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is from Colossians chapter 1 verses 13 and 14. This is God's word. He has delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us into the kingdom of his beloved Son in whom we have redemption the forgiveness of sins. Father as we come to your word we pray that you would open our hearts and minds in Jesus name. Amen. I don't know if you've ever seen the movie Shawshank Redemption. There's a line in there that's I think appropriate to what we'll be talking about today and for the next several weeks. The two main characters are sitting in the courtyard during a break and they're talking about how one of the prisoners had been released and ultimately committed suicide because he couldn't handle being out. Some of the other prisoners were talking about how they didn't understand it and the character Morgan Freeman played, Red, said that he was institutionalized and they said what does that mean? He said when you first come here you hate these walls then you get used to them and then you depend on them. That's institutionalized. In a very similar way Israel had become institutionally slaves. In Exodus chapter 6 God spoke further to Moses and said to him I am the Lord your God I appeared to Abraham Isaac and Jacob as God Almighty but by my name Lord I did not make myself known to them. I also established my covenant with them to give them the land of Canaan the land in which they sojourn. Furthermore I've heard the groaning of the sons of Israel because the Egyptians are holding them in bondage and I have remembered my covenant. Say therefore to the sons of Israel I am the Lord and I will bring you out of the burdens of the Egyptians and I will deliver you from their bondage. I will also redeem you with an outstretched arm and with great judgments. Then I will take you for my people and I will be your God and you shall know that I am the Lord who brought you out of from under the burdens of the Egyptians. I will bring you to the land which I swore to give to Abraham Isaac Jacob and I will give it to you for a possession. I am the Lord. So that was Exodus 6. After the Lord had done this he took Moses up on Mount Sinai and gave him what we call the Ten Commandments. Literally it's the ten words. We're going to look at today the first two verses of Exodus 20 and God spoke all these words I am the Lord your God who brought you out of Egypt out of the land of slavery and the first thing I want us to notice as we begin this study of the Ten Commandments is the nature of the relationship between God and Israel is one of grace. God says I am the Lord your God. He doesn't say I will be the Lord your God if you keep all these commandments. He's not neutral as though he was simply stating a fact if he was doing that he would have just said I am the Lord God. He makes it personal. He says I am the Lord your God. He is stating a personal relationship with the people of Israel by saying I am the Lord your God. He says I am the one who brought you out of Egypt out of the land of slavery. The words land of slavery are alternately translated house of slavery or house of bondage. The idea is that Israel was under the rule and reign of the one who was holding them slaves. They were in the domain of another. The Egyptians were the slave masters. The Hebrews were their slaves and by the time God frees them they had been slaves for over 400 years just as predicted by God when he told Abraham in Genesis 15 4. Know for certain that your descendants will be strangers in a land that is not theirs. They will be enslaved and oppressed for 400 years. Israel because of Joseph enjoyed a season of peace and prosperity in the nation of Egypt but it didn't last. Exodus says now Joseph and all his brothers and all that generation died but the Israelites were fruitful and multiplied greatly and became exceedingly numerous so the land was filled with them. That's part of the creation mandate to fill the earth and subdue it with image-bearing worshipers but a new Pharaoh a new king said to his people the Israelites have become too numerous for us come we must deal shrewdly with them or they will become more numerous if war breaks out they will join our enemies fight against us and leave the country so they put slave masters over them to oppress them with forced labor and they built fit them and Ramses store cities for Pharaoh but the more they were oppressed the more they multiplied and spread so the Egyptians came to dread Israelites and work them ruthlessly they made their lives bitter with hard labor and brick and mortar with all kinds of work and fields and all their hard labor the Egyptians used them ruthlessly. Slavery is evil and it's not that ancient history that North America had experienced slavery. We all know the story of the Atlantic slave trade but a lot of us don't know that while that was going on there were actually more Europeans being enslaved in Northern Africa by the Barbary Pirates than were enslaved in North America over a million. Slavery still goes on today in North Africa or in Africa in the Middle East in China maybe you've read about the Uyghurs and the sex slave trade is flourishing it's one of the reasons that our church supports the Ministry of Open Door in Halifax because they try to prevent the grooming and trafficking of young boys and girls being brought into the sex trade. So this is new slavery it's been in existence essentially essentially since the beginning of time and Israel was enslaved they were enslaved physically they were enslaved politically but the most important thing is they were enslaved spiritually but God brought them out of this bondage he delivered them from bondage the question is how did he do it we're not going to look at all the details but he defeated the gods and he defeated Pharaoh who was revered as a god he delivered them through a man named Moses and he delivered them by defeating these gods in Exodus 7 to 12 we can read the account of God's defeat of the Egyptian deities are you familiar with this you've heard of the ten plagues that God sent each time telling Moses to tell Pharaoh to let my people go some of the older folks in the congregation will remember the clash between Charlton Heston and Yule Brenner some of the younger people have no idea what I'm talking about the real confrontation was between the true God of heaven and earth and all the false deities that Egypt worshipped they had a river God named Hoppy so God sent the plague of turning the water into blood they had a frog a god of fertility God sent a plague of frogs they had a cattle god Apis he sent a plague on the cattle they had a sun god Ra and he sent three days of darkness against the god of the dead Osiris he sent the angel of death to take all the firstborn of Egypt and that would include Pharaoh's firstborn son see Pharaoh himself was regarded as a deity so God the only true God defeats all of the deities of Egypt through the plagues one of my professors in seminary dr. John curd wrote a book called ancient Egypt in the Old Testament which shows how thorough this defeat was what God is doing with the plagues is what he called a de-creation God reverses the act of the creation and thus begins again with Israel as a new creation creation day one remember God brought light out of darkness in the plague the darkness prevails over light that's the reversal day two God ordered the separating of the waters in the plagues chaos and destruction brought about by turning water into blood in day three there's appearance of dry land and vegetation in the plague vegetation is destroyed through hail and locusts and day for the creation of the luminaries the Sun the moon the stars in the plague it was the darkening of the same day five the creation of birds and fish and creatures of the sea in the plague was the death of the fish and the frogs and day six is a creation of land animals in the plague it was the pestilence of insects boils on beasts and humans and destruction of the firstborn so God utterly defeats the deities of Israel to demonstrate to everyone but especially I'm sorry the deities of Egypt but to demonstrate to everyone but especially to Israel that he is the only true God just prior to the final play God institutes the Passover meal to commemorate his gracious act of deliverance from the nation of Israel Exodus 12 verse 39 says they baked dough which they had brought out of Egypt into cakes of unleavened bread were to not become leaven since they were driven out of Egypt and could not delay nor had they prepared any provisions for themselves now the time that the sons of Israel lived in Egypt was 430 years and at the end of 430 years to the very day all the host of the Lord went out from the land of Egypt it is the night to be observed for the Lord for having brought them out of the land of Egypt this is the night for the Lord to be observed by all the sons of Israel throughout their generations the Lord said to Moses and Aaron this is the ordinance of the Passover no foreigner is to eat it so we see in the words I am the Lord your God who brought you out of the land of slavery is like a declaration of independence a declaration is that the gods of Israel or Egypt have been defeated and that God is the only God now after 400 years of slavery Israel's free but there's a problem they've been as it were institutionalized they have no clue how to live like free people they've been 400 years and slave to Egypt 400 years they've been told when they could sleep when they could eat when they should work if they got out of line they were beaten sometimes killed everything they did they did with permission from the Egyptians they didn't know what it meant to be free or how to feel to be free so God gives them the Ten Commandments and again this law is a list it's not a list of do's and don'ts designed to be a cosmic killjoy or to restrain our freedom it's exactly the opposite it's a declaration of independence it's instruction to people how to be free how to live like free people in the place of the bondage of false gods for existence for instance he gives himself as the only true God of heaven and earth could you imagine living in Egypt and they had a thousand deities he didn't know if you were offending one or the other turning to the left or the right and instead of all of that there's the one true God he replaces the bondage of our vain imaginations with the freedom of seeing him in the pages of scripture he freezes from the bondage of trivializing and gives us the freedom of reverence he replaces the bondage of busyness and work with the freedom of rest and worship instead of the bond of rebellion he gives us the freedom of honor and respect and he replaces the bondage of hatred and murder with the freedom of faithful I'm sorry with the freedom of love and living he replaces enslavement to sexual promiscuity which is rampant in our culture he gives us the freedom of faithfulness he frees us from the bondage of evil acquisition and gives us the freedom of radical generosity and instead of the bondage of remembering your lies gives you the freedom that comes to telling the truth and finally he freezes from the slavery of always wanting what we do not have and replaces it with the joy of being content with what we do have God has set Israel free now he tells them and us how such a free person lives and a great part of living like a free person is having the only true God and no other gods before him literally before my face there's an interesting passage in first Samuel chapter 5 the Philistines who were the regular enemy of Israel have captured the Ark of the Covenant and they brought it from Abenezer to Ashdod then the Philistines took the Ark of God and brought it into the house of Dagon Dagon was their deity and they set it up besides Dagon and when the people rose the next day Dagon had fallen on face downward on the ground before the Ark of the Lord so they put Dagon back in its place when they came back the next morning Dagon had fallen face down again before the Ark and the head of Dagon and both of its hands were lying cut off on the threshold and only the trunk of Dagon was left to him you see when the Philistines tried to make their God superior God took away the head and the hands of their false deity what does all this have to do with us now there's a passage at the end of the Old Testament at the end of the last book Malachi the Italian prophet no I'm kidding Malachi chapter 4 surely the day is coming it will burn like a furnace and all the arrogant and every evil doer will be stubble and that day is coming that will set them on fire says the Lord almighty not a root or a branch will be left to them but for you who revere my name the son of righteousness will rise with healing in its wings you'll go out and leap like calves released from the stall then you will trample down the wicked they will be ashes under the soles of your feet on that day i will do these things says the Lord almighty remember the law of my servant Moses the decrees and laws i gave him in horrib for all israel see i will send the prophet Elijah before that great and dreadful day of the Lord comes he will turn the hearts of their fathers to their children in the hearts of the children to their fathers or else i will come and strike the land with a curse now after this is said it's another 400 years very similar there were 400 years of israel and slavery now 400 years between these words from Malachi and a new word from the people of god are once again in bondage politically and spiritually and then the words from the gospel of mark the beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ the son of god i will send my messenger ahead who will prepare the way of always calling in the wilderness prepare the way of the Lord make straight paths for him and so John came baptizing in the desert region and preaching a baptism of repentance for forgiveness of sins the time has come the kingdom of god is near repent and believe the good news very similarly god's people again were enslaved it's not that much different now we think we're free we feel free but many of us all of us are born this way are enslaved to our sin Ephesians 2 says is for you you were dead in your trespasses and sins excuse me in which you used to live when you follow the ways of this world and the ruler of the kingdom of the air the spirit that's now at work and those who are disobedience disobedient listen Paul Paul's writing this he says all of us including himself lived among them at one time gratifying the crazy cravings of our sinful nature following desires and thoughts like the rest of us were children of wrath slaves dead in our sins like the rest we were included children of wrath that word that's a scary word wrath is not doesn't mean a hot flash of anger it means smoldering indignation and because of our sin because of our disobedience to god because of our constantly turning away from him there's smoldering indignation toward people so what does god do but he defeated Egypt's deities when he freed Israel what did he do to defeat our enemies Ephesians 2 4 because of the great love with which he loved us god being in rich and mercy made us alive together with christ even when we were dead in our transgressions it is by grace you have been saved in Christ Jesus and god raised us up with Christ seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus in order that coming ages he might show the incomparable riches of his grace expressed in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus for by grace you have been saved through faith in that not of yourself as a gift of god not by works that no one should boast part of our scripture reading was Colossians 1 13 and 14 for you have been delivered from the dominion of darkness from the domain of darkness Israel was in the domain of darkness in Egypt god's people was in the domain of darkness having not heard from him for 400 years before Christ came all of us are born into the domain of darkness but we've been delivered from the domain of darkness and transferred into the kingdom of the beloved son one translation says we've been translated we've been delivered from the dominion of darkness and translated into the Kingdom of the beloved son in other words we were in the language of darkness, we were in the language of slavery, we were in the language of oppression, and we have been translated into the language of freedom, and we've been given the instructions as to how to live like free people. Not in order to earn God's favor, not in order to earn his approval, not in order to earn standing with him, but because we do have his approval, because we do have a relationship with him, because we do have a standing with him, a standing of righteousness before him, because Christ has given it to us by defeating the devil and death, so that we can live like free people and obey, not only the Ten Commandments, but all the commandments. Our obedience comes from gratitude, from a love for God and what he's done for us, through his son Jesus Christ, for we are God's workmanship created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared beforehand. Let's pray, Father in heaven, thank you for the gospel. In Jesus' name, amen.