INTRODUCTION
• How many of you have seen the epic, The Ten Commandments with Charlton Heston? What a great classic. I really believe that Moses looks like Charlton Heston!
• What are the Ten Commandments? Are they a set of archaic rules that were meant for people a few thousand years ago? Are they Commands we are to follow to earn our salvation? Are they just Ten Suggestions that can me ignored or changed at our leisure? Could society function without them?
• Today I am going to start us through a series on the Ten Commandments. As we look at each of them we will be able to answer questions like, “What does each one say and not say?” “What place should they have in the life of the Christian?” In themselves, are they a means of salvation? What was the purpose of the Ten Commandments or the Law?
• The Ten Commandments can be broken down into 2 sections, the first four dealing with our relationship with God and the last six dealing with our relationship with our fellow man.
• In Matthew 22:36 when Jesus was asked what the greatest commandment in the Law was He answers, MAT 22:37-40 And He said to him, "’You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ "This is the great and foremost commandment.” The second is like it, ’You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ "On these two commandments depend the whole Law and the Prophets."
• These are not specified in the Ten Commandments, but Jesus is telling us loving God and loving our fellow man is the foundation of the Law.
• As we look at the commandments, I will be using Exodus 20 as my main text for this series. We will also look at Exodus 34 and Deuteronomy 4-5 throughout. I would like for everyone to read these texts over the next few weeks as we go along.
• Today we are going to start in Exodus 20:1-2. There has been debate over whether this first commandment should include verse 3 or stop at verse 2. Catholic and Lutheran scholars will include verse 3, Jewish scholars and some protestant scholars will cut it off at verse 2 as I will.
• Today we are going to look at the First Commandment!
• READ EXODUS 20:1-2
SERMON
I. AN IDENTIFICATION IS MADE- I AM THE LORD YOUR GOD
• By cutting the first commandment off at verse 2 it may be a little bit tough at first glance to see what is being said.
• As we look at this first commandment, we need to understand that the statement “Ten commandments” is not how God addressed them as He wrote them. It was at the second writing of them (after Moses destroyed the first) in Exodus 34:28 where we first find them called the Ten Commandments, and then in Deuteronomy that statement is repeated in 4:13 and 10:4.
• The reason I bring this up is when we hear the word “commandments”, we think of “thou shall not” and “thou shall” statements. The Hebrew word which we translate “commandment” actually is usually translated “words” (see NASB marginal reading) or more accurately “sayings” or “declarations”. In Exodus 20:1 where it says God spoke all these “words”, the Hebrew word is the same as in Exodus 34:28 and we translate it “commandments”.
• What God is doing is establishing who He is in this first statement. He is saying that HE IS THE LORD GOD. The Israelites had been in bandage for 400 plus years, they had lived in a land where many gods were worshipped. God’s first “word”, “saying” or “declaration” was that HE was the ONE true God.
• As we look at this first commandment, this helps us to see that God lays down the authority of the one God more than commanding belief in one God. (Dr Laura, The Ten Commandments p.6) Belief in God would be hard to command.
• Without establishing the authority of God, then the subsequent commands or “words” would be without meaning.
• Listen to this statement from Secular Humanist Lewis Vaugh from an article from FREE INQUIRY MAGAZINE (Volume 19, Number 4) (http://www.secularhumanism.org/library/fi/vaughn_19_4.html)
• In this Article entitled “Protect My Children from the Ten Commandments, Mr. Vaughn states as the 5th of 7 reasons the 10 Commandments should not be posted 5. They have no divine authority.
The Ten Commandments are presumed to have divine authority. To many, this means that certain acts are right or wrong because God says they’re right or wrong. That is, God is the author of morality; there is no morality independent of God’s commandments. If God had not said that adultery was wrong, it would not be wrong. But if this were true, then God could just as easily have commanded that we go forth and murder our mothers, rape our neighbors, and rob our friends. And God’s saying that these actions are right would make them right. But this is absurd. Clearly these actions would be wrong regardless of what God commanded
• This goes back to the question of wondering if society could function without objective standards. If there is no standard (God), then who gets to decide what is right and wrong? George Washington said our rule of law was based on the 10 C.
• JUDGES 21:25 In those days there was no king in Israel; everyone did what was right in his own eyes.
• When this happens, you have chaos!
• God starts us off by letting us know that He has and is the divine authority. Our belief of lack there of does not change that with all due respect to Mr. Vaughn!
II. A RELATIONSHIP IS ESTABLISHED- WHO BROUGHT YOU OUT OF EGYPT
• When you look at this opening commandment, is there something that strikes you as a bit odd? Look at verse 2 closely.
• After God identifies Himself as being their God, what does He appeal to in order to give evidence of this? Does He say, “I am the creator and you WILL follow me?”
• Does He appeal to being all-powerful, all-knowing or all-present? No, look at the appeal.
• I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt.
• Instead of appealing to His power and might, He appeals to His compassion, mercy, care and love for His people. He appeals to the fact He is their provider and protector.
• God is trying to appeal to the people from a standpoint of love, not fear!
• 1 JOHN 4:18 There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear, because fear involves punishment, and the one who fears is not perfected in love.
• God still appeals to us in the same way. He showed it in the deepest way possible by sending Jesus. (John 3:16)
• God still loves us, provide, protects, and cares for us.
• God could have said, YOU WILL OBEY OR ELSE, but instead He says, I am the one who loves you, follow me.
• God is reflecting a parent-child relationship with us. He is showing that love for us also. In Exodus 6:5-7 God says, "And furthermore I have heard the groaning of the sons of Israel, because the Egyptians are holding them in bondage; and I have remembered My covenant.”Say, therefore, to the sons of Israel, ’I am the Lord, and I will bring you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians, and I will deliver you from their bondage. I will also redeem you with an outstretched arm and with great judgments. ’Then I will take you for My people, and I will be your God; and you shall know that I am the Lord your God, who brought you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians.
• Once again if you look at verse two, God sates He is “the Lord YOUR God.
• The bible reveals Gods desire to have a relationship with us. God has intervened in history to show us that. God sent His Son Jesus to die for you because He wants a relationship with YOU!
• People turn to God in times of trouble. Usually it is to offer God something IF He does something miraculous for THEM. This is not the type of relationship God is looking for. Do you want your kids to base their relationship with you because you buy them things or do you want something deeper with more meaning?
• People want miracles for comfort instead of seeking and developing a long-term relationship with God.
III. A RESPONSE IS EXPECTED- BY IMPLICATION
• Commanded behavior is something we resist, don’t we? Not too many of us like being told what to do. By implication, God expects something from us, an obedient response.
• Why do I have to follow God’s Law? Because He is God and I am not!
• How many of us have gotten into one of those discussions with your children over an issue where you wanted them to obey a certain command from you, but then they would sit there and question why they should or as they got older challenge you with, “Who are you to tell me I cannot go?”
• Why do I have to do it? BECAUSE I AM YOUR PARENT AND I SAY YOU WILL DO IT!
• People want freedom, but freedom requires responsibility. It takes us a while to figure this simple truth out. God desires a response from us and that response is to obey. I can list passages all day on this.
• JOHN 3:36 "He who believes in the Son has eternal life; but he who does not obey the Son will not see life, but the wrath of God abides on him."
• DEUT 28:15 "But it shall come about, if you do not obey the Lord your God, to observe to do all His commandments and His statutes with which I charge you today, that all these curses will come upon you and overtake you:
CONCLUSION
• To accept the first commandment is to accept the idea that God is at least as demanding of us as we are in our relationships with each other.
• The first commandment reminds us that our relationship with God is not casual but covenantal! (Dr. Laura p 12 The Ten Commandments)
• This first statement from God shows us that He loves us and that He has the authority to set the standards of conduct.
• Too many of us are a god unto ourselves, we set ourselves up as god. The problem with this other than the fact it is not true is that we will never rise above ourselves. Ray McClendon of the Church of Christ of Hesperia, CA says, “We either acknowledge our creation in the image of the objective God revealed in the Scripture, or we inevitably MAKE GOD in OUR own image.”
