Exodus II Sermon Week 7 - The True meaning of the Ten Commandments

Intro/Welcome

Every man dies, not every man really lives

Do you want to live?

not like, not be dead

but like, be alive

excited, energetic, enthusiastic

joyful, full of peace, thankful, purposeful

This is what God’s Word means when it says live!

It’s not being “not dead”, it so much more than that.

It’s being alive to God!

It’s being alive to others!

It’s being alive to yourself!

Do you want to live?

Text

We are going to be talking about the ten commandments today.

Do you know why God gave the ten commandments?

because he wants you to live!

to be alive! To have joy! to be jolly!

God gives us the ten commandments because he loves us and wants us to live.

Do away with the Law — secular

God is love — liberal Christians

Jesus upholds the law, he fulfills the law

The question is: How do the TC’s bring us life?

Welcome/Bibles

We’ll be in Exodus 20:1-17

Go there in your Bibles

My name is Justin

Wonderful to be here with you

Welcome online, join us

Let’s pray

Pray

24 days of 150 days of prayer

The Ten Commandments

God gave the ten commandments because he loves us and wants us to live.

Where do I get that?

Deuteronomy 30:19–20 CSB 19 I call heaven and earth as witnesses against you today that I have set before you life and death, blessing and curse. Choose life so that you and your descendants may live, 20 love the Lord your God, obey him, and remain faithful to him. For he is your life, and he will prolong your days as you live in the land the Lord swore to give to your ancestors Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

Deuteronomy 8:1 CSB 1 “Carefully follow every command I am giving you today, so that you may live and increase, and may enter and take possession of the land the Lord swore to your ancestors.

Deuteronomy 10:12–15 CSB 12 “And now, Israel, what does the Lord your God ask of you except to fear the Lord your God by walking in all his ways, to love him, and to worship the Lord your God with all your heart and all your soul? 13 Keep the Lord’s commands and statutes I am giving you today, for your own good. 14 The heavens, indeed the highest heavens, belong to the Lord your God, as does the earth and everything in it. 15 Yet the Lord had his heart set on your ancestors and loved them. He chose their descendants after them—he chose you out of all the peoples, as it is today.

Deuteronomy 7:7–8 ESV 7 It was not because you were more in number than any other people that the Lord set his love (חשׁק longed for you) on you and chose you, for you were the fewest of all peoples, 8 but it is because the Lord loves you (אַהֲבָה 1, has affection for you) and is keeping the oath that he swore to your fathers, that the Lord has brought you out with a mighty hand and redeemed you from the house of slavery, from the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt.

In the TC’s God is putting before us the path to life.

Last week, the people of God were before the Glory of The Lord and these are the words that God spoke to them.

First: The Lord your God

Exodus 20:1-2 CSB 1 Then God spoke all these words: 2 I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the place of slavery.

Where do they start?

Where everything in God’s Word starts, with who God is!

The phrase “Lord your God or Lord” is used numerous times in the first 6 commandments.

Everything follows from this first statement.

Not just in the TC, But in life itself.

If you want to ‘live’ it starts with who you think God is!

Being alive begins with who you think God is

Who is God?

Exod 20:2 CSB I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the place of slavery.

The Lord = yahweh = “I am” — I am the “I am”

the creator, sustainer of all things

the personal God

Your God — the highest most supreme being, “I’m yours”

The God who acted on your behalf

I rescued you out of slavery!

I heard your groans, I came and rescued you!

What does God say first?

I saved you!

That’s important!

You became my people, my special possession

Why? Because I choose to love you! (Deut 7:7-8)

That means everything else he is about to say is not about ‘salvation’

everything flows from that salvation.

From that new relationship as God’s redeemed people.

The TC’s aren’t about being saved, that’s already happened

They are NOT about earning God’s love, he’s already demonstrated that

What are they about?

Everything he’s about to say then is about what it means to ‘live’!

to be alive!

I have saved you, now LIVE abundantly, joyfully!

I’m going to tell you how to do that!

Because I love you.

#1 Have no other God’s / No idols.

What follow from this?

If the LORD is YOUR GOD?

then, have no other God’s in place of him.

Exodus 20:3 CSB 3 Do not have other gods besides me.

In front of me, before me, besides me, against me.

pretty straight forward

If you want to live! to be alive!

God must be 1st in your life!

The most important! The highest priority!

The greatest love!

To be alive is to have God first in your life

When you put God first in your life you will truly live.

Anything else will bring the opposite of life,

namely death and deadness.

#2 - No Idols

What could take the place of God?

Exodus 20:4-6 CSB 4 Do not make an idol for yourself, whether in the shape of anything in the heavens above or on the earth below or in the waters under the earth. 5 Do not bow in worship to them, and do not serve them

Idols?

Did you know they were still carrying the Egyptian household gods (idols) with them?

Ezekiel 20:7 CSB

7 I also said to them, “Throw away, each of you, the abhorrent things that you prize, and do not defile yourselves with the idols of Egypt. I am the Lord your God.”

Little statues of Egyptian gods and goddesses

You would bow down to these idols, so they would give you things

or prevent bad things from happening

This still happens all over the world.

You don’t have idols do you?

Yes you do.

Idols are anything that takes the place of God

Is there anything in your life that takes the place of God?

sports? money? success? relationships?

food? sex? comfort? power?

Personal autonomy! our image!

The land is full of idols.

Idols are set up in our hearts.

Ezekiel 14:3 CSB

3 “Son of man, these men have set up idols in their hearts and have put their sinful stumbling blocks in front of themselves. Should I actually let them inquire of me?

Idols cannot bring you life

They are false gods that offer false promises.

They are everywhere.

they produce death and deadness.

God’s Why

Exodus 20:4-6 CSB for I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God, bringing the consequences of the fathers’ iniquity on the children to the third and fourth generations of those who hate me, 6 but showing faithful love to a thousand generations of those who love me and keep my commands.

I am a jealous God — “zealous”

I am passionate for my people’s well being.

I am passionate for the glory of my name.

I will deal with sin and iniquity of those who hate me

BUT will show faithful love (hesed) to a thousand generations of those who love me and keep my commands (instructions)

Why?

because God wants you to live!

As any good parent knows.

Because God loves you

To live means putting God first and putting nothing before him.

Or you might say — to love God

To 'be alive’ is to Love God

In fact the 1st four commandments are really about Loving God

Do you remember how Jesus summarized the Law?

Matthew 22:35–36 CSB 35 And one of them, an expert in the law, asked a question to test him: 36 “Teacher, which command in the law is the greatest?”

Matthew 22:37–40 CSB 37 He said to him, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. 38 This is the greatest and most important command. 39 The second is like it: Love your neighbor as yourself. 40 All the Law and the Prophets depend on these two commands.”

Jesus teaches that the whole law is summed up in this:

Love God

Love Others

This is exactly what we see in the TC’s

Com. 1-4 are about Loving God

Com. 5-10 are about Loving Others

#3 - Honoring his name

Let’s look at #3

Exodus 20:7 CSB 7 Do not misuse the name of the Lord your God, because the Lord will not leave anyone unpunished who misuses his name.

Also “do not use the Lord’s name in vain”

This means treat his name with reverence and respect.

It also means “don’t do things in the name of the Lord”

that he has not called you to do

or that are clearly against what His word reveals.

This is defaming the name of God

It’s causing others to stumble b/c we have misused the Lord’s Name

This happens all the time and has in history

Prosperity Gospels / False Gospels

The Lord is zealous for the Sanctity of His Name

For His Glory.

So using God’s name rightly brings us life.

Glorying Gods name brings us life

It is apart of Loving God.

To misuse his name brings death & deadness.

#4 — Work and Rest

Exodus 20:8–11 CSB 8 Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy: 9 You are to labor six days and do all your work, 10 but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord your God.

You must not do any work—you, your son or daughter, your male or female servant, your livestock, or the resident alien who is within your city gates. 11 For the Lord made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and everything in them in six days; then he rested on the seventh day. Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and declared it holy.

Loving God means proper work and rest

Enjoying the gift of the sabbath

Also, working hard, working well

Doing meaningful work.

These things bring life.

proper work and rest

Now we know this just from common experience.

We we are not working well it eats at our souls

we feel lifeless, purposeless in our live.

If we are not resting well

we run towards over extension and burnout

Living then flows from proper rhythms of work and rest.

as instituted in creation.

Sabbath is part of the created order

Summary so far

So then to be Alive it means:

To put God first in your life

To turn away from false God’s (Idols)

To use God’s name rightly

To work and rest well.

These things bring you life.

They are summed up by: Love God.

We are in Trouble

Ok, well we are in trouble.

The Israelites don’t get very far following these commandments

and neither do we

We could keep going down the list, but I don’t think we will feel any better.

If we don’t Love God we can’t truly love others.

The rest are about loving others.

God says the problem is love of God.

When we don’t love God with all of our hearts, minds, souls and strength

we experience a kind of death & deadness to Him.

We don’t keep these commands.

Love comes from our hearts

so something is wrong with our hearts?

In fact Commandment #10 shows us this.

Coveting — reveals the Heart

Exodus 20:17 CSB 17 Do not covet your neighbor’s house. Do not covet your neighbor’s wife, his male or female servant, his ox or donkey, or anything that belongs to your neighbor.

What is coveting?

the opposite of contentment

its loving yourself more than others

putting your needs/your desires first.

It’s not like the others:

Do not murder, steal, lie

These are actions, behaviors, things we do.

But Coveting not an action it is an attitude

condition of the heart — a desire

God is speaking even to our desires, perhaps especially to our desires.

For don’t murdering, committing adultery, stealing and lying come from Coveting?

that is come from your heart?

This is exactly what Jesus teaches

Matthew 15:19–20 CSB 19 For from the heart come evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, sexual immoralities, thefts, false testimonies, slander. 20 These are the things that defile a person; but eating with unwashed hands does not defile a person.”

Look right there commandments 6-9

They come from the heart.

They come from a dead heart, a heart that is not alive to God.

Now we are on to something.

The Law shows us something:

The Purpose of the Law

Why does God give us the TC’s?

because he loves us and wants us to live

The Law (the TC’s) reveal our hearts

But if we can’t and don’t keep the law:

So what do we do?

Do we try harder?

Pray more? Read more Bible?

serve more?

Our main problem is not that we don’t keep the Law, it’s that we are unable to keep the law.

We were spiritually dead, we need to be made spiritually alive

We were spiritually dead, and thus unable to love God from our hearts.

God’s purpose in giving the TC’s is to point us to life.

He wants to show us there is no life apart from

Life is found only in God.

Sin produced a spiritually dead hearts

spiritually dead hearts produce more sin

This means we are all in trouble.

Alive in Christ

But God

The law was meant to lead us to something, or rather to someone

Paul says that Christ is the goal of the Law, the purpose of the Law

that is Christ is what the law was pointing us towards.

We need to be rescued, more than that

we need to be resurrected!

Our main problem is not that we don’t keep the Law, it’s that we are unable to keep the law.

We were spiritually dead, we need to be made spiritually alive.

How does this happen?

Faith in Christ

Trusting the person and work of Christ.

In our day, we want to just get rid of God’s Law

Our society says there is not God so there are no laws

Or some Christian’s will say God is love, so the law doesn’t matter

But that’s problematic.

When Jesus came he said

Matthew 5:17–20 CSB 17 “Don’t think that I came to abolish the Law or the Prophets. I did not come to abolish but to fulfill. 18 For truly I tell you, until heaven and earth pass away, not the smallest letter or one stroke of a letter will pass away from the law until all things are accomplished.

Jesus didn’t come to take anything away from the law.

He doesn’t tell people not to keep the law

In fact, he takes the law deeper than just commandments and goes right to the heart.

Murder begins when there is anger in the heart (Matt 5:22)

Adultery begins when there is lust in the heart (Matt 5:28)

Jesus came to fulfill the law

For whom?

That’s the question.

For YOU!

In the TC’s God gives us the path to life, but we don’t take it which creates barriers to God

namely our sin and dead hearts.

Jesus comes to fulfill the TC’s in entirety, perfectly

AND

he dies for Sin, for iniquity

for the consequences of idolatry we read about in the 2nd commandment

He pays the price, death.

BUT

He conquers sin and death

and Rises, he resurrects.

When we put our faith in HIM,

in his completion of the Law in our place

his death for our sin

We will die with him,

But we will also rise with him.

In other words — just as Jesus died and lived again

You and I will live, we will be made alive.

Ephesians 2:5 CSB 5 made us alive with Christ even though we were dead in trespasses. You are saved by grace!

True life then come from Jesus.

John 10:10 CSB ...I have come so that they may have life and have it in abundance.

John 14:19 CSB In a little while the world will no longer see me, but you will see me. Because I live, you will live too.

Galatians 2:20 CSB 20 I have been crucified with Christ, and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.

The New Life in Christ

Ah, now this changes everything!

Now, when we fail to keep the law, we realize that Christ kept the law for us!

There is no condemnation for sin!

We are free!

just as free as the Israelites were.

They were free from the Power and oppression of Pharaoh

You and I are free from the power and oppression of our own Sin

So keeping the law is in some sense irrelevant, becuase Christ kept it for us.

But wait!

something has fundamentally changed about us.

We were dead, now we are alive!

What does this mean?

It means we are alive to God

It means we want to do what God says.

It means we finally LOVE GOD

We love b/c he first loved us.

Now, it is not about ‘keeping the Law”

It’s about fulfilling the Law, b/c Christ fulfilled it for us.

This is the way the NT talks about the Law

Romans 13:9–10 CSB 9 The commandments, Do not commit adultery; do not murder; do not steal; do not covet; and any other commandment, are summed up by this commandment: Love your neighbor as yourself. 10 Love does no wrong to a neighbor. Love, therefore, is the fulfillment of the law.

Love fulfills the Law

Because loving God means we are alive to God

and being alive to God means we love God

Loving God means we do what he says, from a heart of worship.

So then keeping the rest of the commandments is based on this.

We can now love others, because we love God, becuase God first loved us.

The Rest

Exodus 20:12 CSB 12 Honor your father and your mother so that you may have a long life in the land that the Lord your God is giving you.

Exodus 20:13 CSB 13 Do not murder.

Exodus 20:14 CSB 14 Do not commit adultery.

Exodus 20:15 CSB 15 Do not steal.

Exodus 20:16 CSB 16 Do not give false testimony against your neighbor.

But now we fulfill the law not on our own power, but because Christ lives in us.

We call that the Holy Spirit.

So that as Christ promised, he will never leave us or forsake us.

Christ not only fulfills the Law for us

he is fulfilling the law In US

So that we would want to be the kind of people that keep the TC’s

Closing

God gave us the TC’s becuase he loves us and wants us to live.

Are you living?

Are you alive to God?

Or are there parts of your heart that are dead to him.

Come to Him

The first thing you need is to be resurrected with Him.

you need a new heart with new desires.

Then having been saved, now let’s live, really live.

Live with Him

Having been saved:

Do you want to live? to you want to be alive?

do you want joy, peace, wholeness, passion?

Where are you practicing death?

Which of these to you struggle with?

Which do you not ‘want’ to keep?

Action

Confess to God

to God’s people in your life

acknowledge the dead parts of your heart

Repent by faith, by the power of the Holy Spirit

By Christ’s death on the Cross that you are free

By Christ’s life within you that you can live

And be forgiven, healed, be filled by grace

And live!

Do you want to live?

then let Christ live in you!

Let’s Pray

Stand

Pray we would be the kind of people who want to fulfill the law