I Am Just a Little Peanut

O. T. #205  "I Am Just a Little Peanut"
Jan. 10, 2014
Exodus 20-Part 12
When the people saw the thunder and lightning and heard the trumpet and saw the mountain in smoke, they trembled with fear.  Exodus 20:18  NIV

LET IT GLOW

How do I react to thunder and lightning? It frightens me, I must admit. I unplug everything in the house. I go from window to window, watching the storm. I count to see how far away or close it is. Maybe I am not the only one. How about you? Perhaps it is the end result, a dead tree that was struck, an electrical outlet stopped working, that shows me I am but a little peanut in the scope of the universe, in comparison to Almighty God's power.
We finished the ten laws God gave, by which the Israelites were to live. Can you imagine standing there, experiencing this? Why did this happen?

The purpose of the law was not to give us a standard we could achieve, and then be counted righteous before God. The purpose of the law was first to show us God's perfect standard, and second, to show how it is impossible for any of us to obey that standard. (Gal 3:22-25; Matt.5:17-48) It reveals God's character, exposes our sin, and prepares us to come to Jesus. Jesus fulfilled the law for us, so we could obey it in Him (Rom. 8:4). (Guzik)

My obedience is not legal, but inspired by love and empowered by God's Holy Spirit. (Redpath)

We can't keep all ten commands, so by breaking one, we have broken them all.

What did Jesus teach about the law?

• He didn't come to destroy it, but to fulfill it (Matt. 5:17).
• Doing and teaching the law is important until the end of time (Matt. 5:19).
• to be saved, we must have a righteousness that exceeds the scrupulous law-keeping of the Scribes and Pharisees (Matt. 5:20).
• The law must be kept in its full spirit and intent, not in its letter only (Matt. 5:21-47).
• There is only one man who has lived like this: Jesus Christ. (Guzik)

But now the righteousness of God apart from the law is revealed, being witnessed by the Law and the Prophets, even the righteousness of God, through faith in Jesus Christ, to all and on all who believed. (Rom. 3:21-22)

It is only the blood of Jesus that washes away the sins of our heart and makes us right before God. Have you trusted in Him as your Savior to do this, my friend?

LET IT GROW

Reading verse 18, what caused the people to be afraid when Moses received the Ten Commandments?

• thunderings and lightnings,
• noise of the trumpet,
• the mountain smoking,

The people trembled and stood afar off.
The people fearfully withdrew from the cluster of phenomena accompanying this theophany, this appearance of God on the mountain. this instinctively placed Moses in the position of mediator between them and God, because such was the gap between them and their holy God that they feared they were not fit to live in His presence (Verse 19). (MacArthur)

Romans 3:23-25 states, For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God; Being justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus: Whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation, through faith in His blood, to declare His righteousness for the remission of sins that are past, through the forbearance of God.

In verse 28, Paul says, Therefore we conclude that a man is justified by faith without the deeds of the law.

This leads us to Ephesians 2:8-10: For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: Not of works, lest any man should boast. For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them. 

How are we walking, living? Is it by faith in Jesus or by works?
Keep in mind that being free from the Law does not mean being free to sin-liberty is not license. Grace means that God works in us to fulfill His perfect will.  (Wiersbe)

LET IT GO

Keep a reverence, respect, and honor for God and His Word.

Obey what He tells me to do.

Walk with Jesus daily, living in grace.

Love God and love others.