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Exodus 20: 1st Commandment Bible Study - Pastor Daniel Batarseh · Bible Study with Pr. Daniel Batarseh | Verse by Verse Series | Maranatha Bible Church - Chicago

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  Exodus 20 beginning, in verse 1 and God spoke.
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  All these words saying, I am the Lord your God who brought you
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  out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery.
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  You shall have no other gods before me.
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  You shall not make for yourself. A carved image or any likeness
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  of anything that is in heaven above or that is in the earth
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  beneath or that is in the water, under the Earth, You shall not
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  bow down to them or serve them for I the Lord your God am a
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  jealous God. Visiting the iniquity of the
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  Hours on the children of the third and the fourth generation
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  of those who hate me but showing steadfast love to thousands of
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  those who love me. Keep my Commandments, you shall
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  not take the name of the Lord. Your God in vain for the Lord
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  will not hold him Guiltless. Who takes his name in vain?
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  Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy six days, you shall
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  labor and do all your work but the seventh day is a Sabbath to
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  the Lord, your God on it. You shall not do any work, you
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  or your son or your daughter, your male servant nor your
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  female servant. Or your livestock, or the
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  Sojourner, who is within your gates for, in six days, the Lord
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  made Heaven and Earth the sea and all that is in them and
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  rested on the seventh day. Therefore, the Lord blessed the
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  Sabbath day and made it. Holy Honor your father and your
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  mother, that your days may be long in the land that the Lord,
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  your God is giving you. You shall not murder.
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  You shall not commit adultery. You shall not steal.
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  You shall not bear false. Witness against your neighbor.
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  You shall not covet your neighbor's house.
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  You shall not covet your neighbor's wife or his male
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  servant, or his female servant or his ox or his donkey or
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  anything. That is your neighbors.
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  When all the people saw the thundered the Thunder and the
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  flashes of lightning in the sound of the trumpet and the
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  Mountain Smoke knit. People were afraid and trembled
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  and they stood afar off and said to Moses you speak to us and we
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  will listen but do not let God speak to us unless we die.
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  Moses said to the people do not fear for God has come to test
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  you that the fear of him maybe before you that you may not sin.
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  The people stood far off while Moses Drew near the thick
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  Darkness where God was Let's pray together.
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  Father, helped us really believe that who we are speaking to now
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  and who we've been worshipping is the same.
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  God we just read about, give us that Revelation, may it be true
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  within our hearts May touch us. Lord and may bring every fiber
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  of our being into the fear of the Lord and to a place in which
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  we stand in awe of your majesty in your Holiness.
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  Give us Clarity of mine. Make complex things, simple law.
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  Through the power of your Holy Spirit and give us words of
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  wisdom, May every mind and heart be attentive to your word
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  tonight and may Jesus be glorified in light of the Ten
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  Commandments. We pray this in Jesus name.
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  Amen. You may be seated.
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  Pop quiz. It's always exciting to come to
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  Bible study because we never know how these chapters will be
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  covered. Sometimes they lean more to a
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  preaching segment, sometimes they're very teaching, sometimes
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  they're very interactive. Sometimes there are pop quizzes,
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  and this is one of those moments.
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  I hope you studied. Who here?
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  Knows close your Bibles. All of You Close Your Bibles,
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  close your miles. I know there are definitely a
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  few that were here probably last week.
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  They did this. I can tell by your face.
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  Don't worry who here knows the Ten Commandments by heart, stand
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  up and share with us. The Ten Commandments.
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  Yes, preferably go for it. Don't worry your other gods.
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  Other than me, no carved images, do not blaspheme.
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  Keep the Sabbath day. Holy honor your father and
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  mother. I'm do not murder.
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  Do not commit adultery, do not steal.
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  Do not bear false witness and you're not covered.
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  You got it? Yeah. unfortunately don't have a
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  reward for you, but Does anybody else know the Ten Commandments?
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  I won't make you say it, but I just want to see a show of hands
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  Hannah. You know it in the KJV for sure
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  to write anybody else know, the Ten Commandments Tim yes.
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  Eva you know what? In Arabic morning, you don't
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  anybody know what in Arabic Yeah.
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  Okay, impressive. All right.
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  The Ten Commandments. If you think we're going to go
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  over all of these tonight. We're not Though, they may seem
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  simple and straightforward. There's so much to each of these
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  Commandments that for us to just skim through them would really
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  do Injustice to understanding of who God is and what he asks of
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  us. And even the first two verses of
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  this chapter, give us an Insight of how important these
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  Commandments are read with me in verse 1, it says, and God spoke.
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  All these words saying, I am the Lord, your God who brought you
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  out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery.
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  So what can we say about these first two verses?
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  By the way, This will be more of a teaching these next few weeks
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  will be very more teaching than preaching and that's what I'm
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  planning on, but it can turn. Otherwise the reason is because
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  I want us to really grasp this. And here's, here's the aim of
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  it. By the time we finish the Ten
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  Commandments, my desire, my prayers that we would all be
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  exhausted. that by seeing the standard of God, we would
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  literally be breathless at the standard that he asks of every
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  human being only to run to the inexhaustible grace of God, that
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  we may be exhausted of the standard of the law so that we
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  can run to the inexhaustible grace of God through Jesus
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  Christ, Our Lord And so, we're going to take our time with
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  this. And this is very important to
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  the Lord. And the first two, verses tell
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  us why it's important to the Lord.
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  Can you, can you spot an inside of why this is so significant?
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  if you hang up, Yes. Before God tells anything to
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  them, probably just telling them what he did for them.
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  So, whatever he says they have to obey whatever you did for
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  them, still live to breed observation.
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  So we see the Lord here, reminding, the people of what
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  he's done before. He tells him what to do.
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  That's significant. Absolutely.
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  Yes saying all these words to the people, he's not to speaking
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  through Moses or Aaron. He's speaking to Buddy, that's
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  the main point. God, here is speaking directly
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  to the people. He's not speaking through his
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  Prophet. He's not speaking through a
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  mediator. You know what he's doing here?
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  He's saying Moses step aside, I have something to say myself.
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  Now it's one thing for a king of a city or a nation to deliver a
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  message through a faithful messenger.
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  It's another thing when the king steps off his throne so to speak
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  and gives the message himself, and that's exactly what God is
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  doing. He wants there to be no
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  misunderstanding, he wants you to be no.
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  Miss interpretation. He doesn't want there to be any
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  sense in which people might say, well, this is a Man-Thing.
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  This is not a God thing. God is coming and breaking all
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  those things. I could be possible and he's
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  making it very, very, very clear.
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  That this is my heart. This is my commands.
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  This is from my voice directly. That's significant not only
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  that, when he gives the Ten Commandments, the, you know, how
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  he gives it. you know how by the end right in his finger, he
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  writes it with his finger on what Tablets of stone.
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  And so he even puts his finger on it, he doesn't have Moses,
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  write the commitments, he speaks to the people directly and when
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  he wants to establish, its permanence to the people of
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  Israel for all generations. He says, you know, I'm going to
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  do this with my finger on a tablet of stone, two of them.
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  People get all the Beatty about how many were on each or why to
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  that's not significant what's important.
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  Is that God wrote with his finger, God spoke to the people
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  directly and it was terrifying. I mean earlier, we read about
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  how Moses and all the Israelites were coming up to the mountain
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  and they heard thunder. And when God spoke, it was like
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  thunder. Have you ever been in a storm?
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  Have you ever heard thunder rumbled?
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  Your house, have you ever been awoken by storm at night?
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  You woke up to thunder. Imagine the amplification of
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  God's voice with every single one of these commands given to
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  the people, it shook their bones, it brought them to the
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  place where they said, we can't even hear anymore.
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  Moses from now on, you have to speak.
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  So this is weighty, this is not light.
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  This is not an email sent. This is not even something
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  spoken through a messenger. It's not a dust, says the Lord,
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  a Jeremiah and Isaiah know. This is move aside profit.
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  I'm going to sit I'm going to speak myself.
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  So we should pay careful attention to what these things
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  mean. And before we explore these
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  Commandments and we don't know how much will cover tonight.
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  You mentioned something about verse 2.
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  I am the Lord, your God who brought you out of the land of
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  Egypt out of the house of slavery.
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  Now, why do you think God would bring that up again?
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  He brought up earlier. Why is you reminding them?
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  Yes, for them to be humbled. Absolutely be reminded for what
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  I've done for you. Yeah, absolutely.
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  Do need constant reminders. Yes, I think
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  that the Deliverance so that they can be faithful.
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  Yes. Confirm it by the witness of two
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  weaknesses. American Furniture.
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  Sure. So, there's a confirmation here.
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  You guys all acknowledging that I delivered you absolutely
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  consider the rest of the chapter.
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  To why he's doing this? Yes, when you bought them out so
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  now they're his. Yes, you are mine because you
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  were so you're my possession. I delivered.
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  You, we talked about Eagle's Wings last week of how God
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  stirred up, the nest and fluttered over his, his young
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  and he brought them out. Yes, they are his own
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  possession. But remember here, there was all
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  you guys all touch. Touch on something.
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  And one of the main things to, to add to that, is that he's
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  about to give these important commands.
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  And before he does it, he reminds him of his grace.
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  He did not give the commands to the people of Israel and then
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  say, if you keep these, I will deliver you.
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  He delivered them in spite of that.
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  He pulled them out of bondage, she pulled him under the out of
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  the grip of pharaoh and out of that Grace.
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  He says now be motivated by my kindness be motivated by my
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  consideration, be motivated by my Act of Deliverance to obey.
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  So he's reminded me saying, listen, I saved you before you
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  obeyed anything. Before they were tablets of
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  stone before you looked at anything.
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  I saw you. I heard your cry.
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  I sent my profit and I delivered You Now obey is that God's order
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  even in the New Testament. Absolutely, God Saves us, and
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  were motivated by grace, to obey him.
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  I give you my life Lord because you gave your life.
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  When I was yet an enemy of God, you still saved me.
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  Here's my life. And it puts a whole different
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  spin to this thing called obedience, it's done.
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  Enjoy! Boy, and he's establishing that
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  even now in the hearts of the people, listen, I saved you
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  remember, where you came from, remember how I came with a
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  mighty arm of Deliverance and brought you to myself.
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  Now, now that I've done that walk in my ways, walk in my
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  ways. Do you see the tone here?
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  And so, don't, don't get it twisted.
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  We're not in Egypt right now. And these people are not in
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  bondage, and God says, you know, before I deliver you a big make
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  a testimony for my name obey these Ten Commandments, memorize
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  them obey them for a week or two and then I'll see if you're
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  worthy of Deliverance. No.
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  He pulled them out even in the midst of their complaining.
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  Their disbelief at the Red Sea, a few days after they cry, and
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  he's faithful. And so he says, because of my
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  grace of my faithfulness to you, would you return it to me?
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  With the revelation of my goodness.
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  And then he gives the Ten Commandments with that tone,
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  that's important. because people have this wrong on understanding
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  of obedience, God delivers you out of slavery.
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  What to put you in slavery, again are Commandments to put
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  you in bondage to infringe upon your freedom.
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  No, that's not what the Commandments are four
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  Commandments are for your freedom, there for you to
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  benefit, and to enjoy the most out of this life in your
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  god-given and God ordained purpose, those are Commandments,
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  they are guard rails. They keep you any loving father,
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  takes a child and put him in the backyard with a fence especially
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  if there's a highway or country road by their why to protect
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  that child. Would it be loving for a father
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  to let that? That child go run Loosely for
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  the sake of freedom and Independence.
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  Know we would look at and say that's abuse.
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  To let somebody run wild without any sense of direction or
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  guidance. That is not Freedom.
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  That is not love. And so for some of these say,
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  well, God is putting, he's a joy kill, he's a buzzkill, these
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  commands that I gotta follow. You don't understand God's
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  heart. He's a father And he wants you
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  to walk in the fullness of this life.
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  So before we even Explore these Commandments, I wanted to take
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  our our time here, to really unpack these Commandments, and
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  the purpose before we identify each one.
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  What are the purpose of the Ten Commandments?
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  And there's more than one, there's a main one.
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  But what are the purpose is of the Ten Commandments?
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  Why is he giving out these laws? We know yes to give them a sense
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  of direction in life. Absolutely.
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  But there are others. Guess here's the reality.
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  A new believer might come up to you.
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  Those who are older in the faith and say I read something in the
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  Exodus 20 about these 10 commandments.
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  What do I do with those? What are the purpose of those?
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  Is that just for Israel, is it for me?
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  Old Covenant, New Covenant. What do I do?
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  Yes. So these Commandments are the
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  expression of the greatest commandment and the one second,
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  right? Second one to it, it's a good.
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  Yes. I think about it and just like
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  these Commandments show us how much we you've got off because
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  we give it to you how much we like we almost going to fall and
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  you like to begin to like break everyone like almost everyone
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  with not murder maybe not only can like make so many of them
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  and be like when you cannot be that good without God and how
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  much they needed and how much good absolutely you said that
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  this is a standard you said something that maybe not murder.
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  I would say Probably half of us in here.
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  Have committed murder. Saying what?
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  Jesus says, if you hate your brother, you've committed murder
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  in your heart. Jesus does something with this
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  law. Greater than what we see in
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  here. Remember that?
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  Remember that? Yes.
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  So we've covered that was great. So we have this idea of
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  fulfilling the greatest commandment loving God and
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  loving our neighbor and that is fleshed out and these
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  Commandments, we have this understanding of being holy and
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  set apart as a people and we have this understanding That we
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  cannot meet this standard here. And those are actually the three
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  purposes, the main purposes of the law.
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  Number one, they reveal God's character and nature.
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  We're going to go scripture heavy today like I said, this
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  can be more teaching because I want you guys to have these
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  verses to explore and understand this.
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  And there's a lot of debate in clash between Christians today,
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  about how this Law relates to Christians today.
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  And so let's look at it in the immediate context.
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  First it reveals God's character.
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  ER and nature Leviticus 19. To we know this verse and Peter
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  even quotes it he says you will be holy as I am Holy and after
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  that, he begins to give some of the Commandments that he gave an
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  Exodus 20. And so in light of the Holiness
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  of God and US imitating him, the Ten Commandments are given even
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  in Leviticus 19. Some of them at least.
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  And so we have to see this and understand, this is revealing
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  God's nature and character. He is a moral lawgiver, he has a
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  standard of living and that is, if we understand apologetics is
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  very important because we must understand the dangers of
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  subjective moral reasoning. To simplify that we do not
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  believe as Believers. That you have a standard of
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  right and wrong and you have a different standard of right and
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  wrong and you have your own and you have your own.
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  You can determine that. No, there is an objective moral
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  Giver God, and this is where we get it from.
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  An atheist. Would argue that.
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  And a lot of debate goes around while.
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  If you don't have God, if you don't have his word, how do we
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  have morals? How do we determine how we live?
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  And the argument comes back and says well we developed our
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  understanding of morality through Evolution and through
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  all these different things and our society determines that And
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  I would say, well, there was a man who thought killing Jews and
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  different people that did not fit his race.
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  He thought it was good to do that for his society and for his
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  nation and who are you? If you don't have an objective
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  moral standard to say that, that is wrong.
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  For a man, it seems right to him to rape a woman to fulfill his
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  desires. Now, if you don't have objective
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  moral reasoning, how can you say no to that and how can you tell
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  him? He's wrong.
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  Somebody in this place can feel that.
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  It's right to punch somebody else in the face.
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  And if you don't have the standard, we don't have an
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  understanding right? And wrong.
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  Who are we to say you can't do that.
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  Do you understand the chaos that comes from not having a moral
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  law? And so, we understand that God
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  has a way of living that this is a reflection of who he is.
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  That he is pure, that he is compassionate, that he is not
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  self-centered and he wants us to imitate that and he does so by
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  dishing out these Commandments to his people.
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  So number one, we understand who God is through these things,
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  he's not like the pagan gods that we read of, and these Greek
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  gods, that murder each other and sleep with one another and have
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  Offspring and they eat their offspring and all this weird
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  stuff. It's tough.
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  He's holy he's holy, He's Transcendent, he's immutable.
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  He is constant, he is love. He's good.
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  And these commands reveal who he is.
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  Secondly, they provide once again.
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  Guidelines for the people to live in harmony and to live in
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  Holiness, right? What was the purpose of these
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  Commandments? If you understand, especially
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  the later books of the pentateuch, he gives all these
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  Commandments and it gets even more detailed about what they
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  are to eat and how they are not to mix fabric and how they are
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  to, to keep certain festivals. Why did he ask for those things?
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  Okay, heart posture. But remember, remember what he
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  said in Exodus 19 that he was he was going to W redeem unto
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  himself. A kingdom of what priest.
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  That they would be a, what? Holy nation.
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  So what was the purpose of these Commandments?
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  One of them at least. That they would stand out
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  amongst their neighboring Nations.
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  That all these other nations that worship these false gods
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  bail Nash rather than all these different goddesses and gods
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  Israel would stand out and they would show these different
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  people how they serve the living and true God, through their
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  practices. So, a lot of those commitments
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  was really nitty-gritty details, the dietary laws and all those
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  things we have to keep in mind, the historical context that God
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  was trying to pull out of them, the practices of the world so
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  that they would stand out not just in But indeed that they
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  would not imitate. And I think that's a wonderful
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  principal for Christians today to we're going to get into how
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  this relates if we if we look like the world smell like the
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  world. Talk like we entertain ourselves
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  like the world. How are people going to see
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  something different? I'm not talking about you
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  attaining, your salvation by living in a certain way of
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  dressing a certain way. I'm just saying if we look like
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  them, how are they going to see anything different?
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  If we sound like them, and talk like them and there's a
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  principal there. Remember every scripture is
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  god-breathed and is useful for teaching instruction.
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  For training in righteousness. So there's principles even in
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  those things that are Obsolete and do not relate to us today
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  because of the New Covenant, keep that in mind.
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  You mentioned something. And this is important to how
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  these laws are the practical means, by which we fulfill what
• 22:28
  Jesus said is the greatest commandment.
• 22:30
  What is the greatest commandment?
• 22:33
  Love the Lord your God with what?
• 22:36
  Heart and with all what strength with what else mind and soul.
• 22:42
  Every fiber of your being should be the love.
• 22:44
  And what's the second one? That is like it.
• 22:46
  Love your neighbor as yourself. And he says, in Matthew 22, when
• 22:51
  somebody a lawyer asked him that question, and you can write this
• 22:54
  down in Matthew 20 to 35, to 40, I won't read it.
• 22:56
  But just as a reference, Matthew 20, to 35, to 40, a lawyer asks,
• 23:00
  him, what is the greatest commandment?
• 23:02
  And you know what? You didn't go through the Ten
• 23:04
  Commandments. He says to love the Lord your
• 23:08
  God, right? With what we just said and love
• 23:10
  your neighbor as yourself for the law in the profits, depend
• 23:15
  upon these. So to love the Lord, and to love
• 23:19
  your neighbor as yourself. Every commandment is hinge upon
• 23:22
  that truth. So even as we look at the Ten
• 23:25
  Commandments, it's a fulfillment of both of those things, right?
• 23:30
  The first four Commandments are regarding our relationship to
• 23:33
  God. The last six Commandments are
• 23:35
  how we relate to one another. So we see the first for loving
• 23:38
  the Lord, our god with everything within us.
• 23:40
  And we see the last six, loving our neighbor as we would want to
• 23:43
  be treated. So we see it fleshed out here
• 23:46
  and that's you're absolutely right.
• 23:50
  To provide moral guidance for the People Israel.
• 23:54
  All right, so that there would be Harmony in society laws.
• 23:58
  Provide just that, can you imagine a world in which nobody
• 24:01
  would be held accountable for what they did?
• 24:05
  Absolute chaos. And that's why government is
• 24:09
  instituted by God. Romans 13 to what provide the
• 24:12
  sword for those who disobey the law and to reward, those who do
• 24:15
  good. That's why we must pray for our
• 24:17
  government. They are God's people, God's
• 24:20
  judges. In this land, in this time that
• 24:23
  represent his expression of Wrath and celebration over good.
• 24:29
  And so laws provide order or two provides Harmony, that's why you
• 24:32
  can sleep at night safely. And some of us have misfortunate
• 24:37
  experiences where people try to break in or whatever, but we
• 24:40
  have this General fear, that if you do something wrong, you're
• 24:43
  going to be held accountable for it.
• 24:46
  So, don't don't buy into this. Well, these Commandments hinder
• 24:50
  my expression of identity. Hold up there. just think for a
• 24:55
  moment before you speak and just regurgitate something that you
• 24:58
  heard in college, Study, if you really want to be serious about
• 25:02
  your life, it shows us. What The moral guidelines for
• 25:07
  the people of Israel and even for us today.
• 25:09
  And lastly, this is the main thing.
• 25:11
  Paul, even answers. The question for us.
• 25:15
  Why the law And he gives us different reasons, but all have
• 25:19
  essential Point. Romans 3, 19 to 20.
• 25:23
  Now we know what, that, whatever the law says, it speaks to those
• 25:28
  who are under the law. That every mouth may be stopped.
• 25:35
  And the whole world may be held accountable to God.
• 25:42
  No man will be justified by The Works of the law.
• 25:46
  Since through the law comes the knowledge of sin.
• 25:49
  So we know Romans 33, 9220 tells us that the law, the purpose of
• 25:55
  the law given preach Proclaim written.
• 25:57
  However, it is expressed is to say give the world.
• 26:02
  It tastes of humility regarding themselves so that every mouth
• 26:07
  may be stopped stopped. And what any boast of
• 26:13
  self-righteousness, any attempt to think that you have the right
• 26:17
  to inherit eternal life, based on your behavior because James
• 26:21
  tells us when you break one of the law, you break them all.
• 26:25
  Think of it this way, if you were to contact me via phone and
• 26:28
  call me all it takes is one digit off and you can't get a
• 26:32
  hold of You just dial one wrong number and you're calling
• 26:36
  somebody else. And in light of that same
• 26:38
  principle, one command broken, you have no contact with God,
• 26:44
  you have no way to reach God. You have no way to stand in his
• 26:47
  presence forever. You have officially disqualified
• 26:51
  yourself from being in his presence for all eternity
• 26:54
  because you did not meet his standard, So that's why the law
• 26:58
  is important in our evangelism because there's a lot of people
• 27:03
  more than anything that are convinced that they are good.
• 27:07
  You know, you can go to hell, two ways just being really bad
• 27:10
  and knowing it and by yourself deception of thinking that
• 27:12
  you're really good. And so you hear this from
• 27:17
  people, well, I'm a good person and this is the purpose of the
• 27:20
  law you bring it before them like a mirror.
• 27:22
  You say, do you meet this standard?
• 27:26
  And somebody like, what you mentioned might bring up, what
• 27:30
  I've never murdered somebody and Jesus, all right.
• 27:35
  Well, let me bring it up here. If you hate your brother, you've
• 27:37
  committed murder in your heart, so you're a murderer.
• 27:40
  So even in Matthew 5, when Jesus steps on the scene, whatever
• 27:44
  justification these Pharisees might have had concerning their
• 27:47
  spotless though, they were Hypocrites and though they were
• 27:51
  something else in dark than in the light, any sense of boasting
• 27:55
  would have been destroyed by Jesus upholding and enhancing
• 27:59
  enlarging? This understanding of the law by
• 28:02
  bringing it to a whole nother standard?
• 28:05
  And that's Grace Jesus what? Grace and Truth came through.
• 28:08
  Jesus Christ And so Grace is not this Freedom Grace is.
• 28:13
  Yeah, if you think it, you did it.
• 28:18
  And so, Romans tells us that it keeps us.
• 28:21
  It keeps us in a place of humility and brings us to a
• 28:25
  place of realizing what I'm in trouble.
• 28:28
  Another versus Galatians. Galatians 4, rather Galatians 3.
• 28:36
  19. Why?
• 28:37
  Then the law he answers it again, it was added because of
• 28:41
  transgressions. It was added because of
• 28:45
  transgressions and Romans 5:20, it's another verse it says, now
• 28:49
  the law came in to increase the trespass.
• 28:54
  So what is the law do? Well, Romans 2 tells us what
• 28:58
  that the law is given. And it's sealed somewhere.
• 29:02
  Where is it? The conscience, right?
• 29:06
  So, those who are not under the law, those who do not practice a
• 29:08
  lot of those who were not under these teachings, these gentile
• 29:12
  people that didn't have the law, God planted a little chip called
• 29:16
  your conscious in your mind to understand right from wrong.
• 29:19
  Everybody has a general understanding that if you take
• 29:21
  something, that's not yours, you don't want to be caught doing
• 29:24
  that because it's wrong, it's built within our system.
• 29:27
  Got put that in there. Now, what does the law do?
• 29:30
  The law comes puts it on Stone. So to speak puts it on paper, so
• 29:34
  that when we look at it, it arouses and it shows and it puts
• 29:38
  the spotlight on what's already in our conscience.
• 29:43
  It enhances trespass. So to speak.
• 29:46
  Paul says that even Romans 7. He says, well, the law is not,
• 29:49
  this law is not simple, because if it wasn't for the law, I
• 29:52
  wouldn't know what coveting is. I wouldn't know what this looks
• 29:56
  like. And so what does it do?
• 29:57
  It arouses sin in me, it causes me to realize what this thing is
• 30:02
  and how it defiles God, and how the files my relationship with
• 30:05
  others. And so, the law comes in to
• 30:08
  strike the nerve, so to speak in us, to show us what it is in
• 30:12
  detail. It's a confirm that our
• 30:15
  conscious is. Yes.
• 30:17
  What God has put in us to tell us right from wrong.
• 30:25
  So then I ask the second question.
• 30:28
  If that's the case, what do we do with the law?
• 30:32
  What do we do with this? Still study it to know what God
• 30:47
  expects of you. Because we know that in this,
• 30:52
  these last verses, especially that the, the what, the law is a
• 30:56
  Schoolmaster, it brings you to a place where what you realize
• 30:59
  that your mouth is stop. You can't boast in your
• 31:01
  righteousness. You can't boast in your
• 31:03
  Perfection. You can't do any of that.
• 31:04
  It arouses sin within you. It shows you at highlights, the
• 31:07
  iniquity that dwells within and what is it cause you to do.
• 31:10
  Paul says it causes you to go to Christ.
• 31:14
  It literally brings you to a place where you say, I need a
• 31:17
  savior. I'm in trouble if God's standard
• 31:21
  is this and I broke in 18 of those.
• 31:24
  By the time I had breakfast this morning, And so what do I do in
• 31:29
  the Paul says, it brings you to Jesus, it makes you run and fall
• 31:34
  upon his feet and to run at the cross towards it at the foot of
• 31:39
  the cross, plead for his blood, plea for his forgiveness, and to
• 31:43
  realize that I cannot do this, that's what really repentance is
• 31:46
  repentance. In one sense is just giving up.
• 31:49
  Sure, we have this understand that repentance is what turning
• 31:51
  from your sin turning from your way?
• 31:52
  You think about Sin and how the files our relationship with God?
• 31:55
  But repentance is also turning Away from your attempt to do.
• 31:59
  Good works to inherit salvation, that's repentance as well.
• 32:03
  It's giving up on your own efforts and falling upon Christ
• 32:09
  and his deeds in the Fulfillment of the law that he performed on
• 32:12
  your behalf. So it's a Schoolmaster, it's a
• 32:17
  tutor. It brings you to Jesus.
• 32:21
  So what do we do with it? Because Jesus fulfilled, the
• 32:27
  law. This is an important question.
• 32:32
  Jesus fulfilled, the law. So we are no longer under the
• 32:36
  law. That's all over the New
• 32:39
  Testament. So we read this and we're going
• 32:41
  to spend a few weeks on this and we go.
• 32:42
  Well, how does that relate to me?
• 32:44
  As a New Covenant believer. That's trusting that Jesus
• 32:47
  Christ walked the law out forming that it is imputed unto
• 32:50
  me by faith and by faith alone is as a historical document.
• 32:56
  Is this this the same way? We look at circumcision and say?
• 32:59
  Well that's what they did in the old Covenant but neither
• 33:01
  circumcision nor uncircumcision matters but a changed life.
• 33:05
  What do we do? We're under grace.
• 33:08
  Paul says it Over Yonder, Grace. He's he's the Apostle of that
• 33:11
  message. Grace Grace, Grace, not law,
• 33:13
  Grace. Mom, he answers it and Romans
• 33:21
  7:12. He said something about the law
• 33:25
  before we get into how we relate to, he says, so the law is Holy.
• 33:31
  And the Commandment is holy and righteous and good.
• 33:36
  So, he doesn't speak against the law.
• 33:40
  He says it's good. It's holy, it's something to
• 33:45
  regard. because the opposite understanding of this is, Well
• 33:54
  since we're under grace, the law doesn't apply gung ho let's just
• 34:00
  do what we want. His blood covers Us.
• 34:03
  Employee answers that too. It says in Romans, 6, 15.
• 34:09
  What then are we to sin? Because we are not under the
• 34:12
  law, but under grace three words, by no means you've
• 34:19
  completely misunderstood what it means to be under the law and
• 34:22
  under grace in no way. Does it give a license for
• 34:26
  somebody to live in sin because we had a transfer of Covenants?
• 34:31
  He says, no. To be under the law, this is so
• 34:35
  important, pay attention to this to be under the law.
• 34:41
  Is for us to be under the power and authority that it carries to
• 34:47
  judge us for not fulfilling it. To be under the law is to be
• 34:52
  under the condemnation and the penalty of not keeping the law
• 34:56
  that we are held accountable for breaking it.
• 34:58
  That's what it means to be under the law.
• 35:01
  Now, why are we no longer under the law?
• 35:05
  Because Jesus absorbed the wrath of God for you and me.
• 35:12
  Jesus, not only fulfilled, the law pay attention.
• 35:15
  This is the gospel and I pray that we would never become dull
• 35:19
  to this gospel. I love what Paul says in Romans
• 35:22
  1. He's talking to Chris.
• 35:23
  He's like, I can't wait to come to you so I can preach to you
• 35:25
  the gospel that Paul, they're saved.
• 35:27
  Yeah, but it never never never stops getting glorious when you
• 35:31
  hear it. Jesus, the man that we worship.
• 35:39
  Before we opened this book together, He Walked In the Flesh
• 35:43
  to do what to fulfill the law. He said that I have not come to
• 35:47
  abolish it, I've come to fulfill it and he kept it perfectly and
• 35:51
  he's the faithful Israelite. And what does he do by faith?
• 35:54
  When we say, I believe in Jesus Christ, his faithfulness to the
• 35:59
  law is transferred to your account as though you.
• 36:03
  Yes, you and me sinner. Liar, adulterer murder.
• 36:12
  Covenant breaker is seen by God, the judge as perfect and holy,
• 36:19
  Not only that, but he takes our broken law.
• 36:26
  What we could not keep and he drinks every drop of the wrath
• 36:31
  of God upon the cross. That's what we call the
• 36:34
  Beautiful Exchange. His righteousness, is your
• 36:38
  righteousness. Your condemnation becomes his
• 36:42
  condemnation? That's the gospel.
• 36:45
  And so when we say were not under law, we are no longer
• 36:51
  under the penalty. Or the condemnation that comes
• 36:55
  from breaking the law. Because Jesus took it for us.
• 37:00
  Praise be to his name. And so we understand that he
• 37:05
  says listen just because you're not under law doesn't mean that
• 37:07
  you can just do whatever you want.
• 37:10
  You're not under the penalty of the law and something happens
• 37:13
  with this gospel. Something happens.
• 37:17
  It's not just this judicial it's not just this.
• 37:23
  Positional thing that happens in which we walk without wonderful
• 37:26
  truth as wonderful as it is. Something Supernatural happens.
• 37:31
  And these prophets of old testify of it.
• 37:33
  They say, you know, this law that you could not keep I'm
• 37:35
  going to write it on your hearts.
• 37:38
  That not only is it something in which you come out of the
• 37:41
  condemnation that it brings to your life.
• 37:44
  But something that's outside of you something that you look at
• 37:46
  every day and say oh I can't do this.
• 37:48
  I'm going to imprint it on your heart.
• 37:52
  That's the born-again experience that when I yes.
• 37:55
  Put my faith in Jesus Christ. Something happens in me with the
• 37:59
  spirit of God comes and he writes, not on tablets of stone,
• 38:03
  but tablets of hearts And he writes the law.
• 38:07
  So the law now becomes something that I desire, it is an
• 38:10
  effortless shift within the way. I look at sin and obedience and
• 38:15
  it is this desire. Now in me, these see why
• 38:18
  salvation is nothing short of Supernatural?
• 38:21
  Jeremiah says in Jeremiah 31:33. This is the Covenant that I will
• 38:25
  make with the house of Israel. After those days, declares the
• 38:29
  Lord that I will put my law within them.
• 38:32
  I'll put my law within them. Ezekiel says, the same thing is
• 38:36
  he'll 3627. He says what and I will put my
• 38:39
  spirit in them to cause him to walk according to my statutes
• 38:43
  and be careful to obey my rules. Deuteronomy talks about the
• 38:47
  circumcision of the heart. And so we see that there is this
• 38:51
  promise to come. Yes, that Jesus comes and he
• 38:54
  removes us from the condemnation of the law, but he also by the
• 38:56
  spirit puts the law on US in US. So it's not something that's
• 39:00
  outside in. It's something that's inside
• 39:02
  out. and you know that if you truly been born again, Before
• 39:09
  you were saved and you grew up in a Christian home, I can tell
• 39:12
  you what I did. I was looking through this Bible
• 39:14
  to try to find loopholes to my Disobedience.
• 39:17
  Well, the Bible didn't didn't say that.
• 39:21
  So, why not? Then talk about any of that.
• 39:24
  So that is not a person was a regenerate heart.
• 39:29
  But a person that's been born again.
• 39:31
  Looks for the things, looks for the standards and joyfully
• 39:35
  Embraces every command. Why?
• 39:39
  Because of, you know, because the Holy Spirit In You, Who did
• 39:43
  something to you? When you gave up and fell upon
• 39:46
  Christ? And what about the food laws,
• 39:50
  and the ceremonial laws? Well.
• 39:58
  That's an important question. But I think it's also important
• 40:01
  to notice that the Ten Commandments How many of them
• 40:06
  are seen in the New Testament as commands in different ways?
• 40:15
  Nine, you're right. Which one is not in there, the
• 40:18
  Sabbath. If you pay attention to the New
• 40:21
  Testament, you will see that all these commands that we just read
• 40:25
  Resurfaced in the New Testament in different ways through the
• 40:28
  letters and the Epistles and Jesus teachings.
• 40:29
  Except one The Sabbath. And there are other branches of
• 40:36
  Christianity that would disagree with that.
• 40:40
  And there are some genuine Christians that keep the Sabbath
• 40:44
  there. Are I even know a family that
• 40:46
  keeps the feasts. And they're Believers, but they
• 40:50
  do it in light of the prophetic imagery of Jesus Christ.
• 40:55
  And so considering that, what does the Bible have to say
• 40:58
  Colossians 2 tells us, Paul addresses?
• 41:01
  This with the Colossians 2:16? Look what he says.
• 41:04
  It's so plain he says, therefore, let no one pass
• 41:09
  judgment on you and questions of food and drink, there's the
• 41:13
  food. Or with regard to a festival or
• 41:16
  a new moon, or a Sabbath, it's right there.
• 41:21
  These are a shadow of the things to come, but the substance
• 41:25
  belongs to Christ. So Christ, fulfills.
• 41:28
  He is the Fulfillment of those things.
• 41:30
  All those things were yes for the Israelites and immediate
• 41:34
  application. Absolutely.
• 41:36
  But they were also shot oohs and Christ was the substance.
• 41:39
  He's not the shadow, he's the Fulfillment of it.
• 41:42
  So the Sabbath we're going to talk about this when we get to
• 41:44
  the Sabbath commandment, but the Sabbath just for us to get it in
• 41:48
  the surface level, the Sabbath is Jesus.
• 41:52
  He's our rest. We rest in Christ.
• 41:56
  It's not about a day, it's about a person.
• 41:58
  And we are our soul is at ease, because of Grace, because of
• 42:02
  what he's done and we can rest in him.
• 42:05
  Oh it's going to be exciting when we come to the Sabbath.
• 42:09
  And so, what does Jesus say even for these food laws?
• 42:11
  Because there are even Ministries that say no, you have
• 42:15
  to keep the food laws. Now, there are some practical
• 42:19
  health tips to the food laws. I mean, all those Critters in
• 42:23
  the ocean that he tells not to eat, if you look into those
• 42:26
  animals, they're not very healthy for you there.
• 42:28
  Like the vacuum of the ocean. They eat up all the junk.
• 42:32
  Pork is not healthy for you. So there's some practical
• 42:36
  understanding there. But it does not condemn us.
• 42:41
  He says, in Colossians, if you want to keep those dietary laws,
• 42:43
  you can do that, listen, do it. But don't condemn your brother.
• 42:47
  If he doesn't do it. In fact, Paul takes chapters to
• 42:51
  specific chapters to talk about how we are to do with this meat
• 42:53
  thing. So if eating me stuck makes your
• 42:58
  brother stumble. Don't eat meat.
• 43:00
  Do you see? It's not as black and white as
• 43:01
  we think people want black and white, the Bible doesn't give us
• 43:04
  black and white. So you can keep those feasts and
• 43:09
  hey, you want to keep the Sabbath the way the Jews do you
• 43:11
  can do that all you want. Just don't think that you're
• 43:14
  doing as a means to attain salvation.
• 43:17
  Nor do you do it to look at somebody else and think you are
• 43:19
  more spiritual for keeping those things.
• 43:24
  If it's a conviction for you, keep that conviction.
• 43:28
  Don't flaunt it. Don't bring judgment, stay in
• 43:32
  your own lane. So we see some Freedom, there
• 43:36
  concerning these ceremonial and civil laws, but the moral law
• 43:40
  here is extended into the New Testament and it is expressed in
• 43:44
  different ways. Look, what Jesus is a mark 719.
• 43:46
  He's talking about this idea of how the Pharisee says what, you
• 43:49
  know, washing your hands. And how that the files are
• 43:52
  Jesus, you've got it all twisted.
• 43:54
  It's not what comes into a man that defiles him?
• 43:56
  It's what's in his heart already?
• 43:58
  Proud of his heart and Matthew 720 says all this filthy names
• 44:01
  him in detail. What comes out of the heart of
• 44:03
  man. But look what it says here,
• 44:05
  Matthew 719. There's like a little annotation
• 44:09
  here says, thus he declared all foods clean talks about how he
• 44:13
  declared all foods clean. That's an important verse
• 44:16
  because that's Jesus So we see how this relates to us in the
• 44:23
  New Testament, so let me just, let me just say this as we go
• 44:26
  into the first commandment. In summary, we are to understand
• 44:31
  the Ten Commandments in light of the New Covenant.
• 44:33
  Okay? We can't look at that separate
• 44:35
  from the New Testament teachings.
• 44:37
  They are not a means of justification, but a delightful
• 44:40
  standard elevated under grace, Jesus, enhances those things for
• 44:46
  the spirit and dwelt believer to pursue in his life.
• 44:50
  So if somebody were to ask me, are you under the law?
• 44:52
  Somebody were to ask me that somebody were to ask you.
• 44:54
  You can answer confidently know. I'm not under the law because to
• 45:00
  be under the law means that I am condemned for breaking the law
• 45:03
  and Jesus Took My condemnation for me.
• 45:07
  Equally, I am not under the law because I do not fulfill the law
• 45:11
  as a means to be justified because Jesus did that for me.
• 45:15
  But because of his heart transformation because of this
• 45:19
  heart transplant through the gospel.
• 45:22
  I Delight in the law. And I want to pursue the law,
• 45:25
  the psalmist talks about how he loves the law.
• 45:29
  He didn't have the New Testament wasn't talking about Ephesians
• 45:31
  when he was saying that he was talking about all those
• 45:34
  Commandments. All those sacrificial
• 45:36
  Commandments. All those food laws he goes, I
• 45:39
  love to keep thy law. David.
• 45:42
  I've said this before was a New Covenant Believers at Old
• 45:45
  Testament, Covenant. He understood it he delighted he
• 45:48
  saw it as a joy. Why?
• 45:50
  Because it was an opportunity for him to walk in the will
• 45:52
  character nature of God and it was an opportunity to walk in a
• 45:56
  way to please God not a means by receiving justification.
• 45:59
  But to please him, the sense of walking in obedience to what
• 46:03
  he's called us to walk in, in order to glorify his name.
• 46:07
  Nevertheless, as we go into the first commandment these
• 46:10
  Commandments reveal once again, the The character of God.
• 46:14
  They are moral guidelines for us to operate in our lives and they
• 46:18
  are standard in, which we should uphold personally and to fulfill
• 46:23
  by the power of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
• 46:29
  First commandment. You shall have no other gods
• 46:36
  before me. Seems pretty straightforward.
• 46:44
  Now, when he says, you shall not have any Gods, before me, what
• 46:48
  he's not saying is you can have other gods as long as they're
• 46:51
  not above means standard of priority, he's not saying that
• 46:55
  don't read it that way you can translate this way you shall
• 46:58
  have no other gods before my face.
• 47:02
  Or you shall have no other gods besides me.
• 47:07
  And what he's saying there is I am the only one that has access
• 47:10
  to be Lord and Master of your life I'm the only one and I'm
• 47:15
  not willing to share that step that status.
• 47:18
  Now for us to unpack, what this means.
• 47:20
  What this commandment means for us practically, I'm going to
• 47:23
  read to you this the same book, you'd have to turn there, but
• 47:26
  you can write as a reference because the Bible interprets,
• 47:29
  the Bible, Exodus 23 23, What does it mean to have other gods
• 47:36
  before the Lord? It says, when my angel goes
• 47:41
  before you and brings you to the amorites and to the Hittites and
• 47:45
  the perizzites and the Canaanites, and the hivites and
• 47:47
  the jebusites, and I blocked them out.
• 47:49
  Look what he says in verse 24. You shall not bow down to their
• 47:53
  gods, nor serve them nor do as they do, but you shall utterly
• 47:58
  overthrow them and break their pillars in pieces.
• 48:04
  So he's saying here, when you go into the promised land, I'm
• 48:07
  making this very clear, I don't want any Gods before my eyes.
• 48:10
  I don't want any idolatry. I don't want you to adopt any of
• 48:13
  the gods or the practices of these ights.
• 48:17
  In fact, I want you to bring them to fine powder to never be
• 48:22
  seen before my eyes ever again. In other words, he's saying,
• 48:29
  what only I can be God of your life.
• 48:35
  Total exclusivity no options for anything else.
• 48:39
  He's saying me and me alone and I want you to demonstrate that
• 48:44
  by crushing all those things that you see in the land of
• 48:47
  Canaan. Now, we all read this
• 48:51
  commandment, we say, well sure. Absolutely.
• 48:57
  God, Jesus, there's no other God.
• 49:00
  I go to church, to talk about him.
• 49:01
  I go to church to sing about him.
• 49:04
  There's no Idol. There's no asherah pull that.
• 49:07
  I bow down. That's ridiculous.
• 49:08
  There's no bail alter that. I go to and sacrifice.
• 49:11
  No way. I'm fulfilling that.
• 49:13
  That's the standard that I'm pursuing.
• 49:16
  So we realized what a God is, what a God, can potentially be.
• 49:24
  Can any of you identify maybe give a simple definition of what
• 49:26
  an idol is. No, just a specific.
• 49:34
  Now a definition will get to specifics in the moment.
• 49:41
  Anything that you place above God.
• 49:43
  That's a standard definition. Anything you place above God.
• 49:46
  But what does it mean to place above?
• 49:51
  Go ahead. No, go ahead.
• 49:51
  You said it. Thank you.
• 49:53
  That you desire. Something that your heart
• 49:55
  desires. Can we say more than God?
• 49:58
  Sure. Yes.
• 50:01
  Your heart worships Treasures above anything that your heart
• 50:06
  Treasures or worships above God? Yes.
• 50:14
  Anything that has authority over you.
• 50:17
  That's a great insight. Well we just read what it means
• 50:21
  to have another God in our lives.
• 50:23
  In Exodus 23 24, what does he say here?
• 50:26
  Look You shall not bow down to their gods, nor serve them.
• 50:34
  God is anything. An object that we worship.
• 50:43
  Or devoted to. Anything, an object, a thought,
• 50:48
  a person and occupation anything that we worship or devoted to
• 50:54
  more than God. That's a definition that X is
• 50:56
  2324 gives us Anything that we adore, anything that we desire,
• 51:03
  anything that we are thrilled by anything that we find more
• 51:07
  pleasure in other than God, is an idol.
• 51:10
  I do not care what it is. Because this is what the Bible
• 51:16
  says. You're not to bow before it nor
• 51:21
  nor are you to serve it. And the reason and this is the
• 51:28
  beauty of these commands, because we're going to explore
• 51:30
  the reason why God instituted them.
• 51:31
  The reason why God gave this command is in the second
• 51:35
  commandment in the last part or the middle part, revealing who
• 51:39
  he is. He says, something very similar
• 51:41
  in a second command that you don't make a carved image.
• 51:44
  And he tells us the reason why I near the end for I the Lord your
• 51:48
  God am a jealous God, I'm jealous.
• 51:51
  Now there are two types of jealousy.
• 51:53
  There's a jealousy that comes from insecurity.
• 51:56
  That's an unhealthy jealousy. And we'll get into that when we
• 52:00
  come to the second commandment, but there's a righteous
• 52:02
  jealousy. And the best example to give of
• 52:06
  a righteous jealousy is a man and his wife.
• 52:11
  Who's ferociously jealous for her?
• 52:15
  And he has every right and vice versa to feel those emotions
• 52:19
  when he sees or she sees their spouse.
• 52:25
  Going into a different direction other than the Covenant that
• 52:28
  they've established between one. Another that's totally
• 52:31
  justifiable that burning sense of She's mine is totally right.
• 52:39
  That burning sensation of. He's mine is totally acceptable.
• 52:43
  Why? Because God feels it towards his
• 52:45
  bride. Because it's right, it's
• 52:51
  righteous. It's according to his character
• 52:54
  and his standard. It's not coveting, it's not
• 52:57
  envying. It's something that is fueled by
• 53:00
  a covenant. That was established between two
• 53:02
  people and he's saying here, I'm a jealous God, so I don't want
• 53:08
  you for anybody else. I'm not sharing you.
• 53:12
  I'm not going to let you find your pleasure in another person
• 53:16
  or thing. Because we made a covenant that
• 53:20
  I am for you and you are for me. So the question the porn
• 53:25
  question is, how do I identify an idol in my life?
• 53:29
  That's a very important question and I think it just comes back
• 53:32
  to what we've been saying. Where do you find all your
• 53:37
  pleasure? What is the theme of your
• 53:43
  thinking? What causes you to adore?
• 53:52
  What gives you a sense of purpose?
• 53:58
  Because if it's anything except God, it's an idol.
• 54:05
  Now, God says, I've given you things to enjoy, he says that
• 54:08
  first Timothy 6, you are to enjoy things in life.
• 54:12
  You are to glorify God even in your eating.
• 54:15
  You can enjoy a good meal, you can enjoy time with your family,
• 54:18
  you can enjoy the job in the occupation that God has given
• 54:21
  you because he's giving you those skills, but you were never
• 54:24
  allowed to enjoy those things more than God himself.
• 54:31
  God wants to be the source. God wants to be the object and
• 54:33
  even all those things that we do, we should do, in light of
• 54:36
  our relationship with God and glorify him and worship him
• 54:39
  because of those things. In an idol can be anything.
• 54:47
  You can put that up, please. Oh, you think it's just about a
• 54:53
  statue? now, if you see these things,
• 55:00
  let me just be straight if you see these things. and any of
• 55:04
  them offend you, it's probably because it's your God, and as
• 55:18
  you look at these things, let me just encourage you.
• 55:23
  The best thing that you and I can do concerning how we are to
• 55:27
  live. This commandment out Faithfully
• 55:30
  is to look at all these things and to see how Jesus feels about
• 55:35
  them in light of the scriptures. Do you understand what I'm
• 55:37
  saying? Will you sing?
• 55:39
  I don't see an iPhone in the book of Colossians.
• 55:43
  I don't see an iPhone in the book of Ephesians.
• 55:44
  I do how Redeem, the time. Redeem the time paraphrase,
• 55:54
  Ephesians 5:15, don't waste your time, don't you know, the days
• 55:56
  are evil, don't just squander your time.
• 55:58
  Don't just give it up hours on end.
• 56:00
  There's something to fulfill you have a purpose.
• 56:03
  Don't just give yourself over to devices and let them be little
• 56:06
  Vacuums in your life. That sucked everything out of
• 56:08
  you that God's put in you. Sports we say, oh, we don't
• 56:14
  worship idols. We don't worship things.
• 56:17
  No, we just packed stadiums and people paint their faces and
• 56:21
  they go crazy and people fight. And people lose money over
• 56:25
  people that don't even know them.
• 56:29
  So it's going to get very quiet and few moments here.
• 56:34
  Marriage. Beautiful instituted by God.
• 56:40
  But too many people have elevated this above him and
• 56:44
  their identity is in their spouse.
• 56:48
  And their Idol is the thrill of the of the relationship in every
• 56:53
  aspect of the way. But let me tell you something,
• 56:55
  your husband will make a terrible God.
• 56:59
  Your wife will make a terrible. God, they will fail you.
• 57:04
  They will not fulfill what your soul is craving for.
• 57:08
  Do they have a place in your life?
• 57:09
  Yes, but not above God ministry. That's a Pulpit, by the way.
• 57:15
  Ministry. There are people that preach the
• 57:19
  word and love to preach more than the one they preach about.
• 57:23
  They love the sound of their own voice.
• 57:27
  They love people. Praising the fact that they have
• 57:30
  all this wealth of knowledge and all this influence, it can stir
• 57:33
  their hearts. They seek that more than him.
• 57:38
  They find the thrill and giving to the poor more than Breaking
• 57:40
  that Alabaster flask as we learned about.
• 57:44
  And loving him, an adoring him. That's not makeup.
• 57:47
  By the way, that's about you. It's about idolizing yourself.
• 57:54
  You can come to a place in which how do you know if you idolize
• 57:57
  yourself, you think about you all the time?
• 58:01
  How do I look? What are people saying about me?
• 58:03
  Is this and what is that pose? I heard somebody Whispering.
• 58:06
  Were they talking about me? And what are people going to
• 58:09
  your own Idol? Your eyes are inward, they're
• 58:14
  not outward. Do not worry about what people
• 58:18
  think about God in your how you represent.
• 58:20
  God, that's totally awesome. That's fine.
• 58:22
  That's holy it's about you. It's about your image is about
• 58:25
  how you look so many people invest in this body.
• 58:29
  And the Bible says it very clear in 1st.
• 58:31
  Timothy 4:8 that bodily exercise is of some value, but godliness
• 58:36
  is a value in every way. There's this I'm all for a
• 58:40
  health and fitness and dieting and all that stuff is important
• 58:43
  and good. But don't come to the place
• 58:45
  where it becomes your God. Do I have to talk about
• 58:49
  Instagram? Family.
• 58:55
  You're saying hold on damn Lee. I love my children, I love my
• 59:02
  wife. I love my husband.
• 59:03
  I love my parents. I'll give you letters in red.
• 59:06
  If you love them, more than Jesus, you're not worthy to be
• 59:10
  his disciple. These were not even in the Old
• 59:12
  Testament. I'm leaning more in the New
• 59:13
  Testament, and Jesus is giving away higher standard than the
• 59:16
  old Covenant. You love your family, more than
• 59:18
  me if you cannot submit to the gospel because of your family,
• 59:23
  that's your Idol. Grades money.
• 59:27
  Possessions, all those things. Listen.
• 59:31
  Now let's step back. Are those things bad?
• 59:35
  No, but we can take once again the blessings of God and turn
• 59:39
  them into Idols. We'd be very careful.
• 59:42
  So what do we do? We ask the Lord to take all
• 59:45
  these things and to enjoy all these things and light of him,
• 59:48
  being the ultimate pleasure in our lives.
• 59:51
  That's what we do. That he is the Fountain and
• 59:55
  everything else flows out of that, as an extension of who he
• 1:00:00
  is and his person. It's properly appropriating and
• 1:00:04
  placing these things in our lives.
• 1:00:06
  Him being the Supreme him being the source him, being everything
• 1:00:10
  to us. How do I know you've heard me
• 1:00:12
  say this so many times? I'll say it again.
• 1:00:14
  If Jesus were to ask you to get rid of any of those things,
• 1:00:17
  would you be able to do it? If not, it's an idol.
• 1:00:22
  He's saying, well, this is a little This standard is pretty
• 1:00:30
  high. I don't know if I can walk in
• 1:00:32
  that standard, you know, a group of people said that the Jesus in
• 1:00:35
  John chapter 6, he says, eat my flesh and drink my blood and
• 1:00:39
  they said those very exact words they says, how can we keep that?
• 1:00:44
  This is too much for us and they walked away and Jesus, let them
• 1:00:51
  Why? Because he's a jealous God.
• 1:00:54
  Hear me. He wants you.
• 1:00:56
  And all of you now. Let's give an illustration to
• 1:01:00
  this young ladies. If a young man approached you
• 1:01:05
  and you got to know each other and you began to be fond of one
• 1:01:07
  another and you want to fulfill that Covenant of marriage and
• 1:01:11
  that day where he proposes to you do that glorious day.
• 1:01:17
  He gets on one knee, looks at you in the eyes, and he begins
• 1:01:19
  to express how much he wants to be devoted to you and how much
• 1:01:23
  he wants to spend his life. And how much she wants to
• 1:01:25
  glorify God and marriage, and all these things.
• 1:01:29
  And you're ready, you're just bursting from the seams.
• 1:01:31
  You're ready to say, yes, tears are streaming down.
• 1:01:33
  There's the picture guy right there, taking it, all being
• 1:01:35
  recorded, and all for a sudden. The young man Bert's a splits
• 1:01:41
  out these words. Listen in light of all of that,
• 1:01:44
  sweetie. I'm going to ask you for one
• 1:01:48
  thing. Out of the 365 days in which we
• 1:01:52
  are together in. Holy Union.
• 1:01:56
  I just want one day, just one day to be with somebody else.
• 1:02:00
  Just one day, 24 hours, that's it?
• 1:02:04
  That's all I'm asking for. And you look and you say are you
• 1:02:09
  out of your mind? Okay, okay, okay, hold on.
• 1:02:13
  Not one day, went out one day when our there's a girl that I
• 1:02:17
  used to know. And I haven't talked to her in a
• 1:02:20
  long time, but I want to meet with her for one hour, just one
• 1:02:22
  hour. She's gonna come, pick me up.
• 1:02:23
  And all I want is one hour with her and then you have me for
• 1:02:27
  every other hour of the year. I'm yours with that sound
• 1:02:31
  appealing to you. You would be out of your mind to
• 1:02:38
  say yes, to somebody like that. I don't care what he says.
• 1:02:41
  I don't care what he promises, that is absolutely ridiculous.
• 1:02:44
  Now, how many of us do that with the Lord?
• 1:02:51
  Where he demands total exclusivity, he wants all of us
• 1:02:55
  and he wants all these things. Guess what?
• 1:02:57
  To be enjoyed with him? But you and I instead, we take
• 1:03:03
  one of those things and we make it a side partner.
• 1:03:08
  Once again, don't hear me wrong, we are to enjoy these things.
• 1:03:12
  But we are to never say this is something that I desire more
• 1:03:16
  than him. And he is jealous.
• 1:03:19
  You saying, are you really he's jealous?
• 1:03:23
  He's jealous when you give more time to the thing than to him.
• 1:03:27
  He's jealous when your heart finds more thrill and enjoyment
• 1:03:30
  and pleasure in your job than in his presence.
• 1:03:39
  The Prophet Jeremiah system am closing with these verses
• 1:03:42
  relating to all of this. Jeremiah to 11 to 13.
• 1:03:47
  This is fantastic, it's summarizes this perfectly.
• 1:03:55
  Jeremiah to 11 to 13. This is when the nation of
• 1:04:05
  Israel did not fulfill the first commandment, and Look What the
• 1:04:09
  Lord says, as a nation changed its Gods, even though they are
• 1:04:13
  no gods, But my people have changed their glory for that,
• 1:04:18
  which does not profit. Stop there.
• 1:04:23
  So he says they went after these different gods and they're not
• 1:04:28
  even Gods, they're man-made things.
• 1:04:32
  Isn't it amazing that people worship man-made things things
• 1:04:36
  that were built in a factory things that were produced by
• 1:04:39
  human minds and they have elevated, those things more than
• 1:04:43
  the one who created all those things.
• 1:04:45
  And he says, they have exchanged their glory for that, which does
• 1:04:50
  not profit. In other words, for that would
• 1:04:54
  does not satisfy the inner man says, that's what they've done.
• 1:04:59
  And look what he does. In verse 12, he does something I
• 1:05:01
  think is absolutely amazing. He says be appalled.
• 1:05:05
  Now, he calls the heavens as a witness.
• 1:05:08
  He says, be appalled, o Heavens at this.
• 1:05:11
  Be shocked. Be utterly desolate declares the
• 1:05:14
  Lord. Why Is my people have committed,
• 1:05:19
  two evils. So he's saying all of Heaven.
• 1:05:22
  I want all the Angelic hosts. I want every Celestial being to
• 1:05:26
  check this out. My people have exchanged their
• 1:05:30
  glory for something that does not profit.
• 1:05:36
  And God identifies it as evil. Why look?
• 1:05:40
  How he paints this picture? They have forsaken.
• 1:05:43
  Me, me, the Fountain of Living Waters And hewed out cisterns
• 1:05:50
  for themselves, broken cisterns, that can hold no water.
• 1:05:56
  That is a commentary on the first commandment broken.
• 1:06:02
  The very startling picture he says heavens.
• 1:06:06
  Look at this. Look at how these people are
• 1:06:09
  finding more pleasure in that and their family and their job,
• 1:06:14
  in their clothes, in their bank account in their sports team.
• 1:06:19
  In their iPhone. Look at look, they exchange
• 1:06:24
  this. What I can give.
• 1:06:28
  For that, which does not profit. And it is like somebody who is
• 1:06:34
  so thirsty, and there's a fountain of the purest.
• 1:06:36
  Cleanest most fulfilling water that never ceases to flow.
• 1:06:42
  I mean, you can be thirsty every day of your life.
• 1:06:44
  In this Fountain will satisfy you, and this is what they're
• 1:06:46
  doing. They're digging with their hands
• 1:06:48
  on the side of the road to try to find water at the end of that
• 1:06:50
  pit. that's what it looks like to God when we have Idols in our
• 1:06:56
  lives and God is appalled, and he goes, you have no idea what
• 1:07:02
  you're missing out on So we have to look at our own hearts.
• 1:07:07
  And these 10 commandments will do just that.
• 1:07:11
  Is there anything in my life? That I am more thrilled by more
• 1:07:15
  pleased, by that takes occupation of my mind, the most
• 1:07:19
  other than God. Do I do, I do things outside of
• 1:07:23
  the goodness of God. And do I do things in spite of
• 1:07:26
  the fact that he gave me these things?
• 1:07:27
  And these things should cause me, even my steak should cause
• 1:07:30
  me to worship God because he made it so flavorful and he gave
• 1:07:34
  me the money to provide for and he gave me the family to enjoy
• 1:07:36
  it with. Do I do things outside of that?
• 1:07:40
  Do I worship the created thing more than the Creator?
• 1:07:45
  And so he says, enjoy it, enjoy this life, happily enjoy these
• 1:07:49
  things, but not more than me. Not never more than me.
• 1:07:54
  If anything, it should cause you to love me more.
• 1:07:57
  Because these are extensions of my grace and mercy to you.
• 1:08:01
  Let's pray together. So how are we to understand the
• 1:08:05
  first commandment? We are to understand it as a as
• 1:08:09
  God speaking, as a ferociously jealous bridegroom over his
• 1:08:13
  bride. That I have set the standard the
• 1:08:17
  same way, a man or a woman has a standard concerning marriage
• 1:08:23
  that I am yours and you are mine.
• 1:08:24
  We do not share each other. That when we make this Covenant,
• 1:08:31
  we are making that statement. And before we pray, I think this
• 1:08:36
  is important to understand in light of the New Testament.
• 1:08:39
  In Colossians 3:5. Look what Paul says he says, put
• 1:08:46
  to death. Therefore, what is Earthly in
• 1:08:49
  you sexual immorality, impurity passion, evil desire.
• 1:08:54
  And look at this and covetousness.
• 1:08:59
  Which is idolatry. So how does Paul Define
• 1:09:03
  idolatry? Covetousness.
• 1:09:06
  What does it mean to covet? It means to have a strong desire
• 1:09:11
  for something or someone that does not belong to you.
• 1:09:16
  So this is one strong element of idolatry which is very, very
• 1:09:22
  interesting because the last commandment is not to covet.
• 1:09:25
  And so we have a full circle. The first one is not have any
• 1:09:28
  God before me, not to have idols and based on this text and Idol
• 1:09:32
  is anything that you and I can covet or we do covet.
• 1:09:36
  So when I look at something that somebody has in my my heart so
• 1:09:40
  wanted that it consumes my mind and my time That's an idol.
• 1:09:46
  If I do the same with another person's spouse, that's an idol.
• 1:09:50
  Anything that we have a strong desire for that does not belong
• 1:09:53
  to us. Paul says that's an idol because
• 1:09:56
  the very thing that is occupying, your thinking and
• 1:09:59
  making your heart feel that way. I want me to do that to you.
• 1:10:05
  I want me to be the passion of your heart.
• 1:10:07
  I want you to pursue me, not that I'm supposed to have that
• 1:10:13
  occupation in your mind. I'm supposed to make your heart
• 1:10:16
  feel that way. And so when you covet something,
• 1:10:19
  when you spend all that energy and you meditate upon those
• 1:10:21
  things that aren't supposed to be yours in the first place,
• 1:10:24
  that's the pursuit that I'm anticipating from you, for me.
• 1:10:30
  So he says don't crave those things, crave me.
• 1:10:34
  Don't run after those things. Run after me.
• 1:10:37
  Don't get caught up in those things get caught up in me.
• 1:10:41
  That is the essence of the first commandment.
• 1:10:43
  So it's not even things that we have placed in our lives.
• 1:10:46
  That take the place of God. It's even the things that we
• 1:10:49
  have a craving for that, we might not even have You saying
• 1:10:55
  well, that's just getting crazy. Well let's take it to the
• 1:10:57
  marriage example, again. Let's say that you have that
• 1:11:01
  with somebody, but you know that that person's heart.
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  The opposite person, the spouse of yours in their heart, they
• 1:11:06
  want somebody else. Or they find pleasure in
• 1:11:11
  something, other than you, we can.
• 1:11:12
  We can use. As example, all day, long God
• 1:11:15
  says, not only do, I want to see it.
• 1:11:17
  Yes, obviously, physically, I want every Idol in the land of
• 1:11:20
  your cane and to be crushed, but I want your heart, the attitude
• 1:11:25
  of your heart, the posture of This Heart To Be Mine.
• 1:11:30
  And we should none of us should step back and say well that's
• 1:11:32
  just a little bit too much. He loves us and he wants to make
• 1:11:36
  covenant. And relationship experience in
• 1:11:40
  its fullness of joy, must demand total commitment to one another.
• 1:11:45
  Father, we thank you for tonight.
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  Thank you for showing us how this Law relates to us.
• 1:11:52
  We thank you that Jesus fulfills the law.
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  That we are no longer under the law.
• 1:11:58
  But we thank you that you have given us a heart transplant for
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  us to desire to walk in these things.
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  And Lord, we want to be a people that have no other gods before
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  you. That you would receive the
• 1:12:12
  fullness of who we are and Lord help us understand the balance.
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  Let us never fall into the ditch of legalism as we drift away
• 1:12:22
  from lawlessness. Help us stay on that balance
• 1:12:25
  road that we are to enjoy things in life.
• 1:12:29
  But not more than you. We are to walk in the things of
• 1:12:33
  this life with our families and our friends and do certain
• 1:12:37
  things that our hearts desire but never are they to replace
• 1:12:42
  the pleasure that we find in the king.
• 1:12:46
  And so Lord we pray that if there are any Idols in our
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  hearts even tonight that you would show us and that we would
• 1:12:53
  do with the nation of Israel was to do and that's put it in its
• 1:12:57
  right place. The crush it.
• 1:13:06
  It's a lord. If money occupies are thinking,
• 1:13:08
  if finances occupy, our thoughts, if anything, anything
• 1:13:15
  takes that place of you, would you with this glorious truth.
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  Give us the power of the Holy Spirit to even love you.
• 1:13:24
  Rest to fulfill the greatest commandment is impossible, apart
• 1:13:28
  from the Holy Spirit, pouring out his love in our hearts.
• 1:13:31
  And so Lord, we need you to love you.
• 1:13:34
  Help us. God.
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  See the futility in the vanity, in the silliness of these
• 1:13:39
  things. When there is an eternal God
• 1:13:41
  that wants to commune with us. Bring us to the right place.
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  Lord. And as we explore these other
• 1:13:48
  Commandments, may we yes since this understanding exhaustion
• 1:13:54
  for those who are not in Christ and are living.
• 1:13:56
  According to this, to try to get salvation and may it bring
• 1:13:59
  people to the foot of the cross. But Lord, may we also for those
• 1:14:03
  who are born again, see these things. as a way of enhancing
• 1:14:08
  our experience of a relationship with you, May we be motivated
• 1:14:12
  rights lie? By these words, in the name of
• 1:14:16
  Jesus, we pray. By these words, in the name of
• 1:14:16
  Jesus, we pray.