0:00 Exodus 20 beginning in verse one. And God spoke all these words saying, I am the Lord your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery. You shall have no other gods before me. You shall not make for yourself a carved image or 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. You shall not bow down to them or serve them, for I, the lord your god, am a jealous god, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children of the third and the fourth generation of those who hate me, but showing steadfast love to thousands of those who love me and keep my commandments.
0:39 You You shall not take the name of the lord your god in vain, for the lord will not hold him guiltless who takes his name in vain. Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy. Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the lord your god. On it, you shall not do any work, you or your son or your daughter, your male servant or your female servant or your livestock or the sojourner who is within your gates. For in six days, the lord made heaven and earth, the sea and all that is in them, and rested on the seventh day.
1:09 Therefore, the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy. Honor your father and your mother, that your days may be long in the land that the Lord your God has given you. You shall not murder. You shall not commit adultery. You shall not steal.
1:23 You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor. You shall not covet your neighbor's house. You shall not covet your neighbor's wife or his male servant or his female servant or his ox or his donkey or anything that is your neighbor's. And when all the people saw the thundered the thunder and the flashes of lightning and the sound of the trumpet and the mountains smoking, the people were afraid and trembled, and they stood afar off and said to Moses, you speak to us and we will listen, but do not let God speak to us lest we die. Moses said to the people, do not fear, for God has come to test you that the fear of him may be before you, that you may not sin.
2:03 The people stood far off while Moses drew near the thick darkness where God was. Let's pray together. Father, help us really believe that who we are speaking to now and who we've been worshiping is the same God we just read about. Give us that revelation. May it be true within our hearts.
2:26 May it touch us, Lord, and may it bring every fiber of our being into the fear of the Lord, into a place in which we stand in awe of your majesty and your holiness. Give us clarity of mind. Make complex things simple, Lord, through the power of your Holy Spirit, and give us words of wisdom. May every mind and heart be attentive to your word tonight, and may Jesus be glorified in light of the 10 commandments. We pray this in Jesus' name.
2:53 Amen. You may be seated. Pop quiz. It's always exciting to come to Bible study because we never know how these chapters will be covered. Sometimes they lead more to a preaching segment.
3:10 Sometimes they're very teaching. Sometimes they're very interactive. Sometimes they're pop quizzes. And this is one of those moments. I hope you studied.
3:21 Who here knows? Close your bibles. All of you, close your bibles. Close your bibles. I know there are definitely a few that were here probably last week.
3:29 They did this. I can tell by your face. Don't worry. Who here knows the 10 commandments by heart? Do you?
3:37 Yeah. Stand up and share with us. The 10 commandments.
3:48 Yes. Preferably. Go for it. Don't worry. You're You don't have
3:53 any other gods other than me. No carved images. Do not blaspheme. Keep the Sabbath day holy, honor your father and mother, do not murder, do not commit adultery, do not steal, do not bear false witness, and do not covet.
4:09 You got it. Yeah. Unfortunately, I don't have a reward for you, bud. Does anybody else know the 10 commandments? I won't make you say it, but I just wanna see a show of hands.
4:23 Hannah, you know it in the KJV for sure too. Right? Anybody else know the 10 commandments? Tim? Yes?
4:31 Eva, you know it in Arabic? Moni, you know it in anybody know it in Arabic? Yeah. Okay. Impressive.
4:39 Alright. The 10 commandments. If you think we're gonna go over all of these tonight, we're not. Though they may seem simple and straightforward, there's so much to each of these commandments that for us to just skim through them would really do injustice to our understanding of who God is and what he asks of us. And even the first two verses of this chapter give us an insight of how important these commandments are.
5:10 Read with me in verse one. It says, and God spoke all these words saying, I am the Lord your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery. So what can we say about these first two verses? By the way, this will be more of a teaching. These next few weeks will be very more teaching than preaching, and that's what I'm planning on, but it can turn otherwise.
5:31 The reason is because I want us to really grasp this. And here's here's the aim of it. By the time we finish the 10 commandments, my desire, my prayers that we would all be exhausted. That by seeing the standard of God, we would literally be breathless at the standard that he asks of every human being. Only to run to the inexhaustible grace of God.
6:00 That we may be exhausted of the standard of the law so that we can run to the inexhaustible grace of God through Jesus Christ our Lord. And so we're we're gonna take our time with this. And this is very important to the Lord. And the first two verses tell us why it's important to the Lord. Can you can you spot an insight of why this is so significant?
6:23 Have you heard enough? Yes.
6:28 Before God tells anything to them, I'm just telling them what he did for them. So whatever he says, they have to obey. Because whatever he did for them, they'll live throughout the night.
6:41 Great observation. So we see the Lord here reminding the people of what he's done before he tells them what to do. That's significant. Absolutely. Yes.
6:50 He's saying all these words to the people. He's not just speaking through Moses or Aaron. He's speaking to everybody.
6:57 That's the main point. God here is speaking directly to the people. He's not speaking through his prophet. He's not speaking through mediator. You You know what he's doing here?
7:06 He's saying, Moses, step aside. I have somebody to save myself. Now it's one thing for a king of a city or a nation to deliver a message through a faithful messenger. It's another thing when the king steps off his throne, so to speak, and gives the message himself. And that's exactly what God is doing.
7:23 He wants there to be no misunderstanding. He wants there to be no misinterpretation. He doesn't want there to be any sense in which people might say, well, this is a man thing. This is not a God thing. God is coming and breaking all those things that could be possible, and he's making it very, very, very clear that this is my heart.
7:41 This is my commands. This is from my voice directly. That's significant. Not only that, when he gives the 10 commandments, do you know how he gives it? Does anybody know how by the end?
7:53 He writes it with his finger? He writes it with his finger on what? Tablets of stone. And so he even puts his finger on it. He doesn't have Moses write the commandments.
8:06 He speaks to the people directly. And when he wants to establish its permanence to the people of Israel for all generations, he says, you know, I'm gonna do this with my finger on a tablet of stone, two of them. People get all debate y about how many were on each or why two. That's not significant. What's important is that God wrote it with his finger.
8:28 God spoke to people directly, and it was terrifying. I mean, earlier we read about how Moses and all the Israelites were coming up to the mountain and they heard thunder. And when God spoke, it was like thunder. Have you ever been in a storm? Have you ever heard thunder rumble your house?
8:45 Have Have you ever been awoken by a storm at night? You woke up to thunder. Imagine the amplification of God's voice with every single one of these commands given to the people. It shook their bones. It brought them to the place where they said, we can't even hear anymore.
9:02 Moses, from now on, you have to speak. So this is weighty. This is not light. This is not an email sent. This is not even something spoken through a messenger.
9:13 It's not a thus says the Lord, a Jeremiah or an Isaiah. No. This is move aside, prophet. I'm gonna I'm gonna speak myself. And so we should pay careful attention to what these things mean.
9:27 And before we explore these commandments, and we don't know how much we'll cover tonight, you mentioned something about verse two. I am the Lord your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery. Now why do you think God would bring that up again? He brought it up earlier. Why is he reminding them?
9:49 to be humbled. For them to be humbled. Absolutely. Be reminded for what I've done for you. Yeah.
9:54 That's like we need constant reminder of what God did for us.
9:57 Absolutely. We do need constant reminders. Yes.
10:00 I think God knows what is yet to come. They're gonna go back to their idol worship as if they were in Egypt. So he's reminding them, like, listen. I know this is what your heart is, so I'm gonna let you know what happened and what I did for you in the past.
10:13 Sure. He's reminding them of the deliverance so that they can be faithful. Yes.
10:20 To confirm it by the witness of two witnesses, a matter is confirmed.
10:25 Sure. So there's a confirmation here. You guys all acknowledging that I delivered you? Absolutely. Consider the rest of the chapter to why he's doing this.
10:34 I see it's like he keeps saying, like, I've got it out of slavery. And it's like when you like, he almost bought them out. So now they're his. Like Yes. Let's say you are mine because you were slaves and now I bought you out.
10:49 So you're my possession. I delivered you. We talked about eagles wings last week of how God stirred up the nest and fluttered over his his young and he brought them out. Yes. They are his own possession.
10:59 But remember here, those all you guys all touched on something. And one of the main things too to add to that is that he's about to give these important commands. And before he does it, he reminds him of his grace. He did not give the commands to the people of Israel and then say, if you keep these, I will deliver you. He delivered them in spite of that.
11:18 He pulled them out of bondage. He pulled them under the out of the grip of pharaoh. And out of that grace, he says, now be motivated by my kindness. Be motivated by my consideration. Be motivated by my act of deliverance to obey.
11:33 So he's reminding me saying, listen. I saved you before you obeyed anything. Before there were tablets of stone, before you looked at anything, I saw you. I heard your cry. I sent my prophet, and I delivered you.
11:46 Now obey. Is that God's order even in the New Testament? Absolutely. God saves us, and we're motivated by grace to obey him. I give you my life, Lord, because you gave your life.
11:59 When I was yet an enemy of God, you still saved me. Here's my life. And it puts a whole different spin to this thing called obedience. It's done in joy. And he's establishing that even now in the hearts of the people.
12:12 Listen. I saved you. Remember where you came from. Remember how I came with a mighty arm of deliverance and brought you to myself. Now, now that I've done that, walk in my ways.
12:25 Walk in my ways. Do you see the tone here? And so don't don't get it twisted. We're not in Egypt right now. And these people are not in bondage.
12:35 And God says, you know, before I deliver you, make a testimony for my name, obey these 10 commandments. Memorize them, obey them for a week or two, and then I'll see if you're worthy of deliverance. No. He pulled them out even in the midst of their complaining, their disbelief at the Red Sea. A few days after, they cry, and he's faithful.
12:53 And so he says, because of my grace and my faithfulness to you, would you return it to me with the revelation of my goodness? And then he gives the 10 commandments with that tone. That's important. Because people have this wrong understanding of obedience. God delivers you out of slavery.
13:12 What? To put you in slavery again? Are commandments to put you in bondage? To infringe upon your freedom? No.
13:17 That's not what the commandments are for. Commandments are for your freedom. They're for you to benefit and to enjoy the most out of this life in your god given and god ordained purpose. Those are commandments. They are guard rails.
13:30 They keep you. Any loving father takes a child and puts him in a backyard with a fence, especially if there's a highway or a country road by there. Why? To protect that child. Would it be loving for a father to let that child go run loosely for the sake of freedom and independence?
13:45 No. We would look at that and say, that's abuse. To let somebody run wild without any sense of direction or guidance, that is not freedom. That is not love. And so for somebody to say, well, God is putting he's a joy kill.
13:59 He's a buzz kill. All these commands that I gotta follow. You don't understand God's heart. He's a father, and he wants you to walk in the fullness of this life. And so before we even explore these commandments, I wanted to take our our time here to really unpack these commandments and their purpose before we identify each one.
14:24 What are the purpose of the 10 commandments? And there's more than one. There's a main one, but what are the purpose is of the 10 commandments? Why is he giving out these laws? We know, yes, to give him a sense of direction in life, absolutely, but there are others.
14:42 Because here's the reality. A new believer might come up to you, those who are older in the faith, and say, I I read something in the in in Exodus 20 about these 10 commandments. What do I do with those? What are the purpose of those? Is that just for Israel or is it for me?
14:58 Old covenant, new covenant? What do I do? Yes.
15:01 I think it's similar to what Jesus said in the New Testament about this these 10 commandments, I think, are supposed to help us love God with all our heart, mind, strength, and soul, and love.
15:16 So these commandments are the expression of the greatest commandment in the one second. Right? Second one to it? It's good. Yes.
15:24 I think Paul talks about it, And it's just like these commandments show us how much we need God because we're gonna see how much we, like we're almost gonna fall and, like, we're gonna, like, break everyone. Like, almost everyone. Like, not murder. Maybe not all of us, but we can, like, break so many of them and realize that we cannot be that good without God and how much we need him and how much we need his grace.
15:48 Absolutely. You said that this is a standard. And you said something that, maybe not murder. I would say probably half of us in here have committed murder. Saying what?
16:01 Jesus says if you hate your brother, you've committed murder in your heart. Jesus does something with this law. Greater than what we see in here. Remember that. Remember that.
16:15 I just I just wanna say two of them would be that we're in need of a savior. She said that we need God, and also to call his people into holiness and to be set to set them apart from other nations.
16:25 So we've covered. That was great. So we have this idea of fulfilling the greatest commandment, loving God and loving our neighbor, and that is fleshed out in these commandments. We have this understanding of being holy and set apart as a people, And we have this understanding that we cannot meet this standard here. And those are actually the three purposes, the main purposes of the law.
16:49 Number one, They reveal God's character and nature. We're gonna go scripture heavy today. Like I said, this is gonna be more teaching because I want you guys to have these verses to explore and understand this. And there's a lot of debate and clash between Christians today about how this law relates to Christians today. And so let's look at it in the immediate context first.
17:12 It reveals God's character and nature. Leviticus nineteen:two, we know this verse, and Peter even quotes it. He says, you will be holy as I am holy. And after that, he begins to give some of the commandments that he gave in Exodus 20. And so in light of the holiness of God and us imitating him, the 10 commandments are given even in Leviticus 19, some of them at least.
17:35 And so we have to see this and understand this is revealing God's nature and character. He is a moral law giver. He has a standard of living. And that is, if we understand apologetics, very important because we must understand the dangers of subjective moral reasoning. To simplify that, we do not believe as believers that you have a standard of right and wrong, and you have a different standard of right and wrong, and you have your own, and you have your own.
18:04 You can determine that. No. There's an objective moral giver, God, and this is where we get it from. An atheist would argue that, and a lot of debate goes around. Well, if you don't have God, if you don't have his word, how do we have morals?
18:20 How do we determine how we live? And the argument comes back and says, well, we developed our understanding of morality through evolution and through all these different things, and our society determines that. And I would say, well, there was a man who thought killing Jews and different people that did not fit his race. He thought it was good to do that for his society and for his nation. And who are you if you don't have an objective moral standard to say that that is wrong?
18:55 For a man, it seems right to him to rape a woman to fulfill his desires. Now if you don't have objective moral reasoning, how can you say no to that? And how can you tell him he's wrong? Somebody in this place can feel that it's right to punch somebody else in the face. And if we don't have the standard, if we don't have an understanding of right and wrong, who are we to say you can't do that?
19:15 Do you understand the chaos that comes from not having a moral law? And so we understand that God has a way of living, that this is a reflection of who he is, that he is pure, that he is compassionate, that he is not self centered. And he wants us to imitate that, and he does so by dishing out these commandments to his people. So number one, we understand who God is through these things. He's not like the pagan gods that we read of and these Greek gods that murder each other and sleep with one another and have offspring and they eat their offspring and all this weird stuff.
19:51 He's holy. He's holy. He's transcendent. He's immutable. He's constant.
20:08 And these commands reveal who he is. Secondly,
20:13 they provide, once again, guidelines for the people to live in harmony and to live in holiness. Right? What was the purpose of these commandments? If you understand especially the later books of the Pentateuch, he gives all these commandments, and he gets even more detailed about what they are to eat and how they are not to mix fabric and how they are to to keep certain festivals. Why did he ask for those things?
20:40 K? Heart posture. But remember remember what he said in Exodus 19 that he was he was gonna what? Redeem unto himself a kingdom of what? Priests.
20:52 That they would be a what? Holy nation. So what was the purpose of these commandments? One of them at least. That they would stand out amongst their neighboring nations.
21:04 That all these other nations that worship these false gods, Baal and Asherah, and all these different goddesses and gods, Israel would stand out and they would show these different people how they serve the living and true God through their practices. So a lot of those commandments, those really nitty gritty details, the dietary laws and all those things, we have to keep in mind the historical context. That God was trying to pull out of them the practices of the world so that they would stand out, not just in word, but in deed, that they would not imitate. And I think that's a wonderful principle for Christians today too. And we're going to get into how this relates.
21:38 If we, if we look like the world, smell like the world, talk like we're entertaining ourselves like the world, how are people gonna see something different? I'm not talking about you attaining your salvation by living in a certain way or dressing a certain way. I'm just saying if we look like them, how are they gonna see anything different? If we sound like them and talk like them, and there's a principle there. Remember, every scripture is god breathed and is useful for our teaching instruction, for training in righteousness.
22:05 So there's principles even in those things that are obsolete and do not relate to us today because of the new covenant. Keep that in mind. You mentioned something, and this is important too. How these laws are the practical means by which we fulfill what Jesus said is the greatest commandment. What is the greatest commandment?
22:26 Love the Lord your God with what? Heart and with all what? Your strength with what else? Mind and soul. Every fiber of your being should be to love him.
22:37 What's the second one? Let us like it. Love your neighbor as yourself. And he says this in Matthew 22, when somebody a lawyer asked him that question, and you can write this down in Matthew twenty two thirty five to 40. I won't read it, but just as a reference.
22:50 Matthew twenty two thirty five to 40. A lawyer asked him, what is the greatest commandment? And you know what? He doesn't go to the 10 commandments. He says to love the Lord your God, right, with what we just said, and love your neighbor as yourself for the law and the prophets depend upon these.
23:09 So to love the Lord and to love your neighbor as yourself, every commandment is hinged upon that truth. So even as we look at the 10 Commandments, it's a fulfillment of both of those things. Right? The first four commandments are regarding our relationship to God. The last six commandments are how we relate to one another.
23:29 So we see the first four, loving the Lord our God with everything within us, and we see the last six, loving our neighbor as we would wanna be treated. So we see it fleshed out here, and that's you're absolutely right. To provide moral guidance for the people of Israel. Right? So that there would be harmony in society.
23:50 Laws provide just that. Can you imagine a world in which nobody would be held accountable for what they did? Absolute chaos. And that's why government is instituted by God, Romans 13, to what? Provide the sword for those who disobey the law and to reward those who do good.
24:09 That's why we must pray for our government. They are God's people, God's judges in this land, in this time that represent his expression of wrath and celebration over good. And so laws provide order, order provides harmony. That's why you can sleep at night safely. And some of us have misfortunate experiences where people try to break in or whatever, but we have this general fear that if you do something wrong, you're gonna be held accountable for it.
24:39 So don't don't buy into this. Well, these commandments hinder my expression of identity. Hold up there. Just think for a moment before you speak and just regurgitate something that you heard in college. Study if you really wanna be serious about your life.
24:57 It shows us what The moral guidelines for the people of Israel and even for us today. And lastly, this is the main thing. Paul even answers the question for us. Why the law? And he gives us different reasons, but all have a central point.
25:14 Romans three nineteen to 20. Now we know what? That whatever the law says, it speaks to those who are under the law that every mouth may be stopped, and the whole world may be held accountable to God. For no man will be justified by the works of the law since through the law comes the knowledge of sin. So we know.
25:44 Romans three nine to 20 tells us that the law, the purpose of the law, given, preached, proclaimed, written, however it is expressed, is to give the world a taste of humility regarding themselves so that every mouth may be stopped. Stopped in what? Any boast of self righteousness. Any attempt to think that you have the right to inherit eternal life based on your behavior. Because James tells us when you break one of the law, you break them all.
26:18 Think of it this way. If you were to contact me via phone and call me, all it takes is one digit off, and you can't get a hold of me. You just dial one wrong number, and you're calling somebody else. In light of that same principle, one command broken, you have no contact with God. You have no way to reach God.
26:39 You have no way to stand in his presence forever. You have officially disqualified yourself from being in his presence for all eternity because you did not meet his standard. So that's why the law is important in our evangelism because there's a lot of people, more than anything, that are convinced that they are good. You know, you can go to hell two ways. Just being really bad and knowing it and by your self deception of thinking that you're really good.
27:09 And so you hear this from people. Well, I'm a good person, and this is the purpose of the law. You bring it before them like a mirror, and you say, do you meet this standard? And somebody like what you mentioned might bring up, what? I've never murdered somebody.
27:24 And Jesus says, alright. Well, let me bring it up here. If you hate your brother, you've committed murder in your heart, so you're a murderer. So even in Matthew five when Jesus steps on the scene, whatever justification these Pharisees might have had concerning their spotless, though they were hypocrites, and though they were something else in dark than in the light, any sense of boasting would have been destroyed by Jesus upholding and enhancing and enlarging this understanding of the law by bringing it to a whole nother standard. And that's grace.
27:59 Jesus, what? Grace and truth came through Jesus Christ? And so grace is not this freedom. Grace is, yeah, if you think it, you did it. And so Romans tells us that it keeps us.
28:14 It keeps us in a place of humility and brings us to a place of realizing what? I'm in trouble. Another verse is Galatians. Galatians four rather, Galatians three nineteen. Why then the law?
28:31 He answers it again. It was added because of transgressions. It was added because of transgressions. In Romans five twenty, it's another verse, it says, now the law came in to increase the trespass. And so what does the law do?
28:49 Well, Romans two tells us what? That the law is given and it's sealed somewhere. Where is it? The conscious. Right?
28:59 So those who are not under the law, those who do not practice law, those who are not under these teachings, these Gentile people that didn't have the law, God planted a little chip called your conscience in your mind to understand right from wrong. Everybody has a general understanding that if you take something that's not yours, you don't wanna be caught doing that because it's wrong. It's built within our system. God put that in there. Now what does the law do?
29:23 The law comes, puts it on stone, so to speak, puts it on paper so that when we look at it, it arouses and it shows and it puts the spotlight on what's already in our conscience. It enhances trespass, so to speak. Paul says it even in Romans seven. He says, well, the law is not this law is not simple because if it wasn't for the law, I wouldn't know what coveting is. I wouldn't know what this looks like.
29:49 And so what does it do? It arouses sin in me. It causes me to realize what this thing is and how it defiles God and how it defiles my relationship with others. And so the law comes in to strike the nerves, so to speak, in us, to show us what it is in detail, and to confirm that our conscience is, yes, what God has put in us to tell us right from wrong. So then I ask the second question.
30:21 If that's the case, what do we do with the law? What do we do with this?
30:34 Still study it to know what God expects of you.
30:38 Still study it to know what God expects of you? Because we know that in this these last verses especially that the the what? The law is a schoolmaster. It brings you to a place where what? You realize that your mouth has stopped.
30:53 You can't boast in your righteousness. You can't boast in your perfection. You can't do any of that. It arouses sin within you. It shows you.
30:59 It highlights the iniquity that dwells within. And what does it cause you to do? Paul says it causes you to go to Christ. It literally brings you to a place where you say, I need a savior. I'm in trouble if God's standard is this, and I've broken 18 of those by the time I had breakfast this morning.
31:21 And so what do I do? And Paul says it brings you to Jesus. It makes you run and fall upon his feet. And to run at the cross, towards it, at the foot of the cross, plead for his blood, plead for his forgiveness, and to realize that I cannot do this. That's what really repentance is.
31:39 Repentance in one sense is just giving up. Sure. We have this understanding that repentance is what? Turning from your sin, turning from your way you think about sin and how it defiles your relationship with God. But repentance is also turning away from your attempt to do good works, to inherit salvation.
31:54 That's repentance as well. It's giving up on your own efforts and falling upon Christ and His deeds and the fulfillment of the law that He performed on your behalf. So it's a schoolmaster. It's a tutor. It brings you to Jesus.
32:14 So what do we do with it? Because Jesus fulfilled the law. This is an important question. Jesus fulfilled the law, so we are no longer under under the law. That's all over the New Testament.
32:33 So we read this and we're gonna spend a few weeks on this and we go, well, how does that relate to me as a new covenant believer that's trusting that Jesus Christ walked the law out for me and that it is imputed unto me by faith and by faith alone? Is this just a historical document? Is this this, the same way we look at circumcision and say, well, that's what they did in the old covenant, but neither circumcision or uncircumcision matters, but a changed life. What do we do? We're under grace.
33:00 Paul says it over. You're under grace. He's he's the apostle of that message. Grace. Grace.
33:05 Grace. Not law. Grace. Well, he answers it in Romans seven twelve. He says something about the law before we get into how we relate to it.
33:20 He says, so the law is holy, and the commandment is holy and righteous and good. So he he he doesn't speak against the law. He says it's good. It's holy. It's something to regard.
33:41 Because the opposite understanding of this is, well, since we're under grace and the law doesn't apply, gung ho. Let's just do what we want. His blood covers us. And Paul answers that too. It says in Romans six fifteen, what then?
34:03 Are we to sin because we are not under the law, but under grace? Three words. By no means. You've completely misunderstood what it means to be under the law and under grace. In no way does it give a license for somebody to live in sin because we had a transfer of covenants.
34:24 He says no. To be under the law this is so important. Pay attention to this. To be under the law is for us to be under the power and authority that it carries to judge us for not fulfilling it. To be under the law is to be under the condemnation and the penalty of not keeping the law, that we are held accountable for breaking it.
34:51 That's what it means to be under the law. Now, why are we no longer under the law? Because Jesus absorbed the wrath of God for you and me. Jesus not only fulfilled the law Pay attention. This is the gospel, and I pray that we would never become dull to this gospel.
35:13 I love what Paul says in Romans one. He's talking to Christians, like, I can't wait to come to you so I can preach to you the gospel. It's like, Paul, they're saved. Yeah. But it never never never stops getting glorious when you hear it.
35:28 Jesus, the man that we worshiped before we open this book together, he walked in the flesh to do what? To fulfill the law. He said that. I've not come to abolish it. I've come to fulfill it.
35:41 And he kept it perfectly. And he's the faithful Israelite. And what does he do? By faith, when we say, I believe in Jesus Christ, his faithfulness to the law is transferred to your account as though you, yes, you and me, sinner, liar, adulterer, murderer, covenant breaker is seen by God the judge as perfect and holy. Not only that, but he takes our broken law, what we could not keep, and he drinks every drop of the wrath of God upon the cross.
36:26 That's what we call the beautiful exchange. His righteousness is your righteousness. Your condemnation becomes his condemnation. That's the gospel. And so when we say we're not under law, We are no longer under the penalty or the condemnation that comes from breaking the law because Jesus took it for us.
36:53 Praise be to His name. And so we understand that. He says, Listen. Just because you're not under law doesn't mean that you can just do whatever you want. You're not under the penalty of the law, and something happens with this gospel.
37:09 Something happens. It's not just this judicial. It's not just this, positional thing that happens in which we walk with that wonderful truth as wonderful as it is. Something supernatural happens. And these prophets of old testify of it.
37:26 They say, you know this law that you could not keep? I'm gonna write it on your hearts. That not only is it something in which you come out of the condemnation that it brings to your life, but something that's outside of you, something that you look at every day and say, oh, I can't do this. I'm gonna imprint it on your heart. That's the born again experience.
37:48 That when I, yes, put my faith in Jesus Christ, something happens in me where the Spirit of God comes and he writes, not on tablets of stone but tablets of hearts. And he writes the law so the law now becomes something that I desire. It is an effortless shift within the way I look at sin and obedience, and it is this desire now in me. Do you see why salvation is nothing short of supernatural? Jeremiah says in Jeremiah thirty one thirty three, now this is the covenant I will make with the house of Israel after these days, declares the Lord, that I will put my law within them.
38:24 I'll put my law within them. Ezekiel says the same thing. Ezekiel 36, 27. He says what? And I will put my spirit in them to cause them to walk according to my statutes and be careful to obey my rules.
38:39 Deuteronomy talks about the circumcision of the heart. And so we see that there is this promise to come. Yes. That Jesus comes and he removes us from the condemnation of the law, but he also, by the Spirit, puts the law on us, in us. So it's not something that's outside in.
38:54 It's something that's inside out. And you know that if you truly been born again. Before you were saved and you grew up in a Christian home, I could tell you what I did. I was looking through this Bible to try try to find loopholes to my disobedience. Well, the Bible didn't didn't say that, so why not?
39:16 Didn't talk about any of that. So that is not a person who has a regenerate heart. But a person that's been born again looks for the things, looks for the standards, and joyfully embraces every command. Why? Because if you know, because of the Holy Spirit in you who did something to you when you gave up and fell upon Christ.
39:42 And what about the food laws and the ceremonial laws? Well, that's an important question. But I think it's also important to notice that the 10 commandments, how many of them are seen in the New Testament as commands in different ways? Nine! You're right.
40:09 Which one is not in there? The Sabbath. If you pay attention to the New Testament, you will see that all these commands that we just read resurface in the New Testament in different ways through the letters and the epistles and Jesus' teachings, except one, the Sabbath. And there are other branches of Christianity that would disagree with that. And there are some genuine Christians that keep the Sabbath.
40:37 There are. I even know a family that keeps the feasts. And they're believers, but they do it in light of the prophetic imagery of Jesus Christ. And so considering that, what does the Bible have to say Colossians two tells us? Paul addresses this with the Colossians.
40:55 In chapter two verse 16, look what he says. It's so plain. He says, Therefore let no one pass judgment on you in questions of food and drink. There's the food. Or with regard to a festival or a new moon or a Sabbath.
41:11 It's right there. These are a shadow of the things to come, but the substance belongs to Christ. So Christ fulfills. He is the fulfillment of those things. All those things were, yes, for the Israelites, an immediate application.
41:28 Absolutely. But they were also shadows, and Christ was the substance. He's not the shadow. He's the fulfillment of it. So the Sabbath we're we're gonna talk about this when we get to the Sabbath commandment.
41:38 But the Sabbath, just for us to get it in the surface level, the Sabbath is Jesus. He's our rest. We rest in Christ. It's not about a date. It's about a person.
41:51 And we are our soul is at ease because of grace, because of what he's done, and we can rest in him. Oh, Oh, it's gonna be exciting when we come to the Sabbath. And so what does Jesus say even for these food laws? Because there are even ministries that say, no. You have to keep the food laws.
42:10 Now there are some practical health tips to the food laws. I mean, all those critters in the ocean that he tells not to eat, if you look into those animals, they're not very healthy for you. They're like the vacuum of the ocean. They eat up all the junk. Pork is not healthy for you.
42:28 And so there's some practical understanding there, but it does not condemn us. He says in Colossians, if you want to keep those dietary laws, you can do that. Listen, do it, but don't condemn your brother if he doesn't do it. In fact, Paul takes chapters, two specific chapters, to talk about how we're to do with this meat thing. So if eating meat makes your brother stumble, don't eat meat.
42:52 Do you see? It's not as black and white as we think. People want black and white. The Bible doesn't give us black and white. So you can keep those feasts.
43:02 And, hey, you wanna keep the Sabbath the way the Jews do? You can do that all you want. Just don't think that you're doing it as a means to attain salvation. Nor do you do it to look at somebody else and think you are more spiritual for keeping those things. If it's a conviction for you, keep that conviction.
43:21 Don't flaunt it. Don't bring judgment. Stay in your own lane. So we see some freedom there concerning these ceremonial and civil laws. But the moral law here is extended into the New Testament, And it is expressed in different ways.
43:37 Look what Jesus says in Mark seven nineteen. He's talking about this idea of how the Pharisee says what you know, washing your hands and how that defiles you. And Jesus says, you've got it all twisted. It's not what what comes into a man that defiles him. It's what's in his heart already.
43:51 Proud of his heart in Matthew seven twenty, he says all this filth, and he names him in detail what comes out of the heart of man. But look what it says here in Matthew seven nineteen. It's like a little annotation here. It says, thus he declared all foods clean. Talks about how he declared all foods clean.
44:08 That's an important verse because that's Jesus. So we see how this relates to us in the New Testament. So let me just let me just say this as we go into the first commandment. In summary, we are to understand the 10 Commandments in light of the new covenant. Okay?
44:27 We we can't look at that separate from the New Testament teachings. They are not a means of justification but a delightful standard elevated under grace. Jesus enhances those things for the Spirit indwelt believer to pursue in his life. So if somebody were to ask me, are you under the law? Somebody were to ask me that.
44:46 If somebody were to ask you, you can answer confidently, no. I'm not under the law. Because to be under the law means that I am condemned for breaking the law, and Jesus took my condemnation for me. Equally, I am not under the law because I do not fulfill the law as a means to be justified because Jesus did that for me. But because of his heart transformation, because of his heart transplant through the gospel, I delight in the law.
45:17 And I wanna pursue the law. The psalmist talks about how he loves the law. He didn't have the New Testament. He wasn't talking about Ephesians when he was saying that. He was talking about all those commandments, all those sacrificial commandments, all those food laws.
45:31 He goes, I love to keep thy law. David, I've said this before, was a new covenant believer, an Old Testament covenant. He understood it. He delighted. He saw it as a joy.
45:42 Why? Because it was an opportunity for him to walk in the will, character, nature of God. And it was an opportunity to walk in a way to please God. Not a means by receiving justification, but to please him in the sense of walking in obedience to what he's called us to walk in in order to glorify his name. Nevertheless, as we go into the first commandment, these commandments reveal once again the character of God.
46:07 They are moral guidelines for us to operate in our lives, and they are a standard in which we should uphold personally and to fulfill by the power of the Holy Spirit. Amen. First commandment. You shall have no other gods before me. Seems pretty straightforward.
46:37 Now when he says you shall not have any gods before me, what he's not saying is you can have other gods as long as they're not above me in standard of priority. He's not saying that. Don't read it that way. You can translate it this way. You shall have no other gods before my face, or you shall have no other gods besides me.
47:00 And what he's saying there is, I am the only one that has access to be Lord and Master of your life. I'm the only one, and I'm not willing to share that that status. Now for us to unpack what this means, what this commandment means for us practically, I'm gonna read to you this the same book. You don't have to turn there, but you can write it as a reference because the Bible interprets the Bible. Exodus twenty three twenty three.
47:27 What does it mean to have other gods before the Lord? It says, when my angel goes before you and brings you to the Amorites and to the Hittites and the Perizzites and the Canaanites and the Hivites and the Jebusites, and I blot them out. Look what he says in verse 24. You shall not bow down to their gods nor serve them, nor do as they do, but you shall utterly overthrow them and break their pillars in pieces. So he's saying here, when you go into the Promised Land, I'm making this very clear, I don't want any gods before my eyes.
48:03 I don't want any idolatry. I don't want you to adopt any of the gods or the practices of these -ites. In fact, I want you to bring them to fine powder to never be seen before my eyes ever again. In other words, he's saying, what? Only I can be God of your life.
48:28 Total exclusivity. No options for anything else. He's saying me and me alone. And I want you to demonstrate that by crushing all those things that you see in the land of Canaan. Now we all read this commandment, and we say, well, sure.
48:48 Absolutely. God? Jesus? There's no other God. I go to church to talk about Him.
48:54 I go to church to sing about Him. There's no idol. There's no Asherah pole that I bow down. That's ridiculous. There's no Baal altar that I go to and sacrifice my No way.
49:05 I'm fulfilling that. That's the standard that I'm pursuing. Until we realize what a God is. What a god can potentially be. Can any of you identify, maybe give a simple definition of what a idol is?
49:24 SPV. No. Just a no. A definition. We'll get to specifics in a moment.
49:34 Anything that you place above God.
49:36 That's a standard definition. Anything you place above God. But what does it mean to place above?
49:42 Something that your heart desires.
49:43 Go ahead. No. Go ahead. You said it.
49:45 Something that your heart desires.
49:47 Something that your heart desires. Can we say more than god? Sure. Yes. Anything that your heart worships or treasures above God.
49:57 Anything that your heart treasures or worships above God. Yes.
50:03 Do you think it has something to do with anything over you that controls you?
50:07 Anything that has authority over you. That's a great insight. Well, we just read what it means to have another god in our lives in Exodus twenty three twenty four. What does he say here? Look.
50:21 You shall not bow down to their gods nor serve them. A god is anything, an object that we worship or devoted to. Anything, an object, a thought, a person, an occupation. Anything that we worship or devoted to more than God. That's the definition that Exodus twenty three twenty four gives us.
50:52 Anything that we adore, anything that we desire, anything that we are thrilled by, anything that we find more pleasure in other than God is an idol. I do not care what it is. Because this is what the Bible says. You're not to bow before it, nor nor are you to serve it. And the reason and this is the beauty of these commands because we're gonna explore the reason why God instituted them.
51:24 The reason why God gave this command is in the second commandment, in the last part or the middle part revealing who he is. He says something very similar in the second command, that you don't make a carved image. And he tells us the reason why near the end. For I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God. I'm jealous.
51:44 Now there are two types of jealousy. There's a jealousy that comes from insecurity, and that's an unhealthy jealousy. And we'll get into that when we come into the second commandment. But there's a righteous jealousy. And the best example to give of a righteous jealousy is a man and his wife who's ferociously jealous for her.
52:08 And he has every right, and vice versa, to feel those emotions when he sees or she sees their spouse going into a different direction other than the covenant that they've established between one another. That's totally justifiable. That burning sense of she's mine is totally right. That burning sensation of he's mine is totally acceptable. Why?
52:36 Because God feels it towards his bride. Because it's right. It's righteous. It's according to his character and his standard. It's not coveting.
52:50 It's not envying. It's something that is fueled by a covenant that was established between two people. And he's saying here, I'm a jealous God, so I don't want you for anybody else. I'm not sharing you. I'm not gonna let you find your pleasure in another person or thing because we made a covenant that I am for you and you are for me.
53:17 So the question the important question is, how do I identify an idol in my life? That's a very important question. And I think it just comes back to what we've been saying. Where do you find all your pleasure? What is the theme of your thinking?
53:41 What causes you to adore? What gives you a sense of purpose? Because if it's anything except God, it's an idol. Now God says I've given you things to enjoy. He says that in first Timothy six.
54:02 You are to enjoy things in life. You are to glorify God even in your eating. You can enjoy a good meal. You can enjoy time with your family. You can enjoy the job and the occupation that God has given you because he's given you those skills.
54:15 But you are never allowed to enjoy those things more than God himself. God wants to be the source. God wants to be the object. And even all those things that we do, we should do it in light of our relationship with God and glorify him and worship him because of those things. And an idol can be anything.
54:39 You can put that up, please. Oh, you think it's just about a statue? Now if you see these things, let me just be straight. If you see these things and any of them offend you, it's probably because it's your god. And as you look at these things, let me just encourage you.
55:16 The best thing that you and I can do concerning how we are to live this commandment out faithfully is to look at all these things and to see how Jesus feels about them in light of the scriptures. Do you understand what I'm saying? Where you're saying, I don't see an iPhone in the book of Colossians. I don't see an iPhone in the book of Ephesians? I do.
55:38 How? Redeem the time. Redeem the time. Paraphrase Ephesians five fifteen. Don't waste your time.
55:48 Don't you know that days are evil? Don't just squander your time. Don't just give it up hours on end. There's something to fulfill. You have a purpose.
55:56 Don't just give yourself over to devices and let them be little vacuums in your life that sucked everything out of you that God's put in you. Sports. We say, oh, we don't worship idols. We don't worship things. No.
56:10 We just pack stadiums, and people paint their faces, and they go crazy, and people fight, and people lose money over people that don't even know them. Oh, it's gonna get very quiet in a few moments here. Marriage. Beautiful. Instituted by God.
56:32 But too many people have elevated this above Him, and their identity is in their spouse, and their idol is the thrill of the of the relationship in every aspect of the way. But let me tell you something. Your husband will make a terrible god. Your wife will make a terrible god. They will fail you.
56:57 They will not fulfill what your soul is craving for. Do they have a place in your life? Yes. But not above God. Ministry.
57:05 That's a pulpit, by the way. Ministry. There are people that preach the word and love to preach more than the one they preach about. They love the sound of their own voice. They love people praising the fact that they have all this wealth of knowledge and all this influence that can stir their hearts.
57:27 They seek that more than him. They find the thrill in giving to the poor more than breaking that alabaster flask as we learned about and loving him and adoring him. That's not makeup, by the way. That's about you. It's about idolizing yourself.
57:47 You can come to a place in which how do you know if you idolize yourself? You think about you all the time. How do I look? What are people saying about me? Is this what is that person?
57:58 I heard somebody whisper something. Were they talking about me? What are people gonna say? You're your own idol. Your eyes are inward.
58:07 They're not outward. You're not worried about what people think about God in you or how you represent God. That's totally awesome. That's fine. That's holy.
58:16 It's about you. It's about your image. It's about how you look. So many people invest in this body. And the Bible says it very clear in first Timothy four eight that bodily exercise is of some value, but godliness is of value in every way.
58:31 There's this I'm all for health and fitness and dieting and all that. That stuff is important and good, but don't come to the place where it becomes your God. Do I have to talk about Instagram? Family. You're saying, hold on.
58:50 Family. I love my children. I love my wife. I love my husband. I love my parents.
58:58 I'll give you letters in red. If you love them more than Jesus, you're not worthy to be his disciple. Do you see we're not even in the Old Testament. I'm leaning more than the New Testament, and Jesus is giving a way higher standard than the Old Covenant. You love your family more than me?
59:11 If you cannot submit to the gospel because of your family, that's your idol. Grades, money, possessions, all those things. Listen. Now let's step back. Are those things bad?
59:28 No. But we can take once again the blessings of God and turn them into idols. We have to be very careful. So what do we do? We ask the Lord to take all these things and to enjoy all these things in light of Him being the ultimate pleasure in our lives.
59:43 That's what we do. That He is the fountain and everything else flows out of that as an extension of who He is and His person. It's properly appropriating and placing these things in our lives. Him being the supreme, Him being the source, Him being everything to us. How do I know?
1:00:04 You've heard me say this so many times. I'll say it again. If Jesus were to ask you to get rid of any of those things, would you be able to do it? If not, it's an idol. You're saying, well, this is a little this standard is pretty high.
1:00:24 I don't know if I can walk in that standard. You know, a group of people said that to Jesus in John chapter six. He says, eat my flesh and drink my blood. And they said those very exact words. They says, how can we keep that?
1:00:36 This is too much for us. And they walked away, and Jesus led them. Why? Because he's a jealous God. Hear me.
1:00:47 He wants you and all of you. Now let's give an illustration to this. Young ladies, if a young man approached you and you got to know each other and you began to be fond of one another and you wanna fulfill that covenant of marriage, and that day where he proposes to you, oh, that glorious day, He gets on one knee. He looks at you in the eyes, and he begins to express how much he wants to be devoted to you and how much he wants to spend his life and how much he wants to glorify God and marriage and all these things. And you're ready.
1:01:22 You're just bursting from the seams. You're ready to say yes. Tears are streaming down. There's the picture guy right there taking it all, being recorded. And all for a sudden, the young man spurts out splurts out these words.
1:01:36 Listen. In light of all of that, sweetie, I'm gonna ask you for one thing. Out of the three hundred and sixty five days in which we are together
1:01:47 in holy union, I just want one day, just one day to be with somebody else. Just one day. Twenty four hours.
1:01:56 That's it. That's all I'm asking for. And you look and you say, are you out of your mind?
1:02:04 Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Hold on.
1:02:07 one day. One hour. There's a girl that I used to know, and, I haven't talked to her in a long time, but I I wanna meet with her for one hour. Just one hour. She's gonna come pick me up, and all I want is one hour with her, and then you have me for every other hour of the year.
1:02:21 I'm yours. Would that sound appealing to you? You would be out of your mind to say yes to somebody like that. I don't care what he says. I don't care what he promises.
1:02:36 That is absolutely ridiculous. Now, how many of us do that with the Lord? Where he demands total exclusivity. He wants all of us. And he wants all these things, guess what, to be enjoyed with him.
1:02:54 But you and I instead, we take one of those things and we make it a side partner. Once again, don't hear me wrong. We are to enjoy these things, but we are to never say, this is something that I desire more than him. And he is jealous. You're saying, are you really?
1:03:13 He's jealous. He's jealous when you give more time to the thing than to Him. He's jealous when your heart finds more thrill and enjoyment and pleasure in your job than in His presence. The prophet Jeremiah says something. I'm closing with these verses relating to all of this.
1:03:37 Jeremiah two eleven to 13. This is fantastic. It summarizes this perfectly. Jeremiah two eleven to 13. This is when the nation of Israel did not fulfill the first commandment.
1:04:01 And look what the Lord says. Has a nation changed its gods even though they are no gods? But my people have changed their glory for that which does not profit. Stop there. So he says, they went after these different gods, and they're not even gods.
1:04:22 They're man made things. Isn't it amazing that people worship man made things? Things that were built in a factory, things that were produced by human minds. And they have elevated those things more than the one who created all those things. And he says they have exchanged their glory for that which does not profit.
1:04:45 In other words, for that which does not satisfy the inner man. He says that's what they've done. And look what he does in verse 12. He does something I think is absolutely amazing. He says, be appalled now he calls the heavens as a witness.
1:05:00 He says, be appalled, oh heavens, at this. Be shocked. Be utterly desolate, declares the Lord. Why? Because my people have committed two evils.
1:05:13 So he's saying, all of heaven, I want all the angelic host. I want every celestial being to check this out. My people have exchanged their glory for something that does not profit, And God identifies it as evil. Why? Look how he paints this picture.
1:05:35 They have forsaken me me, the fountain of living waters, and hewed out cisterns for themselves, broken cisterns that can hold no water. That is a commentary on the first commandment broken. The very startling picture. He says, Heavens, look at this. Look at how these people are finding more pleasure in that.
1:06:05 In their family, in their job, in their clothes, in their bank account, in their sports team, in their iPhone. Look at look. They exchange this, what I can give for that which does not profit. And it is like somebody who is so thirsty and there is a fountain of the purest, cleanest, most fulfilling water that never ceases to flow. I mean, you can be thirsty every day of your life, and this fountain will satisfy you.
1:06:38 And this is what they're doing. They're digging with their hands on the side of the road to try to find water at the end of that pit. That's what it looks like to God when we have aisles in our lives. And God is appalled. And he goes, you have no idea what you're missing out on.
1:06:57 So we have to look at our own hearts, and these ten ten commandments will do just that. Is there anything in my life that I am more thrilled by, more pleased by, that takes occupation of my mind the most other than God? Do I do I do things outside of the goodness of God? And do I do things in spite of the fact that He gave me these things, and these things should cause me even my stake should cause me to worship God because he made it so flavorful, and he gave me the money to provide for, and he gave me the family to enjoy it with. Do I do things outside of that?
1:07:33 Do I worship the created thing more than the Creator? So he says enjoy it. Enjoy this life. Happily enjoy these things, but not more than me. Never more than me.
1:07:47 If anything, it should cause you to love me more because these are extensions of my grace and mercy to you. Let's pray together. So how are we to understand the first commandment? We are to understand it as a as as as God speaking as a ferociously jealous bridegroom over his bride. That I have set the standard the same way a man or a woman has a standard concerning marriage, that I am yours and you are mine.
1:08:17 We do not share each other. That when we make this covenant, we are making that statement. And before we pray, I think this is important to understand in light of the New Testament. In Colossians three five, look what Paul says. He says, put to death, therefore, what is earthly in you, sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and look at this, and covetousness, which is idolatry.
1:08:55 So how does Paul define idolatry? Covetousness. What does it mean to covet? It means to have a strong desire for something or someone that does not belong to you. So this is one strong element of idolatry, which is very, very interesting because the last commandment is not to covet.
1:09:18 And so we have a full circle. The first one is not to have any god before me, not to have idols, and based on this text, an idol is anything that you and I can covet, or or we do covet. So when I look at something that somebody has in my my heart, so wants it that it consumes my mind and my time, that's an idol. If I do the same with another person's spouse, that's an idol. Anything that we have a strong desire for that does not belong to us, Paul says, that's an idol.
1:09:49 Because the very thing that is occupying your thinking and making your heart feel that way, I want me to do that to you. I want me to be the passion of your heart. I want you to pursue me, not that. I'm supposed to have that occupation in your mind. I'm supposed to make your heart feel that way.
1:10:10 And so when you covet something, when you spend all that energy and you meditate upon those things that aren't supposed to be yours in the first place, that's the pursuit that I'm anticipating from you for me. So he says, don't crave those things. Crave me. Don't run after those things. Run after me.
1:10:30 Don't get caught up in those things. Get caught up in me. That is the essence of the first commitment. So it's not even things that we have placed in our lives that take the place of God. It's even the things that we have a craving for that we might not even have.
1:10:47 You're saying, well, that's just getting crazy. Well, let's take it to the marriage example again. Let's say that you have that with somebody, but you know that that person's heart, the opposite person, the spouse of yours, in their heart, they want somebody else. Or they find pleasure in something other than you. We can we can use this example all day long.
1:11:07 God says, not only do I wanna see it, yes, obviously physically, I want every idol in the land of your Canaan to be crushed, but I want your heart, the attitude of your heart, the posture of this heart to be mine. And we should. None of us should step back and say, well, that's just a little bit too much. He loves us, and he wants to make covenant. And relationship experience in its fullness of joy must demand total commitment to one another.
1:11:38 Father, we thank you for tonight. Thank you for showing us how this law relates to us. We thank you that Jesus fulfills the law, that we are no longer under the law. But we thank you that you have given us a heart transplant for us to desire to walk in these things. And Lord, we want to be a people that have no other gods before you.
1:12:03 That you would receive the fullness of who we are. And Lord, help us understand the balance. Let us never fall into the ditch of legalism as we drift away from lawlessness. Help us stay in that balance road that we are to enjoy things in life, but not more than you. We are to walk in the things of this life with our families and our friends and and do certain things that our hearts desire, but never are they to replace the pleasure that we find in the king.
1:12:38 And so, Lord, we pray that if there are any idols in our hearts, even tonight, that you would show us, And that we would do what the nation of Israel was to do, and that's put it in its right place to crush it. So Lord, if money occupies our thinking, if finances occupy our thoughts, if anything anything takes that place of you, would you with this glorious truth give us the power of the Holy Spirit to even love you. For us to fulfill the greatest commandment is impossible apart from the Holy Spirit pouring out his love in our hearts. And so Lord, we need you to love you. Help us, God.
1:13:29 See the futility and the vanity and the silliness of these things when there is an eternal god that wants to commune with us. Bring us to the right place, lord. And as we explore these other commandments, may we, yes, sense this understanding of exhaustion for those who are not in Christ and are living according to this to try to get salvation. And may it bring people to the foot of the cross. But Lord, may we also, for those who are born again, see these things as a way of enhancing our experience of our relationship with you.
1:14:04 May we be motivated rightly by these words.
1:14:09 In the name of Jesus we pray.
