The Perfect 10, Part 2

If I would give you just ten words that could change your entire life, would you receive those ten words? They're called the Dec, the Ten Commandments. They are 10 words in Hebrew that will change your family forever. This morning, I know nothing about your family, what you're going through. But the Bible tells me that the ten words that God gave to Moses and the children of Israel on Mount Sinai will cause your family to survive in a sinful society. The Ten Commandments of God, the Decalogue. And twice in the Bible it tells us that they're numbered, that there's ten, and only ten are the moral law of God.

That's good, isn't it? Because it tells us the perfection of the law of God and how he wants to sum it up all very con. You'll note that of the ten commands, eight of them are stated in the negative. Two are stated in the positive. Command number four, comm number five. Remember the Sabbath day and keep it holy. Honor. Your mother and father. All the rest are stated in the negative. You shall not do this. You shall not do that. You shall not do this. You shall not do that. But because they stated the negative, they emphasize You see, you also note that the commands are divided: four and six.

Four, God, six, man. The first four deal with your relationship with God, the next six deal with your relationship to one another.

But now you begin to understand why it is when last week we talked about Matthew 19 when the rich young ruler came to Christ and asked him which commandments that he was to keep in order to get into heaven, Christ gave him the latter half. Why did he give him the latter half first?

The reason is because the only way you fulfill the latter half is if you fulfill the first half. Because you see, if you don't love God and hold Him in proper esteem, you will not love man. And so the order is very significant. That's summed up very well in Romans chapter 13. Verse number 8 says, Owe nothing to anyone except to love one another. For he who loves his neighbor has fulfilled the law. Now, how can you love your neighbor and that be the fulfillment of the law? What about loving God? Well, the only way you can love your neighbor is if you love God.

It says in verse number 9: for this you shall not commit adultery, you shall not murder, you shall not steal. You should not covet, and if there is any other commandment, it is summed up in this saying: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. Love does no wrong to a neighbor. Love, therefore, is the fulfillment of. The law. God's law is fulfilled when you love your neighbor. Why? Because it's evidence that you love God properly. Follow me so far? Ten words that will change your life. Ten words that are the key to your survival in a sinful society.

Israel was about to embark on a pagan nation. They were about to go in and have to live a life different than everybody else. How were they going to survive? They needed to be obedient to what God had said. So, what we're going to do over the next several weeks is cover these ten words. I got good news for you. I got good news for you. And that's this. Nine years ago, when I covered the Ten Commandments, I did one a week for 10 weeks. Now that I'm older, I've gotten faster. So we're going to cover two a week for five weeks.

Isn't that good? So if you have your Bible, Exodus chapter 20 is where we are. Verse number one: Then 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 slavery.

You shall have no other gods before me. and you shall not make for yourself an idol, or any likeness of what is in heaven above, or on the earth beneath, or in the water under the earth. You shall not worship them or serve them, for I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children, on the third and fourth generations of those who hate me, but showing loving kind to thousands.

To those who love me and keep my commandments. Commandment number one deals with the prominence of God in your world.

Commandment number two. Deals with the place of God in your worship. Commandment number one deals with God's authority in your life.

Commandment number two deals with your loyalty to your Lord. You with me so far? The prominence of God in your world. That's commandment number one.

There is no God. But God. No God but God. And our Lord God says, I am the Lord your God. And you shall have no other gods before me. You shall have no other gods before my face. You shall have no other gods instead of me, because I am the one, true, and holy God. Now I know that. From the outset, we read this, we think, well, of course, we don't have any other gods. I mean, after all, we're not bowing down to rocks and trees and different Idols and that kind of thing, like they did back in the pagan days.

I mean, after all, we live in America. We don't have any other gods. I mean, we know that God is one, and we know that The Lord God of the universe is our creator, and He is the Master of the Universe, and we worship Him. That's why we're here. We don't have any other gods. And yet, when we begin to study the commandment, we begin to realize several things. I want to answer two questions with you with each commandment this morning. The first one is why.

Second one is how. Pretty simple, right? Is God prominent in your world? Why should he be prominent and how is he prominent? Well, number one, he should be prominent simply this: because he says, I am prominent.

The Lord. Remember when God revealed Himself to Moses on Mount Sinai back in Exodus chapter 3? What is your name? You tell them, I am that I am. I am sent you. Now God was revealing himself to Israel. Remember, God sp the ten words to Moses and the nation of Israel. The other aspects of the law, the ceremonial law and the civil law, God spoke to Moses and Moses spoke to Israel. But the moral law of God, the ten words, the ten comm, the dec, God spoke through a fire or in the midst of a fire. and smoke and earthquake and trembling, and spoke to all of Israel, all two, three million Jews, however many they were.

To hear what God said. And so, as God revealed Himself to Moses in Exodus 3, now He's revealing Himself to Israel the same way: I am the God who is, who was, and who will be. This is my memorial name. This is the way I'm supposed to be remembered from generation to generation. I am the Lord your God. Remember.

The Ten Commandments reflect the personality of God. That was point number one of last week. The purpose of the law reflects to us who God is. I am Yahweh. I am the God who is and who was and who is to come. That's who I am. So, why is it we are to make God prominent in our world? Because of who he is, he is the only God there is. He says, You shall have no other gods before me. Now, he can make that claim because there are no other gods. He's it. And I am the ruler. You obey me because I delivered you, I brought you out of the land of Egypt.

Why do we do this? Because of who he is and because of what he did. Why do we obey God? Because he delivered us from Satan's domain. He freed us from the enslavement to sin. That's why we obey God. We want to obey Him because of what He did. How do I make God prominent in my world? How? Two phrases. If God is going to be prominent in your world, number one, there must be no rivals.

No rivals. To God's affection in your life. And number two, there must be no refusals to God's direction for your life.

No rivals, no refusals. That's how you know God is prominent in your life. There's nothing that rivals your affection. Nothing that rivals your passion. It's all focused on God. Listen, if there is. One other individual or one other thing that rivals your affection with God, that becomes the God you serve. That's why God said, You shall have no other gods before me. None. There should be no one to rival your affection toward me. No one, not your wife, not your husband, not your children, not your job, not your possessions, nothing.

I am the Lord your God. I am yours. You are mine. And nothing is to rival your affection for me. Now, I can't answer that for your life. I can only answer that for my life, can't I? But is there something that rivals your affection for God? Something that's more important to you than God? You see, if God is number one, you're going to want to spend time with God, right?

You spend time with God this week? You see, if God is prominent in your life, you will spend time with Him. You can't neglect Him. You want to be with Him. If you're not spending time with him, something else is causing you not to do that. That rivals your affection. That becomes your God. You say, well, I have to get up early to go to work, and I got to be at work at 4 a. in the morning, and I don't have time to spend time with God. Then your work then becomes your God. Because you have to be there, but you don't feel that same compulsion to be with your God.

You see, if he's prominent in my world, that he's first all the time. You say, well, how can he be first all the time?

It's difficult, isn't it? Because there's always something rivaling our affection, isn't there? Listen, you got to set the standard high. You can't lower the standard. You got to set it high. You got to set it where God sets it. Nothing, he says, before me. Nothing at all. Is there something that rivals your affection toward God? What causes you to miss church on Sundays? That is your God. You see? And God says, there's to be no rival to your affection for me.

Now, just because you go to church on Sunday doesn't mean that you don't have another God before you. Because there are a slew of people in the world today going to church that have many gods they worship other than the true God, right? And the difference between comm number one and commandment number two is this.

Commandment number one deals with the worship of the one and true God. Commandment number two deals with the worship of the true God in a false way.

And we'll talk more about that in a second. That's how you differentiate between commandment number one and commandment number two.

And we need to understand there is to be no rival for my affection toward my God. No rivals, no refusals. I don't refuse God's direction in my life. Whatever God says, I do.

If at any time I say to God, but God, I can't do that. I don't want to do that. Well, God says, why would you refuse me?

I've delivered you from sin. I've delivered you from hell. I've ind you with my spirit. I'm going to empower you to live for me. How can you refuse what I've asked you to do? Or what I've commanded you to do, what I've told you to do. But how many times did we refuse? To do what God says, we refuse to do it.

We refuse to forgive someone who sinned against us. We refuse to confront a sinning brother when we know that the more they engage in sin, the further they are away from the Lord. We refuse to stop lying. We refuse to stop using bad words. We refuse to stop gossiping. We refuse to do those things that God says, don't do this.

Say, wow, Pastor, you're awful hard today. That's why the people, in verse 18 of Nexus chapter 6, shook and trembled at what God said, because they knew the hit of the gods. They know it. And you see, you only think I'm hard if you have another God, right? If you don't have another God, it's not very hard. But if you got another God, it's like, oh, wow, man. You know? See, I know in my heart I have other gods. I'm not going to be pious and say, well, you know, I keep the first commandment.

I don have any gods before God. That's just not true. There are times, there are things and people that rival my affection for God. And there are times where God says what I need to be doing, and I have refused to obey him.

And I know that. And so when I sit and I read this text, I am convicted of my sin. And I pray that when you hear and read the text, you too are convicted of your sin. Because remember, the law of God is designed to reinforce our iniquity before God, right? It wasn't designed to remove our iniquity. It was designed to reinforce it, to show us that we're sinners and that we need God. We need to depend upon His grace and mercy. Oh God, be merciful unto me, a sinner. Lord, I don't want to have other gods before you.

That should be the cry of the believer's heart, right? I don't want anything to rival my affection for you, God. If it is, I want you to remove it from my life. Are you willing to pray that prayer? Some would say yes, some would say, well, I'm not sure I want to pray that. He might remove it. Exactly. Lord, I don't want to refuse to do what you have told me to do. Give me the grace and the strength to be able to do what you have said in your word, Lord. So many times we don't want to pray that prayer because we know what God's going to tell us to do.

We don want to do it. See? The Bible says in 2 Timothy chapter 3, in the last days. Men shall be lovers of money. Lovers of money. Possessions. Those things rival our affection toward God. The Bible says in the last days, men will be lovers of them.

When you love yourself, your affection is man, not God. It's inward, not upward. And so the Bible speaks of how we become preoccupied with our own self. Is God prominent in your world or is God taking a back seat in your world? Number two, commandment, the place of God in your worship.

Remember, commandment number one talks to us. About worship the one true God. Commandment number two talks to us about worship the one true God falsely.

You can have the one God, but worship in the wrong way. So, commandment number two: you shall not make for yourself an idol or any likeness of what is in heaven above or on the earth beneath.

Or in the water under the earth. You shall not worship them or serve them, for I am the Lord your God. Five times he says, I am the Lord your God. In Exodus 6:2. Because of who I am. You will note that Roman Catholics combine comm number one and command number two into one and divide number ten into two to get ten.

They twist the scriptures. You ever notice that? It 's because there's lots of money in the grave and images. Big bucks in statues. Big bucks in pictures. Big bucks. But let me tell you something.

Same thing for commandment number two: why and how. Let me do number two first. Let me answer the how question first, then we'll answer the why question.

How? Well, number one, if you are going to worship the true God truly and not falsely, then you can carve any images.

nor can you crave any images. You can't carve them materially or mentally, and you can't crave them either. The Bible says that God seeks true worship, those who worship Him in spirit and in truth.

If you don't worship God in truth, you become an idolater. You worship Him some other way. This becomes very convicting. Because you see, we don't look at ourselves as idolaters.

But let me tell you something. Whenever you look at an object or need an object or need a movie to help you worship God, you become an idolater.

We've got to be careful about that. I think it was A. W. Tozer who said that nobody paints a picture of Christ until they lose the presence of Christ in their heart. Think about that. You can't carve them, nor can you crave them, because once you begin to crave different things covetously. Ephesians 3. 5. You become an idolater. We crave more and more of different things. We crave more cars. We crave bigger cars. We crave bigger houses. We crave big We crave more clothes. We crave more of this and more of that.

And that becomes the rival for our affection. And all of a sudden, we become covetous, and then we become an idolater, and we don't even recognize it. But it consumes our thought process. It consumes our thinking. We can't carve them, nor can we crave them mentally or materially. Listen, to think wrong thoughts about God is idolatry. Did you know that? Because you're not worshiping Him in truth. We're to worship God in spirit and in truth. And so we've got to be careful about that, right? God says, Because I'm a jealous God.

That's why. You say, well, that's kind of weird for God to say that, that He's a jealous guy. Isn jealousy a sin? How can God be jealous? Well, let's look at it this way.

Let's say you're a musician. We know you're not, but let's just pretend you are, okay? And you're playing second trumpet instead of first trumpet in the orchestra.

And you're jealous of the first trumpet. Because that's where you want to be. That's sin. That's wrong. Why? Because you don't have a monopoly on music and you don't have a monopoly on instruments. But God can be jealous because He has a monopoly on being God. Right? There are no other gods. Suppose you come home one day from work. This is the best way I can illustrate this for you. You come home from work one day and you open your door and there's your wife embracing another man. Holding him tight.

You walk in and say, Honey, what are you doing? And she says, You know, honey, when I look into his eyes, I think only of you. When he holds me tight, I am my thoughts are drawn to how you hold me tight. When he kisses my lips, I remember how with sensitivity you kiss my lips. Would you buy that? What makes you think God buys it? He doesn't buy that. So why does God say, you shall not carve for yourself any graven image? You should not carve them materially, nor should you carve them mentally. You can't even crave them in your hearts.

Why? Because I am a jealous God. There is no other God. I don't compete with anybody else. You're mine. And because you're mine, you worship me, and you worship me my way and my way only, because there is no other way to worship me. Now, listen to this. And this is where it gets really convicting. So, if you haven't been convicted yet, This really gets on me. Visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children, on the third and fourth generations of those who, what's the next phrase?

What's the next phrase? Hate me. Wow. Those who commit idolatry demonstrate the fact that they hate God. Can you believe that? You hate me. You don't love me. You hate me. See, we get all upset because we think, well, you know, God needs to be a loving God. But what about us? We need to be loving people, and yet we are hateful people because there's something that rivals our affection. And there's something that we refuse to do that God has said. And we carve in our minds and our hearts all these mental images of how we think God is.

And then we no longer worship him in spirit and truth. We worship him because we've conjured up some image in our mind as to how we think he is or what we think he should be. And God says, All you do is demonstrate the fact that you hate me.

Not that you love me. And listen, the effects of idolatry are going to crush your family. They are. This doesn't mean that because your parents sin, you sin. Or because your parents sinned, it's going to affect you. It deals with the realm of idolatry and idolatry only. And when you refuse to worship God in spirit and in truth, And worship him a different way, it's going to affect your family. It's going to hurt your family. It's not going to help your family. And Deuteronomy 6 says, This is for your survival.

This is how you're going to make it. And I will bet my bottom dollar, and I don't have very many of them, but I'll bet my bottom dollar, that the reason families have so many problems is because they are at the core of their homes. I do. They don't worship God in spirit and in truth. And it affects their children and it affects their grandchildren. Why? Because you can't hate God and not affect your family. That's why. Isn't that convicting? I'm studying that this week. I'm thinking, man, I want my children to love God.

I don't want them to hate God. I want my children to honor God, respect God, revere God, serve God. I want them to really be one with God. And I can actually have an effect on my family so that they learn to hate God as I hate God because I te to be an idolater. And I said, Oh God, help me. Be merciful unto me. Give me strength and grace to abide by your words. Listen to this. This is so good. But The buttolog of scripture. Remember, this is one big button scripture. But showing loving kindness to thousands.

To those who love me and keep my commandments. Notice the order. Who are the ones that keep the commands of God? They're the ones who love him. The ones who don't love him don't want to keep his commandments. But those who love him do. And God says, Let me tell you how I'm going to bless your family.

You worship me in spirit and in truth. You worship me right. And I tell you, your family will be on fire for God. And it'll affect thousands of generations, thousands of families. But you worship me the wrong way. It too will affect your family. Wow, what do I do? Well, you do what my mom and dad did. My mom and dad were idolaters. They worship the wrong God. In what they thought was the right way. And they had to learn to worship the true God in the true way. And God saved their souls, and they grew up in a family of unsaved people for generations.

When they got saved, they purposed in the heart to obey their God and follow Him and raise a godly seed that would in turn obey Him and follow Him. You to break the chain someplace, right? And if you're down in that third or fourth generation that hates God, today's the day you need to get right with God.

Today's the day you need to confess your sin. Today's the day you need to say, Lord God, have mercy on me, a sinner. I want to worship you. I want to honor you. I want to glorify your name and reverse the cycle. Rever it. Say, God, I want you to be prominent in my world. I want your place in my worship to be proper and not improper. I want to love you with all that I have, God. That's where you need to go, right? Let me tell you something.

Got a lot of that. And sometimes, you know, as Christians, we get just a little bit too comfortable in our condition. And we need to realize that we haven't arrived yet. One day we're going to be home with the Lord. But while we're here on earth, there's a lot of things we got to do, we got to change. And the Ten Commandments help us understand those things that take precedence in our lives. Those things that rival our affection for God. Ask yourself: Have I refused to follow God in some area of my life?

Is there something that I esteem higher in my life more than God? Is there a way that I have become an idolater because I am not worship God in spirit and in truth as His Word says? If so, Lord, I know that you have the right to me because you are the only God. You are a jealous God. And because you are, when I commit my life to you and honor you, you promise blessings upon thousands because at the heart of my life, I do love you and want to keep your commandments. That's a believer. That's great.