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Exodus 20:7
April 20, 2008
Exordium: In the beginning, before there was a world, a star, a man or a woman, there was God. Eternally there, eternally the same; full of love among the three persons of the Trinity who lived in perfect fellowship within the nature of the One true and Living God.
He was in a nameless kind of majesty. There was no need of a name. He lived in perfect self-sufficiency, in perfect self-existence, in matchless glory!
But He took a name when He had created the world and a people upon it to whom He had given the gift of language, a name they could understand and use.
A name is a connection with others, it is given as a gift, an invitation to be known and perhaps loved.
Explication: All this was in the heart of God when He answered Moses’ question, When I come to the children of Israel and say to them, “the Lord God of your fathers has sent me to you”, and they say to me. “What is His name?”, “what shall I say to them?”
His answer was: “I AM WHO I AM.” “Say to them, I AM has sent me to you.”
That is the One who is there, who is eternally the source of all being and all life, the One who makes possible all other beings.
What an act of love that God should take a name that we could grasp and love and use to know Him! And He put a “fence” around the good gift of His name, the way the power company puts a fence around its transformers with a sign written in red, “Danger- High Voltage.” That is, “be careful in this vicinity”.
There is something very important here. God is not saying don’t use my name, don’t touch it, though some have interpreted it that way. But I think it means it must be used in exactly the right way. Used wrongly, there are serious consequences that might include death.
I. WHAT’S IN THIS NAME? Read the rest of this entry »
Exodus 20:4-6
April 13, 2008
Exordium: All of us bring problems into the service of worship. Different kinds of problems, financial, family, job, singleness, marriage, illness, employment. We come hoping to find help in the presence of God and His people.
And that is good, because in the midst of worshipping God He often comes to us and shows the decision we need to make or the comfort we need to receive, or the courage we need to go on.
How often as some one gone out from the worship room and said, “thank you I got the answer I was looking for”. When asked what helped them, they would not really be sure, but somehow in worshipping God there was help and blessing.
Explication: This morning our theme is the Second Commandment, “Don’t make for yourself an image of me or of anything and use it in worshipping Me.” That seems irrelevant to the problems we bring to church with us. Or is it?
Take the experience of King Hezekiah recounted in 2 Chronicles 29 and 30. He was the son of Ahaz who tried everything he could think of to solve his problems as king and nothing helped.
But that became an object lesson to the new King. Hezekiah, 25 years old when he assumed the throne of Judah, has been called the greatest king since David and Solomon. We read that he walked in the ways of David. He is the “golden boy of Chronicles”, someone to learn from.
Hezekiah was more than a king; he was shepherd to his people, a pastor to his kingdom. When he came to reign it was one of the most critical periods in Judah’s history. Assyria the mighty juggernaut of the East was about to swoop down upon tiny Judah and other small kingdoms round about and swallow them up. Since Assyria was the most brutal and ferocious nation of its day, there was terror in the hearts of the people of Hezekiah’s kingdom.
His father Ahaz had not looked to God is such times. But Hezekiah did. He returned to the golden days of Judah – when the king and the people looked to God for help and worshipping Him aright came first.
As a pastor to his people, how wise he was! So often in the Church if we have a financial problem we try to raise money. Or if we have a unity problem we preach about unity, or if we have a numbers problem we try to get the numbers up. Or as Reformed people we might form a committee. But not Hezekiah, he turned all those solutions to his problems down and set out to restore worship to its rightful place and practice.
What a model for the church today! Get worship right. And there is no better place to study than in the Second Commandment. This command is not about worshipping the wrong God but about worshipping the right God in the right way. What is this command of God saying to us this morning?
RIGHT WORSHIP IS ESSENTIAL TO GOD AND TO HIS CHURCH Read the rest of this entry »
Exodus 20:3
April 6, 2008
Exordium: We have embarked on a journey together. Beginning at the foot of Mr. Sinai, we climbed to the top last week and heard the thunder and the earthquake, and saw the smoke and the lightning, and heard the words of God preparing Moses and the people to receive the Commandments of God.
We saw then that the law was an essential part of God’s covenant with Israel. As a gift of love to them, it was intended to bind them to Him and Him to them. It required cheerful acceptance and glad obedience from the Israelites and God promised to make them His peculiar treasure.
All this took place during the preparation phase – lasting three days – the people washed their bodies and their clothing and focused their thoughts on the mountain and the God of the mountain, and eagerly anticipated Moses’ descent to them.
What would God say to them through the prophet Moses?
Explication: Not everyone is eager to hear what God says. They don’t want Him to rule over them. They are given to lawlessness; that is, to do what is right in their own eyes. But, that is not God’s way. He is the sovereign ruler of all things that He has made. Just as kings have laws for their reign that bring about their welfare, so God has laws for His world as well.
We have learned these commandments from childhood. But are they written on our hearts? Do they shape daily life for us? Are we committed to them and to the God who gave them? The Lord Jesus in His earthly life formed His days by these commands and He would have us do the same.
As we continue looking at these commandments, may we think of them as “ten friends” to walk with us – to school, at home, in the workplace, wherever we are?
Let’s begin with Number One – which is the foundation on which everything here rests: “You shall have no other gods before Me.” (Exodus 20:3)
WHAT THIS COMMANDMENT SAYS TO US IS THAT GOD WANTS TO ESTABLISH HIS RULE IN YOUR HEART, TO THE EXCLUSION OF RIVALS TO HIS RULE.
Read the rest of this entry »
