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We could turn in your Bibles 
to Deuteronomy chapter 5. We're going to start a new series 
going through the Ten Commandments. I feel like I said everything 
I could say from the book of Proverbs, and I do like to make 
sure that Sunday nights are devoted to practical stuff, sort of practical 
Christianity. And I thought the Ten Commandments, 
though I preached on them a few years ago, certainly bears repetition 
every few years or so. So I want to read Deuteronomy 
chapter 5, and our focus this evening will be on verses 1 to 
6. So beginning in verse 1, And 
Moses called all Israel and said to them, Hear, O Israel, the 
statutes and judgments which I speak in your hearing today, 
that you may learn them and be careful to observe them. The 
Lord our God made a covenant with us in Horeb. The Lord did 
not make this covenant with our fathers, but with us, those who 
are here today, all of us who are alive. The Lord talked with 
you face to face on the mountain from the midst of the fire. 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 the mountain. He said, I am 
the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, 
out of the house of bondage. You shall have no other gods 
before me. You shall not make for yourself a carved image, 
any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is 
in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth. 
You shall not bow down to them nor serve them. For I, the Lord 
your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon 
the children to the third and fourth generation of those who 
hate me, but showing mercy to thousands, to those who love 
me and keep my commandments. 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. Observe the Sabbath day to keep 
it holy, as the Lord your God commanded you. Six days you shall 
labor and do all your work. The seventh day is the Sabbath 
of the Lord your God. In it, you shall do no work, 
you nor your son, nor your daughter, nor your male servant, nor your 
female servant, nor your ox, nor your donkey, nor any of your 
cattle, nor your stranger who is within your gates. that your 
male servant and your female servant may rest as well as you. 
And remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt, and the 
Lord your God brought you out from there by a mighty hand and 
by an outstretched arm. Therefore, the Lord your God 
commanded you to keep the Sabbath day. Honor your father and your 
mother as the Lord your God has commanded you, that your days 
may be long and that it may be well with you in the land which 
the Lord your God is giving you. You shall not murder. You shall 
not commit adultery. You shall not steal. You shall 
not bear false witness against your neighbor. You shall not 
covet your neighbor's wife and you shall not desire your neighbor's 
house, his field, his male servant, his female servant, his ox, his 
donkey, or anything that is your neighbor's. These words the Lord 
spoke to all your assembly in the mountain from the midst of 
the fire, the cloud, and the thick darkness with a loud voice. 
And he added, no more. And he wrote them on two tablets 
of stone and gave them to me. So it was when you heard the 
voice from the midst of the darkness while the mountain was burning 
with fire that you came near to me. all the heads of your 
tribes and your elders. And you said, Surely the Lord 
our God has shown us His glory and His greatness, and we have 
heard His voice from the midst of the fire. We have seen this 
day that God speaks with man, yet He still lives. Now therefore, 
why should we die? For this great fire will consume 
us. If we hear the voice of the Lord our God anymore, then we 
shall die. For who is there of all flesh 
who has heard the voice of the living God speaking from the 
midst of the fire as we have and lived? You go near and hear 
all that the Lord our God may say, and tell us all that the 
Lord our God says to you, and we will hear and do it. Then 
the Lord heard the voice of your words when you spoke to me, and 
the Lord said to me, I have heard the voice of the words of this 
people which they have spoken to you. They are right in all 
that they have spoken. Oh, that they had such a heart 
in them that they would fear me and always keep all my commandments, 
that it might be well with them and with their children forever. 
Go and say to them, return to your tents. But as for you, stand 
here by me, and I will speak to you all the commandments, 
the statutes, and the judgments which you shall teach them, that 
they may observe them in the land which I am giving them to 
possess. Therefore, you shall be careful to do as the Lord 
your God has commanded you. You shall not turn aside to the 
right hand or to the left. You shall walk in all the ways 
which the Lord your God has commanded you, that you may live and that 
it may be well with you, and that you may prolong your days 
in the land which you shall possess. Amen. Well, let us pray. Our 
Father, we thank you for this written word of the living God. 
We thank you for these commandments. And God, help us to use them 
properly. Help us to understand their utility in the Christian 
life, their function, the threefold use of the law. Give us grace, 
Father, to see this revelation of who you are in these 10 words. And may it be the case that we 
would respond with this sort of fear before the living and 
true God. As well, may that be mingled 
always with great joy and thanksgiving, because you have saved us by 
your grace through faith in our Lord Jesus Christ. You've called 
us to follow, you've given us the Holy Spirit, you've provided 
all the resources necessary. So God, again, forgive us for 
our sins and our transgression now, and help us as we study 
your word, and we pray through Christ our Lord, amen. Well, 
I just want to take a moment just to sort of locate the book 
of Deuteronomy in and amongst the other books of Moses. We 
know that he, under the inspiration of the Spirit, wrote Genesis, 
Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy. Essentially, we 
have the book of Genesis, which is the book of the beginnings, 
the creation of the world, the rebellion of man, and then God's 
plan and purpose to bless the nations through the seed of Abraham. And then the book of Exodus is 
composed, or the book of Exodus, the Exodus ultimately takes place 
in 1445 BC. And then the tabernacle was completed one year later, 
Exodus 40, 17 tells us. Now Leviticus picks up where 
Exodus leaves off to basically describe or define or indicate 
how sinful man can dwell in the presence of God. That's why Leviticus, 
the emphasis is heavy on sacrifice, on approach to God. Exodus ends 
with God dwelling among the people of Israel, but no one can meet 
with him. That's where Leviticus comes 
in and prescribes the rules by which the people of Israel can 
enjoy communion and fellowship with God. So Leviticus takes 
about, I'm sorry, Leviticus, there's no geographical movement 
in Leviticus. They stay there at Sinai. Now 
Numbers begins one month later at Sinai. So Numbers then engages 
or shows or demonstrates the 40 years that the children of 
Israel wandered in the wilderness. So Deuteronomy begins. 40 years 
later after numbers in the plains of Moab and the time of the date 
is 1405 BC. And essentially, Deuteronomy, 
this big book, is three addresses or exhortations by Moses. It's three addresses or exhortations 
by Moses to the children of Israel, that second generation, to prepare 
them for their tenure in the land. for their entrance into 
the promised land. Obviously after Deuteronomy, 
the passing of Moses, the successor is Joshua, and then the book 
of Joshua indicates the conquest of the land. So Moab is preparatory, 
the plains of Moab, where Moses is getting them ready so that 
they can embark on that conquest, where they can dispossess the 
land of Canaan from the Canaanites, and then they can occupy the 
land as God had promised them. So these speeches, these instructions, 
these exhortations, the first one is sort of a historical rehearse, 
a review in chapter 1 to chapter 4. The end of chapter 4 to chapter 
28, the biggest of the addresses, is basically an exhortation to 
covenantal faithfulness, fidelity to God. And then the last one 
is from 29 to 30, where Moses is essentially calling them to 
summarizing and concluding all that he had said. So as we look 
now at Deuteronomy chapter 5, it is a second giving of the 
law. The law is initially given by God in Sinai at Exodus chapter 
20. And then after Exodus chapter 
20, you have 21 to 23, where those case laws or that judicial 
law is sort of explained for the children of Israel. They're 
tied into the Decalogue in the 10 words in chapter 20, but it 
defines for them the parameters on how they're to function when 
they come into the land. Exodus 24 is ratification of 
the covenant. That's when the people swear 
that everything that Yahweh has commanded, they will do. That 
obviously does not last long. By the time you get to Exodus 
32, they're dancing around a calf. and ascribing to it the power 
of having brought them out of Egypt. So when we come to Deuteronomy, 
we know that the first generation passed away. They were judged 
by God. They were told they would not 
enter the land. This is the second generation. There's a couple 
of differences in the Decalogue, not differences in terms of contradiction, 
but in terms of amplification or a bit of a different emphasis 
that we'll note as we move through the commandments. But tonight 
I want to consider first the command to observe the law in 
verses 1 to 5, and then secondly the preface to the Decalogue. 
We don't just jump into the first commandment, but we need to see 
the preface. That's found in verse 6. So we 
have the command to observe the law in verses 1 to 5, we have 
the preface to the Decalogue in verse 6, and then we have 
the uniqueness of the Decalogue. Now, Decalogue simply means 10 
words. That's all it means. If I say 
decalogue, that means ten words. I guess if I say ten words, that 
means decalogue. So the same is true either way. 
It just means the Ten Commandments. The commandments are called the 
Ten Commandments in a couple of places. They're called ten 
words in a couple of places. And over the history of interpretation, 
just a helpful identifier to sort of put on the Ten Commandments 
has been the decalogue. So if I say decalogue, everybody 
knows that I'm talking about the Ten Commandments. Note first 
this command to observe the law. All Israel is called upon here. Notice in verse one, Moses called 
all Israel and said to them, here, O Israel, the statutes 
and judgments which I speak in your hearing today, that you 
may learn them. and be careful to observe them." So all Israel 
is summoned to Moses on the plains of Moab to instruct them in their 
responsibilities to their covenant God. So it is heavy law. The emphasis is heavy on how 
God wants them to conduct themselves in a general sense with reference 
to the Ten Commandments, and then in a specific concrete way 
with reference to the rest of this section. As they go into 
the land, they need to function the way the Lord of the covenant 
has called them to. And when he says, hear, when 
he says, hear, O Israel, the idea is hear, understand, but 
also observe and do. That's the emphasis in the section. 
Meredith Klein says, hear, learn, keep, do. This chapter opens 
and closes with a charge to follow carefully the divine stipulations 
of the covenant that was in the process of solemnization. We 
need to observe not only what God says, but we need to put 
it into practice. And that's the emphasis here 
in verse 1. Notice as well, there is this emphasis on the ear. 
Go back for just a moment to chapter 4. In chapter 4, verses 
10 to 14, we learn something interesting. concerning Yahweh 
of Israel. Verse 10, especially concerning 
the day you stood before the Lord your God in Horeb, when 
the Lord said to me, gather the people to me, and I will let 
them hear my words, that they may learn to fear me all the 
days they live on the earth, and that they may teach their 
children. Then you came near and stood at the foot of the 
mountain, and the mountain burned with fire to the midst of heaven, 
with darkness, cloud, and thick darkness. And the Lord spoke 
to you out of the midst of the fire. You heard the sound of 
the words, but saw no form. You only heard a voice. See, 
our religion, the religion of God most high is one of hearing. It's not of one of image making. It's not one of trying to capture 
what Yahweh looks like and bowing down to that. The prohibition 
of the second commandment is absolutely crucial. We see no 
form. We haven't appreciated God looking 
at us or having this sort of apparition to us. And then we 
fashion an idol. He goes on in verse 13. So he 
declared to you his covenant, which he commanded you to perform. 
the Ten Commandments, and he wrote them on two tablets of 
stone. And the Lord commanded me at that time to teach you 
statutes and judgments that you might observe them in the land 
which you cross over to possess. In verses 2 and 3 in chapter 
5, he reminds them of Horeb. Now, I should tell you that Horeb 
is synonymous with Sinai. It's called Horeb in Deuteronomy, 
but in the book of Exodus, it's Sinai. It's Mount Sinai where 
God reveals his law to the children of Israel. So anytime you're 
reading the book of Deuteronomy, I think there is one mention 
of Sinai in Deuteronomy, but for the most part, Sinai is referred 
to as Horeb in the book of Deuteronomy. It's the same place. It's not 
different. It's not contradictory. It's 
simply the way that Moses chooses to reveal this in the book of 
Deuteronomy. And then when he says in verse 
3, the Lord did not make this covenant with our fathers, I 
think we should understand what most commentators understand. 
He didn't make this covenant with our fathers only. It wasn't 
just with them, but it was with us as well, as Moses is saying 
in this particular instance. It wasn't that they were without 
covenant, it wasn't as if they didn't swear fidelity to Yahweh 
in Exodus chapter 24. I think the emphasis is specifically, 
He didn't make this covenant with them only, but, middle of 
verse 3, with us, those who are here today, all of us who are 
alive. And then in verses 4 and 5, we 
see the goodness of God to His people. And this is something 
I think we under-appreciate at times. We don't always reflect 
on the blessed fact that God has revealed himself. God has 
given us scripture. God has given us his mind. God 
has given us his word. This is what produces in David 
that celebration of Psalm 119. Psalm 119 is essentially 176 
verses of praise and adoration and worship to God for God's 
having spoken to us. We shouldn't under-appreciate 
the fact that we have the Bible in our lap. We shouldn't under-appreciate 
the fact that we have, from Genesis to Revelation, a God-inspired 
book that is infallible, it is inerrant, and therefore it is 
trustworthy in all its parts. It is trustworthy in history 
and science and doctrine and ethics, religious practice, or 
any other topic. We should praise God Almighty 
that He has given us this word, and while we ought to to certainly 
appreciate it as is consistent, we ought to make use of it. So 
notice in verse four, the Lord talked with you face to face 
on the mountain from the midst of the fire. Again, God is spirit, 
it doesn't mean that they saw him, they didn't see the sort 
of big face up in the sky, but as Gil says, it means publicly, 
audibly, clearly, and distinctly, the children of Israel Heard 
these ten words now it evoked in them great fear as we continue 
in Deuteronomy chapter 5 and they themselves cry out for a 
mediator Who in the world could hear the very voice of God and 
live? So then Moses is appointed as 
the mediator to communicate on behalf of God to the children 
of Israel the various statutes and judgments and laws that that 
sort of unfold the Ten Commandments but in terms of the Ten Commandments 
all Israel heard this And this is what they're being reminded 
in the plains of Moab. The Lord talked with you face 
to face on the mountain from the midst of the fire. 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 the mountain. The people feared God, so Moses 
mediated between God and them. And that certainly teaches us 
something that scripture everywhere affirms. We don't just wander 
in to the presence of a thrice holy God. We don't just sort 
of say, what's up? How are things going? We need 
a mediator, and Christ is the mediator of the new covenant. 
We come to the Father through the Son in the power of the Holy 
Spirit. That's not just to emphasize 
the triunity of our living and true God, but it is to highlight 
the way of access. Sinful man cannot stand in the 
presence of a holy God without a mediator. and the mediator 
is Christ. He is prophet, priest, and king. He is the one way alone by which 
sinners find themselves accepted in God's presence. Now let's 
move secondly to the preface of the Decalogue, the preface 
of the 10 Commandments. Notice in verse six, it sort 
of sets the context for the law that is to follow. And that context 
is one of grace. In other words, we see something 
at least consistent with New Covenant salvation. We're justified 
freely by God's grace, and then God calls us to live in a particular 
manner. In other words, sanctification 
always follows after justification, and that same sort of pattern 
is observed in this instance. Notice what we have in the preface. 
It says, I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land 
of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. That is an act of grace. That is an act of redemption. 
That is an act of God's liberating his people. This isn't liberation 
theology, but the language certainly holds. It is liberation in the 
sense that they were in bondage, they were subject to the Egyptians, 
they were in that state of slavery, and God freely, graciously, and 
mercifully delivers them from that. So this law code that follows 
is not, now I want you to do this in order that I will redeem 
you. No, God's redeemed you, now this 
then is how you ought to live. It's not absolutely positively 
100% consistent with our new covenant salvation, but there's 
certainly a parallel to a degree. So we've got grace first, and 
then God calls them how they ought to function. Now with reference 
to the preface, note the identity of the lawgiver. He says, I am 
the Lord your God. The giver of the law is God. Now, it's often called the law 
of Moses, and that's not incorrect. It's not heretical. It's not 
bad to say it's the law of Moses insofar as Moses was a mediator, 
insofar as Moses was a communicator, but it's not Moses that wrote 
the law. It's not Moses that came up with 
the law. It's not Moses who put this law 
together. It was God the Lord who gave 
it. And that is highlighted in this particular preface. He said, 
I am the Lord your God. This points to his authority. The fact that the name Yahweh 
is utilized there in verse six highlights the fact that he is 
their covenantal Lord, their covenantal God. You'll know that 
this language Yahweh or this term or identifier comes from 
Exodus 3.14, when God said, I am who I am. Now, how do we define 
that? Well, we ask, Charnock, Turretin, 
and Boving. Charnock says it signifies, this 
name Yahweh, his immutability as well as his eternity. Turretin 
says, but since eternal existence, omnipotent power, and immutable 
truth belongs to God alone, the name Jehovah, which embraces 
all these three, ought to be peculiar to him alone. Boving 
says Yahweh describes him as the one who in his grace remains 
forever faithful. Now, someday, as we continue 
in our Wednesday night studies, we're going to get to Exodus 
3. You know, unless we all die or, you know, we're raptured 
before then. Little joke, don't, don't, you know, tar and feather 
me. But we'll eventually get to Exodus 3.14. That is a huge 
statement in Holy Scripture. one that demands the attention 
of God's people, and one that demands accurate interpretation 
and articulation. I think one of the things that, 
as I'm musing on this series on the Ten Commandments, a gift 
given by the Reformed faith to the rest of the Christian world 
is covenant, and from covenant comes a proper understanding 
of the law of God. I don't know how Lutherans, and 
I don't know how, you know, Anglicans, and I don't know how Catholics 
really get into all these particulars in terms of the law, but the 
Reformed emphasis on the law in a proper covenantal context 
is absolutely brilliant. It is absolutely consistent with 
what we find in Scripture, and I commend it to you wholeheartedly. 
Our confession of faith, chapter 19, is certainly a high point 
of Christian interpretation of the law of God. I would suggest 
chapter 7 as well, of God's covenant. If Christians get their heads 
wrapped around those two chapters, in particular, I think a lot 
of questions concerning the law, concerning application of that 
law, would be answered. So if you don't have a copy of 
that confession, I would encourage you to take one. But we see the 
giver of the law is God Almighty. The authority of the law giver 
is highlighted. And then notice the personal 
nature of this God. He says, I am the Lord, your 
God. I am the Lord, your God. We have 
a religion. of personal pronouns. We have 
a religion where the Apostle Paul can say that concerning 
the Lord Jesus Christ, who loved me and who gave himself for me, 
we have a religion where Thomas, who at one time was doubting, 
one time was sort of incorrigible with reference to the resurrection 
of our Lord, when he lays his eyes upon the Savior, he says, 
my Lord and my God, not some far removed nebulous concept 
of deity, but he's my Lord and my God. And the same obtains 
here on the plains of Horeb, it obtained at Exodus 20 at Sinai. I am the Lord your God. Now notice 
the activity of the lawgiver. Verse six, I am the Lord your 
God who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house 
of bondage. His personal involvement with 
his people. Now, I realized that We don't 
always appreciate this as well. And I'm not chiding anybody. 
I'm not saying you guys are all messed up. You know, in preaching, 
I'm preaching to myself also. But Psalm 103, David muses on 
the fact, rehearses the blessed truth that God pities his children. God knows our frame. He knows 
that we're but dust. He is intimately familiar with 
each and every one of us. And the same sort of thing is 
seen here in God's involvement with the children of Israel. 
He saw their suffering. You can turn to Exodus chapter 
two. Exodus chapter two. is to see his personal involvement 
in the lives of his people. And I hope that this is an encouragement 
to understand his personal involvement in the lives of his people didn't 
cease with the collapse of the theocracy of Israel. It continues 
in this new covenant era. He is personally involved in 
the lives of his people. He knows us. He cares for us. 
As Paul says, he loved me and he gave himself for me. But here 
his involvement is seen when he views and observes the suffering 
of the children of Israel. Notice in Exodus 2.23. Now, it 
happened in the process of time that the king of Egypt died. 
Then the children of Israel groaned because of the bondage, and they 
cried out, and their cry came up to God because of the bondage. 
So God heard their groaning, and God remembered his covenant 
with Abraham, with Isaac, and with Jacob. And God looked upon 
the children of Israel, and God acknowledged them. Same emphasis 
in verse seven of chapter three. And the Lord said, I have surely 
seen the oppression of my people who are in Egypt and have heard 
their cry because of their taskmasters, for I know their sorrows. That's 
a blessed statement, isn't it? Not just corporate Israel knew, 
or God knew their sorrows, but he knows the sorrows of his church. 
He knows the heartaches of his people. He knows the afflictions 
that we undergo. And he does pity us. He does 
remember us. He does know our frame. and He's 
there to sustain, encourage, and grant perseverance. This 
is the same true and living God that is over us. Exodus chapter 
6, same emphasis in verse 5. Exodus chapter 6, And I have 
also heard the groaning of the children of Israel, whom the 
Egyptians keep in bondage, and I have remembered my covenant. 
Spurgeon says this is the privy key of heaven. Heaven must act 
when we ask God or invoke God to remember his covenant. This 
is what he is bound to do. As well, he acts on their behalf. He not only observes. Imagine 
if I saw your suffering and your misery and your heartache, and 
I said, that's really too bad that you're going through those 
sorrows. And then I just sort of walked away. You'd say, well, 
You know, that and five bucks can get me a cup of coffee at 
Starbucks. I mean, it's not really helpful. You see, God not only 
sees the sorrow, God not only observes their suffering, God 
not only remembers his covenant, but he acts on their behalf. 
And that act is personal. Again, it is providential and 
it is most powerful. Look at sort of the end of the 
plagues in Exodus chapter 12. Exodus chapter 12 at verse 29. 
I think this underscores the providential, powerful, and personal 
act of God on behalf of his people with reference to his involvement. 
in Exodus chapter 12, 29. And it came to pass at midnight 
that the Lord struck all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, 
from the firstborn of Pharaoh who sat on his throne to the 
firstborn of the captive who was in the dungeon and all the 
firstborn of livestock. So Pharaoh rose in the night, 
he, all his servants and all the Egyptians. And there was 
a great cry in Egypt for there was not a house where there was 
not one dead. Turn to Numbers 33 as well. Numbers 33, just to see God's 
personal involvement in the lives of His people. And Numbers 33 is basically a 
triptych. It's basically a review of where 
they had been. But there's this statement in 
verse three that I think should cause the people of God to stand 
in awe, or three and four, that should cause the people of God 
to stand in awe. Look at verse one of chapter 
33 in Numbers. These are the journeys of the 
children of Israel who went out of the land of Egypt by their 
armies under the hand of Moses and Aaron. Now Moses wrote down 
the starting points of their journeys at the command of the 
Lord. And these are their journeys according to their starting points. 
They departed from Ramesses in the first month on the 15th day 
of the first month. On the day after the Passover, 
the children of Israel went out, notice, with boldness in the 
sight of all the Egyptians. How did they go out with boldness 
in the sight of all the Egyptians? Well, verse four tells us, their 
God is God Almighty. Their God is in the language 
of Melchizedek and Abram, God most high. He acts providentially, 
he acts powerfully, he acts personally for his people. Verse four, for 
the Egyptians were burying all their firstborn whom the Lord 
had killed among them. Also on their gods, the Lord 
had executed judgments. I realize that this is not something 
that would encourage an Egyptian, but the Israelites would revel 
in this. They would delight in this. They 
would rejoice in this. An act of judgment against the 
enemies of God and his people is an act of mercy to them. The 
constant refrain in Psalm 136, for the mercy of the Lord endures 
forever. One of the stanzas says that 
God destroyed Pharaoh and his armies, for the mercy of the 
Lord endures forever. Not if you were an Egyptian, 
but if you were an Israelite, if you were the covenant people 
of God, your God acted on your behalf. And he does it personally. It's the Lord who killed these 
enemies of the church. It was the Lord who dispatched 
these persons that held them in bondage. God works for his 
people, and that is communicated to us in the preface of the Ten 
Commandments. I am the Lord your God who brought 
you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. And he does this for his glory. 
Turn to Exodus chapter nine. Exodus chapter nine. passage 
that the apostle Paul appeals to in Romans chapter nine. But in Exodus chapter nine, we 
see some of the sort of motivation. I don't know if that's the correct 
language, driving force. God is concerned, obviously, 
with the sufferings of his people, and he wants to vindicate them 
and free them from bondage. But God as well is also communicating, 
declaring, and demonstrating his own glory to his creation. 
And in verse 13, we see in chapter nine of Exodus at the seventh 
plague, then the Lord said to Moses, rise early in the morning 
and stand before Pharaoh and say to him, thus says the Lord 
God of the Hebrews, let my people go that they may serve me. For 
at this time, I will send all my plagues to your very heart 
and on your servants and on your people, that you may know that 
there is none like me in all the earth. You see, it was not 
only to deliver his people from bondage, but it was also the 
execution of judgment against the gods of Egypt. They had a 
pantheon. They had a whole host of gods. 
Scholars and commentators tell us that each one of the plagues 
answered to a particular god that the Egyptians held near 
and dear. And so God is showing them that he is supreme. God 
is showing them that he is alone, the true and the living God. 
As we continue on in this passage, notice. Verse 15, now if I had 
stretched out my hand and struck you and your people with pestilence, 
then you would have been cut off from the earth. But indeed 
for this purpose I have raised you up that I may show my power 
in you and that my name may be declared in all the earth. We 
should never think that man's happiness, man's felicity, man's 
beatitude and blessing is inconsistent with the glory of God. God's 
glory is achieved in the vindication and salvation of His people. This is why Paul ends Romans 
11 with doxology. Having trafficked in the great 
truths of predestination, sovereign grace and election, he ends on 
that note for of him and through him and to him are all things 
to whom be glory forever. God's glory is demonstrated in 
the salvation of his people and that's one of the driving forces 
in his liberation of the children of Israel from this house of 
bondage. He does it as well, consistent 
with his promise to Abraham. We have been studying that promise 
to Abraham in our studies and in the book of Genesis, and of 
course, for their well-being. Now, before we conclude this 
particular point, again, I want to highlight, I am the Lord your 
God who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house 
of bondage. I think we ought to appreciate 
the commandments in this light. At one point, they were in a 
place where they couldn't freely worship Yahweh. They were not 
free to engage in the worship of the living and the true God. 
So when that first word comes to them, you shall have no other 
gods before me, I think we take the commandments at times. We 
see them as burdensome. We see them as oppressive. We 
see them in a manner that they're just heavy and they're just weighty. This was a declaration of liberty. I have brought you out of that 
house. Now you shall have no other gods 
before me. That's a blessed joy to the redeemed 
heart. When God says don't make idols, 
they had been in an idol factory. This would be welcomed by that. 
When God says don't blaspheme my name, again, it's not heavy, 
it's not oppressive, it's not burdensome. When God says remember 
the Sabbath day, the issue isn't, oh, I can't go to the lake, oh, 
I can't go to Tim Hortons, oh, That's the way we approach the 
law of the living and true God, and it is fundamentally flawed. John the Apostle tells us that 
his commandments are not burdensome. They're not grievous. If you, 
as a redeemed sinner, look at the law of God and find it to 
be anything other than a delight, repent. forsake your sin and 
embrace the truth as it is in Jesus Christ, who says in John 
14, 15, if you love me, you'll do what? You'll keep my commandments. You won't whine, grumble, complain. Oh, certainly there is remaining 
corruption. Certainly there is that proneness 
to wander and proneness to leave the God that we love. But the 
overarching concern of the people of God is, oh, how I love your 
law. It is my meditation day and night. 
When it comes to that fifth word, that's not an act of oppression. It ensures goodness in the lives 
of families and goodness in the life of society. Murder, oh wow, 
what an oppressive thing. God doesn't want us to kill anybody. 
I hope that's not our attitude. You shall not commit adultery. 
Why any person with the spirit of the living God in their heart 
would ever even begin to think that way shows us how twisted 
and deformed we are. God's given marriage and the 
marriage bed for the joy of his people. And then that eighth 
word, we're not supposed to steal. Again, this idea that the commandments 
of God are grievous or are burdensome or are heavy completely obliterates 
the reality that in a sense, it's a declaration of liberty. 
I have brought you out of this and now I'm calling you to live 
in a particular manner. I'm not preaching we can be saved 
by law. I am preaching, however, that 
those saved by grace ought to have a keen appreciation for 
the law. So remember the context that 
the preface affords to us as we move our way through the commandments. 
And then, I want to just quote a couple of guys. Walter Kaiser 
says, "...the lawgiver places his law in the environment of 
grace, for it was his gracious act of redemption and deliverance 
from Egypt that revealed his name Yahweh." So please don't 
bypass the declaration of liberation in verse six, jumping right into 
the law and then saying, wow, this is oppressive. Wow, this 
is a burden. No, we ought to pray or say with 
David, oh, how I love your law. And then thirdly, and finally, 
in terms of the uniqueness of the Decalogue, I mentioned this 
morning that there's a threefold division of the law. It's not 
only moral law, but there's ceremonial law and there's judicial law. 
The moral law abides. The moral law does not depend 
upon the covenant for its validity or utility. It's trans-covenantal. So if it's old covenant, it's 
the moral law, the Ten Commandments. If it's new covenant, it's moral 
law, the Ten Commandments. You know this from Jeremiah 31. 
When Jeremiah, under God, says, I will write my law in their 
hearts, they didn't wonder, what law is he talking about? It's 
that law that they couldn't keep in their own strength, but through 
the power of the Holy Spirit, through the work of God most 
high on the hearts of sinners, regenerating them, giving them 
faith, giving them that knowledge of God, giving them that forgiveness 
of sins, and internalizing that law, he makes them willing in 
the day of his power to do what he has called them to. So moral 
law abides. Moral law is for us. There is 
never a time when we are out from under the moral law. The 
ceremonial law was fulfilled by Jesus. We are no longer under 
that ceremonial law in terms of the food laws, in terms of 
fibers, in terms of the sacrificial system, in terms of having to 
bring a goat on on a Saturday to the priest and cut its throat 
and offer it up and all that sort of thing. Those things prefigured 
and those things typified the coming of the Lord Jesus. So 
Christ fulfills that. And then as I said this morning, 
there is that judicial law, those rules, those statutes, those 
judgments that would govern their life in the land. They were not 
supposed to be like the Canaanites. There's this common sort of misconception 
out there that, you know, God just commanded Israel to go in 
and commit genocide, go and obliterate all those nice and innocent Canaanites. I mean, these nice, innocent 
Canaanites that had their lands, they had their families, they 
had their businesses, they were not nice, innocent Canaanites. 
Leviticus 18, we learn that what God wants is for Israel to be 
His means of justice and judgment to bring to bear His wrath and 
His righteousness upon those wicked Canaanites. Now, when 
Israel functions in a like manner, When Israel apes the Canaanites, 
and when Israel engages in idolatry, and Israel engages in a rebellion 
against the living and true God, he then raises up the Assyrians 
to drive out the northern kingdom. He then raises up the Babylonians 
to drive out the southern kingdom. You see, this was to be a law 
that would govern them in the land, that would distinguish 
them from the pagans around them. When there's the prohibition 
against bestiality, for instance, that's not given in a vacuum. That's what Canaanites did. Not 
every Canaanite, but that certainly was practiced. Witchcraft, soothsaying, 
all these particulars that God speaks against in the Old Testament, 
it's not that he's just sort of making things up. It's when 
they go into the promised land, they are going to be confronted 
by these things. And so that judicial law was 
to govern their conduct toward one another in the land in a 
manner that was consistent with the Decalogue and with who God 
is. He didn't want them to go into 
the land and live like Canaanites. He wanted them to go in the land 
and live like his covenant people. He says as much in this particular 
chapter. So the moral law abides. Our 
confession says the same law that was first written in the 
heart of man continued to be a perfect rule of righteousness 
after the fall and was delivered by God upon Mount Sinai in 10 
commandments and written in two tablets, the four first containing 
our duty towards God and the other six, our duty to man. Notice 
the consistency there. It links it with Adam. What law 
was Adam given? Adam was given the same law. 
John Lightfoot says, Adam heard as much in the garden as Israel 
did at Sinai, but only in fewer words and without thunder. Now, 
when we talk about the two tables of the law, it is very common 
to talk about the first table, which is our duty to God, those 
first four commandments. And then the second table, which 
is our duty toward man. Now, in terms of the two tablets 
themselves, it probably wasn't four and then six. It was probably 
ten and ten. See, in a covenant, in a contract, 
in an agreement, both parties to that contract get a copy. Both parties to that contract 
get a copy for their own records. Both of these are placed in the 
Ark of the Covenant, God's copy and the people's copy, to show 
that agreement is binding. It is, in fact, a covenant that 
holds. So don't think four, then six. Think 10 and 10, and both are 
placed into the Ark of the Covenant. The one copy is the Lord's, the 
other copy is Israel's. But the convention of speaking 
in the first table and second table, that's good and consistent. 
So the ceremonial law is abrogated because of Jesus Christ. The 
judicial law, again, our confession. To them also he gave sundry judicial 
laws, which expired together with the state of that people, 
not obliging any now by virtue of that institution, their general 
equity only being of moral use." Now I would suggest that last 
phrase is loaded. That last phrase is huge. And it's certainly not in my 
place to try and unfold it all tonight. Their general equity 
only being of moral use. What exactly does that mean? 
We'll ask five different theologians and you'll probably get five 
different answers. But the point of the confession is simply this. 
The judicial law expired with that commonwealth. The general 
equity means that the wisdom of God revealed in that judicial 
law is for us today. As I mentioned this morning, 
if God says put a fence around your roof so people don't fall 
off and die, we should certainly put fences around our swimming 
pools. We should certainly make sure that we see the connection 
to the moral principles of the Ten Commandments that these case 
laws go back to. And by God's grace, we ought 
to follow those sorts of things. because it's wise, it's good, 
and as John Gill has rightly pointed out, it would certainly 
discourage the litigiousness of modern society. Now, as we 
finalize this particular point, one of the things that's intriguing 
about the Ten Commandments that sets it off from the ceremonial 
and from the judicial is that they're written with the finger 
of God. This comes up often. In fact, there's a great book 
on the threefold division of the law for those so inclined 
by Philip Ross, and it's called The Finger of God, or From the 
Finger of God. If anybody's interested in studying 
this stuff out further, I can't recommend that book highly enough. 
It is most excellent, but there are several instances where we 
see that they are written with the finger of God. Notice in 
Exodus 34. Just to see the uniqueness. You 
don't get this in the prohibition against shellfish. Not that that 
isn't God's word, but there is a distinctiveness about the Decalogue 
of the Ten Commandments. Exodus 34 verse 28. So he was there with the Lord 
40 days and 40 nights. He neither ate bread nor drank 
water. And he wrote on the tables the words of the covenant, the 
10 commandments. I'm sorry, this is the identification 
of the 10 commandments. In Exodus 34, 28, and then Deuteronomy 
4, 13. For the finger of God, go back 
to Exodus 24. Exodus 24. Verse 12, then the Lord said 
to Moses, come up to me on the mountain and be there. And I 
will give you table or tablets of stone and the law and commandments, 
which I have written that you may teach them. The language 
of the finger of God is not there, but I have written them. Again, 
not that he's not the giver of the ceremonial and the judicial, 
but the 10 commandments are set apart. The Ten Commandments are 
highlighted as directly coming from God himself. And then we 
see it as well in 3118. 3118 in the book of Exodus. And when he had made an end of 
speaking with him on Mount Sinai, he gave Moses two tablets of 
the testimony, tablets of stone, written with the finger of God. Exodus 34, verse 1. And the Lord said to Moses, cut 
two tablets of stone like the first ones, and I will write 
on these tablets the words that were on the first tablets, which 
you broke. Verse 28. So he was there with 
the Lord, 40 days, there it is at the end, and he wrote on the 
tablets the words of the covenant, the Ten Commandments. Deuteronomy 
4.13. Deuteronomy 4.13. Again, this 
idea that the commandments, the Ten specifically, are written 
by God, written with the finger of God. Verse 13 of Deuteronomy 
4, So he declared to you his covenant, which he commanded 
you to perform, the Ten Commandments, and he wrote them on two tablets 
of stone. You see it there in our chapter 
in chapter five at verse 22. And he wrote them on two tablets 
of stone and gave them to me. Again in Deuteronomy chapter 
nine and verse 10. Then the Lord delivered to me 
two tablets of stone written with the finger of God. And then 
again in chapter 10 at verse four. And he wrote on the tablets 
according to the first writing, the 10 commandments which the 
Lord had spoken. You see, again, God is sovereign 
and the giver of the ceremonial and the judicial, but specifically 
speaking with reference to the Decalogue, He writes them. It's 
His finger that pens them, that shows that they are in some sense 
offset from the others. It is abiding. It is forever. And then the placement of these 
tablets in the Ark of the Covenant. Exodus chapter 40, you see it 
as well in Deuteronomy 10. And then Hebrews chapter 9 tells 
us that these tablets were placed in the Ark of the Covenant. So 
there's a uniqueness to the Decalogue which highlights its abiding 
perpetuity in the lives of God's people. It is simply not the 
case, as some would like to have it, that the Ten Commandments 
were for Israel and not for the Gentile Church. That is incorrect. That is false. That is not what 
the Bible teaches. The Ten Commandments are always 
for God's people, no matter what covenant they find themselves 
under. If they're in the Old Covenant, it's the Decalogue. 
If they're in the New Covenant, it's the Decalogue. And we need 
to appreciate that consistency because it is, in fact, the revelation 
of who God is. Well, in conclusion, we need 
to, first of all, appreciate the threefold use of the law. 
As we move our way through this, There's three ways that persons 
use the law. You've probably heard me say 
this before. It bears repetition because that's how we're going 
to treat the law. There is in the first place what's 
called the civil or the political use. That means God's law is 
given to sort of restrain creatures. If you lived in a society where 
there was no law, I mean, on the one hand, that sounds good, 
but on the other hand, it's not good, because men are lawless, 
men are wicked, men do need restraint. Do they need the sort of restraint 
that we see in modern governments? I would argue no, but nevertheless, 
we need restraint to some degree or other. Maimonides, the 12th 
century philosopher and exegete, said there were 613 commandments 
in the Pentateuch. Now, that may seem like a big number until 
you consider what modern states have in terms of laws. There's 
a law prohibiting everything. There's a law, you know, demanding 
everything today. I can't even imagine how many 
new laws each year come out in bodies politic. It may sound 
like a lot, but it's really not. But there is a sense where the 
law given by God functions as a force for the restraint of 
sin. So the civil or political use, 
that's the first use. Secondly, there's what's called 
the pedagogical. Let me define that. A pedagogue 
is a teacher. A pedagogue is a child tutor. A pedagogue is one who instructs 
little ones, and the law functions that way, and particularly to 
show us our sin so that we'll see our need for the Savior. 
This second use of the law is crucial For unbelievers, we need 
to tell them how they have sinned and violated God's law so that 
we can press upon them the glorious truth of the gospel of Jesus 
Christ our Lord. It's useful for the believer 
as well. We need to be reminded. that 
Christ is the end of the law, that Christ is the one to whom 
we are to go as guilty, vile, helpless sinners. The pedagogical 
use is most crucial in terms of handling the law. As Moeller 
says, it's the use of the law for the confrontation and refutation 
of sin and for the purpose of pointing the way to Christ. But 
Heidelberg asks the question, how do you know your sin and 
misery? How do you know? By the law of God. When I see 
that God demands love to him with all my heart, soul, mind, 
and strength, and when God demands love from me to my neighbor as 
myself, I see how far short I have come and how much I need the 
Redeemer, the Mediator, the Lord Jesus Christ. Augustine says, 
through the law, God opens man's eyes so that he sees his helplessness 
and by faith takes refuge to his mercy and is healed. John 
Bunyan said, the man who does not know the nature of the law 
cannot know the nature of sin, and he who does not know the 
nature of sin cannot know the nature of the Savior. And I think 
this is one of the places where at least, maybe not hopefully 
in reformed churches, but in the evangelical world, I wonder 
if the law is being preached as a pedagogue. I wonder if people 
are being told that they're sinful, they're guilty, they're vile 
before a holy God, and they need Jesus Christ. As one is well 
pointed out today, the church is all about telling people to 
be happy, happy, happy. We need a righteousness that 
avails with God that is only through the gospel of our Lord 
Jesus. And so we need to know of our unrighteousness, of our 
lawlessness, of our abject misery before we'll ever look to Christ. It's a very simple thing, isn't 
it? You want to show somebody their need for a remedy, you 
tell them their problem. And if we're not telling them 
their problem, if we're telling them their problem isn't that 
they're as happy as they could be, then we're gonna prescribe 
the wrong remedy. That second use of the law is 
vital. And then the third use, we call it the normative, which 
simply means the normal, day in, day out use of God's law 
in the lives of his people. So it kind of goes like this. 
Prior to our salvation, the law comes and tells us how bad we 
are and how much we need Jesus. By God's grace, he gives us faith 
and repentance so that we believe in Christ and close with Christ. 
And then Christ gives us his spirit and points us to his law 
and says, this is how I want you to live. Not that you're 
going to be perfect and not that you're going to be, you know, 
absolutely sinlessly great, but this is the pattern for our sanctification. Sanctify them by thy truth, thy 
word is truth. Again, Augustine says the law 
was given in order that we might seek grace. Grace was given in 
order that we might fulfill the law. It's a really simple procedure. Civil use, it restrains the abject 
wickedness of man. Pedagogical, we publish the law 
so that sinners see their need for Christ and by grace flee 
to Christ. When they come to Christ, Christ 
says, okay, this is how you're supposed to live and he gives 
us the spirit and he gives us this desire to comply. Turretin 
says, before it, the law, was an instrument of the spirit of 
bondage to throw down and bruise man. But afterwards, it becomes 
the instrument of the spirit of adoption to promote sanctification. Thus, the law leads to Christ, 
and Christ leads us back to the law. It leads to Christ as the 
Redeemer, and Christ leads to the law as the leader and director 
of life. So God willing, as we move through 
these commandments, we're gonna look at each of these uses. How 
do we use the first commandment? Well, there's the civil use, 
there's the pedagogical, and there's the normative, and we 
need to understand those things, hopefully, so that we'll grow 
in the grace and knowledge of our Lord Jesus, and be further 
conformed unto His glorious image. Now, one final thing, and I mean 
it this time. The Westminster Larger Catechism, 
along with several Reformed authors, give us a list of rules on how 
to understand the law, how to understand the commandment. Not 
a list of rules like, you know, you're a fool and you need me 
to come. Just some hermeneutical help, some principles of interpretation. I think it's Larger Catechism 
number 99. Calvin deals with it at length. Turretin deals 
with it. Hodge, Dabney, Brockle. And again, this is to me, if 
I were, anybody ever asked me, what gift has the reformed world 
given to the church? A good appreciation of God's 
law. A good appreciation of how to 
deal with the various commandments and statutes and judgments and 
laws that we find in scripture. The one that I'm gonna say that 
we're gonna follow, we're gonna try to follow all of them, I 
don't wanna give you eight or nine, from the larger catechism 
and then have a quiz next week because I don't think any of 
us would pass. But the one thing we need to appreciate, where 
a duty is commanded, the contrary sin is forbidden. And where a 
sin is forbidden, the contrary duty is commanded. So some of 
them are negative only. You shall not murder. But a proper 
interpretation of that law not only sees the prohibition against 
ending someone's life, but positively we ought to promote life. Positively. The confession, for instance, 
talks about how men should eat properly, men should exercise. 
I don't mean men alone, men and women. a moderate use of the 
various things that God has given. So it's not only a prohibition 
against ending life, but it's a positive statement on extending 
life and caring for oneself. When it comes to not committing 
adultery, yeah, you're not supposed to actually go into the bed of 
another human being who's married. But positively, we're supposed 
to be chaste, we're supposed to be moderate, we're supposed 
to be modest, we're supposed to engage in the sorts of things 
that are pleasing to God. So that's what that rule specifies. 
If it's a negative, then the implication is there's a positive 
inverse. And that's how we'll treat, God 
willing, the commandments as we move through them. Well, let 
us close in a word of prayer. Father in heaven, we thank you 
for The Decalogue, we thank you for these 10 words written with 
the finger of God. And I pray that you'd bless this 
study. I pray that you would give us wisdom, not only to hear 
and to understand, but to apply the things that are written in 
the scripture. I ask that you would fill us with the Holy Spirit, 
that you would keep us by your sovereign grace, and even now 
go with us and cause your face to shine upon us, help us to 
know your peace and your involvement in our own lives. And we ask 
these things through Jesus Christ, our Lord, amen. We'll close with 
a brief time of meditation.