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Sermon preached on Deuteronomy 5:1-7 by Rev. W. Reid Hankins during the Morning Worship Service at Trinity Presbyterian Church (OPC) on 09/29/2024 in Petaluma, CA.
Sermon Manuscript
Rev. W. Reid Hankins, M.Div.
Before we begin our new Revelation series, I wanted to spend four sermons working through the Ten Commandments. It is good to regularly return to the Ten Commandments, to this important summary of God’s moral law. It is also a fitting follow up to our Genesis series. We just saw in Genesis that God set apart the family of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. They received that wonderful covenant whereby God promised them a people and a place, an administration of the covenant of grace. Genesis concluded with them in Egypt, but then in the book of Exodus, God will bring them out of Egypt to head back to Canaan, the Promised Land. But along the way, God brings them to Mt. Sinai. There, God gave them these Ten Commandments and instituted what we call the Mosaic covenant. While the Abrahamic Covenant promised a people and a place, the Mosaic covenant gave the people God’s law. This law taught them how to live as a holy and blessed nation in the Promised Land as God’s covenant people. It included civil, ceremonial, and especially moral provisions. The Ten Commandments, a summary of the moral commands engraved on stone tablets, became a token that represented the entire Mosaic covenant.
After God gave Israel the Ten Commandments at Sinai, they wandered in the wilderness for forty years before finally returning the Promised Land. The book of Deuteronomy is set at the end of that period, as God prepares them to finally possess the Land and realize the promises given to Abraham. In today’s passage, Moses then retells the Ten Commandments to renew them in the Mosaic Covenant and prepare them for life in the Land. So then, for today, I will not only cover the first of the Ten Commandments, I will also cover these introductory verses that preface them. That will teach us a little bit about the Mosaic Covenant at the same time. Taken together, we’ll have opportunity to understand the value of God’s moral law and its continuing role in our life as Christians under the New Covenant.
Let us begin in our first point by considering verse 6 which is known as the preamble to the Ten Commandments. It says, “I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery.” This short verse serves to identify the two parties in the Mosaic Covenant and briefly give some historical background to their relationship. In short, this is a covenant between the one true God and his chosen people. As for God, we see him identify himself there with the name of the LORD (note the all capitals), the name which God revealed to Moses at the burning bush. In Hebrew it is probably pronounced Yahweh, roughly translated as, “I am.” It’s a name that exalts the eternality, immutability, and self-existence of God. While there are other so-called gods, this tells us that they are not true gods. Yahweh does not identify himself as Baal, or Chemosh, or Molech, or Dagon, or Zeus, or any other false god. He is Yahweh, the LORD, the only sovereign creator of all things.
So then, as for the people in this covenant, he identifies them in verse 6 as the people who he brought out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery. In light of our study through Genesis, we immediately recognize that he is specifically referring to the family of Israel who descended from the patriarchs Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. This is the family that God made that Abrahamic covenant with, promising them a people and a place.
But after Genesis ended, that family of Israel eventually found themselves enslaved in Egypt to the Egyptians. They were forced to work hard making bricks for the Egyptians and were not allowed to leave. It is not good to be a slave, especially one under such heavy taskmasters. So, they cried out to God for help, and he heard their cry, and he delivered them in mighty power out of Egypt. That’s literal redemption. God redeemed Israel out of slavery unto a far better master, the LORD. That especially obligates Israel to God. All the more, they should seek to obey God and keep his commandments in gratitude for such a glorious salvation!
So in this first point, we’ve see how God and his chosen people have a unique relationship as the background for this covenant and his commandments for them. By extension, we see how readily this applies to us today. While God’s chosen people are now under the New Covenant, we continue to speak of God as our redeemer. God says to us under who are in this covenant with him, “I am the LORD your God who sent Jesus Christ into this world to save you from your sins and bring you out of the bondage of Satan and death.” We then, continue to look to obey God and keep his commandments in gratitude for such a glorious salvation!
Turning to our second point, I’d like to go back to consider verse 3, where Moses says that this covenant was not made with their fathers, but rather with them who were alive there that day. Let us appreciate the significance of this statement. When speaking of Israel’s fathers, generally we think back to the patriarchs Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Moses points out that this covenant at Sinai was not something Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob were able to enjoy with God.
Now let us pause and appreciate for a moment how the apostle Paul comments on this same fact in Galatians 3:17, noting how the law at Sinai was given 430 years later than the covenant made with the patriarchs. Paul’s point is that the later Mosaic Covenant doesn’t get rid of the blessings promised under the earlier Abrahamic Covenant. Why did Paul have to write this? Because some of the Jews at his time were stumbling over the law, falsely thinking that the law meant they had to be saved by their works of the law. Paul is clarifying, that whatever is required under the law of the Mosaic Covenant, it can’t annul the Abrahamic Covenant. But do you see how the need for that conversation reveals how misunderstood those Jews were that Paul was addressing? Because in today’s passage, this addition of the Mosaic Covenant with its laws was meant as a good thing. Abraham had received the covenanted promise of a people and a place. But in Deuteronomy, Israel was also getting a covenant law to guide their life and worship and nation. As Israel finally settles into the Promised Land, God equips them for the blessed life there. Abaham didn’t get this covenant because he was still waiting for the promised people and a place. Now that the promised people are arriving in the promised place, it is fitting then for them to receive this special Mosaic Covenant.
Let’s think how this applies today to God’s people. God’s elect people are no longer under the Mosaic Covenant, but are now under the New Covenant. But we can see how both the Mosaic and also the Abrahamic covenants find fulfillment in the New Covenant. Think of the Abrahamic covenant with its promises of a people and a place. In the New Covenant we are gathering up God’s people from all the nations into one united spiritual Israel. We then look forward for God to usher us into a final, eternal Promised Land when Christ returns. So, the Abrahamic Covenant finds its fulfillment in the New Covenant in Christ.
As for the Mosaic Covenant, its fulfillment needs to take into account how the law had three parts to it: civil, ceremonial, and moral. My focus today is on the moral laws as summarized in the Ten Commandments, but let me briefly comment on the civil and the ceremonial. The civil laws regulated how Israel should govern itself as a civil government. Beyond applications of general equity, the civil laws find fulfillment under the New Covenant in spiritual application to church discipline since the church is presently a spiritual nation and not a geo-political one. As for the ceremonial laws, they regulated Israel’s worship, how they were to come in cleanliness to worship a holy God. Those ceremonial laws find fulfillment in the cross of Christ Jesus, where we find cleansing from sin and access to our Holy God in Jesus. So, while we no longer do animal sacrifices, eat kosher, or keep old covenant feasts, the New Covenant makes various spiritual applications of the ceremonial laws to our worship and sanctification. That is why our New Covenant worship has a more spiritual emphasis than before.
But for the moral laws, these are timeless and absolute moral imperatives. Even before the Ten Commandments were given in written form, this moral law was written on every man’s heart. Because of their very nature, these moral laws will never pass away. They express God’s heart of righteousness and all humans are obligated to keep them. So, the way that the moral laws find fulfillment in the New Covenant is to see that God is making his people into a people that keeps these moral laws. When Jeremiah 31 prophesies of the New Covenant, it says how God will write his laws on his people’s hearts. Jeremiah was referring there to these moral laws as summarized in the Ten Commandments.
So then, the Ten Commandments directly apply to us today. While this is especially meaningful in the church, their use extends even beyond. Let me mention the three main uses today for the moral law as summarized in the Ten Commandments. First, the moral law can function to restrain evil in the world, even among unbelievers. Second, the moral law can function to drive us to Christ, meaning, it exposes our sin and why we need the forgiveness and grace that Christ won for us on the cross. Third, the moral law functions as a guide for godly living. This third use is the one I’m particularly interested in as we study through the Ten Commandments. Christians ought to use the moral law as summarized in these Ten Commandments as a guide for how they live their life. We should do that because these laws are right, good, and beautiful. We should do this out of obedience to our redeemer. We should do this out of gratitude. And we should especially do this in faith, believing God is writing his law on our hearts in the New Covenant.
Let me note here that we don’t want to fall into that same trap of legalism that some Jews like the Pharisees struggled with. None of those three uses of the law says anything about earning our salvation. After man’s fall into sin, the law is powerless to justify us. Only by the grace of God received from Christ through faith in his name can man be saved. But having been saved, let us all the more seek to obey God’s moral laws. If you try to use God’s laws as the way to be right before God, then you are a legalistic. But just seeking to obey God’s laws for the right reasons does not make you a legalist. It just shows you are a Christian who loves their Lord and wants to grow to be more like Christ. Indeed, we know we will struggle this side of glory to live these out. But let us keep striving to live a holy life by the grace of God.
Let us turn now in our third point to properly consider the first command. That is found in verse 7, “You shall have no other gods before me.” The Ten Commandments have the first four commandments dealing with our duty toward God, with the last six being our duty toward our neighbor. This one is quite fitting, then, in thinking of our duty toward God. The starting point in our duty toward God is to set him as the only God over our heart and life. If we do this, that becomes the basis for all the rest of the Ten Commandments. What I mean is, if God is truly God in your life, that means you are acknowledging that he is sovereign, that he is your Lord, and that you are supposed to obey him. If you call God as “God”, but don’t look to obey him, then you really don’t mean it when you call him “God”. Let us call God, “our God”, and truly look to honor him as the Lord of our life, looking for him to govern our every thought, word, and deed.
Let us then especially recognize that this commandment is a call for monotheism. The Christian faith is opposed to all forms of polytheism. There is only one God, and so he alone is to be worshipped and revered as God in your heart. The words, “before me,” specifically make this point. Sometimes people have misunderstood this language “before me” to think that it’s talking about priority. They think as long as God is first in your life before any other sort of god, then that is okay. But these words, “before me,” aren’t about priority, they are about presence. It refers to not having any other god in God’s presence. Imagine God turns his face to look upon you and your life. Will he see you entertaining other gods? That could include makings things such as fame, fortune, and pleasure as a god in your heart. If you have any other gods in your life, anything that the LORD would see as he looks upon you, then you are breaking this commandment. That is true, even if you put God first and your false god fifth. IGod doesn’t want to be just first in your life, he demands the whole of your heart’s devotion. No other gods. None.
Let us recognize that this commandment must be read in light of the preamble. That means that it matters who your god is. It is not true that everyone worships the same god just by different names. Let me repeat that point. It is not true that everyone worships the same god just by different names. Krishna is not God. Buddha is not God. Brahman is not God. Zeus is not God. Likewise, any religion that speaks of a single all-powerful deity but describes that god differently than how the Bible reveals God, then that it is not talking about the same god.
And let me address both Islam and Judaism. They both would claim to identify their deity as the God we see in Genesis. In other words, they would both claim to worship the same God that we are referring to here. Yet, Islam’s revelation of their god differs from the Bible’s description of that one true God. But even more to point, let me quote 1 John 2:23. It says, that “No one who denies the Son has the Father. Whoever confesses the Son has the Father also.” In other words, the New Testament tells us that you can’t deny Jesus as the Son of God and still keep the first commandment. Neither Islam nor Judaism meets that test because neither acknowledges Jesus. Neither are compatible with truly keeping this commandment.
And so as Christians, this is how we should now approach this first commandment. We can only keep this commandment through our relationship with Jesus. As Jesus told us, he reveals the father. If we have seen Jesus, we have seen the father, John 14:9. The only way we can truly know God is through Jesus. Thus, the only way we can truly observe the first of the Ten Commandments is by setting Jesus as Lord of our heart. As we know, honor, and worship Jesus, we know, honor, and worship the one true God. Jesus is the fulfillment of the first commandment.
What a wonderful way this commandment drives us to the gospel. We are to have no other Gods before the one true God. Humanity fell short in keeping this commandment. So, this one true God came to us, to save us. God now unites us to himself through his Son, who is God come in the flesh. So many other religions try to exalt their human leader, to assign to him some divine status that he doesn’t have, to make him a god. But the true religion says God came down to us and humbled himself be becoming a man. It’s in the incarnate God, Jesus Christ, that we know the true God. Jesus is God, and we are to have no other God before him.
This first commandment calls us then to acknowledge God as “our God”. As we do that, we realize God says to us, “I am your God, and you are my people.” His face shines upon us his people to be our God. It is right that we acknowledge God to be our God. But it is even more wonderful when God acknowledges that he is our God. We have such a wonderful relationship with the only true God, and this is what we have through faith in Jesus. What God began in the Abrahamic and Mosaic Covenants he now is bringing to a culmination in the New Covenant. A chosen people who will live righteously with God as their God in a coming eternal Land of Promise.
Let us then not neglect such a relationship we have with our God. Let us indeed look to worship, love, and serve him with all our heart, soul, and strength. Indeed, we’ll learn more about that next week as we dig into the next three commandments.
Amen.
Copyright © 2024 Rev. W. Reid Hankins, M.Div.
All Rights Reserved.
