Deuteronomy 5 | Thomas Todd

Listen to this week’s sermon, Deuteronomy preached by Pastor Thomas Todd from Deuteronomy 5:1-22.

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Welcome And Service Setup

Rev. Benjamin Kandt 0:06

Hello everyone. This is Pastor Benjamin. You're listening to Sermon Audio from New City, Orlando. At New City, we long to see our Father answer the Lord's Prayer. For more resources, visit our website at Newcity Orlando.com.

Scripture Reading Deuteronomy 5

Pastor Jason Dunn 0:22

Now let's stand for the reading of God's Word. And before we do that, we're going to have our prayer of illumination to ask the Holy Spirit to illumine our minds, open our ears, and make ready our hearts for God's Word. Pray with me. Give us understanding that we may keep your law and observe it with our whole hearts. In the path of your commandments, for we delight in it. Turn our eyes from looking at worthless things, and give us life in your ways through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. Please remain standing if you're able for Deuteronomy chapter 5, verses 1 through 22. And Moses summoned all Israel and said to them, Hear, O Israel, the statutes and the rules that I speak in your hearing today, and you shall learn them and be careful to do them. The Lord our God made a covenant with us in Horeb. Not with our fathers did the Lord make this covenant, but with us, who are all of us here alive today. The Lord spoke with you face to face at the mountain, out of the midst of the fire, where I stood between the Lord and you at that time, to declare to you the word of the Lord. For you were afraid because of the fire, and you did not go up into the mountain. He said, I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery. You shall have no other gods before me. You shall not make for yourself a carved image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven or above, or any or that is on the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth. You shall not bow down to them or serve them, for I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me, but showing steadfast love to those thousands of those who love me and keep my commandments. You shall not take the Lord, you should 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. Observe the Sabbath day to keep it holy, as the Lord your God commanded you. Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord your God. On it you shall not do any work, you or your son, or your daughter, or your male servant, or your female servant, or your ox, or your donkey, or any of your livestock, or the sojourner who is within your gates, that your male servant and your female servant may rest as well as you. You shall remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt, and the Lord your God brought you out from there with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm. Therefore the Lord your God commanded you to keep the Sabbath day. Honor your father and your mother as the Lord your God commanded you, that your days may be long, and that it may go well with you in the land that the Lord your God has given you. You shall not murder, and you shall not commit adultery, and you shall not steal, and you shall not bear false witness against your neighbor, and you shall not covet your neighbor's wife, and you shall not desire your neighbor's house, his field, his male servant, or his female servant, his ox, or his donkey, or anything that is your neighbor's. These words the Lord spoke to all your assembly at the mountain of the mist of fire, the cloud, and the dark thickness with a loud voice, and he added no more. And when and he wrote them on two tablets of stone and gave them to me. This is God's word. Please be seated.

The Law As Freedom

Thomas Todd 4:15

Good morning, New City. You know, when you heard that we're preaching through the Ten Commandments, you hear Jason read that. You may be thinking this morning, hey, I've heard this sermon hundreds of times. I don't need to hear it again. Don't murder, don't lie, don't steal. You know, or maybe you're thinking, hey, does this really apply to me this morning? I don't have idols in my house. I don't kiss a little Buddha before I come to church on Sunday. Uh I pay my taxes. I'm a decent husband. I'm a decent wife. You know, I'm a pretty good kid most of the time, or I'm a good student majority of the time. You know, I don't have other gods before God. You know, what are you gonna share with me? Or maybe you're thinking, hey, here we go again. You're gonna start beating me up with all the things that I fail at. Tell me everything I'm doing wrong, and then send me home and say, hey, go try harder. But that's not what Deuteronomy 5 is doing. This isn't that God restricts you. The sermon is that God actually frees you. Because the question isn't, will you serve a master? The question is, which master will you serve? Career, children, money, success, approval, comfort. Whatever you look to for identity, security, maybe significance, or even satisfaction will eventually enslave you. And Deuteronomy shows us why. You know, Israel knows what it means to be enslaved, right? They remember Egypt, they remember Pharaoh, they remember what it was like to live life belonging to someone who never let them stop. But then God rescued them. And in Deuteronomy 5, God is essentially saying, You are not Pharaoh's people anymore. You have been redeemed, and that changes everything. Here's the problem that we tend to bring into this passage. We often see God's law as restrictive and burdensome rather than life-giving and freeing. We think God's commands are keeping us from freedom when in reality God is teaching redeemed people how you actually live free. That's why Deuteronomy 5 is so relevant for us today. The Ten Commandments aren't simply a list of rules for us to keep, but they show us what life looks like when people have been rescued by God and now belong to Him. So here's the message of Deuteronomy 5. Redeemed people listen to their Redeemer and live like they are free. And so the question I hope that you'll wrestle with today isn't simply, do I know the Ten Commandments? Here's the better question: What has the gospel actually reordered in my life? Because if the gospel is true, if Christ has actually redeemed us, then redemption should change the way that we listen, the way that we love, and the way that we live. Deuteronomy 5 is taking us through the reordering of our lives. And that happens when we understand what God has done for us. So if you have your Bible or if you have your device, go ahead and turn with me to Deuteronomy 5, and we're gonna begin in verse 1. And as we walk through this passage, we'll we'll be able to, we're not gonna be able to dive deep into each commandment, but what I hope you'll see are kind of three movements through this passage. First, listen to the Redeemer. Second, love the Redeemer, and finally, live like the Redeemed. Deuteronomy 5 isn't primarily giving Israel information that they've never heard before, right? Moses is showing a new generation what redeemed people look like when they actually live like they belong to God. So let's begin with our

Listen So Life Changes

Thomas Todd 8:06

first movement. Listen to the Redeemer. Look with me in verse 1. Verse 1, and Moses summoned all of Israel and said to them, Hear, O Israel, the statutes and the rules that I speak in your hearing today, and you shall learn them and be careful to do them. Now this is important. Hear, O Israel, this isn't just a poetic way of speaking. Moses isn't saying, hey, hey, come listen to an interesting sermon. Moses is saying, listen in such a way that what you hear changes how you live. You see, we see in the verse, hear, then learn and be careful to do them. And that's our encouragement this morning. Hey, let's come together and listen in a way that what we hear changes how we actually live our day-to-day lives. Look down in verse 2. The Lord our God made a covenant with us in Horeb. Not with our fathers did the Lord make this covenant, but with us who are all of us here alive today. Notice something remarkable here. Moses says, the Lord made this covenant with us. Now remember, the people standing before him, this was not the exact generation at Sinai. Ben shared this a couple of weeks ago. Moses, though, brings the covenant into the present. He says, Hey, what God did for their fathers actually becomes their story. Moses even goes further to say, hey, this was not with your fathers. This is with you here, right now. The redemptive work, God's redemptive work becomes their identity. The covenant was made with them before some of them were even born. And Moses is saying, hey, that was with you. The gospel isn't God did something back then on the cross. The gospel is God's redemptive work becomes your identity today, here and now. Moses goes on into verse 4, and he says, The Lord spoke with you face to face at the mountain, out of the midst of the fire, while I stood between the Lord and you. And I want you to notice the emphasis on a relationship there. God speaks face to face with his people. The law comes from a covenant Lord who entered into a relationship with his people through a mediator, pointing to someone we will land with today. And look where our response comes from in verse 6. This is the crucial theological foundation to what we're studying this morning. I am the Lord your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery. Notice what comes first there. I am

Grace Precedes Obedience

Thomas Todd 10:45

God. I redeemed you, therefore live as my people. Grace precedes obedience. Grateful obedience is the response to being rescued. The gospel pattern is God rescues, God speaks, God's people respond. Israel's obedience doesn't create the relationship with God. Redemption creates the relationship. God doesn't say, hey, keep these commandments and I'll rescue you from Egypt. He says, I rescued you from Egypt. Now hear me. This is for your good. Let me teach you how redeemed people are to live. Let me share a story with you about a man named Jed, a poor mountaineer, barely kept his family fed. And then one day he was shooting at some food. No, I'm just kidding. But I'm going to use Jed as an example. So if your name's Jed, I'm sorry. But Jed, he's successful. He has a good career. He makes good money. He provides well for his family. He's respected. But Jed checks his email before he gets out of bed. He's answering messages at dinner. He's thinking about work while playing with his kids. He takes vacation, but he's never really on vacation. He's not working nine to five, what a way to make a living. But he is working eight to eight. Thank you, somebody that got the Dolly reference. Had to, sorry. Each time he reaches his next goal, he's thinking, finally, I'm able to relax. But he doesn't. Eventually, someone says, Hey, hey, Jed, how much would be enough? And Jed realizes, I don't know. Because underneath all of his work is a belief or an internal script that says, hey, if I work hard enough, if I provide enough, if I accomplish enough, maybe one day I'll finally be okay. His work isn't just something he does anymore. His work is becoming something that owns him. And the question for us is, what would happen, what would have to happen today for you to say, hey, now I'm enough? Whose approval do you need? See, because the answer to those questions will begin to expose our own Egypt. Now listen, God doesn't just rescue Israel from Pharaoh, He rescues them for Himself. He frees them from the master who enslaved them so that they can belong to the God who redeemed them. And so God shows them what freedom really looks like through the Ten Commandments. And Jesus, he helps us understand and see the heart of the commandments. When Jesus summarizes the law, he doesn't begin with this long list of rules. He begins with love. Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength, and then love your neighbor as yourself. And that's exactly the movement that we'll see here in Deuteronomy 5. Because God has redeemed us. We don't just stop serving our old masters, but we love our Redeemer. And so look, our second point, love the Redeemer. Verse 7. You shall have no other gods before me. You know, Jed doesn't have a little statue on his desk, but Jed does have a God. His God is achievement. Why? Because achievement gives him something he wants from God. Tell me I'm valuable. Tell me I matter. And that's what an idol does. An idol isn't merely something that you worship. An idol is something that you ask to give you what only God can give you. Jed asks his career, tell me I'm significant. Tell me I matter. Someone else asks a relationship. Hey, tell me I'm lovable. Someone else asks money, hey, tell me I'm secure. Someone else asks

Jed And The Modern Slavery

Thomas Todd 14:34

their children, hey, tell me I'm successful. And God says, You shall have no other gods before me. This is fundamentally about exclusive allegiance. You know, the issue isn't merely believing that other gods exist. The issue is that Israel must have one God, one allegiance, one Lord. Then verse 8, you shall not make a carved image, make for yourself a carved image. The second commandment moves from who we worship to how we worship. Israel cannot domesticate God. They cannot make God into something manageable, visible, controllable. And then notice in verse 9, you shall not bow down to them or serve them, for I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God. God says, hey, I'm jealous. And we kind of think in human terms of jealousy, and we're kind of like, oh, wait a minute, we don't like that. But God's jealousy isn't insecurity, it's covenant love. See, God refuses to share his people with the very things that enslaved them. That's his jealousy. Then look at verse 11: You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain. The third commandment is taking God's name in a way that is emptiness, worthlessness, or even falsehood. It's not merely, hey, do you use God's name as a swear word? Though don't do that. But it is, does the way you live make God's name look empty? The command concerns how God's people carry God's name into the world. Right? Last week Ben asked, what kind of God produces people like this? And then he he gave us some things of how those people look. They embody a wisdom that is attractive, they seem to know the way to the good life. Or in the language of chapter 4, surely this is a wise and understanding people. Those are people who do not make God's name look empty. They live like the redeemed. Now look at verse 12 quickly. Observe the Sabbath day to keep it holy as the Lord your God commanded you. Six days you shall work, seventh day you shall take a rest, right? The Sabbath command here is particularly interesting because Deuteronomy changes the emphasis from Exodus 20. Exodus 20 emphasizes creation for the reason that they take the Sabbath seriously. Listen to the words from Exodus 20. 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. Deuteronomy changes the emphasis, though, to redemption. Look down in verse 15. You shall remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt, and the Lord your God brought you out from there with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm. Therefore, the Lord your God commanded you to keep the Sabbath day. Israel rests because they are no longer Pharaoh's people. They are no longer slaves. And this gives the Sabbath a deeply gospel-shaped theology. Slaves don't get to stop. Like when they were living in Egypt, they didn't get to stop. Redeemed people, though, can rest. And that's important for us to grasp today. Jesus came to set us free from the very things that enslave us. I wonder this morning where your heart is when you hear more bricks, less straw. Pharaoh's command to Egypt, to Israel. We get so focused on go, go, on more, more, more, more. And God says, Hey, I rescued you. Rest. Like, slow down a little bit. And this isn't simply, hey, go take a day off. This is you are no longer Pharaoh's slaves, so don't live as though Pharaoh still owns you. That leads to our final point. Live like the redeemed. If God has rescued you from Pharaoh, then don't live as though Pharaoh still owns you. But there's another side to that freedom. Don't treat

Loving God Without Idols

Thomas Todd 18:45

others as though you are Pharaoh and they belong to you. That's where Moses takes us now. The first commandments teach us how to love God. And now, verse 16 through 21, the law turns towards relationships with one another. And so look at verse 16, and I'm gonna run through these fairly quickly. Verse 16, honor your father and your mother. Verse 17, you shall not murder. Verse 18, you shall not commit adultery. Verse 19, you should not steal. Verse 20, you should not bear false witness. And then notice where the commands kind of culminate in verse 21. Coveting. See, God doesn't stop with what you do, He addresses what you want. The law moves from your hands to your heart. And really that's the deeper problem. We don't merely break God's rules. Our hearts want the very wrong things. The law exposes not merely bad behavior, but our disordered loves. And this becomes enormously important when we get to Deuteronomy 6. The commandments aren't ultimately about behavior modification, they're about loving God who redeemed us from slavery. And maybe you're thinking, hey, listen, I know all this. I know I shouldn't covet. I know I shouldn't be controlled by approval. I know I shouldn't make idols, but knowing doesn't change me. Exactly. See, Deuteronomy gives us God's standard. The gospel gives us God's grace and God's spirit. The law is firm and clear, unyielding to the human condition. The gospel bursts forth with the burning love of God in Christ. And so we've we've kind of heard these commands. And if we're honest, when we hear these commands, they don't simply give us a list of things to do, but hopefully they begin to expose us. They expose what is happening underneath our behavior in our hearts. And that's where the gospel begins. Because the problem with the law isn't that God's law is bad. The problem is that we are bad at keeping it. Right? We have other gods. We make idols, we misuse God's name, we refuse rest. We dishonor those God has placed over us. We lust, we harbor anger, we steal, we lie, we covet. And here's the problem: knowing God's commands doesn't give us the power to become what God commands. The law can tell me what righteousness looks like, but it cannot make me righteous. It can show me my sin, but it cannot remove my sin. It can tell me what a transformed heart looks like, but it cannot by itself give me a transformed heart. So where does that leave us? We need Jesus. John Frame in his discussion on the Ten Commandments and how they lead us to Christ gives us some a different number of things that lead us there, and I'm just going to touch a few of those. The Ten Commandments present the righteousness of Christ. See, the first thing the law does is show us what righteousness looks like. God says, have no other gods, don't worship idols, don't misuse my name, keep the Sabbath. This is what perfect righteousness. Love for God and neighbor looks like. But here's the remarkable thing: there's one person who actually lived this way. Right? Jesus. Israel received God's covenant and they repeatedly failed. Jesus enters Israel's story as the true and faithful son. Where Israel failed, Jesus succeeds. Where Israel grumbled in the wilderness, Jesus trusted his father. Where Israel tested God, Jesus obeyed God. Where Israel worshipped other gods, Jesus worshiped the Father alone. And when Satan tempted Jesus in the wilderness, where did Jesus go? To Deuteronomy. He answers Satan with the very word of God that Israel failed to obey. Jesus is the obedient son. He is the one who perfectly hears God's word and does it. Jesus can say in John 8.29, I always do the things that are pleasing to him. I can't say that. I'm guessing you can't. Israel couldn't, but Jesus could. The Ten Commandments give us a picture of righteousness, and Jesus is that righteousness in the flesh. And Christ is not merely someone the law points toward, Christ is the substance of the very law. The Ten Commandments then show us our need for Christ. Something happens

God’s Jealous Love And His Name

Thomas Todd 23:20

when we look at the law, right? It becomes a mirror. And when we honestly look at the mirror, we don't see ourselves looking more like Jesus. We begin to see our sin. The commandment says you shall have no other gods, and we realize we put other things in God's place. The commandment says you shall not covet, and we realize, hey, sometimes what we don't have controls us more than what we do have. The law exposes us, and that's good news because the law isn't saying, hey, you're bad, try harder. It is saying you're enslaved and you need a savior to rescue you. That's what the law is supposed to do. It reveals God's righteousness, but it also reveals our unrighteousness. It shows us the standard, and then it shows us how we fall far, far short from that standard. So if you're here today and you're thinking, hey, basically, I'm a good person. Deuteronomy 5 says, hey, look again. If you're thinking, I'm not as bad as those people, the law says, hey, look at God, not your neighbor. Right? August the 30th, 1991, Mike Powell, he set an all-time long jump record, 29 feet four and a quarter inches. Like, wow. That's impressive. Mike Powell, if he compares himself to me, he wins every time. If I get two feet, I'm going to be pretty happy, right? But if Mike Powell and I are both lined up at the Grand Canyon and we're long jumping the Grand Canyon, we both fail. Ross Edgeley, he swam 1,780 miles around Great Britain in 157 days. If he compares himself to me, he's winning that swimming race every day. Like I'm not even going to get in the water. Have fun. But if he and I both are going to swim across the Atlantic, guess what? We both lose. Listen, it doesn't matter how moral you are. If you measure your moral life against the law, you lose. And if you're thinking, hey, I'll just try harder. The law says you don't need merely more effort, you need a savior. The law diagnoses the disease. Christ provides the cure. The Ten Commandments show us the righteousness then of Christ imputed to us. And this is where things start to get, as Ben would say, gospel, right? Jesus doesn't simply show us what righteousness looks like, Jesus gives his righteousness to people who don't have it. Paul said, Romans 10, 4, Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes. Jesus didn't come because we'd gotten close enough. He came because we had no chance of getting there. So here's the beautiful exchange. He gets our sin, we get his righteousness. He gets our guilt, we get his obedience. He gets our condemnation, we get his acceptance. The law says, hey, this is the righteousness God requires. And the gospel says, hey, Christ has accomplished it for you. This means when God looks at you, Christian, he doesn't see someone who finally managed to do enough, to be enough, to be good enough. He sees someone who is covered in the righteousness of Christ. See your identity isn't something you have to manufacture. Your righteousness isn't something you have to achieve. Your acceptance isn't something you have to earn. It's received by faith. And listen, that's what changes how you live. Because now you don't obey God to become his child, you obey God because you already are his child. And the law is a great and good gift for you, the best way for us to live. Towards the end of chapter 5, probably where we'll get to next week, verse 33 points directly to this.

Sabbath Rest As Redemption

Thomas Todd 27:23

See, God's law is for our good and for God's glory. And some of you might hear all this and say, listen, if Christ has done everything for me, then why do I need to obey? And that's really the right question. Now, parents with your kids in here, you might say, Thomas, stop, don't do that. The answer is, listen, because grace doesn't eliminate obedience. Grace transforms obedience. We don't obey to earn God's love, we obey because we have received God's love. We don't obey to become free, we obey because Christ has made us free. How is the gospel reordering our lives? Remember the foundation to this. I am the Lord, verse 6, I'm the Lord your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery. God rescues, then says, Hey, live this way. Grace precedes obedience. So when God says, have no other gods, the Christian can say, Hey, God, you've rescued me. I don't want to give my heart to things that used to enslave me. When God says, hey, don't covet, the Christian can say, Hey, Christ is enough. I don't need to possess everything that I've been programmed to believe that will make me happy. God says, keep the Sabbath, the Christian says, I don't have to prove my worth through endless productivity. Christ has already finished the work. Obedience becomes gratitude, not payment, not performance, not self-salvation, but gratitude. That's what redeemed people do. They listen to their redeemer and they live like they are free. Remember Jed, the man who couldn't stop working, the man who built his identity around achievement. What does Jed need? He doesn't merely need someone to tell him, hey, work less. He needs something much deeper. He needs to know I don't have to earn my worth. Why? Because Christ has given him a better righteousness. He doesn't need his career to tell him he's significant. Christ has already called him his own. He doesn't need money to tell him he's secure. Christ is his security. He doesn't need people's approval to tell him he's valuable. The Father has already declared his love for him in Christ. And now Jed can work differently. He can work hard without worshiping work. Because his identity is no longer something he has to achieve, it's something he has received. And maybe that's what Deuteronomy 5 is asking us this morning. Not simply, are you keeping the commandments? But what are you looking to to give you only what God can give you? What are you trusting to tell you you are enough? You are safe. You are significant. You can finally rest. What are we hearing? More bricks, less straw. You know, you can get Israel out of Egypt, but it's really difficult to get Egypt out of Israel. We might be physically free while still living like we are enslaved to something. Still trying to prove ourselves, still trying to win or earn approval. Jesus comes and says, listen, you don't have to do that anymore. Christ has given you his spirit to begin creating in you the heart that you could never create in yourself. And because the Son has set you free, you can finally stop trying to prove yourself. You can rest, you can love, you can obey, you can finally live like you are free.

Love Neighbor And Heart-Level Sin

Thomas Todd 31:15

Pray with me. Father, thank you that in Christ we are no longer slaves. Thank you that Jesus lived the righteous life we could never live, died the death we deserved, and rose to give us new life. Father, help us to stop looking to created things for what only you can give. Give us hearts that love you, that trust you, that obey you. Not to earn your love, but because we have already received your love in Christ. By your spirit, help us to live like we are free this morning. In Jesus' name, amen. How is the gospel?