Exodus (Lesson 38)

We walk through the final commandments in Exodus 20, pressing on truth-telling, coveting, reverent fear, and simple worship that keeps God at the center. We challenge envy, spectacle, and distraction, and call listeners to give God their hearts, time, and obedience.

• the harm of bearing false witness and the call to precise truth
• covetousness as idolatry and respect for private property
• fear of God as a restraint against sin
• rejection of gold and silver “gods” in favor of wholehearted devotion
• altars of earth and unhewn stone to keep worship simple
• human life’s sanctity and the purpose of sacrifice fulfilled in Christ
• modesty and focus in corporate worship to avoid distraction
• practical calls to give God time, love, and spiritual sacrifices

Church Website — BibleBaptistDeLand.com

Ministry Website — JamesWKnox.org

YouTube Channel — YouTube.com/JamesWKnoxSermons

Sermon Audio — SermonAudio.com/BibleBaptistDeLand

Web Store — Store.JamesWKnox.org

Chapters

• 0:00 Setting The Stage: Exodus 20
• 2:43 You Shall Not Bear False Witness
• 5:27 Coveting And Private Property
• 10:56 Thunder, Trumpets, And Holy Fear
• 15:05 No Gods Of Gold Or Silver
• 17:10 Altars Of Earth, Not Artifice
• 20:35 Sacrifice, Human Life, And Priorities
• 25:20 Keep Worship Simple And Modest
• 28:30 Closing Remarks And Contact Info

Transcript

SPEAKER_00: 0:09

Welcome to the Preaching the Cross Radio Podcast, featuring the radio ministry of Pastor James W. Knox of the Bible Baptist Church of Delant, Florida. Our prayer is that these half-hour Bible study programs will bring the lost to a saving knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ and enable the saved to grow in the grace and knowledge of the Savior. Now here's your host, Pastor James W. Knox.

SPEAKER_01: 0:54

I'm Brother James. I greet you again in the name of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world. And I welcome you one more time to the preaching of the cross radio broadcast. We are studying together in the Bible book of Exodus. We are in the 20th chapter thereof, and we are looking at the famous Ten Commandments. Moses meeting with God, God meeting with Moses on Mount Sinai and delivering to him the law that would govern the Hebrew people throughout the course of their history. And of course, this law is introduced by or begins with that which has come to be known as the Ten Commandments. The first four commandments having to do with man's relationship to God, and the latter six of the ten having to do with man's relationship to his fellow man. Thus far we have covered, thou should have no other gods before me. Thou should not make unto thee any graven image. Six days shalt thou labor and do all thy work. And then, of course, we passed right over the third commandment, which is thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain. Then on the last broadcast, we looked at honor thy father and thy mother, thou shalt not kill, thou shalt not commit adultery, thou shalt not steal. So if you have your Bible and you can follow along with us, we're going to start today at Exodus 20 and verse number 17 and or 16, I'm sorry, and finish up these ten commandments and then move on down through the chapter. So Exodus 20 and verse number 16, thou shalt not bear, that's to carry about, false witness against thy neighbor. When you lie, it's never a white lie, an innocent lie, just a little lie. When you lie, when anyone lies, someone is going to be harmed thereby. Jesus Christ said, I am the truth. The Bible says of our God, he cannot lie. If God would never lie, if God has never lied, then God does not approve of lying. The Bible says in John 8 and verse 44, Jesus spoke the words, year of your father, the devil, and the lust of your father ye will do. He was a murderer from the beginning and abode not in the truth. He is a liar and the father of it. So God is truth. The devil is a liar. And when man fails to tell the truth, especially when he speaks to testify and uses words of falsehood and words that are not true, with the intent to hurt or to harm his neighbor. You say, Well, I just lied to protect myself at whose expense? At whose expense? Whoever you lied to was deserving of the truth. Whoever you lied to had an expectation of hearing the truth. Whoever you lied to is going to act upon information you gave them, and now their subsequent actions and policies and decisions are all going to be wrong because you were not truthful. Thou should not bear false witness against thy neighbor. How many innocent men have suffered because someone lied in a court of law? How many parties have been defrauded? Because somebody lied in a business contract? How many preachers have been run off? How many churches have been destroyed? How many lives have been damaged? Perhaps irreparably, because someone in a church house lied to other people in the church house? Have you left out part of the truth? It's a lie. Did you add to what really happened? It's a lie. Did you fail to state the matter in precise terms, laying the thing out as it is, as it was, as it should be? God said, Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbor. In verse number 17, Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's house. I see beautiful homes as I drive through one city after another, town to town, traveling about this great land, preaching God's word. Some I say that's a beautiful house. Some I say I like that design, that architecture. Some I say the size of that is impressive. I have no desire to take another man's house. I don't envy that man, don't begrudge that man for the home that he lives in. Thou should not covet thy neighbor's wife. You that are without a husband and would like to be married, you that are without a wife and would like to be married, God certainly understands, I certainly understand, how that you could look at a happily married couple and say, I wish that I were married, that's alright. That's all right. Nobody can blame you for that. It's not good for a man to be alone. The desire of the woman to be toward her husband, those are biblical truths. We understand that. But when you look at a married woman and say, I want that woman, you're already in sin. When you look at a married man, ladies, you look at a married man and say, I want that man, you're already into sin. Look, if you did not entertain thoughts of wanting another person's spouse, then you would never come anywhere near the next step or the step after that, which results in the actual violation and damage to the marriage vows. So don't desire what belongs to somebody else. Then the scripture says, God giving command, nor his manservant, nor his maidservant, nor his ox, nor his ass, nor anything, nor anything that is thy neighbor's. I like to preach the word of God. Sometimes when you preach the word of God, of necessity you must address some things that seem to be political. For example, for example, God upholds in these verses the right of an individual to his private property. Communal living is neither taught nor commanded in the Holy Bible. An equality of wealth, a distribution of wealth taking from one to give to the other, is not taught nor commanded in all the Bible. In fact, here in God's word, God says you are not in if you have no ox, and another man has two oxen, you are not entitled to one of his oxen, so that you will both have one ox. Here the Bible says, the Bible says, if if any man has anything, and you want that thing that belongs to that man, you are to repent of the sin of desiring his property. Now, if you want to buy it, that's fine. You want to pay him a fair price for it, that's all right. Buying, selling, sanction of the word of God, certainly no problem there. But for you, for you to covet, that is, to eat yourself up with thoughts of envy and ill will and longing, because somebody has some material possession that you lack, because somebody has something they're going to leave behind when they die that you want to take from them. Those thoughts are sinful, and they certainly lead to sinful deeds, and the Holy Spirit has recorded for us the words that God Almighty spoke on the mountain and says, Don't do it. Covetousness, stay away from it. In fact, in the New Testament, we are told that covetousness is a form of idolatry. For while I may not be worshiping a God that does not exist, I am devoting my heart, soul, strength, and mind to things I do not or cannot possess. Seek ye first the kingdom of God, his righteousness. Don't seek your neighbor's property. All right, verse 18. So those are the Ten Commandments. Keep in mind, under the law, men labor than rest. In Christ we rest then labor. Verse 18. And all the people saw the thunderings and the lightnings and the noise of the trumpet and the mountain smoking. What a sight that must have been. And when the people saw it, they removed and stood afar off. And they said unto Moses, Speak thou with us, and we will hear, but let not God speak with us lest we die. Well, it's right to be afraid of God, but they still had this idea that God was just out to kill them, even after all that he had done for them. And men tend to disregard the Lord's commandments when the Lord seems to be a long way off. And then they tend to add to his commandments and make them an excessive burden when it seems to them that God is near. Remember, before Moses went up on the mountain, God said, Tell the people to stay away from the mountain, not to touch it lest they die. And so the people had to have that warning, that commandment, because when God was not showing himself, they had a careless disregard for his power, his might, and his holiness. Now, now they see this display of God's magnificent strength, and they withdraw farther from the mountain than they were required to, just to make sure, just to make sure. Now, I would say going farther than God commanded is safer than not going as far as God commanded. But what you're required to do, what I'm required to do, and what is best for us always, is to do just what God said, not to add to his word, not to take from his word. And that's all God asks of us. Verse 19, and they said unto Moses, Speak thou with us, and we will hear. But let God speak with us lest we die. I believe in this moment they intended to hear. That is, to hearken unto, to pay attention to, to respond properly to what God had said. I believe they meant it in the moment. But sadly, sadly, it just didn't work out that way. And Moses said to the people, fear not, for God has come to prove you that his fear may be before your faces, that ye sin not. Now, what keeps men from sinning? The fear of God. We've said it over and over and over again. This this casual God, this modern God that nobody's afraid of, doesn't keep anyone from sinning. And the people stood afar off. The Bible says this of lost people. Ephesians 2 13 18. The Bible says this of people who have not entered into a proper relationship with their Savior. Hebrews 4, 14 to 16. Hebrews 10, 19 to 23. See the term also in James 4.8, stood afar off. And Moses drew near unto the thick darkness where God was. And the Lord said unto Moses, Thus thou shalt say unto the children of Israel, ye have seen that I have talked with you from heaven. Ye shall not make with me gods of silver, neither shall ye make unto you gods of gold. He's he's the only God. Don't don't put another God alongside me. Don't do it. Don't add another God to me. Don't do it. Don't have a secondary God, a third God, a God on the side. There's one God. I'm the only God. I don't want to see it. Don't turn gold into a God. Americans. Don't turn silver into a God. Materialistic men and women. You've got a God. Worship Him, serve Him, love Him, live for Him. 24. An altar of earth, thou shalt make unto me. See, God's not impressed when you make some little gold image. Take some earth and make an altar. He doesn't want gold, He wants your heart. He doesn't want silver, He wants your love and devotion. Make an altar unto me, and shalt sacrifice thereon thy burnt offerings and thy peace offerings, thy sheep and thine oxen. So obviously thou shalt not kill, has to do with men not killing other men. You you silly people brainwashed when you were children by Disney animated cartoon movies who think, who think that animals and humans are the same, deserve equal treatment. God doesn't agree with you. God doesn't agree with you. God said, don't kill, and then told them to sacrifice animals. Meaning his regard for the sanctity of human life did not extend to the sanctity of the life of the brute beasts of the field. I hope you see that. Well, I just think, yeah, I know, but but you're on the wrong station. We're teaching the Holy Bible the truth from the Word of God, not idiocy from dolts who believe in evolution. We are not animals. We are humans. Animals are not humans. They are animals. We don't whisper to each other, we don't talk to each other, we don't communicate with each other, we don't adopt them into our families, we don't treat them as equals, they're animals. We might use them for pleasure, we might use them for labor, we might use them for food, but we never make the mistake of thinking that we're on any form of equal footing. So you know that bothers some of you more than than the knowledge that your neighbors are going to hell. What's wrong with you? What's wrong with you? What is wrong with a nation of people that would s that would be more concerned with a stray cat? Now listen to me. What's wrong with people who are more concerned with a stray cat being shot by a little boy's BB gun than they are with human beings being shot in the streets of our cities? What's wrong with you? Where'd that come from? What is the matter with people that talk more sweetly to their dogs than they do to their children and their spouses? What what's wrong with you? What is the matter with a nation of people who think nothing of spending twenty and thirty dollars a week on pet food, who couldn't possibly bring themselves to give twenty or thirty dollars a week to missionaries? What's wrong with you? An altar of earth thou shalt make unto me and shalt sacrifice. Now, it's an amazing listen, I live in a country where Where people buy clothes for their pets and send their daughters to school with their thighs and their bosoms uncovered. What's wrong with you? An altar of earth thou shalt make unto me, and shalt sacrifice thereon thy burnt offerings and thy peace offerings, thy sheep and thine oxen. In all places where I record my name, I will come unto thee, and I will bless thee. You want God's blessing? Obey his commandments, sacrifice unto his honor and glory. Now we don't we don't sacrifice animals in this day. Jesus Christ has died on that cross, been buried, risen again. Not that we ever did, we are never under the law. Gentiles never were. Certainly the church never was. But God asked for spiritual sacrifices, our heart, our time, our soul, our strength, our mind, our talents, our energy, our love. I tell you, you give to God and you'll enjoy his presence and his blessing. And if thou wilt make me an altar of stone, thou should not build it of hewn stone. For if thou lift up thy tool upon it, thou hast polluted it. Here again we see God's very low estimation of man. Here again we see how how deeply sin has affected mankind. First of all, first of all, the Lord says, anything, anything that you do, anything that you do, when you come to worship me, other than worship me, is going to incline toward sin. Man just doesn't get it right. Even even when he's trying his very best to do what is right, he rarely gets it right. That's man. Now, here's what you got. You're walking through this wilderness place. You're you're uh part of the Hebrew nation. You're walking through a wilderness place. You say, let's worship God right here, right here, right now. Let's worship God and make sacrifice to God. So you can do you can do this. You can gather up some stones that God made, and the shape and size that God made them, and you can stack them up and offer your sacrifice there. And Lord, so that's perfect, that's perfectly acceptable to me because all you want to do is offer me sacrifice, and that's all I want. And I appreciate that. Or you can take out your tools and chisel here and chisel there and chip here and chip there and form here and form there and sculpt here and sculpt there, and before long you have this beautiful, magnificent altar that you've made with your skill and with your hands. And you know what people are gonna do? They are going to glory in the man who built the altar. They are going to glory in the beauty of the altar, and thus deprive God of the full measure of worship to which he is entitled. You don't believe it? You don't believe it? Watch a group of lost, unsaved booze drinking, cursing, reprobate tourists travel Europe and walk into magnificent church buildings and glory in the architecture and glory in the stained glass and glory in the statues and glory in the acoustics and glory in the in the marvelous uh workmen who put the thing together and give no glory whatsoever to God Almighty. Now you know that's true. And so the Lord said, just just keep it simple, don't mess it up, just pile some stones up and worship me, so you don't get all caught up in the glory of your altar and miss out on the glory of your God. How about that? 26 Neither shalt thou go up by steps unto mine altar, that thy nakedness be not discovered thereon. You know what the Lord was concerned about? Now you you understand, practically speaking, these uh these priests, these worshippers, they're wearing their uh their uh long flowing garments, and should they ascend up uh to a high place or platform, the people standing below, they looked up toward the altar to worship God, they're gonna be distracted by the sight of human flesh, human undergarments. And the Lord said, Man, I don't want that. I don't want people coming to worship me and having a look at uh uh more of another human being than their eyes should fasten upon? And so how is it when you go to church? How is it where you go to church? You go to church where mini skirts are okay? Why? Why? Why would you want to go to a church where you're distracted from worshiping God by the sight of a woman's bare legs? You go to church where nobody dares say anything about the low-cut blouses? Because after all, well, you you know exactly why a woman's wearing that. And you know exactly why she'd wear it to church, and she knows exactly what she's gonna get when she wears that thing to church. And why would you why would you want to go to a place of worship where your mind is going to be distracted from God and uh turned aside to the beholding of flesh? I know you want to get a lot of young people in, don't you? So you just let them wear anything they want to wear. The garbage they learn to wear from watching TV, and their clueless parents who want the little boy and little girl happy, and then we make them happy is let them look like heathen. Exposing this, exposing that, leaving that uncovered, leaving this uncovered. You know what God said? If you're gonna worship me, if you're gonna worship me, you're gonna do it the way I want you to do it, or I don't want it done. And I don't want you coming to my altar in such a way as to leave your flesh exposed, which will result in the weak and the careless being distracted from the worship of God by the sight of your bare flesh or undergarments. How's that? How's that? I hey, I I'll I make you a promise. I'll make you a promise. You won't hear anything like that the rest of the day. How about that? Well, I'm almost out of time. So see, you were reaching for the dial to turn me off, and I'm done. This is the Preaching of the Cross Radio Broadcast. Your letters, they really are appreciated more than you'll ever know. Please write to us at 872 Glenwood Road. 872 Glenwood Road. That's in D-Land. D E L A N D-Land, Florida. The zip code number 32720. 32720. That mailing address is in the United States of America. You may also visit us online, our uh website address, JamesKnox.com. J-A-M-E-S-K-N-O-X, James Knox.com. Hope you'll drop by real soon for a visit. Nobody will be there, but you can come visit us. All right, the announcement will be all now in just a moment to let you know when this program will be heard again over this radio station. And we hope that at that time you and a friend that you invite to listen with you will join us for the preaching of the cross radio broadcast. Until then, I'm Brother James. May the Lord richly bless you, and good day.

SPEAKER_00: 29:07

Thanks for tuning in today. Join us every weekday for another episode of the Preaching of the Cross Radio Podcast. For hundreds of hours of in-depth expository Bible teaching, please visit our YouTube channel, James W. Knox Sermons, our sermon audio page, Bible Baptistoland, or our website, Bible BaptistToland.com. Until next time and throughout eternity, may Jesus Christ be praised.