Exodus 20. Exodus chapter 20. Let's go ahead and read verse
17 verses. Exodus 20. 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. Thou
shalt have no other gods before me. Thou shalt not make unto
thee any graven 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. 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 on the children
unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me. and show
him mercy unto thousands of them that love me and keep my commandment. 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. Remember the Sabbath
day to keep it holy. Six days shalt thou labor and
do all thy work, The seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord
thy God. In it thou shalt not do any work. Thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter,
nor thy manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor thy cabal, nor thy stranger
that is within thy gates. For in six days the Lord made
heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested
the seventh day. Wherefore, the Lord blessed the
Sabbath day and hallowed it. Honor thy father and thy mother,
that thy days may be long upon the land which the Lord thy God
giveth thee. Thou shalt not kill. Thou shalt
not commit adultery. Thou shalt not steal. Thou shalt
not bear false witness against thy neighbor. 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. The Ten Commandments. What goes through your mind when
you think of or hear the Ten Commandments? David was a man after God's own
heart. Listen to what he said. O how
love I thy law! What law is he talking about? I want you to think about God's
law a little differently. I want us to look at it as we
ought to look at it. With love. With respect. With fear. With reverence. With thanksgiving. Thank God. You hear me? Paul said, Paul
said, I delight in the law of God after the inward man. Didn't
he? Yes, he did. Christ came to magnify
the law and make it honorable, didn't he? Yes, he did. And so should we. That's what I want to do. I want
to magnify the law this morning and make it honorable. It is
God's word, isn't it? It is God's will. It's the bind
of God. It's the declaration of God's
character. It's a declaration of Christ.
It's a picture of everything points to Christ. I love it.
I love it. Let us never think about or talk
about God's law in any way, but like David and like Paul, with
love, with respect, with fear, with reverence and thankfulness.
The law was our schoolmaster. Did you go to school? At the
time, you weren't thankful for your teachers. I wish I could
do it all over again. Don't you? The law was our schoolmaster.
Do what? The goods necessary to bring
us to Christ. Thank God for the law. The law's
good, but she's lawful. We would not have known God.
We would not know sin. We would not know Christ, why
he came, except for the law. The law is good. There's no problem
with the law. It's us. Do you understand? Paul said, is the law sin? God
forbid. Talk like that. There's nothing
wrong with that. Everything right about that.
The thing is, nothing right about us by nature. Everything's wrong
with us. Our Lord lived according to the law. The law is righteous. Let the righteous law smite me. It'll be a kindness. It'll be
a kindness. You hear me? Let the law curse
me. It'll be a kindness. You understand? I think you do. It'll drive us
to Christ. Those that run the law don't
hear the law. Those that think they keep the law, they don't
hear the law. That's what Paul said. He said, I was alive without
the law once. I said, I was blameless, I thought. And the law came to kill me.
Let the law kill me. And I'd run to Christ for life.
The law's been there. Kills. Nothing wrong with the
law. As I said, the problem's not the law, but it's us. Nothing
bad about the law. It's all good. But in our flesh
dwelleth no good thing. Galatians 2. Now let me say all
this at the very outset. I'm going to declare the end
of the law from the beginning. Galatians chapter 2. Purpose
of the law. End of the law. Purpose. That's
what that means. Here it is at the outset. Galatians 2. This is just wonderful. Galatians
2 verse 16, you have it. A man is not justified by the
works of the law. We know that. He's talking to
the church at Galatia. He's talking to us, God's people. We know that. We're not justified
by the works of the law, but by the faith of Jesus Christ. Don't you like the way that reads?
It reads that way many times, doesn't it, John? You've read
it. All of you have read it. So many times it talks about
the faith of Jesus Christ, not in Christ. Although we do have
faith in Christ, but we're not saved. It's not really our faith
that saves us. It's His faith. His faithfulness. Him keeping the law. He was faithful to the law of
God in every jot and tittle. Didn't He say that, John? Not
one jot or tittle shall pass from the law till it be fulfilled.
By who? Tim. Tim. We can't do it. He did. He did. Read on. We believe in Jesus
Christ that we might be justified by the faith of Christ. See that? Not by the works of the law.
By the works of the law, no flesh justified. Is that clear? Verse 19, look at this. He says, I through the law am
dead to the law. I'm killed. crucified, that I
might live under God. I'm crucified with Christ. Nevertheless,
I live, yet it's not I, but Christ that liveth in me. The life which
I now live in the flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God
who loved me and gave himself for me. Look, read on. I do not
frustrate the grace of God in righteousness, acceptance with
God, entrance into heaven, is by the law Christ died in vain. He's dead in vain. He didn't
need to come. Christ came to keep the law. He came to establish a perfect
righteousness according to the law. That's what God demands. It shall be perfect and accepted.
That's what the law says. Leviticus 22, 21. That's the
law. We can't. Christ did. And that perfect
righteousness was made unto us. He established that for His people. He imputed it, charged it to
our account. What about our sins? He was made
sin for us. Who knew no sin? That we might
be made the righteous substitution. You do. You know this. You know
this. Read chapter 3, verse 11. Galatians 3, verse 11. He keeps driving this nail home,
doesn't he? Old Brother Scott used to be so good at this, didn't
he, John? Brother Scott Richardson. Man, he'd start with a point,
and he'd drive it, and he'd keep driving it. He'd keep driving
that point home until the end of it. Then he'd get a nail set
and drive it so deep, you're not pulling it out. It's there
to stay. A nail in a sure place. This
is that nail in a sure place. For saved by the works of Jesus
Christ. The works of the law. Verse 11. No man is justified
by the law and the sight of God. It is evident that the just shall
live by faith. What faith? His faith. Christ's
faith. Faith in Him. The faith of Christ.
There's 12 the law is not a fake, but the man that doeth them shall
live in them. That's law says this do and live.
We've broken it. So what does the law say? The soul that sinneth. What sin?
Innocent. To offend at one point. Guilty
at all. You know these things. You know
these things. You have few people know these
things. There are people, there are denominations, so-called,
that have a pick-and-choose law. We'll keep the Sabbath day, the
seventh day of Advent, we'll keep this day, Saturday, we'll
keep that day under the Lord. What about the rest of the Levitical
law? Huh? You can't just pick and
choose. You've got to keep it all. But then you got the Amish
and the German back. But we'll keep Leviticus 19. We cut your hair a certain way,
and your beard, and so on and so forth. What about the rest
of it? Are you sacrificing lambs? Oh, well, that's... Hold on now. You can't just... I like this.
I don't like this. I can keep this. I'm a Gentile,
but I'm not a Jew. I can't... Hold on now. No, no,
no, no. Keep it up. Every jot and two. Christ said that He behooves
us to fulfill all the law. We can't do it. We can't do it. Thank God we're not under the
law. In that sense, verse 24, the
law was our schoolmaster. Chapter 3, verse 24, to bring
us to Christ that we might be justified by faith. What does faith say? I'm looking
to Christ as my law keeper. I believe Christ is my righteousness. I believe, Heavenly Father, I'm
a sinner and nothing at all. Guilty on all points, and please
forgive me. I want to keep it. I'd even try
to keep, but I can't. And I'm looking to Christ as
my righteousness, my hope, my acceptance with thee, O God.
Will you please receive me for Christ's sake? God says, I will. Why? Because Christ kept the
law. His meat and his drink was to
do the will of God. This is the will of God. Be holy.
Be righteous. Be perfect. I want to be. Well, in Christ we are. Is that
plain? Did I just preach the gospel
clearly to you? No, there'd be no mistake here.
No mistake. I had several others. We're free
from the law in this sense. We're free from its demands. We're free from its bondage.
We're free from its curse. free from its penalty. You're
free from its penalty. You're not under the law. You're
not under the law as a covenant of works. Thank God. Be accepted. Be righteous with God. We're
not under the law as a covenant of works. We're not under the
law as a rule of life. There's too many. It's too strict. Too strict. As I said, you can't
have a pick and choose rule of life, can you? So then, preacher, are we without
law? No. Law means rule. Law means directions. Law tells you how to live. Law
tells you how to walk, how to talk, how to act, how to think.
Can you rule yourself? Can you? No, you can't. Can your
children? No, they can't. They're under
your law. What law is that? Love. Love. They're under the law of
Christ. And I love what Mary said one
time when our Lord performed that first miracle, turning the
water to wine, after he rebuked her. One woman, she came and
told him, they don't have any wine. You don't tell the Lord
what to do. I don't care who you are. He
said, woman, what have I to do with thee? That put the fear
in her, didn't it? And then she said, whatsoever
he sayeth unto thee, do it. There's the law. Right? The royal law. Our Lord, who's our Lord and
master, rule, principle. Ten commandments are the letter
of the law, duty. Do this, don't do that. The law
that we're under is love. Our Lord is the one that said,
all the laws fulfilled in one word. First four, love to God. First,
last six, love to man. All right, I want you to look
with me at the law. I want you to look with me how
that Christ kept the law perfectly. It must be perfect in thought,
word, and deed. Christ came to magnify the law,
means to blow it up, to show That it's spiritual. It doesn't
just require outward obedience. It requires inward. It's spiritual.
God looks on the heart. He looks on the heart. A man
looks at the outward countenance. The Pharisees, everyone said,
the Pharisees, they keep the law. God said, no, inside they're
full of extortion and excess. They break every one of them.
Covet, they coveted power, money, so on and so forth. Honor God? Oh no, they dishonored God. Our Lord in thought, word, and
deed. Now let's look briefly at these
ten commandments, okay? Go back to the text. Let's see
how our Lord fulfilled them. And what I want you to see is
that Christ fulfilled them for us And in us, there's a new man
in us that loves the law of God. That's the one that loves the
law of God. There's an old man. He is not subject to the law.
He can't be. He hates authority. This old man hates to be told
what to do. This old man is not going to
be told what to do. You can't tell him what to do.
You tell him what to do, the strength of sin is the law. And
he wants to do exactly the opposite. Don't go through that door. Your kids are born under the
law. Until they're saved by God and
given a new man, you got to keep them under subjective touch.
And you tell them, don't go through that door. Whatever you do, I'm
leaving. Do not touch it. Don't touch
it now. Don't go through that door. What
is going to kill them? And do they look what's in that
door? What happened to Eve? Okay, but there's a new man in the image of Christ that loves
God's love and keeps His love. Not doing it to be saved, but
because He's saved. Are you with me? All right. Look
at the first one. Thou shalt have no other gods
before me. Verse 3. Did Christ have any other God? I'd like to do that with you. My God, even when God forsook
Him, He cried, He had no other God. One God. Hear, O Israel,
the Lord our God is one God. Christ came from God. Christ
is God. Christ really is the only God.
Christ bowed, obeyed, loved God alone. No idols. Listen to David. Listen. Here's a new man. Psalm 73, 25. Whom have I in
heaven but thee? And there's none on earth I desire
beside thee. I have one God. That's what David
said. Is that you? Is that you? Come on now. Do
you have any other God? Gods of the people? Gods of this
world? Is that your God? That's a new man. Look at verse
2. Now, shalt not make unto thee
any graven image, any likeness. Notice it says in heaven, earth,
or in the water, a fish. That's a harmless thing, isn't
it? No, it's not. No, it's not. It's a graven image.
Any graven image. Do you know how many times the
Lord said this throughout the scriptures? Look at that. He
said, you didn't see anything. You didn't see any image of God.
There is no scriptural description of Jesus Christ as a man. None. You hear me? It is a graven image. Any portrayal
of Jesus Christ as a man, Jesus, is a graven image. Do not watch
that show, The Chosen. Please! How could any man play the part
of Jesus Christ? Would you tell me? No man who
knows the Lord Jesus Christ and fears Him would dare act like
Him and let people bow down. And people see him on the street
and think he's Jesus. There's never been a more idolatrous
world than it is now. Let me get back to my point. No graven image. No graven image. Christ is the image of God. And as I said, there's no description
of Christ at Revelation 1. It's countless as the sun that
shineth in its strength. You can't paint a picture like
that. You can't look at the sun. Right? His feet is brass that
burned in the furnace. No. He didn't have long hair. It's a shame for a man to have
long hair. Jesus the man did not have long hair. He wasn't
a good looking Caucasian. You couldn't tell him apart from
any other Jew. So, don't have any graven image. But he is the image of God. You
understand? He is the image of God. God is
spirit. God is truth. Christ is the image
of God. And Christ worshiped God in spirit
and truth. We do not bow to Him. We do not
need any images, do we? We don't need those things. We
have the person. That's why we don't need the
shadow of the types in the picture except the point is to the point.
We don't make any images. There's just nothing to appear
to them. Nothing to remind us of God. God lives in our heart. Number three, verse seven, Thou
shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain. His name
is holy. prayed this way, Father, glorify
thy name. He was walking along one time.
Father, this was his heart, his mind, his soul, his strength.
He came to glorify his name. Father, he said, glorify thy
name. And it thundered. Ooh. Everybody
thought it just thundered. No, but it's saying it. God said,
I have both glorified it, and I will glorify it again. And
every time it thunders, God's people know what God said. Oh,
it thundered. Did you hear that thunder? I
sure did. God said, He's glorified His name, glorified His son. Yes, I did. The world doesn't
hear that, Sarah. We do. We need to think of that
every time it thunders. God said, I have glorified my
name, and I will glorify it again. How do you glorify it? Jesus
Christ. And God's people do, too. We will not use His name. David said, unite my heart to
fear thy name. We do not take His name in vain.
No, we don't. We don't. We make mention that
His name is exalted. Those that fear His name. You
see, this is God's people. The law of love to God's honor
and glory is written on their hearts. They can't. You can't
speak flippantly or carelessly about somebody you love. You
can't do it. You just don't do it. You see that? The law is
written on your heart. It's the law of love to God.
as it was our Lord. As He is, was it said, so are
we in this world. I have respect for the new man.
Verse 8, the fourth commandment. Remember the Sabbath day to keep
it holy. I need another hour on this.
Christ worshipped the Lord every day. He did, every day. But on
the Sabbath day, Saturday, the Lord was in the synagogue and
the temple every time. You see what? You see what? And more importantly, Christ
is our Sabbath. Christ came to be God's Sabbath,
to rest. God gave him work to do and he
came. The first thing that's written
that our Lord said was he was a 12-year-old boy. You know what he said? I must
be about my father's business. He came to fulfill the law. He
came to do this work of salvation, the work of God. All right? The last thing he said hanging
on the cross was it is finished. Finish the work. What happened? He rested. God rested in his son. The work's
over. There's no work to be done. Salvation's
in four letters. D-O-N-E. Done. Not D-O, that's
the law. It's in Christ. Done. The transaction's
done. He did it all. His work. We're saved by works alright,
but not ours. His. And he rested. The Sabbath, that's what the
Sabbath's all about. Paul one time in Galatians said
he feared some people held a day they worship today. And that's
what the Seventh-day Adventists do. That's what the Jews do to
this day. No. Why don't God's people meet
on the Sabbath day, on Saturday? Why don't God's people meet on
Saturday? Can you answer that? Where was Christ on the Sabbath
day? John, where was Christ on the
Sabbath day? In the grave, dead. What does that tell us? We're
dead to the Lord. When did He arrive? The first
day of the week. He was crucified with Christ. I, by Christ, am dead to the
law by the body of Christ. Nevertheless, I live. A new man
to walk in newness of life. Oh, we keep His Sabbath holy
all right. Jesus Christ is our Sabbath.
We rest from our works. And that's our holiness. That's our hope. We rest in Christ. Verse 12, honor thy father and
thy mother that thy days may be long upon the land which the
Lord thy God giveth thee. Oh my, did Christ honor his father? And because he made himself of
no reputation, was obedient unto death, even the death of the
cross, God had length of days? Oh my. Of his government, there's
no end. Because he's done that. God's
given him a name above every name. He's at his right hand.
And there he lives forever. He said, I was dead, but I'm
alive forever. And God gave him everything.
What about God's people? Oh, we honor God the Father.
Who's our mother? The church. Isn't it? And that was said, Jerusalem
was the mother of us all, which is above we honor. Oh, I love
thy kingdom. I love your church. Christ did,
didn't he? Oh, he loved the church, gave
himself for it. Feed the church of God, he said
to all his preachers, which God saved with his own blood. Peter,
do you love me? He said, do you love me? Then
feed my sheep. That's who I came for to love.
Peter said, I do. I will. I love them. This is
how you know you love God and love His church. It's written
on your heart. Verse 14, there's a seventh.
Do not commit adultery. Do not commit adultery. Oh my,
Christ came to be the faithful husband to His bride, didn't
He? Didn't He? And he's Hosea. And he came to
marry a forlorn woman. Yes, he did. He's faithful to
her. What about her? Well, in Hosea,
listen to this. Listen to Hosea 3, 3, if I can
find it quickly enough. Daniel, Hosea, there it is. Listen
to this. Christ is our faithful husband,
isn't he? He'll never be unfaithful. Listen,
he said in Hosea 3, 3, I said unto her, you shall abide for
me many days. Thou shalt not play the harp.
Thou shalt not be for another man. So will I also be for thee. We were, but now we're married
to another one. Married to nothing. Married to
crime. And only those that love Christ
will be faithful in that sense to their own husband and wife.
Read on. It says in verse 15, Thou shalt
not steal. I missed verse 13. Thou shalt
not kill. Thou shalt not kill. Our Lord came To do what? Give life. We're dead. We were dead. One time the disciples
wanted to call down fire on some people. Remember? They wanted
to call down fire from heaven. Our Lord said, I didn't come
to destroy men's life. He didn't. He didn't come to kill. He came
to give life. He didn't. He came in the next
time to kill. Next time he comes, he came to
give life. Our Lord said, you don't know
what manner of man you are, what manner of spirit you are, if
you want to see people condemned and die. No, we want people to
have life too, don't we? Such were some of you. But full
of wrath and anger and malice, that's why He just told us that
in Ephesians. Don't be done with that. Our
Lord in kindness and love and tenderness didn't come to kill
people. He came to give you life. And that's why He creates...
You remember now, you should have been put to death. You should
have been crucified. Why aren't you? Christ died.
So now, you lay down your life. You love your enemies. And that's
written on the heart, right? Thou shalt not commit adultery,
verse 15. Thou shalt not steal, commandment
number eight. Thou shalt not steal. You know that man is a thief
and a robber by nature? He's a thief and a robber. Our
Lord came to restore what man has stolen from God. What's that?
His glory. It's honor. It's what Satan said, I'll be
like God. It's what Adam and Eve said,
we'll be like God. Free will. There's nothing that
steals God's honor and glory more than anything. Free will. Not his will, my will. I'm not saved by God's will,
I'm saved by my will. You're robbing God of His glory. You're a thief and you're a robber. Christ said, I come to do thy
will. He delighted to do God's will.
He kept this law perfectly. It was in His heart. God's will
was paramount to Him. Not my will. If it be possible,
let this come. Nevertheless, not my will, but
thy will be done. He came to do God's will. It was the will of God that sent
Him. It was the will of God that He lived for. It was the will
of God that He fulfilled for us. Thank God. By nature we are born man, no,
gimme, stealing. I told you about the first time
I saw Isabella, that sweet little... I thought my granddaughters,
maybe with the exception of this rule, that were born sinners. I thought, I'm just kidding you.
But when the first time I saw little Isabella grab something
from her sister, I thought, that's so ugly. Why in the world? She just grabbed it. Mindy, one
time in the nursery, saw her, Hannah, wasn't it Hannah? Isabella. Do something to, was it Olivia? Olivia. Stole something from Olivia and
just denied it, just flat out denied it. I didn't do that.
Olivia said, yes, she did. She said, no, I didn't. OK. And she went back and she did
it again. If you don't thank Catherine McLean for that, they're
your children, you know. That's my child, my grandchild. They're born that way. You've
got to be born again. You're just a thief and a robber
and you're born again. You'll never give anything until
you're born again. And you won't give God the glory
until you're born again. And our Lord gave God all the
glory, not my will. How were you saved, said her? It wasn't my will. It wasn't my works. It wasn't
my decision. It's God's. It wasn't my works.
It's Christ's. It wasn't my will. It's God's
will. It wasn't my love. It's His love. It wasn't my holiness. It's His holiness. It's not my
righteousness. It's His. I'm not going to steal
God's glory. I'm not going to rob God of His
supreme glory. I'm not going to do that. Before you're saved, you will. And take pride in it. Look what
I've done. I've attended church all my life. Here I am, republican. Here I
am, God. Are you glad to see me? Cast him out. He's a robber. He's a thief.
Come to God any other way, he's a thief and a robber. How do
we get to God? One way. That's that new man. See, we keep the love. This new
man does. Verse 16, Thou shalt not bear
false witness against thy neighbor. Our Lord is the true and faithful
witness in them. He cannot lie. He could not lie. He's the truth. You need to listen
to someone that can't lie. You know that? Someone who has
no ulterior motive. Who has nothing that they can
get out of you. But all they want to do is something
for you. Love to you. That's Christ. He
came. He didn't need us. Nothing to
gain. Someone said, don't take advice
from somebody who stands to gain from that advice they give you.
Are you with me? Our Lord stood nothing to gain
by anything. He came. He left everything.
He's rich. Our Savior became poor. He cannot
lie. I'm going to tell you the truth.
You can trust me. He did. He's a true and faithful
witness. John said this of Christ. He
said, He that comes from God speaks the Word of God. He bears
witness of God. He was there. He was there. He
heard the Father. He came to tell us the absolute
truth. And brothers and sisters, we bear witness of the truth.
We don't bear false witness. I'm not bearing false witness
this morning. I'm telling you the truth. Who am I bearing witness
of? Jesus Christ. I'm here to tell you, yes, I
am here to tell you that He is the way, the truth, and the life. No man cometh unto God any other
way. There is no other truth. There
is no other way to live but Jesus Christ. We don't bear witness. We did. My dad was a zealous,
young Saul of Tarsus in false religion, pastor of the largest
Southern Baptist church in eastern Kentucky, a thousand members.
He was lying on God. If God hadn't saved him, he'd
have been sent to hell, like Saul of Tarsus. But God came
and killed that fellow. Killed that Arminian free will,
free works preacher. Just killed it. Just killed his
religion. Just destroyed it. And showed him, now, now you
go out and bear witness of Jesus Christ. And he waited. And he did. Until the day he
died. And the last one is thou shalt
not covet anything. Anything. Christ coveted nothing. What did Paul say? I covet no
man's apparel. He said, it's not yours I want,
it's you. How can a man say that? The grace
of God. The grace of God. Covetousness is idolatry. You
know that? It's the way this began and ended
with the king's commandment. No other God. Covetousness is
idolatry. And I quoted Psalm 73, 25. David,
a man after God's own heart, said, I have none in heaven but
you and none on earth I desire beside thee. Paul said in 1 Corinthians
10, we warned us about the Israelites, and the last thing he said was,
little children, flee from idolatry. John, the last verse in John
5, verse 21, says, keep yourselves from idols. When Peter was sitting
by the fire, He denied him. He sure did. But when our Lord
came and tried his heart, here's what he said. Here's the first
thing he said to him. Simon, son of Jonas, lovest thou
me more than these. More than all this. Anything,
everyone. Is it anything, anyone, he wanted
more than Jesus? I can't take it. So how about
Peter said, yea, Lord. I love that. That's the new man. That wasn't there before. Wasn't
there before. Can you say that? I believe by
the grace of God, you can. OK. Ten commandments. Aren't they wonderful? Just wonderful. I love them. I love them. Glad we're not under them. Because
we can't keep them. But I'm glad God wrote them.
And I'm glad Christ kept them. And I'm glad we see the spirituality
of the law of our Jews. It's good. It's good. Okay.