We'll be turning to our catechism booklets once again this morning. I think the last time we studied from Keech's catechism was March. Kind of hard to believe. If you would, turn in your Bibles to Exodus chapter 2, and the focus of our study this morning will be verse 2. Chapter 20, verse 2, excuse me. We'll be studying questions 48 and 49 this morning which pertain to the topic of the preface of the Ten Commandments. I'm hoping to spend just one week on this topic and then one message per commandment in the coming weeks as we study through what are called the Ten Commandments of God or the moral law. The moral law is what the catechism calls the Ten Commandments in question 45, you might remember. The moral law, it says, is summarized by the Ten Commandments, and we studied that back in March. In secular law, this same law is sometimes referred to as the natural law as well. I'm sure everyone has heard these three terms before. The Ten Commandments, the moral law, And the natural law are all referring to the same thing, and those terms are really all referring to the law which is written on the human heart. This is the one we think of that speaks to our conscience. It's what's inside of us. We've studied this concept a few times over the years, so I won't belabor this in our introduction this morning. But I think it would be helpful to hear our own confession and its teaching on what this means. So I want to begin, and you don't need to turn there, but I'd like to begin by just reviewing a few of the paragraphs in our 1689's teaching on the law. The law is really a central theme in the plan of redemption in so many ways. And so let's start by reading in paragraph two of our confession. Paragraph two in the 1689 says, the same law that was first written in the heart of man continued to be a perfect rule of righteousness even after the fall and was delivered by God upon Mount Sinai in ten commandments and written in two tables, the first four containing our duty towards God and the other six, our duty to man. Okay, so I mentioned, as I mentioned, these 10 commandments, which are called moral, were written on the heart from the beginning. Then paragraph five says, the moral law does forever bind all, as well justified persons as others, so the saved and the unsaved alike, to the obedience thereof, and that not only in regard of the matter contained in it, but also in respect of the authority of God, the Creator, who gave it. Neither does Christ in the Gospel anyway dissolve, but much less strengthens, this obligation. So we are all obligated to obey the law, just as we're obligated to obey God, both believers and unbelievers, and the Gospel does not change that. Paragraph 6 then says, Although true believers be not under the law as a covenant of works to be thereby justified or condemned, yet it is of great use to them as well as to others in that as a rule of life. informing them of the will of God and their duty, it directs and binds them to walk accordingly." So the law that convicts the heart of sin actually becomes a useful, helpful tool, something that leads Christians to holiness. God, by his Holy Spirit, uses the law in the gospel. Paragraph six continues by saying, Discovering also the sinful pollutions of their natures, hearts, and lives, so as examining themselves thereby, they may come to further conviction of, humiliation for, and hatred against sin. Together with a clearer sight of the need they have of Christ, and the perfection of his obedience, it is likewise of use to the regenerate to restrain their corruptions in that it forbids sin and the threatenings of it serve to show what even their sins deserve and what afflictions in this life they may expect for them, although freed from the curse and unallayed rigor thereof. The promises of it likewise show them God's approbation of obedience and what blessings they may expect upon the performance thereof. though not as due to them by the law as a covenant of works. So as man's doing good and refraining from evil, for the law encourages to the one and deters from the other, is no evidence of his being under the law and not under grace. There's so much being said here, but just notice in summary what that law accomplishes. Paragraph 7 then continues, it says, neither are the aforementioned uses of the law contrary to the grace of the Gospel, but to sweetly comply with it, the Spirit of Christ subduing and enabling the will of man to do that freely and cheerfully, which the will of God revealed in the law requires to be done. There's the beautiful capstone to our paragraphs or our chapter on the law in the 1689. A gospel which enables us to do the law of God and to do God's will. So what we see here is that the will of God, the heart of man, and the rule of life are all the things that are seen in the Ten Commandments. The will of God, the heart of man, and the rule of life are all things that we see and learn from the Ten Commandments. God has a will. God requires us to know His will. and do His will, and He enables us through the grace of the Gospel and by the work of His Holy Spirit to do that freely and cheerfully, it says. That, I believe, is the most important takeaway at the beginning of this study of the Ten Commandments. The law and the Gospel are contrary only when it comes to works righteousness, only when it comes to earning eternal life. If you want eternal life, there is only one way, and that is by grace and through faith in the finished work of Jesus Christ. And Jesus earned eternal life by keeping the law. Only Jesus fulfilled the covenant of works. Only Jesus' good works earned eternal life. So the law can't do that for us, but that does not mean we can't benefit from it, and it doesn't mean that God doesn't still require it of us. And therefore, just as paragraph seven mentioned, the law is not contrary to the grace of the gospel. Instead, it sweetly complies with it as the spirit of Christ subdues and enables the will of man to do freely and cheerfully that which the will of God revealed in the law requires be done. It's pretty amazing, right? God enables us to do His will to keep the Ten Commandments by grace and through the Gospel. He enables us to do everything that He requires of us. And so as Christians, we need to view the law as a good thing and something to be cherished and meditated upon and followed closely, but we do it without ever thinking that we are earning God's love or mercy. We do it as free people, willingly and cheerfully. So this is a little confusing sometimes. The law can be very confusing. But I'm hoping our study in the next several weeks will help us to see that the grace of the gospel is what enables us to do the law and that it is the grace of the gospel that gives us a heart for the law. That's the key. The gospel gives us a heart for God's law, and the preface of the Ten Commandments helps us to understand all of this, so that's what we're going to look into today. All right, let's start by reading questions 48 and 49. You can find those in your bulletin. Question 48, what is the preface to the Ten Commandments? And then the answer is a direct quote from Exodus 20 in verse 2. The preface to the Ten Commandments is in these words, I am the Lord thy God, which have brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. In question 49, what does the preface to the Ten Commandments teach us? And the answer is, the preface to the Ten Commandments teaches us that because God is the Lord and our God and Redeemer, therefore we are bound to keep all His commandments. God is Lord, therefore we are bound to keep His commandments. That will be the topic of our study this morning. And with that as our introduction, let us pray. Dear Heavenly Father, we thank you. We thank you first that we have your Bible in our hands. We thank you, dear Lord, that you have preserved it over the millennia. As the devil has burned it, as they have buried it, as the world has tried to destroy it and ignore it, somehow you have preserved it perfectly. And for that, we have so much assurance that we can know your will and that we can do your will and that we can be in your will and we can know. who you are and what you require of us and also how you've chosen to save us from our own wretchedness and our own sin. And so, Lord, we just, we see the law itself as Christians as something wonderful, as something that points us to your holiness and your righteousness. It points us also to the sad part of our own fallenness. And yet, Lord, that's not where you leave us. You leave us with the gospel, a gospel that enables us to do your will and a gospel that removes us from the consequences of our own failures. And that's really why the law is so important. And I pray, Lord, that you would help us to see these things, help us to understand these things, but also help us to have an eagerness to do your will, knowing all that we've been saved from and also just the magnitude of your love in demonstrating all of this to us in redemption. So we just thank you, Lord, for these things. We ask your blessing upon our time. We ask also that you, as always, would be our teacher, that you would give us eyes to see, ears to hear, that we might perceive spiritual truth, that we might have the veils removed from us so that we might really commune with you and understand and experience your spirit's work in our lives and even in this hour as we delve into your word. And Lord, we just ask your blessing upon this study of Exodus 20 in the coming weeks. So we just thank you for these things. We look to you for our strength and for our wisdom and all these things and we pray in Christ's name. Amen. Okay, so let's begin with a really basic question this morning. Question 48 asks, what is the preface to the Ten Commandments? And so my first question is, what exactly is a preface? And the simplest and most common definition you might find is that it's just an introduction. God chose to introduce the Ten Commandments with an introductory sentence, just one sentence. And I think we'll see why this is important because it really helps us to understand these commandments and it really helps us understand why we're required to obey these commandments and who it is that's making these commandments, that's giving these laws. An introduction. Preface is there to lead us into the bigger topic. This here is to introduce to us or lead us into our study of the Ten Commandments. So the introduction that God chose for his commandments is this, I am the Lord your God, which have brought thee out of the land of Egypt and out of the house of bondage. Interesting introduction, right? The question I have for us is why? Why use this sentence as the introduction to the Ten Commandments? And I think the reason for that, something we'll look into in more detail in question 49 in a minute, is that God is introducing us to more than just the Ten Commandments. He's actually introducing us to the covenant relationship that we have to Him. He says, I am the Lord, your God. I am the Lord your God. See how he's showing us possession. We are his and he is ours. That's pointing us to a covenant relationship. This entire sentence is establishing covenant relationship before giving us the covenant law. That's really important. This is the why, in my opinion, for the preface to the Ten Commandments. God is establishing the covenant relationship He has with His people before He gives them the law. He is establishing Himself as Lord and God and Redeemer and Creator, all at the same time in these simple words. And in that, He is establishing Himself as the rightful lawgiver. That's what's being taught here. Another clue we see is that he calls himself Lord. Notice in your Bible, if your Bible is returned to Exodus 20 in verse 2, you'll actually see that the word Lord is spelled in all capital letters. This is also significant and it's another clue that the preface to the Ten Commandments is establishing a covenant relationship as part of the Ten Commandments. These are not laws from a God who is distant. These are laws from a God who is intimately close. He is in covenant with the people who will be bound by his laws. He's not a harsh master. He is a loving husband. And yet this loving husband is about to give us his law. And when we study the use of the word LORD in all capital letters, it helps us to see that. That's what I'd like to do for a second. This is what we call the Tetragrammaton, and in our English translation of the Hebrew, it stands for the four letters Y-H-W-H. I'm sure you've all seen that before. That's what God is called, that's his name, ever since the earliest verses of the Bible after the creation of man. God is not called by this name until mankind is created. Kind of interesting point. God's name is not revealed to us until after man is created, and I think this is significant. And so now God is introducing us to his law, and so he draws our attention to his covenant name, to his name. Interesting, right? As I mentioned from the Hebrew, We translate this as YHWH, and we pronounce it as Yahweh. YHWH is Yahweh. From the Latin translation, it is pronounced Jehovah. Jehovah, we've all heard that name, of course. Either way, this is God's covenant name, which was first introduced to us immediately after Adam and Eve were created. This, I believe, is because God wants his people, his covenant people, to know him and call him by name. Listen to John Gill for a minute as he writes about the preface to the Ten Commandments. This is his commentary, or part of it, from Exodus 20 in verse 2. John Gill writes, this verse does not contain the first of the commandments. but as a preface to them, showing that God had a right to enact and enjoin to the people of Israel laws, and that they were under obligation to attend unto them with reverence and cheerfully obey them. It's almost like he was reading our confession in our catechism, huh? Since he was the Lord. And now he actually defines God's name here, John Gill does, and tells us what why HWH means. Gil says he is the eternal and immutable Jehovah. He's defining the name as he uses it. Eternal and immutable is what Jehovah means. The being of beings who gives being to all creatures and gave them theirs. and therefore had a right to give them what laws he pleased, and he was their God, their covenant God, notice Gil picks up on that too, in a special and peculiar manner, their King and their God. So why preface the law by saying, I am the Lord your God? Well, according to Gil, it's to show them that he had a right to enact and enjoin the people to his law. And he does this by calling himself by his covenant name, which means eternal and immutable. This is what is meant when God called himself, I am in the wilderness with Moses. He is eternal and he is immutable. He's not affected, in other words, by anything outside of himself. That's what it means to be immutable. He is Yahweh. He is Jehovah. He is the Great I Am. He is the eternal, immutable being of beings who gives being to all creatures. This is the One who's about to give us the Ten Commandments. And so he is declaring his right to give this law, and he is declaring that we are obligated to obey him simply by stating his own name. Pretty profound, right? That's why God begins the commandments with a preface, because he is establishing himself as the lawgiver and as the only one with a right to give the law. And I think he accomplishes that here. And then when he continues by saying that he's the one which brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage, what he's saying is that I am your covenant God and you are my covenant special God. people, and I have your best interest in mind. My law is for you, just as I have proven that I am for you." It's pretty great, right? I think that's what he's drawing our attention to with that statement. There was a child's catechism. I used to read to Abby and Sam when they were little, and one of the questions asked, why ought I glorify God? And the answer is, because he made me and takes care of me. Well, that's exactly what God is communicating in this preface. He's saying, I am Yahweh, so I am the source of life, and I saved you from bondage. I made you, and I take care of you. Therefore, do as I command. I have your best interest in mind. I am your God. That's the preface to the Ten Commandments. Now, let's look into question 49 and look a little deeper into the meaning of these things. Question 49 asks, what does the preface to the Ten Commandments teach us? What does it mean? And the answer is, the preface to the Ten Commandments teaches us that because God is the Lord and our God and Redeemer, therefore, we are bound to keep all his commandments. Interesting, right? That's what he's telling us simply by calling himself Yahweh. or Jehovah, and by drawing our attention to the salvation that the Israelites had just received from Him. And why do we obey God? Because He made us and He takes care of us. That's how. That's why. It's that simple. And that's what we see in the preface to the Ten Commandments. So let's go back again and think about God calling Himself Yahweh. Once again, you'll notice that our Bibles just translate this as LORD in all caps. There's a reason for this, which I'm not sure I totally understand, I will admit. I think I've studied this quite a bit and I still don't totally understand it. But I think we've all heard that the ancient Jews were a little superstitious about using the Lord's name in an unholy way. So they would just call him Lord instead of referring to him by name in fear that they might mispronounce or misuse his name. And it seems as if Christians continued that practice, and that's why we see the name of God replaced with Lord in our Bibles. There may be a lot more to it than that, but that's what I've come up with. I guess I understand that to a degree. The idea to maintain reverence around the name of God is very, very important. And I do think we should be very careful with the way we talk about God. But the danger, I think, of referring to Him only as Lord, is that we never refer to Him by His name. Have you ever noticed that? The Holy Spirit refers to Him as Yahweh almost 7,000 times in the Bible, depending on how you count And 7,000 times, we just call him Lord. The more I think and study, the more I'm not so sure about that. I'm not sure I like that. I think we're more likely to lose touch of the personal and relational and covenantal aspect of our relationship with our covenant God and creator. We call him by his title instead of by his name. I've never really thought about this until I began studying this out in the past week. And so I think it's important that we understand that God has given us His name because He literally wants us on a first-name basis with Him. So every single time we see the all-caps LORD in our Bibles, which is, again, thousands of times, I think we should consider that this is Yahweh. This is Jehovah. This is God's name. This is I Am. The Chief Being. The Eternal One. The giver of life, that's all what those names mean. They have meaning. The covenant friend of sinners who has shared his name with us. All of these things are what are meant by this name that he has given himself. And I'm afraid sometimes that we glaze over that when we just call him Lord. Imagine reading through your Bible and 6,521 times, instead of reading Lord, you read Jehovah the self-existent one. Or imagine instead of reading Lord you read Yahweh the first and chiefest being. Think about that. Yahweh the great I am and the giver of life. God repeats that to us 6,521 times according to Strong's Concordance. If we read the Bible from cover to cover and yet we glaze over it and we just say Lord. I think it would be good for us to think on that word every time we pass by it. Let those capital letters remind us of this Yahweh who gives us life and saves us from bondage and then gives us a law to live by. A sweet, affectionate, loving Redeemer. Because that's what those capital letters really mean. He is certainly Lord. I'm not denying that. that he is Lord in the context of something much more intimate, as the giver of life and love, and the one who has joined himself to us, and he compares his union to us as being like a husband is joined to a wife. So there's intimacy and love. Yahweh wants us to call him by name, I think. I do believe that, and I think that's significant as a preface to the Ten Commandments. He is establishing himself as loving husband, not harsh taskmaster, before he introduces us to his law. So that's the first thing we see in the preface to the Ten Commandments here. God is Yahweh. God is Jehovah, the self-existent being of beings and the covenant God of mankind. But he also refers to himself as God. Words, of course, have meaning. What does it mean that God refers to himself in the same sentence as God? Well, God is the translation in English for the Hebrew word here Elohim. It is a word which is not specific to Yahweh. And so it's not his name, it's a title. It's actually the same word that might be used to describe any god, even a false god. It just means deity. The word we see here, though, is the plural, meaning gods, and the plural is said to be used here to describe Jehovah because he is the supreme god. Sometimes in Hebrew, a plural word is used not because there are many, but to emphasize greatness. I think that's the case here. Yahweh is not called Elohim because he is plural gods, but because he is the Supreme God, the God of gods. And then what we're seeing here is that Yahweh, Jehovah, is calling himself Yahweh God. Jehovah God. Jehovah the Supreme God. Jehovah the God of gods. Every time we see Lord God, that's actually what we're reading. And that's how he describes himself. His name, then his title. Jehovah, the being of beings, the author of life, is also the God of gods. Jehovah Elohim, Yahweh Elohim. This is part of the preface to the Ten Commandments, in order to show us why we are bound to obey Him. He wants us to understand who He is before He reveals His law written to us. That's why He's constantly referring to Himself as Elohim. That's not His name. That's how we use it oftentimes. We just refer to Him as God all the time, but that's not His name. That's His title. He is Lord of Lords, and His name is Yahweh, as I said, from the Hebrew. So the preface begins with Yahweh's name, which has great meaning, and his title, which has great meaning also. And then he moves to what he's done for the people of God. He is the Redeemer. His name, his title, and then his office, you might say. He is the being of beings first. He is the Lord of lords second. And now we see he is the Redeemer. He is prophet, priest, and king, we might say. Those are his titles. Those are his offices, I mean. Again, He made us and He takes care of us. Redemption is what He does to take care of us. Turn with me, if you would, to Luke chapter 1. Luke chapter 1 and starting in verse 68. I'm going to read down to verse 75. This is one of our proof texts from this section in the Catechism. And it said, Blessed is the Lord God of Israel. For he has visited and redeemed his people, and has raised up a horn of salvation for us in the house of his servant David, as he spoke by the mouth of his holy prophets, who have been since the world began, that we should be saved from our enemies and from the hand of all who hate us, to perform the mercy promised to our fathers and to remember his holy covenant. the oath which He swore to our father Abraham, to grant us that we, being delivered from the hand of our enemies, might serve Him without fear, in holiness and righteousness before Him all the days of our life. Blessed is the Lord our Redeemer. Blessed is Yahweh our Redeemer. What does Yahweh do to take care of His people? He visits them, He redeems them. He raises up a horn of salvation for them. He speaks to them. And why? That we should be saved from our enemies. And the we, I think, here is the New Testament people, by the way. What else does God do as Redeemer. He performs mercy, it says. He remembers His Holy Covenant. And He does this so that we might serve Him without fear. There's the Gospel coming back in. In holiness and righteousness before Him all the days of our life. That's the Gospel and the Law interacting with one another under the New Covenant. We are saved to serve. We are redeemed to live a holy life. And how do we do that? How do we know what holiness looks like? The Ten Commandments, the law. The preface of the law is here to instruct us about the law. It tells us who is giving the law and why he's giving it. The Redeemer is giving the law so that we might know how to live for the Redeemer. so that we might serve our Redeemer without fear in holiness and righteousness all the days of our life." This is Yahweh. What a wonderful God and Savior, right? As Yahweh, He is the Being of Beings and the Giver of Life. As God, He is the Lord of Lords and King of Kings. And so He is over us and we are His subjects as Redeemer. He has bought us at a price to set us free from sin and to set us free from the enemies of his kingdom. And because we are bought, we are now slaves of righteousness and holiness. Slaves who serve without fear. Slaves who serve willingly and joyfully, freely and cheerfully, it says in our catechism. This is setting the stage for the law. This is our introduction to the law. It's helping us to understand the purpose of the law while also helping us to understand why we are subject to it and why we are bound to keep all his commandments. Because he made us and because he takes care of us. Because he's our loving husband. Because he is our loving father. Because he is our covenant king. and He will give us a new heart to serve Him and obey Him freely and cheerfully. Speaking of the word freely, notice that word bondage in Exodus 20 in verse 2. It says, I have brought you out of the house of bondage. The word literally means slavery, right? And our catechism says the preface to the Ten Commandments teaches us that because God is the Lord, And our God and Redeemer, therefore we are bound to keep all His commandments. Bound means tied or chained or imprisoned. Same root word as bondage, right? In Luke 1, we are called servants. So we are freed from bondage to sin and freed to bondage to righteousness. freed from slavery to sin and freed to slavery to righteousness. That's why Yahweh is calling Himself Redeemer here. It's all part of what has been done by Him and how our New Covenant arrangement works. We are bought at a price and we are made servants of God and His will, but not servants in chains. We are made volunteers in the day of His power. Remember back to our confession in paragraph 7, it says in the Gospel, the Spirit of Christ subdues and enables the will of man to do that freely and cheerfully, which the will of God revealed in the law, requires to be done. We are free to obey. Bound and yet free. That's a total shift, right? Free to obey. That's how we should view this law. We are bound by the law, yes. We are obligated to obey it, yes. But we are free to obey it. That's the key. That's what we see in the law and that's what we see in the preface to the Ten Commandments. The Gospel will make us free and cheerful servants of Yahweh and His Law. Now as we draw to a close, let's think about what this means for us. What is it that changes in the Christian experience? What happens when we are bought by Yahweh, our Covenant Father? He gives us a new heart, right? A heart that agrees with the Law. My question this morning is this. Are you a cheerful slave to righteousness? Have you experienced all of these things we've considered this morning? Is Yahweh the personal, relational Redeemer that you trust in? Is He the sovereign God who bought you at the price of His own Son and set you free? And when He set you free, did you realize that you wanted nothing more than to be His servant for the rest of your life? That's what redemption is. And that's what's being taught to us here as we're introduced to the Ten Commandments. This study will require us in the coming weeks to have a heart for Yahweh, a heart for Jesus Christ, a heart that is cheerful, in its service and worship to Him. These laws for the Christian illuminate our hearts. They show us our sin and our infirmities. They teach us the holiness of God. They show us the person we want to be but cannot attain to be. And these laws, when we fall short of them, bring us over and over again to the cross of Christ, exactly where we need to be. so that we might find the mercy and redemption that He accomplished there. That's the wonder of this law. The law is against everyone who thinks they can earn their eternal life. Everyone who thinks they can deserve God's favor. But to everyone who has been redeemed by God, the law becomes a sweet reminder that we, though we are wretched sinners, are now fully embraced and secure in the loving arms of the lawgiver. And with that, let's pray. Dear Heavenly Father, once again, we thank you for the depth that we can find in the study of a single word. And Lord, we just thank you that your Bible is compared to an infinite ocean that can be fished from for all of life and all of eternity and Lord there is just so much depth and so much wisdom and so much of your love found in the study of a single verse or even the single word and Lord we're thankful for that because in that we see you ministering to us and we see you opening our eyes, constantly teaching us, and we are thankful for that, and You've promised to do that. Lord, I just pray that You would put in all of us a desire to know Your Word and to study it and to find You. under every rock and all the gems that we find in all the most unlikely places in Your Word. It's just amazing, Lord, how we never cease to be amazed at just who You are and what You're willing to do for us. And Lord, we are just so small in Your sight, and yet You give us all of Yourself. And for that, we thank You. We thank You, Lord, that You have revealed to us Your name. We thank you for the meaning of it and all that can be understood by it. You truly are the first and chiefest being and there's so much meaning there alone. Lord, you give us being when you breathe life into us at birth and then you gave us new life when you breathe spiritual life into us in our second birth. Lord, you continue to breathe life into us day after day after day, and we look forward to the fullness of that life that we'll experience when we are done in this world and join you in the next. And all of these things we find in that simple name that you've given yourself. So we thank you for who you are. We thank you, Lord, for this time of worship that you've given us, that you give us each week. We thank you for one another, the union that we have with you and the union that we have with one another as brothers and sisters in the Lord. And Lord, we just ask that you bless us in the rest of our day. May our worship be sweet to you. And we pray these things in Christ's name. Amen.