Exdous 20:1-3 The Villian of Shared Glory

Introduction:

This morning we begin a series that will take us up to Advent as we look at each of the 10 Commandments. This list of 10 can be an awful taskmaster if we do not view it rightly.

These were never written as an entrance exam into Heaven! They are not even a measurement to establish if a person is good or not, because according to this list NONE are good. It is an impossible list to accomplish, but it IS a set of goals to which a follower of God should aspire.

If it is not a checklist for eternal life, why was it given? It was given to help a people remember and teach who God is.

Before we study the commandments we need to know the commander.

Exodus 19 describes all the goodness (the Grace) God had chosen to bestow upon the descendants of Abraham. He had already delivered them from Egypt, from Pharoah, and from slavery. God knew how easy it is for us to long for “the good old days” and slip into old habits. Because He had chosen them, because He had delivered them, He wanted an exclusive relationship and He wanted them to treat Him and one another consistent with His good character.

In essence, it is like a couple returning from their honeymoon and having a discussion—because we have made a covenant together, because we have chosen each other, because we have become one flesh, because our lifelong journey has begun, now let us set up our home with clear expectations of each other. [yes, setting up how to live together can be done AFTER a wedding, after a covenant is in place].

Values come from somewhere, and the first thing to grasp about the Ten Commandments is that they reflect the character of God. Secularists object that these commandments are specifically tied to the God of the Bible. And of course they are absolutely right. A different god would have given different commandments.

The God you worship will shape the values you hold, and the values you hold will shape the choices that you make.

When the God of the Bible doesn't fit with where people want to go, it's no surprise that the search is on in America for new gods who will reflect our choices. This attempted reshaping of God is not new. It goes all the way back to the garden of Eden. When Satan tempted the first man and woman. cite Colin’s book.

The 10 Greatest Struggles of Your Life 1. Your Struggle with God

God had told the first man and woman not to touch the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. But Satan wanted them to make a different choice. His goal was to change how they behaved. His strategy was to undermine what they believed. "Did God really say that you could not eat from the tree?" he asked. (See

Adam and Eve's first struggle was their struggle with God. They wanted to take God's place, and although the first commandment had not been written at that time, it describes the greatest struggle not only of our first parents, but for all their descendants. Who calls the shots?

TRANSITION: Why should we listen to this God? I will give you 2 reasons

God is God (Exodus 20:1-2a)

Exodus 20:1–2a ESV:2016

And God spoke all these words, saying, “I am the Lord your God...

God has a name

God introduced Himself to Moses at Mount Sinai when He spoke from the burning bush and commissioned Moses to speak to Pharaoh.

Moses wanted to know God's name. That wasn't surprising. Egypt had its own gods, and if Moses said that God had sent him, Pharaoh would want to know which "god" he was talking about.

So God said to Moses, "I AM WHO I AM" (Exodus 3:14). In the original Hebrew, this was just one word, with the letters YHWH. It's hard to be certain about how this was pronounced, because the Hebrew text of the Old Testament was preserved without vowels.

With so many of the speakers of Hebrew migrating through Germanic countries, there is confusion regarding V and W - just ask a German how to pronounce Volkswagen or Edelweiss

4. This is the name by which God made Himself known to His own people. Whenever it is used in the Old Testament, it is translated as LORD with capital letters, and it is surely significant that when Moses brought the newly liberated slaves to Sinai, God used this special name to introduce Himself: "I am Yahweh, (the LORD) your God."

When we get to the 3rd command we will be warned about treating God’s name too casually. Instead of running the risk of saying it casually, the practice developed of never even saying the name, but using the substitute LORD. As a reminder the name adonai was often written above the YHWH.

If you add vowels from Adonai to YHWH, you could get "YeHoWaH" or in its anglicized form, Jehovah, though most scholars today think that the name should be pronounced "YaHWeH."

5. Literally translated, God was saying "I am 'the I AM,' your God." He was saying, "I've got a name. I am not like a lump of clay that you can mold to your own liking. I am who I am. I am your God, and I am inviting you into a personal relationship with Me." The God of the Bible is who He is. That means He is not whoever you want Him to be.

6. He is the Creator and the sustainer of all things. He is the unchanging, self-existent God, and that means that He depends on nobody. God depends on no one.

7. He exists in the power of His own eternal life. He is God whether we believe in Him or not. Some folks love Him, others hate Him, but none of us can avoid Him. He is who He is. So to make Him your God is to come in line with reality. To resist Him is utter folly.

8. God's name sets Him apart from all other gods. They were inventions of human history, the products of cultures that sustained them. But Yahweh is who He is. He always has been and He always will be. He was not created by our words. He created us by His Word, and that is why it is entirely right for Him to say, "You shall have no other gods before Me."

A second book that is often consulted by others in my preaching cohort says...

The 10 Commandments: What They Mean, Why They Matter, and Why We Should Obey Them Chapter 1: God and God Alone

It’s possible to be full of sincere worship and worship the wrong God. That’s the reason for the first commandment

TRANSITION: The first reason we should listen to God is because He is God, the second reason is also found in today’s text

God is Good (Exodus 20:2)

Exodus 20:2 ESV:2016

“I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery.

God could have appealed to us based upon His authority

God could have laid out the Ten Commandments on the authoritative basis of His own divine power. Given who He is, He might have said, "I am your Creator. I made the universe. I have more power than a million nuclear bombs, and so you had better knuckle under and do what I say."

God chose to appeal to us based upon relationship

But God does not make His appeal to His people on the basis of raw power, like a dictator. Instead, He says, "I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery".

The 10 Greatest Struggles of Your Life 1. Your Struggle with God

2. You will never be ready to embrace God fully until you are convinced that He is good. You may comply with raw power, but you will never love raw power. That's why it is so significant that God invites you into a relationship of love.

3. Many people have the idea that the Ten Commandments are the talk of an authoritarian deity who, like a terrorist, is intent on imposing his unattractive will on others. Those who believe this will do everything in their power to get as far away from God as possible.

4. But Moses and the Israelites knew better. They had experienced the grace of God in their extraordinary escape from slavery, and so they did not hear God's commands as the imposition of an authoritarian deity. They heard the commandments as the intimate talk of a lover who has given everything to win the affection of the loved one, and now embraces her, saying, "You are mine."

God chose to reveal Himself to us in flesh (John 6:35; 14:6; 8:58)

We see God’s affection even more clearly in the New Testament where we discover that the "I AM" took flesh and came to us in the person of Jesus. Jesus Christ is Yahweh (the I AM) with us. That is why He said, "I am the bread of life," "I am the way and the truth and the life," and "Before Abraham was born, I am!" (John 6:35; 14:6; 8:58).

The 10 Greatest Struggles of Your Life 1. Your Struggle with God

The same God who spoke the Ten Commandments to Moses speaks to us in Jesus Christ, who has come down to bring us a greater deliverance than God's rescue of His people from their Egyptian holocaust. Christ came into the world to set you free from your slavery of sin, death, and hell.

TRANSITION: Because God is God and God is good…

God invites us to Loving Devotion (Exodus 20:3)

Exodus 20:3 ESV:2016

“You shall have no other gods before me.

Cultivating our Affection for Him

God invites you into a relationship of mutual love and loyalty. That's what the first commandment is all about. You can't begin to follow this command until you are persuaded of the love and mercy of God. But for those who believe, the first commandment seems like a natural response of gratitude to the grace of God in Jesus Christ.

Pursuing a life of loving loyalty to God means cultivating your affection for Him. As with any relationship of genuine love, this involves thinking about Him, appreciating Him, honoring Him, desiring Him, fearing Him, trusting Him, hoping It means giving God more weight in your life than anything else, so that if you face a decision where every inclination of your heart says no and yet to honor God you would have to say yes, you would say yes-because God carries more weight for you than every other inclination of your heart.in Him, delighting in Him, calling upon Him, and giving thanks to Him.

The 10 Greatest Struggles of Your Life 1. Your Struggle with God

It means giving God more weight in your life than anything else, so that if you face a decision where every inclination of your heart says no and yet to honor God you would have to say yes, you would say yes-because God carries more weight for you than every other inclination of your heart.

3. As Christians, we gather for worship because we want to cultivate our affection for God. In any relationship, love needs to be renewed and replenished. My love for my wife is renewed as I spend time with her and savor fresh insights into the wonderful person that she is. Fresh love sustains a marriage and keeps a husband or wife from turning to someone else. In a far greater way, it is your enjoyment of God's love and the renewing of your love for Him that will sustain you in following the first commandment.

Turning from All that Offends Him

Pursuing a life of loving loyalty to Yahweh means turning from all that offends Him. Sins that break the first commandment have one thing in common: They all displace God. When something or someone other than God gains a controlling position in your life, the first commandment is broken, because that position belongs to God alone.

The first commandment looks easy from a distance, but once you get up close, you will see how difficult it is. You may well find yourself saying to God, "I can't even keep the first commandment. I am surrounded by other powers that control my life. I need help!" [as we found the first ring of the beatitudes is this poverty/brokenness of spirit.]

That's a great way to come to Jesus. Following the first commandment is a lifelong struggle, but with the help and presence of God’s Holy Spirit you can begin to pursue it.

Subjecting everything to Him

What is the greatest affection of your life? That is your God.

It's rather like the marriage service: God invites you to take Him as your God for better, for worse; for richer, for poorer; in sickness and in health, forsaking all others, and keeping only to Him until death brings you into His presence. Indeed, if you can't make this kind of unconditional commitment to God, how can you hope to make such a commitment to someone else?

Our challenge is to embrace God exclusively & unconditionally

The first commandment leaves no room for an "if," "but," or "when," because as soon as you say "if," "but," or "when," you have put something else in the place of God and thereby broken the first commandment.

If you say yes to God but then add, "if you give me my health," or "if you bless my family," or "if you solve this problem," then you are putting your health, God's blessing on your family, or the resolution of a problem in the place of God.

Conclusion:

The first commandment is our greatest struggle because we always want to set conditions. We want to use God instead of letting Him be God. But as soon as you try to use God, you have taken Him off the throne of your life and put whatever use you have for Him there instead.

When Jesus said, "Follow Me," His disciples did not know where He would lead them, and you can't know that either. Making Christ Lord of your life could get you into some tough situations. The nine commandments that follow describe the life God is calling you to lead. Every one of them will be a struggle. But God is calling you to take a step of commitment based on trust, because you know that He is God and that He is good.