Exodus 20:1-3 “And God spake all these words, saying, I am the LORD thy God, which have brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. Thou shalt have no other gods before me.”
So, why do we study the Ten Commandments? I mean, are they even relevant anymore since we live in the age of grace? Some say ‘no’ we’re no longer under law and if we’re subject to these or any other commandments from the Old Testament then we’re no longer under grace.
And then there are others who just say ‘no’ to the Ten Commandments because they react against rules in general. I remember when the seatbelt laws came into effect; people had all kinds of excuses for why they weren’t going to wear one. Some said they felt constrained and some were afraid they’d have an accident because they thought the strap would somehow stop them from driving safely and others just said, “Nobody’s going to tell me what to do.” I remember one of my friends said, “He wasn’t wearing one and that was that.” And then a few weeks later he drove up and he had his seatbelt on. I asked why and he said, “A really nice police officer gave me a ticket for not wearing one and I found out real quick that it was quite comfortable and easy to use.”
Just as we’re not saved by keeping the commandments we’re certainly not going to gain anything by ignoring them. So, it’s not a matter of salvation but it’s a practical matter of God’s direction in our lives.
So, how are the commandments useful today? First, they describe for us the personality of God and they also tell us what He expects from each of us. I mean, these commandments provide a formula for holiness and they teach us how we are to demonstrate our love for Him because as Romans 5:8 says, “He first loved us.” And they also show us how to honor Him and as Matthew 6:33 tells us, “When we put Him first then all things are added to us” and here we have the promise that He’ll provide us with everything we need. And these commandments also teach us we are to be like Him because He doesn’t do any of the things He tells us not to do.
And then second, they also demonstrate God’s love because He wants to communicate with us through His word.
And then third, these commandments work as a searchlight by exposing our sin and driving us to God for mercy. Dr. Sydney Sharman is a psychiatrist and not a professing Christian, but he wrote a book called, “The ten commandments and you” and he’s been able to help many patients; not by probing their subconscious but by confronting their conscious minds with the principles and standards of the Ten Commandments. He calls the Ten Commandments, “a recipe for mental health.”
So, these commandments tell us about God, they show us His love and they act as a searchlight by exposing our sin and finally they also play the part of what the scripture calls, ‘a schoolmaster in guiding us to Christ.’ And they do this by pointing out the love of God in creation, His holiness as it’s revealed in the word, His moral standards for mankind and His mercy; because the Old Testament law both gives us the bad news about our condition but it also prepares our heart for the gospel which is the good news.
So, as we focus on the first of the Ten Commandments; there are three questions I want to ask and hopefully answer about God. And the first one is, “Who is God?” The second is, “What did God do?” And then the third, “What does God command or want from each and every one of us?”
So, let’s begin with the question, “Who is God?” And that’s a good question but you would be amazed if you asked people by the answers you’d get. Madeline Murray O’Hare the famous atheist used to say, "God is nobody." And she’d say that all the little children that kneel by their beds in simple faith to pray are wasting their time. She’ll tell those who were sick and call on divine power for healing to save their breath. She’d tell those with needs who ask for help their wasting their time; because as far as she’s concerned, there’s no God to hear and no one cares. And if you asked her where everything came from she tell you the equation on which the universe is built; is nobody times nothing equals everything.
Then the deist comes along and he’s someone who believes in God but God isn’t personal or involved and this guy says, "Oh yes, there is a cosmic force but he couldn’t care less about you and I because He just put the whole thing together and now he’s letting it run and He’s gone off to do something else.” You see, his view of God is that He doesn’t care and He’s waiting for the whole thing to wind down.
And then the fatalist comes along and says, "God is a practical joker and He’s played the biggest joke on all of us because life and existence has no meaning and God gives us the feeling that He ought to be there but He’s not."
And then others come along and say, "No, God is a glorified grandfather type, a heavenly Santa Claus. He’s naive, senile, indulgent and syrupy with no convictions. He’ll pat everybody on the head and said, “Don’t worry about it, everything is going to be all right." And these are the people who just manufacture God out of their own minds. Voltaire said, "God made man in His own image and man has returned the favor." So, we have to understand who God is and what is He really like?
One of the places in scripture that really gives us insight into the person and nature of God is found in Psalm 139. So, turn there for a few moments and see what David said about who God is.
“O lord, thou hast searched me, and known me. Thou knowest my downsitting and mine uprising, thou understandest my thought afar off. Thou compassest my path and my lying down, and art acquainted with all my ways. For there is not a word in my tongue, but, lo, O LORD, thou knowest it altogether. Thou hast beset me behind and before, and laid thine hand upon me. Such knowledge is too wonderful for me; it is high, I cannot attain unto it. Whither shall I go from thy spirit? or whither shall I flee from thy presence? If I ascend up into heaven, thou art there: if I make my bed in hell, behold, thou art there. If I take the wings of the morning, and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea; even there shall thy hand lead me, and thy right hand shall hold me. If I say, surely the darkness shall cover me; even the night shall be light about me. Yea, the darkness hideth not from thee; but the night shineth as the day: the darkness and the light are both alike to thee. For thou hast possessed my reins: thou hast covered me in my mother’s womb. I will praise thee; for I am fearfully and wonderfully made: marvellous are thy works; and that my soul knoweth right well. My substance was not hid from thee, when I was made in secret, and curiously wrought in the lowest parts of the earth. Thine eyes did see my substance, yet being unperfect; and in thy book all my members were written, which in continuance were fashioned, when as yet there was none of them. How precious also are thy thoughts unto me, O God! how great is the sum of them! If I should count them, they are more in number than the sand: when I awake, I am still with thee. Surely thou wilt slay the wicked, O God: depart from me therefore, ye bloody men. For they speak against thee wickedly, and thine enemies take thy name in vain. Do not I hate them, O LORD, that hate thee? and am not I grieved with those that rise up against thee? I hate them with perfect hatred: I count them mine enemies. Search me, O God, and know my heart: try me, and know my thoughts: And see if there be any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.”
And here David tells us three things about God. First he says; God is omniscient. The dictionary defines omniscience as, “The capacity to know everything infinitely and total omniscience means knowing everything that can be known.” So, this omniscience is a big word but what it simply means is that God knows everything.
And knowing everything means He is very aware of our limitations but at the same time He can see through all of our excuses.
Have you ever asked someone to do something for you and as soon as you asked, you were sorry? I was talking to a man a few years back and he told me how he used to have a farm and how he had tried to grow different things to make money. Well, one day he said he hired a young guy to mow his lawn but he explained to him that he had just planted about fifty Christmas trees on the lawn and he said he’d have to be careful so he wouldn’t mow over them.
Well, he said it was obvious later that this guy wasn’t really listening; because all he wanted to do was to get the job done and get his money. So, he went to town and the guy did the mowing but as soon as he was finished; it sunk in what he had been talking about because he realized he had mowed down all of the Christmas trees.
So, he had a problem but, rather than telling the owner what he had done and risk not getting paid for the mowing; he found a roll of Scotch Tape and gathered up all the little trees he had cut down and taped them all together and from a distance, they all looked normal. And the owner said, “Everything looked good for a couple of days but then they all turned brown.”
You see, the man didn’t realize what had happened until he saw the results, but listen, God says, “He knows when you sit down and when you get up.” And that means that anytime in your life you ever sat down and got up again God knew how long you had been sitting there.
And then David says; “He knows every thought that ever went through your mind before it even got there.” I’ve been at the Drew and in various hospitals where I’ve seen people who couldn’t tell you who they were; what they had for breakfast; where they had lived or what they had done for a living, but listen, even though they had completely forgotten their past, God still knows all about it.
Then David went on to say, “For there is not a word in my tongue, but, lo, O LORD, thou knowest it altogether.” Listen, there’s not a word that you or I can say but God hears and remembers every syllable. I think one of the most destructive things in any church is gossip. And I’ve even heard people hide gossip as prayer requests, “Please pray for so and so, they’re having an awful problem with such and such.” Gossip is defined as idle talk or rumor, especially about the personal or private affairs of others.
Do you know what the strange thing about gossip is, those who are guilty of gossiping about others would think it was terrible if anyone ever said anything about them. Listen, people who love to talk about others don’t want to be talked about but, God tells us in this psalm that He hears every word we say and He knows why we said it.
And then David says, “Thou hast beset me behind and before, and laid thine hand upon me. Such knowledge is too wonderful for me; it is high, I cannot attain unto it.” David says, you know my past, my present and my future and knowing this is simply beyond my comprehension. And this is the omniscience of God, God knows everything.
When I was small, I always thought my mother was omniscient because she knew where everything was. I’d say, “Mom, where are my mitts?” And she’d say, “They’re under the bed” just like that and when I looked, there they were. As I grew older, I realized; she wasn’t omniscient; she just saw them on the floor and kicked them under the bed. It was her way of getting the housework done in a hurry.
But listen; God knows everything and when you think about the job of reaching the lost, did you know that God knows where everybody lives on this planet and it would be so much easier for Him to go and explain the gospel to them rather than having us build churches to support Bible colleges to train people to go and reach the lost but that’s what God has commanded ‘us’ to do.
So, He knows everything and when it comes to our spiritual responsibilities we’re either going to hear from God, “Well done, good and faithful servant” or, well, I’ll let you fill in the blanks. So, God is omniscient, He knows everything.
And then second, God is also omnipresent and that simply means that He’s everywhere. And this is a great comfort for believers but it’s a terrible thought for the unbelievers.
I like how the psalmist talks about heaven and space and says, “Whither shall I go from thy spirit? or whither shall I flee from thy presence? If I ascend up into heaven, thou art there.” So, this tells us that no astronaut can ever go far enough to get away from God. A few years ago there was a Russian cosmonaut who said he went to the very edge of space and he didn’t see God and W. A. Criswell said, “All he had to do was take off his helmet.”
We have a watercolor painting in our living room of two or three ducks flying; and it was given to us as a gift when we left Guelph by a very successful Christian artist from Ontario. I really like the painting but I also like the frame and the frame was made by her dad who was a construction engineer. He built a few small projects you may have heard of like the bridge to P.E.I., the Burlington Skyway and several others. And every time I look at that painting and notice the frame I’m amazed that someone who could build something so huge could also build something so small.
And then we have to keep in mind that God who hung all these planets and stars in the universe has focused His attention on our little bitty planet. And, in eternity past the Father looked down and saw us in sin and He said to the other members of the Godhead, “I’m either going to have to completely wipe them out or one of us is going to have to go down there and pay the penalty for their sin. And His Son said, “I’ll go.” And listen, when we think about how insignificant we are in the universe that makes Jesus sacrifice far greater than we can ever imagine.
God is omnipresent and that means He’s not only in the here and now but He’s also in the past and future. The psalmist said, “If I make my bed in hell, behold, thou art there.” And what he was saying was, there’s no escaping God in time or eternity because as the apostle Paul said, “Absence from the body is present with the Lord.” And it doesn’t matter if you’re buried, cremated or your body has been donated to science. If you’re absent from the body, you’re present with the Lord.
Allan J. Ryan wrote,
Got to thinkin’ a lot just the other day
Of the cost of a plot for to put me away
And the price of a box to keep me unbelievably dry
So I’ve decided after checkin’ around about
Reincarnation, incineration, cut-rate cremation
I’m goin’ back to university when I die.
But, listen, it doesn’t matter where the body is, because the soul is going to stand before God
And then the psalmist speaks about those who were lost at sea and he says, “If I take the wings of the morning, and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea; even there shall thy hand lead me, and thy right hand shall hold me.”
And then he spoke about the darkness and said, “If I say, surely the darkness shall cover me; even the night shall be light about me. Yea, the darkness hideth not from thee; but the night shineth as the day: the darkness and the light are both alike to thee.” Listen, he’s telling us, we can’t escape the presence God because He’s omnipresent and that means He’s everywhere, all the time.
And then third, David says, God is also omnipotent and that means He’s all powerful and that tells us there’s absolutely nothing that He cannot do. One writer said, “The power of God can be trusted without reservation because nothing is too hard for God. No prayer is too hard for Him to answer, no sin is too vile for Him to forgive, no misery too deep for Him to relieve. God makes fully known His strength in weakness and when we know ourselves to be weak, incapable and unworthy, then we can be strong in the Lord because then we can do all things in Christ Who strengthens us.”
Then David said, “For thou hast possessed my reins: thou hast covered me in my mother’s womb. I will praise thee; for I am fearfully and wonderfully made: marvellous are thy works; and that my soul knoweth right well. My substance was not hid from thee, when I was made in secret, and curiously wrought in the lowest parts of the earth. Thine eyes did see my substance, yet being unperfect; and in thy book all my members were written, which in continuance were fashioned, when as yet there was none of them. How precious also are thy thoughts unto me, O God! how great is the sum of them! If I should count them, they are more in number than the sand: when I awake, I am still with thee.” David says, God you are the creator of everything and I am fearfully and wonderfully made. In other words, and listen carefully, God has made everyone of us exactly the way He wanted. God doesn’t make mistakes and we are what we are for a reason.
I had to take a grade thirteen biology class when I was finishing at London and the teacher asked us what we would do to rearrange the human body to make it more efficient. And the conclusion we came to is, everything is right where it should be. I mean, if your nose was upside down and you sneezed you blow your hat off. If your eyes were at the end of your fingers they would be great for looking for change but you’d end up walking into things while you were doing it. Listen, God knew exactly what He was doing when He made us and He didn’t make any mistakes.
So, God knows everything and that tells us, there’s nothing we can do to pull the wool over His eyes. God’s everywhere, and there’s no where we can go to run away and hide. And God is all powerful so, there’s nothing we can ask that He can’t do it.
Now, going back to our text in Exodus we read where He says, “I am the Lord.” And as I’ve told you before all names have meaning. My first two names are Hugh and Wallace. Hugh means intelligent and Wallace means stranger. And if you put these together and you’ve got an intelligent stranger. But, my name originally was Wallace Hugh, so it actually means ‘a strange intelligence.’ (I didn’t pick these names, my mother did.)
The word for Lord is Jehovah and this is made up of three different words. The ‘Je’ means, ‘He that will be.” The ‘Hove’ means, “He that is.” And the “Yah’ means, “He that was.” And so, the name Jehovah means, “He that was, is and will be.” In other words, God is the eternal One and as far back or as far forward as the mind will go God is there.
So, who is God? On one hand, He’s completely beyond the comprehension of the smartest person in the world, while on the other; He’ll listen to and respond to the prayer of a little child. So, that’s who God is and then my second point is:
“What did He do? And in verse 2 it says, “I am the LORD thy God, which have brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage.” And here He’s reminding these people they were all saved from a life of slavery and bondage in the land of Egypt; and yet, when we get to the New Testament we see the Pharisees who were the very descendents of these people arguing with Jesus and they were saying, “We be Abraham’s descendants and we’ve never been anyone’s slaves” but their slavery was recorded by God right here in the Ten Commandments.
I guess when you’ve been in bondage long enough it’s hard to realize you are. A baby camel was asking his mother some questions one day and his first one was, “Mom, why do we have three toes?” And she said, “They are to help us walk in the sand.” And then he asked, “Why do we have such long eye lashes?” And she said, “Our eye lashes are to keep the sand out of our eyes as we cross the desert and encounter fierce wind storms.” And then he asked, “Why are we born with these huge humps on our backs?” and she said, “Why, they’re there so we can move about in the desert for long periods of time and not have to worry about thirsting to death.” He thought for a while and said, “One more question, mom, why do we live in a zoo?”
And that’s what these Pharisees were like. They had been in bondage to the Egyptians, the Babylonians, the Assyrians and several others and even now they were in subjection to the Roman government but they were acting like they were free to do whatever they wanted. And one the first key to getting free is to know you’re enslaved.
So, this commandment says, “I am the LORD thy God, which have brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage.” This verse also applies to us as we remind ourselves that we’ve also been saved from slavery and bondage but it wasn’t to Egypt; it was to sin. And when Jesus died on Calvary’s cross He redeemed us from the penalty of sin, the power of sin and someday we’ll be redeemed from the presence of sin.
In the Greek New Testament there are three words for redemption. There’s the term ‘agorazo’ and it means ‘to buy in the marketplace and it was generally used for buying slaves. As I Peter 1:18-19 say, “Forasmuch as ye know that ye were not redeemed with corruptible things, as silver and gold, from your vain conversation received by tradition from your fathers; but with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot.” So, all believers were bought from the world with the blood of Jesus Christ.
And then the second term used is ‘exagorazo” and it means, ‘to buy out of the marketplace” and the idea is that something has been bought and it’s no longer for sale. For instance, if you were out looking for a house and you saw a ‘sold’ sign in the front yard, you wouldn’t even look at that house because you know it belongs to someone else even though they haven’t moved in yet. Galatians 3:13 says, “Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us: for it is written, cursed is every one that hangeth on a tree.” And this tells us that Jesus has paid the penalty for our sin and someday He’s coming back to get that which belongs to Him. So, we basically we all have a sold sign on our lives.
And then the last term used is, ‘luterou’ and it means, ‘to loose or set free.” And it’s used in Romans 3:24 “Being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus.” And this speaks of the freedom from sin we enjoy while we’re still here because of what He’s done for us.
So, we are redeemed from the law, we are redeemed from the curse of the law, we are redeemed from slavery to sin and we’re even redeemed from our former lives.
Unfortunately, there are many people who are confused about the purpose of the commandments in light of the fact that none of us are saved by keeping the law and some have actually gone as far as to say that since they’re saved by grace they’re free to do anything they want. I remember, when I was involved in the charismatic movement in Toronto and we had a very large fellowship of around a thousand people and there were people from every background you could think of and there were no rules as long as you believed the Bible.
Well, there were a couple of old guys who came to the fellowship and by that I mean they were probably over sixty. (I was in my early twenties, so, I figured they were old. Today, they’d just be another couple of kids.) Well, any time these two guys showed up, they always had big cigars in their hands and they puffed away. If anybody said anything, they’d reach into their large briefcases that were full of books and show you from the Bible and various commentaries how they had the right to do whatever they wanted because they were saved by grace and they smoked away. You see, they said they were saved by grace and not because they quit smoking. Of course, I always thought, “You’re not going to go to hell for smoking; you’ll just smell like you just came from there.”
Then there are others use the law as the basis for judging and controlling others and these are the legalistic crowd and they have a rule for everything including what you eat and what you wear.
I heard the testimony the other day of a girl who had come from a very legalistic church in the southern states and she said she went to one of their Bible Colleges and the professors had a problem because they couldn’t agree on what color of car a Christian should drive. You see, that’s how far legalism goes.
Listen, the issue isn’t being free to sin or being so restrictive there’s no room for sin but are we really free from sin? And then God goes on and says, you who have been free from sin shall have no other gods before Me.
III Thou shalt have no other gods before Me.”
And every man seems to have his god. One writer said, “Whenever man dethrones God, he worships himself.” Our god is whatever we work for and devote our time and energy to.
There are people in this world who spend every waking moment in the pursuit of wealth. I remember reading Napoleon Hill’s book called, “Think and grow rich” and he said, “You have to have a goal bigger than you can possibly accomplish, then you visualize yourself achieving this goal, then you imagine people from history who’ve achieved this goal and imagine them talking to you and giving you advice and then don’t be surprised if they start telling you things you never thought of before.” And at that point I realized this was a program gearing your mind for demonic activity.
Another time I took a night school course on sales and selling and the teacher said, “Get yourself a few dollar bills. Feel it, touch it, talk to it and rub it on your face. Express your love for money and money will get to know you too.” Listen, anything we allow to come between us and God becomes our god and we are to have no other gods before the One true God.
God says He’s a jealous God and we have to understand that this jealousy is not a character flaw that springs from insecurity but it’s a protective love that cares for and watches over us. When our kids were small we took them to Disneyland and because there were big crowds there, we were very careful never to let them out of our sight. We were jealously guarding them not only for their safety but because we loved them.
Conclusion
So, “Thou shalt have no other gods before Me,” so, anything that takes the place of God in our lives is our god. And what He demands is absolute loyalty because He is the only one who is worthy of our attention and worship.
So, what is the purpose of the Ten Commandments? It’s what Jesus said in John 14:15, “If you love Me, you’ll keep My commandments.” And by being obedient we are displaying our love for Him.
