Thou Shalt - Exodus 20:1-6

[0:00] Well, good morning, everybody. Praise the Lord. Welcome to Cali Chapel Charlotte.! You can open your Bibles to Exodus chapter 20, if you would.! If you're in Exodus chapter 20, we have been journeying with Israel and Moses as they've come through! Oh, the desert and have come to the desert of Sinai and now to Mount Sinai, to the Mount of God, to Mount Horeb. As God promised Moses before he sent him to Egypt, he said, hey, you will come again and worship me on this mount. And I think as Moses is there with umpteen million people, two plus million people, he's thinking, this is not what I ever imagined, Lord. And that's what God does exceedingly, abundantly, above all we could ever ask or think or imagine. And so here is Moses with all of these people. At last time, it was him alone saying, how can I do this, God? And now he's here with all these people going, how can I do this, God? Same thing. But if you back up into chapter 19 and you look at verse 16, that's where we picked up last week, and it came to pass on the third day in the morning.

[1:01] And so we looked at the third day in the morning at Sinai and compared that with the third day in the morning to Mount Zion, where we come to a mount that cannot be touched, but it's the mount of a living God, a mount that's spiritual. We come to the Mount Zion where Jesus was resurrected and where Mount Sinai, you had a barrier of death, you had separation, you had fear and trembling. Well, on the morning of the third day at Mount Zion in Jerusalem, you had this barrier of death removed and you had now peace and comfort and you had life. And we saw that our God truly is a consuming fire.

[1:36] We will all be consumed by his presence. It's just, are you going to be consumed at Sinai or Zion? Are you going to stand before God in your own effort, your own works, your own law, or are you going to stand before him because of the work he did on Mount Zion? You know, as we look at all these pictures in the Old Testament, I love continuing to go back to this verse in Romans. In Romans 15, Paul tells us that the things that were written before were written for our learning, that we, through patience and comfort of the scriptures, might have hope. And if you continue to read, he goes on to talk about how that hope that what we have is because now the Gentiles have been brought in and can have part of this inheritance with Israel. It's amazing that the promises that God had made to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob should come upon the Gentiles. So as we look at the Old Testament, we're looking through the lens, right, through the filter of the cross. We have to. We can't just look at it otherwise. And we have the freedom here to do that. As Paul says, man, these things that were written, they were written for our learning. They were written that we, through patience and comfort of the scriptures, might have hope. And part of that, I think, is as we look at the Old

[2:44] Testament, we see how boneheaded sometimes these people were. Like it's God on the mountain speaking vocally to you. The pillar of cloud by day. Would you ever go wrong if you're following a pillar of fire and a pillar of cloud? I mean, I don't want to do that anymore. Okay. I'm going to read tea leaves.

[3:03] How can you go wrong? But they do. And God loves them and God is faithful to them. He's faithful all the way through from right here, where he's establishing the nation and giving them a national covenant, a national law, all the way to when Messiah comes to say, I'm faithful. So that we can look at that and go, well, good grief if he was faithful to them. Well, where has blood bought children? We have the presence of the living God indwelling us. We have the Holy Spirit. How much more then will he not give us all things through Christ who loved us? So I think that's part of it.

[3:34] We look at this. We want to look at the heart of God towards people. How does he respond to them? How do they respond to him? What does he expect of them? And then how does he deal with them in that? So we are going to be looking at the 10 commandments. We'll start them today. Start.

[3:49] We'll start them. We'll try and get through two today. And, you know, we could just go really quickly through this, but this is so foundational. It's the foundation to essentially what we experience today is so much of it in our society, in the world around us. This is the foundation for Israel.

[4:04] This is the foundation for essentially when Jesus comes and says, hey, I fulfilled this. So we've got to look into it. I love that song that Kitty just did at the end there. The part about going in deep, you know, the love of God is how deep it is. Man, we're going to go in deep. We're going to look in pretty depth at this because I want you to be equipped. I want you to know what this is. What does it mean for me? Do I have to keep the 10 commandments or don't I have to keep the 10 commandments?

[4:29] I mean, that's really what I want to find out here. So we're going to look at the 10 commandments. I mean, maybe you've memorized, maybe you don't. It's kind of like remembering what days of creation came in what order. It's like, well, I know God created everything. I can't remember which day exactly. It's like, well, I know God's got these 10 commandments. I'm just not sure which one goes where. But before we dive into the scripture here in chapter 20, we're going to get through, Lord willing, six verses, the first two commandments. But we need to kind of get a background.

[4:56] What is the law? What is the 10 commandments? What did God expect of it? The law of God was not given to reveal to man his own righteousness. God did not give us this law, Israel, the law, or any law to reveal to man our own righteousness or to establish our righteousness, but to reveal to man a righteous God to whom man is accountable. God gives us his law to reveal a righteous God to whom we are accountable. We are not righteous, but we're accountable to a righteous God.

[5:30] We can no more escape the law of God than we can escape God. Right? Well, I don't want to be answerable to God. It's too bad. You know, it's like when you're, you know, your mom says, go clean your room. I don't want to. That's nice. Now you're going to go do it with a sore backside, you know?

[5:46] So we can't escape God and we can't escape his law because it's who he is. Just some interesting facts about the 10 commandments in our society. In 1980, the Supreme Court ruled that the 10 commandments in public schools were unconstitutional. It violated the establishment clause of the first amendment by promoting religion. Does the 10 commandments promote religion? Absolutely not. 10 commandments promotes a righteous God to whom we are accountable. The man says, well, I don't want that.

[6:14] We're going to get that. We're not going to be accountable to him. We'll get rid of it. In 2015, the late Pope Francis gave his own 10 commandments on climate change. So ingrained in our culture that it's like, oh, I'm going to make up my own 10 commandments. I mean, if you look up, don't. All the 10 commandments that the world has come up with on their own, they're out there.

[6:36] They're really out there. Richard Dawkins, if you know who he is, he's a very prominent atheist, very anti-God. He says the commandments as a guide to a good life. Then I can only presume you don't know the 10 commandments. He says, well, the 10 commandments won't lead to a good life. Well, what's his definition of a good life? A life that's filled with sin and self and where he's his own God. So 10 commandments, no, they won't lead to that good life. And this is my favorite. I'm not really sure who this guy is, but the real reason we can't have the 10 commandments in a courthouse.

[7:05] You cannot post thou shall not steal, thou shall not commit adultery, and thou shalt not lie in a building full of lawyers, judges, and politicians. It creates a hostile work environment. I thought it was great. It does. But the problem is it creates a hostile work environment in my heart too. It's like, oh, so what are the 10 commandments? Not, they are not a set of rules for righteousness.

[7:31] They're not. There's nowhere in here where we're going to find that God established this. Well, if you do this, you're righteous. You can become righteous. They're not expected to be kept unbroken. There's nowhere in here. We're going to find where God says you have to keep them perfectly.

[7:44] You have to, to be righteous. They are not to govern all nations. The 10 commandments as given here to Israel are for Israel. They are not to govern all nations. The Gentiles are under the Noahic covenant and the Abrahamic covenant, but not the Mosaic covenant. The fact that the Gentiles had no part with Israel in national Israel is confirmed many times in the new Testament.

[8:09] So it's not to govern all nations say, well, really? Well, what are all nations supposed to do? We'll get into that. It's also not to exist without sacrifice. Look down in chapter 20, down to verse 24. Look what it says. Right after giving these 10 commandments, an altar of earth thou shall make unto me and thou shall sacrifice thereon thy burnt offerings and thy peace offerings, thy sheep and thine oxen and all places where I record my name, I will come unto thee.

[8:33] I will bless thee, but not without a sacrifice. 10 commandments were not to exist without sacrifice. It's no different for us. There's no expectation of perfection in us. We cannot exist in God's commands without sacrifice. We can't exist in the command to be holy as I am holy. We can't even exist in the command of believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, right? Without first the sacrifice that he first made that sacrifice. What are the 10 commandments? The 10 commandments are a set of righteous rules.

[9:06] They are. That's what they are. There's no nuancing that. They are a specific revelation of all that God has generally revealed already about himself. They are specific revelation of all that has been generally revealed. Like this is nothing new. Oh man, God doesn't want us to murder. I mean, I've been going around saying, praise God and killing people. You know, no, this is, it's already been known, right?

[9:27] We know that when Cain murdered Abel, he said, Hey, where's your brother? You know, there wasn't the command, but they knew. The 10 commandments are a boundary and a blessing to be received, believed, believed, and obeyed. Well, I thought we weren't supposed to obey him. Well, no, no, I didn't say that.

[9:44] Neither does the Bible. We don't seek to obey them for the sake of righteousness, right? Listen, how many of you eat healthy all the time? You might, you know what? Since I can't eat healthy all the time, I'm just gonna give it up and eat bad all the time. Why even bother if I can't do it all the time? How many of you are faithful in all of your relationships? You know what? I'm finding it really hard to be patient with this person.

[10:05] And I'm just gonna be unfaithful in every relationship I have. Do we do that? No, that's silly. Say, well, here's God's, here's God's commands. Oh, I can't keep them. So I'm not even going to bother. Really? Well, if we would receive them, they're a blessing. If we received, we believed and obeyed. And the 10 commandments are an expression of God's moral code to which all men are answerable, but to which the Jews nationally are responsible. So as God is audibly speaking this from Mount Sinai to the people of Israel, establishing this, this two plus million former slaves three months ago as a nation, they are nationally responsible to this. We are not, but it does represent God's moral code is behind this.

[10:48] As we go through that, we're gonna see this. We do not have to keep the Sabbath day. We don't, like the Jews, honor the Sabbath day in that way. But we do honor the Sabbath rest because that is a moral principle.

[11:01] That is who God is. God's law is not going to contradict himself. What is morality then? If we're saying here then that for you and I, we're not going to look at the 10 commandments as something that we have to nationalistically keep or covenantally keep, then what is it? How do we apply that? Well, morality, this is a big definition, is an innate or natural sense of right and wrong, which approves some actions and disproves others, but it is independent of education or the knowledge of any positive rule or law, any positive rule or law. In other words, I don't have to be told the positive part to know I don't need to, that I shouldn't do it. I don't have to be told, don't kill anybody. You know, you say, well, oh, we don't have to teach our kids to sin. They grew up knowing to sin. It's true.

[11:51] I also don't have to teach them don't steal, don't kill, and don't lie because there's something inward, something that's built into them, innate or natural in them that approves or disproves those actions.

[12:04] Morality can have no existence without their first being a moral source. There has to be a source. Wrong has no significance unless right has been first established. And you say, that's wrong.

[12:14] How do you know? Because it's not right. No, you don't. You say, well, that's right. How do you know? Because it's not wrong. It doesn't really make sense. But we know something's wrong because it's not right.

[12:27] Morality cannot have originated with man, though, because man is governed by morality and not its governor. I can't determine my own morality. I don't get to determine right and wrong for myself.

[12:38] I don't want that to be right in my life, so it's not going to be. Well, that doesn't change the inward condition I have already that's already speaking to me of what is right or wrong, right? The morality we have governs us. It comes from without. I don't even like it sometime, but I know this is right and this is wrong. A man is determined by morality. He is not. It's determiner. So ultimately, morality is the existence of a standard of right and wrong that is innate to man but originates from outside of man, right? Everyone has it, but it doesn't originate with us, right? We are not determiners of our morality. We're not deterministic in that way. We are deterministic in. We are morally deterministic.

[13:21] We morally make choices, but we do not get to choose our morality. Does that make sense? Man alone was created in God's image. It tells us in Genesis 127, God created man in his own image. He created the male and female. Angels in some semblance have a morality because Lucifer and a third of the angels chose to rebel against God and have. Not in the same way we do, though. Not in that same capacity.

[13:48] God had created man and he'd given him a moral command right in the beginning. In Genesis chapter 2, beginning in verse 15, the Lord God takes Adam and he puts him in the Garden of Eden to dress it and to keep it. He gave him a place, a purpose, and a partner, right? And the Lord God commanded the man saying, of every tree of the garden you may freely eat, but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you may not eat of it. From the day you eat thereof, you shall surely die. Was there anything special about that tree? Was it full of a poison? No. It goes back to the beginning of verse 16 there.

[14:19] The Lord God commanded the man. That is a moral command. That's an arbitrary command. That is a moral command of right and wrong right from the beginning given to Adam. My daughter's cat has no morality.

[14:31] It doesn't. It doesn't like think, is this right? Should I do this? For the 15th time today, I'm going to try and get outside and every time they throw me back in. But should I try this? It doesn't think that.

[14:42] When it scratches me up, it's not thinking, man, I would feel really bad about that. It has no morality. It has what? Instinct. Instinct. If you feed the thing, it'll keep eating and eating and eating and eating until it throws up, dies, or gets fat, right? But something so instinctive as food becomes a moral decision for us. How can food have morality? Well, I know I shouldn't eat that, but I'm gonna. And I should stop probably eating right now, but I'm not gonna. I'm gonna keep eating it.

[15:12] We attach morality to something so basic and so instinctual. And with the 10 commandments, so we're gonna get into verse one now. We're gonna see thou shalt and thou shalt not. Good and bad.

[15:27] There's that moral dilemma that we have. Man alone has that. That's what separates us from the animal world. That's what separates us out from all creation, even the angels. A man is deterministic, morally deterministic. We don't determine our morality, but we are morally deterministic in our choices. Almost every choice we make is moral, right or wrong, you know? Even, like maybe, okay, you get up, I like this shirt better than the other one, right? But even that can have morality attached to it. Should I wear this or not? Because that could be wrong. I don't know what's wrong. Because there's a right that's been established. Anyway, let's jump into verse one now with that background.

[16:09] And God spake all these words, saying. So all of these words. This isn't he's speaking through Moses.

[16:21] This is not that he's written it down or put it on the tables of stone yet. He is speaking this audibly to the people who have sanctified themselves, who have come to the barrier that's around the mountain, and the fire and the smoke and the lightning and the thunder is happening on the mountain, and God is speaking audibly at this point. Proverbs 30 verse 5 says, every word of God is pure. Every word as God speaks this. God speaks because he wants to be heard. His desire is to be understood. It's not like, I can't quite figure out what that's saying, God. It's too hard for me.

[16:56] Thou, you know, thou shalt not steal. I just, that's, I don't know what he's saying to me. No, he wants to be understood. God spake to be believed and ultimately to be obeyed, right?

[17:08] We're not going to obey what we don't believe. For you and I, our accountability to the law of God, it lies in the authority of the word of God, right? God spake as he spake to Adam, as he spake at the mountain. God's authority, it lies in the word of God. We are accountable to God's word because behind it is all of God's authority, right? I don't know anything about God except what he's revealed to me. And he reveals that by word. Isaiah 40 verse 8 says, the grass withers, the flower fades, but the word of our God shall stand forever. So when God speaks, he has a reason for that. He spake all these words. Matthew 24 35 says, heaven and earth shall pass away, but all of these words of mine, these words shall not pass away. All of these words that God speaks, they're for a purpose. Not just so he wants to be heard, but they're for a purpose. He doesn't want to just listen to his own voice. So with reason and understanding that God speaks, it's all very reasonable. It all makes a lot of sense. And it's for Israel's good. Like we look at the we, but the culture looks at God's commands. Something bad, something negative, something that's keeping us from something. And God says, yes, I'm trying to keep you from something. It's called death. I don't want you to do that. It's to express his heart.

[18:35] Like we just read about in Romans that we look in the New Testament back through the lens of the cross at the Old Testament, we see the heart of God for his people. He wants to protect his people. He ultimately wants to point to Jesus with all of these words. As we go through this section, as we look over the next few weeks at these commands of God, is to point to Jesus. That's for no other purpose. It's not so we can establish our own righteousness. All of these words, I like this word here at the end of verse one, saying, man, our God's a God who speaks. Am I willing to listen to what he's saying, even when it's hard to be heard? God is a God who speaks.

[19:15] You can turn to Psalm 81. I'm going to bounce around a little bit. Psalm 81, the voice of the Lord speaks with a purpose, with reason and understanding for Israel's good to express his heart, to protect his people and to point to Jesus. I'm going to pick up in verse eight, if you're there in Psalm 81. The Lord says through the psalmist, he says, hearken, O my people, and I will testify unto you, O Israel, if you will hearken unto me. Remember the word hearken means?

[19:48] It means to hear with the intent to obey, to hear with obedience. Hearken unto me. There shall no strange God be in you, neither shall you worship any strange God. I am the Lord thy God, which brought thee out of the land of Egypt. Open thy mouth wide and I will fill it. But my people would not hearken to my voice and Israel would none of me. So I gave them up to their own hearts, desire, and they walked in their own counsels. Oh, that my people had hearkened unto me and Israel had walked in my ways.

[20:23] I should have subdued their enemies and turned my hand against their adversaries. The haters of the Lord, that's the old King James. I love that. The haters, the haters of the Lord. Don't be a hater.

[20:34] The haters of the Lord should have submitted themselves unto him. Their time should have endured forever. He should have fed them also with the finest of the wheat. And with honey out of the rock, should I have satisfied thee. That's what God wanted to do. If we just hearken to obey, God's like, I had so much blessing for you. But they wouldn't. So what does he say? He gave them up to their own heart's desires, their lust. They walked in their own counsel. Now, you know, my flesh, the part of me that's in rebellion to God, mankind says, well, I don't think that's fair. Why should God punish them?

[21:08] Because they just want to do their own thing. We didn't punish them. We just gave them up to their own heart's desires. See, what we want is, I want all the blessing of hearkening to God as I don't hearken to him and I walk after my own counsel. God, can't you just bless my own desires? He said, no, I can't because that leads to death and destruction. If you would hearken unto me, I can bring blessing to your life. Hebrews 12, 25, you can turn back to Exodus chapter 20.

[21:34] It says, see that you refuse not him that speaks. For if they escaped not, he refused him that spake on earth. Speaking of Moses and also this voice that they heard on the mountain, much more shall not we escape if we turn away from him that speaks from heaven. And again, the voice that spake at the mountain, which were the voice from heaven and the voice we hear in the person of Jesus and also in the witness of the Holy Spirit from heaven. We all are answerable. Every word God expresses, every word he speaks is ultimately an expression of some aspect of God. As we read through these commandments, it's an aspect of God, of his heart and of who he is. God is holy. God said, thou shall not commit adultery. Well, why not? Because it's an aspect of who God is. Because God is faithful.

[22:24] God is faithful to who he promised faithfulness. That's who he is. However, not every aspect of God's word is expressed the same way to every man. Israel is receiving an aspect of who God is expressed to them in a specific way nationally. We don't receive that same expression, but we do receive the same aspect of God, the same heart expressed in a different way.

[22:49] Psalm 18 verse 30 says, as for God, his way is perfect. The word of the Lord is tried. Every way of God is perfect, but not every way is necessarily expressed to us the same. As we go through the history we've seen with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and Moses in Israel, and as we go through and we see then when we get to the prophets and then with Jesus and then the birth of the church, that's the same God. He's expressing the same heart, but it's not always expressed the same way. Turn over to Acts 15 if you would. Doing some sword drills this morning. Loosen your wrists up with me. Acts 15. Paul and Barnabas, while they're on one of their missionary journeys touring the known world, they run up into these Judaizers. And when you see that in the New Testament and Acts, those are those that would try and mix in the law, the keeping of the commandments with a faith in Christ. Listen, after you're born again, you can mix anything in you want. And it sounds good. You can come up with the only part of your hair left to right and believe in Jesus. Well, the material part there is the believing in Jesus for salvation. We can then, after the fact, try and attach so many things to that.

[23:58] And so that's just Judaizers. You know, they're saying, well, yeah, well, you got to keep the law too. And so they go back to Jerusalem and have this council. And this is where they're at in Acts 15.

[24:09] As all the apostles come together, we're going to pick up in verse 4. And when they were come to Jerusalem, they were received of the church, says Paul and Barnabas, coming back to the church of the apostles and the elders. And they declared all things that God had done with them. But there arose up certain of the sect of the Pharisees, which believed, so they're believers, but they said, it is needful to circumcise the Gentiles and command them to keep the law of Moses as well.

[24:38] If you're there in Acts 15, jump down to verse 8. And God, which knows the hearts, Paul is responding here, bear them witness and giving them the Holy Spirit, the Gentiles, even as he did unto us.

[24:54] So Paul's response to this is, guys, God knows the heart. It's not about our outward deeds and commands that we keep. And he gave them the Holy Spirit the same way he did to us, who were circumcised and keeping the law of Moses as best we could.

[25:08] And put no difference between us and them, purifying their hearts by faith. Now, therefore, why do you tempt God to put a yoke? Listen, how Paul looks at this, to put a yoke upon the neck of the disciples, which neither our fathers nor we were able to bear.

[25:23] Why are you trying to put this weight on them? We couldn't do it. Is that how we came to faith in Christ? No. It's how we knew we needed him, because we couldn't do this. Jump down to verse 19, if you would, 19 through 21.

[25:38] Wherefore, this is James now speaking, as he's heard all of this. James being the leader of the church at that time in Jerusalem, he says, This is my judgment. This is what I say about all this. That we do not trouble them, which from among the Gentiles have turned to God.

[25:54] But that we write unto them that they abstain from pollutions of idols, and from fornication, and from things strangled, and from blood. For Moses of old times has in every city them to preach him, being read in the synagogues every Sabbath day.

[26:07] What's he saying there? Guys, if the law was going to do it, it would have done it. Because every Sabbath, Moses is being read in the synagogues, and not one person has turned to faith in Christ.

[26:18] Not one person has been made righteous. Not one person has a standing with God, because of their standing with the law. So for us, being Gentiles, we don't receive the same expression of God as national Israel did.

[26:35] Praise God for that, right? We still come to him by faith, but he's expressed his love to us, and his relationship to us differently. So the law. We've talked a bunch about the law.

[26:48] When I say the law, I'm not referring to necessarily the Ten Commandments, like Israel's law, and we're going to, as we get into Exodus, and then Leviticus, and we lay out, you know, you can have, don't eat the, you can or can't eat the bald locusts, I can't remember, but don't eat the bald monkey anyway.

[27:03] You can't eat those. It's all these different things. Like, well, how does that apply to us? Is that the law I'm talking about? Yes and no. You can try to keep that for righteousness, and it won't work. But I'm talking about God's moral law, that moral code that he has, where man knows we are responsible, we are accountable to a moral God.

[27:21] Well, number one, the law is good. We can just, let's just get that off the table right away. This isn't something bad. This isn't something negative. In Romans chapter 7, Paul says, beginning in verse 12, the law is holy.

[27:33] The commandment holy and just is good and good. Well, what's the problem? I'm not. The law is good. The law is just. The law is holy. But I'm not good. I'm not just.

[27:44] I'm not holy. The law is good for me. I'm just not good for the law. That's the problem. Paul says in Romans chapter 3, beginning in verse 19, he says, Now we know that whatsoever things the law says, it says to them who are under the law, that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become guilty before God.

[28:05] See, the law is to show mankind that they are accountable to a righteous God. Therefore, by the deeds of the law shall no flesh be justified in his sight. For by the law is the knowledge of sin.

[28:16] That's the whole point of that. As we look at the Ten Commandments, that's the whole point. Except there's a sacrifice, right? There's no intention here that I'm to keep the Ten Commandments or I'm to keep God's law.

[28:28] Because we know Timothy tells us, as Paul writes to Timothy, that the law is good if a man use it lawfully. That the law is not made for a righteous man, but for the lawless and disobedient. For the ungodly and for the sinners.

[28:40] Essentially, someone who keeps the law perfectly, they don't need a law. They are the law, right? The law is without sin, and it judges sin. My problem is, I'm full of sin and under judgment.

[28:54] So here is the law without sin. Here is the law judging sin. Well, wait a minute. I'm full of sin, and now I'm under judgment. So the law is good. Second thing is, the law is fulfilled by Jesus.

[29:08] As we begin this journey through the law, right from the start, we can know it's been fulfilled by Jesus. I'm not waiting for someone to fulfill it. I'm not trying to find a method that I can navigate this. Romans chapter 8, in verse 2, We see that the law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made me free.

[29:26] The law of sin and death. For what the law could not do. The keeping of a moral code of God. What that it could not do. And that it was weak through the flesh. Not weak in its commandments.

[29:38] Not weak in its righteousness. But weak because I'm weak. God sending his own son in the likeness of sinful flesh. And for sin, condemned it in the flesh.

[29:50] That the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us. Who walk not after the flesh, but after the spirit. Meaning what? That Jesus fulfilled it and set it aside. In the sense that, is it irrelevant?

[30:01] No, it's not irrelevant. It's not that it's not good. It's just, it doesn't apply any longer. I have to pay a mortgage. For umpteen, who knows how many more years. But when that sucker's paid off, I'm not going to keep paying it.

[30:14] It's done. I'm free. It's been fulfilled. And I now have all the freedoms and rights that go with that. Right? I'm still living in the same house. But now it's changed a little.

[30:26] Now it's different. Now there's that freedom. And in a sense, Jesus fulfills that for us. It's like, well, why would you continue in that? I fulfilled that. His life in taking on himself sinful flesh.

[30:39] Condemps sin in the flesh. And set that aside. The law being fulfilled no longer applies to us. And that the breaking of the law does not break my fellowship with God anymore. The breaking of the law doesn't break my relationship with God anymore.

[30:52] It's not established upon that. That I now have the opportunity to live in the fulfillment of the law. Not seeking to fulfill it. But living in the fullness of it. So the law is good.

[31:04] The law of God was fulfilled by Jesus. And then lastly, right here, the law of God was not determined by man. It is not determined by man. In Romans 3.31, we read, Do we then make void the law through faith?

[31:17] Paul is saying, we don't need the law anymore, right? Because we have faith. Does it set it aside? God forbid. We establish the law. There's nothing we do that determines the law.

[31:28] What its use is. What is there for. What is fulfilled. What is not. All we can do is participate. Do we make it void? No. We simply establish the law. We establish the fact that I cannot keep this.

[31:40] I am accountable to a righteous God. I have a moral accountability to him. And I come to him by sacrifice. I establish the law. Matthew 15.3, Jesus answers the Pharisees and says to them, Why do you transgress the commandment of God by your tradition?

[31:59] You can't set this aside. You can't determine what's acceptable to God and what's not. So as we read, And God spake all these words, saying, I am the Lord thy God, in verse 2, I am that I am, Moses.

[32:20] What will they say to me? What do I say to them, God, when they say, Well, who sent you? Well, just tell them that I am that I am. I am the Lord thy God. The God who speaks, he declares who it is that speaks.

[32:33] The voice that speaks from heaven, he doesn't leave us in wonder and guess. Like, is this the one true God, or is this just a trick? He says, No, I am. I am the one true God. God's credibility and his credentials lie in his identity.

[32:46] Who God is is based upon his identity. God is the self-existent one. One who is self-existent, he needs no introduction. He needs no validation.

[33:00] He needs no permission. And he doesn't need public opinion. You go through kings over and over, you see, and they did not according to the word of God, but continued in the will of their fathers.

[33:16] And they did righteous. And they did not. But it didn't change who God was. It didn't change his covenant with his people. In Revelation chapter 6, and we're going to get there this Wednesday, so join us.

[33:30] Revelation chapter 6 in verses 15 and 16, at the end of the chapter, where the nations, the people, nation in the Bible just means people group. The people there. It says that the chief captains and the rich men and the mighty and the great men of the earth and every free man and every bondman and slave, in other words, everybody.

[33:48] It said, To the rocks and the mountains, fall on us and hide us from the face of him and the wrath of the Lamb, one who sits on the throne. From the wrath of the Lamb and the face of him who sits on the throne. Public opinion was all against God at that point.

[34:01] There isn't going to be anybody at that point who's like, Yeah, Jesus. We want it your way. God, we want to follow your commands. The self-existent one doesn't need permission and he's not looking for our opinion.

[34:15] If a moral God gives a moral law, I am the Lord thy God, then we can expect that his moral creation is morally bound by that command.

[34:27] If he gives a moral law and we are his moral creation, then we are morally bound by that. A moral God sees and measures obedience and disobedience. He's the one who measures that with the measuring stick.

[34:39] A moral God is morally bound then to respond to obedience and disobedience. He can't just set it aside. Why? It's his nature. You'd have to set aside his nature.

[34:50] We can't do that. A moral creation is personally responsible to a moral God. I am personally responsible because of how God created me.

[35:00] I can't escape that. Hebrews 4.13 says, there is no creature that is not manifest in his sight. All things are naked and open unto the eyes of him with whom we have to do.

[35:14] There's nothing hidden from his sight. Oh, but we specifically, we're the ones answerable to him. We are morally responsible to know the God that can be known.

[35:26] If God would choose to be known, we then have a moral responsibility. It's part of right and wrong to know him. Jeremiah 23, he says, am I a God at hand, saith the Lord, and not a God afar off?

[35:40] Can any hide himself in secret places that I shall not see him, saith the Lord? Do not I fill heaven and earth, saith the Lord? We are responsible to this God and we can't escape it, right?

[35:52] We can tell the rocks of the earth to fall on us. David would write, where can I go from your presence and whither can I flee from your spirit? If I ascend up in heaven, you are there. If I make my bed in depths, you are there.

[36:02] If I take the morning, the wings of the morning fly to the uttermost parts of the sea, even there your hand will lead me. Your right hand will hold me fast. Even there your hand will get me. No, it keeps us.

[36:14] That's God's heart. God differs from all other gods as we get into the commands because he's personal.

[36:27] Because he's knowable. There's no false God that's personal and knowable. You may know about them in the sense of what's been made up about them. He's alive. He speaks. He delivers his people.

[36:39] He leads his people. But he holds his people accountable. Not just like, well, thank you, God. Now I'm going to go and follow my own heart and you're going to bless me. Because I mean, I've fulfilled the law in Christ, right?

[36:50] And I'm a believer. So I'm under blessing. I'm not under the law. I'm going to follow my own heart now and have all the blessings to go with it. No, that's not how it works. We are accountable. God's name and God's word have established the grounds of his authority to hold Israel morally accountable to his law.

[37:07] As he says to them, I am the Lord, your God. I brought you out of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. My name and my word established their grounds of authority to deal with Israel.

[37:22] So here we get to commandment number one. Thou shall have no other gods before me. As God begins to give these commands, he's speaking them from the mountain. The commandments are more negative than positive we're going to find.

[37:34] Zolana, thou shalt not. Don't do. You shall keep the Sabbath, right? But you shall not murder. You shall not kill. You shall not covet. Why? Because I'm more negative than positive.

[37:48] God's commands are more negative than positive because fallen man needs boundaries. We need boundaries. They're a necessary part of life. Right at the fall, God comes to Adam and Eve and says, well, he pronounced a curse.

[37:59] No, they brought the curse on themselves by eating of the fruit. He defined the curse. He gave a boundary to it which gave them protection that they would live within that. We can either see God's boundaries as something that constrains us and is just binding up my life or protects me.

[38:18] In other words, it's either going to impede my life or it's going to define my life. Israel and man are to have no other gods alongside of.

[38:31] That's what that means. Before God, in the face of, alongside of him because there are no other gods. There just aren't any. To place any supposed God before the one true God denies who God is because there is only one.

[38:45] So we are absolutely denying who God is, his very character and nature and who he is if we have any other gods. For us, the law's greatest protection is that it keeps us true to the one true God.

[38:57] The greatest protection for Israel and the greatest protection for us is it keeps us one, it keeps us true to the one true God. If we ever turn away and say, wait a minute, I'm following another God. The problem with my heart is that it desires above all else to what?

[39:11] Be God. Right from the beginning. Oh, you won't die, Eve. The Lord knows in the day that you eat of it, you shall be like him. You shall know good from evil. Following our heart, when we follow our own desires, our own hearts, we simply deny God and his commandments.

[39:29] We say, well, I want to go after my own counsel. Well, if we do that, we have to deny God and his commandments because we can't have them both. Jeremiah, as we know, in 17.9 says, the heart is deceitful. Above all things, it's desperately wicked.

[39:40] Who can know it? God's first command here, thou shalt make, have no other gods before me. It places a boundary of protection around my heart. It's what it does. This is a protection.

[39:51] This is a boundary. Don't have any other gods. You'll take care of a lot of problems if you don't. If you stick with one. Right? Like, don't have multiple wives and spouses.

[40:04] You'll also take care of a lot of problems, right? So, well, you know, Jacob had multiple wives. Yeah, he did. There was a lot of problems. Just stick with one.

[40:14] I don't know why I went off on wives. But God's first command, it places a boundary of protection around my heart. Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image.

[40:28] Command number two. Now, we write, we say there's ten commandments, right? It's actually eleven. Like, if you read it in context. The second command is actually two commands combined into one.

[40:43] Don't have any idols. But he actually gives two commands here. And this is the first of those two. So we're going to have two A and two B. But here we have, you shall not make unto you any graven image or any likeness of anything that's in heaven above or on earth beneath or that's in the water under the earth.

[41:00] And I think a lot of times we think of, don't make unto thee any graven images. Well, don't make any little false gods and false idols to worship. Well, yes and no. He's just said what? The first commandment was, don't have any other gods.

[41:13] Then he's saying, if you've obeyed that, don't make an image of the one God you have. This is not saying, don't have a little idol over here to bow to and don't have an idol for crop fertility and don't have an idol for, you know, sickness.

[41:25] No, no, no. He's saying, you're worshiping the one true God, but don't make him into an image. Graven image means any likeness or image created by man to be a representation of God, not necessarily for worship.

[41:40] This is the first part of this two-part commandment. We are not to make any likeness. That means no likeness entertainment-wise, no likeness in art, no likeness in religion, no likeness whatsoever to God because there's none like God.

[41:59] Therefore, there's to be nothing like him, made like him. Psalm 86.8 says, among the gods, there is none like unto thee, O Lord, neither are there any works like unto thy works. There are none.

[42:10] We are a creation. We are created man. We cannot think of anything outside of our creation and how dare we try and make a created image of our creator when we are bound by this creation.

[42:23] He's above and beyond creation. Our imagination can only pull from creation. God says, don't. Don't make that. For the second commandment, do not make any image.

[42:35] Idolatry attempts to bring God to us or represent God to us in a way that's familiar. That's all idolatry is. Okay, there's God, but I want him to be familiar to me.

[42:46] I want to bring him close. Right? When we worship the one true God, he brings us close. He brings us up, lifts us up into his presence. Idolatry brings God down. Well, I don't relate to God in the Bible.

[42:59] I relate to him visually. I relate to him in a story. I relate to him exactly how he wants me to, or I am breaking his command.

[43:09] It's idolatry. Now, this is a command to national Israel. It doesn't apply to me. No, because behind that is who God is, as we read in Psalm 86. This is very character in nature.

[43:20] It's not for us to determine that. Psalm 113 says, the Lord is high above all nations and his glory above the heavens. Who is like the Lord our God?

[43:31] Who dwells on high? But we're going to make a picture of him? We're going to try and craft him? We're going to try and promote him in a visual way? And God says, I am high above the nations.

[43:43] In Revelation, we saw that this one who sat on the throne is just, can't even be described. Just lightnings and brightness. Idolatry brings man, idolatry brings God down.

[43:56] Man also then goes down with it. Idolatry has two parts. The first part is what we just read. An attempt by man to represent God physically, materially, or visually.

[44:07] God says, don't do it. For any reason whatsoever, do not attempt to represent God physically, materially, or visually. The second part is where we get into this second commandment.

[44:18] We're going to call it 2B. So we'll stay with 10 commandments. Second part of idolatry is an attempt by man to then worship something physical or material or visual that represents God.

[44:30] So I can break that commandment either way. So I don't worship it. Doesn't matter. You can't make anything visual to represent God. Or you could worship something as a representation of God.

[44:41] Verse 5, thou shall not bow down thyself to them. So to this thing that you've made, step one, don't make it. Step two, we'll call it commandment 2B. Do not bow down thyself to any graven image, to anything that you have put together with your own mind, your own hands, and your own imagination.

[45:00] For I, the Lord, thy God, am a jealous God. Jealousy. What does that mean? Jealousy indicates exclusive. Exclusivity. It's not like, means he's like jealous like we think of jealous.

[45:13] Like he's upset and he didn't get his way or that person talked to that person and not me. It's exclusivity. For I, the Lord, thy God, am exclusively God alone, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children under the third or fourth generation of them that hate me.

[45:29] We'll get to that in a moment. But the beginning of the verse here says you shall not bow down yourself. Bowing down implies submission, obedience, and authority. Right? If I'm bowing before them, I'm giving worship, I'm giving submission, I'm giving obedience to something other than God and authority.

[45:44] You say, well, I'm worshiping God. I just needed a representation, but behind it is the one true God. But now, according to Paul, he says behind idols are demons, not the one true God. So we're giving our submission, our authority, and our obedience to something that is not God because he cannot be represented visually.

[46:02] To serve implies that we obey, that we seek to please, to live for, to prioritize. Well, if I'm going to serve this image, then that's what I'm going to prioritize.

[46:14] That's where I'm going to find the place that I connect with God. The Lord says, no, no, I'm a jealous God. I am the Lord and that is my name. And my glory will I not give to another, neither my praise to graven images.

[46:28] There's nowhere and no opportunity for us to worship a representation of God. God cannot share his glory as God without violating who he is as God.

[46:39] It's just basic, right? He can't give his glory to something else because then he's not exclusive. He's not God. Above all else, man must have a God who is above all else.

[46:53] Without that, we have no hope. Above all else, man must have a God above all else. Anytime we bring him down to our level, we're lost because we're lost.

[47:05] He must be above us. He must be outside of us. And then he says this very interesting thing. This is God himself speaking from the mountain where he says, oh, I will visit the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me.

[47:24] What's that talking about? He's saying, there's no other way, guys. This is exclusive. I'm a jealous God. There's no other option. The other option is to continue in iniquity and that isn't something that's just dealt with so easily.

[47:40] It'll continue for generations. He says iniquity for hate. This isn't just anybody. This is specifically of them that hate me.

[47:51] So yes, the children chose the iniquity of their fathers and if you continue in that and you choose that and you don't obey God and you make a graven image and you start worshiping that image, well then you'll continue in the iniquity of your fathers who did the same thing.

[48:02] In 1 Kings 11, as you're talking about the king, Solomon, we read, he did evil on the side of the Lord. It didn't matter how righteous his father was and he went not fully after the Lord as David his father.

[48:15] He continued in the iniquity not of David but of the rest of his fathers as he chose. Iniquity for hate. The children chose the iniquity of their fathers and so the children experienced the lasting consequences of sin.

[48:32] Sin has lasting consequences. It's a scary thing. Sin has lasting consequences generationally. Now Christ breaks all curses, yes, but there are still consequences and influence that come from sin.

[48:46] When we allow that into our lives, into our generations, into our families, there's consequences and there is an influence that can last long after the curse has been broken. The walk of our fathers will result in consequences and influences but it doesn't result in sin.

[49:02] necessarily in our lives. That's dependent upon my walk individually. Psalm 31, 23 says, O love the Lord, all you his saints, for the Lord preserves the faithful and plentifully rewards the proud doer.

[49:16] God will preserve the faithful. Does that mean that the faithful will live a life without any consequences of sin or influence of sin by anybody else around them? No, not at all. Some of us bear scars, deep scars, from the sin and consequence of someone else, from the influence that's been in our lives.

[49:34] Right? Jesus breaks that, yes. So yeah, he says, I'm a jealous God, meaning I'm exclusive. You're not going to have another God.

[49:45] Don't walk in a way where you're going to end up in this place where you essentially hate me. Hate means what? I'm excluding something from my life.

[49:55] I hate that. I exclude that. So if we have a graven image and we begin to worship it, even if it, well, it's God. I worship God on the golf course, you know, or whatever it is that we begin to bring into our relationship with God to represent him, well, we'll eventually exclude God.

[50:12] He says, no, you'll be like those that hate me. But he says, and showing mercy unto thousands of them that love me and keep my commandments.

[50:23] The effects of mercy far outweigh the effects of sin. Showing mercy to thousands. He's like, man, I can't even quantify this. Just, there's so many thousands of them that love me.

[50:36] Yes, sin can affect a generation, multiple generation, but love and mercy, wow, that can affect thousands. Mercy for love.

[50:47] Iniquity for those that hate. Mercy for love. Those that love. Each sinner will be judged by his own sin. That's mercy? Yes. It is because those who love are judged by mercy.

[51:02] It's a difference. We will each be judged by our own sin. That doesn't, that's nothing, we can't change that. That's that, that's that, we can't determine our own morality, right? We are responsible and accountable to him.

[51:14] But those who love the Lord, they're judged by mercy. You see, one who never sinned was judged for all who sinned, right?

[51:26] As Jesus took our place. Why? So that now all sinners might choose love and receive mercy. Matthew 5, 17, think not that I'm come to destroy the law, says Jesus, or the prophets, not come to destroy them, but to fulfill them.

[51:42] And how did he do that? In love, in sacrifice. We find God's mercy in that the one who fulfills the law is also the one who makes the law.

[51:54] Jesus fulfilled the law, and he's also the one who made the law. What assurance do we have that he's fulfilled the law? What assurance do I have that I'm standing in mercy?

[52:06] Because the one who gave the law made sure to fulfill himself so that it was fulfilled correctly, and then can turn to you and I and say, hey, do you love me? And keep my commandments out of mercy, not out of judgment.

[52:23] We access God's mercy by a law. No different than Israel. But for us, it's a law of love. In John 13 34, Jesus says, a new commandment I give unto you that you love one another as I have loved you, that you also love one another.

[52:42] Well, there's a law, but now it's a law of love, not judgment. Romans 13 10 says, love works no ill to his neighbor. Therefore, love is the fulfilling of the law.

[52:55] 1 John chapter 5. This makes more sense now. By this we know that we love the children of God when we love God and keep his commandments.

[53:10] For this is the love of God that we keep his commandments. His commandments are not grievous. Oh, so I'm not keeping his commandments to encourage him to love me. I'm keeping his commandments out of love because love's already there.

[53:22] It's been established. So now I know that I love God because I'm seeing those commandments worked out in my life. As I choose to love God, as I choose to put my faith in him, as the law is fulfilled not by my works, but by his love and mercy, then the law begins to be fulfilled in my life.

[53:40] It's worked out through my life. There's no commandment now don't steal.

[53:53] Love keeps that commandment. There's no commandment that love cannot keep. 1 John 4, 19, we love him because he first loved us.

[54:03] And that love's not something we can churn up or work up. As he says here, yes, iniquity will continue among those that hate me, but I've got mercy for thousands of those that love me.

[54:19] Thou shalt and thou shalt not. Actually, let's look at this one. Moses would write in Deuteronomy chapter 6, he says, Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God is one Lord.

[54:30] He's jealous. He's specific. And thou shalt love. Thou shalt and shalt not. Love is a positive command.

[54:41] Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thine heart, with all thy soul, and with all thy might. And these words which I command this day shall be in your heart. How do I get those words in my heart?

[54:53] How do I get the law fulfilled in my life? Well, it starts with thou shalt love. See, if I love the Lord my God with all my heart, soul, mind, and strength, well, then the words which he commands me are in my heart. I don't have to keep them on a tablet of stone.

[55:06] I don't have to keep them in my pocket. I don't have to keep them by religion. I don't have to keep them with an image or something other than God's word to try and stir me up to feel something so that my heart will go after it.

[55:18] No, instead, I just love the Lord my God. So as we go through these commandments, Paul again would tell us, back to that verse.

[55:32] Thank you for being so patient as we went through the scriptures this morning.

[55:47] Just so we can have hope, so we can have comfort. God didn't give us this law, and we're not going to look at it so they can beat us down. Neither did he for Israel. He gave it to them so they might know the righteous God to whom they are accountable, that they might have a way to interact with him through sacrifice and they might have a way to enter into blessing and protection and boundaries with his law.

[56:08] So yes, go out and keep the commands of God. Live his law this week. Not because it's a law, but because he loves you. And because he's put in your heart his very commands.

[56:19] It's that easy. Father, thank you so much, Lord, for your word. Thank you for to know the height and breadth width length width and height and depth of the love of God in Christ Jesus.

[56:42] Thank you for the depth, Lord. Thank you for how deep your word is. More importantly, Lord, thank you for how deep you are willing to go into my sin, into my heart, into my brokenness to bring your righteousness.

[56:56] Thank you for the law. I thank you so much for the law that puts a boundary of protection about my life. This shows me, hey, you've broken it, you've stepped outside of it, but I'm not going to judge you.

[57:07] Oh, no, judgment was taken care of at the cross. I just want to bless you. Come back inside of this place of boundary and protection. Lord, we don't get to determine our morality, but we do get to determine morally that we worship you, that we would each respond to you in our hearts.

[57:34] As we've heard the words speak to us and the Holy Spirit work in us, Lord, I pray that we would each respond to you in turn, Lord. And say yes, once again, that Jesus, you are my righteousness.

[57:45] You are the fulfiller of the law in my life. I love you, Lord. And I that would bring blessing to myself or others.

[58:01] I'm not walking in a way that allows you to be the jealous God in my life, the only God. Lord, would you by your love and mercy, not by judgment, and by the fulfilling of the law, would you bring us back into line, back into those places, Lord, where you just want to do good things in our lives.

[58:23] As we read about in the Psalms, man, I would have filled you, but you didn't really want it. Thank you, Jesus. We love you and praise you. In your name we pray. Amen.

[58:35] You know, you might be feeling like my cat. It was really, really full. Just keep eating if we let him. That was a lot. It was full. A lot of theology there.

[58:47] Man, that was the king of our heart. There's no commandment love can't keep.

[58:58] Don't worry about keeping the commandments. We're about loving God. He'll work that out in you. The Lord bless you and keep you. The Lord make his face to shine upon you. The Lord be gracious to you.

[59:10] Lord lift up the light of his countenance upon you and give you peace. God bless