So I have two questions for you and they're linked. The first question is, why do you put mirrors in your bathroom? The second question is, why does God give us the ten commandments? We're going to look at that today and I want to read from Exodus 20, and as we read through this chapter together, listen for God's cleansing word to you.
Now as the people are gathered at the foot of the mountain God says this: “And God spoke all these words: “I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery.
“You shall have no other gods before me.
“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, punishing the children for the sin of the fathers to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me, but showing love to a thousand generations of those who love me and keep my commandments.
“You shall not misuse the name of the LORD your God, for the LORD will not hold anyone guiltless who misuses his name.
“Remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy. Six days you shall labour and do all your work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the LORD your God. On it you shall not do any work, neither you, nor your son nor your daughter, nor your manservant nor your maidservant, nor your animals, nor the alien within your gates. For in six days the LORD made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, but he rested on the seventh day. Therefore the LORD blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy.
Honour your father and mother, so that you may live long in the land the LORD your God is giving you.
“You shall not murder.
You shall not commit adultery. “You shall not steal.
“You shall not give false testimony against your neighbour.
“You shall not covet your neighbour’s house. You shall not covet your neighbour’s wife, or his manservant or maidservant, his ox or donkey, or anything that belongs to your neighbour.”
When the people saw the thunder and lightning and heard the trumpet and saw the mountain in smoke, they trembled with fear. They stayed at a distance and said to Moses, “Speak to us yourself and we will listen. But do not have God speak to us or we will die.” Moses said to the people, “Do not be afraid. God has come to test you, so that the fear of God will be with you to keep you from sinning.” The people remained at a distance, while Moses approached the thick darkness where God was. Then the LORD said to Moses, “Tell the Israelites this: ‘You have seen for yourselves that I have spoken to you from heaven: Do not make any gods to be alongside me; do not make for yourselves gods of silver or gods of gold. “Make an altar of earth for me and sacrifice on it your burnt offerings and fellowship offerings, your sheep and goats and your cattle. Wherever I cause my name to be honoured, I will come to you and bless you. If you make an altar of stones for me, do not build it with dressed stones, for you will defile it if you use a tool on it.’ And do not go up to my altar on steps, lest your nakedness be exposed on it. “These are the laws you are to set before them.”
In your bathroom I would guess that you have a mirror. That mirror doesn't perform a decorative function. It's there for a very practical reason: it's there to show what your face looks like when you go to wash your face or wash your hands. The mirror reflects what is on your face. For me every morning I go there and there's stubble growing out and I have to shave that face of mine to cut away what has grown through the night. A mirror reveals that to me in the same way, the basin below washes away the shaving cream and I marvel at the way that takes away all that muck. Well God gives us a similar picture here. He tells us something very interesting in this passage, that his law is there to be as a mirror for us. Reflecting for us what is perhaps dirty on us a grown out what is sinful in our lives. Where we fall short of his standards and then as he cleanses us by the blood of Jesus Christ. Now as his people, he washes away our sin and it goes down the drain not on an altar built of stone anymore but through the death of Jesus Christ our Lord and Saviour. That's why we need to look at this passage together to see how Moses as he brought Israel to the foot of Mount Sinai, here the law is given by the only God. This law applies to all of us. We notice in this passage that the people recoil in fear again because of the sinfulness of their hearts. As this law is held up as a mirror, they see themselves as falling short of that standard and they ask even Moses to go and speak rather than them. God speaks to them, he cleanses them, even sets up altars in those days. He has sent Jesus now for us that we might be forgiven and cleansed of all our sin.
I want us to see from this passage firstly, that the law is God given. It is God who has set up this moral mirror for us, in which we see the image of God's nature conveyed to us. Sometimes a new Christian will say, “Well what does God expect of me?” Well here we have a mirror image of what he expects of us. It shows our shortcomings too and we realize we fall short of what he expects. It is God who reveals himself precisely in these moral commandments that it gives us. The ten commandments are set out in this covenant agreement with us. It's an agreement that God made with these people at Mount Sinai. It's there that they might be revived and God might reveal himself as he expects them to live in the future. Now unfortunately like a mirror, it also shows all the blemishes and how we fall short. Because of sin in our lives this set of ten commandments reveals our hearts to us. Now we need to acknowledge right up front that this is not some sort of vague if it suits you type of suggestions that God gives. This is not some 21st century religious statement by an old religion. No, this is the ten commandments given by the living God to you and to me and to all of us. Whoever we are, in whatever culture, in whatever age we live in, this. These are God's absolute standards for us.
We need to realize that we can't say, “Well in my culture it's okay to lie, or in my culture it's okay to murder, or in my age everybody is doing it this way”. No God clearly says that this applies to us all and no matter what our background or where we have come from, what our family or cultural heritages. All human beings have been created in the very image of God and so God then says, “Look at yourself in this mirror of my law and see what I expect of you, see your shortcomings and where I want you to grow in the future.” Some people say: “Of course that the ten commandments are not for me, that I don't have to follow these laws of God” but the reality is, God's law applies to you no matter where you are. It's a little bit like his natural law of gravity. The natural law of gravity sucks you, remain fixed to the ground you can jump up but you come down you can say, “Well I don't want to be confined to the law of gravity.” Even if you take a spaceship into space, that law influences you, even when you weightless on your spaceship. Well some people say, “Well I'm not going to listen to the law of gravity, I'll prove to you that I can do what I like.” Well they jump off a 10 story building and they say, “Look I'm going down 10 stories, I'm okay.” They go down 20 stories, “Look I'm okay.” 30, 40, “I'm just fine thank you.” But when they hit the 50th level they are dead because the law of gravity cannot be broken.
It's the same with God's laws, some people get away with this or get away with that for a while but God's laws remain and we break ourselves upon his law. The law does not change. God has revealed to us what his nature is and what he expects of us who are made in his image. We need to learn that as Ezekiel learned in chapter 18 and verse 4 of Ezekiel that, “The soul who sins will die.” When we break God's laws we are going to die and so the ten commandments have been divided into two parts: the parts that apply to our love for God and our relationship with God. The second part is our relationship with other human beings. When they were handed to Moses, they were two different tablets, and we see the ten commandments applies Godward and to those around us in society where we live. God gives us these commandments that we might have an attitude of reverence towards God and of respect towards others where we don't steal what belongs to them, or we don't lie to them, or take from them what is theirs, or covet what is theirs. Over and over these are laws that God has given us for all people everywhere, for you and for me but if God has given these laws.
The second thing we need to see in this passage is that the law is given because of God's redemption. That's what verse 2 reminds us, that it is God who saved his people out of Egypt. He now as the Saviour gave them this law it's a mirror that he puts in their spiritual bathroom so to speak. A law that has no parallel in any of the religions of the world, throughout all the ages. This God is the God of history. He is the God also of action and the God of daily life. That's why verse 2 gives us God's name “I am the LORD.” he says. Now it's interesting, if you've been following with me in the Bible or watched the text on the screen, you will see that it's L -O- R- D all in capitals, capital L, capital O, capital R, capital D, because it's the word that we have translated from the Hebrew word Y-H-W-H, which we pronounce as either Yahweh or Jehovah because of the vowels. Remember in the Hebrew language there aren't any vowels so depending where you put the vowels it changes. The pronunciation, the way the word ‘YHWH’ sounds, either Yahweh or Jehovah but the reality is, this name is God's sacred name, it's the name LORD and we hold it as precious before God. And God says don't misuse his name it's holy. You say: “Well where did we get the word LORD?” Which means master or boss in the place of ‘YHWH’. Well it's interesting that because when Hebrew people first translated the Hebrew scriptures into Greek in the Septuagint they translated and they took the Greek word Lord, or ‘Kurious’ which is the word for Lord.
As the English translation remember we are following the original which God recorded for us in Hebrew and Greek. When we translated it we took that word Lord into the Hebrew as well and to differentiate it from the ‘Lord’ as master in Greek. And when we've translated ‘YHWH’ in Hebrew. We've also used capital L, capital O, capital R and D and it's a way to convey that this is a holy name, a name that reflects who God is now. We have a name that is above every name and that name is Jesus Christ. And at the name of Jesus every knee shall bow and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, ‘Kurios’ L-O-R-D. He is God come in the flesh and Jesus is our Lord and we acknowledge that and we worship him.
The very word ‘Jesus’, means Yahweh saves. It's the same word as ‘Joshua’ or ‘Jeshua’, it means that it cost Him to redeem us. Jesus died in our place and we adore him for it. Thomas Watson an old commentator put it this way, it said he said this, “it cost more to redeem us than to create us, in creation it was speaking a word in redemption it was shedding of blood.” As one Peter 1:19 tells us in creation there was the work of God's fingers. Psalms 8:3 tells us redemption was the work of his arm. In Luke chapter 1:5, in creation God gave us, ourselves. In redemption. God gave us himself by creation, we have life in Adam by redemption. We now have life in Jesus Christ. This is all that Jesus has done for us and so we adore him today. We have a God who speaks and he acts, he gives us his commands of what he expects of us like a mirror. He acts to save us and to make it possible for us to grow into the image of Christ our saviour. He is the one who saves us from sin and then says, “now that you are forgiven”, live a life of gratitude to Jesus for that complete and total forgiveness and this is how I want you to live.
These ten commandments that's why the law is given because of God's redemption because God redeemed Israel. He gave the ten commandments because Jesus saved you. He says, “now don't lie, stop stealing and do all that I have commanded you.” That you might show your gratitude for this incredible salvation, that he has made available. It's interesting that this law that he has given that God has given because of his redemption is the law in which all the laws of governments around the world were originally based. I know that in today's day many people have gone for a constitutional democracy. They've left the laws of God somewhere along the line. But in most laws around the world most countries still have the same law: don't steal, otherwise you go to jail, don't murder, otherwise there's capital punishment in some countries or life imprisonment in other countries like ours. God's laws are there. Everybody, every country, every legal system needs to go back and see what God has said because these laws apply for all time and all space. It's not a case of, “Well I can make up new laws.” Some leaders have tried that. Hitler remember, made up laws to kill millions of people, 12 million people died in the concentration camps. Eight million of them Jewish, another few million Christian and Gypsies and others. He made a law for murder but that doesn't make his law right. Stalin did the same in the Soviet Union and even more were put into gulags than in Nazi Germany. God's law still says to everybody, everywhere, “Do not murder.” God is consistent and he has spoken in time and space and that's why we need to come back to his word for the law is given because he has redeemed us from our sin.
Thirdly, I want you to see in this passage that the first law that he gives in this list of ten laws is that you shall have no other gods before me or beside me. We are not to worship the state. We are not to say that the constitution of this country which allows abortion for instance, is right, that is still murder of defenceless babies in their mother's womb. We are to remember in this age when everybody is talking about not just multiculturalism, which has many biblical roots but they're talking about multi-faith and everybody's religion being the same. The reality is no there is one God and we are to have no other gods before me. Now, religions like the Hindus have millions of gods and God says no there is one God. He is one and we are to worship him. We are to recognize that he is the God who formed and created everything and he has revealed himself as a Father to us, as the Son to us, and as the Holy Spirit. One God in three persons. We worship our one united God, our triune God, who has come to us in Jesus Christ that we might know him and experience Jesus, the second person of the trinity, who said, “If you've seen me you've seen the Father and you know him.”
Our God is love and he reveals himself as love in a love community. He calls us to trust him, the reality is what you believe in your head and in your heart so you will do. If you believe that there is one God who has spoken and given us his law and that we are to have no other gods, then you will live in obedience to his word. Now if you believe in many gods, then one god can say murder, another god says don't murder, one god says lie, another says don't and then you don't know where to go. God has told us very clearly we are to obey him and follow him. The first command is a very strong negative, that it wants us to remember that there is to be no place in our lives for anything else that would distract us from God. God is the centre of the universe and God wants to be the centre of your life. And all other religions basically say: “Save yourself.” Yes, they have different criteria one says, “Save yourself by X,Y and Z.” Another says, “Save yourself by these five pillars” or another one says “Do P, Q, and R.” Jesus comes and he says: “I will save you”. Even as God saved his people Israel out of Egypt and he Jesus will save us out of sin and out of death and out of the clutches of Satan. Now Jesus says, “Worship one God. You shall have no other gods before me.” We are to worship Jesus because he is the Saviour. We don't obey the laws to try and get to God in sort of rungs on a ladder towards Heaven. No, he has come down from Heaven to us and now he says, “This is how I want you to live here before me as the one true God”
Our God is a faithful God. We are to be careful in all that we do you see nothing not even our father, or mother, our wife, or our husband, our child, or our brother, or our sister, or our friend, must come before Jesus Christ. Not even ourselves because ultimately there are only two saviours: either you save yourself then you're a God or Jesus saves you and hears God. If you save yourself you have to be perfect and no one is perfect that I've ever met, not even me, I'm the worst of sinners and I need Jesus. So I turn to Jesus and I say, “Jesus save me.” He does that, he is gracious. For only God is the one who can save us. Our triune God, one God in three persons: father, son and holy spirit. This law then that he gives us, mirrors who Jesus was long before Jesus walked the planet. Jesus fulfilled all the ten commandments and he teaches us to mirror him and he calls us: “Come, follow me and now make disciples of all nations.” We are to be committed to God and God alone.
As you look into the mirror of the law, I want to ask you, what do you see? What do you see of your own heart? Is there a coveting a wanting what other people have? All those advertisements that you see, do they causing you desires that God would not have? Is there a sense in which your whole life is self-centred? Or is it God-centred? God speaks so that the law is God-given. God acts so that the law is given because he has redeemed you out of sin. And therefore, the first law is that you shall have no other gods before me. Now are you willing to say no to yourself, no to you being on the throne of your life and ask Jesus to be your Lord, your boss, your master, the king of your life to sit on the throne of your heart and for him to guide you. He created you, he died for you, he redeemed you. Now the choice is letting him be Lord of all your life or as someone said: “If he's not Lord of all, he really is not Lord at all.” I need to encourage you today to be 100 committed to Jesus Christ. Let nothing distract you from putting Jesus as Lord of your life, your heart, that he might be your Saviour and Lord. That your life might mirror him, reflect him to a watching world because the law remember, is given by the only God.
William Shakespeare said in one of his characters: “Rather let my head stoop to the block and be chopped off, than these knees bow to any god, save the God of Heaven.” What about you? Are you willing to surrender your life to Jesus Christ to be your Lord and your saviour and let him be on the throne of your life? You are invited to open your life to Jesus and he is the one that calls you, to not serve any other master. Not let the media guide your thinking or your family. Determine what you should do but you follow Jesus even your own body and your own appetites and desires is not to guide. You not even your pits are to become before Jesus or your pleasures. Jesus is to be Lord of all invite him now and obey that very first commandment as he reflects that mirror to you. As you put Jesus first that you might have no other god before Jesus, who is Lord of all.
Let us pray together. Oh Lord Jesus, thank you for what you've done for us. For some of us watching today we need to confess that maybe you have not been Lord and master of our lives forgive us now Lord Jesus and cleanse us from any disobedience. Even to this very first commandment of yours. Come into our life Lord Jesus and save us now. Be Lord of my life lead me Lord Jesus as my Lord and master, my boss, my king, the one who is over my whole life from this day forward. That my life might mirror you and reflect you to a watching world so redeem me. Save me Lord Jesus and be my Lord. I pray in your all-powerful name, the name of Jesus which is above every other name. I pray. Amen.
Well, I pray that, that's your prayer. It's been my prayer and I have seen as Jesus is Lord of my life, he is continually moulding me and shaping me to reflect him more and more. I want to encourage you follow him let him be Lord of all because he will never disappoint you. He made you, he can fix you he can make you beautiful on the inside and out. Trust him. If I can help you in that journey you're welcome to comment in the comments below or email me at pastordrbc80@gmail.com God bless you and keep you and watch over you as you go into this week. May your life bring all glory and honour to reflect the wonderful Lord and God we serve. To him be all the praise and the glory now and forevermore. Amen.