Exodus 20:1-17

hey hey good morning good morning good morning welcome to coffee and devotions that's where every day you and I we get together we have a little bit of coffee we get into God's word we grow in our love for the Lord together and this year 2023 we'll make it from Genesis to Leviticus so glad to be with you today we are at one of the most known passages in the entire Bible although there have been plenty of videos and surveys to show that people don't actually know these words they've heard about them but often they don't actually know them and so we have a huge blessing today to look at an extremely important passage in the Bible let's have some coffee we'll pray and we'll get into God's word let's pray father you are an amazing God again you've woken us up and you've given us a beautiful day you've given us an opportunity to read your word here in our hearts your voice and so father we pray that you would please by the power of your Holy Spirit speak to us this morning through your word that you would Pierce our souls convictus of sin where it's needed but also let us know of your grace and let us know of how we should walk before you in Jesus name amen all right so we are at Exodus chapter 20 Exodus chapter 20. and I kind of work through these one by one now I'm not going to preach to you if you want to see the sermon series that I've preached through the Ten Commandments you can look that up yourself there online is on sermon audio but I am going to take these one by one and talk about them as we go through and then summarize and then kind of wrap it up with it okay so verse 1. and God spoke all these words saying now this is really important right God had told Moses in chapter 19. to go down to and to bring Aaron up with him and when he went down from the mountain verse 25 so Moses went down to the people and spoke to them and while Moses is down Aaron is down the people are down from the mountain God himself speaks remember this scene the cloud is over Mount Sinai there's fear and there's trembling and now there's an audible voice from God and this is him as the Sovereign above his people now speaking to them a treaty Covenant and this is what he says he acknowledges who he is first verse 2. I am Jehovah your God so he uses the Divine name here your translation will most likely say the Lord or if you're using something like the Legacy Standard Bible that's just come out it might say it's Yahweh it's fine Jehovah Yahweh the point is it's the Divine name of God he's saying I am and he says his name those your God and then how did he become their God how did he establish this nation of Israel who brought you up out of the land of Egypt out of the house of bondage God had redeemed them God had saved them God had brought them to be a nation by himself he was to be their God and then he starts with a series of different what we might say Commandments we might say laws or foundational principles first and verse 3. you shall have no other gods before me why he's the only Redeemer of Israel he was the one who made Heaven and Earth he was the one who Moved Heaven and Earth to save them he was the one who bent all creation to his will to redeem them and so he says it's just me this is the beginning of their monotheism right and when it's a step I shouldn't say the beginning of it but the the establishment of it in law right no other gods and this isn't like you know Jesus or God gets first place and then you know he you can have all these other second place and third place and fourth place God's no no there's just one none other before me this is this is not the idea of of first in rank but this is none other in front of my face and we get that as we look at the next few Commandments Bruce four the second commandment you shall not make for yourself a carved image 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 nor serve them for I the Lord your God am a jealous God visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children to the third and fourth generations of those who hate me but showing Mercy to thousands to those who love me and keep my Commandments God here is saying I'm going to be worshiped I'm not going to be worshiped by idols he's not there's a few things he's doing here right God is not saying that they're not allowed to make any carbon images carved images if that was the case God is going to break his own commands right because he's going to tell the leaders of Israel to make a snake to put it up on a pole and to raise it up high so and walk it through the midst of the people so they would be saved we'll get to that story some other time but he's going to command for this image to be made now what are these about it's going to eventually do with that image so I'm gonna take that bronze snake and they're actually going to start bowing down to the snake later on in Israel's history which is that's the violation of this principle he's going to tell them as they're making the the Tabernacle that they're to actually make little pictures of of pomegranates and on the ark there's to be created to cherubim this this Angelic creature is God violating his own commandment here no he's not we're saying my Ark isn't going to be worshiped right the pomegranates aren't going to be worshiped there is no you don't worship Me by these images and you don't worship any other God by images either your worship of me this is what Jesus is going to get your worship with me is by spirit and Truth it says not by image worship it's not by by worshiping any other gods these are tied together how we worship in who we worship and then verse 7 the third commandment you shall not take the name of Jehovah your God in vain for Jehovah will not hold to him Guiltless who takes his name in vain again if you're reading your English translation it's going to say the Lord capital L capital O capital r capital D this is the tetragrammaton yodehave this is the name that God revealed himself to Moses I am who I am this is a god of creation who stands alone eternal who always was and is and will be and it is that God who his name shall not be used lightly now the Jewish people they took this name and they wanted to use it and or they wanted to so reference this name that they even stopped using it if you if you went to a a Jewish school today you wouldn't even say Jehovah or you wouldn't say Yahweh instead you would just say Hashem the name and if you were to to be writing this verse on on a whiteboard you could erase every other word but wherever it's it said the name of the Lord you would just put a little placard Hashem there instead talking about he's not talking about not using his name at all using an irreverent way using it in a false way using it in a way that minimizes him trivializes him or does dishonor to him he says I will be holy and I will be reverenced by you and my name carries weight so don't throw my white my name around foolishly or irreverently and then verse 8. the eighth commandment remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy six days you shall labor and do all your work but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord your God in it you shall not or you shall do no work you nor your sons nor your daughter nor your male servant nor your female servant nor your cattle nor your stranger who is within your gates for in six days the Lord made the heavens and the Earth the sea and all that is in them and rested the seventh day therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and hallowed it but God tells them there's a creation ordinance right the the command first is you shall honor the Sabbath day right you shall sanctify it you shall keep it there shall be a holy rest the seventh day and then there's a reason annexed to it the reason annexed to it is because he created it right the Sabbath didn't come about in the fourth Commandment the Sabbath came about at creation in its scene we've gotten hint of it throughout the Book of Genesis and now it's codified in Deuteronomy chapter 5 where these ten words are repeated what we're going to find in there is that God says this is specifically going to be a day that you remember because I redeemed you the Sabbath and the remembering of his Redemptive Covenant mercies are tied together so he says this is for everyone it's not just for you not a day that you can rest and everybody else has to serve you no no even your servants they get the day off oh and your cattle your oxen yeah they don't have to work either no Beast of burdens working neither male servant nor your female servant everything gets the day off take a rest remember who I am remember what I've done for you and then there's a hinge here in verse 12 the fifth commandment this ties to the first four and now it goes to the last six but notice what those first four were about those first four were about our obligations our duty our love shown to God now the Commandments turn toward our duties obligations our love towards our neighbors verse 12 the fifth commandment honor your father and your mother that your days may be long may be long upon the land which the Lord your God is giving you honor your father and your mother right this is this idea that there is a hierarchy in society and that children are to honor those who are above them and this principle is seen elsewhere in Scripture that it applies to those who are in authority over us I love the Westminster larger catechism when it comes to these Commandments and talks about the duties of inferiors disappears and superiors to inferiors and and uh you know equals to equals and all sorts of what what does this require of us and it will go through I'd encourage you sometime if you ever want to pick up the Westminster larger catechism or the Shorter Catechism but especially the larger catechism on what is forbidden in these Commandments and what is required in these Commandments and it uses nothing but scripture to go through and give practical applications for these it's really really helpful but here it's there's this is the first commandment with a promise so that your days may be long upon the land which the Lord your God has given you God wants his people to prosper and he knows that at the core of that prosperity is going to be a functioning family where children obey their parents and parents lovingly care for their children and then verse 13 the sixth commandment you shall not murder you're using the King James you might find that and it says you shall not kill it's not actually you shall not kill this is the taking of innocent life this is not somehow you know making us into pacifists or against capital punishment or you know we have to turn vegan or something like that that's not what this is getting at this is getting at The Taking of innocent life God himself is the one who commands all the way back in Genesis I think is six or nine we had looked at if I'm by if somebody kills another man by man's he should be killed right there God's the one who instituted this so once again we're gonna see that God is the one who's going to tell them to go to war with certain people it's just happened before when Joshua was commanding the Army as God's people against the amalekites this isn't saying that war isn't going to happen or capital punishment doesn't need to be meted out but it's saying the taking of innocent life though is evil so we ought to preserve life we ought to care for people we ought to love them we ought not to take innocent life well then we have the seventh commandment you shall not commit adultery right there ought to be marital fidelity and this applies notice it doesn't say you shall not commit adultery against your husband or you shall not commit adultery against your wife this is that God places a hedge around marriage he's done it with children and now he's doing it with the with husbands and wives and he's saying this is how a well-functioning ordering Society of mine is to operate when husbands love their wives and when wives love their husbands when they are in in Covenant with one another and they're not going outside that marriage bond they're not sharing their bodies with another but what God has brought together let no man tear us under this is this one flesh Union between a husband and a wife that God says do not violate that and then the eighth commandment you shall not steal right there are so many people who are so tempted to just throw this out the window there's all there's a whole Myriad of different ways in which people steal but a functioning Society does not work well when people are able to steal and so God is the one who institutes property rights he is the one who says it's okay to have your stuff it's okay to have a right to your own things but it's not okay to take other people's it's not okay to Rob other people of what they need and so we ought to be those who are both preserving our own estate but also promoting our neighbors right we want we want other people to prosper we want other people to do well and to be selfish and steal other people's things as evil and then the ninth testimony the ninth law this is a really important one in verse 16. you shall not bear false witness against your neighbor right when the functioning Society can't exist if there are people lying in courts of law if people are opening their mouth with untruth right we ought to be those who are promoting preserving the truth we ought to be those as God's people who love the truth stand up for the truth and even though it might cost us even in courts of law we show our love for the neighbor for our neighbor in speaking the truth and then verse 17 the 10th foundational law for God's people you shall not covet your neighbor's house you shall not covet your neighbor's wife nor his male servant nor his female servant nor his Ox nor his donkey nor anything that is your neighbors right the Lord doesn't want us to be so about this world that we would seek after other people's stuff zealous jealous for other people's things but that we would walk before him now we've read through all of this I don't think I actually want you to underline what do you think is the best verse you can because that's almost like choosing which foundational law is most important maybe it's the first commandment right you shall have no other gods before me and then everything else flows from here but this is rooted in God's gracious love for these people we often want to see The Ten Commandments as this this re-establishment of the Covenant of works right they have to keep every single one of these laws perfectly or else God's not going to love them no all right this is this is foundational morality but it's based it's rooted in God's love for them he has redeemed them he has purchased them he has loved them and now he's telling them this is how you will succeed this is how you will prosper this is how you will show your love for me and your love for your neighbor none of them are going to be able to keep this perfectly though you can't keep these laws perfectly I can't keep these laws perfectly but we sin daily and thought word indeed Jesus Christ would keep every one of these perfectly these show us the character of God these show us what God loves and what God is like and they show us pardon me and they show us how we are to walk before him as redeemed people we're freed from the curse of the law by Jesus Christ but we're also given his spirit that these things might continue if you don't think these continue I'd encourage you to go pick up the book of Ephesians where you'll see many of these laws are still applicable for us today the law of Christ still exists right let him who steal still no longer but labor with his hands that he might be able to give to those who are in need I put off lying put off adultery put off but but instead put on purity you know container or control your own vessel right you could you can go through these and you can find them all over the place in the New Testament how do we love God and how do we love our neighbor but it's rooted and who God is what he has done in Redemption and for us Christians today we are called to live lives of holiness as we abide in Jesus Christ as we find our life in him we repent of sins and we find fruitfulness by the power of the Holy Spirit let's pray father we pray that we would indeed abide in Jesus Christ that we would not go to legalism trying to think that if somehow we kept all these Commandments perfectly that we would be saved my Lord knowing that each and every one of us will fail each and every one of these Commandments but that you have given us a king a redeemer and that he is the one who has taken the curse of the law but you but you have given us your spirit to teach us what is right father please help us to walk in your ways to live our lives motivated by your grace and your loyal love in Jesus name amen well may the Lord bless you may you walk in the joy and peace of Jesus Christ and I'll see you next time bye thanks for listening to this week's message from God's word for you a Ministry of Sharon RP Church in rural Southeast Iowa we pray that the message would be used by God to transform your faith in your life this week if you'd like to get more information about us feel free to go to the website Sharon rpc.org we'd love to invite you to worship with us our worship time is 10 a.m every Sunday at 25204 160th Avenue Morning Sun Iowa 52640 may God richly bless you this week [Music] thank you