Nearly everyone I know, laments the moral decay that is in our country, and that is prevalent throughout society. Crime and violence have become so rampant that home security systems are a major industry. Sexual perverse and political scandal have become such a fixed part of the american landscape, that it is the pure and chaste person, and the honest and upright politician, who utterly amaze us. They are the exception, and not the rule. The Oval Office is exhibit one. (in 1999, ed.)
What has happened to America? What has happened to us? Well, I believe I can tell you. America has turned her back on God. That's what has happened. Systematically, by degrees, beginning in the same year that I was born, when the 10 commandments were pitched out of the public school system, we have been on a downward, slippery slope. America has turned her back on God. God created every man and every woman for Himself, yet the average American today, wants little or nothing to do with God. But I believe that this goes beyond just ignoring God. I believe that God has a fixed, moral code that He intends for individuals, families, and nations to follow. And we have expelled this code from our national life, in both the public and private areas. Proverbs 29:18 says,
"Where there is no vision, the people perish."
The word 'vision' here refers to God's revelation. Where there is no preaching and teaching, there is no platform for the Word of God to go forth. Where ther is no clear explaining & proclaiming of the Word of God people perish. They literally cast off all restraint, is the meaning of the word 'perish' there. When people abandon God's word, God will eventually abandon that people. And then that people will simply selfdestruct.
The truth of the matter is, simply, that we were made by God. He is the Creator, and he created us to live by rules. That's the way He made us. And He gave us rules to follow. You cannot have permissiveness in the realm of sexuality, and expect that we will not also have permissiveness in the realm of violence, or corruption, or bribery in high places. You cannot pick and choose. People today want permisiveness in the casino, but not in the bank. They want permisiveness in the bedroom, but not in the boardroom. If we promote permisiveness where we want it, we will find permisiveness where we DON'T want it. Romans chapter 1 teaches that when the divine standard is expelled and cast out, then God's judgement soon replaces it.
I believe what is taking place in our culture today will never be properly assessed, until it is seen in the light of God's absolute, and unchanging moral standard. And without a renewed emphasis upon God's law, God's moral law, or nation will continue to move like a ship without a rudder, or like a man lost in a forest without a compass. Our society is clearly evidencing the marks of a society that has abandoned God. Three times in Romans chapter 1, Paul wrote there under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, that 'God gives them up'. God gives them up to their own vile affections, God gives them up. In other words, He abandons them to their own devices, to their own evil desires.
I say to you this morning, the very presence of rampant sexual perversion in our culture like lesbianism and homosexuality is evidence NOT that God's judgement is coming, but that it is HERE. For, as you study history, and as you go back into the Bible you find that these things ARE a judgement of God. They are not signalling the coming of it. We are IN the judgement. And I believe that Christians today, like you and I, need to understand the importance of the place of the Ten Commandments. That we need to call people back to a Biblical understanding of the relevance of these Ten Commandments in our day. Without a proper understanding of God's Law, we cannot have a proper understanding of the entire Bible, of God's grace, or of the Gospel. In fact, the Gospel cannot be established on any other foundation than that of the law. This was readily acknowledged in preaching, and teaching, in our nation, a century ago when sermons and studies were far more frequent and far more commonplace. Today, not only have the commandments been expelled from our public schools and our state courthouses, but they've been effectively discarded from even mainline churches.
I read not too long ago that, in a survey not even ONE percent of the people who attend church regularly could remember all ten of the Ten Commandments when asked to list them. Could you?! So this summer, I want us to do a study on the TEN, Commandments. I want us to have a proper understanding of how they fit into the Christian life. And I am asking you, to commit yourself, to knowing these Ten Commandments. And to committing them to memory. I'm going to preach on each one of the Ten Commandments over the course of the sunday mornings of the summer.
The spirit of the age insists that relativism is the only truth, and that tolerance is the only value. Absolutes, of any kind, are in disdain. They are seen as archaic. Anyone who clearly ennunciates right or wrong is seen as someone narrow. And ignorant. Most churches, including undoubtedly out own to some degree, have been swept in by this spirit, have been infected by this ungodly thinking. We too, to some degree, have lost our moorings maybe more than we understand. We ourselves have forsaken the foundations. And until these fundamentals are recovered, and exalted again, God's people will lack the spiritual ability and the moral authority to resist the onslaught of the decay going on around us.
I would suggest to you, that one of the great moments in the history of all the world was when God gave the Ten Commandments. There's nothing else like it in the Bible. There's nothing like it in world history. For God SPOKE in a VERY special way that day. Like He has never spoken before or since. NOWHERE else in the Old Testament did God speak, did God write in the fashion that He did, when He spoke and when He wrote on Mount Sinai. If you think about it, the Ten Commandments are absolutely unique. The rest of the Bible, given by inspiration of God, came through prophets, came through teachers, but only the Ten Commandments came DIRECTLY from God.
If there is anything that we ought to strive to comprehend and to know, it would be these Ten Commandments. God wrote with His own finger on the two tablets of stone the moral code that He desires for all people to follow. I believe we can say that God's inspired and eternal values are fully expressed in these Ten Commandments. Thousands, perhaps millions, of human laws have been written to support the Ten Commandments, but the Ten Commandments have never been improved upon. This is God's will for all men. God calls upon ALL humanity to obey the Ten Commandments, Christians and non-Christians alike. Where these commands are respected, and upheld, and followed, there is relative tranquility, because Bible principles work for everybody. If people will structure and order their life from the Bible, even if they be not true believers, if they follow the precepts of the book of Proverbs and if they follow Bible principles, they will have more peace and tranquility in their life than if they do not. (very true, ed.)
Bible principles work. There is a general connection between the extent to which a society as a whole obeys God's absolute moral standard, and the degree to which they enjoy His blessing. The fact of the matter is, there is no other true standard of right and wrong, other that God's word. And so therefore there is no other way to live. People today do not like to think about the restraint, or the constraint of law, they are freedom crazed. Drunk with freedom. Give me my freedom people say, but as you know freedom does NOT mean the absence of constraints or moral absolutes. These things help us to enjoy our freedom all the more.
Suppose, for example, a skydiver at 10,000 feet, just before a group is ready to jump, says "No, I really don't want to use a parachute this time, I want TOTAL freedom. I don't want anything constraining me. I don't want to feel anything. I just want to feel free." Well, the fact is, that skydiver is constrained to a higher, and greater law called gravity. When the skydiver chooses the constraint of the parachute, when he cooses to put that parachute on, he is setting himself up for great exhileration that he can enjoy for a long time. God's moral laws are the same way, they restrain in an absolute way, but they help us to enjoy the exhileration of true freedom.
A person who wants real freedom, NEEDS TO FIND CHRIST. (amen, ed.) That's where real freedom can be fully, and trully enjoyed. And so these Ten Commandments are not something that we should shrink back from, but, this is God's plan for all men that we embrace these wonderful truths. They are the cautification of an ideal rule of life. An objective standard of righteousness for all people in all times. Can you imagine a world where everybody, perfectly, followed and never broke the Ten Commandments? Well, it would be of course, a perfect place.
But the Bible teaches us that no one has ever kept the whole law, but one, Jesus Christ. He perfectly fulfilled the law. He did not break the law in a single place. Jesus said of Himself, "I came not to destroy the law but to fulfill it." And fulfill it he did, perfectly! According to Romans 3:20, the law was NOT given so that the Isrealites, or any other group of people for that matter, could attain righteousness by keeping it.
"Therefore by the deeds of the law shall NO flesh be justified in His sight.
For by the law is the knowledge of sin."
The law functioned in order to show Isreal, and all people, that they are sinners. The New Testament says that the law is our 'schoolmaster', to bring us to Christ. The purpose of the law is to show us our lack, to show us our need, to show us our deficiency. The law, which is well able to condemn ALL men, and not able to save EVEN ONE, sends the convicted sinner to the only place where he can find salvation, and that's Jesus Christ, the only one who ever kept the law completely and fully. Christ, who in His perfect law-fulfilling life and law-fulfilling death, gave Himself; the Bible tells us, He gave Himself and hung upon a cross and paid the penalty of sin for us. He gave Himself to redeem helpless sinners, and a righteous standing before God, which we call our justification, has ALWAYS been, and will ONLY be, always by FAITH ALONE, in Jesus Christ. Galatians 3:13 says that
"Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law,
being made a curse for us..."
Christians are NOT free from the law, in the sense that they are free to set aside the Ten Commandments, no, we are free from the JUDGEMENT and the CURSE of the law. That is what we have been freed from. The wrath of God upon our sin was put upon the Lord Jesus Christ, and He took that for us on the cross. Though we are freed from the law's CONDEMNING power, we are still, as one commentator said, 'under its COMMANDING power'. Just because we are saved doesn't mean that these Ten Commandments mean nothing to us anymore, no, they mean all the more! This is God's STANDARD, this is His generic plan for all people, and as Christians we do not set that aside, we do not abandon that because we are the people of God, but all the more we follow it. We uphold it. We embrace it. We proclaim it. Because it will help in bringing others to see their NEED for a savior by revealing THEIR sinfulness. Every Christian is BOUND to conform to the law, not in order to BE saved, or to REMAIN saved, but because he IS saved! And because he has a heart for the things OF God, and if anything is under the category of a thing of God, it would be these Ten Commandments, that He personally delivered there at Mount Sinai.
In this first message of this series I want to lay down a set of general rules that I will be following as I preach through these Ten Commandments, and I want you to understand from the outset, how I will use certain rules as I approach these Ten Commandments.
The FIRST rule is this, that the Ten Commandments reach the heart. The Ten Commandments are not something merely external, they are internal. They are not sterile. The Ten Commandments are not something to just be posted on the wall, and then forgotten about. They are something to THINK about. They are something to let sink into the heart. When I say that they reach the heart, I mean that they affect not only outward actions, but they also inspire inward affections. They require love, as well as obedience. This is why David, the psalmist said,
"Oh how I love thy law!" (Psalm 119:97)
Don't be afraid of the Ten Commandments. Bring them to yourself. Extol them. For example, the law of God forbids not only the ACT of sin, but also to the INCLINATION to sin, and the desire for sin. For sin begins on the INSIDE of a man. It begins in the heart. It begins on the inside, and works its way out. Not only does the law forbid the sin of adultery, but it also forbids the act of lusting. The law forbids not only stealing, but coveting also.
The SECOND rule of the Ten Commandments is that more is intended than that is spoken. Sometimes we come to these Ten Commandments and we are so dull, and we are so simple, and simpleminded in our approach to them. We read them, and we let them pass by without giving them any thought. Without examining them, without turning them over and studying them, without looking at them from underneath, from above, and from the side. We need to study these Ten Commandments and understand EXACTLY what they are saying, and the implications of them. For example, when a duty is commanded such as keeping the sabbath, reserving one day out of your week for rest and for reflection on the things of God, when we are told to keep the sabbath, the contrary sin of BREAKING the sabbath is also understood.
Here's another example, when we are forbidden to take God's name in vain, it should also be understood that we are people that should be REVERENCING His name. It would also be a violation of the commandment NOT to reverence His name. I say more is intended than is spoken.
The THIRD rule of the Ten Commandments is that the occasion for sin is forbidden as well as the sin itself. That which leads to a sin, where murder is forbidden, also forbidden would be anger, envy, and other things which occasion it. Where adultery is forbidden, all that may lead to it is also forbidden. Such as revelry, wantonness, filthy jesting, and drunkenness. Think deeply about these commandments, don't be simple.
The FOURTH rule of these Ten Commandments is that the law of God is complete. There were two tablets of stone. Many believe that on the first tablet were the first four laws, and on the second tablet the final six. The first four speaking of the relationship a man has to his God, the second tablet, the final six, in reference to a man's dealings with his fellow man. But God wrote and sealed both tablets, they are complete. The Pharisees were the highest pretenders in keeping the FIRST table of the law. They did it with great zeal and enthusiasm. "Lord, we've done everything that we're suppose to do", but Jesus chided those Pharisees and He says,
"There are parts of the law that you have not followed. You have omitted
judgement, mercy, and faith. You have not properly responded to your fellow man,
you have failed on the second tablet of the law." (Matthew 23:23)
They had not been just in their dealings with others. They had been merciless to those they should have shown mercy upon. And they had not been faithfull to their committments and to their contracts with men.
The FIFTH rule of the Ten Commandments is that God forbids having any hand in the sin of others. Being an accessory to another's sin makes you guilty as well. 2 Samuel 12:9 says about David,
"THOU HAST KILLED Uriah the Hittite with the sword."
HE was guilty of the murder. Not because he took that weapon into his hand, and not because he thrust it into Uriah, but because HE had concocted the plan in HIS mind, and HE had ordered it, and HE had seen to it that it was carried out. It was HIS sin. God said, "YOU'VE murdered Uriah, with the sword."
And not stopping someone from sinning, when it is in your power to do so, and when it is your responsibility to do so, also brings that sin TO YOU. Eli was an example of this. Eli would not confront, and would not stop his sons as they committed terrible immoral acts there at the steps of the temple. He would not prevent his two sons from living in wickedness. He did not have the moral courage or fortitude to do it, even though he should have done it. And 1 Samuel 3:13-14 tell us that one who allows an offender to pass unpunished makes himself an offender too.
And under this same point is another consideration, and that is CONSENTING to a sin, as Saul consented to the stoning of Stephen. The Bible says that he consented unto his death. He was the ringleader of the persecution of the church, he held the clothes of Stephen, he did not throw one of the stones, but the Bible says he was guilty. He consented unto the death of Stephen, (Acts 8:1) and so that sin became HIS sin.
The SIXTH, and final rule of the Ten Commandments is that God will enable us to keep these commandments. How? We cannot keep these commandments. Though imperfectly, by His mercy and grace, God will allow us to keep these commandments. How?? He will provide the strength for us. Though our efforts will come short, though He will see our failures, and though He will see our misses, He will reward our faith to try and live by this code. What should we do, should we give up?! Should we say it's impossible? Should we say that it cannot be done? NO! God calls His people to be a peculiar people. A chosen nation, a holy group. He CALLS us to live by this standard. HE will enable us. We do not throw up our hands in utter dispair and say "What's the use?". But we strive, to the best of our ability to follow this moral law that God has established for the world.
Now look down into your Bibles, at Exodus chapter 20, and let's read the preface, or preamble, to the commandments here in the first couple of verses;
"And God spake all these words, saying, I AM THE LORD THY GOD, which have BROUGHT THEE OUT of the land of Egypt, out of the house of BONDAGE."
The preface to the Ten Commandments is this, I AM THE LORD. He has EVERY right to lay down the law! He is God. It is by His infinite wisdom, and it is by His supreme authority, that these timeless and unalterable laws have been established and have been set down. Nobody is more fit to have given these laws, than the Lord. The perfect lawgiver. Here in verse 2 we see two words that are used for deity, LORD in all capital letters, and then God. The first designation for God here, LORD, is Jehovah. It was held in more reverence among the Jewish people than any other name or title for God, and it spoke of His majesty, of His selfsufficiency, of His immutability, of His eternity. It was a name that struck fear and reverence into the heart of a true Jewish believer.
When they copied the Scriptures, before they would write that name, they would go and bathe themselves, and come back and make sure they were clean before they would write that word. Jehovah, Yahweh. Deuteronomy 28:58 says that men should fear that glorious name. I AM THE LORD, THY GOD. Had the word 'LORD', stood there in this context all by itself, it might have struck fear in us as well. But He said, "I am the LORD, THY God." THY God, YOUR God. By blending "the LORD" with "thy God", suddenly it draws us to Him. It allures us, it brings us close to Him. And though this is a preface to the law, to the Ten Commandments, I would say to you and suggest to you this morning that this is pure gospel right here. I am the LORD, thy God.
How can the LORD, Jehovah God, become MY God?? Only through Jesus Christ. Only Jesus Christ can commend us to God. Only Jesus Christ can make a sinner prepared for heaven. Only Jesus Christ can do that for us. Emmanuel, "God with us". It is He alone who is able to bring sinful men to a holy God. It is He alone who is able to make our nature lovely to God, and His nature lovely to us. Only Jesus Christ can do that. And it is by His sacrificial death on the cross. The shedding of His blood that we have forgiveness of sin. The bearing of our sins in His own body on the tree, is what brings us... peace.
And so, if Jehovah God, be our Elohim God, then let us give Him ALL His due. Let us pay particular attention to this passage of scripture. Let us obey Him, not only because we respect and fear Him, but because we love Him. And let us praise Him for what He has done. Notice again what He has done, back in Exodus 20:2;
"I brought thee out of the land of Egypt, and out of the house of BONDAGE."
THAT IS WHAT SALVATION IS. (emphasis, ed.) It's deliverance. It's being brought out of the house of bondage. It's being brought out of the world, out of the land of Egypt. These words here, in the balance of verse 2, are understood I believe, both literally AND spiritually. Isreal's deliverance out of the house of bondage, is typified in their spiritual deliverance from sin, from Satan, and from hell.
The Bible, refers to sin as a law, because it is binding over a man. It is said here, to reign, because it exercises a tyrannical power over man. While other slaves of tyrants, rule over men's bodies; sin and Satan rule over a man's soul. While other slaves have some pity shown to them, sin shows NO pity. It is a merciless tyrant, letting men have no rest.
But here is an important distinction; other slaves are forced against their will, but sinners seem to enjoy, and seem to be content to be under the command of sin. Willing to be slaves, glorying in their sin, glorying in their shame, rejoicing in iniquity, they have been brought under the power and the reign of Satan, the prince and power of the air, the prince of this world. Satan goes about ruling in men's minds and ruling in mens memories and in their wills and he wholly possesses some, but never forget Satan is a terrible taskmaster. He is a murderer, a liar. The house of bondage here, the iron furnace, speaks of hell. Sin, Satan, and hell the place of execution of divine justice, for all sinners are criminals in the eyes of God, because they have disobeyed Him, because they have offended Him.
It would not be consistent, it would not be right, with God's holiness and justice, if there were no such place as hell. If His laws could be infringed upon, without any ensuing penalty, it would not be right. And so in hell, in the house of bondage, there is a plurality of torments, the fire, the flame, the darkness, the worm; these things are never quenched. Time cannot finish hell, and tears cannot quench it. But those whom Christ saves, He saves from sin, Satan, and hell. If you are in Christ Jesus today, there is therefore now no condemnation (Romans 8:1), over you, or upon you. His deliverance is full, his deliverance is sweeping, and the Book of Romans asks us; How shall we that are DEAD to sin live any longer therein?
I think the bottom line of the Ten Commandments is found in the very first line of this preface in verse one, where we read, "And God spake all these words". The bottom line is that God has spoken. No matter what man thinks, or what man says, GOD, HAS, SPOKEN. And since God spoke all these words, and spoke them in such dramatic fashion, it is important that we HEAR these words, that we UNDERSTAND these words, that we TEACH these words to our children and our grandchildren, and that we OBEY these words, to the best of our ability, by God's grace and mercy.
The ancient law is perfect for our new age, because it's author is perfect. The perfect law will highlight our imperfections, our transgressions, our sins, it will do that, and it will point us to the holy, harmless, and undefiled Son of God, the only savior of sinners.
In the winter if 1976, a gentleman by the name of John Jordan, went on a little photography expedition up to Niagara Falls with three of his friends. They went to Goat Island, to enjoy the icy beauty. While there, Jordan and two of his collegues, climbed out on the drifts, and unbeknownst to them they were climbing right over the protective railings that were buried underneath the snow. They fell into the ice along the shore about 200 feet upstream from the falls. Two of them scrambled back to the land, but Jordan went in deeper and was swept down to within 15 feet of the brink of the falls, and was somehow able to clutch onto a piece of ice and hang there until he was rescued by a firefighter.
Whenever we become silent about God's protective railing, the moral laws of God, we endanger the lives of those who are under our care. And I believe, right now we are in the winter season of the church. And little is being said about the NECESSITY of leading a life that is in conformity to the laws of God. The wages of sin, is (still) death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. (Romans 6:23)
Let's pray...
