The First Commandment

The sermon ends with the perfect introduction to what I want to talk about today. Sometimes it just works out to me. God does something where, okay, He wants something covered, and He actually does an introduction, a preamble to it. The American writer Mark Twain, of course he's best known for Tom Sawyer and Fuckleberry Finn, but he was also very famous in his lifetime for things he would say publicly in reaction to what other people would say. He was very funny, and he was very sarcastic. The stories surrounding this, no one knows if all of them are true, because there are lots and lots of stories about Mark Twain saying things publicly. But one of my favorites is a businessman who was known to be very ruthless and very dishonest, made this loud proclamation in front of a group of people that he was going to go to the Holy Land, hike to the top of Mount Sinai, and read the Ten Commandments aloud. And Mark Twain responded, I have a better idea. You can stay right here in Boston and keep them. Which sounds like what Mark Twain would say.

The Ten Commandments are considered to be foundational to Western civilization. And yet there's always been a controversy around the Ten Commandments. Always been a controversy around the Ten Commandments. In secular society, many people think that they shouldn't be displayed because of the rights of people who are non-religious or non-Christian. And of course, many Christians want them publicly displayed. But even though they want them publicly displayed, the reality is that for centuries and centuries, many Christians have not kept the Ten Commandments. In fact, most Christian denominations do not keep the second or the fourth of the Ten Commandments. Now, when I'm posted, they actually don't keep those two.

One of the things that came out of the congregational meeting we did four months ago was ideas for sermons, both from here in Nashville. And one of the things that came up was a desire for a series of sermons on the Ten Commandments, not only dealing with the letter, but how they actually apply. Are they relevant? Well, of course they're relevant. But how do we apply them? As was mentioned in the Sermonette, Jesus obviously takes two of the Commandments, two of the Ten, and says, Look, we can begin to apply this in a whole new way in understanding the real meaning of it. Well, actually, all ten of them have applications way beyond the letter of the law. So it's not only about keeping the letter of the Ten Commandments, but under the New Covenant, we are supposed to keep the spirit of the Ten Commandments. What does that mean? Well, today we're going to start a series on the Ten Commandments. And we'll start with, of course, the First Commandment. Before I do that, I want to just briefly go through something, a story that we all know, but it's important in setting this stage, what we're going to talk about. Why are the Ten Commandments unique? Why are they unique? Why are they important? I mean, they're not the only commandments of God. They're not all of the things that God has given to us. The New Testament is full of commandments also. So why are these unique? Why is there such an emphasis, and why should we see these as part of what God wants us to do and irrelevant to the Christian today? We'll look at five reasons why. Now, we'll go into the First Commandment. Why they're relevant. Why they're unique. One, the Ten Commandments were given directly by God.

You look at the way God deals with people throughout history. Through prophets, He's appeared to individuals, but there's only one time that He appeared to hundreds of thousands, millions of people at one time. Only once has He ever done that. Let's go to Exodus 19. Once again, reviewing a story we know. But I think for children, too, it is important that they hear these factual historical stories over and over and over again. So that they realize it becomes part of their culture, part of the way they think. Ancient Israel has been brought out of Egypt. They've gone out into the desert. God opened the Red Sea. He destroyed the superpower of the day. Destroyed it. Opened the Red Sea. They came through. Destroyed the Egyptian army behind them. So we get verse 17. And Moses brought the people out of the camp to meet with God, and they stood at the foot of the mountain. Now this is Mount Sinai. God has brought them there. They're camped around it. And what's happening on top of that mountain is incredible. Now Mount Sinai, verse 18, was completely in smoke because the Lord descended upon it in fire. Its smoke ascended like the smoke of a furnace, and the whole mountain equates greatly.

The History Channel, as you know, I'm a real big fan of the History Channel. They had a whole program on how this was an alien that did this because, you know, the fire and the smoke was a spaceship. And they had all these quote-unquote experts come along and tell how it was a spaceship. And they, wait a minute. What does it take greater faith to believe in? A creator God who shows up and does this? Or some little Greek guy in a spaceship? And they say, well, people believe in the Bible are weird. Anyways. If you can visualize what's happening here, billions of people who have been slaves just months before.

And they have things they never had before. They have gold jewelry. They have, I mean, they're living in a way they've never quite lived before, but they're also living on the edge of fear all the time. They're in a desert. If food runs out, if they can't find water, they're totally at the mercy of this God. And following this pillar of smoke by day or this cloud, and then following this fire at night when it stops.

And here on the top of this mountain is covered in smoke and fire. And just think about that. It's glowing at the top. Smoke is rolling off the top of this belt because God was there. And the mountain shakes. They're standing on ground like it's an earthquake. It's shaking.

Verse 19, And when the blast of the trumpet sounded long and became louder and louder, Moses spoke, and God answered him by voice. A trumpet blew and got louder and louder and louder. Millions of people are hearing a trumpet.

A blast coming from a shaking mountain that's on fire. And God says, Moses. Now at that point, everybody looks at Moses. Okay? Everybody realizes this guy really is important here. Look at what God is doing. Now the Lord came down upon Mount Sinai on the top of the mountain, and the Lord called Moses to the top of the mountain. Moses went up. And the Lord said to Moses, Go down and warn the people that they don't come up. They built a wall around it. He built a wall and said, Don't come past this wall. Don't come onto this mountain. I am here. You will die if you come up here. So he had to go down and say, Don't do this.

So this is unique.

This event in Jewish history, this is why it is so important to them, is not necessarily that the Ten Commandments, I mean they think the Ten Commandments are important, but they really focus in on this. God came and talked to them. God came and personally talked to them. And He has never done that before or since, with millions of people. So we see that it is unique, and that God directly talked to these people. Second, the thing that is unique about the Ten Commandments, is it was the basis of the covenant God made with these people. He made an agreement with them. He said, Now here is what you have to do as part of this covenant. Now other things were added to it. What is amazing, though, is if you look at Exodus, the original instructions given to Israel were actually only a few chapters long. Most of the covenant in the book of Exodus are instructions on how to build a tabernacle.

There are some instructions, but it is not anything what eventually comes out in Leviticus and Deuteronomy. In fact, one of the prophets, God tells one of the prophets, to tell the people, Remember, I didn't tell them to have all this complicated worship when they first came out of Egypt. I had to add it because they wouldn't listen to me. So the covenant kept getting bigger and bigger. But the beginning of the covenant was this. It was the Ten Commandments. Look what it says in Exodus 24. Skipping through the story a little bit, but this is real important to realize that these are relevant. But we have to figure out how they're relevant to us under the new covenant. Because you and I aren't under the covenant He made with those people. But these are still part of the new covenant. But their application is expanded. Exodus 24, verse 12.

It's like this furnace, this burning furnace. It was like all the rocks were on fire. Through the smoke, they could just see fire. The smoke billows out of it. So Moses went up, verse 18, to the midst of the cloud, went into the mountain. Moses was in the mountain 40 days and 49. Now, of course, while he's up there, the Israelites figured he's not coming back.

And the problem is, they're afraid of God. So they needed intercessor. The whole golden calf experience for them is very interesting. If you go back and study Egyptian history and their deities and so forth, they needed an intercessor. They needed someone or something to intercede between them and that God on their mountain. They'd asked Moses to do it. You know, if you read before this point, God gave them the Ten Commandments by voice.

And then He said, Moses, please don't let Him talk to us anymore. You! Let Him talk to you and you tell us. He's going to kill us. They needed an intercessor. They needed someone between them and that great being on the top of that mountain. So they built a golden calf.

Moses comes down. He's going to put two tablets of stone with the Ten Commandments on them. Exodus 32. So going through the story here, the layered groundwork. Exodus 32, verse 1. By the way, verse 18 is very interesting here in chapter 31. Let's just think up there. And when He made an end of speaking with Him on Mount Sinai, He gave Moses two tablets of the testimony.

Tablets of stone written with the finger of God. God now noting He's going to voice these Ten Commandments. He wrote them down. Understand. He wrote them. Now, the second time Moses made tablets, Moses had to write them. But the first time, God Himself. Now, this is unique in history.

Where God actually writes something down, gives it to human beings, and says, Here it is. This is important. Now, chapter 32. Now when the people saw that Moses delayed coming down from the mountain, the people gathered together to Aaron and said, Come, make us gods, that they shall go before us. For as Moses, the man who brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we do not know what has become of him. Moses died. He went up there. That God killed him. We've got to have someone to intercede for us here.

Moses comes down, verse 16. Now the tablets were the work of God. And the writing was the writing of God ingrained on the tablets. And when Joshua heard the noise of the people, when he heard the noise of the people as they shouted, he said to Moses, There is a noise of war in the camp. But he said, It is not the noise of the shout of victory. But the noise of the cry of defeat.

The sound of singing I hear. And so as soon as he came near the camp, he saw the calf and the dancing, and they just had a big orgy. They just returned to the pagan ways that they had seen the Egyptians do. So Moses' anger became hot. He cast the tablets out of his hands and broke them at the foot of the mountain. He lost his temper. Now when you go through the life of Moses, you'll see he had a temper. And sometimes he got the best of it. He had two tablets written by God.

He carries them down the mountain, loses his temper, and smashes them. Oops. Not necessarily the response God wanted from Moses. So now, the first tablets containing the Ten Commandments have been destroyed. So what happens is, God says, Moses, come on back up. You're going to have to write them this time, because I'm not going to. So Exodus 34. So Moses goes back up. Verse 27. Then the Lord said to Moses, Write these words, According to the tenor of the words, I have made a covenant with you in Israel.

This is important. This is the basis of the covenant that God made with those people. Now, there were other parts of the covenant, but this is the heart of it. So when we study the Ten Commandments, we have to understand, this is the heart of what God said.

This is the agreement between me and you. And then we have to understand the part these Ten Commandments play in the New Covenant. So we have to understand, they play an important part in the New Covenant. But this is at the heart of what He says. This is the agreement between Him and the descendants of Abraham here, the physical descendants of Abraham. He goes on, He says in verse 28, So then it would He... So there He was there with the Lord, forty days and forty nights.

He neither ate bread or drank water. He wrote on the tablets, the words of the covenant, the Ten Commandments. Now in Hebrew, it's not the Ten Commandments. It's the Ten Words. Ten Words. In other words, these were so concise they weren't exactly words. I mean just a word each. But they were so concise, they said, ah, it's like one word each. So the Ten Words are written down. Now you see it's written on both sides. I mean it's more than just Ten Words.

But in Hebrew, that's literally what this means, the Ten Words. So He comes down, verse 29, and it was so when Moses came down from Mount Sinai, and the two tablets of the testimony were Moses' hands when He came down from the mountain, that Moses did not know that the skin of his face shone while He talked with him. He literally glows. It goes on as if people were afraid of Him. Can you imagine? He walks down this mountain.

I got the two tablets again. I either write it myself, it took a long time, a lot of work, I had to chisel them out, but I got them, and everybody's running away from it. He's glowing. He's been in the presence of God. So we see that the Ten Commandments were the basis of this covenant God made with ancient Israel. This is why some people say Christians don't have to keep the Ten Commandments.

Of course, they have a problem. Does that mean Christians can steal? No. Can they murder? No. Can they commit adultery? No. But you say we're not supposed to keep them. It always comes down to two of them. The second one and the fourth one. Well, Christians don't have to do those. We'll have to look at what these commandments are actually all about. Third point, the commandments are revealed by God before Sinai.

You can go and read Genesis and the first nineteen chapters of Exodus and you will find, in principle, all ten of the Ten Commandments. You'll see Joseph say to his family, Get rid of all these great images. You'll see the Sabbath clear back in Genesis 1 and 2. You see, well, in Exodus 16 you see the Sabbath before the Ten Commandments were even given. You'll see that it's wrong to murder with Cain and Abel.

You will find all of the Ten Commandments in principle before Sinai. That's very important. The fourth point is you'll find all of the Ten Commandments in the New Testament. If you go through the New Testament with an open mind, what you find is that Jesus never says you should keep the Sabbath. What he does is he begins to define how it should be kept. But you will find all ten of the Ten Commandments in the New Testament.

So we see that they are unique. You don't find all of the Old Covenant in the New Testament. There are parts of it that we do not keep and we're not even supposed to keep. There are laws in Deuteronomy that we do not keep. We're not supposed to keep. For one thing, we're not a nation. Because if we obeyed Deuteronomy, we'd have some kind of standing army in the Church.

We all carry swords. See? So we're not supposed to keep parts of that Old Covenant. But the Ten Commandments, which are the basis of it, we are. And here's why. And this comes down to our fifth point. The Ten Commandments were written on stone by God. By God. According to Jeremiah, they are going to be written in the hearts and minds of people under a new covenant. They say, well, that's a different set of laws.

That's not what Jeremiah says. Jeremiah says that God gave us that, I'm going to write my laws. Now, the Ten Commandments went into the Ark of the Covenant. The rest of the Old Covenant was written down in a book, and it was put outside the Ark of the Covenant. But the Ten Commandments were inside of it. So what laws is he talking about? And this is quoted in the New Testament in Hebrews, chapter 8.

In fact, it's the longest quote of an Old Testament passage in the entire New Testament. And Hebrews 8, where he says, he quotes Jeremiah, and he says, the laws are going to be written in our hearts and in our minds.

That's why this is more than just keeping the letter of the law. There's something internal inside of us that's supposed to respond to these instructions from God. So there's five reasons why they still count. There's five reasons why they're still important. So now let's begin the look at the First Commandment. Exodus 20. Let's go back. Exodus chapter 20.

So that's just a review. Nothing new. You all know that. But now I really want to take apart this commandment. Let's start with verse 1. And God spoke all these words, saying, I am the Lord your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage.

You shall have no other gods before me. Now if you ask any Christian, what's the First Commandment? They're going to say, you shall have no other gods before me. If you ask most Jews, that's not what they say. Most Jews will tell you the First Commandment is, I am the Lord your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. They say, verse 3 is actually part of verse 4. That's a very interesting viewpoint of the Ten Commandments. We don't agree with it, but it's an interesting viewpoint.

Their viewpoint is the First Commandment, God shows up and says, I am God. And He doesn't have to say anything else. That's it. I am God. And that's a commandment in itself. It's a literal commandment. You must believe in Me. So they look at verse 2 and say, all the other commandments come out of that.

Now I think what we have to do is realize verse 2 is actually a preamble and should be studied in the context of the First Commandment. What we do is we separate the two. And what we do, we miss something about this covenant relationship that the Ten Commandments were to have with those people. But we also miss something that God tells us as part of the new covenant. So let's look at them together again.

I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. You shall have no other gods before Me. The First Commandment to these people that He's making this covenant with is you're here because I brought you here and I'm it. You're here because you were slaves and you couldn't get out of it. And I did it. This statement is amazing. And these two little sentences is like He just summarizes everything He had done to Egypt.

He summarizes destruction of that nation, destruction of their gods, destruction of the Egyptian army. Who did that? You people could not leave that. I am your God. And that's why they connect that so strongly. Christians usually skip verse 2 and just start, you shall have no other god before Me. But when we do, we miss the context of these millions of people surrounding a mountain.

The rocks are on fire. They're standing in the middle of an earthquake and they hear this voice that they start grabbing their ears and run to Moses and say, tell him to stop talking to us. And He says, I'm the one who brought you here. So you understand I'm the only God.

It's a remarkable concept. It's remarkable how we miss that when we take that little sentence out of the Ten Commandments. The Jews, on the other hand, totally take that first statement and they zero in on that.

Now, I usually don't read from commentaries. I would have read from a Jewish commentary about the First Commandment. Now, because they have to start, Genesis is at the end of the book. Remember, they read what we think is backwards, you know. So they start, a book starts this way, ours start this way, and the writing is backwards for us. And since part of this is in Hebrew, it goes that way.

I'll just read the English parts. Now, this is a total Jewish viewpoint of the First Commandment. I am the Lord thy God. Jewish tradition considers this verse as the first of the ten words and deduces from it the positive precept. Here's what we're not careful with what we do with the Ten Commandments. We only see them in a negative sense. So what we do is we're constantly zeroed in on, don't do this, don't do this, don't do this, and it's sort of like we'll do that in our child-wearing. Don't do this, don't do this, don't do this, and we'll punish you, you'll punish you, you'll punish you.

We forget there's a positive aspect to every one of these. In fact, you'll never even keep the letter if you don't realize the positive aspect. The blessings, the reasons. Here's what they see as the positive aspect of this commandment. To believe in the existence of God. That's the purpose of the commandment. Believe in the existence of God. Actually, the first of the Ten Commandments has everything to do with faith. People say, well, the law is against faith.

The first of the Ten Commandments has everything to do with faith. Believe and trust in me. Why? Because I brought you here. I'm the one that destroyed Egypt to get you here. Believe and trust in me. The irony is, while he's writing this down for Moses, they're down there building a calf.

There's the whole irony of the whole thing. The Hebrew commentary goes on. This is a Sancedo commentary. The God adored by Judaism is not an impersonal force. It, whether spoken of as nature or world reason, the God of Israel is the source not only of power and life, but of consciousness, personality, moral purpose, and ethical action. That's why he says, I am your God. The statement, the emphasis, it says here, from every point, is on your. I am your God. He is the God not merely of past generations, but of every individual soul in every generation who brought you out of the land of Egypt. God is not here designated creator of heaven and earth. Now, that is an interesting point, isn't it? When I read this, that's the one thing that really jumped out at me. Why didn't he say, I am the Lord your God who created all things? I am the God who brought you here, and I'm the only God.

God is not here designated creator of heaven and earth. Israel's God is not seen merely as nature, but in the destinies of man. Now, this next statement is real interesting, because I'm going to bring it out another point of this in a minute. He had revealed himself to Israel in a great historic deed the greatest in the life of any people. That God who saved Israel from slavery had a moral claim as their benefactor and redeemer on their gratitude and obedience.

The greatest event in human history is God speaking, from the viewpoint of the Jewish commentators here, the rabbis, is God speaking to those people and giving them the Ten Commandments. And because of him doing that, he had the moral right to say, I destroyed Egypt for you, I paid a price for you, I did this, I brought you here to give you and make an agreement with you, and you have a moral obligation to obey me, and to be thankful that I did this for you. Not only to obey, but to be thankful to obey. Interesting viewpoint of the First Commandment, isn't it?

The thing is, it is actually, and that's a true viewpoint of this, except for one thing, and we'll get to that in a minute. Think about what God has revealed himself here in this First Commandment. Think about it. He's revealed that the God of Israel is the only God. Basically, believe in me, because I'm the one who did this.

So don't have any other gods except me. I did. It reveals that he's involved in human affairs. I think that was a very good point that a rabbi's brought out here. He's just not nature. He's not the force. This isn't Star Wars. He's not the force. He's a thinking, feeling, being. I say feeling. That's a human term. He has emotions. I don't know what it is to have emotions when you're a spirit, but he hasn't.

He has thoughts.

And so here we have a being that says, I'm involved. I brought you here. So I'm the one that you should follow.

This commandment is about loyalty. He says, I have done this for you. It's very interesting. God's argument is, I have done this for you. Here's what your response should be. He didn't say, you do this, and this will be my response. Actually, the Ten Commandments are one of the most ultimate expressions of grace. He would say, well, the grace and the commandments are opposite of each other. Who gave the Ten Commandments? Moses? Or did a committee of Israelites sit down and write out the Ten Commandments?

God gave them. That's an act of grace. He says, let me tell you something. You couldn't figure out yourself. And I brought you here to do it, and you couldn't get here except I brought you here. That's what he gives them, the Ten Commandments. And this is about our loyalty, our response to God. Your God. Your God. Deuteronomy 10. Deuteronomy 10.

And there's another verse that says basically the same thing. It's quoted by Jesus Christ. And when we read this, you'll remember what he said about this verse. Deuteronomy 10, verse 12. And now Israel. What does the Lord your God require of you? But to fear the Lord your God, to walk in all his ways, and to love him, to serve the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul. And to keep the commandments of the Lord in his statutes, which I commanded you today for your good. This is a question. What does God require of you?

He requires us to love him.

I am the God who brought you out of Egypt. That's how he started it. So we started the discussion of the Ten Commandments. Love me. Be grateful to me. Appreciate me. Because I did this for you.

And that's what he always wanted as a response. And understand, I give the what? For your good! This isn't because God says, look, I just...

You're worthless. I only created you to build up my ego.

That's not what God says? I did this for you! For your good!

Now, let's just step out of this a minute and look at this. Under the New Covenant, there is a preamble to the Ten Commandments. It's not, I am the Lord your God who brought you out of Egypt. It is I am the Lord your God who brought you out of the control of an evil Pharaoh, an evil taskmaster, the God of this world who oppressed you and deceived you and introduced death into your life. And I set my son to save you, to take what you deserve upon himself to die and be resurrected.

Therefore, I am the Lord your God. That's the preamble to the New Covenant.

It's the same First Commandment. It's just a little different preamble.

So do this because you love me and because you are thankful, because you are here, because God brought you. We're not here because we got rid of Pharaoh ourselves. You and I aren't here because we overthrew the Egypt we were under. You and I aren't here because somehow we broke free of our slavery. In fact, you and I are still struggling with slavery to sin. We're here because God dragged us out, closed the Red Sea behind us, which is a form of baptism, right? We were baptized. We are here because God has brought us here. That's why we're here. And when before the spiritual mount side, God said, I am the Lord your God. I'm it.

Because this is what I did to get you here. A little bit from preamble. Oh, I know I wrote it, but you know what I mean. It's obvious what the preamble is to the two commandments today.

That is to be our response to Him. And that's why Jesus quoted this and said, this is the greatest of all the commandments if you take everything in the Old Testament and you didn't even go to them. Thank you, ma'am. The greatest one is, love God with all your heart and all your mind and all your soul. Be totally committed to Him because of what He's done for you. It has to be predicated on what He has done for us.

That has to be the approach to everything we do. If we keep the Ten Commandments in the letter because we say, oh, look, God, look what I'm doing for you, we've missed the point. We'd better go back and read the preamble in Exodus. You're here because I brought you here.

We receive this law from God because God gives it to us.

And therefore, we're to respond to Him in appreciation of the law for what He's done. Now, how can we sin? How do we break this First Commandment? Well, let's look at the obvious ways. Then I just want to spend a little bit of time on a way that you and I can break this commandment and not even realize we're doing it. I mean, the first way to break this commandment, I suppose, would be an atheist. Be an atheist. Don't believe in God. Well, then you've just thrown out the commandment, right? The commandment doesn't mean anything. So that would be a way to break this commandment. Another way to break this commandment would be to participate in paganism. And this is the great subtle problem with the New Age concept that all religions lead to the same God. And that's what more and more people believe. By some estimates, it's over a third of everybody under the age of 30 believes that in the United States. Either they're irreligious entirely, or they believe all religions believe or reach the same God. Or they see Christianity as just as violent as Islam, just as irrelevant as Islam. A lot of young people see that too. I understand why they come to those conclusions. It's a false conclusion, but I understand how they get there. So, paganism, this is why we're against keeping Easter and Christmas. People say, well, how could you be against celebrating Jesus' birth, even if he wasn't born on that day? Because it's bringing a paganism concept, the worship of other gods, into the worship of God. So that's a way you can break this commitment. A third way is through, now this is a very important, superstition, or astrology, or witchcraft.

Because what we do is we begin to either appeal or be interested in other spiritual forces, as if they are equal to God. Now, as if they're equal to God. Because at that point, we're breaking this commandment. So that's why we need to stay away from any kind of sorcery, witchcraft. I know that's appealing to kids. It's one of the great problems with things that don't seem necessarily to be dangerous. Harry Potter on the surface doesn't seem to be dangerous. Do you realize all the spells in there that they use are actual witches' spells? They looked up, found spells of witches actually used. Now, that doesn't mean everybody watches Harry Potter, is walking around demon-possessed. But you see what I mean? There's a subtlety to it. It seems so innocent. But it has been, and it has actually produced or helped produce a lot more people interested in actual real witchcraft. So, ok, 90% of the people watch Harry Potter doesn't bother them, or doesn't affect their lives. It's entertainment. But the 10% that become interesting, because witchcraft, by the way, is a huge growing religion in this country. Just Google it. It's a growing religion in this country. So, we have to be real careful here where we go with some of these things. Because we're not careful we can end up breaking this First Commandment. But the fourth way is the way that you and I can break this kind. You know, when you look at this commandment, and you look how it was given, fire, smoke, trumpet, the voice of God, billions of people, a shaking mountain, it was really hard to ignore God, wasn't it? There was not one Israelite that fell asleep. There's not one Israelite that said, that's boring. Nobody ignored God. You and I live in a different world. I mean, God doesn't come down and speak to us from mountains. Right? You know, at night you're praying, your room starts shaking, and suddenly it looks like the neighbor's house is on fire, and God speaks to you from the neighbor's house. It doesn't happen that way. If your neighbor's house looks like it's on fire, it probably is.

So if we're not careful, we believe in God.

We may pray to God sometimes, but basically we ignore Him. We ignore God. When you read the first three verses of Exodus 20, there is no way to ignore that God.

And yet, we can do that. We have our work. We have our car to get the fixed. We have our families. We have entertainment like no other generation in the history of the world. You know, I remember five years ago saying, I'm never going to be sitting in a restaurant with other people on my phone texting. And not too long ago, I'm sitting in a restaurant, and I look around, and all of us are texting. And then I looked at all the other tables, and everybody's texting. Right? We're so distracted, we ignore the rumbling mountain, the fire, the smoke, and the voice, we ignore it. Because we're also distracted. There's a very interesting story in the book of 2 Chronicles about King Asa. Asa was one of Judah's kings. In 2 Chronicles 14, verse 2, it says this, Asa did what was good and right in the eyes of the Lord his God. Asa's kingship started out better than almost any king.

In fact, it says, for ten years, things went really well. For ten years, things went really well in the kingdom, as Asa was the king of Judah. In fact, after the ten years, a huge Ethiopian army, according to the scripture, there were a billion men in this army.

So this would have been basically an army, probably, from all of North Africa.

And it marches into Judah. It says the Jews, because Israel and Judah were two different nations at the time, the Jews had 300,000 men. And no chariots. The Ethiopian army was three times bigger and had chariots and had cavalry. They were just really over-managed. And we look what Asa does here in 2 Chronicles 14, 11.

2 Chronicles 14, 11.

1st 11 says, Now that's a remarkable prayer. I am here because you brought me here. See the attitude? You are my God. You're my only God. You're who I worship. You're who I follow. I follow your commands. And I can't do what's presented before me. Asa knew his army could not win. It was not possible. And he goes to God and he basically prays the whole intent of the First Commandment. Verse 12 says, Now what's interesting is his response. All of chapter 15, Asa says, you know what? We've been following God but not well enough. We've got to do all the commandments. So he goes through the entire nation of Judah and destroys all the idols.

He says, we're only going to worship one God here. We're going to take this commandment literally. Literally. I'm not good with grammar. Love words. Take grammar. We're going to do this literally.

And he goes through and he destroys all the idols and sets up, or people only worship, the God of Israel.

And things are really good. And then some time goes by and he faces another problem. 2 Chronicles 16. In the 36th year of the reign of Asa, so 10 years goes by and the Ethiopians come. So now this would be 26 more years go by and things are good in Judah. Asa has been a good king. And Asa has learned how to be a king now. He's learned how to make decisions. He's learned how to run the country. Judah is very prosperous. Things are going well.

He's a confident king. He's a powerful man.

In all of the Middle East, Judah is one of the leading countries.

So he's a powerful man. He's become very confident. And he's now been a king for 26 years. It says, Beelzah, king of Israel, came up against Judah and built Rehman. Then he might let none go out or come in to ace the king of Judah. In other words, basically he builds a fortress on the border between Israel and Judah and controls the highway.

He says, okay, you want to go into Judah? I don't know. Maybe he was taxing people. Maybe he was trying to starve them out. But the bottom line is, he was going to strangle the economy of Judah. So Aesop brought silver and gold from the treasures of the house of the Lord into the king's house, and sent to Ben-Haidad, king of Syria, who dwelled in Damascus, saying, Let there be a treaty between you and me, as there was between my father and your father. See, I have sent you silver and gold. Come, break your treaty with Beelzah, king of Israel, so that he will withdraw from me. And it worked out really good.

It worked out just like Aesop wanted. Syria broke their agreement, their treaty with Israel, attacked Israel. Israel now found itself being attacked from the north, and had to pull its forces away from the border with Judah. And the Jews went in and tore down the fortress that they were building.

Do you see a problem here compared to what he did with the Ethiopians? It doesn't seem obvious at first.

He goes to the Ethiopian, or God, when faced with the Ethiopians, and says, You are my God. You must protect us. We will put our faith in you.

Now, for 26 years, he's been a really good king. He's faced with a problem. He fixes it himself. He never asked God, what should I do? Did he believe in God? Yes. Did he worship God? Yes. Did he worship God? Yes. Did he go and worship God every Sabbath? Yes. But in the way he was living, he was now ignoring God. He was competent. He was good at what he did.

See, he just did it. God sends a prophet to him. Look at verse 8. And this is breaking into the middle of what the prophet says to him. Where the Ethiopians and the Lubim got a huge army with very many chariots and horsemen, yet because you relied on the Lord, he delivered them into your hand. Verse 9. For the eyes of the Lord run to and fro throughout the whole earth to show himself strong on behalf of those whose heart is loyal to him. Remember I said the first commandment is about loyalty? He says God would have been there for you if you had just been loyal to him, who are loyal to him. And this you have done foolishly. He didn't go to God. You didn't trust God. You didn't ask him for an answer. God may have sent a prophet to the king of Israel and said, you go tear down that fortress or I'm going to bring a curse on you people. See, God's answer might have been totally different. God may have caused an earthquake and tore it down. Who knows what God's answer would have been? The point is, is that Asa ignored him. He had become too competent in his own eyes. And he tried to fix the problem without going to God first. And he said this was disloyal to God. See how we break that first commandment. As we go through all these commandments and you really look at them, there's one thing it always becomes obvious to me. I am a commandment breaker. Oh, I don't have idols in my house. But I am a commandment breaker. There are times I am not loyal to God. And when I am not loyal to God, I break the first commandment. When I forget who brought me here, I break the first commandment.

See, when we start looking at these commandments in the spirit of the law, not just the letter, we find we're in trouble. It's so much easier to try to dwell on the ten commandments and just dwell on this letter of it. But see, he ignored God. He wasn't loyal to God. Something happened in Asa after this. Notice, by the way, what God's punishment on him is. Therefore, from now on, you shall have wars. Basically, he said, you know what? You want to fix this problem you have with other nations? Now remember, he had gone all these years without a war except the one, and this huge Ethiopian army was destroyed by God. He says, now, the rest of your life, you will fight wars. You will go out and be in danger. People will be shooting arrows at you.

So go fix it yourself, Asa. Go solve your problems yourself. It's an important story, isn't it? It's a very important story.

Because it just shows how a man, we can believe in God, but be disloyal to God and therefore break the first commandment. Something happened to Asa after this. He never quite trusted in God the same. It's very interesting how he died. Verse 12. In the thirty-ninth year of his reign, so between the twenty-sixth reign of his year and the thirty-ninth year of his reign, he must have had war after war after war.

God wasn't dealing with him the same way he had been. Asa became diseased in his feet. In his malady was severe. Yet in his disease, he did not seek the Lord but the physicians. Now this doesn't mean it's wrong to seek a physician. But, as I always say with people about being anointed, get anointed before you go to the doctor. Now people call me and say, I just had an operation. Would you come and join me?

Wouldn't it have been better if I had done it before? Maybe God would have fixed it so you didn't need the operation. Besides, if I had an operation, I sure want God there because those guys could have been something real bad.

But see, here's what happened. You see what's happened to him? See how different this man is? When he went to God and said, there's a million of them. But you're my God, so I'll go face them and you will defeat them because of who you are. And you're the one who brought me here. You're the one who may be king. See the difference? So the man said, I have copied. I can take care of it. I'll just go to the Syrians and say, we'll make an agreement and we'll get them to break their treaty with Israel and stab them in the back. And, hey, it worked out fine. The point is, it did work out fine. Until God said, He never came to me. You ignored me.

Verse 13, So Asa rested with his fathers, and he died in the forty-first year of Israel.

And so, whatever this problem was, it never went away, but three years later, he dies from it. The problem here isn't the physicians. The problem is, he ignored God.

The reason it's written this way is, God must have... The point must be, if he would have just go to God, God would have fixed this one. Nobody yelled at me. But he did not go. I don't know what God's answer would have been because it doesn't tell us, because he never found out what God's answer was. He never went past. He ignored God.

Asa has such an important story in helping us understand. You and I may be keeping the letter of this First Commander.

But if we're ignoring God, we're breaking it. If we're not going to God, if we're not loyal to God, we're breaking it. To give lip service to the Ten Commandments, but obey them. To disobey them is to be disrespectful to God.

To ignore God is to be disrespectful to God. That's why, as we heard in the Sermon Ed, Jesus teaches her in the Sermon on the Mount. We must live by the Spirit of the Law, not just the letter. And we have a lot to learn. I have a lot to learn about the Spirit of the Law.

I can only tell you that because I spent the last 30 years studying it. And I still have a lot to learn about the Spirit of the Law. But it actually means in being converted.

This involves more than just the negative lists of do's and don'ts.

It involves the core of who we are. So this is the first in a series of sermons.

Good, give a sermon with the Ten Commandments. Now we'll get ten sermons on the Ten Commandments. We'll do a couple of times, then take a break. But sometime in the next three or four months, five months, we'll finish the Ten Commandments. Hopefully, at least that's what I want to do. But in going through that, we'll be able to explore the letter of the Law, but also the Spirit of the Law. So next time, we will do the second commandment, which has to do with idolatry.