Sermon Series “Exodus”
Exodus 20:2-8
“The 10 Commands – Part 1”
Pastor John Bright
Exodus 20 “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.
4 “You shall not make for yourself a carved image—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 upon 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.
7 “You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain, for the Lord will not hold him guiltless who takes His name in vain.
8 “Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy.”
The 10 Commandments have been copied and parodied over and over. From a Mel Brooks movie to George Orwell’s “Animal Farm.”
Ever heard of the “10 Commandments for Cats”? Found this on the web -
1. Thou shalt not jump onto the keyboard when thy human is on the computer.
In the book, The Politically Correct Guide to the Bible (Moser, 1999), the 10 Commandments are called “10 Recommendations.” Others use the name “10 Suggestions.”
So, to take a fresh look at these verses from Exodus that are the basis for our US system of laws, I wanted to use a different name – Command. What’s that? Dictionary – “an authoritative order.” Rather than seeing these 10 Commands as old and outdated, as no longer needed for Christians, I want to see what they can teach us today.
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We typically divide the 10 Commands into two sections:
• VERTICAL - The first part of the 10 Commands focus on your relationship with God. That’s Commands 1-4. These are today’s teaching.
• HORIZONTAL – The remainder of the 10 Commands direct our relationships with other people. Those are Commands 5-10. We’ll cover those the next two weeks.
COMMAND ONE
Exodus 20 “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.”
This is God teaching about Himself. He showed them in Egypt that all the little “g” gods were all false gods by defeating each and every one. The Israelites will be exposed to many other gods along the way. They have entered a land where folks worship a multitude of little “g” gods. That’s our world, too!
We looked at so many of those little “g” gods back last year. God judged them all and defeated them all. When the people of the One True God live with so many other gods around then – they tend to drift away. We have been drifting away for quite a while. That’s why the very first Command establishes a position for Him – “I Am the Lord, your God.”
Living in a world with many little “g” gods is not a problem, unless we start drifting away. I remember that day many years ago when I first saw a book listed in our denomination’s curriculum catalog for a book entitled “Buddhist Prayers for Christians.” WHAT?!?! We don’t need those prayers. We have several thousand years of Jewish prayers and 2,000 years of Christian prayers to help us in our spiritual walks.
COMMAND TWO
Exodus 20 “4 “You shall not make for yourself a carved image—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 upon 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.”
NO IDOLS – that’s a simple one. The Israelites have left a land full of idols to false gods – big idols and little idols. We don’t do carved images. Whenever you make a god that will excuse your sin – that’s an idol. Or a god to excuse the sin of your kids/grandkids – that’s an idol. Let me explain what I mean when I say “excuse.” When we ask God to forgive us, we don’t plan on doing it again. When we ask God to excuse – we plan on doing it as much as we want. We want God to make an exception for us and the ones we love.
God is jealous for their obedience. So… there will be consequences:
• Punishment to the 3rd and 4th generations
• Love shown to 1000 generations
• Point is that punishment will be shorter for disobedience than the love shown for eternity. You will suffer the consequences for sin in this life, but that’s a blink of the eye compared to eternity.
COMMAND THREE
Exodus 20:7 – “You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain, for the Lord will not hold him guiltless who takes His name in vain.”
Let’s be clear – we live in a day when God’s name is trashed all the time! In movies and music, we hear the name of God used as a swear word all the time. This Command makes it crystal clear - the name of God must be respected. That name – I AM – was precious to them. It was so precious that the Israelites even found ways not to say God’s name out loud.
We live in a different day – we have a new name that’s precious. Jesus is the name we treat as precious – Phil. 2 “9 Therefore God also has highly exalted Him and given Him the name which is above every name, 10 that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of those in heaven, and of those on earth, and of those under the earth,”
We still need to respect God’s name. About 25 years ago, I was working with the District Youth group leadership. At a planning retreat, they did a lesson/devotion on not taking the Lord’s name in vain. It mentioned a phrase they all liked to use back then, “OH MY GOD!” They used a high-pitched voice. So, these folks looked at the only preacher in the room - wanting an excuse/exception. I told them it meant any common or non-holy use of the word, not just the curse words. Suddenly, I was swimming in a room full of teen aged anger. They were so mad and would not let go of it. It got worse so I left the retreat. I never heard from one of those youth that because of God’s Command they stopped saying it, but that’s why I had to tell them the truth.
COMMAND FOUR
Exodus 20 “8 Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. 9 Six days you shall labor and do all your work, 10 but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord your God. In it you shall do no work: you, nor your son, nor your daughter, nor your male servant, nor your female servant, nor your cattle, nor your stranger who is within your gates. 11 For in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested the seventh day. Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and hallowed it.”
There are three parts to this Command – v. 8 is the Command, v. 9-10 explains what it means to keep the Sabbath and v. 11 gives the reason.
The Israelites are told to remember. This is a consistent theme so far in Exodus. God has been at work to care for His people – and us.
What are we called to remember? The works of the Father in the Old Testament. The works of the Son - His life, death and resurrection that secures the gift of eternal life for us. The works of the Holy Spirit in the Early Church as recorded in Acts and the Epistles. The last on the list is a great cloud of witnesses. Hebrews 12:1 “Therefore we also, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which so easily ensnares us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us,”
Our “great cloud” are those who have gone before us in the Church. We have to remember what they gave us – The Apostolic Faith. That way, we don’t remake the Bible and the Faith whenever the circumstances change. We stand on the foundation given to us by the generation that came before us and they stood on the foundation of faith given to them by the previous generation. What will we remember? How much God had cared for us? Will we give that to the next generation?
Amen.
TEACHING SHEET
(date)
Sermon Series: Exodus
Exodus 20:2-8
“10 Commands – Part 1”
Two Directions of Commands
VERTICAL - The first part of the 10 Commands focus on your relationship with God.
HORIZONTAL – The remainder of the 10 Commands direct our relationships with other people.
COMMAND ONE
Exodus 20 “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.”
This is God teaching about Himself. He showed them in Egypt that all the “little g” gods were all false gods by defeating each and every one. The Israelites will be exposed to many other gods along the way. They have entered a land where folks worship a multitude of “little g” gods. That’s our world, too!
COMMAND TWO
Exodus 20 “4 “You shall not make for yourself a carved image—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 upon 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.”
The Israelites have left a land full of idols to false gods – big idols and little idols. Whenever you make a god that will excuse your sin – that’s an idol.
God is jealous for their obedience. So… there will be consequences:
• Punishment to the 3rd and 4th generations
• Love shown to 1000 generations
• Point is that punishment will be shorter for disobedience than the love shown for eternity. You will suffer the consequences for sin in this life, but that’s a blink of the eye compared to eternity.
COMMAND THREE
Exodus 20:7 – ““You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain, for the Lord will not hold him guiltless who takes His name in vain.”
The name of God must be respected. That name – I AM – was precious to them. Jesus is the name we treat as precious – Phil. 2 “9 Therefore God also has highly exalted Him and given Him the name which is above every name, 10 that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of those in heaven, and of those on earth, and of those under the earth,”
COMMAND FOUR
There are three parts to this Command – v. 8 is the Command,
v. 9-10 explains what it means to keep the Sabbath and v. 11 gives the reason. The Israelites are told to remember. This is a consistent theme so far in Exodus. God has been at work to care for His people – and us. What are we called to remember? Works of the Father, Son & Holy Spirit/cloud of witnesses.
Next week – Ex. 20:12-21
