future water. I'm Ryan, the pastor of Ocean Water. We install systems that turn ocean water into drinking water for small, marginalized rural communities in the 108 countries of the world that have direct ocean access, like here in Dana Point. The water is distributed for free and the annual savings for the community goes
towards empowering locals for their future. Now we do this while starting easy beach searches revolving mostly around reading the Bible together every day and eating food together. We'd love for you to be involved. So I'd like you to email me at ryan.oceanwater.gmail.com because I'd like to send you a free copy of a book that I wrote about how we started. It's called Ride for Water, the story of the time that I rode 10,000 miles through 10 countries
and helped bring clean water to over 100,000 people. It's a really fun read. You can knock it out on say a flight to San Francisco. It documents the beginnings of our journey here at Ocean Water. Now in the next 12 months we will go to El Salvador, Indonesia in March and Bangladesh. We'd love for you to be on one of those trips. We'd love to stay in contact with you and have you be involved. Our objective is simple. It's disciples making disciples
who plant churches that plant churches. Now today we're looking at Exodus chapter 20, the 10 commandments from our daily Bible reading plan. Exodus 20 is where we find our start today. Now this is the first of the four commandments and they're regarding our conduct before God. Now God spoke these words saying and God spoke it. Now it's proper to believe that God spoke
these words to Israel as a whole as they assembled together at the foot of Mount Sinai. Now there God answered Moses by voice and Moses stood among the people at the foot of Mount Sinai. These commandments were after all addressed to the ordinary Israelites not to the religious elite of the day. They're expressed in strong simple truths, understandable to all and deal with the temptations of everyone not just us. After this the people asked that God did
not speak directly to them and that Moses would be the messenger. Now after this Moses went back up to the mountain to receive even more revelation from God for the people. In reading and thinking through these commandments it should always be remembered that Israel first heard these commands spoken by God from heaven in an audible voice. This has made the strongest most authoritative impression upon the people as possible. Now God spoke
all these words. The following laws were not invented on Mount Sinai. A few aspects of the Mosaic Law show new revelation but for the most part they're given to us simply and definitively as God's laws written out in our hearts since he first made Adam. It's wrong to steal or murder or covet not because these sins are forbidden but because they were previously forbidden by our conscience. Our conscience because these things go against
the nature of the things that God has put in our hearts. It's been well said that the Ten Commandments are God's nature expressed in moral terms. Now in this book, in his book The Abolution of Man, C.S. Lewis explained how there is a certain universality among men and how in all cultures and in the past and the present we've agreed upon basic moral principles that have been put in our heart by God. Now all cultures have always said
that murder is wrong, that kindness is good. We can all agree that we have those obligations to our family. We can say it all honestly that man cannot have any woman that he wants. That stealing is wrong. That justice is good. There are no cultures where being a coward or good and being brave is bad. God spoke all these words, these God-based moral code to us, to Adam, to Isaac, to Jacob, a part of from the commonly worshiped gods of the
pagan world at that time. Now they were often just as immoral or more moral than their human followers. Now this God-based moral code also establishes that this people, the nation of Israel belonged to God, not to Moses. This wasn't Moses' law, rather it was God's law. So God spoke all these words and Moses or any other person was not supposed to put themselves above these things. These were commandments, not suggestions. So God spoke
all of these words. We need to go to God to find those instructions of how he can guide us. These principles resonate with our conscience because they were put in our heart by God. Now we need to know that there is a God in heaven who expects certain behaviors from us and that there will be consequences for obeying or disobeying what he expects from us. These are the ten commandments. They're kind of a God-based moral code, they're not
suggestions. They say that God commands us to do or not do certain things and it either says or implies that. God sees our obedience or our disobedience. God measures our obedience or our disobedience and in some ways God rewards our obedience and punishes our disobedience. Not a perfect algorithm but we find that throughout the Bible. Now it's difficult or impossible to answer the question of why in response. Well because this is what God commanded us
to do. Now the idea of God is based on a moral code seems to be less popular today, less exciting to be a part of, but it's not change. The tendency group, we always have a tendency to develop our own moral code. What we think is good and bad, not the standard that God has for us. Now God spoke all these words. The Bible tells us that the law is holy and just and good. It tells us that every good and perfect gift comes from God. These commandments
are good gifts that came to Israel and to all of the human beings on Mount Sinai. The ten commandments are good because they show the wise moral guidance of God. They answer our need as human beings to be morally governed and they give us a way to teach other people right and wrong. The whole world would be a better place if we followed these ten commandments. They were good for them then they're good for us now. The ten commandments, in other
words, are universal from the beginning of time to the end of time. They're to be held as ideals even when they're not obeyed perfectly. Now the ten words are at the beginning, now they're at the heart of what God was trying to speak through Moses. It's important for us to know and to understand and receive and obey these commandments from a biblical perspective, taking into account what the rest of the book in Exodus is teaching and in the Old Testament.
So these ten commandments can be summarized as Jesus did in Matthew when a lawyer came to him testing him and said, teacher what is the great commandment in the law? And Jesus said to him, you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the first and the greatest commandment and the second is like it, you shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments hang all
of the law and the prophets. Now these don't eliminate the ten commandments, they confirm the ten commandments. Part of them have to do with our relationship with God, the other have to do with our relationship with each other. So this is a general outline, a framework. From the perspective of the entire Bible we can say that the law of God has these great,
three great purposes for us. First they're a guardrail keeping humanity on a God's path, they're a mirror showing us our failure and our need for Jesus, and then they're a guide showing us the heart and desire that God has for us. So the ten commandments are often organized into two groups. The first four focus on our conduct with God and then the next six focus on our conduct towards each other. So look at verse two and three, the
first commandments, no other gods before me. Says, 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. I am the Lord your God. Now in the ancient world, including in Egypt, men worshiped many gods. Now here the Lord, the covenant that God made with Israel set himself apart from any other gods. In the first few words, God both reminded and taught Israel these facts
and principles about who he is, about his nature. God's above nature, he's not the personification of earth, wind and fire, or the sun, or any other created thing. He's above all those things because he created all of it. Now God's personal, he's not a depersonalized force like in Star Wars. He relates with us and communicates with us in an understandable
way. God has a mind and a will and a voice and so on. God is good. He's done good for Israel and he does good for them in giving him these commands and he does the same for us. He wants what's best for us. God is holy. He's different than all of these other gods that people make in their life. And so he expects his people to act differently and
to live differently. It says, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage, before God commanded anything in Israel, he reminded them what he had done. There was a clear foundation because of who God is and what he's done for us. He has the right to tell us what to do and we have the obligation to obey him and to follow him. Every one of God's blessings are binders. Every deliverance is a tie to obedience. Now
you shall have no other gods before me. The first commandment logically flowed from understanding who God was and what he had done for Israel. Because of that, nothing was to come before God. He was the only God that we would worship and serve. Now in the ancient days of Israel, there's a great temptation to worship the gods of materialism such as Baal, the god of weather or finance and success or sex such as Ashtore, the goddess of sex, romance and reproduction
or any other number of deities. We're tempted to do the same thing now, but without the old fashioned names and images. Now it's been said that human nature is like an idol factory that operates constantly. We constantly deal with the temptation to set all kinds of things before God or to compete with God to put him in front of our lives. He says no other gods before me. This doesn't imply that it's permissible to have other gods as long as they line up
behind Jesus. Instead the idea is that there to be no gods before the sight of the true God in our life. This means God demands to be more than just added to our lives. We don't just add Jesus to the life we already have. We give him all of our life. Now failure to understand this commandment is called idolatry. We're to flee from idolatry. Those lives marked by idolatry will not inherit the kingdom of God. So idolatry is something that we develop.
Which marks the old way we used to live, our old way of understanding. We're not to associate with Christians who are caught up in idolatry. Now it says that you shall not make for yourself a carved image any likeness of anything that is in heaven above or that is in the earth
beneath, that is in the water or under the earth. You shall not bow down to them or serve them for I the Lord your God am jealous visiting the sins of the fathers to the children on the third and the fourth generations of those who hate me but showing mercy to thousands to those who love me and keep my commands. You shall not make yourself a carved image. This is the second commandment. It's prohibited not only regarding idolatry but it overlaps
with the first commandment. It also forbids us to make anything that might worship that we might bow down and serve it. Now in John 4 24 Jesus explained the rationale behind the second commandment. God is spirit and those who worship him must worship him in spirit and truth. The use of images and other material things as a focus or help worship denies who God is. We must worship him in spirit and in truth. Now Paul reminded us
of the danger of trying to make God into our image. When we profess to be wise we become foolish or we change the glory of the incorruptible God into an image made like a corruptible man of birds and animals and creeping things. He says for I the Lord your God am a jealous God. God is jealous in the sense that he's not willing to accept being merely added to our life. He insists on being first in our life. Now God's jealousy is love and action.
He refuses to share our heart with any rival or anybody else because he wants us to know that our loyalty and our devotion is to him. God's not jealous of us. He's jealous for us. Zealous might be a better translation in English. Jealousy has kind of an exclusive and bad meaning. It's more like zealous. Now when the Bible says he's going to visit these sins in the third and fourth generation this doesn't mean that God punishes people directly
for the sins of their ancestors. The important words are those who hate me. In the descendants love God. They will not have the iniquity of the fathers visited upon them. If children walk in the steps of their fathers for no man can be condemned by God's justice for a crime which they haven't committed. So the focus here is on idolatry and this refers to judgment on a national scale. That those who forsake the Lord will be judged and the judgment will have effects throughout
generations. But showing mercy to thousands to those who love me and keep my commands it's possible for everyone to receive God's mercy if they'll only turn to him in love and obedience. Now the third commandment verse 7 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. What's this talking about? Well you shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain. There are
three ways that this command is commonly broken or disobeyed. One is profanity using the name of God in blasphemy and cursing or frivolity using the name of God in a superficial stupid way or hypocrisy claiming the name of God but acting in a way that disgraces him. Jesus communicated the idea of this command in the disciples prayer when he taught us that we're to have regard for God's name.
Hallowed be thy name thy kingdom come thy will be done. Now the fourth commandment. Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy. Six days you should do labor and do your work but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord your God. In it you shall do all your you shall do no work not your son not your daughter not your male servant not your female servant nor your cattle nor your stranger who is within your gates for in six days God made the heavens and the earth
and the sea and all that is in them and rested on the seventh day. So God blessed the Sabbath day and he hallowed it. Now remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy. The command is to respect the seventh day as a day of rest. You shall do no work. This was the case for all of Israel for the son and the servant and the stranger even the animals. God takes rest seriously. This is an important principle that might be too
easily passed over here. God declares essentially that all of humanity the dignity of women slaves and strangers said that they had the same right to rest as everyone. This was certainly a radical concept in ancient times. Now to keep it holy. God commanded Israel and all of humanity to make sure there was sacred time in their life separated time of rest for in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth
God established the pattern for the Sabbath at the time of creation when he rested from his works on the seventh day. God made the seventh day a day of rest from all of our works. It's as if God was saying having too much to do isn't an excuse from taking the rest that you need. I created the universe and found time to rest from my work. God told him to remember the Sabbath. He told him to remember to rest.
The term Sabbath it comes from a Hebrew word to rest or to cease from working. Now the most important purpose on the Sabbath was to serve as a preview of the rest that we had in Jesus. Like everything in the Bible we understand this with the perspective of the whole Bible not just a single passage. With this understanding we can see there's a real sense in which Jesus fulfilled the purpose and the plan of the Sabbath for us and in us.
He is our rest. When we remember his finished work we remember the Sabbath. We remember God's rest. Now the whole of the Bible makes it clear that under in the New Testament no one is under the obligation to observe the Sabbath day a particular day of the week. The rest we enter into as followers of Jesus is something we experience every day not just one day a week. The rest of knowing we don't have to work to save ourselves but our salvation.
Our salvation is accomplished through Jesus. We should never ignore the importance of a day of rest one day a week. God built it so that we need one like a car that needs regular maintenance we need regular rest so we will not wear out. Some people are like high mileage cars that haven't been maintained well and it shows.
So the first four commandments showed our relationship to God and the next six commandments show our relationship before God and man. The fifth commandment honor your father and mother honor your honor your father and mother that your days may be long on the land which the Lord your God is giving. Now to honor one's parents includes to prize them to care for them to respect them to show them respect to reverence them the commands given to children but not just while they are children.
Now this isn't popular in today's world where youth is worshiped and old and old age is dreaded. The result is silliness where everyone strives to remain eternally youthful only to find it impossible. So our days what God wants our days to be long. Paul repeated this command emphasizing the promise that rebellion is costly and a lot of people have paid a high price personally for the rebellion against the appearance.
Now the sixth commandment says you shall not murder you shall not murder now in the Hebrew as well as the English there's a distinction between to kill and to murder as opposed to killing murder is the taking of life without legal justification execution after due process or moral justification killing a defense. Hebrew possesses seven words for killing any one of them could signify murder were factors of premeditation and being intentional to present. This is a verb.
There's an important distinction that explains how someone can consistently argue for the principle of capital punishment and be against the prohibition of murder. Capital punishment is killing with legal justification. You should not murder Jesus carefully explain the heart of this commandment he showed that it also prohibits us from hating someone else because we can wish someone dead in our hearts and yet never have committed the deed.
Someone may not kill from a lack of courage or initiative yet his or her heart can be filled with hatred. Now the seventh commandment verse 14 you should not commit adultery. Clearly the act itself is condemned. God never gives us a justification for having extra marital sex. It's not to be done when it is done it's sin and it damages. Now there are different punishments for adultery.
And the seduction of a woman adultery is distinguished as premarital sex in the Old Testament. Each is wrong but wrong in different ways. The New Testament clearly condemns adultery. It says now the works of the flesh are evident which are adultery fornication and cleanliness licentiousness. The act is condemned but not only the act itself more than the act itself.
Jesus carefully explained the heart of this commandment it prohibits us from looking at a woman to lust for her. Were we to commit adultery in our heart or our mind you'd not have the courage or the opportunity to act. We aren't innocent just because we didn't have the opportunity to sin the way we really wanted to. Doesn't mean we're not innocent. This is why it's wrong to look at pornography or to check chicks out other than your chick.
The eighth commandment you shall not steal. Verse 15. This command is another important foundation for our society. It establishes the right to personal property. God has given us possessions and as individuals people and states are not permitted to take that property without the due process of law. We can also steal from God.
Of course this demands that we honor God with our financial resources so we're not guilty of robbing him but we can also rob God by refusing to give ourselves for obedience for his service because he bought us and he owns us knowing that we were redeemed like gold and silver but with the precious blood of Jesus.
Now Corinthians gives us the same idea. We were bought at a price therefore glorify God in your body and your spirit which are God's. Ephesians reminds us give the solution. Give the solution to stealing. Let him who steal steal no longer but rather let him labor working with his hands for what is good that he may have something to give when it's needed.
Now verse 16 the ninth commandment you shall not bear false witness. You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor. You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor. Now the primary sense of this command has to do with the legal process yet it's common to speak in an informal court.
Now what we're saying here is to be taken seriously in an intended sense we can break the ninth commandment through slandering someone gossiping about people creating false impressions by being quiet questioning the motives behind people's actions.
Slander is a lie that's invented and spread with the intent to harm. Now this is the worst form of injury that a person can do to another compared to one who does do this a gangsters a gentleman or a murderer is kind because he ends his life in a moment or with the stroke and a little bit of pain but the man guilty of slander ruins a reputation which can never be regained and causes lifelong suffering like on the internet.
Gossip is reporting is repeating a report about someone that's not right and it discredits and dishonors that person without making sure of the facts. Inappropriate silence can also break this command when someone utters a falsity about another person and a third person is present who knows that statement to be untrue but for reasons of fear being disliked remains quiet that third person is also guilty of breaking this command.
So the New Testament puts it simply do not lie to one another now since you put off the old man with with your deeds now lying and false representations belong to the old man not to the new life that we have in Jesus.
Now it's strange that we'd ever come to think of being mature is shown by our ability to speak our minds but really it's expressed in controlling what we say controlling our tongues Satan's always there to encourage us to lie he's the father of lies Jesus himself was the victim of false witness.
Now verse 17 the 10th and last commandment you shall not covet you shall not covet your neighbor's house you should not come at your neighbor's wife or his male servant or his female servant or his ox nor his donkey or anything that is your neighbors. All the first nine commands focus more on things we do the 10th deals straight with the heart and its desires literally the word for covet here means to pant after.
Hebrew word means desire it's when it's misdirected to that which belongs to another that desire becomes wrong covetous works like this the eyes look upon an object the mind admires it the will goes over to it and the body moves into possess it just because you've not taken the final step.
It does not mean you're not in the process of coveting or desiring something your neighbor's house or your neighbor's wife is ox's donkey covetousness can be expressed towards all things it's the itch to have and to possess what someone else has it speaks of a dissatisfaction that we have. And jealousy towards those who have something better Hebrew says let your conduct be without covetousness because with these things.
Jesus said I'll never leave you nor forsake you we have all that we need now the last commandment is closely connected with the first commandment against idolatry for this you know that no covetous man who's an idolater has any inheritance in the God's kingdom.
According to Ephesians Jesus gave us a special warning about covetousness which explains the core philosophy of the covetous heart he says take heed and beware of covetousness for one's life does not consist in the abundance of things that he possesses. Now that concludes our time looking at Exodus 20 and the Ten Commandments today every time we finish I like to invite you to pray with us every time we end a beach talk.
Now would you pray with me just say God I ask that you help me to follow you today that you would help me to do your will for my life that you would transform me into the person that you want me to become. I ask you to help me today I ask that you would forgive me for my sin come into my heart fill me with your spirit in Jesus name amen. I want to thank you who are faithful and giving God always demands our best and the first parts of our lives.
I want you to pray for what you're to give as part of your worship and then be faithful with the with what the Holy Spirit and God is saying to you and I hope you have a wonderful week. If you'd like more information about Ocean Water Church how to join us on an upcoming trip how to be part of one of our Clean Water projects how to financially support our movement or even information on how you can start an Ocean Water Church yourself please look us up at OceanWater.com.