The Ten Commandments: Set Free to Live Free Pt 2

These are from the notes I prepared for the message I presented today at NRN! 









“You shall not make for yourself a carved image—any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth; you shall not bow down to them nor serve them. For I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children to the third and  fourth  generations of those who hate Me,  but showing mercy to thousands,   to those who love Me and keep My commandments.                                                                                                    Exodus 20:4-6 (NKJV)
Review: 

1^st Commandment:   “I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. “You shall have no other gods before Me.                                      Exodus 20:1-3 (NKJV)

  Forbids   false    gods

2^nd Commandment: You shall not make for yourself a carved image                                                                                    Exodus 20:4a

  Forbids   false     worship

COMMAND:

“You shall not make for yourself a carved image—any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth; you shall not bow down to them nor serve them.       Exodus 20:4-5

Quote:  How should we form thoughts of God? Not only can we not imagine Him adequately, since He is at every point greater that we can grasp. We dare not trust anything our imagination suggests about Him for the built in habit of fallen minds is to scale God down.                                                                                        – J. I. Packer

       

THE BUILD IN HABIT OF FALLEN MINDS IS TO SCALE GOD DOWN.

The Bible, God’s Word, tells us what God is like and what He is not like. Without the authority of the Bible, any attempt to explain God’s attributes would be no better than an opinion, which by itself is often incorrect, especially in understanding God. To say that it is important for us to try to understand what God is like is a huge understatement. Failure to do so can cause us to set up, chase after, and worship false gods contrary to His will.

 The commandments of God reveal the CHARACTER of God.

Commandment #1 No Other gods…  Sovereignty of God.  This is the attribute of God’s Character by which He rules His entire creation. He is the all-knowing and all-powerful God. God is in control of everything that happens.  By considering creation's vastness, complexity, beauty, and order, we can have a sense of the awesomeness of God.

Commandment #2 – No craven images … God is Spirit – not a part of creation – His glory is above His creation. God is eternal, meaning He had no beginning and His existence will never end. He is immortal and infinite.

Commandment #3 – Do not take name of the Lord in vain – God’s Holiness – This is the attribute of His character that sets God apart from all created beings. His holiness refers to His majesty and perfect moral purity. There is absolutely no sin or evil thought in God at all. His holiness is the definition of that which is puree and righteous in all the universe.

Commandment #4 – Sabbath Rest – Omnipotence: Literally this word means all-powerful. Since God is infinite and since He possesses power, He possesses infinite power. He does allow His creatures to have some power, but this in no way diminishes His own. “He expends no energy that must be replenished.” When the Bible says God rested on the seventh day, it was to set an example for us and our need for rest, not because He was tired. If we learn the principle of rest in the Lord it leads to peace our life. Rest in God – not the pursuit of life. 

Commandment #5 – Honor Father and Mother.  This describes the Character of God as all Wisdom:  “Wisdom is the ability to devise perfect ends and to achieve these ends by the most perfect means.” In other words, God makes no mistakes.  He is the Father who truly knows best, as Paul explains in 

Romans 11:33: “Oh, how great are God’s riches and wisdom and knowledge! How impossible it is for us to understand His decisions and His ways!” 

Commandment #6 - Do not Murder.  I believe this describes Justice as a Characteristic of God.  The Bible says that God is just, but it is His character that defines what being just really is. He does not conform to some outside criteria. Being just brings moral equity to everyone. When there are evil acts, justice demands there be a penalty. Since God is perfect and has never done evil, no penalty would ever be necessary; however, because of His love, God paid the penalty for our evil deeds by going to the cross Himself. His justice needed to be satisfied, but He took care of it for all who will believe in Jesus. 

Commandment #7- Do not commit Adultery – The Characteristic of Perfect Love: Love is such an important part of God’s character that the apostle John wrote, “God is love.” This means that God holds the well-being of others as His primary concern. For a full definition of love, read 1 Corinthians 13. To see love in action, study the life of Jesus. His sacrifice on the cross for the sins of others is the ultimate act of love. God’s love is not a love of emotion but of action. His love gives freely to the object of its affection, those who choose to follow His son Jesus. Our full devotion and wholehearted Love is to be toward God who loves us unconditionally with a devoted and whole hearted LOVE.

Commandment #8 – Do not Steal - God is all sufficient. God is one; not only is there no other, but He is alone in being able to meet the deepest needs and longings of our hearts. God alone is worthy of our worship and devotion.

Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. Deuteronomy 6:4   Or - The Lord our God is one Lord; or The Lord is our God, the Lord is one; or The Lord is our God, the Lord alone.

God is righteous, meaning that God cannot and will not pass over wrongdoing. It is because of God’s righteousness and justice that, in order for our sins to be forgiven, Jesus had to experience God's wrath when our sins were placed upon Him

Commandment #9 – Do not dear False Witness – Faithfulness:

 Everything that God has promised will come to pass. His faithfulness guarantees this fact. He does not lie. What He has said in the Bible about Himself is true. Jesus even said that He is the Truth. This is extremely important for the followers of Jesus because it is on His faithfulness that our hope of eternal life rests. He will honor His promise that our sins will be forgiven and that we will live forever with Him.

Commandment #10 – Do not Covet - Self-sufficiency: The Bible says that God has life in Himself. All other life in the universe is a gift from God. He has no needs and there is no way He can improve. To God, nothing else is necessary. He does not need our help with anything, but because of His grace and love, He allows us to be a part of advancing His plan on earth and being a blessing to others. We are the ones who change, but never God. He is self-sufficient. Our culture drives us to want more and more and even covet what others have.  I say: Just Give me Jesus. 

How accurate is your view of God?

 You can trust His character in order to obey His Commands.

Reason: For I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God…  Exodus 20:5b

 It is important to understand how the word “jealous” is used. Its use in Exodus 20:5 to describe God is different from how it is used to describe the sin of jealousy (Galatians 5:20). When we use the word “jealous,” we use it in the sense of being envious of someone who has something we do not have. 

A person might be jealous or envious of another person because he or she has a nice car or home (possessions). Or a person might be jealous or envious of another person because of some ability or skill that other person has (such as athletic ability). Another example would be that one person might be jealous or envious of another because of his or her beauty. In Exodus 20:5, it is not that God is jealous or envious because someone has something He wants or needs. 

Exodus 20:4-5 says, “You shall not make for yourself an idol in the form of anything in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the waters below. You shall not bow down to them or worship them; for I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God...” Notice that God is jealous when someone gives to another something that rightly belongs to Him. 

Warning:

… visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children to the third and fourth generations of those who hate Me                       Exodus 20:6a

1.  The sins of the fathers are punished in the children through becoming the sins of the children.

2.  Because of God’s grace, which is finally secured by Christ, the children can confess their own sins and the sins of their fathers and be forgiven and accepted by God.

Promise… but showing mercy to thousands, to those who love Me and keep My commandments.                                     Exodus 20:6b

How does this commandment set us free?

-                       A RIGHT  VIEW  of God sets us free.

We should live each day in the shadow of the Cross…

“If we want to live beyond the shadow of our doubts, we need to position our thoughts and our hearts to dwell in the shadow of the cross, each and every day.”

I have been crucified with Christ: and I myself no longer live, but Christ lives in me. And the real life I now have within this body is a result of my trusting in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.                                                                              Galatians 2:20

Let us pause to prepare our hearts to come before the Lord’s Table for communion.