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Hello, teachers. Ben Jennings here. I am excited to go over session seven with you. We're

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in a study in the book of Exodus chapter number 20, verses one through 17. This is

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session seven, which talks about God's commands. And obviously, this particular lesson covers

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the 10 commandments. And you might be wondering, like, wow, like the 10 commandments, we can

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go through all 10 and just kind of explain each one. That's kind of one way to do this

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particular lesson. Another way is to kind of look at them as a unit. And we'll talk

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about what that looks like in this particular video. So obviously, you can think through

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each one of those commands, and you probably will do that at some level. But there's a

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way of looking at it as an overarching teaching, which I think is a good way to handle it.

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So Exodus chapter 20, this may be some of the most famous verses in the book of Exodus,

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because they cover, like I said, the 10 commandments. So here's the central theme. It's obviously

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God's commands or God's standards. And so our objective statement here is that we can

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understand God's standards for holy living by noting three observations about the order

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of His revealing the 10 commandments. There's kind of an order here to the 10 commandments

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and how He reveals them. And I think that's important to see and for us to emphasize. The

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first thing that God did was He initiated His relationship with mankind, and specifically

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we put mankind here, but He also initiated His relationship with the children of Israel,

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His covenant people. And we see that in verses one and two in Exodus chapter 20. He says,

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And God spoke all these words saying, I am the Lord, your Thy God, which have brought

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thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. And then He says, Thou shalt

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have no other gods before me. I think it's interesting that when God gives the law to

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His people, He gives it to them. Literally, He says here, I am the Lord, your God, I'm

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the Lord of Thy God, which have brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the house

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of bondage. And so I think what's interesting here is that He gives these commandments to

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His people, but it's in the context of relationship with Him. He had already made promises to

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them to Abraham and then to Isaac. Again, He reiterated them to Jacob, and He is keeping

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His covenant promise to Israel. And then throughout this Exodus, I think raising up Moses, giving

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the plagues, taking them through the Red Sea and into the wilderness over and over and

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over again, God is telling them, I'm going to be your God and you are my people and I'm

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going to, you're going to see that I am the Lord, your God. He's relating to them. He's

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communicating to them who He is. And so we see that God gives these commands in the context

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of relationship. They were still accountable for keeping His law regardless of the revelation

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that He gave to them. We know in Romans chapter 1 that the Bible says that our consciences

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and creation show us that there's a God. And that because of that and because we've

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broken the law that we even have in our hearts that we find ourselves condemned before God.

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But God here gives His commands to these people and He does it in the context of relationship

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as He gets more specific with what His will is. He does it in this context of relationship.

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There's an application here too. I think that God puts all of us into families, for instance.

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And so the main people making sure that we understand what's right morally, helping

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us discern right from wrong are our parents as we're going to see even in these commands.

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And God puts us in that home cared for by our parents. They care for us. They love us.

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They provide for us. They protect us. And then they give us right and wrong and they

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teach us and they hold us accountable for that. Again, that's part of God's way. He

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gives us a relationship and then He provides the commands within that. So we see that God

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initiated His relationship with mankind. And then number two, then there's this next step

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where He says, number two, God demands a right relationship with Himself. He gives us boundaries

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in and around our relationship with Him. And that's what you see in the first four commands

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of the Ten Commandments. I'm the Lord of God, which I brought the out of the land of Egypt

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of the house of bondage. That shout have no other gods before me. So He says, don't put

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anything ahead of me. You're not going to have any other gods. You'll have no other

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gods. And before me is, I don't think it's not just a prioritization. It's also, I can

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see everything you're doing. I know who you are. I see you and you have no, don't have

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any other gods. There's no other God that you're allowed to have. I am your God. There

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is no other. That's the idea. Number two, that shout, and I make it into any graven

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image or any lightness of anything that is in heaven above or that is an earth beneath

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or that is under the water, under the earth, that I should not bow down, down thyself to

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them or serve them. For I, the Lord, thy God, and my jealous God, visiting the iniquity

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of the fathers upon the children to the third and fourth generation of them that hate me

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and showing mercy on thousands of them that love me and keep my commandments. So here

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he says, don't think, don't make anything that you worship, no idols. Don't try to make

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anything that looks like me is another part of this command is inferred in this command.

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So the idea is you don't make any graven image either trying to make it look like God or

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trying to worship any other thing. The Lord God, Jehovah, the invisible God who's manifested

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himself in the cloud and in the fire. This particular, there is no other God before him

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and you won't worship anything like that. Then you have verse seven talking about his

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name. That shout, not take thy name of the Lord, thy God in vain. For the Lord will not

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hold him, get us to take his name in vain. So God's name is important to him when we

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use God's name in such a way as to attribute to him something that he did not do to use

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it frivolously, to, to, to use it to attribute it to something he's not a part of is to take

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his name in vain. And so he says, you can think about like nothing before me, don't mess

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with, don't make anything that looks like me. Don't worship anything other than me.

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That shout, don't mess with my name. And then number four, remember the Sabbath day to keep

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it holy. So don't mess with my day. You know, there's the, the Sabbath arrest. God worked

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in creation six days and on the seventh day he rested. And so he's telling them, Hey,

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remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy. Again, it's man's relationship to God. All

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four of these relate about how man relates to God. Don't mess, nothing before him. No

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graven image. No, don't take his name in vain and remember his day. God's relationship

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to man. And then he says it connects that Sabbath day verse 10, seventh day is the Sabbath

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of the Lord, that God that shall do not. And he worked out down nor thy son, nor thy daughter,

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thy manservant, nor thy maid servant, nor that cattle, nor the stranger that's within

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the gates for in six days, the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea and all that in the midst

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and rested the seventh day were for the Lord. Bless the Sabbath day and hallowed it. He,

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he set it aside. He made it holy. And so this is our relationship to God. And this is what

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God commands. Then we lead that leads us to this last, this last part of it, this last

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observation about the order of his revealing. He established a relationship with him. He

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gave him boundaries about his relationship with man and what man should, how man should

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relate to him. Then he gives them this third observation that God demands a right relationship

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with others. There's a vertical relationship between God and man. And then there's a horizontal

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relationship between man and man, man and woman, man and neighbor. And so that really

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is kind of the overview. The truth of the matter is, there's a right prioritization

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in that God comes first, our relationship with him comes first, and our relationship

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with God affects our relationship with others. I think it's interesting too that the first

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command relates to our, our submission to the authority, the first God given authority

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of the family, the parents that is given to every person. And so he says, verse 12, honor

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thy father and the mother that thy days may be long upon the land which the Lord thy God

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giveth thee. Later on, Paul says, honor thy father and mother, which is the first commandment

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with promise. All the commandments that came before don't have a promise. This particular

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commandment says honor your father and mother that that days may be long upon the land which

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the Lord thy God giveth thee. There seems to be an indication that if you follow the

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authority of your parents, that the tendency will be that you have a long life and that

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God will bless you. And so, and I think that's interesting, the relationship, the first relationship

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between father and mother, that first relationship is the human relationship that's most like

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our relationship to God because God's our authority, our parents are our authority.

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God calls himself father. We call our dad's father and our, and our mothers are part of

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that authority. And so that's a foundational thing. The home is a foundational relationship,

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and relationship. And then he goes on and says, thou shalt not kill, thou shalt not commit

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adultery, thou shalt not steal, thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbor,

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thou shalt not cover thy neighbor's house, thou shalt not cover thy neighbor's wife, nor

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his man servant, nor his maid servant, nor his ox, nor his ass, nor anything that is

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thy neighbor's. And so, I think there's interesting even in that, and within those commands, family,

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and neighbor than others. Jesus said, when he was asked what's the greatest commandment,

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love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, and mind, love thy neighbor as I self

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on this, hang all the law and the prophets. And so, you see that, you know, loving God,

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having a right relationship with God, loving others, having a right relationship with others.

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The second is like you do it, you should love your neighbor as yourself. These, this is,

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this is the command. And I think there's a lot of substantiating evidence to say that

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this is a right perspective on all of them. You can go into the details of thou shalt

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not kill, thou shalt not commit adultery, thou shalt not steal, bear false witness.

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Those are all things that you can apply to the people that you're teaching. But I think

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the overarching thing to teach them is to ask how are your relationships? What's your relationship

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with God like? And then what's your relationship like with others? The truth of the matter

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is we cannot keep the law. If we've offended in one point, we have offended at all. And

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so, Jesus had to come to keep the commandments himself and then to take the punishment for

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breaking the commandments that we had done upon him. That's what the cross is. And so,

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when we teach this law, that leads us to needing redemption. And so, as you think through your

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class and think through teaching this lesson in your class, there may be people, we had

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people this last week in our church who came and were in Sunday school, didn't know Christ,

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who got saved this week. It's really cool. But just because they're in church and in

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Sunday school doesn't mean that they know Christ. And so, make sure that as you teach

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this lesson, you teach it in such a way that points to the law and points to God's will

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and then points to the fact that the only way for us to be saved from our breaking the

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laws through Jesus, and then he sends his Holy Spirit to help us keep the law that we couldn't

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keep through our own sheer will. He kept it on our behalf and then he grows us to be

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people who live for him by keeping these commandments. I hope this lesson overview helped you and

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I hope that you do a great job Sunday as you teach it. Thanks.