Last week we said that God Himself spoke the ten commandments to the nation of Israel. It’s interesting to me that He didn’t give them to all the people on earth. Only His people were expected to live according to His laws. Why do we expect unsaved people to act saved and live according to God’s instructions? Why are we shocked and offended that they don’t want the 10 commandments posted in a courtroom? Are you shocked and offended that the people in India don’t follow the rules of our traffic system? Have you ever seen video of how they drive over there? It’s chaos and a “me first” rule applies to every vehicle. That’s the way the world’s laws operate. As God’s people, we are supposed to live according to His instruction, for our protection and safety. But you may be thinking: That is old testament law stuff and I’m a new testament covenant christian, so the law does not apply to me these days. To that attitude I have two responses. The first one I mentioned last week. Which of these ten commandments if you don’t follow will make your life better? If you can’t bring yourself to follow the ten commandments, which one do you want to break first? And if it’s so harmless, I’d suggest you break it publicly so everyone can witness it. The second thing I’ll say about it, is this. Did you realize that all ten of the commandments are specifically repeated in the new testament, except one. And that one actually is repeated within a new covenant context. So if you want to ignore the old testament you do so at your own risk, but I don’t recommend it.
Exodus 20:1 “And God spoke all these words, saying,” God is speaking directly to His people from a mountain that He has descended on with earthquakes, fire, smoke, thunder and lighting. Scripture says that they heard His voice, but did not see His form. And it scared them so much they thought they would die. That was the atmosphere at the base of the mountain where Israel had come to meet with God. They saw who He was. Now that you have a better understanding of who He is, let’s look at His commandments. Today we will cover the first four. Exodus 20:2 “I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery.” To start His top 10 list God reminds Israel who He is, The Lord God. And what He has just done for them. It had only been two months since they were slaves in Egypt. They had just been worshiping a golden calf. It was an idol made to represent an Egyptian god, so God starts His instruction like this: Commandment #1 Exodus 20:3 “You shall have no other gods before me.” Remember last week when we talked about how Israel wanted to go right back to worshiping the gods of Egypt after God brought them out of slavery? The Lord God brought them out of Egypt specifically to worship Him and to set them apart from the other nations as His treasured possession.
Today, you may be tempted to think that the ancient people were just stupid and their idols and gods were just a figment of their imagination. But look again at what God says about them. He says, they shall have no other gods before Him. Is God saying He should be above figments of their imagination? What about the verse from Exodus that tells us why God sent the plagues? Exodus 12:12 “For I will pass through the land of Egypt that night, and I will strike all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, both man and beast; and on all the gods of Egypt I will execute judgments: I am the Lord.” Is God saying that He executed judgments on figments of their imagination? God has made it clear in scripture that the lesser spiritual beings that He created were being worshiped as gods, and they were accepting that worship. As a matter of fact, God Himself called them gods, but He is far above them in every way. Psalm 82:6-7 “6 I said, “You are gods, sons of the Most High, all of you; 7 nevertheless, like men you shall die, and fall like any prince.” Accepting worship from men, was why they would now die. This is what was going on with the great flood of Noah’s day, and at the tower of Babel when God scattered the nations. With the very first of His ten commandments, God has separated Himself from all the beings He has created. THAT’S HOW SERIOUS HE TAKES THIS. Here are the new testament references to the first commandment. 1 Corinthians 8:6 “6 yet for us there is one God, the Father, from whom are all things and for whom we exist, and one
Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom are all things and through whom we exist.” 1 Timothy 2:5 “5 For there is one God, and there is one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus,” There is only one true God that we are to worship. The other spiritual beings that He created are not to be worshiped or to accept the worship of men. But it’s not just other spiritual beings that we are in danger of worshiping these days. I’d like for you to consider this next question seriously. Even after your surrender to King Jesus...Are you still worshiping the “gods” of your past? What altar do you worship at today? The altar of yourself? Your career? Your bank account? Your spouse? Your kids? Your grandkids? If any of these things or people are separating you from your commitment to God, you have to ask yourself, why do you allow them to have a higher priority than God. Are you bowing at the altar of their wants? Here’s the test: Figure out who the person is you’re not willing to offend over your relationship with God...bingo! Congratulations, you have just identified your god...the one you really serve. You may say, “I just want to show them how much I love and support them.” Correct, you are not only showing them, you are showing everyone else, including God. You are teaching them that their feelings are higher in your list of priorities than God is. If you have prioritized your kids hobbies over God, what are you teaching them? What will happen when they get tired of that hobby and decide to do something else, on Sunday?
If mom and dad don’t think church is important enough to prioritize, then neither do I. When they have kids of their own, how do you think they will raise them? That’s how in just a couple of generations a family can turn from worshiping God. This is a common practice, and yet after we have broken the very first commandment, and taught our kids to do the same...we are so confused as to why our kids lives have gone off the rails and this current woke generation is rejecting God so hard. Have you truly turned from worshiping other gods in your life or are you still doing that? Is God your first priority? Or do you just say He is first...until you have something better to do? Commandment #2 Exodus 20:4-6 “4 You shall not make for yourself a carved image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth. 5 You shall not bow down to them or serve them, for I the Lord your God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and the fourth generation of those who hate me, 6 but showing steadfast love to thousands of those who love me and keep my commandments.” Why do you think that idols are such a big deal? God made the prohibition of them the second on His list of commandments? In the ancient world the nations that did not serve Yahweh, the One true God, used idols to represent their gods....and that was all of the nations except Israel. Here is how they did it.
They would carve an image of something that represented the god and then held a ceremony called a “mouth opening” ceremony. That was used to allow the spirit of the god to enter the idol, so the god had a place to dwell on the earth. In the earth realm, the realm of the physical, a spirit is not legal and has no authority. Remember who God gave the dominion of earth to...man. A physical man has the authority in the physical earth. So how does a spirit get their work done? They need a body. So the ancient people made a carved or molded image as a place for the god to dwell. In this way they could bring sacrifices to it. The idol was made in the image of the god. Now they didn’t believe that the piece of wood or gold was actually the god, they believed the god indwelled it. So if the idol were captured or destroyed in battle the god was not killed. He just needed another house to live in on the earth. Now where would they get an idea like this? And why was God so against this practice that He made it His second commandment to Israel? It’s because it was a distortion of what God wanted. God didn’t want lesser spiritual beings indwelling lifeless idols on the earth. God already made something to serve that purpose...they are called people. We are made in His image and have His Holy Spirit living in us so we can be His dwelling place on the earth. The carved idols in the ancient world were a cheap imitation of what God actually wanted and He didn’t want Israel continuing in that tradition. God wants to put His Holy Spirit in you, and by that indwelling, His will can be done throughout the earth. His desire is for us to voluntarily surrender to His will.
1 Corinthians 6:19-20 “19 Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own, 20 for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body.” We see this commandment again in the new testament. 1 John 5:21 “21 Little children, keep yourselves from idols.” Commandment #3 Exodus 20:7 “7 You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain, for the Lord will not hold him guiltless who takes his name in vain.” God places an extremely high level of importance on His name. God’s nature and attributes, the totality of His being, and His glory are reflected in His name Psalm 8:1 “O Lord, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth! You have set your glory above the heavens.” Psalm 111:9 “He sent redemption to his people; he has commanded his covenant forever. Holy and awesome is his name!” How does the Lord’s Prayer begin? Matthew 6:9 “9 Pray then like this: “Our Father in heaven,hallowed be your name.”
There are many more verses that tell us how God feels about His name. So we should examine this commandment a little further. What does it mean to take His name in vain? I can tell you this right off the bat, it’s not cussing. I know you grew up being taught that this is what it means, and so was I. But this idea comes from a lack of understanding of the original intent and meaning in Hebrew. If we don’t understand what God intended with this commandment, how can we possibly follow it? It all boils down to the Hebrew word that has been translated “take” in English. Now the translation isn’t wrong, but our understanding of it is wrong. The word take does not mean speak. Let me ask you this; When have you ever used the word “take” to mean “speak?” It’s not a correct use of the modern English word. And it’s also not a correct use of the ancient Hebrew word. The Hebrew word is Nasa and it means “to lift, bear up, carry, take.” Nowhere is the idea of speaking used to define this word. The easiest way for us to understand it is to equate it to what happens when a man and woman get married. She does something with his name. What is that? She takes it. And what does that encompass? She is now the bearer of that name and as such she has the responsibility to represent that name well. If she does not take seriously her commitment to that new name, but continues to live as though she were single...she has taken her husbands name “in vain.” The new testament describes us as the bride of Christ. In other words...we have taken on His name.
Ephesians 5:25-27 “25 Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her, 26 that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, 27 so that he might present the church to himself in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish.” Here is the new testament verse that supports the old testament commandment. 1 Timothy 6:1 “Let all who are under a yoke as bondservants regard their own masters as worthy of all honor, so that the name of God and the teaching may not be reviled.” What does your life look like? Are you still living as though you are spiritually single? Are you doing that? Did you take on the name of Christ? Do you call yourself a Christian? Have you taken on the responsibility to represent His name in the earth...the way He wants it represented? Did you just think, well I don’t cuss...much, so I’m all good with the third commandment? If your life does not reflect a new commitment to being married to Christ, then you have, and are, taking His name in vain. That is what the third commandment is all about and you should evaluate your lifestyle accordingly. Are you seeing a pattern emerge here? Do you see the connection between the first three commandments? Commandment #4
Exodus 20:8-11 “Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. 9 Six days you shall labor, and do all your work, 10 but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord your God. On it you shall not do any work, you, or your son, or your daughter, your male servant, or your female servant, or your livestock, or the sojourner who is within your gates. 11 For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested on the seventh day. Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy.” There are many references to the Sabbath day in the New Testament, including the assumption that Jews under the law in the time of Christ would be observing the Sabbath. But there is no direct or indirect command for believers in the church age to observe the Sabbath as a day of rest or of worship. Colossians 2:16 “16 Therefore let no one pass judgment on you in questions of food and drink, or with regard to a festival or a new moon or a Sabbath.” We are no longer under this law according to the new testament. Now I’m not saying that you shouldn’t take a day off for physical rest. That is still a necessary thing. But according to the new testament, Jesus has become our rest in the new covenant. Hebrews 4:1 “Therefore, while the promise of entering his rest still stands, let us fear lest any of you should seem to have failed to reach it.” Hebrews 4:9-11 “So then, there remains a Sabbath rest for the people of God, 10 for whoever has entered God's rest has also rested from his works as God did from his. 11 Let us therefore strive to enter that rest, so that no one may fall by the same sort of disobedience.
Have you entered His rest? It’s a rest that allows for peace, joy, happiness and the other fruits of the Spirit. It’s a true rest from all the worry that weighs us down in this life. It’s a rest that only Jesus offers, and He is offering it right now. All you have to do is accept it.
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