I am the Lord Your God

So the Ten Commandments is like, you know, you go to the store and you go in the juice section and there's frozen concentrate. And then you get it and you add a bunch of water to it. That's kind of what the Ten Commandments are. They're God's law concentrated form, distilled down to some of the most simple aspects of it. You can get it distilled even further, which Jesus does. He asks what the greatest commandment is. It's to love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength. That's like the most distilled version of the law of God. And then the second greatest commandment is like that. And that's the first table of the command of the laws, right? The Ten Commandments is all of our duties towards God. And the second greatest commandment is like it, which is to love your neighbor as yourself. That would be the second table of the law. So today, though, What we want to look at, as I said, is the preface, which establishes our necessity to obey all the rest of the commandments. The Westminster Shorter Catechism, question 44, asks, what does the preface of the Ten Commandments teach us? The preface of the Ten Commandments teaches us that because God is the Lord, our God and Redeemer, therefore, we are bound to keep all his commandments.

is essentially what I want us to get this morning. I want you to see how the preface is the foundation of the Ten Commandments and why we're bound to obey the Ten Commandments. And then in future sermons, Lord willing, we'll unpack each commandment individually. It's helpful for us, though, to know the context in which the Ten Commandments are given. So, I mean... There's a lot. It's hard to know how far back to go sometimes with context. But basically, Israel has been taken in. They willingly went into Egypt. While they were in Egypt, they multiplied, and the Egyptians freaked out. So they made them slaves. They were slaves for 400-ish years, and they finally, within those 400 years, began to turn to God and call on him to deliver them.

And so God delivers them, right? He brings them out of the land of Egypt. And it's this great and powerful and beautiful deliverance. And we'll talk more about that later. Then as they get delivered, they cross the Red Sea. And then there's times of starving. There's times of a lack of drink. And God provides miraculously for those. They have foes who they defeat. And so they just go from like one miraculous deliverance to another miraculous deliverance to another miraculous deliverance until they come to the foot of Mount Sinai. And when they come to Sinai, God tells Moses to warn the people. They're to purify themselves. So he says he's going to come and he's going to speak to the people. But before he does that, there's to spend several days purifying themselves.

Everyone is to become purified. The husbands are supposed to stay away from their wives. And the Levites are to become pure, do all the purifying rituals that they're supposed to do. And then the Lord is going to speak to the people. But when he does, no one is allowed within a certain distance of the mountain. They're to put up barricades. And no one can come near the mountain because the holiness of God is going to come down. And if they weren't pure, God would kill them, right? But even though they were purified, they still weren't holy enough to come approach a mountain. And if anyone did approach the mountain, they had to be put to death. But because they had gotten so close to the holiness of God, no one was even allowed to touch them to put them to death. They had to stone them or the animal that got too close, and they couldn't even touch whatever individual or animal got that close.

There had to be distance between them and the holiness of God. So then that day happens. And when it does, the description is apocalyptic. There's thunder and lightning and clouds, and the earth is trembling and shaking, earthquakes. And there's this great sound of a trumpet. And the Lord comes down. And what we have is something very unique. Because in this... situation, God speaks directly to Israel. And that's a unique thing in scripture, where it is not often that God speaks face to face with his people. It's almost always a mediated experience. And what we see at the end of Exodus chapter 20 is the people say, no, we don't want this again. We want you to speak to Moses.

and Moses to speak to us, because that's terrifying. And so the first giving of the Ten Commandments, though, is God speaking to his people without a mediator. So this setting shows us the distinctive nature of the Ten Commandments, the way that they're set apart from all the other laws of Moses that are given. Even though you'll search in vain, for a verse in Scripture that says explicitly, like, the Ten Commandments are the most important part of the law. You're not going to get that, right? But the setting and the scenario and the way in which they're spoken of show us that the Ten Commandments are unique, that they are something that doesn't just go away. This is further demonstrated in passages like Jeremiah 7.

21 through 23. Now, if we read the whole passage, you would see Jeremiah talks about all of the different laws laid out in the Ten Commandments and how they're being violated. But he goes on and he says, Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, add your burnt offerings to your sacrifices and eat the flesh. For in the day that I brought you out of the land of Egypt, I did not speak to your fathers or command them concerning burnt offerings and sacrifices. But this command I gave them, obey my voice, and I will be your God, and you shall be my people. And walk in the way that I command you, that it may be well with you. So he's giving a summary of what God said in the Ten Commandments. He's saying, what I wanted was your obedience. And then he added all these sacrifices and things. But what we see in the history of Israel and in our own lives is that

We're often very, very willing to give the sacrifices. We're much less willing to give the obedience that God requires. And so he's saying, add all your sacrifices. What I wanted was your obedience. And you're really very willing to do all these external things, but you're so unwilling to bow your hearts to God and to obey the commands that he's given. You want to make up for the sin that you commit. You don't want to stop the sin that you commit. Micah 6.8 says, He has told you, O man, what is good. And what does the Lord require of you? What does he require of you? He requires of you to do justice, to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God. What is that but a summary of the Ten Commandments? 1 Samuel 15.22, Saul is waiting for Samuel. They're going to go into battle. Before they go into battle, they have to offer sacrifices. Call on the Lord for his help.

Samuel's late. Samuel's late. Samuel's late. Goes up to a week, right? Saul finally says, whatever, I'm going to do the sacrifices. Well, he finishes them, and then Samuel comes. And Samuel says to him, Has the Lord great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices, as in obeying the voice of the Lord? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to listen is better than the fat of rams. These verses point out the necessity of following the Ten Commandments. The Ten Commandments are not in opposition to the other parts of the law. Rather, they're the foundation of them. Jesus fulfills the ceremonial law, and it's done away with. Read the book of Hebrews again and again. It shows how all the ceremonial law had these forms and these parts that find their fulfillment in Christ.

So that it becomes sinful for us to reinstitute the ceremonial forms of the law is heretical. It's a denial of Christ. It's a denial of the fact that he came and fulfilled those things. To try and require them of people is wrong. The civil laws were given to Israel as a nation. We don't live in a theocracy in that way anymore. The civil laws are no longer... applied in the way that they were in Israel. Wisdom, how they apply to us. There are principles and things that still apply, but it takes wisdom to discern to what effect they should have in our lives today and whether we even have the individual authority of instituting them in our own lives. And so what you can see when you read scriptures, these themes, is that the moral, the ceremonial law is fulfilled.

We're under no obligation to keep the tenets of the ceremonial law anymore. And the civil law has great application. It's wise. There are things in it that help us and direct us, and yet we are not under it in the way that Israel was. But the moral law, all throughout Scripture, was the foundation for the other laws. And it actually describes to us, the character and the nature of God. And we ought to still obey it. Now, we're going to get into more of what that looks like. But the moral law, the Ten Commandments, are undergirding all the other laws that were given in the Old Testament. And they're still enforced today. So, I've gotten a little bit ahead of myself. Why are they still enforced today?

Well, there are three parts to the preface that we need to look at. The preface being, I am the Lord your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery. The first part is, I am the Lord. What does the Lord mean by saying, I am the Lord? Well, as I said before, when a command is issued, it matters who issues the command. And here we're told, Who issues the command? The command is from the Lord. The Lord is Yahweh, Jehovah. So it's an interesting word. Hebrew didn't have vowels, and so they were all put in later. Yahweh would be Yod-Heh-Vav-Heh in Hebrew. It's known as the Tetragrammaton. And it's usually, if you have the NASB, when you're reading in the Old Testament and it says Lord, And it's all caps. It's saying Yahweh, God. The Jews would refuse to say this name. That's why we really don't exactly know how it's pronounced is because they always would say something else because this is the name of God. This is the revealed name of God. And so they said, it's so holy, we won't actually say it. So by saying, I am the Lord, he's making a claim.

The Lord is saying that he has the right to rule and to command this obedience. It's a claim that he's the self-existing, independent, eternal God. He's the fountain of life. He's the creator. Moses, in the beginning of his ministry, meets the Lord at the burning bush in Exodus 3. And God sends him. But then Moses says, well, they're going to ask me, who? is sending you. Who is sending you? And the Lord says, tell them, I am. Well, none of us can say, I am. Because in saying, I am, he's saying, he's self-existent. He's not dependent on anyone else. This is the God of the universe, the creator. And so, to say, I am the Lord, is a claim of absolute authority over the people.

So this is an obligation for all of us. Now, it's going to narrow in a minute. But when he says, I am the Lord, and then he gives his commands, saying this is what you need to do, it's a command for all creation. This isn't just for his people. This is a law that undergirds and is a command for all people. But he goes on. He says, I am the Lord, your God. And the your God is really very interesting because if you read in Exodus 19 and you read in Exodus 21, the Lord is speaking to Israel as a whole. But when he says your God, it's in second person singular, which means he's speaking to individuals, right? He's not saying.

It's not plural. He's not saying, I'm y'all's God. He's saying, I'm your God. So while he's speaking to all of Israel, he's speaking to individuals who are in his presence. So this is personal. God isn't just like saying, I am the Lord, the creator whom you all owe allegiance to. He's not this deistic sort of God who sets the world in motion and then holds himself aloof. and watches everything play out. This is very intimate. Like, imagine you're standing there, holding your mind, these two things, the ground shaking, there's fire, there's smoke, there's trumpet and noise, and it's terrifying. And in the midst of that terror, this God says, I'm your God. Have you ever been in the store or something, your child?

goes up to the jars and he knocks a jar over or something. And you're like, whose kid is that? Like you just want to like, you're in public and your kid's really misbehaving and you just want to like pretend like that's not your kid. You don't want anything to do with them. That's not God. God's identifying himself with his people. He's identifying them with him and himself with them saying, I'm your God. That's astounding. When you think about your life and how sinful you are and how often, how much time you spend pursuing sinful things and running away from God, and he says, I am the Lord, your God. I mean, isn't that a beautiful thing? How personal he gets in his willingness to say, he's your God. And the fact that we're such a mess, and yet he's willing to do that.

God is unashamed to call his people his people and claim them as his own. And, you know, when we think about the Ten Commandments, don't we view them often as something that's hard? They're sort of a burden. They're something we don't really want to think about because they cross our desires so often. I'm afraid that too often that is how we view the law. And we have a notion that we should follow the law, but the law is hard and restrictive. This is an awful way to think about God's law. And that view, that mindset is based on lies from Satan. That somehow following God's law will be miserable for us. But actually, the law of God is given to us with great love and humility, almost, you would say.

that God condescends to not just the man from on high, but come down to a mountain in front of his people and speak to them and claim them as his own people. You see the love of God and being willing to communicate to you in this very personal and intimate way. So in this preface, God grounds the Ten Commandments, He binds his people to himself in obedience. And there's this both binding you to him and him to you. And calling them his people whom he brought out of the land of Egypt. Now, you know, God could have just said, I am the Lord your God. Or he could have just said, I am the Lord, obey me. And that would be enough. He created you, you owe him your allegiance. But he doesn't do that.

He claims to be their God, and then he further identifies himself as the God who brought them out of the land of Egypt. And this shows us even more the love that is entailed within these commandments. Because when he says, I am the Lord your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt, this is a picture of the gospel. You have Israel who is slaves. They're in bondage. And they don't deserve to be brought out of bondage. They don't deserve to be freed from their slavery. And yet God in his goodness and in fulfillment of promises that he freely gave comes and frees them from their slavery. He sends all the plagues on Egypt.

and draws them out. But even in drawing them out, he doesn't just bring them out of slavery and leave them hanging. What happens is, if you recall, Israel leaves. Pharaoh decides, actually, no, you still need to be my slaves. So he brings all his armies, and he comes after them. And Israel is fleeing, and now they have mountains and an ocean. And Pharaoh's army. And they're trapped. And then God miraculously saves them again. He splits the Red Sea. The people cross through. Pharaoh's army comes in and is destroyed. But then they come out. They praise God. All's happy and well. Until there's no food. Until there's no drink. Until they come to the first enemy. And so what you see is God saves them. And rather than being grateful.

for more than just a day, they then want to go back to Egypt, back to their sins. And God sustains them again. And isn't this a picture of us? You and I have been slaves to our sin. All we could do is sin. All we wanted was sin. Then God, when he calls us, frees us from the bondage of sin. And yet... So often our inclination is always to just go back to our sin. We want to keep returning. And if it were not for the Lord sustaining us and keep pulling us out of our sin, we would just want to keep going back. So what we see here is when God says that I am the Lord your God who brought you out of bondage, out of the land of slavery, this is a picture of us, of us being in our sin. And if you're a Christian, God...

pulling you out of that towards himself. Now, it's fascinating to think about who are the Ten Commandments for? I sort of was touching on this, but each one of the commandments is in the second person singular. So each one of these commandments are for you. Yes, they should, our laws should be based on them. It's wonderful to have rulers who would enforce the Ten Commandments. But the law is actually addressed to you as an individual. But the obedience to the law, which he calls us to, follows having been set free. So God has brought his people out of the bondage of Egypt. He's set them free from their slavery. And then he commands them.

to start following all of these laws, the Ten Commandments. So the law isn't something that should be dreary and a great burden to us. God doesn't just command them by his sheer authority. He actually binds himself to us with his love and calls us to himself and sets us free and calls us to respond in obedience to the law that he's given us. So notice the order. The Ten Commandments come after Israel's deliverance. After it. Our obedience is not because somehow by following the Ten Commandments we'll be saved. Somehow we'll earn favor with God. Righteousness in life, we're not expected to come through the law. Rather, our obedience is in response to God's kindness and his mercy to us.

It's because God has bound himself to us. He called us and he set us free and called us his people. Then in response, we love him and we'll desire to love the things that he loves. Love is what causes us to obey the commands of God. John says that if you love me, you obey my commandments. So for us, a question for us we might ask is, by what benefits? Has Christ found himself to you? You see, what God does here is he says, I am the Lord, your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt. So he starts by saying, I have the authority, and narrowing it to the individual people there whom he saved. How has God saved you? What has he saved you from? What were you in bondage to? Thomas Watson says, The commands of sin are burdensome. How that person tires himself who is under the power of any lust. What hazards he runs even to endangering his health and his soul in trying to satisfy his lusts. They weary themselves committing iniquity. Are not God's commands easier to obey? And then he quotes John Chrysostom. John Chrysostom says, virtue is easier than vice.

Temperance is less burdensome than drunkenness. Some have gone with less difficulty to heaven than others have gone to hell. And the idea is that our minds are so warped that we think God's law is more burdensome and more hard than trying to slake our own lusts. But what God is saying is that obedience to him is actually joy. It's the product of love. It's not harsh. It's not mean. It's not nasty. God lowered himself to speak to us and to reveal to us how to follow him. And he sets us free. And it's in that freedom in which we then can actually obey him and follow his law. The law is a melody whose notes consist in obedience to God.

It's a quote I wrote down. I don't know who said it. You were a slave. The Lord set you free. The law is there to keep you from going back into slavery. We feel like the law is burdensome, but the law is actually to keep you from going back to Egypt. Like, the law is our protection. And the law, our obedience to it, is in response to the love and the kindness that God has shown us. So ask yourself, what benefit has God bound you to himself with? There are things that we could say for all of us, right? He knit you together in your mother's womb. He formed you. He breathed life into you. I see all of you clothed. None of you look malnourished, right? So he's been good to you. We could list ways that he has provided for all of us. These are general blessings.

that God binds people to himself by. But there are unique ways that he's blessed you. What are they? If you feel God's law is burdensome in what he's calling you to do, maybe what you ought to do is start sitting down and listing out and thinking through how God has benefited you. Maybe you will find more joy in your obedience to God when you learn to love him and when you see God has done so much. for you, which you just assume, like little children, right? They come up to you and they say, I'm hungry, assuming you're just going to give them food, right? Because that's, you're the parent. And there's so many assumptions that children have that you're just going to do this, right? Well, we view all the good things that we have. It's hard for us to view them as blessings from God and not as just what we deserve.

But the reality is we don't deserve these things. And when you begin to see how God has blessed you and benefited you and saying, I'm your God, do what I've commanded, I've set you free, then there's a joy that comes from the realization that God has loved you. And it's not burdensome to respond in love to what he's done. Not because it's going to save you. Not because you're going to somehow earn his favor. but because he's loved you, and so you respond in love. So what do we do? Well, one thing is to meditate and to recall. You know, this is what God does all the time when he's speaking to his people. When he comes to Abram, he says, I am the Lord your God who brought you out of Ur of the Chaldeans. How many times in Scripture it says, I am the Lord your God, and then there's some personalization.

the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, the God who brought you out of the land of Egypt. He's not just a far-off God. He's a God who's intimately involved in your life, who has done good things for you. So as you consider obedience to the Ten Commandments and what they require of us, one thing that we must not forget is that they're given to us by a personal God who's set you free. And in that freedom, we respond. with love towards him and obedience to what he's commanded of us. When you are rebellious or idle, indifferent to God, when your flesh is aroused, when you're weary and discouraged, recall what God has done for you, how he has saved you, and stir yourself to love of God and obedience towards him. And then in that, model that for your children, right? Teach them how to obey the commands that God has.

In Deuteronomy 6, God's commanding them to teach their children. And he begins by saying, tell them how you were slaves in Egypt and how I delivered you. And then teach them the law. Do you teach the benefits of God to your children, the way that he's loved you? Do it. Expect obedience. Teach them the law. But do it in the context of a loving Father God. who has demonstrated his love towards us, and that he frees us from slavery in order to have the joy and the freedom of serving him. Let's pray.