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Bristol SDA Church

Ten Commandments

Garhett Morgan

1. The Importance of the Law

Father, Lord, I thank you for the Sabbath day that you've given us.

And Lord, as we study your word today, and as we try to become closer to you and vindicate your character, Father, I ask that you would bless us and help these not be my words, Father, because I am just a man, but help this come directly from your throne in heaven.

There was a man who had just gotten paid and he went to the bank and he cashed his check and right from the bank, he went directly to the local bar.

And he went to the bar and he proceeded to spend the majority of his paycheck.

And as he spent the majority of his paycheck, he stumbled home and his wife opened the door and he looked a lot different than he had when he had left for work that morning.

When he had left for work that morning he had his boots on and he was his shirt tucked in and he was ready to go and while he was at the bar there that night he had gotten in a little bit of a scuffle.

And when he walked into his house, his hair was all messed up, he had blood on his shirt, his boots were scuffed up, his pants were torn, and he was in a drunken stupor.

And his wife took the remaining part of the money that they had.

It was only like 20% of the whole paycheck left.

They needed to buy food, the kids needed new shoes, they needed to pay the rent, whatever it may have been, but the wife decided to spend her that little bit of money that they had on something that might seem a little extravagant.

The husband came home and sat down on the sofa and the wife proceeded to call a professional photographer.

The photographer Came within a few minutes and the wife had professional pictures of her drunken husband taken in the living room that night And she went to the store and got some of these photos developed and she blew up a big picture of her husband in his drunken stupor and in the state that he was in.

And she put it on the mantel place right next to their marriage photo.

There was the picture of them both, him in his tuxedo, looking dapper and sharp, and a good husband and a good father, and then next to that, the man who he really was, in a drunken stupor.

He, of course, knew none of this had happened.

He woke up the next day, hung over, and he went to the living room and sat on the sofa and as he proceeded to drink his concoction to get over his headache, he looked up at the mantel place and what did he see?

It shocked him a little bit, because he had never seen himself like that before.

You know, today when we take a look at the law of God, that's kind of what we look like as well, isn't it?

The law of God is that professional photographer or that mirror that we know so well.

And there's a man that we want to be, and there's a woman of God that we try to be, and we try to be a true Christian, but when we look at the harsh letter of the law, what do we find?

That we fall short, and we see ourselves as who we really are.

Today, we're gonna be taking a look at a characteristic of God's last day people that's extremely important.

I believe that we're living in the last days.

And because we're living in the last days, I want to be a part of God's last day people.

And Revelation gives us very interesting facts on what these last day people are going to look like.

And for many of you, this is going to be very familiar, but I think it's worth going over just a little bit deeper today.

If you would, go to the verse that our church was founded on in Revelation chapter 14.

Revelation chapter 14, the 3 angels' messages, these last day people that have a special message for the people of earth today.

Revelation chapter 14, we're gonna start in verse 6.

And I saw another angel fly in the midst of heaven, having the everlasting gospel to preach them to them that dwell on the earth.

The first characteristic of these people of God is that they have the everlasting gospel.

They don't have a false gospel, but they have the pure biblical gospel that the Bible points to each and every 1 of us.

And the gospel message is simple, Christ crucified.

But then that verse goes on to say and preach to every nation, kindred, tongue, and people.

God's last day, people are going to have the gospel message in their hearts and in their minds.

And they're also going to be so excited about that message that they're going to share it.

And that continues to go in verse 7, saying with a loud voice, Fear God and give glory to him for the hour of his judgment is in the future he's come and worship him that made heaven and earth and the sea and the fountains of waters this verse is saying that God's last day people are going to have a love for God.

But then it also says that they would be proclaiming that the hour of His judgment isn't in the future, but the hour of God's judgment is now.

And we know today that we are living, this is a big word, forgive it, in the antitypical day of atonement.

Which means that right now, in the heavenly sanctuary, this isn't our point today, but Christ is going over the record books and our names are before him.

But as we continue on here, verse 8 continues to show a characteristic of this church.

And there followed another angel saying, Babylon is fallen, is fallen.

That great city, because she made all nations drink of the wine of the wrath of her fornication.

And the third angel followed them saying with a loud voice, if any man worshiped the beast and his image and receive his mark in his forehead or in his hand And it continues to go on to tell the penalty of that God's last day church is going to be preaching against spiritual confusion Babylon is fallen Come to the true gospel.

Amen But the last characteristic of this last day of church is found in verse 12 and it's the 1 I want to focus on today.

Trust me Here is the patience of the Saints.

Here are they that keep the watch the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus The next few weeks that I preach to you, and we read from the Word of God together, we're gonna be going over the 10 Commandments.

But we're gonna be going over the 10 Commandments in a little bit different way than I ever have before, and maybe you ever have before.

We're gonna look at these commandments 1 by 1, and we're going to see that the 10 Commandments aren't just a list of do's and don'ts, but it's a guideline for how we can live a happy life, amen?

We're not just going to look at the letter of the law, but we're going to look at the spirit of the law as well.

Now, a lot of people, if they heard that your pastor was going to be preaching on the 10 commandments, would say your pastor must be a legalist.

Legalism is something that simply means that we try to work our way to heaven by keeping the law of God.

I believe that as we look at the 10 commandments over here and we see grace over here, that the 2 go hand in hand, amen.

The law of God and the grace of God are not antagonistic.

An antagonist is somebody that, an antagonist, they butt heads, right?

The law of God and the grace of God are not antagonistic In fact, I believe and I dare say they are synonymous Could it be that God's law is actually a law of love and that's what we're going to be finding out today how God's commandments are still valid for today if you would turn with me to Deuteronomy chapter 9 this is something that many of you are probably familiar with but it's good to remind ourselves of this fact Deuteronomy chapter 9 we find this these 10 commandments in 2 places in the Bible.

Exodus 20 in Deuteronomy chapter 5, Deuteronomy chapter 9 and verse 10.

And when Moses was given instruction to write the laws of God, he wrote them down in the books of Moses, right?

We had the instruction for the sanctuary or for cleanliness, not laws, all those different things.

But when it came to the 10 commandments, did God let Moses write those down by his own accord?

God was fine with Moses writing down all these other laws.

But when it came to the 10 commandments, God said, you come to me for those.

And when Moses went to God, I envy him a little bit seeing this take place but in Deuteronomy chapter 9 and verse 10 this is what it says and the Lord delivered unto me 2 tables of stone written with the finger of God and on them was written according to all the words which the Lord spake with you in the mount out of the midst of the fire in the day of the assembly." Whenever God does something with his hands, something important's happening.

You think about the first instant in time that we see God doing something with his hands.

God can speak things into existence, and we see this in Genesis.

God has the power to do that and he could have done that to create Adam, but did he?

When he created Adam, he got down and he formed him out of the dust of the ground with his own hands That's intimate, isn't it?

When he formed Eve he did the same and I believe that God also formed you to be who you are today When God does something with his hands, he means it.

Another place in the Bible that we see God doing something with his hands is in Babylon with Belshazzar.

And we see the hand appear and words were written on the wall.

2. No Other Gods

Last week, if you remember, we talked about the 10 Commandments, and the 10 Commandments, we believe, according to the Word of God, is still valid today.

We agreed last week that God has delivered us from bondage, and because God has delivered us from bondage, He wants to keep us out of bondage, right?

That's what the 10 Commandments are all about.

If we could sum up last week's message in 1 sentence, and I said it last week, this would be that sentence.

The love of God and the law of God are not antagonistic, but they are synonymous, right?

The law of God and the love of God are the same.

It's very interesting to me, but people have a very hard time with the idea that we need to come in alignment with the law of God.

But yet, no 1 would struggle with saying that we need to become in alignment with God, right?

But in reality those 2 things are the same thing, aren't they?

So the law of God will still be in effect as long as God is still saving people out of bondage Would you agree?

And I believe that today God is still in the business of saving people from slavery.

And also the law of God will still be in effect as long as God is keeping people out of bondage.

Do you think that heaven is going to be bondage?

Do you think in heaven will be kept out of bondage?

So throughout eternity, the law of God will still be in effect.

But today I wanna be taking a look at the first and the second commandment of this.

And we're gonna be looking to see what this has to say for us today in 2018.

If you would, we're gonna reread our scripture verse, and we're going to break it down just a little bit.

And it says, and God spake all these words saying so in verse 2 here This is where the engraving of the 10 Commandments begins It doesn't start with thou shalt not have no other gods before me, but it starts with this right here I am the Lord your God which have brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage, amen.

And last week we talked about before God gave us these 10 ways to keep us out of bondage, he let us know that he was the 1 that took them out of bondage, amen.

God loves you and because God loves you, He gives us these rules to keep us loving Him.

Continuing on in verse 3, thou shalt have no other gods.

You know, as we get a deeper look into the commandments and we get a deeper look into what God has told us to do and what God has told us to refrain from, a lot of people would say that our God wants us to work our way to heaven.

But is there any way that we can make ourselves get to heaven without him?

We can try and keep everything to the letter of the law, but brothers and sisters, without Christ, it is impossible for us to work ourselves to heaven by all of these good deeds that we are supposed to perform.

Jesus is the only way that we can truly keep the law of God.

But in reality, many people may think that Christianity is a works-based religion, but I would actually believe the opposite.

I believe that true Christianity is a perfect balance of God and work.

And Romans talks about this, but also I would also dare to say that any false religion in this world today is a works based religion.

If you think about Buddhism, if you think about Islam, if you think about the new age, all of these different major world religions that we have today, all of them are based on 1 similar thread.

In order for you to be able to live a perfect life and live an afterlife, you have to only keep this law.

And if you keep this law, then you will be saved.

But brothers and sisters, I believe that I should be following God and when I follow God he will make me saved amen even if I kept the law of God to its entirety from today on And I didn't make a mistake for the rest of my life brothers and sisters without Christ.

I would still be lost and This is what we want to touch on today For an just an example of other religions being a work-based religion.

I want you I want to read this to you right here This is from the Roman Catholic Catechism, Article 2010.

Since the initiative belongs to God and the order of grace, no 1 can merit the initial grace of forgiveness and justification at the beginning of conversion.

Moved by the Holy Spirit and by charity now, this is the part I want you to notice we can then Merit for ourselves and for others the grace is needed for our sanctification.

Is there any way that we can merit our own salvation and as Well as that is there any way we can merit somebody else's salvation?

For the increase of grace and charity and for the attainment of eternal life.

Even temporal goods like health, friendship, things like money, things of that nature, can be merited in accordance with God's wisdom.

These graces and goods are the object of Christian prayer.

Brothers and sisters, I believe that the Bible teaches the very opposite of that.

1 more quote that I want you to see here from the catechism as well.

What this is teaching is that if I just stay away from sin, if I just reject sin all the time, then eventually I'm gonna become sinless.

But brothers and sisters, just from keeping away from sin doesn't make you holy.

Like just like we said, if I kept away from all sin today, I still have to struggle with my carnal nature, don't I?

And the only way that can be cleansed is through Jesus Christ.

Absolution takes away sin, but it does not remedy all the disorders sin has caused.

Raised up from sin, the sinner must still recover his full spiritual health by following Christ, that's not what it says, by doing something more to make amends for the sin.

He must make satisfaction or expiate his sins.

I don't believe we serve a God that wants us to pay penance, amen.

I believe in a God that wants to save us from our sins and help us every step of the way, amen.

And as we look at the first and second commandment, thou shalt have no other gods before me I believe that this is a plea for God to have a relationship with you And we're gonna see that here right now if you would turn with me to mark chapter 11 mark chapter 11.

And he took them up in his arms, put his hands upon them, and blessed them.

And when he was gone forth into the way, there came 1 running, and kneeled to him and asked him, good master, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?

I believe that all of us at 1 time or another have done the same thing, would you agree?

I believe that what this rich young ruler is saying is he's basically coming up to Jesus and he's saying father What can I do to be saved?

Salvation would you agree with that statement?

This rich young ruler is pleading for salvation Jesus continues and says in verse 18, Mark 11, 18.

And Jesus said unto him, why callest thou me good?

And Jesus said to him, "'Why callest thou me good?

"'There is none good but 1, and that is who?

"'Thou knowest the commandments.'" What we're talking about today.

"'Do not commit adultery, do not kill, do not steal, do not bear false witness, defraud not, honor thy father and thy mother.

So Jesus looks at this bright young Jewish man and he says, you know the commandments, right?

Do not kill, do not commit adultery, don't lie, things of that nature.

3. Name Above All Names

So we are on part 3 of our commandments and for those of you that haven't been here we've been working through the commandments 1 by 1.

So the first week we found that the 10 Commandments are still valid for today.

And then the second week we took a look and we serve a God that has delivered us out of bondage.

He just like he freed the Israelites from bondage and being slaves, he's freed all of us or offers freedom from all of us from slavery as well.

So as long as God is still in the business of freeing people from bondage, the 10 Commandments are still going to be valid.

And what we have been finding is that in the 10 Commandments, Every commandment is a guideline to keep us from bondage, right?

God has saved us from that, and now He's going to keep us out.

You know, it's 1 thing to follow God for a few months, but we've all known people, and maybe we've been that person ourselves, where we're on fire for the Lord for about a month, 2 months, 3 months, even maybe a year.

And then that faith in God slowly starts to waver a little bit, and then pretty soon we slide back to where we were.

Amen, and that he's long-suffering and he wants to have that relationship with us Doesn't he and today we're gonna be finding that this commandment the third commandment is as well 1 of those suggestions So I'm gonna read you a text here from Acts and I'm not gonna tell you where it is.

I'm gonna kind of throw you in the middle of the story, then we're gonna come back later, okay?

In the book of Acts, this is what it says.

Following after Paul and us, she began crying out, saying, these men are bondservants of the Most High, who are proclaiming to you the way of salvation.

She continued doing this for many days, but Paul was greatly what?

Now, doesn't that sound a little bit odd?

We have here a woman who is following Paul and Silas through a great town in Macedonia, by the way, and as Paul and Silas are going through the town preaching the Word of God, this woman is following them saying, these men know the truth.

These men know the way of salvation now Paul should have been rejoicing you think right but instead it said that Paul was greatly annoyed We're gonna come back and see why he was annoyed or grieved in just a few minutes But let's take a look here at our scripture text for the day.

Does it matter what comes out of our mouths?

A few months ago, we talked about what it is to complain.

But we found, when we went back to the Old Testament, we found that when the people of Israel were complaining, and even the leadership of Israel were complaining and speaking harshly to each other, what happened to the Spirit of God there in the sanctuary?

Today we're also gonna be talking about our language and speech a little bit, but it's a little bit deeper than just that.

Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord your God in vain, for the Lord will not hold him guiltless who taketh his name in vain.

After freeing us from the bondage of idolatry, God continues to work upon a relationship by asking us a very simple request, respect my name.

Now, have you ever been around somebody, and I know a few of these people in my life, but have you ever been around somebody who just demands your respect?

That person where you just are when you're when you're talking with that person you might have had a rough day but you come up to that man or that woman whoever it may be and you just know that you need to respect that person just from their presence.

My grandfather was 1 of those people and when I was a boy I was a pretty rambunctious kid and I could go do it do all this different mischief and all that But no, I came to my grandfather.

He never did any of these things that normally would earn my respect.

But when I came in his presence, I knew that I needed to respect him.

But before you respect somebody, we always ask ourselves a question that's really relevant.

Do you respect somebody who isn't worthy of your respect at all?

Why do you think God is so worthy of our respect?

Why do you think God is worthy of our respect?

If there is anybody or any being that has ever deserved respect, it's God, isn't it?

If you would, turn with me to John chapter 17.

John chapter 17, Matthew, Mark, Luke, John.

Here we find Jesus talking, and this is what it says.

I have manifested, what does it mean to manifest?

I have manifested thy name unto the men which you gave me out of the world.

Thine they were and thou gave them me and they have kept thy word." If we see Christ, Christ was a representation of who?

When you look at Jesus, was Jesus someone that needed respect and deserved respect?

Now when children came to Christ, when tax collectors and idolaters and all of these sinful people came to Christ, was Christ an intimidating figure?

He wasn't the Pharisees, because they knew that they were wrong, right?

But when Christ invited people into his presence, people felt loved, amen?

This isn't a respect of God out of fear, but it's respect because of what God has done in our lives.

Jesus came and he fulfilled what God is really like.

He fulfilled God's character in every single instance of his life.

And because Christ came and fulfilled every instance of God's character, another verse came to mind that I had never read like this until this past few weeks.

And we've read it before, and we've actually read it in the sermon series.

We spent some time on this a little while ago.

4. Temple Made of Time

So, with the exception of last week, over the past few weeks we've been talking about the 10 Commandments and we've looked at 1 through 3 already.

We've looked at there should be no other gods before God, that we should not bow down to graven images or idols, And we also looked at the third commandment 2 weeks ago, and that was talking about taking his name in vain, or profanity.

And what we saw was that taking his name in vain was more than just words, but it also dealt with our actions too, didn't it?

1 of the worst tragedies that ever can come about to the Christian church isn't what we say, but what we do as we claim to be a Christian.

Profanity in its Latin roots actually mean before, pro, and fanaty means the temple.

When we profane God's name, we're doing it as it were in front of His temple.

So the past few weeks, these commandments, I like to break them down into this.

The first commandment, we found the object of our worship that God wants us to worship.

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Ten Commandments

2. No Other Gods

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