1st Commandment
10 Commandments • Sermon • Submitted • Presented
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03-19-2023
1st Commandment
This morning we will begin our series on the 10 Commandments
Really this came about when I attended a Bi Vocational Pastor mini conference here and we were sharing sermon Ideas
Someone said they had done the 10 commandments
And I thought well yea because that would be 10 weeks of sermons I could do
So here we are
In looking at them it is something that most of us know
But why are they important
If they are from the Old Testament what purpose do they serve
I am so glad you asked
19 Why the Law then? It was added because of transgressions, having been ordained through angels by the agency of a mediator, until the seed would come to whom the promise had been made. 20 Now a mediator is not for one party only; whereas God is only one. 21 Is the Law then contrary to the promises of God? May it never be! For if a law had been given which was able to impart life, then righteousness would indeed have been based on law. 22 But the Scripture has shut up everyone under sin, so that the promise by faith in Jesus Christ might be given to those who believe. 23 But before faith came, we were kept in custody under the law, being shut up to the faith which was later to be revealed. 24 Therefore the Law has become our tutor to lead us to Christ, so that we may be justified by faith.
Paul is talking to the church at Galatia
Paul is such a good apologetics guy here
He is explained the purpose of the Law because in the previous chapter he says that no one is made righteous under the law
And after he said that I would assume people asked him that very question then what is the point of the law
And thus we get Galatians chapter 3
The purpose of the law was to serve as a mediator until the promised one came, that is Jesus
The law was to point people to their need of God
their need for a savior
You don’t know or believe you need a savior till you understand that you have broken the law and are a sinner
That is where the law comes in to point out that we are sinners
But it also points us to God
And so if it points out we are a sinners by attempting to follow it it will also point us to grow in our walks with Jesus if we attempt to follow it.
Jesus also had this to say about the law or the 10 commandments as we know it
35 One of them, a lawyer, asked Him a question, testing Him, 36 “Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?” 37 And He said to him, “ ‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ 38 “This is the great and foremost commandment. 39 “The second is like it, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ 40 “On these two commandments depend the whole Law and the Prophets.”
I think it is interesting that one of them asks the question
We like to think maybe he was trying to catch Jesus on something
It is also likely that he was just trying to position himself as the better person because if Jesus named the number one law then he could focus on following that
Like puffying out his chest
But anyway this guy asks Jesus a question and Jesus’s answer gives us that yest we are to follow those commandments even today
We have heard it before and probably done sermons on these but we know the greatest and the second commands
And Jesus ends with that those 2 sum up the whole law and the prophets message through out the old testament
Jesus knew the law and knew what the Jewish people did in adding to the law
And so He took the law and summed it up with the 2 commands
He says that from these or summed up in these are the whole law and the prophets
As we go through this study you will see how the 10 commandments fit into either one of those commands given by Jesus
We will also see how Jesus took the law and translated it from the physical to a matter of the heart now and thus convicting us all guilty of breaking the law
Showing us that we are in fact a sinner and that we do in fact need a savior
And church that Savior is Jesus
This morning we start with commandment number 1
If you will recall this is part of our verse for the year
1 Then God spoke all these words, saying, 2 “I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery. 3 “You shall have no other gods before Me.
At first glance you and I are to have no other gods before God who is also called Yeawah
So before we get to this lets start at the beginning
God called Abraham to leave his fathers house and promised he would make a great nation through Abraham
Abraham has 2 sons, one of which is the promised son
Issac has 2 sons, Jacob and Esau
Jacob has 12 sons and gets a name change to Israel
Thus the nation of Israel
Jacobs sons sell their brother into slavery because he was favored by his dad
Joseph goes down to Egypt and works his way up to the number 2 person in the county only second to Pharoah himself
Joseph is so favored that his family comes down to Egypt and Pharoah gives the the choice of land
Then there arose in Egypt who didn’t know who Joseph was
The nation of Israel had become so great that Pharoah got scared and thought if they revolt they will win
God saves Moses and calls him to lead His chosen people out of slavery and into the promise land
After about 400 yrs of slavery the nation is all alone in the wilderness
God needs to give them laws, and rules to govern themselves by
These laws would how they would learn to walk with God
The only God
They would go through different areas and encounter different peoples who would try and entice them to run after their own gods
This is the first one God gives them
Its simple yet often so difficult to accomplish
For us it is no different church
We are to have no other gods before
When God gives this law it is so unique that we miss it
In ancient times laws were made and then presented to a god to ensure they were bless so when you broke that law you weren’t offending a god but the people group itself
It is the exact opposite with God Himself, God is the one giving the law, so when you break the law first and foremost it is an offense with God
Which is why David says
“Against You, You only, I have sinned
And done what is evil in Your sight,
So that You are justified when You speak
And blameless when You judge.”
Because it was God who gave us the law
Notice He also attributes a part of His character to the law
He was the God who brought you out of Egypt, it was no one else and so you should not have any other gods before Me.
God is our redeemer and through Him and Him alone we find freedom from sin
3 Or do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus have been baptized into His death? 4 Therefore we have been buried with Him through baptism into death, so that as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life. 5 For if we have become united with Him in the likeness of His death, certainly we shall also be in the likeness of His resurrection, 6 knowing this, that our old self was crucified with Him, in order that our body of sin might be done away with, so that we would no longer be slaves to sin; 7 for he who has died is freed from sin.
It is God who set you and I free from sin
Thus we should have no other gods before Him
There is no freedom from sin found in anyone or anything other than God Himself, just like there was no freedom from Egypt except though God and God alone
So church we should no other Gods before Him
When God gave that command to the people He knew they would have to go through some places that they would be tempted to turn from God and yet He still sets the command
The command still stands even though you and I are still tempted to run from God to other small g gods
So church this morning is a call to flee from the other gods in your life that you have set up
Begin to search the scriptures and see that God is the God creator, that God spoke stars into existence, that He invented dirt out of nothing
As you do that you will see that before than was anything there was God
John 1:1–4 (NASB95)
1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was in the beginning with God. 3 All things came into being through Him, and apart from Him nothing came into being that has come into being. 4 In Him was life, and the life was the Light of men.
God was there before there was a there
Finally church it was so important that this command was repeated several times a day so that they would not forget it
I wonder if you and I need to do the same thing
4 “Hear, O Israel! The Lord is our God, the Lord is one! 5 “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. 6 “These words, which I am commanding you today, shall be on your heart. 7 “You shall teach them diligently to your sons and shall talk of them when you sit in your house and when you walk by the way and when you lie down and when you rise up. 8 “You shall bind them as a sign on your hand and they shall be as frontals on your forehead. 9 “You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates. 10 “Then it shall come about when the Lord your God brings you into the land which He swore to your fathers, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, to give you, great and splendid cities which you did not build, 11 and houses full of all good things which you did not fill, and hewn cisterns which you did not dig, vineyards and olive trees which you did not plant, and you eat and are satisfied, 12 then watch yourself, that you do not forget the Lord who brought you from the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery. 13 “You shall fear only the Lord your God; and you shall worship Him and swear by His name. 14 “You shall not follow other gods, any of the gods of the peoples who surround you, 15 for the Lord your God in the midst of you is a jealous God; otherwise the anger of the Lord your God will be kindled against you, and He will wipe you off the face of the earth.