Worthy of Worship: Everyone worships something. Whether that be wealth, success, people, or other created things. In the second of the Ten Commandments, we discover that Yahweh God, the Creator of heaven and earth, is the only One worthy of our worship. Recorded on Feb 5, 2023, on Exodus 20:4-6 by Pastor David Parks.

Ten Commandments: Learning the Law of Love is a sermon series on the most influential legal code in human history. Why should we learn about the Ten Commandments today? Because they reveal God’s will for how human beings ought to live: to love God with all our heart and love our neighbor as ourselves. Ultimately, the law of love points us directly to Jesus.

Sermon Transcript

 All year, we’re focusing on Learning the way of Jesus. And today, we’re continuing a sermon series we started last week on the Ten Commandments. [Ten Commandments slide] The way of Jesus, as described in the Bible, includes a unique message of what is wrong with the world, of who God is, and what he has done and is doing today to address the problems of the world. Christians call this message the gospel or the good news of Jesus. But also, the way of Jesus includes a whole new way of life including a new set of morals/ethics/understanding of what is right and wrong according to God. Now, before we jump into the second command this morning, I’d like to address a common question or objection that modern people have about the commands of the Bible. The objection is something like, “You Christians don’t obey every command in the Bible. There are commands against eating pork/shellfish or getting tattoos that you seem fine ignoring today. So aren’t you simply picking and choosing which commands you prefer to follow? For example, isn’t your belief in the sexual ethic of the Bible which prohibits any sexual relationship outside of a marriage covenant between one man and one women, based not so much on the command of God but more on your own preferences or biases? How can you accept that one but reject others?” And that’s a fair question. Have you ever wondered about that or heard that question before? If that’s what you think is going on with Christians and Biblical commands, I certainly understand why some people think Christians are bigots. So why do Christians believe that the Ten Commandments are still valid while other commandments in the OT law are no longer valid, such as the dietary laws or the law against tattoos? And the answer is that the 600+ laws of the Mosaic Law in the OT contain three categories of laws: civil law, ceremonial law, and moral law. Civil laws governed the nation of ancient Israel in the Promised Land, including certain crimes and punishments, the allotment of land, how the poor were to be treated, how debt worked, and much more. Ceremonial laws governed worship in ancient Israel, including the sacrificial system, priesthood, tabernacle/temple, dietary laws, annual festivals, and so on. Now, the civil laws ceased to operate many years later, during the time of the exile, when the nation of Israel was basically destroyed because of their covenant unfaithfulness. The ceremonial laws were in place until the new covenant established by Jesus because the whole sacrificial system, temple, priesthood, and more were fulfilled by Jesus. However, the moral laws are still valid because they deal with morality, or what is right and wrong for all people according to God. Of course, there is much more we could say about the purpose of the various laws of the OT, and many of the civil and ceremonial laws have an underlying moral principle which is helpful to understand — but the big idea is that Christians today are fine having a pulled pork sandwich, but it’s still wrong to murder people or lie or steal. We’re not picking and choosing what we like or don’t like.