Honoring God - Pastor Tom Loghry
The first four commandments call us to respond to God’s redeeming love in Christ with wholehearted devotion—worshiping Him alone, honoring His name in word and deed, and resting in His finished work as we dedicate every day to Him.
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Transcript:
Father, we pray that as we hear these commands that you gave to the people of Israel so long ago, commands and the abiding purchase that they have upon our own lives would hit us with its complete weight And Father, as we hear the, also hear your call of love, that even as you have loved us, you've called us to love you in directing our lives in complete devotion to you. We ask this in the name of Christ our Lord. Amen. You may be seated
Our world runs on contracts. From landscapers to quarterbacks, we move forward together under binding agreements. You agree to do some task, and I agree to offer payment and possibly some other provisions. And if one or the other fails to follow through, we go to court to get justice. If we didn't have contracts, it would be difficult to get anything done apart from working with relatives or close friends, and we, we could probably imagine even that would be difficult.
We create contracts to move forward together. But there are also contracts that are really more than contracts. There are contracts that we would call covenants. We generally do not find the exchange of money at the center of a covenant. Covenants entail a pledge of personal loyalty, faithfulness, and ultimately love.
This is not limited to romantic love, but it does include it. Marriage is, in fact, a covenant, though many do not treat it that way. The vows are familiar to us, that I, person's name, take you, the other person's name, to be my wedded husband or wife, to have and to hold from this day forward, for better, for worse, for richer, for poorer, in sickness and in health, to love and to cherish, till death do us part. This is my solemn vow.
The exchange of such vows, as is obvious, far transcends any mere financial arrangement. It's a persevering loyalty and love. And I'd say that this is probably the most helpful image to have in mind for the relationship between God and His people. In fact, we later hear God chastise the people of Israel for adultery when they chase after false gods.
In Exodus, we have seen how God has loved the Israelites, showing himself faithful before they even offered any faithfulness towards him in return. But here now at Sinai, God is establishing his covenant with his people. In Exodus 19:5, we have heard God promise, "Now if you obey me fully and keep my covenant, then of all nations you will be my treasured possession."
The people in response have indicated that they are ready to obey. Very naturally then this leads us to God's commands, and we begin with his foundational commands upon which all the others are built, The Ten Commandments, or as the Jews would've known them, The Ten Words. Now, as Dr. Michael Heiser has, has charted, and I don't know if the chart made it into here.
It didn't, but I'll share a chart with you later so that you can get a glimpse of what that looks like. As Dr. Michael Heiser has charted, there's actually some variations between the traditions in how we number, The Ten Commandments. This is something I didn't realize until I was into my seminary studies, that Roman Catholics and Lutherans number The Ten Commandments differently than other Protestants do, do.
And so just something to keep in mind that if you're in conversation with someone, you're, you're talking about a particular command that there might be some confusion there on the numbering, because of those different traditions. For ourselves, we're just gonna stick with our traditional Evangelical Reformed Protestant tradition and the numbering.
And so turning to Exodus 20, we begin with the first command found in verses one through three. Verse, verses one and two are really almost more like a preface than a command, and it says, "And God spoke all these words: 'I am the Lord your God who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery. You shall have no other gods before me.'"
It's, it's notable that as God gives his commands, he's reminding his people of who he is and what he has done for them, and that he's inviting them into an exclusive relationship with him where he has dedicated them as his chosen people, and he's calling them to be devoted to him. And this makes a whole lot of sense because you have to remember that they were living in a very polytheistic world at that time.
Now, we still have polytheism today, the belief that there are many gods. We also live in a very pluralistic world where there's many different religions, and while a religion might hold that there's one god, that doesn't mean that he's the same god as the God of scripture. But it's especially relevant to call the people to have one God when, you know, many people would say, "Well, I have several gods, and I'll, I'll kind of rotate through them based upon my, my needs."
God, in calling for this exclusivity, is really calling them to love him exclusively, to devote themselves to him exclusively, a single-hearted devotion. And as we go through these commandments, it's, it's helpful, I think, for us to consider kind of the positive side of the commands. So they're, they're given to us in a very negative sort of form, "You should have no other gods before me."
But there's a basic positive implication on the other side of that, which means we should honor God above all things. And when we get later on in the scriptures, Deuteronomy 6 verses 4 through 5, we find the greatest command which reflects this basic implication. The people are told, it says, "Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one. Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength." God is calling his people to have this sort of complete and unadulterated love for him. Now, how do we know if the people love God? How do we know if we love God? Well, the scripture says that we know that if we, that we love God if we obey His commands, if we keep His commands.
Jesus, in John 14:21, says, "Whoever has my commands and keeps them is the one who loves me. The one who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I too will love them and show myself to them." And later in the New Testament, in 2 John and 1 John, the apostle tells us this in 2 John 1:6, and it says, "This is love, that we walk in obedience to his commands. Have you, as you have heard from the beginning, his command is that you walk in love." In 1 John 5:3 and 21, "In fact, this is love for God, to keep his commands. And his commands are not burdensome." So we can say that even, that insofar as God's commands seem burdensome to us, that there's probably some growth that's needed within us, that we need to grow in our love for God.
Because when we truly love God with our whole heart, his, his commands no longer weigh upon us as a sort of burden because the things that we are called to do, we do gladly out of our love for Him. Just as you would imagine when, you know, you have a loved one and they have some need, when you serve them, is it a burden in some way?
Yeah, but it's not a burden some thing when you truly love that person. When you don't love the person, when you despise the person, and you need to do something for them, then it becomes a great burden. Now, in the case of God, the, we're, we're called to obey God, not because we're doing anything for Him, but in fact, by obeying Him, we are benefiting our own selves because every command that God gives is for our good, and there's no greater good that God can give us than simply Himself, and this is why He's calling us to this exclusive devotion.
Now, as we think about our own situation here today, again, we don't live in necessarily a polytheistic society. If you, if we were living in India, we could say, "Yeah, we actually do live in that sort of society." But we certainly live in an, an idolatrous society. We live in a society in which we make gods of all sorts of material items and desires.
And we live in a society that suggests that we can live in a country together in which there really is no sense of there being one true God, this idea of a perfect sort of neutrality. And I would say that I think in terms of our political arrangements, we may be doing the best that we can, but I think we have to understand that at one time or another, based upon who we elect and the priorities our, of our society, we, we are forming certain gods that we are serving, and very often those gods are not the one true God.
And this is why we need to take care with our civic engagement. It's an, it's an important thing, even as much as we can admit that probably in the end we can't hope for a civic, our civil society to be devoted to the one true God. And that's okay, because we know that no one country is the people of God, but rather it is the church, the body of Christ, who are His people, and we're looking for the kingdom which Christ is going to bring at His return.
But it's a reality to grapple with all the same. To what god are we personally devoted to? To what god is our society devoted to? We should not be, bury our heads in the sands on in thinking about these things. Continuing on to verses four through six, we come to the second command which gives further definition to the first.
People are told, "You shall not make for yourself an image in the form of anything in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the waters below. You shall not bow down to them or worship them, for I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God, punishing the children for the sin of the parents to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me, but showing love to a thousand generations of those who love me and keep my commandments."
Now, again, this command is especially relevant in the society in which the Israelites are living because they're living in a polytheistic society in which people are forming all sorts of idols, literal figurines, large, you know, in temples, small, such that they could have them in their own home, and they are worshiping these things which are no god at all.
They're just things that they've made up in their own minds as to what they think God is like. But we should notice here, too, that this command doesn't just apply to these false gods, but also applies to the one true God, that we should not make an image of Him. In 20:15, people are reminded that, "You saw no form of any kind the day the Lord spoke to you at Horeb out of the fire."
Now, we can understand why the people would be commanded not to create any image of God because in doing so they're going to corrupt their understanding of who God is by their own corrupted imaginations. It's a dangerous route to take, and so this is why God says, they could say like, "Oh, we're worshiping the one true God," but by creating an idol, they're actually creating something that isn't God.
And so they're twisting their own understanding of, of who he is. Now, the first and second commands really overlap with each other. So there's some resonance that we see here between the two. And what God is telling his people here is that the worship that they offer belongs exclusively to him. Like, it's not just something that's optional, but that we give.
It's something that God himself exclusively deserves. And so for this reason, God says, "I'm a jealous God," and there's consequences for failing to give God worship and praise that he's due. It's a matter of justice, actually, and I think I've talked about this in the past, where worship is a matter of justice.
God deserves our worship. He deserves our praise, and when we don't give that to him, we, and especially when we worship other things instead, we are cr- we are committing a great injustice. I mean, just imagine it this way. I mean, imagine if someone labored over a painting for many hours, say, days even, and then let's say I snuck into their house and took their painting.
I, and I showed up one Sunday morning, "Look at this great painting that I've done. You didn't know it, right? You didn't know I was a great artist." How great it was. And then let's say it turned out to be one of you that I had stolen, stolen the painting from. How enraged would you be that I was claiming work that I had not put a bit of work into, but what, but you had poured your whole self into? Now think about God, how He's created all things, the entire universe. He's created you and me, and He's loved us so much that He sent His Son so that we might live. And yet rather than worshiping Him, we worship and give credit to things that don't deserve any credit or worship at all for these things.
It's a great injustice. And so for this reason he said, God says in Isaiah 42:8, "I am the Lord. That is my name. I will not yield my glory to another or my praise to idols." This is why God's so insistent on this. It's not, I think sometimes when we read this, we wouldn't dare say it, but sometimes we think, "Well, why, it seems like God's awfully obsessed with himself or something."
It's like, no, he, he, in the case of God, right on, because this is all that he deserves. In the case of us, when we make such much of ourselves, the reason why it's wrong is 'cause we don't, we don't deserve it. We're making more of ourselves than we ought to. But in the case of God here, he's not making more of himself than he should. Based upon who He is, He deserves all glory. He deserves all praise.
And yet we don't give that praise to Him. And this is an abiding tendency, not just in the time of Israel. We see in the New Testament, if you open to the book of Romans in the first chapter, Paul talks about how this has been kind of the general condition of, of humanity. We can jump down to verse 21. It says, "For although they, they knew God, they neither glorified Him as God nor gave thanks to Him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened.
Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images made to look like a mortal human being and birds and animals and reptiles." There's a deep sickness within our hearts in which rather than seeking the one true God and seeking to worship Him, we prefer fake alternatives.
Now, when we read this command, we might think about, oh, how is this relevant to us? Well, it's, it's relevant to us in a couple of ways. First, I would say I think we need to look at the current situation in our world today and take some concern for the self-obsession that we see among us, especially in some leading figures.
As I listen to kind of the ongoing discourse, there are many who are talking about this idea of humanity transcending what our current, our current form today to some higher form, achieving some higher destiny. I would almost describe it as almost like some sort of like techno paganism, and that could range anything from, you know, I shared an article with, with you that are on the text line about the concern of people turning to AI as gods, and I, I use AI. AI is fine, but turning to AI as, as gods, that could be part of the techno paganism. But it could also be just this self-obsession and making much of ourselves and make, trying to form ourselves as these gods and really kind of engaging in self-worship and, and self-praise.
To counter this, we must remember that the perfect image has already appeared Jesus Christ. Hebrews 1:3 says, "The Son is the radiance of God's glory and the exact representation of his being, sustaining all things by his powerful word. After he had provided purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty in heaven."
So God has visibly revealed himself to us. He's revealed himself to us through the person of the Son, Jesus Christ. And in fact, we can say that Jesus has restored really what we were supposed to be. Remember, we were created to be God's image bearers. So if there was to be any representation in the created universe of who God is, it was supposed to be you and I, but we rebelled and said, "We're not interested in reflecting you, God. We wanna be our own gods." So Jesus appears as the true image of God. Now, the wonderful news is, is, is that when he appears, we shall be made like him. That's what the Apostle John reminds us of in 1 John 3:2. We have to remember that at bottom, what we are reckoning with here in this world is a worship war.
Now, if you've been someone that's been in the church for a long time, you'll know if you went back 30 years, if you heard the word worship wars, you might have thought someone was talking about battles over using contemporary songs versus hymns and such. That, that's not what I'm talking about. I'm talking about a war that's ongoing for the hearts of mankind in terms of who we worship and who we praise.
We can see Jesus engaging in this, in this battle in his 40 days of fasting in the wilderness. In Matthew 4:9-10 Satan appears to him and promises to give him all the kingdoms of the, of, of the world. And he says, "All this I will give you," he said, "if you will bow down and worship me." And Jesus said to him, "Away from me, Satan! For it is written, 'Worship the Lord your God, and serve him only.'"
So we see Jesus engaging in this battle, and we see that, in fact, in the end, this is, this is where the lines are drawn. Um, in Revelation 14:9 through 10, so in the Book of Revelation where it's foretold of how there's going to be an antichrist who appears, a beast who is going to lead men astray to worship him rather than God. And in Revelation 14:9-10 says, "A third angel followed them saying in a loud voice, 'If anyone worships the beast and its image and receive its mark on their forehead or on their hand, they too will drink the wine of God's fury, which has been poured full strength into the cup of his wrath. They will be tormented with burning sulfur in the presence of the holy angels and of the Lamb.'"
So I just want you to consider and just step back and think that the true battle that's ongoing in this world is a war of worship. It's a war of worship. It affects us globally. It's a war ongoing for who you will worship. Will you worship God or will you worship anything else other than God? And Satan's content with that.
It's not that you have to be a Satanist. He's, he's just content if he robs God of the glory and worship that he is due. So that's one of the practical ramifications for us today of the second command. And then there's also just this abiding concern within the church as far as how we use imagery.
Now, Jesus was a human being. He is a human being. The Son of God took on flesh. And so it's appropriate, it's okay for us to depict him as a real human being. I think that can be valuable at times, but we have to always be cognizant of the fact that no artistic depiction of Jesus is a true representation of what he actually looked like. So we should exercise care in that.
But what we must be careful not to do is to worship any image of Christ. And we've got a beautiful stained glass window here at the church. I love it. I try to manage that carefully 'cause I don't wanna put anyone in a position where they begin venerating an image. We know that's a part of kind of the culture background of our state.
Any of you that grew up in the Catholic Church, you have statues, you have images. And while there's some that perhaps understand that these things are not to be worshiped and venerated, there's some who treat them like idols, as though they are things that have some sort of divine power within themself.
And we just don't find that in the scripture. We don't find it in the New Testament, and we see this being prohibited in the Old Testament, that we should not bow down and worship these things. And so, and so there's some in the Protestant tradition that would say, "No images at all. No stained glass windows. None of, none of that at all." I think the, the nuanced position to hear is that we can have art, but you don't bow down and worship it, because it's just art. It's not God.
Now, we see here that there's consequences for failing to obey God, particularly here when it comes to idolatry. When a person goes after false gods, it affects those succeeding generations after, after them. And not as a, as a curse. We shouldn't think in that sort of way where, you know, your children are bound and determined to be, to be cursed.
But we understand that when parents make bad choices, there's consequences. Just look at Adam and Eve. We've borne the consequences of, of their choices. But I want you, want you to notice here the disparity where God says, he says that for those that disobey, that the sin of the parents, that the, the children will be punished for the sin of the parents to the third and fourth generation.
But then look, look at the following verse. "But showing love to a thousand generations of those who love me and keep my commandments."
God's not interested in punishing us. He's not desiring to punish us. He's desiring to bless us, and so he's encouraging, encouraging them, "Love me. Devote yourself to me, and I will bless you."
Now, another way of putting, of stating this commandment could be that we should love and respect God for who he is. He is the one and only God, and we dare not confuse his divine nature with something that's merely earthly, something made by human hands. Moving on to the third commandment, we see how this respect extends to the name of the Lord.
Verse 7, You shall not misuse the name of the Lord your God, for the Lord will not hold anyone guiltless who misuses his name. So this command has some obvious meaning to it. So we should not be taking the Lord's name by just idly stating His name, saying like, "Oh my God," or "Jesus Christ," or doing other combinations of the, of the Lord's name with curses.
Should not be happening. When you do that, you are using the Lord's name in an irreverent way, not taking seriously who He is. Now, this applies absolutely to the Christian. We understand that non-Christians are not going to obey this command. Now, that's wrong. They're going to the answer for that. At the same time, as Christians, while we can ask people to respect us, you know, that's fine if you, if that, but we can't expect people are gonna live the Christian life if they're not Christians. So the first concern, concern here is really for ourselves as followers of Christ, making sure that we're not misusing the name of the Lord, that we're honoring it. But there's also a deeper meaning here that's sometimes lost on us.
It's, I know growing up for me, I, my impression was always, like, it was just about not using the Lord's name in that kind of way. But it's more than that, in fact. What's being commanded here is that God's people would have a certain integrity in the way that they're using the name of the Lord, which extends really to how they're living their, their lives.
We go to the Book of Leviticus, Leviticus 18:21, and we see the word profane here, and it has the same implication as what's being, as, as what we find here in this command. It says, "Do not give any of your children to be sacrificed to Molech, for you must not profane the name of your God. I am the Lord." Well, that's a pretty serious thing.
I mean, you might not be familiar with this, but at that time, those who worshiped Molech would literally take their children and feed them to the fire in worshiping this false god. That's one way that you can profane, misuse the name of the Lord as far as, you know, the people of Israel are concerned because they're, they are bearing the name of the Lord.
They are the people that are called by God. In Leviticus 19:12, "Do not swear falsely by my name and so profane the name of your God. I am the Lord." So making promises saying, "I swear, I swear by God that I won't do this or that," and then doing the opposite. That's another way in which you're misusing the name of the Lord.
You're misusing it to get people to trust you, and then you're abusing that trust. And what you're revealing is, is that you don't actually fear God at all because you just broke your word .And then I think there's another way in which we can misuse the name of the Lord, and I have, I have a great concern for this in our time, is people will condone sin and say that something is all right using the name of the Lord.
Saying, "Well, the Bible doesn't really say this or that on, on this issue," or they twist the scriptures to try to comfort people in ways that they ought not be comforted. And it brings to mind the false prophets of, of Israel and the condemnation that they received. Jeremiah 6, verses 13 through 15 says, "From the least to the greatest, all are greedy for gain; prophets and priests alike all practice deceit. They dress the wound of my people as though it were not serious. 'Peace, peace,' they say, when there is no peace. Are they ashamed of their detestable conduct? No, they have no shame at all; they do not even know how to blush. So they will fall among the fallen; they will be brought down when I punish them,' says the Lord." And that's another way in which we can use the Lord's name In vain. It's another way in which we can misuse the name of the Lord. Now, there's people that are non-Christians, who I don't believe will have a place in the kingdom of God, for whom this would apply.
But concerning ourselves as Christians, who are genuine followers of Christ, we must watch ourselves and make sure that we're not misusing the name of the Lord in that kind of way. I guess even as far as ourselves are concerned, comforting ourselves when we shouldn't be comforted, when we should be convicted instead, and in relation to others, when we should be challenging others rather than just saying, "Oh, yeah, that's okay. Peace, peace." We should not say peace, peace when there is no peace.
Going to the fourth commandment, God commands His people to set apart the seventh day as a Sabbath to the Lord. "Remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy. Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord your God. On it you shall not do any work, neither you, nor your son or daughter, nor your male or female servant, nor your animals, nor any foreigner residing in your towns. For in six days, the Lord made the heavens and the Earth, the sea, and all that is in them, but He rested on the seventh day. Therefore, the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy." Now, this isn't the first time that we're learning about the Sabbath. It appears in Exodus 16 when the people are told they are to refrain from gathering manna on the Sabbath day.
But we didn't really have any explanation as to the significance of the Sabbath day. Now, here in Exodus 20, the significance is tied back to creation. We see in Deuteronomy five the Ten Commandments being re-articulated, and there the significance is attached to the deliverance of the people from Egypt. Now, that's not troublesome. It just means that this command is grounded in two things, both God's work of creation, that God created the world in six days, and on the seventh day, He rested from His work 'cause it was all complete. And then also when the people are delivered from Egypt, it's kind of an act of creation.
God is bringing His people out of Egypt so that they can be His own. Now, the purpose of the Sabbath is to provide a time for rest, and you notice here that it's not just rest for people, it's rest even for the, for the animals. So literal bodily rest for, for Jew, for non-Jew alike, so that the people might be refreshed. See that stated in Exodus 23:12. But there's also more here, too. It's a time to remember. It's a time to set apart unto the Lord so that we might remember that we are called to be a holy people, that Israel has been called to be a holy people. Exodus 31:13 says, "Say to the Israelites, 'You must observe my Sabbaths. This will be a sign between me and you for the generations to come, so you may know that I am the Lord who makes you holy.'" So we see that, I mean, the Sabbath is, It's a foundational part of the life of Israel. It's like their whole year, their whole week, their whole life is revolving around this cycle of you go through your work week, then you have the Sabbath, and then you begin again, and you're always setting apart this time to the Lord.
Now, while this is foundational for the life of Israel at this time, as we go forward in the Old Testament, we have some indication that what God is ultimately looking for is not just some superficial sort of observation. And we have an indication once we get into the New Testament that, in fact, the Sabbaths were pointing forward to something greater, which was to be fulfilled in Christ.
So first looking in Isaiah 1:13-17, we see the Sabbath included among those things that God counts as worthless on their own. He says, "Stop bringing meaningless offerings. Your incense is detestable to me. New moons, Sabbaths, and convocations-- I cannot bear your worthless assemblies. Your new moon feasts and your appointed festivals I hate with all my being. They've become a burden to me; I am weary of bearing them. When you spread out your hands in prayer, I hide my eyes from you. Even when you offer many prayers, I am not listening. Your hands are full of blood. Wash and make yourselves clean. Take your evil deeds out of my sight; stop doing wrong. Learn to do right; seek justice. Defend the oppressed. Take up the cause of the fatherless. Plead the case of the widow." So what the Lord is saying there is, is that He's looking for actual righteousness, not just going through religious observations. And it's interesting 'cause when we get to the Book of Colossians, when Paul's writing to the church in Colossae, his statement in Colossians 2, verses 16 through 17 seems to recall this, this passage. But he says that true fulfillment has arrived in Christ.
He says, "Therefore, do not let anyone judge you by what you eat or drink, or with regard to, to a religious festival, a new moon celebration, or a Sabbath day. These are a shadow of the things that were to come. The reality, however, is found in Christ." So what Paul is suggesting here is that the Sabbath was a mere shadow of what was to come, and in that case then we are no longer bound to keep the Sabbath day.
Now, you have to remember the Sabbath day is Saturday. That's the seventh day. It's not Sunday. Sunday is the first day of the week. Now, there's some that would dispute whether, that this command is no longer in force today. You can look at the Seventh-Day Adventists. They believe that you're supposed to worship on the seventh day, on the, on the Sabbath.
But the early history of the church indicates that, that in fact the Christians had recognized that the Sabbath was a mere shadow that was fulfilled in Christ. In the Didache, which is an early writing dated, as early as within the first century, so the same century in which Christ was, Christ lived and died and rose again and ascended to heaven. In the Didache, in chapter 14, it says, "But every Lord's day gather yourselves together, and break bread, and give thanksgiving after you've confessed your transgressions, that your sacrifice may be pure." Now, there's no statement there about the Sabbath, but it's interesting that the Sabbath is absent.
There's no mention that you should gather together or cease from activity on the Sabbath. Only day that's spoken of is the Lord's day, which is Sunday, the day that the church has traditionally worshiped for thousands of years. And then when we move forward into the second century, the beginning of the third century, we can read from the early church father Tertullian and his answer to the Jews.
He says, "It follows accordingly, that, insofar as the abolition of carnal circumcision," so saying that we don't, we're not required to circumcise boys any longer, "and of the old law is demonstrated as having been consummated as it, at its specific times, so also the observance of the Sabbath is demonstrated to have been temporary."
And we look at Justin Martyr, writing around 155 AD. Says, "The new law," and he's kind of debating with a Jewish interlocutor here. Says, "The new law requires you to keep perpetual Sabbath, and you," speaking to the Jewish man here, "because you are idle for one day, suppose you are pious, not discerning why this has been commanded you: and if you eat unleavened bread, you say the will of God has been fulfilled. The Lord our God does not take pleasure in such observances. If there's any perjured person or a thief among you, let him cease to be so; if any adulterer, let him repent; then he has kept the sweet and true Sabbaths of God. If anyone has impure hands, let him wash and be pure."
So what Justin is saying there is that the true Sabbath that God has desired has, has been a Sabbath in which the entirety of our lives is dedicated to the Lord, devoted to the Lord, such that we live every day as, as holy unto God.
And we see this principle, this idea appear also in the Epistle to the Hebrews. Hebrews 4:3 and verses 8 through 10. "Now we who have believed," so believed in Christ, "enter that rest, just as God has said, 'So I declared on my oath, my anger, they shall never enter my rest.' And yet his works have been finished since the creation of the world. For if Joshua had given them rest, God would not have spoken later about another day. There remains then a Sabbath rest for the people of God. For anyone who enters God's rest also rests from their works, just as God did from his." Ultimately, what we're called to today on the other side of the cross is lives of total devotion.
I referenced this scripture not long ago in Romans 12 where Paul says, "Offer, offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy, pleasing to God." And the basic implication is offer everything, the entirety of your life to Him. And in saying that we're no longer required to, to keep the Sabbath day, this does not mean that at all that we should take any less urgency and desire in gathering together as fellow believers.
In Hebrews 10, verses 23 through 25, we are told, "Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for he who promised is faithful. And let us consider how we may, may spur one another on toward love and good deeds, not giving up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day approaching."
Because as we gather together, we are encouraging one another to live those lives of holiness that God has called us to live, not just on the Sabbath day. And, and of course, He was always calling His people to live righteously every day. But now, in Christ, every day should be like a Sabbath for us. Now, altogether, we can say here that God is giving commands to Israel that disclose the reality that our relationship with God is the main concern of human life.
Everything refers back to Him, and He is our launching point. These commands call Israel to shape their time, their speech, and their hearts in complete devotion to the Lord, that they would remember that He is their God and they are His people.
So the question I wanna pose to you is, does God stand at the center of your life? Does God stand at the center of your life? Or have you pushed Him to the margins? I think we can turn these four commands into diagnostic questions. I'm not gonna dive into answering all of them, but I wanna pose them to you so you can begin thinking and meditating on them.
So each question correlates with a command. Do you put anything in your life before God? Do you put God first, honoring Him above all other commitments?
I add a note there of actually competing commitments because let's say if I'm supposed to do a Bible study and my wife's in the hospital, I'm not more dedicated to the Lord by going to the study instead of attending to my wife. God has called me to attend to my wife. We need to, we, we have to not think about this in superficial ways.
We have to understand, what is God actually calling us to do? Are we living in complete devotion to Him, or are we putting other things first, above Him? For the second command, do you literally, doubtful but possible, do you literally or effectively make for yourself false gods that you worship? And I think the second question is even more pertinent.
Do you seek God for who He truly is or shape Him in a way that suits you? Because that's what idol making is really about, is shaping God in a way that suits us. For the third command, do you misuse God's name in your daily speech, in your conduct, in your relationship with others? Do you seek to honor God's name and bring glory to Him by the way that you live your life?
Are you trying to represent him well, or are you trying to just use God for your own purposes? There's lots of people around us that are trying to use God for their own purposes. We must not be one of those people. And the, the last one, the fourth command: Do you treat every day as holy, as dedicated to the Lord?
Are you able to rest, literally and holistically, in Christ's finished work, in the care of the Father? Or does your work and responsibilities crowd out refreshment and worship? Because we can say that, in principle, it's good that we take rests, and when we refuse to rest from our labors, it probably suggests that we're not giving God the worship that he, that he's due if we never have time to gather with the people of God.
It also suggests that we're trusting more in ourselves than in God's care for us. So I encourage you to think about those questions. Meditate them, meditate on them. And please recognize that these commands are not arbitrary demands that God has placed upon Israel or upon us. They are pointing us back to exactly where we are supposed to be in relationship with God.
'Cause all of us have fallen short on these things. I have fallen short in these things. All of us have fallen short just even in the past week The good news is that Christ has come to restore us to this place of living in harmony with, with God. We are forgiven and given a new life in Christ. We have a new covenant in Him.
Our new covenant in Christ does not abandon these commands. It fulfills them. We are not saved by our obedience, but our salvation in Christ does produce obedience in us by the Holy Spirit. In Christ, we come to know that God's commands are not a burden. They're, in fact, a gift of wisdom, showing us how we can live the good life, showing us how we can find true happiness and joy. We cannot find it in false gods, living in false ways, or filling our lives with restless activity.
We have been invited into a life of worship, a life in which we worship the one true God rather than empty idols. We have been invited to love God, to know Him because He has loved us. He is the Lord our God who redeemed Israel from Egypt, and He is the one who has redeemed us from sin, death, and the devil in Christ Jesus. So as we have faith in Jesus Christ, let these commands be fulfilled in our lives.
Let's pray.
Father, These commands are pretty straightforward.
And yet as we gaze into them further, as we meditate upon them, and then as we examine our own lives, Father, we confess that we can see how we too often disobey you, even in these simple, basic things. Father, we confess that we've put other things before you when we shouldn't have. We confess that we've misused your name at times. We confess, Father, that we have not rested in Christ at times and dedicated our whole lives as living sacrifices unto you. Father, we pray that you would make us obedient to you. Not from our own strength, but from the new life that we have in Christ. And that the, the root of this transformation, Father, would be our love for you.
That you would truly change our hearts so that we would love you, and your commands would not be a burden to us. We ask this, Father, because we want to worship you. And we recognize here today that our worship does not merely consist in song, but in lives given completely to you.
Be glorified in us, Father, we pray, in the name of Christ our Lord, amen.
Hey there, Pastor Tom here. I hope you enjoyed this sermon I offered to Rockland Community Church. Rockland Community Church is located at 212 Rockland Road in North Scituate, Rhode Island, just around the bend from the Scituate Public High School. We invite you to join us in person or virtually this Sunday as we worship God together. It's our joy to welcome you into our community
Intro/Outro Song
Title: River Meditation
Artist: Jason Shaw
Source:http://freemusicarchive.org/music/Jason_Shaw/Audionautix_Acoustic/RIVER_MEDITATION___________2-58
License:(CC BY 3.0 US)