Moses on the Mountain with the Lord - Part 11
(The Ten Commandments - Part 1)
Exodus 20:1-6 & 31:18
Sermon by Rick Crandall
McClendon Baptist Church - September 1, 2010
BACKGROUND & INTRODUCTION:
*As we start tonight, Moses has had an amazing, unique experience. Moses has had his fifth meeting with the Lord on Mount Sinai. In fact, Moses has been with the Lord God Himself for 40 days! (1)
*So tonight we will start by reading Exodus 31:18: “And when He (i.e. the Lord) had made an end of speaking with him on Mount Sinai, He gave Moses two tablets of the Testimony, tablets of stone, written with the finger of God.”
*Now let me ask you to turn back to Exodus 20 where we will see the 10 Commandments spelled out. Remember that it was here in Exodus 20 that God began speaking from the top of Mount Sinai so that everyone in the camp could audibly his words. Here God recited all of the Ten Commandments to give sure testimony to all the Israelites that the commands being given were indeed from the Lord, and not something that Moses thought up by himself.
*The people were so terrified by the Lord’s voice that they begged Moses to be the go-between, and he was. So the Lord wrote the Ten Commandments on stone.
*But whatever happened to the Ten Commandments? -- Exodus 32 tells us that the first set was thrown down and broken by Moses when he discovered the great sin the people had fallen into while he was on the mountain with the Lord. Thankfully, the Lord would write a second copy when Moses went back up the mountain in Exodus 34.
*But whatever happened to the Ten Commandments in 21st Century USA?
-It is ironic that there are many representations of the Ten Commandments in our Supreme Court Building, because our Supreme Court has done everything possible to remove them from the public square.
*The Court that has shown repeated hostility to Ten Commandments displays in other courtrooms and public buildings. In Stone v. Graham in 1980, the Supreme Court held that Kentucky schools could not display the Ten Commandments on classroom walls because “if the posted copies of the Ten Commandments are to have any effect at all, it will be to induce the schoolchildren to read, meditate upon, perhaps to venerate and obey, the Commandments,” which, the Court said, is “not a permissible state objective under the Establishment Clause.” (2)
*What a foolish decision! Guiding your life by the virtues of the Ten Commandments is one of the wisest decisions anyone could ever make.
-God gives us His rules not to hurt us but to help us!
*Steve Brown once explained it something like this:
-“Contrary to popular opinion, sin is not what you want to do but can’t; it is what you should not do because it will hurt you, -- and hurt you bad. God is not a selfish dictator. He is a Father concerned about His children.
*When a child picks up a snake and the father says, ‘Put that down right this minute!’ the child thinks he’s losing a toy. But he is not losing a toy; he is losing a deadly danger.” (3)
*So, God wants to keep us out of trouble. And the Ten Commandments help us see how. But before we start looking at each of the ten, let me ask you: Which is the greatest commandment in the law? -- Many of you already know.
*This is the question a lawyer had on his mind, when he quizzed Jesus one day.
-And in Matthew 22:37-40:
37. Jesus said to him, “‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.’
38. This is the first and great commandment.
39. And the second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’
40. On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets.”
*Every single commandment of God hangs on love, God’s kind of agape love.
-The love God wants to grow in us is like a giant beam that holds up all of the law. Matthew Henry said that if you take away love, then “all the law falls to the ground and comes to nothing.” (4)
*We also see the significance of this love in Romans 13:8-10, where Paul wrote:
8. Owe no one anything except to love one another, for he who loves another has fulfilled the law.
9. For the commandments, "You shall not commit adultery,’’ "You shall not murder,’’ "You shall not steal,’’ "You shall not bear false witness,’’ "You shall not covet,’’ and if there is any other commandment, are all summed up in this saying, namely, "You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’’
10. Love does no harm to a neighbor; therefore love is the fulfillment of the law.
*Anything God ever asked anyone to do or not to do can all be traced back to love. All of the commandments hang on the love that God wants to give to you.
*It’s the same kind of love that brings salvation to the lost.
-In Romans 5:8, “God showed his great love for us by sending Christ to die for us while we were still sinners.”
-In the New Living Translation, 1 John 4:9-10 tells us, “God showed how much he loved us by sending his only Son into the world so that we might have eternal life through him. This is real love. It is not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as a sacrifice to take away our sins.”
*The love that led Jesus Christ to die on the cross for our sins is the same love that God wants to grow in our hearts. This kind of love is the sign of our life as believers. As Jesus said In John 13:34-35, “A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another; As I have loved you, that you also love one another. By this all will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another.”
*When you listen to this description of love in 1 Corinthians 13, it’s no wonder that our Christ-like love is a shining light in our dark world.
4. Love suffers long and is kind; love does not envy; love does not parade itself, is not puffed up;
5. does not behave rudely, does not seek its own, is not provoked, thinks no evil;
6. does not rejoice in iniquity, but rejoices in the truth;
7. bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.
8. Love never fails. . . (1 Cor 13:4-8a)
*God wants to give us more love like that, so Romans 5:5 tells believers that “the love of God has been poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit who was given to us.”
*And when it comes to the Ten Commandments, we will look at them in the light of love, both vertical love and horizontal love, that is, love for God and love for man.
1. First: Love the Lord by giving your testimony.
*This is something we need to see back in Exodus 31:18. Listen to it again:
18. And when He had made an end of speaking with him on Mount Sinai, He gave Moses two tablets of the TESTIMONY, tablets of stone, written with the finger of God.
*The Ten Commandments were a testimony from God. The Lord uses this word 21 times in the book of Exodus, and it simply means a witness or a testimony.
*Giving a testimony is important to God. And this never stood out to me more than it does now. Every Christian has a testimony. Every Christian has a story.
-How did you come to know Jesus?
-Why did you come to this church?
-Why did you come back?
-What difference has God made in your life through the ministry of our church?
*God can use your testimony to encourage fellow believers. He can even use your testimony to help reach the lost.
-Please know that your testimony is important to the Lord.
-So love God by giving your testimony.
2. And love the Lord by keeping Him on the throne of your heart.
*This is the principle of God’s first Commandment. We see it in Exodus 20:1-3:
1. And God spoke all these words, saying:
2. “I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage.
3. You shall have no other gods before Me.”
*God says, “You shall have no other gods before Me.” God greatly desires to be on the throne of your heart.
-But who is on the throne of your heart tonight?
-Who is number one in your life?
*God says, “You shall have no other (little “g”) gods before Me.”
-And I don’t think anyone here is in danger of worshipping one of the ancient pagan or Hindu gods. But sometimes the “little ‘g’” god on the throne of our lives is us. You have to remember that we were created in the image of God. And in Psalm 82:6, the Lord calls us little “g” gods. But He certainly doesn’t want me on the throne of my life.
-Who is on the throne of your heart tonight?
-Who is number one in your life?
*Most, maybe all of us here tonight are believers. We’re saved! We have trusted in Jesus Christ as our Savior and Lord. But we have a tendency to be drawn away. James 1:14 tells us that “Every man is tempted, when he is drawn away by his own lust, and enticed.”
*John Piper says that sin “gets its power by persuading me to believe that I will be more happy if I follow it. The power of all temptation is the prospect that it will make me happier.” (5)
*And so, like the Christians of Ephesus in Revelation 2, we are tempted to leave our first love for Jesus. We are tempted to put other things (especially ourselves) before Him in our hearts. We are often unaware of the danger and the damage done when we put other things in front of God.
*Roberta Messner was reminded of that just after Christmas some years ago. She was browsing through a local flea market when she came across an antique Manger scene. The price was too good to be true!
*When Roberta questioned the owner, she confirmed that it was the correct price. “You can have it for a dollar,” she said. “It’s all there except Jesus.”
*No wonder the price was so low! Then, Roberta realized that she was just like that manger scene. She had been going through life without making Jesus the center-piece of her activities. No wonder her heart was troubled. (6)
*God desires to be on the throne of our lives, and God deserves to be on the throne of our lives. So love God by keeping Him on the throne of your heart.
3. And love the Lord by honoring Him with your talents.
*This is a key principle of God’s 2nd Commandment, and we see it in Exodus 20:4-6:
4. "You shall not make for yourself a carved image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth;
5. you shall not bow down to them nor serve them. For I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and fourth generations of those who hate Me,
6. but showing mercy to thousands, to those who love Me and keep My commandments.
*God said not to make any idols to worship, and this was a big problem for the children of Israel. In fact, they were busy making an idol before Moses even got down off the mountain with the Ten Commandments.
*In Exodus 32:7-9:
7. The Lord said to Moses, "Go, get down! For your people whom you brought out of the land of Egypt have corrupted themselves.
8. They have turned aside quickly out of the way which I commanded them. They have made themselves a molded calf, and worshiped it and sacrificed to it, and said, `This is your god, O Israel, that brought you out of the land of Egypt!’ ’’
9. And the Lord said to Moses, "I have seen this people, and indeed it is a stiff-necked people!
*Idolatry was a terrible and recurring sin of the Children of Israel until the end of the Babylonian captivity. Somehow that seemed to finally rid them of the curse of idolatry.
*But what about us? Are we tempted to make idols? -- I don’t think you could ever see us bowing down before a golden calf. But what about the things we make, the abilities God has given us, the money we have, the things we enjoy.
*Turns out, people can and do make idols out of just about everything. ANYTHING THAT COMES BETWEEN ME AND GOD IS AN IDOL IN MY LIFE.
*And there is a lot of selfish pride at the heart of this idolatry. It’s what I like, what I want, what I can do. If we build it ourselves, it’s so easy to get puffed up with pride, as if we don’t need God, as if we don’t need His mercy.
-I’m talking about self-sufficiency, the attitude that says: “I can do it myself!
*We’ve probably all said that. And we’ve heard our children say that.
-Maybe they are trying to tie their shoes, and they haven’t quite got it yet, so you try to help them, but they say, “No -- I can do it myself! I can take care of myself.”
*Self-sufficiency is a natural tendency for fallen man.
-“I’ll make my own gods.”
-“I’ll be my own god.”
*Here the Lord reminds us that this kind of pride is very dangerous, because it can affect not only me, but my children, my grandchildren and on down the line.
*The Lord makes this clear in vs. 5: “You shall not bow down to them nor serve them. For I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and fourth generations of those who hate Me.”
*Most, if not all of us face the temptation of pride: Trusting in the works of our hands, instead of trusting in God.
-But it is always best to trust in the Lord and give Him the glory for every good thing in our lives: The thing we have and the things we can do.
-It is always best to humble ourselves and honor God with our talents.
*And that’s as far as we can get tonight, but the bottom line is: Love the Lord!
-Love the Lord by giving your testimony whenever you can.
(My sister met a man a few weeks ago who told her that he tried to never let 15 minutes go by in a conversation without saying something about the Lord.)
-Love the Lord by keeping Him on the throne of your heart.
-And love the Lord by honoring Him with your talents, the work of your hands.
*Let’s go to the Lord in prayer.
1. Good explanation of Moses’ time on the mountain: “Seven Ascents” by Richard Gamble - www.heraldmag.org/2006/06mj_3.htm
2. Source with pictures: http://morallaw.org/blog/?p=31
3. Adapted from Steve Brown in Key Life (July-August 1994). Christianity Today, Vol. 38, no. 11 (Found in Bible Illustrator for windows - Topic: Teacher - Subtopic: God as - Index: 3556 - Date: 4/1998.1125 - Title: Our Father Knows Best)
4. Matthew Henry in his commentary on Matthew 22:34-40
5. Source: Sermonillustrations.com - Temptation
6. Roberta Messner, Daily Guideposts 2000 Carmel, N.Y.: Guideposts, 1999, pg. 369 - (Found in Dynamic Preaching JFM01 - Epiphany)
