"Climbing God's Mountain"

Dear Friends in Christ,

   For just a few moments I would like for you to think back over your life and answer this question:  What is the most physically demanding thing you have ever done?  For some of you, it may have been a race you ran, like Tammy Light who is a teacher’s aid in our Little Lamb Preschool.  You may have seen the article in the Salem paper about a month ago in which she was interviewed about running in the Chicago Marathon.  It was the first marathon she’d ever attempted and though the times I talked to her about it she seemed a bit nervous and anxious as to whether she would be able to actually make it all the way, the rigorous training schedule she followed in preparation for it paid off and she completed the race in a little over 4 ½ hours.  Or maybe you’ve been through a major surgery like Jerry Broom went through last month and the most physically demanding thing you’ve ever done was getting out of bed and walking for the first time.  Some of you moms here today would no doubt say that the most physically demanding thing you’ve ever done was to deliver that 8 or 9 or 10 pound baby.

   If I were ever asked that question, though, I wouldn’t have to think twice about my answer.  In fact, I could tell you the date, the time, the place, the conditions under which it all happened.  Without a doubt the most physically demanding thing I have ever done took place on Sept. 11, 2007, for that was the day that Marilyn and I hiked the Barr Trail that leads to the top of Pike’s Peak, which stands 14,110 feet above sea level.  Now as most of you know, Marilyn and I have done a lot of hiking over the years and most of the places we hike have ratings for the trails.  They’re usually labeled as easy, moderate, or strenuous.  A strenuous trail might have an elevation gain of 1400-2000 feet, which means that that’s how high you will ascend from the beginning of the trail to the end.  But the Barr Trail was different.  It had an elevation gain of over 7500 feet and a length of 12.6 miles.  Consequently it was declared in one of the trail guides we looked at to be off the charts when it came to its strenuous nature.  Add to that the extremely thin air you encounter at that elevation, the bottles of water and other necessities you have to carry in your back pack, the extra clothing you need because of the dramatic temperature change, and I think you can understand why I say that that hike was by far the most physically demanding thing either of us has ever done.  It took us right at 8 ½ hours to complete it, though there were many times along the way when we weren’t sure we would be able to finish at all.  We just kept telling ourselves to put one foot in front of the other and sooner or later we’d make it.

   Well, today I want to do a little mountain climbing with you as I continue with my current sermon series that I have entitled “Back to the Basics.”  And the 2 mountains that we’re going to climb stand as symbols of the 2 most important doctrines or teachings found in the Bible.  The first of those teachings is what we refer to as the Law.  And the mountain that best characterizes and symbolizes the Law for us is this one: Mt. Sinai.  For it was there that Moses received from God the most basic and yet profound laws the world has ever seen: the 10 Commandments.

   Now the reason the Law is so important is because it serves a 3-fold purpose.  For starters, the Law acts as a curb.  Now you all know what a curb is.  If you go to downtown Salem you will find curbs on the street to prevent people from driving up on to the sidewalk and running over pedestrians or driving through plate glass windows.  But originally, Webster’s Dictionary defined a curb as “a strap or chain passed around a horse’s lower jaw and attached to the bit, used to keep the horse in check.”  So when we speak of the Law as a curb, we’re talking about its ability to keep us in check, to keep us on the right path, to keep us from going where we’re not supposed to go.  And you don’t have to look very far to see evidence of how the Law does this.  How many times have you been driving down the interstate at a speed faster than the designated speed limit only to suddenly come upon a state patrol officer with his radar gun pointed right at you?  What’s the first thing you do?  You immediately and instinctively let up on the accelerator in the hopes that your car will quickly slow down to a more acceptable speed.  In fact, I would venture to guess that you do that even if you’re not speeding.  That’s the power that the curb of the Law has on us. 

   Another example of this can be found in Alma, the little town just to the north of Salem, where the lone Alma police officer will often times camp out just daring someone to come speeding through his town.  One of our former vicars got stopped by him a couple of times years ago and because of that I always slow down to the 40 mph speed limit when I come to Alma, regardless of whether I see that police car or not.

   So the Law is a curb.  But then it also serves as a mirror.  It gives us an accurate reflection of ourselves when we look at it and I hate to say this, but the picture that it reveals is not a very pretty one.  Kind of like when you ladies get up in the morning and look in the mirror.  Do you like what you see?  Would you even think of leaving your home and going to work without putting on make-up and doing your hair?  Of course not because the mirror does not lie.  It tells the truth every time.  And that’s exactly what the mirror of God’s Law does.

   This comes out so well in our text for today where the Apostle Paul says in Rom. 3:20: “No one will be declared righteous in his sight by observing the law; rather, through the law we become conscious of sin.”  The acronym I like to use for this particular use of the Law when I’m teaching my Confirmation classes is SOS: the Law Shows Our Sins.  In Rom. 7:7 Paul puts it this way: “Indeed I would not have known what sin was except through the law. For I would not have known what coveting really was if the law had not said, ‘Do not covet.’”

   So the Law acts as a curb, as a mirror, and then lastly, it also serves as a guide.  Or I like to use the term rulebook.  It tells us what we are to do and what we are not to do.  Now I think we all realize how important rules are.  During our younger years we may not have liked those rules.  We may have bucked those rules.  But as we mature, we realize that rules are necessary to maintain order and stability in society.

   Those of us who have played sports understand the importance of rules.  Just imagine for a moment what it would be like to play, let’s say, basketball without any rules.  If you didn’t feel like dribbling, you could just grab the ball and run with it.  If you wanted to steal the ball from an opponent, you could trip them or push them down.  If you saw somebody between you and the basket, you could lower your shoulder and knock them out of the way because there would be no fouls, indeed there would be no refs, in a game where there were no rules.  Instead, there would be nothing but sheer chaos and lots of injuries, for one purpose that rules serve is to protect us.  That’s something that young people especially have a difficult time grasping.  They often see rules as restrictions that are going to hinder them from having a good time.  And so as far as they are concerned, rules are there to be broken.  But they don’t realize that when they step outside the boundaries of those rules, they step outside of the protection that those rules offer.  We saw a great example of this a few weeks ago when Normandy High School in St. Louis announced that as many as 50 of its students might have been exposed to the AIDS virus.  Had those students been abiding by the rules that God has laid down in his Word for sexual activity, they wouldn’t have had to worry about whether they have now contracted HIV.

   So the Law is important.  It’s our curb that keeps us on the right path; our mirror that shows us our sins; and our rulebook that tells us what to do and not do as a way of protecting us from the traps and temptations that the devil, the world, and our own sinful flesh set for us.  But there’s another mountain we need to climb today, for if we only ascend to the top of Mt. Sinai, if we only have the Law at our disposal, we’re not going to stand a chance come Judgment Day.  For the Law condemns.  The Law points out how far short we have fallen of God’s expectations.  The Law shows us our desperate need for a Savior.  And that’s where our second mountain comes into play: Mt. Calvary.  For it was there that God took care of our sin problem.  It was there that he cancelled the debt that we owed to him because of all our faults and shortcomings.  It was there that Jesus took our place, died our death, and paid for our sins so that we might be forgiven, redeemed, heaven bound children of God. 

   Now that’s pretty good news, isn’t it?  And that’s why we call this 2^nd great doctrine of Scripture the Gospel.  That word literally means “good news.”  The Gospel is the good news of our salvation, the good news of God’s love for a lost and dying world, the good news of God’s grace and forgiveness that is offered to sinners like you and me who do not in any way, shape, or form deserve it.  To borrow the SOS acronym that we used earlier for the Law, the Gospel then Shows Our Savior.

   And what a Savior he is!  When I was in Confirmation years ago, I’ll never forget my dad teaching our class that if there is one word you want to remember about Jesus, it is the word substitute.  He came into our world to become our substitute, to live the perfect life we could never live; to die the sin-paying death we deserved to die; to conquer our great enemy Death by his own resurrection from the dead.

   The fact that Jesus is our substitute can be illustrated through this little diagram that I made on my computer some years ago.  This diagram explains that what happened on the cross was the greatest business transaction of all time.  You think the government’s $700 billion bailout for banks was huge, you ain’t seen nothing yet!  Here’s the bailout for all mankind that took place at the cross… (explain diagram using Powerpoint)

     2 Cor. 5:21 says: “God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.”  Or listen to how Paul puts it in our text for today.  After telling us in v. 20 that no one will ever be declared righteous in God’s sight by observing the Law, he writes in vv. 21-22: “But now a righteousness from God, apart from law, has been made known, to which the Law and the Prophets testify. This righteousness from God comes through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe.”  So if you believe in Jesus Christ as your heaven-sent Savior and Substitute, you are now clothed or robed in his perfect righteousness.  And again, that’s incredibly good news, isn’t it?  For that good news allows you to face the tough times of life confidently and fearlessly.  It lets you know that the Creator and Ruler of this universe is your faithful friend.  It enables you to pillow your head in peace at night knowing that if this is the night that God chooses to call you home, you will spend eternity in his glorious and perfect presence.

   So Law and Gospel, the 2 mountain peaks of Scripture.  Look for them when you read the Bible.  Listen for them when you hear a sermon.  But most of all, appreciate them for all that they are and all that they mean for you and your life in this world and the next. 

Amen.