Okay. So we're moving into, I won't say the more critical, but certainly a paramount or a primary focus in the book of Exodus, which is the law of God, the Mosaic Covenant. This is what we're seeing and what we will read this evening. So I want to read chapter 20 in its entirety. The giving of the law continues for a number of chapters, but these are what we refer to as the Ten Commandments. Stephanie taught a few years ago on the Ten Words, which is a shortened version of that. So let's see what Moses recorded. Verse 1, And God spoke all these words, saying, I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. You shall have no other gods before me. You shall not make for yourself a carved image, any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth. And you shall not bow down to them, nor serve them, for I am the Lord your God, for I the Lord your God, rather, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children to the third and fourth generations of those who hate me, but showing mercy to those above me and keep my commandments. You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain, for the Lord would not hold him guiltless who takes his name in vain. Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy. Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord your God. In it you shall do no work, you nor your son, nor your daughter, nor your male servant, nor your female servant. nor your cattle nor your stranger who is within your gates. For in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth and the sea and all that is in them and rested the seventh day. Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and hallowed it. Honor your father and your mother that your days may be long upon the land which the Lord your God is giving you. You shall not murder. You shall not commit adultery. You shall not steal. You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor. You shall not covet your neighbor's house. You shall not covet your neighbor's wife, nor his male servant, nor his female servant, nor his ox, nor his donkey, nor anything that is your neighbor's. Now all the people witnessed the thunderings, the lightning flashes, the sounds of the trumpet and the mountains smoking, and when the people saw it, They trembled and stood afar off, and then they said to Moses, you speak with us, and we will hear, but let not God speak with us, lest we die. And Moses said to the people, do not fear, for God has come to test you, and that his fear may be before you, so that you may not sin. So the people stood afar off, but Moses drew near the thick darkness where God was. And the Lord said to Moses, you shall say to the children of Israel, you have seen that I have talked with you from heaven. You shall not make anything to me, to be with me, gods of silver, rather, or gods of gold, you shall not make for yourselves. An altar of earth you shall make for me and you shall sacrifice on it your burnt offerings, your peace offerings, your sheep and your oxen. In every place where I record my name, I will come to you and I will bless you. And if you make me an altar of stone, you shall not build it of hewn stone, for if you use your tool on it, you've profaned it. Nor shall you go up by steps to my altar that your nakedness may not be exposed on it. And then it continues and continues. And we'll stop there this evening with chapter 20. So what I'm gonna give you this evening is a preface before we actually get into the commandments themselves. So, This chapter, subsequent chapters to this, this is the word of God that was spoken in the Old Testament primarily as law. Never means that there wasn't grace. There is grace in the Old Testament, but it's primarily established as law. And then when we move into the Old Testament, we find that grace came, grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. That's what John says in John chapter one. Now, turn with me to Romans chapter eight. I have some of this on the overhead here, but this will help us understand or get a framework, so to speak, for the law. These, the first eight chapters of Romans, especially from about verse 18 of chapter one through the middle of chapter eight, deal with the law deal with our sin and deal with faith, justification by faith. And so they are, it's necessary for us to know this. We don't need to know it in its entirety, but it's necessary for us to understand how this fits. into the framework of the word of God. Look at the first four verses here of chapter eight. Now Paul, actually he closes verse 25 of chapter seven, I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord, so that with the mind I myself serve the law of God, but with the flesh the law of sin. So great distinction here, and this is Paul writing. So he had experienced this. He moves into chapter eight. There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus, who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the spirit. For the law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made me free from the law of sin and death. And so one of the elements, and we'll see that this evening in this preface, is one of the elements of the law is its freedom. We certainly don't think about it that way, but it does free us in the spirit of life in Christ, makes us free from the law of sin and death. For what the law could not do in that it was weak through the flesh. We preached about this a number of years ago. God did. By sending his own son of the likeness of sinful flesh on account of sin, he condemned sin in the flesh that the righteous requirement of the law. It's important. If you don't have it underlined or circled, you should. The righteous requirement of the law. The law is good. It's not bad. It's not meant to corral us and to rain down fire and brimstones. Good. that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the spirit. So this is a New Testament, rather, understanding of the law of God and the work of Jesus Christ in our hearts and in our souls. So I have up here verses three and four. The law could not do, And even though it's an expression of the morality of God, it was never intended to save. It was intended to convict us to bring us to salvation. So what the law could not do in that it was weak through the flesh, and that weakness is because we can't live it. I mean, we read these things, and these are just 10 of 600 and some commandments in the Old Testament. We read these and we say, how in God's name can anyone live this way? And the answer is, humanly speaking, we can't. So God did by sending his own son of the likeness of sin for flesh, that's the incarnation, and next Sunday we're gonna start to look at the remembering Jesus Christ in the incarnation. He sent him on account of sin. No sin, no need for the incarnation. He condemned sin in the flesh, that the righteous requirement of the law may be fulfilled in us who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit. So something changed from the Old Testament, significant change, to the New Testament. And that's where this great and mighty book of Romans teaches us about the law. Now turn with me back to Romans chapter three. I think I have it on a subsequent slide. We can cover it here. Verse 19. Now we know that whatever the law says, it says to those who are under the law that every mouth may be stopped and all the world may become guilty before God. No innocent people. Well, what do you do about the innocent people? No innocent people. Everyone is accountable to God because of the law that makes the imprint on their heart. And this is what Paul is saying here. He taught it in chapter two and he's bringing it to a just conclusion here in chapter three. Therefore, by the deeds of the law, no flesh will be justified in his sight, for by the law is the knowledge of sin. One of the great understandings of God gifting us with his law is so that we will know our propensity to sin and the depth of our sin. That's the reason it's given. But now verse 21, the righteousness of God apart from the law is revealed. So God is righteous, he's righteous in his law, but he's also righteous apart from the law. Being witnessed by the law and the prophets, the Old Testament, even the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ to all and on all who believe for there's no difference. for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, who God set forth as a propitiation by his blood through faith to demonstrate his righteousness. Because in his forbearance, God had passed over the sins that were previously committed to demonstrate at this present time His righteousness, four times in this section, the righteousness of God is mentioned. That he might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in him. Where is boasting then, he said? It is excluded. By what law? Of works? No, but by the law of faith. Therefore, we conclude that a man is justified by faith apart from the deeds of the law. Being legalistic doesn't save because that is apart from the deeds of the law. Or is he the God of the Jews only? Is he not also the God of the Gentiles? Yes, the Gentiles also. And since there is one God who will justify the circumcised, the Jews, by faith, and the uncircumcised, the Gentiles, through faith, Do we then make void of the law through faith? What does Paul say? Absolutely not. The law was not eliminated. On the contrary, he said, we establish the law. So, 4,000 years ago, approximately 4,000 years ago, Moses received the Ten Commandments, which is the beginning here of the law as it's structured in the book of Exodus. So, let's set the scene. Israel is camped at Mount Sinai, and they await Yahweh's message to Moses. We saw that in chapter 19. And what a message. It's the pivotal chapter in the Old Testament that begins the expression of the morality of God so that sinners may see that we are not God, as Satan lied to Adam and Eve. You'll be like God. Oh no. So God said, here's my word, here's my law, and you can see by this that you're not me. That's one of the reasons for all of this angst in the middle of chapter 20. Oh, we can't speak to God because they began to realize how other God is. So it's a message of righteousness that no human can attain. So it begs the question, are the Ten Commandments relevant today? And we hear that quite often. We see that occasionally they will, they, governments, will want to post them into schools, take them out of school, whatever. Are they relevant today? And since Paul said we were free from the law, which is lifted out of context, by the way, are we at liberty to disregard the moral implications of Exodus 20? And so as we read these tonight here at the close of 2024, that's the question we have to ask ourselves. Are we free from the moral implications of the law? And there's all sorts of theological things that we could address. We've read some of them. We won't ever answer this question in its entirety. Now John Calvin, who is arguably the most significant theologian of the Reformation, those of you that have systematic theologies and those of you that have taken theology courses and classes know that the premier theologian of the Reformation was Calvin. was the premier, I guess you could say, exegete. He was the one that was enthusiastic about leaving Rome, but it was Calvin that wrote down the doctrines. And he outlined three uses for the Ten Commandments. And we're gonna expand on these in just a minute. Number one, the law is meant to call us to reverence God's divinity. There's a difference between the Lord and I. And that's one of the reasons that the law is given. Israel understood it immediately. Hey Moses, you talk with God, we're not gonna talk with him. Secondly, it specifies the rule of God's righteousness. Now we've just looked at that in the book of Romans. And we know that it outlines that God's righteousness is a character trait of who he is. We don't have that. And third, it reproves our impotence and unrighteousness, our inability to live it, and our confusing ourselves, but by some level of self-righteousness, we can actually comply with what is given here in Exodus chapter 20. Next slide. So we've read Romans 3, 19 through 20, actually read more than that. And in chapter seven and verse nine, Paul says that, he basically says that the law was given as a schoolmaster to bring him to Christ. He mentions this again in the book of Galatians. And no one is ever saved without being convicted of sinning against God and his law. It's his law and it's expression of who he is, so when we break the law, we are basically slandering God. So further to what Calvin said, in these declarations, it goes a little deeper. He said the law is meant to point to our sinfulness by mirroring the perfect righteousness and holiness of God. Second, the law is meant to restrain evil. Romans 8 talks about that as well. It's meant to restrain evil by means of its fearful denunciations and the consequent dread of punishment. Now, we haven't arrived at that here in Exodus, but it's quite a bit of punishment that follows if you break the law. To curb those who, unless forced, have no regard for rectitude and justice. And again, I would just say, does that sound familiar? A lot of this is what we see today. This has been humankind for literally thousands of years. And third, and this is where it becomes, we see the beauty of the law, to reveal the path of freedom. and holiness for those who desire to please God. The law of Christ has made me free. Jesus himself taught about this in John chapter eight. So this is a beautiful thing, to reveal the path of freedom and holiness to those who desire to please God. Now the law begins with the very first, back to Exodus 20, but with the very first law that's given here. I am the Lord your God. And I did something for you that you could not do for yourself. It's similar to what Paul wrote Philemon. I am the Lord your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt, the land of bondage. So he sets a stage here before he starts to outline the Ten Commandments. I am your God. I did something for you that you could not do yourself, and now I'm going to give you a covenant that as you strive to keep it, I will bless you, but if you break it, Notice what he says in verse four. He says, talking about the carved image, but notice what he says. For I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God. I visit the iniquity of the fathers upon the children to the third and fourth generations of those who hate me. Hating God is equivalent to hating his law. But I show mercy to thousands of those who love me and keep my command. So in contrast there, we begin to see, of course, the dread of punishment that paints the wall. From this, we learn that the whole dialogue, the whole Ten Commandments, it's an expression of the way free people live. There's a reason. that the Puritans and the Pilgrims were some of the first peoples to land on the shores of America. Because they were seeking a heavenly city, by the way, but they were seeking also to worship God according to the dictates of their hearts so that they may be free. They were not free, in England, they were not free in Scotland, they were not free in the Netherlands or France or these other places, so they set out for a country to where they could worship God according to the freedoms that they understood that the Bible spoke about. And there's a reason that the Ten Commandments Has been cited for years. And the reason that the Ten Commandments are the crucible for the law of this land. It's because we are a free people. And here, God is giving the law to free the Hebrew people. It's expression of the way free people live. The law is not meant to restrict us. It's not meant to tie us down. It reveals the best order that God has for his creation. These 10 words, sometimes they're referred to as that, reveal the moral grain of the universe. Regardless of, we now know from the, The latest space telescope, I can't remember the name of it now. There was the Hubble and now there's the Robert something or other that's in there. But for years we thought there were about 200 billion galaxies. Now we know with this latest telescope that the estimate is three trillion, at least three trillion galaxies. We are just a small part and parcel of the Milky Way, which is not a large galaxy. But there are three trillion of these. So what do we learn? The moral reign of the universe is expressed right here. Doesn't have to be big. God is eminent, as well as transcendent. Okay, next slide. So all three uses of the law that Calvin described here are significant. We're to come back to them routinely because they vividly describe the kind of liberated and grateful life to which believers, those of us that are born again, are called to live wisely and we can live well in God's world if we begin to follow these. The approach that most of the Old Testament Hebrews would take of the law was that it was restrictive. This is tying me down. It was onerous. No one can do this, of course. It was meant to point to the Messiah. That's the purpose of the law without Jesus Christ. To convict of sin and to show us that we can't do it so that our advocate, we would trust our advocate. The approach of the New Testament Pharisees and many others, they would take the laws, one of legalism, and they would, man, they would codify. And they would bind constraint upon the peoples that followed them. And this leads to self-righteousness and hypocrisy. So that's what senators do. They complain that the law is either too restrictive or that they then begin to codify it and make it something that people want to, let's make a list. These are the do's and don'ts. So when Jesus was asked what the greatest commandment was, he said there are two. Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind. This is the first and the greatest commandment. And the second is like it. Love your neighbor as yourself. That's in Matthew 22. So what the Lord did was he boiled down the 10 commandments to the two essential mandates. Loving God, loving neighbor. And either the Old Testament Hebrews, some of them did, Nor the New Testament Pharisees or others actually did this. So they missed the beauty of the law, the freedom found in the law. How do we love God and how we are to love our neighbor? He majored on a devotion to his father. And he also majored on freeing saved humanity by giving of his life. And that all stems from what we're beginning to look at here. Next slide, Bowman. I think this is the last one tonight. So let's just think about this. I'll leave you with these as we move on tonight. I think mammoths require deep thought. And as you've heard me say thousands of times, it's good that we think deeply. They require deep thought about the direction of our lives once we are born again. Where are we going? Why did God give us this? How do we express this to others? They help us answer the daily issues we face and the priority of having no other God before me. For example, I'm just gonna list just a few things here, and think about these as we leave this tonight. We read about the Lord's Day. What does the Sabbath, the Lord's Day, mean for us in our 24-7 culture? Is it still binding? And of course, the Lord taught in the New Testament that man was not made for the Sabbath, but the Sabbath was made for man, for rest. Also in that, of course, is worship. So we live in a culture where we rarely have time to do anything. I mean, we have phones that have calendars on them, have notes on them, have all these things that I constantly ignore when they come up. So we have all of these reminders of things that we are to do or perhaps forgot to do. So what does, how does the Lord's Day fit into that? What does not using God's name in vain mean in a day when OMG, my God, is a common message, messaging punctuation, or when politicians, entertainers, businesses use God's name to pump their own platform or brand? Is that using God's name in vain? Yes, it is. And that happens all the time. How do we honor our parents? Especially when they have some debilitating disease. Robin Faye's mother had Alzheimer's and some of your parents, no doubt, have had dementia or Alzheimer's or whatever. A very, very debilitating disease, but there are other debilitating diseases. Cancers and heart disease and whatnot. So are we to to subject them to the rule of the day and perhaps place them in nursing homes or whatever. We open our home to them. How does this apply? And do you think about that? What does you shall not murder mean for capital punishment? or warfare or gun control, obviously abortion, we could add a lot of things here. What does that mean? How does that apply to us? Does it apply to us? Well, I would say that yes, it does. It's still a reflection of the morality of God. And then the last one here tonight, how does you shall not covet impact our bent to envy and jealousy? So are they pertinent to our day and time here in 2024, soon to be 2025? The answer to that is yes, they are. So it doesn't say, but it does reflect what God expects of his people. And our Lord Jesus Christ, of course, was the only one that lived these and others, all 613, 18 laws that are listed in the Old Testament. Every single one of them he was able to keep because he was the perfect God man. You and I, not so much. That should teach us about the beauty of our Savior. So we'll stop there this evening. We'll start to look at it in more detail, start to look at the scriptures in more detail beginning next week. Any comments or questions this evening? Let's pray. Father, we thank you for your word. We thank you for these commandments. We thank you for this covenant. This is just another covenant that you have given, that you gave to Moses to lead the Hebrew people in establishing a nation. They were not a nation when they left Egypt, and now you're beginning to formulate and provide to them some legal structure so that they would understand, first of all, how they ought to worship you, how they ought to adore you, how they ought to be devoted to you. And so obviously that applies to us tonight. I pray that your blessings would abide and be with all the individuals and couples and families that are represented this evening. Bless us as we depart from this place and keep us safe. In Jesus name we pray, amen. God bless you.