Sunday, January 22, 2023 PM

Well, we're going to continue our study about the Ten Commandments, which is also spoken in terms of the Word of God, or the Ten Words. And we are going to be studying this very famous list of commandments in light of Jesus.

Christ.

For He is the light of the world, and so He is the light of the Word. And so we are to understand the Ten Commandments in view of Him. And we've done a little bit of background, but this evening we're going to ask a couple of questions and then begin to talk about the First Commandment.

So let's go ahead and pray together, and then we'll proceed. Father, we thank You for the night. We thank You for the opportunity to learn from Your Word. I pray that it will be a blessing, that it would encourage us, that You would lead us and guide us to follow after Your Son, Jesus Christ.

It is in His name that we pray, Amen. So I've got something of two trick questions, now so that everyone will be afraid to answer. But some important questions about the Ten Commandments. The first question is, does the law have a beginning?

Does the law have a beginning? Yes or no? Why or why not? It's test time. Yes, it has a beginning. Why does it have a beginning? How do we know that it has a beginning? So now we're going to identify, when did the law begin then?

It was over 400 years after the promise was given to Abraham. So let's look at that really briefly. Let's go to Galatians chapter 3 and verse 17. Now of course it's always a challenging thing when we're thinking about the law of God.

We read about the law of God throughout all of Scripture. Of course the famous chapter being Psalm 119, 176 verses, is all about the goodness of God's law, His Torah, His instruction, His teaching. In some ways we're a little bit concerned, are we not, that if we say that the law has a beginning, well, isn't it the Word of God?

Isn't it eternal? But what does it mean that the law has a beginning? Galatians chapter 3 and verse 17 says, and this I say, that the law, which was 430 years later, later after the promise that God made to Abraham, the promises were made to Abraham and to his seed, and Paul says that means to Christ, the law, which was 430 years later, cannot annul the covenant that was confirmed before God, before, by God, in Christ, that it should make the promise of no effect.

Verse 19 says, what purpose then does the law serve? It was added because of transgressions till the seed should come, to whom the promise was made, and it was appointed through angels by the hand of a mediator.

So this is an indication that to borrow an Arian hymn, there was when the law was not. Some of you got the joke, that's alright. But the point is that the law had a beginning. There was a point in time when people were functioning, not outside the authority of the Creator, who had made them in His image.

They weren't functioning in a world where there was no sin or wrongdoing determined by the very character of God, but they were indeed living in a time when the law that was given to Moses was not in effect, was not in operation.

There was when the law was not. There was the commandment of the Garden of Eden, wasn't there? You shall not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. In other words, you do not get to determine good and evil for yourself.

It's God's right and His right alone. To support the fact that the law has a beginning, we also have Romans chapter 5. Romans chapter 5, a couple of verses there. Romans 5 beginning in verse 12. Therefore, just as through one man sin entered the world, and death through sin, and thus death spread to all men because all sinned, parenthesis, for until the law sin was in.

The world.

But sin is not imputed when there is no law, meaning sin was in the world before the law was given where we had the covenant that God made with Israel at Sinai, and the guilt of the people, the guilt of some of the people was put upon all of the people, and Israel would stood in guilt before God.

Also, Romans 5 in verse 20, moreover the law entered that the offense might abound. So just like he says in Galatians, Paul is saying there was a moment in which the law came upon stage, it wasn't there at one point, but at one point it comes into play.

It's an interesting moment where the Pharisees, the Sadducees, the religious leaders are trying to trap Jesus about the question of marriage and divorce. And they manipulate and twist the words of Moses, saying that Moses commanded us to divorce.

Our wives.

And then Jesus corrected them on what he actually said. But then Jesus says, from the beginning it was not so, meaning prior to the giving of the law, there was no such thing as the functionality of some legal thing as divorce.

Prior to the law, from the beginning. Very interesting. So the law does have a beginning, and that beginning was at Sinai. God brought his people up out of Egypt. He rescued them from the tyranny, from the murderous tyranny of Pharaoh and the Egyptians.

And he brought them out into the wilderness. He brought them to Mount Sinai, and there he made a covenant with them, and he gave them his law. We are told that he built the law personally upon stone tablets, gave them to Moses, and Moses gave them to the people.

And they were called the Testimony, they were called the Covenant, and when they were put in the golden box, that was called the Ark of the Covenant, the Ark of the Testimony. So the law does have a beginning.

Now the question is, does the law have an end? The law has an end, okay? And what is the end of the law? I'm sorry, who? I told you it was going to be a trick question. Who is the end of the law? Well, it's the one who brought about the New Covenant.

Christ brought the New Covenant about in his blood. He said this, he gave the cup to his followers, and he said, this cup is my blood of the New Covenant which is shed for many. And on the arrival of the New Covenant, in the life and death and resurrection of Jesus Christ and the giving of the Holy Spirit, in the arrival of the New Covenant, the apostles, the writers of the New Testament, all of them unanimously began to teach and to preach and to declare that they were living in the last days of the Old Covenant.

Hebrews 8, 13 says, the old is now obsolete and ready to pass away. And Jesus said within this generation, not one stone of the temple shall be left upon the other. An Old Covenant practice, such as offering sacrifices at the temple, going up to the temple three times a year, all the men of Israel, and going through all of that, all that came to an end in AD 70 with the destruction of the temple in Jerusalem exactly as Jesus said it would.

So he told the truth. So the law does have an end. There is a time in which the law ceases to function in the way that it did in the life of Israel. The law has an end in the sense that it is fulfilled in Christ.

So let's look in Galatians chapter 4, and we are saying that the law has a beginning and the law has an end. Part of the trick question is, of course, we are talking about the Ten Commandments, but something to remember is that when the Bible talks about the law, very, very often and the majority of the time it is talking about more than the Ten Commandments.

So that is another part of the trick question.

Sorry.

We will talk more about that next time as the Lord wills. Galatians chapter 4, verses 1 -7. Now I say that the heir, as long as he is a child, does not differ at all from the slave, though he is master of all, but is under guardians and stewards until the time appointed by the.

Father.

Even so, here is the example, here is the analogy, even so we, when we were children, we were in bondage under the elements of the world, but when the fullness of the time had come, God sent forth his son, born of a woman, born under the law, and remember that Christ fulfilled all righteousness.

He perfectly, the only one ever to do so, he perfectly did everything in the law. And he came, born of a woman, born under the law, Galatians 4, verse 5, to redeem those who were under the law that we might receive the adoption of sons.

So we move, in Christ, we move from slaves to sons. We were once under the law, but now it's different. Verse 6, and because you are sons, God has sent forth the spirit of his son, the spirit, the preeminent son of the new covenant, the spirit of his son into your hearts, crying out, Abba, father, no longer slaves, but now children, therefore you are no longer a slave but a son, and if a son, then an heir of God through Christ, an heir of God through.

Christ.

So the law does have an end. Paul talks about the nature of marriage, that as long as a woman is married to a man, she belongs to him, but once he dies, she is free from that law of marriage and she is free to marry again.

He uses this as an illustration of what happens when we die with Christ by faith and are raised to new life, that we are now dead, the relationship between us and the law, in other words he is speaking to his brethren, he says, you have become dead to the law through the body of Christ, that you may be married to another, to him who was raised from the dead.

There's an end of the law in that sense. There's also an end of the law in the way that Christ fulfills it. Romans chapter 10, beginning in verse 1, brethren, my heart's desire and prayer to God for Israel is that they may be saved, for I bear them witness that they have a zeal for God, but not according to knowledge.

Now they're pretty knowledgeable, they had a lot of things memorized, Pharisees could out-quote almost anyone except for Jesus, pretty smart guys, Nicodemus was highly educated. However, they have a zeal but not according to knowledge, not according to true knowledge.

Why?

They are ignorant of God's righteousness, for they being ignorant of God's righteousness and seeking to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted to the righteousness of.

God.

Which is what?

For Christ is the end of the law, the telos of the law, the fulfillment of the law, the penultimate accomplishment of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes. So Moses writes about the righteousness which is of the law, the man who does these things shall live by them, just give it a try.

You're going to live and die by the law, you're not going to be alive long, you're not going to succeed. But the righteousness of God apart from the law is revealed being witnessed by the law and the prophets, Paul says in Romans 3 .21.

So Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes, so Christ has fulfilled the law, those who are in Christ therefore have his righteousness covering them. And then Paul goes on to talk about how one comes by such righteousness and it is through Christ, by faith in him.

So the law does indeed have a beginning, it does indeed have an end. Now in saying that, in saying that, we are not saying that murder was not a sin before the Ten Commandments, and now that Christ has fulfilled the Ten Commandments, murder is just perfectly fine.

That's not what is meant by that. But the purpose and the role of the law is something that we need to explore further. The character of God, God himself, he's the one who determines what is right and wrong.

That's what the temptation was in the garden. Satan says to Adam and Eve, don't you want to be just like God determining good and evil?

Right?

That's the attraction of eating from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. But that is not the role of the creature, that is the role of the creator. He determines right and wrong, he has always done so, he always will do so.

Now let's go to the Ten Commandments. We can look in Exodus chapter 20, we'll go to Exodus 21 and read verses 1 -3. And the Ten Commandments that were given at Mount Sinai are a summary of all that God desires from His people Israel, how they are to think, how they are to live, what they.

Are to do.

It is called the Testimony, it is called the Covenant, it is placed into the Ark of the Covenant, and it stands in as a summary of everything else. All the 613 commands can find some connection to these ten.

The whole law is being required of the Israelites. So in preamble as well, Exodus 20 verses 1 -3, and God spoke all these words saying, I am the Lord your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage, you shall have no other gods before me.

So there is a clear understanding of who is in charge, God is in charge. He says, I rescued you, you are my people, and here is how things are going to go. Here is how we are going to relate. You, all of y 'all and me, here is how we are going to relate.

And the very first thing I've got to say is this, you are going to have no other gods before me. Now, let's go to Deuteronomy, Deuteronomy is Deutero, second, nami, law, the second giving of the law, where Moses is preaching to that second generation that survived the forty years of wandering in the wilderness, just prior to them entering into the land of Canaan under the leadership of Joshua.

And we have again the Ten Commandments in Deuteronomy, and there is a little bit more of a preamble in this second giving of the Ten Commandments. So Deuteronomy 5, beginning in verse 1,. And Moses called all Israel and said to them, Hear, O Israel, the statutes and judgments which I speak in your hearing today, that you may learn them, and be careful to observe them.

The Lord our God made a covenant with us in Horeb. The Lord did not make this covenant with our fathers, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, you know, those guys, but with us, those who are here today, all of us who are alive.

The Lord talked with you face to face on the mountain from the midst of the fire. I stood between the Lord and you at that time to declare to you the word of the Lord, for you were afraid because of the fire, and you did not go up to the mountain.

He said, I am the Lord your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. You shall have no other gods before me. This is the covenant that God made with Israel. This is the way he dealt with Israel, having rescued them from the land of Egypt.

Now, commandment number 1, you shall have no other gods before me. Well, just what other gods were there to choose from? Who might they be tempted to worship? Any ideas? We just had a great reading from 1 Kings 18.

How often do we read and hear the stories of how Israel was worshipping Baal again? The storm god of the Canaanites, right? They're always worshipping Baal. But, fresh out of Egypt, before they get to Canaan, before they ever learn about El and Baal, and Asherah, the consort of Baal, before they ever learn the Canaanite pantheon of gods, who would they be tempted to worship at that time?

The gods of the Egyptians, right? There was the sun god Ra, there was all sorts of gods of Egypt, Pharaoh himself claimed to be a god. The Nile itself was worshipped as a god. Now, what did, in God's merciful providence, what did he do for the Israelites in the way that he delivered them up out of Egypt?

How many plagues were there? Ten plagues. Ten plagues. And each one of the plagues, in some fashion, took aim at one of the gods of Egypt and proved that they were nothing. That, even though the Egyptians might make a whole lot of noise in trying to get the attention of these gods to gain their favor so they could have a better way of life, in the end, just like in 1 Kings 18, no one heard it, no one paid attention.

It was nothing. But God proved that the so-called gods of Egypt were nothing by the way that he sent all of these ten wonders, these ten plagues, and destroyed them all. And even Pharaoh himself ended up at the bottom of the Red Sea, proving that, you know, he was no god.

So God says, look, I brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage, you shall have no other gods before me. Now this is a very important instruction, especially considering the fact that while Moses is up on Mount Sinai receiving the Ten Commandments, what's going on down the hill?

Yeah, Israel's having a big party. And they take the gold that they were given and plundered from the land of Egypt by God's great power and they bring it to Aaron and say, we don't know where this Moses guy is, we don't think he's coming back down.

Here, make us gods. And Aaron took the gold and they melted it down and they crafted a golden calf to worship. One of the gods of Egypt. And they said, this is the god who brought you up out of Egypt.

They pointed to it. Later on when Aaron, you remember Aaron's supposed to be like, you know, the high priest and the holiest guy around. When he was confronted by Moses, he said, we threw this gold into the fire and this calf just came out.

Yeah, right.

Very important that Israel know, you shall have no other gods before me. Ten plagues, ten commandments. The very first one here is you shall have no other gods before. They're about to traverse the wilderness.

They're going to be encountering many other nations and eventually they're going to have to go into the land of Canaan and fight nations that are bigger and stronger than they are. And the odds are always going to be against them.

And the temptation is they are going to need to worship the gods of these powerful nations that seem to be on better footing than they are. But God is saying, no, you shall have no other gods before me.

In other words, they are to fear God, not man. Even though those men were the size of giants. They must fear God rather than fearing death. Even though death seemed to be around every bend, ready to swallow them up, the great pit of Sheol.

They should fear God rather than fearing the nations, the men and the threat that those men carried against them. They must fear God, not the gods of Ur, not the gods of Canaan, not the gods of Egypt or any other gods.

They were to fear God and worship him alone. No other gods, just the one true God. Now that truth, that commandment, that value is not invented here at Sinai. This is not a brand new idea. It's not a brand new idea.

It doesn't come into existence at Sinai. It doesn't go out of existence when Christ is raised from the dead. There is only one God. When we go back to the story of creation, long before the ten words, in Genesis chapter 1, we read, then God said, then God said, then God said ten times over.

When we read the story of creation, there is no room for any other God to operate. In the pagan mindset, there was a God of the sky, a God of the moon, a God of the land, a God of the ocean, a God of the sky, and so on and so forth.

They had a God for every little aspect of creation, but when we read about what was created in those six days in Genesis chapter 1, there's no room for any other God to operate. And in fact, very tempting to worship the sun, moon, and stars when God speaks of them and brings them into existence.

And Moses records for the people of Israel how those were created. They are simply called the greater light and the lesser light. Any title that could have been used to worship them is totally stripped.

Their purpose is exactly stated. So, as God creates and as He reveals how He creates to His people, He is clearly stating that there is no room for any other God to operate. There is simply one God, the Creator.

Obviously, there is a plurality in the Godhead. As God, in the beginning, creates all things and His Spirit is hovering over the face of the waters and He says of mankind, let us make man in our own image, certainly we come to know in Scripture that there are three persons and one essence.

And if you want to know more about that, come back next Wednesday night as Chris is continuing to teach on the Trinity, save all of your hard questions for then. When we read in chapter 1, we read God being called Elohim, the mighty Creator.

In chapter 2, we read that He is called Yahweh, I am that I am, a God of covenant faithfulness. He has many names but He is one God and all these names bring Him glory. From the very beginning, it is clear that there is only one God.

Those who feared the Lord and called upon the name of the Lord worshipped Him alone. People such as Seth and Enosh and Lamech and Noah, Enoch and so on. Others may worship a variety of gods but not those who feared the Lord.

We are going to consider this commandment, you shall have no other gods before me. We are going to consider its importance, the reality, its truth, in how God dealt with Noah, in how God dealt with Abraham, the significance of this commandment in the life of Israel throughout their history, which is mainly the full chunk of the Old Testament.

We're also going to consider how this is an important concept in God's covenant with David and then move forward to understand how this is fulfilled in Christ. Remember that we are made in God's image.

We're made in God's image and so we are in this unique intersection of three relationships. That only mankind is made in such a way in the created order to love God supremely, to love others rightly, and to steward the creation in righteous dominion.

No other creature that God made was ever called to do these things. He did not treat or talk about the monkeys the way he treated and talked to Adam and Eve. Not even close. God did not treat and talk to the angels the way he did to Adam and Eve.

We're in a special relationship with God made in his image and therefore we are to treat one another in a particular fashion and we are to be relating to God's creation in a particular fashion. This first commandment is establishing this part of what it means to be the image of God.

This has to be settled first. If we don't settle this first then nothing else is going to be in order. We have to settle it right at the beginning that there's only one God, the God who has revealed himself in the scripture, in all of his creation, and we are to have him alone as our God.

So that's where it all begins and then everything else will fall into place. We see this not only in the way that God made everything, but in the way that God reached out to sinful man through the covenants he made with Noah and Abraham and Israel and David and ultimately in the new covenant that he makes in Christ.

So we are going to wrap up our time together. Any questions or thoughts before we close? Well then let us sing.