Please turn with me to Deuteronomy 5.  We’re going to begin at verse 1.

Deuteronomy 5 - beginning at verse 1:  And Moses summoned all Israel and said to them, “Hear, O Israel, the statutes and the rules that I speak in your hearing today, and you shall learn them and be careful to do them.  The Lord our God made a covenant with us in Horeb.  Not with our fathers did the Lord make this covenant, but with us, who are all of us here alive today.  The Lord spoke with you face to face at the mountain, out of the midst of the fire, while I stood between the Lord and you at that time, to declare to you the word of the Lord.  For you were afraid because of the fire, and you did not go up into the mountain, He said:  I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery.

Let’s pause there.

Deuteronomy takes place at a cross roads - a pivotal moment of change in the life of God’s people.  After 40 years in the wilderness God’s people are camped out on the east side of the Jordan River - here - just across the river from the city of Jericho - just north of the Dead Sea.

The generation that had come out of Egypt - that had wimped out when God told them to take possession of the Promised Land - that generation that held back instead of trusting God and moving forward in faith - that generation is dead.  Generation next - their children - generation next is camped out ready to take possession of the land.

The question is, will they trust God and move forward?  Will they trust that God really will give them the land on the other side of the Jordan - a land filled with strong people, fortified cities, and giants (oh my).  Will they step forward believing that God can and will fulfill His promises to them in them even in the midst of all that scary opposition.

Will we step forward trusting God in the midst of the stuff of our lives - trusting God - following Him through it all - or will we hang back and hang on to our own wisdom and the illusion of what seems safe and secure to us?

Deuteronomy is a collection of 3 speeches - motivational speeches - given by Moses as Moses is getting the people ready - pumped up - to cross the river and possess the land that God has given to them - to step forward and claim God’s promise to them.

Speech number one was what we looked at over that two Sundays - chapters 1 to 4.  If you missed being with us those two sermons are on our website.  The URL is at the top of your Message Notes.

Motivational speech number one - chapters 1-4 - focused on “why” we can trust God.  Moses the Motivator not just handing out religious platitudes.  “Trust God”  “Have faith”  “Pray more” “Go out there and win just one more for Yahweh” 

Life is way too serious for that.  Moses is talking in real time about “why” we should trust God.

Coming to chapter 5 - motivational speech number two - what we’re coming to this morning - speech number two is all about “how.”  How do we step forward in faith trusting God.  How do we step forward claiming God’s promise to us.

The verses that we just read are Moses’ introduction to all that - speech number two and how we trust God.

Think with me.  Do verses 1 to 6 sound a tad familiar?  Sure.  Its a theme that gets repeated over and over and over… and over again through out the Old Testament and even into the New Testament.  God rescued you from Egypt.  God gave you His law.  You need to obey God.  Any one ever heard that before?

Repetition is the key to... learning.  When Scripture repeats things it isn’t because God is having a senior moment.  Its because God really really really wants us to get this.   

Here in chapter 5 that repetition comes with a twist.  Repetition with a very pointed application.  You need to remember what I - the Lord your God have done for you.  You need to remember that this is personal.  Let’s say that together, “This is personal.”

Notice verse 2.  Moses says, “The Lord our God made a covenant with us in Horeb.”

Who made the covenant?  The Lord our God.

“Lord” translates “Yahweh” which in Hebrew is the name of God that emphasizes God’s intimate relationship with His people.  Yahweh personally saving and delivering His people.  Yahweh personally fulfilling His promises to His people. 

“God” translates “Elohim” which in Hebrew is the name for God that describes God as the holy sovereign almighty self-sufficient God.  Elohim emphasizes God who is transcendent.  God who is other than His creation - distant - removed.  The Holy God ruling over and sustaining all that He - God - has created.

At Mount Horeb - or the name that’s maybe more familiar - at Mount Sinai - with the people camped out at the foot of the mountain - Moses goes up on the mountain and there’s all this fire and smoke and lightening and thunder and a whole lot of shakin’ going on.  Remember this?

Reading through the Hebrew and the way the names of God are used in the Mount Sinai account.  All those pyrotechnics are a display to impress the people with Who Elohim is - the awesome otherness of the Almighty creator God.  Then it is Yahweh - personal - saving - Yahweh who speaks the covenant law.  Yahweh who gives it to Moses to give to His - God’s - people.

The Lord - Yahweh - personal - “our” Elohim - made the covenant.  God’s people responded by agreeing to the covenant.  “What God said, we’ll do.”  (Exodus 24:3)  But the initiation - the one who actually makes the covenant - has the ability to enact and keep the covenant - is... God.  Which God?  “our” God.

That’s personal.  The Lord our God is calling us into a covenant relationship with Him.

In verse 3 Moses reminds God’s people - the covenant wasn’t made with your fathers who got dead.  God was looking past them to you.  God’s covenant was made with their children - generation next - you who are poised ready to go take possession of the promised land.  That’s personal.

In verse 6 Moses quotes God - the history lesson.  “I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery.”

Do you hear relationship in that?  “I am Yahweh your Elohim”  Almighty God in relationship - loving on His people.  “I brought you our of Egypt.”  God initiating - fulfilling His promises.  “out of the house of slavery.”  God caring for His people - rescuing them - meeting their deepest needs.

Are we together on this?  Who initiates the covenant?  God.  Why?  God  calling His people to personal relationship with Him.

In a moment we’re going to come to verse 7.  Starting with verse 7 Moses is going to review what we call The Ten Commandments - what God gave His people at Mount Sinai.  It is crucial - when we get to those commandments - that we see those commandments as the Almighty God’s invitation to a personal relationship with Him. 

In verse 1 Moses tells the people you need to do three things:  Hear the statutes and rules.  Learn the statutes and rules.  And then be careful to do the statutes and rules. 

Statutes and rules are terms that describe “how” God’s people are to live as God’s people when they enter into the land that God is giving them.  When God’s people - trusting God - dwelt in the land in obedience to God’s statutes and rules - God dwelt with them.  The land is a place of God’s personal blessing and presence.

In the New Testament - in Christ Jesus - that promise of God is extended to us.  God’s promise of living daily in a deeply satisfying - intimate - relationship with God - where we know that we are His - that we belong to Him - where He supplies all that we need - regardless of the stuff we come up against in life.

But we need to be careful that we don’t confuse the how with the why.  Why is because of who God is and what God has done and what we trust God will do - Moses, motivational speech one.  How is how we respond to who God is and what God has done and how we live in the promise of what God will do.  Which is hear, learn, and do the statutes and rules - keep the commandments.

The God of the Bible is a covenant God not a contract God.  His message to us is not, “Do this for Me.  Then I’ll love you.”  That’s a do this and you’ll get paid - contract.  But instead God says, “I’ve done this for you as your Creator - Elohim - and as your Redeemer - Yahweh.  Therefore this is the kind of relationship that I invite you to be a part of.”

So many people are trying to live in a relationship with God as a contract - doing the statutes and rules - trying to live rightly - morally - as Christians - as Jews - trying to somehow please God - to earn God’s favor.  The 10 Commandments have become a burdensome list of don’ts that we must fulfill if we’re to avoid the wrath of Almighty God.

But God never intended for these commandments to be a contract.  “If you do all this stuff then I’ll give you a relationship with Me.”  If they were a contract none of us could have a relationship with God.  Except for Jesus every single person who ever lived has failed to keep the 10 Commandments.

God initiates - establishes the covenant.  What we’re coming to here - starting in verse 7 - is the “how” of how we’re to live in that covenant relationship.  How we’re to live claiming God’s promises to us.  How we’re to live in that personal relationship that He - God - invites us into.

The commandments that we’re going to look at today - verses 7 to 15 - focus on How to live trusting God.  Let’s say that together.  “How to live trusting God.”

Commandment number one comes in verse 7:  You shall have no other gods before me.

God is infinite and righteous and holy beyond anything that you and I can pretend to imagine.  God - the Almighty - self-existent - One - speaks and creation happens.  God breathes and dust becomes a living soul.  God who exists beyond the bounds of time and space - knows all things - upholds all things - works all things according to His will and purposes.  Without fail His promises are fulfilled.

God is the One who knows our greatest struggles and deepest hurts.  The number of hairs on our head - or lack of - and the days of our lives - every breath - every heartbeat - every thought is known to Him.  God is the still small voice that speaks to us when we’re afraid and trying to make sense of our lives.  God is love and He loves us.   

He alone is God.  There is none greater.  He’s number one.

Try that with me.  “He’s number one.”  Try it pointing - making this a declaration.  “He’s #1”  “He’s #1.”

Which does not mean that God is #1 on a list of priorities.  Think about how hard it is to make that kind of priority list.

God being number one means that God is like pizza.  There’s no way to make a list - God 1st, wife 2nd, kids 3rd, me 4th, job 5th and on and on and have that list come out anything less than chaos in the real world. 

What makes a whole lot more sense is to think about God as pizza.  He’s the whole thing and all the pieces and parts of life fit into Him - cheese - pepperoni - anchovies - whatever.  God is the essential part of every piece and what holds the whole thing together.

That’s relationship.  God being the essential core of every part of our lives.

Commandment number two - starting at verse 8:  You shall not make for yourself a carved image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is on the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth.  You shall not bow down to them or serve them; for I the Lord your God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me, but showing steadfast love to thousands of those who love me and keep my commandments.

When Sports Illustrated came out with their 50th Anniversary edition the cover - this here - on the cover - they took the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel - they took Michelangelo's work of utter devotion to God - and replaced all the saints with sports heroes.  The centerpiece is God handing a baseball to Babe Ruth. 

God’s point about idols is not to keep us from playing baseball - huge sigh of relief.  He’s not going to condemn us to eternal damnation for living in a house - or driving a nice car - or even having a plasma TV.  God is dealing with our relationship with Him - the significance these things hold in our lives.

An idol isn’t the object - it’s the significance we give to that object that perverts worship.  Idolatry - worshipping idols - is a perversion of true worship - focusing on the means and not the end - focusing on the worshipper or an object of worship - rather than the One true God who alone is worthy of worship - service - devotion.

God’s people had been surrounded by the 2,000 plus gods of Egypt for four hundred years.  The Hebrew people had grown up with idols - they were surrounded by idols - idols representing gods of just about everything.  Death - life - fertility - food - rain - disaster.  The way to worship a god was to make an image of gold or silver or something and bow down to it - honor it - serve it.  Images of cats and cows and birds - oh my.

In verse 8 God says, “You shall not bow down to them or serve them - why?  For I Yahweh your Elohim am a jealous God.”

What kind of God is God? “God is a jealous God.”

Baseball - money - a house - a car - sports - TV - work - food - those are cheap shots - easy idols to identify.  The greatest idol we struggle with is who?  Us.  Ourselves. 

God is jealous for our hearts.  All the other idols we struggle with - that struggle - that idolatry is a result of giving greater place in our hearts to ourselves rather than God.

God is angry - passionate - about anything that is going to destroy His relationship with His people.  God is wants our devotion.  He’s worthy of it.  He’s deserving of it.  Its to our advantage to give it to Him.

Are we together?  The house isn’t for us.  It’s for serving God.  The car is all about God.  The question is where’s our heart focused?  If we’re going to play baseball - or softball - or fish - or knit sweaters - whatever -  then do it because we’re 100% sold out to God .  He’s directed us - called us - led us - to do those things.  Deep from the heart responding to Him with a passionate desire to serve and honor and glorify God. 

Here - in the second command - God is focused on how we live each day honoring Him with our lives.  A relationship of singular - focused - devotion that flows out of the depth of our hearts.

Command number three - verse 11:   You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain, for the Lord will not hold him guiltless who takes his name in vain.

Remember this guy?  Rodney Dangerfield.  Do you remember his catch phrase?  “I don’t get no respect.”  If you can picture Rodney Dangerfield as God then you’ve got handle on the third commandment.

This command is all about respect - respecting God.

The third command says what?  “Don’t use God’s name in vain.”

Don’t trivialize God’s name.  Don’t drag God’s name down into the gutter.    Don’t misuse the name of God.  When we trivialize the name of God we trivialize who God is.  When we misuse God’s name we disrespect God.

Don’t miss who God is speaking to.  “You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain” - “your God.”  Who’s God talking to?  He’s talking to His people.

When a non-believer misuses God’s name it bothers us - and it should.  But they don’t know God.  They don’t have a relationship with Him.  When God’s people misuse God’s name it disrespects God - trashes the name - the character - the reputation of the God who loved us so passionately that He sent only Son to die in our place on the cross to establish our relationship with Him.

God’s people don’t trash God’s name.  We’re called on to respect Him.  To honor Him.  To give our lives to Him.  In a sense:  “Thou shalt use the name of the Lord thy God with respect.”

We all struggle with this.  Church - hear this.  If we say we respect God on Sunday and then disrespect Him on Monday - by what’s coming out of our mouth - then we’re taking His name in vain.

If we sing words of worship on Sunday - “Jesus, Jesus, Jesus” - and on Monday we’re saying, “Me, me, me, me, me.”  Doing what works best for us - even lying and deceiving others to get our own way.  That disrespects God.

If we talk righteousness on Sunday - clean up our speech and talk Church talk - with our Christian siblings - and Monday we’re telling filthy jokes at the office - or talking using four letter words - “God this and God that” - that’s disrespecting God.

If we’re pleading with God in prayer on Sunday - but Monday what’s coming out of our mouth shows that our hearts are not sold out to God - that’s disrespecting God.

What kind of relationship do we have if we’re trashing who God is? To respect God’s name is to respect God - who He is and the relationship He’s given us with Him.

If we were to go back through the Old Testament and look at the yearly calendar of religious feasts and offerings - rituals of the tabernacle and Temple - regulations about what a person could or couldn’t do and when they could or couldn’t do it - if we did that kind of study what we’d find is that the whole Hebrew socio-economic-religious system was integrally tied into the Sabbath.

Keeping the Sabbath is so important - so crucial to the relationship of God and His people - that to not keep the Sabbath was punishable by death. (Exodus 31:14)

Every seventh day - stop work - you - your kids - your servants - your animals - even your guests.  The word “Sabbath” literally means “to interrupt.”  Stop what you’re doing.  Keep the Sabbath “holy.”  Keep it distinct - separate - from all the other days when you can work 24/6.  But on this day - stop - rest.  Don’t fail to do this.  

Hold on to this.  Of the Ten Commandments - the keeping the Sabbath is the only one of the ten that is ceremonial.  The other nine are moral laws.  Moral laws are in effect 24/7/365.  A ceremonial law governs when and how that ceremony will take place.  In the case of the Sabbath - every 7th day.

In Exodus - when God gives the Ten Commandments to Moses - and to God’s people - God ties the keeping of the Sabbath to the 7 days of creation.  God took 6 days to create creation.  Then God took the 7th day to rest.  The pattern is established.  Because God took one day in seven off so must we. 

Did you notice in verse 15 what keeping the Sabbath gets tied to?  Not creation.

Look again at verse 15:  “You shall remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt, and the Lord - Yahweh - your God - Elohim - brought you out from there with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm.  Therefore - because God delivered you out of Egypt - Yahweh your Elohim commanded you to keep the Sabbath day.”

God by His mighty outstretched arm God delivered His people from Egypt.  Therefore keep the Sabbath.

Here in Deuteronomy - Moses’ motivational speech - his restatement of the law for generation next - is not just a repetition of history - but its commentary - application as God’s people are about to possess the promised land.

Covenant is about relationship.  The Ten Commandments are about how we live in that relationship.  In Deuteronomy - keeping the ceremony of the Sabbath - is not just about God who created everything - but keeping the ceremonial law of the Sabbath is an opportunity to celebrate our relationship with God our Redeemer.

Are we together?

In the New Testament that celebration of relationship with our Redeemer finds fulfillment in Jesus.

Colossians 2:14-19 tells us that all the ceremonial laws of the Old Testament were nailed to the cross with Jesus.  The whole substance - the form - the basis - the necessity - the purpose - finds its fulfillment in Jesus - our Redeemer who went to the cross for us.

Hebrews 4:1-5 tells us that our Sabbath rest - as believers in Jesus Christ - our Sabbath rest is found in Jesus.  He - Jesus - is our Sabbath rest.    

Coming to the New Testament keeping the Sabbath isn’t about keeping a ceremonial day.  In Christ we’re not under obligation to keep Old Testament ceremonial law.  Keeping the Sabbath is about having a saving personal relationship with Jesus.

God - by His mighty outstretched arm - is able to redeem us.  To defeat the power of Satan over our lives.  Through the death of His Son to buy us back from slavery to our sins and eternal separation from Him.  To break the chains of our past - the guilt - the struggle over things we don’t even want to admit we struggle with.

Because Jesus is our redeemer we’re free!

When we stop - purposefully - deliberately - regularly - and lay ourselves before Him - we celebrate the one God who alone is able to transform us and renew us and refresh us and free us and heal us and empower us to live life as He intends for His people.

How do we trust God - moving forward through the stuff of life - hanging on to His promise.  Moses’ “how” is about “how” we live in relationship with God.

Jesus summed up these four commandments about our relationship with God when He answered the question, “What is the greatest commandment?  Answer:  “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.”  (Matthew 22:37).  Love God with everything you are.

Hanging on to God’s promises - living trusting Him - means to Love God supremely.  Let’s say that together.  “Love God supremely.”

How do we do that?  Make God the essential core of every part of your life.  Live each day honoring God.  Respect who God is.  Celebrate Jesus who saves you. 

For most of us that involves making some pretty intentional choices - letting go of anything that keeps our heart back from loving God with everything we are or grabbing on to whatever draws us deeper in our relationship with Him.

Who to hang with and why.  Or who not to hang with.  Where to hang.  What to be involved with.  It involves evaluating our habits - probably changing a few.  Maybe starting some like regularly reading God’s word or prayer.

Question:  Where’s your heart?  Are you loving God supremely?

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Unless otherwise indicated, Scripture quotations are from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®  (ESV®), copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.  Used by permission.  All rights reserved.