The Mosaic Covenant

Transcript

GRS 2-22
6/5/2005
The Mosaic Covenant
Exodus 19-20:7
Gil Rugh

We are going to the Book of Exodus Chapter 19 in your Bibles. Exodus Chapter 19, last week a number of the younger people in our service on Sunday night were sharing with me some of the notes they had taken during the sermon, they really were moving along. They did complain that sometimes we move things on the screen too fast for them to get everything they were trying to write down, but they got a lot of it, that was needed. We go to Exodus Chapter 19 and looked in the first few verses in our previous study. Israel has arrived at Mount Sinai, Chapter 19 opened up "In the third month after the sons of Israel had gone out of the land of Egypt, on that very day they came into the wilderness of Sinai.

They come to the mountain where God will give what is known as the Mosaic Covenant or Mosaic Law and they will spend about a year, camped here in the wilderness region of Sinai and called the desert region, but it would be an area where there would be grazing for livestock and so on. God is going to enter into another covenant with the nation Israel in addition to the foundational Abrahamic Covenant that He has established with them and some of the covenants that come out of that covenant, He will establish the Mosaic Covenant.

In verse 3, we are told Moses went up to God and the Lord called to him from the mountain saying thus you shall say to the house of Jacob and tell the sons of Israel, refers to how He brought them out of Egypt. Then verse 5, "Now then, if you will indeed obey My voice and keep My covenant, then you shall be My own possession among all the peoples, for all the earth is Mine; and you shall be to Me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation, these are the words that you shall speak to the sons of Israel."

Now beginning with verse 7, you have Israel's response to those conditions set down by God. Verse 5, "If you will indeed obey My voice, keep My covenant," and they will respond. So Moses came and called the elders of the people and set before them all these words which the Lord had commanded him and all the people answered together and said "All that the Lord has spoken we will do." So Moses tells Israel what God has proposed and Israel responds and agrees to the covenant, "We will obey Him, we will submit to His covenant." So the covenant will be established. We call the Mosaic Covenant, a conditional covenant and if we use that terminology, we got to understand it as referring to the time of the establishment of the covenant.

It was conditioned at its establishment on Israel's agreement contrary to for example to the Abrahamic Covenant, when God established that with Abraham, remember, he put Abraham into a deep sleep, then God passed between the parts of the animals that had been divided. There was no required agreement in that sense on Abraham's part to the establishment of that covenant. Once the covenant is established, it’s enforced as covenant, so it’s not conditional in its ongoing form, it was conditional in its establishment and the people say verse 8, "All that the Lord has spoken, we will do." Now that the covenant is entered into, then it operates just as another covenant does. There are blessings for obedience.

There will be curses for disobedience. This will be repeated several times as we along in the Exodus Chapter 24, verse 3 and verse 7, Deuteronomy Chapter 5, verse 27. Israel will reiterate their agreement to be obedient to enter into this covenant and fulfill their obligations to the covenant. Now we are ready for God to lay out the covenant in its fullness. You really just got what the covenant provisions were, the Mosaic covenant. I will tell you more about the Mosaic covenant in a moment. No God is going to get ready to give the details of the Mosaic covenant, which will be unfolded beginning in Chapter 20.

So He tells the people in verse 10, "The Lord also said to Moses, go to the people and consecrate them today and tomorrow, and let them wash their garments; and let them be ready for the third day, for on the third day the Lord will come down on Mount Sinai in the sight of all the people." It would not be proper in fitting seemly for the people to come before the Lord in unclean garments. The washing of their clothes, remember they didn't have washing machines in that so they didn't wash clothes everyday and put on clean clothes the way we do, but here they were to wash their cloths, put on clean garments representing the need to be clean before the Lord. So they garments portray that in a visible way they are to be a pure people.

Some of the guidelines are set, verse 12, there are to be bounds for the people to keep them from coming up to the mountain itself. They are not allowed to come into contact with the mountain. So there must be some boundaries established around the base of the mountain to keep the people from you know we have got a lot of people remember gathered here. They need to realize that they have to keep their distance. Anybody who moves and touches the mountain has to be put to death. So Moses went down from the mountain to the people. In verse 14, "He consecrated the people, they washed their garments, and they prepared to come before the Lord."

Verse 16, "It came about on the third day, when it was morning, that there were thunder and lightning flashes and a thick cloud upon the mountain and a very loud trumpet sound, so that all the people who were in the camp trembled and Moses brought the people out of the camp to meet God, and they stood at the foot of the mountain, an awesome scene! Something of the fearful presence of the Lord is manifested on this occasion and there is the requirement that the people keep their distance and this form of God manifesting Himself comes out in other places often in connection with God coming in judgment.

We have noted some verses second Thessalonians Chapter 1, verse 7; Hebrews 12, verses 18 and 19; Revelation 4, verses 1 and 5, and 11:19, talk about aspects of this, the thunder , the lightning that form of God's presence that causes people tremble. He is an awesome God. Turn to the passage in Hebrews Chapter 12 because it does got a contrast between the privilege we have in the church today and what was characteristic of Israel unto the law. In Hebrews Chapter 12, verse 18, "For you have not come to a mountain that can be touched and to a blazing fire and to darkness in gloom and whirlwind, to the blast of a trumpet and the sound of words which sound was such that those who heard begged that no further word be spoken to them.

For they could not bear the command, if even a beast touches the mountain, it will be stoned, and so terrible was the sight, that Moses said, I am full of fear and trembling, but you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to myriads of angels, to the general assembly and church of the firstborn who are enrolled in heaven, and to God, the Judge of all, and to the spirits of the righteous made perfect, and to Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood, which speaks better than the blood of Abel." So a contrast were on their between the New covenant, which provides the close intimate access to God and that was contrary to what were the conditions of the New covenant, the Mosaic covenant.

Come back to Exodus Chapter 19. There is no formal order of priesthood that is yet been established. So there will be some priests appointed here, then they serve as priests. Verse 18, as we move down to that "Mount Sinai was all in smoke because the Lord descended upon it in fire; and its smoke ascended like the smoke of a furnace, and the whole mountain quaked violently. When the sound of the trumpet grew louder and louder, Moses spoke and God answered him with thunder. The Lord came down on Mount Sinai, to the top of the mountain; and the Lord called Moses to the top of the mountain, and Moses went up.

Then God tells Moses you have to go back down, "Warn the people that they don't break through to the Lord to gaze, "and you can see this awesome scene and Moses goes up and some of the people desire perhaps to see the living God to get a glimpse of God, gaze as Moses will be privileged. Gaze upon God on the mountain and so he goes down and establishes that. Verse 24, "The Lord said to him, "Go down and come up again, you and Aaron with you; but do not let the priests and the people break through to come up to the Lord, or He will break forth upon them." Meaning if they break forth to come closer to the mountain as I have said they shouldn’t and I will break forth, I will come out from the mountain and destroy them.

The picture, the priests in the verse 24, "Do not let the priests and people break forth could be the elders of the people," referred to in some of the verses Chapter 3 verse 18, Chapter 12 verse 21, Chapter 18 verse 12 or in Chapter 24 verse 5, we were told that the younger men offered sacrifices acting as priests. So these provisions were made because there is not a formal order of the Aaronic priesthood established at this time. So certain men evidently have been appointed to carry out priestly functions.

In Chapter 28, we will have Aaron's family established as the priestly line. So we come to Chapter 20 and here are going to be the guidelines for the life and conduct of the people that God has chosen for Himself. The nation Israel is a theocracy, living under the rule of God and so He is now going to give the guidelines to them regarding their conduct and behavior. I have listed a number of reasons that the Scripture gives why God gave the law to Israel. Let me take a moment to walk through this because it’s important we do understand the law. You understand the rest of Scripture all the way through the gospels. Israel will living under the law and then even when we get into the epistles, we find Paul particularly, repeatedly happening to explain why people under the new covenant no longer live under the law. So we don't understand something of the law and its purpose. You are confused on much of the Scripture. So these are some of the Scripture gives.

Number one, the law reveals the Holiness of God, Book of Leviticus Chapter 19, verse 2, "Speak to all the congregation of the sons of Israel and say to them you shall be holy for the Lord you God is Holy and he goes on to repeat some of things that have already been given in Chapter 20, verse 7, "You shall consecrate yourselves therefore and be holy for I am the Lord Your God, you shall keep my statutes and practice them, I am the Lord who sanctified you." So the law was the provision for if you will for the children of Israel to live sanctified lives. It was never a means of salvation, but it was the provision for them to live lives that were pleasing to God as God's people, verse 26 of Leviticus Chapter 20, "Thus you are to be holy to Me, for I the Lord am holy; and I have set you apart from the peoples to be Mine."

These are given in the midst if you are familiar with the book of Leviticus of so many of the rules and regulations that are going to govern the life of the nation Israel under the law. So first reason was the law reveals the holiness of the God and His will for His people to live holy life. Secondly, the law reveals the sinfulness of man. Go to the New Testament for this. The Book of Romans, Chapter 3. Romans Chapter 3, and Paul has been talking about the fact that all are under sin. He started Chapter 1 verse 18 and through Chapter 1 # who did not have the Mosaic Law, but he demonstrated them under sin.

In Chapter 2 and in Chapter 3, He deals with the Jew, who has the law and they are guilty as sinners. So the Jews, gentiles alike are sinners. So verse 9 in Chapter 3 of Romans, "What then are we better than they." We Jews better than the gentiles not at all, for we have already charged of both Jews and Greeks are all under sin. Come down to verse 19. Now, we know that whatever the law says, it speaks to those who are under the law. So that every mouth maybe closed and all the world may become accountable to God because by the works of the law, no flesh will be justified in His sight. For through the law comes the knowledge of sin because all 613 commandments in the law, the Jews broke them down revealed the will of God.

Here is what you must do; here is what you must not do. That revealed sin more fully and more clearly, enable them to know what God wanted from them and what God did not want them to do. In Romans Chapter 7 and verse 7, "What shall we say then? Is the Law sin? May it never be! On the contrary, I would not have come to know sin except through the Law. I would not have known about coveting if the Law had not said, You shall not covet and on down through verse 13 and we were reminded in verse 12, "The Law is holy and good, the commandment is holy, righteous and good." Nothing wrong with the law, problem is with sinful man who was unable to keep the law that God gave.

In first Timothy, Chapter 1, verses 8 to 10, you don't need to turn there, but it says that the Lord was not made for righteous man, but for the unrighteous. We will look into that passage when we study First Timothy. A third reason for the giving of the law, it was the unifying principle to mark Israel off from other nations as belonging to God, back in Exodus Chapter 19. Israel is going to be unique people. You understand the Mosaic Law was not given to the nations to the nations of the world. It was not given to govern the conduct of the Assyrians and the Babylonians; it was given to govern the conduct of the nation Israel. It marked Israel off as unique people. The Mosaic covenant was a covenant established between God and the nation Israel. So it marks Israel off as a nation belonging to God. In Chapter 19 of Exodus that was at the beginning, where they entered in and agreed to what God said, in verse 5, "Now if indeed you will obey My voice and keep My covenant, then you shall be My own possession among all the peoples and there will be in verse 6, a Holy Nation, so the law given to mark them off.

Look over in Deuteronomy, Chapter 5 and verse 27, "Go near and hear all that the Lord our God says; then speak to us all that the Lord our God speaks to you, and we will hear it." Moses acting on behalf of the people. The Lord heard the voice of your words when you spoke to me and the Lord said to me, "I have heard the voice of the words of the people, which they have spoken to you, they have done well and that they have spoken." So the law is given though Moses to them and its God's word for them, Moses being the intermediary between God, separating Israel out from everyone else and their conduct is governed so that they will be a holy people living in the midst of an unholy world and unholy nations all around them.

Fourth reason for the law was given to oversee the nation and guide it to Christ. There is a verse in Galatians 3:24 that we have looked at number of times. I think it is often misunderstood if reading some literature this past week on some of these matters and they were going to Galatians Chapter 3 to establish how important it is that we preach the law and if we don't preach the law, people don't get saved because Galatians Chapter 3 verse 24 says, "Therefore the law has become our tutor to lead us Christ, so that we maybe justified by faith". So if you don't preach the law, people can't be saved.

That is a misunderstanding Galatians 3:24 and part of it that’s usually part of reformed theology because they don't see a distinction between Israel and the Church and that blending leads to other problems. The point Paul is making, the Law served its purpose, it was given to Israel to control their conduct and keep them on the path as a nation until their Messiah would come because when their Messiah would come, the Mosaic covenant would be finished and the new covenant would be established. Verse 23 of Galatians 3 said, therefore the Law has become our tutor, before the preceding verse, but before faith came, we were kept in custody under the law. In other words, no longer operating under Law, now we are operating in the context of the New Covenant and faith in contrast to Law. So the Law was tutor in the sense it was to govern the conduct of the nation and keep it on track so that they would be ready for the coming of their Messiah and when the Messiah came, the Law fulfilled its purpose and so it ends. We will see more about that in a moment.

Number five, it gave Israel instruction for its worship and we won't go because if you read for example Leviticus 23, it gives them clear and specific guidelines for how their worship is to be conducted. We know the Law gives clear guidelines for all the different kind of sacrifices, the observance of special days in Israel's life and so on. Number 6, it served as a civil restraint for the nation Israel. We are going to get into this when we move through Chapters 20 to 23. It is important to understand there are those who think that the Mosaic Law ought to be reinstituted. The Theonomists, they think that God's intention for the United States is come under the Law of Moses governed or nation and so on.

Again, a failure to understand the distinction between the Israel and the church, a failure to understand the purpose of the Law, and then number seven, it served as an ethical guide for believers in the nation. We will see this as we look at some of the Ten Commandments and a little bit in Chapter 20. There maybe some other reason you could give, but seven is the number of perfection. So we will limit it those seven and if you find more you have to add another seven so you can have two perfect lists I guess. Now, I want you note something, at least four times in the New Testament we are told the Law is over. You can't look at the Law and say and divide it within itself, and say well the Law had civil, ceremonial, moral and one of the three people like to say are still enforced. Now the Theonomists want to say all three at least they are consistent. You can't divide the Law. Even though you can look at the Law and we move through it you can divide out and say well that is governing the civil life of Israel, yea that’s more governing the religious life, yea this is governing the moral life.

The Jews never broke the Law down that way and remember James said if you break one portion of the Law, you have broken the Law because the Law is a unified whole. So be careful you don't get trapped in saying well you know with Christ the civil part of the Law and the religious part, they have been ended, but the moral part of the Law continues on. There is no doubt there is certain moral truths that continue on that we are too under Law, but they are true for us today not because they are part of the Mosaic Law because they are part of what God has repeated as part of His requirement for the Church. So be careful you don't get caught in trying to split up the Law in ways that the Scripture does not.

Come to the New Testament, Romans Chapter 6 and verse 14. Romans 6:14, "For sin shall not be master over you." Now note this, for you are not under law, but under grace. What then? Shall we sin because we are not under law but under grace? May it never be! Now the fact is we are not under law. That doesn't mean we are lawless. Those who want to impose the Mosaic Law and will oppose our teaching that the Law is a unit, say well then we are antinomian and we promote lawlessness because we say people aren't under the Mosaic Law. Well they are not, but that doesn't mean we are lawless, that’s tells whole point. Had we sinned because we are not under law? No, may it never be, ME GENOITO, God forbid, such a thought is inconceivable.

So that whole argument and you will find it again I mentioned many of the reformed writers constantly accusing those who hold the dispensational theology of being antinomian. Nomos is the Greek word for law. We are against law. We believe in lawlessness. So people can do whatever they want. That’s not we believe. We don't believe we are under the Mosaic Law, but they are commandments and requirements for believers under grace. The epistles are full of commandments given to the Church, but we are not under the Mosaic Law.

Look in first Corinthians Chapter 9, verse 20 "To the Jews I became as a Jew." Now Paul is writing and he is a Jew so that I might win Jews to those who are under the Law." I became as one living under the Law even though not being myself under the Law. Even as a Jew, he realized he was no longer under the Mosaic Law because the Mosaic Law was no longer enforced, but sometime in his ministry to Jews he observed certain provisions of the Mosaic Law not because he was obligated to the Mosaic Law, but because he was with Jews and it enhances ministry to them, but Paul says I am under Law. Sometimes I choose in certain aspects of my ministry to do something in obedience to what the Law requires, but I don't do because I am under the authority of the Law. I do that because of the ministry and I am having right then the Jews.

Look over in Galatians 5:18, Paul is dealing with a problem in Galatia of teachers who want to say faith in Christ is not enough, it is not enough for salvation, it is not enough for sanctification. God's plan according to the Judaizers is that you believe in Christ and you also keep the Law. Paul contrasts the Law was being under the control of spirit. So in Galatians 5:18, he says if you are led by the spirit you are not under the Law, Law referring to the Mosaic Law. So we are not under the Law. Those are just some of the verses that specify clearly we are not under the Law. Romans Chapter 7 uses the analogy of a marriage and when your spouse dies you are free from all obligations of that spouse and that pictures our death to the Law so that we could be joined to another the Christ.

So I am amazed there is so much confusion over the issue of the Mosaic Law and the believer’s responsibility to it. That doesn't mean we don't learn from the Law that there are not things that are applicable to us, but the Mosaic Law is not enforced, but we learn about God's character in the Mosaic Law. We learn about the things that are pleasing to God and the things that are not pleasing to God. We learn a lot from the sacrificial system, but the sacrificial system is not in operation, everybody agrees on that. So no other parts of it, that doesn't mean we don't learn from it and that doesn't mean we are saying is of no value.

All Scripture is God-breathed and profitable, but we don not live under the authority of the Mosaic Law because it is not operative. That is the condition. Now, the Mosaic Law was never a way of salvation, remember and we looked in recent study in our study in first Corinthians dealing with baptism in Romans Chapter 4 and we looked at Abraham who is the example of salvation by faith. Abraham lived about 500 years before the Mosaic Law was even given. So salvation is always been by grace through faith. Old Testament saints were never saved by keeping the law. Old testaments saints were saved by believing the revelation God gave Himself by believing His word. There is progressive revelation. They didn't have the fullness of revelation we have. They believed what God revealed and said, placed their trust in Him to be their savior. That’s how they were saved by faith.

Now for Israel, beginning in Exodus Chapter 19 and following, there conduct as God's people was to be governed by the Mosaic Law. They are never under the Mosaic Law and we don't live under the Mosaic Law, but as the Church we will be under the authority of the word of God, so we are studying first Corinthians and it is addressed to the Church and all the Churches to conduct itself and so on as are other New Testament epistles. Israel is a theocracy. God is its King and these are the laws and the rules governing the earthy nation Israel. The Ten Commandments are the beginning of the Mosaic Law. They are given at the beginning and in a very real sense they summarize the Mosaic Law.

The Ten Commandments are part of the Mosaic Law. We say well some of those commandments we are suppose to keep. Well nine of the Ten Commandments are repeated in the New Testament as required for God's people today. We do them not because the Ten Commandments are part of the Law. We keep them because they are the Ten Commandments because one the ten we don't keep. We talk about the Sabbath day. The Sabbath day by definition is the seventh day. Some of we did a lot of activity yesterday on the Sabbath. You could have been stoned for that if the Mosaic Law was enforced. We don't do that and that commandment will not be repeated in the New Testament nor any Ten are repeated.

We do it because they are repeated there. Be careful we don't keep confused on why we do. Well therefore you think you can commit adultery because Ten Commandments say that we are not to commit to adultery. So you don't believe we are under the Ten Commandments, you believe we can commit adultery. No because God has told the Church that we can't. Some of these things we do seem are reflection of His will and is unchanging. You know you go to Israel. We have been there for a number of years, but when we ate breakfast, we ate in a Jewish Hotel and we ate breakfast in one room and we ate dinner in another room because they didn't mix dairy products with meat products. That it went so far they did not serve the same room and use the same utensils. I never give it a thought. I know some of you go out to breakfast and have a bowl of cereal and some sausage, it a hard combination but what to say don't think anything about it, you couldn't do it under Law. You know there are certain things you can't do.

All right, come back to Exodus Chapter 20, let us look at the Ten words were the Ten Commandments and I have some verses there. The Ten Commandments are literally called the Ten words. In some of your Bibles if you look in the margin and I have listed some verses here, Exodus 34:28, Deuteronomy 4:13, Deuteronomy 10:4. The edition of the Bible I have of the New American Standard Edition by the Ten Commandments though had a little number by commandments and you go to margin, it said literally ten words. Now these are the ten words or the Ten Commandments and this is how God starts, the Mosaic Law.

But keep in your mind that the Jews broke it down, there were 613 commandments and James says if you break one, you break them all. So even think well I keep the Ten Commandments, couldn't save and of course the Scripture indicates that sinners none of us are acceptable before God by our works. Chapter 20 of Exodus, then God spoke all these words saying I am the Lord your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of house o f slavery. This covenant is based upon the person of God and work he has done in delivering His people. He has formed them into a nation in Egypt and now with a mighty deliverance He has brought them out and now as His nation living under His rule, he is establishing the constitution for their life as the nation Israel if you will.

Verse 3, the first of the Ten Commandments, you shall have no other Gods before me, no Gods besides me, in other words, there is only one God and in the polytheistic world, the Jews just came out of Egypt. I mean they were kind of gods, but for Israel there is one God, only one God to be acknowledge, only one God will be worshipped that’s the first commandment. Secondly, you shall not make for yourself an idol or any likeness of what is in heaven above or earth, beneath or in the water under the earth. Second commandment as I do with here manner of worship and how they are to worship. They are to be no idols of any kind. Now later, there will be guidelines for artistic representations both in the tabernacle and later in the temple. That will be built under Solomon, but, there are to be no objects of worship, images of likenesses which are designed to represent God and thus become objects of veneration and worship. God has no visible form and so if your try to make an image, manifesting God you made something artificial. You have created something out of your mind because God has no physical form in that sense.

Look in Deuteronomy Chapter 4 and verse 12, then the Lord spoke to you from the midst of the fire, you heard the sound of words, but note this you saw no form only a voice. So he declared to you His covenant which He commanded you to perform that is the Ten Commandments or the Ten Words. He wrote them on tablets of stone. You know, you didn't see any form of God because of he choose not to manifest Himself in a form and now there will come a time when He will and then the pre-incarnate Christ, He does manifest himself and thus the Godhead is manifested in the second person of the triune God and in the old testament, He manifested himself as the Angel of the Lord.

And the New Testament tells us in the Book of Colossians that all the fullness of Deity dwelt in Him in bodily form that was manifesting Himself in the form of an Angel in the Old Testament that was Jesus Christ the second person of Godhead and then in the New Testament in human form, but God has God in His essential nature has no necessary form. This raises a lot of questions that I have no answers for. It is interesting to me when we do move into eternity, they behold the father on the throne, the son before the throne and even the spirit presence is manifested in a visible way there. I have to wait to see beyond that, but the Book of Revelation in particularly Chapter 4 and 5 you see that.

Book of Daniel and the vision Daniel gets one like the Son of Man coming before the Ancient of days. Now we have Jesus Christ, the Son of Man coming before the Ancient of Days, God the father on His throne. There are manifestations there and evidently in glory we will see some manifestation of God the father. The point here is He has chosen not to make that manifestation or reveal anything like that to men on earth and so we are forbidden to make any form that would be like we think He might look, but I do think when we get to eternity, there will be some manifestations in light of those passages. Alright what is forbidden then is making any images or forms that would be used for worship to represent Himself.

Come back to Exodus 20, verse 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 fourth generations of those who hate me, but showing lovingkindness to thousands who love me and keep my commandments. Israel will be the wife of Jehovah. He is a Jealous husband. He takes very seriously any acts of unfaithfulness on their part and that will be a picture drawn out. Remember Hosea. Hosea the prophet was told, "Go love a woman, loved of her lovers," and what picturing the fact of Israel's unfaithfulness to God. What an abomination that is, that Israel should prostitute itself with her lovers in being unfaithful to her husband Jehovah. So God says I am a Jealous God. He is jealous to preserve the relationship He has established with Israel. Unfaithfulness will bring judgment.

Now Ezekiel Chapter 18, God says I will not punish the children for the sin of father or the father for the sin of children. Each will bear their own punishment, but there is also the aspect that sin has ongoing consequences. Israel will go into captivity, northern nation and with Assyrians and the southern part of the nation with the Babylonians. You know what, some of those children will be born in a strange land under the domination of a powerful opponent because their parents sinned against God. The children have not sinned because they weren't even born yet, but they bear the consequences in that, but they won't be accountable to God for the sin of their parents, but you know sin does have consequences. What happens, He is a drunk, has a child, was it that baby's fault, I mean laughing at, and all kind of things were seen. Parents taking drugs and what happens, baby is born and you know all these kind of things. But accountability for sin is personal. So the children do bear consequences for parent’s sin. They will never have to give accountability for parental sin nor will parents have to give an accountability for children's sin.

Ezekiel 18, though judgment is warned here, the nation will suffer greatly for this and they will go into captivity. They will be subjugated by their enemies even when they don't go into captivity because God brings their enemies on them to chasten them and judge them, but He is a God of lovingkindness, interesting to see the balance here. He visits the iniquity in verse 5 of the fathers on the children on the third and fourth generation of those who hate me, but showing lovingkindness to thousands of those love me and keep my commandments. Lovingkindness, key word in the Old Testament has said, Hebrew word meaning covenant love, covenant loyalty. God's lovingkindness, covenant love for Israel for a thousand generations, so He may bring punishment on them for three or four generations, but His covenant love will go for thousands of generations because they are His.

The third commandment, Verse 7, "You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain for the Lord will not hold or leave unpunished who take His name in vain. Men were not to use the name of Lord in false swearing. Look in Leviticus Chapter 19, verse 12. Leviticus 19:12, "You shall not swear falsely by my name so as to profane the name of the Lord your God." The name of your God, "I am the Lord." Follows on, "You shall not steal, deal falsely or lie to one another. You shall not swear falsely by my name." You know the person who would lie, but try to give credibility to their lie by saying so help me God or I swear by the God of heaven and take an oath because then that give credibility. We do that in our court system here where a person swears "I tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, so help you God." Supposedly that will bind them and then we have created legal ties to that, but God says you are not allowed to use my name in such a way that would profane it.

Use it to support a lie. Use it to promote a falsehood that would be profaning the name of the Lord. That would guarantee the validity and truthfulness of oath back in Exodus Chapter 22, verse 10, "If a man gives his neighbor a donkey, an ox, a sheep, or any animal to keep for him, and it dies or is hurt while no one is looking, verse 11, an oath before the Lord shall be made by the two of the two of them that he didn't do something and then the neighbors do accept that oath because when you use the Lord's name that was to mean something and in Israel that was security. It was a guarantee that what was stated here, what was promised here was truth. So you would be held accountable accordingly. Say in the New Testament, we were told not to take oath. So our word is to be our word and we are no longer living in a theocracy. We no longer living under the rules and laws that govern nation Israel during that time in our history and so we are told not to take an oath. James 5:12, we were told not to swear by heaven or earth. Let your yes be yes and your no be no.

For God's people, our word aught to be our word and that’s it and we don't try to make our word more binding because my yes should be as binding as it can be and I all can do is give my word and that is within the framework of you know certain things are out of my hands and I give my word and my word is my word, yes is yes and no is no, and I can't make my word anymore sure that if I would take an oath that wouldn't make my word anymore sure and I don't control tomorrow. So I say I will meet you for lunch so help me God tomorrow at 11:30, what I am saying, I may be hit by a car tomorrow and be in the hospital. I got to tell the hospital to wheel me, no I am not to take an oath. I will meet you there, but you accept the fact, he got hit by a car and he is in the hospital. We that’s no excuse. He said he will be here for lunch. He broke his word.

No that we know our word is our word and then there are certain things that may overrule in certain circumstances and situations, Matthew 5 34-37. Some would see that this command would also forbid using God's name in any worthless or empty way. You know, watching a Golf tournament about a year ago and it was a friendly Golf tournament, it wasn't like one of these big tournaments, but sort of you know these things they put golfers together and one golfer made a putt that put together went into a bad spot, then he turned to his friend and smiled and said, blankety blank Q used of God's name. I thought well that’s a form of an oath in profaning God. Now that may have been forbidden under this as well, you just did not run around using God's name in an empty worthless way. So that may included, we are not under the Mosaic Law, but the honoring and reverencing of God would still hold true obviously.

Commandment number four, back in Chapter 20 and verse 8, "Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy and this is as far as we are going and I don't know that we are going all through this. Up to this time back in Chapter 16, there were some guidelines given regarding observing the day of atonement and making that a Sabbath day and so on, but as far as the establishing of the regular pattern of the seventh day as binding on the people of God, that’s established within in the Mosaic Law and the Scripture indicates that this is part of the evidence of God's relationship with the nation Israel. Go to Exodus 31, I just look at two passages, then we will pick up on the Sabbath in our next study because there are number of verses I want to look at with you.

So turn Exodus Chapter 31 and verse 12, "The Lord spoke to Moses saying, "But as for you, speak to the sons of Israel, saying, You shall surely observe My Sabbaths; now note this, for this is a sign between Me and you throughout your generations, that you may know that I am the Lord who sanctifies you. Therefore you are to observe the Sabbath, for it is holy to you and everyone who profanes it shall surely be put to death." Somehow, you know we talk about yea well we keep the Sabbath, but you understand that we don't go around looking. I say well they didn't keep the Sabbath; they should be punished by death. You say what it says here, "It is a sign between me and you," speaking to Israel.

Turn over to Ezekiel Chapter 20. Ezekiel Chapter 20. The Sabbath is observed by God. It is a special indication of God's relationship to the nation Israel. Exodus Chapter 20, verse 12, speaking about Israel because he says in verse 10, I took them out of the land of Egypt brought them out of the land of Egypt, brought them into the wilderness, I gave them My statutes, informed them of my ordinances," and that’s what we are starting to study as I move into the beginning of the giving of the law.

Now verse 12, also I gave them my Sabbath to be a sign between me and them that they may know that I am the God who sanctifies them. So God establishing that relationship with Israel. The keeping of the Sabbath was a particular identifying sign of God's relationship with the nation Israel. So we don't keep the Sabbath. We observe the first day of the week. That we don't have any day we are required to observe as the Church. We observe Sunday that’s fine. We are not required to observe Sunday. We could observe Thursday. It seems that in New Testament, there is some indication the church met together on the first day of the week, but there is no instruction that the church has to meet on the first day of the week, the church has to observe the first day of the week as a special day. I am not saying is anything wrong with it, but there is no Law requiring it.

You read some of the older commentators especially they talk about the Sabbath school, not a Sunday school, but they talk about the Sabbath school even though they doing it on Sunday, but the Sabbath is the seventh. So how can you have the Seventh-day school on the first day, but Israel met on the Sabbath. It marked them off as God's people as one of His identifying marks under the Mosaic Law. Now God is just beginning to get underway and we have at the beginning. We will have to look a little bit more on the Sabbath since it is a particular interest and we have Seventh-day people who periodically in the mail and I don't know where it comes from, sometimes I look at the postmark and they come from various places. People send me material on observing the Seventh-day and why we as a church are not honoring God because we do not worship on the Seventh-day. So we look more at the Sabbath as God's provision for Israel. We pick up here next week.

Let’s pray. Thank you Lord for your truth. Thank you for the clarity of your plans for your people Israel, their unique and distinct role as a nation set apart for a unique relationship to you. Thank you that we as the church, Lord want you to reveal in your word concerning that relationship even as we begin to look into the Mosaic Law. We see that Law which govern the conduct of your people for some 1500 years and we understand that with the coming of your Son, that rule of the Mosaic Law was over. Now, we live in the age of grace and faith. Thank you for the coming of Your Son and thank you for the coming of Your Spirit. Thank you for all that we have in Christ. Thank you for the privilege we have to look into the depths of your word and have our lives enriched by it so we might more fully and clearly honor you. Bless us in the days of the week ahead of us. May our lives be as strong for your testimony for you wherever we are and whatever we do. We pray in Christ's name, amen.