meditate upon the laws of God in Deuteronomy, we will see more and more of His glory and wisdom displayed in them. In any case, God's glory reveals the enormous gulf that exists between God and man. As Romans 3:23 words it, "for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God."

God's glory shows the need of a mediator (vv. 26-27)

The next two verses illustrate the next point that logically flows from the previous one. With the huge gap between God and us, God's glory reveals the need of a mediator.

Deut. 5:26 For who is there of all flesh who has heard the voice of the living God speaking from the midst of the fire, as we have, and lived? 27 You go near and hear all that the LORD our God may say, and tell us all that the LORD our God says to you, and we will hear and do it.

Moses stood as an imperfect mediator who symbolically portrayed the need for Jesus to stand between a holy God and His people. And as God's prophet, Moses wrote down God's very words in the Bible so that the people could endure those words. Some people wish that they could be a prophet like Moses or Isaiah. Not me. I am ever so grateful for the completed Bible, and that I do not have to hear God's Words directly as the people did. God speaks to me through the Bible just as really as He spoke to Moses, but without the danger of dying in His presence. Praise God!

But their request to put a distance between themselves and God is symbolic of the incredible distance that always exists between God and man. As one commentary word it,

They sensed a deep, terrifying distance between the majesty and holiness of God’s person and their own human condition, a condition of weakness, failure, shortcoming, and sinfulness... This was the very point that God wished to convey to the people: He is the very embodiment of majestic glory and holiness. There is a great gulf — a chasm, an abyss, a terrifying separation — between Himself and man, between what He Himself is and what man is. Again, God is the very embodiment of majestic glory and holiness; therefore, the very law of God — the Ten Commandments, the very words which God spoke — were holy and glorious (Ro. 7:12, 14, 16). The law of God and the Ten Commandments were the very expression of God’s being. Therefore, people were to obey God’s law or else face the terrifying glory and holiness of God.²

But that's the problem, isn't it? None of us measure up to God's law. Listen to what God's Word says about this huge gulf between the requirements of God's holy laws that reflect His character and our own pathetic attempts to keep God's laws.

"But your iniquities have separated you from your God; and your sins have hidden His face from you, so that He will not hear." (Is. 59:2)

"But we are all like an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are like filthy rags; we all fade as a leaf, and our iniquities, like the wind, have taken us away. And there is no one who calls on Your name, who stirs himself up to take hold of You; for You have hidden Your face from us, and have consumed us because of our iniquities." (Is. 64:6-7)

Romans 3:23 says, "for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God."

1John 1:8 says, "If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us."

Prov. 20:9 "Who can say, 'I have made my heart clean, I am pure from my sin'"? [And the implied answer is, "No one."]

And that's why the New Testament says that Jesus had to die as a substitute so that we would not have to die. He took our sins and God treated Jesus as if Jesus had committed every one of our sins. Ooophh! That's cringe-worthy! That makes us not want to sin, doesn't it? And Jesus was punished for those sins. And then He gave us His perfect righteousness that we looked at in the last sermon and credited that righteousness to each of us who have put our faith in Him. And if you have not sincerely bowed your knees before God, repented of your sins, and trusted Jesus alone for your salvation, you are headed toward a hell that currently has a great gulf between it and heaven, and will eventually be cast into outer darkness - forever separated from God and His people. It's becoming popular now to soften the doctrine of hell, with famous people now believing that people's won't suffer throughout eternity. Well, that shows an utter blindness to the glory of God's holiness. And it also minimizes the enormous lengths that God went to in order to save us. God loved us enough to send His Son to die for us. Don't neglect your salvation. Meditate upon God's glorious holiness and allow that to make you cling to the cross of Jesus Christ.

So we have seen that the glory of God's holiness shows the vast gulf between God and man. It shows us our need of a mediator.

God's provisions show that He cares about us (vv. 28-33)

But lastly, part of the glory that God showed to Moses was His goodness. Remember when Moses asked God to show him His glory, God said that He would cause all of His goodness to pass before him. And the goodness part of His glory shows God cares about us. And verses 28-33 show four ways in which God showed His goodness and care for us.

He knows we need a mediator (v. 28)

First, He knows we needed a mediator and He provided one. In verse 28, God says that they were correct in noting that they needed a mediator. "Then the LORD heard the voice of your words when you spoke to me, and the LORD said to me: ‘I have heard the voice of the words of this people which they have spoken to you. They are right in all that they have spoken.'" They were right that they could not approach God on their own.

Of course, we have already seen that Moses Himself could not approach God on His own. God the Son covered Moses with His hand to protect Moses because Moses had long before put His trust in the future Messiah. So Jesus (the God-Man) was the ultimate Mediator, and Moses was merely a type. In Deuteronomy 18:15-19 Moses told Israel about the future Messiah that would redeem them. He said,

Deut. 18:15 “The LORD your God will raise up for you a Prophet like me from your midst, from your brethren. Him you shall hear, 16 according to all you desired of the LORD your God in Horeb in the day of the assembly, saying, “Let me not hear again the voice of the LORD my God, nor let me see this great fire anymore, lest I die.’ 17 “And the LORD said to me: ‘What they have spoken is good. 18 I will raise up for them a Prophet like you from among their brethren, and will put My words in His mouth, and He shall speak to them all that I command Him. 19 And it shall be that whoever will not hear My words, which He speaks in My name, I will require it of him.

Outside of Christ, you are doomed by the law of God. But inside of Christ you will find the laws to be your delight. Listen to the following Scriptures about Jesus, the Mediator that Moses prophesied about.

1Tim. 2:5 For there is one God and one Mediator between God and men, the Man Christ Jesus, 6 who gave Himself a ransom for all, to be testified in due time,

Heb. 2:14 Inasmuch then as the children have partaken of flesh and blood, He Himself likewise shared in the same, that through death He might destroy him who had the power of death, that is, the devil, 15 and release those who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage. 16 For indeed He does not give aid to angels, but He does give aid to the seed of Abraham. 17 Therefore, in all things He had to be made like His brethren, that He might be a merciful and faithful High Priest in things pertaining to God, to make propitiation for the sins of the people.

Heb. 7:25 Therefore He is also able to save to the uttermost those who come to God through Him, since He always lives to make intercession for them.

Heb. 8:6 But now He has obtained a more excellent ministry, inasmuch as He is also Mediator of a better covenant, which was established on better promises.

Heb. 9:15 And for this reason He is the Mediator of the new covenant, by means of death, for the redemption of the transgressions under the first covenant, that those who are called may receive the promise of the eternal inheritance.

As we go through the laws of the next few chapters, make sure that you approach those laws humbly by trusting Jesus to live those laws out through you by His grace. Outward conformity to the law is not enough. We need Jesus to make our obedience acceptable in God's sight. But, once we trust Jesus fully, Hebrews 4:16 says that we can "come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need." And unlike that previous generation, who died in unbelief, and thus could not appreciate the glory on the face of Moses, 2 Corinthians 3:18 says, "But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as by the Spirit of the Lord." God's Spirit can make us reflect more and more of God's glory. That's one of the miraculous things about God's salvation - that it puts more and more of God's glory into us - just as it did into Moses. And all of this shows that God cares for us.

He shows His heart's yearning for their own holiness (v. 29a)

Verse 29 shows yet another aspect of the goodness that is present in God's glory and shows the way that He cares. The "Oh!!!!!" in verse 29 shows His heart's yearning for their own holiness. It says, "Oh, that they had such a heart in them that they would fear Me and always keep all My commandments..." That "Oh" shows a kind of longing God has to give the same love for holiness to His people that He has for holiness. And it is not simply an outward conformity to God's law, but a heart reverence for God that obeys Him from the inner man. God's Word not only confronts us with our lack of conformity to the law, but it also draws us by grace into more and more fellowship with God. And it is like a reinforcing cycle. The more we fellowship with God, the more we want to be like Him. And the more we want to be like Him, the more we realize we need Christ to draw our hearts into conformity with His will.

Listen to the same heart God has for us to fellowship with Him in holiness in the following verses:

Psa. 81:13 “Oh, that My people would listen to Me, that Israel would walk in My ways! 14 I would soon subdue their enemies, and turn My hand against their adversaries. 15 The haters of the LORD would pretend submission to Him, but their fate would endure forever.

Notice that this longing for them to obey Him is for their good. Isaiah 48:18 is similar

s. 48:18 Oh, that you had heeded My commandments! Then your peace would have been like a river, and your righteousness like the waves of the sea.

Notice the emotional longing that God has - longing that God's people would value His commandments just as God values them. And again, that longing is for their good. Jeremiah 44:4 says,

Jer. 44:4 However I have sent to you all My servants the prophets, rising early and sending them, saying, “Oh, do not do this abominable thing that I hate!”

Jesus shares the Father's heart-burden on this when He says,

Matt. 23:37 “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the one who kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to her! How often I wanted to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were not willing!

In Luke 19:42 He said, "If you had known, even you, especially in this your day, the things that make for your peace! But now they are hidden from your eyes."

And since Paul had also seen God's glory, he had the same heart-longing that others would take these things seriously. Paul said,

2Cor. 5:20 Now then, we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were pleading through us: we implore you on Christ’s behalf, be reconciled to God.

2Cor. 6:1 We then, as workers together with Him also plead with you not to receive the grace of God in vain.

Heb. 12:25 See that you do not refuse Him who speaks. For if they did not escape who refused Him who spoke on earth, much more shall we not escape if we turn away from Him who speaks from heaven...

He gives the law to help us to flourish (v. 29b-31)

Verses 29-31 go on to show another evidence of God's goodness and care. The reason for the giving of God's law was to help us to flourish. Starting in the second half of verse 29:

...that it might be well with them and with their children forever! 30 Go and say to them, “Return to your tents.” 31 But as for you, stand here by Me, and I will speak to you all the commandments, the statutes, and the judgments which you shall teach them, that they may observe them in the land which I am giving them to possess.’

Notice the words in verse 29 - "that it might be well with them." As I articulated at length in the last sermon, the ten commandments were railroad tracks designed to help us be all that we can be. They were designed to make us flourish. God wanted them to flourish when they went into the land, and He wants us to flourish wherever He has planted us - even in the painful and difficult circumstances into which God has planted you. But you can't flourish if you ignore His laws and begin drifting from our glorious holy God. One commentary worded it this way:

God floods the person’s heart with a full and victorious life, with a deep sense of confidence, assurance, satisfaction, and fulfillment. The person walks through life conquering all of the enemies — the problems, difficulties, trials, and temptations of life — conquering even death itself. God sincerely longs for things to go well for man and his family. And things do go well for the man who fears and obeys God, keeping all His commandments.

And I say, "Amen!" Listen to these Scriptures that show the same care:

“And He said, 'My Presence will go with you, and I will give you rest.'” (Ex. 33:14). “Fear not, for I am with you; be not dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you, yes, I will help you, I will uphold you with My righteous right hand.” (Is. 41:10). “When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and through the rivers, they shall not overflow you. When you walk through the fire, you shall not be burned, nor shall the flame scorch you.” (Is. 43:2).

All of those Scriptures reinforce what I outlined in the last sermon - that God's laws were designed to make us flourish.

The whole law would prolong their days in the land (vv. 32-33)

The last evidence of God's care is given in verses 32-33. It says that one of the reasons God gave the law was to prolong their days in the land. Verses 32-33 say,

Deut. 5:32 “Therefore you shall be careful to do as the LORD your God has commanded you; you shall not turn aside to the right hand or to the left. 33 You shall walk in all the ways which the LORD your God has commanded you, that you may live and that it may be well with you, and that you may prolong your days in the land which you shall possess.

And you might think - "Well, that was for Israel when they were in the land of Canaan. But that promise is not for us." But 1 Corinthians 10:11 says, "Now all these things happened to them as examples, and they were written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the ages have come." And 2 Timothy 3:16-17 says, "All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work." And the commandments not only provide the abundant life down here below, but are also designed to prepare us for the abundant life throughout eternity. Jesus said,

Matt. 7:21 “Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven.

Another way of saying it is that Antinomians are not saved. They have never seen any glimpse of God's awesome glory. If they had, they would not be Antinomians. The last chapter of the Bible reinforces this when it says,

Rev. 22:14 "Blessed are those who do His commandments, that they may have the right to the tree of life, and may enter through the gates into the city."

And I'll end with one more Scripture. Joshua 1:8 says,

Josh. 1:8 This Book of the Law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate in it day and night, that you may observe to do according to all that is written in it. For then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have good success.

Brothers and sisters, learn how to glory in the glory of our awesome God. Learn how to fear God, trust Him, and keep His commandments. And keep reminding yourselves that His commandments were all meant for your good. Amen.