Welcome to Delight in Grace. The teaching ministry of Rich Powell, pastor of Grace Bible Church in Winston-Salem. You're probably familiar with the Ten Commandments found in Deuteronomy five. You can learn a lot about God. by looking at what God commands.
This is part two of a message titled God Made Covenant with Us. It was first preached on May twelfth, twenty twenty four. It's part of a series through the book of Deuteronomy titled, It is Because the Lord Loves You. Everyone, listen to me. Everyone worships.
There are no exceptions to that. Most people worship themselves. or a god of their imagination. Everyone worships and you become like what you worship. That becomes very clear, and that's why God is saying, This is what I'm expecting of you because of what you know about me.
So let's begin this then, and in chapter five. He says, verse 6, I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery. Verse 7: Here's command number one: You shall have no other gods before me.
Now, this is the second time he's going through the Ten Commandments. This is what God wrote on the tablet. Remember, the people of Israel were given Moses such a headache. And God says, here, take these two tablets, right? You remember that.
So, no, this is the two tablets, it's not that one through five were written on the first tablet, and six through ten were written on the no. It was a copy. One through ten were written on each tablet, it was a covenant. and each tablet had all the Ten Commandments on them.
Okay.
So You shall have no other gods before me. That's the first command. Not have any gods besides me. In other words, God is calling for exclusive devotion. And what he's looking for is the development of his character in the hearts and minds of his people.
So, what is he looking for in the hearts and minds of his people? He's looking for preeminence. The preeminence that God will have the preeminence. In the hearts and minds of his people. Colossians 1:18, that in all things he might have preeminence.
We sang that this morning. Beautiful songs. One of my favorites. Let's make sure that we understand what preeminence means, okay? It does not mean that God is a primary God among others.
It's not what it means. means he's exclusive. There is no other God. There is one God. Every other God is the product of human imagination or human ingenuity.
There is one God. Why do we know? Because he is the one that created All of it and all of us.
So God says, I'm it. I'm not a collection to put on your shelf among other gods. And preeminence, if you will, remember the circle, all right? Circle represents your life, and that's like a wheel, and in the center is the hub. And then the spokes that come out, and between those spokes represents all the different areas of your life, and every area, what area?
Every area is directly connected to the hub. That's preeminence. There is no part of your life to which God does not apply. He is God. and you were created by him and for him.
Every area of your life is a means of worship. Corporate worship. family, work. Intellect. Emotions.
Every aspect of your life directly connected to the hub, which is the place of preeminence. That's where Christ belongs, that's where God belongs. And God says, I know. That you're going to have different areas of your life wanting to crawl into that space, that throne right there in the center. And God says, no.
That's where I belong. And be alone. That's preeminence. That's what he's looking for in the hearts and minds of his people. Number two.
Do not make any likeness of me or any other God for that matter. Because we know that that's a propensity in the human heart. As he said to the people of Israel, when God came down to Mount Sinai, it's also called Horeb, that's another word for Mount Sinai. And God came down, there was smoke, darkness, thunder, lightning, all of that, the majestic, awesome, nerve-wracking presence of God. Who's an infinite being?
God says, You did not see me, you only heard my voice. And so don't try to make any image or likeness of me to assist you in your worship. I think he was, I think God was very wise. God was so wise, because He knows us so well, right? We have a tendency to worship what we can see and manipulate.
And so We are called, as Jesus said in John chapter 4, as he's talking to the woman at the well, we're called to worship in spirit and truth. And what is he looking for in our hearts? He's looking for the pure in heart. Remember what Jesus said? Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall what?
You see what he did there? Isn't that cool? For they shall see God, the pure in heart shall see God. Let him be your focus alone, and you don't need an aid, an object to be your aid in worship. Number three.
Do not take my name in vain, he says. Verse 11: You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain. In other words, do not misuse it.
Now, we often think of taking God's name in vain as somebody just uses God's name in an expletive.
Now, I don't encourage that, but that really is not what he's talking about here.
However, I still think it's wrong to do that. We should not use God's name flippantly. But to take God's name in vain is to exercise worthless or evil activity in God's name. Worthless or evil activity in God's name. In other words, you know you're doing something clearly contrary to his character and purpose, and you say God told you to do that.
That's taking his name in vain. And God says, I will not hold that person guiltless. Listen, around the world there are so many people who are doing very wicked, evil things in the name of God. whatever they perceive God to be.
So that's a common thing among humanity. God is calling us For he's calling us to integrity, character in a man's heart. He's calling us to integrity. Because Jesus said Matthew 5, verse 37, he said, Let what you say be simply yes or no. Anything more than this comes from evil.
In other words, Are you a believable person? Are you a person of integrity? Can people count on you? Are you real? Or are you saying one thing and doing another?
See, that's how we can so easily use God's name in vain because we say, well, God is telling me to do this, but that's not representing what's really in my heart.
So, God is calling us to integrity here, not to take His name in vain. Number four. Verse 12, observe the Sabbath day to keep it holy, the Lord your God commanded you. Six days you shall labor and do all your work.
Okay.
I surprise many people when I come into work on Monday because, you know, Typically, Monday is the preacher's day off. Never has been for me. Just because I like after the weekend teaching, interacting with you, all the lot of interaction, I like to get right back in the office and get right back at it because sometimes I have emails to answer. You know, my favorite one of all time was Kathy Gibbs. All right, bud, you've got some splaining to do.
Right, you know, so I have to address that and it's good Monday is a good time to do that, right?
So people say well Rich what day do you take off? Saturday. Sunday is not a day of rest for me. I just want you to know that, okay? But he says here, keep the Sabbath.
It's a matter of rest. It's a matter of principle that God is teaching his children here, and rest is necessary. There needs to be the right margin in a person's life. There needs to be a margin for rest. Jesus said, Mark chapter 6, verse 31: he says to his disciples, come away and rest for a while.
Think about all the times in Scripture where it records Jesus getting away from the crowd. To rest. and he spends that time in communion with his father, but he needed to rest. But there is a rest that we need to enter into that the writer of Hebrews talks about, Hebrews chapter 4, verses 1 to 11, and it is the rest that we enter into by faith. You see, world religion says you need to work hard to appease the gods.
or God, or whatever your concept of God is. And the living God invites us to enter that rest by faith.
So I don't have to work to make God happy with me. This is a beautiful story of grace.
Okay, because if you listen, if you are in Jesus Christ. You are accepted. By God. Period. And you can't make him love you more, you can't make him love you less.
That is if you're in Jesus Christ. That's rest. That's rest. Enter into that rest. He invites us.
Into that rest.
So, keeping the Sabbath, He wants us to remember that He is, this is what He wants in our hearts. He wants us to remember that He is the Creator and the Sustainer. He is my sustainer. It's not up to me. To champion myself.
to identify myself. He is the creator. He is the sustainer. And he says very clearly in Exodus chapter 20: we are to keep the Sabbath day because why? God created the earth and the heavens and the earth in six days, and on the seventh day he rested.
For that reason, keep the Sabbath holy.
So having that margin of rest. And Hebrews 10:10 tells us that in Christ we are sanctified for all time.
So rest, the Sabbath, is a time set apart. to focus on God, like Jesus did when he got apart with his Father. But Hebrews 10:10 says that we are sanctified for all time. We're set apart unto God.
So under the Old Testament law, they were sanctified to God one day a week on the On the Sabbath, right? Seventh day. In Christ, I'm sanctified to God. How many days a week? All seven.
All seven. Because why? Because I'm in Christ. I'm resting. in Christ.
I walk with him. Throughout the course of the week, there's a whole lot more that could be talked about and taught there, but let's move on. Number five. Honor your father and mother. Verse 16, honor your father and mother as the Lord your God commanded you, that your days may be long and that it may go well with you in the land that the Lord your God is giving you.
Paul says this is the first command with promise. It says that in Ephesians. Chapter 6, verses 1 to 3. You see clearly that the Son honored the Father. Look with me at John 17, verse 4.
I glorified you on earth, having accomplished the work that you gave me to do. God desires that in the heart of his children. You've been listening to Delight in Grace, the teaching ministry of Rich Powell, pastor of Grace Bible Church in Winston-Salem. To hear this message and others, check out www dot delight in grace dot com to discover how to live by grace, Tune in with us on weekdays at 10 a.m.
