The Law of God, The First Commandment

The Law of God
Message 01


As we begin this New Year I thought that it might be good for us to visit the topic of the Law of God for
a few Sundays before returning to our study of the Great Sayings in the Gospels. You will recall that we
left the story at the Jewish trial of Jesus during which Peter had betrayed the Lord three times. We will
rejoin the story at the Roman Trial of Jesus sometime soon.

One of the most famous stories of the Bible is that of the deliverance of Israel from the bondage they had
endured in Egypt through the leadership of Moses and the intervention of God by sending awful plagues
upon the Egyptians. You will recall that they had crossed the Red Sea by a miracle of God and the
Egyptian army had been drowned as they tried to cross along the path that God had provided for Israel.

In the third month after their departure, they had arrived at a mountain range in what we know as the Sinai
Peninsula. That three months had seen the bitter waters of Marah made drinkable by a miracle of God,
quail and manna provided by God for their food, the first instance of water being provided from the Rock,
and the defeat of the Amalekites who had thought to destroy them in their weak state. It was at this battle
that Moses kept his hands up to sustain the victory while Aaron and Hur helped him when he grew tired.
So, this had been a busy three months as Israel had turned south to skirt the edge of the Sinai Peninsula
because the inland part was bare desert.

This group of mountains where they arrived in the third month was called Sinai and was located somewhere
near the southern tip near where the Gulf of Suez joins the Gulf of Aqaba at the official Red Sea. The Red
Sea that is mentioned in Exodus is actually what we call ‘the Gulf of Aqaba.’ In those days the whole thing
was called ‘The Red Sea.’

There a most unusual event occurred, stranger in many ways than any of the plagues upon Egypt and
maybe stranger than anything since the Great Flood. God made Himself manifest on one of the peaks of
this mountain range and called Moses to Him to give instructions not only to Moses but to the whole body
of the Jewish nation.

   Ex 19:16-20 The Living Bible
    16 On the morning of the third day there was a terrific thunder and lightning storm, and a huge
    cloud came down upon the mountain, and there was a long, loud blast as from a ram's horn; and
    all the people trembled. 17 Moses led them out from the camp to meet God, and they stood at the
    foot of the mountain. 18 All Mt. Sinai was covered with smoke because Jehovah descended upon
    it in the form of fire; the smoke billowed into the sky as from a furnace, and the whole mountain
    shook with a violent earthquake. 19 As the trumpet blast grew louder and louder, Moses spoke
    and God thundered his reply.
The people were terrified and God intended for them to be so. This was the setting in which He was to
give the most memorable declaration of moral and spiritual law that was ever given.

Now, let me say this. Many people seem to operate with the idea that God’s Law did not exist in the
world and was not understood up until this point. This is simply not true. God’s moral law had existed in
the world from the very beginning. Paul made this point in another misunderstood passage in the book of
Romans.

   Rom 5:13-14
             13    (For until the law sin was in the world: but sin is not imputed when there is no law.
             14    Nevertheless death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over them that had not sinned after
          the similitude of Adam's transgression, who is the figure of him that was to come. KJV

Let me paraphrase. “Sin was in the world even before the law of Moses. Now sin is not imputed to people
when there is no law but sin was imputed to them as evidenced by the fact that they died. Death reigned
from Adam to Moses, even over those who had not sinned in the same way that Adam did.” Another
evidence of imputed sin is the Flood, which came on the world for their wickedness.

Cain knew that it was against the Law of God to kill his brother as evidenced by the fact that he lied when
God asked him about Abel. Lamech (Gen 4:23,24) knew that it was wrong to kill a man. Noah preached
righteousness (2 Pet 2:5) and that is simply not possible without a standard of righteousness. How could
a person preach righteousness unless he could tell people, with authority, what sin and righteousness were?
Ham knew that what he did was wrong, and so did his brothers. Pharaoh, in the days of Abraham, knew
that it was wrong to take another man’s wife and so did Abimilech, the king of the Philistines. Lot knew
that the behavior of the men of Sodom was wicked, and so did they. God’s Law was in the world and sin
was imputed to the sinners in that they died and were judged for sin just like humanity has been since Sinai.

The thing that we can say is that since Sinai man has had less excuse than ever before and has known more
specifically the details of God’s Law than he did before. But, please do not think that there was no Law
of God in the world before Moses.

Here is what God declared: (NAS)

Ex 20:1-21
    1    Then God spoke all these words, saying,
    2    "I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery.
    3    "You shall have no other gods before Me.
    4    "You shall not make for yourself an idol, or any likeness of what is in heaven above or on the earth
    beneath or in the water under the earth. 5 " You shall not worship them or serve them; for I, the
    LORD your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children, on the third
    and the fourth generations of those who hate Me, 6 but showing lovingkindness to thousands, to
    those who love Me and keep My commandments.
    7    "You shall not take the name of the LORD your God in vain, for the LORD will not leave him
    unpunished who takes His name in vain.
    8    "Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy.
    9    "Six days you shall labor and do all your work,
    10    but the seventh day is a sabbath of the LORD your God; in it you shall not do any work, you or
    your son or your daughter, your male or your female servant or your cattle or your sojourner who
    stays with you.
    11    "For in six days the LORD made the heavens and the earth, the sea and all that is in them, and
    rested on the seventh day; therefore the LORD blessed the sabbath day and made it holy.
    12    "Honor your father and your mother, that your days may be prolonged in the land which the LORD
    your God gives you.
    13    "You shall not murder.
    14    "You shall not commit adultery.
    15    "You shall not steal.
    16    "You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.
    17    "You shall not covet your neighbor's house; you shall not covet your neighbor's wife or his male
    servant or his female servant or his ox or his donkey or anything that belongs to your neighbor."

It appears that these words were spoken by God, directly from the cloud on the mountain, and in a voice
that the people could hear. They were completely terrified by the sights and the sounds and implored
Moses to interact with God on their behalf.

    18    All the people perceived the thunder and the lightning flashes and the sound of the trumpet and the
    mountain smoking; and when the people saw it, they trembled and stood at a distance.
    19    Then they said to Moses, "Speak to us yourself and we will listen; but let not God speak to us, or
    we will die."
    20    Moses said to the people, " Do not be afraid; for God has come in order to test you, and in order
    that the fear of Him may remain with you, so that you may not sin."
    21    So the people stood at a distance, while Moses approached the thick cloud where God was.
    NASU

The essence of this set of laws has woven itself into almost every legal system on the planet and into the
general conscience of mankind. For the most part these principles are comprehended by humanity even
if they do not govern their lives in obedience to them.

Notice v.20 again, the purpose for which Moses said that these laws were given, “so that you may not
sin.” Sin, as has been rightly explained by our great Confessions of Faith, is any violation of the Law of
God. It is doing what He has forbidden to be done or failing to do what He has commanded to be done.
Sin is defined by the Law. But there is far more to it than that as had already been demonstrated in human
history and would continue to be shown as well as declared by the prophets of God.


   Ezek 18:4
             4    Behold, all souls are mine; as the soul of the father, so also the soul of the son is mine: the
          soul that sinneth, it shall die. KJV
   Ezek 18:20
             20    The soul that sinneth, it shall die. The son shall not bear the iniquity of the father, neither
          shall the father bear the iniquity of the son: the righteousness of the righteous shall be upon
          him, and the wickedness of the wicked shall be upon him. KJV

It is also revealed in the Word of God that this death is not merely physical death, for that is the fate of all
of the sons of Adam, “in Adam all die.” (1 Cor 15:22) This is a death that picks up where physical death
ends and abides upon the soul for all eternity, a death whose very essence is being rejected by God and
whose existence is eternal torment.

   Rev 20:12-15
             12    And I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God; and the books were opened: and
          another book was opened, which is the book of life: and the dead were judged out of
          those things which were written in the books, according to their works.
             13    And the sea gave up the dead which were in it; and death and hell delivered up the dead
          which were in them: and they were judged every man according to their works.
             14    And death and hell were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death.
             15    And whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire.
          KJV

The Law was given so that men might not sin and thereby bring upon themselves the judgment of spiritual
death. It, of course, failed, not because the Law itself was bad but because the ones to whom it was given
were.

   Rom 8:4
             3    For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending his own
          Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh: KJV

The Law could not enable man to resist his wickedness and obey God even with the threat of eternal
damnation hanging over him. But that was not the function of the Law. It was a teaching machine,
designed to show man; (1) his sinfulness, (2) his helplessness, and (3) his depravity so that he would come
to God in repentance asking for mercy.



Paul said it this way.

   Gal 3:24
             24    Wherefore the law was our schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ, that we might be justified
          by faith. KJV

It was never given so that we could be justified by keeping it but so that we would despair of ourselves and
seek God’s provision for our sins.  

The Law given at Sinai began with the Self Declaration of God Himself and the prohibition of
the worship of anything or anyone but Himself.

Ex 20:2-3
    2    "I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery.
    3    "You shall have no other gods before Me. NASU

   Ex 20:3
   The First Word. - "Let there not be to thee (thou shalt have no) other gods...lit., beyond
Me ..., or in addition to Me.   "Before Me," ... is incorrect... The sentence is quite a general one,
and not only prohibits polytheism and idolatry, the worship of idols in thought, word, and deed (cf.
Deut 8:11,17,19), but also commands the fear, love, and worship of God the Lord (cf. Deut
6:5,13,17; 10:12,20). Nearly all the commandments are couched in the negative form of prohibition,
because they presuppose the existence of sin and evil desires in the human heart. (from Keil & Delitzsch
Commentary on the Old Testament: New Updated Edition, Electronic Database. Copyright (c) 1996 by Hendrickson Publishers, Inc.)

When Jesus was asked, you remember, what was the greatest commandment, He said this.

   Matt 22:35-38
             35    Then one of them, which was a lawyer, asked him a question, tempting him, and saying,
             36    Master, which is the great commandment in the law?
             37    Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy
          soul, and with all thy mind.
             38    This is the first and great commandment. KJV

There is no question but that He considered His statement to be the essence of the First Commandment
at Sinai. There is a sense in which it captured the entire First Table of the Law but the First Commandment
in particular. You may know (and I hope that you do) that the Law of Moses was written on two tablets
of stone. The First one, containing commandments 1-4, deals primarily with one’s relationship to and
behavior toward God. The Second, commandments 5-10, deals primarily with one’s relationship to other
people.
So, we understand that the words of the First Commandment as defined by Jesus Christ means that from
a sense of proper devotion, respect and love humans are to worship and serve JEHOVAH only and
nothing or no one else.

This is not only the First Commandment but also the Primary Commandment. This is the place that true
service and worship of God begins. If one misses this point, he misses it all because any obedience to the
rest of the commands will be distorted to the degree that God will not count them as righteous deeds.
Service to God must begin with genuine commitment to and love for HIM.

ONE SIMPLY MUST GET THIS ONE RIGHT!

There are a number of ideas and thought processes that are and must be associated with obedience to this
command.

For example. This LORD, this JEHOVAH, Who is to be the exclusive object of human religious
worship and service, is revealed in only one place and that is the Jewish/Christian Bible.
Therefore, it is absolutely essential that one have a proper view of and respect toward this Book that we
call The Word of God. How could one properly worship the Living God and hold in disdain or disregard
the very mechanism, the vehicle, by which He has communicated Himself to the human race in the first
place?

If we doubt it, question the sources of it, attribute it to being merely the works of men, disbelieve major
portions of it or the claims that it makes, how can we then worship in any real way the God that reveals
Himself through it in a way that makes any rational sense?

Now, I do not consider the Bible to be an object of worship but I revere the things that it says and seek
to respectfully and obediently hold faithful to the things that it teaches me concerning God, His Son, and
the way that He has provided for me to have a relationship with Him.

Another thing that is fundamental to the proper worship of God is a proper attitude toward others
who worship Him properly.

The covenant at Sinai was made with a particular group of people, the physical descendants of Abraham
through Isaac and Jacob. Much of the law of Moses had to do with the interactions with those people.
There was even a tribe of them that was particularly designated to maintain the outward forms of worship
on earth that God had designated as being the appropriate means of honoring Him by that nation. There
was no consideration that one could be a fully functioning and acceptable worshiper of JEHOVAH who
would disdain, disregard, reject, disrespect, and abandon the very people whom God had chosen to be
His representation on the earth. It just could not be.

Likewise, in the days of Jesus and since, the earthbound worshipers of the Living God have been
designated as the Church, Spiritual Israel, the Seed of Abraham. “Upon this rock, I will build MY
CHURCH,” Jesus said, “and the gates of Hell shall not prevail against it.” The writer of the book of
Hebrews admonished us not to forsake the assembling of ourselves together. As God’s representatives
before Christ were the Jewish people, His representatives now are the churches which hold faithful to His
Word and His teachings. One cannot be a fully functioning and acceptable servant of God who is
disconnected from His Church, who seeks other means and other methods for the service of God or who
disdains the vehicle of God for ministering His truths to the world.

We live in a world overrun by organizations purporting to do the work of the Church but refusing to identify
with any specific church. This is a scenario unknown to the New Testament and, indeed, unknown to the
world prior to the last 200 years. I do not say that none of the work done by such organizations is evil but
I do believe that they are not the design of God. His Church is what He is building and that through local
assemblies. Those who disdain the church endanger themselves concerning being true worshipers of God,
in my opinion.

But, most of all, one must have a proper view and understanding of the Person of God.

We do not have the time to full enter into all of the theology of the Attributes of God but I recommend that
you study them in depth. How can you fully enter into the worship of a Being about Whom you have only
rudimentary understanding, whose Person you have given no effort at all to comprehend. Wonderful books
on the subject such as The Attributes of God by Arthur Pink are available for free from the Amazon Kindle
Store. Others may be purchased quite inexpensively.

There is no excuse not to know, so much as is possible, the elements of the Person of the God Who has
revealed Himself to us and called upon us to worship Him exclusively with our whole heart and mind and
soul and strength.

So, let me ask you. Are you a worshiper of God according to the First and Greatest
Commandment?

Could you tell me about His Immutability, or Omniscience, or Eternity, or His Eternal Counsel?

Do you worship Him according to the way that He is revealed in His Word? Have you read His Word?
Lately?

Do you believe His Word? All of it? How do you know?

Do you obey His commandments? All of them?
   John 14:15
             15    If ye love me, keep my commandments. KJV
Do you love His Church? In what practical ways are you living out that love?

Is there anything that, on a regular basis, comes between you and serving God?

Are you actively seeking to be given to Him with your whole heart and mind and soul?

What have you forsaken, who have you forsaken, to follow Him?
   Luke 14:33
             33    So likewise, whosoever he be of you that forsaketh not all that he hath, he cannot be my
          disciple. KJV

Now these questions are not being asked for any other reason than to provoke you to think about your life,
your relationship with God, and your attitude toward Him.

We are certainly saved by Grace, through Faith, and not by the works of the Law. But the Faith that saves
is the same Faith that produces repentance from sin unto obedience to God’s Law.  

Those who are saved by Grace are the very same people who love the Lord their God with all of their
heart, mind, soul and strength. There is no active rebel against this First Commandment who can truthfully
and with integrity lay claim to being a Child of God.

   1 John 2:3-5
             3    And hereby we do know that we know him, if we keep his commandments.
             4    He that saith, I know him, and keepeth not his commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not
          in him.
             5    But whoso keepeth his word, in him verily is the love of God perfected: hereby know we
          that we are in him. KJV

We are not saved by keeping the Law but we likewise are not saved apart from the keeping of God’s Law.

Ex 20:
    2    "I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery.
    3    "You shall have no other gods before Me.

Matt 22:
    37    Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and
    with all thy mind.
    38    This is the first and great commandment.

If you are living in disobedience of the Fundamental Principle of the Law of God, you are His enemy, under
His judgment, and in grave danger of perishing forever.
When Jesus preached, “repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand,” this was the place that He
intended for you to start.