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Well, today we begin a new series of messages from the book of Exodus this time, and we're

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dealing with the Ten Commandments.

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I invite you to open your Bible with me to Exodus chapter 20.

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We're hearing a lot about the United States House of Representatives right now.

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How many of you have ever been in that chamber in Washington?

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Would you lift your hand?

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Do you remember around the edge of the building, up near the ceiling, there are the profiles

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of famous thinkers and lawmakers throughout the ages?

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They come around this way and right in the center, right where the Speaker of the House

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would naturally look as he sits in his chair, there is not a profile.

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There's a full-faced figure who looks at him.

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That one individual who looks at him in profile there is Moses, or at least a likeness of

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Moses.

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What the architect of the Capitol was trying to say is that there are many who contributed

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to the history of the United States and to the making of its laws, but there is one figure

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who stands above all of the rest, and that is Moses, who delivered the Ten Commandments.

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It is an architectural recognition that the Ten Commandments form the basis of law, social

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order, and our concept of justice in the United States.

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The Ten Commandments are protective of life, liberty, human relationships, and the ownership

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of property.

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The Ten Commandments exalt the value of life and the individual dignity of women and men.

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The Ten Commandments are stated in two Old Testament passages, Exodus 20 and Deuteronomy

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5.

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I think it is important for us to consider this morning the context of their first delivery

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in Exodus chapter 20.

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Exodus chapters 1 through 15 records the stay of the Israelites in Egypt after the death

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of Joseph, along with their enslavement and oppression, followed by their deliverance

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through Moses, God's servant.

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Those chapters tell us about the miraculous crossing of the Red Sea, the journey of three

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months that followed that until they came to the foot of the mountain where Moses had

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met God, Mount Sinai.

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The year was about 1446 B.C. and there at the foot of that mountain Israel camped.

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And there on that mountain God made a covenant with Israel.

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That is an agreement between this people and Himself.

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It was absolutely an awesome event.

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As they looked at that mountain it was as though a volcano was erupting.

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Now I don't think it was a volcano, but as you see the description in chapter 19 of the

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lightning, the thunder, the thick clouds that were on the top of the mountain, the fire

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that was burning there, along with the sound of a loud trumpet and the quaking of the mountain.

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You have a picture of a volcano and these people are right at the foot of this inferno

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on the top of the mountain.

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It was absolutely awesome.

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The Ten Commandments that God gave to Moses on the top of that mountain are the moral

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foundation of the Mosaic Covenant.

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That is this covenant that God made with Israel through Moses, His servant.

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They summarize the ethical obligations of the people of the Lord in their agreement

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with God.

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Well you say, this isn't Israel and I'm not a Jew, so what value are the Ten Commandments

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to me?

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Let me say first of all that they are a succinct statement of the ethical ramifications of

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God's holiness for all people in all times.

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Because you see they represent God's character, which is eternal and the same from generation

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to generation.

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And so by looking at the Ten Commandments we have an understanding of what God expects

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of us too ethically.

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And I believe that these commandments are especially important today in our culture.

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We need to study them, to write them upon our hearts in light of the relativism of our

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age, which teaches and believes that there are no absolutes of right and wrong.

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I think one of the benefits of the great tragedy that is being played out in Washington these

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days is the fact that at least there is again a discussion of values in this country, of

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what is right and what is wrong.

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I heard one commentator on television say that we have now entered into an ethical civil

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war in the United States.

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That may be a bit of an overstatement, but the point is clear that there is great disagreement

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in this country regarding ethics.

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And it shows that we have departed far from the Ten Commandments, which form the heart

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and the core, the values upon which America was founded.

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We need to study the Ten Commandments, not only in church, we need them in schools.

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We need them understood in all areas of society.

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We need to have them studied in the legislature of Minnesota.

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We need to have them studied in the law schools of America.

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We need to have them studied in the homes of America, because the Ten Commandments are

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crucial for the maintenance of the culture that was founded upon the Constitution.

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But perhaps the greatest value of the Ten Commandments is beyond all of this.

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It is that the Ten Commandments, by their very nature, bring us to the grace of God.

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That is because the Ten Commandments expose our sinfulness.

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They tell us how far short we are of meeting God's ethical expectations.

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They show us that we need a Savior to rescue us from the condemnation that comes also with

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the law.

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Lawbreakers need a mediator, and God has provided that mediator for us in the person of His

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Son, the Lord Jesus Christ.

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He is the one mediator between God and men.

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So we study the Ten Commandments with the expectation that they are going to bring us

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to Jesus, and that we are going to revel in the grace of God even more after we understand

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what God says in these Ten Words.

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So let's get to it.

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Commandment number one.

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We find this in chapter 20, beginning in verse 1.

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When God spoke all these words, saying, I am the Lord your God who brought you out of

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the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery.

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You shall have no other gods before me.

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Commandment number one.

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You shall have no other gods before me.

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That preposition in the Hebrew has been hotly debated by scholars.

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You shall have no other gods in opposition to me.

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You shall have no other gods in my sight.

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You shall have no other gods in addition to me.

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All of those are possible understandings, but you get the point.

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No other gods.

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Now there are two aspects of this First Commandment that I want us to think about this morning

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before we break up and have our tailgate party.

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The first aspect is this, the identity of the lawgiver.

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G. Campbell Morgan talks about this when he describes to us the meaning of the name Lord.

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Notice God says, I am the Lord your God, all capitals.

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Here is that Hebrew name Yahweh, Lord.

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G. Campbell Morgan says that Yahweh is the combination of three Hebrew words meaning

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he will be, being, he was.

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Now you have to listen to that to understand that it's saying that he was, he is, and he

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always will be.

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That is the meaning of the personal name Yahweh.

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Charles Rirey says that it signifies God's dynamic and active self-existence.

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And that's really the heart of it right there.

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You and I have existence that is derived.

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We have derived our existence from our parents and they from their parents and so on from

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generation to generation back to the beginning to Adam and Eve who derived their existence

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from God Himself the Creator.

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God is entirely different than that.

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He is self-existent.

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He does not derive his existence from anything or anyone outside of himself.

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He was, he is, he always will be.

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He is self-existent.

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He is Yahweh.

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God's pronouncement of this name Yahweh brackets the deliverance of the Israelites from Egyptian

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slavery.

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If we had time we could go back to chapter 3 when God called Moses on the top of that

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mountain and said, here's what I want you to do.

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And Moses in the conversation with God eventually says, well, who will I say has sent me?

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In verse 14 of that chapter God says, tell them I am that I am has sent you.

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That's the first bracket on the deliverance of the people.

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God calling Moses said Yahweh sends you.

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Dr. Walt Kaiser says regarding that text in chapter 3, the formula of self-introduction

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means I am truly He who exists and who will be dynamically present then and there in that

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situation to which I am sending you.

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So God introduces Himself to Moses with that complete thought.

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Now to be sure, the people of God knew this name Lord before this.

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Indeed when Abram worshipped the Lord just having arrived in Canaan it says that he called

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on the name of Yahweh.

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He knew the name, but now it is in Exodus, in Moses' lifetime that God is going to expound

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upon the meaning of this name.

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And then the other end of the bracket of course is here where the deliverance of the people

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of Israel has been completed.

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Yahweh, the I am is on both sides of that deliverance experience.

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It is a name that is associated with God's holiness and God's gracious provision of

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redemption for His people.

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But He says I am the Lord your God.

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The word God is also a personal name for the supreme being.

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It is the plural form here Elohim, the singular being El.

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Elohim is the plural of majesty.

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God says I am Yahweh, the supreme mighty one who is the rightful object of all your admiration

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and your worship.

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It is this name that is associated with God's creation.

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In the beginning Elohim created the heavens and the earth.

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God further identifies Himself by reminding them of His saving activity.

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He says I am the one who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery.

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Kaiser also points out that this further identification is really a formula statement that God gives

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and He repeats it at least 125 times in the Old Testament.

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In other words, God wanted to be known by what He had done for His people.

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He had delivered them from Egypt and the house of slavery.

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That deliverance was an act of God's grace.

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Egypt was death and bondage.

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They languished there without any hope.

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But God intervened.

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He provided for redemption by delivering them on that final night of the judgments by the

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blood of the Passover lamb, the blood being sprinkled on the doorposts and the lintel

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of the houses where they lived.

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The lamb that they killed bore the judgment that the firstborn deserved.

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And so the firstborn of each family was spared where the lamb was slain and the blood was

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sprinkled.

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And then God delivered His people from certain death at the Red Sea by opening the waters

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before the people and the two million of them or so went across.

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God made a way of escape.

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Death in the lamb.

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Resurrection coming up out of the sea.

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And oh how that pictures wonderfully the death of the lamb of God for our sins.

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And His resurrection from the dead three days later.

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God wants to be known by what He has done for us.

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We today worship Yahweh, our God, who has redeemed us from our slavery to sin, the house

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of bondage to sin and death, and by the death of the lamb and His resurrection from the

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dead we have been saved and rescued.

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Understand that it is in that context of who God is and His gracious actions toward us

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that the Ten Commandments are given.

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The Ten Commandments are given in the context of God's grace.

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Now the second aspect I want us to look at briefly is the incentive of the law giver.

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Why did God give this commandment and all of the commandments?

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Well regarding all of the commandments, the Ten Commandments, let me say that what these

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commandments are is not in the first place suggestions.

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God is not here giving recommendations to His people.

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He is not encouraging them to take this course of action.

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He is laying down commandments which are a particular course of action that must be taken.

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They must be obeyed because they reveal the character of God.

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And regarding these commandments, if God here forbids an evil, then the opposite good is

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also ordered as we will see.

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God's law is not to be regarded as something that is harsh, that is cruel and it's restriction.

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Rather, the commandments are a kind expression of God's wisdom, revealing to us the way

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to live that will bring the greatest possible good for us as individuals and for us together

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as a family of people, as a community, as a society.

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I was talking with my friend Warren Wiersby this week and as he always does, he said,

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what are you preaching on?

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So I told him and he's just finished a book on Exodus and he said, have you got it yet?

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I said no.

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I said, well no wonder, it's not from the publisher yet.

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I think he was testing me.

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And so we began to talk about the Ten Commandments and he had an interesting statement about

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them.

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He said, the Ten Commandments are an invitation to God's best for our lives.

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I like that.

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That's why the commandments are so treasured and valued by the writers of scripture.

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David says they are enlightening.

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He says they are more desirable than gold, yes, than much fine gold.

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They are sweeter, he says, than honey because they are God's wisdom revealing to us the

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way to live that will bring us the greatest possible good.

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Now regarding this commandment in particular, why this commandment?

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It is because the religions of the world were polytheistic, had many gods in their religions.

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Why?

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Because mankind had degenerated from the knowledge of the true God that all possessed, not only

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in the original creation but then when the human race started over again in the generations

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following Noah.

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Man had the truth about God but man in his depravity suppressed that truth and turned

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to the lie of Satan.

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And instead of worshiping the creator, began to worship the creature.

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And so many gods and idols were created by man.

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Israel became an island of monotheism in a whole sea of polytheism.

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Now in your university class in religion, on public broadcasting and other places, you

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will hear liberal theology that is influenced by the theory of evolution that will tell

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you that in fact monotheism is the result of the evolution of man's religious thinking.

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Nothing could be further from the truth.

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It is just the opposite in fact.

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Monotheism is the result of revealed religion.

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God has told us the truth.

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The evolution of man's religious thought is in the other direction, in the direction of

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polytheism and many gods and many idols.

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But monotheism is revealed theology and so my point is this.

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This first commandment was given to reinforce and to preserve revealed theology and faith.

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It was given by God to his people to protect them as a holy nation for his messianic purposes.

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He could not bring the Messiah through a people who believed in many gods.

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They had to believe in the one true God.

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And so he gave this commandment to them in this covenant to preserve that truth.

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Now the sad fact is they didn't always obey it.

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In fact they were sent into judgment because they began to worship the gods of the nations

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around them.

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The reason that God gave this commandment was to preserve revealed truth.

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One God, worship him alone.

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But then also God gave it because he loves his people too much to allow them to stray

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after false gods of the Canaanites.

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All you have to do is read about the worship of these gods and you are more sick than you

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are from reading the star report.

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The immorality, the grossness, the darkness, the tragedies, the human sacrifice that went

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along with the Canaanite religions is repulsive.

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And so God gave this commandment to promote the welfare of his people.

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Not only to protect the nation from false religion, but to promote the welfare of his

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people so that they would not get involved in these false gods and all that went with

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that.

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And so he demands singularity of worship.

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You shall have no other gods in addition to me.

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The positive side of that is worship the one true God.

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That's the positive equivalent here.

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Worship the one true God.

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Why?

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Why worship him?

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First, because he deserves the glory of that worship.

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He is an awesome God who displayed it on top of that mountain in Sinai.

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And may I say who displayed it on a much smaller mountain outside the city walls of Jerusalem.

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He is an awesome God who is worthy of our worship.

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But he also gives us this commandment because he wants you and me also to avoid the brokenness

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and the destruction of other gods.

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We live in a world, in a culture, a society that is not necessarily idolatrous.

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Increasingly as other nations move here, we are finding more and more idols coming into

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the United States.

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But the absence of gods on the corners of our streets, in front of buildings, in temples,

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the absence of those idols does not mean that therefore this commandment really is passe.

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Because we have our own gods in this kind of a culture, not the least of which is materialism.

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And the worship of our own intellects and the technology and so on that we can create

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from that.

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The worship of self, which is really the heart of the false idolatry of America.

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The worship of self.

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Douglas Beier writes, God can do little with a person who is self-satisfied or self-confident.

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God cannot possess the self-possessed.

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He is able to do something great through a person only when he or she feels utterly inadequate

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for the job.

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And we in the church, we have our own idols.

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In addition to the idols of the world that tempt us, we have idols within the church

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like tradition.

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How many churches are today dead spiritually because they worship tradition?

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We have idols like family.

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Yes, that's what I said.

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Listen to the language that we use and find there, if you can, the Spirit of Jesus who

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said, if you do not forsake even your family and love me first, you're not worthy of me.

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But how many times do we neglect God and the things of God because of family?

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Entertainment is a God of the church.

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There are churches today who are worshiping not the Lord their God, but a style of worship.

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And that style of worship is more important to them than God Himself.

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You see, we have our own gods and God says here, have no other gods before me.

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So the closing question is, who is the God of your life?

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Or what is the God of your life?

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You say, well, how do I know?

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Well, what is it that you think about the most?

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What do you give the most credence to in your life?

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What do you spend the most money on?

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Ask some of the basic questions, the priority questions, because that's how you find out

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who your God is because your God has first claim.

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That's what a God is.

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A God is that which has first claim on my life.

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And God tells us here, if you want to have the fullness of life, if you really want to

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live, then have no other gods in opposition to me in your life.

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Make sure I'm number one and then you'll live.

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Let's pray together.

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Father God, all of us have to do some very serious heart searching this morning because

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so easily do we fall into the worship of other gods, even in the name of worshipping You.

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Step away from us, I pray, every false thinking, every deceptive notion that has claimed priority

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in our lives.

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Let there be nothing that is in opposition to You.

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This I pray in Christ's name.

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Amen.