Love God

Merry Christmas. This is our Christmas Sunday. We hope you will join us for Christmas Eve and Christmas Day service as we gather to worship God's gift to us, his own son, to die for us, redeem us, and give us new life. I was looking at our preaching schedule and calendar. I thought, Christmas. What better way to celebrate Christmas than to talk about the law? I'm glad some folks appreciated the humor in that. As we look to Deuteronomy, we're continuing through our study in Deuteronomy. If you're using a Pew Bible, we're going to be on page 150. We're in Deuteronomy, the end of chapter 4, beginning in chapter 5. If you haven't been with us, Deuteronomy is made up of three sermons really. The heart of Deuteronomy is three different sermons that Moses preached to the next generation going in. Last week we concluded the first sermon. It was a shorter sermon. The second sermon goes from chapter 4 verse 44 through 27. It's a longer sermon. We're going to begin this second sermon. The last sermon from last week, the first sermon from Moses, was a call to remember your fathers rebelled against God. They died in the wilderness because of their rebellion. It's a call to the new generation, the next generation, to commit to God. To say, well listen, We will keep your law. We will be watchful against the idols that we long to... watchful for our hearts that long to worship idols. And we'll reflect. The new generation is called to make the commitment, as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord. As Moses, who himself is going to die on the wrong side of the promised land, He's preparing that generation that God has set forth to put in the Promised Land to make sure they understand who God is, whose God said they are, and what God expects of them. He's wanting to make sure the expectations are clear, which is very important in a relationship. So, he sets before God's people God's law before they enter into God's land. Now, In Exodus 20, this is the first time God's Ten Commandments were given. God delivered His people out of slavery. He then made them a new nation. He then declared to them His law to know how to live in that nation, have that nation. Here, the next generation, they're receiving the law again so that they would be the nation. We're going to look at the Ten Commandments in two different sermons. Because it can be divided that way. The first half is our relationship with God. That's what we're looking at this morning. The second half is our relationship with one another. This morning we're going to see five truths that define God's people and his expectations for them. Five truths that define God's people and his expectations for them. First, God calls us to covenant faithfulness. God calls us to covenant faithfulness. We see that in chapter 4, verse 44 through 5. 5. God's call to covenant faithfulness. Second, God has delivered us. You'll notice in all the different truths, this is the one that God has simply done for us. I am the Lord your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery. Chapter 5, verse 6. God has delivered us. Secondly, God calls us to obedient worship. God calls us to obedient worship. He shall have no gods before me. He shall not make an image of me. Next, God calls us to represent Him. He shall not take the name of the Lord in vain. And finally, God calls us to rest in Him. Covenant faithfulness delivered, obedient worship to represent Him, and to rest in Him. Now, if we look at this as one sermon, chapter 4, verse 44 through 49, that's really the prologue of the sermon. That's setting it up. Really, if we look at it, interestingly, chapter 1 through 440, that's one sermon. Then they take a break and have a business meeting. Chapter 4, verses 41 through 43, that's when they start setting out the cities of refuge. They want to make sure they put the proper cities of refuge, and this is where God is setting apart and showing He's just and a God of peace, that if we're going to judge somebody for manslaughter, they need to have a proper trial. They need to have a place of refuge they can go until they seek that. Chapter 4, verse 44 through 49, this is God giving, or Moses giving prologue and then you see the first sermon really begins chapter 5 verse 1. Let's begin there. God calls us to covenant faithfulness. This is the law beginning in chapter 4 verse 44. This is the law that Moses set before the people of Israel. These are the testimonies, the statutes, and the rules which Moses spoke to the people of Israel when they came out of Egypt. beyond the Jordan, in the valley opposite Bethphor, in the land of Sion, the king of the Amorites, who lived at Heshbon, whom Moses and the people of Israel defeated when they came out of Egypt. And they took possession of his land, the land of Og, the king of Bashan, the two kings, the Amorites, who lived to the east, beyond the Jordan, from Aror, which is on the edge of the valley of Arnon, as far as Mount Sirion, that is Hermon, to gather with all the Ereba on the east side of the Jordan as far as the sea of the Ereba under the slopes of Pisgah." That's the prologue and much of what he's just articulated we heard about in the chapter 2 and 3, the defeat of the Shubert kings. And Moses summoned all Israel and said to them, Here, 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. Will you pray with me? God, help us to hear. Help us to hear your word, so that we may learn your truth, and to be careful to obey it. Help us, Lord, not just to acknowledge your truth as an intellectual act. Help it, Lord, to sink into our hearts so that it changes our affection and therefore changes our behavior and our actions. Change our character. Help us, Lord, to be changed by you today. Let that begin with helping us to listen and to learn so that we can carefully obey. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. One of the first questions we have to ask is who is God making this covenant with? There's a little bit of confusion because He's saying it's to you who are here today, alive, that I'm making this covenant, not with your fathers. The question I'm asking of the text is who is He not your fathers referring to? There's really two options. Is it the patriarchs, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob? Or is it to the previous generation? Who is in view here when God is saying to this generation, it was not with your fathers? There in verse 3. Who is that referring to? One option is the patriarchs, and this would be emphasized as a different kind of covenant. There's a different way in which God is speaking to this generation that He did not speak to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. And that is true because even in the Exodus, even in Exodus 6, God says, I'm revealing my name in a new way to you that I did not reveal to Abraham. As God's revelation continues, we know more of God, more of ourselves, more of His salvation. The second option is that he's referring to the previous generation that died in the wilderness, that failed to be obedient to the covenant. Now, my view is not without complication, but I think not with your fathers is referring to the previous generation. I believe what Moses is trying to contrast here is that your fathers, the generation before you, they heard the covenant. They did not keep the covenant. Your fathers failed. They died in the wilderness. Do not be like them. Listen to how emphatic it is. Beginning in verse 1. Hear O Israel, the rules I speak in your hearing today you shall learn them and be careful to do them. The Lord our God made a covenant with us not with your fathers did the Lord make the covenant but with us who are all of us here today alive today now many of these folks weren't born when God gave the covenant at Sinai but what he's saying is that it is with you that God has made this covenant it's you that God has said you'll be my nation in my land obeying my law I realize he said that you heard it and some of them did hear it but not all of them So there is a complication, but I believe that's who God is making the covenant with and that's significant because he's wanting to make sure this next generation is not like their fathers. Do not fail to learn the covenant. Do not fail to obey it. God is calling a new generation to be his people. This is a rallying call. You alive today, learn and be careful to do the law. You need to receive the law so that you can obey the law. Now, learning requires a special kind of listening. Learning requires a special kind of listening. It's a humble listening. In order to truly learn, to truly listen in that way, there's a few things you have to do to learn through this listening. Recognize that the person talking knows something you do not. In order to truly learn, as Israel is being commanded, learn these statutes and these laws, you have to realize something is being said that corrects and informs your ignorance. Recognize, secondly, that the person has authority to speak that requires your submission. Here, that shouldn't be hard because it's God speaking to His people. Third, recognize we need something from the person who's talking. Israel needed the promise. Israel needed protection. Israel needed God to be with them and for them. Now some of the context that we could look at where we need this kind of learning, this kind of listening, well it would be in a hospital. When the doctor is telling you what's going to happen in your life-threatening surgery, you listen humbly so that you can learn what's going to happen, what you need to do to follow the directions of the doctor so that after the surgery, things go well for you. When your life is in someone else's hands, you humbly listen to the authority so that you learn. Or maybe a teacher. When the teacher is telling you what's going to be on the final exam, you humbly... I see students shaking their heads no. Shake your heads yes. When the student is telling you what's going to be on the final exam, you humbly listen. You want to learn because you want to cram for the final exam. Now let me just... I set it up that way to make sure you know you should be humbly listening every time your teacher talks. Not just when they're telling you what you're going to be graded upon. You're welcome, teachers. Maybe it's your significant other. When they write a love letter, you want to learn from those words. You need what they're saying. Maybe it's a parent who's instructing you, correcting you. Listening to them is important. That's why. for us here, should be very easy. God is speaking. Are we listening? Are we seeking to learn? Are we recognizing it's Almighty God who is telling us, this is life! This is how you live that life! What's really amazing in this, is that we see that God speaks through sinful human beings, Notice Moses himself acknowledges, the Lord spoke with you face to face while I stood between the Lord and you at that time to declare to you the word of the Lord. Almighty God, the infinite, holy, perfect God, he uses imperfect creatures that he's redeemed to speak his truth. This is your pastor or a fellow church member who comes to you and opens God's word to confront you with a sin or to encourage you with evidence of grace in your life. we must humbly listen for the voice of God. We have to realize the church is made up of spirit and dwelt believers who should be following the authoritative word of God so that when they speak it may just be the Holy Spirit is using them to change you, to correct you, to make you more faithful in worship. Are we listening? Are we too quick to defend ourselves? Moses spoke to God's people for God. God calls us all to be instruments of grace in this way. We are called to speak the truth in love, to be instruments of God's grace so that we correct one another, love one another. So, I ask you, who do you listen to? Who do you listen to? Who do you invite into your life to say, correct me? Help me to see the sin that I am so self-deceived, I can't see. Do you surround yourself with people who only tell you nice things and encouraging things? That only helps your self-deceit. Who do you listen to? We must desire to be corrected. If we don't desire to be corrected, we don't think we're sinners. If we don't think we're sinners, we're extremely dangerously An application of this. Pray for your teachers. As we stand before you, pray for us that we would open God's Word to you to be clear, bold, and faithful. Submit to your leaders as we lead you to Christ. We all have to see that there's one goal, to be like Christ our Head as we all submit to the one Word together. We must learn God's statutes so that we can be careful to do them. Now, notice that. Careful to do them. Not casual. These are the things of God. These are the things that require intensity and focus. We must be obedient. Just hearing God's Word and saying, yeah, that sounds true, and walking out, that's foolish. That's like looking yourself in a mirror and then walking away and forgetting what you look like. No, you look to God's Word and you learn it, to memorize it, so that it can change the way you live. We must learn the truths of God, so be careful to do them. Worship is not just an intellectual pursuit or practice. It's easy for the truth to affect your head, right? To learn new concepts, that's easy. When it actually starts penetrating the heart, When you actually realize my desires are wrong. I'm not in line with God. That's when it becomes difficult. That's when the careful call to obedience becomes very important. Worship. We're talking about worship. Worship isn't just songs we sing. Worship is what we do. every minute of our lives. Notice they're called to hear the Word of God. Hear and live is what Moses has already declared in the first sermon. Chapter 4, verse 33. Who has ever heard and lived? Who has ever seen God stretch out His mighty right arm like this? I want us to notice something in chapter 4, chapter 5 rather, verses 4 and 5. The Lord spoke with you face to face at the mountain, in the midst of the fire, while I stood between the Lord and you at the time to declare to you the word of the life, for you were afraid because of the fire." Now, if you go back, you can remember, if you were with us in Exodus, or you can go back and read it. When Sinai, God comes down on Sinai, He sets boundaries around the mountain. He says, do not go near. Worship from a distance and then it was frightening. Afterwards, they say to Moses, don't ever let that happen again. That was frightening. We heard God speak out of fire. I want you to look later at Hebrews chapter 12. Our worship is not like that. The author of Hebrews says to enter boldly with confidence and celebration into the presence of God. into the very presence of God, not distant, but close. Now, I want us to see, because we have to see, as we begin to study as Christians, we're not worshipping like Israel. We're not going into a land. We have the promises of heaven. We're waiting for the inheritance of the Son when He comes back. But right now, we can see we don't worship with fear from afar. In the name of Jesus Christ, We're called to go boldly into the very presence of God because of what Christ has accomplished for us. His blood making a perfect atonement. So we're not like Israel. We're not supposed to be afraid because of the fire. We're supposed to have confidence because Christ has died for us and He's risen again and now we can go boldly into the presence of God. It's a joyful celebration. We go to the presence of God because of what Christ accomplished for us but Some of you may wonder, well, I don't experience that. We're going boldly. We experience the bold entrance into the presence of God when we obey the law of Christ. Christ is the way we get into the presence of God, but we're not going to go boldly while our hands are covered with sin, while our minds are made to take it on filth, while our words are cursing and slandering. You're not going to go boldly into the presence of God. No, it's when we obey Christ and follow Him, He leads us up into the presence of God. We have to realize it's by grace we can go. It's by obedience that we follow. We get to joyfully obey Christ and enter into the presence of God. We so easily take that for granted. Verse 5 ends, He said. Now this is the introduction to the Ten Commandments, or really a better way of describing these are ten words. There's ten words, there's ten truths from God for His people, and I want to emphasize the first word is not a commandment. Verse 6, I am the Lord your God. I brought you. I redeemed you from slavery. The others are commandments, but here the first word, the first truth, the first testimony, the first statute, it's a declaration of what God's done. God is telling His people what He's done for them, and then what follows is what we're supposed to do. It's very important to get that right. Grace leads to the law. The law is grace. But what God has done for us, redemption leads to obedience. Obedience does not lead to redemption. I want to challenge you to think about the Ten Commandments, and I'm not going to draw this out well in my application, but I want you to think about the Ten Commandments this way. Think about them as a Bill of Rights. Not like our Bill of Rights, because our Bill of Rights is all about protecting our right. I want you to think about the Bill of Rights, the Ecologue, as a Bill of Rights that protects other people's rights. Think about it this way. God has the right to be worshipped alone. That's why you have no other God before Him. God has the right to be properly represented. That's why you don't make an image of Him. God has the right to be remembered. That's why servants have the right to rest and remember the deliverance from slavery. Parents have a right to be honored. Children, stop talking to one another. Stop drawing. Nod your head. Parents have a right to be honored. Everyone has a right to life. Don't murder. Everyone has a right to what God's given them. Don't steal. Everyone has a right to the truth. Don't lie. You have the right to be content with God's blessing. Don't covet. Or, God has a right to be sancte for what He's given you and your neighbor. Do not covet. Notice here that the laws, they govern our relationships with the Redeemer. The proper worship of God and our proper relationship with one another. That's why we call them the two tables. I don't think one half was written on one table and the other half on the other table, but it's a helpful distinction. One table is about our relationship with God, as we're talking about today. The other table is about our relationship with one another. It's holistic worship. All of life is to be determined by God. So, let's begin with the first word, chapter 5, verse 6. Last week, I encouraged you to memorize chapter 4. I think it goes without saying, the Ten Commandments are worthy of your memorization. I am the Lord your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery. Arguably, this is the most important word because it tells us why we're here. Why are these people at the edge of a boundary of the Promised Land? Why are they even here? What has gotten them this far? Well, it's because God called a single man, Abraham, and promised your children would be more than the stars in the sky. They'll be numerous. and I'll make them holy nation and then I'll take them to the promised land. Well, here we're at the edge of that promise being fulfilled because God took His people out of slavery. He is their Redeemer. He is their Deliverer. It's what He has done for them. Because of the deliverance, as God told that generation, when I deliver you out of Egypt, then you will know that I am God. You will know that I'm with you. You will know that I'm for you. They'll know that He alone is God. They have to realize God saves us by His grace. And then in His grace, He gives us His law. Now, as we look at the deliverance, there's two parts. They need to be taken out of Egypt. They need to be taken into the Promised Land. They need to be taken out of slavery, brought into God's land where they will be His people obeying His law. They were never meant to be autonomous. As we look, Moses was not able to lead God's people into God's rest. He was not the final prophet. He failed. He died on the wrong side of the promised land. The people of God needed another Redeemer. They needed a true Redeemer. They needed God to be with them. As we saw from Hebrews a couple weeks ago, Jesus is contrasted with Moses because Moses could not take God's people into God's rest. Jesus does. Moses could not take them into God's rest because he sinned and he died. Jesus is able to take God's people into his rest because he dies for our sin and rises again. I want to take us back to John, though, to look at what it means for us to be delivered from slavery. John 1.17 says, The law was given through Moses. Grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. The law was given through Moses. Grace and truth through Jesus Christ. There's a contrast. We can go on to verse 18. No one has ever seen God. Remember Moses wanted to see God. Except for the Son of God. He has made Him known. The revelation of Jesus Christ is greater than that of Moses. The grace and truth of Jesus Christ is that He's come to save sinners and to lead them into worship. We can go back to John 1.14, the Word became flesh full of grace and truth. We're preparing to worship Jesus, born of a virgin, Emmanuel, God with us, literally. God taking upon himself flesh, God humbling himself to be born of a woman. God descended to take a lower place, to become like us in every way but without sin, so that he could give us grace and truth. Grace, John 3.16, God so loved the world that he sent his only begotten Son, so whoever believes in him will live. Truth, John 14, if you love me you will keep my commandments. Jesus came to save sinners and to redirect them back into worship. Jesus is God's gift to lead us to worship. Christmas is about worshiping God. What we have to see to truly appreciate this is that Jesus delivered us from slavery. Not like a slavery as Egypt had over Israel, but Jesus delivers us from slavery. John Piper just wrote a devotional where he compares life as an assembly line of sin. And what Jesus does is he comes in and he declares, quit working on the line, only producing and serving and loving and being a slave to sin. We're doing a walkout. I'm taking people with me out of this assembly line. We're going on strike. He has come to destroy the works of the devil. Friends, in order to truly appreciate what Christ came to do, we must first see that we are slaves to sin without Christ. Listen to what Jesus says in John 8, 34. Truly, truly, I say to you, everyone who practices sin is a slave to sin. The slave does not remain in the house forever, the son remains forever. So if the son sets you free, you will be free indeed. What Christ sets us free from is our slavery, from obeying and serving our master, sin. 1st Romans 6.16 Do you not know that if you present yourselves to anyone as obedient slaves, you are slaves of the one whom you obey, either of sin, which leads to death, or of obedience, which leads to righteousness? But thanks be to God that you who were once slaves of sin have become obedient from the heart to the standards of teaching to which you were committed, and have been set free from sin, have become slaves of righteousness. There's two main truths we've got to gather from this. We, when we live in sin, we're slaves to that sin. We need someone to set us free. When we live in sin, we're slaves to sin. Secondly, we need someone to set us free. We have to kind of recognize, we easily succumb to slavery. We even seek it out. We find comfort in it. We pretend to be free when we're pursuing sin, but really we're masquerading as if we're in control. Sin is our master when we are living in it. Your master is either Jesus who loves you, or your sin that's destroying you. We see sin as a comfort. We actually, we see sin as a comfort. Think about it. When someone wrongs you, that anger feels comfortable. When people wrong you, anger is a comfort. That is until those words of anger come out of your mouth and you actually hear what you're thinking. Or you see the countenance of the person you speak to fall because the words have destroyed them. Sin pretends to be a comfort, but in reality it's destructive, it's dangerous. It enslaves us to kill us. We must seek repentance. We are predisposed to sin. We're not naturally good. That's why we're called to repent regularly. Being free in Christ means we rejoice in the opportunity to be obedient. It means we say, Holy Spirit, renew in me a love for Christ. Help me to see the idol that I'm hiding away. Help me to see how I can repent to follow Christ. and the worship that He has designed for me. Christian, we have been delivered from the domain of darkness, transferred into the Kingdom of the Loved Son. It means we have a new identity and a new calling, a new opportunity. We're born again to live in obedience. Christ has set us free. Hear this, about everything you're going to hear this morning. Freedom is found when we obey the Law of Christ. Freedom is found when we obey the Law of Christ. Freedom is found when we obey the Law of Christ. Autonomous freedom is not available. You're either going to be a slave to sin, or a slave to Christ. You're either going to be a slave to what destroys you, or a slave to what gives you life. You have to realize something. Far back, big picture, You're created to worship. You were created by God to worship. You will worship something. You are worshiping something. It's either sin in yourself that enslaves and destroys, or it's Christ. Repent of our love for slavery to sin. If you're not a Christian this morning, the bad news we have to begin with is You have to recognize you are a slave to sin and it will destroy you. You are a slave to sin and it will destroy you. You are holding on to that which is going to sink you into the depths of hell so that you will forever be under the wrath of God. Unless you believe in Jesus Christ, who died on the cross so that your sin is forgiven. so that the wrath of God is satisfied on Him. So that whenever He died, He took the wrath of God upon Himself for your sin. So that you're now free. Free from the punishment of sin, but also now free to live. Not to go back to the assembly line and keep working and loving sin. No! Free to worship. Look to Christ today and say, Father, Almighty God, thank you for sending your Son so that I can be forgiven. Forgive me. Set me free. God calls us out of slavery. He calls us to obedient worship. Verses 7 to 10. You shall have no other gods before me. 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 and 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. Notice how the three imperatives, really going on to verse 11 as well, it's all about God and our relationship to Him. The truth is that we're supposed to be loving and serving God as He is. We're not to adapt our worship to our cultural norms. Notice also, this isn't just mere monotheism. This isn't just declaring God is one. No, it's a call to a relationship. It's a call to commitment. It's a call to know God and His love and His power. God is constantly warning these Israelites of idolatry. Why is this so important? Why is this the major concern? Well, first we can say, historically, they came out of Egypt. We know they're still tempted to worship Egyptian gods because as God is telling them how to worship Him on Mount Sinai, they're building a golden calf. We know that they're coming out of a pagan, idolatrous nation and they're still tempted to those gods? Or would-be gods? Secondly, they're about to take over the farms of Canaan. And idols are going to be pre-built for them. When the crops don't come in, are they going to be tempted to go to these idols? If they don't tear them down and start worshipping them? Start naming them Yahweh? We have to realize More so, is that every sinner has a tendency towards idolatry. What's the difference between worshipping a so-called God and the true God? Well, it's this. You get to manipulate the so-called God. The real God rules over you. That's why we all like idolatry. That's why we're all so prone to idolatry. We want a God we can manipulate to serve us, rather than realizing, Almighty God, He rules over us. We're meant to serve Him. We're supposed to bow down before the true God and serve Him. We don't like God's rule. Adam and Eve didn't like God's rule. We follow in their sins. Listen, see, this generation needed this warning because the previous generation, they couldn't get over their idols. We're called to not bow down and serve those idols because God is jealous. He alone is worthy of worship. He does not want to watch his people worship another God, a false God, a lie. It's just the same way we don't want our children, we wouldn't let them play in a bear trap. we wouldn't let them play in such a danger a jealous God is not going to let his people love and worship and serve Allah just as Christ does if you love me you'll keep my commandments we are called to worship God according to how he has declared us to worship it's an obedience not with carved images now there's a particularly interesting teaching in this section. We have to ask, what does it mean for God to visit iniquities to the third and fourth generation and to love a thousand? What does this mean? Verse 9, the Lord your God is a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers and the children to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me. Verse 10, but showing steadfast love to thousands. If they reject God, they will visit iniquity. If you choose God and have no idols, He will show steadfast love. Here the key issue is idols. Every time this language is mentioned, punishing the iniquity for the third and fourth generation, it's always related to idols. Exodus 34 in response to the golden calf. Numbers 14. Later on, It's always connected to idols. An interesting way if you, I challenge, I encourage you, read 1st and 2nd Kings and Chronicles, because you keep getting descriptions, epitaphs for kings that go this way. He did evil in the eyes of the Lord, as his fathers had done. He did not tear down the high place. Generation after generation, they continued the pattern of their fathers. They did not get rid of the idols. They did evil on the side of the Lord. The first thing I want to show is what this teaches about God. I will visit iniquity. I will show steadfastness, God says. You have to realize He's steadfast in His love and He's just to judge soon. There's two truths we have to realize must be together. But notice, he judges for the third and fourth generation, he shows grace to the thousands. His grace is great. Where sin abounds, grace abounds. But he in no way will let the guilty go unpunished. That's why Christ had to come, so that he could show grace. Because Jesus was punished so that he could forgive us. What we really need to see here, there are really two options that are placed before us. Notice the emphasis in the passage is not necessarily on the punishment, but on who? Those who hate me, or those who love me and keep my commandments. That's what's being pressed upon you right now. Will you love God and keep His commandments, or will you hate Him? Love and hate are commitment language. But here's the thing, when you reject God, you're saying, I hate you. When you're saying, you know, this Christian thing, it's not for me right now. You're saying you hate him. There's no neutral ground. You're either loving God and keeping his commandments or rejecting him and hating him. As Christ says, if you love me, you will keep my commandments. Now, what does this say about generations and how they relate to one another? I want to say two basic things, and there's probably lots of truths between them, but I'm going to affirm something and negate something. First, this passage teaches us that we need to understand that our sin affects other people. Our sin affects other people. No one sins independent of others. It's never in a vacuum. It's always affecting somebody. And here the focus is in the family. Those we're closest to are going to be most affected by our sin. As a simple proverbial truth, those who are closest to us are going to be most affected by our sin. And the reason it's set up as a third and fourth generation, I believe this is an idiom for the home. Because if you lived at this time and at this age, well, the great-grandparents and then the grandparents and the parents and the children will all be in the same house. The third and the fourth generation. It was a patriarchal society and a home was made up of numerous generations, not just what we call the nuclear family. A thousand is an idiom, a symbol of perfection. The pattern taught is that the family is affected by the father. How the parents will teach their children affects or infects the children if they lead them into idolatry. If the father brings in an idol in the midst of the home so that his children and their children and their children are seeing his idol worship, it's setting a pattern. When we have a pattern of sin, we are teaching our children that that pattern is acceptable. They learn to sin from their parents. This is a frightening responsibility. The second thing this passage teaches, or I want to say specifically what it does not teach, This passage does not teach that we will be held guilty for the sins of our parents. This does not teach that we will be held guilty for the sins of our parents. We do not need to confess our parents' sin. There's a really unhelpful phrase out there called generational sin. And I just want to say, let's not use that phrase because it's extremely confusing. I don't think it's usually used in a biblical sense. It's confusing. My first Google search said that generational sin means you need to confess your parent's sin. The Bible never actually teaches that. What it does teach is that every individual will be held accountable and responsible for his own sinful decisions. Which we all had a mirror right now. So I could ask you, who's going to be held accountable and responsible for your sin? It's you. We don't blame others for our sin. Notice it's those who love me and those who hate me. They're the ones who are going to be held accountable for their sin. Those who love me, they will be rejoicing because they've loved and kept the covenant of God. Those who hate me, they'll be judged. God's Word makes this clear in numerous places. Later on in the same sermon, Deuteronomy 24, 16. Deuteronomy 24, 16. Fathers shall not be put to death because of their children, nor shall children be put to death because of their fathers. We're all held accountable for our own sinful decisions. Ezekiel 18, 20 and Jeremiah 31, 30. The son shall not suffer for the iniquity of the father, nor the father suffer for the iniquity of the son. Here's what I think this is teaching. I'm going to go to a limit and say one other thing. The sins of the fathers are punished when their children choose to follow their pattern. Father, if you're worried about what the punishment looks like, the punishment comes when you see your child following your pattern. When you realize you have been introducing idols and you see your children following those idols. The key choice set before us, set before this generation. Will you love God and keep His commandments? Or will you hate Him? Will you say, ask for me in my house, we will serve the Lord and obey Him. He's calling this generation to obedience. Remember their fathers. Remember how this works. He's calling these people out to be His covenant children, not because of their fathers, but because of His promise. This generation and their parents were the grumbling idol makers who refused to obey God. Praise God that His grace is abundant and He saves us regardless of our parents, regardless of our children, regardless of our own sins. So what is significant about this third and fourth generation that we need to think about? We need to see that our sin patterns infect our family, our friends, and our church. If you're frustrated with the sin pattern you see in your parents, let that be an opportunity to think, how am I reflecting that sin pattern? Don't blame your parents for your sin pattern. We're not Freudian Christians. That's an oxymoron. We're not fruiting Christians. We don't get to blame our parents for our sin. We're held responsible for our sin. We don't repent for their sin, but we do get to see how am I following their pattern so that I know how to repent. More so, if you see your children's sin pattern, this is God's grace to you so that you can see your sin pattern. There's a general rule that I'm just assuming that's on. We don't see our sin so good, but we see other people's sin really well and clear. We don't see our sin clearly. That's why God puts people around us, that we can see their sin pattern and therefore it's a way of teaching us. If your children, if our children, sorry, if our children have anger issues, we need to prayerfully pursue the kind of anger we have. If our children lack contentment, is it because they've learned to seek happiness and worldly goods? If our children are critical of others and speak poorly of friends, is it because of how we talk? Are we slanderers and gossipers? If our children have difficulty honoring and respecting, is it because we need to prayerfully seek God how we are displaying dishonor and disrespect? Our children mirror us. Our children mirror us. God uses it to help us see where we need to repent. Hear the warning. We can see our sin in our children. We need to repent of our idols so that we are not punished as they continue our pattern. Let me just press this. Do your children see God's Word being placed in the highest authority? Are we teaching our children that this is God's authoritative word and we will live under it? Do we teach our children to depend upon Him through prayer? Do we demonstrate the importance of the body of Christ as we commit to being part of a body? What you do with your time is teaching your children what you really think is most important. What we do with our time and commitment is teaching our children what we really think is most important. Our patterns make them more susceptible to sin. Yes, they have idols in their hearts, but our teaching them, our leading them, makes them all the more intense. This is why we are called to be a body of Christ. We're called to be committed together under His Word. We're called to be committed to Christ together, seeking His truth, so that we can see Him together, so that we can see our sin from one another. We must agree to pursue Him together. It's actually scary how idolatry works. It's scary how that idol comes from within, and then our culture, it enhances it, it compounds its pressure. This is why we must constantly listen, and keep, and be watchful, and reflect. The final command we will cover this morning is verse 11. I'll save the Sabbath for 2015, next year. Next year we will rest. God calls us to represent him. 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. This is not simply referring to swearing or cursing. This is something much bigger, much more life-consuming, much more as part of every part of life. Yahweh is a faithful God. He is a God of truth. He is a God who keeps His promises. So, yes, we must keep our oaths. But here we have to realize God has put His name on this people. He's connected His reputation to this people in the same way Christ has connected His name to church. He's our head. God has given His glorious name to a people so that the nations will come and know of the glory of that name. Israel carried the name of Yahweh so that everything they did, everything they said, it represented Him. They are called to reflect His clarity, His character, and His glory for all to see. The same way we carry the name of Christ. That's what Christian means, little Christ. We're under Him. Do others see Him in us? Do we appreciate, and I'm repenting of this myself, this temptation to separate the sacred from the secular? Wouldn't it be convenient if we could do some things in life where people didn't know we were Christian? Like driving in rush hour. There are certain parts of life where I don't have a bumper sticker that says I'm a Christian for a reason. There are certain parts of life where I was... it's just so easy to say, if only I could not be a representative of Christ, I could get this done my way. It's a temptation to carry out the business of our lives without recognizing that everything we say, everything we do, we're representing Christ. It doesn't mean we just avoid certain words. It means we avoid every public sin because Christ, in His glory, He's connected it to us. How we live individually, but also how we conduct ourselves corporally. Christ has given us His name. We do not want to take it in vain by living in ungodliness, but as repent of our sins. As we conclude, great summary. Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your mind, with all your strength. That's a summary of what we just studied. Loving God. We have to pray for more love to come out of our hearts by the work of the Holy Spirit. And that happens one way. Repenting of our love for sin. More love isn't added to you. You give up a love for sin so that you can give it over to God. That's how it works. If you want to love God more, you have to love sin less. When we pray, as we're about to sing, more love to you God. While we're praying, God help me to see the sin I need to repent of. so that I love sin less, so that I'm less of its servant, so that I serve it less, so that I can serve You and love You and worship You more. Will you pray with me? Father, we praise You for the Gospel of Jesus Christ that frees us from our sin, that frees us from the slavery that we're deceived in. Shine Your light into our darkness so that we know the freedom we have in Christ. Shine Your light into our darkness so that we can walk in that light. Shine Your light into our darkness so that we can walk the path of righteousness You set before us with Your law. Help us to praise You and to love You. Help us to love You by keeping Your commandments. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.