Deuteronomy 5 (Part 1)

Deuteronomy chapter 5. The nation of Israel is literally at the doorstep of the promised land and there Moses is giving his final series of messages before they go in. But of course, Moses, isn't going to be able to go in with them. So after he's finished speaking these lessons, he's going to go up to a mountaintop. He's going to view the promised land from there, and then the Lord is going to take him home to be with Him. But Moses is still going over the things that he wants them to know. And it begins here in chapter 5, verse 1, by saying that,

(ESV) We talked about that last week, how it's important to not only hear, but also do. And then he reminds them,

Now stop there for just a moment if you would. I want you to notice here that, first of all, Moses is reminding them that they have a covenant deal. What's a covenant? Let's remember, it's a pact. It's an agreement. When two people get married, they enter into a covenant that says, I'm going to honor you, cherish you, and love you and be faithful to you until we part by death. And the other person says the same. That's a covenant. It's a pact. It's an agreement. The nation of Israel entered into a covenant with God, and the terms of the covenant are, here's the law; essentially the Ten Commandments, although there's a great deal more to the law than that, but the essence of it is in the Ten Commandments, and what was the terms? The terms were, keep the law, and you can stay in the land, and I'll bless you in the land. In fact, you keep My law, your enemies won't be able to stand against you. I'm going to, I'll take care of you, I will bless you. That was the terms of the covenant, okay?

I want you to notice something God never said to the nation of Israel. Keep my covenant, and you'll go to heaven. He never said that. Now, eventually, the Jews began to believe that. They truly believed that eternal life was going to come to them from keeping the law or doing good, being good people, but God never promised that. He never said, keep the law and you'll go to heaven. He said, keep the law and I'll bless you in the land. Today, I would say the average American who has no knowledge of the Bible, believes the same thing, if they believe in God at all. And if they believe that there is a heaven, they believe the way you get there is by being good, right? In other words, keeping the law, doing good things. And hopefully you'll have done more good things than you will have done bad things when you die. And so when God places all of your deeds on the scale, it tips a little bit on the g side for good, rather than on the b side for bad. And you get to you're in. And I think a lot of people believe that. Now Bible believing Christians know better. We know that the Bible tells us in the New Testament, no one will be declared righteous in God's sight by keeping the law, no one. (Romans 3:20) But those were the terms of the covenant. You keep my law, I'll bless you in the land. So we have a deal here, okay? Now I want you to also notice something here in verse 4. Moses says, “The LORD spoke with you face to face…” Now you might read that and come away scratching your head going really? Face to face? They spoke to God face to face. I mean, that's what he says. I remember something earlier where Moses actually asked to see God; His face. He actually requested, let me see your face. And you know what God said to him? No can do. That's a paraphrase, but He said you can't see My face. No man can see my face and live. The best I can do for you, Moses, is let you see the trailing edge of My glory as I pass by. In fact, I'm going to have to cover you while I pass by because My glory would absolutely vaporize you. So I'm going to, I'm going to put you in the cleft of the rock, I'll put My hand over you, that area, and I'll pass by, and I will declare Myself. And we'll talk about that a little bit later here tonight. And you will see, I'll uncover for a moment after I pass by so you can see that trailing edge of My glory, but My face no man can see. Now, in light of what you just heard, as I've recounted that earlier story. How in the world can Moses say, concerning the nation of Israel, that they spoke with God face to face? Well, the reason he says that is because he's using a figure of speech that is meant to convey that God spoke to them directly. In other words, there was nothing in the way. There was nothing that hindered their communication. This wasn't through a dream. This wasn't through a vision. They heard the voice of God. They saw the mountain literally on fire and the glory of the Lord there, the smoke, and the rumbling of the thunder, and it says the mountain was shaking. And in that sense, they spoke with God face to face. And again, he's using a figure of speech. But he's reminding them that God spoke to them on a personal level. And this was the only time they heard the voice of God, was when He thundered the Ten Commandments from the mountaintop. Can you imagine what that would have sounded like? Because, before that actually took place, do you guys remember the story of what happened? I mean, the mountain literally looked like it was on fire. That alone would be awesome to behold. I mean, a mountain burning with fire at the top and just billows of smoke, and there's thunder cracks, and it's shaking. But there was something else that was going on. Do you guys remember? It was a trumpet call. They heard a trumpet blast, but it was a single note that just kept going. And it was because nobody took a breath because it was not any kind of a human means of blowing a trumpet, or keeping that thing going. I don't know if there was some angel that just, took a real deep breath or whatever the deal was. But they heard this trumpet that just sounded a call and kept going. All those things, I mean, I don't know about you, but it would have freaked me out. I mean, completely. And we're going to find out here that it did them too, but Moses is reminding them of the things that they saw. And he goes on here in verse 5, and he says, “while I stood between the LORD and you at that time, to declare to you the word of the LORD. For (listen, look at here) you were afraid because of the fire, and you did not go up into the mountain. (and) He said:” This is what he says, and the Lord said to you, verse 6:

Stop there. In other words, what's God saying to them? I'm your deliverer. I'm the one who brought you out of your bondage in Egypt. God had already demonstrated His commitment to them by the act of delivering them from their bondage in Egypt. And now, He's going to enumerate for them, once again, Moses will, the Ten Commandments, which is an expression to the people that because God has proven to you His devotion to you by delivering you, it stands to reason your devotion and your allegiance to Him should naturally emerge from that act. Do you get it? It's just like Jesus saying to you, I am your Savior. Speaking to you personally saying, I am your Savior. I'm the one who saved you from your sin. Now, what is that going to elicit in you and I? If He says to you, hey, I'm the one, I'm the one who took you out of slavery. I'm the One who brought you out of darkness. I'm the One who gave you a new name. I'm the one who caused you to be born again. I'm the One who caused you to be a child of God. I am the One who gave you a new heart. I am the One who allowed the Holy Spirit because of My shed blood to come and live in you. I'm the One. I'm the One who set you free from captivity to darkness. I mean, what does that do inside of us? What does that do? Do we just go cool? Thanks. Sweet. Which is consistent with that entitled kind of attitude that we hear today out of so many people. It's like, well, isn't that what you do? I mean, our, Your name is Savior, so don't you save? I mean, do you understand the attitude, rather, is the reason God is saying this to His people is to elicit from them the attitude, I am your God, you are my people, you belong to me. Paul says it actually in the New Testament. He actually comes out and says it. He comes out and he actually says, listen, you've been bought with a price. You're no longer your own. You don't belong to yourself. (1 Corinthians 6:20) Okay? That's one of the reasons why Paul would describe himself as a bond servant of Jesus Christ. You guys understand what bond servant means. It can also be translated, bond slave. Some Bibles just say slave, a slave of Jesus Christ. But a bond servant was someone who willingly gave themselves to their master for life, right? And the whole idea of a bond servant or a bond slave is the idea that I don't belong to myself. It's not my life to simply do what I want with, my life belongs to Him. Why? Because He delivered me. He delivered me. And just as God says to the people of Israel, “I am… (YAHWEH) your God, who brought you out of the land of…” slavery, He is communicating to them, you are Mine. I purchased you back from death. Having now made that point, He's going to go through and talk about these commandments. First of all, the first commandment, verse 7. And what a perfect command this is to start with.

And this appropriately flows from the understanding, again, of who He is and what He's done. Who He is and what He's done. And so He says, this is Me. Here's what I've done for you. Now, don't have any other gods that you put in front of Me. Nothing, He says, should come before Him in our hearts and in our minds. You have to remember that the Israelites spent 400 years, the last 400 years of their history was spent—lived in Egypt. And they were living among a culture that believed in many gods, the whole pagan sort of a thing. And so He says to them, “‘You shall have no other gods before me.’” In other words, don't put any other God in front of me. And if that sounds old, like that commandment is no longer really pertinent in our lives today, then think again. Because, really, we can still very much have gods in our lives that we put in front of the Lord. And even though they may not be the same guy, we might not call them the same thing, but you know what? It's the same essence. You know what the Jews were tempted by? You know what gods tempted them to serve them, to be served, I should say? They were the gods of materialism, the gods of wealth, the gods of sexual pleasure. Does that sound familiar? I mean, do people run after materialism and wealth and sexual pleasure today? Heavens, of course they do. And so in that case, those things are their gods. We may not call them Baal when we're talking about the God who oversees the weather and allows my crops to come in and so I can be rich. Or we may not call, we may not refer to the goddess Ashtoreth when we're talking about sexual pleasure, even though she was the focus of, the worship of sexual pleasure back in those days. We don't, we've put those names aside, and so we think we've put those gods aside, but those gods are still very much alive in the hearts of men. We keep them alive by the things that tempt us. Remember something, a god, small g, is whatever you focus on as the driving force or the goal of your life. It is what moves you. It's what dominates your thoughts and desires. That is your god. And what the Lord says to you and I is, have no other gods before Me. Put no gods before me. The second commandment, verse 8, “‘You shall not make for yourself a carved image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is on the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth.’”

So the second commandment here, is not only you know to not carve an image of some pagan deity But it include, even, it included even don't make a carved image of the one true God. He wasn't just saying don't make an idol out, you know of some foreign god. He's saying don't make a carved representation of Me. For one thing, you don't know, you don't have any idea what I look like. God never showed Himself in that sense to the nation of Israel. There are references in the Old Testament where He appeared in human form to some individuals. But in the sense of to the nation of Israel at large, they never saw any kind of a visual image. And so He says, anything that you do in terms of trying to fashion an image is not going to be worthy of Me so don't even try. And one of the reason, for this commandment, the second commandment. You might just say, okay, we're, so we're not supposed to have idols and carved images of things that, okay, cool. All right, let's move on. There's more to it. The reason behind this is because God is a living and personal God to His children and He always wants to encourage a dynamic and a real faith, that comes out of the knowledge of His personality. He wants to have an interchange with His children. You see, what happens when we allow statues and idols to become the norm, is that we begin to focus on those things, and the rituals that are involved in them. And we start serving a ritualistic kind of a connection with God rather than a personal one. You understand what I'm saying? It all comes down to this. God wants to have a personal relationship. Don't make a picture. Don't make an idol. Don't make a statue. It's Me, I want to talk with you. I want to have a living, dynamic relationship with you. So don't get religious on Me, okay? Don't get all whacked out and ritualistic about the way you approach Me. Oh, and there's just something in us that does it. There's something in us that wants to bow and, when we come into—we see a carved something or we come into a room. The environment that I was raised in as a child, We didn't have any carved images or anything like that in the church that I grew up in. But we transferred that same sort of a mentality to the building or the sanctuary. And when we were in the sanctuary, I remember my parents told me, we don't run, we don't talk loud, we don't do things like that in there. And I never really thought to ask why I'm not really sure what they would have said, but it was something that they just believed, you just don't do that. And because they were ascribing to this place, something special, and suddenly, we start thinking along those lines, like, if I'm going to pray, I've got to. I've had people do that, I've had, and I don't criticize them, okay. But I've had people actually come here, and it's been a long time ago, and knock on the door and say, can I go into the sanctuary and pray, and I've never turned anybody down, okay. And I never would, but can I just tell you something, there's nothing special about going into a room, one room over a different room and praying to God. There's nothing unique or special. I don't care if you're up on a mountaintop. I don't care if you're in a temple. I don't care if you're in an old thousand year old church. God is no more present there than anywhere else, and He's not going to hear you better. But you see, we do that. We ascribe these special things to things. Statues, and buildings, and carvings, and the altar, and don't touch the altar. Don't sit there. Don't touch that. Be quiet in here, sort of a thing. I don't know if you guys have seen the movie yet. If you haven't seen it, you really should. There's a new kind of a Christian movie out. It's been out for a while now. It's out on DVD called, The Resurrection of Gavin Stone. Do any of you guys ever see that? It was only in the theater for a short time. Sue and I picked it up while we were in the Midwest and we watched it on the way home. It's delightful. It's a story about a guy who I won't tell the whole thing, but gets in trouble. He's a former child actor, gets in trouble, has to go back to his hometown and do some community service to satisfy the stuff he did wrong. And he's going to go serve it out in church. And he decides he goes to church on a Sunday morning and he thinks that, he's whispering as he walks into the church. He's whispering and they're like dude, what are you whispering for? He goes because it's church, and then the next thing you hear some guy on a guitar going… (Pastor Paul imitates a guy loudly strumming his guitar) And he's just, he's like, what in the world is going on? There's sometimes this expectation that church is this place— I had a gal come to me, a couple of years ago who had been raised in a very sort of a formal, religious sort of a setting. And she came to church here at Calvary Chapel and she came up after her first service and she said, I had no idea you could laugh in church. I mean she heard me doing it from the pulpit, not just people laughing and she's like, I had no idea. I had no idea you could do that and that was okay. Well, where did those ideas come from? They come from this ritualistic, traditional, sort of a mentality about thinking of certain things as holy.

And that's what God is trying to get His people away from when He says, don't do this, don't make carve images, and don't get weird on Me here by, by thinking that is how you're going to relate to God through these holy things. Even the things that God did tell them to build often became a problem to the Jews. Moses was told at one point during the wilderness journey to fashion a snake, a bronze snake, and put it up on a pole. Remember when they were being bitten by snakes in the wilderness? Do you know they eventually started to worship it? They had to get rid of it. So there was just this tendency, and God knew it, right? So He said, let's not go there. And He goes on with the second command. Verse 9, “You shall not bow down to them or serve them; for I the LORD your God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me,” Don’t forget those last two words. Verse 10, “but showing steadfast love to thousands of those who love me and keep my commandments.” Now, I need to explain what you're reading here in these two verses. This is a statement that is very similar to what Moses heard when the Lord tucked him into the cleft of the rock. It's very similar. In fact, I'll show you exactly what Moses heard the Lord say. I'll put it up on the screen for you. This is from Exodus chapter 34. It goes like this. It says,

The LORD passed before him and proclaimed, “The LORD, the LORD, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness, keeping steadfast love for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, but who will by no means clear the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children and the children’s children, to the third and the fourth generation.”

All right, there you go. Now you've heard it from two different places. This is where Moses essentially heard it the first time, and then he recounts it here in Deuteronomy. What is going on here? And what is the Lord saying here, particularly as it relates to this generational visitation of iniquity upon the children to the third and fourth generation. Do you know this has really bothered some people? And I'll have you know that a whole belief has emerged out of these passages called Generational Curses. I don't know if you've ever heard of it. Oh, I've had people, write me and ask me about it before. You've probably heard people talking about it. People want to know about generational curses. How do you break a generational curse? There's been books written. How to break a generational curse. Is it possible that you and your family are under a generational curse? And maybe that's why all the bad things have been happening to you, and maybe that's why you've got some areas of sin in your life that you just haven't been able to get past? That's what people think and so all this stuff again, it gets very involved. Well, first of all, I want you to understand something about generational curses, and the key is something we've already read here, and I called your attention to it briefly in verse 9. Look with me again in verse 9. It says, “You shall not bow down to them or serve them; for I the LORD your God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and fourth generation (look at these next words) of those who hate me,” Those are so important that you understand those. Because the idea here is that the children are carrying on what the parents started. Alright? And that's why the iniquity is being visited upon them to the third and fourth generation. But the breaking of a generational judgment is and always has been, repentance. Okay? The breaking of a generational curse or a generational judgment is and always has been, repentance. Coming to Jesus breaks every chain. And that is so important for us to see. Jesus is the one who sets us free. That's why the apostle Paul wrote what he did in 2 Corinthians. Let me show you this on the screen. 2 Corinthians chapter 5, verse 17. Look at this.

Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come. Anything there about generational curses? No, because Jesus breaks it, breaks them into pieces. If there's anything going on, if there's anything going on in your past, anything that, maybe some of your relatives, some of your... Those who came before you did that were horrific and some even strongholds of sin, people say there's this family stronghold of sin. Listen, Paul makes it clear that when you come to Christ, the old is gone. The new has come You're a new creation. You know what that means? That means those things don't have a hold on you anymore. Do you know what that doesn't mean? It doesn't mean you can't go back and do those stupid things because you and I can choose to live like those who came before us, but we don't have to. There's nothing any longer that makes us have to live that way because we've been set free, right? Paul said to the Galatians, it is for freedom that Christ has set us free.

And don't go back and live a life of a slave because you've been set free from that. You don't have to live that way. Do some Christians go back and live the way their family lived, even after they've come to Christ? Sure. We can go back and wallow in the pigsty. We can go back and sometimes we can even be convinced that we have to. I've heard of people talk about these generational, curses, like, see, I don't have any choice in the matter. I've got this stronghold in my life that's over me. And this is why I, this is why divorce in my family is rampant. And there's all these other, anger. We've just got this spirit of anger over our family. And there's this fear that we struggle with as a family. We're all just fearful people. And they just, they talk about this like there's no power in the cross. Like, there's no power in the Gospel. To them, the gospel is like, well, I guess I got my fire insurance in the sense that I'm going to heaven, right? I'm saved. Well, praise the Lord but meanwhile, I just got to hang on cause it's going to be a rough ride. I got all these, and there's no power. There's no victory. There's no overcoming. The Bible says we are now more than overcomers through Christ.

Doesn't it? Isn't that what your Bible says? And yet, how many Christians are living in the defeat of some past family member or whatever, and thinking that somehow, through DNA, this thing just has a hold on me? Well, I got news for you. If you're in Christ, you're a new creation.

Do you understand that you've been birthed into a new family and there's a new supernatural DNA that's coursing through your veins right now? And that can overcome the past. Greater is He that is in you now than the old man that was in you when you were born. And that power of your new heavenly Father is the character now that you can, you're free to walk after. Through Christ. Jesus, you are now free to walk after that new family likeness. So stop talking about your old family likeness. I could sit and think about my family and just get the shakes thinking about, some of my people that came before me, my parents, parents, and the things that they went through. If I sit and think about it long enough and you can start saying, well, I, my daughter sure takes after grandma, so and so, and great grandma. Oh, I see, that sort of thing in. How about we start seeing Jesus in each other and we start saying, this is what I'm going to live after. All right. Third commandment. We got to get through all 10 of these. Verse 11.

Here's the reason God was saying this. He had given to Israel His name and because of that, He commanded them not to misuse it. It was a very special thing that He gave to them, His name. And to take the name of the Lord, He says, don't take the name of the Lord in vain. To take it means to utter it, alright? In however you might utter it. And to do it in vain means to do it in a meaningless or in a worthless way. How are we to think about the name of the Lord? Well, you remember how Jesus taught us to pray? Hallowed be your name. That's to be a regular part of our prayer. Hallowed be your name. Which is just another way of saying, holy is your name. In other words, your name is holy. That's the way I want to think about your name. I don't want to take it in a meaningless or use it in a meaningless, worthless way. I want to honor it. The point of this commandment, and this is, when people, somebody swears and uses the name of the Lord, we'll say, don't take the name of the Lord in vain. Well, it wasn't just to stop that. That's not the only reason God gave them this idea of don't use my name in vain. And it does certainly cover that, but you have to understand something too. Again, we come back to paganism and in paganism, the names of deities were often used in incantations for the purpose of getting what you wanted to get from that god. Okay?

So pagans would use the names of their various gods in order to manipulate them, to get them to do what they needed, or what they wanted, or whatever the situation might be. And that doesn't work. God won't be manipulated. You remember the story in Acts chapter 19? There's a couple of actually more there were seven sons it says, of a Jewish priest who heard Paul casting out demons in the name of Jesus. Now, they didn't have a personal relationship with Jesus Christ, but they heard Paul doing it in the name of Jesus. And so what does it say they did? In Acts 19, it says that they started using that name as an incantation. And they finally come up to this demon possessed guy, and they come up to him and they go, in the name of Jesus, whom Paul preaches, we command you, and stuff like this. And the demoniac turns on them and beats the snot out of them; all of them. And so what is the lesson there? Don't use the name of the Lord in a worthless, meaningless way that God is not going to be manipulated. That's not how we've been given the name to use. Jesus told us to pray in His name, which means in His authority, but we're to pray according to His will. And we're to pray in a submissive attitude. Jesus taught us to say, “Thy will be done…” Right?

So in other words, He taught us, don't think that I'm giving you some kind of a magical wand that you can wave over your prayer and manipulate God into getting it done just the way you want to have it done. The fourth commandment, verse 12. “‘Observe the Sabbath day, to keep it holy, as the LORD your God commanded you.’” And then Moses talks more about this.

Did you notice here that God basically, if you had to sum up what God just or what Moses just Gave them regarding the Sabbath day. What's the essence of it? It's rest, isn't it? Just rest. You never notice, He doesn't give a whole lot of details. He just says, don't work take that one day. In fact, not just you but even your animals because there were beasts of burden and He said don't set up your beasts even to work on the Sabbath day. If there's a traveler in the city during the Sabbath, make sure he rests on that day as well. And the whole purpose essentially was to commemorate the fact that God created everything in six days and rested on the seventh day. But as we get deeper into Scripture, we learn that there is a more significant prophetic meaning to why God gave the Sabbath. And we learn about it primarily in the Book of Hebrews in the New Testament. Let me show you a couple of passages from Hebrews. First, Hebrews chapter 4, verses 9 through 11. Look at this on the screen. He says,

So then, there remains a Sabbath rest for the people of God, for whoever has entered God’s rest has also rested from his works as God did from his. Let us therefore strive to enter that rest... So under the New Covenant, He says, there's still a Sabbath rest that's available for you and I. Okay? Let's enter into it. Let's be sure that we've entered into it. Because if you are resting from your works as God did, then you're entering into God's rest. So how do we do that? He goes on. Look at the next passage, Hebrews 4:3.

For we who have believed enter that rest… See, here's where the writer of Hebrews gives us this great insight about the Sabbath and Sabbath keeping in the New Testament. There's a lot of Christians who believe that we still have to keep the Sabbath in the way the Jews did. Paul, or excuse me, the writer of Hebrews makes it very clear here, how we keep the Sabbath under the new covenant. We do it by believing, by faith. What's our faith in? Our faith is in Jesus Christ. For what? That He did all the work. You see, the Sabbath, this is what we learn as we go through the whole Council of God's Word. We learn the Sabbath was a sign pointing to Jesus Christ and His work on the cross, His finished work on the cross.

And what God was saying there, I'm going to do all the work for your salvation. All the work. Did you catch that? I'm going to do all the work. What I want you to do is rest in that work. I want you to rest in it. And I don't want you to work your, I don't want you to, be thinking, okay, I got to get busy so God will accept me into heaven. That is not keeping the Sabbath. For you and I to keep the Sabbath is to rest. I know that I know that I know, Jesus died on the cross for my sins. And I know this too, there's nothing more I can do to secure that salvation. There's nothing more that needs to be done. So I'm going to just rest in what He did. He did the work. I'm resting. Now by faith, I keep the Sabbath. So if you ever have somebody ask you, do you keep the Sabbath? Your church, keep the Sabbath? You just tell them, yes, we do. By faith, we believe Jesus finished the work on the cross and there's nothing more that we can do to be saved. We're resting in his finished work and that is keeping the Sabbath. The fifth commandment, verse 16.

Now, it's interesting with this next commandment, the fifth commandment, we come to a break. Or I should say a change, not a break. A change in the commandments because did you notice that the first four commandments dealt with our, the worshipers relationship with God? And now we come to our relationship with other humans; interpersonal relationships. And the first is how we see and respond to our parents. And he says, “Honor your father and your mother.” And you might be interested if somebody were to say, well, what does that mean exactly to honor them? Well, do you know that the word honor translates the Hebrew word that when used in the context of God means, glorify. In other words, if this same word is used of God, it means to glorify God. Now that word would be too strong for people to say about their parents. We're not to glorify our parents, but I think you get the idea that God is commanding a deep respect for parents, for how we see, how we view our parents, and how we respond to them. And I believe that the essence of this, the fifth commandment, is to place people in a situation or in an environment where God can bless them. In other words, honor your parents so I can bless you there. God commands a blessing. And it's even mentioned here in this verse.

In fact, here, let me show you this passage from Ephesians. Paul talks about this, Ephesians 6. The first 3 verses,

Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right. “Honor your father and mother” (and he says) (this is the first commandment with a promise), (there’s a promise connected to it) “that it may go well with you and that you may live long in the land.” Even though for us, there are no promises related to living long in the land. God, hasn't given us the United States of America through the covenant like He gave the Jews Israel. We don't have that kind of a connection. But He is telling us here that He commands a blessing for where there is that honoring of one's parents. And here's what's interesting. Paul says that in the last days, the opposite of this will actually characterize the attitude of children to their parents. The opposite of this. Let me show you this prophecy from 2 Timothy, chapter 3. Look at this. It says,

But understand this, that in the last days there will come times of difficulty. For people will be…disobedient to their parents… In other words, there will be a lack of honoring parents and that will be… And what we're talking about here is just that out now, just total rebellion. We're talking about rebellion. Okay. Okay. Sixth commandment. Verse 17

Obviously forbids the taking of life in cold blood. There's really not a whole lot we can say about this. I mean, except that this commandment does not include the taking of life in a military action. This commandment does not include the taking of life through the system of justice in a land that is meant to carry out punishment for another murder, okay? It specifically forbids premeditated killing based on anger and personal grievance. And it, unfortunately, the Old King James used to say, “Thou shalt not kill.” And that's really not, what it means. It's talking about murder. The Seventh commandment. Verse 18, “‘And you shall not commit adultery.’” I think we all know what this means. It speaks of engaging in a sexual relationship with someone who is already married. But Jesus, of course, made us aware that this prohibition was more than just a physical act. Let me show you. Matthew chapter 5 verse 28.

For He says, “I… (tell) you that… (anyone) who (just) looks at a woman with (that kind of attitude, that) lustful… (sort of attitude) has already committed adultery… in his heart. And He says that's the real deal. Adultery has really taken place. The 8th commandment, verse 19. “‘And you shall not steal.’” We all learned this when we were kids. Hopefully. When I was a kid I took some candy from the grocery store and my mom didn't see it. I don't know why they do that at the checkout counter. Why do they, and maybe they don't as much anymore. Yeah, they still do. They put candy down there where the children are and these kids are still learning things like this, and it's just right there. It's like, oh, hey, yay. There's nothing stopping me. And I remember grabbing some, and the store guy saw me do it. And told my mother and of course, I had to go through the whole process of repenting in ashes, and sackcloth, and apologizing to the manager of the store. What a drag. But the whole idea is here, respect the property of others. If it doesn't belong to you, get your mitts off it. Right. And by the way, this whole idea of stealing has become much more convoluted in the day and age in which we live in the sense that, we have all these things, on the internet that we have to ask ourselves, can I download that? Is it proper? We've had to be really careful about that. And so eventually I got so confused by all of the copyright stuff that comes our way. I made Ken Similarly read it all and understand. I said, Ken, you're in charge. And I mean, he really took to it. I mean, he became the copyright police around here. And I'll show something, that I, like an image I used or something, he's like, you can use that kind of made me, not regret a little bit, putting him in charge because there's just so much to think about. But it's something we have to do as believers. We have to be thinking about it. The ninth commandment verse 20, “‘And you shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.’” Now, the phrase, bearing witness, obviously speaks of some kind of legal investigation that's underway where, false testimony would cause someone to be punished for something that they obviously didn't do. And it's causing a miscarriage of justice. And God is saying, I want you to care about justice because I am a God of justice. I am just, so I want you to care about justice, right? It reflects My character. Finally, the 10th commandment. Verse 21, “‘And you shall not covet your neighbor's wife. And you shall not desire your neighbor's house, his field, or his male servant, or his female servant, his ox, or his donkey, or anything that is your neighbor's.’” Now, what do you notice different about this last commandment? It's really interesting, isn't it? There's something that's different on this commandment, from all of the others. And, if you'll really look at it here, you'll notice that it doesn't talk about anything that you necessarily do outwardly. It's talking about what's in your heart. This last commandment is about what's in your heart. He says, don't covet. Don't desire. Means don't desire. Don't desire what? Well, your neighbor's wife, or his house, or his field, or any of his servants, or his animals, which would be today like his John Deere tractor. Don't desire those things. Don't set your heart on those things. Anything that is your neighbors. And so what God is doing here is He's up to the ante of the word related to these commands. And He's begun to open things up to the heart of the matter. And you can imagine for anybody who really, truly meditated on this 10th commandment, there would be an interesting kind of a revelation that would come to their heart that, you know what, this is not a commandment that my neighbor would necessarily even know that I had violated. I mean if I coveted his, my neighbor's wife, how would he know? Unless I took an action in which case would be adultery. But if I just coveted that's in the heart, you see. So what's the whole point? We all fall short.