Now in chapter 20 of Exodus that we just read basically you'll find the Ten Commandments as they're commonly called.
And actually that's what the Bible calls them. If you would flip over, keep your finger in Exodus 20, that's where we're going to be.
Go to Deuteronomy chapter 10.
Deuteronomy chapter 10, almost every single person that you talk to has heard of the Ten Commandments, knows what they are.
That's a pretty common name that people give to it.
And it's actually found in the Bible in Deuteronomy chapter 10 verse 4 where the Bible reads,
And he wrote on the tables, according to the first writing, the Ten Commandments.
So that is a biblical term.
The Ten Commandments which the Lord spake unto you in the mount out of the midst of the fire in the day of the assembly and the Lord gave them unto me.
Go back to Exodus 20.
Basically, I want to talk about the Ten Commandments. I think there are a lot of misconceptions about the Ten Commandments.
One of the major misconceptions that people have about the Ten Commandments is that a lot of people actually think that these are all of God's laws.
And you'll run into people like that a lot when you're out talking to people.
They'll pretty much think, well if you follow the Ten Commandments, I mean you're pretty much following all of God's laws.
Well God actually has probably, I think somebody said like 600 and some commandments and that sounds about right.
Just in the first five books of the Bible alone.
I don't know the exact number but I'm telling you there's a lot more commandments in the Bible than just these ten.
A lot of people pretty much think well if you do these ten you're good to go.
Other people will think that this is their way to heaven.
I mean you run into people and they say well I keep the Ten Commandments, as long as you keep the Ten Commandments you're going to heaven.
But if you break the Ten Commandments you're not going to heaven.
You know you probably run into people like that.
So neither of those things is true obviously.
Now what is the significance of the Ten Commandments in the Bible?
Well the significance is that Moses wrote out the whole book of the law which is Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy.
But there were these two tablets that were actually written with the finger of God.
And those two tablets contained the Ten Commandments according to Deuteronomy 10.4 that we just looked at.
So they're not any more God's word than the other part that Moses penned down.
But there's just a significance to these ten because he put them on two tablets.
When we get into the New Testament, go to Romans 13.
We'll come back to Exodus 20.
Go to Romans 13.
And while you're turning to Romans 13 I'll remind you of something that Jesus talked about when Jesus was on this earth.
Remember people came to him and they said, you know master, which is the greatest commandment in the law?
And he said this is the greatest commandment.
Hear O Israel, the Lord our God is one Lord and thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart and with all thy soul and with all thy might.
He said that's the greatest commandment.
And he said the second is like unto it, thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself.
And he said on these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.
Now it says in Romans 13, let me turn there myself.
In Romans 13 he says something similar here.
He says in verse number 9, for this thou shalt not commit adultery, thou shalt not kill, thou shalt not steal,
thou shalt not bear false witness, thou shalt not covet, and if there be any other commandment it is briefly comprehended in this saying,
namely thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself.
Love worketh no ill to his neighbor, therefore love is the fulfilling of the law.
So here God is telling us that the last five commandments, because remember there are ten commandments on two tables of stone.
He said the last five commandments can basically be summed up in one statement.
And that statement was thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself.
Because he said in verse number 10 that if you love your neighbor, basically you'll fulfill this law.
For example, if you love your neighbor you're not going to kill him.
You're not going to commit adultery with his wife.
You're not going to steal his property.
You're not going to bear false witness about him.
And you're not going to covet what belongs to him.
So if you love your neighbor as yourself you can fulfill that part of the commandment.
And basically if you fulfill the part of loving the Lord your God with all your heart and soul and mind and strength,
then basically that's going to take care of the first five which have more to do with just our obedience to God and submission to God.
But let's go back to Exodus chapter 20.
And let's go through, I want to go through the ten commandments and just basically preach these to you so that you can understand each commandment individually.
Now the first commandment that God lists, and before he even lists them I love what he says in verse 1.
Because this is the best verse I think on biblical inspiration right here.
This is what it means that the Bible is inspired by God.
God spake all these words. Right?
So do we have the Bible word for word from the mouth of God or is it just a general idea?
No. It says God spake all these words.
I was showing somebody the other day, I was preaching to them about something out of the book of Leviticus.
And they said, well you know, that's man's interpretation.
I was just flipping through the book of Leviticus, I showed them at the beginning of the chapter,
because it was Leviticus 20 I think we were looking at.
I showed them at the beginning it said, and the Lord spake.
I forget exactly what it said, the Lord spake unto Moses, the Lord spake these things.
And I looked at chapter 21 it said the same thing.
How many times does the Bible say thus saith the Lord or the Lord spake and God said.
And then when Jesus Christ walked on this earth he didn't say thus saith the Lord.
You know what he said? I say unto you. He said verily verily I say unto you over and over again.
So we know that the Bible is God's word here. God spake all these words saying,
I am the Lord thy God which have brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage.
And here's his first commandment of the ten commandments, the famous ten commandments.
And many people have heard of the ten commandments.
And people have told me that they know they're going to heaven because they keep the ten commandments.
And I've said to them, can you name the ten commandments?
Oh, oh, you know, they named like three or four, but yet they know they're going to heaven because they keep the ten commandments.
A lot of people don't even know what these are.
First commandment number one, thou shalt have no other gods before me.
Now you wonder why they take this out of the public school, right?
You wonder why they take this out of the courtrooms of America and sue people and fine them for posting this and so forth.
The reason why is because the ten commandments, the first thing it's telling you is you can only worship the true and living God
and that there's only one God and not have any other gods before him.
It's funny because people will try to spin this.
A lot of Christians today will try to deceive and spin this and say, oh, you know, why would they not want the ten commandments in school?
You know, what, things like thou shalt not steal, thou shalt not kill?
Hey, I don't think that's the part that's offensive to the world.
Most people in the world are going to agree that stealing's bad, killing's bad.
You know, they'll probably think adultery's fine in many cases, but in general that's not what bothers them.
This is the one that bothers them right here.
Number one, number two, and number three are the ones that probably bother them the most.
Right out of the gate, thou shalt have no other gods before me.
But guess what? That's God's commandment today.
There's only one God, the Bible says.
It says there's one God and there's one mediator between God and man, the man, Christ Jesus.
We were on a solo date today and I saw up on the wall a picture of Mary.
And Mary is basically towering over this little boy, Jesus.
And she's all towering over and it said in Spanish, I'll translate it into English, but it was in Spanish.
It said, oh, Mary, intercede for us to your son, Jesus.
You know what? The Catholic Church has made a God out of Mary and they're in violation of this commandment.
Because it says, thou shalt have no other gods before me.
Matt and I were out soloing and we were talking about this.
I said, how many times is Mary even mentioned in the Bible?
Because we were walking around, we just see shrines to Mary in people's yard.
Boy, you go down to Mexico and we drove down to Hermosillo, we must have seen literally hundreds of these things.
I mean, who's ever seen these things in, who's ever driven around Mexico and just every few miles you just see these shrines to Mary?
Just by the side of the road, you'll be in the middle of nowhere.
There's a shrine after shrine. They make a God out of Mary.
And, you know, so Matt pulls out some kind of electronic device and just types in and he's like, Mary's mentioned 54 times.
But here's the thing. Guess what? A lot of those mentions aren't even Mary.
Because a lot of them are talking about Mary Magdalene.
A lot of them are talking about Mary, the mother of Cleopas.
You know, there's all different Marys in the Bible. There are a bunch of different Marys.
But even if she were mentioned 54 times, which I don't even think she's mentioned that many times, guess what?
That's less than 1% of the Bible. I mean, it's this tiny fraction.
Yet the Lord Jesus Christ and the Lord are mentioned thousands of times in the Bible.
Mary is not a major character of the Bible. I mean, she occurs in a few chapters.
There are a few chapters that really deal with her.
But she is not the central theme of this book.
And anybody who's worshipping Mary is not reading this book.
I love it when Jesus Christ was confronted with somebody, a woman, you know, yelled out to him.
And she said, Blessed is the womb that bare thee and the path which thou had sucked.
That's what somebody yelled out to Jesus. And you know what Jesus responded?
Yea rather is he that heareth the word of God and doeth it.
That's who's blessed. He didn't put Mary on a pedestal.
He said no, Christians are more blessed if they'll just obey God's word. They could be greater than Mary.
Now Mary was a great person. But she is not a God.
And the Catholic Church has made her into a God literally.
Where they literally pray to her. They'll put her above Jesus.
Whenever you see a picture of Mary and Jesus, who's on top?
It's always Mary. Predominantly.
And Jesus takes a back seat to Mary in the pagan religion which is known as Catholicism that worships a female God.
And it's false. Thou should have no other gods before me.
No other God but one. And that is the Lord Jesus Christ.
Look at verse number 4. We'll get into the second commandment.
It says thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image or any likeness of anything.
Now he sounds pretty broad. Like he's really painting with a broad brush here.
Any likeness or any graven image of anything that is in heaven above or that is in the earth beneath or that is in the water under the earth.
Hold on. I'm not sure. Are there some creatures that we should make graven images of here?
I mean God's being pretty clear isn't he?
He's saying not to make an image of anything, a likeness that is in heaven above or that is in the earth beneath or that is in the waters under the earth.
Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them nor serve them.
Now is it just me or are those two different things?
He said don't bow down to it nor serve it.
He said for I the Lord thy God am a jealous God.
Visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children under the third and fourth generation of them that hate me.
And showing mercy unto thousands of them that love me and keep my commandments.
So when the Catholics make a graven image of Mary they're also in violation of the second commandment aren't they?
And if we study the Bible on this, this is not the only place that talks about graven images.
If we study the Bible on this he makes it real clear what he's talking about when you get into Deuteronomy 4 and 5.
Deuteronomy 4 and 5 is a restatement of the Ten Commandments in chapter 5 and in chapter 4 he explains, he said here's what I'm talking about.
Don't make images of the animals or of human beings.
He talks about basically birds of the air, fish of the sea, living creatures upon the earth.
He says don't make a molten image and don't make a graven image. Those are the two words he used.
Now people will say, oh what about a photograph? Well you know a photograph is not a molten image or a graven image.
A graven image or a molten image is basically a statue that's carved.
That's what a graven image is. It's engraved of stone or wood.
And then the molten image is one that's melted down.
Sort of like when they melted down the metal and made the golden calf when the children of Israel worshipped the golden calf.
So we shouldn't have images and statues or molten images of human beings or animals.
So we shouldn't have Mary or the saints or Jesus Christ because we ought not make an image or an engraving or anything like that of God or of animals.
So the fish on the back of the car is in violation of Deuteronomy 4 because it says not to make a molten image of any fish that is in the sea.
I mean it spells that out very specifically in Deuteronomy 4.
So we shouldn't make any graven image. We shouldn't make them and we also shouldn't bow down to them and we also shouldn't serve them.
Three different things.
Now the Roman Catholics again, what do they do? They get on their knees before statues.
And here's what they say, well we're not worshipping it but you're bowing yourself down to it.
That's the second commandment that you just violated.
You're getting on your knees before it.
You remember Haman was a man who wanted to be worshipped and so people were supposed to bow down before him in the book of Esther.
And Mordecai, because he wanted to follow these commandments, refused to get on his knees and bow down to Haman.
Now he could have just said well in my heart, in my heart I'm actually worshipping God and I'm just going to go ahead and get on my knees.
What about Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego?
When they were told to bow down before the golden image that Nebuchadnezzar had set up,
they refused to get on their knees.
And I'll bet you there were a lot of saved people there that got on their knees that day.
And basically they probably just told themselves, well in my heart I'm praying to the Lord.
You know that's probably how they justified getting down on their knees before an idol.
But Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego were standing tall, refusing to get on their knees before a molten image or a graven image.
And we as Christians ought never get on our knees before any image, any idolatry.
We ought never to bow down ourselves to it.
It doesn't matter whether we're praying to God in our heart or not.
It is a sin to get on our knees before a statue and bow down to that statue.
You can call it what you want.
It's violation of the second commandment.
And we ought not do so.
He says in verse number seven, the third commandment.
Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain.
For the Lord will not hold him guiltless that taketh his name in vain.
That's a pretty strong warning isn't it?
Cause he could have just said thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain.
But then he took it a step further and said the Lord will not hold him guiltless.
That means, you know, you can't just say, well, oh, I didn't know.
Whoops. He says no.
He'll not hold you guiltless if you take his name in vain.
Taking God's name in vain like people who say things like, oh my God.
You know, that's blasphemy my friend.
And you might say, well, oh my God is not really God's name.
Well, many times God's name in the Bible is called God.
Sometimes it says this name, swear by this name, the Lord God.
When God appeared unto Moses in the burning bush, he said, I'm the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.
And remember when Moses asked him, what is your name?
And he said, I am that I am.
And he said, if the people ask you what my name is, tell them I am, have sent you unto me.
And he was basically explaining the meaning of the word Jehovah, the self-existent one.
You know, he is. He always is.
And this is also referred to a lot in Revelation.
You remember over and over in Revelation where God says, he which is and which was and which is to come, the Almighty.
He calls himself that over and over again in Revelation.
Him which is and which was and which is to come.
Basically it's just talking about the fact that God is eternal.
That he's always existed and that he always will exist.
And that he had no creator, he had no beginning, he has no end.
He's God.
Well, when God is expounding that to Moses and explaining that term to him, Jehovah and I am.
He says, I was known.
He said, I'm Jehovah in Exodus 7.
But he said, by the name of Jehovah, he said, I was not known unto Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.
He said, I was known unto them by the name of, does anybody remember? God Almighty.
He says, I'm revealing myself to you Moses as Jehovah.
But he basically said unto Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, I was known as God Almighty.
And many times you'll see the word God in the Bible sometimes in all caps as a proper name.
All capitalized.
Like even the O and the D are capitalized.
Because God itself is one of his names.
Now the Jehovah's false witnesses will say, well that's just a title.
And I've been at the door with these people and I said, well who told you that that was a title?
Because I said, the word title is not in the Bible except for where it says there was a title written above Jesus' head.
The King of Kings and Lord of Lords.
The title like a sign that somebody puts up.
But I said, you didn't get that from the Bible.
The Bible says his name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, The Prince of Peace, The Mighty God, The Everlasting Father and so forth.
And so you better be careful not to take God's name in vain.
Basically what does it mean to take it in vain?
Vanity or being vain is basically worthless.
That's what vain means.
Like let's say I got in the car and drove down the street to the drug store, right?
And I get there and the drug store is closed, right?
Well, my trip was in vain, meaning it accomplished nothing, right?
You know, that was a totally vain trip.
It was a waste of time.
That's what the word vain means.
It means it's not worth anything.
It has no value.
Okay.
Well, if we take God's name in vain, this is when we're just throwing God's name around for no reason.
Accomplishing nothing, right?
We're not talking about God.
We're not talking to God.
We're just using His name vainly, just using it for nothing.
Like just throwing it around.
You see these teenage girls and it just irks the fire out of you.
Every little teenage girl in America, oh my God, it's wicked.
Somebody needs to teach these girls the reverence of God's word that they would understand,
hey, that is the name of the Creator of the universe.
You don't just throw that around.
Or even worse, they'll throw around the name that's above every name, Jesus.
The name that every knee should bow and every tongue will confess one day that Jesus Christ is Lord of the glory of God the Father.
They will throw around the name Jesus in vain and use Jesus Christ as a curse word or as an expletive.
They'll say, oh my God.
And, you know, if I were you, I wouldn't even say, oh my gosh.
Why even try to be like the world and try to use some kind of a variation?
And really there are a lot of things, you know, people will say, jeez, you know, which is just short for Jesus.
Or they'll say, oh my gosh.
And we need to just stay away from that and hold God's name in reverence.
And only ever the word God or Lord or Jesus Christ should come across your lips when you're either talking to God or you're talking about God.
It shouldn't be just part of the language to just throw it around.
Oh, God.
You know, you shouldn't say that unless you're actually talking to God.
So we need to be careful not to take God's name in vain.
He'll not hold him guiltless to take his name in vain.
Now, verse number eight has the fourth commandment.
Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy.
Six days shalt thou labor and do all thy work.
But the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God.
In it, thou shalt not do any work.
Thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates.
And by the way, verse 11 is a great verse on creation.
Read verse 11.
For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is.
And rest of the seventh day, wherefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and held it.
The reason that's a great verse on creation, a lot of people will try to make up this thing called the Gap Theory.
And they'll try to say that, you know, verse one of the Bible, in the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.
And then Genesis 1, 2, the earth was without form and void, and darkness was upon the face of the deep,
and the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters.
You know, and then God said let there be light.
What they'll say is there's a gap.
Like God created the heaven and the earth in the beginning, then millions of years went by.
And then the earth was without form and void.
And they'll try to teach this doctrine.
But guess what? In Exodus 20, 11 there's no room for a gap.
Because it says in six days he made the heaven and the earth.
That's Genesis 1, 1, right?
In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.
And then it says the sea and all that in them is.
That's the rest of the chapter.
Face it, this world and everything in it and everything that's in heaven.
Notice it doesn't say the heavens.
It says in six days the Lord made heaven and earth,
and all that in them is, everything that's in heaven right now, besides God himself,
and everything that's on the earth right now was created in six days.
And by the way, these modern Bibles have destroyed doctrine
and created contradictions by changing heaven to heavens.
You say, come on, Pastor Anderson, it's one letter.
Let me show you that God cares about one letter.
Go to Galatians 4 while I explain this.
Go to Galatians, I'm sorry, Galatians 3.
Go to Galatians chapter 3 while I tell you about this.
But basically, in the beginning, verse 1 of Genesis 1,
God created the heaven singular and the earth, right?
Now the heaven is where God lives.
That's what he created in verse number 1.
Now on the first day of creation, God created the heaven and the earth,
and what did God say next?
He said, let there be light.
So on the first day, he created heaven and earth,
and he said, let there be light, and there was light.
On the second day, God created a firmament
to separate the waters which were above the firmament
from the waters which were below the firmament,
referring to the atmosphere of the earth
that holds moisture and water in the atmosphere.
And God called the firmament heaven.
So if God created the heaven and the earth in verse 1,
if that were just referring to the heavens like the sky and the universe,
that doesn't make any sense because he created that two days later.
Do you see what I'm saying?
Obviously, what he created in Genesis 1 is different
than what he created on the second day.
What he created in Genesis 1 is the heaven singular,
the place where God lives, where his throne is, the Lord's throne is in heaven.
And on the second day, he created the firmament which he called heaven.
Well, there's three heavens in the Bible
because, of course, you remember in 2 Corinthians 12,
Paul talks about being caught up to the third heaven.
The third heaven being the place where God lives
because of the fact that the first heaven would be...
And when we say first, we mean in relationship to us physically.
The first heaven would be the atmosphere, the firmament, as the Bible calls it.
The second heaven would be outer space
because that's referred to as the heaven as well
because when God creates the sun, moon, and stars on the fourth day,
he placed them in the firmament of the heaven.
Then the third heaven would be the place where God lives
which is beyond the farthest star.
So, therefore, we have three heavens, right?
When David looks up and beholds the heavens
and the glory of them and says,
What is man that thou art mine?
What's he looking at?
Is he looking at the place where God lives?
He's looking at which two heavens?
The sky and this outer space.
You say, When did God create space?
Well, there's nothing to create. It's empty.
He basically just populated it with stars and the sun, moon, and other heavenly bodies.
And so, therefore, if you read the King James Bible, it makes perfect sense.
He created the heaven where he lives on verse 1.
On the second day, he created the heaven as in the sky.
Any bad outer space where he put the heavenly bodies on day 4.
Makes perfect sense.
But in the new Bibles, they change it to God created the heavens, plural,
the heavens and the earth in verse 1.
Like he just created the sky.
Well, then why did he create the sky again on the second day?
See what I mean? It doesn't make any sense.
And just that one little letter, do you see how it can destroy doctrine
and destroy the theology here behind creation?
Look at Galatians chapter 3
and tell me if God thinks it's okay if we just kind of get the gist of his word
or whether it has to be exact.
Look at verse 16.
Galatians 3, 16.
Now to Abraham and to, and his, what?
Seed.
Is that singular or plural?
Seed.
Now to Abraham and his seed were the promises made.
He saith not and to seed's up as of many, but as of one and to thy seed which is Christ.
Go back to Exodus 20.
So is God splitting hairs about that or what?
Oh yeah.
He's definitely splitting hairs.
Actually stay in the New Testament because I'm going to show you some stuff in the New Testament.
I want to talk about the Sabbath day.
We're on the fourth commandment.
Now the Sabbath day, and again, people have enshrined I think the ten commandments a little bit too much.
Where they think that like these are God's only commandments.
If you keep these you're good to go.
Or they'll think all of this is how to be saved, keep the ten commandments.
No the Bible says believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved.
But a lot of people enshrined to take commandments too much because let me just come right out of the gate and tell you right now.
We as Bible believing New Testament Christians do not keep the literal Sabbath day.
You know we, I personally, and I'm going to show you biblically right now.
You know I'm not spending the whole sermon on this.
I've done a whole sermon on this called the Sabbath day if you want to go back and listen to it.
I'm only going to have time to just hit a few points on this right now.
But I believe and I work seven days a week.
I mean I take days off from time to time, sure.
But I do not believe that there is anything wrong with us as Bible believing Christians working seven days a week in the New Testament.
Because the Sabbath day was a temporary thing.
It was not from the beginning of creation.
Yes I know God created the earth, he rested on the seventh day and so forth.
But the commandment for man to rest on the seventh day was given with the Mosaic law.
It was given at the time of Moses.
The book of Genesis was written at the time of Moses.
Now look if you would, let me just show you a few scriptures on this.
Go to Colossians 2, in the New Testament I've got a mosquito attacking me.
But Colossians chapter 2, just so you know how I was gesturing wildly with my hands like that.
I'm not a charismatic preacher, I just have a mosquito attacking me.
In Colossians chapter 2 God explains this here.
Are you getting in the spirit too brother?
He's back here clapping and everything.
So it says in Colossians chapter 2, 14, this is talking about Jesus Christ paying for our sins, dying on the cross.
It says in verse 14, blotting out the handwriting of ordinances.
Notice that word, ordinances.
That was against us, which was contrary to us, and took it out of the way, nailing it to his cross.
And having spoiled principalities and powers, he made a show of them openly, triumphing over them in it.
Let no man therefore judge you in meat, or in drink, or in respect of a holiday, or of the new moon, or of the Sabbath days.
Which are a shadow of things to come, but the body is of Christ.
Now the Bible is clear here in verses 16 and 17 that the meats, drinks, holidays, new moons, and Sabbath days were a shadow of things to come.
Does everybody got that?
Basically what does that mean?
They were symbolic of things to come.
They were pointing us toward things that would come in the future when Christ came.
The meats, the drinks, the holidays, the Sabbaths, the new moons were a picture of something.
Go to Hebrews 4 and I'll show you what they were a picture of.
Go to Hebrews 4, we're going to go to Hebrews 4 and Hebrews 9.
While you're turning there I'll read you another scripture.
Listen to this from Romans 14, 5.
Very clear scripture.
One man esteemeth one day above another, another esteemeth every day alike.
Let every man be fully persuaded in his own mind.
He that regardeth the day regardeth it unto the Lord, and he that regardeth not the day to the Lord he doth not require it.
So according to Romans 14, 5 and 6 he says look if you want to set aside a certain day and esteem that day and lift that day up as a holiday or lift it up as a once a week, give it to God or whatever, he said that's fine.
But he said you don't have to.
He said it's okay if you just esteem every day alike.
No one is requiring you to celebrate holidays in the New Testament.
He said let no man trouble you concerning Sabbath days, holidays, you don't have to celebrate it.
But he's not commanding you not to celebrate holidays.
If you want to esteem one day above another, you want to have a holiday and celebrate the birth of Christ or you want to celebrate the resurrection of Jesus Christ, he said go ahead.
Somebody else doesn't want to celebrate that, that's fine.
Because it's not a requirement of Christianity according to Romans 14 to celebrate these days.
Okay.
You're in Hebrews, I'm sorry I want to read you another verse from Galatians that I skipped over.
In Galatians it says in Galatians 4, 9, but now after that ye have known God or rather are known of God, how turn ye again to the weak and beggarly elements where do ye desire again to be in bondage?
Ye observe days and months and times and years.
I am afraid of you lest I have bestowed upon you labor in vain.
He's basically questioning their salvation.
He's saying to the Galatians I'm afraid of you, I'm afraid that I've wasted my time with you.
Like are you even saved?
Because they started getting sucked into a workspace salvation is what most of the book is about.
But he also just couldn't understand why they're celebrating the new moons, they're doing all the feasts from the Mosaic law and they're doing the Sabbath day.
I mean they're observing all these days and months and times and years.
He says are you guys even saved?
Do you even understand what it is to be a Christian in the New Testament?
But look at Hebrews chapter 4, or let's go to Hebrews 9 first, we'll come right back to Hebrews 4, give me a second to turn there.
In Hebrews chapter number 9, he lays this out very similar to Colossians 2.
Hebrews 9, 9 says, which was a figure for the time then present, in which were offered both gifts and sacrifices, talking about the animal sacrifices,
that could not make him that did the service perfect as pertained to the conscience, which stood only in meats and drinks, doesn't this sound familiar to Colossians 2?
And divers, washings, and carnal what?
Ordinances, the same thing he called them in Colossians 2.
And carnal, carnal means fleshly carnal ordinances, imposed on them forever. Is that what it says?
No, it says imposed on them until the time of reformation, and he explains what that is.
But Christ being come, a high priest of good things to come, by a greater and more perfect tabernacle, not made with that is to say not of this building.
He said it was imposed on them until the coming of Jesus Christ, because it was a figure for the time then present, it said in verse 9, and it was a shadow of things to come.
You see, the animal sacrifices were just temporary, and they were imposed on them as a picture of the coming of Jesus Christ.
The meat and drink restrictions, the divers washings, the washings pictured us being washed in the blood when we get saved.
The Bible says he washes from our sins in his own blood. That's what the laver pictured in the Old Testament.
When they would go to that laver and be washed, it was a picture of us being washed of our sins.
You say, well Pastor Anderson, I understand all that, but what was the Sabbath a picture of then?
If the Sabbath day was a shadow of things to come, and it was imposed on them at the same time as a lot of these other ordinances, it came with the Mosaic law.
Go back to Hebrews 4, and let me say this by the way, if we're going to keep the Sabbath day, why don't we keep the Sabbath of years?
Why don't we not work every seven years too? Because not only did they have a Sabbath day, they had to keep a Sabbath of years.
They were not allowed to plant any crops the seventh year.
Okay, do we need to follow that? Do we need to celebrate the new moon? Do we need to celebrate the Feast of Tabernacles and the Passover?
And do we need to celebrate all these different ordinances from the Old Testament? No, because they were fulfilled with Jesus Christ.
We don't sacrifice the Lamb. We don't do the Passover.
And we don't do the Sabbath day, because the Sabbath day was a shadow of things to come, and we should not let any man trouble us in respect to keeping the Sabbath, according to Colossians 2.
Look at Hebrews 4, and we'll see what did the Sabbath picture.
It says in verse number 1,
Let us therefore fear lest a promise being left us of entering into his rest, any of you should seem to come short of it.
Does that kind of sound familiar to a verse that you know? What is it?
For all have sinned and come short of the glory of God, right? We come short.
But, if we have faith, we're safe. We have belief.
So it says, Let us therefore fear lest a promise being left us of entering into his rest, any of you should seem to come short of it.
For unto us was the gospel preached as well as unto them, but the word preached did not profit them, not being mixed with faith in them that heard it.
For we which have believed do enter into rest.
So what is the rest here picturing? It's talking about being saved.
Because those who believe enter into rest, everybody else does what? Come short of that rest.
That rest is salvation. I'll prove it to you. Let's keep going.
It says, As I have sworn in my wrath that they shall enter into my rest, although the works were finished from the foundation of the world.
Here's where he ties in the Sabbath to that day of rest.
For he spake in a certain place of the seventh day on this wise, and God did rest the seventh day from all his works.
And in this place again, if they shall enter into my rest, seeing therefore it remaineth that some must enter therein,
and they to whom it was first preached entered not in because of what? Unbelief.
Again he limiteth a certain day, saying, And David, today after so long a time, as it is said, today if you will hear his voice,
harden not your hearts. For if Jesus had given them rest, then would he not afterward have spoken of another day?
There remaineth therefore a rest to the people of God. Now here's the key verse, verse 10.
For he that is entered into his rest, he also hath ceased from his own works as God did from his.
Let us labor therefore to enter into that rest, lest any man fall after the same example of unbelief.
So who doesn't enter into rest according to the Bible? Unbelievers.
But those who have entered into rest, what have they ceased from? Their own works.
So the picture of God resting on the seventh day, and the picture of man keeping the Sabbath day of not doing any works,
was a picture of the fact that to be saved we don't have to do any works to be saved.
Because the Bible says, For by grace are you saved through faith, and that not of yourselves is the gift of God, not of works, lest any man suppose.
So he that is entered into his rest, talking about salvation, he also has ceased from his own works as God did from his.
In order to be saved, you can't be working your way to heaven, right? You have to rest upon Jesus Christ.
This is why God gave the death penalty to a man at one point. There was a guy who just defied Moses.
Moses had just said like, You cannot work on this coming Saturday. It's the Sabbath of the Lord.
And this guy just goes out and says, Whatever, I'm going to do what I want.
And gathers sticks on the Sabbath day and they killed him.
The picture there, there's a symbolism there of the fact that, you know, if you're trying to do your own works to be saved, you're going to hell.
You're dying and going to hell. You know, you're going to face death. The wages of sin is death.
Now, here's what's interesting about the death of Jesus Christ on the cross.
When Jesus Christ died on the cross, how long was he dead for, according to the Bible?
Three days and three nights.
Jesus said, As Jonas was three days and three nights in the well's belly, so shall the Son of Man be three days and three nights.
Where? In the heart of the earth. So he was dead for three days and three nights.
So was he crucified on a Friday like the Roman Catholics say? No way.
If he's crucified on a Friday, that's one day and two nights. It's not even close.
And people say, Well, it's kind of a partial days and a night. That's not even three partial days.
Friday night to Sunday morning is not even close.
Jesus Christ died Wednesday at even because the Passover was to be healed at even.
And Jesus Christ was the Passover.
Jesus Christ died on the cross on the 14th day of the month Abib, right?
He was the Passover lamb and he died at even, which would be our Wednesday night.
But their day started with the evening, like the evening in the morning with the first day.
So they started with the evening first and then the day.
So their day started evening. So technically he died, you know, right as it was becoming Thursday.
Okay. But on our calendar, the way we think of things, he died basically at 6 p.m.
You know, it talks about him making utterances at 3 p.m.
But I don't believe that he actually gave up the ghost until 6 p.m.
Is what I personally believe because the Passover was to be killed at even.
Okay. That's when he died and he was dead for three days and three nights.
Here's what's interesting. The first day that he was dead was the 14th day of the month Abib, which is what holiday?
The Passover. Now the Passover was called a Sabbath. He said, it shall be a Sabbath of rest unto you.
So Thursday was 14 Abib, which was the Passover, which was a Sabbath of rest, according to the book of Leviticus, I believe.
But it's in the Old Testament law. What was the second day he was in the grave and his soul was in hell?
The 15th day of the month Abib, which is called the Feast of Unleavened Bread, which is also a Sabbath.
So he was dead, he was in the grave, on the 14th day of the month Abib, which was the Passover, therefore was a Sabbath.
The second day he was dead was the 15th day of the month Abib, which is the Feast of Unleavened Bread, which is also a Sabbath.
And the third day, what day of the week was the third day he was dead?
Saturday.
Saturday. And what day is Saturday?
The Sabbath.
So isn't it interesting that all three days that Jesus was dead, those three 24-hour periods were three back-to-back Sabbaths.
God worked it out to where Jesus Christ would happen to die in a particular year where the Sabbath day, I'm sorry, the Passover fell upon a Thursday
to fulfill his plan of having Thursday, Friday, Saturday, those three days, no one was to be working.
While he was paying for our sins, because remember they wanted to take him down off the Sabbath, off the cross, because it was becoming the Sabbath, they didn't want to have him hanging on the cross during the Sabbath.
So right around even time, and I'm not saying he died exactly as the clock struck six, but he died around even, and they took him down right around even because it was getting ready to be the Passover.
And for three days and three nights, no work was to be done.
Picturing God saying, hey, no one is working.
I'm paying for this myself.
I'm paying the full price.
And Jesus Christ, during those three days and three nights, paid the full price without any help from man.
So the symbolism there is like, hey, no works are to be done while Jesus Christ is dead for these three days and three nights.
And then of course, on the first day of the week, he rose again, you know, after those three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.
And I've got a whole sermon where I went into all that in great detail and we proved all that from the Bible.
But you see what the Sabbath pictures now.
It pictures resting on Christ for salvation, not trying to do the work ourselves. Isn't that an amazing picture in the Bible?
And so that shows us right there. That was fulfilled.
So what do we do with the Ten Commandments here? Go back to Exodus 20. I've got to hurry.
What do we do here with the Fourth Commandment? Does this mean that it's a sin for us to work on Saturday?
No, it doesn't because this is something that is passed according to Colossians 2, according to Galatians 3,
according to Hebrews 4, really explains this. And according to Romans 14, 5, it's not something that we're required to observe.
But what it means to us here is it's picturing salvation to us because Jesus Christ is our rest.
And also the Bible always works as its own dictionary. God defines the word Sabbath in verse 11 when he says,
God rested the seventh day, wherefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day.
And of course, if you speak Spanish, you know that the word for Saturday is what?
Sabado. So many people try to take this commandment and say it's a sin to work on Saturday.
No, we're not under these ordinances that were nailed to the cross with Jesus that are no longer in force.
And number two, it's not right, I don't believe, for one second when people command not to work on Sunday.
Because some people will say it's a sin to work on Sunday. I don't believe that.
Now I think that it's wrong to miss church. I think you should be here. I will not miss church on Sunday.
I won't miss morning and I won't miss night. But you know what, if I had to work between the services or before or after, that's no sin.
But I think the church should be a priority in our lives. That's why I think that you should be here in church.
So let's move on to the next one. I spent a lot of time on that one. We'll blow through some of the rest of these.
Verse number 12, the fifth commandment.
Honor thy father and thy mother, that thy days may be long upon the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee.
Now honor thy father and mother, basically the Bible talks about a few different things here.
Of course God commands us to obey our parents. He said in chapter 6 of Ephesians, children, obey your parents in the Lord for this is right.
Honor thy father and mother, so he ties those two things in. Part of the way that you honor them is by obeying them.
Because he says, honor thy father and mother, Ephesians 6, 2, which is the first commandment with promise.
Because there's a promise associated with obeying your father and mother, that it may be well with thee and thou mayest live long on the earth.
God has a special blessing for those who obey their parents and who honor their parents.
And today we live in a society where people are very disrespectful to their parents, they mouth off to them, they won't obey.
But you know what? I personally, even to this day, and you know, I'm not a child living in my parents' home.
They don't give me orders and I obey them. Obviously I'm an adult now. I'm my own man. I have my own family.
I'm a father and my parents do not exert authority over me at this point.
But you know, I make a point to try to honor my father and mother, you know, because I want this blessing, honestly.
And especially if I were a child I would be thinking about this.
But I've thought about this and I've tried to do nice things for my parents and I've tried to be respectful to them and make them proud.
And to do good to them. Because I believe this and I want this promise.
So we've got to take this seriously. I was talking to my grandma and she's 89 years old and she is doing great for 89.
I mean she is totally healthy. I mean she's, I mean she hasn't changed. My whole life she just seems the same.
And she's 89. She drives, she does everything. I mean she's very, she's doing good. I mean she wins souls.
I mean she is sharp as a tack. And we were trying to figure out what the secret was.
And we're watching her put artificial sweetener in her coffee and we're just thinking, no, what are you doing?
But then I'm like, hey, whatever works. You know, you're 89. I'm not going to give you health advice.
You know, if she's not an In-N-Out burger, she's at Subway and if she's not there, you know.
I mean she used to eat chocolate cakes for a meal. You know, just like she'd skip lunch and eat a chocolate cake.
You know, so we're like, what is the secret? How are you this healthy at 89?
And I said, I jokingly, but I was half serious. I said to her, I said, you must have really honored your father and mother.
You know, because that's why you're living so long on the earth, you know, and you're so blessed.
And she's like, oh yeah, I did. And she, and you know, she was very respectful to her parents.
You know, hey, I believe that God will bless your life if you'll respect and honor your parents.
And especially when you're a child, this is extremely important. But even as you get older, just respecting them, honoring them.
And by the way, taking care of them when they get old and maybe they can't take care of themselves.
The Bible says that if we have widows in our family that are our, you know, ancestors, we need to take care of them.
And it's our responsibility to take care of them. And so that's part of honoring your father and mother.
I could do a whole sermon on that, but Jesus associated actually caring for your parents when they're old financially with honoring them.
He used that word.
Let's move on to the latter half. So we got through the first five commandments.
And of course honoring our father, one of the fathers that we really need to honor is our father, which is in heaven.
Right? We need to hallow his name. Okay? So the fifth commandment can also be speaking about our father in heaven.
But look at the last five here. And I got to hurry through these. Thou shalt not kill.
Now, we don't have time to turn there, but in the New Testament when Jesus quoted this commandment, he quoted it as thou shalt not murder.
Thou shalt do no murder.
So we realize here that when he said thou shalt not kill, he's referring to murdering someone.
Because that's how Jesus quotes that in the New Testament.
So is it always wrong to kill? No.
Because first of all, we can kill animals. God tells us all the time to kill and eat animals, right?
And even killing a human being can sometimes be justified.
For example, self-defense can be justified.
Also a legitimate defensive warfare can be justified to kill in defense.
Also executing criminals is ordained by God.
And so that's a situation where we are told to kill.
And so that's talking about murdering.
But many people violate that commandment in today's world that maybe would think,
Oh, I'm not a murderer, but they've had abortion.
That's murder.
Because, let me tell you something, one out of four American women has had an abortion.
This country is filled with murderers.
And every single one of them is a murderer.
And every doctor and every nurse that's involved with it is a murderer.
And so that's the sixth commandment, thou shalt not kill.
The seventh commandment is this, thou shalt not commit adultery.
This one is downplayed as well.
Many people when we go out soloing, you talk about murder and they,
Oh, man, murder kills someone. Oh, I'd never do that.
But they've committed adultery.
But they'll watch adultery on TV.
Did you know that God puts adultery up there as bad as murder?
Because of the fact that, what was the punishment in the Old Testament for the murderer?
Stoning. Stone them with stones. Death.
What's the punishment for adultery in the Old Testament?
Same thing.
And so adultery is a wicked, wicked sin.
And people will downplay it.
And it's because we've been desensitized to it.
It's on TV. It's in the movies.
And we get used to it. We call it an affair.
It's not an affair. It's adultery. It's something that's worthy of death.
And so, if you're married, you better take this seriously.
And keep thee only unto her so long as you both shall live.
And keep you only unto him so long as you both shall live.
You better take this very seriously.
And not break that vow that you made.
And be true to your marriage vows.
And committing adultery is a really bad sin.
And so you don't want to mess with that.
Of course, the Bible talks about also committing adultery in your heart.
You know, lusting after someone else's wife.
We need to be careful with that as well. That's a wicked sin.
But look at the next verse. It says thou shalt not steal.
I mean, we don't really have to say much about that.
But there are a lot of ways that you can steal without really reaching into the cash register and ripping out of a lot of twenty dollar bills.
I mean, if you go to work and you're not putting in eight hours for eight hours paid, that's stealing.
You know, you buy some of them at the store.
You know, you buy a drill bit or something. You use it a few times and then return it.
You know, that's stealing, right?
You buy a Christmas sweater.
You know, just because you're only going to wear it to that one Christmas party, you know.
And you got the tag kind of tucked in.
You know, you wear that Christmas sweater and then you return it.
You know, you kept the tag on.
That's stealing, isn't it?
That's not right.
And so we need to try to make sure that we're honest in all our dealings.
That we don't take money for work that we didn't do.
Don't put on your time sheet hours that you didn't work.
That's stealing.
That you don't milk the clock.
And, you know, that you put in a good day's work for your good day's pay and so forth.
Don't steal.
He says in verse 16, thou shall not bear false witness against thy neighbor.
This is lying about someone else.
That's what that means.
Bearing false witness against thy neighbor.
Saying, oh yeah, you wouldn't believe what I saw him doing.
Or, you know.
Or what?
Well, he said this.
And, you know, hey, I've been in court and I've had people lie about me in court and bear false witness against me.
You know.
And then we had video tape evidence, thank God we're living in the 21st century.
You know.
We got the video tape evidence to prove people are lying.
But a lot of times people get up on that witness stand, right?
They don't take it seriously, do they?
They hold their hand up, I swear to tell the whole truth and nothing but the truth so help me God.
Bill Clinton.
You know.
And then lies under oath.
You know.
Or even, even, you know, he was bearing false witness just trying to cover himself, you know, cover up for his wicked adulterous sins.
But, you know, even worse, in a sense, is the person who would get up and bear false witness against someone else
try to get someone convicted of a crime by lying.
I mean, isn't that wicked?
That's a violation of this commandment, the ninth commandment.
And then the tenth commandment is this, verse 17.
Thou shalt not covet.
And many people don't even know what this word means today.
And when you explain it to people, usually their reaction is, that's a sin?
You know, because this is just who we are in America.
I mean, covetousness is just a part of our personality.
So when you explain to someone what it means to covet, they're like, really?
That's a sin?
And let me explain covetousness briefly.
Let me read the verse, but it says,
Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's house,
thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's wife,
nor his manservant, nor his maidservant, nor his ox, nor his ass, nor anything that is thy neighbor's.
Now, the thing about covetousness, I think the best way to define it
is when God tells you what the opposite of covetousness is.
He says in Hebrews chapter 13,
Let your conversation be without covetousness,
and be content with such things as you have.
So the opposite of covetousness is being content.
Covetousness is desiring what you don't have,
and what you don't have access to, and wishing it was yours.
If I look at, you know, Victor's iPhone or whatever gadget he has,
you know, if I look at Victor's iPhone and say,
you know, oh man, yeah, this piece of junk phone that I have,
you know, he's got the iPhone.
Man, I wish I had the iPhone.
This is all I've got. I wish I had that.
That's a sin right there.
And most people, what? That's a sin?
I mean, if I say I wish I had an iPhone, and I don't have one,
but I wish I had one, that's a sin.
Now, if I have the money to buy an iPhone, you know,
or if I can save up the money to get one,
and I look and say, oh, Victor has an iPhone,
I'd like to have one too, I'm going to go ahead and buy one.
Or I'm going to go ahead and save up to get one.
You know, I'm going to start putting money away because I'd like to get one.
But if I'm just like, I can't have one, I can't afford it,
must be nice, Victor.
You know?
And Victor's like, Victor's like, yeah, but you should see my car, you know.
Just kidding, sorry about that.
He actually plugs in the iPhone, and the iPhone actually powers his car.
Because the iPhone has more power than its car has, you know.
But that's another sermon.
Anyway, the point that I'm making is,
covetousness is when I want something that belongs to someone else.
Now, here's the wrong definition of covetousness that a lot of people will teach you.
And this is the definition I was taught growing up,
and it wasn't until just later, just doing a lot of study in the Bible,
just saying, wait a minute, I see what covetousness is.
And there are two other words associated with covetousness.
Desire and lust.
For example, this is the last place we'll turn, flip over to Deuteronomy 5.
Deuteronomy 5 is another restatement of the Ten Commandments.
The word Deuteronomy actually means second law.
That's what the English word Deuteronomy means.
And it's basically because Deuteronomy is kind of a recap of the law,
kind of a review where Moses basically preaches it to him kind of in a nutshell, puts it all together.
Well, Deuteronomy 5, we see a difference in wording here.
It says in verse number, let's see here, verse number 21,
remember what it said in Exodus 20? It said, Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's wife.
What's it saying in Deuteronomy 5 21?
Thou shalt not, neither shalt thou desire thy neighbor's wife.
Do you see how desire and covet are both used?
Paul said this, I had not known lust, but that the law had said, thou shalt not covet.
Okay, so lust is when you're coveting, desiring something that belongs to someone else.
Now here's the false definition of covetousness I was taught as a child.
I was taught that covetousness is, I wish that I had Victor's iPhone and that he didn't have it.
Like I want his iPhone.
Like not, I'm not saying I want an iPhone like his and then we can both have it and we can both be happy.
But no, I want his iPhone.
Like I want me to have it and not you.
That's not, and so basically what they're trying to do is downplay it.
Like, well it's only when you want to take it away from someone else.
Well that's already covered in thou shalt not steal, right?
You know, stealing it from him in my heart.
You know what I mean?
Can you tell I want an iPhone? No, I'm just kidding.
You know Christmas is coming up? No, just kidding.
I'm not going to trouble you in respect of a holiday.
But anyway, the bottom line is this, I'm just playing.
The bottom line is this, it's not just covetousness if I want to take it away from someone else.
No, desiring something that I don't have is covetousness because I'm not being content with such things as I have.
You see, if I drive with my wife and we drive to some million dollar mansion
and I pull in front of it and say, honey, someday, wouldn't it be great if we could live in that house someday?
Man, wouldn't that be great?
Now hold on a second, do you think I'm going to be buying a million dollar house any time in the near future?
Do I have that kind of income? No way.
It's a pipe dream, it'd be way out there.
That's why it would be covetousness to sit around thinking about it.
Oh man, I wish I had a ranch with a hundred acres.
That's covetousness because you're not being content with your tract house and your ten foot by ten foot backyard.
Be content with it.
That's what God gave you.
I'll tell you something, my house isn't that cool.
My house is from the 1950s and it looks like it's from the 1950s.
My house has things in it that are dilapidated and my house is not big.
Do I live in a big house? No.
I live in a small house, it's not fancy.
It's an older house, it has problems that need to be fixed from time to time.
But you know what, I'm content with my house.
If I live in that house for the rest of my life, I'm completely happy with that, I'm fine with that.
If that's where God wants me, if that's all I can afford, if that's where I live at, hey I'm content with that.
I'm not lusting after a bigger house.
I'm not wishing, oh I wish I had a bigger house.
Oh man, I wish I had this or I wish I lived in a different area.
I wish I lived in a different part of town.
I wish I didn't live in Arizona, I live in Tempe.
I live in this inferno.
That's wrong.
Does everybody understand what that's what our covet means?
The opposite of covetousness.
You'll know you're not violating this command when you're content with where you live, who you're married to.
If you're content with your wife or your husband, or if you're single, if you're content with being single.
Not to say that it's wrong for you to go out and find a wife, but the bottom line is if you're single, be content being single.
If you're married, be content being married.
There are people who are single who wish they were married.
There are people who are married who wish they were single.
And basically, hopefully not, but I'm sure there are, the bottom line is we need to be content with our wife, our husband,
our house, our car, our cell phone, our clothing.
We shouldn't be desiring things that don't belong to us.
We should just be happy with what we got.
And hey, if we go out and make money and can buy some more things, great.
But until then, you better just be happy with what you got.
It might be small. The backyard might be small.
It might be a bad area. There might be a lot of gunshots.
But you know what? That's what God has provided.
Just be happy with it and be content with it.
So let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer.
Father, please just help us to apply these Ten Commandments to our life, dear God.
And help us to realize that if we're truly going to love our neighbor and if we're truly going to love you as we should,
we're going to need to have these Ten Commandments in our life.
Of course, the Fourth Commandment teaches us a powerful lesson about salvation.
These other commandments are guiding us in our daily lives, how we should live our life.
Help us to not justify sin in our life. Help us not to be covetous.
Help us not to steal. Help us not to take your name in vain.
Help us not to do any of these things, dear God. Help us not to be disrespectful to our parents.
But Father, help us to put these Ten Commandments in place in our life.
And many are worried about the Ten Commandments not being mounted in a courtroom or in a school.
But how respectful are we of the Ten Commandments in our own home and in our own life?
Help us to put the Ten Commandments into practice, not just to enshrine them and make a shrine unto them, but rather to live by them.
And in Jesus' name we pray.
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