Thanks, Brother Otis, for having a little bit shorter song service tonight because I want to make sure and get everything squeezed in in the lesson for this evening. So thank you all for being here tonight, for coming to seek the Lord and to seek to be fed on his word. And we we want to we want to open our hearts just now to him for him to for him to do that. So, again, let's bow for prayer, please. Dear Father, we do come to you at this time, especially at this moment, to ask, Father, that you would open our hearts, open our minds to receive the instruction of the Scriptures this evening. Lord, we're going to be looking at the commandments that you gave there on Mount Sinai that day, Father, and we confess to you that it's impossible for us to do those. We need a Savior to gain forgiveness of our sins and to reconcile us to you. And Father, we thank you that you have provided that in Christ. So we pray, Father, as we look into this, that you'll help us to see what righteousness looks like and to see your will and to see what you would like for our life to look like. not just focusing on trying to keep rules and regulations, but to have guardrails in our heart to show us whenever we're going astray. So we ask your blessing now and the instruction of your spirit in Jesus's name. Amen. Well, to begin with tonight, would you come with me to the book of Romans, Romans chapter two? Here in the Book of Romans, we have the Apostle Paul's great thesis, his great essay, explaining exactly how to be saved. And that's what the Book of Romans is all about. Everyone that has trusted Christ as a savior needs to study and needs to learn the book of Romans because that's where God explains exactly how we were saved. But here in Romans chapter two, the apostle is pointing out in the first two and a half chapters of the book here, he's pointing out why people need Christ. He's pointing out why they need the righteousness of God. And the reason is that we are, well, we're disobedient to God. We know that God is there, and yet we turn away from him and turn away from following what he would have us to do. And that's whether we're Gentile or whether we're Jew. And here in Romans chapter 2, the apostle is pointing out specifically that the Jews Although they have the word of God that is expressed in the law of God, including their whole Old Testament, the books of the law, the books of history, the books of poetry, the books of prophecy, they have all of that. And yet they have not obeyed God. They have the oracles of God. They have the revelations of God, but they haven't obeyed him. But I want you to notice what he says to them in verse 17, Romans chapter two, verse 17. Behold, thou art called a Jew, and restest in the law, and makest thy boast of God, and knowest his will, and approvest the things that are more excellent, being instructed out of the law. Now I want you, whoa, let's go back and look at that again. These Jews, they rest in the law, and that's a fault, because they are thinking we are right with God, we are acceptable to God because we have the law and the Gentiles don't, and that makes us better than them, and so we are the ones. They're resting in the fact that they have the law and they boast about God, that they have that special relationship with God. But there's a couple of positives that he names here. Verse 18, and you know his will. You know his will. You know God's will for how you should behave. You know God's will for how you should think and how you should feel about things. And you are able to approve the things that are more excellent. You're able to determine what the really worthwhile and valuable things are, and what the things are that don't really matter. And you've learned His will, and you've learned to approve the things that are more excellent being instructed out of the law. So that's what we're doing here. What we're doing is we're bringing forth a few lessons on pivotal passages of the scriptures, scriptures that show there were times that the Lord did things that changed everything, that changed everything. And one of those times was when the Lord came down on Mount Sinai and made this covenant of the law with the children of Israel. He was not making a covenant with them by which they were going to be saved. And we've spent some time talking about that and examining the scriptures on that, that this idea that people are saved by keeping the law is totally false. And it's totally against what the Lord told them the law was for whenever he gave it to them. So it was never intended to be the means of salvation. Although the people, by the time the Lord Jesus came, that's what they were doing with it. They thought, well, God gave us the law. Therefore, in order for us to get to heaven, we're supposed to keep it. But you know, that's human nature, isn't it? That's human nature. There are people that claim to be Christians that say, well, the way you're going to get to heaven is by obeying all the commandments in the New Testament. And it begins with baptism and baptism and partaking the Lord's Supper and attending church and doing all these things. And if you'll just obey the perfect law of liberty, then you'll be able to get to heaven. Do you see even people that claim to be Christians? have misconstrued the instructions of the New Testament to think that they're going to get to heaven by keeping the New Testament. And people of Israel thought they were going to get to heaven by keeping the law of Moses. But both of those are completely false. But the law, whenever God gave the law, he did something. And I'd like to just quickly review a couple of main points. Number one is that the Lord codified, which means he wrote down exactly what people already knew. People already knew in their hearts what was right and wrong. Our conscience tells us that, and Paul discusses that further in the Book of Romans. And we've already looked at that, so we're not going to review that here this evening. But people knew in their hearts what's right and wrong before God, but the Lord actually laid it out for them in the Ten Commandments. Also, the covenant of the law was added to God's covenant with Abraham. God's covenant with Abraham is that the blessing Restoration to God was going to come through Abraham's descendant, through Abraham's seed, which is Christ. And that was made known to Abraham 430 years before the law was given. And in the book of Galatians, and again, for the sake of time, we won't go back over there, but Galatians chapter three, verses 17 through 26 explains why the law was given. the blessing of restoration to God was going to come through Christ. And that was God's plan before the foundation of the world. And God revealed that at different points in human history. And he established his covenant with Abraham as the one through whom the Savior was going to come. Well, if that's the case, then we have to ask, well, what's the purpose of the law then? If life It doesn't come through the law. If eternal life doesn't come through the law, then what's the point of it? Galatians 3, 17 through 26 explains that the point of the law was to show people that they're sinners. is to show us that we are not qualified to be acceptable to God based on our efforts to be good and bring ourselves under control. No, the law shows us that we are sinful. And by showing us that we're sinful, it shows us our need for a savior. It shows us that we need forgiveness of our sin. It shows us that we need to have to be made righteous because we're not. And so that forgiveness of sins and that provision of righteousness comes through Christ. And in that sense, the law is our teacher. It's our schoolmaster to bring us to Christ. So as we're taking a look at the Ten Commandments here, please don't get the idea that I'm trying to tell us we need to be Old Testament Christians. Nothing could be further from the truth. Nothing could be further from the truth. But the Lord did give the law and we can learn his will as to how he would have us to live, not to be saved, but as a saved person to know, OK, so what is God's will for me? Here I am. I'm going to give you an example. Here I am, and I'm a few hundred dollars short this year, or a few hundred dollars short this week in being able to pay my bills. Let's see. So-and-so has some extra money over there. I could just slip over there and take some of his. Or maybe I could just go over to him and just tell him, man, you know, I really need I've had a death in the family and I need a few hundred dollars to get a plane ticket to go over there and and to go to the funeral of my aunt. And so this, you know, somebody might might say, oh, poor guy, let me give you a few hundred dollars to do that. Now, wait a second. I don't have a relative that died in California. I don't need an airplane ticket to get to California. I just lied to this guy so I could get money. I've just stolen from him. OK, that's do do do people that name the name of Christ do things like that? Do we sometimes fudge on the truth? Yeah, or, you know, some other things. And so it's good for us to have clarification about things. So here we are. Also, we need to realize that the law shows us His will, His moral guidelines. Deuteronomy 6.24, remember, Moses told the children of Israel that in time to come, when your children ask you, what are these commandments for? You will tell them it will be our righteousness if we observe to do all these commandments. It shows us how we can live in a way that's righteous. And Jesus told us in Matthew chapter five, Let's go there to his introduction of the Sermon on the Mount. The Lord talked about the importance of understanding the law of God. Matthew chapter 5 and verse 19, he says, Whosoever therefore shall break one of these least commandments and shall teach men so, he shall be called least in the kingdom of heaven. But whosoever shall do and teach them, the same shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven. For I say unto you that except your righteousness exceeds the righteousness of scribes and Pharisees, you'll in no case enter the kingdom of heaven. So righteousness is an issue. We get our righteousness through Christ. But still, understanding what the law requires of us helps us to have some clear guidelines, and that is guardrails in our mind to show us the obvious things. Also, the commandments show us what love looks like. Remember, in Matthew 22, there was a lawyer that is a teacher of the law who came to Jesus and said, Master, what is the greatest commandment in the law? What's the priority? What's number one? and everybody knows. Y'all tell me, what's the number one commandment? Ah, that's right. It's number one in priority, isn't it? It's not number one of the ten commandments, but it's the number one in the priority of God's commandments is to love the Lord your God with all your heart, mind, and soul. And what's the second one? It's like unto it. You shall love your neighbor as yourself. That's right. That's right. The rest of the commandments simply show us what love looks like. The rest of the commandments show us what love looks like when you love someone. What are the how are you going to treat them? And again, I'd like to take us to Romans chapter 13. In reference to that, Romans chapter 13, verses eight through 10. Says this. O no man anything but to love one another. For he that loveth another hath fulfilled the law. He that loveth another hath fulfilled the law. For this, thou shalt not commit adultery. Thou shalt not kill. Thou shalt not steal. Thou shalt not bear false witness. Thou shalt not covet. And if there be any other commandment, it's briefly comprehended in this saying, namely, thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. Love worketh no ill to his neighbor, therefore love is the fulfilling of the law. And in Christ, in the new birth, the new heart that wants to obey God, and under the leadership of the Holy Spirit, that's the desire, is to love God and to love people. And that desire causes us to do the things that are in conformity to the law. Let's take a look at the law. Let's go back to Exodus chapter 20. where the Lord came down on Mount Sinai and gave them the law. And this happened 50 days, 50 days after Passover, 50 days after Passover, came to be known as Pentecost, the Feast of Weeks. Here we are. Now, the first four commandments are called the first table of the law. Sometimes the Ten Commandments are referred to as the two tables of the law. The first table is the first four commandments that talks about our responsibility to God. And the second table, Commandments 5 through 12, the last six, talk to us about our responsibility to people. Quickly here, he points out the first commandment here is, I am the Lord thy God, which brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. Thou shalt have no other gods before me. It's noteworthy that it says before me, isn't it? There are going to be other gods. There are going to be other, I'm going to use this word carefully, other legitimate gods, other beings that are legitimately called gods. Come with me just to the next chapter, two chapters that is, Exodus chapter 22 verse 28. Notice what he says here. Thou shalt not revile the gods, nor curse the ruler of thy people. Do you see those people that are humans in authority over other humans, those human beings are called gods. Come with me also to the book of Psalms, Psalm number 82. Listen to this. He gives a fuller description of these gods. Psalm number 82. God standeth in the congregation of the mighty. He judgeth among the gods. Now I want you to notice the Hebrew parallelism here. There's one thought that's stated and then the next thought parallels that or amplifies or reinforces it. God standeth in the congregation of the mighty, he judges among the gods. How long will you judge unjustly and accept the persons of the wicked? Do you see the gods here that he's talking about are the judges. The human judges that are passing out judgment, they're hearing cases and they're passing out judgment, guilty, not guilty, guilty, here's your sentence. Those people that do that are in a position that's called their gods. They are in authority and they have responsibility to exercise that authority. Three, defend the poor and fatherless. Do justice to the afflicted and needy. Deliver the poor and needy out of the hand of the wicked. They know not, neither will they understand. They walk in darkness. All the foundations of the earth are out of course. I have said, ye are gods, and all of you are children of the Most High. And that that is they are there. They reflect the authority and the power of God there. There is children in that in that sense. But ye shall die like men and fall like one of the princes. Arise, O God, and judge the earth, for thou shalt inherit all nations. but you shall have no other authorities before the Lord. So the idea is you shall have no other gods before me. But also that brings us to the second commandment. Well, what about these other things that people worship? Here we've seen that there are gods in the sense of authorities and you shall have no other God before me. Now let's stop and talk about that for just a quick moment. Who are those in authority over us that we might look to as people that, in a sense, hold our life in their hands? And if you've ever been to court before, you know what that feels like. I know a man sued me once, you know, took me to court because he thought I didn't pay. He bought the house that I was living in. And he thought that I owed him some rental money and I didn't because he thought that I still lived in the house after he owned it, et cetera, et cetera. There's a whole story there. But you know, going to court is a scary thing because that judge has the power to just say, give this man $1,000 and you have to do it. So it's a scary situation. But we do have, authorities that have power over us, like judges. And how about our parents? How about those that we work for, our bosses? And then in our country, we have other gods. We have other people that exercise great authority and influence. We call them celebrities. They're celebrities, and people look to them and think, oh, I want to be like so-and-so, or I want to sing like so-and-so, or look like so-and-so. And I want to line up my thoughts and my opinions with so-and-so. Well, God's instruction is you shall have no other gods before me. The Lord should be the ultimate influencer in our lives. Nobody else, nobody else should come before him. Let's go to number two. Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image or any likeness of anything that's in heaven above or that is in the earth beneath or that is in the water under the earth. Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them nor serve them. For I, the Lord thy God, am a jealous God. visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me, and showing mercy unto the thousands of them that love me and keep my commandments." Let's take just a moment and consider what this is talking about. First of all, First of all, you're not to bow down to any image of anything. Now, he's not saying here, don't make any graven images, period. End of story, full stop. Because whenever they built the tabernacle, He told them to build the menorah, the lampstand, in the likeness of almond branches, and that was going to be an engraved object. But the idea is you don't fall down and worship it. The Ark of the Covenant had cherubims on it, and those were graven images. But the idea is you're not going to bow down to them. And you shall not make any likeness of anything." Well, the Lord, again in the tabernacle, he told them to make things. And he told them that the priest is supposed to have pomegranates on the hem of his garment down there. So the Lord, you see what we have to do in the scriptures, we have to take the whole thing. and come to understand what he's talking about. So the Lord told them to make some images. But what he's telling them here is, you're not going to make any graven image of any likeness of anything so that you can bow down and worship it. The only thing that we're going to worship is the Lord. And I'd like for us to look at a scripture on that. Come with me to First Chronicles chapter 16. First Chronicles 16, and the idea is that there's only one. There's only one God that we should bow down before. First Chronicles chapter 16, only one object of worship. First Chronicles 16 verse 25. What we have here is David has brought the Ark of the Covenant back to Jerusalem and David built a special tent to place the Ark of the Covenant in and he's celebrating the return of the Ark. And here we are in First Chronicles 16 verse 25. And David says this, great is the Lord and greatly to be praised. He also is to be feared above all gods, for all the gods of the people are idols, but the Lord made the heavens. So all of the idols, all of the images that people would fall down and worship, they're nothing. But the Lord created the heavens. He's the one that brought the whole universe into existence. Glory and honor are in his presence. Strength and gladness are in his place. Give unto the Lord, ye kindreds of the people. Give unto the Lord glory. and strength. Give unto the Lord the glory to his name. Bring an offering and come before him. Worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness. So he's the one that we should bow down before. And of course, to worship, the word from which we get the word worship means to bow down and literally it is to touch the head on the ground. So if you want to worship is actually a very physical image of getting down on the hands and knees and touching the head on the ground. And of course, what that shows is complete obeisance, complete humility, complete obedience and yieldedness to this one that's in authority. And the Lord is the one that we're to do that for. But I'd like to take just a moment and look at the rest of this. Thou shall not bow down to them, verse five, nor serve them, for I, the Lord thy God, am a jealous God. He's a jealous God. He wants, in a sense, he's very selfish about the worship, about who we're devoted to, who we're yielded to. And of course, his reason for being that way is for his desire to protect us and to bless us, just like parents. should be jealous about their children and about who's influencing their children. And the jealousy is not because we want our children just to only have any connection, have connections only with parents, but it's that we are jealous for their wellbeing. We are jealous for their life, that it's not going to be hurt or damaged or destroyed in any sense. And that's the idea of godly jealousy. But I am the Lord thy God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me. You know, visiting, this is an interesting word, and it means visiting. It's the idea of something that's coming in contact with someone, somebody that comes to be with someone. Well, the iniquity of the father is visited or comes in contact with the children unto the third and fourth generation. Now, that's not saying that the children are going to pay for their father's sins. What it's saying is that the sins of the father are going to, the children are going to have to deal with those same sins. Parents, whenever we, if we engage in some sort of sinful, wicked behavior, watch out because we're setting a pattern for our children. And they're going to have to deal with that same pattern. And our grandchildren will have to deal with the pattern that they see in their parents, who are going to have to deal with the pattern that they see in their parents. And then it's going to go on and on for generations. Sometimes we have the idea that, well, I can sin and get by with it, or I can sin. And if I get in trouble, well, it's just me. So I'm the only one that will be affected by it. Not true. In God's plan, in God's government, in God's authority, patterns are passed down, and those can be for good or they can be for evil. And we need to be careful about what the pattern is that we're setting before our children, because it's going to be visited upon them. They're going to have to deal with that. showing mercy unto thousands of them that love me and keep my commandments." In other words, the Lord is in charge, not just at this minute, but throughout generations. He's the one. Idols don't do that. They can't do that. The next one, the third one, thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain, for the Lord will not hold him guiltless that taketh his name in vain. You know, just just quickly, there's a few ways that people do this. One is is to be frustrated about something and then say Jesus's name or say the words that begin with G-D, you know, and people do that. And that's taking God's name in vain. Also taking God's name in vain is the O-M-G, the O-M-G that you see. And how is that, how are those things taking God's name in vain? Well, they're just expressions of emotion. just expressions of emotion if somebody found out oh hey you just you just won the lottery you get a thousand dollars and a person's response to that might be wow or a person's response to that might be omg well what's what is omg in that sentence it's just an expression that can be replaced with the word wow It's bringing God's name down to just an emotional expression. Right. And there's lots of emotional expressions that people make. Some are quite vulgar and some are are using God's name that's taken his name in vain. That's disrespecting the Lord and disrespecting his name. But I remember. So clearly, you know, whenever you're a teenager and you start becoming aware of the world around you, one of the things that I remember so clearly, I don't remember the exact year of it, but I remember that there was a sniper. that got up in a tall tower at the University of Texas and started shooting people with his scope, just randomly killing people. And whenever they got to him, he said, God told me to do this. Did God tell him to do that? He was taking God's name in vain. He was taking God's name in vain. And that's why we should be careful about saying, well, God told me this or God told me to tell you such and such and so and so. I think Christians need to be really careful about that. You know, sometimes we. We set ourselves up—well, what do they call it sometimes? The junior Holy Spirit? I think it's been called that. We need to be careful. We need to be careful about that because we can take the Lord's name in vain, perhaps unintentionally, but we should always, if we're going to speak on behalf of God, it needs to be what God has actually said and not just masking our preference in God's name. So that's the first table. The second table, how should we treat people? I'm sorry, we're still on the first table. I put my divider here in the wrong place. Okay, God's memorial. Let's take a look at this. The nation of Israel has a special responsibility regarding keeping the Sabbath. and I want to ask you to come with me to the book of Exodus chapter 31. We need to put this idea to rest in our own minds and also to understand this because there are people that that will criticize us for not observing the Sabbath day. And, of course, there is still this movement among Christians that's called messianic Christianity, which is basically trying to bring Christians under the law of Moses, which is totally contrary to the teachings of the Old Testament and totally contrary to the teachings of the New Testament. But let's get a clear understanding from the scripture here in Exodus chapter 31 as to exactly what the observance of the Sabbath is about. Exodus 31 verse 12, we're coming down to near the end of the Lord's instructions to Moses here on Mount Sinai. And one of the things that he instructed Moses and the children of Israel to do was to build the tabernacle. All right, so they've got a job to do. They're gonna be gathering materials and then the sewers are gonna be sewing and the craftsmen are going to be working in the gold and the silver and making the furniture and the wood cutters are going to be making the boards for the walls and all of those things. They're gonna be overlaying them with gold and all of that. So the Lord has given them a major project here. Verse 12, Exodus chapter 13, verse 12. And the Lord spake unto Moses saying, speak thou also unto the children of Israel saying, verily my Sabbaths ye shall keep. Now this word Sabbath, Hebrew word Sabbath simply means ceasing, a cessation, pauses, a time to stop. My Sabbaths ye shall keep, for it is a sign between me and you throughout your generations that ye may know that I am the Lord that doth sanctify you. Did you catch that? Did you catch what that verse is saying? Speak to the children of Israel. My Sabbath shall ye, children of Israel, keep. The Sabbath, it is a sign between ye, the children of Israel, me, the children of Israel, between me, the Lord, and you, the children of Israel, throughout your generations, that ye may know that I am the Lord to thus sanctify you. Ye shall keep the Sabbath, therefore, for it is holy unto you. Everyone that defileth it shall surely be put to death. For whosoever doeth any work therein, that soul shall be cut off from among his people. Do you see the peculiar, unique application of the Sabbath to the nation of Israel? Six days may work be done, but in the seventh is the Sabbath of rest. Holy to the Lord, whosoever doeth any work in the Sabbath day, he shall surely be put to death. Wherefore, the children of Israel shall keep the Sabbath, to observe the Sabbath throughout their generations for a perpetual covenant. It is a sign between me and the children of Israel forever. For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, and on the seventh day he rested and was refreshed." So there is a unique responsibility of the children of Israel to keep the Sabbath. And of course, this is talking about the Sabbath after six days of work, rest on the Sabbath, but the Lord's going to prescribe other Sabbaths. for the children of Israel. Their feasts and their holy days are Sabbaths, no matter what day of the week it comes on. They're supposed to cease from their workings. But those are a sign of the covenant between God and the people of Israel. Quickly, for us, as believers in Christ, we don't have a prescribed day of the Sabbath. But we do have, in Acts chapter 20, verse 7, we saw that the church there met on the first day of the week. And that was the day that the believers met, as seen in the book of Acts, they met on the first day of the week for what? Well, to assemble together to assemble together, to encourage one another for the preaching of the Word of God, to worship together. That was done on the first day of the week. And the first day of the week became a really big deal. If you read the Gospels, all four of the Gospels are very strong on making it clear that it was the first day of the week that Christ rose from the dead. And then we see them assembling on the first day of the week. And that's why it's come to be called the Lord's day. But we'll conclude our time this evening here in Colossians chapter two, in regards to the Sabbath and us Gentiles. Colossians chapter two, tells us this in verses 16 and 17. It says, let no man therefore judge you in meat or in drink or in respect of an holy day or of the new moon or of the Sabbath days, which are a shadow of things to come, but the body or the substance is of Christ. Well, we'll have to end there with the first table. We'll have to finish up the commandments by looking at the second table next time.