SPB Sermons | Sunday 6 September 2026
What Is Freedom For?
Faithful in Egypt · Exodus 19–20
Three months into the wilderness. The sea is long behind them. The manna has come and gone each morning. And now Israel stands at the foot of Mount Sinai, trembling, as the mountain smokes and thunders and the presence of God descends upon it. Here, at last, freedom begins to take shape — not as absence, but as something far more beautiful.
Freedom Is Not the Absence of Anything
When we picture freedom we tend to picture the removal of constraint — no rules, no limits, no one telling us what to do. That is what Egypt had taught Israel to want: no Pharaoh, no taskmaster, no brick quota. But Exodus 19 and 20 reveal something that cuts across that instinct entirely. Freedom, in the language of Scripture, is not the absence of structure. It is not the removal of God from the picture. It is not chaos or boundlessness. Freedom is found within relationship. It is the fullness of life that comes when a rescued people begin to live with the God who rescued them.
Grace Before the Command
"I carried you on eagles' wings and brought you to myself."
Before God gives a single commandment, he reminds them what has brought them to this place. Not their power. Not their righteousness. Not a political uprising or a military victory. They are here, on eagle's wings, carried by the grace of God alone. Notice the flow of that sentence in Exodus 19:4 — it is not a journey from something. It is a journey towards something. Towards God himself. And it is only once that is established that anything else is said. Grace comes first. It always has. It always will.
Covenant obedience is not an entrance fee: Israel does not obey in order to be rescued. They respond because God has already done it. The law is given to a people who are already his.
The Ten Commandments begin with a declaration, not a demand: "I am the Lord your God who brought you out of Egypt." Identity before instruction. Grace before law.
Commandments 1–4
Worship First
The first commandments reorder the worship of a people who have spent generations surrounded by Egypt's idols. No other gods. No idols. Honor the name. Keep the Sabbath. These are not arbitrary restrictions — they are the re-alignment of a people's heart toward the God who is actually good, actually true, and actually there. Worship is not a duty. It is the best thing for us.
Commandments 5–10
Relationships Restored
From right worship flows right relating. Honor parents. Protect life. Keep marriage sacred. Do not steal. Speak truth. Control desire. In Egypt, life was cheap, truth was expendable, and power was decisive. Under God's covenant, every part of communal life receives new value and new purpose. Imagine a world where people truly lived this way.
The Heart of the Sermon
The Law Is a Gift, Not a Ladder
We so often come to the Ten Commandments as a moral ladder — something to climb in the hope that our good might just outweigh our bad by the time we reach the top. But the Bible makes clear that all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. There is not enough good between us all to save a single one of us. The commandments were never meant to be a ladder. They are a gift of grace — the re-ordering of our hearts by the Spirit of the God who has already saved us, shaping us into the people freedom was always meant to produce.
The Ten Commandments make no sense without the God who gives them, and no sense without the Saviour who fulfils them. Jesus, on the mountain in Matthew 5, does not discard what God began at Sinai. He embodies it. He reveals it. He sums it up: love God with everything you are, and love your neighbour as yourself. On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.
Formed for Freedom
God's purpose at Sinai is not simply to control behaviour. It is to form for himself a new people, distinct from the world, to reach the world with his light and glory. A holy people — not withdrawn from the world, not hiding behind locked doors — but living with gospel-shaped distinction. As the covenant of grace works in us, transforms us, and shines from us.
We are not absent from the commandments under the new covenant. The Spirit comes into our lives by faith in what Christ has done and gives life to our worship, helping us to be a people who honor God's name above all others, who reject the idols of this world, who protect life, speak truth, keep marriage sacred, and control desire — not because we are morally superior, but because God has moved toward us in grace. We are a people brought near, carried on eagles' wings, and called to live out what that rescue means. Obedience is not duty. In Christ it is delight.
Listen to the Sermon
The full sermon is available to listen to now. We hope it helps you see the Ten Commandments not as a moral obstacle course but as what they truly are — a gift of grace from the God who carried you here on eagles' wings.
Join Us
You Would Be Very Welcome
St Paul's & St Barnabas is an Anglican evangelical parish in the heart of North Belfast, seeking to make Christ known and to love our city in his name. We are working through the book of Exodus this autumn and would love you to join us, whether in person or online.
Join us in person on Sundays at 208 York Street, Belfast.
I Carried You on Eagles' Wings
You did not earn your way to Sinai. You were carried. And the one who carried you there is the same one who has, in Christ, carried you all the way to the cross and through it. Freedom has been won. It is found in the Son. And it is lived out, day by day, in the grace-shaped life that he calls us to — not as a ladder to climb, but as a gift to receive, and a delight to follow.
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