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Welcome to the Daily Blade. The Word of God is described as the sword of the Spirit, the primary spiritual weapon in the Christian's armor against the forces of evil. Your hosts are Joby Martin and Kyle Thompson, and they stand ready to equip men for the fight. Let's sharpen up.

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All right, welcome back to the Daily Blade. This week we are going to focus all of our time and attention on the Ten Commandments. The Ten Commandments are found in Exodus, chapter 20, but in order to understand them you really got to back up to Exodus, chapter 19. And really to understand that, you got to get a little bit of context here, because the Ten Commandments are one of the most misunderstood pieces of Scripture. You see, at this point, by the time you get to Exodus, chapter 19 and 20, god has already come to Moses. Moses had already gone to Pharaoh. He said let my people go. Ten plagues have come.

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The plague of the firstborns already happened, not because Israel did anything good or right, but simply because God heard the cries of his people and it was an act of grace and mercy that he saved the people. They cross over dry ground, they cross through the Red Sea. On dry ground, they get to the promised land. They have been a slave nation and now they are going to be a people. And they don't even know how to interact with one another because as slaves they were just told when to eat and where to go and what to do, and now they are going to rule themselves, and what God gives them is a gift. The law is a gift, not a burden. And so, with that in mind, exodus, chapter 19, beginning of verse 1, on the third new moon, after the people of Israel had gone out of the land of Egypt, on that day they came into the wilderness of Sinai and they set out from Rephidim, and they came to the wilderness of Sinai and they set out from Rephidim and they came to the wilderness of Sinai and they encamped in the wilderness there, israel encamped before the mountain. While Moses went up to God, the Lord called to him out of the mountain, saying Thus you shall say to the house of Jacob and tell the people of Israel you yourselves have seen what I did to the Egyptians and how I bore you on eagles' wings and I brought you up to myself. Now, therefore, if you will indeed obey my voice and keep my covenant, you shall be my treasured possession among my 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 people of Israel.

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You get to chapter 20, verses one through three, and here's where we get the first of the 10 commandments. 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 slavery. So before God gets to the first commandment, he actually just makes a statement. And here I want you to see the grace of God. You see, god did not send the 10 commandments to the Israelites while they were slaves in Egypt and then come around and give them a progress report, test and say if you get a passing grade, then I might save you. He saved them not because they were good, but because he is good. He saves them essentially by grace. But there is still this if-then statement If you obey this law, then you will walk rightly with me. And then you get to the very first commandment, after the first statement I am the Lord, your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery. Commandment one you shall have no other gods before me. You see, god wants us to know he is God, he is God alone and because of that you shall have no other gods.

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Now, one of the things that we see in the New Testament is that Jesus did not come to do away with the law, but he came to fulfill it, that the fullness of God was pleased to dwell in Jesus, that Jesus is the way, the truth and the life and no one comes to the Father except through Jesus. Okay, so you see the grace here, but it's still an old covenant. There's still if-then, and God is giving them this gift of the commandment. Just as that, it's a gift, it's not a burden. The Bible says that the law of the Lord is perfect, reviving the soul. As I mentioned, they're going from a bunch of slaves to a nation, and so God is actually going to give them 613 laws on how they ought to rightly view God and relate to him and then rightly relate to one another.

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But Martin Luther says if you get this first one right, then all of the rest of the commandments will fall in place.

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And when we look at the commandments, as New Testament believers we have to understand that all of the old covenant, all of the 613 commandments, particularly the 10 commandments, the law of God, is both a map and a mirror. It's a map to show us how we ought to rightly live with God We'll talk about that and how we ought to live God's way in God's world. It's a map, but it's also a mirror, and the moment you hold the mirror of the law of God up, you will realize that none of us are perfect. No, not one. A part of the law is to direct us, but the main purpose of this law is to direct us to the reality that we are not mistakers in need of a life coach. We are sinners in need of a savior. Come back tomorrow as we dig more into the Ten Commandments. Come back tomorrow as we dig more into the Ten Commandments thank you for listening to today's episode before you go.

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