Perfectly Consistent - Part Two

The Lord is perfectly consistent in what He requires

Those of you who are teachers or preachers will understand this.

Have you ever taught something and you know you were teaching it well, but you kept thinking you were missing something?

You know, that little nag that says you just haven’t looked under the right bush yet.

I’ve preached the 10 commandments a whole bunch of times over my ministry

But this time - starting with last week’s message and prepping for this week

That little nag wouldn’t let go.

I’ve puzzled over it, and I’ve puzzled over it and I finally think I see it.

So today’s message will probably not feel like the part two of last week’s message.

Sorry about that.

But what the Lord led me to is this: We always look at the 10 commandments from a very granular level.

What does each commandment say to do?

I went so far as to check the pronouns - When the Lord says, “You shall not...” who is the you?

Well, the “you” is a second person singular pronoun - he’s talking to you individually.

Why?

Why not second person plural - all of you?

And that’s when it hit me - we’re looking too close this time.

Nothing wrong with close - but to find what’s missing this time - we’ve got to zoom out to 60,000 feet and ask that question

Why?

Why is God doing this?

What is He seeking to accomplish.

Our text is Exodus 20 so please go ahead and turn to that page in your Bible.

For this to be part two we should start with verse 7 - but we’re not - we’ll read 1 - 17.

Kids, last week I asked you to get with your parents to help you start memorizing the 10 commandments.

And I know school started back and you have a million things to do.

Please, do a million and one - work on committing to memory the 10 commandments.

These are God’s commands and they will never change

So you need to know them.

There are 10 commandment bookmarks in your bag and extras on the Kids Cart.

It’s your bookmark now, so take it home and get to work.

The three words you are listening for on you worship guide today are people, commandments and Yahweh.

Let us all hear now, the Word of the Lord from Exodus 20:1-17

Exodus 20:1–17 ESV

And God spoke all these words, saying, “I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery. “You shall have no other gods before me. “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. 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, but showing steadfast love to thousands of those who love me and keep my commandments. “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. “Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days you shall labor, and do all your work, 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. 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. “Honor your father and your mother, that your days may be long in the land that the Lord your God is giving you. “You shall not murder. “You shall not commit adultery. “You shall not steal. “You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor. “You shall not covet your neighbor’s house; you shall not covet your neighbor’s wife, or his male servant, or his female servant, or his ox, or his donkey, or anything that is your neighbor’s.”

This is the word of the Lord.

Thanks be to God.

Let’s ask the Holy Spirit’s to help us today.

Dear Holy Spirit, You guide us to all truth and You cause us to see Jesus.

Please awaken the hearts and minds of your people so we can see you so our hearts will be filled with joy.

Thank you for hearing our prayers.

Amen

OK, the 10 commandments from 60,000 feet.

What is God’s purpose - what is He trying to do?

A good place to see that is in God’s promise to Abraham.

In Genesis 12:1–2 the Lord made a promise to Abraham - “Now the Lord said to Abram, “Go from your country and your kindred and your father’s house to the land that I will show you. And I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing.”

And while God’s promise was to Abraham, it was way bigger than Abraham.

In verse Genesis 12:3 God says to Abraham - “I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonors you I will curse, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.””

And we know that phrase, “all the families of the earth shall be blessed” is referring to Jesus.

It was a long, long time ago - as much as 2,200 years before Jesus came, that Yahweh made that promise.

We know all of that - and that answers a lot - but let’s make what Yahweh is doing abundantly clear.

1 Samuel 12:22 answers the why;

1 Samuel 12:22 ESV

For the Lord will not forsake his people, for his great name’s sake, because it has pleased the Lord to make you a people for himself.

The Lord is making a people for Himself.

A people who will eventually inhabit the new heaven and the new earth

A people who will love Him and enjoy Him forever.

Now here’s how He’s going about it.

First it was Abraham.

Then Isaac and Jacob.

Then Joseph.

Then Moses.

Now listen - with Moses, Yahweh rescues a people

A single people from all of the people groups of the entire globe

Yahweh chooses them to love.

He selects them for whatever reason - He chooses them to love.

He chooses them to be a people for himself.

OK, so He’s chosen.

Now He sets about to prove to them how He is the one true creator God.

While they were weak and in bondage in Egypt, Yahweh set them free.

He proved that the Egyptian gods were no match for Him.

He will prove time and again that other gods are no gods at all.

Yahweh, and Yahweh alone is the one true and living God.

And Yahweh chooses to love a particular people.

He then sets about to prove His ability to be God.

He provides them with protection

From the Egyptians and most recently the Amalakites.

They could not defeat either of them, but with Yahweh, they decimated them.

Yahweh provides them with food when there was none - Manna - created obviously out of nothing.

He provides them water from a source never seen before.

He provides them organization and leadership.

Remember when Jethro, Moses’ father in law visits, they essentially set up a nation, states, counties, and cities.

OK, let’s pause here for a second.

Are you starting to hear something that is insanely contemporary?

See, God promised Abraham that “all the nations of the world would be blessed.”

The way God is dealing with Israel coming out of Egypt is the way He will deal with any nation that follows Him.

Any nation - not just Israel.

Including our own.

We are dealing with Truth with a capital “T.”

These are the rules that will govern a nation whose God is the Lord.

I titled these two messages Perfectly Consistent and here’s why - The Law of God will never change.

There is no room for compromise.

The Lord literally is a love it or leave it kind of guy.

It’s black and white.

And as we understand what the Lord is teaching us, the gray starts to fade.

So from 60,000 feet, what do the 10 commandments do?

The 10 commandments establish order - they establish a way to live - based on God’s creation order.

They are addressed to you singular, but they apply to us plural.

They are a part of what God is using to make us a community.

They are the laws given by God that prove our sinfulness to us.

They prove we need a Savior.

They drive us to Jesus.

So that we can be His people.

And at the same time, they guide a society on how to exist as a Godly, blessed and functioning society.

For evidence, all I ask is for you to read any news app anywhere and compare what you read to the 10 commandments.

And tell me which one is healthy for its people.

See how they all fit to create and order society

Not just a righteous person, but a righteous people.

So what is the Law of God stated in the 10 commandments.

Number 1 says to have no other Gods other than Yahweh.

He alone created everything ex nihilo.

In creation order, He is the first, He is the one eternal, pre-existent entity.

There is no thing or no one before Him - there will be no thing or no one after Him.

He is, was and forevermore will be.

When you get in your car that has “In God We Trust” on it’s tag - this is what that means.

When you spend your money that says, “In God We Trust” on it, that’s what that means.

Every thing and every one owe their existence to Yahweh.

It’s not, “What would our lives be like without God.”

It’s, without God there is no life to be like.

Number 2 - No carved image

Simple reason, no man made object can even remotely capture the magnitude and majesty of God.

And this is where I want to caution you.

I’m not seen “The Chosen.”

I know the Lord has used it to draw many people to Him.

However, when you pray, don’t see Jonathan Roumie in your head.

He’s way too cute.

Isaiah 53:2 says about the Messiah “... he had no form or majesty that we should look at him, and no beauty that we should desire him.”

Our desire for the Messiah is not to be predicated on anything except this.

I was lost and now I’m found

I was blind but now I see

And it is all because of the love of God poured out on me through the blood of Jesus Christ.

No images - anything we create diminishes God.

Number 3 - No diminishing the character of God with careless talk.

I would suspect 99% of us are guilty here.

The Lord is not common - His name represents Him - always respect - always respect.

Number 4 - every week - every 7th day, we must recenter ourselves around our Divine Provider and Protector.

Remember Exodus 19 and the Lord reminds Moses over and over, don’t let this people approach the mountain.

And Moses told the Lord, “You’ve told us that already.”

And then the Lord told them again - and we said that’s because we are so fast to forget.

Tell me - I suspect we’ve all done this - how hard is it to get back to coming to church regularly once you stop coming for three weeks?

When we don’t make a concerted effort weekly to remember to “praise God from whom all blessings flow,”

Pretty soon we’re not - because our natural tendency is to stray.

So Yahweh says, every 7 days, come back to the sheep pen.

Every 7 days be reminded to “praise God from whom all blessings flow.”

Now, the first four commandments are about the Lord and they are what establishes our community.

A community is “a group of people having…a particular characteristic in common.”

And what is that characteristic?

We believe in God the Father, Almighty maker of heaven and maker of earth.

And in Jesus Christ, His only begotten Son, Our Lord.

People tell me from time to time that they appreciate that I preach from the Bible week in and week out.

And I reply, without the scripture, I’ve got nothing else to give you.

Without the Lord, there is nothing to hold us together.

Brothers and sisters, forget the Lord at your own peril.

To see what this looks like - to forget the Lord, look out your windows and see our nation as it splinters into fragments.

To elevate the worth of the individual, we took away the first four commandments.

And now what do we have?

Where is the unity and pride for God and country?

The last six commandments establish a Godly society.

We’ve stated repeatedly, that God is a god of order - and here is where is shows brightest.

Number 5, honor your father and your mother.

Do you hear what is being said here?

Who would have ever dreamed in a million years that this could be controversial?

The basic building block of an ordered society is a man and a woman committing before God that they will remain together for life.

The man and the woman will eventually become mom and dad and raise their children.

Dad will always be a biological man.

Mom will always be a biological woman.

There is no confusion and there is no room for anything else.

Since the state issues marriage licenses, they have the right to call whatever they want a marriage

But for it to be a marriage in the eyes of God, it must be a biological man and a biological woman covenanted together for life.

On this Truth, all societies rise and fall.

Number six - is the sanctity of human life - do not murder

In fact, the Lord feels so strongly about the value of those who bear His image that He says those who murder forfeit their right to live.

The death penalty causes a lot of people heartburn, but not Yahweh.

He created us with His image.

No one has a right to mess with His image but Him.

The sanctity of human life is the foundation for law and order.

Number seven - be faithful

If the family is the foundation of society, then there can be nothing allowed to interfere with that foundation.

The only person that belongs in a marriage relationship is the husband and the wife.

This rule absolutely precludes any and every type of sexual aberration.

The marital bond of trust between a man and a woman is a picture of the fidelity of us and God.

It’s that tight - it’s that close - it’s that loyal.

No one or no thing is allowed to intrude.

Number eight - no stealing.

The Lord says you have rights to your property that He has given to you.

Be content with what He has provided.

Number nine - no lying.

This establishes justice.

In Deuteronomy 17:6 we hear

Deuteronomy 17:6 ESV

On the evidence of two witnesses or of three witnesses the one who is to die shall be put to death; a person shall not be put to death on the evidence of one witness.

Justice depends on a truthful society.

In fact, as the rules were given by God, if someone lied to get someone convicted and it was discovered

They one lying would get the same punishment as if they had committed the crime themselves.

If you are someone who has bemoaned the rule of law in America, here’s your culprit.

There is no fear of God.

Therefore people lie to our faces knowing that we know they are lying and they don’t care.

Case in point - Joe Biden.

It was and is obvious that our president is suffering from cognitive decline.

And yet, we are told he is fine - sharp as a tack were the words that were used.

But we knew better - we could see with our own eyes - and yet - lying.

So where is the justice?

Number 10 - no coveting.

Coveting isn’t merely looking at something someone else has and saying, “I wish I had one of those.”

Coveting is seeing it and then craving to possess it.

And craving translations to action and actions based on coveting always end up sinful.

When you are craving what your neighbor has, you are no longer loving your neighbor.

And when you are craving what your neighbor has, you are no longer content with how the Lord is blessing you.

All of these things an individual should strive for - after Yahweh addresses them to you - singular - each of you.

But not to be righteous.

We only get right with the Lord when the law breaks us.

When we realize that our best day is an abomination in God’s sight and we cry out to Him for mercy.

We repent - we beg the Lord to help us turn away from our sinfulness and save us so we can follow Him.

And He leads us to Jesus - and it’s His blood that makes us righteous.

But following Jesus is going to make us look like the 10 commandments.

And anyone who tells you anything different is a liar and a wolf in sheep’s clothing.

This Truth will last until Jesus reigns in the new heaven and the new earth.

Until then, this is it.

4. Living this way means that our very day to day lives are a testament to the honor and glory of God.

We are teaching your children this question, “How can we glorify God?”

And our answer is, “We glorify God by enjoying him, loving him, trusting him, and by obeying his will, commands, and law.”

That’s how we live our best lives.

It’s how our nation is restored.

It’s how God designed life to be lived.

The Law of God will either lead us to Jesus or we will end up broken on it.

All around us we are seeing the carnage of people broken and being broken on the law of God.

Brothers and sisters, we know the truth.

We need to return to the truth.

We’ve got to be convinced enough to help everybody else return to the truth.

Let us pray.