God's Word For Every Day

To understand the ten commandments, in Exodus 20, we need to listen to the whole story of the exodus. To understand the giving of the law at Mount Sinai, we need to go back to Egypt and discover the mighty act of redemption by which God had brought the people of Israel out of bondage and into freedom. Why did God say to Moses, "Thou shalt have no other gods before me"? There was no other god who had redeemed them from their slavery in Egypt. He, alone, was their Saviour. No other god could even begin to compare with the God of salvation. The mighty God had delivered his people from their oppressors. Any attempt to compete with him was a complete non-starter. There were to be no other gods before the God of Israel because there could be no other gods before him. He, alone, was the Saviour. He, alone, was to receive the worship and praise of his people. How are we to understand the ten commandments today? We must understand them within the context of the gospel. Before we ...

The ten commandments don’t begin with “Thou shalt … “. They begin with a statement concerning who God is – “I am the Lord your God” – and what God has done for his people – “I  … brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage” (Exodus 20:1). It is in this context – the God of salvation and his mighty work of salvation – that we’re to understand the ten commandments. When we read the first commandment – “Thou shalt have no other gods before me”, we must understand that there can be no other gods before him, for he, alone, is the God of salvation. Similarly, when we read the claim that the New Testament makes for Jesus Christ – God has given him “the Name that is above every name” (Philippians 2:9), we, gladly, acknowledge that no name can be exalted above the Name of Jesus Christ, for this Name, alone, is the Name of our salvation. We worship Jesus Christ as the Lord, whose “Name is above every name” because we rejoice in this Good News – “There is salvatio...

We have looked together at the first two commandments - "Thou shalt have no other gods before me" and "Thou shalt not make any graven image." We have focused on two key themes - First, God is the God of our salvation. He is the God who saves us. He does this through his Son, Jesus Christ; Second, In saving us, God has this great purpose - to recreate us in his own image, making us more like our Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ. With these two great truths before us - the Lord has saved us and is continually at work within us to make us more like himself, we turn to the third commandment - "Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain." Taking the Lord's name in vain - what does this mean? It means taking the Lord's name lightly. It means ignoring the Lord. In the opening chapter of the New Testament, we read that the name of Jesus means Saviour: "You shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins" (M...

In looking together at the first three commandments, we have learned some vitally important lessons about God. First, he is the God of salvation. He saved his people, Israel, from their bondage in Egypt. He has sent Jesus Christ, his Son, to be our Saviour. Second, he is working, within us, to make us more like our Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ, and he's teaching to live in a way that brings glory to him. In this fourth commandment - "Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy",we learn that the way of blessing is the way of keeping close to God. God loves you, and he wants you to love him. If you love someone, you will want to spend time with her / him. You will spend time, talking together, getting to know each other. It is precisely the same in our relationship with god. If you love God, you will seek to keep, open, clear and clean, the lines of communication between yourself and God. "Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy" - Most of you have, ...

We move on, now, to the second part of the Ten Commandments. The first four Commandments focus on our relationship with God – no other gods and no graven images, honouring the Lord’s Name and the Lord’s Day. The other six Commandments emphasize our relationship with others. The first Commandment, in this second section, is the fifth of the Ten Commandments: “Honour your father and your mother” (Exodus 20:12). As we look, together, at what is involved in honouring our earthly parents, we will, also, turn our attention to the vitally important matter of honouring our heavenly Father. When we learn to honour our heavenly Father, we will. also, learn to honour our earthly parents. As we learn to honour our heavenly Father, we will receive stength to do His will in all of life’s relationships. There are three essential features of honouring our earthly parents – gratitude, obedience, support. (1)  Gratitude We are grateful to our parents for  our birth  – “If it wasn’...

“Do not murder.  14  Do not commit adultery.  15  Do not steal.  16  Do not be a false witness against your neighbour.  17  Do not want to have anything your neighbor owns. Do not want to have your neighbor’s house, wife, male or female servant, ox or donkey.” (Exodus 20:13-17). As we read these verses, the word that keeps jumping out at us is the word, “not.” When we read these verses, we should, also, read the words of Jesus about murder (Matthew 5:21-22) an adultery (Matthew 5:27-28). Where does this leave us? We think about ourselves – our actions, our words, our thoughts. We bring our thoughts to the Lord. We speak to him about how we feel about ourselves – “0 Lord, suppose you kept a close watch on sins. Lord, who then wouldn’t be found guilty?” (Psalm 130:3). We see what we’re really like – “Suppose we claim we are without sin. Then we are fooling ourselves. The truth is not in us” (1 John 1:8). We wonder what ...