Chapter 20. The title of the message, and God spake these words. God spake these words.

And I would to God this morning, we could hear truly hear these words. Paul said in Galatians, Do you not hear the law? Do you not hear it? Let's pray that God gives us ears to hear this morning, because if we really hear the law, we will run to Christ. we will run to Christ.

If we really hear what's going on here and what's being said and who's saying it, we will flee to the Lord Jesus Christ. We won't flee to the Ten Commandments, we'll flee to the Lord Jesus Christ.

In verse 1, And God spake all these words, saying, you see the Bible is the word of God, Sometimes when it speaks of the law it speaks of the whole Word of God and sometimes it just speaks of the Ten Commandments of God, the moral law or the ceremonial law. But here it's the moral law, the Ten Commandments.

But we know this, the Bible is the Word of God and everything we need to know about God, ourselves, I don't need to go to a psychiatrist to find out about myself. I need to go to the Word of God and ask God to make me to know, reveal to me, reveal to me who I am, what I am, make me to know myself.

It's where we learn of sin. It's where we learn of sin. We don't have a skin problem, we've got a sin problem. There'd be no prejudice in this world if it wasn't for sin, God is made of one blood, what's it say? All nations, all nations. There's only one race on this earth, it's called the human race.

It's where we learn of salvation, our need of it. I need God to save me. You need God to save you? I need God to save me. I need God to save me from God.

These commandments here, notice, did it jump out at you? Shalt not, shalt not, thou shalt not, thou shalt not, thou shalt not. You know why He says thou shalt not, thou shalt not? Because He knows we shall. Every law He has given, every law is a law we're gonna break. And if we break one law, we broke the whole law.

Of course, the law of God is one law. It's one law, given by one lawgiver. And in this book, we learn who Jesus Christ is and our need of Him, God Incarnate. God standing before His own law in my stead. That's how God saved me.

And the law we're going to look at this morning is not a copy of any previous law. It's the divine revelation OF GOD'S CHARACTER GIVEN TO HIS PEOPLE, ISRAEL. IT'S HIS HOLY CHARACTER, HIS JUST CHARACTER. NOW THE LAW DOES NOT REVEAL THE WHOLE CHARACTER OF GOD, IT DOESN'T REVEAL HIS LOVE AND MERCY AND GRACE, IT REVEALS HIS HOLY CHARACTER, HIS JUSTICE, HE'S A JUST GOD.

That's what it reveals. That's the law. You stand before God's law and you're going to see how holy and righteous He is. But it doesn't reveal the grace of God, the mercy of God. That's revealed in the person and face of Jesus Christ. That's revealed in the gospel.

You see, the gospel reveals the whole character of God. He's a just God and a Savior. And we learn that through the gospel. That's how we learn it.

NOW THE LAW CAME DIRECTLY FROM GOD, NOT MAN, THEREFORE IT IS SPIRITUAL. Israel did not understand this, the vast part of Israel did not understand that the law they were given, remember back in the last chapter they said, ALL THAT HE HAS SAID WE WILL DO. Well, here's the first thing you have to do if you're gonna keep God's law. If I'm gonna keep God's law, here is an absolute that has to happen for me to keep God's law. I gotta love it perfectly. Oh, how I love thy law is written in the Psalms, which is speaking of Christ. Christ loved the law of God. I love thy law. God's law is perfect. There's nothing wrong with God's law. Nothing wrong. God's law is good. When I read down through this, you tell me this is not good. This is good. But here's a mistake. If you try to keep it in order to be accepted, in order to be saved, you've missed the very purpose of the law. Because the law is given to reveal sin. That sin may become exceedingly sinful. Because where there's no law, there's no transgression. So without the law, you'd never really understand sin.

You know why Cain was not killed when he killed Abel? There was no law given. He says, well, there's no law, there's no transgression. The law wasn't given. This law, thou shalt not kill, wasn't given at that time. And he was allowed to live. Of course, you know, everybody's got to die sooner or later. And we got to meet God. Nobody gets away with anything. Zero, you think, well, he got away with that. No. No one gets away with anything. God calls everything into account. Everything. No one gets away with it.

Romans 7, verse 14, For we know that the law is spiritual. I'll touch on that here in a little bit. Paul said, We know the law is spiritual, but I am carnal, sold under sin. A carnal man, a sinful, lost, dead carnal man cannot keep a divine spiritual law. THAT'S TWO DIFFERENT LEVELS! Here's the law, here's the spirituality of God's law. I'm down here in the gutter. It's not possible to keep it.

Now he says in verse 2, and this is the first thing he does, he identifies himself, not as the Lord Jehovah, but he says, I am the Lord thy God, thy God I'm your God I'm your Savior I'm your Savior which have brought thee out of the land of Egypt and out of the house of bondage before the Lord gave Israel the law now let me say this I'm gonna do this in two parts Lord willing next Sunday I'm gonna bring a measure on law and grace from this same chapter but this morning I just really want to just touch on the law as it's given

But before the LORD GAVE ISRAEL THE LAW, HE REMINDED THEM THAT HE HAD ALREADY DELIVERED THEM. HE HAD ALREADY SAVED THEM FROM THE HOUSE OF BONDAGE. THEIR DELIVERANCE CAME BY GRACE, NOT THEM KEEPING A COMMANDMENT. THEY HAD NOT COME THUS FAR BECAUSE THEY KEPT A COMMANDMENT. GOD LED THEM. HE SAID, I CARRIED YOU ON EAGLE'S WINGS. I'VE CARRIED YOU HERE. I'VE CARRIED YOU HERE.

Egypt well let me say this let's never make a mistake let us never make this mistake and I know you're grounded in the gospel well enough not to do it but I've seen people do things it's I'm afraid of myself Lord don't leave me to myself Don't ever make this mistake. Salvation is of the Lord and not by any law. It's by His grace. It's by His grace. Because there's a nature in us that wants to do something to be commended to God.

Egypt and its bondage are a picture of our spiritual bondage before the Lord Jesus Christ delivered us. We were enslaved to sin. Sin had us. It had us. WE WERE ENSLAVED TO SATAN, HE HAD US, WE WERE UNDER THE SPIRIT OF DARKNESS, LIVING UNDER THE CURSE OF THE LAW, THAT WAS US, THAT WAS US, IT'S A PICTURE OF US. THAT'S WHY THIS IS GIVEN. ALL OF THIS, THE OLD TESTAMENT, ALL THAT THEY WENT THROUGH, ALL THESE YEARS THAT THEY WENT THROUGH, 4,000 YEARS FROM ADAM TO CHRIST, 4,000 YEARS, IS FOR OUR LEARNING. It's for you and I to sit right here this morning and learn the gospel from these types and these pictures and the Word of God. Now the first table He gives here, the first table is our relationship to God, our duty to God. If we do not respect our duties toward God, we will not respect our duties toward man, will we? We won't. Because the second table has to do with our duties toward one another. But if we have no respect for God, you might as well not even get to the second table.

Thou shalt have no other gods before me. And that's a little G. All those little G's are little gods. There's only one big G, and that's God. There's only one God. Israel lived 400 years among Egyptian idolatry. They saw a lot, a lot of altars and false gods being worshipped. There's all kinds of false gods being worshipped and don't you think that they didn't fall into some of that? Their history proves it. How many times they fell into idolatry?

But there's one thing our Lord is making FOR SURE THAT THEY KNOW AND WE KNOW THERE IS ONLY ONE TRUE GOD! THERE IS ONLY ONE! I HEARD SOMEONE ON TELEVISION SINGING THE PRAISES OF ALLAH FROM A NEWS PROGRAM, SINGING THE PRAISES OF ALLAH! ALLAH DOESN'T EXIST! THERE IS ONLY ONE GOD AND THAT'S JESUS CHRIST! THAT'S THE LORD JESUS CHRIST!

The Trinity, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, but only one God. Isaiah 45, verse 21, There is no god else beside me, a just God and a Savior, there is none beside me. In another place he says, Who will you liken me to? There is no one like me. Who else exists from eternity? Who else that exists has no time of existing? You can't trace a time when He was not. You can trace my birthday, you can go all the way back to my birthday, get my birth certificate, but you can't do that with God. He has no beginning of days or end of life. You can't comprehend that.

But now listen, Thou shalt have no other gods before me. Anything we put before God becomes our God. Whatever we put, and it can happen so subtly, so subtly, imperceptibly. And before you know it, we have something before God. That's why the Lord said, He that loves Father, mother more than me is not worthy of me. To put someone or something else before God is to love that someone or something else more than God.

Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image. You don't need a picture hanging on a wall. You don't need a cross hanging around the neck. NOTHING THAT I NEED NOTHING THAT I LOOK TO THAT'S BEEN MADE OR CREATED TO REMIND ME OF GOD. I was watching a documentary on a drug lord and he was in a shootout and he made it through the shootout and he got to talk to his friend and he had this cross around his neck and he pulled out and he rubbed it and said, God sends strong delusion that they believe a lie and be damned. He believes that word and God let him believe it. Be careful sometimes, God will let you believe what you want to believe. Lord don't let me believe what I want to believe. Let me believe you, what you give me in your word. Don't leave me to my own belief.

Now shall not make any graven image, nothing we see with our eyes is to be worshipped. Nothing. God is Spirit. No image can represent God. No image. He's Spirit. Any image we imagine would make Him less than God. Any image we would imagine would make Him less than God. We would make Him like ourselves. If we are left to ourselves, We will make a God like ourselves and we'll make a God that's not going to punish us. We'll make a God that we can put on a shelf and that's where He stays. He said, You thought I was altogether like thyself. That's why He said over in Psalm 50, verse 21, You thought I was altogether like thyself. You think I'm like you. Somebody tall and skinny, they'll make a God that's tall and skinny. We make a God like ourselves. We ain't going to make a God get us in trouble. Not at all. You go to the doctor, he tells you to lose weight, you know what you do? You get a fat doctor. You get one that won't tell you to lose weight, you can't. That's why I'm saying this, you're not going to make a God that's going to condemn you, you're just not going to do it.

But God is God, nobody created Him. He's holy and just, that's who our God is, and He's merciful. We'll see this here in a minute.

And thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them, if somebody else makes them. If somebody else makes another Jesus, I don't care if it's Billy Graham or who it is, they make another Jesus, don't you bow down to Him. Because they'll come, Paul said, preaching another Jesus, another gospel, another spirit. There's a whole lot of people this morning gathered together, bowing down to another Jesus, created by man. Not the Christ of this Bible. Not the Christ of this Bible.

I thought of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. Remember when Nebuchadnezzar made that golden image and he said, when the music plays, When the music played, everybody bowed down. When you hear the music, and there's three of them. Well, Daniel didn't do it either, but there's Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, they didn't do it. And he called them in and he gave them another opportunity. Here's their life, their life, they're caught, okay? This is interesting, they're caught red-handed. They didn't bow down. And so they're brought to the king and he's angry, he's furious. But he gives them an opportunity to bow down. You know, we're going to play the music again. When you hear the music, bow down. And they didn't do it. They're not going to do it. And they made a furnace and heated it seven times more than they usually did. And those three men never backed down. And they never backed down, they never bowed. And it's thrown in that furnace, you know the story, thrown in that furnace. And he said, that king said, there's another one in there, looks like the son of man. Christ, I'll go with you in the water, when you go through the water, I'll go with you. And the fire, he said, it won't burn, it won't consume you, it won't consume you. They didn't bow down. There's Daniel in Daniel chapter 3, read that story.

For I, the LORD thy God, am a JEALOUS God. You know if you love, I thought about this, I thought about all this, but this one stuck out to me, a JEALOUS God. If you really love someone, if you love your spouse, You're going to be jealous of their love. You're going to be jealous of their affection. And if you see it going somewhere else, that's going to come out. That's going to come out. Now, if you don't love them, you're like, go do what you want. Go do what you want. You don't care. You don't care. But God's jealous of His people. He's jealous of their love. He's just like, your heart not to go after somebody else. I mean, I would not want Vicky's heart to go after somebody else.

But we've all committed spiritual, we've all done this. We've all committed spiritual adultery, which I'm going to get to in a minute. I'm getting ahead of myself. He will not, God will not share His glory nor the love of His heart with another. He's not going to do it. I've loved you with everlasting love. And this is the first mention of punishment. He said, For I, the Lord thy God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children. You know that God is still visiting the iniquity of Adam upon his children. God's still doing it. That's the principle of representation.

But He says of them that hate Me, hate Me. You know, it says, Jacob have I loved, Esau have I hated. But no one ever talks about Esau hating God. Esau hated God. He sold the birthright. He said, this means nothing to me. He sold it for a bowl of soup. He didn't even get anything out of it but a bowl of soup to show how much he despised it. He despised his birthright. It meant nothing to him. He hated God.

And the only reason Jacob loved God is because God loved Jacob. He said, you're mine, you're mine. He said His love upon Jacob. You know why God saved you? Has God saved you? Because He said His love upon you. He first loved us. He first loved us before we ever loved Him. It's the love of God shed abroad in the heart coming out is why we love Him. It's the response of His love to us.

SHOWING MERCY, here in verse 6, SHOWING MERCY UNTO THOUSANDS THAT LOVE ME AND KEEP MY COMMANDMENTS. GOD IS HOLY AND JUST, YET MERCIFUL. HE DELIKES TO SHOW MERCY. AND THE MERCY HE SHOWS IS UNMERITED MERCY. YOU NOTICE IT DOESN'T SAY, LISTEN TO WHAT IT DOES NOT SAY. IF YOU WANT TO BE SAVED, IF YOU WANT TO HAVE LIFE, KEEP MY COMMANDMENTS.

He said, if you love me, if I love Vicki, my wife, I'll be faithful to her, won't I? I'll be faithful to her and she'll be faithful to me. If there's real love there, if there's real love, I will be. If there's real love, we will look into God's word BE GUIDED BY HIS SPIRIT, HIS WORD, NOT TRYING TO KEEP IT BECAUSE WE WANT TO BE SAVED, TO BE ACCEPTED, BUT BECAUSE WE LOVE HIM.

LORD TEACH ME. TEACH ME THY WAY. DID WE JUST SING THAT? OR DID WE MEAN IT? TEACH ME THY WAY. HOW YOU GONNA LEARN? HOW'S GOD GONNA TEACH YOU AND ME HIS WAY? HIS BOOK. HIS WORD.

Peter, do you love me? Feed my sheep. That's not a suggestion. That's a command. Feed my sheep. The Lord said, if you love me, keep my commandments. What is it? That you love one another. And if you love one another, everything will be alright. You'll look after one another, you'll take care of one another, you won't backbite, you won't fight.

I'm trying to hesitate telling this, but the young man is over here working on his concrete. He said, I think I might stop by and visit. I said, oh good, do that. He said, there's so many hypocrites out there. I've never seen most of them in my family. I don't think he's watching this. I didn't tell him we were live streaming. But it's the truth. It's the truth. He said, I've never seen a bigger group of hypocrites than down there. He said, I quit going. He said, I should be careful repeating this. Don't repeat it. I know you won't. But he said, well, he called church on Sunday. He said, buddy, on Monday, it is backbiting and fighting. And he said, I just quit going. I said, the Lord has given us a blessing here. I said, the Lord has blessed us. We have a quiet place. And I said, and the gospel's preached here. And he had his boy with him. He said, I know I need to have him in church. I said, you need to have him under the gospel. You don't need to have him in church.

A lady said to me one time, I think I'll get back in church. I said, you don't need to get back in church. You need Christ. You need him. That's what you need. I might not should have told that, but it fit. It fit the message.

To those who love me can keep my commandments. You're not hypocrites, you actually love me. And you do what I say. You love one another. You take care of your pastor. Support the gospel. You look after one another. You don't talk about one another. I don't get that here. I don't get any gossip here from anybody. I don't get it. Okay, let's move on.

Verse 7, Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain. God's name reveals who He is. His name is to be spoken with reverence, never lightly or irreverently. You know, just to say like, and I know somebody does this, but, well, my Lord, well, you better be saying that reverently and not just in vain, not something you just say at the end of a sentence or the beginning of a sentence and have no reverence about it. You see, the way we use His name shows what we think of Him. If you want to use somebody's name in vain, use your parent's name in vain. Use your kid's name in vain. But not God! Don't use His name in vain. I tell you, it'll make us TREMBLE to use His name. Really!

Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy. REMEMBER! This is something He's already established. Over in Genesis 2, 1 through 3, it says God set aside the Sabbath day. He hallowed it. But the Sabbath was introduced also earlier here in Exodus 16. Remember after the man fell from heaven, the man that came down from heaven? Then He established the Sabbath. Because there is no rest without the Bread of Life. There is no rest without the Bread of Life. The Sabbath represents rest. It represents the Lord Jesus Christ. He is our Sabbath. He's our Sabbath. He's our rest. We don't work to be saved. We don't work to be accepted. We rest in Christ and we have to labor to do that. That's what Paul said over in Hebrews, labor to rest. You ever hear such a paradox? Labor to rest. You see, there's so much sin in us that for us to rest, we have to labor to do it.

ISRAEL KNEW NO REST IN EGYPT, AND NEITHER DO WE OUTSIDE OF CHRIST. THERE IS NO REST OUTSIDE OF CHRIST. THERE IS FALSE PEACE, FALSE HOPE, BUT THERE IS NO REAL GENUINE REST OUTSIDE OF CHRIST.

AND THEN WE COME TO THE SECOND TABLE OF THE LAW. IT'S OUR RELATIONSHIP WITH ONE ANOTHER. AND YOU NOTICE WHAT HE STARTS WITH? HE STARTS WITH HOME. THE GREATEST DOWNFALL IN SOCIETY STARTS IN THE HOME. That's where it starts. It starts in the home. No respect at home, no respect to the law, no respect to teachers, no respect to those in authority, if there's no respect at home. If I got in trouble in school and if I got a whipping and Dad knew about it, which he never did, I'd never let him know. I got it when I got home.

Honor thy father and thy mother. Next to God, parents are to be honored. God above all and then parents because you start as a child in the home. You don't start as a child out there in society. You're in the home and respect starts at home and parents are to teach that. They are the ones to teach that.

YOU SEE, PARENTS ARE GOD'S APPOINTED AUTHORITY IN THE HOME. THE BREAKDOWN OF THE HOME LEADS TO THE BREAKDOWN OF SOCIETY.

Thou shalt not kill. Well, that's good. You can turn the news on every day, somebody got shot. Somebody got shot near Wake Mead this morning, I saw that. It's just every day. Thou shalt not kill." Now why did God give us that law? Because He knew we were going to kill each other. We were going to kill each other. But LIFE IS PRECIOUS, it comes from God. It comes from God. If a life is going to be taken, it is taken legally. There is a law given that if a man sheds blood by man's hands, his blood shall be shed. That is CAPITAL PUNISHMENT. But Christ taught the spiritual depth of this law. He said, if you hate your brother without a cause, you've murdered him. You've murdered him.

Thou shalt not commit adultery. To look on a woman, our Lord said, and lust after her is adultery. Being unfaithful to your spouse, the wondering of the heart. Are we not spiritually guilty of this? Well, I see all this in me. I see, run to Christ, run to Christ.

Thou shalt not steal. Don't take nothing that's not yours. That's a good law, isn't it? That's a good law. God's law is good. Don't take anything that's not yours. You know what the worst kind of thievery is? Malachi 3a, will a man rob God? Absolutely. He said, yeah, you've robbed me. And they said, Wherein have we robbed you? He said, In tithes and offerings. What I told you to give, you kept it for yourself. You give me the little change at the end of the day.

Thou shalt not steal. Thou shalt not bear false witness. That's exactly what they did on Christ. Don't use your tongue to harm another. James said this, Salt water and clean water cannot come from the same fountain. Something's wrong. There's something wrong. I was saying this to, I think Vicki and I had a conversation going about talking and language and stuff. And I was telling her, I said, we should never, we should not use language out there that I would not use in here. That's so. If I feel like I can't use it in here, I don't need to be using it out there.

DON'T BEAR FALSE WITNESS, BUT DON'T USE YOUR TONGUE IN A BAD MANNER. AND IF WE LOVE OUR NEIGHBOR, WE'LL NOT BEAR FALSE WITNESS ON THEM, BECAUSE LOVE HIDES THE MATTER.

THOU SHALT NOT COVET. I tell you what now, when you read this and you go down through this, it just slays me. Thou shalt not covet. You know what the scripture says covetousness is? idolatry you think you don't worship anything else but God yet you're coveting this or covet that you want it you want it you crave it you want it Paul said you know Paul said I've not known sin except the law said thou shalt not covet covetousness is a sin of idolatry we were told to be content with such things as we have God gave it to us If God willed you to have it, He'd give it to you! It takes a while to learn that, doesn't it? It takes a while to learn, if I have what God's given me, I don't need to covet what anybody else has. I don't need to covet my neighbor, everything he has, his cattle, his oxen, his wife, anything he has, his house, No, just be content with such things as you have and God has given you.

And here is the effect the law had here in verses 18-21. The people saw the thundering and the lightning and they heard this and they stood afar off. The law separates us from God. The law will separate a sinner from God. The Lord said, Your iniquities have separated between Me and you, paraphrasing. And they cried, Moses, speak thou with us. Don't let God speak to us lest we die. They had never seen this side of God. All that you say we will do. It says the Lord's going to prove them. That's what I said. Moses said, the Lord is going to prove you. You know, I'll tell you what he's going to prove. You can't do it. You can't keep like that young man said, all these have I kept from my youth up. He never kept a one, not even close, not even close. What we need here and what they said is true. We need a mediator to stand between us and God. And Moses drew near into the thick darkness where God was. Here's a picture of Christ who entered into the darkness of Calvary on behalf of His people to save them. You know what happened when he did that? The sheep scattered. Didn't they? They all stood afar off. They all did. They scattered, stood afar off, while he went into that thick darkness and redeemed us from our sins.

And now in closing, the Ten Commandments here reveals the holiness of God reveals the holiness of God, the justice of God. God is a just God and these have to be kept. If you're going to seek life by them, you got this got to be kept perfectly. That's why Paul wrote in Romans 10, they being ignorant of God's righteousness, of the absolute strict righteousness of God, being ignorant of that, they went about to establish one of their own and say, look, God, this is good enough. Good enough is good enough for me and you, but with God, it's got to be perfect. It must be perfect to be accepted.

And what we see here, the Ten Commandments, it reveals the holiness of God, and it also reveals our sinfulness. You know, it's like the law is like looking into a mirror. Thou shalt not, but I have. Thou shalt not, but I did. And you say, Lord Jesus, stand between me and God. stand but you stand between me and him me and god you see it drives us to the need for the mediator the lord jesus christ who feel fulfilled god's law and became our righteousness now i have a righteousness before god

if you have time this evening if not take it Read Galatians Chapter 3. Sometimes I can be a little bossy, I've been told that, but read it. Read Galatians 3, it sheds some light on this. In Romans 10 verse 4, For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone that believes. He's the end of the law for righteousness. He said, THE LAW CAN DEMAND NO MORE OF ME THAN JESUS CHRIST, WHAT I HAVE IN HIM.

And this same God who thundered from Sinai now speaks to us by His Son. He speaks to us by His Son, and you know what He says? All you that labor and heavy laden, now you come to Me. THE LAW SAYS GO, THE GOSPEL SAYS COME. I'LL GIVE YOU REST. I'LL GIVE YOU REST.

Lord willing, I want to elaborate a little more on this on Law and