The law of God is holy and the commandments holy and just and good. Romans 7.12 tells us. Therefore the law is holy and the commands holy and just and good. And yet today many people speak as though the Ten Commandments are something bad and negative and something to be avoided. Yet God spoke the Ten Commandments with his own voice. He wrote them with his own finger on tablets of stone. It was after the Lord had delivered the children of Israel from slavery in Egypt, they'd seen the incredible power of God poured out upon Egypt through the ten plagues. They'd watched in awe as God had rolled back the waters of the Red Sea to allow them to cross through on dry land. On the other side of the Red Sea they'd seen the Lord close the waters over the pursuing Egyptian charioteers. They had tasted the manna that God had sent from heaven to feed them in the desert. They had quenched their thirst with water that had flowed from the rock at the commandment of God. They had seen the mighty power of God to save and to judge. They had seen His power to heal and they had seen His power to punish, to judge, to kill and to destroy. Now as they stood before the mountain of God, it was covered with smoke as the Lord descended on it like a burning fire. The smoke billowed up from it like smoke from a furnace, and the whole mountain trembled greatly. This was the context in which God spoke the Ten Commandments. He revealed His standards, His top ten. The Law's remarkable origin reveals its divine character. The Ten Commandments flows directly from the Eternal. from the character of our Holy Creator and our Eternal Church. They are the standard by which the world will be judged. They are the standard by which everyone of every culture, tribe, language, nation and era will be evaluated in eternity. The Ten Commands provide a permanent rule for life for all people. The law defines sin. Sin is lawlessness we read in 1 John 3 and verse 4. The law of the Lord is perfect, converting the soul. He who looks into the perfect law of liberty and continues in it and is not a forgetful hearer but a doer of the work, this one will be blessed in what he does. We read in James 1.25. The law of God convicts us of sin. The law condemns transgression. The law restrains evil. We read in 1 Timothy 1 verse 8-11 But we know that the law is good, if we use it lawfully, knowing this, that the law is not made for the righteous, but for the lawless and for the insubordinates, for the ungodly, for sinners, for the unholy and profane, for murderers of fathers and murderers of mothers, for manslayers, for fornicators, for sodomites, for kidnappers, for liars, for perjurers, and if there is any other thing that is contrary to sound doctrine according to the glorious gospel of our Lord and blessed God, which was committed to our trust. So that's in 1 Timothy 1. Psalm 119, which is the longest psalm, longest chapter in the Bible. David Livingstone had to memorize the whole of Psalm 119 to earn his first New Testament. Psalm 119 verse 11 says, your word I've hidden in my heart that I might not sin against you. Psalm 119 says, a man who knows God's law knows more than all his teachers. especially true today when you think of what the average teachers are teaching or not teaching. The law brings people to Christ. We read in Galatians 3.24 that the law was our tutor or our schoolmaster to bring us to Christ that we might be justified by faith. The law of the Lord is perfect, converting the soul. The law of God guides our sanctification. that the righteous requirements of the law might be fulfilled in us who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the spirit Romans 8.4 the law of God lies at the very heart of the new covenant there are people who believe that the new covenant has nothing to do with the law but in Jeremiah 31 we read behold the days are coming says the Lord when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel I will put my law in their minds and I will write it on their hearts and I will be the God and they will be my people some people think that the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ has abolished the law but our Lord Jesus Christ could not have made it any clearer than he made it in Matthew chapter 5 do not think I came to destroy the law or the prophets I did not come to destroy but to fulfill for assuredly I say to you until heaven and earth pass away not one jot or one tittle will by any means pass in law until all is fulfilled Whoever therefore breaks one of the least of these commands, and teaches men to do so, shall be called least in the kingdom of heaven. Whoever does and teaches them shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven. For I say to you, unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and the Pharisees, you will by no means enter the kingdom of heaven. Now how much stronger could the Lord have made it? Heaven and earth will pass away before any aspect. Not the least stroke of a tenor or the smallest dot of the pen will pass from the law of God. The law of God applies till heaven and earth pass away. Throughout the Gospels, Christ emphatically taught the relevance of the law of God. He upheld the civil function of the law to restrain evil. Christ himself perfectly obeyed the law during his earthly ministry. And Jesus Christ saved us in terms of the law. We read in Galatians 4, But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth a son born of a woman, born under law, to redeem those who are under the law, that we might receive adoption as sons and daughters. And you, being dead in your trespasses and the transgression and uncircumcision of your flesh, he has made alive together with him. having forgiven you all your trespasses, having wiped out the handwriting of requirements that was against us, which was contrary to us, having taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross. That's in Colossians chapter 2. So while the Ten Commandments are binding on all mankind, they're especially relevant to God's people, to Christian people. They reflect the character of God and they keep their full authority today. Leviticus 19, one of the most important chapters in the Old Testament because it defines what holiness means, begins, you shall be holy for I the Lord your God am holy. We are told in 2 Timothy 3 verse 16 to 17, all scripture is given by inspiration of God and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction and righteousness that the man of God may be complete. thoroughly equipped for every good work. So where's the place of people who today might say, I'm a New Testament Christian? There's no such thing. Christians in the New Testament were Christians of the whole Bible. When Paul wrote all scriptures given by inspiration of God, the New Testament wasn't written yet. Timothy's one of the earliest books written. He's speaking mostly about the Old Testament. The New Testament was still in the process of being written. When pioneer missionary John Eliot first translated the scriptures of the Alecron language for the Indians in Massachusetts, he started with the Ten Commandments. Now, John Eliot did not think that the Ten Commandments could save anybody, but they were essential for them to understand the law of God, to understand the holiness of God, to understand the sinfulness of man, to understand our need of salvation. You must start with the foundations and creation and the law are absolutely foundational before anyone can come to understand the gospel. In the same way John Patton, the missionary to the cannibals in the South Sea islands in the Pacific, began his ministry by teaching the Ten Commandments. The sharp needle of the law has to precede the scarlet thread of redemption. Until people understand the law of God, they are not able to understand the holiness of God. Until they understand the holiness of God, they will not understand their own sinfulness. Until they understand their own sinfulness and depravity before God, we're not ready to understand our need for salvation, forgiveness, redemption, adoption, sanctification in and through our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. So, whereas justification by faith deals with how sin is pardoned, Sanctification deals with our sin as subdued in our lives. Robert Murray McShane explained, it is a holy making gospel. Without holy fruits, all evidence is of vain. Dear friends, you have awakenings, enlightenings, experiences, and many due signs. But if you lack holiness, you shall never see the Lord. A real desire to complete holiness is the truest mark of being born again. Unregenerate men cannot bear this testimony. Teaching and preaching the Ten Commands helps put repentance back into the evangelistic message. It's not enough just to say, believe. It's got to be a repentant belief. And follow. Take up the cross and follow Christ. We need to surrender to Christ. We need to follow him. Follow in his steps. Follow his example. Many self-deceived church members give no biblical evidence of being born again by the Spirit, despite having responded to evangelistic appeals. They might have raised their hand, prayed this prayer, come forward, gone through the wards of baptism, got their names written on the church membership rolls. But walking the aisle and signing decision cards or praying sinners' prayers does not alone mean that we are saved or born again. Teaching on the Ten Commandments helps demolish the theory that you may receive Jesus your personal saviour without submitting to him as Lord. There has to be change. That's why We know the testamies I just saw came in the shipment that we were sorting through on Friday, a whole lot of unshackled. It's testamies from the Pacific Garden Mission, which Dale Moody started in Chicago. I've actually preached in. It's sort of like the Ark, but it's the great-great-grandfather of the Ark. This is the one that's been going for a very long time in the States. And all these testamies are unshackled. It's testamies of people who, I was an alcoholic. Now I'm sober. I was a drug addict, now I'm free. I was a thief, now I've done restitution. There's change, dramatic change. People who were chained, shackled by the chains of hell, who were in the gutters, people who were in the absolute ends of where there was no hope for them. and the Lord redeemed them. Now those are testimonies, and those unshackled testimonies which we put on the lower shelf in our track stand in the hallway, it's just tremendous. Each one is a different testimony. They all start with unshackled, but they're different people's testimonies which they broadcast on the radio and they get printed. But that is such a powerful testimony when you've got people who, they were in the dregs and the depths of despair and hopelessness. and the Lord redeemed it. There's no doubt that person is converted, that you see the fruit. That's harder with people brought up in a Christian family, they've always known the gospel, there's no clear date, there's no clear time, and so that's where often people are not too sure. I mean, have I been saved? Because there's no problem to a convert. Vaughan, myself, Taran. We know the day where we were pagan and then we got converted. We can give you the dates. And that's easy for a person who came from a pagan background. But it's hard if you come from a Christian background. Because you've never been that bad, so how much, you know, where's the region? And that's where the problem comes of knowing how much change has there been in my life, in my affections, in my direction. And that is where the Ten Commandments comes in that's so important. The notion that obedience to the commands of Christ on optional extra for any true Christian will be exposed for falsehood. Some people have this nice belief of carnal Christians and in spiritual Christians and you accept Jesus as your personal saviour now and sometime later somebody comes along and says but now would you like to accept Jesus as your Lord and surrender to him as a deeper life and now I'll just keep Jesus as my personal saviour I'm not really interested in him as my Lord That's a false teaching. That's not something that the apostles or the Lord Jesus Christ would have tolerated or known. This is a new development where, in the 20th century, they've got this new heresy where they speak about, oh, lordship salvation is a heresy. We just believe and we just have grace, and it's all about grace and net comadre. And if you mention anything about the Lord, I didn't know the word until I went to the army, but I heard these people saying, Vettis! Este Vettis! Mentioning the law of God, then suddenly you're legalistic. But legalism is saying you're saved by keeping the law. It's not legalistic to teach the law as a schoolmaster and lead us to Christ, that we can be justified by faith. Salvation by the grace of God alone, received by faith alone, is not legalism. Legalism is saying you can be saved by keeping the law. And so a lot of people have misread that. The cleansing of our sins by the blood of Christ and the working of the Holy Spirit in our hearts are inseparably joined together in God's great work of salvation. Justification deals with our guilt. Sanctification deals with our nature. And so you've got the penalty of sin, death, but then you have the power of sin. And so being saved from the penalty of sin is justification, it's a legal term, but being saved from the power of sin is sanctification. That's an ongoing process, a lifelong battle. And sometimes we're winning and other times we're a bit on the retreat, but ultimately it's a victorious battle of sanctification. King David, the writer of most of the Psalms, the one who's described as a man after God's own heart, not a perfect man, but a wholehearted, follower and worship of the Lord. He wrote, make me walk in the path of your commandments for I delight in it. Indignation has taken hold of me because the wicked who forsake your law. Oh, how I love your law. It is my meditation all the day. I hate the double-minded, but I love your law. It is time for you to act, O Lord, for they have regarded your law as void. Therefore I love your commands more than gold. Yes, more than much fine gold. All of those quotes come out of Psalm 119. It's King David's celebration of the law of God. The Apostle John declares he who says I know him but does not keep his commands is a liar and the truth is not in him. The Apostle Paul thought do we then make void the law through faith? Certainly not. On the contrary we establish the law. So in Romans, the Apostle Paul makes clear that justification by faith does not mean we negate or make void the law. The law of God is still in force, the law of God is still relevant, the law is still important. Yes, even for Christians who have been saved, because while it doesn't deal with our condemnation, it's now dealing with our sanctification. It's guiding us in how to live a life that's pleasing to God in all areas. Therefore the commandment is holy. and it promises good and just. For I delight in the law of God according to the inward man, Paul says. The great reformer Martin Luther said the first duty of the gospel preachers is to declare God's law and to show the nature of sin. John Bunyan who wrote Paul's Progress wrote the man who does not know the nature of the law cannot know the nature of sin. So in a sense you cannot break the law of God You can only break yourself upon God's law. In a sense, if you're on top of a mountain and you decide to ignore the law of gravity, you're the one who's going to suffer. The law of gravity is not going to suffer at all. The law of gravity is set. We need to obey the law of gravity or we're going to suffer the consequences which will be quite dire, depending on the height that we're talking about. Countless individuals and nations have violated God's commands and sought to wage war against the law of God. But you know, Destroying the thermometer does not remove your fever. The thermometer is just there to indicate whether we have a fever or not. And I can smash the thermometer into how many pieces, it's not going to improve my health one bit. The gutters and the slums and the hospitals and the asylums are filled with the results of man's rebellion to God. The pubs and the prisons, the battlefields and the graveyards. are testimonies of those who have decided to violate God's laws and wage war against God's law. In 1 John 5 we read, By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God and keep His commandments. And His commands are not burdensome. And whatever is born of God overcomes the world. And this is the victory that has overcome the world, our faith. Therefore the law is our schoolmaster to lead us to Christ that we can be justified by faith. Colossians 1.18 says that in all things Christ may have the preeminence. A group of theological students were given an assignment to rearrange the ten commands in the order of priority. There was general consensus the most important command is of course do not commit murder, no question about that. They then agreed the second most important command would be you don't steal. Good. There's consensus there. The third most important command they then agreed was you shall not bear false witness against your neighbour. But now there was division after that. And the main division was over what is the least important command. And half of the theological students felt the least important command was you should not commit adultery. The other half select you should have no other gods before me. Finally they agreed after a lot of discussion the least important command was you shall have no other gods before me. That's the least important. This is a very interesting commentary on the perspective of these so-called theological students, and I must use a small t, an inverted commas here, for theological students because they haven't understood God at all. When the Lord Jesus Christ was asked, what is the greatest commandment, what did he say? You have to love the Lord your God with all of your heart, with all of your soul, with all of your mind, and with all of your strength. That's what Jesus said is the most important command. He put God first. But what did these theological students do? They put man first. He shall not murder, and he shall not steal, and he shall not take away our good name. So don't steal my life, don't steal my property, and don't steal my reputation. That's far more important. And where's God? He's at the bottom, because he's not anything as important as man. just as the rector of Stelmbosch Theological Seminary at the Craig School famously said, theology has nothing to do with God, it's everything to do with man. Now they'd have confused anthropology with theology. At a Christian conference, a discussion ensued over the Ten Commands, and one delegate commented he didn't find the Ten Commands very challenging or useful, which is personal sanctification, because they're mainly dealt with extreme sins, like idolatry. adultery, stealing, murder, things we don't need to worry about. He is puzzled over the lack of mention of the more serious sins like pride, and selfishness, and a bad temper, which is what we are struggling with on a daily basis. An older delegate observed the ten quads not specific enough, and one woman delegate expressed the print of the ten quads were too negative. It's all these shalt not business. She would have preferred the ten quads to present positive advice. Sort of like how we could reflect the beatitudes of the fruits of the spirit, which is so much more positive. This would have surely been more relevant for Christians, she believed. In this age of antinomianism, anti-nomus, anti-against-nomus law, antinomianism against God's law, hostility to God's law, I remember a graduate from a theological college in Cape Town speaking here to follow the prayer book, order of service in church, which was a communion Sunday. And after reading the Ten Commands, because the whole Ten Commands is part of the communion service liturgy, he at the end said, phew, I'm glad you don't need to worry about any of that anymore. And he carried on. So at the end of the service, after everyone had left, I met him by the door and I said, what you had to say about the Ten Commands is very interesting. Which of the Ten Commands do you believe are no longer relevant? And he said, well, none of it. I said, that's not a reformed position. He said, well, I'm not reformed. I said, no, but this is a reformed church. He said, no, it's not. I said, yes, it is. And he said, no, it's not. And I said, the Thirty-Nine Articles. And he said, what the hell's the Thirty-Nine Articles? I said, well, it's at the back of the prayer book. It's the foundation of the Church of England. Thirty-Nine Articles. And he looked at it like he'd never seen it before. And I'd just gone through a Church of England theological college. Thirty-Nine Articles. What are they? Where'd they come from? I then pointed him to, there was a metal clock by the door which Bishop Stephen Bradley had placed there because his church at Holy Trinity in Cape Town had paid for the establishment of St Andrews and Pines and they placed this metal clock at the door. This congregation was being provided for, I mean they got this congregation, the building, beautiful stone church, stained glass windows, free gift from Holy Trinity and said this church is to be used for the proclamation of the gospel reformed and evangelical as contained in third name articles of religion. Very specific and so on. So I showed him that and he looked at it like he'd never seen it before. It's just this brass plaque right by the door. Amazing how some people are unobservant. But here's a man who's a graduate of Church of England College. I asked the principal a while later, I said, are you a reformed college? He said, yes. I said, are you reformed? Yes, he is. I said, I thought so. How is it that every graduate I've ever met from your college, and every student there, has never given a reformed concept quote, or quoted from a reformer, or enunciated any of the key doctrines of Kelvin? He says, I don't know, we must be doing something wrong. Which is my impression too. And when I mentioned this particular individual, he just said, oh well he's from the lower end of the gene pool. Which, fair enough, that can happen, but What does it say about the theological lecturers who fail to communicate foundational biblical principles? But this is not unusual. He's not the only person I've come across, low end of the gene pool or not. I've come across a lot of even highly intelligent, highly qualified theologians and pastors of megachurches who have a hostility to the law of God. The law of God they see as the enemy. We're in an age of grace and enough Constitution here. this Al-Khanada, Net-Khanada, and they carry on, and if they heard a sermon like this, they'd be screaming Bettys at the top of their voices. But in this age of antinomianism, such pervasive hostility and ignorance of the law of God even dominates our theological colleges and Christian conferences, very much so. Jesus Christ expressly affirmed the law, and he emphatically taught the law, and he perfectly kept the law, and he saved us in terms of the law. The Ten Commands are the source and the summary of every other passage in the Bible about holy living, and they cover every conceivable sin. The Ten Commands, each one of the Ten Commands actually covers a whole family of sins. And although the Ten Commands are mostly expressed in negative terms, they also contain implicit commands to perform the opposite of positive virtues. So the Ten Commands actually present us with God's code for holiness, which is why we call it God's perfect law of liberty. In keeping the Ten Commandments we are freed from a whole range of things which you can see sin binds, sin blinds, sin grinds. Just think of Samson. The Ten Commandments are presenting us with a code for holiness. Contrary to the opinion of the theological students who assigned God's first commandment to the last place, the first commandment is the most important commandment. And our Almighty Creator and Eternal Judge didn't make a mistake in placing the Ten Commandments in the order that He placed them. It's only right that the Creator has first place in our life. As a loving Heavenly Father, God does not want us to waste our lives in falsehood, deception and spiritual poison. He knows what's best for His children. He desires that we become the very best people that we can be. He wants us to devote all the potential He's placed within us to become successful sons and daughters of the Living God. We will only find true peace and lasting performance when we give God lasting place in our own lives. So when God revealed the Ten Commands on Mount Sinai, He declared, I am the Lord your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage, and you shall have no other gods before me. And when the Common Law of England was first put down by King Alfred the Great, he began with these very words, and he followed through the whole of the Ten Commandments and all the case laws of exodus and the Sermon on the Mount of Christ. That's the Common Law of England. Why is it called Common Law? Because it's common to all people of all ranks of all stations in life. The Common Law. And it's the Ten Commandments. When God declared, I am the Lord, he effectively ruled out atheism. He ruled out pantheism. He ruled out polytheism. He ruled out New Age classy thinking. When God said, I am, he reveals he is a person. God is not, as the Pantheist teaches, an impersonal force, which is roughly what you get in the Star Wars situation. You know, the force is some kind of impersonal character. Well, interestingly enough, not so much in the Rogue One that's come out recently. It's like they're reshaping the Force to be a more personal entity that actually has a will. And for the first time, the Star Wars films are now depicting prayer, which is extraordinary, and an almost predestination in the way how everything works. So the latest film in the series, which is actually the prequel to all of them, is now depicting the force far more in a Christian concept than any of the others, which is interesting because it shows the new directors in town, and something very strange has happened, because the others were definitely New Age, Hindu, Buddhist type of concepts. But Pantheism's ruled out. Pantheism's actually the worst type of religion, because if all is God, then there can be no distinction between good and evil. Then you're back to Taoism, which is the symbol on the South Korean flag. You've got the black and the white half-part circles with dots in each, where good and evil is, you know, the dark side of force, the light side of force, it's all one force. And if nothing is false, then everything must be true, and if everything is true, then nothing is false. Evangelism would be irrelevant. Because there's no ultimate truth of which you can be certain. And if God is all, and if all is God, then a drunk driver running down an innocent child is equivalent morally to Florence Nightingale devoting her life to saving people's lives from sickness and disease. what's the difference between if you're a drunk driver killing people or Florence Nightingale in a hospital because all is God and God is all and all is good and good is all and evil and good is interchangeable, then there's nothing right or wrong. When God calls himself I, he exposes an inherent lie of polytheism. Many gods. Polytheism believes in many gods. The Hindus say they've got about 330 million gods that they can count. But God didn't say, we are the Lord your God. He declared, I am the Lord your God. He is the one true God. There is no other. And those who worship other gods, those who bow before the idols of paganism, are actually bowing before demons in disguise, we read. 1 Corinthians 10, 20. That the idols are nothing, but actually there's evil spirits behind them. God's revelation of the mountain also ruled out the New Age fuzzy spirituality, which is nothing It's more like the old lie of Satan in the Garden of Eden when he said, you will be as God. Eat this fruit. Break God's law and you will be like God. C.S. Lewis said, we are half-hearted creatures fooling around with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered to us. We are like an ignorant child who wants to play in the mud with mud pies in the slum when a holiday by the seaside is offered to him. we are far too easily pleased, we settle for second best. Matthew Henry, commenting on the first command, said this does not only refer to pagan idols, because to love or to desire or to delight in or to expect any good from sinful indulgence is prohibited. Equally, we are not allowed to make any personal, any created being, however valuable or excellent, to rival God in our affections. God must be first, everyone else must be second or third. All atheism, all infidelity, all irreligion is opposition to God and an attempt to be independent of Him, said Matthew Henry. The proud man becomes his own idol because he worships himself and expects other people to worship him too. The covetous man makes a god of his wealth, which he loves, depends on, and expects happiness from his wealth. The sensualist is also worshipping deities as filthy as that seen in a pagan idol. We are commanded to set our affections on things above, not down below here on earth. So our first duty and our soul's greatest need is to place God first and to place God above all else in our lives. And those who crowd God out of our affections, out of our time, out of his rightful place in our life, do so to our own detriment. If the one true God is not on the throne of our lives, we will not know true, lasting, permanent peace. The Russian novelist Leo Tolstoy, who wrote The Great War and Peace, was wealthy and successful beyond imagining. He was honoured and acclaimed worldwide for his great writings. Yet, despite all his wealth and fame, he was dissatisfied and empty. One day while walking in the countryside of Russia, he came across a peasant whose face was beaming and shining with joy and delight. Ilya Tolstoy later testified he realized immediately that this man, although he possessed very little of this world's goods, yet he had a joy and a peace and a contentment which eluded the successful and celebrated Tolstoy. Leo Tolstoy could not get this joyful peasant's countenance out of his mind and he concluded that the difference between that peasant and himself is the peasant knew God. And he, Leo Tolstoy, did not. And this began the journey that ultimately led Tolstoy to Christ. And he wrote, to know God is to live, and to live is to know God. It's one and the same thing. God is life. And so, The larger catechism of the Westminster Assembly summarises the sins forbidden in the first command, the sin of atheism. The fool has said in his heart there is no God. They are corrupt and they have done abominable works. The sin of idolatry is forbidden. The sin of omission or neglect of any duty to God. The sin of forgetting about God. Or the sin of having false opinions about God. For to whom then can you liken God? Or what likeness can be compared with God? The sin of having unworthy or wicked thoughts about God is forbidden. The sin of having curious searching into secrets. There's some things God has revealed which we can know and there's other things he has not revealed which is not for us to know yet. The sin of hating God. There's a lot of hatred of God actually. It's surprising how many people hate God and are resentful to God. The sin of self-love. If we put ourselves above God. The sin of self-seeking. For all seek their own, not the things which are of Christ. The sin of an inordinate setting of our heart, mind, will or affection upon things other than God. Do not love the world or the things of the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. But all that's in the world, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, the pride of life, this is not of the Father. The sin of unbelief. Brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief and departing from the living God. The sin of despair of hardening your heart, but in accordance with your hardness and your impenitent heart you are treasuring up for yourselves wrath in the day of wrath and the revelation of the righteous judgment of God. The sin of pride. There is no place for pride if we recognize who God is and who we are. You shall not tempt the Lord your God. The sin of praying to saints, angels or other creatures. You shall worship the Lord your God and Him only shall you serve. So, idolatry in any shape or form, even if it's religious idolatry, even if it's a Christian idol, as our dear Catholic friends do, can't pray to Mary, can't pray to anyone except the Lord God Himself through the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. The sin of consulting with mediums is forbidden in the first command. and a person who turns to mediums and familiar spirits prostitutes himself, I will set my face against that person and cut him off from his people. The sin of making man the lord of our faith and conscience, the sin of resisting and grieving the Holy Spirit, the sin of discontent and impatience with God's dealings. Now there I've just quoted straight from the Westminster Confession of Faith. Under the Westminster larger catechism summary of duties required in the first command, to know God and to acknowledge Him to be the one and truly only God. Serve Him with a loyal heart, with a willing mind, for the Lord searches all minds and understands all the intents of the thoughts. If you seek Him, He will be found by you. But if you forsake Him, He will cast you off forever. We are required to worship God, O come let us worship and bow down, let us kneel before the Lord our maker, for he is our God and we are the sheep of his pasture. To glorify God, give unto the Lord the glory due to his name, worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness. To think about God, to meditate on God, to remember God, to honour God, to highly esteem him, to believe him, to trust his word. Trust in the Lord forever, for in the Lord is everlasting strength. To delight in God. Delight yourself also in the Lord and He will give you the desires of your heart. To obey God. To submit to Him. To walk humbly before God. The great person Micah 6 verse 8 is attached to this in the Western standards. He has shown you, O man, what is good. And what does the Lord require of you? But to do justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God. I remember that verse being the substance of the speech given at the graduation service at University Cape Town 1978 in Jamieson Hall. Can you imagine? And they expound on this. To do justice, to love mercy, to walk humbly with your God. That in a secular university. You'd be lucky to get that in a Christian university today. The day will come when we will have to stand before Almighty God and give an account of our lives, as appointed to men once to die, and after this the judgment. Abraham, the father of the faithful, proved that God was his first priority, above every other fiction. When the people of Israel were unfaithful to God by seeking to worship both the Lord and the false gods of Canaan, Elijah tells them, how long will you falter between two opinions? If the Lord is God, serve Him. If Baal is God, serve Him. Joshua challenged the people of Israel, choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your father served on the other side of the river or the gods of Amorites in whose land you now live, but as for me and my house we will serve the Lord. God revealed to Hosea that when his people sought to worship him and to worship the idols of the nations, that was like him having to marry a prostitute. Daniel and his three friends remain inspiring examples to all of us of what it means to obey the First Command. When King Nebuchadnezzar set up an idol of gold and commanded everyone to bow down and worship it, Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego refused to bow. And when they were threatened with being thrown into the fiery furnace, they responded, Our God whom we serve is able to save us, and he will. But even if he does not save us, be it known, O King, that we will not bow down before your idols, nor will we serve your gods. When King Darius of the Medo-Persian Empire issued the decree that for 30 days no one was to pray to anyone except the king alone, he'd be thrown into the lion's den. Daniel continued to pray to the Lord God alone. And God protected Daniel in the lion's den. In the light of the first command, we should examine our hearts. Who or what is first in your heart and affections? What is most important? What is of greatest importance to you? What do you spend most of your time and money on? What do you think about the most? What are you most excited and enthusiastic for? If, after honest examination of your own heart and mind, you realize God does not have first place, then we need to reorder our priorities in the light of eternity. As the Apostle Peter declared, we must obey God rather than men. Let us pray. Lord God, we want to thank and praise you for your law, for your law of liberty. We want to thank you, Lord God, that where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty. We want to thank you, Lord God, for your mercy, for your grace, for your loving kindness, which has rescued us out of the kingdom of Satan and brought us into the kingdom of your own dear Son. We thank you for the wonderful privilege we have, Lord God, of being your sons and your daughters, being your servants and your soldiers. Lord, we pray, make us bold and brave for you. Make us faithful to your word and effective in your service. We pray it in Jesus' precious name. Amen.