Exodus 20 if you would please Exodus chapter 20 Verse 1 And God spake all these words
saying I am the Lord thy God which hath brought thee out of
the land of Egypt out of the house of bondage and Thou shalt
have no other gods before me. Thou shalt not make unto thee
any graven image, or any likeness of anything that's in heaven
above, or that's in the earth beneath, or that is in the water
under the earth. Thou shalt not bow down thyself
to them, nor serve them, for I, the Lord thy God, am a jealous
God. visiting the iniquity of the
fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation
of them that hate me, and showing mercy unto thousands of them
that love me and keep my commands. And thou shalt not take the name
of the Lord thy God in vain, for the Lord will not hold him
guiltless that taketh his name in vain. and remember the Sabbath
day to keep it holy. Six days shalt thou labor and
do all thy work, but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord
thy God, and in it thou shalt not do any work, thou nor thy
son, nor thy daughter, thy manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor thy
cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates. For in six
days the Lord made heaven and earth, and the sea, and all that's
in them, and rested the seventh day. Wherefore the Lord blessed
the Sabbath day and hallowed it. And honor thy father and
thy mother, that thy days may be long upon the land of which
the Lord thy God giveth thee. and thou shalt not kill, and
thou shalt not commit adultery, and thou shalt not steal, and
thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbor, and thou
shalt not covet thy neighbor's house, thou shalt not covet thy
neighbor's wife, nor his manservant, nor his maidservant, nor his
ox, nor his ass, nor anything that is thy neighbor's. And here we have the introduction
of the Ten Commandments. Almost everybody everywhere knows
something about the Ten Commandments. Most of them because they saw
the movie, and they saw it more than once. Every person born
in this world, whether they live in Japan or America, Whether
they live in Pakistan or Afghanistan, it doesn't matter. Mexico, Canada,
Hawaii, Cuba, Russia, China, doesn't matter. When it comes
to sin and the holy law, all are without excuse before God. Hold your place here and turn
with me to Romans chapter two, if you would. Romans chapter two. Look at verse 12, Romans chapter
2. Verse 12, for as many as have
sinned without law shall also perish without law. And as many
as have sinned in the law shall be judged by the law. What Paul is saying here is whether
you acknowledge the law of God or whether you don't, Whether
you believe the law of God to be God's law or whether you don't. If you sin in the law, you shall
be judged by the law. Either way, whether you acknowledge
the law of God or whether you don't, the wages of sin is death. Doesn't matter which one category
you fall in. Why? Verse 13. For not the hearers
of the law are just before God. but the doers of the law shall
be justified." Now if you hear the law and you don't do the
law, there's no way that the law can justify you. That's exactly
what that verse is. Because God's law, as we know,
requires perfection, and we cannot provide the perfection that God
requires. But that is exactly the dilemma
that we're in. So Paul says here in verse 14,
he said, for when the Gentiles, which have not the law, I think
this will help us to understand something about God's law. The
Gentile nation did not have the law of God. It wasn't given to
them. The law of God was given to the
nation of Israel. And Paul here acknowledges that
the Gentiles were without the law. He said very plainly, they
had not the law of God. But they were still guilty of
the law. They were still under the law.
And even though they didn't know the law, the law still condemned
them. You see, in salvation, ignorance
is not bliss. My mom used to say that all the
time. I didn't know what she meant at first, but she said
ignorance is bliss. What you don't know won't hurt
you. But that's not so in salvation. Ignorance is not bliss. Ignorance
can very well be eternal damnation and eternal judgment. Eternal
life is to know the only true God and Jesus Christ whom He
sent, John 17. Now you see the substance of
the moral law that God gave Moses, that Moses gave to Israel, right
here. The Ten Commandments, we'll just
start with those. It agrees with the law and light of nature. Now what I mean by that is this,
and I'll get to that, but man is the one that's messed this
thing up, this fellowship with God. Man messed it up. When Adam
died, I died, and all fellowship with God ceased. There was no
longer a relationship between God and men. And that was man's
fault. It wasn't God's. It was man that
offended God. It was man that wanted God's
throne. It was man that wanted to rule
and reign and be his own God. Wasn't it? It was man who wanted
the responsibility to know good and evil. Oh, and the day you
eat thereof, you'll know good and evil. That man wanted to
know good and evil. He wanted to be his own God.
But man died as God said he would, and all of Adam's helpless race
fell in him as our federal head. But out of that number, it pleased
the Lord to make some his people. And it was for his own great
namesake that he did. But naturally speaking, all men
and women are born under the curse of the law and are subject
to perfectly keep God's law and satisfy His justice. And it's nothing but death to
those who can't. You're in Romans 2, look at Romans
3 real quick. Romans 3, 19. Now we know that
what things whoever the law saith, it saith to them who are what,
under the law, that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world
may become guilty before God. This is how we know that all
the world is under the law, because every mouth is stopped. No one
can plead innocent before the law of God. And if I may use
Paul's common expression, he said, none know not one. No sinner
born of a woman can satisfy the law that they've offended. And
Paul says very clearly that all the world has become guilty before
God. Now, look at this again, verse
14. For when the Gentiles, which
have not the law, do by nature the things contained in the law,
these, the Gentiles, having not the law, or law unto themselves,
or in other words, a law dictated by natural reason. Now watch
this, verse 15, which show the work of the law written in their
hearts. The law of God is written in
their hearts, is what he says. The hearts of who? The Gentiles.
In the hearts of all men and women for that matter, Jew and
Gentile alike. Falsely, there's no difference.
No difference between Jew and Gentile. Read on. How are they alike? Their conscience
also bearing witness, and their thoughts the mean, or in other
words, their thoughts between one another, were accusing or
else excusing one another. How can anyone excuse or accuse
someone else without some sort of law, without some sort of
sense about what's right? Whether it's a law instilled
naturally by what men call a conscience, Or whether it's a law given spiritually
by God on tables of stone. Both reveal the same thing. What
is that? All are under sin. All are found
guilty and come short of the glory of God. They reveal clearly
within the heart and on the tables of stone, that there's none that
does good. No, not one. Not a single one.
There's none righteous. No, none. None that seeketh after
God. Salvation is not by those that
seek after God. Salvation is accomplished by
our Lord Jesus coming to seek and to save that which was lost. And it's our seeking of Christ
comes only after His finding of us. You see, faith comes only
after life is given. And it's these things that show
and reveal the work of the law, written on even the hearts of
unregenerate men and women. Now I'm going a long way here
to try to stress to you that the commandments of God have
a natural use dictated by that reason, that conscience of fallen
men. God calls it the work of the
law written on men and women's hearts. Which makes it so true
that all men and women are without excuse. No one has to have God's
law preached to them to know that worshiping anything or anyone
other than God Almighty, our Creator, is wrong. I don't need
the law to tell me that. There's something instilled within
me that tells me that there's only one God. I look out at the
creation of God, and you know within you, you know it the same
as I do, that there's a God that made this. This just didn't happen.
This just wasn't a big boom. Who lit the fuse if that's the
case? Ah, this is the handiwork of
God. And deep within a man, he knows. that it's a law written
on men and women's heart. Instilled within every believer
is the commandment to serve the Lord with gladness, yes. Come
before His presence with joy and singing. Know ye not that
the Lord, He's God? God's got to reveal that to you.
It's He that has made us, created us, and not we ourselves. We
are His people and the sheep of His pasture. He's the Good
Shepherd. God's people are His sheep. But
the unbeliever is also without excuse. Since from the foundation
of the world, men and women have been able to clearly see, as
I said, God's creation, and they understand, Romans 1 says, by
the things that God made, that God created, that all things
are accomplished by the eternal power of God. You look at those
things and there's something within you that understands.
And no one has to be told that making and worshiping idols and
engraving images are inexcusable. We know that. To make an object
out of something and call it your God? How dishonoring to
God that is. Men every day proclaim a Savior
of their imagination and they've made Him an idol who's dependent
upon the will and help of man. And in doing so, man makes himself
God. Because he's in control of the
God that he imagines. And folks sure make a lot of
things today. They're objects of worship. But
God forbids us to make graven images out of anything. God forbids
the use of religious imagery and symbols. They're not to be
incorporated in the worship of God. I believe that to be crosses
and statues and pictures of Jesus. And I know folks get upset about
this. But don't incorporate those things
in your worship. Any image of God is an attempt
to bring Him down, like Israel made a golden calf, and they
worshiped it, and they said, this will be the God that delivered
us out of Egypt. How ridiculous. I remember, some
of you know this and some don't, but when we decided to paint
this pulpit, it used to have a cross on the front of it. I
got the guy here to paint it. I said, can we just take that
off? And he was just shocked. Why would you want to take the
cross off? But people don't understand that.
We don't worship the cross that our Lord was hung on. We worship
the Christ of the cross. Any image of God is an attempt
to bring God down. And friends, no one has to have
their attention drawn to God's law that says it's wrong to take
the Lord, our God's name in vain. We can speak vainly of God in
many ways, and sorry to say that we do, even believers. Taking
the Lord's name in vain includes and involves a whole lot more
than just using His name through or in conjunction with a cuss
word. And the slang words that we use
are no better. It's a sad result, I'm telling
you, of godless religion that's made this particular commandment
a very common problem today. Any use of God's name that has
not the intention of giving and attributing honor and glory to
God for the great things that He's done is to speak of Him
in a vain way. When someone is surprised, they
say, Oh God, you scared me. And if someone gets upset, instead
of cursing in disgust, they say, Jesus Christ. That's taking the
Lord's name in vain. But as far as I'm concerned,
you might as well have just gone ahead and said the curse word.
I'd just as soon to hear that. I'd just as soon to hear the
cuss word, is you to use the Lord's name that way. And then
men do little shortcuts. Instead of saying, Oh God, men
say, Oh gosh, or Oh golly, or geez. But even worse, now listen to
me on this, I think it's how men speak vainly of God in other
ways. The word vain means evil. This word in the scriptures interpreted
vain means evil or evil speaking of. The commandment is not to
speak evil or vainly of God. And the word vain interpreted
also means to render useless. That's what mainstream religion
has done with God. They've rendered God useless. Now listen, if God loves everybody
and someone can still be lost, then God and His Christ are useless. And it'd be vain to trust Him
if that was so. If Christ shed His blood for
the whole world and yet one in that number can still be lost,
then Christ's blood is useless. It's worthless. It has no effectual
profit. and it was shed in vain. To make
God subject to anyone or anything is to take His name in vain.
It's to render Him useless or of no value, of no profit to
a sinner's soul. I was reading a couple weeks
ago in 1 Peter 3 and ran across a scripture. Let me read it to
you. 1 Peter 3 verse 15. Speaking to believers, Peter
says, but sanctify He's talking to us. He says, but sanctify,
and that word means set apart. Sanctify the Lord God in your
hearts. That word, as you know, means
set apart. We set apart the Lord in our
hearts. That's the only way that we'll ever be able to give an
answer to those who ask what's the reason of the hope that we
have in Christ, which is what the verse reads. Yes, God's got
to sanctify us. I know that. And He must do that
through Christ our substitute. He's got to make us perfect.
He's got to make us holy, righteous. He sets us apart unto Himself.
But now we've got to sanctify God also. We've got to set Him
apart in our hearts. And that's only through faith
in Him. We've got to separate ourselves
from thinking that God is in any way like us. Set Him apart
in your mind and in your heart. God's not like you. What confidence
and assurance I have in who Christ is and what Christ has done.
Christ and Him crucified. Is your gospel adieu? Or is your
gospel adone? You can't do enough. You can't
do good enough. My gospel is a gospel of done.
No one has to be informed by the law that stealing is disgraceful. Yet God says thou shalt not steal. And what a token of God's grace
it is when God shows a sinner their need. A need of God. A need to be made holy and righteous
and perfect before Him by a work of righteousness that He alone
does. Adultery and murder are wrong. There's something instilled in
all of us that lets us know. No one has to be told that lying
against a neighbor is not honoring to that neighbor or to God. All
these things that God commands us to restrain and do in His
law are more than reasonable. especially coming from a thrice
holy God who demands and requires perfection. God has the right
to demand what He wills from those who belong to Him. Is it not lawful, is it not right
for God to do what He will with His own? God has the right to
expect perfect righteousness and obedience from all His people,
from the creatures that He made and created. And any attempt
by us to present our bodies as living sacrifices holding acceptable
God is our reasonable service. That word reasonable actually
means rational. If we thought rationally, we'd
worship God, wouldn't we? The sinner's dead spiritually
and they can render no reasonable or rational service. Men and
women still think, I guess, that our first parents just stumped
their toe in the Garden of Eden. And God says they died. And they
died spiritually. They died to God. They died to
any spiritual understanding. They died to the father and the
child relationship. You know, what an awesome thought.
And sometimes I just get enough clarity of mind, God enables
me to just think clearly about things like this. But what a
thought that God The God of heaven and earth, the one that rules
and reigns with all power and authority is my daddy and my
father. I just get lost in that. I think
about that sometimes and I'm thinking, my, my, I'm such a
blessed man. We don't use that word flippantly,
blessed. Wherefore is by one man's sin
entered into the world, and death by sin, so death passed upon
all men, for that all have sinned. And that's our problem. Sin by
one man, and death by that sin. And that sin and that death is
upon all of us, because all of us have sinned. And back in Exodus
chapter 20, if you would, turn back there with me. We find Israel
before the holy mountain of God, and they're absolutely terrified,
and with good reason. God is a consuming fire. He will
by no means clear the guilty. No man, no woman can look upon
God's face and live. So what are we gonna do? What
are we gonna do? We're gonna have to all stand
before the holy law of God one day and give an account. What
are we gonna do? Will you stand in your accomplishments? Or will you stand in the accomplishments
of another? Look at verse 18, and I'll finish. Exodus 20, verse 18. And all
the people saw the thunderings and the lightnings and the noise
of the trumpet and the mountains smoking When the people saw it,
they removed and stood afar off. I believe I would have too. And
they said unto Moses, not God, but Moses. And they said, speak
thou with us, and we will hear. But let not God speak with us,
lest we die. And Moses said unto the people,
fear not, for God has come to prove you, and that his fear
may be before your faces, that you sin not. And the people stood
afar off. And Moses drew near unto the
thick darkness where God was. And the Lord said unto Moses,
not the Lord said unto the people, the Lord said unto Moses, Thus
thou shalt say unto the children of Israel, you have seen that
I have talked with you from heaven. Did you notice the method of
communication here? As I said, the people to Moses,
and Moses to God, and then God to Moses, and Moses to the people. That's what being a mediator
is. That's what being a mediator is. And men and women are foolish
to think that they can stand before God's holy law in the
day of judgment without a mediator, without a substitute, without
a sacrifice, trusting that they'll somehow, someway be accepted
in their sad and ridiculous attempts to keep God's holy law. When
you see God, when you see who He is, how holy He is. When you see God like Israel
saw God at Mount Sinai. When you see God, you're going
to want a mediator. You'll most certainly desire
to have a go between Him. And God has provided one. Paul
told Timothy, he said, there's one mediator between God and
men, the man Christ Jesus. And he told the Galatians, now
a mediator is not a mediator of one, but God is one. A mediator
represents two parties. You can't mediate without two
parties, and Christ is the mediator between God and man, as Moses
was the mediator between God and the Israelites. But there's
only one way, here we go, one way to come to God, and that's
with a sacrifice upon His altar. Look at verse 23. He said, ye
shall not make with me gods of silver, neither shall ye make
unto you gods of gold. An altar of earth thou shalt
make unto me. and shalt sacrifice thereon thy
burnt offerings, and thy peace offerings, and thy sheep, and
thine oxen, in all places where I record my name, I will come
unto thee, and I will bless thee. So listen, let's don't come to
God with our gods of silver, and let's don't come to God with
our gods of gold. Don't come with the gods that
we've made and we fashioned and with our own hands. God requires
an altar. God requires a perfect sacrifice. And we can't provide what God
requires. God must provide for himself
a sacrifice of our land. And God must himself be that
sacrifice. For none other than God can provide
what God requires. Why was the law given? Well,
to show us something of God's holy character. Oh, you look
into the law of God and you see perfection. And it is to show
us something of ourselves. And it was to show us that we
cannot in and of ourselves reconcile ourselves back to God by the
work with these hands. Can't do it. So the law, Paul
said, was our schoolmaster. He's going to teach us something.
He's going to teach us our inability. He's going to teach us something
about our unwillingness. And ultimately, Paul said, He's
going to bring us to Christ. Show me Christ. Show me my need
of Him.