Special Event – Summer Series; The Ten Commandments: Pastor Brent Johnson, 08/09/26

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[00:00:00] Let's begin today as our last lesson in our summer series, which the series is called Familiar Ground, New Light. And so these are... And I couldn't think of anything more familiar than the Ten Commandments. I mean, that is in the news right now. Everyone's, you know, trying to decide whether it should be back in schools or not.

Courts have said that they should, especially here in Texas. Uh, some people don't agree. Um, and then on the other side of that, everyone's trying to fight between, am I doing a good job keeping up with the things that God wants me to do and obeying the things that God wants me to obey or, or not. Some of you care more than others.

Uh, today, hopefully at the end, you will all care more as we're looking at the Ten Commandments. And I just have to say, without trying to seem too, um, I can't think of the word, but, uh, most of the new light that I have, [00:01:00] that has shed on my understanding of the Ten Commandments comes from Mark Lanier He has, uh, I was just thinking the other day, uh, recently 'cause I was thinking about talking about this, that, um, I met Mark in 2001, so that's about 25 years ago, and I was, uh, doing some video work for him, uh, and his family, more family stuff.

And then it was in 2014 that I started pastoring this class. That's 12 years ago. So it's been 12 years since I've had a front row seat and the incredible opportunity to partner with Mark and to, uh, track along these lessons. And I think I've learned more about Greek and Hebrew here than I have when I took-- I took Latin in high school, Latin and Greek in college at Baylor, and Greek and Hebrew at seminary, and then I took American Sign Language at Lone Star.

All of my languages are unspoken, so I have absolutely no language labs. They're all ancient languages that no one speaks anymore, [00:02:00] or hand language. And so, um, I'm thankful for that because I didn't have any of those language labs. All of my friends would have to have four-hour language classes. All of mine are three.

So it worked out, worked out pretty good for me. But I learned more about Greek and Hebrew in here, and you would probably say the same. You've learned more from Mark Lanier regarding Greek and Hebrew than anyone else in your life. And so we are very thankful for that. I'm just gonna just kick back for a second and just spew out some of the new things that I've learned.

So really, this lesson is more for me than it is for you. I've had to synthesize and organize my thoughts and the things that I have learned and picked up. Surprised me on a few things. But as a disclaimer, everything that I'm gonna say is not necessarily endorsed by Mark Lanier. And so if you need to get with me later to figure out, did Mark, now did Mark say that or is that just you?

'Cause sometimes I learn things on my own or the Holy Spirit- ... taps me on the shoulder and says, "Hey, did you l- notice this?" But I really don't know anyone who does cross-ref- cross-references better than Mark Lanier. Other than [00:03:00] language, which he is master at, he is able to put things together that I did not learn in seminary.

And when I sit in class like you and I hear him make these cross-references, if I had remembered that there was the same word or a similar word in an Old Testament compared to the New Testament teaching that we were looking at, my initial thought is that's just a coincidence. There's not a tie together.

And Mark has really opened my heart and my eyes to see more of those things. So sometimes I may oversee it and go too far. I don't know. But, uh, so that's why I give that, uh, I don't let Mark know that I've, I've learned everything from him. Some things, uh, you're gonna have to give me a break on. Okay. So if you give Mark Lanier a flashlight, by all means, he will illuminate scripture to you and that's what, that's why you're all in this class and that's why we continue to, uh, learn from him.

Uh, the other thing I learned is how to do PowerPoints, uh, from Mark Lanier. And as we look at the Ten Commandments, we see that Mark has illuminated several things for [00:04:00] me regarding the Ten Commandments. And Even though I've learned a lot of PowerPoint from Mark Lanier, I just wanna assure you, Mark did not put my PowerPoint together.

I do all my PowerPoints, and he does all of his PowerPoints. He is amazing. Totally amazing. Okay, but he has taught me a lot. So, uh, what, another thing I learned from Mark is to do a roadmap. This is what we're gonna do. I'm gonna take you along, or I'm gonna take me along in this process, and hopefully you will come along with me.

We're gonna look at three things. The first is the Torah, or the Ten Commandments particularly, in the hands of Moses. And then we'll go from there, we're gonna see it in the hands of Jesus. And finally, we'll see the Torah, the Ten Commandments, in the hands of Paul. For me, this is an interesting evolution of the law.

Where it starts is definitely not where it ends, and it's not at all what I would have expected. Uh, but studying the Bible these years through seminary, uh, also at Baylor, and then in the biblical literacy [00:05:00] class, I'm thankful to have learned some of these things that I will share with you, and we will go and start with the very first thing, and that is the Torah, the Ten Commandments, in the hands of Moses.

Now, I'm gonna pull back the curtain a little bit as we're gonna look at some of the background on this particularly If if, if I was Mark Lanier, you know what I would do? I'd be like, "Oh, I spent too much time on this. Let's go back and let's see that again." Okay, are we watching? Ready? Okay, let's pull back the curtain on-

what the background is with the Torah regarding Moses. Okay, so, uh, Moses and the ark. This is something that I learned from Mark. Uh, Noah a- it almost sounds like Mark. Noah and the mark, Moses and the ark. Um, I always thought it was Noah and the ark, which Noah did have an ark, but it turns out that Moses also has an ark.

In scripture it says that the basket that he was in, like, they, the, the [00:06:00] translation could call it an ark, and it is a picture of salvation. Just like Noah's ark, Moses was saved by this ark because this was a time that was difficult for Israelites in Egypt. They were killing... The midwives were, were instructed to kill male babies in order to, uh, keep the population from becoming a revolting population.

And this was one baby that was able to be rescued And then in a last-ditch effort, a way to preserve the child, uh, other than hiding him with Israelites, which would have been really hard to do, they put him in a basket, float him on the Nile, hoping the alligator or the crocodiles would, uh, avert, and he would find himself in the hands of the Egyptian royalty, which he did.

And as a result, Moses was saved to fight another day. And we will see several fights that Moses had in this little background. But I always thought that was very interesting because I never thought [00:07:00] of Moses having an ark. And it's a good way for trivia to say, "Have you ever heard of Moses and the ark?"

And they're like, "Oh, no, that's... You're trying to trick me. It's Noah and the ark." Well, no, actually. Then you can go into all the stuff I just said. Okay, next thing. Uh, I-- This was amazing. I didn't ever put this together, but Mark talked about in Acts 7 how, uh, the-- Luke, the writer of Acts, actually says or reminds us that Moses was schooled in the education of Egyptians, which means that all of their gods, he would have been, uh, in a, in a first-row seat and understanding and learning about all of their religion, all of their gods, all of their mathematics, their sciences, all those things.

Since he was of the household literally adopted in, he would be able to... Uh, and, and the Egyptians were kind of ahead of their time. You know, you see the pyramids today and other things, unless you think that aliens built those, that, uh, they were pretty in- astounding in the things and the work [00:08:00] they were able to do, the progress they were able to make, I mean, move these big stones.

Uh, all of these things would be part of the educational process that Moses was a part of. So he was, uh, duly aligned. He learned both Israelite and Egyptian stuff, uh, again, firsthand, right up front. And, uh, this is amazing that him being the one that learned all this is going to be the one that's gonna relate to God and then pass the information, the true information, on to his people, the Israelites.

So he was schooled by the Egyptians. Um, he also led in a, a rebellion early on, and the only reason I bring that up is because, um, he killed an Egyptian. It, it didn't work out. He wasn't able to continue with the rebellion. He had to get out of town, or his life was in jeopardy. And that brings us to him wandering in the desert.

This is not-- This will be the first time that Moses wandered in the desert, but not the last time. He would have another forty years after that, which, uh, I think's, uh, very interesting. Uh, coincidental though, not [00:09:00] ironic. And then, um He was, he was out on hiatus. He was checked out of the covenant. I mentioned this last time I taught, I think it was back in May, that when Moses left and went out to the desert and married, uh, J- Japora...

Zipporah. Zipporah, with a Z. I don't speak Hebrew, so that's why I get it off. Zipporah. A- and she was actually the daughter of a Midian priest or something, which some say that they still relate to the things of God. But, uh, he had checked out of the covenant, even to the point that his children were not circumcised.

Um, he was definitely given up on the things of the one true God and Israelites. The cove- uh, circumcision was the sign of the covenant, and he was out, his kids were out, and, uh, it almost came to bite him on the rear, uh, later on because he did not have that happen. So we have, um, Moses being out, totally out, [00:10:00] and then God gives him a second chance and calls him back.

This is a great lesson for all of us who don't always do the right thing and who sometimes check out and wander in a desert somewhere for a while, that God still is with you, He's for you, and is yearning for you to come back into the covenant, into the fold, into salvation. Although oftentimes the choice is totally up to you.

You can choose to stay in or get out, and God hopes that you stay in. In this case, he gave Moses that second chance, and even though he wasn't completely ready to go at the beginning, he did finally come over and say, "Yes, I will do my mission. I will be what you have called me to be and do what you've called me to do."

And that's really what God is desiring from us all, to be who He wants us to be and to do what He wants us to do. And so it can be confusing sometimes what it is He wants us to do, and that's why we're talking about the law today. Um, when Moses was called back, his [00:11:00] second chance to get back in, um, he got a s- a, a very Focus lesson on holiness.

And the word holy means to be set apart, to be, um, different than the ordinary and the mundane, uh, to be, uh, focused on in a different way, uh, special, if you will. And so this lesson, when he comes to the burning bush, which is an amazing sight to see, he was commanded to take his shoes off, a very focus that this is a big deal.

The holiness that God is, is so set apart, um, you have to change some of your actions and responsibilities in order to relate to God. In this case, it was you need to remove your shoes. Know that this land right here is holy ground because God is gonna meet with you in a special way. Had nothing to do literally with the bush or the physical ground.

It had everything to do that the holy God was meeting with Moses. And when you meet with God, whether you do it on a daily basis in the morning maybe, your quiet time is, uh, [00:12:00] once a month, maybe it's once every five years. Whenever you meet with God, that is a holy time, and the idea is that you become more and more holy the more that you meet with the holy God.

That just stands to reason, and so hopefully you're doing that, and if you're not, uh, it's a good check to see if you wanna continue doing that to be holy as God's called you to be holy and set apart. Best way to do that is to spend time with him in a relationship. I'm definitely gonna talk more about that later.

The other thing in this moment of reconciliation and calling Moses back to action is that in the end when Moses agreed, he said, "Well, at least I need to know your name." And so, uh, Mark Lanier has talked a lot about the name, the name of God, and what name meant. He calls it your CV, your resume, the characteristics of who you are.

And, um, I noticed in scripture there are a lot of cross-references to the name, and we see this one, uh, as early back in Genesis when it [00:13:00] says that it was after Seth was born, um, not long after that, and he's the replacement baby, uh, when Cain and Abel had their squabble. But at-- it was sometime after that, that man began to call on the name of the Lord, meaning more than just they needed to find out what his name so they could call him But the name meant who God is, and as best as they knew God, they were able to call upon Him, and they began doing this.

But they really didn't know that much about God, I assume, 'cause I wasn't there at the time. I really can't tell you for sure. But, um, I think... And there's another thing that I learned from Mark. One time I asked him, I said, "Hey, Mark, how do you, how do you pronounce..." And I showed him a word. He goes, "Well, I pronounce it like this," and he said it wrong.

But it didn't matter, 'cause, see, he pronounced it that way. It's the way I asked the question. Uh, if, if you were there, then you would know, and, uh, how to pronounce the name and how to do those things. But I don't know. So in this case, uh, looking through other references to the name of God and how people relate to the name, Psalm 113, which is the Christians' hymn book, [00:14:00] it says, "Blessed be the name of the Lord."

So the Lord's name is blessed, not just because it got lucky. It's because of all the great characteristics and things that the name of God represents. He is blessed, and He is a blessing. He doesn't have to be. He is blessed. He doesn't have to be a blessing, but He chooses to be a blessing to us. Psalm 148, we say, "Praise the name of the Lord," that we on our end of the spectrum give praise and thanks to His name, meaning who He is, what He is about.

If you're a Christian and you don't know that many things about God, one of your assignments is to know the name of the Lord. Get to know Him better, that if anyone comes and asks you a question about God, you can say, "Well, I can tell you all about the name of the Lord. I know who He is. I praise Him. I spend time with Him, and the reason I do is because I want to get to know Him in this realm of relationship."

And you can't praise the Lord very [00:15:00] well if you do not know Him, who He is, and what He's about. Um, the next thing in Psalm, uh, Proverbs 18, he says that, "The name of the Lord is a strong tower." So here's the characteristic that we're seeing assigned to the name so that we can better praise Him. "He is a strong tower, and the righteous man runs into it and is safe."

If you're having a bad day, this is a good characteristic to know about who God is, and I would imagine most of you or a lot of you have been able to run to the Lord as a strong tower because you know that about Him and what He wants to do for you. So these are all great things, and probably one of the best things that we can look at is in Romans 10 that says that whoever calls on the name of the Lord, what will happen?

salvation, which everyone is desirous of. Everybody wants and needs to be saved, whether we know it or not, and it's the name of the Lord that we call to, and He is the one that will save us. Okay, so, um, we, we [00:16:00] see the call of God. And then the last thing is that Moses just met with God a lot. Another key for us, we need to be meeting with God, even to the point, as Mark said just recently, uh, I think it was in one of his thoughts for the day, about how Moses' face would reflect the glory of the Lord, and it would shine.

Uh, and then when it started to fade away, he would put a veil over, 'cause I think at some point he was a little embarrassed that he was fading away, and he's probably thinking, "Man, I need to get back and meet with God for a while so that I can get my shine on." But if that was his attitude, that would be wrong, and he couldn't do it that way.

He would be less shiny. So he would need to shine with the right intention of the heart. It's just a funny way of saying we need to meet with God not out of a sense of duty, but out of a sense that I really want to get to know Him, to know Him better, and to experience the things that He wants from me.

So Moses did that. He met with God not only on Sinai, he spent a lot of time with God there on the mountain, but also in the tabernacle. As they wandered in the desert for 40 years, they would build the tabernacle. The, the Ark of the Covenant would be there, and that's where the, was the [00:17:00] meeting place with God, and Moses spent a lot of time meeting with God.

Okay. Our lesson context now is going to be, what is the most important word in the world? Who knows? The most important world, word in the world. This will tell us our context theme. Jesus is not the answer. Well, it should be. It should be. She might be right. I don't know. Who else has got the most important word?

The Word of God. Truth. Word of God. Truth. No, no. Love? Love is a good one, but it's not it. Mercy. Mercy. Negative. What is it? Lord. Lord? No. Relationship. Relationship. Who said that? Oh, it's my wife. She knows the answer. She's right, though. Um, and you know what? I taught this, and the last time that I taught, I mentioned this, and I asked the question, and we had this whole conversation.

You totally don't remember a thing that I'm saying, do you? Okay, so relationship, that's the most [00:18:00] important word because what good is Jesus without a relationship? What good is love without a relationship? And if he is Lord, but I don't have a relationship, what good is that to me? Relationship is, I think, the most important word, and it is the way that God Talks to us, the way that God directs our paths.

It's within a relationship. It's not, "I've given you a book, you should read it, and we'll talk to you later." He wants to relate to us in that. And so relationship is the most important word. And then I ask the question, why does God give us rules or ways to communicate? The answer is that in a relationship, you actually have to relate.

So the, the root word of relationship is relate. That's what it means, that you relate to one another. Now, most of you may not, but do any of you h- are any of you in a relationship right now? Yes. Do any of you have any relationships? Yes. See, that's why the comm- the, uh, connection groups [00:19:00] don't work so good in this class, because you don't relate well to each other.

You need to learn to do that better, whether you like the people or not, still relate with them. That's what God does. Sometimes He doesn't like you, but He still wants to relate to you. Um, but that's really what relationship is. It's, it's this idea that we have to relate to one another. Sometimes we have to relate to people that we seriously, honestly do not like.

Maybe it's your boss, maybe it's your teacher, maybe it is your aunt. I don't know who it is. But there are people in your life that you don't wanna relate to, but for some reason, other reasons, you have to relate. And so if you wanna make it work, you find a way to relate to them. Um, if you like 'em, then you wanna relate, but then if they don't like you, you gotta figure out around that, and we're really good at doing those kinds of things.

It's part of life. And so, um, in a, in relationships, uh, good ones and bad ones, we have to find ways that we interact with each other. And it, it's a really big deal, and you may not think about it, but [00:20:00] you do it a lot. With God, He wants to relate to you, and that is why He gives you a relationship, and in that relationship, a list of rules or ways that you make that happen.

You do the exact same thing. If you have someone in your life, again, that you don't necessarily like, then you will either spoken, by spoken word or by your unspoken words, you will communicate how you want to relate to that person, what you will allow and what you will not allow, and they will do the same for you.

Um, when it comes to things like marriages, when, which are people outside of a family are coming together, you have to set up ways that you relate to each other. Uh, and one of the ways we do that is a covenant of marriage. And in that covenant, uh, everyone's is a little bit different, but you, because everyone relates to each other very differently.

So all I'm saying is, this is very well known to us. This happens all the time. And when we start with the very first [00:21:00] of the Ten Commandments, it begins with a preamble, which is how these cesarian vassal relationship covenants commitments, um, treaties would start. So this was well known back in the time that Moses and his gang were running around.

Uh, other nations, other countries, they were all making treaties and alliances. Um, they were going to war with each other. They were relating to each other in these different ways, and this is very well known. Uh, I was just recently reading about it. This is not something that Mark specifically taught me, although I know he knows about it.

The suzerain-vassal relationship. The suzerain is the more powerful of the two, where the vassal is the more subordinate of the two. And when these two groups come together, whether it's a happy meeting or an unhappy meeting, could be, you know, one, one destroyed the other in battle and now they're coming [00:22:00] to, uh, surrender, and so you have to lay down terms.

You're familiar with that. Uh, this covenant or treaty that you lay down, you explain how the two groups will relate to one another. Uh, "I'm gonna do this and I expect this of you, and if you do this, I'm going to do this for you. If you don't do this, then this will happen to you," as a point of motivation.

You might see it in brother-sister relationships or husband and wife relationships. Well, back then, this was very well known, and God uses this exact type of treaty or covenant to show how he, as the one true God, would relate to this one particular very lowly and insignificant nation of Israel. And God said, "I will relate to the most insubordinate or, or the most unknown, the most unusual, uh, group, and I will relate to them, and all the other nations will learn how I could relate to them and with them through my relationship with the Israelites."

And so [00:23:00] we today, as Christians, we look back at God's relationship with Israel so that we know better how to relate to God, and we also know how God wants to relate to us. This is all very important information if you're serious about your Christianity. Not about your religion, but about how you want to relate to God.

This is extremely important, and understanding this really gives you a heads-up on your relationship with God. So the preamble starts here as often any of these secular suzerain-vassal covenants would begin. The, the, the more prominent one would state their name, maybe something about them, and then something that they have already done or did to the other group.

And so God does this. So reading this language for us is just like, "Oh, this is Bible talk." For them, this was Or, or at least for some who are aware of these kinds of treaties, they would be like, "Yes, this makes sense to us. We do this a lot." So it says that [00:24:00] God spoke all of these words. So Moses just wants you to know that God was the one that communicated this initially, saying, "I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt.

I saved you. I've taken care of you out of the house of slavery." This is typically how these preambles would go. And then the list of things that w- you would understand would be the way that we relate to one another. Um, the first thing, the first commandment is, "You will have no other gods before me." Now, I think this is extremely interesting knowing Moses' backstory, because Moses knew all about the enemy gods, the false gods, these, these things that were invented to explain away certain characteristics, but Moses had the heads-up about how these were all false because he, he knew the one true God.

And so for the first commandment, what an excellent place to start because the whole Israelite community, even though they believed in the one monotheistic God, they were around a people, [00:25:00] and they were influenced, just as we are sometimes influenced by the other side. Mark in his court calls them the bad guys.

Sometimes the bad guys influence you on doing the things that you shouldn't do, and then you become so used to it that when you do a few of those things, you don't feel so bad because you're used to it. They've influenced you. Uh, so God right off the bat, first one he says, "You don't have any other gods before me or before you, uh, other than, other than me," God is saying, uh, because you're used to this polytheistic, all these other gods, and you can see some pictures of Egyptian gods.

They're quite, uh, specific Very particular, I should say. He goes on with a follow-up. The next one is, "You shall not make a carved image of any likeness or anything in heaven above, beneath the earth, uh, in the waters of the earth." And if you look at all these guys, that's exactly what they were. They were fish and crocodiles, things in the sea.

They were, uh, birds of the air, uh, with, with [00:26:00] powers, and things on the earth, and in the underworld of Hades, uh, et cetera. And this is what they're coming out of, and God immediately knocks these things on their side, saying that, "If you're gonna relate to me, you cannot even come close to doing it the way that you're used to and the way that you've been seeing, and maybe even participated some, maybe to get your way or to get along with somebody else."

What would happen when the Israelites would go to another nation, and they would be like, "Hey, we can be friends 'cause I don't wanna fight y'all, and I don't want y'all to fight us." And God said what? "You need to keep the covenant pure. You're not allowed to be making covenants and treaties with other nations.

That's my job. I'm the one that's in charge of you. I've already related myself to you, and in the relationship, I'm gonna relate to the other, uh, the other entities." But we do the same thing. We say, "God, I'm gonna help you out a little bit. I've tooken care of this. You don't ha- I don't have to say a lot of prayers for you to help me here.

I've already kinda taken care of it," and God said, "That's not the way I wanted you to take care of it." So understanding this covenant [00:27:00] relationship, I think, is very helpful to us even in the 2026 to be able to learn how to relate even better to God. And even if we just get a little bit better, it'll make a big deal.

So He finishes this one, and He says that, "You shall not bow down or serve them." And so this is what they were used to, and God nips this in the bud. Uh, He goes on, and He explains why, which is not always done in this suzerain-vassal relationship. They don't have the, the, the s- the, the king, the, the leader does not have to explain himself.

Like my dad, when I was growing up, and my dad told me to do something, and I said, "But why, Dad?" And what would he say? How did y'all, did y'all grow up with me? Yeah, my dad was king of I told you so. And I just said, "I just wanna understand, you know? I just wanna..." And he's like, "Yeah, that's right. You just go do it.

We'll talk about it later." And so I did, 'cause I'm a rule follower. I like rules. That's why I like the Ten Commandments. Uh, I really do. I'm, I'd rather do follow the rules than not follow the [00:28:00] rules, even though I'm not perfect at following rules. Uh, and then my wife tells me I have to pay attention to know what the rules are.

Sometimes I don't hear that part, and I don't hear, uh, and she says, "Didn't I tell you this?" And I said, "I don't know." So you have to pay attention when you're in the relationship in order to relate well to one another. Okay, that's extra. So for I the Lord your God, I'm a jealous God. This is very important characteristic to know because it is not what you would expect of God.

Sometimes God's relationship, the way He relates to you, is not expected. Oftentimes it's not. In fact, He even says in Isaiah, He has one of his prophets explain to everyone, "My ways are not your ways. And my, my covenants, my focus is not your focus. The things that I want are not the things that you necessarily want.

So if we're gonna relate together, I need you to pay attention, and I need you to focus, and I need you to start making some changes. And God says, "I would change, but I can't because I'm God." God does not change. We're [00:29:00] the ones left to change. So you need to know that in a relationship as well. But he explains it, which is great.

"I'm a jealous God." And then he goes on to the judgment, "Visiting the iniquity of the fathers on their children to the third and fourth generation." Mark has talked about this, I'm not gonna dive into it. "Of those who hate me," but he goes on, "But showing steadfast love to the thousands who love me and who keep my commandments," which is an interesting phrase.

Um, keeping God's commandments. Do any of you do it well? Are any of you the rich, young ruler? You've been doing it since you were a kid and it's easy? Probably not. Okay. So the third commandment, "You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain." Were any of you at church last week? There was another Brent on campus.

Uh, he's the pastor of First Carrollton in the Fields, and he spoke on this. And, uh, I wasn't planning on it, but I don't have to dive into this. Um, but here, this particular commandment brings us back to that whole name thing we were talking about [00:30:00] earlier. You need to know what is in a name. You need to know what the name of the Lord is, who he is, and what he is doing.

That way, you can relate to him. He says, "Don't take my name in vain. Don't use it wrongly." It's more than just using it in a way that doesn't address God particularly by saying, "Oh, G-O-D," or as a lot of Christians even today will say, "Oh, L-O-R-D." Have you been the one saying, "Oh, L-O-R-D"? I'm trying not to say it so that I don't, um, become gil- uh, I won't be held guiltless if I do, so I don't wanna fall into that trap.

Because here again, he gives the judgment. If you do use God's name in vain, there are consequences. Um, you will not be held guiltless, guiltless, whoever takes his name in vain. Uh, so you need to know what's in a name. And Mark's talked about that quite a bit. Okay. Uh, we're moving through the Ten Commandments because we're- this is not a study on the Commandments themselves, but we need to list these 10 before we evolve to the next one.

[00:31:00] So remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy. So this is pointing back to God's holiness. It's probably less about God wanting you to make a day holy than it is, even though that's important, even though more important, God wants you to understand what holiness is and setting something aside to not be mundane or normal or usual.

That's the whole point of holiness, and what better, uh, obvious example is to put it in the days of the week. He says, "I spent six days working, then one day I rested." The rest is a, is a picture of holiness. The day of rest, by contrast of working, is set apart. It's different. There could be other sets of parts, uh, that you could look at, but in this case, the example that He gave to us and said, "On that one day, I want you to set aside and not do the normal, mundane things that you do."

And yet how many of us leave church and we go back to the normal things that we normally do? Uh, maybe you change that up a little [00:32:00] bit. The more you do, the more you'll understand holiness. That's what the lesson is here on this particular covenant. And He explains it so well. In six days, the Lord made the heavens, the earth, the sea, and all that's in them and rested on the seventh day.

Therefore, the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy. There are blessings associated with being set apart and doing it not just by duty, like if you went to the store back in the '70s, the blue law would keep you from buying certain things. They would... I remember this at Skaggs Albertsons in Dallas.

They would drape off certain aisles, and it wasn't alcohol because Mesquite was a dry town. Uh, but you couldn't buy certain things, and I don't know what the, the significance of those things were. Somebody probably does. But the blue law, by duty, kept you from doing certain things. Uh, it's more at about of a heart love than it is about a sense of duty in order to make holiness really work.

And so that's a good [00:33:00] point in that commandment. And then number five, we make a change. We, we move from focus things on God to focus on each other. Uh, this is very common commandment talk. Um, this one is the first commandment with a promise, and it's, uh, relatable in a couple of different ways. I wanna make a point that honor your father and your mother, that your days may be long in the land, that the land, um, your God is giving you.

I particularly like this one because I'm a dad. It's one of my favorite commandments 'cause it relates to me. Um, but particularly, marriage is a big deal to God. He uses it as a lot of illustrations, including the gospel, which is one of the most important concepts that we need to understand. He was making us understand that marriage, mother, father, family relationships, and how we relate to mothers and-- our mothers and fathers in a child-adult, suzerain-vassal relationship is very important.

Uh, and to honor is a very [00:34:00] wide, uh, term. With a broad brush, we find ways to, to bring honor to our parents, whether they are due it or not, because this commandment gives them the right to be honored. They don't have to deserve it or earn it. If they do, it just makes it easier. But because it's a commandment and because I think God really wants us to understand that relationship That he wants us to do that, spend a lifetime doing that.

We're better able to live a Christian life the way that God desires it to be, not what we invent on our own minds to make it easy on us. So, uh, that's a really big deal. And then the last several, you shall not murder, you should not commit adultery, you shouldn't steal, you shouldn't lie, you should not covet, and he goes on to say, "Don't covet your neighbor's house, your neighbor's wife, your neighbor's servant, ox, donkey, or anything that is your neighbor's."

Uh, so that kinda sums that up, that we're not supposed to want what other people want. We're supposed to be satisfied with what God gives us. And if God's not giving you [00:35:00] anything, could be because you're not relating well with him, and that's what you need to work on. And so these are the last bit of the commandments of how we relate to each other, and those first four are definitely how we relate to God.

But seriously, all of these commandments, how we relate to each other, are also how we relate to God. You don't wanna steal from God. You don't wanna covet the things of God. You want what God wants for you. You don't wanna lie to God. Uh, these are all important things that not only focus on our interpersonal relationships, which are very important, that we love one another just like we would wanna be loved, um, and, and some of us do that well, and some of us don't do it well at all.

I'm gonna l-- uh, Jesus wrote some names on a-- in the sand back in the day, and I could write some names of people that don't relate well to other people. I think this is more important than what we do. How we relate to one another is more important than what we do. It's all caught up in the big Ten Commandments.

Uh, so we need to relate well to God, [00:36:00] and certainly to each other. That teaches us how to relate to God. Okay, that's point one. Moving on to point two, we're gonna look at the Ten Commandments in the hands of Jesus. Now this, for me, is a very interesting evolution of the law. It's definitely evolving, and it's important for us to see that as Jesus sat on his first sermon, the famous Sermon on the Mount, uh, he really dove down deep into relating to the law as Jesus and his responsibility.

And so we're gonna look at that. Uh, and Matthew loves this, this idea that Jesus, number one, says that, "I don't abolish the law." He made it clear that the Old Testament law was still in process. It's still in kick. It's still active, uh, still moving and, and making things happen. Uh, Jesus was not like, "Okay, I'm here now.

I'm gonna change everything." He says, "Not only are they still active, but I'm now going to do the second thing." Jesus said, "I'm going to complete them. I am going to fill them full." Or another way [00:37:00] of saying that is to fulfill the commandments. So they were not complete. Hear that. These commandments, that God was very particular about the 10, and then the other 613, I think, all together, that the Jews had to follow the very particular s- uh, statutes and precepts of God.

And then they had rules on top of rules to keep you from breaking the, the important rules. Um, God says that these are not complete. They still need to be topped off, and Jesus would be the one to do it. So once He came, He was ready. And one of the first things that He did, He said, "I do not abolish the law, and now I'm going to fulfill it."

And I was gonna say that Matthew, the writer of this particular gospel, loves this idea of fulfillment of scripture. He's writing to Jews particularly. Matthew is writing to Jews. And any time that Jesus or anything else fulfills a scripture that he's familiar with as the Holy Spirit inspires him, he pulls that reference in and brings it in so that [00:38:00] any Jew would not miss that, that God is being, uh, i- is being completed and fulfilled through Jesus.

Jesus is fulfilling those things that God said that He would. God keeps His word. He does not lie. He does not steal. He is doing exactly what He said He's going to do. He expects the same thing of us. And this is a great example. Even Jesus fulfilling the law is a good example for us to remember how we relate to God.

And so we wanna look at some of these things here. The first one, this is one of the prophecies in Isaiah that Jesus is fulfilling. It's important to note. The law, it says, shall not return to me empty. This is God speaking from the Old Testament, from the prophet Isaiah. But it shall accomplish that which I purpose and shall succeed in the thing for which I sent it.

What is God saying? My will be done. God says, "I have done this. I've said this. I have it [00:39:00] for a reason. I've purposed it. And believe me, come hell or high water, it is going to happen. This is going to be accomplished. And it, it will either Help you or crush you, either way, it will happen. It will succeed over and above your success.

My word is more important than you. Another good lesson to learn as we look at relating to God in the suzerain-vassal relationship. So we see that Jesus closed in that gap between the Old and the New Testament. Very key, and all of the Jews were standing there with their mouths open, listening to what he's saying, trying to decide, "Is this real?

Is this guy for real? Is this supposed Messiah, like the 20 others that we just dealt with the past 20 days, is this one for real? He's saying some things that really make sense. Let's see if this really continues on." And of course, Jesus does. He says, uh, these are Jesus' words now [00:40:00] that we need to look at while Jesus is, is fulfilling and completing the law.

He says, "Nothing shall pass from the law until everything is accomplished." He's saying exactly what his Father is saying. They're on equal, uh, bidding. They're on equal terms. Whatever God said, Jesus is saying, "That's exactly what's going to happen. We're on the same page. In fact, the Father and I are one."

And then Jesus later says, "And I want all of you who are following after and desiring to keep the commandments and wanting to relate to God, I want us to be such on the same page that we are one." That is the goal that we will not quite attain to, but we should be getting closer and closer. And every Sunday when you come to church, we should be celebrating how you or I are getting a little bit closer.

"Hey, for a second, let me just tell you, this happened to me. I was at, uh, H-E-B, and I was talking to someone, and all of a sudden this clicked or this happened, and I kn- I found myself getting a [00:41:00] little closer to God through this experience. Let me just share it with you for a second." Um, we need to be doing that more.

We need to be celebrating more. If we did, we would be doing it more because we would have that expectation. Unfortunately, we don't have a lot of time. So once again, you should be in a fellowship group, having time that you can meet on a Wednesday night or a Tuesday night at Los Cucos, having this conversation with each other, because it is very helpful, not only of seeing how your brothers and sisters in Christ are relating to God, n- in that time they're relating to you, and it might give you some ideas of you relating to God.

This is what a relationship is about. We usually take the easy way out and just say, "If God wants my attention, he'll get it." Uh, God's trying to talk to you through these people right here, and we're just not taking the time. This is important because this is how we relate. So Jesus said, "What the Father said is absolutely true.

I back him on this." And then he says this. Jesus says, "Therefore, whoever relaxes one of the least of the commandments and teaches others to relax the commandments-" [00:42:00] Uh, to do the same will be called the least in the Kingdom of God. Apparently, they're still in the Kingdom of God, but now there's a ranking system.

I didn't even know that, but I read the Bible, and now I see there's a ranking system in the Kingdom of God, and I don't wanna be least unless the least is first and the first is least. Then it would be okay. But I think that's a context of a different lesson that, as Mark says, you need to know the context.

This is the other side of that coin. He says, "But whoever does them and teaches them will be called great in the Kingdom of Heaven." I just wanna pause right now. Mark, if you're listening, I'm looking at the camera right now, that because I'm teaching the commandment, and Jesus says the one who teaches the commandments is great, I am the best of all the teachers you've had in your summer series.

Just by God's Word, not my own. I would never say that on my own. But I'm just glad that I picked the Ten Commandments to talk about, and Jesus has a high view of the Ten Commandments. And if you understand and are relating [00:43:00] well and you're teaching others even if they don't wanna know, you're gonna be great in God's Kingdom.

That is a good word. All right Oops, wrong way. Print. So we're gonna look at a couple of these. Um, for I tell you-- Okay, this is where he, he gives a, a specific call. "For I tell you, unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and the Pharisees..." These are people who thought they were doing really good, and sometimes other people thought they were, even though Jesus called them whitewashed bones full of, uh, tombs full of dead man's bones.

Uh, He was not impressed at all, but they thought they were impressive at how well they knew the Lord and they knew His Word, even though God, Jesus proved over and over that they were clueless. But they thought they did, and others thought they did. And so Jesus makes the point, "If you're not even better than these guys think they are, you're really not doing that good."

It's kind of a report card, if you will, that, uh, we need to know. Now, there's no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. You're still getting a [00:44:00] grade, apparently, okay? Um, the next one is in Matthew 5:21. He gives a couple of these you have heard it saids. He does two or three. I'm gonna give you examples of two to see how this works.

This is Jesus literally completing the law. It's important that if you knew the old, you have to know the new, the upgrade, if you will. He says, "You've heard it said you shall not murder." That's one of the Ten Commandments, and if you do, you'll be liable to judgment. You'll have to go to court, and they'll have to take care of it, prove it by two or more witnesses, and then move you on to your judgment if you are indeed guilty.

But I say everyone who is angry with someone, who's insulting others, or even calls them names, like for example, "You fool." How many times have you called someone a name? Maybe you didn't use this word, but used a different one that I probably wouldn't even say. But Jesus, Jesus says, "Don't even say, 'You fool,'" because it is the same as murdering the person.

The judgment for murdering and insulting and [00:45:00] belittling and not giving someone the time of day is just as bad as you saying, "Ah, I just wish they were dead. I don't care." Have you ever said that about someone? Maybe they deserved it, but that's not the point. To relate to God and to do it correctly, we need to know the upgrades.

This is one of them that Jesus talked about, and He's talking about reconciliation. We need to be people of reconciliation, bringing people together whether we like it or not. Jesus told a great story on the Good Samaritan, which He didn't call it the Good Samaritan, but He has a great story which didn't actually happen, but He was exemplifying what it means to be kind and helpful to one another, even someone with whom you were not supposed to relate to.

Then another one of these you've heard it saids. Y- you w- you should not commit adultery, but I say everyone who looks at a woman with lust has already committed adultery with her in his heart. So he's saying it's really making it harder to do these things, um, to, to [00:46:00] follow the law. It's getting harder and harder.

Jesus is not making it easier. Uh, and I think in within this, uh, you've heard it said, he's talking about the importance of not divorcing, keeping in relationship, also loving your enemies. Remember Jesus said, "Love those who persecute you. Pray for those who are evil towards you." Which is totally different than the way we normally would relate to others, how we would naturally relate to others.

Jesus, through his Ten Commandments, and through Jesus' upgrade, are helping us know that we are to be holy, set apart from all of the regular, normal jargon that normal, everyday, usual, mundane people are about. If you're a Christian, and you really are a Christian, you're just not one who comes to church because of the social gatherings and maybe the pyramid schemes that you're a part of, and you're trying to get more people to connect, and you know, people actually do that.

If you're not one of those Christians, and you're actually desiring the things of God, which, you know, you're here today, the day before Mark's gonna... I mean, the week before Mark's gonna come back, and you're still sitting here listening to me. [00:47:00] You are the ones that are saying, "Hey, I don't care who's talking.

I wanna hear a word from the Lord, and I'll see if this guy's got it or not." Hopefully, God's speaking to you. But I wanna say thank you for being here, because it says something about you, at the very least. Some of you are doing it by duty, but at the very least, hopefully you desire to know more about God so that you can relate better to Him.

Um, this is the upgrade, and it's talking about our relationships. And so all in all, after everything is said and done, Jesus says, "You are set up to fail because there's no way you're going to keep these commandments." And That is exactly the point. Uh, with the rich young ruler, I wanted to throw this in. I happened to find this very rare picture of Jesus talking to the rich young ruler.

Uh, this is authentic. It's been dated, and, uh, I was able to, I was able to colorize it myself. It was in black and white originally. And, um, but it looks pretty good. And here we are in on the discussion which the guy comes and says, "Hey, h- what do I need to do to be saved? H- [00:48:00] h- how can I follow you? How, how can I, how can I upgrade?"

And Jesus says, He goes straight to the Commandments. That's important for us to realize Jesus had a high view of the Commandments. He threw that out. He even listed a few, not all of them, and the young man said, uh, "I've been doing that since I was a kid," which I don't think he literally meant he was perfect in it, but I think he was saying that he was trying, you know?

Um, and Jesus said, "Well, in that case, I'm gonna upgrade. Sell everything you have and give to the poor." Now, that is an impossibility. If he did that, he would have to give some stuff to himself, because then he would be poor, and he would be giving stuff to the poor by giving it back to himself. But then he would have more things he would have to give to the poor.

It's an endless cycle. It's really hard to do and figure out exactly what Jesus was talking about. I don't think that's the point. I think the point that Jesus was making is He was trying to make a point to this young man, trying to get his attention, because the Commandments, he didn't-- He had a low view of the Commandments, this young man did.

So He went to something that mattered, and that was his money. And you know, God does that to us. If we [00:49:00] don't get to the normal things He's trying to teach us through the normal ways, He will get your attention through conflict and problems. Anyone in a conflict right now? Don't raise your hand. That's embarrassing.

But yeah, most of you probably are. If not, then it's coming, so get ready. Because even if Jesus isn't causing it, which He does cause a lot, then sometimes things just happen. But they're always a lesson to learn, and God is always in the midst of your storm. Praise the Lord for that. Okay, so that is our second one.

We're moving on to the last one, and that is now the law in the hands of Paul Okay, so another rare picture of Paul studying there in his house. Uh, I think his aunt took this picture particularly, and that's where I got it, downloaded it. Oh, I forgot to tell y'all that when Moses got the Ten Commandments, that was the first download from the cloud

I can't believe I missed that joke. Thank you. Okay, so let's jump now to the point three. We're gonna wrap up here with these. We're gonna look at a few scriptures, just a few, [00:50:00] from Paul as he wrote all these letters. These are some of the later letters particularly. Um, uh, he wrote Gala- we're gonna look at Galatians and Romans.

Uh, I think Romans was 50, 55. I'm not sure exactly. Galatians I think was a little bit af- but before that. Someone can correct me. I'm, I'm sorry I didn't memorize that. I didn't write it down. Okay. Um, it's not that important other than the fact that it's, it's later on in Paul's life. He's, uh, focused in a little bit more, and he had some things to say about the law, which for me is striking.

In my cursory reading when I was younger, I never put this together until more recently, within the past maybe 10 years. Uh, Romans 3, we, we have the famous verse that says, "All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God." We are all in the same boat when it comes to following God's commands. And if you're looking at them as God says, "Do this.

Don't do this. I have to do this. I have to don't do this," that is not the point of what God's trying to do. And if you're doing it out of duty, it's gonna be really hard for you, and sometimes just knowing that you can't do it is what [00:51:00] you wanna do. Ask Eve. She'll tell you That's Adam and Eve. Eve's wife, Adam?

Okay. Uh, just before that verse, that famous verse, I'm looking at the verses before that. The things that Jesus said relate directly to the Commandments. See if you can pick some of them out. He says, "None is righteous. No, not one." Okay, that's what he just said about all have sinned, or he's gonna say it in a minute.

Uh, no one understands. No one seeks for God. He's generalizing and he's saying the same thing that I was saying, the same thing that is true for me sometimes, is that we don't relate to God, or we take the easy path of relating to God, and we don't dive down deep into the things, and God's like, "You've been a Christian for what?

25 years, and you're still on this? What's the deal?" Um, Paul is, is making this observation. No one even understands. No one's seeking to understand. No one seeks for God. They use their tongue to deceive. You recognize that as a Ten Commandment? They use their tongue to deceive. [00:52:00] Their mouth is full of curses and bitterness.

James also referenced this. Their feet are swift to shed blood. That's a Commandment. Their paths are ruin and misery, or in their paths are the things of ruin and misery, and the way of peace they have not known. So here they are. We have, we have no other gods when he says that no one understands or seeks God.

If you're not seeking God, guess what? You're probably seeking other gods. How that directly relates to the Ten Commandments I thought was pretty cool. This one here is obviously, uh, you shall not lie. Uh, God's, don't use God's name in vain. This idea of cursings and bitterness. We can curse each other, but sometimes we curse God even by not saying that God can do what he says he's gonna do, or we say that he is gonna do what he says he's not gonna do.

Those are cursings that we give, and then when you praise God and do the right things, those are blessings, and so you see that difference. But the curses and bitterness I think relates directly to do not take the name of the [00:53:00] Lord your God in vain. So Paul, who's very aware of the Ten Commandments, I think he is writing those in here, and for the Jew and for the Christian who is studying these things, the connections start to come together.

Or if you're Mark Lanier. Uh, he says that the feet are swift to shed blood. Obviously, you shall not murder. And then, uh, this last one, which is n- uh, verse 17, "And the way of peace they have not known." If you keep the Sabbath and a rest, there is a degree of peace that you will know. And so that's a little harder to connect, but, uh, maybe I was trying too hard, but I think that definitely relates.

And so in the end, the summary is there is no fear of God before their eyes. This is key saying to the evolution that the law is now going to be taking to where we're gonna go with Paul. But particularly here, we're realizing that because people don't know God, they do not have a respect for God. Since they do not know how to relate well to God, they do not fear him.

And [00:54:00] so if they are doing the things of God, it's because of duty or shame from other people that you feel like you have to to get along, but you're not doing it out of a heart of flesh, perhaps still out of a heart of stone. So Paul goes on and he says in verse 19 of the same chapter, "Now we know that whatever the law says," talking about the Torah and the 613, the, the, the whole Torah, and the Ten Commandments particularly, that the law says, "it speaks to those who are under the law, so that every mouth may be stopped."

He's saying that you know the law, so you can't flab against it. You can't, uh, defend yourself in saying, "Oh, I didn't know." He's saying here, you are aware, and so that every mouth may be stopped from defending why you're doing the dumb things that you are doing. So he goes on, "And the whole world may be held accountable to God."

You know the law. You are aware of it. Even if you're [00:55:00] not following it, that means you are accountable to it. "For by works of the law, no human being will be justified in His sight. So Paul is making a very particular comment now about the law. He's saying the law will not, cannot save you. If you do keep all of the law, you will be saved, and there is no reason for punishment of death.

But if you, as Paul has talked about several places, if you just break one part of one law, you immediately get the entire penalty, and that is death. So if you can avoid it, good for you. But he's saying no one's been able to, and he's anticipating that no one will since through the law comes the knowledge of sin.

So we've gone from the law being the way to relate to God, to know who He is, to know how we were supposed to relate, to the law getting even more difficult as it evolved to what Jesus said as He, at His point in time, completed it, filled it out, made it harder. And now Paul says all [00:56:00] of that you can't even try to accomplish.

You know, before that, the rich, young ruler and me, we were trying to accomplish it. We were trying to do some of those things, trying to be really good. Trying to be really good is what the law does. It shows you that you cannot be good, and you absolutely have no hope of keeping the law. We've gone from here are these commandments, follow them, to there's no way you can.

Why should you even try? You will be held accountable Okay. Romans 7. Uh, so we move up a few chapters, and we're looking at the final thoughts. Uh, just some, a, a summary overview of what Paul says about this evolution of his understanding of the law that we also need to know. "What then shall we say? That the law is sin?

Oh, by no means. Yet if it had not been for the law, I would not have known sin." He's making it clear the law itself is not sin. It is God's statutes. It's God's way. The psalmist says, "I love your precepts. I love [00:57:00] your law." I just don't follow it all the time that well. But at least a heart of flesh is desiring to follow it.

That's by contrast to Paul says that, "At least knowing the..." Oh my, it's time to get out of here. "At least knowing the law, you know what sin is. For I would not have known what it is to covet if the law had said, 'Thou shalt not covet.'" Paul says, "I, I would not have even known, so it's a good thing that I did."

And then we get to this last part that, before we head out, is that, "Now before faith came," 'cause faith is the thing that saves you. "Before faith, we were held captive under the law, imprisoned until the coming faith that would be revealed in Jesus Christ. So then the law was our guardian or custodian until Christ came, in order that we might be justified by faith and not the law."

So again, Mark talked a lot about this, and so my tribute to Mark of teaching me this idea, which I'd never heard of before in my life until I think it was [00:58:00] sometime earlier this year or last year that he talked about the papa go- paidagogos. There we go. Uh, long O, short O. Papa got- paida- Oh, no, it doesn't matter.

Uh, it's, it's Greek to me But that Mark, uh, sh- that it, the, the, the idea is that the law was this guardian, this custodian that would bring you around. It was a well-known concept to the people in that day who would have a slave who would take care of the kids, not educate them, but just show them the way, practical things.

The law is practically showing us that we cannot do everything right, and we have to rely on a savior if you are going to be saved. Then you don't do the law because you have to. You do the law because you love God, and He is equipping you to do it. So it's a whole different way of still accomplishing some of the same things.

In summary, God gave the law to reveal Himself. Uh, Jesus filled the law up as He demonstrated how to live it, and the law only produced death. That is the end idea that we wanna see, the, [00:59:00] the evolution, the final evolution of the law. It only produces death. No one can follow it, and it guides us, though, to abundant life.

It should be directing us to Jesus. And Jesus said, "I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father ex- except through me," because He has gone to prepare a place for us. He did that by dying on the cross. And so from this trio, we see the evolution of the law, and it brought up several things that I had never heard of before, and it has really helped my relationship with God and maybe even my relationship with some of you as we've had the opportunity to discuss.

I pray today while you're at lunch, your points for dinner are to discuss some things of the law so that you relate better to each other and that you show each other how you are relating to God. Lord, we wanna say thank you that we can relate to you. So many other ideas of gods are unrelatable, but you, on the other hand, have given us all of these things, not to mention the second, third, and [01:00:00] one-hundredth chance to be able to commune with you.

Help us do it better. We pray it in Jesus' name, amen and amen. Thank you.