Book: Exodus

The Ten Commandments Past and Present — The Second Commandment (Part 1)

In this sermon, Pastor Babij continues his series on the Ten Commandments with his exposition on the Second Commandment. After a brief review of his previous sermon, Pastor gives several prohibitions contained in the Second Commandment and reasons God gave the Second Commandment. Pastor concludes the sermon warning that those who practice idolatry hate God even if they believe they love Him.

Full Transcript:

We’re continuing to look at the Ten Commandments. I thought after doing 1 Peter, we would look at an Old Testament passage or topic, and I have always been intrigued with the Ten Commandments. Parents, if you’re going to teach your kids anything when they’re young, teach them Ten Commandments. Put in their heart already the very things that are important for them to understand God in His character and what He requires. Again, we’re looking at Exodus 20, and I want to read through Exodus 20:1-6:

Then God spoke all these words, saying,²“I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery. ³“You shall have no other gods before Me. ⁴“You shall not make for yourself an idol, or any likeness of what is in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the water under the earth. ⁵“You shall not worship them or serve them; for I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children, on the third and the fourth generations of those who hate Me, ⁶but showing lovingkindness to thousands, to those who love Me and keep My commandments.

Let’s pray:

Lord, as we come before Your word, we bow humbly before You, Lord. For we know that this is the word of God. This is not a Word that originated with men or could have. We could have never come up with the Ten Commandments, and Lord, we know that they are perfect. They are written in stone. They are eternal, and they will never pass away because they are part of a Your character, of who You are, and what You require of us. I pray, Lord, as we understand them and think about them, the principles of Your commandments would be evident in our daily thinking, life, and practice. Help us, Lord, to understand them better. In Christ, I pray this. Amen.

The Commandments reflect the character of God, and His standard of living required of holy people. By way of review, the first thing we looked at, in Exodus 20:1-2, is that the person revealed in the first commandment is a God of revelation. Meaning, God can be known. The Lord has made His will known to us and His will is found in the word of God. God reveals Himself as a very personal God. There is something very warmly and personal about the statement in Exodus 20:2:

I am the LORD your God

Secondly, we saw that the person revealed in the first commandment is that He is a God of Redemption where He says in Exodus 20:2:

I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery.

That is the picture of God bringing us out of the slave market of sin and saving us by the blood of Christ. He’s delivering us from something we could have never delivered ourselves from, so He is a God of redemption.

God not only communicates clearly to His people who He is and what He requires, but also acts on their behalf. Notice that God did not say, “because I created you, I am giving you the law.” Rather, He says:

I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery.

It was on the basis of this great act of redemption that He sought their obedience. Therefore, God deserves first place in the lives of His people because of who He is and because of what He has done for them. Then, the second thing that we learned is the principal revealed in the first commandment is that of that defining other gods. Exodus 20:3 says:

You shall have no other gods before Me.

In this first commandment, the absolute sovereignty and preeminence of Christ and of the Creator is insisted upon, and since He is who He is, He will tolerate no competitor or rival. His claim upon us is paramount because He is God. If the people were not worshiping the true and the living God alone, then they were worshipping some other God because we have to worship. We are created to worship. Arthur Pink said:

There are other “gods” besides idols of wood and stone. Money, pleasure, fashion, fame, gluttony, and a score of other things which make self-supreme, usurp the rightful place of God in the affections and thoughts of many.

Remember, the commandments are about loving God, and God showing His love toward us in giving us these commandments. Once we realize who God is, then we need to dethrone all other gods that we could be giving our affections and times to. Again, it says in Exodus 20:3:

You shall have no other gods before Me.

The command here is, “Thou shall have no other gods to confront me,” or, “to be objects in front of me.” You see, gods that are set up over or against Jehovah may be said to be before Him or in His sight. They are God’s besides and in addition to Him. More than this, they are gods opposed to Him. So, there is to be no god in your heart that you are giving allegiance to except Jehovah God, the Covenant making God and the God who has displayed His love towards people.

If you are, then that god must be dethroned and disregarded. Your full loyalty must be given to the true and the living God, who was revealed Himself in verbal and written form. Faithfulness must be given again to God alone where Deuteronomy 32:17 tells us:

They sacrificed to demons who were not God, To gods whom they have not known, New gods who came lately, Whom your fathers did not dread.

When Jesus was being tested as the second Adam in the wilderness, Satan had come against Him. In coming against Him and His weakness in the full power of temptation, Satan offered Jesus the kingdoms of the world. Matthew 4:8-10 says:

Again, the devil took Him to a very high mountain and showed Him all the kingdoms of the world and their glory; ⁹and he said to Him, “All these things I will give You, if You fall down and worship me.” ¹⁰Then Jesus said to him, “Go, Satan! For it is written, ‘YOU SHALL WORSHIP THE LORD YOUR GOD, AND SERVE HIM ONLY.’”

The word “only” is to be stressed there. The principles contained in these Commandments are not to be ignored by Christians. Our Lord did not come to destroy them, but to fulfill them. Now, Christians live under the law of Christ, which includes the moral law and the Ten Commandments. Contained within His law, of course, are the moral law. Christ laid bare the inner impulse of the law, which is love to Him.

To love God supremely and then to reflect His love to others is to fulfill the commandments. Bottom line, the first commandment is that the most intimate of all relationships on the human plane – marriage – became an analogy for God’s intimate relationship with His people. The first commandment, “You shall have no other gods before Me,” implies that there may be no intruding third parties in a marriage.

We become one in the Lord when we become believers. Therefore, there can be no other intruding parties within our relationship with God. Just as a husband and wife cannot have other intruding parties. There cannot be a third party according to God’s foundation of marriage found in Genesis.

As we are introduced to the second commandment, keep in mind that there are Ten Commandments, not ten suggestions as if one has a choice of taking or leaving them. The order of the commandments is very important as we grasp them. The first four concern our human responsibility God-wards. The last five concern our obligation man-wards.

The fifth commandment suitably bridges the two. In a certain sense, parents occupy to their children the place of God where their children are first to obey their parents. If their parents are obeying God, then the parents are teaching them how a child is to respond to authority. Of course, the ultimate authority would be God himself.

There is a discernible flow to the next commandant, the second commandment, which prohibits the manufacture and the worship of any kind of image in an attempt to worship God. As we look at that this morning, we will find that there is a prohibition revealed in the second commandment. The first one is in Exodus 20:4:

You shall not make for yourself an idol, or any likeness of what is in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the water under the earth.

The second commandment condemns a very different sin than the first commandment. The first commandment condemns the worshiping of false gods. The second commandment condemns the making of any image or symbol even of the true God. Thus, we’re looking at the prohibition not to make them or to manufacture them. Just think of Israel’s history… Israel had a very rich and colorful history. They had plenty of material to violate this command.

You can think of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and the stories that go along with them. You can think of Sodom and Gomorrah, and God pouring a fire-and-brimstone on them for their sin. You think of Jacob’s ladder to heaven, or Jehovah’s recent plagues poured out on Egypt down, which is found in the context of this passage. With any of these, the people of God might have attempted to perpetuate a visible and a permanent form of worship such as a carved image or a painted picture with the intention of making them the objects of religious reverence and worship.

If you go anywhere in the world today, you find that people are still making idols. They’re still bowing down to images. They still require some kind of thing to look at, touch, and see in order for them to be able to worship God correctly. However, in Scripture is that God never wants us to do that. He never wants us to make some kind of image that we are to bow down to, or that should inflame our passions to increase our desire to worship.

Then, the second one would be that there is a prohibition here not to worship them. It’s not only not to make them, but then not to bow down to them. Exodus 20:5:

You shall not worship them or serve them…

Obviously, the Lord knows that because of who we are and because of our sinfulness, we are going to want to worship something, and we will be worshiping something, someone, or some object. Also, we know that it is very fitting for people to bow to Yahweh, the true God. When somebody bows to the true God, then that true God receives their worship. Like Jesus received worship when people bow down to Him because He was God.

Every time one comes into the presence of God, in Scripture, they are bowing down. They are giving Him allegiance properly. They ought to do that, and that is fitting for all believers to do that. Just consider these few passages Scriptures. Genesis 24:26 says:

Then the man bowed low and worshiped the LORD.

Then, in Genesis 24:52 says:

When Abraham’s servant heard their words, he bowed himself to the ground before the LORD.

All of these are fitting responses of someone who is worshipping the true and living God. They are bowing down to Him because of who He is and because of what He revealed Himself to be in Scripture. So, the command for anything else is prohibited.

Do not worship them, do not serve them, and do not make offerings to them. It is not fitting for human beings to bow down to any other. If they do, then that would be idolatry. Of course, these commandments are hedging against idolatry. God does not want us to look at something that is visual in order to help us to worship, nor something that is tangible in which we can touch and carry with us.

Let’s consider two situations in which a person may think about images. R.W. Dale, writing on the Ten Commandments, brought up these two things which are common understandings of worshipping God under the symbol of a material image:

No one, it may be alleged, supposes that the figure of wood or stone, or gold, is the real God. It is regarded as being only the symbol of an unseen and awful or gracious or glorious presence to which the worship is actually offered. The visible form makes the invisible God more real.

In other words, the visible form makes the visible God more real. God’s invisible, right? He’s an unseen God, so if I could just make something to try to reflect who I think He is, then that’s how people would worship, through that image.

If a person will say, “Well, I don’t really believe in visible representations of God,” then the second one would be worshipping God under the symbol of an intellectual conception of God. For those who reject that visible representation of God, form for themselves and intellectual image of God and worship Him by means of that.

Both instances, the representation that it would give to the divine greatness and glory of God diminishes actually the greatness and glory of God. Both are guilty of the violation of the first and second commandment because in one case, it is a work of one’s hands, and in another case, it is the work of one’s intellect. See, the problem is that we cannot conceive of who God is on our own.

We have to get revelation from God, from Him directly, and from the word of God to be able to understand who He is and what He has done. We can get it from nowhere else. We would have never come up with this, and that’s why there is so much idolatry in the world. As one person said, our hearts are idol-making factories.

Any attempt to betray God by His creation would confuse the Creator with part of His creation; thus, diminishing His greatness and sovereignty over all things. If someone needs a visible or a tangible object whether it is a cross, statue, picture, or music to bring up religious emotion and worship, they are in danger of the visible and the intellectual representation, or some other thing, becoming something more than what they intend. That’s the danger of idolatry.

In Deuteronomy, which means second law, we have a further interpretation of the Ten Commandments. Deuteronomy 4:15-20 says:

So watch yourselves carefully, since you did not see any form on the day the LORD spoke to you at Horeb from the midst of the fire, ¹⁶so that you do not act corruptly and make a graven image for yourselves in the form of any figure, the likeness of male or female, ¹⁷the likeness of any animal that is on the earth, the likeness of any winged bird that flies in the sky, ¹⁸the likeness of anything that creeps on the ground, the likeness of any fish that is in the water below the earth. ¹⁹“And beware not to lift up your eyes to heaven and see the sun and the moon and the stars, all the host of heaven, and be drawn away and worship them and serve them, those which the LORD your God has allotted to all the peoples under the whole heaven. ²⁰“But the LORD has taken you and brought you out of the iron furnace, from Egypt, to be a people for His own possession, as today.

Again, Deuteronomy is flushing out a little bit more the warning that God gives to His people about any kind of visible representation in which you use to induce worship. Many times, in the Old Testament, we find that that worship is somebody trying to worship the true and living God by an object whether it be intellectual or whether it be made.

For example, if every day I bow before the crucifix in prayer, if I address it as if it were Christ though I know it’s not, then I shall come to feel for it a reference and a love, which are the very essence of idolatry. Once you permit the deeper religious emotions to become attached, however slightly, to a material symbol, then there’s the beginning of the very superstition of which the second commandments actually forbid.

In other words, things become mystical and things become superstitious. In many religions, the point of their system is that you really never get answers. It’s all about image, atmosphere, and feeling, and it rises up a mystical thing where they say, “Oh, this must be great. I feel something.” Then, they begin to worship in that way and that is exactly where idolatry takes a person. See, we don’t need aid in order to worship God. Religious devotion not found in the truth, the word of God, must itself be false.

I tell people that my father, after witnessing to him for some twenty-five years and sharing the Gospel with him, called me one day and said:

You know what… I’ve become a Christian.

So, I asked him how that happened, and he said:

I was reading Exodus 20. I saw the first two Commandments, and I understood them for the first time in my life. I realized that I worshipped Mary and that everything was about Mary. I realized there that I was an adulterer.

When he called me and told me that, he started coming to the church here and studied the word of God for about eight and a half years after he became a believer. Scripture is a powerful thing that will set us free from things we think we’re doing right, but when we come to Scripture, we find out we’re doing them wrong. Idolatry is a kind of worship that has been distorted from the original form, object, and intention of worship.

One of the Hebrew terms for sin in connection with worship is the word iniquity, which means to be bent, curved, or twisted. So then, idolatry is something that is not as it should be or as it was intended to be just as the Psalmist contrast really the weakness of idols as compared to the greatness of God. For example, Psalm 115:5-8 tells us:

They have mouths, but they cannot speak;
They have eyes, but they cannot see;
⁶They have ears, but they cannot hear;
They have noses, but they cannot smell;

⁷They have hands, but they cannot feel;
They have feet, but they cannot walk;
They cannot make a sound with their throat.

⁸Those who make them will become like them,
Everyone who trusts in them.

In other words, idolatry is really bringing someone to the place where their visible or intellectual representation of God actually becomes something other than they ever intended to be. They begin to be an idolater even though they think they are worshipping, at many cases, the true and living God.

The people of Israel, hardly moved from the trembling presence of God, felt beside Mount Sinai in giving the Ten Commandments to Moses. The delay of the leader, Moses, of coming down from the mountain led them to plea with Erin to make them a visible God to go before them. In Exodus 32:1-4, Moses is up on the mountain getting the commandments from God, and he is coming down to the people to present to them the commandments. Meanwhile, this is what takes place while he’s absent:

Now when the people saw that Moses delayed to come down from the mountain, the people assembled about Aaron and said to him, “Come, make us a god who will go before us; as for this Moses, the man who brought us up from the land of Egypt, we do not know what has become of him.” ²Aaron said to them, “Tear off the gold rings which are in the ears of your wives, your sons, and your daughters, and bring them to me.” ³Then all the people tore off the gold rings which were in their ears and brought them to Aaron. ⁴He took this from their hand and fashioned it with a graving tool and made it into a molten calf; and they said, “This is your god, O Israel, who brought you up from the land of Egypt.”

Here, they were worshipping the true God through an image, which is idolatry. People form something they think God is like, and they worship through that while thinking they’re worshiping the true and the Living God. Then, Exodus 32:5-6 says:

Now when Aaron saw this, he built an altar before it; and Aaron made a proclamation and said, “Tomorrow shall be a feast to the LORD.” ⁶So the next day they rose early and offered burnt offerings, and brought peace offerings; and the people sat down to eat and to drink, and rose up to play.

In other words, they were worshipping passionately. Not based on the molten image, but based on what they already experienced about what God has done for them in bringing them out of the bondage of Egypt into the wilderness where God would form a people for Himself.

The golden calf was not intended to represent any false god, any deity worshipped by heathen races, but Jehovah himself. The feast in His honor was a festival to Jehovah. Then, Exodus 32:7-8 says:

Then the LORD spoke to Moses, “Go down at once, for your people, whom you brought up from the land of Egypt, have corrupted themselves. ⁸“They have quickly turned aside from the way which I commanded them. They have made for themselves a molten calf, and have worshiped it and have sacrificed to it and said, ‘This is your god, O Israel, who brought you up from the land of Egypt!’”

In saying all this, I’m showing you an example of what usually takes place when a person begins to misrepresent, with even good intentions, who God really is, and they move away from the truth. In other words, idolatry is actually quite absurd before God. It’s absurd to the point where it is so foolish that they would even do anything like that, which becomes an Abomination before the Lord. Isaiah 44:14-20 says:

Surely he cuts cedars for himself, and takes a cypress or an oak and raises it for himself among the trees of the forest. He plants a fir, and the rain makes it grow. ¹⁵Then it becomes something for a man to burn, so he takes one of them and warms himself; he also makes a fire to bake bread. He also makes a god and worships it; he makes it a graven image and falls down before it. ¹⁶Half of it he burns in the fire; over this half he eats meat as he roasts a roast and is satisfied. He also warms himself and says, “Aha! I am warm, I have seen the fire.” ¹⁷But the rest of it he makes into a god, his graven image. He falls down before it and worships; he also prays to it and says, “Deliver me, for you are my god.” ¹⁸They do not know, nor do they understand, for He has smeared over their eyes so that they cannot see and their hearts so that they cannot comprehend. ¹⁹No one recalls, nor is there knowledge or understanding to say, “I have burned half of it in the fire and also have baked bread over its coals. I roast meat and eat it. Then I make the rest of it into an abomination, I fall down before a block of wood!” ²⁰He feeds on ashes; a deceived heart has turned him aside. And he cannot deliver himself, nor say, “Is there not a lie in my right hand?”

How did they become like the idol? They are deaf and remain deaf. They remain blind and they remain dumb. They do not ever get to the truth of who God really is. Someone who worships an idol does not know they are believing a lie. They don’t know it. They’re blinded to that. Only by God entering in, saving someone, giving them eyes to see, ears to hear, transforming their heart, regenerating them, making them new, and then bringing the word to them, do they get the truth. That’s when worship begins.

In fact, you have never worshipped God in your life until you become a believer and regenerate. You thought you did, but you didn’t. You were just religious. You weren’t a believer and you weren’t born again to God’s family. When you come to know the Lord in this way, then you are no longer believing a lie, but you are believing the truth, and if you believe the truth, the truth shall make you free from this bondage of idol making and worshipping God by your own conceptions and by other means.

The making and the worship of images of Yahweh or any other God, as if there are any others, is flatly prohibited in the commandments. Now, why is that? The first reason is back in Exodus 20. It is a very important reason because it’s showing us who God is. It’s portraying to us the true God. Exodus 20:5 says:

…I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God…

That’s why I am to take this commandment. God is jealous. Now, brethren, out of all the attributes one could imagine about God and glean from the word of God that would cause admiration towards God, jealousy would probably not be one of them. Yet, in God’s self-revelation, He has done that which we would not expect again. He has revealed Himself as a jealous God, and has put it on record, in permanent written form on the Ten Commandments. As Exodus 31:18 reveals:

When He had finished speaking with him upon Mount Sinai, He gave Moses the two tablets of the testimony, tablets of stone, written by the finger of God.

On that stone was written:

I am a jealous God.

Even more striking is when Scripture says this about God in Exodus 34:14:

for you shall not worship any other god, for the LORD, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God

Oh, wait a minute… Now, we’re getting to understand from the word of God about the very name of God, and a name has to do with the characteristic of the one who bears that name. In this case, it is the God who created the heaven and the earth. The God who delivered people. The God who wants to have a relationship with His people.

All over the Bible, we are told about God’s jealousy. Zechariah 1:14 says:

So the angel who was speaking with me said to me, “Proclaim, saying, ‘Thus says the LORD of hosts, “I am exceedingly jealous for Jerusalem and Zion.

Also, Ezekiel 39:25 says:

Therefore thus says the Lord GOD, “Now I will restore the fortunes of Jacob and have mercy on the whole house of Israel; and I will be jealous for My holy name.

God is jealous for His own glory, for His own namesake, and even as the Psalmist tells us in Psalm 78:58:

For they provoked Him with their high places And aroused His jealousy with their graven images.

See, God is jealous and is aroused when His people worship anyone or anything besides Him. So, we have a problem wrapping our minds around this attribute of God because jealousy is such a defect in human beings, isn’t it? Keep in mind that man is not the measure of his Maker. We don’t set the standard, but God sets the standard.

Meaning, human beings often show the corrupting effects of sin when they act in jealousy, but not so with God. God’s jealousy is not a compound of frustration. As said by J.I. Packer:

God’s jealousy is not a compound of frustration, envy, and spite, as human jealousy so often is, but appears instead as praiseworthy zeal to preserve something supremely precious

Now, what is that thing? What is that precious thing that God is preserving in the Ten Commandments and this commandment? The precious thing is God’s covenant relationship with His redeemed people. God’s jealousy is aroused in reaction to Israel’s violation of the covenant as in a marriage relationship. Jealousy rises when unfaithfulness is suspected like adultery.

Again, Pastor and Theologian, J.I. Packer, mentions that there are two sorts of jealousy among people. The first one is vicious jealousy, which is an expression of the attitude of, “I want what you’ve got, and I hate you because I haven’t got it,” and he describes it as:

an infantile resentment springing from unmortified covetousness, which expresses itself in envy, malice, and meanness of action

Many crimes of passion are driven by, committed with, and because of jealousy. Jealousy is the motive that will land many people in prison, and usually that happens in relationships such as husbands and wives when a third party enters in and violates that relationship. Jealousy rises, somebody takes the matter into their own hands, and then they commit a crime. Jealousy is an emotion that is very hard to control. Proverbs 27:4 says:

Wrath is fierce and anger is a flood, But who can stand before jealousy?

Who can fight against jealousy? Jealousy is not rational. Somebody will not reason with you when they are inflamed with jealousy, which is human jealousy. However, there is also another kind of jealousy, which is looked at in a good and positive way.

It’s the zeal to protect a love relationship or to avenge it when broken. This sort of jealousy is considered a positive virtue because it shows a grasp of the true meaning of the husband-wife relationship together with proper zeal to keep it intact.

Scripture points out that a husband’s jealousy to guard his marriage against attack is a quite normal thing. It’s a good kind of jealousy – I’m protecting what God has given me. I’m protecting my own and taking an action against anyone who violates it as natural, normal, and right as a proof of the value of marriage and the value of the covenant relationship between a man and a woman.

For example, in Numbers 5, the Bible talks about the spirit of jealousy that rises up in a husband who feared that his wife was unfaithful. Then of course, they can go through a procedure to make sure and find out the results of what had happened to subside and put down his jealousy, so that it doesn’t carry off into some vicious act, which jealousy usually ends in.

The Old Testament regards God’s covenant as His marriage with Israel. Carrying with it a demand of unqualified love and loyalty, which is what should be in a marriage – unqualified love and loyalty. Meaning, the worship of idols and all compromising relationships with Non-Israelite idolaters, at least from the Old Testament perspective, constitutes disobedience and unfaithfulness, which God saw as spiritual adultery provoking Him to jealousy and vengeance.

So, God’s jealousy is His fervent passionate protection of what is His. He will not transfer His honor that is due His name to another or to some other object. As the Scripture informs us in Isaiah 42:8:

I am the LORD, that is My name; I will not give My glory to another, Nor My praise to graven images.

God seeks what He should seek – His own Glory. In and through His people, God is a jealous God, and if you have become a believer in Jesus Christ, God is jealous for you. He’s not going to let anything happen to you. He is not going to let anything come between you and Him, and if it does, He will immediately allow the Spirit of God to convict us of our sin, so that relationship can continue to grow as He does that. God is jealous for us.

That’s why salvation is eternal. If God saves us, if He sent His son to die in our place, rescued us from sins bondage, set us free, and gives us His spirit as a down payment, then He does that because He is jealous for you. He will keep you and He will not allow anything to come between you and Him, which is very important for us to understand when we consider the jealousy of God.

God’s jealous is connected to another word in Scripture and that is zeal. Actually, God’s jealousy and His zeal kind of go together. His jealousy, in all it displays, are just as the Scriptures point out. Where the Bible says:

the Zeal of the Lord of host.

So, what should our response be to God’s jealousy for His own glory and His own people? Well, the jealousy of God should really require us to be zealous for God. That our right response to God’s love for us is love to Him. Our right response to His jealousy, even His jealousy over us, is zeal for Him, for His person, for His cause, and His honor.

A zealous person, in religion, is preeminently a person of one thing. The one thing that a person has when it comes to responding to the jealousy that God has for us is to please and advanced God’s glory. Jesus is the supreme example of the zeal of the Lord for His people and for the glory of God. We saw Him in the temple throwing over the money changers and driving people out of the temple because they use the temple in a way to make money and not to worship, praise God, and pray to Him. John 2:17 says:

His disciples remembered that it was written, “ZEAL FOR YOUR HOUSE WILL CONSUME ME.”

Our response should be to be zealous before God, which Hedges against breaking the second commandment and also shows our love for God. We are jealous of anything that would come between us and our relationship with the Lord. We will not allow it just as a husband or wife should not allow it in their relationship. They should protect that at all cost.

Also, the jealousy of God threatens churches which are not zealous for God. In other words, there could be a group of people that call themselves Christians, but there’s no zeal for God among the group of people. They are like the Church of Laodicea. The Church of Laodicea, the Bible tells us, was a church that brought an extreme offense against God. Revelation 3:15-19 tells us:

‘I know your deeds, that you are neither cold nor hot; I wish that you were cold or hot. ¹⁶‘So because you are lukewarm, and neither hot nor cold, I will spit you out of My mouth. ¹⁷‘Because you say, “I am rich, and have become wealthy, and have need of nothing,” and you do not know that you are wretched and miserable and poor and blind and naked, ¹⁸I advise you to buy from Me gold refined by fire so that you may become rich, and white garments so that you may clothe yourself, and that the shame of your nakedness will not be revealed; and eye salve to anoint your eyes so that you may see. ¹⁹‘Those whom I love, I reprove and discipline; therefore be zealous and repent.

They have fallen away from the very motive that causes us to be on fire for God and zealous for God. How many churches today maybe sound and respectable, but they are lukewarm? There’s not a group of people there that are zealous for God, want to live for the Lord, and please Him in all that they do. Of course, we know not perfectly, but that’s what their desire is.

As we bring that all together, God refuses to share His people with another God. Whether made or imagined, God demands from those whom He has loved and redeemed utter and absolute loyalty. If his people betray His love by unfaithfulness, He will vindicate His Claim by stern action against them.

Jealousy is not a doorman characteristic. It is always represented, in Scripture, as a motive to action whether it be for wrath or for mercy. In other words, God cannot let idolatry go on too long without addressing it. God’s jealousy leads Him, on the one hand, to judge and destroy faithlessness among His people, who fall into idolatry and sin. On the other hand, to restore His people after judgement and discipline comes and the people are humbled, and they come back and repent. What moves the action of God in His jealousy is that He jealous for his own Glory. Isaiah 48:11 tells us:

For My own sake, for My own sake, I will act; For how can My name be profaned? And My glory I will not give to another.

God will not share Himself with anyone else except His people. That’s clear in Scripture, and that’s why God hates this. Next, we’re going to see that God cannot let the sin of idolatry go unpunished. Again, Exodus 20:5-6 says:

You shall not worship them or serve them; for I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children, on the third and the fourth generations of those who hate Me, ⁶but showing lovingkindness to thousands, to those who love Me and keep My commandments.

Anyone who’s involved with idolatry, thinking they are serving and living for the true living God by some object, whether visible, tangible, or intellectual, actually hates God, and God will judge them for it. 1 John 5:21 says:

Little children, guard yourselves from idols.

Idolatry is one sin, other than not repenting and believing in Jesus Christ, that will condemn someone for eternity. People think that they go through life being religious and extremely zealous for religion, but they have been blind and they have not seen or heard the truth of the word of God to set them free. They will be under the Judgment of God. Let’s pray:

Lord, thank You for the word of God. Lord, I know contained in it are difficult things, but Lord, they are so needed for our spiritual understanding, for our advancement in maturity, for our becoming more like You, and for the transformation of our mind. It is so important for us, as Your people, to be aware of what the Scriptures teach about the very character of God. That’s why I pray, Lord, that You would take the truth of the word of God and impress them strongly upon our heart to the point, Lord, that it would change what we do and how we think. That we would come before You with a repentant heart, humbly wanting to please You in all that. Give us a zealousness for Your Glory and for Your honor just as You have a jealous zealousness for us to keep us and to have a relationship with us. I thank You, Lord, for that and I praise You for all that You have done and will do in our lives and in our midst. I pray this in Christ name, Amen.

January 6, 2019
The Ten Commandments Past and Present — The First Commandment

In this sermon, Pastor Babij focuses on the first of the ten commandments and teaches how the first commandment shows several truths about God:

1) God reveals Himself through His word
2) God provides redemption for His people
3) God’s sovereignty is absolute

Pastor Babij reminds Christians that not all idols are physical; anything that comes between God and the Christian is an idol. Pastor gives the “bottom line” of the first commandment: there is to be no intruding of a third party in the Christian’s marriage to God.

Full Transcript:

We’re going to start looking at the first commandment. Again, Exodus 20:1-17 says:

Then God spoke all these words, saying, ²“I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery. ³“You shall have no other gods before Me. ⁴“You shall not make for yourself an idol, or any likeness of what is in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the water under the earth. ⁵“You shall not worship them or serve them; for I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children, on the third and the fourth generations of those who hate Me, ⁶but showing lovingkindness to thousands, to those who love Me and keep My commandments. ⁷“You shall not take the name of the LORD your God in vain, for the LORD will not leave him unpunished who takes His name in vain. ⁸“Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy. ⁹“Six days you shall labor and do all your work, ¹⁰but the seventh day is a sabbath of the LORD your God; in it you shall not do any work, you or your son or your daughter, your male or your female servant or your cattle or your sojourner who stays with you. ¹¹“For in six days the LORD made the heavens and the earth, the sea and all that is in them, and rested on the seventh day; therefore the LORD blessed the sabbath day and made it holy. ¹²“Honor your father and your mother, that your days may be prolonged in the land which the LORD your God gives you. ¹³“You shall not murder. ¹⁴“You shall not commit adultery. ¹⁵“You shall not steal. ¹⁶“You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor. ¹⁷“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 belongs to your neighbor.”

Let’s pray:

Father, as we look again at these commandments, we know, Lord, they are permanent. They have been written in stone. Lord, they also show us Your character and what Your will is, so Lord, I pray as Your children, we would know them well and that we would pass them on to our children. Lord, there is not eleven commandments, but only ten. Meaning, what You have given to us is perfect. The law of the Lord is perfect and Lord, we know that the law used in the right way leads one to Christ. Even though we know the law cannot save anyone, it can convict one of sin and guilt, and bring someone to the One who can save them, which is Jesus Christ. Thank You for that. I pray, Lord, Your law will continue to be used and impressed upon the consciences of those who have not trusted You yet and who are found to be guilty before You. I pray, Holy Spirit, you would convict them of their sin of righteousness and of judgment and cause them to run to Christ. Thank you, Lord, that anyone who comes to You will not be cast out. For this, we praise You. Lord, as we look at this first commandment today and we see the background, convict us of it, and also, Lord, help us to live it out every day. In Christ’s name, Amen.

In our study of the Ten Commandments, we must be looking at the historical setting and the context in which we find the Commandments. God freed His people from slavery in Egypt in order to bring them out from under the oppressive bondage of the Egyptians into freedom. Israel’s exodus was a very dynamic event for the people of Israel.

The people of Israel commemorate the Exodus to this very day. They celebrate the Passover observances. In Exodus 12:21 the Passover was given, and each household was to slay an unblemished lamb:

Then Moses called for all the elders of Israel and said to them, “Go and take for yourselves lambs according to your families, and slay the Passover lamb.

They were to drain the blood and then paint it on the top and the sides of their entrance as a sign to the Lord to spare the first born within that doorway. Then, Exodus 12:22-23 says:

You shall take a bunch of hyssop and dip it in the blood which is in the basin, and apply some of the blood that is in the basin to the lintel and the two doorposts; and none of you shall go outside the door of his house until morning. For the LORD will pass through to smite the Egyptians; and when He sees the blood on the lintel and on the two doorposts, the LORD will pass over the door and will not allow the destroyer to come in to your houses to smite you.

At midnight, every firstborn of Egypt, both man and beast, who did not have a blood on their doorway whether Israelites or Egyptians, were not protected by the blood. Ultimately, they were killed. Exodus 12:29 says:

Now it came about at midnight that the LORD struck all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, from the firstborn of Pharaoh who sat on his throne to the firstborn of the captive who was in the dungeon, and all the firstborn of cattle.

On that night in Egypt, only the blood of the slain lamb on the doorpost made the difference between life and death. Well, with Jesus’ blood it’s the same. Just as these events marked the climactic moment of Israel’s redemption from bondage, they also foreshadowed and pictured the great act with which Christ purchased eternal redemption for every single person whether Jew or Gentile, who receives Jesus Christ as their own Lord and Savior, repent of their sin, and believe in Him. His blood was shed on their behalf, and because of that, it washes away their sin and it protects them from eternal judgment.

The whole message of the Exodus was all picturing what would come in its final form in the person of Jesus Christ. This Christian history that were reading here also illustrates God’s working out of redemption of how He was going to buy humanity back to Himself through the sacrificial blood of an animal. In the beginning, it covered sin, and in Christ himself, it washes the sin away. God promised Moses in Exodus 3:12:

And He said, “Certainly I will be with you, and this shall be the sign to you that it is I who have sent you: when you have brought the people out of Egypt, you shall worship God at this mountain.”

As we approach the commandments, it has been three months since the people have come out of Egypt, through the Red Sea, and into the wilderness. It was now time for the redeemed nation of Israel to receive further instruction as to what would be their responsibilities with their newfound freedom. Even as a believer, we have a newfound Freedom in Christ. We can live for the Lord for the first time with our whole life. As we learn the word of God, we understand what that means.

God did not redeem His people to set them wandering aimlessly in the wilderness. They were redeemed in order to go into the wilderness to serve and worship Jehovah. In Scripture, that was the name given of the covenant-keeping God.

The Lord had a purpose for His people, and He made them free in order that they might choose freely to love and to honor Himself. Thus, God’s peoples first responsibility was to reflect the redeemer’s holiness. This was to be accomplished in the life of the people by loving obedience to Him.

The first purpose was where He would make them a nation of priests. Meaning, He would make them mediators between God and man. They were supposed to be the message between God and people and take it to take it to the world.

In addition, God’s purpose included making Israel a holy nation. They were to be set apart unto God. They were to be completely different than any other nation, and it would be their responsibility to demonstrate God’s standards of holiness to a world that, at that time, was steeped in the morass of sinful exploits and idolatry.

Before they can carry out this responsibility, several things had to be understood and made clear to the people of Israel. In fact, there were three things that God wanted them to do and know before He would even give them the commandments. In Exodus 19:5-8, God wanted them to be committed and ready to receive the responsibilities in obedience:

Now then, if you will indeed obey My voice and keep My covenant, then you shall be My own possession among all the peoples, for all the earth is Mine; ⁶and you shall be to Me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.’ These are the words that you shall speak to the sons of Israel.” ⁷So Moses came and called the elders of the people, and set before them all these words which the LORD had commanded him. ⁸All the people answered together and said, “All that the LORD has spoken we will do!” And Moses brought back the words of the people to the LORD.

Secondly, they were to understand something very important and that’s knowing the character of God, and God was a holy God. It was necessary to impress upon the people the vast gulf that existed between His holiness and their sinfulness. They had to know that because it is very dangerous to come into the presence of a holy God in the wrong way. In fact, that would be death for anybody. Exodus 19:9-13 says:

The LORD said to Moses, “Behold, I will come to you in a thick cloud, so that the people may hear when I speak with you and may also believe in you forever.” Then Moses told the words of the people to the LORD. ¹⁰The LORD also said to Moses, “Go to the people and consecrate them today and tomorrow, and let them wash their garments; ¹¹and let them be ready for the third day, for on the third day the LORD will come down on Mount Sinai in the sight of all the people. ¹²“You shall set bounds for the people all around, saying, ‘Beware that you do not go up on the mountain or touch the border of it; whoever touches the mountain shall surely be put to death. ¹³‘No hand shall touch him, but he shall surely be stoned or shot through; whether beast or man, he shall not live.’ When the ram’s horn sounds a long blast, they shall come up to the mountain.”

The people were to learn very clearly that He was holy and that He could not just be approached in any old way. He had to be approached in the right way. In addition, an attribute is a quality or characteristic that is true of a person. Of course, holiness is very true of who God is. Our understanding and ideas concerning God needs to be as true as possible if we’re going to properly worship Him, which are found in Scripture.

God’s attribute of holiness means that He is untouched and that He’s unstained by evil and sin in the world. God is absolutely pure and perfect. He is devoted to seeking His own honor. The term holy means to be separate, higher, superior, or different. As I mentioned before, we derive the word holiday from the word holy, which is a special and different day. It’s different than all the rest of the calendar days. So, the people must see that God is separate, He is higher, He is utterly different, and cannot be approached by human beings in any old freestyle manner.

However, the Lord God wants His people to approach Him. He wants His people to come to Him, but it must be as God requires. According to God’s standards, it must be done. Again, Exodus 19:12 tells us:

You shall set bounds for the people all around, saying, ‘Beware that you do not go up on the mountain or touch the border of it; whoever touches the mountain shall surely be put to death.

God was serious about that. Because He’s holy and because we are sinful, sinful people cannot go into the presence of a holy God. That’s why anybody who does not know Jesus Christ cannot go to heaven. God makes us holy and gives us His righteousness, so no one can go into the presence of God because they think they’re good enough where they have good works to bring. The only one who can, is God.

In other words, only Christ, who is holy, makes us holy and able to go into the presence of a holy God. That’s the only way anyone could ever do that. In Scripture, when holy men lifted up their eyes to heaven and caught a momentary glimpse of the character of God, it reduces them to trembling, dust, and ashes.

In our passage of Scripture, there are two things going on during people’s experience with the presence of God. They are fascinated by it because this is a new thing for them and they are terrified by it. In a real sense, that’s how we should deal with the Holiness of God.

We are fascinated by who God is, but we are also terrified by who God is because He is the Almighty God. To that end, the Lord ordered preparations to sanctify or consecrate the people for hearing His voice and set up boundaries around the place of His presence, so they would not die or be harmed. He gave them that warning. Then, we see this whole thing about consecration in Exodus 19:14-15:

So Moses went down from the mountain to the people and consecrated the people, and they washed their garments. ¹⁵He said to the people, “Be ready for the third day; do not go near a woman.

In fact, they are to clean their whole life up and not do their normal routines. Then, Exodus 19:16-17 says:

So it came about on the third day, when it was morning, that there were thunder and lightning flashes and a thick cloud upon the mountain and a very loud trumpet sound, so that all the people who were in the camp trembled. ¹⁷And Moses brought the people out of the camp to meet God, and they stood at the foot of the mountain.

Then, Exodus 19:21-25 tells us:

Then the LORD spoke to Moses, “Go down, warn the people, so that they do not break through to the LORD to gaze, and many of them perish. ²²“Also let the priests who come near to the LORD consecrate themselves, or else the LORD will break out against them.” ²³Moses said to the LORD, “The people cannot come up to Mount Sinai, for You warned us, saying, ‘Set bounds about the mountain and consecrate it.’” ²⁴Then the LORD said to him, “Go down and come up again, you and Aaron with you; but do not let the priests and the people break through to come up to the LORD, or He will break forth upon them.” ²⁵So Moses went down to the people and told them.

Only after all this preparation were the people now ready to hear the Ten Words, or Ten Commandments. They are not suggestions. A holy, redeemed people must understand the Holiness of the One who had redeemed them, and the standard of life fitted for those who had been made a holy people or a holy nation. Back in Exodus 19:5-6, it says:

Now then, if you will indeed obey My voice and keep My covenant, then you shall be My own possession among all the peoples, for all the earth is Mine; ⁶and you shall be to Me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.’ These are the words that you shall speak to the sons of Israel.

At that point, the people were now ready to receive the commandments, the standard of living required of God’s people, and this standard of living is still in effect today. This is how we are to live. We are to have a high view of God. The highest view that we could ever have is going to come from Scripture, and that’s how we understand who God is, so when we come to that, we come to the first point in Exodus 20:1-3.

We actually have the person revealed in the first commandment and that becomes very important for us to hear. So, who is this God who is revealed Himself? Well, He is the God of revelation. Notice what it says in Exodus 20:1-2:

Then God spoke all these words, saying, ²“I am the LORD your God…

Meaning, He’s the God of revelation, the God who speaks to us. He’s the God who can be known. He’s the God who wants us to know who He is, so as a result, He’s given us the word of God.

Here, the Hebrew word for God is Elohim, and the other word is a very special word that He uses as the covenant-keeping God, which is the word Jehovah. Another way of saying that is Yahweh, the Lord. Meaning, He is the self-determined One. He is the existing One. He is the One who keeps His promises and makes them come to pass. In fact, the Hebrew memorial name is Yehova and it looks like this:

תהווה

This is called a Petra Gotham, which means four letters. In the original Hebrew, there were no vowels. We have to pronounce it with vowels, so it came to the point where people hesitated to even pronounce the name of God because it was so holy.

In the reading of the Old Testament, they substituted with the word Adoni, or the Lord. This is what you’ll find all throughout the Old Testament, and He is considered the covenant- and promise-keeping God. When God promises His people, He will actually bring it to pass.

In Exodus 6, when God gave promises to the people of Israel, He uses the term, “I am the Lord.” Remember, when Moses went before Pharaoh, he asked God who he should tell sent him, and God said, “Tell Him ‘I AM’ sent you.” Meaning, God is that God in whom there is no beginning and no end. There’s no one like Him. He’s the only One. Exodus 6:6-8 says:

“Say, therefore, to the sons of Israel, ‘I am the LORD, and I will bring you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians, and I will deliver you from their bondage. I will also redeem you with an outstretched arm and with great judgments. ⁷‘Then I will take you for My people, and I will be your God; and you shall know that I am the LORD your God, who brought you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians. ⁸‘I will bring you to the land which I swore to give to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and I will give it to you for a possession; I am the LORD.’”

In that passage, you see how He is the covenant-keeping God. He is the God of revelation. Meaning, God communicates Himself to His people. Exodus 20:1 says:

Then God spoke all these words, saying…

Therefore, we can understand. The word of God came to mean the written body of revelation, and what the New Testament writers called the Scriptures, which contained the record of revelation. In other words, the very words of God that come from Heaven to Earth, which are written by holy men of God.

Thus, revelation is an authoritative body of glorious instruction from God that is accessible to men. In simple terms, God can be known. The Lord God has made His will known and His will is found in the word of God. He’s not a God who’s a mysterious God that can’t be known. He is not a God that is always elusive, and you can never really get a hold of Him. He very clearly says to us as people:

Listen, I am a God who created you, and I am speaking to you. This is My will for you.

It’s very clear of what God wants from His people and it’s clear about who He is. We must understand who He is. God reveals Himself as a very personal God. There’s something warmly personal when He says in Exodus 20:2:

I am the LORD your God…

That’s how God reveals Himself. Secondly, God is a God of redemption. Exodus 20:2 says:

I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery.

Everywhere in Scripture, this is mentioned over and over again. He doesn’t want us to forget that He is the God of redemption. He is the God who purchased you out of slavery, which you could not do yourself, and He did it in a very specific way. You can’t do this, but God can do this, so God not only communicates clearly who He is to His people, but also acts on their behalf. In Exodus 20:2, He doesn’t say because He created you that He is the Lord your God. Rather, He said:

I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery.

In other words, it is on the basis of His great act of redemption that He sought their obedience. The Hebrew people were about 430 years in bondage and slavery under the harsh taskmasters of Egypt. Each day included back-breaking toil and agonizing work with the slightest infraction, which came the stinging of the Egyptian whip. Yet, the people cried out to the Lord and He helped them.

He put hope and promises before them, and they held to those promises. In Exodus, the cruel treatment actually came about when they forgot about Joseph and the great things Joseph had done. Now, they are treating the people of God in a very damaging way. This came about by their forgetfulness, their fear of a people they didn’t understand, their false Gods, and by their foolishness of presuming the worst of a people. Exodus 1:7-14 tells us:

But the sons of Israel were fruitful and increased greatly, and multiplied, and became exceedingly mighty, so that the land was filled with them. ⁸Now a new king arose over Egypt, who did not know Joseph. ⁹He said to his people, “Behold, the people of the sons of Israel are more and mightier than we. ¹⁰“Come, let us deal wisely with them, or else they will multiply and in the event of war, they will also join themselves to those who hate us, and fight against us and depart from the land.” ¹¹So they appointed taskmasters over them to afflict them with hard labor. And they built for Pharaoh storage cities, Pithom and Raamses. ¹²But the more they afflicted them, the more they multiplied and the more they spread out, so that they were in dread of the sons of Israel. ¹³The Egyptians compelled the sons of Israel to labor rigorously; ¹⁴and they made their lives bitter with hard labor in mortar and bricks and at all kinds of labor in the field, all their labors which they rigorously imposed on them.

These people got so large in the land of Egypt it made the leadership scared that they would turn against them and take over, so they put this on them. Of course, we know it was all the will of God that was taking place. In fact, we see in Scripture that this is the rehearsal of many of the times when the Hebrews were thinking about what God has done. Psalm 77:15-20 is about the great day of deliverance of when God redeemed His people from the slave market of Egypt to freedom:

You have by Your power redeemed Your people, The sons of Jacob and Joseph. Selah. ¹⁶The waters saw You, O God; The waters saw You, they were in anguish; The deeps also trembled. ¹⁷The clouds poured out water; The skies gave forth a sound; Your arrows flashed here and there. ¹⁸The sound of Your thunder was in the whirlwind; The lightnings lit up the world; The earth trembled and shook. ¹⁹Your way was in the sea And Your paths in the mighty waters, And our footprints may not be known. ²⁰You led Your people like a flock By the hand of Moses and Aaron.

This was always on their mind. In other words, God deserves first place in the lives of His people because of who He is and also because of what He has done for them. This brings us to something that is very important for you. In Exodus 20:3, there is a second principal revealed in the first commandment:

You shall have no other gods before Me.

That seems very simple and clear, doesn’t it? What’s amazing about the Ten Commandments is that there is not a whole lot of stuff here, but why are they so hard to keep? The reason why they’re so hard to keep is because we have a sinful heart, and our heart wanders all over the place for something to worship.

We are born to worship and our hearts are prone to wander, so this commandment is given for that very purpose. In this first commandment, the absolute sovereignty and preeminence of the Creator is insisted upon. Since God is who He is, He will tolerate no competitor or rival at all. His claims upon us are paramount.

In the religions of today’s world, there are many “so-called” gods, just as many opinions about what God is or who God is, or what God is like. On the other hand, the Bible claims to be the revelation of the one true God. The Bible never tries to prove God. Simply, it states and affirms it, and the Bible never tries to prove anything when it comes to the character of God. Isaiah 43:10-11 tells us:

“You are My witnesses,” declares the LORD, “And My servant whom I have chosen, So that you may know and believe Me And understand that I am He. Before Me there was no God formed, And there will be none after Me. ¹¹“I, even I, am the LORD, And there is no savior besides Me.

In that proclamation, He alone is God and we must have Him in first place. If not, all of life and its relationships are in disorder. The problem that we actually have in our life is idolatry.

We are pursuing things to try to fill up that void in our hearts, and we’re all pursuing the wrong things. We’re trying to fill something up that we know there’s got to be more. The ancient eastern world was steep with the belief and worship of many gods. God revealed Himself to Moses and to the children of Israel in the midst of this pagan, polytheistic culture.

In pagan thought, no god was ultimate. Actually, gods were believed to be finite, not absolute. They were believed to possess ultimate wisdom and power. Rather, they were considered to be more like super humans than sovereign deities. They had impulses and desires and could commit evil acts. Thus, the notion was that the gods were subject to the existence of some kind of prime mortal realm above the gods that had to control over the activities of these many gods that men would have.

Of course, this led to the belief that gods could be influenced by magic and by ritual in order to sway them in one’s favor. This was accomplished with pagan rituals in which worshippers try to satisfy the gods by providing some sacrifice, food, or drink. If you go any place in the world, you’ll find this kind of activity taking place.

In saying that, the nation had just come out of Egypt where the inhabitants of the land worshipped a plethora of false gods. They worshipped the host of loathsome, creeping, and crawling things like reptiles. Their more prominent gods were the god “Ra”, which was the Sun God. Also, in the land of Canaan where Israel was heading, they were filled with evil worship. The Canaanites bowed down to false gods such as Dagon, Baal, Chemosh, and Astroroof. Later on and all through Scripture, you see gods like Asherah, Moloch, or Tammuz. Even in the New Testament, you see Diana. There’s idolatrous worship everywhere you go.

Now, was this a problem for the people of Israel all through their journeys? The belief in other gods was ingrained in ancient near Eastern Society, so temptation for God’s people to adopt Asian concepts and views was always a present reality. Even at the end of 40 years of wilderness wandering, Joshua after entering into the promised land, many miraculous victories, and receiving the land inheritance promised, had to challenge the people to put away their idols. Joshua 24:14-24 says:

“Now, therefore, fear the LORD and serve Him in sincerity and truth; and put away the gods which your fathers served beyond the River and in Egypt, and serve the LORD. ¹⁵“If it is disagreeable in your sight to serve the LORD, choose for yourselves today whom you will serve: whether the gods which your fathers served which were beyond the River, or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you are living; but as for me and my house, we will serve the LORD.” ¹⁶The people answered and said, “Far be it from us that we should forsake the LORD to serve other gods; ¹⁷for the LORD our God is He who brought us and our fathers up out of the land of Egypt, from the house of bondage, and who did these great signs in our sight and preserved us through all the way in which we went and among all the peoples through whose midst we passed. ¹⁸“The LORD drove out from before us all the peoples, even the Amorites who lived in the land. We also will serve the LORD, for He is our God.” ¹⁹Then Joshua said to the people, “You will not be able to serve the LORD, for He is a holy God. He is a jealous God; He will not forgive your transgression or your sins. ²⁰“If you forsake the LORD and serve foreign gods, then He will turn and do you harm and consume you after He has done good to you.” ²¹The people said to Joshua, “No, but we will serve the LORD.” ²²Joshua said to the people, “You are witnesses against yourselves that you have chosen for yourselves the LORD, to serve Him.” And they said, “We are witnesses.” ²³“Now therefore, put away the foreign gods which are in your midst, and incline your hearts to the LORD, the God of Israel.” ²⁴The people said to Joshua, “We will serve the LORD our God and we will obey His voice.”

They didn’t. That’s the history of Israel. See, people may be able to evade the eyes of other people, but they will not be able to escape the notice of God as he secretly searches our hearts to those people who are secretly entertaining the worship of other things.

In other words, they’re putting something else first besides God. Anything that is first besides God is an idol. Whatever you want to call it. We don’t have to make idols of stone or wood. Joshua knew that if the people were not worshiping the true and living God, then they were worshipping something else. That’s why he says:

Listen, if you don’t worship the true and living God, then choose today who you are going to worship.

You’re going to worship something, why not worship the true and living God. There are other gods besides idols of wood and stone such as money, pleasure, power, fame, fashion, or gluttony. A score of other things, which make self-supreme and usurp the rightful place of God in the affections and the thoughts.

Now, that’s very interesting because we are talking about the two great commandments: love the Lord thy God with all your heart, mind, soul, and strength, and then to love your neighbor as yourself. It has to do with what you love, where your affections are, and what you think about. Those are the two major areas in which you can identify if you have slipped into some kind of idolatrous behavior.

In fact, there are three exchanges that people will make when they misinterpret the character of God and they worship someone or something besides Him alone, and they will make that exchange because we will worship something. The first one is you exchanged the truth of God for a lie. Romans 1:25 says:

For they exchanged the truth of God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever. Amen.

Secondly, they exchange affections they should have for their Creator, God, for other things. 2 Timothy 3:1-4 tells us:

But realize this, that in the last days difficult times will come. ²For men will be lovers of self, lovers of money, boastful, arrogant, revilers, disobedient to parents, ungrateful, unholy, ³unloving, irreconcilable, malicious gossips, without self-control, brutal, haters of good, ⁴treacherous, reckless, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God.

Meaning, false teaching or believing something that is false leads one to develop misplaced affections, so a person becomes twisted in their priorities. They don’t know what should be first and would should be second. They think they are first, so instead of God being first, self is first. Instead of money being used to provide basic needs, helping others, and giving, it is used to fulfill some wants. Instead of their pleasure being satisfied in knowing and loving the Lord, it is satisfied by feeding their lusts and their passions.

From that passage of Scripture, there’s going to be affections that are going to move towards people who are lovers of self, money, and pleasure. Isn’t that what happens? Can’t we see that all around us? This statement of Scripture reveals that real religious passion is for what provides you pleasure. Worshipping God should supply all the pleasure that we need in this world. On the opposite end, it conveys a life lived in pursuit of self aims, which claims God and at the same time, it ignores God.

Lastly, true teaching is replaced by false teaching. People who are left with no standard to guide them and no compass to ensure that they are indeed heading in a safe direction will be left heart, mind, and will to their own whims, passions, and emotions, and with no boundary markers.

People who are really devoid of truth will be susceptible to develop misplaced affection, will be at risk of being misled by false teachers, and will end up worshipping other gods instead of the Lord their God. When you read the prophets one of the devastating things the people of Israel did was use the real name of God for idols, so they syncretized and meshed it all in there. They figured they would hedge their bets and do both, which became judgment to them.

Today, people have idols of possessions. They live to have things, to fill their desires for cravings such as houses, cars, boats, and leisure trips. They forget who they’re ultimately responsible to, so money, possessions, power and prestige is their God. What they possess, they have made gods, they bow down to them, and they just spent large amounts of money, time, and energy to maintain them.

Also, people find people to worship. We live in a people-worshipping culture in America. Many people make the mistake of worshipping celebrities and other impressive figures throughout history. Everyone wants to be famous. It seems like everybody wants to be in the limelight.

They want to be recognized. They want to be an American idol or hero. People worship musicians, TV, video, social media, and movie star personalities. They want to be like them, act like them, and look like them, so they spend their time and money to try to realize their goal. It eludes them, and that kind of pursuit is actually nothing but idolatry.

Then, people have idols of profession. Their whole world revolves around this. They strive, fret, and push for position. They want to achieve this and sacrifice all of that. This is what they live for. Their life is their work because their work is their idol. See, God is pushed out of the way, so they can get where they are going. Their work has occupied the place only God alone should occupy, and these are modern-day idols that we all can be tempted to pursue.

If God is not first, this is what we do. Every day, we need to evaluate whether we got pulled into any of this kind of wrong thinking, which leads me to the last part in Exodus. We must dethrone those Gods. Again, Exodus 20:3 tells us:

You shall have no other gods before Me.

This last phrase is rendered in several ways:

Next to Me, over Me, in front of Me, or opposite Me.

However, the best rendering found in Old Testament manuscripts is “besides Me.”

You should have no other gods to confront Me, in front of Me, or before My face.

This is to be set up as a rival object of service in adoration. See, gods that are set up over against Jehovah may be said to be before Him in His sight.

If we just add Jesus on to everything else, then we’re believing as an addition, which is still idolatry. They are gods opposed to Him. If our affections are going to be for God, we cannot have our affections on anything else besides Him. There is to be no god in your heart that you are giving allegiance to accept Jehovah and the Lord, Jesus Christ.

If there are, then it must be discarded. Your full loyalty must be given to the true and living God who has revealed Himself in verbal and written form. Faithfulness must be given to Jehovah alone. Deuteronomy 32:17 tells us:

They sacrificed to demons who were not God, To gods whom they have not known, New gods who came lately, Whom your fathers did not dread.

When the one true and living God is not first and worshipped as supreme and the only God there, that is where all the trouble starts in our life. All the trouble in all of humanity is because God is not honored as He revealed Himself in Scripture. Even in later history of Israel, the Northern Kingdom of Israel and the Southern Kingdom of Israel were defeated because of their following after other gods. This was breaking the covenant in the most fundamental way, which brought the curse upon the nation of Israel. In other words, it’s spiritual idolatry.

The heart went after other gods. They broke the marriage covenant that is between God and His people. In Ephesians, it talks about how we are to love our spouses as Christ loved the church, which is the marriage covenant that is so sacred to the Lord.

The New Testament teaches that the worship of other gods, another god, or a part of God’s creation leads to perversion and separation from God. When Jesus was being tested as the second Adam in the wilderness, Satan had come against Him in His weakest moment with the full power of temptation. When Satan offered Jesus the kingdoms of the world, he asked for a simple act of worship. Jesus responds in Matthew 4:8-10:

Again, the devil took Him to a very high mountain and showed Him all the kingdoms of the world and their glory; ⁹and he said to Him, “All these things I will give You, if You fall down and worship me.” ¹⁰Then Jesus said to him, “Go, Satan! For it is written, ‘YOU SHALL WORSHIP THE LORD YOUR GOD, AND SERVE HIM ONLY.’”

That is the key. The principles contained in these commandments are not to be ignored by Christians. Our Lord did not come to destroy them, but to fulfil them. As I mentioned last time, Christians now live under the law of Christ, and contained within His law is the moral law in which Christ laid bare the inner impulses of love that validates them to love God supremely and put Him first. Then, to reflect His love to others. In this, it is the fulfilment of the commandments.

In closing, here’s the bottom line of the first commandment mentioned in a book on the Ten Commandments by Mark Rooker:

The most intimate of all relationships on the human plane, of course marriage, became the analogy for God’s intimate relationship with His people. The first commandment, “You shall have no other gods before Me,” implies that there may be no intruding third parties in marriage.

Is that not true? That is not only true in the human realm, but it is true between us and God. God is a jealous God, and He will not tolerate you or me worshipping anyone else but Him. When we do that, that’s when we develop a very high view of God.

We should not fall from that high view. That high view means everything else that comes underneath it. We need to ask, “Is this God’s will?” and, “Is this what God’s word says?” Then, that’s what we do and that’s how we live. Let’s pray:

Lord, thank You again for the word of God. Thank You, Lord, that contained in it is a very clear teaching on who You are and what You require. I pray, Lord, that if anyone here today does not know the Lord Jesus Christ as their Savior and Lord and have never come and called upon You to save them from their sin and Your wrath, then I pray today would be the day they come. For all those who do know you Lord, I pray that our understanding of a high-level of God would have increased today to the point of understanding that it changes the way we live. I pray, Lord, that we, by Your spirit, would carry out this commandment on a day-by-day basis. Lord, that there would be no one else we bow down or pray to. There would be no one else we come to allegiance to or bring our problems to. There would be no one else we praise and worship in song to. Also, that there would be no one else but You. I pray that as we exalt Your name, that all the blessings that come to us because of who You are and us being Your children, we would receive gladly. We worship You today for who You are and what You’ve done for us. In Christ, I pray. Amen.

December 16, 2018
The Law of God: The Ten Commandments — Past and Present, Part 2

In this sermon, Pastor Babij teaches on the third body of law Christians must know and follow: the Law of Christ. Pastor Babij explains through numerous Scriptures how the Moral Law is not nullified but expanded and elevated by the Law of Christ and how the Law of Christ is designed to engender love for the Lord Jesus. Pastor Babij concludes by admonishing Christians to constantly examine themselves to confirm their status in Christ.

Full Transcript:

Most likely, I will get into the first commandment next week, but today is more introduction because this is a very difficult subject believe it or not and I want to lay some things out for you, so you get a better understanding. When somebody asks if we keep the law as believers, you can give them the right answer. Exodus 20:1-17 says:

Then God spoke all these words, saying, ²“I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery. ³“You shall have no other gods before Me. ⁴“You shall not make for yourself an idol, or any likeness of what is in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the water under the earth. ⁵“You shall not worship them or serve them; for I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children, on the third and the fourth generations of those who hate Me, ⁶but showing lovingkindness to thousands, to those who love Me and keep My commandments. ⁷“You shall not take the name of the LORD your God in vain, for the LORD will not leave him unpunished who takes His name in vain. ⁸“Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy. ⁹“Six days you shall labor and do all your work, ¹⁰but the seventh day is a sabbath of the LORD your God; in it you shall not do any work, you or your son or your daughter, your male or your female servant or your cattle or your sojourner who stays with you. ¹¹“For in six days the LORD made the heavens and the earth, the sea and all that is in them, and rested on the seventh day; therefore the LORD blessed the sabbath day and made it holy. ¹²“Honor your father and your mother, that your days may be prolonged in the land which the LORD your God gives you. ¹³“You shall not murder. ¹⁴“You shall not commit adultery. ¹⁵“You shall not steal. ¹⁶“You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor. ¹⁷“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 belongs to your neighbor.”

Let’s pray:

Father, as we approach Your word, let us have a correct understanding of the law of God as it is given in the word of God, as it moves into the New Testament, and what it means for us today. I pray that You would allow us to understand those things for our edification, for our knowledge, and for our stability as a believer to know whether we are honoring You or not. I pray this in Christ’s name, Amen.

Last time, we ended with the three functions of the moral law. The civil function was the first function of the moral law. The laws of God were given as a guide to the nation’s as information for their laws. Then, there was the pedagogical function, which simply means that the law was a teacher, an instructor, or tutor pointing something out that we all needed to know.

Also, the law revealed sin, but could not remove sin. The law pronounced guilt, but it could not provide Grace. The law carries the curse of death, but it had no cure. The law was designed by God to shut up everybody under sin. Galatians 3:22 tells us:

But the Scripture has shut up everyone under sin…

You may be thinking: if that’s the case, then what hope does anyone have to be saved? Of course, we do know that the law has good news connected to it, and that good news is that the law is really our schoolmaster to lead us to Christ. Galatians 3:24-26 says:

Therefore the Law has become our tutor to lead us to Christ, so that we may be justified by faith. 25But now that faith has come, we are no longer under a tutor. 26For you are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus.

In that passage of Scripture, we see that the law brings us to the very place where it shows us that we are a sinner, shows us that we cannot rescue ourselves, and it actually magnifies sin. Then, it brings us to the one who can do something about it, which is our Lord Jesus Christ. Martin Luther had said:

The law is a mirror which reveals to us our uncleanness and causes us to fly to the laver to be cleansed by the blood of Christ.

When sin drives us to the Cross for redemption, it brings us to Christ, His death, His burial, and His resurrection, which is where we can be saved. The only person that can make anyone right with God and bring them into the family of God is our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Again, Galatians 3:26 says:

For you are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus.

God gave us a clear definition of sin in His Ten Commandments. Without this, people can’t recognize their pitiful condition, especially their need for a Savior. They can realize that they need help, but they just don’t know who to go to for that help. We do know from Scripture that help comes from the Lord Jesus Christ.

By way of review, we saw that there were several categories of the law. The reveal law was revealed in the law of the conscience. For 2,500 years, man lived on the earth without the Ten Commandments, the written law, prior to Mount Sinai. During that time, what governed them was the law of conscience. Then, the Ten Commandments came later after this time, but this was from the verbal word of God that was given out to people, which they were to obey it or disobey it. They were aware of their sin because of what was said by God.

This inner monitor that God gave called the conscience either accused them or defended them. Remember, the conscience is not infallible because it is informed by many things such as different types of traditions, philosophies, societal factors, and religious doctrine whether good, bad, true, or false. Therefore, for the conscience to operate fully and in accord with true Holiness that honors God, it’s thinking has to be informed by the written word of God, so that on the day of judgement, your conscience will side with God, the righteous judge. The worst sin-harden evil-doer will discover that before the Throne of God, their conscience will testify against them. Romans 2:16 says:

on the day when, according to my gospel, God will judge the secrets of men through Christ Jesus.

Of course, the secrets of men will be contained within their own conscience and God will judge using not only creation and conscience, but the word of God and what they have done with Jesus Christ. The second thing that was revealed in Scripture was that of the revealed law of God. Again, the law of God is called the moral law, the two tablets of testimony, the law of love, or the decalogue. We also know that law of God is considered the Ten Commandments, which we’re heading towards.

Remember, the law of God was written on stone, and then the Ten Commandments were placed inside the ark showing the permanence of the law right under the mercy seat. The moral law, given by God, is summed up in what we know as the Ten Commandments.

Also, the moral law reflects the very nature of God. Once we get into the commandments, you’ll see that it’s the very character of God and the declaration of God’s will towards His people, which directs and binds all men from every age and every place to their whole duty to themselves, to the Lord, and of course to their neighbor.

This led to the reveal law of God and the law of Moses. Remember, the law of Moses is also known as the book of the law, the book of the covenant, or the Mosaic law. The law of Moses was written in a book, not written by the finger of God on stone. It was written on parchment in a book, and that book was placed not in the Ark of the Covenant, but beside the Ark of the Covenant.

Now, we see that this is how it unfolds: we have the conscience, the Ten Commandments, and we have the laws of God given to the people of God. Of course, those laws were broken down in several ways to the civil law, and the civil law simply meant that Israel had certain directives given to them in their community to organize things.

They would have civil management as far as where they’re going to camp out, what marches they are going to go on, what wars they are going to be involved with, the inheritance that were promised them from God, and how the marriages are supposed to work. Also, if you disobey the law, what punishments come with that. Then, what ruler should rule amongst them and what their character is to be.

All of that was related to National Israel. Meaning, the civil law has been nullified for us who are believers. We are not under a theocracy like Israel was, but we are to obey, according to Romans 13, the governing authorities that God has ordained and live righteously while we are on this Earth.

Then, there were the ceremonial laws, which were the rights of worship given to Israel so that they would be a nation like no other nation around them. In their worship, they had the day of Passover, the day of atonement, the sin offering, the trespass offering, the wave offering, and various other sacrifices were combined in that regard, which were all a foreshadowing of what was to come.

They all foreshadowed Christ, and it was a shadow of the Cross extending backward through the centuries before He came. When Christ came, the shadow faded away. Meaning, the ceremonial laws were abrogated or nullified by the coming of the One whom they foreshadowed namely, Jesus Christ. 1 Corinthians 5:7 says:

For Christ our Passover also has been sacrificed.

The offering of the body of Jesus was done once for all. By 70 A.D., the whole sacrificial system and the whole priesthood was done. Even until this day, there’s no more sacrificial system. If you talk to a Jewish person today, they would say that they are waiting for their temple to institute the sacrifices again. So, they have their Shabbat meal, which is a forward-looking to the Messiah coming, or the first coming of Christ that they have rejected and continue to reject.

As believers, we know that Christ is already our Passover. When the Father looks at us, He sees the blood of Christ and He passes over us with judgment. There are no judgments to a believer, which is a great comfort to us. Therefore, we don’t need to make sacrifices. You didn’t bring any animals this morning to offer on the alter, right?

You don’t have to do that because we’re not under the Old Testament economy anymore. Christ has fulfilled all those types and shadows of the Old Testament, which is the amazing thing about our Lord. He has taken care of every single thing that can possibly hinder us from being right with Him and then coming into His presence someday as a person who has trusted Christ alone for eternal life. This is a great blessing to us.

Also, Moses recorded 640 separate ordinances in his own handwriting that they were to carry out on a regular basis, which is listed and found in the Old Testament. However, it said that every single day had to do with God. Every single day had something that you had to focus in on because what the Lord required of you on that particular day.

Sometimes, we don’t do that as believers. We come Sunday and then we divorce the rest of the week as something that is secular, and this is sacred. Everything is sacred, right? Everything we do every day should remind us of God’s goodness and cause thankfulness to rise up in our hearts, so we can praise Him. That’s what the Christian Life should be about. We should be living in the constant realm of thankfulness and joy every single day. Do you do that? So, the law of Moses really demanded things that we don’t put into practice anymore because Christ had come and fulfilled things.

When the apostles were preaching in the book of Acts, the question comes up: should the gentiles keep the moral law? Should they keep they keep the Mosaic law? Acts 15:1-2 says:

Some men came down from Judea and began teaching the brethren, “Unless you are circumcised according to the custom of Moses, you cannot be saved.” ²And when Paul and Barnabas had great dissension and debate with them, the brethren determined that Paul and Barnabas and some others of them should go up to Jerusalem to the apostles and elders concerning this issue.

We see them go up to Jerusalem, and Acts 15:6 says:

But some of the sect of the Pharisees who had believed stood up, saying, “It is necessary to circumcise them and to direct them to observe the Law of Moses.”

So, there was confusion about this thing. The apostles are saying that God brought the same Gospel to the gentiles. They believe that they received the spirit of God. Then, Acts 15:10-11 says:

“Now therefore why do you put God to the test by placing upon the neck of the disciples a yoke which neither our fathers nor we have been able to bear? ¹¹“But we believe that we are saved through the grace of the Lord Jesus, in the same way as they also are.”

Meaning, the Jews and the gentiles we’re getting saved the same exact way. Then, Acts 15:28-29 says:

“For it seemed good to the Holy Spirit and to us to lay upon you no greater burden than these essentials: ²⁹that you abstain from things sacrificed to idols and from blood and from things strangled and from fornication; if you keep yourselves free from such things, you will do well. Farewell.”

These are the only things required of you as a gentile living in that economy. Meaning, they didn’t have to keep the ceremonial and civil part of the Mosaic law. That’s why some of the apostles were found guilty of preaching against the law, which is why most of them were killed.

This brings me to the third function of the law and it is that of a didactic function; meaning, it is still teaching. So, we have the civil, the learning part, and then we have the ongoing teaching of the law. In other words, the moral law is a guide for the Christian life. It functions as a teacher for us.

Now, does the fact that a Christian is justified by faith alone without the deeds of the law mean that the law of God is nullified? Absolutely not; it is not nullified. Romans 3:31 tells us:

Do we then nullify the Law through faith? May it never be! On the contrary, we establish the Law.

Now, we’re seeing that the moral law of God is not abrogated. It’s not nullified, which becomes an important point. However, it does mean that our relationship to the law has changed. To show you what I mean, I want you to direct your attention to two passages of Scripture that will shed much needed light on a Christian’s relationship to the law of God.

Remember, when I say the law of God, I am talking about the Ten Commandments after a Christian comes to believe in Christ, confesses, and follows Christ as their Lord and Savior. Now, how are they to live their life? Under what standard are we to live our life? There’s still another category of the law of God that we must examine and understand, which is the law of Christ, the most important one.

Before we look at the passages of Scripture, there are a couple of respectable theologians I would like to quote. John Feinberg says:

We are not bound to the civil, ceremonial, and moral law, but the law of Christ binds us.

Also, Doug Moo says:

The Mosaic code is no longer enforce. The law of Christ has superseded it. We must fulfill the law of Christ.

As believers, it is an obligation to know the law of Christ and what it actually entails. Now, the law of God and the law of Christ is clearly suggested in 1 Corinthians 9:21 where Paul is speaking as a free man, not someone who’s bound by the rules and regulations of the ceremonial and civil law under the Mosaic covenant. However, he is under a law that he’s following and obeying:

to those who are without law, as without law, though not being without the law of God but under the law of Christ, so that I might win those who are without law.

As a human being created in the image of God, he was still under the obligation to obey the moral law of God, his Creator. However, in his new position as a saved person in Christ Jesus, he now belongs to Christ, who is his new master. Christ is the mediator and the go-between of his redemption. Christ has purchased him from the slave market of sin, and he is now Christ’s possession. Therefore, he is now under the law of Christ, which is the principle of living as a believer under Christ.

That passage of Scripture becomes very important for us since it highlights very clearly all the things we talked about. Now, let’s think through this a little bit. As creatures, we are under the bonds to serve the law of God. There’s nothing wrong with the law of God. The arch enemy of God’s people is not the Mosaic law or any laws. Romans 7:12 tells us:

So then, the Law is holy, and the commandment is holy and righteous and good.

The problem is not the law. The problem is sin and that we are enrolled in the service of sin. Actually, we’re slaves of sin, and that’s what you learn when you become a believer. Sin’s basic objective is to drive the law keeper away from the lawgiver through death. Romans 6:23 says:

For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Sin encourages its victims to do several things. Number one, it encourages its victim to disobey the law. As victims of sin, knowing the law induces a person to break it rather than to keep it. When you walk past a lawn that says, “Don’t step on the grass,” like when the parent tells a child not to do something, then they are tempted to do the exact opposite of the command. Because of sin, the command itself brings a person to break the commandment instead of keeping it. This was the whole ordeal when Paul was trying to explain that in Romans 7:7-13:

What shall we say then? Is the Law sin? May it never be! On the contrary, I would not have come to know sin except through the Law; for I would not have known about coveting if the Law had not said, “YOU SHALL NOT COVET.” ⁸But sin, taking opportunity through the commandment, produced in me coveting of every kind; for apart from the Law sin is dead. ⁹I was once alive apart from the Law; but when the commandment came, sin became alive and I died; ¹⁰and this commandment, which was to result in life, proved to result in death for me; ¹¹for sin, taking an opportunity through the commandment, deceived me and through it killed me. ¹²So then, the Law is holy, and the commandment is holy and righteous and good. ¹³Therefore did that which is good become a cause of death for me? May it never be! Rather it was sin, in order that it might be shown to be sin by effecting my death through that which is good, so that through the commandment sin would become utterly sinful.

In other words, Paul is saying that as he tried to keep the law, the sin in him caused him to say, “I don’t want to keep the law.” If you go through the Ten Commandments, you break all ten at some point because of your sin. Sin doesn’t want you to keep them. Therefore, as you break them, you realize that it doesn’t result in life, but that it results in death and separation from God.

Also, the law magnifies your sin. It brings you and I to the point where we say, “I am utterly sinful,” which is what the law is supposed to do. If it didn’t do it, we would never really know we sinned against God. So, sin encourages its victims to disobey the law.

Also, sin encourages its victims to view the law as an end in itself. Sin encourages a person to be law-centered rather than God-centered. Keeping the law rather than knowing God becomes the highest goal. As a result, you find people who become legalist and it’s all about the rules and the regulations. It’s all about keeping the law rather than getting to know God more.

In addition, sin encourages us to receive the acclaim of people rather than the acclaim of God. The desired goal is to have accolades from people instead of from God. John 12:43 tells us:

for they loved the approval of men rather than the approval of God.

That’s what happens when somebody tries to keep the law and avert from the original intention of the law. Thus, people become law-keepers. Sin also encourages one to finally forget the grace of God. Sin seeks to divert its victim’s attention from the promise of salvation to that of law keeping.

Law keeping becomes the substitute for the way of salvation. If you ask people today if they are a good person, then they say they try to keep the Ten Commandments, so they are doing exactly what sin is dictating them to do because they’re a victim of sin. They will say, “As long as I do these things, I’m going to be right with God.” Here’s the catch: you could ever be that good. You have to be perfect before God and you cannot make yourself perfect.

For them, the law becomes the way of salvation. It becomes a substitute for salvation where law-keepers expect wages to which that person would be entitled, or they boast about how well they keep the law. When a person, as a creature, is under the law of God, several things take place.

Now, the law could not deliver us from the slave-market of sin and this body of death, but there is somebody who can deliver us. Romans 7:24-25 tells us:

Wretched man that I am! Who will set me free from the body of this death? ²⁵Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, on the one hand I myself with my mind am serving the law of God, but on the other, with my flesh the law of sin.

As a redeemed sinner, we are bond slaves of a new master, which is Christ. We are not slaves of sin anymore. Paul tells us in Ephesians 6:6:

not by way of eyeservice, as men-pleasers, but as slaves of Christ, doing the will of God from the heart.

As slaves of Christ, Paul is saying we are doing the will of God from the heart. We couldn’t do that before, but as believers, we can obey the will of God from our heart. The intention of living under the law of Christ is:

I want to obey. I want to love the Lord.

So, is the moral law nullified? Absolutely not. It is included in the law of Christ. Meaning, Christ is the end of the law. Romans 10:4 says:

For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes.

He is the end of the law to everyone who believes, so everyone else is still under the law. In that passage, the term “end” means the purpose of what Christ came to do. Once the law reached the goal, it was terminated, which was terminated by the Lord himself. For everyone who comes to Christ, the condemnations of the law have ended. Meaning, Christ is the goal of the law. 2 Corinthians 3:14 says:

But their minds were hardened; for until this very day at the reading of the old covenant the same veil remains unlifted, because it is removed in Christ.

The reason people do not believe is because they’re blinded. They have a veil before them, especially those who are Jews. If they don’t want to believe in Christ, the Messiah, then they’re in their unbelief. 2 Corinthians 3:15-16 says:

But to this day whenever Moses is read, a veil lies over their heart; ¹⁶but whenever a person turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away.

When we come to Christ, it is lifted from us, so Christ is the goal of the law. Christ is also the exemplar of the law. Christ is the object of the ceremonial dimensions of the law because He put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself. In the book of Hebrews, Christ is the aim of the law. Meaning, Christ created in Himself a people of God, Jews and Gentiles. in which He exercised His sovereign kingship over.

When Christ came, the shadows all disappeared, and they were all fulfilled in Christ, so He is the end of it. Christ created in Himself a people for Himself and we’re part of that people. We’re part of the people of God because we have come to Christ. The veil has been lifted, the end of the law has come, and Christ fulfilled the law.

Secondly, Christ is the Lord of the law, and as Lord of the law, Christ conquers sin. Romans 8:3 says:

For what the Law could not do, weak as it was through the flesh, God did: sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and as an offering for sin, He condemned sin in the flesh.

He conquered sin by condemning it. Then, He snatches the law from sins grip in Romans 8:4:

so that the requirement of the Law might be fulfilled in us, who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.

He snatches the law from sins grip by meeting the requirements of the law, which is by satisfying all the justice of the Father on the Cross. He satisfies it all, so that we can be snatched from sins grip. Also, Christ disarms the hostile powers by taking away the weapons against us. Colossians 2:14 tells us:

having canceled out the certificate of debt consisting of decrees against us, which was hostile to us; and He has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross.

Then, Galatians 3:13 tells us:

Christ redeemed us from the curse of the Law…

Christ secures our forgiveness. Colossians 2:13 says:

When you were dead in your transgressions and the uncircumcision of your flesh, He made you alive together with Him, having forgiven us all our transgressions

All of our lawbreaking and stepping on the grass when the sign says, “Don’t step on the grass,” the Lord takes and nails it all to the Cross. He takes all your unrighteousness, all your unholiness, all your ungodliness, and He secures and forgiveness completely and totally. Then, Christ unites us with Himself in His death, burial, and resurrection, and frees us from the powers that hold us. In turn, He brings us under His lordship and He becomes our master.

Thirdly, in Christ, the law is newly administered, and its essence explained. Meaning, Christ, not the law is the believers Master. Not only is not sin the believers master, but also the law is not the believers master. Christ is the believer’s master, so as believers, we live under the law of Christ.

The law of God is now named the law of Christ. As it relates to Christians, the law of Christ is God’s moral law at the hands of a mediator. Meaning, it is the moral law of God that Christ himself was made under. Galatians 4:4 says:

But when the fullness of the time came, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the Law

It is the moral law of God that Christ came to fulfill. Matthew 5:17-18 says:

Do not think that I came to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I did not come to abolish but to fulfill. ¹⁸“For truly I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not the smallest letter or stroke shall pass from the Law until all is accomplished.

Also, it is the moral law of God that was in the heart of Christ. Psalm 40:8 says:

I delight to do Your will, O my God; Your Law is within my heart.

In that passage, the word “law” is the word Torah, the law of God. Jesus knew the full end and result of God’s law. You may say: well, what is the full end and result of God’s law? When Jesus was asked that question by a Jewish scribe Jesus answered him from the Old Testament Torah, the Shema in Deuteronomy 6. He said in Mark 12:28-34:

One of the scribes came and heard them arguing, and recognizing that He had answered them well, asked Him, “What commandment is the foremost of all?” ²⁹Jesus answered, “The foremost is, ‘HEAR, O ISRAEL! THE LORD OUR GOD IS ONE LORD; ³⁰AND YOU SHALL LOVE THE LORD YOUR GOD WITH ALL YOUR HEART, AND WITH ALL YOUR SOUL, AND WITH ALL YOUR MIND, AND WITH ALL YOUR STRENGTH.’ ³¹“The second is this, ‘YOU SHALL LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOR AS YOURSELF.’ There is no other commandment greater than these.” ³²The scribe said to Him, “Right, Teacher; You have truly stated that HE IS ONE, AND THERE IS NO ONE ELSE BESIDES HIM; ³³AND TO LOVE HIM WITH ALL THE HEART AND WITH ALL THE UNDERSTANDING AND WITH ALL THE STRENGTH, AND TO LOVE ONE’S NEIGHBOR AS HIMSELF, is much more than all burnt offerings and sacrifices.” ³⁴When Jesus saw that he had answered intelligently, He said to him, “You are not far from the kingdom of God.” After that, no one would venture to ask Him any more questions.

Jesus takes the moral law of God, the Ten Commandments, and He breaks them in two places. They’re not really broken. He actually synthesizes them. He says that the first four commandments are to love the Lord, thy God, with all your heart, mind, soul, and strength. In His second commandment are the last sixth commandment, which is to love your neighbor as yourself.

These two commandments are now the synthesized, and it brings in not only the ten commandments, but also the ceremonial and Mosaic part of the law come into these statements. Galatians 6:2 says:

Bear one another’s burdens, and thereby fulfill the law of Christ.

The moral and the Mosaic law all come together in Jesus Christ with its civil and ceremonial aspects. Under the law of Christ, we are no longer sold under sin and its condemnation. Under the law of Christ, we are born again into the family of God with all its rights and privileges. Under the law of Christ, we have received the indwelling of the Holy Spirit sealed unto the day of redemption. Under the law of Christ, we are no longer slaves to sin, which is no longer our master.

The law of Christ is not a new set of laws that has taken place of the old set, but it is the law of God written on hearts of flesh, not hearts of stone. Ezekiel 36:26 tells us:

“Moreover, I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; and I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh.

Meaning, a heart that’s pliable, foldable, and a heart that wants to love God. That’s what He gives us when we become a believer. He continues to say in Ezekiel 36:37:

“I will put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statutes, and you will be careful to observe My ordinances.

That’s what He does to our hearts, which desire to be obedient not to the law, but to Christ, the person in whom we want to affectionately love. When we do so, we fulfill the law of God, which are the two great commandments just mentioned. Those who are bound to Christ enter into a life of liberty and love as they bind themselves to His law.

Christ is the reality that all the Mosaic regulations foreshadowed. Christ expounds His law by calling believers to love God and to love neighbor. The Holy Spirit is the One who implants that love in our heart. He puts it there when we become believers.

Again, the law of Christ is not a different law from the law of Moses. Each law comes from God and each is given for the same purpose, which is to enjoy the love of God and the love of neighbor. Of course, the understanding of the law and the law-keeping is radically affected by the coming of Christ.

Accordingly, His law is a further expression of the law of Moses. It is not the same expression. Rather, it is more than a mere repetition of ancient laws by virtue of who Jesus is and what He came to do. The law is now newly administered and more deeply expounded than ever before.

In summary, the law of Moses is related to the law of Christ. It is not cut off then the law of Christ begins, nor does the law of Moses come to an end and the law of Christ is elevated and continues. Rather, the law of Moses and everything connected to it is elevated and moved into the law of Christ, which is love of God and love of neighbor.

When somebody asks you, “As a Christian, do you keep the law of Moses?” You say to them, “As a Christian, I keep the law of Christ.”

The law of Christ has two main ingredients to it: love God and love my neighbor as myself. Namely, to love and to honor Yahweh, the Lord, and one’s neighbor from the heart. 1 John 5:2-3 says:

By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God and observe His commandments. ³For this is the love of God, that we keep His commandments; and His commandments are not burdensome.

They’re not a weight upon us. They are something the spirit of God gives us liberty to do. Galatians 5:14 says:

For the whole Law is fulfilled in one word, in the statement, “YOU SHALL LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOR AS YOURSELF.”

James 2:8 tells us:

If, however, you are fulfilling the royal law according to the Scripture, “YOU SHALL LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOR AS YOURSELF,” you are doing well.

If that is the end result, which has always been the end result of God’s commands to love God and to love His people, then how are we doing? How far are you growing in Biblical love? Love is the badge and the character of Christianity.

A Christian may advance in many areas of the Christian life, but without growth in the most important Christian distinctive, which is love, then, as Corinthians 13 tells us, it profits nothing. We can have a lot of skill, a lot of know-how, and if we haven’t learned to love as Christians, then we have not learned. Maybe we’re not even a believer.

This becomes a very critical point for all of us. This is how you know you’re a believer. When love begins to diminish and grow cold, and when our sin increases itself, it doesn’t manifest in looking like Jesus. It manifests in the opposite, which is not looking like Jesus.

This is how a diminishing love looks: we lose patience easily, but like Corinthians 13 says, love suffers long. Unkindness becomes common, yet the Bible says love is kind. Sinful envy and bitterness are displayed, yet the Scriptures tell us love does not envy. We defend ourselves when confronted about our lack of love, but the Scripture tells us love does not parade itself or is puffed up.

We become less courteous and ruder with people, yet love does not behave rudely as Scripture tells us. We start trumping our rights over others, yet love does not seek its own. We become easily angered, yet Biblical love is not provoked. Fault finding becomes frequent, yet the Bible say love keeps no black book of wrongs and thinks no evil of the person.

When our love is not present and waning, projects become more important than people. We become unwilling to confront when necessary and we are not concerned with the lost all around us. See, that’s where the Lord leads. It leads us to the place that we are loving God, and as we’re learning to love God, He’s teaching us and demonstrating His love toward us in the word of God.

Then, we turn around and we show that same kind of love that God is showing us and giving us to other people. If we are not doing that, there is a great question mark on where you’re at spiritually. Those growing in a Jesus-kind of love will not only say loving words but will also do loving deeds just as He did. So, is the direction, not perfection of your life to honor and love God and love and honor your neighbor?

Christians have obtained new life in Christ, so under the law, you and I would not have the slightest chance of performing God’s commands with complete success. Your sinful nature and mine would not allow it, but because believers have obtained new life in Christ and have the indwelling Holy Spirit and the word of God, they become willing to want to please and obey the One who saved them.

As Christians, we have the privilege and the power given to us by God to fulfill the law of Christ. In the power of the indwelling spirit, the Christian is given the enablement to obey God’s revealed will from their heart, which involves walking in the Spirit in which there must be day-to-day yielding and dependence upon the Holy Spirit. When you walk in the spirit, you will not fulfill the lust of the flesh, and if you don’t fulfill the lust of the flesh, you will be living according to the law of Christ.

That’s the goal of the Christian life and that’s where the Spirit of God is bringing us, but you have to examine yourself: how are you doing? Examine it right in your family. How are you doing as husband and wife? How are you doing as parents and children, and children and parents? How are you doing on your job with your employees or as an employer? How are you doing with people? That’s the test right there.

How you’ve grown in Christ is the test when you walk out the door and you deal with people. How much do we fall short of what God wants for us? Paul tells us in Romans 3:8-10:

Owe nothing to anyone except to love one another; for he who loves his neighbor has fulfilled the law. ⁹For this, “YOU SHALL NOT COMMIT ADULTERY, YOU SHALL NOT MURDER, YOU SHALL NOT STEAL, YOU SHALL NOT COVET,” and if there is any other commandment, it is summed up in this saying, “YOU SHALL LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOR AS YOURSELF.” ¹⁰Love does no wrong to a neighbor; therefore love is the fulfillment of the law.

All of us must be examined by that standard, so you know what Christ does? He takes the Mosaic law, the ceremonial law, the civil law, and He elevates it higher. However, you have the Holy Spirit of God to actually do it. Before, you couldn’t because of your sin. Let’s pray:

Lord, thank You. The word of God is so incredible, Lord. I must say that when I think of what the word of God tells us about loving You and loving others, we must all be honest that we have a far way to go, but Lord, we want every day for the spirit of God to use us in a way where we are living under the law of Christ. That we realize it and are not ignorant of the very thoughts we have, the very words we speak, and the very body language that we present to people. Lord, if it is not representing You, please convict us of that and cause us and empower us to change it by Your spirit and Your word. That we may depend on You every day. That these two great commandments can be understood by us and maybe fulfilled in us every single day. I pray, Lord, You would give us, grow us, and mature us to the place where that is the case, and in doing so, we know that we will honor You, represent You well, and that You will give us many opportunities to serve You when we genuinely learn how to love You and others. I pray this in Christ name, Amen.

December 9, 2018
The Law of God: The Ten Commandments — Past and Present, Part 1

In this sermon, Pastor Babij begins teaching on the relevance of the Ten Commandments for Christians today. Pastor Babij explains that there are two main bodies of law described in Scripture: the law of Moses and the law of God (moral law). All men are obligated to keep God’s moral law, while the law of Moses was designed to show men that they cannot obtain God’s favor except through the gospel of mercy in Jesus Christ.

Full Transcript:

Let’s read Exodus 20:1-17:

Then God spoke all these words, saying, ²“I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery. ³“You shall have no other gods before Me. ⁴“You shall not make for yourself an idol, or any likeness of what is in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the water under the earth. ⁵“You shall not worship them or serve them; for I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children, on the third and the fourth generations of those who hate Me, ⁶but showing lovingkindness to thousands, to those who love Me and keep My commandments. ⁷“You shall not take the name of the LORD your God in vain, for the LORD will not leave him unpunished who takes His name in vain. ⁸“Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy. ⁹“Six days you shall labor and do all your work, ¹⁰but the seventh day is a sabbath of the LORD your God; in it you shall not do any work, you or your son or your daughter, your male or your female servant or your cattle or your sojourner who stays with you. ¹¹“For in six days the LORD made the heavens and the earth, the sea and all that is in them, and rested on the seventh day; therefore the LORD blessed the sabbath day and made it holy. ¹²“Honor your father and your mother, that your days may be prolonged in the land which the LORD your God gives you. ¹³“You shall not murder. ¹⁴“You shall not commit adultery. ¹⁵“You shall not steal. ¹⁶“You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor. ¹⁷“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 belongs to your neighbor.”

Let’s pray:

Father, as I come before You and as we come before the word of God in the Old Testament where You gave Your people the law, give us an understanding of how the law works in Your people’s lives both in the past and also in the present. Lord, as we look at each one over the weeks to come, I pray that You would impress upon our heart the centrality of these commandments and the need for us to understand them, know them, and see where they fit in our lives. I pray, Lord, that it would bring us to the end result. We know the end result of You blessing Your people with commandments is so that we would love the Lord, our God, with all our heart, with all our mind, with all our soul, and with all our strength, and that we will love our neighbor as ourselves. I pray, Lord, that would always be the goal of the commandments of God. I pray this in Christ’s name, Amen.

In this passage of Scripture, there are ten words. Some have referred to it as the Ten Commandments of God. The word of God tells us that the last days will be characterized by lawlessness. Lawlessness has always been a designation given to people who disregard the Creator God, His laws, and decide to live as they please according to their own passions and desires.

It has been a tragic fact down through history. Both individuals and nations have dashed themselves against the law in their attempts to disregard them and finally break them. However, the law of God cannot be broken. In fact, people have thought they could transgress the moral law of God with impunity. We find passages of Scripture like Matthew 7:22-23 where the word of God tells us:

Many will say to Me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in Your name, and in Your name cast out demons, and in Your name perform many miracles?’ ²³“And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; DEPART FROM ME, YOU WHO PRACTICE LAWLESSNESS.’

Then, 2 Thessalonians 2:7-8 says:

or the mystery of lawlessness is already at work; only he who now restrains will do so until he is taken out of the way. ⁸Then that lawless one will be revealed whom the Lord will slay with the breath of His mouth and bring to an end by the appearance of His coming;

Behind all this lawlessness is the evil and lawless one, who is causing more lawlessness in the land. A clear definition of lawlessness is found in 1 John 3:4:

Everyone who practices sin also practices lawlessness; and sin is lawlessness.

Sin is breaking God’s law and it is disobedience to God’s will. Then, Paul told Timothy in 2 Timothy 3:1-5:

But realize this, that in the last days difficult times will come. ²For men will be lovers of self, lovers of money, boastful, arrogant, revilers, disobedient to parents, ungrateful, unholy, ³unloving, irreconcilable, malicious gossips, without self-control, brutal, haters of good, ⁴treacherous, reckless, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, ⁵holding to a form of godliness, although they have denied its power; Avoid such men as these.

In other words, they have broken all the commandments. In these days, we see that all around us. These Scriptures reveal that we live in such an age where people have kicked off any traces of the law of God. As a result, they have thrown off all the restraints that goes with keeping the law of God almost everywhere. We see the moral law of God abandoned while people have plunged themselves into all manner of debauchery, unrighteousness, lawlessness, and wickedness.

In 1995, there was a ministry called Faith and Action who launched a project to try to get the Ten Commandments into the hands of politicians. In fact, their motto was:

Bring the word to bear on the hearts and minds of those who make public policy in America.

One of its goals was to restore the foundations of our American culture by placing the Ten Commandments in public places and buildings. This commandment project had given over four hundred plaques depicting the Ten Commandments to members of Congress and other high-placed officials including former presidents. In 2009, fortune years after they started this, one of the Faith and Action’s granite sculptures of the Ten Commandments was ordered by the court to be removed and relocated.

Actually, the three-foot by three-foot granite sculpture of the Ten Commandments, which weighed eight hundred and fifty pounds, is one of four monuments removed by federal court order from the front of public schools in rural Adams County, Ohio.

Whether written down or not, the monument was relocated to a prominent position and on private property. One thing is clear, our society has been pushing out anything that would remind them that there are divine moral, absolute standards, and timeless principles that all people are held responsible for by God, their creator. Whether it be written down or not, they are responsible because they have conscience, and they are confronted every day with creation where God is telling us that He is God and His glory is displayed all around us.

Disregard for the moral law has fostered an acceptance of moral decay in our society. What was once spurned as sin is now considered a matter of personal preference or choice, which no one should question.

When you read through the Scriptures, it’s talking about the law of God, and some of the things I want to look at is what it is talking about and which law should we, who have trusted Christ as Lord and Savior, be concerned with. If anybody should be concerned with the law of God, it should be believers who have the word of God in their hand. As Christians, we must take very seriously the law of God, which is what I want to really look at over these weeks to come.

I want to look at what the Bible is telling us about the law of God both in the past in its context up to the present. As I do that, I want to look at Old Testament passages of Scriptures as well as New Testament passages of Scriptures that give us an indication on what we are to do. Probably, I will be going on for several weeks on this particular topic.

To start off, I want to look at the first thing, which is the revealed law in Scripture. In Scripture, the revealed law is the Law of Moses. Actually, the Law of Moses is the second, but I’m looking at it as the first. The Law of Moses is referred to, in the Bible, as the book of the law. Also, it is referred to as the Book of the Covenant and the Mosaic Law.

For our information, there are certain things I want you to notice. The distinctions between the Law of Moses and the Law of God will be very important for you as you put all these things together in your mind throughout this particular series. In Deuteronomy 31:24, the Law of Moses was written in a book:

It came about, when Moses finished writing the words of this law in a book until they were complete.

In other words, God had Moses write down, on parchment, the things that he wanted the people of Israel to know. Secondly, in Deuteronomy 31:26 says:

Take this book of the law and place it beside the ark of the covenant of the LORD your God, that it may remain there as a witness against you.

In the first passage, Moses writes it in the book. Once he’s finished with the book, he places the book alongside the ark of the covenant. Just remember that as we go along.

The revealed law is distinguished in three different parts. The first two parts are the civil law and the ceremonial law, which was based on The Mosaic Law. Israel was a theocracy, which is a nation governed by God. It was not a democracy governed by people or a monarchy governed by a single person like a king. It was a theocracy governed by God.

There was no legislature. There was no senate. There was no house of representatives. There was no group that made laws. The only lawgiver was God; therefore, He gave laws to His people. The judicial law or the civil law was directed at the management of Israel under God as God being the principal ruler with respect to its encampments, it’s marches, it’s wars, it’s inheritance, it’s marriages, its punishments, and rulers as it related to national Israel.

For this reason, the civil law has been nullified. In other words, we are not under the civil law as believers. We are not under a theocracy as Israel was, but the Bible does say we are to obey governing authorities. God has ordained for us to live righteously and holy as aliens on the earth, so we can be His representative.

Thus, the Law of Moses was only for Israel and any proselytes who would connect themselves to the nation of Israel. That was the civil law. The second part of the Mosaic law was the ceremonial law, which prescribed the rights of worship under the Old Testament economy and it was grafted upon the second and fourth commandment.

Now, these were the various religious ceremonies that were given to the people through which they were to worship: the Passover, the day of the atonement, the sin offering, the trespass offering, the wave offering, and various other sacrifices that were commanded under the Mosaic law.

All these offerings were simply foreshadowing’s of Christ, the Messiah, who was to come. It was the shadow of the Cross extending backward through the centuries before He came. They are all designed to point to the Messiah’s coming and what the Messiah would do when Christ, the substance of all those sacrifices, finally came.

The Shadows faded away, so that means the ceremonial laws were abrogated and nullified by the coming of the One whom they foreshadowed namely, Jesus Christ. For example, we no longer keep the Passover or the day of atonement for the Scripture clearly declares to us in 1 Corinthians 5:7:

Clean out the old leaven so that you may be a new lump, just as you are in fact unleavened. For Christ our Passover also has been sacrificed.

In other words, when Christ came, He fulfilled all the major sacrifices in His person and in the fleshly embodiment of Christ on the earth. In living a perfect and a holy life, He came. Thus, the ceremonial law has been nullified, so there are no more sacrifices for sin. Hebrews 10:10 says:

By this will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.

There are not many sacrifices anymore. Jesus performed everything that needed to be accomplished and finished in His one-time sacrifices, so it nullified everything that went before that time. In the book of the law, Moses recorded approximately 640 separate ordinances in his own handwriting. We should be thankful that the civil and the ceremonial laws of the old covenant are not in effect today.

In fact, the law of Moses demanded an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth, but Jesus clearly demonstrated the civil laws written in the law of Moses were to be set aside. In Matthew 5:39, He says:

“But I say to you, do not resist an evil person; but whoever slaps you on your right cheek, turn the other to him also.

In other words, Jesus is putting Himself as an authority over the commandments as the one who gives the commandments. This is mind-blowing, and because of these kinds of statements that He made, He was accused of really turning over the law of Moses. However, He was just demonstrating that He was the Lord over these commandments. He is the One who gave them, which means that the law of Moses is only for Israel.

Now, that’s important to understand because that brings me to the second thing revealed in the law, which is the law of God. Of course, the law of God is the Ten Commandments. It’s also referred to, in Scripture, as the two tablets of testimony, the memorial law, the law of love, and the decalogue, which is what we read in Exodus 20:1-17.

Remember, there’s a clear designation we need to make between the law of Moses and the law of God. In Exodus 31:18, we see that the law of God was written on stone:

When He had finished speaking with him upon Mount Sinai, He gave Moses the two tablets of the testimony, tablets of stone, written by the finger of God.

Here, we notice that it was not written on parchment nor written by Moses. Rather, it was written by the finger of God on stone, so the law of God was meant to be permanent. Also, it meant to be central to the plan of God’s Redemption. Again, look at Exodus 40:20, and notice where this law was placed. Remember, the law of Moses was placed beside the ark:

Then he took the testimony and put it into the ark, and attached the poles to the ark, and put the mercy seat on top of the ark.

In other words, the law of God, the Ten Commandments, were placed inside the ark of the covenant. If you never understood that, it was the box that God had Moses make where inside the ark of the covenant was the Ten Commandments, the rod of Aaron, and the manna that God gave the people in the wilderness. On top of that was put the mercy seat.

Remember, the mercy seat was the place where the high priest came once a year into the Holy of Holies. As the people sacrifice their animals, and as the priest sacrifices an animal for his own sin and then the sins of the nation, then he would go in with that blood sacrifice and he would pour it on the mercy seat, which pictures what would come in the future when Jesus Christ would die in the place of sinners by becoming the ultimate atonement and sacrifice for sin.

So, the Ten Commandments – the law – were to be permanent and central to the plan of redemption of what God was going to do with His people. Then, the moral law given by God, summed up in the ten commandments, is actually a reflection of the very nature of God and is the declaration of God’s will, which directs and binds all men in every age and place to their whole duty to Him as God, themselves, and to their neighbors. You see all those things contained in the Ten Commandments.

Someone had mentioned that the Ten Commandments were not given in Jerusalem. Rather, it was given in the wilderness indicating that these Commandments would not just be for the people of Israel, but they would be for all men and people from all nations and tribes. Thus, there is a centrality and importance of the Ten Commandments that we cannot miss as believers, so you can see the difference between Mosaic law and the law of God.

The civil and the ceremonial law are for Israel, and we are not responsible for those even though in Israel, the Orthodox still carries those things out in many ways except for the sacrifices. In Scripture, we see that they are Central and important. Arthur Pink, a Bible student extraordinaire as I would call him, said this about the Ten Commandments:

The law of God expresses the mind of the Creator and is binding upon all rational creatures. It is God’s unchanging moral standard for regulating the conduct of all men. This law was impressed upon man’s moral nature from the beginning. Though now fallen, he still shows the work of it written in his heart. This law has never been repealed, and in the very nature of things, cannot be. For God to abrogate the moral law, it would be to plunge the whole universe into anarchy. Obedience to the law of God is man’s first duty.

There are many today who would say that having been redeemed by Christ, we now have nothing whatsoever to do with the commandments of God. That it does not matter whether we keep them or not because they have been nullified or aggregated. Well, that is true for the Mosaic law, but it is not true for the law of God.

Some people have the idea that in the Old Testament, God tried to save people by getting them to keep the law, but then He found that they couldn’t do this and so He came up with a better way of saving people through Jesus Christ. Thus, people conclude that the Old Testament has nothing to do with us because we’re not under the law or under Grace. You have heard that, have you not? This is a complete misunderstanding of the Bible and the moral law of God.

God had plans for His people in Israel when He rescued them from the slave camps of Egypt. He was going to give them their own land. He was going to make them a great nation. However, Israel could not be a truly great nation without a clear understanding of God’s holiness and His high standards. Before Israel entered into the new land of Canaan, God supplied, in the wilderness, the Ten Commandments to give them a basic concept of God’s holiness and His standards.

The Ten Commandments hold the people with what God expects of them. Also, it showed them when they committed sin against God. The Commandments told Israel what to do and what not to do in their travels through life. When any Israelite broke one of the commandments, he was guilty of a serious violation against the will of God.

In saying that, did you know that for 2,500 years, man lived without the Ten Commandments written by the Finger of God on stone on Mount Sinai where God handed down these rules to His servant Moses? Then, the question would be what governed men before Sinai?

To figure that out, take your Bibles to Genesis because in Genesis are all the foundational doctrines that you’re going to find in the rest of the Bible. If you get Genesis wrong, then you will get the rest of the Bible wrong. In Genesis 3, God put Adam and Eve in the garden and gave them one restriction. In Genesis 2:16-17, it says:

The LORD God commanded the man, saying, “From any tree of the garden you may eat freely; ¹⁷but from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat from it you will surely die.”

That’s pretty clear in Scripture. Well, let’s put it this way: I’m calling this next one, for an outline purpose, the law of conscience. In Genesis 3, Satan tempted them with a promise by using God’s word, and he promised them:

If you just listen to me, God will give you a conscience, and when you get a conscience, you’ll know the difference between good and evil. Don’t you want that?

Genesis 3:5 says:

“For God knows that in the day you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”

Now, doesn’t a conscience inform whether something is good or evil? Yes; it does. As soon as they disobeyed God, they became aware of their sin against their Creator. This inner monitor called the conscience accuses them of something they did not experience before. Genesis 3:7 says:

Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves loin coverings.

They heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and the man and the woman hid themselves from the presence of the Lord. Genesis 3:9-11 says:

Then the LORD God called to the man, and said to him, “Where are you?” ¹⁰He said, “I heard the sound of You in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; so I hid myself.” ¹¹And He said, “Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree of which I commanded you not to eat?”

Thus, the commands of God are in the book of Genesis. In fact, their conscience told them they were naked. In order to hide their guilt, they tried to cover their nakedness to avoid meeting with God, and this is what happens when people sin. They cover their sin and hide it, and rather than running toward God, they run away from God.

The conscience tells us that we’re responsible when we have done something wrong, so the voice within the conscience told them they had done wrong. Their sin brought in curses and separation between them and God. Genesis 3:17 says:

Then to Adam He said, “Because you have listened to the voice of your wife and have eaten from the tree about which I commanded you, saying, ‘You shall not eat from it’; Cursed is the ground because of you; In toil you will eat of it all the days of your life.

Some have called this the law of conscience, which condemned those who did not have the written revelation of right and wrong. This is what I believe Paul was referring to in Romans 2:14-15:

For when Gentiles who do not have the Law do instinctively the things of the Law, these, not having the Law, are a law to themselves, ¹⁵in that they show the work of the Law written in their hearts, their conscience bearing witness and their thoughts alternately accusing or else defending them.

The Scripture tells us God has created human beings universally with an innate knowledge of truth about the character of God, the basic knowledge of right and wrong, and a sense of good and bad. Paul says in Romans 1:19:

because that which is known about God is evident within them; for God made it evident to them.

God makes it evident to people that he’s God, that there is a God, He is powerful, and that they have a sense of responsibility before the Creator, but what did they do with that? The Bible tells us in Romans, they hush it, or they suppress it. They hold that knowledge down, and then they replace that knowledge with full speculation and the death of common sense by corrupt religion, self-deification, uncontrolled lusts, and sexual perversions.

In other words, once you suppress the law of God that you know of, then you just do what your passions and desires dictate. The Bible tells us that the evident knowledge of God is suppressed and withheld, and then in Romans 1:28, it says:

And just as they did not see fit to acknowledge God any longer, God gave them over to a depraved mind, to do those things which are not proper.

They just did what they wanted, and they did not listen to the truth that was evident to them. Regarding the conscience, John MacArthur said:

The conscience entreats us to do what we believe is right and restrains us from doing what we believe is wrong. The conscience is not to be equated with the voice of God or the law of God. Conscience is knowledge together with oneself. That is, conscience knows our inner motives and true thoughts. We may rationalize trying to justify ourselves in our own minds, but a violated conscience will not be easily convinced.

The conscience is not infallible because it is informed by many things such as different types of traditions that people are born into, philosophies, teachings, societal factors, and religious doctrine whether true or false. For the conscience to operate fully and in accord with true Holiness, it must be informed by the word of God.

When somebody becomes a believer in Jesus Christ, what God begins to do with the word of God is to bring your conscience to a place where you do become more sensitive to sin and to breaking the law of God even listed in the Ten Commandments, especially since the Ten Commandments are teachers to us about what we should do and should not do.

In fact, if you’ve been a believer for a while and the more you grow in truth, then the more sensitivity you have towards your sin. Before you even act on your sins, your evaluating your very thoughts and you’re very imaginations, and you are asking:

Is this pleasing to the Lord if I say this thing? Is that something that would honor God?

We begin to ask questions like that, which is very appropriate, and it’s exactly what should be happening as a believer who is growing in Christ Jesus. We want to please the Lord, right? The ultimate transgression or sin is disobedience to God. Now, when a Christian is being informed by the word of God, what do they do? They want to obey and please God.

On the day of judgement, your conscience will side with God, the righteous judge, and the worst sin-harden evildoer will discover, before the Throne of God, that he has a conscience that testifies against him. Romans 2:16 says:

on the day when, according to my gospel, God will judge the secrets of men through Christ Jesus.

Even when the written law was not available to men, the law of God was still there right in the beginning, and it was right there in God telling what he demanded to be true, what God said to do, and not to do. When man does not obey that, then of course they get into grave trouble.

Next, there are three functions of the moral law. The first function is a civil function. The Ten Commandments is also known to have a civil function within a society and group of people. Though we do not have a theocracy, the laws of God are used to guide the nations in the information that it provides about people making laws.

In other words, many of the Ten Commandments are mirrored in many near Eastern texts. For example, a text called the Declaration of Innocence from a book called The Dead, an Egyptian text from the New Kingdom 16th Century BC in chapter 25, we find the confession of a recently deceased individual who stated that he did not violate specific laws. In the document, these laws are similar to The Ten Commandments. The laws are bearing false witness, disrespecting parents, theft, adultery, and murder. All are mentioned in his statement.

Our own founding fathers and the documents they produced to form our government and country are heavily influenced by The Ten Commandments and by the word of God. The Declaration of Independence of the Second Continental Congress reads:

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.

To secure these rights, governments are instituted among men deriving their just powers from the consent of the government. In other words, God, not man, is the giver of religious freedom, and many of these documents throughout the world are influenced by the Ten Commandments.

Of course, that doesn’t mean that they’re following them. It just means that their documents have been influenced by them. So, this first function is that of a civil function. The second one is that of a pedagogical function, which simply means that it is revealing something, and in a sense, leading somewhere. It is a forming some truth to be explained to whoever is listening and wanting to learn.

Meaning, the law, in Scripture, reveals sin. In Galatians 3 and in Romans, you will find several passages of Scripture that indicate the purpose of the moral law of God. God is Holy, and He sets the standards for His people. Under the law of conscience and the law of commandments, people could not live up to God’s standard. They found that they were sinners under the sentence of death. All the law did was condemned them. Then, why was the law given? Galatians 3:19 says:

Why the Law then? It was added because of transgressions, having been ordained through angels by the agency of a mediator, until the seed would come to whom the promise had been made.

Transgressions is another way of going past the boundaries. Also, it’s another way of saying sin. In this case, it was breaking the law of God. The law, after the 2,500-year period, was added because sin was rampant. Why did God send the flood? He sent the flood because the evil in people’s heart was continual.

Without the law of God being present among the people, sin becomes rampant. So, the law reveals sin, but it could not remove sin. Romans 3:19 says:

Now we know that whatever the Law says, it speaks to those who are under the Law, so that every mouth may be closed, and all the world may become accountable to God.

The law pronounces guilt, and when we are convicted in our heart, we find ourselves guilty for doing something that has broken the law of God. We have transgressed, sinned against God, and we sense the weight and guilt. Unresolved guilt is very troubling to people. It causes many other problems in people’s lives.

Nonetheless, the law was given to produce guilt, but it could not provide Grace. It wasn’t designed for that. The law carries a curse of death. Galatians 3:13 tells us:

Christ redeemed us from the curse of the Law, having become a curse for us—for it is written, “CURSED IS EVERYONE WHO HANGS ON A TREE”

Martin Luther said:

The law is a hammer, which smashes our self-righteousness and leaves us prostrate before God in our sin.

The law was designed by God to shut everyone up under sin. Galatians 3:22 says:

But the Scripture has shut up everyone under sin, so that the promise by faith in Jesus Christ might be given to those who believe.

You may be thinking: if people are sinners in every period of history and the law of God and the Ten Commandments can’t save them, then what hope is there for me? Well, there is something very good that’s contained in the law of God that is a very unique and special design. If you and I were to take a test and say:

Do you love the Lord? – F. Are you being faithful to worship God and rest one day a week? – F. Do you honor your parents all the time? – F. Have you ever coveted? – F. Have you ever murdered anybody? Jesus says it’s not murder, but anger, so have you ever been angry with anybody? – F.

See, we all flunk. The law was made to show us that we could do nothing to save ourselves. That we were under the guilt of our own sin before the law. We were shut up under sin. Then, what were the laws designed for? The law is a schoolmaster. Galatians 3:24-26 says:

Therefore the Law has become our tutor to lead us to Christ, so that we may be justified by faith. ²⁵But now that faith has come, we are no longer under a tutor. ²⁶For you are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus.

It cannot save us, but it can bring us right to the foot of the Cross. It can bring us to the one who is the Savior of sinners. If somebody could be convicted of their sin, they can come under the curse of the law, and yet they can be looking right at the Cross, hear the message of the Gospel, and never believe it. They are still in their sins.

This is not about being religious. This is not about coming under some kind of system of good works. This is about being led to Christ. Again, Galatians 3:24 says:

Therefore the Law has become our tutor to lead us to Christ, so that we may be justified by faith.

We cannot be justified by keeping the law, but by faith. Then, Galatians 3:25 says:

But now that faith has come, we are no longer under a tutor. ²⁶For you are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus.

In reading that whole passage, Galatians 3:21-26 says:

Is the Law then contrary to the promises of God? May it never be! For if a law had been given which was able to impart life, then righteousness would indeed have been based on law. ²²But the Scripture has shut up everyone under sin, so that the promise by faith in Jesus Christ might be given to those who believe. ²³But before faith came, we were kept in custody under the law, being shut up to the faith which was later to be revealed. ²⁴Therefore the Law has become our tutor to lead us to Christ, so that we may be justified by faith. ²⁵But now that faith has come, we are no longer under a tutor. ²⁶For you are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus.

In other words, it leads us to a place where we, by faith, receive the free gift. God is offering His grace and mercy to us and we believe it and we take it as our own. As a result, God justifies us, and He makes us right before Him based on His righteousness, not our own. Our righteousness is as filthy rags before God. Martin Luther again said:

The law is a mirror which reveals to us our uncleanness and causes us to fly to the laver to be cleansed by the blood of Christ. The law is a whip, which stings our back and drives us to the Cross for redemption and for salvation.

That’s exactly what it was designed to do. If somebody says to you, “I’m trying to be good and keep the law of God”, then what they are actually saying is that they’re under condemnation because they are trying to make the law do what it was never designed to do. You cannot be good enough. In a million years, you could not offer up to God good works that would equal would Christ did on the Cross.

You are a sinner, you will always sin, and I will always sin. Christ is the sinless one, who dies in the place of sinners as an acceptable sacrifice before God. All who believe in Him will be saved because He is the one who died in the place of sinners.

Many Christians have a gross distortion of Christianity, which supposes that in keeping of the law, there may be obtained a Salvation of God. This has been and continues to be the most widespread heresy that has ever played the church and the world. If anyone’s hope for heaven are based on keeping the Commandments, the golden rule, the Sermon on the Mount, the teachings of Jesus, or any other set of rules in order to be right with God, then they will surely perish in their sins. James Kennedy says:

No one, on this planet, has ever kept all the Commandments of God other than Jesus Christ.

He’s the one we have to run to. He’s the one who saves us. Being under the burden of guilt and sin should bring us right to the very place The Cross is at. We can look up and see what Christ did on that Cross and how He is the one who can save. A person is made right with God and comes into the family of God only through faith in Christ. Again, Galatians 3:26 says:

For you are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus.

How do I get born again? How do I get into the family of God? How am I made right with Jesus Christ? Not by anything you and I do, but by what Christ has done and that’s what we believe by faith, right?

So, the law brings us to hunger for someone to save us. That’s what the law does. That’s how God designed it, and that’s why it’s so important. When we’re doing evangelism part of it is presenting the law of God to someone, so it bypasses the arguments and goes right for their conscience. When it does, when you show them the Ten Commandments, and when you lay it out before them, you’ll find that if they’ve broken one, then they’re guilty of it all.

When we look at the Ten Commandments, we have to admit that we probably have broken all of them at one time in our life. If we have broken the Commandments or even one of them, who’s going to pay for that? Who’s going to satisfy the justice of God for that transmission and broken law? Are you going to do that? Am I going to do that? No; the only one who could satisfy the justice of the Father is Jesus Christ, and that’s what He did.

Jesus rose from the grid of the dead and the Father accepted His sacrifice on behalf of all who believe. Isn’t that tremendous news? That’s good news! I hope you know that today. I hope that you have come to a place that you have trusted and believed in Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior. If you are saying that I’m trying to be good, I’m trying to do what’s right, then you are already under condemnation.

Swing that off, run to Christ, and receive our Lord and Savior, and you know what He’ll do? He’ll save you because He came to save His people from their sin. Let’s pray:

Lord, thank You so much for what You accomplished on behalf of sinners. Thank You, Lord, that we now know, from the word of God, that the law of God was never designed to give life and to save. It was only designed to convict us and magnify sin, so that when we saw the perfection of the sacrifice and the love of Jesus Christ on the Cross, it would cause us to run to Him knowing that we could not save ourselves, we could not be good enough to appease God, or please Him. By faith, we embraced Him, He saved us, and He forgives us of all our sin, and He makes us right with the Father. Lord, that’s why we have the promise of eternal life. When we die, we have eternal life, and, Lord, there is hope beyond this life where we live with God in His presences without sin and without the curse that were under now. Lord, that is a day where a place of righteousness dwells and people love You, obey You, and joyfully and happily perform the very reason the law was given, which is to love our God, to be with Him, and Him to be with us. Thank You, Lord. I pray, Lord, that You work this in our hearts. If there is anyone who does not know You, who has never trusted You as Lord and Savior, who has been confused by what it means to be right with God, then I pray You would clear things up, and they would come and confess You with their mouth and believe in their heart that God raised Him. Please do that, Lord, and bring joy to the Christians heart that has trusted You and knows that the law can no longer condemn us anymore. All that condemnation has been taken by Christ when we’re in Christ. There is no longer condemnation. Thank You, Lord, for that, and for freeing us up from that burden. We give You praise, Lord, for all the things that will come. I pray this in Christ’s name, Amen.

December 2, 2018
Attributes of God

Answers Bible Curriculum 2nd Edition Unit 1 Lesson 2

In this lesson, we discuss why the Bible is the only truly reliable way to learn about who God is. Using the Bible, we then briefly examine two passages that describe God’s fundamental attributes.

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come on two more lessons about God’s Word how to study it why we trust it we’re gonna turn our attention to God himself God exists and our next lesson is gonna focus on that item and how we know that but today we want to ask what is God like so you see the title of our lesson lesson two is the attributes of God so lesson today is gonna proceed in three parts first we’re gonna consider how people commonly learn who God is second we’ll consider two specific scriptures that tell us about God’s attributes and then third we’ll consider some special application questions let’s pray now before we continue our great God thank you for your word thank you for revealing yourself to us in your word because without it we would get so lost thank you for this special mercy toward us and thank you that you not only reveal yourself but you reveal how we can come to be your children how we can be saved and how can we can be with you forever to behold you and all your beauty I pray God that you’d help me to be able to explain your word now and help the people to meditate on it and apply it Jesus name Amen so we start with first question about how people learn what God is like if you were to ask just a random person most people in the world and you ask them what is God like consider what they might say we could brainstorm this I’ve come up with some examples you I’m sure you can think of more what does God like well many people will tell you that he is loving he is all about love he loves everybody and would never do anything to cause people to suffer he certainly won’t make people suffer forever in hell they might say quite the opposite he is cruel he’s just angry all the time he’s a God of smiting doesn’t really care for people I mean how could he let all the injustice and the wars and the disasters to happen in the world now God is a cruel callous God well they might say he’s disinterested disinterested he may have created the world keeps matter holding together but he doesn’t really involve himself in our lives he’s far away we’re on our own we have to figure out all the answers of life by ourselves or someone might say he’s all about you whatever it is you want from God God will give it to you because God just wants you to be happy so unlock the power inside you to make your dreams come true that’s what God’s all about well they might say he’s an assessing God you’ve got to keep him happy you do something for God he’ll do something for you and he’s gonna weigh every life in the balance if you do more good than bad know bless you and when you die he’ll let you into heaven or a sixth possibility is someone will say he is a mystery all we can know in our lives is what we see in the world God is outside our world so we can’t know anything about God in fact we might we can’t even tell whether God exists or not because God as spiritual is totally outside our physical world now consider these ideas and many like them from where do these ideas come what do you think yes d right yeah I think that’s uh that’s one huge element here we’re looking within four answers about God based on what we feel should be correct or based on our own thinking Roy you had your hand up right yeah Roy I think you know another really huge element in this is that people they take two things that the scripture says but they just they don’t understand it fully or they haven’t they have a very shallow understanding of what the Bible says about God is God loving yes does God have wrath yes but when we combine these things just as you were saying Roy with what we already think and feel or what we experienced in the world we can come up with concepts about God and what God is like that are actually not true and not biblical I think you could say that whether we use experience whether we use your own feelings or even when we use the Bible in an incomplete way at the core of these misunderstandings about God is really the flesh we we have this view towards God that is informed by what our flesh wants or what our flesh feels and that gives us problems when we’re trying to actually understand who God is ah now I think you know the answer this next question does the Bible say that we can know God by looking within by using reason or by studying the world and our experiences well not exactly Bible does say that God’s attributes are on display in creation go to Psalm 19 go to Romans 1 invisible attributes of God are clearly seen his power his divine nature and so there is testimony to God’s nature and God’s attributes in life but the problem is there are several problems without being able to assess this testimony is that first of all man has a rebellious heart and this makes him suppress the truth and twist the truth that comes from these testimonies second of all the man has a weak and imperfect understanding not only because of the fall but also because he’s a finite being so he’s often liable to misinterpret the testimony that there is about God in the world and third issue is that what God displays in creation is limited not all of his attributes are clearly on display in creation some of them are but even those that are easily misinterpreted by man so what does man need if man is going to truly know who God is well on the one hand man needs a new heart so that he’s willing to accept the truth when he actually comes in to encounter it but secondly man needs a more direct reliable and complete revelation of God man needs a more direct revelation of God and God and His mercy has provided this God has given the Bible the Bible is the direct revelation of God it’s a special revelation that is even abled by the work of God’s Spirit to give man that new heart that he needs and to open his eyes to see God as God truly is so here’s another fundamental truth we’ve got understand at the beginning of our course if we really want to know who God is we must go to what is really the only trustworthy source the Bible just as we said in the last lesson we must start with the Bible and if we do that we will not only learn from the Bible who God really is but we will also learn how to rightly understand how God reveals himself in the world because God does give testimony of himself in the world but we can’t properly understand that testimony we can’t trust our interpretation of that testimony until we go to the Bible but once we go to the Bible we can see how God reveals himself through creation through our consciences through his Providence and through the keeping of his promises the Bible is the revelation of God they’re quite literally the Scriptures are quite literally the answer to what is God like everything that’s revealed in the Bible whether it’s God’s interactions with mankind what God says about himself directly what we see in the Son of God Jesus these all tell us as far as we’re able to understand who God is really our whole steady our whole course is going to be an exploration into that question who is God and we can’t answer this question without the Bible because think about it some of the things that the Bible reveals about God is his unapproachable nature God is spirit no man can see God he dwells in unapproachable light if God did not condescend to reveal himself directly to us in the scriptures we could not know him and in any even limited sense but because God has revealed himself in the Bible we can know him and we can know what he’s like now all that being said I don’t want you to misunderstand the Bible does not tell us everything that there is to know about God we do not get it a a knowledge about God in the Bible that makes it so that we can’t learn anything else about God no indeed the Scriptures themselves say 2nd chronicles – 6 heavens and the highest heavens cannot contain God and Psalm 1:1 45 3 great is the Lord or that is Yahweh great is Yahweh and highly to be praised his greatness is unsearchable in romans 11:33 oh the depths of the riches both of the wisdom and the knowledge of God how unsearchable are his judgments and unfathomable his ways so there is a quality of God that is such that we’ll never right now and as all I’ll explain just I’m saying it will never be able to fully comprehend him and even what we see revealed in the scriptures describing God and his ways is inexhaustible we pour over these words the look at it again and we learn more about God we grow we rejoice in what we learn about him and and how we come to know him but we never arrived we never reached the end we never achieved that exhaustive quality or exhaustive knowledge of God nevertheless the Scriptures are sufficient revelation of God they are what God has deemed necessary for us to know about himself they are enough to make us delight in God and delight to pursue him to know him more by reading the Scriptures we indeed come to know God but we don’t fully know him and this is one of the reasons and you don’t remember this from previous any school classes this is one of the reasons why heaven should be so exciting for believers because what’s gonna happen when we meet God first John 3:2 beloved now we are children of God and it is not appeared as yet what we will be we know that when he appears we will be like him because we will see him just as he is or first Corinthians 13:13 for now we see in a mirror dimly but then that is one more with God face to face now I know in part but then I will know fully just as I have also been fully now when we meet God we all know him in a way that is far more abundant than we ever could in this life and yet I would say even with the full revelation of God in God’s presence it doesn’t mean that even met even then will fully comprehend him he is the infinite God my theology professor was actually saying the other day what what is heaven what is wanting to be the chief activities in heaven it’s gonna be just learning more and more about God forever and ever we will be pursuing God in his glorious character we will be seeking will be finding we will be enjoying like an explorer who delights and encountering a grand new Vista in a new land so will we but just as that Explorer Explorer then proceeds further onward to discover the next wonder so we will work and we’ll never run out of new glories to see in god this is the reward to which believers can look forward but back to the main topic today in this life for us to know who God is we must go to God’s special revelation what he’s actually given us the Bible so what does the Bible tell us about God well we’ll need many more lessons to answer that question even begin to answer that question but today we’re just gonna start with two passages so the first one I want you to turn to with me is Exodus chapter 34 look at Exodus 34 and we’re gonna look at verses 4 to 9 if we’re looking for places in the Bible that tell us what God is like who God is one of the best places for us to go is one of those places where God Himself tells us who he is and what he is like and that’s what we find in this passage let me remind you the context of this section God’s chosen people Israel have entered into covenant with God at Mount Sinai and they’ve sworn to keep God’s law but immediately after doing this is your breaks God’s law and covenant by making and worshiping a golden calf God seeing this says he’s going to destroy Israel all of Israel but Moses intercedes and he pleads with God for the sake of God’s own name not to destroy this wicked people God heeds Moses his request and in the ensuing conversation Moses asks God to continue to travel them in the presence of the people God again agrees to which an overwhelmed Moses asks God to show Moses God’s glory now turn back to just Exodus 33 for just a second Exodus 33 verses 18 to 20 actually probably the same page in your Bibles Exodus 33 18 to 20 and listen to the way that the conversation proceeds excess 33 verses 18 to 20 then Moses said I pray you show me your glory and he that’s God said I myself will make all my goodness pass before you and will proclaim the name of Yahweh before you and I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious and I will show compassion on whom I will show compassion but he said you cannot see my face for no man can see me and live then he always said behold there is a place by me and you shall stand there on the rock and it will come about while my glory is passing by then I will put you in the cleft of the rock and cover you with my hand until I have passed by then I will take take my hand away and you shall see my back but my face you shall not from my face shall not be seen now notice here how God tells Moses that Moses cannot handle the full glory of God Moses can only see a brief glimpse of God’s afterglow as it were otherwise Moses could not live notice also that God says that not only will God make his goodness pass by Moses but God will proclaim the name of Yahweh to Moses in other words there’s going to be sight and sound there will be video and audio revelation but this is going to see a glimpse of God’s glory but also hear God explain God’s own name now let’s see how this happens Exodus 34 now verses 4 to 9 God said he was going to do a certain thing let’s see what he does so he that’s Moses cut out two stone tablets like the former ones and Moses rose up early in the morning and went up to Mount Sinai as Yahweh had commanded him and he took two stone tablets in his hand Yahweh descended in the cloud and stood there with him as he called upon the name of Yahweh then Yahweh passed by in front of him and proclaimed Yahweh Yahweh God compassionate and gracious slow to anger and abounding and loving-kindness and truth who keeps loving-kindness for thousands who forgives iniquity transgression and sin yet he will by no means leave the guilty unpunished visiting the iniquity of father’s on the children and on the grandchildren to the third and fourth generations Moses made haste to bow low toward the earth and worship he said if now I found favor in your sight O Lord I pray let the Lord go along in our midst even though the people are so obstinate and pardon our iniquity and our sin and take us as your own possession notice some details of this passage with me notice what God says about himself he says he is Yahweh he is the eternal the self-sufficient the self-existing one the covenant keeping one that’s a special name for God is also God hail the mighty one the powerful one he is compassionate and gracious he’s moved to love in his heart and then manifest that love and kind and undeserving acts he slowed anger though he has the right to be angry instantly he nevertheless is patient he says he’s abounding and loving-kindness and truth and as you probably know the term loving-kindness new American Standard is a translation of that one Hebrew word that you should all learn I think I mentioned it before is the verb it’s the word has said has said we could translate that term other translations use some of these phrases steadfast love or loyal love or covenant love or loving kindness God says he is abounding he is overflowing with loyal love loving kindness to the members of his covenant he also says he abounds in truth overflowing with truth there’s so much truth in God that it cannot be contained he also says he keeps loving-kindness for thousands he generously pours out his covenant love on men one of the manifestations of that God says he forgives iniquity trespasses and sins he is merciful to even the most evil offenders against him he is more than willing to forgive yet God says he will by no means leave the guilty unpunished his overwhelming love does not crowd out contradict or diminish his total justice and his total holiness for those who deserve to be punished for their sins they will be judged and God explains further he visits the iniquity of father’s on later generations this is to say God’s holy judgments are severe he is no wrist slapping God he does not wink it’s in his wrath is profound and in this life it affects multiple generations as an aside the exact interpretation of this final quality and what’s explained here is it’s somewhat difficult it sounds like God’s saying that he punishes children for the sins of fathers but God makes quite clear in other Old Testament passages that he doesn’t no such thing Ezekiel 18 for instance God says the soul that sins will die and a son will not suffer for his father’s sin or not be punished for his father’s sin so it’s not what that verse that’s not what this verse is saying here what does it what is it communicating to us the statement appears to mean either that and the number of interpreters take this view God will pursue and punish iniquity as long as it lasts if it’s passed down from generation generation a father teaches his son evil then God will pursue that iniquity and both will be judged through multiple generations he will keep pursuing that iniquity and judging that iniquity he is tenacious in his judgment alternatively it could be that when God judges one generation for its evil that judgment will be so severe so full of wrath and holiness that the effects will reach even far-flung descendants and whichever meaning is meant both of these are true and they’re evident in the Old Testament especially Israel’s history I mean consider when God judged Adam that is something that we all feel the effects up over God’s judge Israel several times that’s something we all feel hurt not we all but many in Israel felt the effects of that even if they were not direct participants anyways here God in these various statements reveals some of his attributes and notice Moses his response to God’s declarations Moses vows quickly to worship and he prays to God he prays for God to be merciful and to continue to go with Israel to have his presence be with Israel despite Israel’s witness now this is a foundational passage in Scripture many other biblical passages especially in the Old Testament refer back to this revelation or to revelation that says the same thing as this passage which makes me think many scriptures are set to song someone really should set the words of this passage to song because it’s such a an important revelation of God’s character in his attributes but who is God we learn a number of fundamental truths in this passage we could summarize it most basically God is a God full of generous love and loyalty God is a God full of forgiveness and mercy but God is also a God of full holiness justice and wrath but how can these all be true at the same time how can God be full of love and full of anger together don’t they contradict well not at all because God says that they’re there or over we can you can see how this works God is a righteous king is a good king loves and will provide for his own subjects so good King also hates and will destroy all enemies all rebels all criminals and yet even to these enemies God says he is willing to show mercy he forgives sins and trespasses so how can one go from being a hated enemy of God under his just and righteous anger to being a protected and beloved subject even a son or daughter of God now that is the great story of the Bible that is the good news that’s the gospel and we’re gonna trace that story through our study of Scripture but of course you already know what is the ultimate answer to that question how does one go from being an enemy of God to a beloved son a way to experience God’s mercy is through his undeserved provision of salvation His Son Jesus Christ we are all rebels against God and followers of her own way we will experience the profound and holy wrath of God for our sin but God made provision for rebellious man by sending his own son Jesus to live a righteous life dying innocent death in the place of sinners and rise again from the dead the good news is that whoever will give up his sins and believe in the Son of God as Lord and Savior will have his sins totally forgiven and be clothed with God’s own righteousness that believing sinner will never experience God’s wrath but will instead receive eternal life and forevermore will know only the love of the one who abounds in the said and his promise is held out to even every one of us listening today so we see a profound revelation of God’s character here in Exodus 34 but don’t miss out on the other great lesson of this passage we not only see the specific revelation of God’s attributes but we also see addressed really the purpose of man many of you know that famous statement from the Westminster Cat Gizem question and answer what is the chief end of man to glorify God and enjoy him forever Moses asked to see God’s glory and God granted Moses that request and what is Moses is response once he sees that glory God please don’t take your glorious presence away from us you see Moses understood something and it’s the same thing that we all must understand and that is we need God not just what God can give us we need God Himself we need to behold his glory God Himself not God’s gifts or what are intended to satisfy man forever as long as you seek satisfaction is something else besides God not only we not be satisfied but you actually sin against God he is everything that is lovely if you say there’s something lacking in God or you can find something else for your satisfaction you blaspheme God because he is all that is good and that is great consider Jesus’s own prayer in John 17 Jesus prays on behalf of all his believing disciples in John 17 24 Jesus says this John 17 24 father I desire that they also whom you have given me be with me where I am so that they may see my glory which you have given me for you love me before the foundation of the world so consider that what is Jesus’s prayer for you as a Christian it’s that you might be with him and behold his glory forever why is that because Jesus is needy of your company no but because you are media of his glory and he in his graciousness going to give it to you so a few questions now reflecting on this passage number one do you let God tell you who he is through his Bible or do you let your own fleshly feelings and thoughts tell you who God is two other times that you have doubted God’s love God’s mercy God’s holiness if so how are you gonna deal with this passage God declares who he is but you’re gonna contradict God three have you yet come to see that you need to behold God in his glory not just once but continually and if you have what are you doing so that you may behold his glory do you expose yourself to God’s Word do you expose yourself to the fellowship of God’s people do you serve the Lord do you exercise faith in God do you put your faith into practice these are all ways that we behold and make known the glory of the Lord if you’re not smitten with the Lord’s glory which seductive idol has your attention where has your gaze been diverted so that you no longer can appreciate the beauty of the Lord if you find yourself loving something else more than God then remember what God says in his word Exodus 20 verses 3 to 6 this is part of the 10 commandments you shall have no other gods before me you shall not make for yourself an idol or any likeness of what is in heaven above or in the earth beneath or in the water under the earth you shall not worship them or serve them for I Yahweh your God am a jealous God visiting the iniquity of the father’s on the children on the third and fourth generations of those who hate me but showing loving-kindness to thousands for those who love me and keep my Commandments so I asked you will you believe the Lord cast away your idols so that you may receive the gift of God himself so we’ve seen one profound instance of God revealing himself in the Bible this morning I’d also like to look at one other instance with you and this one it’s gonna be in Psalm 90 turn to Psalm 90 and we’re gonna look at verses 1 to 6 back in the Psalms let me give you the context of this song I mean notice as you turn there a little description at the top but this is a psalm that is explicitly said the only song that is said explicitly to come from Moses so this is a very old song it was composed before the people of Israel entered the promised land I recall that the Psalms are prayer poems or prayer songs this one was given for the people of Israel to sing and it is a song of petition to turn a song a petition to God that God might turn with kindness and mercy again to his wicked and undeserving people actually the topic the subject sounds look very similar to what Moses was just dealing with in the passage in Exodus 34 we don’t deserve a God but please show us kindness now a key theme in this song has to do with a strong contrast between God and man we’re gonna see this contrast presented throughout but the contrast is presented throughout the song but it’s introduced in verses 1 to 6 and it’s those verses that we’re gonna look at together now look at Psalm 90 verses 1 to 6 Lord you have been our dwelling place in all generations before the mountains were born where you gave birth to the earth and the world even from everlasting to everlasting you are God you turn man back in the dust and say returned Oh children of men for a thousand years in your sight are like yesterday when it passes by Peraza watching the night you swept them away like a flood they fall asleep in the morning there like grass which sprouts anew in the morning it flourishes and sprouts anew to what evening it fades and withers away notice now the great contrast in this passage between God and man on the one hand roses tell us that God is the creator of everything in the world even the mountains that seem so permanent it seemed that they’ve been around forever Moses reminds us God created those mountains those mountains had a beginning and their beginning was God indeed Moses further says God Himself is from everlasting to everlasting what does that mean what could it mean except that God is eternal from one forever to another forever you are God Moses says as we often say God has always existed from eternity past to Eternity future or to say the same thing another way God is not bound by time there is no time for God like the wrister man he is outside of time he transcends time just as he cannot be bound by space neither can God be bound by time consider what it means for God to be eternally in the past that’s so hard to fathom but it’s something like God is currently present in the past just as he is right now in the future and just as he is right now in the present he’s in every one of those God does not progress like man does he always is he is somehow able to be in every time at once and at the same time in no time at all how do we wrap our minds around you know we can’t we’re finite beings we’re not like that but Moses says this is who God is from everlasting to everlasting and he further illustrates this holy other aspect God’s time using assimilates Moses says a thousand years I like yesterday to you Oh God once they’re past it’s just like yesterday we’re even Oh watching the night what’s a watching the night well it’s just a length of a soldier’s guard duty during the night you know the soldiers would rotate I always have to have somebody on guard but people just need to get their sleep so they take shifts and one shift was about three hours Moses says that’s like what a thousand years are to you god it’s like you look back and it was just a previous shift was just a couple hours ago Moses says when you consider timing Khan’s respective it’s wholly different from what you experienced and you’re probably reminded of that verse in the New Testament given by Peter where he says something very similar 2nd Peter 3:8 Peter writes but do not let this one fact escaped your notice beloved that would the Lord one day is like a thousand years and a thousand years like one day so it’s not just that things go really slow dude all right things seem to go really slowly for God they can also seem to go really fast thousand years are also like one day in one day is like a thousand years how can those both be true what’s because time for God is not like time for us I think the way to describe it is to say that God is not bound by time he’s very different from us he is eternal just as an aside we’ll probably come back to this later on but some see this passage in Psalm 90 and his verse in second Peter 3 is giving a basis for believing in an Old Earth they say well for God a day is like a thousand years so when refers to six days in Genesis 1 it’s really talking about 6,000 years or more Genesis 1 is talking about God days well we’ll have more to say about the issue of the age of the earth and upcoming lessons while we talk about creation but let me just give you briefly a few reasons why that interpretation of these verses can’t hold up number one as we’re already seeing the original intent of these passages is not to define God days as we’ve just said God doesn’t have any days at all the define a God day would be impossible God is eternal we could never experience time the way that God experiences it number two even if there were such a thing as a god day neither of these passages seek to define a God day because they both use the term like they do not say that a day for God is a thousand years but it’s like a thousand years and a thousand years is like three hours that is to say it’s very different these this crucial word like shows that these things are not equivalent this is just making a point time with God is not like time with man and thirdly even if we were to accept the concept of a god day and even if you could define what a god day is there is no reason to say from the context in Genesis 1 that Moses is reporting God days I mean what would be the use in speaking to the original audience in such turns in such terms since they are humans and not God you don’t live in God days they live in human days and Moses gives no indication in Genesis 1 that he’s speaking of such divine days so why would we infer it rather Moses gives extensive evidence that he’s speaking of regular 24-hour days their real reason for such an intern inference of these divine extremely long days is of course not because the Bible says it but because other authorities are pressuring us to reinterpret it that way man scientific consensus is conclusions today and contradict the Bible and so we feel pressured to make the Bible agree with that but we’ll come back as I say we’ll come back to that issue later on we’re not talking about these passages are not defining for us God days anyways so Moses and Psalm 90 reminds us that God’s nature especially the eternality is very different from ours but then notice verse 3 verse 3 shows us that God is sovereign God is the one who commands sent commands man saying return to dust notice doesn’t say that God allows man to return to dust he actually causes it he turns man back into dust it says God is in complete control his commands cannot be contradicted he has total power even over life and death he’s the one that’s making things happen despite man’s apparent strength and man’s great effort to live God is the one who sets the limit on each man’s life and no one can disobey the command to return to dust so this is who we see who God is on the one hand God is creator god is eternal God is sovereign what on the other hand is man well man is part of the creation of God man is limited in his power he’s unable to contradict God and then there’s verse 5 notice in verse 5 it starts in the beginning it mentions the pronoun them now first it sounds like this verse is talking about the 1,000 years that was mentioned in verse 4 but if we use a thousand years trying to form the rest of verse 5 doesn’t really make sense God sweeps away the years like a flood they fall asleep how does a year fall asleep they spring up like grass and then fade away and evening that doesn’t sound like what a thousand years do so them most likely has a different antecedent it’s a little different for us in terms of expectations coming from English but them probably refers to something else and what makes more sense in the context is that them refers to men children of men going back to verse three it’s men who are easily slipped away by God like a flood it’s men who are like grass that grows and fades in them or grows in the morning and fades in the evening that is to say men talking about men and women here not talking about males mankind is extremely transient and this is something that the scripture reminds us of continually Isaiah chapter 40 verses 6 & 7 starting in 6c Isaiah 46 and 7 all flesh is grass and all its loveliness is like a flower of the field the grass withers the flower fades when the breath of Yahweh blows upon it surely the people are or James for James for verses 13 to 14 come now you who say today or tomorrow we will go to Sutton set the city and spend a year there and engage in business and make a profit yet you do not know what your life will be like tomorrow you are just a vapor that appears for a little while and then vanishes away are you seeing the contrast that Moses is presenting us between God and man God is creator man is created God is sovereign man is subject to God’s power God is eternal man is extremely transient what’s the point of all this why bring these things back to our minds Moses in this song well I think it’s for a couple of reasons first of all it’s to give God’s worshipers a proper humility this is the same lesson that Jobe had to learn right if you start feeling uppity you want God to give you some answers as to what he does you want to pass judgment on God remember remember who you are God is not like you don’t try to pass judgment on God as if he were your equal he’s very different from you he is far above you you’ve got to remember that these reminders of God’s nature and contrast our own should give us humility but second dish reminders give God’s worshipers a proper perspective on life if life is so short as Moses reminds us then what should we be valuing what should we be pursuing should we really be clinging to the things of the world should we really be sinning to obtain that which is gonna pass away so quickly or should we focus on God and what is eternal that’s why verse 12 says in this same chapter Psalm 90 verse 12 so teach us to number our days that we may present to you a heart of wisdom so there these first two reasons humility wisdom the third this contrast helps us it should cause us to beseech God for help to be dependent on God when we see how limited we are and how unlimited and powerful God is that encourages us to go to him in prayer that encourages us to cry out to him for deliverance that encourages us to seek Him to provide our needs and to wait upon him to do what we cannot these are all necessary things for us to remember that’s why this song is so valuable so brothers and sisters what is your response to Moses’s contrast have you realized just how different God is from you do you see how high above he is are you humbled on seeing how God is so transcendent to you this to change the priorities of your life and does it cause you to cry out to him as the only Savior the only sustainer so in summary today we’ve seen a little of what God is like we’ve seen from Exodus 34 that God is loving merciful holy bath full and we’ve seen from Psalm 90 that God is very different from us yes we do share that is some of his communicable attributes we are made in His image but he’s also very different from us he is the creator he is eternal and he is sovereign now what Allah we will learn much more about God’s attributes as we continue through our study of the Bible but again remember this fundamental truth if we want to know who God is we must go to and rely on the Bible now what comments or questions do you have based on today’s lesson I’m not seeing any hands out wait is that a hand Roy so I ROI didn’t catch everywhere but you said but I think you’re asking about Paul’s statement in first Corinthians where he says that the things of God’s truth cannot be understood by one who’s not saved because they’re spiritually discerned is that right right yeah yeah so that’s a really good question part of our understanding that statement accurately is one of the one of the terms there spiritually or he’s not I can’t remember which one but that the idea of spiritually discerning the truth of God as it is revealed in the scriptures has the sense of judging a right actually my theology teacher was just talking about this the other day it’s not that those who don’t believe in God can’t understand what the Bible says in one sense you know it’s kind of a strange phenomenon but there are several are there are many commentaries on the Bible that are written by people who actually don’t believe in God you don’t have a saving relationship with God and you might think yourself well what uses that commentary but actually they point out some really helpful things they’re able to understand you know this looks exactly what Paul says in this particular section here’s his argument and here’s the reason why based on the grammar and this and you think like wow how could they understand that if they don’t believe in God well you can understand the nuts and bolts of Scripture you can even understand what it says but you don’t believe it in that sense you you can never understand it you you look at it and you come away with the same conclusion that the Bible says the unbelievers do they judge it foolishness say yeah that’s what Paul said but I don’t believe it or yeah that’s that’s what Jesus said but that’s not what my heart testifies it it’s true so they can’t an unbeliever when he looks through scriptures even though he can understand in a sense what it says he can’t really understand he can know what it says but he can’t know it because doesn’t believe it it it’s that light that is just going against the darkness and he resists it so much now bringing that back to our discussion today this is one of the reasons why I said man has this problem with understanding who God really is and the problem is not just well he doesn’t have revelation but it’s also that the revelation he does receive he resists he suppresses whether it’s in it’s the testimony and creation or even the special revelation of God’s Word so not only does God need to provide us with this special revelation he also needs to open our hearts and our eyes to judge it or write and we will never do that apart from God’s merciful work we will continue to say you know that’s nice but I don’t I don’t want that you know interesting argument Jesus seems like a good person but I just don’t believe it that’s what I’d say about that at least right now other questions or comments yes Steve hmm in terms of sufficiently knowing about God yeah that’s a good question we know that hmm well let’s say this first of all we don’t know completely what the state of God’s revelation was before certain elements of Scripture were written like how did Jobe know the things that he knew about God what word Adam and Eve telling their descendants what was the knowledge of God before and after the flood so there’s an element to that that we don’t understand but I think the answer is and they’re kind of just thinking off the fly here I think the answer is that God deemed that certain amount and certain type of revelation was sufficient for each period of time he his plan was to unfold more and more revelation but he says for now this is sufficient for you to know about me so by the time of Moses or the time before Moses he said whatever revelation I provided is sufficient for you and whenever Moses wrote his books he says Israel this is sufficient for you and as we as we go more and more through the Scriptures and God has deemed that what we have now in in the cut in the completed Bible is sufficient for us in this age now this does not mean that this is the end of God’s revelation we actually even here in the scriptures that in the Tribulation Period and afterwards there’s going to be more revelation there’s going to be prophets there’s going to be visions there’s going to be other things but for now this is God sufficient revelation he says you have no need of anything else and that’s why we can even point to verses like the one in 2nd Timothy 3 this is what God has given us is able to make the man complete adequate prepared for every good work that’s my thought on that question right now that’s a good question before we end I do want to point out a few other application questions for you to consider we’re not going to take the time to go through these questions but I do want you to think about them more more meditation on what God’s Word in the real world looks like even as we consider the revelation of God’s attributes number one you think about this if you talk about it with your family or talk about what the people in the church which attributes of God do people and even Christians often doubt ignore or do not know why what is it about certain attributes that we have trouble with and why do we that’s one for you to consider number two how would you answer someone who because the great sufferings in the world and in his own life concluded that God must not exist yeah I think there are several ways to answer that question but I ask you to think about that and then number three how can you praise God in prayer and in song for each of his attributes sometimes are really good about praising the Lord at certain attributes but we never praise the Lord for his other attributes are they not lovely are they somehow not noble in God and they all deserve praise they are all part of his perfections so do we praise him for that how can we do that more so I want you to think about that as well you have other questions or comments based on today’s lesson or even questions about these application questions I’d love to hear from you you can always email me and I’ll get back to you but that’s it for this week next week and we’re going to continue talking about God and specifically deal with the question how do I know that God exists let’s close in prayer our great God we are humbled by the revelation that you have given us because even though this is what you’ve given is not all the revelation that there could be about you you are infinite you are unsearchable and yet you have made yourself known to us in a sufficient way and a wonderful way but even what you’ve shown us God has shown us that how you are so far above us you were different from us and even in the ways that we’re similar you are far greater and each one of those aspects thank you for your love thank you for your justice thank for your mercy thinking that we don’t have to experience the wrath that is required by your justice because of Jesus Christ but Lord every way of yours is right and good thank you for revealing yourself to us not only by giving us the scripture by opening our hearts to believe it we would never have believed it unless you had acted first even though it is totally reasonable that’s totally there’s no excuse for not believing it our sin is such God that we would never unless you have opened our eyes thank you for that unfathomable mercy I pray God if there is any who are listening today who have not yet experienced that God that you would open their eyes and they would humble themselves before you and put their trust in you as Lord and Savior I gotta preach you bless the rest of the service at Calvary today and continue to build up your people build up your church in Jesus name Amen all right thank you guys see you next

September 16, 2018
The Preeminence of God

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this morning it’s my great privilege to bring to you uh Dan serid and his family actually is here his wife Dina his children which I’m going to try the best my best to get their names right uh Y iton and uh yav that right they get that a good okay good um that was what I was most nervous about there um but Dan sered is of course as we know the Israel director for Jews for Jesus he’s been uh the director of juice for Jesus in Israel for almost a actually more than a decade now and we’ve been supporting him for a lot of that time as a church um he has an MD from Western University in 2013 and he’s of course is he you’re still working on your doctorate or is that still still work in progress um many of us know what that’s like and um of course uh he’s also a pastor of a church there that I just learned this morning so he has a lot going on in Israel um Israel of course is a very difficult land uh to bring the gospel to and we’re grateful that there’s God has sent servants like Dan serid to do that and of course overriding all of his credentials that you just heard the most important thing about Dan is that he’s a faithful follower of Jesus Christ a fellow bonder servant and a great friend of Calvary so let’s welcome Dan as he comes up and brings us the word of God this morning well well Shalom everybody shom wow the Sunday school did better than that we’re going to try that again okay Shalom everybody it is a privilege and an honor for us to be here and for Dina and my son y have our other two children are not here with us they are um in Camp so um but it’s always so good to be back to be back here at Calvary and like um like Greg mentioned we are your extension in Israel so um it’s uh it’s it’s great to come back and um to see familiar faces and to see some new faces and um you know pastor Joe has now become a friend and he’s always um encouraging to us in our ministry so um it’s um it’s really a privilege and an honor to be back here so um like Greg mentioned we are and I serve as the Israel director of Jews for Jesus in Israel and um you know Israel is a place like Greg mentioned that’s unreached with the gospel and Jews for Jesus our mission and our mission statement is that we exist to relentlessly pursue God’s plan for the Salvation of Israel so and what does that mean well it means that we want to share the gospel with our Jewish people in the land of Israel now Israel is the most Jewish country in the world and there are 6.4 million Jewish people that live in Israel 6.4 million Jews and here in the states there are only about 6 million Jews so out of the 6.4 million that live in Israel and there are only about 6,000 Jewish people who believe in Jesus that’s how unreached the Jewish population in Israel is with the gospel and that’s why today our largest Jews for Jesus branch is is in Israel and um we are there reaching our people with the gospel message and I want to show you a short a video clip um which we’re going to play right now for you about our ministry in Israel Shalom my name is Dan sered and I’m the Israel director of Jews for Jesus Jews for Jesus is a Ministry that relentlessly pursues God’s plan for salvation for Israel founded in 1973 in San Francisco California as a part of the Jesus movement where many hippies came to Faith In Jesus and many of those hippies were Jewish people so they came around our founder another Jewish believer in Jesus Mo Rosen and they started this movement of Jews for Jesus wanting to communicate the gospel to our Jewish people Israel is a complex Place Israel is a melting Pond and so many different people from different places so our Jews for Jesus Israel Ministry reflects that diversity we have a staff that are devoted to Children Youth and Young Adult Ministry we have staff that are devoted to the Russian speaking population in Israel to the the the general Hebrew speaking seculars to social media evangelism but at the end of it for us it’s all about making disciples fulfilling the Great Commission making disciples for our lord Jesus we engage Jewish people with the gospel message we equip them to follow Yeshua and we Inspire Christians to do the same so that’s what our ministry and is all about we’re all about Carolina came to our church in Israel and then we greeted her of course as she entered and very very quickly we found out that Carolina um was she was Israeli born and raised in Israel but she um she wasn’t a believer in Jesus so um Dena befriended her and um started meeting with karolina on a weekly basis studying the scriptures together and um about 3 months into their study kolina prayed with Dina to receive the Lord and then of course Dina continued ministering and discipling Carolina and began attending her church on a regular basis and what a joy it was for Dina and I to baptize kolina in the Mediterranean Sea and today kolina is a disciple of Jesus and follower of him and doing really well in our faith and really growing in the Lord so we praise God for kolina and I shared this um story with you to tell you that that’s really what we’re all about we’re all about making disciples fulfilling the Great Commission of our Lord and Savior Jesus and it’s my it’s our privilege to be here because we’re Partners in Ministry and like I said we are your extension we’re Calvary Community Church extension in Israel and um this morning there are three ways of how I want you as an individual and to to partner to continue partnering with our ministry now first and foremost the most important way of how you could partner with us is through your prayers did you get one of these cards when you walked in today if you didn’t get one can you raise your hand and I’m going to ask brother Roy to please um pass them on if you didn’t get one just raise your hand did everybody get one now we got a few here if you got it take it out right now okay I want to see you holding it in your hand come on here we go and then if you don’t mind just folding it along the preferred edge here and then just tearing it removing it okay you’ll have two portions of the cards in your hand come on want to see all doing this very good very good now the small portion of this card is not for you to it’s not for you it’s for you to keep it’s not for you to give away this is our prayer card this is a prayer reminder for you it says you pray for Dan and Dena sered and so would you please put it in your Bible or on your refrigerator whichever one you open more often okay this is a prayer reminder we need need your prayers okay would you please and keep us in your prayers now the biggest portion of this card is not for you to keep this is for you to fill out your name and address and if you would do that I would love for you to sign up for a Jews for Jesus free monthly newsletter I want you to get our newsletter so that you would know how to specifically pray for our ministry also if you put out your email address I would love to send you our Israel prayer updates I send those once a month from Israel telling you what’s going on in Israel what is God doing and how you could be praying for our missions in Israel now today I also want to offer each and every one of you a gift a gift from Jews for Jesus to you if you fill out your name and address I would love to send you a book that tells you all about the gospel in the feasts of Israel okay so sign up for a newsletter get our email prayer updates but also receive that free book okay so as you leave the sanctuary dropped this card in um in the Box in the back and that back says our picture on it it says for the ministry of Dan and Dina Sarah just drop the card in there and then become a prayer partner of our ministry you know and get that free book get our newsletter become a prayer partner of our ministry we need your prayers now second you can partner with our ministry this morning by um by giving to our ministry and but let me just say that um you know Jews for Jesus we’re not a church we an arm of the church therefore any gift that you give to our ministry must be above and beyond your normal Tides those belong to your home congregation your home Church wherever that may be so any gift that you give to our ministry and has to be above those Tides okay now if you do choose to give in the offering you can make checks payable to Jews for Jesus you can give with cash you can also give you a credit card on this card and please indicate the amount of your gift on this card so that we could properly receit you and thank you for your gift but please even if you don’t give in the offering that’s okay just still fill out this card become a prayer partner of our ministry okay get that free book we really need your prayers now like Greg mentioned I have um a resource table in the back of the church we’ve got free stuff there and not so free stuff okay please take as much of the free stuff as you want and let me ask that each of you take one of these blue pamphlets which says over 6 million is Israelis and fewer than half of 1% believe in Jesus this tells you more about our ministry in Israel please pick one of these up now on the NATO free side of our resource table we have different books and we also have some CDs and like this one this is um Jewish gospel music do you guys know Jewish music you know kind of like Fiddler on the Roof well this is Jewish music that Praises Jesus and in case you didn’t know this is the type of music we’re all going to be praising Jesus with in heaven okay it’s going to be Jewish music up there all right so I want you to be ready prepared so you can check these out please please don’t forget to fill out this card and um become a prayer partner of our ministry okay we we we realize that prayer is the secret weapon of evangelism and we need God’s people to partner with us in prayer so please fill out your name address your email address become a prayer partner of our ministry now today um is um as we look into the Bible I want us to talk about and the preeminence of God so if you got your Bibles um would you please open to um Exodus chapter 3 um Exodus chapter 3 um open your Bibles turn on your Bibles whatever it is we do these days and I have the scriptures on the screen as well but let me give you a little bit of background in Exodus chapter 3 Moses is 80 years old um and one day he was out in the desert you know he was a shepherd and he was um tending um his father-in-law’s sheep out in the backs side of the desert and he passes this bush one day and then this bush you remember right it’s on fire but it’s not burning up so Moses goes over to check it out and you remember the story right God speaks to him out from the bush well here we go beginning with verse 6 okay Exodus 3: 6 and he said God said I am the god of your father the god of Abraham the god of Isaac and the god of Jacob and Moses hid his face for he was afraid to look at God then the Lord said I have surely seen the affliction of my people who are in Egypt and have heard their cry because of their task Masters I know their sufferings and I’ve have come down to deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians and to bring them up out of that land to a good and Broad land a land flowing with milk and honey in the place of the Canaanites the Hittites the amorites the parasites the hivites the jebusites and Now Behold The Cry of the people of Israel has come to me and I have also seen the oppression with which the Egyptians oppressed them come I will send you to Pharaoh that you may bring my people the children of Israel out of Egypt okay so let’s stop right here so far so good right and God is giving um Moses a call he’s calling Moses and then and Moses said to God verse 13 then Moses said to God if I come to the people of Israel and say to them the god of your fathers has sent me to you and they ask me what is his name what shall I say to them now let’s stop right here and because I got to explain you need to understand that in that culture a name was more than just a reference to a person a name was supposed to indicate the character of that person that’s why for example they named Jacob sulter because you know what he did to his brother right you you understand so this was a very appropriate name well here when Moses asked God what is your name Moses is not asking God what is the nice term that that they refer to you by but but Moses is actually asking God God what is your character who are you really are what are you really like and we have verse 14 God said to Moses I am who I am and he said say this to the people of Israel I am has sent me to you now hearing saying that I am and what what is God actually saying about himself well we got to go to the Hebrew and here we go and we you you got to look at the at the original language that this was written in in in the Biblical Hebrew well the verb here I am that is translated I am means literally I mean the Hebrew it’s E8 it literally means to have existence so what is God saying to Moses he’s saying to Moses he says Hey Moses I am the being in this universe who is existence in and of himself I am the being in this universe who exists and has life in me in and of myself in here in Exodus chapter 3 God presents himself as the one and only self-existent independent being in the entire universe now the rest of the Bible Echoes this truth Psalm 90 Moses says verse two before the mountains were brought forth orever you had formed the earth and the world from Everlasting to Everlasting you are God in Isaiah 44:6 thus says the Lord the king of Israel and his Redeemer the Lord of hosts I’m the first and I’m the last besides me there is no God you know the famous verse in Revelation 1:8 I am the Alpha and the Omega says the Lord God who is and who was and who is to come the Almighty which is why in 1 Timothy chapter 6 Paul says that he King of Kings the Lord of lords who alone possesses immortality you know I remember and when I was a young Dad I know a long time ago but um you know I remember one day and my um our second born aan Ethan and he came to me one day he was a little boy and um I know he doesn’t even remember this but but he came to me and he said he said hey am AB dad you know he goes and where where did the trees come from and I said wow that’s a great question but I’ve got a great answer you know trees come from God and then he said well and where do mountains come from I said wow great I’ve got an answer to that as well you know mountains come from God and and he said well where do stars come from and I said well I got an answer to that you know God made them God made the Stars God made the trees God made the mountains God created them all so you know we continued went on with this line of questions and all of a sudden he says to me he says well aba and where does God come from well suddenly I’m out of answers there is no answer to that question so I said to him I said well God doesn’t come from anywhere God is and he has always has been and he always will be nowan my son found that really hard to grasp but not nearly as hard as I find that to grasp as an adult because saying that makes me realize and it makes you realize that here with God we’re dealing with a being that is preeminent above any other being in the cosmos so this is God this is the I am the one and only independent unbounded preeminent being in the universe God is accountable to no one but himself God is responsible to no one but himself God is limited by no one but himself God is restrain trained by no one but himself and God is answerable to no one but himself he is the I am of the universe he is the eternally self-existing one Beyond whom we cannot think and Beyond whom there is really nothing to think about anyway he is God preeminent in this universe amen amen now that’s as far as we want to um as we want to go in our theological treatment of this because now we got to ask ourselves um a very important question and here’s the question the question is so lot who cares I mean this is great right God is preeminent this is nice but really what difference does any of this make to my life what difference does this make to me tomorrow morning when when when I go to work you know what what difference does this make to my life well let’s talk about that okay let’s go back for a moment to the burning bush let’s go back and remind ourselves what did God say to Moses well God said to Moses you want to know who I really am well I am the one in the universe who exists who is existence in and of myself I am the one and only being in the universe who has life in and of myself now this is what the Bible says throughout the Bible confirms and and repeats this truth over and over again watch John 1 verse4 in him in God was life and the life was the light of men John 5: 26 for as the father has life in himself so we has granted the son also to have life in himself in 1 Timothy chapter 6 remembers what Paul said that God alone has immortality in just a verse or two before that Paul says that God Alone give life gives life to all things God is the one that gives life this explains Genesis 2 for us where the Bible says that the Lord God breathed into men’s nostrils the breath of life and that’s when men became a living Soul now as human beings and we are alive but the life that we live that we’re living is not inheritably our life the life that we’re are living was breathed into us it is a gift our life is a gift from the one who has life in himself it’s a gift from Almighty Mighty God this is not our life that we’re living out it’s a life that he gave us as a gift now as human beings we need to understand that therefore we’re dependent on God for every moment of our existence every breath that we take is at the pleasure of God every ounce of life that we live is at the pleasure of God the point that I want you to get is that there is an utter dependence in all of this that you and I must grasp if we’re going to to relate properly to the god of the universe and conversely it is our failure to grasp this dependency that lies at the heart of all sin in this universe all sin in the world and and all sin in our life you know I think of Lucifer do you remember the angel before he became Satan the Bible says Isaiah chapter 14 that at some point Lucifer as an angel and look verse and 13 and 14 and as an angel this what said right you said in your heart talking about Lucifer I will Ascend to Heaven above the stars of God I will set my Throne on high I will sit on the Mount of assembly in the far reaches of the north I will Ascend above the height of the cloud I will make myself like the most high in other words here we find Lucifer saying I will act independently of God I’m going to run my own destiny he says and he says I am going to be the one I’m going to be the one who runs my life and what did God say to him in this chapter God said to him Hey listen no you’ve sinned this is the first sin in the universe Adam didn’t commit the first sin in the universe Lucifer did but of course Adam walked in his footstep do you remember what happened in the garden what what what Adam did you say well of course I remember right he ate that Apple well first of all we don’t really know um that it was an apple second of all that wasn’t really the problem you know Adam could have eaten a peach or a pear the fruit was not the problem the problem was that Adam made up his mind that he was going to live independently from God he was going to be the captain of his own faith and and he brought a curse on the entire human race because of that Lucifer and Adam made the same mistake and they decided to act as independent beings instead of acting like the dependent beings that they were they rejected God God’s preeminence over their lives in favor of their own preeminence over their life you know sin may have many different outworkings but there is one Essence to sin Isaiah 53:6 oh we like sheep have gone astray we have turned everyone to here it is to his own way there in a nutsh is the essence of all human sin the essence of sin is when any created being decides to take over and sit on the throne of their own life and to declare I’m going my way I’m doing it my way there you got there you got it that is sin now may I say to you that if you’re here today and you have not trusted Jesus as your own personal savior let me say that this is very important for you to understand and to think about the first step that any person ever takes towards God comes when that person realizes that they are a usurper that they are sitting on a stolen Throne you see God made every one of us and God breathes into every one of us Breath of Life every second of every day and God consider ERS the Throne of our life to belong to him because of that not us it is his throne we are dependent beings and when we finally realize that when when we become willing to abdicate that throne and be willing to give it back to God where it belongs and use the blood of Christ to be able to come to God and do that that’s when people begin to be ready to do business with God if you here and you have never trusted Christ I want you to listen to me this is why all of the religious activities and and presence that you’re trying to give to God are not going to work God doesn’t want your presence he wants his throne back the one that you usurped the one in your life that belongs to him and it is the and it is only when we become ready to give the Throne of our life back to God that we are ready to come to Christ and do business with God I love what aw toer said he said the Lord will not save those whom he cannot command he will not divide his offices meaning Lord and Savior you can’t believe in half a Christ he goes on to say we must accept Christ for what he is he is the savior who is risen but he’s also the Lord who is king of kings and Lord of lords if you’re here today and you’re tired you’re tired of running your own life listen sooner or L later you got to get tired of running your own life because none of us can do a very good job running our life I’m here to tell you that someone else is offering to run your life and he will do a perfect complete job doing it he will make your life to be something that is worth waking up in the morning for I hope that you will think about advocating The Throne of your life it will be the best decision that you will ever make getting off the Throne of your life and giving it to the Lord Jesus you know one time while I was traveling in the US I saw this bumper sticker said God is my co-pilot well I actually think that the bumper sticker should say I am out of the cockpit all together because that is really what God is looking for he doesn’t want you in the left seat or in the right seat or in the back seat he wants you out of the cockpit all together and he will take it from there let me go on and say that if you’re here today and you’ve already trusted Christ this is still very applicable to us because the lordship of Christ is not only an issue for non Believers the lordship of Jesus as a follower of Christ is the very lynchpin of our Christian Life Romans 121 says I appeal to you therefore Brothers by the mercies of God to present your bodies as living sacrifices holy and acceptable to God which is your spiritual worship now as a Living Sacrifice God is not asking you and me to kill ourselves literally because we need to be living SA Rices right but he’s asking us to be as dead and as the sacrifice was when they slid its throat on the altar in the temple As Dead As that when it comes to running our own lives and instead to let God do it this is how the Lord Jesus lived when when he walked here on Earth he lived under the lordship of God when he was here on Earth John 4:34 Jesus said to them my food is to do the will of him who sent me to accomplish his work John 8:28 so Jesus said to them when you have lifted up the son of man then you will know that I am he and that I do nothing on my own authority but speak just as the father taught me John 6:38 Jesus said for I come down from heaven not to do my own will but the will of him who sent me and Jesus said at the Garden of Gethsemane not my will but yours be done so so here the Lord Jesus when he was living right here on Earth he was a man living under the authority of God and the authority of his written word he didn’t run his own life even as the second person of the godhead he didn’t you know this is exactly how he tells us that we must live aw toer said a man is willing to share himself and sometimes even sacrifice himself for a desired end but never to Dethrone himself wow very interesting Matthew 28: 19 says right this is the Great Commission it says go therefore and make church members of all Nations nope that’s not what it says go therefore and make professing Christians of all Nations nope that’s not what it says go therefore and make churchgoers of all Nations no go therefore and Make Disciples of all Nations and you know what sets a disciple apart from a churchgoer or from a church member or from a professing Christian I will tell you what it is a disciple is a person who has dethroned himself a disciple is a person who has dethroned herself a disciple is a person who has restored the Throne of their life to its rightful owner a disciple is a person for whom submission to God is not just a buzzword a disciple is a person for whom obedience to God is not just a buzz phrase but these two words and these two phrases submission to God and obedience to God these form the very essence the very core of how a disciple lives a disciple understands that they don’t live the way that they want to live they they don’t live the way that they feel like living they don’t live like their friends tell them to live they live the way God tells them to live in the written word of God the Authority for their lives is not what they want or what they feel like or what their friends tell them to do it is what God tells them in the word of God period and of discussion that’s a disciple now do we always get it right no do we sometimes fall short yes but you know what we never lower the bar if you’re a disciple you come to God and you confess that you wrong but you don’t change the standard the bar is the written word of God is the Authority for life this is how you live you know if you’re going to reach this area for Jesus if you’re going to reach this this city this County this region for Jesus if you’re going to if you’re going to reach New Jersey for Christ if we’re going to go out and reach the world for Jesus I’m here to tell you something this is not going to happen with a bunch of church churchgoers nope it’s not going to happen with a bunch of professing Christians no it’s not going to happen because a bunch of church members decided to to do this only a bunch of disciples can God use to reach a country and a people for Christ you look at the early church they weren’t church members churchgoers a bunch of professing Christians they were the disciples and that’s what we must be being a disciple is an All or Nothing deal one of my heroes of of of the Faith Hudson Taylor the great missionary to China said this he said Jesus is either Lord of all or he’s not Lord at all I love that I love that I don’t know how you can say it any simpler than that and in my life and in your life Jesus is either Lord of all or guess what he’s not Lord at all so let me just ask you as we get ready to close I I need to ask you this you know when it comes to your sex life when when it comes to the movies that you watch the things that you read the websites that you visit how you love your wife how you love your husband how you treat your children or how you honor your parents who is on the throne of your life you or Jesus Jesus when it comes to how you serve your boss or how you speak of your fellow man or how you forgive those who hurt you or how you handle money or how you keep your word or how you seek to live with Integrity in every part of your life who is preeminent in your life is it you or is it Jesus can’t be both it can’t be both he’s either Lord of all or he’s not Lord at all can’t be both you can’t have half a Christ he’s Lord or he’s not so who is who is he in your life I can’t answer that question for you but I can tell you that the answer to this question is the deciding factor if you’re a disciple or not really it’s the decide deciding factor I believe in many cases even if you’re a true follower of Christ or not you know this idea that that some of us have that you can believe in Jesus as your savior but then reject him as Lord and and go and live your life any way you want to live that’s not a Biblical concept he is the Lord he’s the Lord Jesus Christ Paul says believe in the Lord Jesus Christ it’s true we do grow in our surrender to his lordship over the years but we never ever start out by saying I am wonderfully happy he’s my savior and now I’m going to make up my mind and I’m and I’m going to go and live my life anywh I want no that’s not how it works God doesn’t take people on that basis if that’s the basis on which you came I think that there is a serious there there’s serious reasons for you to examine whether you really belong to Christ because he does not take people on that basis I want to take some time this morning to give us an opportunity to answer this question who is really on the throne of your life if you have assured some of the Throne of your life as a follower of Christ if you’re kind of living under your own authority in this area or or in that area I have a challenge for you we need to make him Lord of everything the whole thing I can’t do that for you I can only do that for me so I’m challenging you you want to be a disciple well that’s how a disciple live and these are the people’s lives that God blesses and that God honors I want him to honor your life I want him to bless your life and I’m telling you how to do it I hope that you will listen not to me but I hope that you will listen to him so let’s pray together with our heads bowed and our eyes closed I want to give you a moment if you need to do business with God right now this is it this is your moment there are things that popped on your radar screen when when I began talking about who really is preeminent in your life things you know that that that Jesus and that that you haven’t made Jesus Lord over your life I want to challenge you to do that as we sit here to get off the throne that you don’t belong on if you stay on it it will hurt yourself and everyone around you get off and put Jesus on the throne where who it rightly belongs to so it’s going to be quiet for a few moments if you need to talk to God you do it right now but Lord Jesus God Almighty you are omnipotent you are Eternal you are holy and righteous and faithful and merciful and loving and gracious and preeminent Lord there is no choice on who needs to rule our life it’s it’s really a no-brainer Lord we’re so human and sin is such an emic part of our flesh that sometimes Lord even without even trying we push you off the throne and we take over forgive us father forgive us and give us the heart and the lifestyle of a disciple who puts on puts you on the throne and and keeps you there Lord we do fall short of what you ask us every day but help us never change the understanding of where the authority of our life is help us never dilute that may you be Lord may you be preeminent over every part of our life and if there are things that we need to go change in order to restore you to the throne then Lord Jesus give us courage to change it by your grace Lord help us to get to know you well enough that that we understand your ways help us to get to know you well enough so that we feel you help us to get to know you well enough to the degree that we won’t lay hands on the ark that we won’t touch the throne it’s yours Lord change our lives because we were here today we were here studying your word we love you and we pray these things in Jesus name and God’s people said

July 23, 2017
Worship in the Tabernacle, Part 2

In this lesson, we continue our investigation into the elements of Israel’s tabernacle. Specifically, we look at the tabernacle building itself, the veil, the screen, the tabernacle court, and the bronze altar. We again consider the following questions: How did God want these elements to be made? What do these elements say about God? And how do these objects connect to Jesus Christ?

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for us oh there it is as Believers such distrust of God is not to typify our lives at all rebellious Israel is said to be without faith but we have come to believe and receive salvation on the basis of faith faith the same kind of Faith demonstrated by Joshua and Caleb that should be continually apparent in our lives if we are believers then we are saved by faith and therefore faith is to Mark our lives so we should not look at Israel and say huh you know we’re just like them we’re faithless all the time we ought not to be if you’re a Christian you should be living by faith because that’s what Christians do that should typify your life we do not behave like faithless Israel but we behave like Faith filled Joshua and Caleb it is possible and as Christians if we’re really Believers then we will overcome by God’s spirit questions about last week’s lesson okay one minor note uh just want to clarify something I said last week we saw last week that one of the promises that God made on Israel’s behalf was to send Hornets to drive out the Nations before them and this comes from Exodus 23 now I describe this Hornet promise as figurative but I just want you to know there’s some difference of opinion about this some say that God actually was promising literal Hornets he was sending actual Hornets to harass and confuse Israel’s enemies the argument for this is based on the other promises all being literally fulfilled God says I’m going to send my angel before you and he literally did that God said he’s going to send his Terror on Israel’s enemies and he literally did that so why should we expect the promise of hornets to suddenly be figurative certainly God was able to send Hornets so we ought not to dismiss a literal interpretation just because it’s too fantastic Matthew Henry puran commentator and John Calvin they only speak briefly about that verse and their commentaries but they do take the Hornets as literal others contend though that the Hornets are indeed figurative they see a parallel between God pro God’s promise of sending Terror which appears in the text right before the Hornets and the Hornets themselves the Hornets being an image of the Terror that God is going to send on Israel’s enemies furthermore those who take this position point out that Hornets are never mentioned in The Narrative of Israel’s Conquest now that is an argument from Silence but it is noteworthy nonetheless if God was really sending Hornets then why is it not mentioned as miraculous provision in any visuals battles or conquests John MacArthur steud Bible as well as the pulpit commentary just the commentaries that I examined they take the horn it as figurative so just want you to know about that difference of opinion anyways we come back to the Tabernacle we looked at several pieces of the Tabernacle already Ark of the Covenant table of showbread the golden lampstand and the altar of incense now all of these objects were placed inside the Tabernacle inside a tabernacle building in the Holy place and the holy of holies and these were extremely holy objects we talked about them but one thing I didn’t mention last time and I want to put it somewhere in my lesson today just so I wouldn’t forget it the Tabernacle objects ones we talked about those four they were so holy that no Layman that is anybody besides a priest or levite no Layman could touch them or even see them and this included when Israel was traveling numbers four actually outlines how the priests were to cover the holy objects and the utensils of the Tabernacle before giving them to the Levites to carry lest the people of Israel see them and die and this was no joke you may remember that at one point in Israel’s early history the Ark of God is captured it’s captured by the Philistines and through a set of um miraculous circumstances it’s returned to Israel but when it’s returned a number of Israelites die and why is that because they looked into or looked upon the Ark of God so it was a serious thing these were extremely holy objects God is making a huge point about their Holiness and he says you’re not even allowed to see them so this is helpful for when we sometimes see pictures depicting these events in the Bible we’ll try and be a little bit more accurate you see this picture on the left well hopefully you see this picture on the left there’s the Arc of the Covenant there all uncovered no that’s not as good as something like this yeah covered in blue just like the Bible says just keep that in mind when these objects were to be shielded from the eyes of Israel any of these holy objects from the Tabernacle wanted to mention that but we’re talking about other parts of the Tabernacle today you’ll want to use the handout for today’s class as we go through four other elements of the Tabernacle we’re going to be looking at the tab tle curtains and structure we’re looking at the veil and the screen looking at the Tabernacle court and then we’ll look at the bronze Altar and its offerings I’d hope that we could talk about the bronze Laver the anointing oil and the priest garments but I don’t think we’ll have time for that today so that might be something that you can study on your owns still what we have is a lot to look at but I think it’s going to be really edifying why is it important to learn about these elements of the Tabernacle first of all helps us understand the rest of the scriptures better because the Bible makes reference to these pieces of the Tabernacle and and their counterparts in the temple and when we don’t really know what they are or what they’re about we miss out on what the Bible’s talking about so it helps us understand the rest of the scriptures better second of all God ordered the parts of the Tabernacle worship very purposefully and it expressed spiritual truth related to God and man we’ve seen this in part already we don’t want to miss what God is saying about himself in the Tabernacle and third just as all the Old Testament ultimately points to Christ we want to see how the different elements of Tabernacle worship also point to and find Superior fulfillment in Jesus in doing this we don’t want to over interpret don’t want to say things mean things that we don’t necessarily know if that’s what they mean but where there’s good evidence of a connection we want to make that inference so it’s viable for us to look at the Tabernacle like two weeks ago please follow along in the chart fill in the chart we’re going to look at the description of each of these elements from the Bible then we’ll examine the object’s practical purpose what that object says about God and then how it connects to Christ let’s pray father your word is great your Tabernacle is awesome and yet what’s displayed in Jesus is even more awesome I pray that You’ help help me to be able to explain this now help us to understand and help us to be in awe of you as a result in Jesus name amen let’s start by talking about the structure of the Tabernacle itself please open your Bibles to Exodus 26 Exodus 26 this is a long section actually this only goes up to verse 31 verses 1 to 3 1 we’re not going to read this section just for the sake of time but I want you to know it’s there because I’m going to summarize the description of the Tabernacle building and it all comes from these first 31 verses in chapter 26 so again use your hand now follow along as I describe and display some text here of the description of the Tabernacle the Tabernacle building the transportable sanctuary tent of God was to be covered by several layers layers of material four layers actually and we’re going to describe these four layers starting from the innermost layer the first layer of the Tabernacle is composed of 10 linked cloth curtains that are made from blue purple Scarlet material or blue purple and Scarlet material and fine Twisted linen we see this described in verses 1 to six of chapter 26 on these cloth curtains made from these different colors and the and the linen there are to be cherabin we talked about the cheram last time remember those are those fantastic Celestial creatures they’re to be displayed on this cloth on these cloth curtains in terms of size each curtain is 28 cubits by 4 cubits each or about 42t by 6 feet so very long in One Direction and they all get linked together they’re linked by 50 blue cloth loops and 50 gold clasps so loops and clasps linking all these curtains together and when you join them all you get a cloth rectangle of about 42t by 60 ft this is going to be a covering the first layer of covering for the Tabernacle now the second layer laid on top of the first is composed of 11 linked curtains of goats hair hair second layer is goat’s hair and we see this described in verses 7 to 13 now the goats in the Middle East in Asia Minor at that time and probably today had long fine and beautiful hair and therefore these goats were often shorn and their hair made into garments was beautiful so what we have here are goat hair curtains these curtains are slightly larger than those of the first layer 30 cubits by four cubits or about 45t by 6 feet couple feet longer on one side and these curtains were linked again with 50 loops and this time 50 bronze clasps and they completely covered the first layer part of the second layer hung over the front and back of the Tabernacle and the slightly longer sides completely overlapped the first layer of curtains so completely covering the first layer so first layer of cloth these um blue purple Scarlet material and fine Twisted linen with a cherubim the second layer of goat’s hair the third layer is of ram skins dyed red now the third and fourth layers are described very briefly in verse 14 it just says and then put this on top and put that on top the third layer is Ram skins died red ESB translates it tanned Ram skins and one source I read said that the Skins themselves were actually red you didn’t have to D them red they were red or whatever it is you have red or tanned skins not hair here we’re talking about skins this is going to go on top of those other two layers and then the fourth layer also in verse 14 porpus skins okay what’s a porpus yeah it’s similar to a dolphin porpus is actually a certain kind of a sea mammal akin to killer whales killer whales are part of the porpus group I don’t think dolphins are but they’re very similar was God telling Israel to make a layer of covering out of whale skins well that’s the way the New American Standard translates it though the word is variously translated the ESV translates this covering as goat skins NIV translates it as durable leather the King James version translates it as Badger skins other translations give us sea cow skins or Violet skins so we’re not exactly sure what this fourth layer was but whatever it was it appeared to be dark and strong and it would go on time it was the fourth layer so we got a bunch of layers cloth hair skin and what’s going to hold all this up well that comes next in the text God instructs there to be a series of wooden boards vertical boards and each board is to be made out of ACAA wood and overlaid with gold each board is 10 cubits by 1 and A2 cubits or 15t tall by about 1 and 3/4 ft wide bunch of boards here very tall boards the North and South sides of the Tabernacle are to have 20 boards each uh I’ll I’ll show you a picture in just a little bit but you have a rectangle imagine the Tabernacle being like this rectangle here’s the entrance in the east side so on the the two long sides you have 20 boards each and then on the West Side the back end of the Tabernacle you have six regular boards and two special corner boards so eight on that side these boards were joined together with mortar centen and joints and silver sockets each set of boards also had five horizontal bars so we’ve got the vertical boards going up and bars going left and right These Bars were also made out of acia wood and overlaid with gold the middle bar was to be long enough to pass from end to end on its side and These Bars pass through a series of gold rings attached to the vertical boards so we have a bunch of Acacia boards covered with gold going up and then bars going left and right also of Acacia and covered with gold so what we have here is the whole description of the Tabernacle structure the curtains the coverings the boards and the bars what would this have looked like well the visual interpretations vary a little bit if we talk about the inside of the Tabernacle giving you a couple different pictures here artistic interpretations today some see the golden boards forming a golden wall that they are right next to each other that they fit right into each other and so you essentially have a golden wall on each side of the Tabernacle you the the beautiful first layer of curtains is only displayed as a ceiling so in the in the top right picture you can see a little bit that the walls are simply gold and the first covering would only be seen through the ceiling we’ll talk about the uh the veilance green a little bit later so that’s one way of seeing the inside other see the boards being more spread apart the boards and bars forming like a golden cage you can see that more in the top left example and then the first layer of covering the beautiful first layer of covering would come through the openings in the bars and Boards as well as the ceiling but anyways you have lots of gold on the inside and then that first layer of curtains coming through and then on the outside you can see the different layers of coverings kind of spread apart on the bottom left picture and then there’s a model of the Tabernacle with all the coverings one on top of the other from the outside you would only see that fourth layer or mostly see that fourth layer maybe a little bit of the layers underneath but you would not see at all the first layer you’d only see the skins on top and perhaps maybe a little bit of the the goat’s hair but you wouldn’t see that first layer at all from the outside and certainly you couldn’t see the gold pillars or boards from the outside either anyway there’s a number of different pictures of the Tabernacle building itself to give you an idea in terms of the shape of the Tabernacle you can see here that most of the Tabernacle as a box with a slightly fanned out set of sides to account for the tent pegs that would have held the coverings the four coverings on top in place now others are really strict with the box shape there’s no Fanning out at all it’s just a box rectangle and some have it triangular so that actually comes to a point at the top that’s the way Answers in Genesis depicts it in their handout and I’m not really sure why because that would require some other structural components that are not mentioned in the text you need like something to stick up all the way I don’t think it looked like that probably something like I’ve displayed in these pictures here anyways so here’s our Tabernacles Tabernacle building what is the purpose of this structure filling in our the other columns in our chart what’s the Practical purpose or purposes of this building why build it this way Eric that’s exactly right yeah this is very important the Tabernacle building provided a separate place for the holy objects as well as a separate place to meet with a holy God that’s one of the important purposes of the Tabernacle anything else about the way this is built that illustrates a practical purpose yeah Dwayne exactly it had to be portable but it also had to be strong so the way it was put together you could you could take down and put up these sets of coverings and These Bars and Boards so that when it was up it wouldn’t fall down but it could be taken down so that as Israel was traveling through the Wilderness and when it reached the promised land God’s Dwelling Place could move so those are certainly two practical purposes of this building yeah Eric MH yeah that’s a good point too we think about those outer coverings of the Tabernacle they certainly seem a lot tougher than the in the inner um coverings of the Tabernacle so that outer covering yeah Eric you’re probably right probably waterproof or definitely more resistant to the elements than would have what would have been on the inside and that’s part of keeping this structure both transportable and durable that’s a good point Eric so we see practical purposes of this building but thinking about how it’s built what does it say about God what’s one thing Eric yeah his presence right the reason that you have this building is because God is with you god actually goes with your Camp he dwells right in the midst of it he has a building he has a dwelling place it shows that God is with his people what else does it show us Danny right yeah that’s a good point Danny we’ll talk more about having to come to God in a specific way um throughout the today’s class but even though he’s with his people there’s still separation God still has to be met in a separate building and there there’s a specific way you come into that building so we’re not losing sight of God’s holiness he dwells with his people but he’s still that separate holy God and of course we also see the Lord’s Majesty once again the inner portion of this Tabernacle hopefully you’ve seen that as you as you actually get to the inside it becomes beautiful and glorious the outside it’s more about practical use but inside that’s where you see the beautiful cherubim on the covering on the curtains and that that’s where you see the gold and that’s where you see the red the blue the purple and the Scarlet material all these rich colors and expensive dyes they’re all on display inside the Tabernacle because God is glorious and so his building is going to be is going to look glorious as far as man is or with the materials that man is able to make as God instructs perhaps we could say more but certainly we can see with the Tabernacle building itself God was emphasizing I am with you but I am Holy and I am glorious we’ll talk the last category how does it connect to Christ I’m actually going to hold off on that right now until we talk about the other the next two elements of the Tabernacle because the arrangement of the Tabernacle building with the veil in the screen and the court all have to do with the same connection to Jesus so we’ll come back to that one leave it blank for now so we have the Tabernacle building but this building is going to be arranged in a certain way with specific dividers let’s talk now about the veil and the screen of the Tabernacle this also appears in chapter 26 and this time we will we will read the text this is verses 31- 37 Exodus 26: 31-37 follow along with me you shall make a veil of blue and purple and Scarlet material and fine Twisted linen it shall be made with cherabin the work of a skillful Workman you shall hang in on four pillars of Acacia overlaid with gold their hooks also being of gold and four sockets of silver you shall hang up the veil under the clasps and you shall bring in the ark of the testimony there within the veil and the veil Shall Serve for you as a partition between the holy place and the holy of holies you shall put the mercy seat on the Ark of the testimony in the holy of holies you shall set the table outside the veil and the lampstand opposite the table on the side of the Tabernacle toward the South and you should put the table on the North side you shall make a screen for the doorway of the tent of blue and purple and Scarlet material and fine Twisted linen the work of a weaver you shall make five pillars of Acacia for the screen and overlay them with gold gold their hooks also being of gold and you shall cast five sockets of bronze for them okay so we got a veil and a screen here let’s make some observations how is the veil like the inner set of curtains that we discussed with the Tabernacle building yeah Emma that’s exactly right it’s basically the same made out of the same material and also is to display cherabin blue purple Scarlet material fine Twisted linen has chair Bim and is set on four Acacia pillars overlaid with gold these pillars have golden hooks each pillar has one hook and one socket of silver silver so total of four gold hooks silver sockets now we’re told directly the purpose of this Veil what’s the purpose what does it partition the holy of holies from the holy place now the whole Tabernacle building is Holy but the most holy place is the place where the Ark of the Covenant dwells and as you know from other scriptures no man could go into that except for the priest once a year this Veil is going to serve as a partition between the holy place that is the restler Tabernacle and the most holy place the holy of holies now as an aside we’re told where the rest of the Holy objects ought to be arranged in the Holy place the ark goes into the holy of holies but the table of the showbread you think about the Tabernacle again like this like a rectangle the table of the showbread is going to go on the north side of the Tabernacle and opposite it the lampstand on the South Side not mentioned here but remember the altar of incense also is in the Holy place where does the altar of incense go just outside the veil right so in the Holy place right in front of the veil so if this is the holy of holy place in the veil right here the altar of incense would be right in front of that perhaps between or or close to between the table and the lampstand so we have the veil but we’re also told about a screen here what’s different about the screen versus the Veil they’re very similar there’s one difference what does the screen not feature no cherim no cherim on the screen though it is made of that beautiful blue purple Scarlet material and fine Twisted linen no chair Bim and this time Five Pillars and this would go right at the entrance of the Tabernacle again the pillars are made of AAA wood overlaid with gold and we have five gold Hooks and bronze sockets this time not silver but bronze now from what we know from other scriptures how often did someone pass through the screen that is the entrance to go into the holy Place how often what’s that say the veil once a year that would be the entrance into the holy of holies what about the screen yeah Rob yeah definitely at least once a week it would definitely it would be daily because it’s not just the showbread in there but also the altar of incense which was required to be burned twice a day and also the lamps then had to be maintained so daily priests and Levites would go into the holy place but into the most holy Place only once a year on the day of atonement very good okay so we have a description we have a description of um these two items in the Tabernacle and we know their practical purpose it’s told us in the text they’re serving as dividers the veil divides the holy of holies from the holy place and the screen divides the holy place from the rest of the Tabernacle complex it’s the entrance yeah Eric okay nice MH oh that’s a good point thanks Eric thanks for mentioning that I’ll repeat the comment when we’re talking about the gold and the silver and the bronze of the Tabernacle certainly as you get closer to the inside the the holiest holiest place in the Tabernacle you see more gold and there’s also silver inside and bronze more on the outside we’ll see the Tabernacle complex it all features bronze but as you said Eric it’s not just the the valuableness and the luster of the these Metals but it’s the the durability that gold doesn’t tarnish silver tarnishes somewhat but bronze can tarnish very easily and that also is um connected to God and that um not only is God beautiful and glorious but we’re talking about um a glory that does not fade so it’s appropriate that gold would be used inside her Tabernacle and silver to a lesser extent but we know the Practical purpose we can fill that in in the chart practical purpose of these is to serve as dividers but what did they tell us about God the veil and scream yeah really yeah so like we saw already yeah God’s present but because he’s present he needs to dwell separate because he’s holy it’s a physical reminder the set apartness of God on two levels it was possible to come into God’s Most Holy presence but it had to be done in a particular way once a year or you would die and there was a more limited way to come near God’s presence but there still was a veil there still was a veil God’s present with his people and these dividers are needed because he is present God’s Sanctuary must be protected from what is unclean and those who are unclean they need protection from God’s holiness and we also see again that God is majestic because of these be the beauty of the veil and the screen so God emphasized is for us his majesty his Holiness and his presence what does it have to do with Jesus again we’ll come back to that now we’re talking about the setup of the Tabernacle structure we also need to talk about the Tabernacle Court this comes in the next chapter of Exodus Exodus 27 veres 9 to9 we’re again not going to read this section but I’ll summarize with a description but it does appear starting in verse 9 in chapter 27 what was the court we see pictures there there top right and bottom bottom right what we have here is a series of pillars and hangings that wall in a Courtyard area of 100 cubits by 50 cubits by 5 cubits or 150 ft long by 75 ft wide and 7 and 1/2 ft tall approximately the hangings of the Court are to be made of fine Twisted linen probably white the material for the pillars the pillars of this court are not listed though it’s probably AAA wood as are all the other pillars of the Tabernacle though these apparently are not overlaid with gold these pillars feature bronze sockets and silver Hooks and these are how the Linens hang on the pillars there are 20 pillars on the North and South sides of the court and 10 pillars on the west side and a special setup around the east side of the Court where the entrance would be the Gate of the court is flanked by two sections of three pillars and and 15 cubits of hangings while the entrance itself is four pillars and a screen of cubits made of blue purple and Scarlet material and fine Twisted Linen in other words just like the screen of the Tabernacle same material same look the tent pegs for the Tabernacle or for the uh the hangings on the outside of the Tabernacle and even probably for the Tabernacle building itself the tent pegs are described here being made of bronze along with the other utensils for the outside of the Tabernacle now what objects are in the outer Court you can see a little bit there but uh two main objects the bronze altar you can see kind of the bottom right of that top picture bronze altar that’s where the sacrifices would be and the bronze lav positioned between the Tabernacle and the altar those would be on the outside now who’s allowed in the outer Court well the priests and the Levites for sure because they need to do the work of the Tabernacle but also ceremonially clean Israelites this is where the worshippers would be Layman were by no means allowed to enter the Tabernacle but Israelites were to come into the Tabernacle Court to present their offerings and they had to do this soberly and they had to come through the one gate had to come to the one gate on the the side of the Tabernacle complex and the laymen were not allowed to pitch their tents close to the Tabernacle or its Court instead the Levites were to surround the Tabernacle with their Dwelling Places in order to protect it but it was allowed and needful for Israelite worshippers to come into the Tabernacle Court to present their offerings let’s interpret now may have just given that away a little bit but what practical purpose or purposes did the outer court or did the court of the Tabernacle serve what’s one of the functions of this court yeah it allows for Layman to actually bring their sacrifices in and it allows a place for the sacrifices to be offered when we talk about the animal offerings they’re all taking place in this court they’re not happening inside the Tabernacle that the incense and and parts of the offerings would have um certain actions that take place inside the Tabernacle the animal sacrifices themselves took place outside took place in the court and the Israelite worshippers be bringing their animals there so it’ be like a kind of like a transition zone where the worshiper brings his animal the animal is offered there and the priest takes care of it after that what else is a function of this court yeah Eric well definitely washing is going to be um part of it as well a lav especially for the priests that’s going to be important for him to wash um I’m not sure in particular uh what other kind of Washings might take place there but the lav for sure what else yeah Ro exactly right very good Roy this is like a buffer zone this is like another layer of protection for God’s holy place place and protection from the people of God’s holiness you couldn’t just stroll in casually into God’s Court no there was a big layer of or there was a a wall of hangings and pillars so that that wouldn’t happen you could come near God’s presence even as a Layman but you couldn’t do it casually it had to be done soberly but you couldn’t come all the way so we see this court functions like a buffer zone but also Al a zone for Layman to worship and it’s also where the the sacrifices are offered now what does the setup show us about God once again we see what we see the Holiness of God right there needs to be a buffer zone to his Holiness and those who enter that zone must still do it carefully and with total ceremonial cleanness we see God is majestic there’s a beautiful Gate entrance and clean linen all surrounding his Tabernacle we do see that God is again present with his people they can come near to him even the Layman can come near but not all the way they could not enter the Tabernacle or the holy place but amazingly they could come close but the fact that they couldn’t come all the way also shows us that man needs a mediator man needs a god ordained mediator who could go all the way to God God is with his people but his presence is not directly accessible to all Israelites would have to trust their mediators ordained by God to do what they could not do for themselves yeah r yeah that’s a that’s another good point we do see the the wisdom of God in just order that there is a very specific order about how his Tabernacle should be arranged and how worshiping the Tabernacle is going to happen and part of the arrangement of the Tabernacle court goes along with that so yeah that’s a good point Roy certainly we see that God is majestic he’s holy he’s present and that man requires God’s mediator to go where man cannot ultimately go now I’ve talked about these three items what does the Tabernacle and its Veil and its screen and its Court what do all those things have to do with Christ yeah right that is true we are talking about a picture a shadow of Christ but in what way yeah yeah so we’ve talked about this a little bit with the Ark of Covenant already but we’re talking about a much greater manifestation of God’s presence God says I will dwell with you but there has to be certain restrictions but in Jesus he dwelt with us in a much greater way and we had Total Access to Jesus everyone could or he lived with us he uh he was among us he was in human flesh are you gonna say something else Danny yeah that’s a great parallel to repeat your comment John 114 apparently the word where it says the word dwelt among us literally means to pitch his tent Among Us and of course that’s sounds just like the Tabernacle but this is a Much Greater Tabernacle Jesus himself the Tabernacle dwelling among us and then there’s something that happens in Jesus’s lifetime in his ministry that should directly link us to the Tabernacle or what would have been at that time the temple which was arranged the same way or similarly to the Tabernacle yeah Eric exactly what was significant about the veil being torn into two at Jesus’s death yeah this would have been so strange to all Jewish worshippers to hear about this or to know about this that wait the holy of holies is open I mean if you saw the holy of holies open that means you could see the Ark of the Covenant that was a big no no that would mean that you would die but but Jesus is death it says that the veil was torn in two so certainly we’re talking about um Christ being a greater manifestation of God’s presence he tabernacled among us but most significantly is that the veil of the the temple first prefigured in the Tabernacle was torn into two Mark 15: 37- 38 says and Jesus uttered a loud cry and breathed his last and the veil of the temple was torn into two from top to bottom of course top to bottom being significant because that means that man didn’t do it it was done by God God tore open way fully cleansed by or let me say this Christ through his sacrifice on the cross secures for his people direct and continual access into God’s Most Holy place and fully cleansed by Christ’s work we not only get to experience intimate fellowship with God now but we have the shest and most holy hope of a dwelling of dwelling in God’s Great and holy presence forever Hebrews 6 19 to 20 says this speaking about Abraham’s hope the hope of blessing through God’s unilateral Covenant the author says this hope we have as an anchor of the Soul a hope both sure and steadfast and one which enters within the veil where Jesus has entered as a forerunner for us having become a high priest forever according to the order of melkisedek there was no entering the most holy place before except with strict limitations in sacrifice but Christ once for all sacrifice was so great that it forever and once for all carried his people inside the Veil we no longer have to remain at a distance because of the Holiness of God and our own uncleanness Christ has made us holy with his own Holiness now does this mean that God ceases to be holy no far from it we must not lose our holy fear or reverence for God but Christ’s work gives us the confidence through our justification through our positional sanctification that is being um made holy declared holy once for all we have the confidence to approach God in the most intimate way as our loving father Roy you gonna say something yeah we have the to repeat your comment we in Christ we have unique privilege to do what only the high priest could do and yet even better than what the high priest could do because he could only come in for a short time once a year and he had to come in with incense he had to come in with blood but Jesus his sacrifice was so much better that not only can we or we can come in and all of those things have already been provided I was going to say one other thing the Tabernacle showed us that God had always purposed this God had always purposed for man to be brought into God’s most intimate presence but how could that be we saw from the Tabernacle God is Holy how could he bring us into his most holy Place ah through a perfect sacrifice through his son through the sacrif of God’s son himself God had always purposed to provide a way into his intimate presence and Christ is the way questions about these or other comments about these first three elements yeah Danny yeah just repeat your comment briefly so you mentioned that text from Revelation that says that the dwelling place of God is among men or the Tabernacle of God is among men and we’re talking about the new Heaven and the new Earth what we have in Christ with the veil being torn into two is something that gives us a a beautiful reality in the present but it also points to something that hasn’t happened happen yet we do have intimate fellowship with God we’re brought into his most holy presence and yet in a in another way we haven’t yet done that we will be in God’s Most Holy presence when we when we’re there with him in heaven and when he comes back to the Earth and when he establishes his kingdom and when he creates a new Heaven and a new Earth and that will be just as Danny was reading a place without crying or pain or or sadness and there won’t even be any light because the Lamb of God is the lamp lights of everything God himself if you’re a Believer think about this wonderful truth God himself has secured for you the most intimate dwelling place with him that seems so Unthinkable when you think about or that that seemed so um hard to understand when just looking at the Tabernacle like wait God separate God separate God separate you can’t come near you can’t come that near he says I provided a way for you to come as near as my as exactly where I am it’s amazing we have to move on because we need to talk about one more thing but the the Tabernacle the veil the court all pointed to Jesus hold that to the end Rob speaking of sacrifices there one of the element of the Tabernacle I want to look at and that is the bronze altar so now going back to the beginning of chapter 27 the bronze altar let’s read that verses 1 to8 we get the description of the altar where we’re going to talk about it and we’ll also talk briefly about the sacrifices that are made on the altar verse one chapter 27 and you shall make the altar of ACAA wood five cubits long and five cubits wide the altar shall be square and its height shall be three cubits shall make its horns on its Four Corners its horn shall be of one piece with it and you shall overlay it with bronze shall make its pales for removing its ashes and shovels and its basins and its forks and its fire pans should make all its utensils of bronze make for it a grading of network of network of bronze and on the net you shall make four bronze rings at its Four Corners you shall put it beneath under the ledge of the altar so that the net will reach halfway up the altar you should make poles for the altar poles of acacia wood and overlay them with bronze its po shall be inserted into the ring so that the PO shall be on the two sides of the altar when it is carried you shall make it Hollow with planks as it was shown you in the mountain so they shall make it okay briefly observe the description of this altar altar is made out of acacia wood but overlaid with what bronze not gold bronze everything in the in the court is bronze and this is in the court this is kind of a big alter five cubits by five cubits by three cubits or about 7 and2 fet by 7 and half ft and four and a2t Tall it has horns on its Four Corners all utensils the pale for removing ashes the shovels the B the basins the forks the firep pants all to be made of bronze features a ledge and a grading Network that network network is said to be or to reach halfway up the Altar and it has four bronze Rings through which acaciawood poles overlaid with bronze were to be inserted and this altar is to be Hollow and that’s a good thing why because it’s G to be really heavy otherwise and this was to be carried by humans so needs to be Hollow what did this altar look like well I’ve given you a number of pictures of over here sorry that one’s a little bit dark actually some different interpretations of it of what it looked like what did the network look like and how did you remove the ashes from the altar people have different ideas about what that would have looked like was it was it raised did it have like a a space underneath it you see the bottom right one doesn’t really have a space underneath it so some different interpretations of that interestingly enough this altar was not the only altar that God said that they could offer sacrifices on it was to be the main altar but in Exodus 20 we hear some Provisions about God of how they can create other altars and if they do it has to be of Earthworks and if it’s made of stone it can’t be with cut tools Etc so this wasn’t the only altar Israel could use but it was to be the main Altar and certainly no altar would be allowed to be used without the priest doing the sacrifice priest had to be the one to administer the sacrifice otherwise it would not be accepted by God of course Israel violated that rule many many many times what kind of offerings were to be made on this altars well there is the topic I wish we could do a whole Sunday school lesson on because God says a lot about his offerings and there’s a lot to unravel there but we can’t talk about it right now what I’ve chosen to do instead is on the back of the chart that you have on the back of your hand now is another chart it’s my labor of love I went through what the Bible says about five different kinds of sacrifices the main offerings that Israel was commanded to give and I tried to give you the information the main information about each of those offerings the five main offerings were the burnt offering the grain offering the peace offering the sin offering and the guilt offering don’t have time to go through all the details right now but I encourage you to look at those after class I think you’ll notice some pretty interesting things but notice a few things just from glancing at this handout first of all the animal offerings those that would be offered on this altar the bronze altar they all begin the same way how do they begin if you’re offering an animal to God how does that offering begin you bring it to the doorway of the Tabernacle and then put your hands on its head as a as a as a symbol of identification with the animal and in the case of sin offerings transferring your sin symbolically to the animal and then what do you do you kill it the worshipper killed the animal he lays his hands his hands on the head of the animal at it’s at the Tabernacle doorway and he kills the animal and then the priest takes it from there priest takes care of the offering from there that’s worth noting second notice that every animal offering is to be given to god of clean animals without defect had to be a certain kind of animals cows goats or sheep and they had to be without defect perfect offerings also notice the different offerings are associated with different purposes the burnt offering is said to be about atonement it’s to make atonement in general remember atonement we’re talking about covering the grain offering this purpose is not directly stated but it appears to be offer associated with dedication or trust I know God will provide for me the peace offering is associated with Fellowship thankfulness and fulfillment of vows it was the only offering in which the worshipper himself could eat some of the meat of the sacrifice and then the sin and the guilt offerings they have the same Association they were about purification they about covering for unintentional but specific sins interestingly those offerings for unintentional sins what kind of offering could be offered for an intentional sin a defiant sin does anyone know none actually there’s no offering for a defiant a sin with a high hand it says that person is to be cut off from his people kind of interesting that’s numbers 15 verses 30 to 31 one other thing to note for the sin offering we’re talking about the if a if a priest sins or if the congregation sins there’s certain certain steps that have to be taken but while the fat is burned on the bronze altar where is most of the animal burned outside the camp the priest is to take the animal the rest of the flesh Take It Outside the camp and burning in a clean place that’s for the sin offering offered for the priest or for the congregation hang on to that question Craig so we can we could say more about the different offerings but I just wanted you to notice those few things because they’re all really relevant for when we talk about Christ but back to our chart what’s the Practical purpose of this bronze altar what’s it for it’s to give an acceptable place to offer sacrifices an acceptable offer for sacrifices to God what does this show us about God well some of the things we’ve already seen God is majestic he deserves the best God is holy man needs covering and God only accepts perfect sacrifices we also see God is merciful he has provided away for man sin to be covered for his Holiness to be um propitiated and he’s provided a way for Fellowship to continue with him and his people how do these things connect to Christ it’s pretty obvious right Christ is our offering well he’s not only the offering he’s also the priest the perfect priest who offers the offering he’s the perfect offering priest sacrif is perfectly on behalf of his people but he is also the perfect offering who once and for all obtained covering for those who believe in him and he he’s the ultimate fulfillment of each kind of offering think about the burnt offering he provides perfect atonement think about the grain offering he’s the perfect provision from God think about the peace offering he’s what brings you your reconciliation he’s what allows you to have fellowship with God pictured in the fellowship meal of the fellowship or the peace offering and as the sin and the guilt offering Jesus was taken outside the camp and offered once and for all to cleanse us of all of our specific sins Christ is the reason that God allowed animals to have any covering effect in the first place for truly there’s nothing righteous about an animal free from defect there’s no spiritual power to that it was only because these animals suited God as pictures of a greater sacrifice that God permitted temporary covering to be obtained through these we don’t have time to talk about it right now but Hebrews 10 1 to10 explains the blood of bulls and goats is never able to make one clean but God provided a better sacrifice that did it once and for all if you have other questions about the bronze altar or the different offerings come see me afterwards we’re out of time for today also again I encourage you to do your own study about the the bronze Laver the anointing oil the garments of the priests because I think you’ll discover similar things to what we’ve already talked about in today’s lesson next week we move on to year two of the answered Bible curriculum the first quarter of the second year and we’re going to pick it back up with Joshua and God’s call to Joshua if you sign up for a workbook for next quarter please see me after I pray so I can give that to you let’s pray oh Lord I want to say so much more about the offerings The Altar and the different elements of the Tabernacle but Lord I praise you for this look that’s so sweet s God that you have brought us inside the veil we didn’t deserve it we were totally unclean and you made us clean you gave us your Holiness and then you brought us into the most holy place of course God you have called us also to live holy lives in light of that we are not saved so that we can continue to sin but Lord we do thank you that a once and for all sacrifice has Justified us because we do believe in you you caused us to believe in you believe in you you made a way and brought us to yourself and you will bring us to yourself just as you prayed you wanted us to see your glory and to be with you where you are we praise you for that God let more praise and understanding ReSound this morning as we continue our service in Jesus name amen

December 13, 2015
Worship in the Tabernacle, Part 1

In this lesson, we conduct part one of our investigation into the elements of Israel’s tabernacle. Specifically, we look at the ark of the covenant, the table of showbread, the golden lampstand, and the altar of incense. We answer the following questions: How did God want these elements to be made? What do these elements say about God? And how do these objects connect to Jesus Christ?

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okay well today we’re talking about the tabernacle the dwelling place of God as God traveled with the Israelites in the wilderness and into the Promised Land later Mon tabernacle be replaced by the temple but in Israel’s early years God dwelt in the tabernacle what kind of tabernacle did God want Israel to construct for him what does God’s design for Tabernacle worship show us about God and how does how does all this connect with God’s Son Jesus Christ Jesus says the Old Testament written about him the various rituals and signs of the Old Testament covenant we’re pointing to him and we’re going to see how that happens with the tabernacle you’ll want to use the hand out the chart as you follow along with today’s lesson we’re going to look at the different elements of the tabernacle taking a note of God’s description of each part then inferring the practical purpose of each element there’s like a basic practical purpose and then we’ll take time to think about and discuss what God was communicating about himself through that element of the tabernacle and what it also says about Christ I’m only going to look at four parts of the tabernacle today though as a lot we could say about each part we rolling a look at that the four objects on the inside of the tabernacle building and there they’re listed on your sheets I’ll talk about those other elements in a later class let’s pray before we go on father you are holy and we’re going to see that in a multitude of ways today you are exalted even the creatures that are around your throne are just so filled with splendor and yet all they can talk about is your glory God helps to see how glorious you are and also to see your sweet mercy that was already on display in the tabernacle help me to be able to explain it Lord and move us in spirit to believe you and to trust you because of how you reveal your character to us and Jesus name Amen open your Bibles please to Exodus chapter 25 this is where we start to get our description of the tabernacle after declaring God’s Ten Commandments to the people of Israel Israel’s leaders later shared a fellowship meal with God on Mount Sinai and after that God called Moses up to the mountain for 40 days 40 days 40 nights most didn’t eat anything he was just listening to God and this is when God declares his design to Moses for the tabernacle what happened at the end of those 40 days mention in last class golden calf rebellion but before that we’re getting the destructions of the tabernacle so let’s go back in here what God commanded starting in chapter 25 I’ll just summarize the first nine verses God tells Moses you’re going to ask the people or you’re going to tell the people that you’re collecting a voluntary donation tell them that there are certain things needed for the construction of the tabernacle and its elements and ask them anyone whose heart is moved to give to give then we hear about the first element of the tabernacle God describes in verse 10 and it’s going to be the Ark of the Covenant so let’s follow along look at verses 10 to 22 verse 10 they shall construct an arc of acacia wood two-and-a-half cubits long and one-and-a-half cubits wide and one-and-a-half cubits high shall overlay it with pure gold inside and out you shall overlay it and you shall make gold molding around it she’ll cast for gold rings for it then fasten them on its four feet and two rings shall be on one side of it and two rings on the other side of it which I make poles of acacia wood and overlay them with gold you should put the poles into the rings on the sides of the ark to carry the Ark with them the pole shall remain in the rings of the ark they shall not be removed from it you shall put into the ark the testimony which I shall give you you shall make a mercy seat of pure gold two-and-a-half cubits long and one-and-a-half cubits wide you shall make two chair of gold make them of hammered work at the two ends in the mercy-seat make one chair about one end and one chair about the other end you shall make the chair of em of one piece with the mercy seat at its to weds the cherubims shall have their wings spread upward covering the mercy seat with their wings and facing one another the faces of the cherubim are to be turned toward the mercy seat you shall put the mercy seat on the top of the arc and in New York you shall put the testimony which I will give to you there I will meet with you and from above the mercy seat from between the two cherubim which are upon the arc of the testimony I will speak to you about all that i will give you in commandment for the sons of Israel ok that’s God’s description and command for the ark as we do with all our texts one analysis let’s start with some basic observations you’ll want to note some of these things down in the description the word Ark hear the word for arc here is our own meaning box chest or coffin so this first part of the tabernacle the first thing God mentions is going to be a box but a very special box the boxes dimensions are two-and-a-half cubits long one-half cubits wide a one-and-a-half cubits tall common cubit is about how many inches not 18 inches we know that that measurement can vary depending on the region in the time period but about 18 inches about one and a half feet so we translate these cubit measurements in defeat it would be about three and three-quarters feet long two and a quarter foot wide and two and a quarter foot tall have a picture of the ark one artistic rendering of what the ark may have looked like it’s actually very difficult to find a picture of the ark that’s even sort of accurate because of the Indiana Jones movie the raiders of the lost ark that’s all you fine whenever you go for google images so if the ark may have looked a little bit different from that but I think that was the closest one to what the description we have here so I’m going to show you a number of pictures today trying to capture the elements of the tabernacle just know that there could look a little different from what i’m showing you but it gives you an idea I have this golden box um this box is made out of what acacia wood and then overlaid with gold but it’s made out of acacia wood and actually all the wooden elements all the wooden elements of the tabernacle are made out of acacia wood now acacia wood it probably came from the black acacia tree which was common throughout Arabia i think is still common in arabia today these trees can be quite large but they’re also known for their thorns you see a picture of those in the bottom left very tall thorns on their branches gigantic perhaps the same kinds of thorns that were used to fashion the crown of thorns that Christ’s work these are these are very large thorns interesting choice from the Lord but acacia wood aside from its thorny nature was good for use in construction because it was sturdy it was beautiful and it was fragrant so it was a good wood for using earth to build with the box is made out of acacia wood and then overlaid inside and out with pure gold Ark features gold molding for gold rings for which to acacia wood poles covered in gold would slide into those rings and they were never to be removed what does God say to place inside the Ark is testimony I think I heard you say that work and this is the testimony that God will give the tablets God’s law it says put them in New York and that’s why the ark is called what it is the Ark of the Covenant the Ark of the testimony it’s where God’s law is contained later on to other elements would be put into the ark a jar filled with manna and then errands staff that blossomed miraculously they also would go inside the arc so I’ve got God’s law in the box but notice the top of the box features a special lid called a mercy seat mercy seat mercy seat is actually all one word in Hebrew a word for mercy also refers to or can be translated covering or pardon and this seat is also made out of pure gold the seat features two figures chairman these creatures are to be depicted with their wings covering the mercy sheet now what exactly are cherubim or what’s a chair up you may have heard that term sometimes but we sometimes say like a really cute kid is cherub like oh you know my teacher I remember one of my teachers in high school whenever she was kind of like mock affectionately referring to what she’d say my little cherubs but that’s not what we’re talking about I’ll talking about to your kids I’ll talking about fat angel babies that’s another another way that people referred cherubs you know like those pictures the paintings that have it was like this little Cupid cupid type angels chubby babies not talking about those either what are the real cherubim now the etymology of the hebrew word is uncertain so we can’t break apart the name to tell you what is this what is it talking about we know for the passage here that the chair have been have wings but what else can we say about them and I mentioned throughout the bar they are mentioned a number of times the Old Testament is actually a cherub guarding the Garden of Eden after Adam and Eve are thrown out and it’s the one with the Flaming Sword but probably the most complete description we have of cherubim comes from The Book of Ezekiel the Ezekiel chapter 10 Ezekiel describes four cherubim in a vision that he has of the Lord in heaven you don’t have to turn his zekiel 10 but listen to some of the descriptions listen to some of the descriptions of the Chairman Ezekiel 10 1 then I looked and behold in the expanse that was over the heads of the cherubim something like a sapphire stone and appearance resembling a throne appeared above them Ezekiel 10 5 moreover the sound of the wings of the cherubim was heard as far as the outer court like the voice of God Almighty when he speaks Ezekiel 1012 their whole body their backs their hands their wings and the wheels they have these wheels associated with them were full of eyes all around the wheels belonging to all four of them is equal 10 14 and each one referring to the Chairman had four phases the first face was the face of a cherub the second face was the face of a man but third the face of a lion and the fourth the face of an eagle then Ezekiel 10 22 21 these are the living beings that I saw beneath the God of Israel by the river Chebar so I knew that they were cherubim each one had four faces and each one for wings and beneath their wings was the form of human hands very interesting description this descriptions actually might remind you of something else from the book of Revelation the four living creatures before living creatures that surround God’s throne though those who described having six wings instead of four so maybe they could be different people have understood these descriptions from Ezekiel in slightly different ways but to me it sounds like we have creatures with four wings four different phases each one having four phases human hands and eyes everywhere others have understood the chairman to be a combination of the characteristics of their faces of the different animals that is the wings of an eagle the body of a line the face of a man for instance so others see these creatures are having only one face and the one that says for it’s just referring to the four different creatures one has the face of a lion one has the face of a man etc so there’s some debate on the actual description of these creatures their physiology but regardless I think it’s pretty clear that these are otherworldly powerful majestic beings who do nothing but serve God and give Him glory they are around or under God’s throne usually described as being under God’s throne and therefore many times in the Bible God is described as being enthroned above the cherubim so God is going to capture a small picture of that on the top of the arc two cherubim and gods going to be above them now Israel must have known what chairman look like or they they were shown which everybody looked like because they had to had to depicted on the ark and not just on the ark we’re going to see later on that parts of the tabernacle have depictions of the cherubim too they’re told to fashion two of them out of gold on the ark now these chairman figures they’re looking in a certain direction where are they looking they’re looking towards one another and towards the mercy seat now God also says that it’s from the mercy seat or from above the mercy seat God will meet with Israel and their God will speak and give his commands it’s not mention here but we’re in the tabernacle would the Ark of the Covenant go in the Holy of Holies so the in the inside of the tabernacle has two rooms the holy place and the Holy of Holies behind a curtain a veil Ark of the Covenant is to go in the Holy of Holies right so we know a little bit about this Ark let’s ask some interpretive questions first how should we describe the basic practical purpose of the ark what’s it for well it’s going to hold the testimony yeah that’s that’s part of it and it’s going to provide a meeting place with God God’s chosen that the Ark of the Covenant is going to be where he meets with Israel it provides it does provide a place for the testimony but also gives a place for God to meet with Israel hello here’s some pictures of cherubim interpretations of chairman this is like a kind of more medieval iconographic picture here’s like a modern artistic representation and there’s another kind of modern interpretation of the faces but what we’re just looking at the practical purpose of the ark it gives a place for God to meet with his people but thinking now about how God wanted the ark to be constructed what does the ark say or show us about God what’s one thing yeah Steve yeah I mean this is a this is a small version of Emmanuel Wright God with us God is present God is dwelling with his people what else yeah yeah yeah the construction of the ark and its placement in the tabernacle also emphasizes God’s holiness even though God dwells with his people he has not gotten rid of that idea of separation he God is set apart even the Ark of the Covenant is set apart and within God’s Ark is his law God’s meeting place his dwelling place is not separate from his law his perfect standard so the Ark shows us reminds us that God is holy also the construction the ark is beautiful with the gold and with the cherubim so reminds us that God is majestic but then the ark has that special lid that mercy seat it reminds us that God is merciful God does not choose to meet with Israel on a seat of judgment or on a holy seat I mean it is wholly that’s not what he calls it he calls it a mercy seat a covering seat a pardon seat it’s only on the basis of Mercy that man is able to approach God we see these things rip emphasize with the way the ark is constructed and its placement in the tabernacle now how does this connect with Christ how did these concepts God’s presence got Majesty as holiness or as mercy how did they connect with Jesus yeah Roy you yeah so we’ll talk just repeat your comment you mentioned the lamp stand in the bread they’re going to point to cry so talk about that a little bit later on but here the mercy seat and how that actually that stands above the law and it’s the and we didn’t really talk about this in the description of the arc but blood is sprinkled on the mercy seat and that’s part of them what allows God to continually dwell with man that was a merciful provision but we see that in a much fuller way in Christ’s own life in Christ and sacrifice really God’s presence and God’s mercy are shown in a much greater way with Christ than even with the ark if the Ark is God with us in a small sense Jesus is God whether it’s in a much greater sense because he actually became a man it took on flesh he dwelt among us we call him Emmanuel present with us in a very intimate way and then opening the way to God’s intimate presence better than a once in a year passing through the veil into the holy of holies that the high priest would do you remember that with Christ’s death the veil was torn in two and the way to the ark was opened God’s instrument presence would not only in Christ’s incarnation did he demonstrated a very intimate form of his presence God’s presence but that through his death he made us that we could go right into the holy of holies we could be with a holy God he’s secured for us uninhibited access into God’s most intimate presence and he sent the spirit jesus said it’s good for me to go away because when i do i’ll send the comforter i’ll send the helper God actually dwells with us in us His Holy Spirit Christ sent his spirit so the presence of God is so much greater for us through Christ and in Christ then even in the tabernacle and how did that happen through the merciful work of Jesus unfathomable worst mercy God’s righteous son a member of the Trinity suffering shedding his blood for sinners a much greater display of mercy than even the mercy seat sprinkle with blood in the tabernacle we are probably say more but there’s at least a sampling how Jesus in a greater way represents the Ark of the Covenant and of course Jesus kept the whole law right he didn’t say mercy instead of law it was perfect filament of the law but that that mercy because of his perfect fulfillment the mercy coming to all of us who believe in Jesus so we’ve looked at the arc let’s look at the next element of the tabernacle the table of the showbread this one little note there God is Christ as a greater representation of God’s mercy and presence now we’re looking at the table the showbread so look back at Exodus chapter 25 I nope now verses 23 to 30 the table is what comes next follow along with me you shall make a table of acacia wood two cubits long a one cubit wide and one-and-a-half cubits high should overlay it with pure gold and make gold border around it it shall make for it a rim of a hand breath around it and you shall make a gold border for the rim around it it should make for gold rings for it and put rings on the four corners which are on its four feet the ring shall be close to the rim as holders for the poles to carry the table you should make the poles of acacia wood and overlay them with gold so that with them the table may be carried you shall make its dishes and it spans and stars and it’s bowls with which to pour drink offerings it shall make them of pure gold it shall set the bread of the presence on the table before me at all times hey stop there alright let’s make some observations on this part of the tabernacle table again going to be made of acacia wood and overlaid with gold pure gold the dimensions two cubits by one cubit by one-and-a-half cubits or about three feet by one-half feet by two and a quarter feet this table has a gold border gold rim and four gold rings on its corners for the Acacia poles overlay with old to be inserted and so that the table can be carried with the table are some golden dishes and jars and bowls to be used as part of putting things on the table and for drink offerings but what stands out in this description here is the bread of the presence the bread of the presence is to go on this table when at all times continually there’s never supposed to be a time when there’s no bread of the presence on this table the King James translates the bread of the presence as show bread or shewbread the word used for for bread the word use along with bread here translated presence or show literally literally means face but it’s one of those words that can be translate a lot different ways because it can be figurative and it can mean things like presence or countenance or showing that which looks etc but it has the idea of face this is like the bread of the face the bread of the presence but whose presence face or showing is connected with this bread I would argue it’s not the worst bursts not the priest it’s not man but it’s God this is the bread of God’s presence the bread of God’s face we get a little bit more information about the bread of the presence in Leviticus Leviticus chapter 24 verses 5 to 9 you can turn there if you like otherwise you can just listen Leviticus chapter 24 verses 5 to 9 says this then you shall take fine flour and make 12 cakes with it two tenths of an ephah shall be in each cake you shall set them in two rows six to a row on the pure gold table before the Lord you should put pure frankincense on each row that it may be a memorial portion for the bread even an offering by fire to the Lord every Sabbath day he that’s the priest I’ll shed it and set it in order before the lord continue continually it is an everlasting covenant for the sons of Israel it shall be for Aaron and his sons and they shall eat it in a holy place for it is most holy to him from the Lord’s offerings by fire his portion forever alright let’s make a notice a few more things based on that that passage it mentions that there are 12 cakes 12 bread cakes why 12 12 tribes of course one for each drive and these bread cakes are to be continuously on the golden table but when are they replaced every Sabbath and what’s done with the old bread it’s for Aaron and his sons to eat so it’s not just we toss out the bread no they actually eat it it’s their portion it’s part of their portion along with the number of the other sacrifices it’s how how will they get food it’s part of how they get food so the bread is part of the priests portion alright let’s come back to our chart here with those other categories and let’s interpret what’s the practical purpose of this table it’s the hold of bread hold the bread some other as some other implements for holding the holy holy holy bread but what’s the practical purpose of the bread yes it is offered to God ultimately it’s for him it’s for the priests practically this bread holds or this table holds the bread which is the priests food now what does it show us about God though what does the table show us about God an ignorant observer might think that this bread was being offered to God to eat much like food was offered to the various pagan gods in ancient times they offer the food of the gods that God’s eat it and then or they get their sustenance from it and then the the priests of the gods would eat it but God is in no need of food so this bread is not a statement of God’s need for man’s bread but rather I would say it’s the opposite it’s not that God needs man’s bread but that man needs God his bread and as his bread because this is the bread of God’s presence God’s presence I were to say the God’s presence is the priests bread and all Israel’s bread God Himself says later on in the Pentateuch Deuteronomy 83 or rather Moses speaking by the Holy Spirit he humbled you and let you be hungry and fed you with manna which you did not know nor did your father’s know that he might make you understand that man does not live by bread alone but man lives by everything that proceeds out of the mouth of the Lord this bread offering it is a kind of an offering but this bread offering was an expression of worship from Israel that said the following we not only trust you God to provide us with our necessary bread but we acknowledge that you and your presence are more necessary for each of the twelve tribes than bread itself this is the continual reminder that God would provide their bread and that God was their bread so by commanding this table and it’s necessary bread God again showed himself to be majestic this is a gold beautiful table but he reminded them reminded Israel in the priests that God is the provider God is Israel’s life and God is Israel’s satisfaction he is your bread his presence is your bread now how does this connect with Jesus pretty obvious right because Jesus says himself what I am the bread of life he’s not really saying that much different than what God was saying in the Old Testament God says you need me more than bread Jesus says you need me more than bread because I’m god i am your bread John 635 I am the bread of life he who comes to me will not hunger and he who believes in Me will never thirst Jesus is the greatest provision of God for us better than daily sustenance God provided us with salvation or to say better God provided us with God God provided us with himself Jesus is right to call himself the bread of life he is more necessary than bread he’s more satisfying than bread he is our provision he is our portion he is our sustenance in our satisfaction it’s true of God even in the Old Testament but exemplified even more in Jesus Christ questions so far about the ark or about the table yeah bill good question what does the mana stand for do you mean in the ark the pot of manna like the well a number of these things are described in the terms of Memorial so therefore remembering and there’s there’s some symbols that go along with that too but God sustaining Israel miraculously with manna was to be remembered and that’s why it was put into the ark saying look the God showed that he’s able to provide for you and that kind of like the table the showbread that he’s more necessary to you than even even you securing food because he can provide you manna so I would say that the year the pot of manna was for remembering what God did with Israel in the wilderness other questions along with that of course the the raw the blossoming rod was another memorial it’s like there’s no other priests acceptable to me except the ones that I designated which is Aaron that happens a number of times with Israel we got some people who are like I think I could be the priest to and gods like let me show you let me show you that nobody else could be the priest it doesn’t with the rod he also does it with um we’ll talk about a little bit later on with the incense people try to offer up incense instead of Aaron and they all offering it’s like more than 100 people and God just burns them all out and then he puts the incense sensors as part of the bronze altar they become plating for because he’s like don’t forget forget what happened anyways yes d yeah yeah it’s a worthy point Stephen I’ll just repeat it that we don’t want to go too crazy trying to interpret the different elements the tabernacle like you said trying to say what does the wood and the gold mean is that gold refer to the divine sign the would refer to the physical side pointed Jesus and yeah then we we do want to keep it safe we know that gold is beautiful we know that gold is valuable and that certainly emphasizes God Majesty but unless we have some some better indicators of what what the gold might represent or other elements might represent we want to not go that far we’re going to say something wrong right right right that’s a that’s also a good point Rob we know that these things are reflections of God and of Christ but we just don’t want to go too far and trying to fill in the filling in those details let’s move on we’ve looked at two of the golden objects one in the Holy the Holy of Holies the table would be in the holy place the other room in the tabernacle but now we have two other golden objects to look at and the third one is the golden lampstand that also comes in chapter 25 the last section of it verses 31 to 40 look at verse 31 with me then you shall make a lampstand of pure gold the lampstand and its base and its shaft are to be made of hammered work its cups and it’s bulbs and its flower shall be of one piece with it six branches she’ll go up go out from its sides three branches of the lampstand from its one side and three branches of the lampstand from its other side three cups shall be shaped like almond blossoms in the one branch a bulb and a flower and three cups shaped like almond blossoms in the other branch a bulb and a flower so for six branches going out from the lamp stand and in the lamps and four cups shaped like almond blossoms its bulbs and it’s flowers a bulb shall be under the first pair of branches coming out of it and a bulb under the second pair of branches coming out of it and a bulb under the third pair of branches coming out of it and the six branches coming out of the lampstand their bulbs in their branches shall be of one piece with it all of it shall be one piece of hammered work of pure gold nan you shall make its lamps seven in number and they shall mount its lamps so as to shed light on the space in front of it it snuffers and their trays shall be a pure gold she’ll be made from a talent of pure gold with all these utensils see that you make them after the pattern for them which was shown to you on the mountain ok let’s observe the lampstand made entirely of gold not golden wood all gold it’s actually one piece and made to resemble which plant it’s a certain kind of tree almond tree actually a picture of an almond tree over there a little bit it does look a little bit like a cherry tree or cherry blossoms has beautiful light colored flowers I don’t know you keep in mind not be able to see the picture that well I don’t know if it looks exactly like the almond tree but certainly the lamp does look very tree like with its branches and does have a number of flowers a stand is to have six branches three on each side and each branch is to feature three cups shaped like almond blossoms with corresponding bulbs and flowers now these terms blossom bulb and flower they translate a little bit differently depending on the version of the Bible and what they exactly mean is a little difficult to determine here’s one interpretation in the bottom right we see kind of flowers coming out of flowers in that in that lamp with cups at the very top so that’s one interpretation of the bulbs and flowers lots of cups lots of bulbs and flowers but how many lamps 77 and the lamps are to shed light in front of them this lamp stand is to include corresponding snuffers and trays snuffer’s for putting the candles out heard the lamps out and trays for catching the wicks when you trim them and everything is to be made out of a talent of gold talent of gold the exact weight of a talent of gold is debated though it was likely about 75 pounds so good amount of gold going into this lamp stand in its elements before we interpret this though let’s look at another passage related to the lampstand a couple chapters later look in Exodus chapter 27 verses 22 21 talked about how this lamp stand is lit verse 20 of chapter 27 you shall charge the sons of Israel that they bring you clear oil of beaten olives for the light to make a lamp burn continually in the tent of the meeting outside the veil which is before the testimony Aaron in the Sun shall keep it in order from evening to morning before the Lord it shall be a perpetual statue throughout their generations for the sons of Israel okay a couple more observations what is the fuel for this lamp stand and it’s lamps olive oil using olive oil from the light and the people of Israel are going to give it the lamps need this oil because the lamps art should be continually burning but what exactly does continually mean does it mean it never goes out or that it’s always on in certain recurring periods will notice verse 21 Aaron and his sons or when our errand in the sun’s said to keep the lamps in order from evening to morning in other words what period nighttime darkness evening to morning that would be when the Sun Goes Down and when the Sun comes up so the lamp is to be lit at night so it’s not that the lamps are constantly literally constantly burning but they to be lit every evening and put out every morning second chronicles 13 10 to 11 likewise indicates that these lamps were to be maintained and to burn at night only but why leave the lamps burning at night if there’s no activity in the tabernacle because a lot of the activity of the tamarack will be done by the by the evening might be a little bit maybe in the early evening hours but certainly there’s not stuff happening there all night why keep the link the lamp continually lit God must be saying something alright let’s interpret what’s the practical purpose of this golden lampstand to provide light you need light inside the tabernacle especially when it’s dark now what is God saying about himself in the lamp stand and in its light well you may notice a parallel between the lamp stand and something else that Israel saw that did not burn in the day but it did burn at night what was that the pillar right a pillar of cloud during the day with a pillar of fire at night remember God led Israel by this pillar of fire it went when it moved that night and it was also a sign of God’s presence during the day it was a pillar of cloud God’s light provided a reminder of God’s presence but all so it was a it was to serve as guidance for Israel it helped them to see where to go certainly we know that God is often associated with light and lamps in the scripture God said let there be light even in very beginning of the Bible God’s word is a lamp unto our feet as the psalmist says but I want to show you a couple other references get us thinking about light and lamps and God second Samuel 2229 says this for you are my lamp o Lord and the Lord illumines my darkness Psalm 90 verse 8 you have placed our iniquities before you our secret sins and the light of your presence and then Zechariah 4 verses 1 to 5 and verse 10 Zechariah has a vision of a lamp stand with seven lamps then the angel who’s speaking with me returned and roused me as a man who was awakened from his sleep he said to me what do you see and I said I see and behold a lampstand all of gold with its bowl on the top of it and it’s seven lamps on it with seven spouts belonging to each of the lamps which are on top of it also two olive trees by it but on the right side of the bowl and on the other on its left side and then I said to the angel who is speaking with me saying what are these my lord so the angel who speaking me answered and said to me do you not know what these are and I said no my lord verse 10 for who has despise the day of small things but d7 that is the seven lamps these seven will be glad when they see the plumb line in the hand observable these are the eyes of the Lord which ranged to and fro throughout the earth so when trying to think about why did God want this lamp stand continually lit during the night I think we can make a somewhat cautious inference based on how God light and lamp stands are discussed in the rest of the scriptures what is God saying with this golden lampstand what’s one thing that he shows ban himself yeah it’s a reminder of God’s presence I think we can make that inference based on how it’s always there it’s always lit at night just as the pillar pillar of fire was guiding Israel at night and it would be lit at night so glad you’re minding them my light is on I’m with you my lamp stand is lit what else remember it’s all made out of gold it’s a beautiful lamp stand made to look like a tree of pure gold with seven candles it must been dazzling this is a reminder of God’s majesty his beauty those things in his tabernacle are meant to be beautiful and glorious 2.2 God’s beauty and glory I think because of the association with God in light this lamp stand is also a reminder that God is the illuminator God is the illuminator both as a compassionate guide but also has a holy judge if you trust him he will show you the way even in darkness but if you sin his light will lay bare the dark hypocrisy of your heart even if you hide in darkness this golden glorious lampstand reminds us that God is the illuminator or minded Israel that God is the illuminator how does the lamp then connect to Jesus again the connection is pretty direct because what did Jesus say I am the light of the world just as God and the Old Testament associated himself with light as a guiding light and as a light of inspection in judgment so does Jesus John a 12 I am the light of the world he who follows me will not walk in the darkness but will have the light of Life if you desire rescue and guidance if you want to know how to get to heaven if you want to know how to be with God Jesus is the light he is the golden lampstand he will illumine the path of life to you he is both the light and the life the clearest depiction of God’s truth but if walkin apocrypha and sin remember John’s vision of Jesus in Revelation chapter 1 verse 14 he described him this way his head and his hair or white like white wool like snow and his eyes were like a flame of fire Jesus when speaking to some of the seven churches that were unrepentant in sin or had people unrepentant sin he reminded them I’m the one with the eyes with the flame of fire Jesus burning gaze will find out your sin God’s light Christ’s light will unveil your sin and you will not escape the judgment all judgment has been handed over by the father to the son Jesus is the a greater manifestation of this concept God is the illuminator both to guide and to judge so we have three of the golden objects accounted for one more that we’ll talk about today this one comes in Exodus chapter 30 it doesn’t come next in the sequence we’re going to skip over some things for now but look at Exodus chapter 30 and look at the final piece inside the tabernacle we do want to discuss the tabernacle structure itself but we’ve got the lamp stand in the holy place we’ve got the table in the holy place we’ve got the ark and the Holy of Holies but one other object in the holy place is the altar of incense a couple different versions of the altar of incense there have their rings at different design in different ways you can see in the pictures but here’s what extras chapter 30 says on about the altar verse one well over you shall make an altar as a place for burning incense it shall make it of acacia wood its length she’ll be a cubit ends with the cubit it shall be square and its height shall be two cubits its horns shall be of one piece with it you shall overlay it with pure gold it stopped and its sides all around and its horns and you shall make a gold molding all around for it it should make two gold rings for it under its molding you shall make them on its two sidewalls on opposite sides and they shall be holders for the poles with which to carry it I shall make the poles of acacia wood and overlay them with gold if you put this altar in front of the veil that is near the Ark of the testimony in front of the mercy seat that is over the Ark of the testimony where I will meet with you Erin shall burn fragrant incense on it he shall burn it every morning when he trims the lamps when Erin shrimps lancet twilight he shall burn incense there shall be perpetual incense before the Lord throughout your generations you shall not offer any strange incense on this altar or burnt offering or meal offering and you shall not pour out a drink offering on it okay we’ll stop there make some observations about this altar and its description once again I’ve got something made of vacation would overlaid with gold all the elements are either made of gold or overlaid with gold inside the tabernacle its dimensions one cubit by one cubit by two cubits or a one half foot square three feet high it has horns at each corner the gold molding two golden rings on its two sides now some interpret that as two on each side or just one on each side I think one on each side makes more sense because God described for the other times but you’re seeing the pictures that some interpreted as more than two rings and these tubing’s once again are going to be for acacia pulls over late in gold now where does this altar go precisely I think I heard something in front of the veil in the holy place so not just in the holy place but right in front of the Holy of Holies right in front of that dividing veil right in front of the ark and the mercy seat right near God’s very presence now the altars for burning incense when is the instance to be burned this is another thing that’s to happen continually perpetually specifically two times each day in the morning and at twilight so the lamps and the incense their activities happening with them at the same time in the morning and in the evening at twilight one when day turns into evening something happening for the altar of incense it’s that in senses offered it is burned incense burned in the morning incense burned in the evening and it is a perpetual act there’s always to be incense burning before the Lord and notice the warning at the very end of this section no strange incense will be acceptable on this altar nor shall any other kind of offering be offered on it just the incense that God specifically commanded is allowed to be burned on this altar later on we’ll see that there’s a prohibition against laymen creating their own infants of this same type I should this look at that section what kind of incense does God command well just a couple verses down look at verse 34 and God says precisely what kind of incense they should burn verse 34 to 38 chapter 30 then the Lord said to Moses take for yourself spices stacked and Annika and galbanum spices with pure frankincense there shall be an equal part of each with it you shall make incense a perfume the work of your perfumer salted pure and holy you shall beat some of it very fine and put part of it before the testimony in the tent of meeting where I will meet with you shall be most holy to you incense which you shall make you shall not make in the same proportion for yourselves it shall be holy to you for the Lord whoever shall make any like it to use as perfume shall be cut off from his people a couple more observations God’s holy incense is made of equal parts takta annika galbanum and frankincense pure frankincense the exactly then the stacked and annika are unclear not quite sure what those are some say annika refers to the shells of certain sea snails but the other materials are fragrant substances collected from certain trees and plants and they’re all they all smell very good now something else is added to this mixture equal parts these four ingredients and then also salt and salt was added these materials are to be beaten very finely and then likely heated on a sensor a plate with hot coals beneath this is not one of the types of instances where you can just light it on fire itself you need to have a heating element underneath it that’s going to cause it to burn and make its fragrance so this incense would have produced smoke and a strong but pleasant fragrance but warning her and we notice the warning here nope layman no Israelite is to make this incense for themselves what’s the penalty if they do it will be cut off which means some interpret cut off to mean exile but there are some constants context and the scriptures where cut off definitely means death so I think we should understand in that way to be cut off from your people means to die so they would be put to death if they make this incense for themselves okay so what’s the basic practical purpose of this altar and it’s incense what does intense do it makes this smell nice it’s producing some smoke and makes the smell nice inside the tabernacle but obviously there’s more to it than that what does this incense say and what does this instance in this incense altar say about God well again this is another beautiful beautiful piece inside the tabernacle made all of gold pointing to God’s majesty and they’re set apart nature of this altar and it’s incense points us to God’s holiness but what about the incense itself well surely this offering of incense is not like the incense that the pagans would offer because many ancient religions and even modern religions especially in the east they use incense as an offering to various gods and spirits as if the God themselves needed or enjoyed the smell of incense God does not crave or need the smell of incense at all so why the incense then what does it represent if anything some point to the use of incense in the book of Revelation for help revelation 58 says this when he had taken the book this is the lamb I believe it’s the land there when he had taken the book the four living creatures in the 24 elders fell before the lamb each one holding a harp and golden bowls full of incense which are the prayers of the saints revelation 832 for another angel came and stood at the altar holding a golden censer and much incense was given to him so that he might add it to the prayers of all the saints on the golden altar which was before the throne and the smoke of the incense with the prayers of the saints went up before God out of the Angels hand ok so does incense equal the prayers of the saints unnecessarily revelation may be using the symbol of incense in its own unique way and even revelation 5 and 8 do not use this symbol the exact same way revelation 52 incense is the prayer of the saints revelation 8 the incense is offered with the prayers of the saints so that’s not necessarily instance is not necessarily equal to prayers of the saints I suggest the incense of the tabernacle actually points to something else because notice again the incense produces a pleasant aroma and God commands the incense to be burned every day twice a day continually filling the tabernacle with smoke and aroma what else is said to produce a soothing aroma to God and was required every day we haven’t mentioned it it’s coming or think I heard it somewhere Roy right animal offerings and not just in their tabernacle but if we go back think of somebody like Noah when he comes out of the ark he makes an animal sacrifice and it says it produced a soothing aroma to the Lord animal sacrifices like incense which produce a good smell to God furthermore listen to part of God’s command for what the high priest must do on the Day of Atonement associated with the altar of incense and incense Leviticus 16 verses 11 to 14 then Aaron shall offer the bowl of the sin offering which is for himself and make atonement for himself and for his household and he shall slaughter the bowl of the sin offering which is for himself he shall take a fire pan full of coals of fire from upon the altar before the Lord and two handfuls of finely ground sweet incense and bring it inside the veil he shall put the incense on the fire before the Lord that the cloud of incense may cover the mercy seat that is on the Ark of the testimony otherwise he will die moreover he shall take some of the blood of the bowl and sprinkle it with his finger on the mercy see on the east side also on the front of the mercy seat shall sprinkle some of the blood with his finger seven times so we’re not going to get into the whole day of atonement ceremony but you remember the day of atonement is one day a year the priest actually goes into the holy of holies to sprinkle blood on the ark itself but going in to the Holy of Holies required a she of sorts what was the pre shield the incense it was to produce a cloud that would cover the mercy-seat the incense the burning incense would prevent the priest from dying while he carried out his duty so again we see a parallel between the incense offering and the animal offerings the burnt offering the sin offering the guilt offerings they’re all about providing man with what a shield a covering not really a shield more covering I think it’s more appropriate it was to cover the sin cover the uncleanness so that God’s holiness would not break out against that person the incense functions the same way it is a covering it has a covering nature to it so I suggest that the incense if we think about what was God saying with the incense its to reinforce the same concept that God shows with the animal sacrifices that is that all Israelites including the priests they need a merciful covering from God something to prevent God’s holy wrath from breaking out against them the incense is a symbol of that it’s a sweet smell in God’s nostrils so that God’s holiness does not destroy uncleanness covers that but we should note it’s not the incense or the burnt offering itself that soothes God’s nostrils God doesn’t necessarily need or care for those particular smells in fact I’m not even sure burning animal flesh smells that good but and there are times where people offer these things to God and he rejected it he says don’t get me any more of those offerings I hate them because what is it about these offerings that actually sweet to God that’s about the person’s heart right it’s about their beliefs and their love for God it’s about their faith this is why when we look at the the Hall of faith and we talk about Abel and all those types of things people who offer sacrifices their commended for their faith that’s what was so sweet to God and that faith demonstrates itself through obedience and through prayer and through Thanksgiving so I think it’s right for revelation to associate incense with prayer because really incense is associated with faith offering these sacrifices associated with faith in God’s mercy so the altar of incense I would argue was a sign of man’s need for covering there’s a sign of God’s holiness not just in its set apart nature but that in the fact that man needs to be covered there needs to be something fragrant before God so that his holiness does not destroy well that was certainly true in the Old Testament but what about Jesus how does this idea how do these ideas connect with Jesus Jesus has never called incense however if we take the idea of the incense offering and the animal offerings their whole point was to provide covering right and that’s what Jesus has done and he doesn’t need to do it every day or to continually offer himself but he did it once and for all so that that one sacrifice that one fragrant aroma was offered up once and for all and there’s no need for more sacrifices the altar of incense like the altar burnt offering was all about our need for covering and Jesus the high priest and he was the only one who was allowed to offer these things right the incense or the animal sacrifices he provided a once for all sacrifices sacrifice that permanently soothed the father and soothe God’s holiness the aroma of Jesus righteous life his death on behalf of sinners and his faith in the father forever cover those who believe in him and take Jesus has their high priest yeah well let me repeat your comment and then I’ll given my answer am I saying that the incense represented in Revelation as the prayers of the Saints has no relation to the tabernacle and to the incense there I don’t think that instance always necessarily equals the prayers of the saints but I do think that there still is a connection as I said incense the idea of covering is associated with faith and prayer is one outgrowth of faith when when a priest was offering incense before the Lord room when he offered any animal sacrifice he was demonstrating faith that God would show mercy on behalf of that sacrifice he said God I believe you you provided a way for me to be covered this is your way I trust in that and therefore i’m offering it to you so it’s not that the prayers and the incense in Revelation is totally disconnected from the tabernacle I just think it’s one outgrowth of it and so that’s why I think it can be said that the prayers are the incense but also the prayers are offered with the incense because the incense is associated with faith i would say we’re kind of running short of time but if you have other things you’d like to ask about or make comment about please see me afterwards we’ve seen four elements of the tabernacle but there’s still a lot more here that’s really rich that shows us more about God’s character and also connects to Christ well won’t talk about it next week because I want to stay on stay on task with the rest of the Sunday School classes but the week after is like our free day because it’s like the end of the end of the quarter end of the year so we can do we can go in a number of directions so I’m going to come back to the tabernacle at that time we’ll discuss some of the elements that we haven’t talked about like the bronze altar the priest garments the the structure of the tabernacle itself let’s pray father we thank you thank you for revealing yourself we thank you for the covering of Christ Lord you were constantly emphasizing the tabernacle that you are holy and you are set apart and that man cannot casually come to you it must be in your prescribed way and it cannot be deviating at all from your way and yet God you also want to emphasize that you are ssible that you will you will provide mercy to those who come to you that you will allow your presence to go with them in a limited way we seal that in the tabernacle but in a greater way we see that in your son thank you for Emanuel thank you for his fragrant offering thank you for his holy life applied to us and how he makes us holy but bless the rest this service today and Jesus name Amen

November 29, 2015
The Ten Commandments

In this lesson, we look at God’s giving of the Ten Commandments to Israel. We examine the circumstances in which Israel received the Ten Commandments, the relationship of the Ten Commandments to the rest of God’s commands, and the reasons God gave people His laws.

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last week we looked at the Exodus God kept his promises promises Abraham to multiply Israel to have Israel suffer enslavement in Egypt to judge Israel’s oppressors to bring Israel out of the land of their enslavement and to bring them out with many possessions God accomplished all of this he accomplished the exodus of Israel from Egypt but God use the Egyptians to glorify Him in one further act what was that act yes these that’s right the deliverance at the Red Sea where God not only brought the Israelites through the waters but he caused the waters to come back on the Egyptians and destroyed them here was another fantastic deliverance of God to be remembered for generations and Israelites are reacted appropriately as we talked about last week with fear and belief in God fear of God belief in God and we should react in the same way with that holy fear that reverence of God and belief in God because God showed Israel God showed the Egyptians and he showed us that I am is I am into that phrase i am the lord but literally I am Who I am but apart from God’s amazing provisions and deliverance something else stood out last week in our discussion of the exodus despite God’s displayed power what did Israel display they just demonstrated fear anxiety and complained they continually charged Moses and by extension God they charged Moses with wrong for bringing them out of egypt and into hopeless looking situations in the wilderness they questioning God’s love God’s power and God’s wisdom along with God’s choice of Moses as a leader now how did God respond to these first complaints of the Israelites he just graciously provided whatever it is they were complaining about you would think that God would have chasing them discipline them destroyed them but he doesn’t he just graciously provides them with what they cried to him about now later on God’s responses would be more severe but we’re see but we’re seeing we saw God is a God who is slow to anger he’s being gracious and patient with the Israelites saying you should have learned this by now but I will teach you again later on though his patients would give way to his holy anger and justice but these are yet the early stages of visuals journey so God is going to teach them again the Lord will always provide it will be in his good way and his good timing but he will provide do not fear don’t be anxious and don’t complain questions about last week’s material all right well God called out of people to be his own possession but now God is going to give them his law his rules for how they must act as a people starting with the Ten Commandments before I forget we’re getting ready to order our curriculum for the next quarter our materials for the next quarter and if you would like a workbook I want the free workbooks to go along with the class please email me or sign up on the sheet that I place in the back table you can even get up right now to go put your name and that sign up sheet that won’t be offended but if you want a free workbook go ahead and put your name in that sign up sheet so we can order you one and guess you won but anyways here’s our outline for today’s lesson we’re going to look at the circumstances in which Israel receive the Ten Commandments we’ll examine the Ten Commandments themselves and then we’ll talk about the purpose of the Ten Commandments and really all of God’s laws all of God’s commands let’s pray now father you are holy you dwell in an approachable light thank you that you have called us out to be people to yourself but it’s only because you provide it away Lotus’s we’re going to see in the lesson today it’s only based on your mercy that we can be your people because though your covenant is good though your laws are all good there’s no way that we could there’s no way that we could keep them so we thank you Lord for providing a way that we can be with you even though you were the Holy great exalted God we can be your people or give me ability to explain out and open the hearts of the people who are listening to understand believe and to apply your word and Jesus name Amen please open your Bibles to Exodus chapter 19 I’m going to start by examining the circumstances in which Israel receive the Ten Commandments now we’re actually going to overview a big section of scripture here but it’s important that we do this because sometimes depending on the movies we’ve seen or paintings or cartoons we’ve watched portraying the events of the Exodus and the Ten Commandments the receiving a 10 commandments we might actually have the wrong idea in our minds of what happened or at least the wrong sequence of events in our minds for what happened so let’s recenter ourselves by over viewing the events around the receiving of the Ten Commandments we’re actually going to be looking at chapters Exodus chapters 19 to 34 and Exodus it’s a lot I’m going to be summarizing some sections but also reading certain sections of scriptures so that we get a good idea of what happened we’re starting in the beginning of chapter 19 Exodus 19 we’ll ask a few questions at the end of this but Exodus 19 verses 1 to 60 I should also say before we look at this first step remember the people of Israel left Egypt after midnight on the fourteenth day of the first month at Passover that that would be the commemoration of Passover the 14th day of the first month was one Israel departed from Egypt admin at midnight now look a Texas 19 verse one in the third month after the sons of Israel had gone out of the land of Egypt on that very day they came into the wilderness of Sinai when they set out from ref freedom they came to the wilderness of Sinai and camped in the wilderness and their Israel camped in front of the mountain Moses went up to God and the Lord called to him from the mountain saying thus you shall say to this house of Jacob and tell the sons of Israel you yourselves have seen what I did to the Egyptians now I bore you on eagle’s wings and brought you to myself now then if you will indeed obey my voice and keep my covenant then you shall be my own possession among all the peoples for all the earth is mine and you shall be to me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation these are the words that you shall speak to the sons of Israel after this Moses comes back from the mountain reports God’s words to the elders of Israel they agree to keep the Covenant of the Lord and then Moses returns again to the mountain would their affirmation and tells the Lord God then warns Moses that no person or creature is to touch the mountain Mount Sinai if they do that person or creature must be stoned God also tells Moses to consecrate the people for three days and preparation of them hearing God Himself speak now look at Exodus 19 verses 16 to 20 so we make our way through these these events verse 16 so it came about on the third day when it was morning that there were thunder and lightning flashes and a thick cloud upon the mountain and a very loud trumpet sound so that all the people who were in the camp trembled and Moses brought the people out of the camp to meet God and they stood at the foot of the mountain now Mount Sinai was all in smoke because the Lord descended upon it in fire and its smoke ascended like a smoke of a furnace the whole mountain quaked violently when the sound of the trumpet grew louder and louder Moses spoke and God answered him with thunder the Lord came down on Mount Sinai to the top of the mountain and the Lord called maza Moses to the top of the mountain and Moses went up in their manor of chapter 19 God sends Moses back down the mountain to warn the people one more time about approaching the mountain chapter 20 begins with God speaking to the people from the mountain and telling them his ten commandments we’ll skip that section for now but let’s look at the end of that how the people reacted verse 18 of chapter 20 down to verse 21 now Mount Sinai was all in smoke because the Lord descended upon it open I’m sorry that’s 19 and in chapter 20 verse 18 all the people perceive the Thunder and the lightning flashes and the sound of the trumpet and the mountain smoking and when the people saw it they trembled and stood at a distance then they said to Moses speak to us yourself and we will listen but let not God speak to us or we will die Moses said to the people do not be afraid for God has come in order to test you and in order that the fear of him may remain with you so that you may not sin so the people stood at a distance while Moses approached the thick cloud where God was after this Moses again returns to the mountain then chapters 21 22 and 23 God gives Moses various laws for Israel and affirms his promise to give them the land of Canaan if they will be faithful to God’s covenant now look at Exodus chapter 24 Exodus chapter 24 verses 3 to 8 verse 3 chapter 24 then Moses came and recounted to the people all the words of the Lord and all the ordinances and all the people answered with one voice and said all the words which the Lord has spoken we will do Moses wrote down all the words of the Lord then he arose early in the morning and built an altar at the foot of the mountain with twelve pillars for the twelve tribes of Israel he sent young men of the sons of Israel and they offered burnt offerings and sacrificed young bulls as peace offerings to the Lord Moses took half of the blood and put it in basins and the other half of the blood he sprinkled on the altar then he took the book of the Covenant and read it in the hearing of the people and they said all that the Lord has spoken we will do and we will be obedient so Moses took the blood and sprinkled it on the people and said Behold the blood of the Covenant which the Lord has made with you in accordance with all these words after this Moses Aaron Nate a bana by who or Aaron’s sons and 70 elders they travel part way up the mountain where they see God in a limited revelation and they eat a covenant meal in his presence then God calls Moses back to the mountain and tells Moses that God will give Moses tablets of stone with God’s commandments on them thus Moses begins his first 40-day stay on the mountain stays there straight 40 days 40 nights during this first day Moses receives all God’s instructions for building the tabernacle these instructions are encoded in recorded in chapters 25 to 31 we’ll look at those more closely when we discuss the tabernacle next time in Sunday school next next class but if you go to chapter 31 verse 18 will see the conclusion Moses is with the Lord these 40 days getting all these instructions about building the tabernacle now look at chapter 31 verse 18 chapter 31 verse 18 when he that’s God had finished speaking with him that’s Moses upon Mount Sinai it gave Moses the two tablets of the testimony tablets of stone written by the finger of God now while Moses is on the mountain during these first 40 days something goes horribly wrong back in the camp of Israel anyone know what happens next they build a golden calf I remember not too long ago they just affirmed although the Lord has commanded we will do you suppose to sprinkle the blood on them but now X is 32 vs 126 let’s read that now when the people saw that Moses delayed to come down from the mountain the people ascend assembled about Aaron and said to him come make us a God who will go before us as for this Moses the man who brought us up from the land of Egypt we do not know what has become of him Aaron said to them tear off the gold rings which are in the ears of your wives your sons and your daughters and bring them to me and all the people tore off the gold ring is during their ears and brought them to Erin it took this from their hand and he fashioned it with a graving tool and made it into a molten calf and they said this is your God o Israel who brought you up from the land of Egypt now when Aaron saw this he built an altar before it and Aaron made a proclamation and said tomorrow shall be a feast to the Lord so the next day they rose early and offered burnt offerings and brought peace offerings and people sat down to eat and to drink and rose up to play meanwhile on the mountain God tells Moses what the people of Israel have done and he tells Moses to go down to the people threatening to destroy all of Israel Moses whoever intercedes on behalf of Israel and God relents of his plan to kill all the Israelites as Moses comes near the camp he sees the wickedness of Israel and he breaks God’s tablets in anger by throwing them to the ground he grinds the golden calf into powder he mixes it with water and then makes Israel drink it Moses then confronts Aaron and then a nexus 32 25 to 26 we read this verse 25 chapter twenty or thirty two now when Moses saw that the people were out of control for Aaron had let them get out of control to be a division among your enemies then Moses stood in the gate of the camp and said whoever is for the Lord come to me and all the sons of Levi gathered together to him just as an aside the phrase out of control translate a little uniquely depending on the version of the Bible you have the ESV translates it as broken loose the NIV says running wild and the King James Version says naked people of Israel are naked now Moses orders that the Israelites who persist in idolatry you persist in their idolatrous revelry ought to be put to death and the Levites carry out his order they take their swords and they kill 3,000 men of Israel order is restored and Moses then seeks again to intercede for Israel by meeting with God in a special tent the tent of meeting and then God calls Moses back to the mountain from Moses second day stay of 40 days at the end of chapter 34 Moses returns from the mountain with two new stone tablets written on by God right so there’s our summary of events just a couple questions for us to note based on those things how much time had passed between the exodus and the receiving of the law I hear murmurs how much time well it was in the third month and they had left on the fourteenth day of the first month so about one and a half months or one and a half to two months this date the reception of the law is traditionally placed 50 days after the leaving of Egypt by the Israelites this then makes the date of receiving the law 50 days after Passover which is the same date as the Israelites feast of weeks later known in the New Testament as Pentecost so about 50 days later now where did all these events take place and the wilderness but we’re now in a particular region we’re in Sinai the region of Sinai and these events take place that Mount Sinai this mountain is also called Mount Horeb in the scriptures and it appears to be one of the mountains of the Sinai Peninsula so that’s that area of land between Africa and the Middle East just the northeast tip of Africa now the exact location and identity of Mount Sinai is unclear and there are a number of mountains that have been suggested as the biblical mount sinai and there are reasons to see them as good candidates but we’re not exactly sure there are number of mountains in the sinai region now when the Israelites were worshipping the golden calf as as their God that delivered them from Egypt why should they have known it was wrong to worship that Idol based on the sequence of events we just looked at what’s that better yeah they had already heard the Ten Commandments from God no other gods before me and don’t make an image of anything you see on the earth or in the sky or under the earth they heard those Commandments they heard from Moses again later God’s commandments a little bit more expanded and they said we will obey these things so they couldn’t claim ignorance at all moreover God had already judged the idols of Egypt as part of his plagues and their theological heritage never use idols to portray I am so they should have known well now that we’ve seen the the sequence of events surrounding the reception of the Ten Commandments let’s look at the commandments themselves turn back the exes chapter 20 this will look at a little bit more detail Exodus chapter 20 verses 1 to 17 well look at each command and make observations vs 1 2 3 then God spoke all these words saying remember he’s talking all of Israel at this point 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 this is the first commandment to love and serve God only no other gods no one equal to God no one greater than God and notice here that even before God gives the commands he reminds Israel about who he is I am Who I am your God the God who powerfully delivered you from Egypt and now I’m commanding you these things that’s their first command versus 426 we’ll look at the next you shall not make for yourself an idol or any likeness of what is in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the water under the earth shall not worship them or serve them for I the Lord your God am a jealous God visiting the iniquity of the father’s on the children on the third and the fourth generations of those who hate me by showing loving kindness the thousands to those who love me and keep my Commandments so the second commandment is not to make or worship any Idol not any Idol of the true God don’t try and fashion an image of Yahweh because his image cannot be captured or his glory cannot be captured by any image and definitely don’t make an idol of a false deity God specifically ones I’m not to create images based on what they see in heaven on earth or in the waters under the earth and God gives a reason for this command what’s the reason he is a jealous God I heard one of you say it it’s his own character I the LORD am a jealous God who will repay wickedness with judgment and obedience with kindness this is an interpretive side note you see that the end we talks about judging to the third and fourth generation God is not saying here that God punishes children’s for the sins of their parents God expressly denies doing that and other sections of Scripture so as children are not to suffer for the sins of their parents but sinful behavior has a tendency to get passed down from generation to generation children do learn from the sins of their parents they often imitate them so God’s promise here is to judge all wickedness no matter how far in generations it goes to he will judge it from its start and he will judge it to its finish but he will reward those who are obedient so that’s the second commandment now look at the third verse 7 you shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain for the Lord will not leave him unpunished who takes his name in vain the third command is not to dishonor God’s name so specifically not to take an in vain to take God’s name in vain is to use God’s name uselessly or deceitfully that’s what the term in vain means it can refer to being useless or deceitful now how might someone use god’s name in vain either back then or today now they can use it as an oath as an expression of anger as a curse how else yeah Rob right using it casually using it nonchalantly using it as a joke also use deceitfully I don’t hear people saying this too much anymore but I remember growing up people always say I swear to god that this is true but you know they’re just a lot of times they’re not telling the truth so they are treating God’s name lightly as they swore by his name so yeah there there are lots of different ways that people can take God’s name in vain and isn’t it sad when we talk about reverence and gone reverencing his name isn’t it sad that so many of the curse words of our society and even societies other than ours are misuses of God’s name and that which is related to him like OMG God Jesus Christ damn hell and holy blank all these things they show a disdain or a flippant pneus about God and His Holiness yet they’re so commonly used in our society and I noticed the warning God gives with this command God will not hold you guiltless if you treat his name and by extension is holiness flippantly what would contempt now let’s look the fourth command verse 8 to 11 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 of the Lord your God in it you shall not do any work you or your son or your daughter your mail or your female servant or your cattle or your Sojourner who stays with you for in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth the sea and all that is in them and rested on the seventh day therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy so the fourth commandment is to rest on the Sabbath keep the Sabbath by resting on it and not doing any work now which day of the week was the Sabbath for the Jews this set of the seventh day which would correspond to our Saturday that’s our seventh day of the week and what is the basis for the elis keeping the Sabbath the reason God gives because of what God did in creation God works six days in rest on the seventh making the seventh a holy day and he wanted the Israelites to also reverence it as a holy day by resting just as God did alright now let’s look at the next commandment verse 12 honor your father and your mother that your days may be prolonged in the land which the Lord your God gives you the fifth command is to honor your parents honor your parents and notice the command does not simply say obey your parents obedience is one of the most important ways that children must honor their parents it’s not the only way what else is part of honoring one’s parents yeah yeah that’s a great point Steve thanks for mentioning that in the New Testament we see one of the ways that people were supposed to honor their parents but weren’t is that when their parents needed financial help the people refuse to give it by saying oh I’m sorry I’ve already dedicated that wealth or that those possessions to God I can’t give them to you so that’s one of the ways you’re supposed to honor your parents was to help them help provide for them what else yes sir yeah being respectful and the way you treat your parents speak to your parents whether you talk about your parents being caring towards your parents and we can say number of other things not acting or behaving in a way that would bring dishonor to your parents um I think I don’t know a couple others oh yeah speaking well about them promptly obeying them I know this is something that you probably emphasized your kids it’s not simply obedience but prompt obedience and obedience from the heart because that gives honour rather than okay I’ll guess you can make me do it no that’s not honoring to the parent this is what God commands now notice there’s no qualifier to this command your parents must still receive honor from you even if they sinned even if they act unwisely or if they are unbelieving God still says honor your parents but notice there’s also a positive promise to this command if you obey this command your days will be prolonged in the land that God gives you that’s what Khan told Israel in other words you’ll live longer you’ll be blessed if you honor your parents now we’ll take the next verses together the next commands together since their verses are very short look at verses 13 to 16 you shall not murder shalt not commit adultery you shall not steal you shall not bear false witness what did I want to go that far yeah you should not bear false witness against your neighbor so they seen the next four commands the Sixth Amendment forbids taking innocent life shall not murder do not murder the Sabbath commandment forbids adultery the 8th forbids theft and the 9th forbids giving false testimony against others now the King James Version translates verse 13 as kill not murder you shall not kill but does God never permit killing he does and what circumstances in certain circumstances of self-defense well even seeing that in the law depending on if somebody breaks into your home and if it’s night or today there certain parameters about whether it’s okay if you accidentally kill that person in order to protect your home and protect yourself so there’s that yes Rob yeah if God were to forbid killing then he would be in validating his own in law because many times he charges the authorities to put to death those who shed blood or those who commit certain other Grievous sins capital punishment is killing permitted by god and then god also permits the killing that comes with war now that doesn’t say that necessarily that all wars are justified but we see that God Himself Commission’s Israel to take part in wars so there are times where God permits killing so kill is probably not a good translation of that verse murder is a better translation it’s the dot its idea if you’re taking innocent life you do not have the authority you are not permitted to take the to the take the life of another person in those ways finally we have verse 17 the last commandment you shall not covet your neighbor’s house shall not covet your neighbor’s wife or his male servant or his female servant or his ox or his donkey or anything that belongs to your neighbor the final command is do not covet what does it mean to covet it often involves envy what we’re going to say okay I’ll repeat your comment the Hebrew has to do with delighting in taking pleasure in and desiring something what we’re going to say soon to want what belongs to someone else what’s what’s tricky about these terms when we say desire and want is that we have to understand them properly because simply to want something or simply to desire something is not necessarily wrong but it’s the it’s the quality of that desire the New Testament gives us some understanding about this one talks about idols i’m going to talks about lusts to come it is the same thing as to as to lust after something to want something so badly that you are not happy or satisfied without it it is to make that thing into an idol where if you do not receive it you are no longer fulfill you’re no longer satisfied it’s not necessarily wrong to want something you may say ah man I could really go for a burger today it does not mean that you’re coveting but if you it is wrong to want something to the point that you want it more than God where you say if I don’t get this thing man i am not going to be happy and i’m not going to be satisfied you have to be okay with not having it it’s not wrong to want something but let’s be okay with not having it because otherwise that is coveting and you can usually tell you’re coveting because you will feel angry depressed agitated or envious without that thing and yet some of you mentioned envy yeah and the often accompanies coveting because there’s a there’s something not wrong or there’s something wrong with you inside in terms of how you want other things oh yeah King Ahab Big Boss junior right yeah he wanted it and when he didn’t get it what’d he do he like went out it on his bed he wouldn’t eat me things like oh he wouldn’t let me have the vineyard I mean that’s a very obvious example of coveting and it led to other sin God gives a few common examples of of things that people covet about in this command coveting your neighbor’s house wife servant animal or anything that belongs to your neighbor not to covet any of those things now what’s different about commandment number 10 do not covet as compared to Commandments 2 through 9 you can see them here what’s different about coming but number 10 yeah Danny I’m very true right we can more or less verify whether someone is keeping 2 through 9 there’s an external aspect of those laws so we can see that it’s obvious if you’ve committed murder because there’s a dead person but it’s not so obvious if you covet sometimes you can tell that somebody is coveting but it’s something that’s inside as something that’s in the heart and then this way a commandment 10 is actually similar to the first where it says you shall have no other gods before me in your heart you must love and serve God only the commandment 10 definitely reaches into the heart it focuses on the heart now let’s have some interpretive questions about these Commandments now you may have noticed that the commandments can be divided into two two main categories what two categories yeah Denny exactly I’ll just go back for a second but the first four commands they all have to do with God and not really other people there about how you reverence how you obey how you serve God while the the latter six Commandments commandments five to ten they all have to do with your relationships with other people your neighbor so some have termed it there is a vertical element to the Ten Commandments their first fourth all about you and God and then there’s a horizontal element commands five to ten all have to do with others now why do commands 124 appear first we’re going to make an inference by think we can make a strong inference exactly its primary it’s more important and as you’re saying it chronologically it must happen first if you do not have a right relationship with God you will not be able to have a right relationship with others loving God is the only way that you’ll be able to love others so it makes sense that it appears in the law first conversely if you’re not obeying the latter commands you must not be obeying the former commands because they go together indeed these commands are all interwoven into one another so that there’s literal force in James exhortation james 210 for whoever keeps the whole law and yet stumbles in one point he’s become guilty of all the 10 commandments are all into woven together if you commit murder you dishonor your parents you dishonor God’s name you are not showing or you covet you you are not loving God and serving him only you violate multiple commands whenever you sin and it all starts with do you love and serve God only in perfect parallel to this concept of the the two parts of the Ten Commandments listen what Jesus says the New Testament when he was asked about which commands of God were the greatest Matthew 22 verses 37 to 40 and he said to him and in answer what’s the greatest command you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul with all your mind this is the great and foremost commandment the second is like it you shall love your neighbor as yourself on these two Commandments depend the whole law and the prophets another question Israel was forbid from worshipping idols in command number two but do people still worship idols today they do how what’s one way yeah we’re talking about nothing not necessarily statues but just things that people want which they make in two idols they make it more important than God it becomes an idol in their own mind things like money love power pleasure fame popularity success possessions definitely in the West we make these into idols even if there is no statute yeah rom that’s true in a way when we use the term Idol to describe celebrities or very successful athletes but they do become idols in a way kind of like if i could just be like them or if I could just imitate them then I would be happy if I could just have what they have and they and they become another avenue to idolatry that’s not the only way how else do we see idolatry yeah Steve hmm yeah you’re right repeat your comment Steve certain sins immorality definitely being a prime example they’re just idolatry even the New Testament makes that connection yeah any type of sin is a form of idolatry or covetousness so we can say that idolatry is very prevalent in that way even more obviously I would argue that when people create false versions of the true God in their mind that is also idolatry if someone says something like oh my god and ever since then send anyone to oh oh my god I’ve never sent anyone to hell oh my god would never forbid any form of love you can love whomever you want or my god declares that some races are inferior to others in order to be persecuted well you’ve created a God in your own mind you you call it the true God you may give it the same name but that’s not the true God you’re like the Israelites you make a golden calf that’s not the guy to let them out of Egypt even though you say it is these are the idols of man’s own mind and then we do have literal statues today various gods and saints are worshipped as idols some religions like Hinduism still use statues as part of their worship but idolatry has seeped in Christianity as well in statues and paintings of Christ the father Mary and various saints being worshipped now there are many rationalizations and excuses for this behavior we could talk about those maybe at the end if we have time but in the end veneration of the images is idolatry and it’s expressly forbid by the second commandment don’t make any image of God nothing of the earth below heaven above or the water beneath the earth another question oh I will just make one more comment God will not tolerate competition with any Idol as he said he’s a jealous God now Israel was charged with keeping the Sabbath though if you know if you know the scriptures you know the issue is not very good at keeping this command they often broke the Sabbath now why keeping the Sabbath be difficult considering that it’s a kind of a nice law you’re not allowed to work one day of the week why was that difficult to keep our why might it have been difficult to keep ah yeah it’s an extra day to make profit perhaps get you the pleasures that you desire and along those lines yeah Judy that’s exactly right I imagine if we had a law in our country about not working on one day of the week you’d have a lot of protests to that because people be like but I need that extra day how am I going to survive if I don’t work that extra day of the week and I’m sure many Israelites would think the same thing at certain points if I don’t work on the Sabbath then I won’t be able to get what I need in fact it wasn’t just the Sabbath day a seventh day at the end of the week but God even commanded Sabbath years and when it came to farming it says you can farm for six years but on the seventh don’t farm just let whatever grows naturally grow and eat that to support yourself but don’t harvest and store anything away and God even anticipates their question well what will we eat if we don’t harvest the seventh year and god promises i will so bless your harvest in the sixth year they don’t provide for the sixth the seventh and even the eighth year from that one harvest trust me and give the land at Sabbath but time and again is you’ll didn’t do that it didn’t give the land at Sabbath and they didn’t give the week it’s Sabbath because they worried they were anxious they couldn’t trust God to provide and I think also as you were saying and me that they had they had lusts that they wanted to fulfill and that meant get more money now do Christians still need to keep the Sabbath today part of the Ten Commandments but do we need to keep it the answer that is both yes and no depending on what you mean though the Sabbath is part of the Ten Commandments the Sabbath was just one of a greater series of ceremonial laws that served as a picture of the coming salvation in Christ when Christ came we saw in full what the ceremonial pictures had depicted and the ceremony is therefore were no longer necessary for example we do not sacrifice animal offerings today to cover sin because jesus is our sin offering accomplishing a once and for all covering we do not eat clean versus unclean animals today because Christ is made all foods clean to us by cleansing us from within we also do not keep the Sabbath day today because Jesus has become our Sabbath rest we are no longer trying to work in the sense of we’re no longer trying to work to perfectly keep God’s law because Christ did it for us therefore we rest by faith in Christ righteousness so in essence we don’t keep the Sabbath it’s been fulfilled but in another sense we do keep the Sabbath it’s just in a different way rather than setting aside the seventh day each week to rest from physical work we continually rest in Christ supernaturally accomplished work on our behalf it’s the same as salvation if you rest in Christ accomplish righteousness for you then you keep the Sabbath if you drift from that if you turn back to a works related gospel then you’re not keeping the Sabbath you are trying to work once again instead of resting in the Sabbath that God provided and you may ask but I thought sunday was the Christian Sabbath isn’t it the Christians new Sabbath well historically Sunday has often been treated like a new Sabbath for Christians but to make Sunday into a new Sabbath in the same sense the Israelites thought of it would directly contradict the teachings of the Apostle Paul listen to Colossians 2 verses 16 to 17 therefore no one is to act as your judge in regard to food or drink or in respect to a festival or a new moon or Sabbath day things which are mere shadow of what is to come but the substance belongs to Christ here with Paul saying there no one can call you out for not keeping the Sabbath Paul says because the Sabbath was just a shadow we now have the full substance it’s Christ now can you set aside Sunday as a special day of rest and worship to God of course but this is not the same as keeping the fourth commandment Romans 14 526 talks about this precisely all talking about people who have different convictions of conscience says this one person regards one day above another another regards every day alike each person must be fully convinced in his own mind he who observes the day observes it for the Lord and he who eats does so for the Lord for he gives thanks to God and here eats not for the Lord he does not eat and give thanks to God in other words if you want to set aside one day as a kind of Sabbath day to God in your life you can’t should not required to does this mean then that you don’t need to be in church on Sundays no that’s the wrong application because the Scriptures also tell us in Hebrews 10 23 to 25 the weird a holdfast or confession together we are to consider how to stimulate one another to good deeds to love and good deeds and we’re not to a forsake our assembling together encouraging one another is what we’re supposed to do when do we assemble usually on sundays so you got to be part of that assembly when your assembly gathers you want to be apart because that’s how you’re going to be able to obey those commands to encourage to receive instruction and minister stimulate one another to good deeds etc one final thought when it comes to Christians keeping the Sabbath there is also still practical wisdom in taking time off each week not to work not only to help you refresh and recharge yourself but also as an expression of the same kind of trust that the Israelites were also to express that is that God you know and you believe that God will provide for you no matter how much or how little you are able to work you want to talk more about the Sabbath we can do that later another question and I kind of gave it one way but did God intend for these Ten Commandments to be obeyed only externally or both externally and internally internally how do we know that how do we know that these Commandments are not merely external because some of them sound merely external yeah Rob right right that’s a great observation Rob one of the ways we obviously know this is because Christ interprets the law for us it says you’ve heard it said don’t commit murder but I tell you for angry with your brother you’ve committed murder you’ve heard don’t commit adultery but if you lost after another woman you’ve committed adultery in your heart so we see that from Christ Himself we know that the law also is internal but also the Ten Commandments themselves they show an internal aspect we saw in commandment 10 it reaches into the heart the intention of the Ten Commandments was always to go internal as well as commandant 10 and commandment one show us moreover it’s only logical that if the outward act is evil then the desire to do the outward act or desire consistent with that outward act is also evil how could we think oh it’s wrong to murder but not necessarily wrong to want to murder somebody we’re to want to hurt somebody it’s the same thing just hasn’t been carried out yet so of course yes the the Ten Commandments were always meant to be internal as well as external now how should we understand the Ten Commandments relationship to the rest of God’s law often hear the Ten Commandments being talked about in a very hallowed way oh the Ten Commandments don’t break one of the Ten Commandments how was the Ten Commandment different or related to the rest of God’s commands because after all God McCabe many more commands besides the Ten Commandments and many of those other commands had serious consequences if they were broken including death you say oh you break one of the Ten Commandments you die well that’s true in many many cases but there are other commands that you could break their will also result in death so I don’t think it’s good for us to say that’s the Ten Commandments were the most important or the most serious of God’s commands because there are other really important series commands to so how did the Ten Commandments relate to the rest of God’s law yeah Richard yeah that’s a great way to describe it like a skeleton or an outline or summary there like an outline of God’s whole law a summary of God’s whole law that’s the way we should see the Ten Commandments just as Jesus was able to summarize and distill God’s commands into just two rules love the Lord with all your heart and love your neighbor as yourself you can also summarize or put in two bullet points God’s law by referring to the Ten Commandments indeed just as you were saying Richard the rest of the law is presented in the Pentateuch will be applications and further illustrations of the principles given in the Ten Commandments say well if it’s wrong commit adultery will hear all the different ways that it’s wrong to commit adultery or they’re all the ways that it’s wrong to dishonor the the marriage covenant that God instituted or see that in the rest of Pentateuch and same thing with the other Commandments therefore it was appropriate if we see that Ten Commandments as a summary and as like an outline of the law it was appropriate for God to speak the Ten Commandments to all the people of Israel because in essence God was expressing his whole law to them he was summarizing it for them but why give Israel this law why tell Israel his commands what’s the point this is the last part of the lesson today what was the purpose of God’s Ten Commandments and the rest of God’s law don’t say that there are several purposes but what’s one yeah Steve got a number of good thoughts there Steve thanks for sharing those but first of all your point that many of the things expressed the law there were not really new concepts they were things that were already seen in the history of humanity and God and made clear that certain things were not right certain things were good and certain things were evil to him like Cain and Abel where he saw it of course murderers wrong or even that the creation the Sabbath was set apart as a special day and you made that you may note that but when God gave Israel these commands it was definitely gonna set them apart from other people and i would i would go even further to say that God was showing them if you’re going to be my people this is how you must act this is how you must behave this is how you must live God was showing them what would be required for his people to be in covenant with him and it goes back to it like he said Steve goes back to what God had done in the beginning what else why else was the law given yeah Craig hmm yeah we’ll talk about that more but just repeat what you said to show us what sin is Joe so righteousness is and by extension to show us what sin is and then show that we cannot keep the rules we to be accepted by God what else those are some really important aspects to why God gave us a lot yeah suit hmm yeah going back a little bit what Craig was saying but to repeat your comment this was to give guidance to people in their everyday lives but also to really make clear to them what sin is it’s not that God had never made that known like Steve saying there was some revelation even in the beginning in the beginning of those scriptures and we don’t even know necessarily how much people knew before the giving it to law to Moses into Israel but it was going to make it really clear I’ll say some other things and i’ll come back to some of the points it at you just expressed that you guys just expressed the law has a number of purposes and one is to do is good and if you’ve been a Christian for a while perhaps you appreciate this but God’s laws are really good they do not merely carry accompanying blessings mysteriously or supernaturally by God but the laws themselves are wise they’re smart if you keep the laws you will live a wise life on a purely practical basis the laws of God are good including the Ten Commandments related to that the law of God the show us God’s great character show us what he loves what he hates what he thinks or how he seeks to bless good and punish evil what kind of reverence God is do he shows us all of that in the law and when we unite that to how we see that the laws are wise and they bring benefit to the people who keep them we say wow God is really kind he is really good to give us this law he really is good he really hates evil he really is due reverence he really is great God’s law reveals God’s character and as you were saying God’s law also shows us God’s required standard God reveals his good character and we realized that he is completely holy we realized what kind of holiness was required to be God’s people and to dwell with him and that kind of holiness is perfect holiness complete obedience to God’s commands all the time internally and externally that’s to be like God and as many of you were saying if we didn’t have God’s commands to show it this would still be responsible to be holy but we wouldn’t have as good of an idea of what it looked like to be holy but God shows us what true holiness is what true perfection is because he gave us as lie says this is what perfection looks like keeping this all the time internally and externally but we know that none of us are able to do that even though Israel said yes we will we will obey these laws they very quickly were not able to do that he broke and less than or maybe about 40 days after receiving the Ten Commandments they’ve broken maybe half the Ten Commandments they broke out into an immoral idolatrous religious feast they were to be set apart but even in their desire their wish to be set apart as God commanded them they realized that they couldn’t perfectly do that but God never intended for Israel or for us to achieve acceptance by perfectly keeping God’s law that we know God’s standard of righteousness and agree that it is a good standard yes these are all good and wise laws nonetheless cannot reach it but that’s because there’s a fourth purpose of God’s commandments it shows us our sin it shows us got standard of righteousness and order that we might do what turn to Christ turn to God’s mercy the fourth a fourth purpose of the law is to lead us to God’s mercy in Christ I’m going to read to set two verses to you Galatians 3 21 to 26 in Romans 3 19 to 26 and good turn there if you want but Galatians 3 21 to 26 as this is the law then contrary to the promises of God may it never be for if the law had been given which was able to impart life then righteousness would indeed have been based on law but the scripture has shut up everyone under sin so that the promise by faith in Jesus Christ might be given to those who believe but before faith came we were kept in custody under the law being shut up to the faith which was later to be revealed therefore the law has become our tutor to lead us to Christ so that we may be justified by faith but now the faith has come we are no longer under a tutor for you are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus actually i’ll skip the Romans passage but it says something similar how the law was intended to shut up shut us up under sin show us that no there’s no way you’re keeping God’s perfect law and order that we might see God’s mercy we would say God your law is good but I can’t keep it I just need you to show mercy to me and God and this great character and his great kindness says I have provided a way to show mercy to you to the Israelites they didn’t know what that way exactly was yet but they knew that they had to cry out to the mercy of God but we’ve seen that mercy revealed in Christ God sent his own son the Ten Commandments and God’s commands in general were always meant to show us that we cannot meet God’s good and required standard of righteousness the law showed us that it was not that it was only on the basis of God’s mercy that we could ever be declared righteous God extended such mercy to us in the substitution airy work of his son faithful Israelites look forward to this provision and we look back all of us are justified by faith in God’s mercy no one was ever justified or meant to be justified by keeping the law by works Jesus suffers for the sins of those who believe in him those who believe in him to be their Lord and Master and Jesus gives them his perfect righteousness that they might stand holy and justified before God but that’s not the end of the law because God puts his holy spirit and the people who believe in him makes them alive and he enables them to be obedient where they could not be obedient before no longer motivated by fear of what might happen if you didn’t perfectly keep the law believers I’m motivated by love for the Savior who kept the law on their behalf and therefore they gratefully obey God’s commands so we’re not Rudy much from the law so that we might live licentiousness aves us so that we can do what we always wanted to do but we’re never able to do which to obey God la baie God’s commands the Ten Commandments and the whole Testament law were always intended to act as a tutor to lead us to God’s mercy in Christ you have more questions about this or other things we talked about today please come see me afterwards before I forget though so there’s at the beginning but in case any of you missed it we have free workbooks for the next quarter if you would like to sign up for a free workbook there is a sign-up sheet on the back table please go right to that after the end of sunday school put your name down so that way we know to be able to get you a workbook we’re going to be ordering that sometime this week so definitely do that now and if you’re listening to this video recording we’ve send me an email let’s close and prayer father your word is so great your law is amazing amazing and just the wisdom and the kindness of it Ten Commandments and everything else included but also gone and what it’s true purposes were and we know that one of those purposes that great purpose was to point us to Christ but we can never be found righteous by simply trying to keep your law because we can’t do it we can’t do it all the time we can’t do it perfectly we can’t do it internally and externally but you did it you did it in your son Christ did it so that those who believed in him would receive His righteousness and he would take their sin well thank you for that perfect provision we rejoice in your and the wisdom of the salvation that you have created the Lord that all glory would go to You Lord you do indeed deserve all the glory for your kindness for your justice for your greatness that will help us to enjoy more of that today in our service and Jesus name Amen

November 15, 2015
The Exodus from Egypt

In this lesson, we examine the departure of the people of Israel from Egypt, God’s deliverance at the Red Sea, and the complaints of the people in the desert. God was teaching something to Israel in each of these circumstances, and the lessons that Israel needed to learn are the same lessons that believers need to learn today.

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we saw how God raised up a deliverer in Moses and then how God sent powerful plagues against Egypt now we will see the children of Israel finally leave the land of slavery let’s review a bit of what we talked about last week last week we looked at the 10 plagues and Pharaoh’s stubbornness to refuse in refusing to let the people of Israel go why is it that God sent the plagues on Egypt there are a number of purposes all being accomplished with those plagues what was one of them Denny right right so going back to what just you said then going back to Abraham’s promise the promise that God gave to Abraham that his descendants were going to multiply exceedingly and then that they were going to come into the land they were going to come into the land given to Abraham that was accomplished by um bringing them to Egypt and then taking them out of Egypt by these plagues what else what was something else well part of the reason it was accomplished is because they broke Pharaoh’s stubbornness practically it took 10 plagues for pharaoh to let the people go now we know at the same time that God ordained that he said I’m going to make sure he doesn’t let you go before that but that was part of why he sent the plagues you know also that God said he was going to do it to display his glorious power he said it’s for this reason I raise you up Pharaoh so that I could display my power in you so he did that with the plagues it was to also show that the gods of Egypt and the pharaoh of Egypt were powerless they didn’t have the ability to oppose God reason that they had the power that they had is because God allowed them to have it Pharaoh rather and one other reason one other or two other reasons God sent the plagues it was part of a judgment on Egypt a recompense for what they did to Israel and finally it was going to be it was going to serve as an extravagant example through the rest of Redemptive history of how God delivers his people it was going to serve as an example of God’s power and compassion to deliver for generations to come one of the ways that God wanted Israel to remember the plagues of Egypt and God’s amazing Deliverance was through the Passover celebration we also saw last week that the Passover was a foreshadowing of Christ the blood of the Lamb covers the repentant believer and delivers him from God’s terrifying judgment that was first foreshadowed with the angel of death in the 10th plague any questions about what we talked about last week okay God’s purposes and the plagues were accomplished and now God moves Pharaoh’s heart to let the Hebrews go but God is not done with Pharaoh Pharaoh and the Egyptians still have a role to play in bringing glory to God and and in testing the faith of the people of Israel here’s what we’re going to look in our here’s what we’re going to look at in our lesson today we’re first going to look at how the Egyptians sought to forcefully jettison the people of Israel out of Egypt first they didn’t want to let them go at all and now they’re like get out of here secondly we’re going to look at the Egyptian pursuit of Israel and then God’s next astounding Deliverance finally we’ll look at the complaints of the Israelites as they begin to travel through the desert asking ourselves how can we learn from their negative example just a heads up to correct something that you might have seen in the bulleon we uh had written that we’re going to be having Sunday school on the 22nd but we’re not that’s actually Thanksgiving Day so don’t get confused about that there will be no Sunday school on the 22nd just the regular service but let’s pray as we begin our class today Father great deliverer savior there is no savior but you thank you for your word help me to be able to explain it help us to understand it and apply it in Jesus name amen let’s open to where we left off in The Exodus account the final plague the death of the firstborn take your Bibles go to Exodus 12 Exodus 12: 29-41 we’re going to read this text Exodus 12 vers 29- 41 starting at verse 29 now it came about at midnight that the Lord struck all the firstborn in the land of Egypt from the firstborn of pharaoh who sat on his throne to the firstborn of the captive who was in the dungeon and all the firstborn of cattle Pharaoh Rose in the night he and all his servants and all the Egyptians and there was a great cry in Egypt but there was no home where there was not someone dead then he called for Moses and Aaron at night and said rise up get out from among my people both you and the sons of Israel and go Worship the Lord as you have said take both your flocks and your herds as you have said and go and bless me also the Egyptians urged the people to send them out of the land in haste for they said we will all be dead so the people took their dough before it was leavened with their kneading bows bound up in the clothes on their shoulders now the sons of Israel had done according to the word of Moses for they had requested from the Egyptians articles of silver and articles of gold and clothing and the Lord had given the people favor in the sight of the Egyptians so that they let them have the request thus they plundered the Egyptians now the sons of Israel journeyed from Ram e to suc about 600,000 men on foot aside from children a mixed multitude also went up with them along with flocks and herds a very large number of livestock they baked the dough which they had brought out of Egypt into cakes of unleavened bread for he had not become leavened since they were driven out of Egypt and could not delay nor had they prepared any provisions for themselves at the time that the sons of Israel lived in Egypt was 430 years and at the end of 430 years to the very day all the hosts of the Lord went out from the land of Egypt okay The Exodus has finally happened let’s make some observations on this text after the final plague and the great outcry of sorrow in Egypt what two demands does pharaoh make of Moses and Aaron has two demands what’s one of them yeah Danny get out get out and bless me bless me also he throws that in right at the end when someone seeks a blessing from someone else do they usually seek it from someone inferior or Superior Superior this is actually the same point the writer of Hebrew makes when he’s talking about melkisedek uh just a quote Hebrews 7:7 to you the writer says without any dispute the Lesser is blessed by the greater that’s usually how it works the one who is greater blesses the Lesser note that the Egyptians also the Egyptian people also urg the Hebrews to leave quickly why is that they’re afraid they say we’re all going to die if we don’t get these Hebrews away from us the Hebrews do leave quickly so fast that they don’t even have time to do what to wait for the bread to leaven the bread to rise and they actually the text says they didn’t have time to prepare any provisions the fact that their bread remained unleavened was going to be part of their Passover celebration it says you remember when you were driven out of Egypt so quickly didn’t have time to wait for your bread to leaven I want you to remember that by always eating unleavened bread during the Passover but before the Hebrews set out they did do something they had done it before they were driven out and that was collect all sorts of valuables silver gold objects and clothing God had instructed Moses to tell the Hebrews to actually request these things from their Egyptian slave masters can can you imagine how awkward that conversation must have been the Egyptians have oppressed the Hebrews for decades then suffered under a series of devastating judgments resulting in the destruction of Egyptian society and the death of many Egyptian family members and then the Hebrew slaves come up and ask master or mistress would it be all right for me to have your gold and silver jewelry and maybe some of your beautiful and comfortable clothes but the Egyptians readily Grant these requests why to the text the lord gave them favor that’s right God gave them favor it says in the sight of the Egyptians I’m sure a great fear had come over the Egyptians by this point so they didn’t do what they didn’t want to do anything to wrong the Hebrews and if the Hebrews wanted something they gave it to them and it’s not like the Hebrews took a handful of things the text calls it a plundering The Riches of Egypt were now being carried off by it former slaves without any Uprising without any battle without any violence at least from the Israelites this was obviously the hand of God and God had foretold this he had promised this even as far back as Abraham Genesis 15:14 but I will also judge the nation whom they will serve and afterward they will come out with many possessions and this was just the start of God’s Bountiful outpouring to his people Not only would God provide for the Israelites as they journey through the Wilderness but when they actually got to Canaan God was going to give Israel cities and farms and Vineyards that they did not buy or build someone else built them God judged that nation and gave those things to the Israelites God was going to give all of Canaan to Israel and this shows the generous gracious Covenant keeping nature of God but back to our text in Exodus 12 how many people are said to have left Egypt in the Exodus 600,000 men says 600,000 men but there are other people not accounted in that number a good estimate often given for the number of um people leaving Egypt in The Exodus is around 2 million there’s 600,000 men there probably a number of women and children so that the total number be close to 2 million that’s a lot more than the 70 that came down to Egypt with Jacob over 430 years 70 people had become 2 million Remember The Exodus takes place probably between 1500 and 1400 BC notice though that the text says a mixed multitude went up with them a mixed multitude means that some non-hebrews went with them so other semites probably or or people of other ethnicities even Egyptians some of them left Egypt with the Israelites they’re realizing the power of God the power of the god of the Hebrews and they want to go with the Israelites so more than two million men women children Hebrews and non-hebrews went up from Egypt along with abundant livestock and they leave the city of Ramsey and they come to suth in terms of interpreting this text it’s pretty straightforward just want to mention one point now that we’ve made some observations but it’s pretty clear God keeps his promises God keeps his promises what happened to Israel through their experience in Egypt was not what many of them expected and it involved oppression and pain and hardship but now God had brought to pass exactly what he had what he had said he would do Abraham’s children had become a great nation and they were leaving Egypt to take possession of the land promised to Abraham question so far yeah Danny that’s a good question Danny just to repeat your question when it says the Lord gave him favor that does that indicate a willingness a desire on the behalf of the Egyptians to give these things to the Israelites it’s possible we can’t really get inside the mind of the Egyptians at this point I think we can certainly conjecture that because of all that’s happened because of the the judgments that have come down on Egypt that they might have been afraid it might have been that that same sort of respect that the that the people in the New Testament who were not Believers when they saw what was happening with the church and they saw the anas and the fires were consumed by God it says that the great fear Came Upon um the people and even those who didn’t join them really respected them so certainly we can say that there’s some sort of reverence for the people was there also a desire to do them good perhaps I don’t know if I don’t know if I can say for sure what were you gonna say Roy people would be yeah yeah that’s a good point Ro just to repeat what you were saying that whatever way the Egyptians were giving favor we know that was actually um happening because God was making it happen I mean we could imagine that because of all these terrible things happening in Egypt when the the Israelites make this request the Egyptians be like no you’re like the cause of all my problems they’ll dare think that you’re going to have any sort of gift from me God says that’s not what I’m going to allow happen I’m going to actually make it so that you give them all your stuff so whatever way God did that it was um it was an astounding happening that they would leave Egypt with all with all those things other questions or comments Okay so we’ve looked at the the first part how the Israelites are driven out of Egypt but God has not done showing forth his glory in Deliverance God has never done showing his glory the Israelites may have expected that everything from then on now that they’re out of Egypt would be smooth sailing but God had different plans let’s now turn to Exodus 13 look at verse 17 we’re going to actually read a pretty long section here Exodus 13:17 to 14:31 so please read along with me let’s pay attention to this text Exodus 13:17 now when Pharaoh had let the people go God did not lead them by the way of the land of the Philistines even though it was near for God said the people might change their minds when they see war and return to Egypt hence God led the people around by the way of the Wilderness to the Red Sea and the sons of Israel went up in Marshal array from the land of Egypt Moses took the bones of Joseph with him for he had made the sons of Israel solemnly swear saying God will surely take care of you and you shall carry my bones from here with you then they set out from suck and camped in ethm on the edge of the Wilderness then the Lord was going before them in a pillar of cloud by day to lead them on the way and a pillar of Fire by night to give them light that they might travel by day and by night it did not take away the pillar of cloud by day nor the pillar of Fire by night from before the people now the Lord spoke to Moses saying tell the sons of Israel to turn back and Camp before paharo between migdal and the Sea you shall camp in front of Bale zon opposite it by the Sea for Pharaoh will say of the sons of Israel they are wly wandering aimlessly in the land the Wilderness has shut them in thus I will harden Pharaoh’s heart and he will chase after them and I will be honored through pharaoh and all his Army and the Egyptians will know that I am the Lord and they did so when the king of Egypt was told that the people had fled pharaoh and and his servants had a change of heart toward the people and they saidwhat is this we have done that we have let Israel go from serving us so he made his Chariot ready and took his people with him he took 600 select chariots and all the other Chariots of Egypt with officers over all of them the Lord hardened the heart of pharaoh king of Egypt and he chased after the sons of Israel as the sons of Israel were going out boldly then the Egyptians chased after them with all the horses and Chariots of to Pharaoh his Horsemen and his army and they overtook them camping by the Sea beside paharo in front of ba zon as Pharaoh Drew near the sons of Israel looked and behold the Egyptians were marching after them and they became very frightened so the sons of Israel cried out to the Lord then they said to Moses is it because there were no graves in Egypt that you have taken us away to die in the wilderness why have you dealt with us in this way bringing us out of Egypt is this not the word that we spoke to you in Egypt saying leave us alone that we may serve the Egyptians would have been better for us to serve the Egyptians than to die in the wilderness but Moses said to the people do not fear stand by and see the salvation of the Lord which he will accomplish for you today for the Egyptians whom you have seen today you will never see them again forever the Lord will fight for you while you keep silent then the Lord said to Moses why are you crying out to me tell the sons of Israel to go forward as for you lift up your staff and stretch out your hand over the sea and divide it and the sons of Israel shall go through the midst of the sea on dry land as for me behold I will harden the hearts of the Egyptians so that they will go in after them and I will be honored through pharaoh and all his army through his chariots and his Horsemen then the Egyptians will know that I am the Lord when I am honored through pharaoh through his chariots and the horsemen the angel of God who had been going before the camp of Israel moved and went behind them and the pillar of cloud moved from before them and stood behind them so it came between the camp of Egypt and the camp of Israel and there was the cloud along with the darkness yet it gave light at night thus the one did not come near the other all night then Moses stretched out his hand over the sea and the Lord swept the sea back by a strong East Wind all night and turned the sea into dry land so the waters were divided the sons of Israel went through the midst of the Sea on the dry land and the waters were like a wall to them on their right hand and on their left then the Egyptians took up the pursuit and all Pharaoh’s horses his chariots and his Horsemen went in after them into the midst of the sea at the morning watch the Lord looked down on the army of the Egyptians through the pillar of fire and cloud and brought the army of the Egyptians into confusion he caused their chariot wheels to swerve and he made them drive with difficulty so the Egyptians said let us flee from Israel for the Lord is fighting for them against the Egyptians then the Lord said to Moses stretch out your hand over the sea so that the waters may come back over the Egyptians over their chariots and their Horsemen so Moses stretched out his hand over the sea and the Sea returned to its normal State at Daybreak while the Egyptians were fleeing right into it then the Lord overthrew the Egyptians in the midst of the Sea The Waters returned and covered the Chariots and the horsemen even Pharaoh’s entire Army that had gone into the sea after them not even one of them remained but the sons of Israel walked on dry land through the midst of the Sea and the waters were like a wall to them on the right hand and on their left thus the Lord saved Israel that day from the hand of the Egyptians and Israel saw the Egyptians dead on the seashore when Israel saw the great power which the Lord had used against the Egyptians the people feared the Lord and they believed in the Lord and in his servant Moses okay made it big section let’s make some observations now on this rather large text Israelites leave Egypt making sure to grab Joseph’s bones and they follow God’s Direction God Appears in the the angel of the Lord rather well God Appears in a pillar of cloud by day and a pillar of Fire by night and which direction do they go well they appear to have gone Southeast from Goan you know Goan is the eastern part of the Nile Delta Region they appear to have gone Southeast though there’s considerable debate upon about the exact route of Israel’s Journey after they leave Egypt we have a pretty good idea of where Ramsey and suak are those ancient cities but the rest of the locations are a little bit more difficult to discern correctly identifying Israel’s exact route through the Wilderness really centers around one question where was the sea that the Israelites crossed talk more about that a little bit later one thing we can say though based on the text is that God did not lead the people of Israel by the way of the Philistines even though the text says that route was near would have made sense to go that way what’s the reason they didn’t go that way well again the text tells us the route would have caused Israel to see War which God says would cause the Israelites to want to turn back what was the way of the land of the Philistines can we figure that out let’s think where do the Philistines live remember one of their towns or their area I think it’s the name one of their towns is Gaza so you think about Gaza where would the Philistines have lived based on today’s Maps yeah where where um the Gaza Strip in the western part of Palestine so if’ got Israel right here that little section next to the Mediterranean would be where the Philistines lived and that’s actually where we find the Philistine settlements like um um what’s the name of Goliath Town yeah um gath and other places so Philistines lived right along the Mediterranean Sea this route was was the viamar that we actually referred to in a in a previous section that was also called The Way of the Philistines actually viamar was a later name but the way of the Philistines was one of the ways it was referred to in this ancient time it was the quickest route from Egypt to Canaan it also however was the most fortified route there were a number of Egyptian Fortress fortresses along this way as well as Canaanite strongholds going this route would have meant a lot of warfare quickly and constantly and God did not want that for the Israelites so he takes them on a different longer route God leads them in this other direction but then tells them to turn back and has Israel encamp in front of a sea what does this action cause pharaoh to believe yeah they are lost they are lost the Wilderness has shut them in the desert has shut them in they see that there’s a desert and they don’t know how to proceed and they’re just wandering around with no purpose um when Pharaoh hears the news of Israel he and his servants have a change of heart the Lord hardening their hearts and they set out with Pharaoh’s Army after Israel the Egyptians were again coming to kill and enslave but God for ordained that this would happen and he even tells Moses why why was God causing the Egyptians to pursue yes excuse me he would be honed exactly he says I will be honored through pharaoh and his Army and the Egyptians will know what will they know this the text says they will know that I am the Lord you notice the word Lord there is God’s name they will know that I am who I am same thing that God said to Moses they’ll know that I am God that I am the self-existent one I’m going to testify to the Egyptians through what I do to pharaoh and his army now notice that Pharaoh goes after them with 600 chariots along with many Horsemen chariots were very feared in ancient times you’ll notice that in the early Old Testament when chariots are being used the Hebrews are often hesitant to go to battle when they hear that there will be chariots involved oh they’ve got iron chariots oh I don’t know if we can defeat them chariots were fearsome war machines they function as mobile archery platforms with a couple people on there with a whole bunch of arrows just continually shooting at enemy combatants verse 8 says the Hebrews had left Egypt boldly but when they see Pharaoh’s Army how do the Hebrews react they are frightened and what do they do they cry out to God but this is not the Cry of Faith or at least not holy because it says they complained against Moses we see their complain against Moses and God later says that actually we we’ll say more about complaints later how does Moses react though when he sees the Egyptians and he hears Israel’s complaint he exhorts them he says Don’t Fear trust in God’s Deliverance wait till you see how God’s going to save us Moses does not complain along with the people of Israel God is going to do something amazing he’s going to part the sea for Israel to cross through now how does God part the sea what was the means what’s that yeah he uses a wind he also uses Moses he says Moses raise up your staff and stretch out your hand and when you do that I’m going to part the sea and God says he caused the wind to make a division in the middle of the sea a strong East Wind and the people they walk through the sea as it’s divided and there’s walls of water on each side a wall on the right and a wall on the left and the ground is dry they walk through on dry ground now this happened during the evening into the night how did God prevent the Egyptians from attack from attacking the Israelites while the Israelites crossed well later on we’re going to see that specifically he confuses the Egyptians but before that he does something else yes who that’s right he the pillar of cloud that had been going before the Israelites and showing them where to go it went behind them and became like a rear barrier it it prevented the Egyptians from being able to reach the Israelites now it this happened into the night and this pillar of cloud is said to also have provided light so maybe it was partly a pillar of cloud partly a pillar of fire maybe it just turned into a pillar of fire but anyways it acted as a barrier to prevent the Egyptians from attacking God eventually though allowed the Egyptians to advance after the Hebrews once the Hebrews had crossed or mostly crossed and this happened during the morning watch the morning watch would have been between 2: to 6:00 a.m. so this is early morning but as the Egyptians are pursuing God does something to convince the Egyptians to turn back and flee and George you mentioned it God confuses the Egyptians and he does something to their chariots too what does he do yeah it makes them hard to drive he caused the wheels to Swerve some translations say the wheels fell off but it says that they were driving the Chariots with difficulty and the Egyptians realize we’ve got to get out of here God is fighting against us their God is fighting against us we’ve got to leave but it’s too late there is no mercy to be had from God God commands Moses to lift his hand back over the sea and to bring the waters back into place the waters fall on the fleeing Egyptians and how many of Pharaoh’s Army survived none of them not one what about Pharaoh well he was leading the Army Pharaoh also perished it says that earlier in the text that Pharaoh set out with his army so if no one in the Army survived that includes Pharaoh Pharaoh also perished and at the very end of this account in chapter 14 notice the series of contrasts verses 28 to 3 1 Israel walked through on dry land but God brought the waters upon the Egyptians the Hebrews were saved but the Egyptian dead washed washed up on the seashore a three-fold result appears at the end of the passage the people feared the Lord they believed the Lord and they believed in Moses or God’s servant Moses okay some important observations let’s ask a few interpretive questions now why did Moses write this passage why did the Holy Spirit direct and and cause Moses to do this what is the intended goal what do you think really yeah yeah certainly this was going to be something that they were to pass down it was such a great Deliverance he didn’t want them to forget it didn’t want any of their descendants to forget it but why why pass down this amazing account what was the intended effect say that again to remind them of God’s power which would say that again God’s care and God’s care which would cause them to respond how yeah trust I mean really anyone reading this passage is intended to have the same result as the people who experienced it the Israelites that who came after the the ones who went through this experience and us today should also fear the lord and believe the Lord we see his power we see his compassion we see his faithfulness we should fear the lord as a great and powerful majesty and and Authority that he is and we should believe him he’s covenanted with us we can trust him we can rely on him certainly that has to be the central point of this passage God did just as he promised and what a terrifying picture of the utter destruction awaiting God’s enemies and what a beautiful picture of the complete Vindication and rescue awaiting God’s people here was another seemingly hopeless situation that ended with an amazing provision and display of God’s glory and what about us has God LED us in a way that makes us look lost in the wilderness has obedience resulted in us being backed against a figurative sea with seemingly no way out well do not fear do not complain do not worry the Lord will provide believe the Lord fear the lord God’s character does not change if this is his Covenant compassion and character at work in the past then that same Covenant compassion and character is at work now on behalf of his children God will lead us also through the sea to his promised provision another question why didn’t God have mercy on the Egyptians I mean isn’t that a little cruel the Egyptians were already fleeing they were no longer trying to hurt the Israelites why not just let them get away what do you think yeah Magda yeah God is certainly making a point yeah exactly he he had already said his intention with what he was going to do with the crossing of the sea he was going to cause uh glory to come to himself through pharaoh and his army and he was going to cause the Egyptians to know that God is God what are you going to say Danny yeah that’s right yeah yeah let me repeat your comment God is a God of Justice he’s a holy God he’s a God who loves to see righteousness Vindicated and must punish evil he must bring Justice he is a god of wrath of righteous holy wrath and he is never obligated to show Mercy we sometimes think oh God why don’t you show Mercy to everybody now God’s not obligated to do that God doesn’t need to do that he says that he will have mercy on whom he will have mercy and that’s gracious because he doesn’t need to have mercy on anybody instead of showing mercy here God chose to manifest His Glory by fully judging wickedness and by taking Vengeance on behalf of his people God chose to destroy to give what the idolatrous murderous proud ones deserved he chose to destroy them and he chose to vindicate The Humble yes see yeah that’s a great Point Ste that just to repeat your comment that the other nations besides Egypt were going to hear about what happened and that was going to cause them to fear as well we know actually specifically that that happens in the case of Jericho because Rahab says we’ve heard about what happened we’ve heard what God has done on your behalf whole the whole land is quaking with fear here and I I’m basically willing to switch sides and join you because I know that your God is God so that’s a great point to but we see that God does not have mercy on the Egyptians he didn’t have to he manifested his glory and holy judgment and this should cause us to fear with holy fear God is not obligated to show Mercy to any and he will one day judge all people in righteousness rendering to each person according to his works outside of those in Christ no one will escape God’s burning wrath moreover part of God’s judgment sometimes includes a hardening of heart so that a person is not even able any longer to see his coming judgment or the need to repent God lets them be diluted let us be aware should we continue in habits of sin saying oh eventually I’ll repent eventually I’ll I’ll make things right with God let us beware that the Lord does not allow our hearts to be hardened so that we become unable to comprehend spiritual truth or seek rescue it was too late for the Egyptians when they decided to turn back yeah really yeah yeah yeah yeah right yeah that’s a great Point Roy we know that God is sovereignly arranging the circumstances and and of course he he caused the Egyptians to go after them but we’re not nullifying man’s responsibility extreme stubbornness just extreme pride and wickedness they suffer all these Supernatural judgments and yet they still say we’re going to oppose God we’re going to oppose the Hebrews we’re going to go get them and enslave them what evil God says I’m going to destroy you and and part of that part of that hardening process was a judgment on them he says you’re Wicked I’m going to harden your Hearts so that you do more wickedness that even causes you to be destroyed another question the text says that the the wind drove back the waters could the splitting of the sea have been a natural phenomenon and not a miracle what do you think well the answer is no but why not yeah Danny that is very significant why is that significant Danny exactly exactly thanks Danny I’ll repeat that if we just pay attention to the details of the text it couldn’t have been a natural phenomenon because first of all it’s going to take a long time for the wind to get the water out of the way if it was strictly natural and second of all it would take a long time for the seabed to dry so that the the ground was considered dry when the Israelites passed over it that would certainly take more than one night or even an evening into the night so there’s that any other details that make it that this couldn’t have been natural yes s wind yeah that’s a good point too if this is such a powerful wind that it can divide the water then shouldn’t it have affected other things or how can it be so targeted as just to make a little wall on this side and a wall on that side if we had a certain wind that liked um I don’t know maybe this was near the land and pushed all the water this way right okay maybe that could have naturally happened somehow but you wouldn’t have gotten a wall on the other side you wouldn’t have had walls on two sides this is like a very focused wind and you’re right Sue this probably if it were just like a hurricane wind or something like that it would have affected the land and it would have affected the people too but no this was a special wind this was a special wind from God and by the way the timing of this wind is incredible because as soon as Moses raises his hand boom there comes the wind I mean that’s an amazing coincidence especially when especially when you also consider that when he raises his hand again the wind’s gone and the Sea cross comes back over the Egyptians so no this could not be naturally explained this was a miracle this was God’s powerful hand yeah perfect perfect powerful hand now one other question where did the this miracle occur did this take place at the Red Sea as is traditionally believed this is actually tricky question to answer the name Red Sea as probably many of you know refers to the Persian Gulf area the modern day Gulf of Suz and Gulf of akaba would both be part of the Red Sea so you can see on the This Modern Day map the body of water around the Middle East all of that would be considered the Red Sea the of Suz on the left the Gulf of aquaba on the right and the the rest of the Persian Gulf that’s all the Red Sea that would have all been considered the Red Sea however though we see Red Sea mentioned the name Red Sea mentioned in Exodus 13:18 Red Sea is not what the Hebrew says the Hebrew words are yamu or sea of reeds the Reed sea not the red SE actually the the term red has nothing to do with reads the name Red Sea first appeared in the scriptures when the septu agent was translated or when the septu aent was made when the Old Testament was translated into Greek Reed sea turned into Red Sea why did they translate it that way we’re not exactly sure it appears to have been an inference that they made they said it doesn’t it’s not actually what the text says but we’re pretty sure that the sea it’s talking about is this seed that we know as the Red Sea so they they interpreted the term for us and that’s why it appears as Red Sea it’s notable that two new testament writers also refer to the Sea crossed by the Israelites as the Red Sea they don’t call it the Reed sea they call it the Red Sea was the Holy Spirit in error well perhaps we could excuse them because they’re quoting from the septuagenarian was an acceptable translation he and the disciples they they used it at different times and then to add one more little wrinkle to this issue the Topography of Eastern Egypt today is different than it was in ancient times archaeologists and geologists have discovered evidence that the Nile Delta used to be wider in Antiquity Antiquity there was another Eastern branch of water that existed that no longer exists today the the Nile Delta was wider with this extra branch of water there were also a number of lakes and marshes in ancient Egypt’s eastern border that are either reduced today or no longer exist in fact ancient pharaohs even dug a series of canals between these bodies of water and formed something like a wall of water on Eastern’s or on Egypt’s eastern border the boundary was apparently quite Stark visually on one side of this wall of water you have The Greenery of Egypt on the other side desert Dusty Wilderness so was pretty big deal when you left Egypt but this topography looks different today the ancient canals lakes and marshes they’re they’re no longer there the environment has changed and human manipulation of the Nile River has changed the way the land looks and Chang the way the bodies of water or the water is distributed there’s also the Suez Canal today which makes things a little different so is it possible that the Sea of reeds which was such an obvious obstacle to the early Israelites was actually unknown to the later septu translators because the environment had changed they’re like ah we don’t know what the Sea of reeds is because we’re looking at the terrain of Egypt and there’s no sea that could be the Sea of reeds they must have been talking about the Red Sea perhaps that’s what happened or maybe not maybe the Red Sea really is the correct the correct Choice all sorts of sites have been suggested for the sight of the Red Sea Crossing some have even said the Gulf of aquaba going into the area of Saudi Arabia that would have been a pretty long track for the Israelites but some have suggested that instance in Genesis doesn’t take a side in this issue John MacArthur Study Bible notes four commonly argued sites today commonly asserted sites for the Red Sea Crossing and we see them here on that right picture four different sites we have have Lake Barda at the top Lake timsa the bitter lakes and then the Red Sea itself at the Gulf of Suz there at the bottom MacArthur leans to site number two the bitter Lakes as the original sea of reeds and the one that was meant in the term Red Sea arguing that site number four the one way up top is too close to the way of the Philistines Bible says they didn’t go that way site number one the Red Sea is too far away from the Wilderness of Shure he argues Wilderness of Shure in his interpretation is um right below um The Way of the Philistines so kind of in that middle section there on the right site number one will be too far from the Wilderness of sh and that’s the place that the Israelites go into right after they cross the Red Sea they also argues that site three is too far from Mara which is another location that an Israelites encounter within three days of crossing the sea but it is a very difficult puzzle so if you want to know more the details about that particular question we can talk about it afterwards but whatever the Sea of reeds was whatever the Red Sea that was meant in the sepian translation was God used the sight to show his loving faithfulness to his people and his powerful Vengeance against his people’s enemies uh questions quick questions okay now we’re on to the third part of our lesson God mercifully delivered the fearful and complaining Israelites and they were filled with fear and belief in God and in God’s chosen leader Moses but they soon proved fleshy when God tested them with some difficult circumstances rather than trusting in God to provide just like he had done at the Sea of reeds they doubted God they doubted Moses and they again complained we’re actually going to do a little activity now regarding Israel’s complaints please take out today’s worksheet if you didn’t get today’s worksheet just see George there I think he’s got some more the worksheet is entitled complaints what we’re going to do now we’re going to fill out this worksheet I want you to look up each of the passages listed in the left side of the chart on your worksheet and as you read that passage write down who the people of Israel are complaining against and also what they complain about write down who they’re complaining against and what they’re complaining about then in the next column colum write down God’s response in the second column you write down God’s response what does God do in response to their complaint then once you filled in the table answer the questions below answer the five questions below feel free to work with somebody else as you’re doing this will’ll take five to seven minutes to do this questions about what what you are asked to do okay go ahead and get started please look up when your finished all right we’re going to start going over the answers if you didn’t finish that’s okay but s minutes have gone by and need to finish up today we’ll help you fill in whatever you didn’t get let’s start with the complaints we we’ll go through the complaint and God’s response starting with the first verse listing there Exodus 520 to 21 and 65-99 who do they complain against Moses yeah Moses and Aaron and what do they complain about yeah you made our lives even harder and there there in the passage in the context God reassures them and he gives a message for Moses to reassure them and they don’t listen to it what’s God’s response or actually that is God’s response God gives him a message of reassurance and he says I’m going to I’m going to affirm my Covenant I’m going to rescue you I’m going to lead you to the promised land so they complain against Moses complain against Aaron for making their lives even harder and God says I’m still going to keep my Covenant what about the next one Exodus 1410 to 15 who do they complain against Moses what are they complaining about what was that complaining about prayer um not they perhaps they they are crying out to the Lord there but not they’re not complaining about prayer that was actually part of the passage we just read they saw something that looked like was about to happen so they complained about it what do they think was about to happen the Egyptians were going to come and kill them the Army was after them they were all going to die in the wilderness Moses why’d you do this to us should have just let us stay slaves now what’s God’s response yeah why you crying out Moses tell him to go forward I’m going to split the sea for you yep so they complain against Moses for uh leading them into the Wilderness to die rather than letting them stay slaves in Egypt and God says just tell them to move forward the next one what do they complain against they complain against Moses and what do they complain about no water we have no water what does God do in response he gives them water or rather he purifies the water that was too bitter for them to drink God purifies the water and then the next one Exodus 16 2:15 they are complaining against Moses again Moses and Aaron and what are they complaining about no food we have no bread no meat oh there was all this meat and bread in Egypt which we were back there what does God do in response he provides them with food he gives them mana and he gives them Quil now the last one Exodus 17 1-7 they complain against Moses again and what are they complaining about no water there’s not even water around this time that was just undrinkable there’s no water we’re going to die of thirst we and our livestock and and what’s God’s response he gives them water he says Moses strike the Rock I’m going to make water come from something that it shouldn’t come from a rock and the people had water to drink now it’s amazing here that God does not judge this Israelites for these complaints I mean they shouldn’t have been complaining at all right you’d think but God’s like or but God is very gracious and patient he says no I’ll provide you shouldn’t be complaining but I’ll provide and by the way there’s a little there’s a section of chapter 16 that wasn’t part of your reading but I think it’s worth noting when the people complain against Moses and Aaron about not having food in verses 6 to 7 or verses seven and8 Moses is being instructed by God to tell them this tell the people this in the morning you will see the glory of the Lord for he hears your grumblings against the Lord and what are we that you Grumble against us Moses said this will happen when the Lord gives you meat to eat in the evening and bread to the full in the morning for the Lord hears your grumblings which you Grumble against him we say wait didn’t the text say they grumbled against Moses we got to understand something about grumbling when you complain against people or you complain against even objects and circumstances you’re really complaining against God because he’s in control he’s in control of those people he’s in control of those circumstances he’s in control of those objects you’re saying this thing has made my life terrible then you’re saying God you made my life terrible because you had control of that thing so we should be aware that our complaints their complaints were against God the whole time even though they were directed at people we’re not going to go over the bottom section but I hope you consider the implications of this chart that we looked at we must learn from Israel’s negative example they no de no need to doubt or complain God’s provision was perfect though it did involve their Believing by faith he was testing them but we see how God provided he’ll do the same for us we can trust him and let us not say well worked out pretty well for Israel I mean they complained God gave them what they wanted I’ll try not to complain but if I do I know God will be gracious oh well later on God’s not as as patient by the later on in the wilderness he says you should have learned by now 1 Corinthians 10 tells us that because of grumbling God actually destroyed some of them he killed them so it’s serious it’s a serious sin to complain against God to complain against his sovereignty yeah sometimes God is merciful but do not presume on his Mercy he sometimes spares us from the consequences of our sin but he’s not obligated to and if he’s our father he’s going to discipline us if we continue and sin don’t have time for application questions today but I hope you’ll look at those if you have the workbook don’t have time to look at those right now and don’t forget if you weren’t here at the beginning of Sunday school there is Sunday or no there isn’t Sunday school on the 22nd even though it’s listed that way in the bullettin that’s thanks living day that’s our special Evangelistic service so um we won’t have Sunday school that day just the regular service don’t forget our memory verse this is the verse the first part of the Ten Commandments and also recounts God’s deliverance from Egypt if you have other questions comments see me afterwards let’s pray father you make it so clear that we have no reason to complain and that’s why Lord especially after you were so gracious with these with the people of Israel in these beginning stages later on Lord you chose not to show the same graciousness because they should have learned by then Lord we also ought to have learned we also ought to learn we look at what you’ve done with Israel we look at what you do through the whole scriptures and we do not have reason to complain we do not have reason to fear or to worry so God when we are pinned against the sea God help us to remember the truth of your word and to believe to believe by faith that you will deliver we don’t know how you’ll do it we know that sometimes it involves painful Faith stretching but that’s how you grow us would grow your people here in this Church Lord use the rest of the service to do that help us to enjoy you today as our deliverer in Jesus name amen

November 8, 2015