July 14, 2010
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Pentecost & The Ten Commandments by Pastor Don
Sunday Service 5/2/10
Pentecost – The Feast of Weeks – Pente means 50, and this feast occurs fifty days after Passover. The Law was given after the first Passover.
Passover, the Feast of Unleavened bread, is the spring barley harvest. The wheat harvest followed 50 days later. The last grain to grow is corn. Barley represents the first influx of believers – the disciples. The wheat represents the Five-Fold ministry. Jesus is the firstfruits.
The Israelites say that Pentecost was the time when God appeared on the mountain and talked with Moses, handing down the Law, the Ten Commandments. There were also 633 other laws kept by the people, which were based on the framework of the Ten Commandments.
Jesus reduces this framework to two commandments – to love the Lord and Love your neighbor as yourself. These two commandments only break down when you do not love yourself. If I can’t rule my house, how can I rule God? I need to be in my right mind to deal with my stuff, then I can love my neighbors as I love myself.
IT’S ABOUT LOVE!
God established the law 1000′s of years before Christ, and it is still relevant to the Church today. But we are not under the law, like the Israelites were before Christ came. There was no Church before Pentecost. God gave the Law and Jesus gave the Church. The gifts were given to man at Pentecost.
We are to be Kings and priests of the Kingdom. Our testimony should be I saw what Jesus did and I am doing it. We are to be obedient to God, to have our hearts right before God. Exodus 20, the Ten Commandments shows us how to be holy. Anything you set, holy, sanctified, before God.
Exodus 20:1-3 And God spoke all these words, saying: “I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. You shall have no other gods before Me.”
NONE – ZERO gods before GOD!
Exodus 20:4 You shall not make for yourself a carved image—any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth;
DON’T EVEN MAKE IT!. Don’t tempt the Lord because you think a statue is cute. Don’t tempt yourself. That collection of angels, or imps, should not be in your house. Someone might think to bow down or cross themselves before them. Be careful of the things of the flesh that might have a spiritual nature attached to inanimate objects that have no power. Are there any exceptions? NO! Angels have been on the earth, but we don’t worship angels. We must make a spiritual decision about what we love more, our idols or God. To be holy we need to be WHOLY HOLY. Some denominations permit statues in the sanctuary. If God wrote that we are NOT TO MAKE A CARVED IMAGE, that should apply to ALL CARVED IMAGES. Since God wrote the Law, He wants us to obey it.
Exodus 20:5-7 you shall not bow down to them nor serve them. For I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children to the third and fourth generations of those who hate Me, but showing mercy to thousands, to those who love Me and keep My commandments. You shall not take the name of the LORD your God in vain, for the LORD will not hold him guiltless who takes His name in vain.
Jesus is NOT a curse word. You will be held guilty for the curse words that have crossed your lips.
Exodus 20:8-11 Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the LORD your God. In it you shall do no work: you, nor your son, nor your daughter, nor your male servant, nor your female servant, nor your cattle, nor your stranger who is within your gates. For in six days the LORD made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested the seventh day. Therefore the LORD blessed the Sabbath day and hallowed it.
This is not to be turned into legalism. The SABBATH means to REST, recline, contemplate, think through, wholly focus on the Lord. We are to keep a day Holy to the Lord. What day? Saturday? Sunday? Friday Night? God is the Lord of the Sabbath. Jesus told us that the Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath.
Hebrews 4:9-10 There remains therefore a rest for the people of God. 10 For he who has entered His rest has himself also ceased from his works as God did from His.
Jesus kept healing people on the Sabbath, and got in trouble for not obeying the legalistic Sabbath that the Scribes and Pharisees set up. We are to have a Sabbath Day, a day that we set aside to spend with God. It does not have to be a specific day of the week, but needs to be one of the seven days. It is to be a day holy to the Lord, a day to not do customary work. There was also to be a Sabbath year, where the fields were to be at rest. The Israelites did not keep the Sabbath year and because of that they ended up in slavery to others for not keeping the Sabbath. God knows that we need a day of rest.
We tend to overindulge, which is turning the world upside down. We are to rest and enjoy the Lord, not spend the time in overindulgence in activities, etc. In one underdeveloped country they did an experiment of creating an 8 day week, and after two months there were psychological problems among the people. We are wired for a seven day week with six days of work and one day of rest.
Know that there is no day that is not holy to the Lord. Every day is holy to the Lord.
Exodus 20:12 Honor your father and your mother, that your days may be long upon the land which the LORD your God is giving you.
This is a law that we are to honor our father and mother, it is the only law that comes with a promise that if we do it our days will be long on the land. The law does not specify that we are to only honor our parents if they were good parents, we are to honor our parents – good or bad. Honor them just because they were your parents. WE have no right to judge. We don’t know what you dad had to go through to become the person that he became. Honor them, PERIOD! NO EXCUSES. Be there for them. Look out after them. It is the Lord that gave you health, life, wisdom, prosperity, peace in the valley. If your parents are dead and you didn’t take care of them, ask God for mercy and forgiveness. Repent for what you did not do for your parents.
Exodus 20:13 You shall not murder.
This is not just physical murder, but character assassination. Jesus told the people that if you even demean another person you are committing murder.
Exodus 20:14 You shall not commit adultery.
Jesus expanded adultery to more than the physical act, even looking at another person or desiring them in your heart is considered adultery. We have the right to throw out porn that is in our house. Porn is a poison that destroys relationships. They eyes lead to considering adultery in our hearts.
Exodus 20:15 You shall not steal.
Don’t take what doesn’t belong to you.
Exodus 20:16 You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.
Do not gossip, don’t misrepresent the truth regarding another.
Exodus 20:17 You shall not covet your neighbor’s house; you shall not covet your neighbor’s wife, nor his male servant, nor his female servant, nor his ox, nor his donkey, nor anything that is your neighbor’s.
Be grateful for what God has provided for you. Don’t covet what your neighbor has.
Exodus 20:18-20 Now all the people witnessed the thunderings, the lightning flashes, the sound of the trumpet, and the mountain smoking; and when the people saw it, they trembled and stood afar off. Then they said to Moses, “You speak with us, and we will hear; but let not God speak with us, lest we die.” And Moses said to the people, “Do not fear; for God has come to test you, and that His fear may be before you, so that you may not sin.”
God appeared to Moses and the people, and the people were frightened. They wanted Moses to speak to God and relay what God said to them. The beginning of wisdom is the fear of the Lord. The people were terrified.
Keeping the Ten Commandments blesses people. The Ten Commandments were to show the people that they, in their own power, would not be able to keep them. That they needed a Savior.
When Jesus died on the Cross the veil to the Holy of Holies was torn, top to bottom. We no longer needed a High Priest, and intermediary to approach God. We could boldly go to the throne room of God and speak directly to Him.
Keeping the commandments is a blessing. We are grafted into the Kingdom because of what Jesus did for us. That does not mean that we scrap the commandments, for they were meant to make our life better. Just because we think that something is not hurting us does not mean that it isn’t hearting us.
Pastor Don pointed out that the incidence of autism has increased in our society today. 35 years ago it was 1 in 10-20,000 people. Two years ago it was 1 in 150 people. Now it is 1 in 120 people.
There is an increase in violent crime and many things that were common morals have now changed. The Ten Commandments have been taken out of the schools and schools are suffering.
It is better to do things God’s way. Keep the Ten Commandments and 663 laws.
Jesus pointed out that what comes out of us is what defiles us. To obey the Law brings fulfillment to man. Listen to the heart of God, and know that He has our best in mind.
The beginning of wisdom is obedience to God.
We want our children to do what is right out of honor and love for us, not because they are scared. You can’t teach a kid to honor and respect you.
(Heather’s note) Before I was saved I used to think that the Ten Commandments and God’s laws were ways to take away fun and put impossible ideals on us. Now I realize how loving the Commandments are, how God gave them to us to make our lives better, not to repress us. It is from love that the Law comes. That sure changed my perspective in thinking about the Commandments.
Praying your day is blessed.
Heather
