Look in Deuteronomy chapter 4,
look in verse 12. And he wrote them upon two tables
of stone. Now look in chapter 5 of Deuteronomy
in verse 2. This is concerning the giving
of the Ten Commandments. And look what he says in verse
2. The Lord our God made a covenant with you in Horeb, in Mount Sinai. The Lord made not this covenant
with your fathers, but with us, even us who are all of us who
are alive this day. The Lord talked with you face
to face in the mount out of the midst of the fire. I stood between
the Lord and you at that time to show you the word of the Lord,
for you were afraid by reason of the fire, and went not up
into the mount. And the Lord spake unto you out
of the midst of the fire, saying, I am the Lord thy God which brought
thee out of the land of Egypt from the house of bondage. And
then he gives the first commandment. This is what the Lord said, Thou
shalt have no other gods before me. Now that's the first commandment.
And he proceeds then down through verse 21 to give us the Ten Commandments. I want us to look tonight at
the first three. But the giving of the Ten Commandments,
it's unique. It's probably one of the most
important events that took place in the New Testament, or in the
Old Testament. All the Old Testaments, the Scriptures
in the Old Testament, all the Scriptures in the Old Testament, the giving of the Ten Commandments
is the most unique of all of them. I'm not saying that they're
all not as inspired as the Ten Commandments, they're all as
authoritative as the Ten Commandments, but we can't help but see there
is something unique about the giving of these Ten Commandments. And we see it here in the text
that I read to you. God spoke to these people directly. Now that was unique. That wasn't
the rule. As far as I know and can remember,
this is the only place in the Old Testament that God spake
directly to the people. He spake to the fathers by the
prophets. That was the rule. He revealed
His will by dreams to the prophets, by visions, or He spake to their
conscience or audible voice. They would talk to the people.
God spake to the people by the prophets. But here, He speaks
directly to the people. And this is the only place I'm
aware of in the Old Testament, and He never does this again
until He speaks to us by His Son, who is God incarnate in
the New Testament. He said here in chapter 4 that
I read to you in verse 12, in verse 13, the Lord spake unto
you out of the midst of the fire, and you heard the voice of His
Words. You heard it. You heard it. And
here in chapter 5, I want you to notice, and we've hinted at
this before in our studies, but the whole situation that was
taking place at this time. We're told here in verse 4 of
chapter 5 that the Lord talked with you face to face in the
mount out of the midst of the fire. God spake to them out of
the midst of the fire. Now, what was this fire all about? There's only two places that
I know of where they suppose Mount Sinai is. And either place,
I have my own opinion as to which mountain it is, but either place
they said that there's never been trees on this mountain. There's a few small trees. isolated trees there upon both
of these mountains, but there's nothing to burn. But here it
said the fire consumed the top of this mountain. The mountain
was on a fire and God spake out of the midst of that fire. What
was it then? What was the fire? Well, this
is the Exodus chapter 19 and verse 10. I thought it was Exodus. Exodus
19 and verse 18. Listen to this. Hughes tells
us what this fire is. Exodus chapter 19 verse 18. Mount
Sinai was altogether on a smoke because the Lord descended upon
it in fire. It wasn't the mountain that was
producing the fire. God descended upon it. He is
Himself a consuming fire. He spoke out of Himself. He spoke
out of this fire, this consuming fire, and they heard His voice,
Artex said, speaking out of the midst of the fire, and He spoke
to them these ten commandments. And the first thing He says here,
I am the Lord thy God. That's what he prefaced the Ten
Commandments with. Here's the authority of the Ten
Commandments. God not only showed himself in
this fire, but he spake and identified himself. I am the Lord thy God
which brought thee out of the land of Egypt. And look here
in chapter 6. He does the same thing in chapter
6. And here in verse 4. Hear, O Israel, the Lord our
God is one Lord, and thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all
your heart, all your mind, all your soul, and all your strength. Hear, O Israel, the Lord thy
God is one Lord. There was a scribe that came
to the Lord in the book of Mark and asked our Lord what is the
greatest commandment of all. And the Lord quoted him this.
And the Lord prefaced, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with this
same word. Hear, O Israel, the Lord thy
God am one Lord. He's God. And that shows us the
authority by which He gives these commandments. Pharaoh said, Who
is the Lord that I should obey Him? People are saying that today,
aren't they? Who is the Lord that He can tell
me how to think? Who is the Lord that He can tell
me how to believe, and what I can say, and what I can do? Who is
the Lord that He can command me to do anything? He's God. The Lord, He is God. That's the authority that He
has. He's the one true and living
God, the eternal, self-existent, sovereign creator and sustainer
and judge of all the earth. That's who he is. And Pharaoh,
you're going to find out pretty soon who he is. Because he's
going to bring judgment on you and on your nation and upon all
your gods. He's going to show you. Man is
not his own, is he? No man is his own. We're God's
creatures. God made us all and not we ourselves. We're God's. We belong to Him. The earth is the Lord's and the
fullness thereof, the world and they that dwell therein. Therefore, God has a right to
command what He will of humanity because there's none else besides
Him. I am God and there's none else. I am God and there's none
besides me. I know not any. We're not to believe any other
God, any other spirit. We're not to obey them. We're
not to serve them. We're not to follow them. We're
not to love them. God reserves that to himself. Thou shalt have no other gods
before thee. Now, does he have the absolute
right to command that? He does, don't he? That's what
right he has. And he has that right over everybody.
Very few recognize that. Very few own that. But it doesn't
matter if man owns it or not. He's God. He made us. He upholds us. He gives us everything
we have, fruitful seasons. We live and move and have our
being because He gives it to us. He is our God. He's our God. And you take the
most open and profane atheist in this world, and God says this
to him, you shall have no other God but for me. And he has the
absolute right to command that. And look here now at the second
commandment. Look at the second commandment. You're in verses 8, chapter 5
and verse 8 and verse 9. Thou shalt not make thee any
graven image, or any likeness of anything that is in the heaven
above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the waters
beneath the earth. Thou shalt not bow them thyself
unto 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 commandments." Now, we learn two things here.
We learn how God is to be worshipped and served, and we learn how
He forbids to be worshipped and served. He's to be worshipped
according to His commandments. from a motive of love. Did you
notice that in verse 10? Showing mercy to thousands of
them that love me and keep my commandments. That's the way
God is to be worshiped. God dictates to us how we are
to worship Him. By loving Him. How do we love
Him? By keeping His Word. By keeping His commandments.
We can't worship God apart from the way He dictates. And here
in verse 8, He tells us how He forbids anybody to attempt to
worship Him. By images. By worshiping of images. Thou shalt not make unto thee
any image, look at this, of any likeness of anything that is
in the heavens. Heavenly creatures. And making
image of heavenly creatures is forbidden. in worship. The angels
are the holiest creatures that you and I are aware of in the
Bible. In all reality, they're holy
creatures. They're created holy. They're
angels. But they're not to be worshipped.
We're not to make any images of these angels and worship their
images or serve their images. You remember when the angel with
sin and revelations to show John the revelation of Jesus Christ.
And John, for a time, he did this twice in the book of Revelation.
Chapter 19 and verse 22. He got caught up with the glory
and what was taking place and he fell down before this angel
to worship him. And the angel forbid him and
said, see thou do it not. Don't you do that. I'm a servant
of God. Worship God. Worship God. I thought it was strange, the
very same apostle that said, little children, keep yourselves
from idols, is the very one that got caught up in this and had
to be rebuked and forbidden of this angel. But that happens,
doesn't it? That can happen. And if we're
not to worship anything in heaven, how much more, he says here,
in the earth? We're not to worship the angels
who are the highest of creation, so we're not to worship the moon,
are we? Make images of the sun or stars or comets and worship
anything like that. I just wonder sometimes how much
worship goes into this, what is it they call it, where they
read the paper and see, what is it, horoscope? I just wonder
how much worship goes into that. Does anybody put any stock in
that? They tell me that there are people
that won't begin their day until they read and see what their
horoscope is. Thou shalt not serve. Don't serve. Don't regulate your life in any
way. Don't let your life be ruled
in any way by these things. And in the earth beneath, what
is that? Well, that would include man,
wouldn't it? Don't worship man. Don't make any images of man
and worship man. You know this has happened. This
has happened. You remember when Peter went
down to Carnelius to preach the gospel? Remember what Carnelius
did? He fell down before Peter, didn't he? Remember what Peter
did? Peter took him up. He said, Stand
on your feet. I'm just a man, just like you. When Paul and Barnabas were preaching,
they came and brought sacrifices. They were going to do sacrifices
and worship them. And they stopped them. You know, if the Pope feared
God, when men ran down to kneel to kiss His hand, you know what
he'd do? He'd stop them. He'd stop them. Don't you dare
bow to me. Don't you dare kiss my hand.
Don't you dare call me Holy Father, Most Holy. Don't you dare. That's
forbidden of God to do that. any kind of worship or service
to an angel, to stars or sun and moon, to men, and creeping
things. Romans chapter 1 told us about
the heathen used to worship creeping things, didn't they? They worshiped
the beast of the earth and changed the glory of the incorruptible
God into an image made light unto a corruptible man. And then
he goes here lastly and he says, Make images of anything in the sea. I challenge you to do this, if
you get an opportunity to do this. Don't be afraid to do it.
You can act sort of ignorant about it if you want to, but
do this. The next time you see that little fish image on the
back of a car, or on the plate or windshield, the next time
you see that, if you get a chance to talk to the driver of that
vehicle, ask him what that is. Ask him what that is. It would
probably be some clergyman, because they're the one usually putting
on the car. The little image, fish image, ask them what that
is. You know image making is forbidden? It's forbidden. We take this serious, don't we?
We take this serious. These things are forbidden to
be worshipped directly. We're not to bow down to them
directly and worship these images. And we're not to worship them
indirectly as they represent God. And here's what almost everybody
will tell you that uses these images in worship. Oh, we're
not worshiping the image. We worship God through the image. The images are a help to us. They help us. They remind us
of God. Look in verse 9 again. Look what
he says. Look at the reason he gives for
not making and serving and bowing down to images. Thou shalt not
bow down thyself unto them, nor serve them, for I, the Lord thy
God, am a jealous God. That's it. I'm jealous of my
worship. I'm jealous of my glory. I'm
jealous of my eternal attributes. You cannot worship me using an
image. There's no image in heaven above
or in the earth beneath or under the earth that represents my
eternal glory and Godhead. It's idolatry, isn't it? God
is jealous of His worship. He can't be represented to us
by an image and then attempt to do so is to commit idolatry. Look over here in Leviticus chapter
21. Hold your Deuteronomy and just look right quickly in Leviticus
chapter 26 and verse 1. Leviticus chapter 26. Look here in verse
1. Leviticus 26 and 1. You shall make no idols, nor
graven image, nor rear up a standing image, neither shall you set
up any image of stone in your land to bow down to it. Why? For I am the Lord your God. See how He The reason he gives
for this? Because I am the eternal, creator,
self-sufficient, sovereign, holy God. You cannot worship me by
images. I am God. Don't bow down. Don't bow down. Oh, men's going to bow, aren't
they? Men's going to bow. But to go
and bow to Him, I swear the Lord said by myself,
the word's gone out of my mouth and it shall not return, that
unto me every knee shall bow. We're going to bow. We're going
to bow to Jesus Christ and confess Him to be Lord, but we're not
to bow to anything or anybody else to worship Him. That's a
good reason not to do it too. the Lord. I am the Lord. I imagine some of the greatest
sins in the world is committed in worship services, don't you?
Probably some of the greatest sins in the world are committed
during religious worship. There's millions of people who take out a little rosary
and got around their neck and they get a little bead in their
hand And every time they count that bead, they say, Hail Mary,
the mother of God, pray for us sinners. They'll get another
little bead, Hail Mary, the mother of God, pray for us sinners.
All kinds of idolatry are committed in the worship service. And we're
better to commit it. Where do we have a better opportunity
to commit idolatry than when we profess to worship God? There's one way to worship God.
One way to worship God. Somebody tell me how. In spirit. And how? In spirit and in truth. God is a spirit. He's an eternal,
pure, holy, self-sufficient spirit. And they that worship Him must
worship Him in spirit, with our spirit, in our spirit, and in
the truth according to the truth of His Word, His Gospel. That's the only way to worship
Him. This is why we must be born again. Men are dead in trespasses
and sins. And a man cannot worship God
until he has the life of God in his heart. That's why we must
be quickened. We must be made alive. Our spirits
must be alive. Then and only then can we worship
God in our spirits. Except a man be born again, he
cannot see, he cannot enter, he cannot understand, He cannot
know. He cannot repent. He cannot believe. He cannot worship until he's
born again. I'll give you a new heart and
a new spirit will I put within you. Why? That's the only way
we can worship. That's the only way God can be
worshipped. A heart worship. A spiritual worship. A worship
that's according to truth. That's the only way. Look here
in Romans chapter 1. And look in verse 9, how the Apostle Paul says this.
This is the way he tells us that he worships and serves God. Look at it in Romans chapter
1, verse 9. Romans chapter 1, verse 9. Look
at this. For God is my witness, whom I
serve with my spirit. Now, that's the way we worship
God, isn't it? with our spirit. They that worship God must worship
Him in spirit, with their spirits. Paul said, I serve Him with my
spirit, look at this, in the gospel of His Son. That's the only way to worship
God, with our spirits, according to the truth of His Word, of
His gospel. Why does he say, I serve Him
in the gospel of His Son? Well, it's in the Gospel. It's
by the Gospel that we're reconciled to God. If we're not reconciled
to God, we can't worship God. Apart from the Gospel, there's
no forgiveness of sins. Apart from the Gospel, there's
no justification. Apart from the Gospel, there's
no life. The only way to worship God is with our spirits in the
Gospel, through the Gospel, of His Son. And apart from the gospel,
there's no worship, is there? There's just no worship. The
world doesn't believe that, but you do. You do. All my worship until the time
that I heard the gospel and believed the gospel, all my worship was
idolatry. All my worship was vain and useless,
because true worship is to worship God with our spirits in the gospel
of His Son. That's the way we serve Him,
and that's the way we worship Him. We worship Him with our
intellect. It's impossible to worship God
if we don't know Him. It's impossible to worship God
except we know the gospel. It's impossible. We worship God
with knowledge, don't we? But it doesn't stop there. It
doesn't stop there. We worship Him with our affections,
with our love, with our desires, with our longing for Him. And
it doesn't stop there. We worship Him with our wills.
There must be a willing mind. God makes us willing, but He
doesn't force us. Isn't that wonderful? You cannot
force worship. It must come from a willing heart,
a willing mind. And we do it with our spirits.
We do it in our very souls. We do it through the gospel of
God's Son. And we do it willingly and with
our affection. That's the way He's worshipped.
That's the way He's served. Not by images, but in the gospel with our spirits.
Look back now again, right quickly. Look in Deuteronomy again, chapter
5. Look back in chapter 5. Here's what the world does. The
world goes ahead pretty much with its own thoughts of how
God is worshipped and who He is. They really won't even think. They won't even consider. Am
I worshiping God in my heart? Am I worshiping Him according
to the rule of His Word? They won't even consider that.
They won't think about that. Is my worship acceptable? Is
it according to the dictates of God's Word? These verses here
in chapter 5, verses 9 and 10, they reveal two things concerning
the motives of the heart in worship. Here in verse 9, when a man can
pretend to worship God and he doesn't care if it's according
to truth or not. He just don't care. What does
that reveal in his heart? What does that reveal about that
person's heart? Well, read it here in verse 9. Look at it with
me. Thou shalt not bow down thyself
unto them, nor serve them, For I, the Lord thy God, am a jealous
God, vising the iniquities of the fathers upon the children
unto the third and fourth generation of," who? Who? Them that hate me. Them that
hate me. When you tell people, when you
show people from the Word of God that this is the only way
God can be worshiped, in spirit and in truth, in the gospel of
Jesus Christ the Lord and Savior. This is the way God dictates
to us how we're to worship Him. And they go on and worship in
their own way, according to their own thoughts. You know why they
do that? They hate God. They hate God. Now, Bruce, wait a minute now.
You're getting too narrow. You're getting too straight.
I don't know much about the Bible, but listen, I love God. And I
worship Him in my own way. And for you to say I don't love
Him, it's not me saying that. It's not me saying that. It's
the Bible. If we don't worship according
to the rule of God's Word, we hate Him. This is seriousness. This is so serious. The Lord got his eleven disciples,
eleven apostles together. Just eleven of them left. Judas
had gone off to betray him. The Lord had his eleven apostles
up there in the upper room with him. And he said, you know the
Pharisees and these scribes that have been against me ever since
I've been preaching. He said, you know those fellows.
You know what they've done. They've laid aside the commandments
of God. They have no love and faith in
His Word. They plead to their own traditions. They love their silly ceremonies
of washing of hands and washing of pots. And they won't let these
things go. And yet they look so holy, and
they wear their holy-looking religious dress. And here's what
the Lord told His apostles about those men. He said, they do this,
because they hate me and my father. That's it. That's it. I preach
the truth to them of how God is worshipped. I preach my gospel
to them, and they've uttered and rejected, and they've held
on to the worship of their silly tradition. And the reason they
won't let go and worship God, as I've told them to, is because
they hate me. And they hate my Father. Now,
that's serious, ain't it? And we're looking to people today
doing the very same thing. Oh, I love God. I love God. You love His Word? You esteem
His Word? You look in His Word to see how
He's to be worshipped and who He is? Well, no, I don't do that. And you might hate Him. You might
hate Him. You know, it's not a matter of
being indifferent, is it? The Lord said, you're against
me or you're for me. That's just the way it is, ain't
it? You worship me in spirit and in truth or you hate me.
You hate me. And you and I believe this, don't
we? We believe this. And he says there in verse 10
that I quoted to you just a minute ago, when a man worships God
and he serves God according to His Word, it's because he loves
Him. That's what he said in verse
10. I show mercy to thousands of them that love me. And here's
the way they can know and you can know they love me. They keep
my commandments. They keep my Word. The Lord Jesus
said, if a man loves Me, he will keep My words. He said, Peter, you're going
away. Lord, to whom shall I go? You've got the words of eternal
life. And I love them. I've embraced
them in my heart. I believe them. I keep them.
I cling to them. I ain't going no place. Why did
Peter do that? He loved the Lord. We can know
we love Him when we're keeping His commandments, when we love
His Word, when we worship Him and serve Him according to the
rule of His Word. Now, that's not too harsh, is
it? That's not too straight. That's just the truth. It's just
the truth. Now, let's look at the third
commandment back over to Deuteronomy chapter 5. Look at the third
one. Here's the third one. I'll hurry through this one quickly.
Look in verse 11. Thou shalt not take the name
of the Lord your God in vain, for the Lord will not hold him
guiltless that takes his name in vain. Well, this happens a
lot in our day, doesn't it? Taking the name of the Lord in
vain. There's three ways that this can be done that I'm aware
of. The first of all is this, by associating his name with
any wrong doing on my part and on your part, by associating
His name with any wrongdoing on our part. The Lord said in Leviticus 19.12,
You shall not swear by My name falsely, neither shall you profane
the name of the Lord. I am the Lord. Now, the New Testament
is the best commentary I know of on what it means on this point
to take the name of the Lord your God in vain. Paul was writing
in chapter 2 of Romans and he said, you're called a Jew. You
brag about being a Jew. And you make your boast of God
and how you keep the law. And he said, you tell other people. Don't you worship idols? But
you worship idols yourself. You tell other people, don't
steal, but you steal yourself. You tell other people, don't
you dare commit adultery, but you commit adultery yourself.
And here's what he says, by your profession of God and your ungodly
living, you blaspheme the name of God. The name of God, the
name of God is blasphemed among the Gentiles through Did you ever have to go back
to somebody like your pastor has and say, man, I'm sorry for
what I just said to you. What I just said to you and the
way I said it, the attitude I said it in, that's not of God. What I did to you, I'm sorry. I apologize. That's not of God. My words and my hateful actions
is not of God. I'm sorry. I took the name of
the Lord in vain. Have you ever did that? We have, haven't we? I think
all of us, one time or another, have to plead, I'm guilty. Lord, I have misrepresented you
by my attitude, by my hatefulness, by my words. Taking his name in vain. Secondly,
it's this. By using his holy name in the
way of a wicked oath or cursing. Boy, that's prominent today.
Calling upon God to damn this person. God damn that person. God damn this situation, that
situation, these circumstances. That's awful, ain't it? And I
tell you, people do it today. It's so common, as easily as
they can breathe. I was on a bus going to catch
a plane, and me and this lady and her young child, about Lela's
sister's age, was sitting there, and these men come on this bus
dressed in their suits, and I never in my life shared the name of
God taken in vain. With blatant disregard for everybody
else in there, even the child. And I'll say this for that lady
before I had time, working up enough nerve to say something.
She says, Sir, I beg your pardon. There's a child on this bus. And boy, she called her hand.
She called her hand. God's going to call her hand
someday. Because I will not hold him guiltless that taketh my
name in vain. Listen to Psalms 139.20. Oh God! He says, depart from Me, therefore
you sinful men, you bloody men. For they speak against thee,
O God, they speak wickedly. And thine enemies take thy name
in vain. Yeah, they'll get by with it
here. There used to be a law against
black, they called it blackguard. Remember that? When I was a kid
growing up, if they heard you take God's name in vain, they
could arrest you. They could arrest you. You tell
people that now, and they say, man, what kind of society did
you live in? I think there's a lot of aspects
of it that was better then than it is now. I really do. But God will straighten it out
someday, won't He? Thirdly and finally is this. To use His name
in vain is to use it in a useless, flippant, or irreverent way. Well, watch for this. Watch yourself
for this, because this is common. For Christ's sake. For Christ's
sake. You ever hear somebody say that?
And what were they talking about? Nothing. Some worldly thing. For Christ's sake. You know what
just happened? His name in vain. God have mercy. What just happened? His name
was taken in vain. In so many ways the name of the
Lord can be taken in vain. There is one time in the whole
Bible the word reverend is mentioned. Ain't that amazing? Ain't that
amazing? Just one time in all the scriptures this name reverend
is mentioned. You will find it in Psalms 119
and verse 11. And it is not used as an adjective
to describe an angel. or a preacher, but it's used
to identify His name. Holy and reverent is His name. That's why He's jealous of us.
Brothers and sisters, let us be jealous over His name, how
we use it. When we use His name upon our
lips, let's make sure we apply it with reverence. He's our God,
our covenant God. Why we're so serious about these
things? We've heard His voice, haven't we? We've heard His voice. We haven't heard it out of the
midst of fire like they have. But I tell you, we've heard it
from His Bible. And He's called us to fear His name and love
His name.