2026_02_22_TenCommandments

[0:00] In the Bible, it's right there near the beginning. We'll also be in the book of Deuteronomy, which is just a few books over.! Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and then Deuteronomy.

[0:13] But we're going to start in Exodus 19. So, the last couple of weeks, a couple of weeks ago, we started a series on the Ten Commandments.

[0:25] In the first two weeks, we really considered the law of Moses in general. The Ten Commandments are just ten commandments out of 613.

[0:37] Somebody did the counting. I didn't do it. But many people say there's 613 laws in the law of Moses. And we're going to be looking at ten of them. We're going to use it as a springboard to look at the law as a whole.

[0:50] But we're going to specifically focus on those ten. The last two weeks, we've looked at really a couple of things regarding the law in the Old Testament. Really asking the question, how does the Old Testament law really, how is it relevant to us as Christians today?

[1:09] It's part of the Old Covenant, so that means it's old and we've got something new. But what is our relationship to the law? So we talked about our relationship to the law. Well, the Bible says in the New Testament, we are not under the law, we're under grace.

[1:25] What does that mean? Well, but at the same time, the law is still good, the Bible says in the New Testament, if it's used lawfully. And we'll be talking more about that as we go through this series.

[1:39] And then the other thing that we looked at was the purpose of the law. Looking at kind of the three categories, we divided up the law of Moses into three categories. One is the moral law. It tells you right from wrong.

[1:51] The other is a civil law, which is used. And by the way, that intersects with the moral law. But it tells us it's a system of justice to really prevent crime and violence in society.

[2:08] And then the last one is the ceremonial law. The ceremonial law are things unique to Israel. And they are rituals, sacrifices, laws about what you should and shouldn't eat, different days that you should observe.

[2:26] And all of those things the Bible calls symbols or types and shadows that point to something future. They're not matters of fundamental morality, of right and wrong, but they do point to something.

[2:37] And so they are useful for us to learn, even if we don't follow them today. Today what we're going to do is we are going to look at the story of the Ten Commandments.

[2:49] How the Ten Commandments were delivered and then what happened to them. We're going to look at how they are unique from the rest of the law of Moses. And then we're going to take a little bit of time and just look at the structure.

[3:04] How they're organized. And how we can look at them from a big picture perspective. And then the plan is next week we're going to jump into commandment number one. So if you're in Exodus chapter 19, we're not going to read the whole thing.

[3:21] We're going to look at bits and pieces because there's a lot to cover. But if you've got your Bible handy, we're going to start in Exodus 19 and we're going to kind of make our way through. The other book that we're going to look at is Deuteronomy a lot.

[3:34] So kind of keep maybe a finger in there or a bookmark in there. But we're going to kind of go mostly chronologically or chapter by chapter. And the whole story of the Ten Commandments can be a bit difficult to follow because especially as you start here in Exodus, there's a mixture of kind of an accounting of the story and then a list of all of these laws and regulations.

[4:03] And so it can be difficult to kind of follow exactly the flow of the story. And then the book of Deuteronomy, by the way, the book of Deuteronomy, what it literally means in the title is it's a repeat of the law.

[4:19] Deuteronomy is, you know, a compound word that means to repeat something and then the law. And so the whole book of Deuteronomy is just Moses at the end of his life repeating the law to and accounting not just the law itself, but the story behind how it was delivered to the people of Israel.

[4:37] And so there are some details in there that either reinforce or sometimes add to what we find in the book of Exodus. So really, this whole story starts with, I mean, really, you can go all the way back to Genesis, right?

[4:52] But I think for our purposes, we think about the Exodus. The book of Exodus starts with a man named Moses being raised up by God to deliver the Israelites from their captivity.

[5:05] They're held captive as slaves by the Egyptian people. And God raises up. And by the way, we have a Bible study going on right now during our Sunday school hour, which is right before this, that Roger's doing.

[5:18] And I don't know. How far along are you, Roger? Chapter? Not very. So just getting started in the book of Exodus. So they're just getting started there in the book of Exodus.

[5:33] But as many of us know, we have Moses coming and he tells Pharaoh, let my people go. Anyway, finally what happens, Pharaoh finally lets the people go. They cross the Red Sea and go into the wilderness.

[5:47] And by the way, there's most people or a common count of the number of people we're talking about here is over 2 million people, they say.

[6:01] And so that's a lot of people. They're all wandering in the wilderness. And about three months into from crossing the Red Sea and being in the wilderness, they arrive at this area called the Wilderness of Sinai.

[6:17] The Wilderness of Sinai. And right there, they set up camp right in front of a mountain. The mountain's name is, guess what? Sinai, right?

[6:27] And so looking at Exodus chapter 19, this is what it says in the first couple of verses. In the third month after the children of Israel had gone out of the land of Egypt in the same day, they came to the wilderness of Sinai for they had departed from Rathodim, had come to the wilderness of Sinai and camped in the wilderness.

[6:50] So Israel camped there before the mountain. Now, this is setting up a scene. This is going to be a very powerful scene in the Bible. Something very special is going to happen.

[7:03] And by the way, it's going to be absolutely terrifying. But God calls Moses up onto this mountain. By the way, we find Moses going up and down, up and down this mountain many, many times.

[7:21] I didn't take the time to count, but it seems to me at least a dozen times, Moses going up and down this mountain. He must have been in real good shape, I imagine. How big was this mountain?

[7:33] You know, we don't know for sure. There's some people who are convinced that they found Mount Sinai. And there are a couple of different mountains in that region that people think is possibly that mountain.

[7:48] I've seen some videos that show a certain mountain with kind of a charred peak, which seems to lend credibility to that being the mountain.

[7:59] But who knows for sure. But just based on those two and how big those mountains are, the mountain here is probably about 7,000 or 8,000 feet, which would take about 700 or 800 steps to get up to the top.

[8:16] And that would take about two, two and a half, maybe three hours, depending on how fast you're going, to walk all the way up to the peak. And then maybe a little less time, right?

[8:27] It's a little faster going down. So a round trip might be four or five hours. So not a huge, this isn't a day's climb. It's not like you're climbing Mount Kilimanjaro or something like that.

[8:39] But it's a good hike. It's going to take the better part of a day. And this is something that Moses did many times. Continuing on here at Exodus 19, it says this, verse 3, And Moses went up to God, and the Lord called to him from the mountain, saying, Thus you shall say to the house of Jacob, and tell the children of Israel, You have seen what I did to the Egyptians, and how I bore you on eagles' wings, and brought you to myself.

[9:07] Now, therefore, if you will indeed obey my voice and keep my covenant, then you shall be a special treasure to me above all people. For all the earth is mine, and you shall be to me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.

[9:22] These are the words which you shall speak to the children of Israel. So God called Moses up onto the mountain to deliver a message to the people.

[9:33] And I'm going to summarize the rest of this chapter because there's a lot of back and forth. God wants to do something special with this people, and this is kind of the initiation of it.

[9:46] So, to summarize the rest of the chapter, God tells Moses, I want you to tell my people that I want to make a special covenant with them.

[10:01] Moses goes back down to the mountain, and he tells the people what God told them to say. And the people respond, and their response is this, All that the Lord has spoken, we will do.

[10:14] All right, we are on board. Let's do this. God wants to make a covenant with us. It requires some things from our part, some obedience. We'll do it. So Moses goes back up the mountain to relay the message back up to God.

[10:30] And then God tells Moses this, I will speak from a cloud so the people will believe you. And so, God is telling Moses, Hey, listen, I'm going to do something special.

[10:43] I'm not just going to speak to you. I'm going to speak to the entire assembly of millions of Jewish people down at the base of this mountain.

[10:54] And I want you to prepare them for this. So I want you, what the Bible uses the term, consecrate them. There's some ritual washings involved. And he also says, I want you to set up a boundary down there at the foot of the mountain.

[11:06] Because I don't, these people are not allowed to come up the mountain. And if they do, they will die. It's pretty scary. And in three days, I'm going to speak.

[11:22] And so, all of these things happen. People are consecrated. They set up the boundaries. They warn the people, don't go past the boundaries. Don't go up the mountain. And on the third day, doesn't tell us if it was in the morning or what time of day.

[11:37] But there's a lot going up, going on at the top of that mountain. The Bible says here in chapter 9 that there was thunder up there.

[11:48] And there was lightning. There was a thick cloud. And there was fire. Remember that the people of Israel had been led through the desert, right?

[12:00] By what? Two things. During the day, it was a cloud, right? A pillar. A cloud. And then at night, it was a pillar of fire. So that same pillar of fire came down upon that mountain.

[12:15] And there was thick smoke. And the scripture says here that there was also earthquakes. There was shaking of the ground. And the people started to hear the sound of a trumpet.

[12:27] And the sound of the trumpet got louder and louder and louder. And the people began to assemble from their camp to at the foot of the mountain. And it says that they were trembling.

[12:41] And you can imagine I'd probably tremble too if I saw all of that. And then it says this. God speaks from the cloud and he calls Moses to come up.

[12:57] Another trip up the mountain. And God tells Moses, he says, I want you to tell the people not to come up here. And Moses basically says, oh, I already did that.

[13:10] Don't worry. And God says, you know what? Go do it. This isn't optional. And so Moses goes back down the mountain.

[13:22] And he warns the people again, you're not to go up, up the mountain. And it's at that time where we get into Exodus chapter 20. And this is what it says.

[13:36] This is God speaking to the entire assembly from the mountain, from that thick cloud, from the fire, from the thunderings and the lightnings.

[13:48] This is what God says. 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.

[14:02] You shall have no other gods before me. And to save time, I'm not going to finish the rest of these, but if you continue reading, you're going to read through these Ten Commandments.

[14:14] And I'll skip over the details of the Ten Commandments. We're obviously going to get into that in later weeks here.

[14:25] But after these Ten Commandments are spoken, the people, again, are terrified. And they tell Moses something.

[14:44] This is in, let's see, verse 18. Verse 18. They talk to Moses. Now all the people witnessed the thunderings, the lightning flashes, the sound of the trumpet, and the mountain smoking.

[14:58] And when the people saw it, they trembled and stood afar off. And then they said to Moses, Moses, you speak with us and we will hear. But let not God speak with us lest we die.

[15:12] They went to Moses and they said, Moses, that was great and all, but God is terrifying and we don't want him to talk to us again. Could you talk to him and you just deliver the message?

[15:26] We'll be good with that. And Moses goes up on the mountain and tells the Lord and the Lord says, okay, that'll be the detail. That'll be the deal. You will become what the Bible calls a mediator.

[15:40] The one who stands between God and the people. Who delivers the message to the people. Now, in the rest of the next few chapters, Exodus 20 through 23, it lists all of these laws that were given to Moses while he was up on the mountain.

[16:01] We're not going to go through all those today. But if you turn over to chapter 24, the story, the accounting continues. We'll look at verse 12. Exodus 24, verse 12.

[16:13] Then the Lord said to Moses, come up to me on the mountain and be there. And I will give you tablets of stone and the law and commandments which I have written that you may teach them.

[16:28] So he's inviting Moses to come up again because he wants to give him tablets out of stone. Not out of clay, by the way. Not any kind of parchment or scroll, but tablets of stone.

[16:43] And so Moses prepares the people. He said, you know what? I'm going up to the mountain. It sounds like I'm going to be a while. If you have any concerns or problems or you need anything, go to Aaron and he'll take care of it because I think this might take a while.

[16:59] Moses goes up on the mountain and it says that he's up there for 40 days and 40 nights. In other places, it tells us that he had no food or water during that time. God supernaturally sustained him up there in the mountain and in the thick cloud.

[17:17] In verse 16, again, Exodus 24, 16, it says this, Now the glory of the Lord rested on Mount Sinai and the cloud covered it six days and on the seventh day he called to Moses out of the midst of the cloud.

[17:30] The sight of the glory of the Lord was like a consuming fire on the top of the mountain in the eyes of the children of Israel. So Moses went into the midst of the cloud and went up into the mountain and Moses was on the mountain 40 days and 40 nights.

[17:45] And then the next six chapters, it shares the things that God gave to Moses while he was up there on that mountain. A lot of things having to do with this tabernacle that he wanted built and all the details of how to build it and the furniture that was inside and how to design it.

[18:06] And then we get to chapter 31 and at the very end of chapter 31 the very last the very last verse verse 18 it says this and when he had made an end of speaking with him on Mount Sinai he gave Moses two tablets of the testimony tablets of stone written with the finger of God.

[18:39] So these tablets are not something Moses did not bring up his chisel and hammer. In fact, we don't even see him bringing up any stone. It sounds like God provided the stone and that he etched these commandments in the stone with his very finger.

[18:57] Now what does that mean? I don't know. The Bible doesn't indicate that God has hands like physical hands but it says that the finger of God wrote them and I'm sure that could very possibly be a metaphor but somehow God supernaturally etched these commandments in the stones.

[19:18] One thing we'll find out later is that the rest of the commandments were written by Moses himself. Now they were delivered to him from God but he was the one that actually wrote them down on parchment but not these first ten commandments those God himself wrote.

[19:35] By the way in chapter 32 Exodus 32 verse 15 it tells us I guess this is the next chapter something else about the commandments it says that on these tablets the writing was on both sides of the tablets.

[19:52] Just a little kind of fun fact. Most of the time we see pictures of the ten commandments right? You see the two and you see half of them on one side or on one tablet and the other on the other tablet and you know that makes sense you know it's hard to put in a picture showing commandments on both sides but there was writing on both sides of these tablets.

[20:11] Interesting. Another thing to note you know we assume that the tablets that the two tablets maybe half or about half of the commandments were written on one and the other half of the ten commandments written on the other one but it's not actually abundantly clear or that that has to be the case some people have surmised that maybe there were actually two copies of the commandments one on one tablet and another on the other we don't really know for sure but many of you know the rest of the story Moses comes down the mountain and he finds the people doing what they built a golden calf to worship and he finds them worshipping this golden calf and by the way what had God just told them from the mountain in that terrifying scene you shall have no other gods before me and by the way don't make any idols either this is what they did and Moses in his anger it says he became hot with anger and he threw those tablets on the ground and they crumbled into pieces or were broken into pieces anyway broke them at the foot of the mountain and so we find later on we go into

[21:35] Exodus chapter 34 in the first few verses it tells us that Moses went back up onto the mountain to get some new tablets this time interestingly enough God told him to bring the stone himself we don't see that the first time but this time God says bring two tablets of stone and we're going to do this again Exodus 34 says this excuse me Exodus 34 28 so he was there with the Lord forty days and forty nights he neither ate bread nor drank water and he wrote on the tablets the words of the covenant the ten commandments this is so this again this is the second time this is the redo Moses is again there for forty days and forty nights but this is actually the first place where we read this phrase the ten commandments we didn't see that before in Exodus chapter 20 you can try counting!

[22:43] them and by the way people do count them a little bit differently we'll look at that a little bit later but this is the first time it's actually referred to these commandments as the ten commandments by the way if you look at the Hebrew of the word the ten commandments it's actually more literally translated the ten words the ten words not the ten commandments in fact sometimes we call the ten commandments the decalogue I don't know if you've ever heard that phrase the decalogue that actually comes from a transliteration of the Greek which means deka is ten and logos which means the words so ten words later or excuse me so the next thing that happens and this is actually going to be there's a little bit more detail in the book of Deuteronomy so turn to Deuteronomy chapter ten Deuteronomy chapter ten again a few books over Exodus Leviticus Numbers and then

[23:44] Deuteronomy and we're going to see what happens when Moses brings these commandments these tablets of stone back down from the mountain he's actually going to put them in a special location a place that God had told him that he should put them Deuteronomy chapter ten verse one says this at that time the Lord said to me hew for yourself two tablets of stone like the first and come up to me on the mountain and make yourself an ark of wood and I will write on the tablets the words that were on the first tablets which you broke and you shall put them in the ark this ark is later called the ark of the covenant it's like a chest it's a box with a lid and God provides some additional instructions on how to build it out I think it was probably very simple to begin with probably when he first put it in but then God gives instructions on how to design it to overlay it with gold there were some cherubim that were designed to sit on the top and actually by the way so after this whole event of going up on Mount

[24:54] Sinai God continued to give more laws to Moses we see it in the book of Leviticus and the rest of the book of Exodus but he no longer gives the law on the mountain from here on he gives the rest of the law by speaking to him from above the top of this ark he says I want you to go to this ark and I will speak to you from there in Exodus chapter 25 16 you don't have to turn there but it says this and you shall put into the ark the testimony which I will give you this is actually before Moses went and fetched or got the ten commandments the tablets of stone but he had this ark already and it seems there was already two things in there if you kind of do some investigative work on the bible there were two things there was the manna that God had provided to the children of

[25:58] Israel a pot of it and then Aaron had this rod that had budded and those things were already kind of stored in there and now we're putting in these tablets but Exodus 25 16 mentions this word the testimony so the ten commandments are first described as a testimony and throughout different parts of the old testament continues to call it testimony why would the ten commandments be called a testimony the word just simply means a witness you know somebody who give to testifies like in a court case and the the the tablets themselves the ten commandments are called the testimony and the ark ends up being called the ark of the testimony because it carries these commandments and then when the when the tabernacle is built to house the ark and then later on the temple is built to house the ark in that holy of holies that inner room that is called the tabernacle of the testimony so all of these things point to these these ten commandments these tablets of stone that are kept there even the veil that hides that room that the door basically to that inner sanctum is called the veil of the testimony really you see that these tablets of stone these ten commandments are the center of this whole paradigm this whole system of worship with the tabernacle that God has set up what does it mean testimony anyway how should we think about that in what way are the ten commandments a testimony or a witness to something well it doesn't really tell us directly but I think we can maybe surmise maybe four ideas they could all be true or

[28:02] I think there's truth to them anyway the first one is that they are a testimony to God himself you know they are they describe moral laws that describe who God is and how he wants his people to relate to him they describe that you know they have rules about there being no other gods which communicates that God alone he is the only God it has a rule against murder you shall not murder which communicates God's valuing of human life and so really they testify about God and about his character and the things that he values the other thing is that it testifies or is a witness to the covenant that God is creating between him and this people the people of Israel they are called in other places in the Bible the tablets of the covenant so they are a testimony a witness that God has created this special relationship between him and the nation of Israel the third way it can be a testimony is the Bible tells us in the New

[29:22] Testament specifically that the law is a kind of a witness to the sinfulness that's in the world the law exposes sin the law the Bible says is the knowledge of sin or brings the knowledge of sin Paul says in Romans 7 I would not have known what sin is except for the law it reveals sin in my life so in that way the law is a witness against us that we're sinners that we've done things that we ought not to do and then the fourth one I think it's also a witness or a testimony looking forward looking for something more that is needed something to come Paul says in Romans or excuse me Paul says in Romans yeah 321 he says but now he says something has changed by the way so there's the old covenant and then

[30:25] Paul here is describing something new that has come this this age of grace he says but now the righteousness of God apart from the law is revealed being witnessed by the law and the prophets the law and the prophets were all witnesses that something else was coming was coming and that was Jesus Christ now God didn't just end with the Ten Commandments right there were 613 laws in total and so God gave Moses hundreds of additional commands laws about worship and sacrifice and food laws and civil justice and judges and courts even things having to do with their social life but the rest of the laws Moses himself wrote down with pen of some kind and on parchment in Deuteronomy 31 verse 9 if you're still there in Deuteronomy 31 or thereabouts you can look at this verse but Deuteronomy 31 verse 9 says this so Moses wrote this law and delivered it to the priests the sons of Levi who bore the ark of the covenant of the Lord and to all the elders of Israel so he wrote it down the words that God gave him and he delivered it to the Levites they were the tribe that was in charge of administering the things of God in the tabernacle so he wrote it down he delivered it to the sons of Levi who bore the ark of the covenant of the Lord and to all the the elders of Israel and so this law and by the way the Bible tells us

[32:16] I didn't write this down but the rest of the law and the scrolls was stored not in the ark but nearby next to it so that's kind of an interesting thing of note by the way what makes these laws unique how are they different these ten from the other ones how should we think about that are maybe they the greatest laws and you gotta pay attention to them more than the other laws is that what the idea was in the law of Moses no over and over again you see that hey if you break any one law it's as if you broke the whole law really if you break any one of the 613 laws of Moses then you've broken the whole law the law as a whole and so that's not what it is I really think that these ten commandments were meant to just be somewhat of a summary of the entire law and God had these put on stone and put into a small location right something on stone it's probably hard to write 613 commandments on some tablets of stone you can imagine that either have to be a very very big tablet or maybe many many of them or you have to write really really small so I think that

[33:35] God created these ten commandments as a way to represent the rest of the law and as we go through each of the ten commandments we'll look at that how they relate to other parts of the law of Moses but to just finish the story of the law's journey especially in the ark here from Mount Sinai they put the law in the ark and they just carried it around as they wandered through the wilderness the Levites carried it they used poles to carry it around it was carried around in the wilderness there was quite a story of it being carried across the Jordan River into the promised land it was carried around the walls of Jericho if you remember that story as they marched around the walls of Jericho they took the ark with them eventually it spent about 20 years I think in a place called Shiloh where the tabernacle dwelt temporarily for a time it was actually captured by their enemies if you remember the Philistines captured the ark and some really strange things happened to them and specifically to their false god it actually fell over and they were actually fairly eager to get rid of it after a while and it came back into the hands of the Israelites eventually David brought the ark with those commandments to Jerusalem with a great celebration remember that's where David danced before the Lord bringing the ark back to Jerusalem it's final resting place and then when Solomon

[35:09] David's son built that permanent temple remember they had this tabernacle it was just a tent for many many years and finally Solomon built that permanent temple which was to be the final place where the ark would dwell and it says that it was placed in the temple that's in 1 Kings chapter 8 you can read about the ark being placed there in the temple it says something interesting 1 Kings 8-9 it says nothing was in the ark except the two tablets of stone which Moses put there at Horeb it seems that I don't know what happened to the other two things Aaron's rod that budded or the manna maybe it was put some other place in the temple but at that time the only thing in the ark was those two tablets of stone and during many of the years of the kings it was there but the last time that we read about the ark was during the time of a king named Josiah hundreds of years later now if you know the history of Israel there had been some good kings and then many many bad kings and every once in a while you would get a good king and then many many bad ones and then a good one for a little while

[36:18] Josiah was one of the good ones and during his reign he actually did a lot of cleaning up of Israel and he decided to clean house and it says in 2nd Chronicles 35.3 that during this effort it says they put the holy ark in the house which Solomon the son of David king of Israel had built that's the only reference there is so somehow the ark had been misplaced maybe it had been put in a storage closet or something we had read in other places that some of these evil kings had put pagan idols in the house of God but Josiah is cleaning up and he puts it back in its proper place and that is the last we hear about the ark along with its contents the ten commandments now this temple where the the ark was stored was eventually ransacked by the Babylonians that's when the Babylonians came and they overtook Jerusalem they destroyed the temple they actually steal right a bunch of things there's lots of gold and silver and bronze there that they take for themselves and it lists some of the things that they take but it never mentions the ark it doesn't say what happened to it so there's a lot of people that surmise you know what happened to that ark right and it makes for great stories and folklore but it just kind of disappears from the biblical record and nobody really knows what happened to it until it was finally discovered by Indiana Jones just last century no just kidding it's never been found right as much as exciting as that that is there's lots of theories oh it's in a cave maybe somewhere or some people say there's underground caverns or underneath Jerusalem itself and so if we just dig maybe we'll find it maybe some people have said oh it's moved to Ethiopia somewhere in the country of Ethiopia and many people say well it's probably just destroyed by the Babylonians you know you see this box and it's got some stone tablets in it and they're like we'll just throw it in the trash or burn it or do whatever it doesn't mean anything to us who knows we don't know the bottom line though is that we don't need to know where it's at maybe it will come up again in the future when God returns to his work with Israel but it is preserved somewhere right those ten commandments where's that it was in that book right in front of you even though it's not etched in stone in our books it's right here so we can continue to look at it

[39:06] I'm going to finish up by looking after you know we finished kind of that story and looking at the ten commandments where they came from but I want to just look at a few things about the structure of these ten commandments one the first question is why is there ten how come not eleven how come not nine how come not thirteen and we don't really know for sure but as you read through the scriptures numbers do have some kind of meaning and importance and so the number ten tends to indicate a wholeness or completion you know we have ten fingers and ten toes you know if you're if you only have nine you're kind of incomplete right if you only have nine fingers but if you have ten you know you are whole and so I think that's probably a good you know thing that we could surmise from ten you know there are ten commandments that make up the whole and they represent the whole of the commandments one interesting thing to note and we'll be looking at this more but with the handout

[40:06] I gave you if you look at that different groups actually count the commandments differently they divide them differently because as you read the ten commandments right whether it's in Exodus or Deuteronomy it's not numbered they're not numbered here's number one commandment number one it doesn't say that it just lists them and so there are actually three different types of divisions you can look at and I should have got a copy for myself but you have the Jewish rendering and then you have a Catholic and also Lutheran rendering they kind of share their view on the ten commandments and then you have more of the Protestant one and so usually it kind of has to do with the beginning the first of the commandments there's like a preamble yeah I'll take that thank you he starts out with

[41:09] I am the Lord your God and you know Protestants consider well that's just kind of the preamble whereas the Jews would say no actually that's the first command or really right they're reading in the Hebrew it's not command it's the first word of these ten and so you can see how how they might put that as the first word I am the Lord your God whereas the Catholics and Lutherans you know they consider that part of one but not the whole of it and then let's see the the Jews actually put no other gods and then idols together as one command whereas the Protestants will divide them generally right and there's disagreements even among Protestants right this is kind of just general generally how things are divided and then they kind of stay uniform until you get to the end because if you if you if you change the beginning now you got to make things whole at the end to get a full ten right so the let's see the Jews and the Protestants the whole do not covet do not covet your neighbor's wife and don't covet his goods we consider that one that's kind of how

[42:26] I'll teach it but then the Catholics and the Lutherans say well we got to split that up into two and so do not covet your neighbor's wife is number nine and do not cover your neighbor's goods covet your neighbor's goods would be number ten we'll look at that more in detail in the coming weeks a couple other ways to consider these ten commandments or to to look at them as a whole is that really you can split the commandments up into those commands that relate to God and those who relate to man and the first four are about how we ought to relate to God have no other gods before me do not make any idols do not take God's name in vain keep the Sabbath and those relate to how to honor the Lord or how not to dishonor him and then the other ones from honoring your parents to you shall not murder to do not commit adultery to do not covet relate to our relationship with man you can think of them as vertical commandments us and God as we look up to God and then horizontal commandments as we look out to our neighbor and Jesus actually kind of recognized this right because when he was asked about the commandments he said he was asked which ones are the greatest and he said well there's two he said you shall love the Lord your God with all of your heart soul and mind right and that's actually in the law it's the first and the greatest commandment and he said the second one is like it you shall love your neighbor as yourself so he's saying hey you kind of group these into two really important ones loving God and loving your neighbor and those kind of sum up the whole law but notice which ones come first right the ones that are towards God because our relationship with God is more important than all of it and really our relationship with God is the foundation of our relationship with other people and if we get that wrong if our relationship with God is broken then our relationship with people will certainly be broken the other way to kind of look at these in the kind of categories is as commandments that are negative in nature thou shalt not and then the commands that are positive in nature thou shalt and in the ten commandments you have eight that are thou shalt not the majority of them and two that are you shall keeping the Sabbath and honoring your parents so the two you shall and we'll finish up with this idea

[44:58] I think the law you can see the law as basically setting boundaries right and boundaries are good limits are good we especially think of our children right we need to set boundaries in their life if we don't set boundaries they're going to self-destruct so we want to set boundaries in their life and that's what the law does do not cross this line is what the law teaches in most of the places of the law and it's really actually much harder right to try to delineate all the things that you can or should do right it's easier to say what you shouldn't do here's the limits and the boundaries the places where you should not go and like I said boundaries are good we give those boundaries to our children they're important in like a civil law when it comes to a country or society all the things that you should not do otherwise the law is coming after you but are those limits are those boundaries sufficient to live a good life to live the kind of life that God wants us to live they are not boundaries can only tell us what not to do but they don't always tell us or help us with what to do and that's why

[46:17] God gave us something else the Bible says that in the fullness of time Jesus came to demonstrate something else to us he didn't come to bring another law he came to demonstrate something and this is what it says in Romans chapter 5 Romans 5 8 but God demonstrates his own love toward us in that while we were still sinners Christ died for us you see now as Christians even though we can look to the law and we've talked about that it's important to look to the law it provides those boundaries it's still good it's still righteous those boundaries are righteous but we have something even better we have something demonstrated to us that is better than the law and that is love in Romans chapter 13 Paul gives some instruction he's actually talking about the law the civil law specifically and how it's important to obey the civil law he says this

[47:23] Romans 13 8 this actually came up last week in one of the questions owe no one anything except to love one another for he who loves another has fulfilled the law if you love your neighbor then you will automatically keep the law if you love your neighbor you will not steal from him you will not take his life you will not covet his goods if you love God you will not worship a false idol you will do what honors the Lord in everything that you do continuing on Romans 13 8 I'll read the rest of this verse 9 Romans 13 9 for the commandments you shall not commit adultery you shall not murder you shall not steal you shall not bear false witness you shall not covet if there is any other commandment are all summed up in this saying namely you shall love your neighbor as yourself love does no harm to a neighbor therefore love is the fulfillment of the law now it doesn't work the other way right the law does not fulfill love if you do not steal from your neighbor does that mean that you love him no if you don't murder that's pretty a low bar right are we going to give anybody a medal for not murdering their neighbor no but love says hey here's an opportunity you can lay down your life for your neighbor you can lay down your life for your wife or your husband or your children love takes us beyond any kind of limit that the law would give the law provides limits boundaries that we're not supposed to pass but love is limitless and has no boundaries

[49:23] I'll finish up with this verse Galatians 5 22 this is about the fruit of the spirit many of us are familiar with the fruit of the spirit and the works of the flesh but I want to focus on this last sentence that's part of that that passage it says but the excuse me Galatians 5 22 but the fruit of the spirit is love joy peace long suffering kindness goodness faithfulness gentleness and self control but it doesn't end there it says this against such there is no law against such there is no law there is no law to limit your love for your neighbor there's no law that says well you should love your neighbor only so far and then stop there when it comes to love it's limitless and it ought to abound love you can never love someone too much you can't be too kind you can't be too gentle so the law creates boundaries but love which is what

[50:29] God ultimately wants from us has no boundaries so as we continue on in this series going through the ten commandments we're going to look at these boundaries boundaries and I think it's important to do so because the boundaries are important but what's even more important what we need to keep in mind above it all is that God doesn't want us to just stop there he wants and he demonstrated right through his love how we also ought to love and he did that through the cross of Christ I don't have any time for questions this morning I used up all my time but let's go ahead and close in a word of prayer father help us to understand your word clearly how what our relationship with this law ought to be these ten commandments and the rest of the commandments that we find in the old testament how we can provide boundaries in our life what things apply to us what things don't these are all important

[51:30] I hope that we can clearly communicate these over the coming weeks but ultimately father as you've told us in your word in the new testament you want us to go way way beyond these shout nots and going into all the things that we ought to do to expand and expound on the love that you demonstrated towards us through the cross that you loved us so much that you died for not those who loved you but for those who hated you may our love grow in the same way and we ask you to do that work in us to continue to work in us in Jesus name amen thanks everybody just a few reminders on the announcements if you'd like to reach out some some some some some some