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| Order Of Worship (Liturgy) |
EXODUS 20:2-3
(Reading: Matt.4:1-11; Ex.20:1-17)
The First Commandment
Congregation of our Lord Jesus Christ...
I’m sure ‘God’s Law’ is a phrase we’ve heard often.
We’ve heard it used in connection with God’s Word, the Holy Bible.
That’s when ‘God’s Law’ means the same as ‘God’s Word’.
Other times ‘God’s Law’ refers to the five books of Moses.
Now, you remember which books they are - don’t you?
Ah, they’re the first five books of the Bible - Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy.
This is the way the apostle Paul meant in his letter to the Galatians.
There, when the Law is mentioned, it’s the whole Mosiac system which applied to Israel physically, and which had been done away with in Christ.
Most often in the Bible, however, ‘God’s Law’ is the phrase used for that particular passage we call ‘The Ten Commandments.’
In our church we hear these read out quite often.
Many of us are quite familiar with those words regularly read out in our worship services.
So, why do we use God’s Law, and why do we read it as often as we do?
Because there are other passages in the Bible which we use, but not anything as much as this passage.
Meanwhile, there are some churches which hardly ever use the Ten Commandments - if at all - for they want to only use the New Testament, because that was written after Jesus came.
Jesus is one person, though, who certainly wouldn’t share their view!
He actually said that he had come to fulfil the Law - not to get rid of it altogether!
So what’s the story with God’s Law?
How can we use the Ten Commandments today?
You see, we know some things are different now than before Jesus came.
For example, the ceremonial laws are no longer valid.
All those particular sacrifices, the priests in special gowns, the set-apart feasts and religious days – that has all been fulfilled.
There are laws which are still valid, however.
We call these laws - ‘moral laws’.
These are what the Ten Commandments are.
They are laws which are abiding laws - they were always meant to be laws for God’s people.
In the words of our first point ... THIS IS WHAT GOD STILL SAYS.
To show this I draw your attention to the opening words of Exodus chapter 20: “And God spoke all these words...”
It’s a phrase which might not mean anything straight away.
It seems like so many other similar phrases in those first five books of the Bible.
But comparing this more closely with those other phrases makes us note a key difference.
For usually it is Moses who speaks God’s Word.
Often you’ll see the expression, “The LORD said to Moses, ‘Tell the Israelites this...”.
With the Ten Commandments, though, it’s straight from God!
Further, we know that these Ten Commandments were twice written by the Lord God and on stone tablets.
The first pair of stone tablets were shattered by Moses to symbolise the effect of Israel’s apostasy.
Then because of their worshipping the golden calf, and how far that showed they were from the Lord, he smashed those words from God on the ground before them.
The second pair were placed in the ark, which was the holy object kept apart in the holy of holies of the tabernacle.
What’s even more is that the Ten Commandments of Exodus 20 form the basis for extensive teaching in the following four chapters.
It’s also repeated just before the people enter the Promised Land, in Deuteronomy chapter 5.
We need to know this.
These Ten Commandments are the foundation of how we live as God’s covenant people.
More than being a set of rules and regulations, they are actually teaching us to show our thanks to God in everything we do.
Thanks, though, for what?
Now that’s a silly question - isn’t it?
When someone has planned the most loving thing in all of history for you; when someone has gone and done that greatest thing for you; when someone has even given his own Son to die for you so that you will live forevermore - what, you’re not grateful?
It’s this gratitude which brings us in the right way to the 1st Commandment.
Before we go on to the first commandment, however, allow me to say something about which Ten Commandments there are.
In the Catechism the Law is divided into two tables.
The first table has the first four commandments, and teaches us what our relation to God should be.
The second table has six commandments, and relates to what we owe our neighbour.
Jesus said the same thing when he spoke about the two greatest commandments being that we should, firstly, love the Lord our God with all our heart and soul and mind and strength, and, secondly, that we should love our neighbour as ourselves.
There are, however, several denominations who believe that the first table has three commandments, and the second has seven.
They - and it’s the Roman Catholics and the Lutherans who believe this - they join together our first and second commandments, and divide our tenth into two, so that coveting what belongs to your neighbour is separated from coveting his wife.
It’s an interesting difference because it explains a lot as to why they have different views on certain things, such as public worship.
It’s also of interest because the three and seven division is a later one historically - it came from Augustine in the 4th century after Christ.
The division we have is the stronger one historically, both through the Jewish and Eastern traditions.
This is not something for us to go into detail about now, but more to realise that there may be a difference on this between Christians.
Congregation, we go back to that sense of gratitude and the first commandment.
And to help us here, let’s listen again to the first commandment, “I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery.
“You shall have no other gods before me.”
“Hey!” you might be thinking, “Isn’t the first commandment just that last sentence - isn’t it actually, “You shall have no other gods before me?”
“Aren’t those words about Egypt and slavery simply a preamble - you know, an introduction to all this?”
Okay, to continue this debate, how is it a preamble?
What purpose does that fulfil?
Well, there is one thing we need to note, and that’s this: Don’t think the Lord only liberated his people from Egypt.
This preface isn’t making a big thing out of Egypt - it’s actually saying something about the personal and sovereign nature of God in his gracious dealings with his people who love and obey him.
We can’t separate the negative command, “You shall have no other gods before me,” apart from the positive reason why that’s so - “I am the LORD your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the land of slavery.”
These aren’t the words of some supreme Killjoy, who wants to squash any sense of joy out of us altogether.
He is no Master of Fear, as so many picture the God of the Old Testament.
He’s the Lord - your own Saviour God!
As personal as he could be with a nation of people, so God was with Israel.
He really loves them - so much so that he has this wonderful future mapped out for them.
And besides - what has he just done for them in getting them out of Egypt and blessing them through their forefathers a long time before that?
That God chooses them is no credit to them.
Their history, just like ours, shows we deserve absolutely nothing at all - in fact, we often deserve the complete opposite!
Really, don’t we know, we of all people, that ... THERE IS NOTHING ELSE TO SAY?
This is our second point.
THERE IS NOTHING ELSE TO SAY.
Congregation, one unfortunate aspect of recent trends in society and in our church is that everyone has to be able to have their say.
As people meet in study groups and elsewhere, somehow we feel that everyone should be able to share what they feel about a particular subject.
The impression is conveyed, even though it is subtle, that there are many different aspects or possible answers to something.
Rather than ministers or study group leaders providing a definite direction or answer, they can become more of what is called a ‘facilitator.’
They help people to find the answers through themselves.
It’s a sensitive approach - no one is ever wrong, and everyone is right, in their own way.
And while we should be sensitive, this goes too far.
The trouble is that this isn’t right - there’s only one way, the Lord’s way: “You shall have no other gods before me.”
Now, maybe you never thought of this command this way.
You thought it was about not worshipping idols - those silly bits of sticks and stones.
But the real issue here isn’t so much that they’re worshipping other gods as it is about them not worshipping the Lord their God!
It’s not about an object outside of them - it’s about what’s inside of them, in their hearts!
Already at the beginning of the Law the LORD is dealing with his people - he’s sorting us out and turning us about!
In fact, where your attitude is here, right at the first commandment, is going to be very influential for the rest of the commandments – the other nine!
And certainly, how we respond using the first table of the Law, will show how we’ll be with the second table.
If you think that this commandment is expecting the worst out of God’s people by demanding their best, you’re quite right.
Let’s be under no illusions!
God’s people have showed time and again how much they easily go chasing after every god in sight!
Reading through the Old Testament it’s embarrassing to see the extent God’s chosen people went to worship and follow any other god except their own God - the only true God too!
A lot of thanks he got then!
So, how much different is it with us today - with what’s in our hearts and how we live our lives?
Well may the Ten Commandments be found in the part of the Catechism about ‘What We Are To Do,’ but doesn’t it show us just as much what we haven’t done?
Don’t our own thoughts and words and actions makes us realise exactly how much we need God’s Words to show us the way of thankfulness?
This first commandment is so vital that respect for it always accompanies true reformation.
You can look at any genuine revival in church history and it’s always marked by believers holding to that single seeking for God alone.
Anything that would distract from a pure worship and service of the LORD is thrust aside.
The focus becomes so set on God that if we didn’t know this was the Lord at work we’d surely say they had gone mad!
And that’s how it should be all the time!
The words of Exodus 15, verse 11, should be the constant theme in our lives: “Who among the gods is like you, O Lord?
“Who is like you - majestic in holiness, awesome in glory, working wonders?”
Friend - is that what the world views through you?
Can those around you see how great a God your Lord is?
Are you like a living Bible?
Not so often, eh?
While the idolatry was obvious in Israel - and there was the sorcery and soothsaying - is it any different, really, with us today?
How about our wealth, our power, our social standing, our hobbies, or our sport?
Who’s first in our lives?
The football?
The cricket?
Is it true that the Entertainment Guide is used more often among many believers than God’s own book?
In the past, and still today, there has been magic, superstitious rites, and prayer to saints or other creatures.
But because idolatry is “giving worship and glory to any other,” the temptation is no different nowadays.
The first temptation the devil tried to lure Jesus with, was whether he would trust God even if he had to suffer.
Jesus passed the test Israel had failed, because Israel had thought that unless they had bread life wasn’t worth living.
That’s what we read of Israel in Deuteronomy 8, verse 3.
Jesus knew, with his whole being, that a person doesn’t yet have life when he has to put something into his mouth.
We can only truly live by what comes out of the mouth of the Lord.
Obeying God’s Word - that’s life!
Dear believer, could it be that there’s a physical thing more important to you than your spiritual reality?
But our physical lives don’t matter!
God does!
If we obey him we can’t lose!
Even though we have everything else, and disobey God, we’ve got nothing!
To put this positively we must say, “I should give up everything rather than go against his will in any way.”
So - how do we live his way?
Here we turn to the positive part of the first commandment.
After considering those things which distract us from the LORD, let’s see what attracts us to the Lord.
You see, the first commandment means that we sincerely acknowledge the only true God.
We say that ... HE HAS ALL THE SAY!
This is our third point.
HE HAS ALL THE SAY!
Now, when we sign off our letters, “Yours sincerely,” it means we know the person we’re writing to personally.
Despite what is common practice on many business letters today, etiquette says that they should write, “Yours faithfully.”
Because they don’t know you personally.
It’s only a personal relationship that can be sincere.
To “know” God sincerely, then, is to know his Living Word.
We relate personally to him.
This is what Jesus himself prayed in John 17:3, “Now this eternal life: that they may know you, the only true God and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent.”
So relating to Jesus is living with the Word.
It’s Scripture which teaches us about the True God and how we’re to serve him.
Indeed, no matter how religious someone might say they are, unless they’re living out of the Book they don’t even get a look!
This means acknowledging God alone.
It’s alright to say you love someone, but to live out of that love is something else.
That’s trust.
A believing trust!
In the words of one preacher, “Faith is not belief without proof but trust without reservation.”
You take God at his Word, because you know his promises are absolutely true.
It’s to this same Heavenly Father, whom we know and trust, that we look for every good thing.
He’s going to give us what we need, precisely when we need it!
In the words of James 1, verse 17, “Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the father of the heavenly lights, who doesn’t change like shifting shadows.”
What a difference to those powers of darkness!
They hate the Word, because it is the Light!
Just the name of Jesus sends them in a scurry!
Mind you, we must never dare to presume upon God’s gifts.
We don’t have any rights to who he is and what he gives.
We can only be humble and patient.
Lamentations 3 is spot on.
There Jeremiah declares in verses 22 till 24, “Because of the LORD’s great love we aren’t consumed, for his compassions never fail.
“They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.
“I say to myself, ‘The LORD is my portion; therefore I will wait for him.”
And here we come right back into the covenant relationship.
For doesn’t that phrase in Answer 42 about loving the LORD your God with all your heart, soul, and strength, sound so much like a marriage vow?
Indeed, it is!
It’s the love of a bride for her groom.
That love, that respect, and that honour, which is so special, and so very unique to those involved.
This is something the world simply cannot grasp.
They cannot see that we need to live this way - to be connected with Christ through his cross.
All they know of relationships are imperfect situations, even in their very best unions.
They haven’t yet come to know personally the sinless One!
We have to remember that.
We cannot convince them to believe.
Only the Holy Spirit - God himself - can change them around.
I mean, we know that - don’t we?
Haven’t we - the worst of the worst - ourselves been changed right around?
Congregation, let’s make our lives shine forth this confession, “I give up anything rather than go against his will in any way.
Because then it’s the Living Word, the Lord Jesus Christ, who shines through in everything we do.
Amen.
PRAYER:
Let’s pray...
O Loving God - Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, please draw us nearer, still nearer to you, by the gracious and powerful work of your Holy Spirit.
Without you we will only wither and die, but throughyYou we may bear the fruit that lasts - forever!
Please revive us again!
In Jesus’ Name, we pray, Amen.
* As a matter of courtesy please advise Rev. Sjirk Bajema, if you plan to use this sermon in a worship service. Thank-you.
(c) Copyright, Rev. Sjirk Bajema
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