God's Commands - Exodus 20

[00:00:05] Thank you for listening to the Calvary Monterey Podcast. Please visit Calvary.com to learn more about our church and visit Nate Holderidge.com for additional Bible teaching for my lead pastor, Nate Holderidge. Teaching today is our lead pastor, Nate Holderidge.

[00:00:23] If you guys would take out your Bible today and turn to the Book of Exodus chapter 20, it's where we're going to be today looking at the 10 commandments.

[00:00:31] But before we do so, we have the honor and privilege of today praying for Josh and Erica Shifley and their two kids, Ellie and Seth. Before they head off to the mission field and sing my title. So would you give them a warm reception this morning?

[00:00:47] We are also thankful as a church family for the time we've been able to have Josh and Erica and their two kids.

[00:01:01] With us, they've done such a great job in our youth ministry, ministering to not only the teenagers but the families of the church and really caring for them in so many ways.

[00:01:13] It's been a great five-year run that we've had. If you're new to the story this last summer, our youth team went to Shanghai, Thailand for a mission strip and Josh and Erica fell in love with the ministry there and were invited to come their full time as missionaries to oversee an internship

[00:01:30] program for within reach global missions and they will be perfect for that ministry taking young people from all over the world who are investigating whether God is calling them to the mission field full time, teaching them and training them and discipling them.

[00:01:46] A lot of the same things they've been doing here will be things that they are doing there and this is a strategic ministry.

[00:01:53] I mean, ministry for the gospel in Shanghai, Thailand is like an epicenter for so much throughout that region beyond Thailand in reaching that part of our world.

[00:02:04] And so people are going to hear the gospel as a result of this ministry that will take in other nations, other countries and will spread the message of Jesus into a part of the world where not a lot of people have heard the name of Christ.

[00:02:17] I don't know if it's death and burial in resurrection. So it's a powerful thing that these guys are getting a chance to do and we are all thankful as a church that you guys have said yes to Jesus for this season of your life.

[00:02:30] So I wanted to read a word over them today before I have Pastor Manicum and pray for them, but this comes from second Timothy chapter four. Paul writing to Timothy some of his last words before he died.

[00:02:44] He said, I charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus. He was to judge the living and the dead and by his appearing and his kingdom preach the word.

[00:02:57] Be ready in season and out of season, reprove, reprove, revoke and exhort with complete patience and teaching. For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions.

[00:03:13] And we'll turn away from listening to the truth and wander off into myths as for you always be sober minded in do or suffering. Do the work of an evangelist fulfill your ministry.

[00:03:29] It's a cool moment for us because when they stood up here months ago when we talked about this for the very first time it was kind of a hey we're moving into fundraising, praying, hoping for a target departure date sometime in January.

[00:03:45] And we should praise the Lord this morning God has provided for them to be able to go so well done you guys well done. I actually love to hear a last word from you brother. There's never going to be a last word. Yeah, I think.

[00:04:06] You know like I said a couple weeks ago when I got the teach at the end of December it is this process has been so joyful and so peaceful for us as a family and a big part of that is being a part of Calvary Monoree.

[00:04:18] And these years of serving and everything that we've been through and watching God just move and grow. I know I'm not staff anymore, but it feels like we're still such a part of Calvary.

[00:04:30] I still feel like I'm on staff just because you guys are supporting us in such huge ways and all our connections here and you know and and the mission department and how they have our back we're so excited and we just are so praising God.

[00:04:42] And as Nate said every word that God gave us for this trip including you're moving by January which in my mind and many others it's like there's no way you're able to do this in five months.

[00:04:54] But God just moved in amazing ways and we are more than ready as a lot of little steps please keep praying for us. But ultimately we are set we are flying out on January 29 at 12.05 AM it's happening.

[00:05:08] And we're just so excited to thank you church for supporting us and supporting the mission and building God's kingdom in this way. Thank you so cool.

[00:05:16] Let's stand together for willing and able and pray for this family pastor man he's going to lead us as a church in prayer.

[00:05:26] Well Lord, we come before you and we thank you so much for the shiverlies and how you've used them in our lives and the lives of our young people. Lord, we are better because of them.

[00:05:38] And Lord even as you now have prepared them to send them out it's so consistent with who you are as God. You sent Jesus, Lord, to be to bring the gospel message to us that we might be saved and forgiven and accepted by you.

[00:05:54] Jesus, when he ascended, sent the Holy Spirit and the Holy Spirit Lord God upon us filling us sends the church. And thank you for using the shiverlies like that Lord as we send them out Lord may you give them every spiritual gift that they need.

[00:06:10] Lord may you use them as a family as an example Lord of your gospel. An example of a gospel marriage and gospel children used them in the lives of God of those who their paths will intersect.

[00:06:24] And Father, may your name, the name of Jesus be made famous in Thailand because of them in Jesus name. Amen.

[00:07:16] We're moving on with our youth ministry right now so if you are a teenager, if you're in high school or middle school we'd love to see you on Tuesday night around 6 o'clock. We've got a great gathering going.

[00:07:29] I'm doing the teaching right now we started the book of ax last Tuesday night and Pastor Matt is kind of running the ministry and we're going to get there. We're going to see who this next person is that God has for us.

[00:07:40] I've been here with this church not as senior pastor for this long but I've been here for 25 years and I've seen God do a lot of great things in our youth ministry over that time.

[00:07:50] I remember when Pastor Manny many years ago when I first started at the age of 20, Pastor Manny was our youth pastor.

[00:07:56] He was phenomenal. He was the best youth pastor we'd ever had and when God put on his heart to move away back to Georgia to begin planting a church there. I remember feeling like we're never going to see God move in the same kinds of ways.

[00:08:10] It was amazing, it was a unique moment. We're never going to have a youth pastor as good as Pastor Manny and I was the guy that came after him and it's true.

[00:08:19] We've never had a youth pastor as good as Pastor Manny but God was faithful. God's work and I've seen the Lord do amazing things in our youth ministry consistently for the last 25 years. I still believe that God is going to do the same thing in our modern time.

[00:08:35] Okay, our text today is Exodus chapter 20. I want to read the whole chapter so if you guys would follow along either in your Bibles or on the screen. And God spoke all these words saying,

[00:08:50] 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.

[00:09:02] You shall not make for yourself a carved image or any likeness or anything that is in heaven above or that is in the earth beneath or that is in the water.

[00:09:11] Under the earth, you shall not bow down to them or serve them for I, the Lord your God and a jealous God,

[00:09:17] visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me but showing steadfast love to thousands of those who love me and keep my commandments. Verse 7, You shall not take the name of the Lord your God and vain.

[00:09:33] For the Lord will not hold him guiltless who takes his name and vain. Verse 8, 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.

[00:09:46] 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 so-journer who is within your gates for in six days.

[00:09:57] 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.

[00:10:06] Well, honor your father and your mother that your days may be long in the land that the Lord your God is giving you. Verse 13, You shall not murder. Verse 14, You shall not commit adultery. Verse 15, You shall not steal. Verse 16, You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.

[00:10:25] Verse 17, You shall not covet your neighbor's house. You shall not covet your neighbor's wife. Or as male servant or as female servant or as ox or as donkey or anything that is your neighbors.

[00:10:36] Now when all the people saw the thunder and the flashes of lightning and the sound of the trumpet and the mountain smoking, the people were afraid and trembled and they stood far off and said to Moses,

[00:10:48] You speak to us and we will listen but do not let God speak to us less we die. Moses said to the people, Do not fear if God has come to test you that the fear of him may be before you that you may not sin.

[00:11:03] The people stood far off, will Moses drew near to the thick darkness where God was and verse 22, The Lord said to Moses, Thus you shall say to the people, You have seen for yourselves that I have talked with you from heaven,

[00:11:15] You shall not make God's of silver to be with me in order to show you make for yourselves God's of gold, and altar of earth you shall make for me and sacrifice on it your bird offerings and your peace offerings,

[00:11:25] your sheep and your ox and in every place where I cause my name to be remembered, I will come to you and bless you.

[00:11:31] If you make me an altar of stone you shall not build it of hewn stones for if you wield your tool on it you profane it. And you shall not go up by steps to my altar that your nakedness be not exposed on it.

[00:11:44] Lord we come to you this morning thanking you for these ten commandments. That shaped ancient Israel. We know that there were many times they were faithless to keep them, but many times that they did keep them and you're blessing flowed upon them.

[00:12:01] And Lord as your people today we want to be a priest to our world introducing people to you. And so Lord we ask that you'd help us in whatever way is biblically appropriate to keep these things in our lives today.

[00:12:17] We thank you, Lord we praise you in Jesus name. Amen. Amen. Okay we're going through the book of Exodus right now and the first half of Exodus concerns God delivering the people of Israel from their Egyptian captivity. Once God had done that completely,

[00:12:37] that's really when according to the book of Exodus the real work began. It was an entirely one-sided event for God to take Israel out of Egypt. All the Israelites had to do was apply a little bit of blood

[00:12:52] and walk through the dry ground of the Red Sea and they experienced God's victory. God took care of every single other thing. But from this point forward in the book of Exodus it will require Israelite cooperation to get Egypt out of Israel's hearts.

[00:13:14] God had rescued his people but now he needed to reinvent his people. And for that he required their involvement. So as we saw last week in Exodus chapter 19, God gave an invitation to the people of Israel. He invited them to be his treasured possession in all the earth,

[00:13:39] a kingdom of priests representing God to all the earth and a holy nation showing all the earth what it looked like to live in allegiance to God.

[00:13:52] If they did these things, they would be at keepers of God's covenant and they would realize the vision that God had for them. Now when God's people heard God's offers we saw in chapter 19, they were all in.

[00:14:09] They heard the God of Abraham and Isaac and Jacob saying that if you walk with me, I will do amazing things through your life. When they heard that promise from the Lord, they said yes we're in. We want into this covenant.

[00:14:27] We want to be obedient to you. So they gathered at the base of God's mountain, Mount Sinai after a few days of preparation. Moses came down from the mountain and God began from the cloud to thunder to all of the people.

[00:14:41] The Ten Commandments are not delivered initially to Moses alone it seems but to all of the congregation together at the mountain base. He began in verse 2 by reminding them of his past work of deliverance in their lives.

[00:14:57] I am the one who rescued you from Egypt, you are my people and then he continued by giving them the Ten Commandments that they were to ground themselves upon. From these Ten Commandments we've come hundreds of more specific laws for Israelite society at that time.

[00:15:17] But these Ten rules were foundational for the people of God. The laws that extended from these Ten rules, some of which we'll look at next Sunday, were like branches on the tree but the Ten were like the trunk.

[00:15:33] The Ten were like an all important skeletal system. Well the laws were like the skin and flesh and organs that surrounded and covered it. And as Israel heard these commands from God, make no mistake God was shaping a people for himself.

[00:15:54] If they were colored by these Ten words, these Ten Commands, these Ten phrases, they would fulfill their mission and become a nation of holy priests to the world around them.

[00:16:08] Now we're going to look at these Ten Commandments today, but I want to confess that teaching the Ten Commandments to a bunch of Christians is an enormous challenge. One reason for this is because of the gospel's complicated relationship with the Old Testament law.

[00:16:26] And this is a subject we're going to talk more about next week. But what I want you to know today is that nearly every single one of the Ten Commandments is repeated in the New Testament.

[00:16:39] The only one that isn't repeated in the New Testament is the fourth commandment to keep the Sabbath and some would argue myself included that God didn't need to repeat it in the New Testament because it's not even based on the law itself.

[00:16:53] It's based upon creation and the created order in the cosmos is the understanding that we operate by a seven day clock. And even in cultures, I've tried to get away from the seven day week.

[00:17:08] We inevitably drift right back to it because as one scholar said mankind is a seven day week. That's just who we are. That's how we operate. That's what we do.

[00:17:20] Now another difficulty in teaching the Ten Commandments is that especially I think in our American context where we've had government buildings and stuff like that that have the Ten Commandments written upon them. We tend to think of the Ten Commandments as four societies and nations in general.

[00:17:46] And though the Ten Commandments would provide great guidance for any society, great guidance for any nation, the idea that nations who don't know Yahweh or people who don't have Jesus would somehow keep the Ten Commandments.

[00:18:05] And I'd like to say it like this that is a concept that is alien to the Bible. It's not a concept that is inscripture but outside of Scripture.

[00:18:14] God's original intention, if you're reading the Ten Commandments today was that his redeemed people Israel back then would live this way and therefore reach all societies and nations through the beauty of their lives.

[00:18:31] The biblical, faithful application I think of the Ten Commandments today is not to society's and nations but to the church as almost all of these principles as I said are reiterated in the New Testament in some way.

[00:18:45] Okay, there's a lot more challenges but one more challenge of preaching on the Ten Commandments today is there's ten of them. And ten point sermons are absolutely brutal to listen to.

[00:18:56] I mean what am I supposed to do? We're not the Puritans, these aren't three hour sermons that you're allowing me to give. I would love it but it's just not reality in our modern context.

[00:19:07] So what am I supposed to do stand up here and give you two minutes on each one of the Ten Commandments with an introduction and a conclusion and boom there we go.

[00:19:16] We're 35 minutes and we're done. What am I supposed to do? I think what I'm going to do today and when I say I think what I'm going to do today, this is what I'm going to do today.

[00:19:26] Is I'm going to declare you three mega truths that are found from just this passage.

[00:19:33] We were going to look at each one of the commandments very briefly, but I want to draw out three mega truths from this scripture and the first one that I want you to see is that this scene and we might have missed this.

[00:19:48] I'm going to say that this scene, it describes a life that God loves. This whole scene describes a life that God loves. I could say it another way. I think this whole episode, it depicts God's dream come true.

[00:20:06] What do you have in this episode? You have God's people, people already. Redeem purchased by accepted beloved. God has already called them their his first born son, their his he's rescued them they belong to him and they consecrate themselves like they get ready for this moment they get ready spiritually for this meeting and they approach God's holy mountain.

[00:20:34] So that they can hear what God wants to say to them. This from the front of the back of the Bible is God's dream, this is God's desire.

[00:20:46] It's important to remember as I just said that when God made this invitation or gave these commands in his mind he's talking to a people who will not do these things in order to become his people but they're already his people.

[00:20:59] That's why the brief preamble to the commemances verse 2, I'm the Lord your God who brought you out of Egypt out of the house of slavery.

[00:21:09] I'm already your God. This is in a if you do these things I'll become your God. He's saying you're already mine. I'm already yours. I brought you out of your slavery just as we as Christians would say how do I become accepted by God?

[00:21:26] By keeping the law by keeping his commandments by being a good person. No, I become his child by the precious blood of Jesus. He rescues me from my sin and I become his.

[00:21:39] But when these free and delivered people prepare themselves and gather to round God's mountains so they could hear God's voice it was God's dream come true.

[00:21:51] Since the days of the Garden of Eden God had wanted his people to resist other voices. To listen to it here, to his simple commandments so they could experience him and the good life that he had designed for them.

[00:22:07] In Eden God's command was singular and simple. You can eat of any tree but one put another way trust that my way is the best way. Trust that my judgments are better than any other voice including the voice of your own heart.

[00:22:26] Someone is real in this episode put everything on hold and gathered the base of the mountain so they could hear God's word. God was pleased.

[00:22:34] It's like they were going back to the Garden of Eden and saying to God, God your way is best we will not follow our hearts. We will follow whatever you say your wisdom.

[00:22:47] Now if Eden is at the front of the Bible's story, at the very back of the Bible's story, is a depiction that is very similar.

[00:22:59] The prophet Micah spoke of a day that is yet future to us. Now I want you to see it on the screen above me. It says,

[00:23:06] It's Shokam to pass in the latter days that the mountain of the house of the Lord shall be established as the highest of the mountains.

[00:23:14] It should be lifted above the hills and people shall flow to it and many nations shall come and say, come let us go up to the mountain of the Lord to the house of the God of Jacob that he may teach us his ways and that we may walk in his paths

[00:23:32] for out of Zion shall go forth the law and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem. And from Genesis' Eden in the past to the future reign of Christ that Micah describes God delighted whenever his people gathered to hear his voice.

[00:23:50] In second Kings, there's a story of a King named Josiah in Israel who after many years of the Bible not being read in Israel,

[00:23:58] He discovers the law of the covenant. He gets it out, he reads it, he brings it to the people and they recommit themselves to the Lord. It's a moment that God loves. In the book of Nia Maya, Nia Maya, the governor in rebuilding the city.

[00:24:13] Gathers everyone together gets the scribe, a man named Ezra and his helpers read the Bible to the congregation for six hours explaining it to them as they go. It's another moment that God loves. In Matthew chapter 5, the son of God, God the son gathers on another mountain.

[00:24:33] And he begins to declare a new ethic for his new humanity, the church and the sermon on the mountainous people gathered to listen to Jesus.

[00:24:43] Speak that word God loved that moment. God loved it when the brand new church in Jerusalem gathered together and devoted themselves every single day to the apostles doctrine.

[00:24:56] He loved it in Acts chapter 10 when a group from non-Jewish nations gathered together in a similar way in a house to hear whatever the word of the Lord was through the mouth of Peter.

[00:25:07] God loved it later in the book of Acts chapter 20, when Paul the Apostle was preaching a Bible study in a house near the agency that went way past midnight.

[00:25:20] And as it went deeper into the night, there was a young man, the Bible says named Uticus. He fell asleep with the problem was he was sitting in the window sill on the third floor of the house.

[00:25:32] He fell out of the window and died and as a way for God to say, I love these crazy long Bible studies.

[00:25:40] Paul went down, laid his hands on him, and he came back to life. God is always into this moment. Paul the Apostle said to young pastor Timothy 1st Timothy 4 verse 13,

[00:25:53] Timothy and till I come, devote yourself to the public reading of Scripture, devote yourself to exhortation and devote yourself to teaching or as doctrine.

[00:26:04] And as much as God loved it then and will love it in the future. He loves it today when God's people consecrate themselves and come near to hear His voice.

[00:26:13] When we intentionally, and with a willingness to obey, read His word by ourselves or with others or in our Lord, larger gathering, God delights.

[00:26:27] He loves it when His rescued and redeemed people gather to hear His word. It's His dream come true because done with sincere hearts, it's a source of life for His people. I remember watching an interview one time with famous Christian Tim Tibo.

[00:26:45] And Tim Tibo was a great college quarterback and then an NFL quarterback and now is a commentator on football but it's also a notable Christian.

[00:26:55] Yeah, his parents are strong believers as well having served as missionaries for many years and Tim was so good at high school football that pretty much every college in the United States had given him an offer to be their quarterback.

[00:27:09] And there was a date that comes on the calendar where a high school student has to declare what college he's going to choose. And Tim was really stressed out. He didn't know which school to pick, he could go anywhere he could play for anyone.

[00:27:23] And in this interview he said that the night before his decision was due his dad, this faithful, ex-missionary, sat him down and said Tim, I'm very confident that God is going to lead you.

[00:27:34] I'm very confident that God is going to speak to you. He said, I believe tonight if you just go into your room and you seek the Lord, you cry out to him, you're going to wake up in the morning and you are going to know what college to go to.

[00:27:49] God is going to speak to your heart and Tim said, so I went to my room. I did as my dad said, I prayed, I sought the Lord and I woke up in the morning and I had no idea what college to choose.

[00:28:01] It seems that in that moment and I love the leading of the Lord. I love when God places things on our hearts steps of faith and obedience but it seems in that moment God's message to young Tim Teebo was, I've given you 1,189 chapters of my word.

[00:28:19] I've given you an entire book that declares to you, the kind of man I want you to be, the kind of life I want you to live. Go play football wherever you want to play football.

[00:28:28] But this is the life that I want you to live and I think as Christians and a mystical and spiritual age, yes it's good for us to be open to the leadings of the Lord. But we should not expect our lives to be completely based upon our leadings.

[00:28:44] I've talked to so many people over the years who defy clear biblical teaching and ethics with the words, but God is not leading me to obey those things.

[00:28:54] That is not how to apply the word of God to our lines. God loves it when his people prepare their hearts and come to His Word and say, God, what do you say? I want to hear your voice.

[00:29:07] Okay, I'm a little excited about that point as you can tell.

[00:29:11] Okay, number two, the second thing I want you to see is that the transmission of the 10, it does depict a scene that God loves but the 10 commandments themselves describe a life that is filled with the love of God.

[00:29:26] This is part of the reason why these really can't be commands for nations and societies outside of ancient Israel because no nation and society is God's chosen people. The church that might apply to us, but the first four commandments have everything to do with honoring and loving God.

[00:29:51] I mean the first commandment, I mean whenever Israel did the first commandment, whenever they had no other gods before Yahweh, they thrived as God's people.

[00:30:00] I mean if you read Israel's history throughout the rest of the Old Testament, that singular devotion, that like we're loving God and no others, that kept them from all sorts of grotesque and improper worship,

[00:30:13] that caused them to live beneath their design as God's image bearers in His special possession. Whenever they banished carved images, the second commandment idols to bow down in worship whenever they banished them from their land, they lived up to their design.

[00:30:32] God had placed all of creation be low them but had placed himself above them and when they refused to worship idols, they were living in the proper place, not being dehumanized.

[00:30:49] Whenever according to the third commandment, they were fused to take the name of the Lord their God and vain, they flourished. Now I know that the third commandment can be confusing. What does it mean to take the name of the Lord and vain?

[00:31:03] Some people have had a reductionist view of the third commandment thinking that all it means is don't curse with God's name or don't make a hasty promise in the name of the Lord. I'll do these things in God's name or something like that.

[00:31:20] It might mean that, but God's name means God's reputation, God's character who God reveals himself to be. So I take the name of the Lord and vain as saying disparaging or believing disparaging things about who God is.

[00:31:41] To ridicule God, to be God's critic, to put oneself above God to speak down about God. I think is taking his name in vain and when Israel refused to live that way, when they spoke highly of God in public and highly of God in private, they did well.

[00:32:00] And whenever they kept the fourth commandment remembering the Sabbath resting on the seventh day, setting it aside for holy reflection and worship they prospered as God's people.

[00:32:10] When you think about it, that's a big decision for a group of people to make. That's one seventh of every single week. That's one seventh of your earning power and time that you could spend making money or surviving.

[00:32:21] But what Israel had to recognize was that whatever they could have made with that seventh day was too high a price to pay for what they would have lost in their integrity and worship and devotion to God.

[00:32:36] Now I think we live in one of the most distracting times in human history. There's a prophecy on the book of Daniel that depicts a day that will come, and I think we're in this day when many will roam about. And knowledge will increase.

[00:32:52] I think in Hebrew Daniel meant click and scroll endlessly when he said many will roam about. It just seems like the age that we're in is a distracting time and moment that we're in.

[00:33:04] Everything from the color of our apps to the phrasing of our headlines, to the potency of our feeds, to the great flavor and taste in Doritos.

[00:33:15] It's all designed to capture our attention. Meanwhile though, there's God. He wanted Israel's attention. He craved it. He was jealous for it. He said not because of some deficiency in him but because of his love for them.

[00:33:33] As long as they fleshed their lives down the drain of bad worship, they would never live up to their potential. They're calling God's blessing or their destiny. God hates that kind of mis-spent life because he loves the people that are living it.

[00:33:48] So we called Israel out of it into the love of God. Now I love for God, found in these first four commandments.

[00:33:56] I'd like to not just call it a love for God because I think we can easily if we have a brief feeling of desire, a brief feeling of warrant. Call it love. I'd like to rephrase it a prioritization of God.

[00:34:16] A reprioritization of God having God as the foundation of your life. It's like having him as the foundation of a great house. Everything is resting on the quality and strength of that foundation.

[00:34:30] And a life that is ordered upon God, placing God first, prioritizing him in all things is a life with a good foundation. This love for God, it's like finding north on a compass. Once we are set upon him, we can navigate the rest of life more easily.

[00:34:48] Life is hard. Life is challenging. It presents us with millions of difficulties. Just when you think you've gotten it, just when you think you've figured it out.

[00:34:59] Some crazy thing happens. You have a kid or you get sick or something happens. It makes you realize I have no idea what I'm doing.

[00:35:06] I knew how to do that. I don't know how to do this. That's human life. That's our experience, but when our love for God is strong. When our rhythms and our routines center us upon him over and over again, we are greatly helped in life.

[00:35:22] You know, consider Jesus. He went out into the wilderness for 40 days of fasting and temptation directly from Satan himself. But he endured the severeest of temptations because of his deep love for his father in heaven. He couldn't imagine doing something that would disregard him.

[00:35:42] He would not swear to the right or the left because he was focused on God. Just as a love for God will keep you from compromise today. How many have compromised their integrity? Or compromise what they believe, their doctrine because they slipped in their love for God.

[00:36:03] Now it's here that I want to point out that these commandments, they are communal in nature. God is not talking at this moment to individual Israelites. He's talking to a community of people because if this love for God took root in that community, a beautiful thing would occur.

[00:36:22] He wanted them to know what their community needed to look like. With these first four commandments it became clear that the individual seriousness with which individual Hebrews showed God, it would impact the entire congregation, not just their lives but the lives of everyone around them.

[00:36:43] If even one of them began neglecting the Sabbath, if even one of them began introducing idols. If even one of them began talking trash about God, if even one of them began worshiping other gods, it would begin to erode and corrupt the entire nation.

[00:37:02] In a similar way, when a modern church is filled with people who are all in for Jesus, passionate about him, the health quotient of the entire church begins to rise.

[00:37:15] And then we are helped during those inevitable seasons of life where our fire isn't burning as brightly as it used to. Because others will impact us in the right direction, others will encourage us to re-fanned the flame within that burns brightly for the Lord.

[00:37:33] I'm thankful for the deep love for Christ that so many in this church display. And my prayer is that we would keep on encouraging each other in that direction.

[00:37:43] Our zeal for the Lord is bound to go up and down, but by dragging ourselves to be with one another time and time again, our devotion to Christ can rub off on others. Okay.

[00:37:57] The 10 commandments, this whole scene as God's dream come true, they start with a love for God.

[00:38:04] But the last thing I want you to see before we take communion is that they go on to describe a life of love, not just for God but a life of love for others as well. It's been noted that commands five through ten.

[00:38:21] They have to do with how these ancient Israelites were supposed to treat each other. In fact, a lot of times you'll hear us in modern times talk about the 10 commandments and we'll talk about the first tablet and the second tablet. The first tablet.

[00:38:35] We would think would be commands one through four dealing with Israel's relationship with God and the second tablet would be commands five through ten dealing with our relationship with other people.

[00:38:46] The reality is that we don't know that that's the way that they were divided up, that's not written anywhere in the Bible for all we know it could have been. We know it was two tablets, but God could have put all ten on those tablets.

[00:38:57] We know from Deuteronomy at the early on on the front and back. Maybe God put all ten on both copies and one was for Israel and one was for himself. So you can say like you guys agreed to this and I have a copy kind of thing.

[00:39:10] We don't really know. In our modern movies, of course, the 10 commandments are huge and Moses has to be jacked to carry these 45 pound tablets up the hill. We love that thing. But the reality of command five through ten is really just related to their relationship with other people.

[00:39:30] Whenever they kept the fifth commandment on or their parents, Israel would have flourished. Because as it says there in verse 12, God would make sure that their days were long in the land that he gave them.

[00:39:44] I think this is God's way of just saying, I don't think what God was saying. If you obey your parents, I'm going to sprinkle my magical fairy dust over your life and you're going to live a really long time.

[00:39:54] I think it's his way of saying this is like a cornerstone of your society. And if your children receive the word and they receive it and they come under authority and they learn about authority structures,

[00:40:08] it's just going to be a blessing to your whole community and you guys are going to be able to stay in the land of promise for a really long time. I'm not going to be banished because you're not going to be weakened.

[00:40:19] Whenever Israel banished murder from their midst, the next commandment, the sixth, they did well. I want you to know today there are seven Hebrew words that can be used to describe taking life. This is the word that is used to describe murder or involuntary manslaughter or voluntary manslaughter.

[00:40:44] Not the word that would be used to describe capital punishment or war. What's being said here in this sixth commandment is that God values human life and all of its forms. Whether someone is healthy or unhealthy, powerful or vulnerable born or unborn well or unwell,

[00:41:04] he loves human life and he forbids his people from taking it. Now Jesus increased the intensity of this commandment when he said that we must make sure to deal with the anger that's within our hearts towards our brother.

[00:41:19] Whenever Israel curbed the adultery in their midst, the next commandment, whenever marriage and God's design for sex were respected, they did well as a people. God wanted a community that knew how to respect one another enough not to partake of one another.

[00:41:38] This is another commandment that Jesus strengthened by addressing the cultivation of lustful thoughts. But this commandment here was designed to create a community of marital, health and sexual restraint, a beautiful community. And when Israel respected the property of others by refusing to steal the next commandment,

[00:41:59] they were embracing a foundational element to a stable society, the respect for someone's property. In the rest of the law, theft was never punishable with death like it was in other cultures around Israel at that time.

[00:42:17] But God is showing here that he still, even though the death penalty was not given for this but it was for things like adultery and murder. He's showing that he values someone's personal rights and property.

[00:42:30] And when Israel refused to bear false witness, the ninth commandment against their neighbor, they created a society unwilling to cascade into a litigious destruction of others in their character in or out of court.

[00:42:44] And when 10th commandment, they did not covet each other's homes, each other's spouses, each other's staff, each other's career, each others vehicles or any other thing, they created a society of beautiful contentment and personal fulfillment.

[00:43:01] Now this love for others that drove these six commandments, these final six commandments, it's a reality that drives so many of the great moments in the biblical world. The good Samaritan helping the injured stranger. Why did he do that? Because of love.

[00:43:17] Joseph, forgiving his brothers. Why did he do that? Because of love. Ruth following Naomi. Why did she do that? Because of love. Jonathan's deferential treatment of David, Esther risking her life for the people, the persistent pleading of the prophets.

[00:43:33] All of these things were driven by a love not just for God but a love for fellow man.

[00:43:39] Then there's the life of Jesus. Every miracle he wrought, every word, he spoke, every action he took and his arrival, itself and death and burial and resurrection itself were all connected. Not just to his love for his father but his love for people.

[00:44:00] And the church that came after him began to emulate that love. The entire book of Acts and the church's desire to tell others about Jesus was fueled by a love not just for God but a love for neighbor, a love for others.

[00:44:15] We want them to know Jesus the early church said. Just as a love for others would have made Israelite community special. Love for others makes a church special as well. Everything from caring for other people's children which some people are doing for us right now.

[00:44:35] Make sure you say thank you to them every single Sunday. They don't have to do this but they choose to do this for you.

[00:44:42] Everything from doing that, learning a worship song is a member of the worship team or setting up a nice atmosphere or slice an abeagle for somebody you don't even know or watching over everyone and the safety team to make sure they're all cared for and saved.

[00:44:57] And praying for each other after services to leading or hosting groups together to many other actions. Those things are done or driven by a love not just for God but a love for each other or at least it should be.

[00:45:10] The more love there is the better the community. I was on a hike recently when I came across far from the parking lot far from the trail up the mountain a signpost of across roads that had someone had chained a five gallon bucket to.

[00:45:30] That inside the bucket where all these bicycle repair things that you might need when you're miles from the trail will pump all of down just kind of a cool thing.

[00:45:40] And then I saw the label that they had attached to it and they said they called it the karma kit, the karma kit and it kind of ruined it for me a little bit.

[00:45:55] Maybe maybe they probably just were not saying a big thing just like hey pass it on be nice to someone else you know kind of thing but for me what what Jesus asks us to do is to be loving not so that we can receive love from someone else down the line.

[00:46:13] But to be loving because he is loving. Jesus said whatever you wish that others would do to you do also to them full stop. He didn't say because maybe just maybe they might do it back to you.

[00:46:29] He just said this is who we are, this is who my people are they love their neighbor as themselves.

[00:46:36] Okay so that's the 10 commandments today these are beautiful words describing a beautiful life I think they're meant to help us see the beautiful God who designed them and gave them to us.

[00:46:48] And I don't know about you but for me I do not read these 10 as these big ominous negative statements from God.

[00:46:56] A lot of people think of them this way maybe it's because of the way that the people of Israel responded they said to Moses like hey we don't want God to speak to us directly anymore you be our mediator from now on you go talk to God

[00:47:08] and then you talk to us but it appears at the reason that they said that was not because of the content of God's words they would have agreed with most of these statements already.

[00:47:17] But because of the thunder and the lightning and the earthquake and the smoke and the fire that intimidated them but Moses said to them the reason that you're feeling that way is because God is trying to help you have a motivation to follow him.

[00:47:33] There's a godly fear not that runs away from him but that respects him.

[00:47:38] But what I want us to know today is that when we live under this leadership from God we will experience our destiny as holy people who serve as priests introducing the true God to the world.

[00:47:52] To some degree our effectiveness whether we like it or not is tied to our faithfulness Israel had been invited into this covenant with God.

[00:48:03] He was saying to them live my way and you will become an attractional community who shows everyone else who God is and I pray that we today would say the same thing Lord, I want to live my life for you.

[00:48:17] We want to live our lives for you so that we might fulfill the calling and destiny that you have for us to be a kingdom of priests to the world in which we live.

[00:48:32] Thank you for listening if you would like more teachings and information about Calvary Monore please visit calvary.com. You can also find books teachings through the Bible and articles from our lead pastor at natholderitch.com. Thanks again for tuning in see you next week.