March 15, 2009
The Third Sunday in Lent

Exodus 20:1-17 (ESV)
And God spoke all these words, saying, I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery. You shall have no other gods before me.You shall not make for yourself a carved image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth. You shall not bow down to them or serve them, for I the LORD your God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and the fourth generation of those who hate me, but showing steadfast love to thousands of those who love me and keep my commandments. You shall not take the name of the LORD your God in vain, for the LORD will not hold him guiltless who takes his name in vain.  Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days you shall labor, and do all your work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the LORD your God. On it you shall not do any work, you, or your son, or your daughter, your male servant, or your female servant, or your livestock, or the sojourner who is within your gates. For in six days the LORD made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested on the seventh day. Therefore the LORD blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy. Honor your father and your mother, that your days may be long in the land that the LORD your God is giving you. You shall not murder. You shall not commit adultery. You shall not steal. You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor. You shall not covet your neighbor's house; you shall not covet your neighbor's wife, or his male servant, or his female servant, or his ox, or his donkey, or anything that is your neighbor's.

   My friends, I want to warn you that what I’m about to preach is really, really simple. In fact, it’s so simple that the vast majority of the world stumbles all over it, wants nothing to do with it, and rejects it as being so much nonsense.

   Let me begin by asking you a simple question: What is the most important thing in life? The biblical answer is to make it to eternal life, that is, making it to the kingdom of glory. Jesus stressed this very point when he said, “What shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?”1 This is of critical importance since there are only two places to spend eternity. One of them is heaven; the other is hell.

   In our text for today, we find the Ten Commandments. These are God’s moral absolutes, binding on all people for all time. In the New Testament, a brilliant man once came to Jesus and asked, “What shall I do to inherit eternal life?”2 The Lord replied, saying, “What is written in the law? How do you read?”3 The man answered that it was necessary to keep the whole law of God, i.e., to obey all of God’s commandments without fail.4 Jesus said to him, “You have answered correctly. Do this and you shall live!”5

   So, then, according to Jesus, if we obey the Ten Commandments, we will live forever. There’s only one problem with this road. Jesus calls it the broad road that “leads to destruction,”6 that is, to eternal ruination.

   The problem with this road is simple. We are all sinners. Because we are indwelt by sin, no one can keep the relentless demands of God’s commandments.

   Dr. James Kennedy explains our dilemma with an illustration. I call it the impossible broad jump. To tell it in my own words, let’s suppose we are sitting in a living room. Imagine a two coffee tables sitting side by side. We spread them apart by a apart by 12 inches or so. Let’s say that these objects represent two sides of an incredibly deep canyon. The width of this canyon is 100 feet. Now suppose that all of the people who ever lived were to line up on one side of the canyon. In order to save their lives from impending death, they have to get to the other side. There are no ropes, bridges, or ladders. The only way they can get across is to jump. Now, the world record for the broad jump is a little over 29 feet.7 How many people from the whole human race would successfully get to the other side and save themselves? None! To be sure, some would be able to jump 20 feet or more. Some would not do as well. But none would make it all the way. All would fall short of the mark. All would fall to their death.8

   That’s the way it is spiritually. There is a sin-sized gap between God and man--between man and the kingdom of heaven. Most people think they can bridge the gap by jumping, by trying to be good. So, they may go to church. They are good citizens. They live an outwardly moral life. And their good deeds outweigh their bad. “There,” they say, “I’ve been good enough.”

      No, they haven’t. They haven’t even come close to being good enough. No matter how hard they try, they cannot bridge the spiritual abyss separating God from man. Why? Because the only way to bridge it is to be absolutely perfect in thought, word, and deed. You see, God doesn’t grade on the curve. Jesus said, “You therefore must be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect.”9 Even if a person were to sin just once in his entire lifetime, that one sin would be enough to send him to hell for all eternity.10 St. Paul is very clear about this matter. He writes, “There is no one who does good, … not even one. for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.”11 Based upon this standard, we all fall far short of the mark. We all fall into the hellish abyss.

   So how are we to deal with our sinful depravity? God is not some kind of white-haired grandfather who dismisses our sins with a pat on the head and says, “It’s okay, everybody does it!” No, God is holy, i.e., absolutely sinless. His holiness cannot and will not tolerate sin; it demands that sin be punished, for God himself says, “[I] … will by no means clear the guilty.”12 The punishment is eternal damnation.

   Is there no hope? Yes, there is a way, but only one way! Jesus calls this the narrow road that “leads to life.”13 See Jesus, our great substitute, walk this road. In our place, he walked before God in perfect righteousness all the days of his life--that his perfection might be our own. And carrying the entire weight of humanity’s sin, he also walked to that holy hill of Calvary that he might suffer and die in our places. And, by the shedding of his blood, Christ has redeemed us from the terrifying consequences of sin, viz., death and damnation.14

   “Well, that’s all fine and good,” says the world. “I understand that I can jump only 20 feet across the canyon. So I need Jesus to span the remaining 80 feet. So, I’ll jump with Jesus on my side and together we’ll get safely to the other side.”

   But that will never do. Let’s consider the same canyon. Suppose you have a one-inch thick piece of rope that can hold up a ton or two. There is a difficulty, though, for you have only fifty feet of rope. Suppose I say to you, “Don't worry, I have 50 feet of thread. We can tie my thread to your rope and then you can go across.” You decline my offer and I respond, “What's the matter? Don't you trust the rope?” “Yes,” you say, “I trust the rope, but I don't trust the thread.” Then let us change the story and make it ninety feet of rope and only ten feet of thread. You're still not comfortable. Then suppose we make it 99 feet of rope and only one foot of thread. One inch of thread? “No,” you say. You realize that if you have only one millimeter of thread, you will be just as dead on the rocks below as if you tried to cross on a hundred feet of thread. The rope represents what Christ has done to save us and the thread represents what we try to do. We must trust in Christ alone. Only 100% rope, only 100% Christ will get us across the abyss.

   In the annals of history, we often hear of man’s inhumanity to man. But events of that first Good Friday were far more hideous. This was man’s inhumanity to his Creator, to the Son of God in human flesh. See him now as he carries his cross through the streets of Jerusalem. “O dear Savior,” we cry out, “why must you endure such suffering? Why must you go on? Do you not know what lies ahead?” He replies, “Do you not know that my hour has now come? It is for this that I was born; and it is for this that I must now die! I am the Good shepherd. I lay down my life for my sheep because I love them too much to let them die in their sins.”

   The Savior walks on bearing our iniquities. Behold, God himself takes your sins and mine and places them squarely on the shoulders of Jesus, the sacrificial Lamb of God. Yes, God himself makes the transfer, for we read, “The LORD laid on him the iniquity of us all.”15

   But wait! The Savior, too weak to take another step, falls beneath the weight of the cross. Enter Simon, a man from the city of Cyrene. When he was forced to walk the way of sorrows, he, no doubt, felt some of the shame and mockery that was heaped upon anyone who had to bear the cross. But it only lasted a little while. When he had carried it to Calvary, he was relieved of it. And forthwith, Jesus was nailed to it. Yes, the sinner, Simon, is released from paying the wages of sin (which he rightly deserved), whereas the sinless Jesus is made to pay them in the place of Simon.

   Simon represents all of us, for just as he was guilty of sin, yet freed from its penalty, so too are we. Behold the glorious exchange! Christ gets what we deserve, viz., sin and death. We get what Christ deserves, viz., release from sin’s wages and the kingdom of heaven. The apostle Paul spoke of this exchange so very clearly when he said, “God made him [Christ] to be sin for us, who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.”16

   And now Christ gives us the forgiveness of sins and everlasting life. But how do these riches become our own personal possession? Do you really want to know? It’s so simple that most people take offense at it and reject it. You make this treasure your very own through simple faith in what Christ has done for you. You no longer trust in your own efforts; you no longer try to jump to heaven; you know that Christ has earned heaven for you. And so you trust in him alone, not in yourself even a little.

   Jesus is the bridge, the only bridge, that spans the canyon between this life and eternal life. You can, then, do one of two things: You can either continue to try to jump across; or you can safely “walk”17 across the bleeding body of Jesus--whose back spans the width of the great abyss. Jesus calls out, “Come! Come and “walk”18 over my body, for I am the narrow road to that leads to heaven.”

   So now it is crystal clear. There are not two roads leading to heaven, but only one: Jesus, Jesus, only Jesus! We can be certain of our salvation because another man, Jesus--perfect God and perfect man--earned it for us. This is the most important message in the world.

   There is only one thing as important, namely, that you and I trust in Christ’s perfect life and substitutionary death to take us to eternal life in the kingdom of glory. If we trust in Christ alone, we have the most important thing in life!

   May we remain in this one, true saving faith unto life everlasting.

   Amen.

Soli Deo Gloria!

Endnotes

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